Qijiang County on January 1, 1941

Today's weather is very good, cloudless, everyone in the capital feels that this is a good sign, in the new year the country will be able to usher in a turnaround, as for the victory of the War of Resistance, everyone has no extravagant hope, like 1940 to fight with the devil back and forth.

A Li-2 transport plane belonging to the provisional 68th Division flight team hovered in the sky at a low speed, and eight brand-new P-39 fighters escorted the transport plane, the silver-gray paint shining in the sun.

Behind the hanging window of the transport plane, the ambassadors, consuls, and military attachés of various countries stationed in Shancheng were all observing the situation on the ground with great interest.

Between the mountains and mountains of Qijiang County, thousands of thick pillars of smoke rise one after another, some of the pillars of smoke are heavier in color, some of them are lighter, and it doesn't take long for Qijiang County to be shrouded in a piece of gray smoke, and the huge county town is looming, which is very unreal.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today, on behalf of the government, I am here to announce to you that the 'Qijiang Iron and Steel City' is officially put into operation today, and it can produce 200,000 tons of crude steel, 200,000 tons of gray pig iron, and 500,000 tons of high-quality coke every year in the future." Minister Chen held the cabin radio in his hand and proudly announced that he was really proud that in the past 1940, The country only produced 45,000 tons of pig iron and 1,500 tons of steel, the total amount is not even 50,000 tons, just this output, the vast majority of it is still inferior white pig iron, that thing is too brittle, can only be used to build agricultural tools, to create weapons is not good at all, Li Yunlong is full of resentment in the border area to make white pig iron, one explosion and two halves are good, if used to make mortar shells, the probability of exploding is more than 50%.

The War of Resistance, the War of Resistance, the determination and will to resist is very important, but there must also be a weapon of battle, on that point of steel, still in the standard of the agricultural era, it can only maintain the combat of the era of cold weapons, and tens of thousands of tons of ammunition for modern warfare, it is really not enough to see, all look at the later generations when the steel is smelted to smash the pot and sell iron, in fact, this time is similar, in order to resist the invaders, the common people have contributed the iron tools at home, and many families have simply used pottery.

He said, isn't it possible to import? But how to import, imports need to be transported from Southeast Asia by road, not to mention the limited volume, the cost is still extremely high, it cannot meet the needs of the war at all, and even the operation of the existing production line cannot be guaranteed, even the most basic bullets and rifles can not be supplemented, the only thing that can meet the demand is hand grenades, as for the quality, it is a little better than "made in the border area".

As the Minister of Military Affairs, Admiral Chen is also exhausted on this issue, but he is not a god, he can't turn into steel, and there are few capable people below, plus there are intrigues within the government, but now the government can control less than one-third of the steel resources before the war.

But now, Li Yunlong has quietly made such a big mess, relying only on one county, or the most barren county, to make the country's steel production far exceed that before the war, and completely solve the military's demand for steel at once, and there is even a surplus, only crude steel? Don't be funny, even before the war, didn't the steel from other factories in Shenyang need to be imported on a large scale?

As for whether the Eighth Route Army will give precious steel to the government? There is no need to worry about this, there is no shortage of these on the side of the Eighth Route Army, the situation in Jin Province is very stable, and the small steelmaking facilities of the Eighth Route Army are also blooming everywhere, and the number is estimated to be only a lot more than here in Qijiang, although the technology is not as mature as that of Qijiang, but it is not much different, and the military production capacity of the Eighth Route Army is enough.

"Mr. Minister, how many blast furnaces are there?" The ambassador of the alliance asked with a displeased face, Nima, what about the liar, the whole county is almost covered in smoke, you told us that this is just a steel city with an annual output of hundreds of thousands of tons, bah, and a steel city, hundreds of thousands of tons is a steel plant, okay?

For the development of the eastern powers, the alliance is cautious, after all, there are many entanglements between the two countries, not to mention anything else, just the prairie between the two countries is a problem that cannot be bypassed, you must know that the prairie is still on the official map of the mountain city government.

Once the eastern powers defeat Japan and rise, the alliance will have to face the challenge from the eastern powers, and now in Europe, Hans is already bordering the alliance, and in the foreseeable future, the outbreak of war is a certain thing, once the eastern powers also go north to attack the alliance, the alliance is afraid that it will be doomed.

"1,000 steel-making blast furnaces, 1,000 small coking blast furnaces, and 500 open-hearth earthen furnaces." Admiral Chen replied with a smile, this output is nothing, the technology is also very backward, but the investment is small, the cycle is short, the technical threshold is low, it is simply tailor-made for the current eastern power, the highest authorities did not sleep all night last night, this morning they were planning to increase the steel output to six million tons in 1941, to catch up with Japan in one fell swoop, for which they even quarreled with the fat man of the Ministry of Finance.

The final result was that the six-million-ton steel development plan was reduced to 600,000 tons, of course, this is not including Qijiang County and Jin Province, but even this goal also provoked the fat man to be indignant, shouting that "the state finances are miserable", "the state is spending extravagantly", "the people's fat and the people's cream" and so on, and it can be seen that all the staff members of the command department want to shoot black guns.

The life of the highest authority is indeed quite extravagant, but this is also due to the environment, the military and political officials at that time were like this, the living standards of the two members of the highest authority are really not ranked in the government, and it should also be within the range of its legal income.

"Mr. Minister, you guys are really amazing!" The ambassador of the alliance over there still wants to say something, and here the ambassador Hans has already made a heartfelt sigh, a country in a desperate situation, not only has not collapsed under the threat of a powerful enemy, but can still make great strides and progress, and make progress in many aspects, the situation in the Asian theater is likely to change, and the diplomatic and military strategy of the empire must also be adjusted accordingly.

These Japanese are really very disappointing, the invasion of an agricultural country has been fought for several years, the attack alliance has been beaten back by others, and now even the proud industrial advantages are being snatched back little by little, the ambassador knows too well the industrial strength of this country, hundreds of thousands of tons of steel is enough to make the country's military industrial strength to a higher level, plus the purchased weapons, the army of the Yamashiro government will no longer lack light weapons.

"Mr. Minister, with all due respect, it is very irresponsible for your country to do this, so many factories will produce tens of thousands of tons of sewage every day, and the Qijiang and Yangtze River systems will be polluted, and this harm will continue for hundreds of years." The bald eagle ambassador was worried, and said with a righteous attitude, but what he thought in his heart was that this would affect the interests of the bald eagle merchants, although the coast of the eastern big country has been blocked, but the bald eagle's steamer can still go to some small ports in Zhejiang Province and make a lot of profits, a large part of which is steel, but now.

"Industrial sewage not only pollutes water and land, but also has a certain toxicity and can harm the body of ordinary people, for the safety of our expatriates and staff stationed abroad, I hope that your country can close these primitive small workshops." The Alliance ambassador was also inspired by the Bald Eagle ambassador and began to worry about pollution, in case these Orientals really closed this place if they had bad brains, especially since this was still under the control of the Eighth Route Army.

"Toxicity? As far as I know, in the 'Winter War' your country even the cans of the tsarist period were distributed to the front-line troops, which one was not poisonous? Ambassador Hans said mercilessly.

"Rumors, that's rumors, you, you have to be responsible for what you say, otherwise, I will definitely protest, definitely!" The ambassador of the alliance said angrily, the tin cans at this time are all tin welded packaging, and the heavy metals will seriously exceed the standard after being stored for a long time, and the canned food in the tsarist period can be said to have no taste at all now.

"Rare and strange, Britain is still rationed with Nelson's cookies in the Middle East, and the Union and Iron comrades are still very good to the soldiers." At this time, the ambassador of the noodle country said in a weird manner, this kind of smoke column rolling scene is also very common in Europe, and in addition to large factories, there are also many small enterprises with heavy pollution in many places, fart pollution, as long as it does not have too much impact on the city, who wants to care, as for the colonial areas, it is even more so, one by one, which one in the colony is not desperately plundering, desperately polluting?

"The glory of Britain cannot be discredited!" The ambassador of the noodle country wanted to say something, but the military attache of the British embassy on the side suddenly made a move and smashed the other party's noodle door with a punch.

Britain and noodles are now in full swing in North Africa, both sides have long been holding back the fire, this military attache learned last night that his own brother was killed in North Africa, this sudden outbreak is also a reasonable thing, not long after, Britain and the people of the noodle country are in a mess.

"Glory to Hans!" Seeing this scene, Colonel Rudolph shouted and pounced, and it was surprising that the people from the Union embassy also secretly joined in, but the target became British.

Immediately afterwards, diplomats from Bald Eagle, country F, Ottoman and other countries also joined in, and after a while, more than 20 people in the cabin scuffled.