Chapter 1018 The Puzzle

This year's economic development situation has become very clear. The previous two years originally presented a competitive situation in which the three countries of the West, the United States and Germany were going hand in hand. The gap between powerful countries is not large, and they are in the leading position at the first level.

   But this year, the Ocean Empire has largely left Germany and the United States behind, and has gone away.

   First look at the gross national income

In the 14 years after the outbreak of the First World War, in the statistics of the total GDP of the great powers, the Ocean Empire’s annual economic volume reached 25.7 billion US dollars, higher than Germany’s 23.95 billion US dollars, and the United States ranked first in the world with 21.8 billion US dollars, ranking first among the three countries. The gap between them is not large, and they are generally in the leading camp in the world.

  The UK is in fourth place with US$18.453 billion, already lagging behind the US$20 billion group, and has been left farther and farther in the field of economic development.

   But see

This statistic is the UK’s domestic GDP output, and does not include its colonies around the world and its 350 million colonial people, and does not include Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the Indian subcontinent and other strong economies. If you add this, the British Empire Still number one in the world.

   It is October 1915, and the final statistics for the whole year have not yet come out, but judging from the economic development of the empire in the first three quarters, it is a sure thing to greatly surpass last year.

   Only in the first three quarters, Ocean Empire has completed a total of 28.6 billion US dollars, which greatly exceeded the level of last year. The annual GDP can be seen in the range of 38 billion to 39 billion US dollars.

   And Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom were seriously affected by the war, and their economic aggregates did not advance but retreated, and the gap between the inside and the outside widened sharply.

  Compare with the most important steel and coal production;

  In the first three quarters, the total steel output of Ocean Empire reached 37.82 million tons, and there is basically no suspense in the annual steel output of more than 50 million tons.

   Last year, the U.S. annual steel output only recovered to 22.32 million tons, ranking second in the world.

   This year was seriously affected by the second U.S.-Japan war. Let’s not talk about anything beyond that. Whether it can reach the production level of last year is still a question mark?

  The third-ranked Germany produced 17.6 million tons of steel before the war. It was also affected by the war and was severely lacking in labor. It would be good to have 10 million tons this year.

  The UK, which ranked fourth, produced 7.76 million tons of steel last year, and this year will also have a big discount.

Although the flames of war did not reach the British Isles, a large number of young men and strong laborers were thrown into the battlefield. No one digs coal, no one makes steel, no one transports them. From mining to industrial fields, there is a shortage of people. Awesome, where did the output come from?

   Before the outbreak of the war, France still had a steel output of 4.69 million tons, ranking fifth in the world. However, the war has spread all over the French territory. This year, the steel output is not even a fraction, which is completely over.

  Because of the war, the demand for steel has increased sharply, and the production gap of the Allied countries has been well filled by the Ocean Empire. Although the Ocean Empire has made all the efforts to produce, it is still facing a shortage of steel, and the price is soaring.

  Compared with before the war, the price of one ton of steel has increased by more than eight times, and the price of special pipes has increased by more than ten times.

   Only Britain, France and Russia lost 13.6 million tons of steel production capacity due to the war, and the Ocean Empire’s annual steel increment is so much, there is no way to do more.

   Then, the additional demand for steel due to the war would not be met, which would naturally cause prices to skyrocket.

  It is initially estimated that the Ocean Empire will have to increase production by another 20 million tons to meet the demand.

   Originally, this demand gap could be supplemented by the United States. In 1908, the United States produced 28.8 million tons of steel, with a long-term growth potential of 50 million or even 80 million tons.

  Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Second U.S.-Japan War interrupted all these dreams.

   The so-called heaven does not follow the wishes of man, that is the case.

On the one hand, the Ocean Empire gained a lot of wealth by exporting to Europe, and in turn gave Britain, France and other countries huge golden loans to support them to buy more industrial and agricultural materials from the Ocean Empire, and sent them tanks, planes, and cannons. , ammunition, hundreds of thousands of tons of barbed wire, hundreds of thousands of tons of steel to build trenches, large and small shipyards are producing **** ships, 107 2,200-ton destroyers were delivered in a year, and dozens more With a 10,000-ton freighter, the business is in full swing, making a lot of money.

   On the other hand, at this critical time, the United States fell into the second U.S.-Japan war again. Not only did it not have the opportunity to take advantage of the golden opportunity to strengthen its economic strength, but in order to win the vicious Fuso people, the whole country was forced to turn to a wartime economy.

The products are not exported to make money, but are consumed in large quantities in the intensifying second US-Japan war, which will greatly increase the debt of the United States, weaken the country's heritage, and reduce the overall wealth of the people. The most important thing is to lose the gold of development. opportunity.

   Such a good opportunity, Li Fushou will not let it go in vain.

  In the industrial development plan for next year and the next year, the steel production capacity will be increased from the existing 50 million tons to 70 million tons and 86 million tons respectively to meet the strong demand in Europe.

   Actually

This planning report is for the outside world. According to the scale of steel production capacity growth under the internal control of the empire’s top management, next year will be between 62 million tons and 63 million tons, and the next year will be about 70 million tons. This is in line with the publicly planned production capacity. The target differs by 15 million tons.

  According to the actual situation, it will fluctuate between 2 million and 3 million tons.

The reason why    is to strictly control the growth of steel production capacity is to keep the international market in a state of high hunger and maintain a high steel price negotiation, so as to earn huge profits.

  Otherwise, the output has indeed increased, and the price has fallen, and the profit will be much less.

  According to the huge steel export volume of the Ocean Empire, the price fluctuates up and down, the gap is several hundred million US dollars, the wealth is moving!

   With such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, getting rich is really faster than stealing money.

Such a good situation is inseparable from Li Fushou's painstaking planning. Originally, the United States was planning to attack Fusang first. It planned to completely defeat the so-called Arizona Republic in one and a half to two months. A lot of work and major concessions were made, and a well-planned military action plan was drawn up.

  Who would have thought... that Fusang would take the lead?

   Some of these key pieces of information come from the Political Intelligence Bureau. The Americans think they have done a good job of keeping secrets, but they have long since revealed the truth.

  If the outbreak of the U.S.-Japan war is delayed for 20 days, the United States will have the opportunity to continuously transport more than 300,000 militiamen ready to enter New Mexico, and the total force will increase to more than 580,000 people, forming a trend of gathering soldiers...

   At that time, the people of Fuso will face a hard battle.

Now everything is different. After the outbreak of the war, Fuso Kingdom immediately mobilized the 3rd, 7th, 11th and 16th divisions with a total of 100,000 troops, from Kagoshima, Nagasaki, Kobe, etc. Departing from here, has arrived in Los Angeles one after another, and will travel to the Republic of Arizona from here.

   These Japanese soldiers who arrived in North America were required to carry only luggage and necessities, but not guns, ammunition and any weapons. After arriving in Los Angeles, they entered the designated suburban area for repairs and waited for the boarding order here.

  Weapons, ammunition and other materials and equipment will be transported by special arms ships.

   The above public actions show that the Americans have been betrayed.

Tracing the source

  Britain and Fuso were both members of the Entente group, while the Ocean Empire had close ties with Britain, and although it expressed neutrality in this grand world war, it was actually heavily biased towards the Entente group.

   Think from this perspective. It is not surprising that the various actions made by the Ocean Empire.

For no reason, the American hated the British again. Who told him to do too many bad things on weekdays and his reputation was too bad. This time he was lying in vain, and the only other country that could affect the Republic of California except the Ocean Empire is the United Kingdom, no matter what. No way to get rid of suspicion.

   After instructing

  Secretary-General Cai Tingqian has already started the process immediately. Li Fushou continued to enjoy the spectacular view of the blue sea and blue sky in Sydney Bay, and then walked back leisurely.

   He sat behind the imperial case, took a sip of the hot tea, and then took out the memorial and read it.

   After reviewing more than a dozen memorials, he looked at one for a while, frowning tightly.

   This is a report from Li Sizhong, Governor of Africa.

The details are that due to the outstanding military talents and dazzling records of the German East African Garrison Volbeck, Kaiser Wilhelm II personally issued a commendation order and made an exception to be promoted to the army major general, and tried every means to supplement it with a real German army. More than 3,600 people, and sent a lot of weapons and equipment.

   This swelled the strength of Major General Volbeck's men to 15,000. They were haunted and fought in jungle guerrilla warfare, causing the British-led coalition to suffer.

At its peak, the British commander Matts led an army of more than 50,000 people to encircle and suppress Wolbeck. The war spread to British South Africa, Kenya and Mozambique of the Ocean Empire, and almost all of them were affected.

There was even a pocket-sized "sea battle" on Lake Tanganyika, when a German battleship "Königsberg" was chased into Lake Tanganyika. The battleship HMS Nessberg and three British warships launched a water guerrilla battle, which caused the British to have a great headache, which shows the great energy of Wolbeck.

   By the end of this year

   Great Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal gathered nearly 100,000 troops and launched a continuous siege against Woolbeck.

   In this battle of disparity in strength, Wolbeck adopted elusive guerrilla tactics, showing a very high command art.

   said a British officer;

   When you think it is successful, it is not. The advancing British army will suddenly be under intense fire! Even more frightening is that we have absolutely no idea where the bullets came from!

The British troops on the South Road heard the sound of gunfire and immediately moved towards the north in an attempt to reinforce the North Road Army in the city. Unexpectedly, a large number of German troops suddenly came out from behind them. The British troops encircling and suppressing the British troops suffered heavy casualties in the German army's elusive play. .

   But no matter what, German East Africa was in a desperate situation surrounded by all sides.

Even if there were a small number of German arms transporters that stole across the blockade, it was still a drop in the bucket for the German army in East Africa in continuous battles. The besieged Wolbeck was besieged from many directions, at sea, in British East Africa, Uganda, Belgian Congo, Mozambique and Northern Rodriguez are under siege.

  Although the situation was extremely difficult, Wolbeck did not want to let the British live in peace and took the initiative to launch raids on the neighboring British colonies of Kenya and Rhodenia, destroying the local fortresses built along the railway and transportation lines. His army also destroyed 20 trains and a long stretch of British railways, and the battle was fought vigorously.

   When the British navy forced the Königsberg to sink in the Rufiji River, Wolbeck incorporated the crew of the ship into his own unit. He also managed to salvage some of the ship's guns to form his artillery unit.

  September 3rd

   After learning that a train full of arms arrived in Weiyuan Fort Town in Malawi, Wolbeck led his men to gallop in the starry night, crossed the mountains and raided Weiyuan Fort, capturing the train full of arms in one fell swoop.

   During the battle, the local garrison killed 277 people, wounded 612 people, and more than 60 civilians were killed and wounded. All equipment and weapons were disarmed, and the German troops coming out of German East Africa were like locusts. The hungry eyes turned green, the entire Weiyuan Fort was completely scraped, and the cattle and sheep of the local people were all taken away.

   Post-event statistics

  Weiyuanbao Town lost more than 1,200 cattle, more than 47,000 sheep, more than 800 mules, horses, carts and trucks, grain, oil, cloth and other materials.

   Through this battle

Major General   Walbeck has completely solved the hidden danger and can supply weapons and military supplies for more than a year, which is conducive to fighting a protracted war with the British.

   And the arms of this train were ordered by the British, and now they are all cheaper than Major General Wolbeck.

In the original history, Major General Wolbeck did the same, but he robbed the Portuguese fortress with rich material storage. Through this move, he solved the problem of logistical supply difficulties. With the rich seizure, he has been dealing with the British all the time. World War ends.

   Now in this historical time and space, he turned to rob the Ocean Empire.

   And this... brought a big problem to Li Fushou.

   It’s okay to grab something. The Ocean Empire is not bad for this small amount of money. The key is that you have killed and injured so many soldiers. This is unbearable.

  How can a smart person do such a bird thing?

   From the point of view of the Germans, the battle of Wolbeck was played very beautifully. Because the soldiers of the Ocean Empire stationed in Weiyuan Fort could not be easily captured, a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.

   The result of the battle is not suspenseful. Wolbeck brought the main German army with a total of more than 6,000 people. There were only two infantry regiments composed of white people, and it was a sneak attack.

The   Ocean Empire soldiers' counterattack was also quite fierce. During the battle, only two bunkers fired violently with machine guns, causing more than 170 casualties to the main German army.

  Walbeck was in a hurry, and he also killed the local garrison. The mortars he carried with him concentrated on the heavy bombardment, killing and wounding more than 100 people on the spot.

   At this point, he can no longer keep his hand.

   But that is the view of the Germans, and it is different from Li Fushou's position;

  The Ocean Empire is a neutral country. You came to kill me and set fire to my head. Don't you know how many eyes Prince Ma has?

   The problem now is that the Ocean Empire is completely unprepared to join the war in advance!

   And next year will be the three most brutal battles. Furthermore, once you join the Allied Group and declare war on Germany, many commodities will not be sold at high prices. Even out of the need to fight the German army together, the Ocean Empire should bleed heavily and provide free aid to the allies.

  The war has been fought until now everyone else is exhausted. And the fat head and ears you eat, should you spit out some?

   (end of this chapter)