"Remember, gentlemen, that if a war breaks out, whatever the outcome, it will be a catastrophe for the whole of European civilization, and it will be eclipsed by whoever emerges victorious! It is not impossible to even lose centuries of dominance. At a high-level meeting of the German military, Moltke Jr. said this to the participants.

"War represents destruction, but it also represents opportunity. The development of the empire has reached a bottleneck, and if we cannot break through this limit, then the empire will always be suppressed by the British and the French, and we have encroached on the territory of the French, which is an inescapable fact. And the British want to limit our development at sea, so we have no choice but to prepare as much as possible for future wars! After a moment, Tirpitz said with a blank face. In fact, the admiral wanted to say, "If Moltke the Elder had not insisted on occupying Alsace and Lorraine, would Franco-German relations have been so stiff?" And to Tirpitz's surprise, Moltke Jr. was still cursing the German High Seas Fleet in his heart, if it weren't for the full expansion of the High Seas Fleet, would the British be at odds with the Germans? Look at how good relations were between Germany and Britain during the time of Prime Minister Bismarck? However, Moltke did not dare to say these words, not because he was afraid of Tirpitz, but because Wilhelm II was an ardent supporter of the navy, and he did not want to be unhappy with Wilhelm II.

After the end of the Second Sino-Russian War, when the Russians completely sided with Britain and France, the Germans already knew that the war would start sooner or later, and the Germans were clearly aware of it. The increase in strength between the two sides began to favor the German-Austrian side. But once the Russians have recovered, the balance of power between the two sides will be tilted in favor of the British, French, and Russian. So the Germans had to start the war when the Russians were recovering and they were at their strongest.

And for the sake of this war. The Germans had to be well prepared with supplies. In Europe, Germany is most proud of its strong industry and a population of nearly 70 million. The strength of a powerful industry combined with a large number of high-quality people has made the entire world feel timid. Historically, in 1913 Germany produced more steel and pig iron than Britain and France combined! But in contrast to a strong industry was fragile agriculture, and feeding a population of 70 million with a land area of no more than 600,000 was quite difficult for Germany under the conditions of productivity at that time. And that's in peacetime, when the chemical industry can provide a lot of fertilizer and has a lot of labor.

After some deduction, the German government decided that although Germany has a population of nearly 70 million, it will still not have enough population in the event of a war. A large number of peasants had to be transferred to the army and factories, and unlike the French, the French could bring in a large amount of labor from the colonies. However, the Germans did not have foreign aid, so if a large agricultural population were to be transferred, it would inevitably lead to a shortage of agricultural supplies, so don't forget it. In peacetime, the supply of agricultural products is also somewhat poor. Once after the war. The consumption of men and livestock would increase dramatically, and with a decrease in production, Germany would inevitably fall into famine after a long battle.

Agriculture will always be a big problem in populous countries, and people can do without industrial goods. But you can't eat less! So the first thing the Germans had to do was to stock up on a large amount of grain, which was divided into two types, one was ordinary grain reserves. And the other is military food, including various field foods. Naturally, the import place of these foods can only be the Republic of China. "We need to import at least 400,000 tons of various food products as reserves in a year. Of these, 200,000 tons are canned food and biscuits. After several years of accumulation, we can guarantee that there will be no major famine in Germany within three years of wartime. A German official said.

In addition to grain, another key point of Germany's imports from China is various scarce resources such as oil, rubber, tungsten, and tin. The Germans had iron and coal. But modern industry is not just about iron and coal. Now that the Germans have decided to increase the number of trucks, there is one problem that cannot be avoided. That's what about tires? Synthetic rubber has not yet appeared. So if you want to make the wheels spin longer, you must stock up on natural rubber, and the Dutch East Indies, which China has just controlled, is one of the important rubber producing areas! Of course, this place is now called the Nanyang Special Administrative Region of China, and it is divided into 8 provincial-level administrative units.

Petroleum and tungsten ore and other metals are another focus, although Germany has already received Romanian oil, but the Germans know that if they want their tanks and warships to run faster and farther, this fuel is not enough! Romania was able to supply Germany with only about 2 million tons of fuel a year, which needed to supply Italy and Austria-Hungary. And even Turkey! Therefore, Germany needs to import more than 300,000 tons of fuel from China every year as a strategic reserve. And rubber is a precious resource, as for tungsten ore? This kind of thing is a key raw material for the production of armor-piercing shells, and China is a well-known tungsten producing country, in the agreement between the two sides, the Republic of China can provide Germany with at least about 1,500 tons of tungsten ore per year. And this will also increase with the increase of mining in China.

The third important import is arms and ammunition. This is not to say that Germany cannot produce these weapons, but because Germany needs to think about their little brother, and Germany, Austria and Italy are all industrial countries. They really don't need to import additional supplies and ammunition, at least at this stage. But Turkey and Romania are different. Although they use German standards, the price of German weapons is generally more expensive, in addition to the reason for excellent workmanship, another factor is the ultra-high labor cost.

In the eyes of the Turks and Romanians, they needed less Ashkenazi weapons that worked, but rather durable and inexpensive weapons. The various German standard weapons produced by the Republic of China are obviously very suitable for the procurement of these two countries, first of all, the specifications are the same, which means that there is not much trouble for docking, and secondly, although these weapons have some problems in workmanship, but the price is cheap, and the low labor cost of the Republic of China makes the price of these weapons cheaper than that of German goods by one-third to one-half!

In addition to the price, the Huaxia government has another preferential measure, that is, it can tie in the sale of some weapons and ammunition stockpiled in the Huaxia Republic at extremely low prices. This was undoubtedly the most attractive for the Turkish Empire, which needed a large number of paramilitaries to suppress uprisings everywhere. These paramilitaries are massive, and if there are cheaper weapons, wouldn't it be a cost-saving solution?

Of course, the largest cooperation between the two sides in terms of arms procurement is the contract between the Turkish and German Far East fleets to order warships from Huaxia, in which Germany said that it could provide Huaxia with marine boilers and steam engines, and agreed to provide Huaxia with technical support and related equipment in terms of armor, power and artillery, while Huaxia provided slipways and labor and various other accessories to produce three or four battleships for the Turkish and German fleets.

The last item is the import of manufactured goods, and Germany is now preparing for war, and is preparing to fight with the three industrial powers of Britain, France, and Russia, and more importantly, to penetrate deep into the territory of Russia to defeat them. The demand for transportation capacity must not be compared with the Battle of Sedan in those years, and more importantly, it is necessary to fight outside the railway system in Russia, and the road conditions in Russia can only be said to be understandable.

Therefore, in line with the principle that being able to pull out pus is a good plaster. In terms of the reserve of means of transportation, the more the merrier. This is like World War II in history, in addition to producing its own trucks, Germany also extensively requisitioned all kinds of transport vehicles in the occupied areas. Although the quality of these ships is uneven, and maintenance and the commonality of parts are difficult, as long as they can carry a variety of supplies. As a result, the trucks produced in the Chinese Republic may be poorer, but they are more sturdy and cheap enough to be easy to maintain, and they have become the target of German purchases. Germany needs to expand its military by at least 150,000 troops a year, and its transportation problems are always a problem.

In addition to ordinary trucks, Huaxia's newly designed half-track was also well received by the Germans, who considered it a very advanced idea. First of all, the situation of this vehicle is relatively fast, although it is slower, more complicated and more expensive than a truck. But it is the only vehicle on land that can be widely used in the wilderness, except for tracked vehicles. It can accompany armored forces to attack. Moreover, in addition to being used as a transporter, its larger load is also more suitable for conversion into various infantry combat vehicles and self-propelled guns. After analyzing the examples of the Sino-Russian War, the Germans keenly discovered the great role of artillery and infantry that accompanied tank operations. Tanks are never the kind of weapons that can work alone. So the Germans decided to cooperate with Huaxia in the area of half-tracks.

Generally speaking, large quantities of hard currency are required for bulk trade between the two sides. Converting between currencies can be cumbersome. In order to save costs and intermediate processes, the Chinese Republic proposed that the trade between the two countries should be bartered, in which the Germans exchanged technology, industrial products, and chemical products for the means of production, grain, and other primary products of China.

"Beginning in 1907, the Republic of China, which ended the war, entered a stage of rapid development. After losing the weight of foreign enemies, the productivity of this ancient empire has grown at an extremely terrifying rate. The first is agriculture and light industry. The newly added vast land has provided the most valuable resource for the development of Chinese agriculture -- excellent arable land. Light industries such as textiles have also grown along with the improvement of people's living standards. Then came the demand for heavy industrial products, steel, chemicals, electricity, etc., which made this huge country like a sponge constantly absorbing capital and technology from the outside world, and then transformed into huge factories, and the output of these factories spread along the country's wider and wider railway lines to the whole country and even the whole world. In just a few years, this ancient country has regained its livelihood, and the development of China has also provided Germany with sufficient material reserves to ensure that we can survive the long and tragic First World War. —Little Moltke.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip ~~~~~. (To be continued......)