Chapter 238: Chapter 223: Establishment of the Patrol System

The soldiers of the Guards also reorganized their equipment and joined the landing forces.

Although the country’s financial income is still in deficit, the military spending is not small and is in continuous growth.

Of course, this can also be attributed to Arthur’s attitude towards military training. Arthur believes that excellent soldiers are brought up by bullets and lots of training, so both the Guards and the National Defense Army consume quite a lot of bullets every day, with an average of at least thirty bullets being fired per person per day.

The luxury of Australasia’s army can be seen from the equipment of the Guard soldiers. In this operation, each person not only carried several spare magazines, but also hand grenades and handguns.

Although this would increase the weight of each person, the well-trained Guard soldiers are accustomed to it.

The advance of the Australasian Army is somewhat extravagant. Any place that might hide pirates is subjected to several consecutive grenade bombings.

This also completely eliminates the ability of the pirates to resist. Their muskets can only cause damage at close range, and it takes quite a long time to load ammunition.

This results in the surviving pirates barely managing to fire a shot, unsure of the casualties, and then facing the fire coverage and grenade bombing from the Australasian Army.

Such luxurious firepower coverage, let alone the poorly equipped and trained pirates, even regular armies from European nations might not be able to withstand it.

Seeing that resistance is hopeless, the pirates can only hope to hide and wait for these people to leave the island.

Perhaps some people already regret plundering Australasian merchant ships, but now no one will give them a chance to try again – they must pay the price for angering Australasia.

The operation lasted until daylight. Only after ensuring that there was not a single survivor on all the islands did Minister Kent order the fleet to return home contentedly.

April 9th, 1907, Sydney Harbour, Australasia.

The news that Minister Kent had successfully completed the mission had already been reported back to Australasia. Arthur and the Australasian Government also promptly announced the good news.

All the Australasian people who were paying attention to the pirate plunder incident were cheering for the victory of the army.

Many people had spontaneously gathered at Sydney Harbor, ready to welcome their brave army, the real protector of their safety.

In order to express the importance of this action, Arthur also arrived at Sydney Harbour before the fleet returned, waiting with the government officials.

It wasn’t long before the fleet successfully approached Sydney Harbour and docked at the pier.

Under the protection of the soldiers, more than ten captured Australasians were relieved to set foot on the harbor again.

“Your Majesty!”

Seeing Arthur and his entourage waiting on the harbor, these survivors hurriedly came forward and paid their respects with genuine and fanatical salutes.

They naturally understood that the only one capable of mobilizing the army on such a large scale in Australasia was Arthur.

In other words, their successful survival from the pirates and return to Australasia was entirely due to Arthur having mobilized the army to rescue them.

To these people who almost experienced life and death, their attitude towards Arthur had turned fanatical, and they would become his loyal supporters.

Arthur smiled and nodded, his faint smile appearing as warm as a divine embrace in these people’s eyes.

“Your Majesty, the mission has been successfully completed. All pirates have been executed, and all their hideouts have been destroyed. There were no casualties in this operation, except for the consumption of some weaponry and ammunition.” Minister Kent stepped forward and respectfully reported.

Arthur nodded again, his gaze not looking at Minister Kent, but at the onlookers around the harbor.

“My fellow citizens, this pirate abduction incident is a wake-up call for all of Australasia. Our control over the surrounding seas is too weak, which allowed this pirate raid to take place. Fortunately, our actions were not too late, and we were able to successfully rescue all the captured people. My loyal soldiers are the protectors of all people and will spare no effort to defend all the people of Australasia.” Arthur said solemnly.

“Long live Your Majesty!”

“Long live Australasia!”

“Long live the Kingdom!”

The cheers of the people were their best response to Arthur.

“However, we cannot only act after the fact. I declare that the government will dispatch more fleets to form various patrol teams to protect the safety of all our people on our important waterways. All countries and forces must not attack ships flying the flag of Australasia, otherwise it would be considered a threat and declaration of war against Australasia. My army and I will prove with our actions that the Kingdom will always protect its citizens.” Arthur solemnly announced.

The pirate incident did provide a pretext for Australasia to openly dispatch various patrol fleets to control nearby waters based on this pretext.

Even the Dutch-controlled Dutch East Indies inner sea will become the target of the Australasian navy’s patrols.

It can’t be helped, who let the pirates emerge in the Dutch East Indies, and those pirates just happened to plunder Australasian merchant ships, is this not just handing themselves on a silver platter?