Most of the projects that have been discussed have been done very well, and the things that have been discussed before have basically reached the intention, but in the discussion, there are also some new things, for example, among the cooperation with Germany, the most important one, about the Kiel Canal, the Kiel Canal has been built by Germany, and it can be completed in 2 years at most, with the Northwest joining, especially the personnel in charge of the negotiation in the Northwest, who are extremely confident in their processing capabilities, heavy machinery, excavators, bulldozers in the Northwest, There are other machines, for the excavation of large earthworks, have unimaginable effects, a piece of equipment, at least quite a thousand people, in this case, the Kiel Canal scheme, of course, to maximize the improvement.

AFTER CONSULTING WITH THE ENGINEERS OF THE CANAL AND THE CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERS OF THE NORTHWEST ITSELF, THE AVERAGE DAILY EARTHWORK VOLUME OF THE NORTHWEST WAS REPEATEDLY DETERMINED, AND ON THE ORIGINAL BASIS, THE EARTHWORK VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL BASE WAS INCREASED, WHICH IS EQUIVALENT TO SAYING THAT ON THE ORIGINAL BASIS, BOTH THE DEPTH AND THE WIDTH HAVE BEEN INCREASED BY A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT, WHICH IS OF GREAT HELP TO THE TRAFFIC CAPACITY OF THE KIEL CANAL AND THE LARGEST SHIPS THAT THE KIEL CANAL CAN PASS THROUGH IN THE FUTURE.

The Kiel Canal, is an important passage connecting the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, this time the expansion is mostly for military purposes, stuck in time and workload, now there is a larger scale of expansion, Germany is of course pleased, after confirming that the northwest side is serious, specially sent a large number of personnel, and the northwest side of the coordination related intentions, and finally confirmed the overall project.

Of course, the increase in the amount of earthwork and workload, this part will increase a lot of investment, after the confirmation of both sides, it is almost 90 million marks, for this, Germany directly admitted, has already made a mistake, now the contract signed in the northwest is within 12 months, to complete the expansion of the Kiel Canal, not to mention a year in advance, the amount of earthwork has also expanded by one-seventh, such a good thing, only to pay the price of 90 million marks, or only the price of 2 battleships, This is not a problem when it comes to large infrastructure.

The Kiel Canal was not only for military purposes, but after the expansion, there was enough capacity to take into account both military and civilian use, and the Baltic states went from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, greatly shortening the distance between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, which was 370 nautical miles less than the detour through the Øresund-Kattegat Strait-Skagerrak Strait.

In shipping, the reduction of the voyage, the direct benefit is the reduction of transportation costs and the reduction of time, under the measurement, close to the Baltic countries, under the premise that the voyage can be reduced, the passage here is an inevitable choice, the greater the expansion of the Kiel Canal, the greater the benefit of shipping.

In addition to the Kiel Canal, the railway plan has also been slightly expanded, and the temporary addition of the highway plan, a lot of increases, Germany's recognition of the Northwest engineering capacity at the same time, but also for the total increase of a little surprised, an increase of almost 100 million US dollars, fortunately, at this point, the increase in the number, the Northwest also recognized, this part, the same Northwest advance, the German side will be returned in five years, need to use gold and equipment as a guarantee, especially the increase of 100 million US dollars, It was almost 56 tons of gold, and after a little consideration, Germany decided to use 20 tons and 50 million US dollars as bargaining chips, and the person in charge of the negotiation could not make a decision, so he handed over the matter to Yang Yuanzhao to deal with.

After Yang Yuanzhao saw it, he directly signed the opinion and agreed to all the intentions, since Germany has been strengthened, then it will be strengthened thoroughly, and even said that it does not matter if Germany becomes the victor of World War I, even if Germany defeats Britain, France and the United States, when accepting the fruits of victory, it will take a relatively long time, and there is no time to take care of Asia, as long as China eats these things in its mouth, it can be completely invincible.

Of course, it will be very difficult for Germany to become a victorious country, unless Germany also emerges like him, holding the all-in-one machine against the sky, otherwise, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, more than 60 million people, Germany does not have enough potential and strategic depth.

Simply deal with the problems that have arisen recently, and by the way, forward-looking decentralization of some things, such as like now, increase the amount of earthwork, increase the amount of work, increase investment, you can promise to come down, as long as it does not exceed 50 million US dollars, originally promised to invest 400 million US dollars in Germany, take the Kiel Canal and several railways, and increase 100 million, and the negotiation process increased by 100 million, which is already a lot. At most, it is 650 million, otherwise, it will be a bit too much, and maybe, Britain will directly start a war without waiting for the preparations to be completed, which is definitely not a good thing for Yang Yuanzhao.

After dealing with a qiē, the sky has been cloudy, Yang Yuanzhao is taking a special train, there is still a period of time to Kiel, he can go to the train to rest, is about to leave, heard the news of Yang Yuanzhao's return, reporters and envoys from various countries have come to visit, and even some ambassadorial-level figures directly blocked the side of your hotel,

There is no way, face must be given, the northwest needs to keep a low profile, and it cannot completely offend the powers, Yang Yuanzhao spent a morning meeting with the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Russia, and after a brief exchange, he found that they had only one purpose, that is, to invite Yang Yuanzhao to visit Wèn.

2 billion US dollars, Yang Yuanzhao somewhat underestimated the value of the dollar in this era, 100 million US dollars, directly equivalent to 56 tons of gold, most countries, such as Britain, France and the United States, have considerable gold reserves, the central bank may be 500 tons, or even 1,000 tons, plus private reserves will be more, but all at once, it is still not enough.

I am afraid that at present, in the world, it can easily come up with 2 billion for investment, that is, the northwest, because of chemical products and medicines, as well as a large number of light industrial products, the northwest has accumulated a lot of foreign exchange, this part of the foreign exchange, part of it, will be slowly converted into gold, and the other part, basically Yang Yuanzhao took out, he knows very well that the future war is a weakening process for the whole world, the pound sterling is definitely going to be compiled, not to mention the Deutsche mark, as long as Germany is defeated in the future, the mark will fall into paperIt is the same for other countries, and it is also an opportunity to spend it early.

The attraction of the 2 billion order has made the major powers come, even Russia has come, and they can even treat the battle with the northwest not long ago as if they didn't see it, not to mention the United Kingdom, the United States and France, which have no direct head-on conflict with the northwest, they all invited Yang Yuanzhao to visit them after visiting Germany, and the conditions are very good.

Yang Yuanzhao somewhat understood their approach, at least, before the 2 billion dollar order was completely settled, he was absolutely safe, this was a good opportunity, especially the British ambassador, and even generously assured that as long as Yang Yuanzhao went, the battleship could be opened to him.

British battleships? Yang Yuanzhao's eyes couldn't help but light up, as far as the battleships in the current all-in-one machine, although there are only a few British battleships, many of which are outdated, or outsourced, but the British ship-building ability, it can be seen that the general, first-class design, tonnage control and rationality are one of his advantages, if you can go and see, even if you just copy the drawings, improve the materials and power, and make the battleships that are definitely world-class.

Seeing that Yang Yuanzhao was still hesitating, British Ambassador Lawrence added another fire, and took the initiative to signal that he could help the Northwest to build Zuò battleships, the standard can be mentioned casually, and it is definitely a first-class dreadnought class.

Dreadnoughts, this is nothing for the two great powers of Britain and Germany, and the powers of Russia, the United States, Turkey, and France are nothing, and the threshold for building ships has been mastered, but for the next country, even Japan, it has just obtained technology from Britain, and with the help of Britain, it has begun to explore the first step.

Britain can build ships for the whole world, but the level of dreadnoughts, there are still only a few countries, promising a weak China, it is not a good idea to fight, in Lawrence's view, Britain is extremely strong, even if China adds one or two dreadnoughts, it will not change the overall situation, at most it is just to put some pressure on Japan, the most important thing is that with dreadnoughts, the northwest will inevitably seek a harbor, as long as it is close to the sea, the great British navy, can threaten him, will not be as helpless as now.

Of course, Yang Yuanzhao didn't know what Lawrence and Britain thought, building ships, or not, he clearly remembered that when World War I started, Britain directly seized the warships under construction in other countries, especially Turkey, Britain directly seized the two battleships that were about to be built, and directly let Turkey put into the German camp. By then, it was already the end of 1914, and the urine of the British would definitely be directly seized.

During World War I, the reason why Britain had an overwhelming advantage over German capital ships was that in the Battle of Jutland as an example, Britain had 33 capital ships, while Germany only had 18, but among the 33 ships, Britain seized many warships from other countries, namely Brazil's Agincourt and Turkey's Ireland and Canada.

3 ships were seized by the British without explanation, Yang Yuanzhao didn't want to become the fourth, fifth, hundreds of millions of dollars in orders, if you buy battleships, you can build a lot, the whole world, I'm afraid only Britain has enough ability to build battleships for other countries.

Lawrence was still waiting, and Yang Yuanzhao of course agreed to go to England to have a look, visit the great British Empire's home fleet, and by the way, discuss some orders and purchases with Britain. Lawrence left satisfied, and what Britain asked for was not just an opportunity, as long as there was a chance, standing on the same level as Germany, he believed that it would definitely not be worse than Germany. R1152