At the end of 1929, Wuhan was already enveloped by a biting winter. The weather here is the kind of wet and cold that is unique to the south, and a little chill seems to be about to invade the bones.

In the rest house on the shore of East Lake, the firewood is burning in the fireplace, and the room is as warm as summer. Inside the living room, the tea is fragrant. Chiang Kai-shek, dressed in a long gown and bald without a hat, sat leisurely on the sofa in the living room. Holding a cup of tea in his hand, he tasted it slowly, and listened with a smile as Luo Yaoguo and Song Ziwen argued in front of him.

Ziwen, this round of economic depression will never end in the short term. This economic crisis is unlike any other, and the entire capitalist system is facing major challenges. During these years, the productivity of the world's major capitalist powers has continued to grow rapidly, but workers' wages have stagnated. The contradiction between the lack of aggregate demand caused by low wages and the aggregate oversupply caused by high productivity is absolutely unlikely to be resolved in the short term by the forces of the market itself. And what the government has to do now is definitely not to maintain the so-called budget balance, but to create demand, and only when demand is created can an economic depression be possible. Otherwise, the economy will definitely fall into a vicious circle, the economy will decline one after another, factories will close down one after another, and thousands of workers will lose their jobs, and the workers who have lost their jobs will cause a lack of demand, which will cause the economy to go down further, which is a vicious circle, and in the end, the only way to solve the problem is for the government to create demand, either a large amount of infrastructure construction, or an expansion of armaments."

Luo Yaoguo is also the leader in the economy at this time, not like a chief of general staff at all, but more like an economic expert in the Executive Yuan of the National Government.

But Song Ziwen shook his head while listening, and his eyebrows tightened more and more Brother Fuwen, this method of yours is completely to quench your thirst. If we abandon fiscal balance now and rely on the government's fiscal deficit to stimulate the economy and increase investment. In fact, it is relying on printing money to maintain the scale of investment and the total economy, this banknote is printed too much, but it will be turned into waste paper, the lessons of the Beiyang government and the warlords of the Feng system are in front of us, do you turn a blind eye? Besides...... Even if you can print fiat currency irresponsibly, but what about foreign exchange? Can you conjure up forex? Now that the whole world is contracting, our exports are definitely going to shrink significantly. And if you want to engage in large-scale heavy industrial construction, you will have to import a large amount of machinery, equipment, and raw materials. At that time, foreign exchange will only go out and not come in, and it will bottom out in a few years. When will we use it to pay off foreign debts? Yes, now our foreign debt is very large, and it is still mortgaged by customs duties, salt taxes, railways, and factories. When the time comes, you are not afraid that the great powers will come to our country to take over the customs and dismantle the machinery and equipment? ”

Luo Yaoguo smiled and shook his head, before he could open his mouth to refute, Song Ziwen's words continued to bombard like a cannon, let's talk about it, if we use the banknotes issued by the government and the foreign exchange in our hands to build a large number of heavy industry enterprises and infrastructure, where will the demand come from? The wages of their imperialist countries are so high that they inevitably fall into depression in the end. And our workers' income is only one-tenth of that of others, and they could not be more industrious and thrifty, and then it will not be overproduction, the same Great Depression? When the time comes, will we also follow the example of imperialism and launch a war of aggression to transfer the crisis?

When Chiang Kai-shek heard this, he just sighed, why is it difficult for us to be unified, and it is possible to launch a war of aggression to pass on the crisis? Where else in the world is there such a country? Besides...... If we want to expand, to the north and west is the Soviet Union, and to the south is Anglo-American France. Even if we developed these powers, we would not be able to defeat them, and if we did it, it would be the same as Germany in the world war......"

Chiang Kai-shek and Song Ziwen glanced at each other, their eyes full of helplessness.

Luo Yaoguo sat on the sofa, holding a tea cup in his hand, just smiling. His complexion was hidden in the heat of the rising tea, which made people a little unable to see Jiegong and Ziwen. Our current situation is that we can only advance and not retreat. If China were owned by our Kuomintang, a method like Ziwen's would not have a big problem, at most it would be a recession, and the people would have to live a hard life for a few years. After all, with the heavy industry we are developing now, expansion is insufficient, and self-protection is still assured. But...... Don't forget, there's a GCD central government to the north."

“…… They have now turned the economies of Zhili, Chahar, Suiyuan, northern Shaanxi, and northern Lubei into a planned economy in an all-round way. In fact, a planned economy is akin to a wartime economic system that subjugates the entire social economy to a centralized government. Such an economic system could concentrate the wealth and resources of the whole society for the construction of heavy industry, and according to the information we have, they are now drawing up a three-year plan that will focus on the development of heavy industry and military industry. ”

Song Ziwen sneered, with their little territory, how much wealth can be unearthed for heavy industry? For further development, we can eat them with the custody of these heavy industry bases in our hands. ”

Chiang Kai-shek also nodded with a smile. I picked up the teacup and took a shallow sip of Ziwen's words, and I fully agreed. In the 18th year of the Republic of China, our steel output has almost reached 1.5 million tons, which is basically the same as that of Japan. I think that's enough. ”

"Yes, don't skip words. Luo Yaoguo said coldly:

"The system of China and G is different from ours, they can tap the wealth potential of the whole society through rural land reform and urban socialist transformation, and Beijing, Tianjin and Zhili Province have been at the feet of the Son of Heaven for hundreds of years, and at least half of China's essence is there, right? Without many words, it was easy for them to raise $10 million or 20 million in hard currency through the confiscation of the urban bourgeoisie and land reform. And this money to buy second-hand equipment from collapsed American industrial enterprises during the Great Depression is at least equivalent to 50 million to 100 million dollars in a good economic boom. And they don't have to think about the needs of civilian industry, they can invest all their money in military-related projects. If we want 1.5 million tons of steel, the real use of steel in the military industry will definitely not exceed 100,000 tons, and in addition, they do not have to develop the navy, they can devote themselves to the construction of the army with all their might, and the effectiveness can be doubled compared with us. Therefore, the current economic depression is not only not a trouble, but an opportunity for the Central G and the Soviet Union. ”

“…… There is one more point that you must pay attention to. If the economy of the South once becomes depressed. Unemployed workers, bankrupt peasants, and students with no way out after graduation are all targets of GCD's incitement. If we fail to create jobs, our society will be turned upside down by the workers' movement, the peasant movement, and the student movement. Maybe...... There will also be people in our national army who sympathize with them, and when the time comes, it will really be internal and external troubles. ”

Chiang Kai-shek was slightly stunned when he heard this, he had always been extremely hostile to China G. If Luo Yaoguo had other reasons to lobby him, it might not be effective, but as soon as he came up with the "GCD threat theory", Lao Jiang's brows immediately gradually twisted up and Brother Fuwen's words were right, if we don't spend money to maintain economic stability now, those unemployed workers and students who have no jobs after graduation are afraid that they will be bewitched by GCD and come against us, right? There are not many words, rather than we spend money to suppress it at that time, it is better to spend money now to stimulate demand, so that they have something to do, and don't bother us. ”

Luo Yaoguo stood up and said with a smile Yes, Jiegong, this is spending money to buy stability. With this money spent, we will not only get heavy industry and infrastructure, but also a stable South China. Therefore, we have to spend this money, and if we don't spend it, the society will be in chaos at that time, and the national government will still have no way to maintain fiscal balance. ”

Song Ziwen shook his head slightly, but when we owe a lot of domestic and foreign debts and can't pay them back, do we have to solve them? Is it really necessary to start a war to transfer the crisis?

Luo Yaoguo snorted coldly and saw the gaze of Chiang Kai-shek and Song Ziwen. He just smiled and said that he was afraid that when the time came, we would not have to start a war, but war...... It's coming to the door. ”

……

A few days later, before the war came to the door, Zhang Naiqi went to the General Staff to talk to Luo Yaoguo secretly. also brought two "big gifts" to Luo Yaoguo. One is that the Soviet Union was willing to pay 20 million dollars for the two "Karl . The Marx-class battleships were transferred to the National Government. One was that the Soviet Union wanted to sell oil to the Nationalist Government at a price of eighty cents per barrel, enough to fill the entire oil reserve base of the Nationalist Government's Ministry of Armaments.

These two articles "Carl. Marx", Germania quoted the Soviet Union for $70 million, and now they have paid $5 million. This time, the Soviets actually sold at a reserve price of $20 million, and they lost $30 million as soon as they entered and exited, while the Nationalist Government only needed to pay 20 million plus 20 million dollars in the final payment, for a total of $40 million, to win these two battleships, so that in 1932 the Nationalist Government Navy had four super battleships with an unladen displacement of more than 35,000 tons, and if the four "Polish Legion" class armored ships under construction were counted, the tonnage of the "capital ships" of the Nationalist Government Navy would be as high as 200,000 tons. In one fell swoop, it surpassed France and Italy to become the world's fourth naval power after Japan, and it has the shortest capital ships, the latest equipment, the largest tonnage, and the strongest protection. If we really want to fight, our combat effectiveness may still be higher than that of Japan

And the eighty cents a barrel of oil is also a good deal. At present, there are no large-scale oil fields in the jurisdiction of South China, and only small low-permeability oil fields with high extraction costs and low value are currently of little value. The cost of extracting them is even higher than exploiting the oil shale in Maoming. In fact, Luo Yaoguo had long planned to take advantage of the low international oil prices to reserve a large amount of oil, and the oil storage base with enough oil reserves of 100 million barrels of oil had already started construction together with the Maoming oil shale project. The first phase of the project is now almost complete, and it will be completed by 1931.

"Auxiliary marshal, these two transactions are not harmful to your Nationalist government, and they can also ease the bad relations between the Kuomintang and the Chinese and Soviet Unions, which can be described as killing multiple birds with one stone." Zhang Naiqi saw that Luo Yaoguo was just drinking a coffee cup there, and he didn't say anything. Busy throwing out another "good", he smiled and said:

"In fact, this time the Kuomintang leftists went north to set up the Kuomintang ** Committee, which was not supported by Zhong G in the back, and your party misunderstood them. Now Zhong G is persuading Deng Zesheng, Li Renchao, and Sun to give up this ** committee and return to the Kuomintang. Moreover, the Central G also intends to allocate a considerable number of central government positions to place these leftist comrades, including the vice president......"

Luo Yaoguo remained silent and sat there quietly. After listening to Zhang Naiqi's words, he just smiled faintly, but he didn't expect that our party and China and G had negotiated for more than half a year without any results, and this time Stalin's instructions were all resolved. It seems that he is really a great leader of international GCISM. ”

Zhang Naiqi was slightly embarrassed when he heard this, but in a blink of an eye, he calmed down as usual, what you should be concerned about now is not the relationship between Stalin and Zhong G. It's whether this time the deal with the Soviet Union is cost-effective or not, and whether it will be good for us in China. ”

Luo Yaoguo nodded lightly, what Zhang said is reasonable, this transaction with the Soviet Union is indeed not a loss-making transaction, I will propose it at the presidium meeting. But...... It is not necessary to dissolve the Kuomintang ** committee. I think we can't do this now, the two sides will develop separately behind closed doors, and we will see which system is more reasonable and efficient in three or five years. Zhang, don't you say? ”

Zhang Naiqi didn't expect the other party to be so good, so he agreed in one bite, and he didn't ask Zhong G to ban the Kuomintang ** Committee...... It seems that listening to the tone of the other side, he does not want the Central G to really ban this central committee of the left wing of the Kuomintang. It's just that there is a hidden attempt behind it?

……

In the last few days of 1929, a heavy snowfall also fell in the three towns of Wuhan. The climate of this era was much colder than that of later generations, and when the snow fell, it could not melt for a while, and the whole city was covered with white expanse. On this day of New Year's Day in the 30th year, the national government also gave a day off. Luo Yaoguo's uncle and nephew did not go to the yamen, but in Beilu's study, while enjoying the snow outside the window, while pondering a so-called "five-year plan".

In fact, this plan was only a draft, which was hastily drawn up by the Executive Yuan, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Armaments, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Communications, and other important departments related to the economy after the sudden onset of the Great Depression. The idea is to use the government's financial resources to expand investment in infrastructure and heavy industry in order to boost the economy, stimulate employment, and sustain economic growth in South China.

After this period, Luo Yaoguo kept lobbying Hu Hanmin, Chiang Kai-shek, Xu Chongzhi and other "bigwigs". At present, the big guys are almost persuaded to agree to support this five-year spending plan to "spend money to buy stability".

According to this plan, the Nationalist Government will spend all of the nearly $1.5 billion in gold foreign exchange reserves it now has in the next five years, mainly for undertaking heavy industry projects after the withdrawal of foreign capital, importing machinery and equipment and technology from the United States, bringing in talents, and taking advantage of the Great Depression to reserve various strategic resources that are scarce in China, including oil, copper, chromium, nickel, and so on.

To this end, the Executive Yuan and the Military Council will jointly set up two companies. A company called China Investment Corporation specializes in buying shares in heavy industrial enterprises that are eager to withdraw foreign capital at low prices, and providing funds and "foreign exchange quotas" for their further operations, and is responsible for managing operations. However, after the economy returns to normal in the future, the shares of heavy industry enterprises controlled by China Investment Corporation will be gradually sold, after which operations will be discontinued. The other company, the China Reserve Corporation, is responsible for storing oil, copper, chromium, nickel, and other strategic resources purchased from foreign exchange reserves, and even purchasing large quantities of grain reserves when international grain prices are low, so as to meet unexpected needs. Unlike CIC, the company's operations will be long-term.

Another focus of the national government's five-year plan is the large-scale construction of infrastructure and basic heavy industry. The national government will use the method of raising funds from fiscal funds and the issuance of public bonds to invest more than 4 billion to 5 billion yuan in infrastructure and basic heavy industries such as railways, highways, electric power, ports, coal mines, and iron and steel in the next five years. Efforts should be made to build a railway and highway network that can basically cover the entire area under the rule of the Nationalist Government within five years, and strive to generate 25 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, 200 million tons of coal, and more than 5 million tons of iron and steel...... If this five-year plan could really be realized, by 1935 the level of heavy industry in most of China, which was ruled by the Nationalist Government, would basically be able to support the consumption of China's participation in World War I

With a snap, Luo Yaoguo closed the folder and rubbed his eyes. smiled at his uncle Luo Yiqun, who was sitting opposite, uncle, if this plan is really completed, our China will really rise. In the next World War II, everything should have been very fruitful. Perhaps, the fate of the entire Chinese nation in the next 1,000 years will be changed in your hands. ”

Speaking of this, Luo Yaoguo suddenly remembered that the Austrian corporal who was going to become the head of Germany in this crisis came. In this time and space, due to secret cooperation with China, Germany's preparations for war were not many times stronger than in history. Maybe this madman and demon can win a thousand-year empire for the German nation? No small number of words

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