Chapter 501 Germany and Petroleum

@@@@@@@@@@In the beautiful Ningbo port, the five destroyers slowly leaned on the dock. The damaged appearance and stained hull did not make people feel so embarrassed. Instead, the young sailors who entered the port were dressed in new military uniforms and still stood upright on the deck with a lot of admiration and envy. The toughness.

When Wei Qing took the lead in leaning against the dock, Li Zhen, the eldest son of the emperor, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately stepped forward and finally helped the boatmen fix the cables.

Some people may say that this is a pretentious, but in the eyes of those military mercenaries and naval soldiers, this represents the emperor's highest honor for his own soldiers, just like the ancient general's return from victory, and the prince personally led the horse to show his glory.

This is an era of the navy, and no one can deny this. It is not that the army and the air force are not good, but the navy's natural platform advantages, showing sovereignty, patrolling the sea territory, and following warships to any coastal country in the world.

After Li Mo took the lead in putting forward a new military concept of overseas decisive battles a few years ago to resolve crises and wars outside the country, the navy is the biggest beneficiary, because this new military combat concept makes the navy pursue long endurance when designing every warship, even when building frigates for the Royal National Coast Guard. And the purpose of the existence and arrival of the whole sea.

However, the Air Force and the Army are not idle. Under the strategic thinking outside the decisive warring country, the Air Force has begun to develop two large double-engine and four-engine aircraft.

The army is born with a disadvantage, but it does not mean that it has no advantage. The four armored divisions and mechanized infantry divisions formed in full accordance with the standards known by Li Mo's later generations cannot be compared with later generations in terms of firepower and mechanical power, but from the beginning of its formation, it has put forward the concept of rapid combat.

In addition to these eight core divisions, the Army Department has also set up special combat units such as mountain divisions and rapid infantry divisions for the first time. A large number of trucks and jeeps have begun to equip troops one after another, making the concept of speed more and more popular.

There is no doubt that these five young captains who are walking off the deck are the products of the first batch of fast era. They combined the concept of fast and overseas decisive battle, took advantage of their equipment, and ran 3,000 nautical miles with weak troops, and launched a short but classic strait assault battle.

The impact of this small battle is extremely profound. Xinhua's unique achievements in ship power have been in broad daylight. In addition to increasing intelligence, countries are also developing new ship power.

Germany put the main direction of the attack on the diesel engine, and Fisher, as a British naval fighter, came up with a plan for a 1,500-ton destroyer in just one month of negotiations between the two countries after receiving information that the speed of Xinhua's five small warships was not less than 33 knots.

In order to improve the speed, he resolutely chose to force the steam engine when the design was not perfect, and installed six in the narrow hulls. Finally, he came up with a plan for 30 high-speed W-class destroyers and placed an order for 50 ships from major shipyards.

However, this news did not make Li Mo worry too much. Compared with the Weiqing class, which has reached 33,000 horsepower in a single unit, the UK has only 4,300 horsepower, and too many boilers and steam turbines make the W-class endurance only 12 knots of 1,500 nautical miles, and the average fault-free interval is 170 to 15. The hour is far ahead.

And the steam turbine is only a part of the power group, and the most important power is the boiler. At present, the fifth generation of Xinhua's Li Mo pirated version of the increase of boilers with overheaters in later generations. Whether it is thermal efficiency, power output and reaction speed, it far exceeds the small water pipe boilers of this era. With the continuous improvement of technology, Xinhua has even been infinitely close to the abnormal supercritical boiler technology.

The later republics have had enough of the hardships of engines, so after Li Mo returned to this era, he focused on solving the core power technology and research. Now the power test laboratory of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Xinhua has gathered no more than 5,000 experts, including boilers, steam turbines, internal combustion engines, aircraft engines and even rocket engines. Experts, and to his delight, more than 70% of them have been cultivated over the years.

Compared with foreign countries, these people are not very strong in open thinking and technology, but their starting point is high, and they usually hear and see the core high-end technology, so they have made great progress.

From the power of the ship in 1893, it took Li Mo nearly 20 years to bring the golden finger to this day. Ten years of it was spent on polishing technical workers, and now it is finally the season to enjoy the results.

As the gangway was put down, the first thing I saw was a cold coffin with a golden dragon flag on a red background and carried on the shoulders of the soldiers. All the soldiers standing solemnly on the dock saluted, and even the boatmen paid attention.

Li Mo paid special attention to this detail. Compared with the military cemetery, which lacked management in later generations and was repeatedly forcibly demolished by political axes in various places, and even those who are still making a monument to invade the enemy. Compared with those who joke about history, he not only planned a special cemetery, but also treated it with super specifications, even after the sacrifice of a small soldier. You have the right to be buried inside.

At the same time, he also forcibly stipulated that the remains of his comrades-in-arms would not be allowed to be left behind unless the army, sea and air forces had to, and there were strict regulations in the military regulations.

Soldiers are the backbone of the country whenever and wherever they are. Whether they sacrifice or survive until the last minute, they are fighting for the country and the nation again.

Such a person, no matter what age, must be respected, is worth looking up to.

The sound of ceremonial guns is to see these young sailors off. At the same time, the long whistle is to bless them. The deceased has gone to give them. In addition to the generous pension, we must also tell generations that everything they do today is exchanged by these young faces with life and blood!

He solemnly bid farewell to his comrades-in-arms and watched them buried on a specially set hillside lawn in Ningbo Port. The beautiful environment relieved his comrades-in-arms and relatives who came to see them off.

The fleet commander and the eldest prince greeted them in person. The high-level burial ceremony made the young admirals nicknamed the Guards receive a psychological baptism. What's more, what they didn't expect was that when the meritorious soldiers arrived in Yanjing in a special train, His Majesty also received them in person in his busy schedule and met them. A military medal representing honor was hung on his chest.

If it hadn't been for the fact that these young people still needed to exercise, Li Mo could not even give a matching reward, because they not only opened the door of Persia to this country, but also let Xinhua control 13% of the world's oil reserves in one fell swoop (the previous chapter was wrong, and ten were missing)!

Five captains, including Li Xiuyan, were exceptionally awarded the rank of colonel. According to the regulations of the Xinhua Army, this means that they can already lead the battleships.

However, although they fought a wonderful battle, the main reason was that the British were underprepared and the equipment also had certain advantages. The most important thing was that compared with the captains of the navy, they were more ** but less stable. Therefore, after consideration, the Admiralty sent them back to Dalian Naval Academy first. Take the opportunity to continue to study for half a year when the warship needs to be repaired, and then be sent to each capital ship for internship for a period of time.

After solving this big event, Li Mo finally had the opportunity to calm down and watch the already hot arms race in Europe.

The farce in the Balkans has intensified like history. Before the London peace conference has reached an agreement, the Ottoman Al-Shabaab launched a coup at the insist of Germany. Enver, who had cooperated in North Africa and the New China Army, led about 40 radical members, rushed into the council chamber with guns, and fought the Ottoman military minister Nazim on the spot. Pasha forced Kamiller Pasha to resign and restored the regime of the Al-Shabaab.

Li Mo did not like this radical party. When he was in the national interest and the future distribution of power in the Persian Gulf, he still promoted 300 million blue dollars of military aid.

In order to solve the transportation problem, Li Mo once thought about providing 10,000 trucks to Kuwait, but in that case the total number of troops would exceed the standard, which would inevitably lead to a conflict with Britain. Finally, Chen Ping came up with a way to buy 50 trucks for use in the shallow waters of inland rivers at a time from domestic private shippers. Speed boats, and then send these boats with submarine support ships and large landing ships that can be stuffed with landing ships disguised as cargo ships.

After the arrival of ocean-going cargo ships in Kuwait, the role of these small boats began to play. Because the employees were all locals, Britain had no choice but to watch a large number of military resources continue to march along the Euphrates River to the Ottoman inland.

For Germany, Britain's unexpected loan to Xinhua was unexpected, and the Baghdad Railway returned disappointed again, making them completely calm down from anxiety.

The calm Germany is extremely terrible. At present, the country with the world's most comprehensive technical ability and the world's second largest equipment manufacturing capacity has changed from constant shouting to full preparation.

While the last four ships of the Bavarian class were immediately moved onto the platform, Germany was also clearly aware that he would not get any external assistance once the war started, so it took this opportunity to start to make all out strategic reserves.

The most important thing is oil and food!

On the day of the signing of the Gulf Agreement, the German envoy quietly got on the train to Ural and arrived in Yanjing along the Siberian Railway. On the day of arrival, he held closed-door discussions with Tang Shaoyi, Chen Ping and royal special adviser Li Enfu.

This extremely bold move made all three people realize that Germany could no longer wait, so even if they crossed the enemy area, they had to arrive in Yanjing as soon as possible.

The news brought by Germany is very clear, buying at least 10 million tons of grain and 5 million barrels of crude oil!

Food is not a big problem. Although Xinhua's statistical methods are different from those of foreign countries, miscellaneous grains such as sweet potatoes and barley are also included in the grain output. However, with the reclamation of a large amount of land in the south and the north, the population is diluted and the pressure on the production area in the Central Plains is reduced. Finally, tractors and All kinds of agricultural tools have been used on a large scale, and fertilizers have begun to be popularized. After meeting domestic grain needs and national reserves, 10 million tons of grain can still be taken out.

Crude oil is a trouble.

At present, there are four oil companies controlled and directly owned by Xinhua and Huangshuang. Thomas's Texas Oil Company has become the main crude oil supplier in Europe and the United States. Huanya Petroleum Company's main business is in Australia and the Southern Ocean, but it is because of the resource purchase strategy of Saudi Arabia and other parts of Persia. The reserves are the most abundant, accounting for 30% of the world's reserves, but they have not been mined.

The Persian Gulf Royal Oil Company took this opportunity not only accounted for 13% of the world's reserves, but also the largest extractor at present. The scale has exceeded Baku, producing 10,000 tons of crude oil, or about 70,000 barrels. ( Seven barrels are about equal to one ton) The smallest is the newly established domestic northern oil company, which mainly relies on the oil resources of the northwest and Siberia. However, because Li Mo attaches great importance to the protection of domestic strategic resources, its scale is not large. It was established mainly to alleviate the trouble of transportation difficulties in the north.

Xinhua is not short of oil. It is currently the world's largest exporter of oil resources, but the problem is that China has now become the second largest consumer of crude oil with the United States. The country has more than 3 million tractors of all kinds of cars. In addition to the army, the annual oil consumption has reached 10. 1 million barrels.

This is not a wartime. You should know that after the United States entered the war in the late stage of World War I, Britain, France and the United States consumed 12,000 barrels of oil every day in the Western Front attack.

This is just the army and air force!

Take a Yanjing-class battleship as an example. It takes nearly 28,000 barrels at a time. The current navy and the warships under construction add up to 3 million barrels at a time!

The General Staff once made a deduction data. Due to the increasing fuel consumption in the Xinhua Army, even according to the wartime economy, Xinhua needs a minimum of 100,000 barrels of crude oil every day. If the war lasts for four to five years, it will consume nearly 200 million barrels!

Excepting Thomas, Xinhua currently produces more than 35 million barrels of oil per year, of which 30 million barrels need to be transported overseas. Considering the risk of wartime maritime transportation, the emperor recently asked them to reduce oil consumption and increase strategic reserves from now on.

According to the plan, by 1916, Xinhua must have at least 300 million barrels of crude oil reserves. Although it began to reserve when it moved into Honolulu, the world's crude oil production was not high at that time, and so far it has only 150 million barrels, which requires an increase of at least 30 million barrels per year from now on.

To this end, the emperor has begun to deliver oil from the Gulf of Mexico to China through Thomas.

From an economic point of view, this is a big business. At present, the four major oil companies in Xinhua, except for the Northern Petroleum Company because of the slightly expensive geographical price, the other transportation cost is three yuan per barrel, and the external sale is six yuan.

But now the agreement and the alliance have begun to reserve oil, especially after the adoption of oil-fired boilers in the United Kingdom, oil consumption increased greatly, so they bought 10 million barrels as soon as they got a loan, and now they have to withdraw 5 million barrels to Germany again from the already tight reserve plan. Guo, this will be a major decision, so none of the three of them dared to make an decision, so they had to turn to Li Mo for help.

On February 3, 1913, on the New Year's Eve of Xinhua, Li Mo made the decision to sell 10 million tons of grain and 5 million barrels of oil to Germany, and used reserves for the first time in order to speed up delivery.

At the same time, Zhang Zuolin has also returned to Yanjing with the third protection agreement signed with the local chiefs in Greater Kuwait.

When the sound of firecrackers sounded from every corner of China, and when the Balkans peace talks broke and the beacon smoke rose again, Li Mo realized that the countdown was about to begin! ......

(to be continued)