Lorraine is located in the southwest of Germany, the northeast of France, the capital of Nancy, the terrain is dominated by plateaus, and there is a north-south Moselle valley area, the east of the valley is an important coal area, the west of the valley has rich iron and steel deposits, although the yield is very high, but the quality is not ideal.

At the end of World War I, the heads of state of 27 countries gathered in Berlin, the capital of Germany, for a multinational peace talks that lasted several months. In the conference hall, the 78-year-old French Prime Minister Clemenceau made several noises in order to take advantage of the peace talks to gain jurisdiction over the place of Lorraine. U.S. President Wilson and British Wartime Prime Minister Lloyd George did not agree to the imbalance of power on the European continent in order not to profit France too much, and repeatedly persuaded Clemenceau to abandon such an idea, lest the hard-won peace talks break down. Clemenceau was reluctant, slammed the door several times, and threatened not to sign the "peace treaty", but in the end, France still failed to win Lorraine.

The native inhabitants of Lorraine are mainly German, so Germany has always regarded Lorraine as its own land, and has been engaged in the mining of coal, iron and other mineral deposits in the Moselle Valley for many years, and has built the main steel industry area in Germany at that time, oil refining area, electric power and electrical area, machinery research and development area, etc., as well as important transportation facilities such as railways and highways.

Lorraine, the place that the French dreamed of claiming through "peace talks", was not just "unwilling to be ceded in humiliation" in Eric's mind, in fact, as a disputed region at the time, Lorraine produced more resources than in the whole of Germany, and the production of coal and iron ore under the TBM of the Eric Mining Company doubled the amount of coal mined in 1912 compared to 1911. As for the Ruhr, which the French have been pursuing, it is a mature industrial area that Germany regards as the engine of development, and most of the industrial and mining enterprises of the Federal Republic of Germany have settled here, if France forcibly occupies the Ruhr, Germany's industry will be overshadowed, and only some new industrial parks such as Dresden and Bremen can not fully meet the needs of Germany's comprehensive development at this time.

Eric Adrian and Dinah had breakfast, and were about to leave for the Hanseasa Palace, when they suddenly found that the car of Mr. Max, the chief of staff of the President, had stopped at the gate, and Max habitually took off the little black felt hat and said very politely: "Your Excellency President Eric, beautiful and noble Mrs. President, good morning!" I hope my presumptuous interruption won't affect your good mood for the day, oh! Madame is so beautiful today. ”

Adrian smiled silently, he wanted to give the initiative to speak to Madame. Dinah pulled her hand out of Adrian's arm, and Wan'er smiled and said, "Morning, Chief of Staff! Look at your happy face, there must be some unexpected good news. Oh! I love your honey-filled compliment. She turned back to Adrian and smiled and said, "Then, you talk, I'll go to the Ministry of Finance to get a copy of the information first, and then go to Lorraine." My dear, I don't think you need to rush to Lorraine, Mr. Schacht will send someone to help me complete the registration task, well, you are busy. Goodbye, Mr. Chief of Staff. After saying that, he got into the car and left.

Seeing that Dinah's car was slowly being obscured by the weeping willows, Max shook the manuscript of a telegram in his hand and smiled at Adrian and said, "Your Excellency the President is a blessing, oh! I mean, your lady is very charming, yes, but you are always lucky, always lucky, and even God is willing to help you. By the way, don't you want to know why I came to you? ”

Adrian led Max to a mahogany bench under the weeping willow tree, and the two sat down facing each other, and then said unhurriedly, "Max, don't say it or show me the telegram, let me guess, let me guess, um...... A new breakthrough in the head-sinking bomb? ”

Max waved his hand and said, "Oh, no, no, no! Dear Excellency the President, this is not the latest news, you should think a little more openly, and think about something else, such as another industrial city......" He ran his finger around the top of his head twice.

Adrian immediately thought about the liquefaction of coal: "This must be a telegram from Fritz Haber, right, it can't be wrong now." ”。 Max smiled, then handed him the draft of the telegram.

The telegram from the Energy Research Center of the City of Dresden was very important, and finally the anxious Eric heard good news. Because Fritz Haber was not in charge of the coal liquefaction project, he couldn't say too much, after all, there was still a lot of work to be done, so he could only convey a little excitement to Adrian first.

The coal liquefaction project has made a major breakthrough in technology, judging from the mention in the telegram, Eric knows very well that the key to this technological breakthrough lies in the progress of coal liquefaction technology and equipment, which is a coal liquefaction method that Eric has always admired, because the quality of coal mines produced in Lorraine is very good, so the dilemma of liquefaction is only hindered by the limitations of equipment. Not only is the large-tonnage production process backward, even small batch production can not meet the needs of the process, and now the basic bottleneck has finally been broken.

Around 1914, whether it was doing business in Eric Company or returning to the army for the second time, Eric had continuously increased his investment and research in this project, and after 4 years, this set of equipment was finally verified in practice and received gratifying returns.

Initially, only one production line from the Ruhr was in production, but later the installation in Dresden was also put into production. Of the two major coal liquefaction areas, Dresden's plant is the largest and the most costly. Coal is almost exclusively supplied by the two coal-producing regions of Lorraine and Ruhr, with Dresden having to transport it across the whole of Germany from east to west.

The quality of coal in the rest of Germany is also very good, but the mining volume has not been actively kept up, for the simple reason that Adrian does not want to deplete Germany's local coal resources prematurely, so he does not have unlimited additional tasks, and Lorraine and Ruhr have always had territorial disputes between Germany and France, so they are still the main coal supply areas.

Soon, the Energy Research Center developed a new coal liquefaction process, which greatly reduced the conditions for the reaction, and at the same time made further improvements in the liquefaction production equipment, and the output was even greater.

Mr. Haber wanted to exchange this good news for the R&D funds of the Energy Research Center, and Adrian opened the proposal and immediately put away his big smile. But if he wants to give, he must give, because it is mixed with a little selfishness of his own person, and this selfishness can only be known by God, the earth, and others, and the people of the earth cannot know it.

President Eric, who has always been willing to spend money on national scientific research, had to urgently call the entire cabinet for urgent discussions.