In the General Staff at Koenig Square, although it is now working hours, there are not many officers coming in and out. Beneath the tall vaulted cupola, the footsteps of two men on the granite floor sounded like a line of soldiers walking in unison. "Kurt, it's a little bit cold here," Hersman said, "but hopefully, at least we've got off to a good start." ”

The man with Hersman was Kurt. Together, they returned from Russia and stopped in Riga for a few days to inspect the factories there. At the time of their departure from Riga, news of the Soviet-Polish (Polish) peace talks in Riga and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Soviet Russia and the Baltic came from Moscow at the same time.

They walked through a rather large conference room, and through a long corridor, into an office filled with photographs of various aircraft—just by looking at the photographs, one could guess that this was the flight office of the General Staff.

"Oh, we've been a great success in Russia," Student said, gesturing to a somewhat worn armchair. "But you've also created a big problem for Junkers and Falk...... I suppose Lenin must have been grateful to you, right? ”

"I'm not just embarrassed by Junkers and Falk for Russia's sake."

"Not for Russia?" Studentt opened a cabinet, pulled out a thick stack of folders, and placed it on his desk and began to flip through it.

"Not only that," Hersman stressed, "we need to walk on two legs, so we need to double the investment, and cooperation with the Russians will share the 'investment on one leg,' and we will work on the other ourselves." ”

"Alright, I found it." Student pulled out a folder from a pile of folders with the words "rotary engine" written on the skin. "The strange engine of the French, the Land God series...... With 14 cylinders rotating together, it can output 160 horsepower with a power/weight ratio of 0.667. ”

This was the ancestor of the star-type air-cooled engine, which was on a par with in-line liquid-cooled engines in World War II. The French invented the rotary engine, which dissipates heat in a very strange way, by making the cylinders spin. As a result, there is a huge inertia that makes the aircraft difficult to operate.

"Let BMW improve and find a way to keep the cylinders from turning." Hersman took the folder, opened it, and looked through it. The information inside is very complete, not only with detailed drawings, but also with various test data. The Germans captured a number of rotary engines during the war, and they copied them themselves.

"Let them copy the Earth God 9N, and in 1923 they would come up with a nine-cylinder air-cooled engine with more than 400 horsepower and no rotation," Student said...... BMW should have the ability to do just that. ”

Historically, the American Pratt. The Whitney company came up with a similar product in 1925, the R-1340 Wasp engine. And that's when Pratt. The Whitney Company has only just been founded, and with only 20 employees, it is not at all comparable to BMW.

Hersman hopes BMW can grab the Pratt. Whitney had previously come up with a product that would allow him to patent the star engine.

"So be it," Hersman said, placing the folder that Studenter had given him into a handbag. "I'll have no problem taking it away, right?"

"It's okay, I still have it here." Steudent said. "And the one given to you is just a brief introduction, there are many more details, and there are samples."

"Send them all to BMW," Hersmann said. ”

"So should we bid for an in-line engine with the same horsepower?" Student asked.

"Not for now," Hersman shook his head, "the funds are limited, so we need to save some money." When our cooperation with the Russians starts to generate a lot of cash flow, it will not be too late to develop in-line engines. ”

Compared with the star engine, the in-line engine is relatively widely used and can be applied to automobiles. Therefore, Hersmann does not plan to finance the development of in-line engines for the time being, but wants to let German automobile companies and machinery companies do it themselves.

After all, cooperation with Soviet Russia requires a lot of investment. Because the goods that the Russians could exchange with Germany were mainly oil. The Russians could produce crude oil instead of refined oil, which required Germany to establish a corresponding oil processing and marketing industry.

To do this, the Industry Promotion Council has to provide substantial loans to BASF AG and Bayer.

In addition, the construction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Facility will now begin.

According to Hersmann's plan, future wars would be extremely dependent on oil, so Germany would have to reserve at least 20 million tons of crude oil before the war broke out - enough to sustain at least two years of war consumption.

Such a large scale of strategic oil reserves not only requires a large number of reserve facilities, but it is also impossible to complete the reserves in the years before the outbreak of war - when the Führer comes to power, Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union will be more vigilant, and of course they will not be open to selling oil to Germany! Therefore, the reserve of oil can only start in the 20s, and it will have to be a long stream, one or two million tons a year, and it will be almost ready before the start of World War II.

In addition to oil reserves, research and investment in coal-to-oil have also been secretly proposed. Hersmann hoped that by 1939 Germany would have a capacity of 5 million tons of synthetic fuel per year. This, of course, also involves huge investments – not only in synthetic fuel plants, but also in coal mines. If necessary, it is even necessary to invest in coal mines in Austria and the Czech Republic.

In addition, the reserve of non-ferrous metals also began in the 20s. Like oil, non-ferrous metal resources were a shortcoming of Germany in World War II. Almost all non-ferrous metals were lacking in Germany, and without these non-ferrous metals, Germany's military industry would be in great trouble during wartime.

And the reserve of non-ferrous metals is not only a matter of spending money to buy, sometimes it is necessary to go abroad to find ores. In Hersmann's memory, Austria had the largest tungsten mine in Europe, and the Czech Republic had a relatively rich manganese, graphite and uranium ore - uranium had been discovered and mined in the Czech Republic for a long time, but not for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, but for the use of porcelain colorants. Hersman was going to look for an opportunity to buy uranium ore there, and then stock up on the uranium ore produced every year. In addition, the Belgian Congo is also rich in uranium, and as far as Hirschman knows, the bituminous uranium mines there have been exploited since 1921. The uranium mines in Belgium and the Congo must also find a way to get their hands on them......

Wait until Otto. Hahn and Lizze. Meitner discovered the phenomenon of nuclear fission, and these things can be very useful.

So, in the next few years. The Industrial Promotion Council needs to invest a large amount of money, and it is definitely not rich in hand, so it can only invest limited funds in the sectors that need it most.

"In 1939? Why? "In the office of the chief of the Political Department of the General Staff, Kurt . Feng. Colonel Schleicher looked at the oil and non-ferrous reserves plan that Hersmann had just drawn up, which was to be adopted at the working meeting of the Industrial Promotion Committee in 1921. And Colonel Schleicher is now a hot and powerful figure in the General Staff, and he has a share in the Industrial Promotion Committee, the Officers' Union, the Aviation Committee, and so on. For Hersman's plan to be adopted, his support must be enlisted.

"What's so special about this year?" Schleicher looked up at Hersmann, "The reserves of oil, aluminum, manganese, ferrochrome, zinc, lead, copper, etc., as well as the uranium reserves, and the artificial gasoline plant, were required to be completed by August 31, 1939. Can you tell me what September 1, 1939 was? ”

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