The morning sun shone brightly, and the whole land of East Prussia was enveloped in a radiance of holy light.

The fields are staggered, the streams are murmuring, and the endless waves of wheat are dancing and fluttering with the morning breeze, showing the gratifying harvest of large-scale farming. In the fields, strangely shaped tracked vehicles are roaring and rumbling forward; Although the black smoke and white air that spewed out slightly affected the meaning of nature, it gave this colorful picture a vigorous vitality.

Qing Ying, who was sitting in the car, saw it in her eyes, and the corners of her mouth quietly evoked a hint of pleasure.

A few years ago, when he first proposed to William to set up a tractor factory, his core purpose was to use the tractor as a springboard to develop a tank artifact that could run through the barbed wire fence of trenches. However, with the introduction of technology and the construction of factories gradually in place, Qingying was surprised to find that the large-scale introduction of tractors could greatly enhance Germany's war potential at the social level.

With the entry of tractors representing industrial civilization into the field, the surging mechanical power has replaced the traditional manual labor, and the field work that used to require a large number of personnel to complete can now be easily achieved with just a few tractors. Labor-intensive industries were broken, and a large number of peasants who had been robbed of their jobs by machinery had to enter the cities to seek a way to survive, which undoubtedly injected a vigorous and powerful impetus into Germany's urbanization. Army, factory, commercial port, ocean-going ...... Entering the city, they squandered their youth and sweat in their new realms, pushing the entire empire forward in an even more unstoppable manner. And once war breaks out, Germany, which has greatly liberated the labor force in the fields, will also be able to mobilize more troops, which is needless to say about the benefits of national war.

And in agricultural production. Germany will also see impressive growth through the introduction of tractors. Mechanized labor is inherently more effective than manual labor. and the consolidation of land leases caused by the migration of rural people to urban areas. It enables the tractor to show the advantages of mechanical power in a wider land. In this way, the German crop yield will not only not be reduced by the influx of labor into the towns, but will be greatly increased by the large-scale mechanization of modern agricultural farming!

Seeing this considerable prospect, Rao is Qingying originally had no intention of farming, and had to start seriously considering the development of this field. There is no doubt that the introduction of tractors will be of great benefit in terms of both mobilization and food production, but for Germany, a country with almost no crude oil production, the American fuel tractor is not suitable for promotion in this country at all; If the American system is copied. German agriculture, which was highly dependent on oil, would soon collapse in the war!

After some thought, Qingying finally found a compromise solution, that is, to develop a steam-powered tractor and put it into the civilian field in large quantities.

In this way, the best possible benefits can be obtained in terms of risk and reward: steam-powered tractors not only ensure the healthy development of German agriculture on the road to mechanization and scale, but also make their use of coal and firewood as fuel, so that they can operate normally in the war when the fuel supply is tight, and ensure that German crops can continue to supply the population at a fairly high yield. The fuel tractor was included in the research project, on the basis of which the first model of the military tank was slowly developed.

Since steam tractors were nothing new, more primitive works had already appeared among the industrial powers. Therefore, in this field, Qingying basically did not encounter any resistance. When the factory located inside the Hohenzollern territory was inaugurated. With the advancement of technology, a relatively mature piece was designed by German power engineers, and quickly achieved mass production with this solution. In order to make this new type of machinery widely accepted by the German people, and to make the national economy and war potential of the Reich achieve a small leap, the Bülow government has introduced a series of incentives; Although the results achieved in two or three years were still very limited, the empire as a whole was moving forward on a healthier and more sustainable path.

"Your Highness, ahead is the destination of your trip, the Skraff Material Storage Factory." Just as Qingying was overjoyed by the large-scale mechanical cultivation scene in this test field, a middle-aged man's voice suddenly sounded in her ears. He turned his head and saw Yvonne in the passenger seat? Tim had already cast his gaze, and the wind whistled and quickly blew away the voice that came out of his mouth. Qingying stared at it, looked up, and saw that under the cover of the jungle not far ahead, there were already faint gray wall shadows of towering buildings. He retracted his gaze and nodded slightly, "Thank you for your hard work, Diem, accompany me to have a brief look." ”

Pass the card along the customs, and check the guards frequently. After revealing his identity again and again, a black sedan with the Hohenzollern family crest engraved on the front finally drove into the heart of the storage plant. Looking around, the road traffic shows a large stretch of undulating houses and barns neatly arranged like prehistoric behemoths. Qingying walked to a barn and was stunned to find that there were several people at its door; A huge alloy lock was clasped on the thin iron chain of his arm, and a faint black viscous oil stain was attached to it, which was as disgusting as a flight. His heart moved, and he said to Dim next to him: "This warehouse should be for storing crude oil, right?" ”

Dimu said respectfully, "Exactly." In addition to the one you see, there are seven other large storage stations in front of you that are used to hoard oil; At present, the entire Skrafftun storage plant has eaten 280,000 tons of oil imported from Russia, and it is still increasing steadily and rapidly at a rate of 80,000 tons per year. In addition to Russia, we have also opened a route to Romania to buy oil, and from next year, we expect to have an average of 50,000 tons of crude oil per year entering this storage base. ”

"In addition to Skraff, how many other storage base stations like it are there in Germany?" Qingying asked.

"Under your leadership, 24 large storage stations have been fully built in Germany, and another 7 have completed their initial construction and are officially in operation. However, their hoarding items have their own priorities, and the amount of oil, rubber, various ores, scarce metals and other items in each storage station varies greatly. If we talk about oil alone, the entire empire already has more than 3 million tons of reserves. Diem replied respectfully.

Qingying shook his head, and a hint of worry quietly appeared in his heart. The reserves of 3 million tons may seem abundant, but they are nothing to be apportioned to the entire empire; With the successive commissioning of battlecruisers, light cruisers and destroyers in pursuit of high speed, as well as the large number of tanks, armored vehicles and motorcycles joining the army, the fuel consumption of Germany in the future will certainly show a blowout growth, not counting the expansion of the civilian automobile industry brought about by the rapid development of the national economy. The steam power of the tractor to burn coal and firewood is nothing, but the car is sure to burn oil! If a family car were to be made to look like a steam tractor, it would be almost impossible for any German to buy such a faceless and heartless fellow; The final result will inevitably be that the normal development of economic development will be hindered, resulting in a catastrophic scene of sacrificing the basics and giving far more than the benefits. In Qingying's memory, there is only one country of talents who use steam cars, that is, the magical North Stick who is known for being poor and miserable, but he still has to cry out for gratitude, and swear allegiance to the second and third fat!

Once the German war machine was in operation, 3 million tons of fuel oil was estimated to last only a little more than half a year; For a national war as a whole, this is obviously not enough time for Germany to compete with France and Russia. Qingying silently calculated for a while, and already had a rough outline in her mind: in the next three years, the current crude oil reserves must be doubled by various means; Only in this way can we effectively ensure that the German war machine can have enough time to be strong.

After making up her mind, Qingying did not stop in front of the gate of the oil field for long. After a while, he stopped at the main entrance of another tall, open shed-style warehouse. Through the gap between the two iron doors, a large amount of debris can be faintly seen locked inside; Occasionally, boulders roll and slide down from high places, making a clear audible sound in the enclosed room.

"This is a reserve area for metal ores. All kinds of metal ores purchased from Norway, Russia, and Qing are stacked in one place, and if necessary, these ores can be quickly transported to the Compos smelting center dozens of kilometers away through the unique monorail special line of the reserve base. As long as the supply of coal is not cut off, these ores can be continuously turned into the metal materials we need. Among them, the vast majority of iron ore comes from Norway, tungsten ore is purchased from the Qing Dynasty, and most of the remaining metal ores such as copper, nickel and chromium come from Russia. Dim opened his mouth and introduced the reserves of various minerals to Qingying one by one.

Hearing Dim explain the current mineral reserves in an orderly manner, Qingying finally nodded slightly. Although the reserves were still not completely satisfactory to him, they were much better than oil. If nothing else, the current level of hoarding is already going a long way to compensating for the holes in Germany's own resources.

Next, Qingying went to the storage base for rubber, special organic matter, grain, cotton and linen, clothing, medicinal materials, and maintenance parts, and had a general understanding of the accumulation of these materials. In general, because of its role, Germany attaches much more importance to strategic material reserves than historical facts; But with the current amount of hoarding, it is still difficult to cope with a long-term national war. In response to this situation, Qingying decided to continue to increase the import of these materials; At a time when the naval arms race is relatively slowing, Germany has enough money to pursue these necessities! (To be continued......)