August in the fourth year was a very embarrassing time for Haitang's economy. Originally, according to the government's economic plan, Haitang's military spending could only be supported until the end of June. Of course, if it were urgent and the numerous construction projects were stopped, there would be no tension in military spending. However, in Li Guang's plan, domestic construction is the top priority, which is related to the country's long-term strategy, and it does not mean that it will stop at a stop, which will greatly delay the development of Haitang.

In July, MacArthur received the first $100 million in loans he had promised. Under normal circumstances, not to mention the follow-up funds, just this 100 million US dollars can easily support the Haitang Army until the end of the year. However, the use of this 100 million dollars is the same as before, and it is necessary to purchase supplies in the United States, and if it is to buy arms, it still has to be approved by the US government. However, due to the situation in the European theater, Haitang has just spent less than 20 million US dollars in the United States, and he can no longer buy anything, whether it is military products or civilian materials.

In response to the disadvantages of the European theater, the U.S. government has gone almost violently and imposed controls on all export commodities.

In Li Guang's impression, there is a statistic that shows how powerful the US industry was -- by 1944, the US industrial output accounted for half of the world's output. This terrifying figure makes people feel that the United States has exploded a sea of planes, tanks, and warships, which is simply extremely easy. The economy is so strong that it dominates the world, as if there is no need to consider the lack of materials.

However, this is far from the case.

After the Normandy landings, the United States was stretched thin by such a strong supply capacity.

This is completely different from Li Guang's impression. How so?

Article 1. The most basic, and the root of everything, is the real economic capacity of the United States.

The US military expenditure in four or four years was about 45 percent of the people's income. And Britain in wartime. This proportion has been around 60 percent for three consecutive years.

Japan's economy was on the verge of collapse in the past four years, or it has collapsed, and Japan's military expenditure has reached more than 98 percent of the people's income in the past four years. In fact, Japan can only be calculated on paper, only through monetary data, and it is impossible to achieve the real 98 percent, if it were true. The little devil is simply extinct.

But in any case, judging from this data alone, the United States has more potential to tap. But. In fact, the potential for the US government to tap is actually not very large, according to the estimates of economic experts--- it is only five points at most.

Economics is a complex science, and this is the case. According to the analysis of experts, one of the main reasons is that a considerable proportion of the US economy is fictitious. i.e. stocks, bonds, etc.

This is completely different from other countries. Even the UK has a significant virtual economy, but the proportion is far less than that of the US. Under such circumstances, as long as the US Government does not dare to follow Japan's example of playing with overdrafts, causing domestic prices to soar and the people to complain, it will absolutely not dare to raise this figure to 50 percent.

With the U.S. system, if we really raise that figure to 50 percent. Then there will be no need to fight, and the American people will be afraid that they will rebel immediately. Overthrow the government. Even in the state of more than 40 percent, the wave of strikes in the United States is one after another. In addition to the losses in the Normandy Campaign, the US military lost more lives than it had fought in the Pacific Theater for several years, and there was a lot of anti-war in the country.

In this sense, the U.S. economy has done everything it can to support the war. In fact, the total supply of materials cannot break out too much.

Second, the record of German submarines. Because Li Guang gave Germany the technology of submarine snorkels early, Germany's submarine record is much better than in history. By the middle of the four-fourth year, the German submarine record had exceeded the 20 million ton mark. Historically, the total result of German submarines until the end of the war was 13.5 million tons. If we compare the same period in history, the German submarine record is tens of millions more tons. The value of these nearly 10 million tons of ships plus materials is definitely a nightmare for American production capacity. The loss of these supplies and ships not only affected Britain, in fact, the fact that the Soviet Union could not switch to a counteroffensive for a long time was also related to the excessive loss of American material aid.

Article 3. Because of Li Guang, this butterfly reversed the ratio of the United States' supply of materials to the Atlantic Theater and the Pacific Theater. Although it is only a share of four or three years a year, the share of 20% of the US military's military spending is absolutely significant. If you look at it only in terms of value, it is much more than the 10 million tons of ships and supplies lost by the Allies.

MacArthur landed in the Philippines, and there was no shortage of material supplies, in fact, it also benefited from the United States' material tilt policy towards the Pacific theater in the past four or three years. You must know that when MacArthur landed in the Philippines, the first batch of supplies and ammunition was 1.5 million tons, and with the follow-up, the materials consumed by only half of the Philippines were probably around 3 million tons. Due to the sneak attack on the Panama Canal by the Japanese army, the United States' material tilt in the Pacific theater at the beginning of 44 years had dropped to 30% of the total amount, and even so, Nimitz did not affect the campaign to attack Iwo Jima because of the lack of materials. Careful analysis, in fact, these are all thanks to the abundant inventory of the US military in the previous year. This shows that the United States has a strong share of military spending.

Article 3. That was the Allied landing in Normandy, the loss of the battle. When the Allies landed in Normandy, the first batch of supplies was enough to last three months for more than two million troops. Moreover, with the United States' usual abundant finances, the amount of materials actually prepared will not be lacking even in the first half of the year. However, tens of millions of tons of materials that had been organized with great difficulty were lost in less than three months, and the huge amount of weapons and equipment was even more heavily lost.

A more serious situation is that German submarines have begun to attack Allied transport ships and even warships at any cost. This is completely different from history, where the Allies landed in Normandy, and most of the German generals saw the prospect of defeat in the Third Reich, and the war was not so active. For example, submarine forces. Sorties are actually not so proactive. Dönitz was ostensibly hardworking, but he often turned his energy to working on new technologies, citing the lack of submarine performance. As a matter of fact. There is nothing to lose in a war, it is just an excuse. If the Soviets had made such excuses, they would have simply surrendered.

This time, however, Germany's complete control over the Baltic Sea allowed it to receive a steady stream of supplies from Northern Europe and the Soviet Union, and there was no serious shortage.

In addition, the strategic bombing of Germany by the Allies was inadequate. Four or four years was the peak of German arms production.

In terms of morale, the Germans were still on the offensive before the Allies landed in Normandy. It's not as exhausted as it was at the same time in history, and the morale is still pretty good.

Hitler was even more different from what he was in history, although he was still clamoring, but in fact he had lost hope of victory. It's about suffering time. Waiting for some kind of moment that does not exist - a break between the West and the Red - USSR.

This time, although the German army was once again caught in a two-front battle in terms of overall strategy, the passive situation was obvious. But thanks to a beautiful German counterattack, both the German generals and Hitler saw some kind of hope for victory, or a greatly delayed hope of defeat - to drive the Allies out into the sea.

The German army with hope was extremely terrifying, not to mention land and air.

From June onwards, German submarines began to desperately attack Allied ships. During this period, the rate of loss of German submarines was staggering. In the second half of the four-year period, on average, submarines lost more than one per day. Only in this half a year. The German army lost more submarines than the entire world (excluding Germany) lost in World War II, more than 240 submarines.

However, the frenzied attacks of German submarines were also exchanged for amazing achievements. In just half a year, nearly six million tons of Allied merchant ships were sunk. In addition, a large number of Allied warships were sunk and damaged, including four escort aircraft carriers, a regular aircraft carrier, and a battleship by the British, and one battleship and several escort aircraft carriers were sunk by the United States. As for the wounded ships, almost more than fifty were killed.

According to a post-war statistic, the Allies lost about twice as many merchant ships as German submarines. If only according to the battle loss ratio, the German submarine actually did not have a brilliant record. But even if this is not a glorious record, the blow inflicted on the Allies is very terrifying, and the pressure on the heads of the United States and Britain is not light.

Let's talk about the battlefield situation: on the European theater, from September onwards, even after the end of the General War, the fighting between the Allies and the Germans never stopped for a moment. Both sides are accumulating strength, but both are looking for ways to weaken their opponents, and the European theater once again recreates the static defensive line warfare of World War I. Positional meat grinder, this is the nightmare of all Western soldiers, several meat grinder-like positional battles in World War I, although decades have passed, but many Allied and German generals still remember it vividly.

But the battle has reached this point, and there is no possibility of retreat on either side, and the brutal meat grinding war will definitely continue. Whether Germany drove the Allies out into the sea, or whether the Allies routed the German army, the whole world was waiting to see.

On the Allied side, even Churchill, who did not agree to land in France, would not give up easily. The Allies really could not afford to lose this battle, and if they were really driven out of the sea by the Germans and landed in Europe again, they would not have to prepare for a year or more.

Therefore, on the European battlefield, the mobilization of material and military forces has become the most urgent task for the Allies.

Under these circumstances, American industry turned to Europe in an all-round way. It's not just Haitang's loan that has nothing to buy. Even the distribution of materiel in the Pacific theater has been severely affected.

At the end of August, in order to curb the madness of German submarines. The main forces of Nimitz's Pacific Fleet were transferred to the Atlantic theater.

Because the U.S. army lost more troops in the first battle of Normandy than all the casualties in the Pacific theater at one time. No matter how MacArthur protested, he had no choice but to mobilize more than 200,000 troops to Europe under the slogan of taking the overall situation into account. Moreover, these 200,000 are all US troops who have been on the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness and those recruits are completely different concepts.

If that's all there is, MacArthur can accept it. However, the proportion of the US military's military spending has dropped sharply from 30 percent of the total amount in the first half of four years to 1 and a half percent. Mai Dashuai, who was always rich, also became a landlord and had no surplus food.

MacArthur, on the other hand, had reduced his strength to less than one million.

This sounds like a lot, but the U.S. military has a lot of areas to control, and it needs to occupy a lot of troops. Moreover, there are a large number of auxiliary arms in the US military. It seems that the army of one million will not exceed 200,000 troops that can draw out mobile combat.

As some kind of compensation, it is also a balancing act for politicians. MacArthur finally got his wish and became the true commander of the Allied Pacific Theater, reaching the pinnacle of his military career.

However, MacArthur did not have enough troops and materials to fight. According to the calculations of the US military, it is very easy to maintain the strength of strategic bombing, but the materials for attacking Okinawa are seriously insufficient. Therefore. MacArthur not only did not continue to attack the rest of the Philippines, but in his words "cut back on food and clothing" and prepared to raise enough supplies. Preparation for the capture of Okinawa.

The United States suddenly blocked Haitang's material import channels, and Haitang's economy was inevitably affected. You must know that Haitang does not have a complete industrial system at all, and it is difficult to produce even the most basic steel (steel is a long-cycle industry, in this regard. Haitang has invested a lot. However, in four or four years, Haitang could only produce a small amount of iron, and there was no output of steel. Most of Haitang's several military products have been purchased raw materials, purchased parts, and assembled for production. Even in the mortar shell industry, which has the most complete industrial chain, there are many small parts that need to be purchased, and as for the alloy tools required for machining, all of them need to be imported.

In fact. Not to mention military production, even the largest project being carried out by Haitang - the construction of Chang'an Road. Imported raw materials are also indispensable. In the future, it will be the main road of Haitang's economy, and there is no way to make do with it, at least the construction of bridges will be indispensable for steel bars.

In short, there were no goods from the United States, and the Haitang economy immediately came to a standstill.

In order to overcome this series of difficulties. In the second half of '44, Li Guang once again relied on the influence of MacArthur and Truman to urge the US Government to unfreeze part of the loan funds to aid Haitang, $150 million. The U.S. government is really shady, and all the loan aid has to be skinned by the businessmen, and it is very rare for the recipient to give cash directly to buy supplies freely in the world. It is really not easy for Haitang to do this.

MacArthur's help was based on "friendship". Although Truman's help had Haitang's political investment in him, more importantly, Haitang played some role in the 44 US election.

The Haitang Army had twice rescued many Jewish women from Nazi Germany, but in fact the Jewish organizations did not give much in return. The speculation of the Jews, a group of businessmen, in international politics is also based on the businessman's point of view. Of course, the Jews couldn't have imagined it, and Li Guang actually couldn't have imagined that Haitang could develop to the current point in the 40s. When Haitang rose rapidly, the Jews saw the value of investment, so they approached Haitang again to seek cooperation. Haitang's small request to vote for the combination of Roosevelt and Truman was a good job.

The U.S. thaw of $500 million can be said to have saved Haitang's economy. Haitang used the money to do three main things, the first was to redeem the shares of Oolong Bank pledged to the Morgan consortium of the United States, and since then Haitang's economic control over Uruguay has been more stable (property rights are not clear, is it Li Guang's, or the state?). ）。

Secondly, a large number of oolong shipyards and Argentine-made ships were purchased. By the end of 44 years, Haitang's ship ownership reached 1.2 million tons. This ship ownership is almost equivalent to the per capita tonnage of ships owned by the United Kingdom, and it has become a maritime power. Of course, this per capita refers to the population of Haitang for four or four years.

The largest amount of money has been invested in Argentina.

Through a series of diplomatic efforts by the government and foreign affairs departments, the most important of which was the sale of the "training ship" Indian Ocean aircraft carrier at a low price of $30 million under pressure from Britain. Thus obtaining a one-year monopoly pre-emptive purchase of Argentine goods. In the agreement, the price of goods was the same as the price of goods supplied by Brazil to the United States, that is, the price before the war.

As for why the Indian Ocean aircraft carrier has become a training ship, the Haitang Army knows that the manufacturing level is really a bit poor. Haitang wants to be a big country, and he can't play deception in such trivial matters. Honesty, the Chinese virtue, to be carried forward.

On the issue of selling the Indian Ocean aircraft carrier, Haitang can be regarded as self-inflicted on its strength, but it is helpless. Argentina is a country that also has interests and will not give benefits in vain.

All of this sounds smooth, but it is all forced to be helpless. After the United States cut off this road, there are really not many ways for Haitang to obtain industrial products, Italy is one, but Italy is only more than half of the country is not in the war zone, and it is still in a state of war, it is difficult to meet Haitang's needs. Switzerland was also a good choice, but due to the war zone, some bearings or other valuable spare parts could only be purchased by air. And Australia, just to meet the material needs of MacArthur's Pacific theater, has done its best.

Brazil, another big country in South America, originally had a relatively large steel production capacity and a considerable industrial base, but it was completely monopolized by the United States on exports, and Haitang could not intervene at all.

Haitang has searched all over the world, and only Argentina has this condition.

Argentina at this time is definitely not the impression of the 21st century, it is actually the richest country in South America, known as the eighth economic power in the world, and its industry is also quite large. However, Argentina was not only a military and political leader, but also politically inclined to Germany, and even during the war, valuable raw materials such as industrial diamonds and platinum were often sent to Germany through Spain. Oh, by the way, Haitang also sold some tungsten ore to Argentina, where exactly it will go, no one cares.

Due to the dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Forkerson Islands, Haitang's move came under a lot of pressure.

But no matter how much pressure there is, Haitang must also bear it. Haitang's economy must not stop because of British pressure.

Argentina supplies more than 300,000 tons of steel and millions of tons of food, as well as a large number of mechanical products and electronic products, which not only alleviate the needs of Haitang's various projects, but also bring huge profits to Haitang.

Even so, several projects of Haitang have been seriously affected. Plan A was the most affected, and Haitang was supposed to build a uranium enrichment plant during this period. However, both of the two items needed to enrich uranium have been affected.

The thickener used to enrich uranium is not extremely difficult to manufacture, and Haitang purchased machine tools and many manufacturing equipment early, but the tank body of the thickener needs stainless steel, and the pipeline also needs stainless steel. In these years, stainless steel is a really in-demand commodity, and its production is difficult, and only a limited number of countries have mastered the production technology.

Although Haitang has one of the world's three largest nickel deposits, it is unable to produce stainless steel, and even if it buys technology and equipment, it will not be effective in three or two years. Of course, Argentina is not the same. As a result, the thickener had to stop.

As for the electricity needed to enrich uranium, Haitang is preparing to use hydropower generation. In just forty or four years, there are forty or fifty hydroelectric power stations, but small hydroelectric generators can be supplied by Italy, and medium-sized hydroelectric generators, if they cannot be obtained from the United States, can only wait.

By the way, Haitang's Plan B has not been affected. Thanks to the German ME262 jet prototype, it took quite a long time for the Haitang engineers to fully understand its technology.

After this toss, Li Guang had a deeper understanding of the importance of establishing a complete industrial system in this era. (To be continued......)

PS: This chapter is really not very easy to write. That's the only update, it's not updated today, sorry.