Archduke Ferdinand really had a headache when he looked at these materials and models, this Gao Hongsheng provided all oil tigers that used oil, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no output at all except for the current Poland, which produced no oil at all, isn't this a human life?

He had no choice but to ask tentatively: "Gao, where does the oil come from?" ”

"Don't you have oil fields in Romania? Why did you sell the company? Gao Hongsheng asked strangely, the Austro-Hungarian Bank of Vienna had an oil company in Romania at that time, and it was later bought by the Deutsche Bank, but it should not be there yet.

You must know that Romania produced as much as 80,000 tons in 1912, but what is very fucked up is that this guy secretly sold gasoline to Germany at the beginning of World War I at a price of 44 pounds a barrel, which is even more ruthless than robbery, and finally directly joined the British-led agreement country in order to obtain benefits, and blew up all the refineries in his own country in order to prevent Germany from getting oil.

"No, we don't, but it seems that the Bank of Vienna wants to sell it to Deutsche Bank, I don't know exactly what is going on." Oil is just synonymous with lamp oil in this era, and now Vienna has begun to use electric lights, and the status of oil is declining, no wonder Ferdinand didn't care about oil at all, and at the same time, in Poland now, Austria-Hungary also produces oil, but the output is a little pitiful, the highest output is only more than 10,000 tons, but it is enough to refine lamp oil and grease.

"You go and say hello to the Bank of Vienna and see how much they want to sell, and we buy it. Ferdinand, don't stare at Serbia, where the poor will not bring you any profit except for someone, do you know how much oil there is in Romania? ”

Looking at Ferdinand's inquiring gaze, Gao Hongsheng paused for a moment and said softly: "The maximum output can reach millions of tons a year, even at the current price of 91 US dollars a barrel, it is a lot of money, if it is refined into various component oils, it will generate more profits, and even two million pounds a year, where the flow is not oil, but black gold." ”

"Two million pounds, are you sure?" Ferdinand asked, a little uncertain.

"Of course, there can only be more, but it is impossible to produce so much at the beginning, but as long as we build hard for a year or two, we can make at least two million pounds a year." Gao Hongsheng said affirmatively.

"Two million pounds a year, Romania, oil?" Ferdinand muttered softly, deep in thought.

Gao Hongsheng didn't say anything when he saw him like this, it was really the Balkan Peninsula where the Russian-Austrian conflict clashed, if the First World War was provoked by Austria-Hungary, it would be better to say that the Russians challenged Austria-Hungary and provoked it, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, and the basin was buckled on its head.

Since Peter the Great, Russia has been trying to occupy the Balkans and the Black Sea straits, in the struggle for the territory of the Ottoman Empire, the interests of Austria and Russia are incompatible, Russia infiltrates the Balkan Peninsula through various channels, Austria-Hungary is forced to resist Russia's expansion, but the comprehensive strength of Austria-Hungary is much smaller than Russia, it is difficult to fight alone, so it has to take an alliance against Russia.

However, at the end of the eighties of the 19th century, the new governments established by Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania began to implement a pro-Russian policy, and the influence of Austria-Hungary on these countries rapidly waned, and at the same time it did not receive the support of Britain and Germany, Austria-Hungary had to adopt a strategy of reconciliation with Russia, and the two countries temporarily froze the issue, but the confrontation between Austria and Russia on the Balkan issue would sooner or later lead to a major war.

At the same time, because Austria-Hungary is a multi-ethnic country, Serbs make up four percent, and these people have always wanted to incorporate Serbia into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so that the population of Serbs will increase to increase their national voice, and the Hungarians do not want to occupy Serbia, which will dilute their population, and the Hungarians will have less power, and there is a fierce debate about whether to send troops to Serbia before World War I.

At the same time, in the Balkans, there were conflicts between Serbia and Bulgaria and Romania and the Ottoman Empire, which had always wanted to overthrow the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), which had nominally ruled them, and to achieve national independence, but the European powers feared that if they overthrew the Ottoman Empire, the entire Balkan region would be plunged into a turmoil, which would affect the peace of the whole of Europe.

One of the most important problems is the religious problem, the Ottoman Empire is Islam, and the Balkans just happen to be the intersection of Christianity and Islam in Europe, and all kinds of religious conflicts occur one after another, and the entire Balkan region is like a powder keg, and finally this powder keg explosion involves the whole world in a world war.

The waters of the Balkans were so deep that Ferdinand did not want to step into them, and Romania had already become independent and had signed an agreement with Austria-Hungary to protect it from Russian aggression.

"Gao, is oil really that important?" Ferdinand was still a little puzzled, after all, the value of oil was not too high now.

"Oil is very important, the single-cylinder spherical diesel engine uses the extract of petroleum, warships and large merchant ships will use oil-fired boilers to replace coal-burning boilers, in less than a decade or two, light gasoline engines and high-horsepower diesel engines will come out of the endless layer, they will rule the world in the next twenty or thirty years, oil will become the blood of industry." As it was, twenty or thirty years later, oil began to show its importance, eventually becoming the energy source that dominated the world.

Ferdinand looked at Gao Hongsheng with some surprise, his remarks were really a bit sensational, this kind of thing that is currently used to extract kerosene for those poor people to use, in twenty or thirty years, can rule the world and become the blood of industry, it is really unbelievable.

"Ferdinand, when the steam engine was first invented, people were still laughing at it for not being as powerful as horses, but now those who are laughing have closed their mouths, the gasoline internal combustion engine, the diesel internal combustion engine, their rudiments have been invented, they will be perfected little by little like the steam engine, you say that when they are used in all aspects like the steam engine, their fuel, oil will be as important as coal now."

"Ferdinand, do you know how many tractors I'm going to order? I want to order 600 tracked engines, 1,000 wheeled engines, 100 diesel engines of 45 horsepower and 55 horsepower, by the way, do you know small shipyards? ”

"Yes, do you want to build a ship? How big a ship do you want to build? What type? ”

"Small boats, as for how big to build, ask those ship designers, 100 horsepower boats, all using 55 horsepower single-cylinder burning ball diesel engine, double pulp, offshore fishing boats. Let's start with one hundred and eighty ships, one hundred river transport ships, thirty river armed patrol boats, fifty river tugboats, Ferdinand, what other types of small ships are there? ”

"And, you still want it?" Ferdinand looked at him strangely, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Gao, what do you want so many boats for?" And how can there be so many tractors, do you have a big farm? How many diesel engines do you need? The number you want is enough for us to open two or three factories, high, what do you want them for? ”

"Ferdinand, we are not going to open two or three factories, but six or seven factories, around these two diesel engines and tractors, we can produce a lot of products, crawler tractors can be used as bulldozers with a shovel in front of them, a large bucket can be used to dig earth and rocks, cranes can be used as cranes, wheeled tractors can be loaded with a body to run transport, transport goods, and can also be turned into road rollers, vehicles driven by steam engines can be replaced.

The boat looks small, but it has a full 100 horsepower, and you can imagine what it will look like when used in inland waterway shipping, no coal, no heavy boilers, no coal bunkers, only a large fuel tank, and you can run from Vienna to Budapest without stopping, and they will completely eliminate those small boats on inland waterways, offshore fishing boats, speedboats, can you imagine how big their sales are? Those boats on the Danube and the Rhine will give way to them, single, double, triple, and they will cover the entire surface of the river.

Ferdinand, how many factories do you say we need to build? ”

Gao Hongsheng did not say another use of tracked tractors, tanks and armored vehicles.

Tanks and armored vehicles converted from single-cylinder ball-burning diesel tractors must have all kinds of problems, but they are much stronger than those things that are always lying in the nest during the First World War, two 55-horsepower ball-burning diesel engines can provide more than 100 horsepower, which is basically similar to the power of early tanks, 6-22 mm armor can resist rifle bullets and grenade attacks, as for the speed, how fast can the tracked tractor run, faster than a human can run.

This is also the main reason why Gao Hongsheng ordered 600 crawler tractors in one go, but he still underestimated the use of crawler tractors, and finally he imported 3,000 tractors with the loudest sound, but compared to the hundreds of thousands of crawler tractors in China in later generations, it is still too little.

"It's all based on the abundance of cheap petroleum products, Ferdinand, do you still think that oil is not important?" Gao Hongsheng said that the last problem was rounded back to oil, there is no sufficient and cheap oil, it is all empty talk, at least for Austria-Hungary, he is not worried, the world is very large, China is not short of oil, in this era, the import of oil is still very simple, but to build a large strategic reserve. (Spit a groove, these days around a dozen stores are cashing, I do my heart is also hairy, they can't do it, the rent is too high, the business is not good, standing up is to lose money, every year after the New Year within two or three months is the time to change hands, not good at this time are to go out to the store, but this year is particularly much, the rent is rising, the labor is rising, but the turnover is not rising, now it is really difficult to open a restaurant, it is very difficult. The main reason is that the rent is too high, and after a year, there is not much left for the landlord, hey! After a year of hard work, many people still lose money, forget it, don't talk about it. ）