The First Warlord of the Republic of China

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spn Shandong Weifang!

This place is now a military center of the East China National Defense Force, with three divisions stationed there.

Three days ago, the East China First Division and the Second Division also marched to Weifang. The strength of Weifang has risen to five Class A divisions with a strength of 10.

In the shooting range of the barracks outside the suburbs, soldiers were frequently conducting target training.

However, the rifles in their hands have become Type 03 rifles (M1 Garand). [

Yang Hongfei, Li Shoujing and others were gathering on the shooting range, each holding a new-style rifle in their hands, and shot all eight rounds at the target.

"This kind of rifle has a fast rate of fire and excellent accuracy. It is definitely a good gun." Yang Hongfei Chen praised, and Li Shoujing also shot it out, then nodded and said: "It is indeed a good gun. The infantry firepower can suppress the enemy using the bolt-type rifle, but the consumption of the pair will increase again.”

"Our National Defense Forces have never been short of medicines." Yang Hongfei laughed. The supply of medicines is also a great confidence of the National Defense Forces. At this time, China's medicine production technology far surpasses that of other countries. Only Germany has the same technology, but Germany's technology has also been partially behind in China.

The use of stamping technology has reduced the cost of drug production a lot, so that during the Sino-Russian War in the year of Renzi, the Russians were stunned when they faced the squadron and poured drugs on them as if they didn't want money.

"The first batch of [-] new rifles is more than enough to equip five divisions. The commander suddenly issued the new rifles. It may not be long before Shandong will have to fight a battle."

"Who made Japan not stop? If Japan really dares to spy on Shandong, they will definitely hit the iron plate." Yang Hongfei sneered.

"It is impossible to lose if we lose. After all, we are fighting locally and have a lot of support from the rear. We can't beat us just by consuming Japan. The question is. What price should we pay to win this war?" Li Shoujing saw The key is here.

……

In August 1914, with the advent of the First World War, the speed of China's railway construction was hindered to a certain extent, because the import of steel was interrupted.

This year, China built a large number of railways, but its own steel production has only barely expanded to 150 million tons at this time. For more than 3 kilometers of railways, 150 million tons of steel is not enough.

So this year China imported a lot of steel, and even many other industries have to import steel.

However, the construction of a large number of railways has created the basic conditions for mining iron ore.

The biggest problem in increasing steel production is not the steel plant.It lies in the scale of iron ore mining.After all, steel plants are relatively easy to build under the condition of mature technology.

At this time, China already possessed the world's most advanced steelmaking technology, coupled with the experience of building its own steel plants.The period of construction of steel plants has also been greatly reduced.

However, the output of iron ore is not so easy to increase. After digging out the iron ore, how do you transport it to the steel factory?

Use a car?

That's bullshit!

Only railways and ships!

In contrast, shipping costs are even lower. [

However, Jiangyu has not vigorously developed the steel export route of importing iron ore before, because once the First World War broke out.Where can iron ore be imported?

By then, wouldn't all those steel factories that rely on imported iron ore be abolished?

This model of relying on imported iron ore to develop the steel industry can be vigorously developed after the end of the First World War, but it cannot be done at this time.

And mining iron ore by yourself is not a large mine that can support the whole situation.

For example, a mine with a reserve of 100 million tons cannot be dug out in two years!That not only invested a lot of money in construction, but the service life was only two years!

一个100万吨储量的矿场。起码要分成20年来开采，那么每年只开采5万吨铁矿石，这样一来只需要建设一个年开采5万吨的设施。就能够使用20年。

In contrast, it is naturally more reasonable and wise to plan to use it for 20 years.

Although the iron mines in Ma'anshan Iron Mine, Xingtai, Handan and other places have entered the stage of vigorous mining, they are all in the planned mining mode, so the iron ore output is not enough to enable the rapid growth of steel output.

When the railway connects all provinces in the country, it means that all large iron mines in all provinces in the country can be mined.Just build a heavy-duty railway specially.

The small iron mines along the railway can also be mined, so the output of iron ore will increase dramatically.This has led to a sharp increase in steel production.

Fortunately, Jiang Yu was prepared and hoarded a large number of steel rails in advance. Of course, these rails were not for hoarding and selling money.

These rails ensured the material basis for China's crazy construction of more than 3 kilometers of railways this year.

At this time, the bubble in China's railway stocks had reached a crazy level, and those who resold stocks made a lot of money and spent their money in the bustling Shanghai.

The money of these people comes and goes quickly. It should be known that those who can make a lot of money usually have more fortunes, and those who have more fortunes spend money lavishly.

The money made by those speculators does not affect the overall situation. After all, the extent of this kind of leakage is still very small. Most of the money that keeps pouring into the stock market is collected by the railway company and used for railway construction.

Westerners are too busy to take care of themselves at this time. Although they see a good opportunity to make money in the Chinese stock market, they ignore it.

The United States, which did not participate in the war, does not have much capital in China, and it is not enough to take money away from the Chinese stock market.

Although those speculators have made some money away, if they don't transform and continue to hang out in the stock market, the money will still flow back into the hands of Huadong Group, and most of their money will be taken by Huadong Group when they spend their days and nights in Shanghai. earned.

In this crazy bubble of national investment in railway construction, the Chinese railway miracle was born.

At this time, Jiang Yu couldn't be more busy, it was like fighting a war, because Jiang Yu began to personally coordinate the end of the preparation work.

"Marshal, according to your instructions, the branches of Huadong Department Store in the UK and Germany have already purchased a large amount of cotton, steel, medicines and other materials, and as much as they want, they have purchased a lot and put them all in the warehouse. But the branches I've run out of money." Yi Ruizhi reported to Jiang Yu.

"Add another [-] million. Let them continue to buy while the war has just started and prices have not started to rise." Jiang Yu immediately made a decision. [

The reason why he didn't hoard these materials in China but in Britain and Germany is because if these materials are shipped back to China, they will have to be sold to warring countries and they will have to be shipped thousands of miles away, and the profits will be covered by the freight. Diluted.

You must know that during the war, the freight will be higher and higher.

However, there is no such risk in hoarding materials directly in Britain and Germany. As long as they are hoarded, they can be taken out of the warehouse and sold directly after the price rises. There is no need to transport them to China and then to the belligerent countries.

And this kind of hoarding behavior will also quickly increase the prices of both warring countries.For the Chinese, this kind of business operation is as easy and common as drinking plain water.

In ancient China, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, merchants broke free from the shackles of commercial operations.In every disaster year, there must be good merchants who hoard grain and sell it at a high price.

In the late Qing Dynasty, it was because of such behavior that it caused a storm of robbery in Wuhan.

It is indeed good to hoard food and make fortunes in disasters, but at this time Jiang Yu has no psychological burden on this behavior of making war fortunes of the same nature.

There are always differences between wars and famines, and it is gringos who die, not Chinese citizens.What psychological burden does he have?

In addition, there is another advantage of hoarding materials in the United Kingdom and Germany, that is, if they are shipped back to the country first, they will be charged a tariff, and when they are shipped to a belligerent country, they will be charged a tariff.

And hoarding directly in the territory of the belligerent country only needs to be charged once.

Coupled with the reduction of market supply due to hoarding, as well as the reduction in production and the surge in demand in the case of war, the profit is at least five or six times.Some commodities work well, and even the profit can be as high as ten times or dozens of times.

Based on the original history, the Japanese Suzuki Company took advantage of World War I to hoard supplies in the UK.As a result, by 1918, its turnover had accumulated to 15 billion Japan during the war.

However, Suzuki Company was just an ordinary department store at that time, how could the funds it could mobilize be compared with that of Jiang Yu at this time?

After a while, Yi Weijun also rushed in and reported to Jiang Yu: "Commander, the Germans have agreed to lease 68 ships totaling 53 tons to us at a cheap price, but they have attached a condition. If They have taken European command of the seas and the charters must be justly released."

"Get someone to sign the contract as soon as possible." Jiang Yu was overjoyed. Before the war broke out, Jiang Yu had already asked the Germans to charter a ship.

But the Germans never agreed.

Now the Germans can agree even if they disagree. After all, the war has already begun. Even if the German navy can quickly defeat Britain in Europe, there is no way to guarantee that these ships scattered all over the world will not be captured by the Allied Powers.

It is better to rent it to China than to be captured by the Allied Powers. Even if China wants to participate in the war in the future, with Jiang Yu’s status and influence in China at this time, it is impossible for China to go to war with the Allies, because Jiang Yu also has a lot of interests in Germany. In a war with Germany, even if China makes money, Jiang Yu will obviously suffer heavy losses.

At that time, the shares of Jiangyu's Yuanhua Group, as well as the shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank will be confiscated by Germany.

If Germany can defeat Britain at sea, then the contract will be terminated at that time, and neither party will have much to lose.

In addition to chartering ships from Germany, Jiang Yu also chartered a large number of ships from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. In comparison, it is easier to rent ships from Japan and the United States, while it is not easy to rent ships from the United Kingdom.

After all, the British dominate the world's shipping, so how could they charter a large number of ships abroad.

Moreover, while Jiangyu is chartering ships, it is also deliberately weakening the ocean transportation capabilities of Japan and the United States when they are stationed, so they are very active in chartering ships from Japan and the United States.

Even Jiangyu, a laggard ship, is rented out. Once the war breaks out, the price of international shipping will skyrocket, and even if these ships are subleased, they can earn a lot of money back.

After renting these ships, China's ocean transportation during the war did not need to look at the British's face. (to be continued)