“…… At the moment the Great General Staff already had a preliminary idea that after the arrival of the difficult moment, the German military industry would certainly be subject to many restrictions. In Woodlow. Johnson's Fourteen Points for Peace has already been mentioned. The fourth of these is to reduce armaments to the minimum level that guarantees the internal security of the country. We believe that this is a restriction on us! Because Britain, France, and the United States do not set limits on themselves. ”

Cal. Haushofer folded his hands on his lap and looked at the Krupps solemnly. Then he said: "It is preliminarily estimated that tanks, airplanes, submarines, large warships with a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, and poison gas will all be banned from production." The size of the army will also be greatly reduced, even to the point that it will be difficult to defend itself! There will be a very difficult period for such an excellent military industrial enterprise as Krupp...... If there are not enough orders, the survival of the company may be seriously affected, and naturally there will not be enough funds for research and development. Ten to twenty years from now, Krupp and other outstanding representatives of the German military industry will lose their current leading position. Germany's military industry will be backward relative to Anglo-American France. When the time comes, our empire will become a lamb to be slaughtered, and it will be even more difficult to rise again. ”

Listen to Hersmann, Gustav. Krupp couldn't help but nod. Krupp is a very large enterprise, with a large number of factories and workers, and once it loses the support of orders, it can only shrink - from a business point of view, it can only abandon the unprofitable military industry and concentrate its limited resources on the civilian sector...... After a long time, that is, the ability to produce advanced weapons is lost.

He coughed dryly, exchanged glances with his wife, and said, "In 10 years at most, we will lose the lead." Although the civilian industry and the military industry have something in common, there are differences between the two after all. ”

Krupp's main business is munitions and steel, and munitions are mainly artillery, but also shipbuilding. In the event of the loss of military products (cannons and warships), Krupp becomes an ordinary steel producer. Moreover, the production capacity of special steel for the military will also be idle and backward, and it will lose its lead in ten years, and I am afraid that in 20 or 30 years, it will not even have the ability to produce military products.

However, in the original history, the Krupp company survived the crisis after the war because of the "fuze patent" (the arsenals of Britain and France used Krupp's patented technology to produce artillery shells, and after the war in order to ensure the effectiveness of the intellectual property system, they paid royalties and paid according to the German casualties), and then participated in Soviet-German cooperation projects (which existed in the original history), and at the request of the Wehrmacht, secretly participated in the project to rearm Germany - in fact, what Hersmann did, It's just a matter of making certain historical events happen earlier or with greater force......

Hersmann interjected: "Mr. Krupp, in order that our country can stand again in the future and become a first-class power in the world, the Great General Staff has ordered our Industrial Promotion Committee to develop a top-secret military-industrial export plan!" ”

"Military industrial exports?" Gustav. Krupp was stunned, "Is it to relocate the German arsenal abroad?" ”

"It's one way, but it's not the whole story." "The relocation of the production units of certain military-industrial complexes that are restricted in Germany to friendly countries is an effective way to maintain vitality," Hersmann said. As for the destination of the export, the first choice is, of course, the United Duchy of Baltic...... There are currently 700,000 to 800,000 Germans there, and that's where we can control. ”

In the process of developing the Grey Plan, Hersmann asked the Baltic authorities to report on the state of the country's industrial resources as they were currently available. The country's industrial resources are relatively poor, and the Courland Autonomous State has basically no important industrial resources except for rich forest resources.

The situation in the Autonomous State of Estonia is slightly better. In addition to forests, there is also very abundant and easily exploited oil shale, phosphate rock and limestone.

Among them, Estonian oil shale is very famous in later generations, and during the former Soviet Union, the annual extraction volume even exceeded 31 million tons! Historically, mining began in 1918, and the first oil shale dry distillation plant was built in 1924.

But now it's 1918, not 1958. Although dry distillation of oil from oil shale has long been around - industrial use has existed since the 19th century, even before the industrial use of oil - the quality of refined oil extracted from oil shale is not good and the cost is relatively high due to technical limitations.

So until the 21st century, Estonia's oil shale was mainly used for power generation and heating, replacing coal with low calorific value, and of course a small part was used to produce phenolic chemicals. Historically, in 1940, Estonian shale oil production reached 174,000 tons, mainly for the production of chemical products (due to the high phenolic content).

In addition, Estonia is rich in phosphate rock and limestone. The former is the main raw material for phosphorus chemicals, the latter can produce cement, and oil shale can also be used as a fuel for the production of cement.

That is, as long as the Estonian Autonomous State is not lost, the United Principalities of the Baltic still have some conditions for industrialization. There is no shortage of electricity - oil shale can be used to generate electricity; Phenol chemicals and phosphorus chemicals can be developed. Wood-related industries can be developed - the production of furniture, pencils, aircraft shells, etc. It can also produce a lot of cement. There were also seven or eight hundred thousand Germans of very good quality, and many White Russian intellectuals and capitalists were also exiled there - they would bring manpower and some capital.

And the transportation there is very convenient, close to the Baltic Sea, with four large ports such as Windawa, Liepaja, Tallinn and Riga, of which Windawa, Liepaja and Tallinn are ice-free ports. In addition, the United Principalities of the Baltic States had railways connecting Soviet Russia, Poland and East Prussia.

"Except for the United Principalities of the Baltics," Hersman said, after introducing the United Principalities of the Baltics, he turned the conversation to other countries. "European countries that are friendly to us, such as Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands, can be our destinations for transferring military production capacity. Sweden, in particular, has abundant iron ore resources, and has a very good military industry base, and has long adhered to the national policy of neutrality. I think Krupp can transfer an important part of the military-industrial complex to Sweden. ”

Gustav. Krupp nodded: "Actually, we are already thinking about moving some factories to the Netherlands and Sweden. ”

The Netherlands and Sweden have historically taken over some of the military production capacity transferred from Germany, and Krupp actually began to study this area long before the defeat of the war.

"Is that the addition of a United Principality of the Baltics?" Big Beta seemed a little disappointed, "Gustav, I think we can send someone to investigate first." ”

Hersman shook his head: "No, ma'am, the transfer of some factories to the Baltics, Sweden and the Netherlands is only part of the export industrialization. ”

If that's all it takes, just hold a meeting of the Industrial Promotion Council. Haushofer didn't have to go to Krupp's house to ask for advice.

"Part of it?" Big Beta asked, "What is that other part?" ”

"It is to export complete sets of industrial technology and equipment to improve the industrialization level of a country, or to turn an agricultural country that is backward with the times into an industrial country with a minimum industrialization system, or to make a country that has initially achieved industrialization progress into a relatively advanced and developed industrial country. This is the real export industrialization! ”

"What?" Gustav and Big Beta were stunned at the same time, and Big Beta frowned and said, "Lieutenant Colonel, then which country do you want to export industrialization to in sets?" ”

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