"This car is a home-made car, not an assembled car!" Zhou Bai couldn't help but smile when he saw the automobile output that Yan Xishan compared, "These are all made by ourselves from the design to the engine to the vehicle assembly." Although there are only more than 80 vehicles, it is the hard work of hundreds of scientific researchers for nearly a year. ”

Zhou Bai had a proud look on his face, although these cars were handmade, but these more than 80 cars were the crystallization of step by step experiments, and every part was carefully built by the war zone itself, completely domestically produced. It's a pity that these have not yet formed industrial large-scale production, and they are still handicraft workshops. However, this is also a pioneering initiative, which is included in the production plan.

"There are more than 600 cars in the back that we assemble and produce with imported parts!" Zhou Bai added. He was talking about civilian vehicles that had been converted from the base's engines and spare parts.

Yan Xishan also saw more than 630 civilian vehicles there, mainly cars, produced by the Volkswagen factory, which was established in cooperation with the Germans. The trucks and barrel trucks produced by the base are all directly imported. Not counted as domestically produced.

Another use of parts for automobiles and tanks is the production of tractors and combine harvesters, and by the end of the first half of the year, more than 700 units have been produced, and by the time of the autumn harvest, more than 1,000 are expected to be produced. Next year, there will be nearly 2,000 tractors for spring ploughing.

The more Yan Xishan looked, the more surprised he became, the industrial system of the vanguard army has begun to see scale, and the production of machine tools has exceeded 3,000 units in the first half of the year, according to Zhou Bai, when those technicians master the method, it is expected to exceed 10,000 units next year.

Some things were also created from scratch, such as bicycles, and the Pioneer Army used the construction of its own bearing factories and gears to start the full localization of bicycles. The two bicycle factories in Tianjin and Qidu have just been put into production in the first half of the year, and although there were only 3,000 units in the first three months, the target for the whole year has been marked at 10,000 units.

This is a big improvement over what was just done by hand before.

Another example is chemical fiber products, the pioneer army used nylon for the market at the beginning, and obtained some machinery and some technologies from DuPont. Zhuang Changgong and Wang Baoren and others spent more than a year, with the help of the experimental conditions of the base scientific research center and the prompt analysis of ready-made products, so as to develop their own nylon production, although the output of only 3 tons in half a year, it is also a breakthrough from the laboratory to industrial production. After all, nylon is still only in the hands of the United States and China at this time.

Now that the vanguard army has such a formula, Meng Xiang will not let go of this opportunity to make a fortune. The formula of nylon will not last long, and it will soon be analyzed by others, so he immediately exchanged it with the Germans in exchange for some of the production technology and equipment for medicines. Although there is a base for drug production, these cannot meet the real demand for medicine. The vanguard army duly showed the amount of drugs produced by the base, thus driving down the price.

With the outbreak of war, the consumption of medical supplies will skyrocket. What Huaxia lacks is the equipment to produce these, so it is also imported from Germany. And learn to produce related equipment by yourself, and then transition to localization.

Yan Xishan looked at these achievements with mixed feelings in his heart. What he has not achieved for many years, the vanguard army has only taken one or two years to complete. Although this is indispensable to the accumulation of predecessors, it is not easy to achieve such results without a large amount of funds and policy support, and management in place.

Yan Xishan looked at the unbelievable data of the five-year plan again, after the production figures in the first half of the year, plus more and more accumulation, maybe this five-year plan is not a utopia?

"I really should let Jiang Zhongzheng take a look, such an achievement can shame him!" He couldn't help but shake his head slightly against these numbers.

The achievements of the vanguard army are not only in industry, but also in agriculture." Is he the kind of man who is willing to live under men? At this time, Lao Jiang was still wondering what Yan Xishan's move was for.

It's not just Lao Jiang who thinks like this, Li Zongren and other forces are thinking about it like this. If it is said that Yan Xishan still maintains the army to talk about cooperation, this is normal, but now that his own army has been taken over and reorganized, and the subsistence allowance policy has begun to be implemented on the territory, what chance can he have?

You must know that Yan Xishan was the most protective in the past, and he would never allow others to interfere in his Shanxi affairs. But at this point, it's like a different person.

Jia Jingde also advised Yan Xishan to keep the army.

"How to keep it? If you keep it, everyone is gone, it is better to be directly incorporated into the vanguard army, and I can get a better chance for both of them. Yan Xishan sighed, the situation is stronger than people, this is also something that cannot be helped, after talking to Meng Xiang, he also learned that this young man will definitely not allow a hidden danger when he shows his skills in the future.

He is not too worried that he will be hollowed out and idle.

"Brother Baichuan, your talent lies in governing the country, not in the army. With your prime minister, you are only a country and you have been wronged in Shanxi for the rest of your life. It's better to have you than to get 100,000 troops! He still remembered some of the words Meng Xiang said to him at the beginning, which was recognized by Meng Xiang and gained a lot of power.

But what he was more interested in was Meng Xiang's future plans. With his defeat a foregone conclusion, it did not prevent him from joining the larger group of the Vanguard Army.

"The food of our future is the key!" After looking at it for a while, Yan Xishan proposed one. After all, the vanguard army needs to solve the problem of subsistence allowance, and food has become the key.

Zhou Bai smiled and looked at Li Shuchun next to him.

"Ahem, we have already counted this year's summer grain harvest." Agriculture is generally the main focus of Li Shuchun.

"According to preliminary statistics, the amount of cultivated land in the theater is more than 300 million mu. However, a lot of land has been abandoned because of the war, and grain has basically been successfully obtained in some newly occupied areas. The summer grain harvest was about 19 million tons. With the autumn grain, this year's grain is basically self-sufficient. ”

"More than nineteen thousand tons?" Yan Xishan silently calculated in his heart. As he had seen just now, the total population in the joint theater had broken through the 100 million mark, reaching 120 million.

If we add in the relatively small harvest of autumn grain, we can barely guarantee the supply of grain. But that's not the point, production has increased in previous years, but there are still a lot of people starving to death. The key is still a matter of distribution. Some landlords are reluctant to sell grain, while others have no money to buy grain.

The vanguard army guaranteed the people's right to subsistence in the form of subsistence allowance, and at the same time, the problem of food sources had to be solved. But it looks like they've solved the problem.

He didn't know that when the vanguard army conquered various places, the first thing they organized was to replant grain, whether it was corn and soybeans, or other vegetables, or else, otherwise they would be idle. In this era when the total amount is very reluctant, grow crops as much as possible. By autumn, it is estimated that the annual production will reach more than 30 million tons, which will basically be balanced in terms of total volume.

Among them, the land directly controlled by the vanguard army is even more grain-oriented, focusing on the cultivation of grain, which is also one of the reasons for the shortage of cotton and other quantities.

Even if the cultivated land production in Shandong, Hebei and other places is good, the agricultural system in Henan, Shanxi, northern Jiangsu and other newly occupied areas is more damaged, and it is necessary to supplement the grain inside. If it weren't for the fact that at that time, the vanguard army grabbed a lot of food, this would not have been enough.

This yield data is an estimate, because after the implementation of the subsistence allowance, some localities do not need to pay agricultural taxes, but only need to provide a value, which is roughly the same as the estimate of the number of acres of cultivated land. But it's smaller than it actually is. However, the number of people who eat the food subsidy is increasing. Preliminary statistics have reached more than 30 million people.

Those yeoman farmers don't need political axes, no taxes, no particularly big natural disasters, and those lands can feed their families.

The vanguard army only needs to worry more about those low-income people who receive food. Even according to 120 catties, a maximum of 2 million tons is needed. In this regard, Meng Xiang does not have much pressure. The more than 15 million acres of self-owned farms carefully managed by the vanguard army alone can produce 1.8 million tons. Meng Xiang also had more than 1 million tons of grain to prepare for World War II. There can also be at least 300,000 tons of surplus of the 5 million mu of farmland that has been reclaimed in South America, and those large grain growers with more than 10 mu of land can also pay more than 1 million tons of grain taxes.

In this way, it is enough to maintain the stability of the subsistence allowance. It doesn't matter how much grain is left, the market will naturally regulate it. Anyway, in the war zone, it is forbidden to let food outflow. Those who hold on to the grain and are reluctant to sell it, in this era when the grain will not be kept for too long, can only be thrown away and digested in the war zone in the end.

The development of arable land in South America is accelerating the expansion of Mengxiang. Next year, it is expected that 100,000 Chinese people will work there to survive, and at least 20 million mu of cultivated land will be developed, which can make up for the greater shortage.

In this way, if nothing else, after integrating the grain production in the theater, there may be a surplus next year, which is enough to make a profit in Europe, which is in the midst of a great war.

It stands to reason that the most scarce time for food in World War II was in the middle and late stages, but the food was time-limited and would not be stored for a long time, so it would generally be processed in advance. However, Meng Xiang would not throw it out in such a hurry. There are still many people in the country who are hungry and are not in a hurry to sell. On the contrary, he also buys and saves in large quantities.

Although food is not suitable for preservation, there are many ways to preserve it for a long time. At this time, the compressed biscuits developed by the vanguard army can be stored for three or five years in vacuum-packed cans. For this, the vanguard army built more than a dozen new canned biscuit factories. Full efforts were made to dispose of the surplus grain and to resettle and store it.

When the labor force of Europe was involved in the war and the arable land was barren, the canned goods could be exchanged for goods of higher value. It's not uncommon to exchange a loaf of bread for a gold watch. Even if there are still neutral businessmen like Americans, it is rare for Americans to exchange these cans for machinery and equipment.

Besides, even if there is a famine in the country in the future, these canned food can temporarily save lives.

For these cans, a large amount of iron produced by the steel mill is consumed in the production of cans. This made Yan Xishan, who saw the amount of steel consumed, also taken aback. At a time when others put every penny of steel into the production of weapons, the vanguard army can still use steel to produce cans so luxuriously, and it is also a bit wealthy.

In Yan Xishan's eyes, the vanguard army is indeed wealthy. Until now, their currency has been dominated by brass metal currency, which has caused trouble for others to counterfeit, but also increased the cost. Especially as demand increases, this approach is a bit too wasteful.

"With the expansion of the war zone, is there a shortage of metal currency?" He tactfully proposed. After all, the supply of metals is limited, and if paper money is used, a large amount of brass resources can be saved, and more banknotes can be printed.

"We're working on banknotes, but now is not the time to issue them." Zhou Bai replied, "I don't give up, I always like to play tricks on currency, but they don't have much to do with our metal currency." ”

Yan Xishan knew what he said as soon as he heard it, and now the domestic currency in Huaxia was a little chaotic.

He said that he was able to create counterfeit fiat currency at this time, although he had not yet mastered all the secrets of fiat currency, but these somewhat rough fiat currencies had begun to be put into the national control area.

This Meng Xiang gave Lao Jiang a warning in advance, after all, this is very harmful to the people. But Lao Jiang used this as an excuse to issue some more fiat currency. He was also forced by money to have no choice. This year's grain harvest is not as good as last year's, and it has been consumed for two years, and his little family money has been exhausted. Due to the rise of the Pioneer Army, some industries and businesses have fled to the territory of the Pioneer Army. Tax revenues in the Kuomintang have also been greatly reduced.

said that he was dragged so that he couldn't move, and he didn't have much money to support. The help of the Russians is not a penny, even if the weapons of the copycat company are cheap and do not require real money, but they also need to be offset with items.

Financial difficulties caused him to suspend the somewhat nervous Red Party's military pay. But that wasn't enough, and he shifted his mind to printing money. Knowing that this is to quench his thirst, but there is a threat from himself outside, and the rise of the vanguard army inside, he needs a lot of money to stabilize the situation.

The territory of the vanguard army has expanded, but the fiat currency cannot be circulated. Originally, there was a lot of stock in the fiat currency market, but Lao Jiang's start, coupled with his own mixing, increased the depreciation rate of fiat currency, causing turmoil in the market. At this time, silver dollars and pioneer coins began to become popular. After all, the number of silver dollars is small, so the demand for Pioneer coins has undoubtedly increased a lot, not only in their own territory, but also in the national control area. This has led to a sharp increase in the demand for metal money.

If not, Meng Xiang mined a copper mine in Yantai Wangjiazhuang, plus the sub-base in Alaska and the sub-base in Tianmu Mountain mined some copper ore to support it, and he would almost be unable to support it with bullet shells alone.

The paper money of the vanguard army had already begun to be raised when it was making counterfeit money from various countries. After all, with the development of the economy in the future, metal currency will slowly fall short of the development of the times. However, China's current monetary system is unstable, and the fiat currency is constantly depreciating, so it is more appropriate to use metal currency to enhance the prestige of the vanguard.

He also made a fake of the currency of the vanguard army for a while, but the cost was too high, and although the common people were illiterate, they were very good at distinguishing these metal currencies. With the help of Ma Yinchu and others, some hidden dangers in financial policies were eliminated. So I really don't have a good way to deal with the metal currency of the vanguard army.

"In extraordinary times, metal currencies are needed to stabilize the market. We are still able to accept this cost, and there is no problem with the quantity for the time being. Meng Xiang, who had just come over, said with a smile. Metal money itself has a certain amount of credit included in it, and the cost is much lower than the marked paper value. In addition, these main bases are used to supply copper metal, which is actually as low-cost as printing paper money for Meng Xiang.

"You have food, steel, weapons, and money, no wonder you can be kings and hegemons." Yan Xishan couldn't help but sigh as soon as he saw Meng Xiang.

"What is this, at best, it's just a toss in the country. It is still far from our China becoming strong and being able to dominate the world! Meng Xiang said disapprerovingly.

Yan Xishan was also a little ashamed in his heart, his vision was still a little worse, the vanguard army of others was ambitious, and he didn't care about the one-third of an acre of land in Shanxi, and he had always compared it with those powerful countries in the world. After receiving the news of the signing of the contract between the Germans and the Russians, he was surprised and pondered for a night before deciding that he was ready to plunge into the future world tide depicted by Meng Xiang.

August was a year of change and a lot of things happened.

Not to mention that the great war that the Germans were preparing to launch has become more and more apparent, and the drumbeat of the attack on Poland has been sounded with Hitler's incendiary speech on the 22nd, and the confrontation between Soviet Russia and himself alone has attracted the attention of the world.

In the original history, the famous Battle of Nomenkan broke out long ago. But in the current time and space, because he was single-minded about dealing with the vanguard army, until now, he himself has not provoked trouble at the border. Even Meng Xiang sacrificed two spies to create an incident in Nomenkan, which was suppressed by himself and Soviet Russia. Both sides showed restraint.

However, the border conflict still made the two sides nervous, and they had been facing each other for a long time, and he even concentrated the forces of the Kwantung Army on the side of Soviet Russia. After all, the Northeast is the lifeline of Yue himself, even if North China, South China and other places are lost, as long as the Northeast is kept, he will have the ability to fight again.

Meng Xiang was also a little depressed, he beat himself a little too much, so that he focused on the vanguard army, and did not dare to start a war on both sides at the same time.

Although the conflict at Nomenkan this time did not achieve Meng Xiang's purpose of provoking, it also made Yue himself not risk being attacked from both sides and went around to Chahar's side to attack. It also reduced the pressure on the northeast at that time.

However, this is still a little short of Meng Xiang's ultimate goal, he needs Soviet Russia to give Yue himself another head-on blow, and directly dispel the little illusion that remains in his heart. Therefore, shortly after the end of the Central Plains War, Meng Xiang used four more spies to provoke a border conflict again in the two teams of the Soviet Union.

It was only because the Nomenkan area was close to Chahar, which was controlled by the vanguard army, that in order to dispel his own concerns, he did not go to Nomenkan again, but moved to the more sensitive area of Manchuria.

It's easy to create border friction, and it's even easier if both sides provoke it. There was a clash between the patrols of the two sides, which resulted in eight deaths and ten wounds, and the same was true of Soviet Russia. This added fuel to the tension between the two sides. The arrogant Kwantung Army was still indulging in the glory of Russia's victory, and Soviet Russia also sensed Yue's weakness through the Central Plains War, and they also had the heart to test Yue.

On August 10, the two sides engaged in a large-scale clash at the wing level. This is also one of the reasons why the vanguard army cleaned up Taiyuan at that time, and said that he did not have much reaction.

Although the Kwantung Army was not ravaged by the vanguard army, he himself also improved his ability to fight tanks a little, and also established a tank brigade in the northeast, coupled with the advance of the Zero aircraft, so that the two sides fought on an equal footing. Although the Soviet Russian tanks were superior, the Zero aircraft dispatched by the Soviet Union were superior to the Soviet Russian aircraft. If it weren't for the large number of Soviet and Russian planes, it would have almost been said that he had won the victory.

In the three days of fighting, both sides lost more than 1,000 men each, but the Russians were better looking.

This took Soviet Russia by surprise. It turns out that historically, they signed a non-aggression pact with the Germans during the Battle of Nomenkan, and one of the reasons for this was to concentrate on fighting against the Germans. This time the temptation made Soviet Russia realize that the threat posed by him was not small, and this also accelerated the process of Soviet-German negotiations.

This war also made them understand the strength of Soviet Russia. Although there was no crushing defeat, in the face of the more than one million Russian Far Eastern Army, they also realized that they did not have the ability to attack Siberia, and even the defense would be very difficult. This also made them discourage the plan of sending men from the Kwantung Army to find the vanguard army again.

With the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, Soviet Russia could concentrate more forces in the Far East, which made him give up his plan to plunder Siberian resources.

This time, the army, which tried to save a little face, was still one step behind Soviet Russia in the scene, although there was no fiasco, but there was absolutely no boasting. Coupled with the previous defeat in the face of the vanguard, the newly formed cabinet gave the navy the upper hand, which once again gave the opinion of the navy to the south.

At this time, they only need a fuse, a fuse that will drag the strength of Britain, France and other countries in Southeast Asia even weaker.