"Good news!" Zhou Bai took the express newspaper and caught up with Meng Xiang, who was wandering around the base. The guards have already expanded the perimeter to prevent idlers from waiting for them.

"What's the good news?" Meng Xiang was also happy, Weixian County harvested 30,000 tons of grain and immediately postponed the food shortage for more than half a month, which made him relax his mind.

"Laiwu Xie Jiarong, they found a big iron mine!" Zhou Bai said excitedly waving the telegram in his hand.

"How old?" Meng Xiang naturally knew that there was a big iron mine there. It is not without reason that Laigang will be there in the future.

"They have found veins in Hongyu, Jinniu Mountain and Tietonggou, and the preliminary estimate is at least more than 10 million tons." Zhou Bai handed the telegram to Meng Xiang.

Meng Xiang smiled in his heart, Xie Jiarong They were only exploring a shallow level, and they didn't dare to say too much before they explored in detail. According to a relative of Meng Xiang who worked in Laiwu Iron and Steel in later generations, Laiwu's iron ore reserves were at least 50 times higher than that, and a 550 million ton reserve in later generations was only a conservative value.

The reason why Meng Xiang placed the sub-base there was also for the iron ore resources here.

The reason why China had an iron ore shortage in later generations was not that there was a shortage of iron ore in China, and at that time there were more than 60 billion tons of identified reserves and more than 200 billion tons of unproven reserves. There are quite a few in total, but most of them are poor mines, and rich ores account for only 5%. In order to reduce costs to the greatest extent, enterprises naturally make maximum use of rich ores, which leads to the import of rich ore iron ore from abroad by others.

The base does not pick the rich ore of poor ore, only the price of recovery is high and low, the price of rich ore is higher, and the price of poor ore is lower. The base car can directly absorb the poor ore, leaving the rich ore for future construction.

"Yes, the resources here are really good!" When he saw Zhou Bai open his mouth with a hint of hesitation, he knew what he wanted to say, and couldn't help laughing: "It's already our place, and the devil can't get by!" "A brigade there was in a stalemate with the vanguard for a while, and after hearing that the 11th Wing had been completely annihilated, it slowly retreated backwards until it crossed the Yingwen River.

The 1st Regiment and 2nd Battalion of the Mountain Brigade took the opportunity to attack and continued to confront the devils across the river.

"And after that? Will the devil take it again? Zhou Bai asked.

"There is no future, as long as there is a vanguard army, they will never be able to occupy it! It's all ours from now on! ”

"Then I'm relieved! Near Laiwu, a large number of coal resources have also been discovered, and it is completely possible to build a steel plant there, if you add the steel plants near Qidu and Jinan, with an annual output of 20,000 tons, it is no problem. Zhou Bai's fingers kept pointing in the void, sketching a beautiful blueprint for Meng Xiang.

"Huh?!" Meng Xiang almost laughed out loud, the steel mills in the three places only produce 20,000 tons of steel? There are more small steel mills that have been shut down in later generations!

Zhou Bai also noticed that Meng Xiang's expression was a little weird, and he brushed his face and said, "If you don't develop steel machinery, you can only rely on imports, how long can this last?" If foreign companies cut off our weapons, what will we rely on to fight? China wants to prosper, steel first, machinery first, heavy industry first! With heavy industry, we can have the cornerstone of industry and rise in an all-round way! ”

He sank for a moment, and then said: "I know that the steel mill will not be effective in a year or two, and the investment is extraordinarily large, but in order to think about the long-term resistance, the steel mill must be able to do it." There is no money, domestic private financing, as long as the government does not interfere, indiscriminately collect taxes, and cause trouble, this steel mill is enough to be built! If it's faster, it won't take three or two years to produce steel, and provide us with steel support! Originally, most of the more than 400,000 tons of steel produced in the 25 years of the Republic of China were included in the output of the Yukou steel plant, and now the iron and steel enterprises in the central and Shanxi provinces have fallen into the hands of Yukou, and this year the steel plants in the hands of the central government are only Wuhan and Yucheng, and the total production will not exceed 50,000 tons! Without steel, with only the flesh and blood of the soldiers, how can you defeat Yue Kou? ”

Meng Xiang originally wanted to build a steel plant with a huge investment in Zhou Bai regardless of the season, the war season, but after listening to Zhou Bai's words, he said solemnly: "I know that the steel plant is indispensable, and I support the construction of the steel plant!" Just now I just thought that the output of this steel plant is too small, at least, 100,000 tons! ”

This statement surprised Zhou Bai, 100,000 tons, you must know that the maximum output of Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant was only 50,000 tons, and the national steel output in 1934 was only 50,000 tons. He originally thought that the 20,000 tons in the blueprint were difficult to achieve, but he didn't expect Meng Xiang's opening to startle him.

He hesitated for a moment and said: "I know Yan Enqi, he is a steel expert, at this time he is leading a group of people to study metallurgy in Germany, hearing about the domestic situation, and planning to come back early. If we build a steel mill, as long as the annual output of three steel mills can reach 10,000 tons, I can definitely call him! And you can pull more talents over! ”

When he was approaching the Spring Festival, he passed the news with Yan Enqi. Originally, when it was planned to restore the Qidu Iron and Steel Plant, it was asked to provide a few talents. But as Laiwu discovered the huge reserves of coal and iron, Zhou Bai's mind suddenly became eager. In the past, when he was an official of the central political axe, he quarreled with his boss because of Song Ziwen's statement of vigorously developing light industry and indifferent to heavy industry. He has traveled to Europe and the United States, and he knows that heavy industry is important to a country, so he has his proposal for Meng Xiang. Unexpectedly, Meng Xiang's tone was even bigger.

"I have seen the machinery and equipment, with the help of the existing machinery and equipment and resources in Jinan, Qidu and other places, after integration, it is possible to develop to an annual output of 10,000 tons within two years!" Zhou Bai said cautiously, trying to dispel Meng Xiang's 100,000-ton Haikou. He didn't know that Meng Xiang had already doubled this output.

"Let's make a five-year plan for the time being! In the end, it has to be developed to one million tons! Meng Xiang thought about it himself, and in the future, as the base continues to produce weapons and various types of equipment, it will also need a steel factory to cover. Compared with 30 million tons of an enterprise in later generations, it is still a lot worse! ”

He had heard Zhou Bai say some time ago that because of the blockade of the army, the inflow of steel products from the outside world has been greatly reduced. The prices of kitchen knives, iron pots, farm tools, etc. have increased in size, and there is also a shortage situation. And several machine factories are facing the problem of lack of steel. It is no wonder that Zhou Bai first considered the issue of restoring the steel plant in the Qidu area.

"One more thing!" Meng Xiang was just about to turn around, but Zhou Baiyou stopped him.

"What's wrong?"

"The first batch of copper coins is out!" The corners of Zhou Baixiao's eyes turned up.

"This is our bronze military ticket?" Meng Xiang kept looking at the copper coin in his hand, but his heart was happy.

At the beginning, Zhou Bai's idea of military tickets and metal copper coins was fused together by Meng Xiang's compromise, and this metal military ticket was born. In fact, it is the same as currency, but the central orthodox currency is still legal tender, and it cannot appear in the form of currency. Zhou Bai said that the situation of military tickets opened up an idea for him.

Since paper money is not easy to promote in times of war, metal money is not a big problem. Its value is there. China has always lacked copper, and Zhou Baicai did not think of issuing metal currency on a large scale. But Meng Xiang suddenly thought of the large pile of bullet casings.

The bullet casings recovered on the battlefield were originally partially recycled by the base, but later Meng Xiang calculated that the recycling price of the base was far less than the copper price in the outside world, so he stopped this kind of recycling and was planning to set up a copper metal smelter. When Zhou Bai said about metal currency, he thought of those bullet casings. The Vanguard consumes more and more bullets and shells every day, and more and more bullet casings and shells are recovered from the battlefield. This is equivalent to opening a stable copper mine. There is no problem at all with the smelting and manufacturing of metal currency.

There are three types of metal military tickets, one cent, one dime and one dollar.

One yuan is still a silver dollar, much smaller than Yuan Datou, with a silver content of 95%.

Since the Laiwu sub-base began to be launched, Meng Xiang has consciously reduced the amount of Zhaoyuan gold and silver put into the base, but purified the gold and silver spot through the refining workshop. Since gold and silver are also valuable in another time and space, it means that gold and silver are hard currency, and when there is a large amount of iron ore resources to replace it, it is better to save a little gold and silver.

Especially when he found a large reserve of silver in Shilibao with a vague impression, the source of silver for silver dollars was also solved.

One corner is a large copper circle, made of brass of full material, and it is shining gold.

One cent of small copper, the same brass material as the big copper dollar. Nine small copper coins are about the same weight as one large copper circle, but they are ten to one exchange.

The same pattern is found on every metal currency.

On the front is a three-legged tripod painted with various textures, and the face value is marked on the top of the tripod. Below are the four small characters of Taiping Bank. On the reverse side is the symbol of five stars, four small stars around a large star in the middle, and a half-circle around the Great Wall pattern at the bottom. Needless to say, others also know that this is the hallmark of the Vanguard.

The edges of each coin are zigzag to prevent theft.

These are all Meng Xiang's ideas, and there are many such themes on the Internet in later generations, so they can't help but synthesize into this new currency.

"With the further intensification of the war, the price of copper metal continues to rise, and when the time comes, I am afraid that the value of the copper circle will greatly exceed the face value, and I am afraid that someone will melt coins to take copper!" Yao Qingsan next to him said with some concern.

Now that he was recommended by Zhou Bai, within a day, Yao Qingsan, who agreed, was directly pulled over by Meng Xiang by plane.

Although he was somewhat reluctant to disrupt the financial order, it was needed to resist the war, and metal money sometimes played a role in stabilizing prices. So he reserved his opinion for the time being.

As soon as he came, he pointed out the problem of the pricing of metal military tickets, and after several calculations, coupled with the fact that Meng Xiang was already ensuring that there was no shortage of copper metal, the positioning of metal currency was biased towards the value of copper.

"It doesn't matter, the more copper is worth, the more our military tickets are worth!"