The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Dressing Up in Disguise

Although the MP series of submachine guns perfectly fit Barty Crouch’s vision, there is a significant issue – the MP submachine guns won’t be invented until 1917, a full 15 years from now.

The best Arthur could do was relay the design concepts and general outline of the submachine gun to the military factory, leaving the rest up to the experts there.

To avoid delaying training, all personnel in the Royal Security Intelligence Service will uniformly practice with Lee-Enfield rifles. They must also become acquainted with all the weapons currently possessed by Australia, including artillery and machine guns.

In order to train his personnel in various skills, Barty Crouch specifically demanded that they learn how to drive automobiles and pilot small warships.

Yes, with the new type of car already starting to be mass-produced, the name of this automobile was becoming known to more Australians.

Barty Crouch, naturally understanding the potential of cars, made it a point to require all his subordinates to learn to drive cars, even master this skill.

For this reason, the Royal Security Intelligence Service made advance purchases of hundreds of cars from the Benz Car Factory. Under the premise of ‘one person, one car,’ they allowed these trainees to practise extensively, aiming to swiftly master car driving skills.

Barty Crouch’s training methods were anything but lenient. These guards initially thought their training was already very strict, but the training they received after joining the Security Intelligence Service was even more ruthless.

An individual skilled in various types of weapons, adept at using transportation means including horse carriages, cars, ships, and small warships, in Barty Crouch’s words, is simply someone qualified to enter the intelligence organization. Can you believe it?

Arthur even perceived the scenes of special forces training programs from later generations in Barty Crouch’s intelligence personnel training. If tanks and airplanes existed now, Arthur suspected that Barty Crouch would surely let these newcomers to the intelligence sector master tank and airplane driving.

Arthur, however, was glad to see this, as intelligence personnel with stronger abilities would be more effective in intelligence gathering.

The Royal Security Intelligence Service, as the eyes through which Arthur controlled Australia and even explored the world, placed great importance on the abilities of its members.

Arthur didn’t want his hard-working dispatched intelligence personnel to lack abilities, not only unable to complete their assigned tasks, but even possibly hindering the entire task or the operations of the Royal Security Intelligence Service behind him.

Under Barty Crouch’s numerous training systems, the Australian Royal Intelligence Security Agency, despite only having a little over a hundred personnel, was not at all frugal with expenses, consuming thousands and even tens of thousands of pounds every month.

Although every intelligence personnel’s expenditure was several times that of a guardsman, this rigorous training method was very effective. In merely two months, virtually all intelligence personnel had mastered car driving and became familiar with the Lee-Enfield Rifle, the MA-96 Maxim Machine Gun, the CA-1 Machine Gun, and a series of other weapons.

September 3,1902, Sydney, Australia.

As quietly as the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau was established, almost the entire agency embarked, dividing into small teams of three to four people to travel by ship to surrounding regions in batches, later reaching their destination, India, at differing times.

In southern India.

Even though it was already September, the climate in tropical southern India remained exceptionally scorching. The harsh sun was baking the earth, causing cracks all over the fields and adding a touch of exhaustion and heat to everyone walking on the road.

On the scorching road, three individuals, who seemed like refugees, walked under the harsh sunlight.

Although they stood out in the surroundings, their white skin and British appearance deterred the nearby Indians from meddling.

“This damned weather, I’ll bet that it’s worse than half of what Australia’s weather is like,” one of them grumbled quietly when there was no one around.

“Shut up, Walter. Aren’t we all the same? Scorching in this damned weather. Don’t forget what you’re doing now. We’re executing a task appointed by the great Duke His Highness,” the leader reminded.

Hearing about Arthur’s task, the man named Walter obediently closed his mouth and wiped the sweat from his forehead, then continued to walk in silence.

“We should be reaching soon, right captain? According to the simple map we bought from Vasaka, there are just a few kilometers left between us and that what’s-it-called temple,” another man asked uncertainly after inspecting the crumpled and rudimentary map in his hand.

“Who knows? Let’s just keep walking until we find that damned temple,” the captain responded with a shrug, indicating his helplessness towards this rudimentary map.

As a matter of fact, this map was bought from the local villagers after offering a certain amount of money. The excuse was that they came here for sightseeing, but didn’t know any good spots around this area.

There were many British people who came to India for sightseeing. Therefore, no one would suspect these small teams of two or three people of having other intentions, especially those who had British appearances.

With thousands, or even tens of thousands, of British tourists in India every year, the deployment of over a hundred personnel by the Royal Security Intelligence Service didn’t attract much attention.

This was the first task executed by the Royal Security Intelligence Service since its establishment, and it was a task that Arthur greatly emphasized.

In order to successfully complete this task, Barty Crouch chose to lead the team himself and deploy most of the members from the Royal Security Intelligence Service for a swift and perfect completion of Arthur’s task.

Actually, besides Barty Crouch, the members of the Royal Security Intelligence Service are still unaware of their specific tasks.

All they knew was that their final destination should be near a certain temple in southern India, and they should arrive and scout the area as soon as possible.

To avoid attracting attention, Barty Crouch broke the hundred-plus personnel into multiple small teams of three or four, with designated team leaders for each team.

Most of these teams were disguised as scientific research teams or merchant squads, like Walter’s refugee group.

However, regardless of their disguises, their objective remained the same – to safely and swiftly reach the surroundings of the temple, and quickly investigate the nearby intelligence.

While it was unclear what immense allure the temple in southern India possessed, making even the great Duke Arthur give personal orders for the Royal Intelligence Service to scout, the personnel didn’t ask too many questions after Barty Crouch’s training. They had only one goal – to quickly, effectively, and safely complete their task.