Chapter 258: Chapter 237: Intervention by the Powers (Extra 2)

After quietly listing to Minister Kt's report, Arthur smiled and nodded, saying: "Brigadier Fritz has done a good job this time, I believe that after this rescue force is annihilated, the Portuguese should consider whether to continue opposing Australasia."

The combined regular Portuguese army from the previous three colonies only totaled three thousand m, not ough to make the Portuguese governmt realize the power of Australasia.

But now it's differt, although the specific scale of this rescue force is unknown, the number of soldiers is definitely over t thousand.

Ev excluding the African natives used as cannon fodder, the number of Portuguese soldiers is definitely a t thousand.

You know, Portugal is not exactly a large population country. Ev until now, Portugal's population has just exceeded six million.

The loss of these t thousand Portuguese soldiers is definitely a big blow to the Portuguese governmt. Ev if it does not reach the point of hurting its vitality, it will at least cause a headache for the Portuguese governmt.

More importantly, ev after the loss of these many troops, the situation of the war has not improved at all.

How many ts of thousands can Portugal afford to lose? The colonies of the African Trade Union also require a large amount of troops to guard, Portugal may not care about the death of the native soldiers, but the casualties of the Portuguese are real, which can shake the foundation of the nation.

"Ev if the Portuguese governmt still refuses to give up, the forces they have left are probably not much." Minister Kt laughed and said: "According to our intelligce, Portugal has a total of sixty thousand native troops and eighty thousand colony troops."

"Although it looks like a high total of one hundred and forty thousand troops, the Portuguese among them do not exceed eighty thousand. With the losses from the previous three wars, Portugal should have lost more than t thousand Portuguese soldiers and t thousand native soldiers up to now.

Retaining home defse and colonial garrison forces, the army that Portugal can mobilize is less than fifty thousand, and is no longer ough to pose a threat to us." Said Minister Kt.

At this point, we have to praise the Royal Security Intelligce Agcy and David Collins, the European royal affairs chief.

Although it is not possible to obtain core classified information, we know roughly the military strgth of the major European countries.

Put simply, Portugal is a country with a population similar to Australasia, and it does not necessarily hold an advantage in terms of economy and industry.

The remaining France would not risk offding the three countries for Portugal, so to put it nicely, it's called intervtion by the powers, to put it bluntly, it's forcing Portugal to have peace talks.

Arthur nodded, did not directly conclude, but continued to ask: "What is the other method?"

Seeing Arthur's expression, Minister Kt continued to say: "There is another method that is relatively risky, but we may also get more befits."

"Oh? Let's hear it."

"Your Majesty, isn't the first battleship we built for Russia about to be completed?" Minister Kt suddly asked.

Arthur was stunned, th immediately understood what Minister Kt meant.

The first of the two dreadnought battleships that Australasia built for Russia, the Peter Pavlovskiy, is nearly finished and tering the stage of launching and testing.

Although the currt actual performance has not be thoroughly tested, after all, this is a real dreadnought.

And the Portuguese navy does not ev have a battleship, naturally, they cannot rival this dreadnought.

But the problem is, the Peter Pavlovskiy is the first dreadnought built for Russia, and Russia and Australasia have good relations.

Using this dreadnought privately would definitely damage the trust betwe Russia and Australasia.

Moreover, it will still take some time before the Peter Pavlovskiy is completed. Plus without any testing and navigation, and the fact that Australasia's navy soldiers have not guinely operated a dreadnought, the true strgth that this battleship can show still remains to be se.

Using this battleship would only be in a desperate situation, but with the war still favoring us at prest, Arthur does not plan to use it.

"Using the Peter Pavlovskiy is not a good plan, let's invite the European powers to interve in the war! Contact Governor David and ambassadors of various countries, express our expectation for peace and our willingness to stop the war." In the d, Arthur chose the first method. At least while meeting Arthur's goals, it will not give birth to many accidts.