Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 225 This is a good thing!
Upon hearing that the offensive in Poland had indeed faltered, Lelouch realized it was time for him to return to Berlin and the Potsdam Military Academy to finish his dissertation.

Because whether it's the emperor or Chief of Staff Falkinham, they will definitely consult him, this man of prophecy.

Moreover, in Essen, the cooperation to expand the steel plant and the wagon yard has been finalized, and all the necessary meetings and networking have been completed. The remaining issues can be resolved remotely.

So the next morning, Lelouch boarded the train from Essen back to Berlin.

Fritz Toth, who is now in charge of some operations at the State Railways, happened to have a work assignment to take to Berlin, so he took the opportunity to see off his benefactor.

At Essen train station, Lelouch saw for the first time how the heavy-haul trains that transported coal from the Ruhr region operated.

Because of Lu Lu's work at the wagon depot, the national output of train wagons increased by several times, but the growth rate of locomotives could not keep up. Therefore, many locomotives are currently being operated under temporary measures, with extra pressure and overload operation at the expense of their lifespan.

This allows each locomotive to have at least 20-30% more carriages added, with some locomotives even having 50% more carriages added, turning a 20-car train into a 30-car train in an instant.

Each locomotive had one or two extra coal shovelers on it, shoveling coal so hard it was almost flying everywhere, slightly overloading the boilers with pressure. This method of operation would reduce the lifespan of the locomotive and decrease the efficiency of coal heat utilization, but both were acceptable in wartime.

A locomotive is normally designed to run for more than 20 years. So what if it loses a little more of its lifespan? As long as there is enough transport capacity during wartime, this small sacrifice is worthwhile.

As for burning a little more coal, as long as more coal can be transported to all parts of the country, this loss is negligible.

Under Lelouch's guidance, Demania's national railway transportation system has begun to race headlong down a path of increasingly haphazard operations, prioritizing smooth operation over continuous improvement.

As Lelouch watched the long train pull out of the station, he noticed a detail when he saw the end of the train convoy: the color of the carriages at the end of the convoy was completely different from the ones at the front, so they must have been newly attached.

Lelouch then asked Fritz Thoth, "These wagons hanging at the end of the line, they must be from extra overloading, right? Were they made by my wagon factory? They look somewhat like them, although the structure is the same, only the color is different."

Fritz Todt replied somewhat embarrassedly, “You’re absolutely right. These are indeed products from your ‘Volkswagen Train Factory.’ Early Volkswagen Train Factory products were not repainted at the factory, but after we started operating them, we added a requirement that the paint color be different from the original high-quality train cars to facilitate dispatch identification.”

Because the cars produced by the 'Volkswagen Railway Works' use steel made from pure Lorraine low-grade iron ore and ordinary coking coal in parts such as the carriage panels, their overall tensile strength is definitely weaker. However, key structural components such as the bottom load-bearing axle, wheels, and hooks still use the same high-quality steel as the standard cars.

However, for safety reasons, I have come up with a solution, which I have also suggested to Lieutenant General Karl: the first two-thirds of each train should still use high-quality pre-war carriages, while only the last third of the train should be equipped with new, cheaper carriages.

A simple calculation using basic junior high school physics shows that in a single-engine train, the closer a car is to the locomotive, the stronger the tension on its hook and bottom main bearing, because it has to pull all the following cars. The tensile load gradually decreases towards the rear of the train, and the last car only needs to pull its own weight.

Previously, all wagons in the Empire had the same structural strength, so the order of their placement didn't matter. All wagons were strong enough to withstand the load, and there was even a redundancy in tensile strength. Now, we'll continue to prioritize the older, high-quality wagons, placing newer ones for wartime use at the back, thus making the best use of resources. It just means the coordinating workload for dispatchers will be slightly greater.

Fortunately, the scheduling difficulties Fritz Toth mentioned are nothing to the Demanians, who are still quite meticulous and rigorous today.

They were already capable of meticulous and timely train scheduling. Therefore, using the initiative of the dispatchers to compensate for the lack of material resources can be considered making the best use of their talents.

In contrast, in a country like Lusa, truck dispatchers might come to work after drinking vodka, and if that continued, it could lead to a major accident.

The Volkswagen Railway Works did not intentionally produce downgraded train cars to save money. It was simply because imports were blocked during the war, and the low-grade ore from the Lorraine Iron Mine could not be blended with imported high-quality ore. The steel produced directly from the ore was indeed of poor quality, and there was also no high-quality coking coal to be blended.

During wartime, it is better to expand production as much as possible with the raw materials available, rather than having production capacity idle due to a lack of high-quality raw materials.

"You are indeed very good at overall planning. China Railway must be very satisfied with these new operation and management regulations you suggested."

After learning the whole story, Lelouch gained a deeper understanding of Fritz Thoth's talent. He was indeed the one who later took charge of the "Four-Year Plan" construction work in the Earth dimension. He knew how to adapt to local conditions and make the most of resources.

Fritz Toth smiled sheepishly and said that he had been with the National Railways for more than half a year and Lieutenant General Karl had already promoted him twice.

The two discussed these transportation matters, and Lelouch asked him to help plan the future coal and steel special train capacity to the Eastern Front so that they could make preparations in advance. They then returned to Berlin.

……

It's already early February, the coldest time of the year.

Lelouch was away from Berlin for more than ten days in total, but when he returned to Berlin this time, he still did not see the problem of a lack of heating coal.

Food prices on the streets of Berlin were relatively stable. Although they had tripled compared to before the war and coal retail prices had doubled, at least there was no shortage of supplies; you could buy them as long as you had the money.

This was already quite an achievement during wartime. During wartime, the fear wasn't about price increases, but about shortages.

It's like in later times, when flour costs three or four yuan per kilogram in peacetime. If there's a war, the price might rise to ten yuan per kilogram. But as long as the supply can be guaranteed, people can survive. A person earning three thousand yuan a month can at least not go hungry eating flour costing ten yuan per kilogram.

Before the war, black bread cost about 30 pfennigs per kilogram, or 0.3 marks. The wages for ordinary manual laborers in Berlin were about 120-150 marks, while skilled workers earned around 300 marks. Wages have since increased; manual labor now pays at least 200 marks, with increases for skilled workers varying depending on their proximity to the military industry supply chain.

Skilled workers in the military-industrial complex earned at least 500 marks. However, skilled workers in luxury consumer industries saw almost no pay increase during the war, and were even suppressed by the government.

For example, those who repaired precision watches, silversmiths, and even went to work as technicians in gear factories. During wartime, there was no need for those fancy consumer goods.

In this situation, the price of 1 mark per kilogram of black bread that Lelouch saw when he returned to Berlin, or even slightly higher, was still acceptable.

A manual laborer's monthly income, if used solely to buy black bread, could still buy 200 kilograms, which is definitely more than one person could finish, even if they had to support their wife and children.

Of course, food expenses only account for a maximum of 60% of a worker's wages. Other necessary expenses cannot be reduced further; clothing, fuel, transportation, rent, and utilities are all unavoidable. A manual laborer can buy 120 kilograms of black bread a month, which is enough to feed a family of three or four.

In comparison, the price increase of meat was much greater than that of black bread. This was because after the occupation of Kievan Rus', at least 80 tons of grain were transported back to the country, which was roughly equivalent to 10 kilograms per person. Large cities like Berlin had a higher priority for supply, and each citizen might have received an additional 30 kilograms per person.

Making black bread requires adding other ingredients, not just whole wheat, but also water. So it's equivalent to each citizen eating at least 50 kilograms more bread this winter and during the spring famine, which is how bread prices were kept down to their current level.

Pork, beef, and mutton would not receive subsidies from the Kievan Rus' occupied territories. Those areas were not pastoral regions, and livestock could easily be taken away by the Rus' people during their retreat, making it difficult to seize large quantities even if there were existing livestock.

So when Lelouch returned to Berlin, he saw that the price of Baria white enema had skyrocketed from 2 marks per kilogram before the war to 15 marks.

Before the war, pork sausages cost 6 to 7 times the price of black bread. Now, with black bread having increased in price by 3 times, pork sausages have reached 15 times the price of black bread, demonstrating just how alarmingly high meat prices have become.

If a manual laborer did nothing else but use his monthly salary to buy pork sausages, he could only afford 13 kilograms.

For ordinary workers, being able to eat meat once a week was considered a decent life. Only nobles, landowners, capitalists, military officers, officials, and highly skilled technicians could afford to have meat at one meal a day.

Moreover, Lelouch estimated that the country's grain production would definitely decline this year. Even if the 6th Army relied on the massive amount of grain it had seized in the Kievan Rus' occupied territory to feed the country and stabilize grain prices, it would only be enough to keep bread prices from soaring.

Pork prices were unlikely to stabilize, and the Kievan Rus' region lacked the surplus production capacity to guarantee meat supplies. By the end of 1916, during the winter, sausage prices might exceed 20 or even 30 marks, at which point they would become a complete luxury item.

Ordinary people shouldn't even think about eating meat; they'd be lucky to have bread or even coarse grains to keep themselves from starving. If this were on Earth, in the winter of late 1916, all the common people would have had to fill a small portion of their stomachs by eating turnips.

After experiencing the hardships of the common people, Lelouch suddenly realized that he should make good use of his authority in the Propaganda Bureau of the Imperial War Department to carry out propaganda work for the people's livelihood.

At least we can compare the lives of the people in Warsaw and the people in St. Petersburg recently.

Of course, we shouldn't compare Paris and London. Those two places weren't completely economically blockaded. At most, U-boats sank a significant portion of the overseas goods, but at least more than half of the goods could still be successfully traded to London and Paris by sea. The people there certainly had a better life than those in Berlin and Munich.

This comparison also allows the emperor to better understand that the temporary setback in the Polish offensive may not necessarily be a bad thing.

Some things are not suitable to be said before setbacks are suffered on the front lines, as that might sound like jealousy or even pessimism, which would incur the emperor's resentment.

But if you comfort the other person after the fact, saying "This is a good thing," then there's absolutely no problem.

Although the Empire's intelligence agencies are not very efficient, they can still easily collect basic information about people's livelihoods, and Lelouch's authority allows him to access some of the data.

After returning to Berlin, Lelouch spent two days conducting data research behind closed doors, and also took the opportunity to refine his thesis and clear his mind. Then he heard that the Chief of the General Staff, Falkenhayn, wanted to summon him.

Lelouch knew that this must be the Emperor's way of summoning him, but the Emperor had insisted on sending Marshal Hindenburg to continue the attack last time, which resulted in a setback. Now the Emperor was probably too embarrassed to see him, so he sent Falkenhayn instead.

The questions Falkenham was about to ask were probably what the emperor wanted to hear.

Lelouch, having made his preparations, calmly arrived at the General Staff Headquarters.

"You guessed right. Hindenburg is making very little progress in Warsaw, and Field Marshal Leopold's 10th Army, which is attacking from the south flank in support of him, is also making little progress—what do you think about this?"

Upon meeting, Chief of the General Staff Falkinham got straight to the point.

"It's alright, I think this is a good thing for the empire, so just comfort His Majesty like that."

Lelouch didn't hesitate either, immediately resorting to Feng's comforting method.

(End of this chapter)