The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1369 Stocking up
However, these Japanese forgot one thing: their Asian faces were too conspicuous, and as a result they were caught red-handed.

Of course, because the other party was a diplomatic envoy, the Austrian Empire could not impose too severe punishment. It only confiscated the stolen goods, asked him to leave a confession, and then sent him back to his country.

In fact, similar situations have also occurred among Arabs and Indians, and Arabs and Indians are even more outrageous than the Japanese.

For example, they urinated and defecated in the street, grabbed food at a banquet with their hands, and there was even a group of Indian businessmen who made obscene gestures to students of the Royal College for Girls and were almost killed by their accompanying guards.

In short, national technological security is the responsibility of the Minister of Science and Technology, and Duke Warnick’s remarks are justified.

"Then let them pay for it. That way we don't have to worry about them stealing the technology."

Franz has kicked the ball directly to the other side, and this time it is the turn of the country that purchased the technology to be nervous.

"Your Majesty, this is not worth the cost. Countries like Japan and Zhenla are too far away from our homeland. Although the prices are cheap, it is a complete waste after offsetting the high shipping costs.

Although the copper price in the market has been rising, it is currently well within our acceptable range.

If Your Majesty really feels the need to stockpile large amounts of copper, then our country also has copper mines, and we can definitely increase our mining efforts.”

Colonial Secretary Count Franz Coulan said that if the question had not been raised by the Emperor himself, he would not have bothered to answer it.

However, Franz had taken many very forward-looking actions to help the Austrian Empire overcome difficulties, especially his foresight in stockpiling food, which made Count Coulan very impressed.

Coupled with the propaganda of the church and the government, Count Coulan really did not dare to simply deny Franz's strategy.

"Count Coulan, you are right. But the export volume between us and the Far East is much greater than the import volume. Our ships cannot always return with full loads. So why not bring back some copper?"

"But that journey is too far from our homeland."

Franz interrupted Count Coulan.

“So we can send copper to California and Tanzania first, and then bring it back home when we need it.”

Seeing Franz's firm attitude, Count Coulan stopped arguing because he didn't dare to make any conclusions about the future.

“Lord Coulan, the times are changing. Our domestic copper mines are too small. No matter how much manpower and material resources we invest, we can never catch up with Britain.

Moreover, the grade of our copper ore is too low and the cost of refining is too high. The more we invest, the greater the waste.

If the demand for copper explodes in the future, my country will be in a very passive position. That is why we need to make plans early.

It is certainly not enough to rely on two small countries on the other side of the world. We also need to send exploration teams to explore the colonies.

If copper mines can be found in the colonies, we can reduce costs even further.

In addition, I believe there must be undiscovered copper mines in our country, which will be our strategic resources."

"Your Majesty, I think it is unlikely that there are any omissions in our country's territory."

Count Giovanni Battista, the Minister of the Interior, said with certainty. Count Giovanni was a very competent Minister of the Interior. At the beginning of his tenure, he organized a large-scale land and resources inventory activity.

As a workaholic, Count Giovanni is very confident in his work, but this confidence can easily lead to blind paranoia.

"Count Giovanni, the times are progressing. And you cannot guarantee that officials across the country are as dedicated as you are." Franz still had respect for this workaholic, but Count Giovanni obviously did not notice the so-called steps.

"Your Majesty, we just checked it last year. Wouldn't it be a waste of money to continue checking it this year?"

“You can avoid doing a comprehensive inventory and only recheck key areas.”

“But where is the key area?”

Count Giovanni asked stubbornly, but Franz didn't care.

"I think our country's experts should know better than us."

Franz thought for a moment and then spoke again.

"If you really don't have a target, look for it in Bohemia and around Belgrade."

No one dared to object to Franz's command, let alone doubt it. After all, the emperor's channels for obtaining information were far beyond the reach of people like them.

Prince Schwarzenberg saw that Franz had made up his mind, and in order to prevent Count Giovanni from continuing to embarrass himself, Prince Schwarzenberg spoke loudly.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Of course, Franz could not know all the locations of the Austrian Empire's mineral resources, but Bohemia was the heavy industrial center of the later Austro-Hungarian Empire and must have a variety of resources.

On the other hand, Franz had heard of the name of the Bor Copper Mine in Serbia. After all, it was the largest copper mine in Yugoslavia during the Cold War.

This time, Franz's minimum requirement was to find the Bol Copper Mine near the village of Bol, which was one of the few rich mines in Europe.

The copper grades of the Austrian Empire, Germany, and Italy are all very low. Among them, the copper mines in the Austrian Empire are not only of low grade and deeply buried, but also contain many varieties of associated minerals, making them extremely difficult to refine.

In fact, the three most lacking resources in Germany during World War II were oil, copper, and rubber, of which oil and rubber could be synthesized artificially.

But there was no way to use copper. Even if the Germans melted all the bronze statues, they still couldn't keep up with the consumption.

As the most important metal in the Second Industrial Revolution, the Austrian Empire could not survive without copper. In fact, the real copper reserve countries are Chile, Australia and Russia.

But the problem is that the Russian copper mines have not been explored yet, Chile is too far away and is coveted by Britain and the United States. As for Australia, it has the disadvantages of both, and is also extremely short of manpower.

Moreover, it is certain that there will be a certain degree of blockade in the future war, and it will not be possible to be as comfortable as before.

In fact, if Britain was determined to break up the war, the naval power of the Austrian Empire would not be able to stop it in any way.

However, at that time, the Austrian Empire was not very dependent on overseas materials, and the British had seriously misjudged the strength of the Austrian Imperial Navy, so they were confused in the early stages.

Due to the heavy losses in the early stages, and the time bombs that Franz had planted long ago all detonated, the British were trapped both internally and externally, resulting in a shortage of troops, which allowed the Austrian Empire to live so comfortably.

In fact, if Britain was only interested in making trouble instead of fighting a decisive battle, the Austrian Imperial Navy would not be able to handle it.

But then again, if Britain dispersed its navy everywhere, the Austrian Imperial Navy could completely adopt a strategy of defeating them one by one. After all, the Austrian Imperial Navy was in a completely advantageous position in small-scale battles, and it might even be able to learn from the Dutch and launch a decapitation operation.

(Historically, on June 1667, 6, the Dutch Navy attacked London and the British Royal Navy dared not leave the port.)
In short, it is better to rely on oneself than on others. It would be safest if the Austrian Empire could produce it itself. Even if it cannot, Franz hopes to stockpile enough to cope with the war.