In the years since Guan Ruzhong was elected prime minister, the most important thing he has done is to try his best to support domestic small and medium-sized enterprises and promote the large-scale expansion of domestic industry, and as a result, a series of policies or bills have been introduced or adjusted.

The most important of these were the amendments to the Act for the Promotion of Domestic Industrial Scale, which was formally passed by the Diet after the beginning of 1646, and the Act on Investment in Overseas Industries. The latter was implemented in the first year that Guan Ruzhong came to power, further standardizing the order of overseas investment.

The "Model of Civilization" is a strategic foreign investment plan to accompany the two domestic economic bills, and is not tailored to Portugal alone. The core content is to carry out the appropriate diffusion and export of modern industrial equipment and technology to the outside world in a step-by-step and selective manner, so as to provide the external cheap primary industrial labor demand that Huamei needs.

The strategic guiding ideology of the "Model of Civilization" was first germinated in the sale of mining steam pumps to Portugal and Spain in 1630, and then continued in early 1642 with the theft of the Qingcheng Navigation Clock.

Although the culprit of the theft of the high-tech marine clock was pinned on France, there were no more surprising follow-up bad things that happened, and in the end it was not resolved. However, the development of Huamei for more than 20 years has gradually become a fact in this era from an advanced country that "stands out" to a starving nanny who is "alone".

History has always punished any civilization that tries to rest on its laurels for a long time. Does a lonely navigator make sense?

Su Zining's earliest argument that "a backward external world is not in line with the fundamental interests of Huamei" later sparked extensive discussions no less than the Far East question, and the group with the most understanding and the most right to speak about it was the neutral faction that monopolized Huamei's industrial production.

At present, Huamei lacks not only the input and supply of important industrial and agricultural raw materials, but also the bottleneck of primary industrial processing and manufacturing capacity and high capital and labor costs have been the second main reason for the expansion of domestic industrial scale.

While Huamei sells modern goods to the world and accelerates the process of world civilization, it has fallen into a situation of assuming the "obligation" of industrial development on its own.

As various industrial technology restoration projects have gradually entered a bottleneck period, the simple pursuit of technological leadership has given way to the more important issue of how to achieve industrial scale.

The abundance of industrial categories overwhelms Huamei's existing industrial production scale. When the question of "yes or no" is solved. Mass production use becomes a problem. A large number of new technologies and new projects that appeared in the middle and late stages could not move towards large-scale production and utilization, and Huamei, a country with a population of only one million, began to find it difficult to meet some of its own needs.

The most typical example is the production of steam tractors by the state-owned heavy machinery company. From heavy-duty trailers to medium- and light-duty agricultural integrated combine harvesters, even after years of capacity expansion, the number of employees of the company exceeded 5,000, and the total annual output of all types of steam locomotives of the company was only about 700 units by 1645. Once the product model is upgraded, it will bring the trouble of readjusting the production line, and its production capacity is very unstable.

The maximum annual production capacity is 700 units. Spread evenly to various towns in the local area or overseas, each place can only buy a pitiful 10 units a year. In Porter City, an important agricultural town in the United States, and Nanshan Overseas Territory, the annual demand for agricultural steam locomotives in the two places is at least 200 units, and the number that other towns can buy is even less.

Huamei has only a few oligarchs in the field of industrial manufacturing, and has been in the global monopoly production for a long time. As small as a screw, bearing or flange, as large as a steam engine block and ship steel keel components, a complete set of industrial production chains, if only to solve the problem, theoretically does not need outsiders to intervene.

in the United States of China. Even if industrial standardization is repeatedly emphasized, the national labeling of upstream industrial parts is increasing every year. As of 1645, there were 36 standard specifications of internal screws, 20 types of flanges, 38 types of bearings, and more than 60 types of gears......

Producing 10 different goods, you might be able to do it with ease. 20 kinds are produced. Funding and talent pools will feel insufficient. There are 30 kinds of production, and basically each production chain cannot be large-scale and efficient. This is especially true of some special industrial categories that have to be produced because of the small market demand. Up to now, the total industrial labor force in China and the United States is just over 100,000. But the stalls to support are unusually large.

In the past, the plate was small, the base was thin, and there were few industrial categories. With the original industrial manufacturing scale, it can be done. But over time, the complexity of the industrial production chain increases dramatically with each new demand for an industrial product.

In order to maintain an industrial product production line, it is often necessary to invest a large amount of capital and arrange a large number of skilled workers. Even so, it is often only to solve the problem of whether there is production, in order to really reduce the cost of large-scale application, it is necessary to expand the production line and increase the scale of output, and its financial and human burden will increase geometrically.

Like state-owned heavy machinery companies, all large enterprises in this situation have been trying to reform the industrial production model for many years, breaking the closed global monopoly of production, and outsourcing the production technology or production lines of many spare parts.

This has three benefits: first, to expand the production and supply of raw material primary processing and upstream industrial base spare parts; Second, to promote the quality standards of Huamei industrial production; Third, the expansion of the basic scale of the industrial labor force of the society also gave birth to primary industrial processing towns such as Robert's City.

But even this is only a limited deployment of internal industrial labor, and Huamei's precious and difficult-to-train industrial labor is ultimately limited. Many low-tech, high-demand, but labor-intensive and long-term industrial parts production lines are still wasting a large number of valuable local skilled workers, even if the concept of industrial assembly line production has long been put into action, but the cost of the final industrial product is still high for many years.

This is also the reason why the Chinese monopoly oligarchy has always been strongly resistant to raising workers' wages: it is of course no problem to reduce costs and raise wages, but now that the costs are so high, it is pure nonsense to raise wages.

In the final analysis, it is no problem to play the family style of development, but it is by no means suitable for large-scale industrial expansion. Although any cost can theoretically be passed on, it has greatly increased the overall operating cost of Huamei Industry, which has hindered its own development. and affect all aspects of society.

In addition to these, the exploitation and supply of raw materials for basic industries in external countries have also entered a bottleneck period.

As the demand for more and more kinds of agricultural raw materials expands, the gap in the understanding of natural resources in the relevant origins has become the most troubling. Without the relevant technology export of these resources, it would be as difficult as an ideological enlightenment to produce and supply them to countries outside of China and the United States.

Spain and England, for example, are rich in surface fluorite, but this extremely important additive for modern industry is only regarded by these Europeans as a low-quality gemstone.

Either the suspicious people don't sell their lives or ask for a sky-high price, or they just take the inexplicable stone gravel to ask for money. It is even more difficult to convince them that fluorite is nothing more than nature's cheap ore, and it is undoubtedly a fool's dream to get them to mine it on a large scale in a primitive way.

Many important and special industrial raw material imports are caught in this ironic dilemma. The North American continent is large enough, but if all these industrial raw materials are to be supplied by China and the United States in this era, it is enough to exhaust people to death to dogs.

Huamei's industrial development has reached an awkward stage and has stalled at a certain point. Until the day comes when all the traversers who enshrine "time is everything" as the highest belief in survival will die.

……

The industrial take-off and economic development of modern Europe were based on the effective organization of social and economic production. Any new industrial technology and new resource utilization can then establish a complete chain from resource exploration, raw material production, basic processing to finished product manufacturing, and then find opportunities for re-improvement and re-innovation in this link.

The "Model of Civilization" plan is to cooperate with the amendment of the "Overseas Industrial Investment Act", through the safety control and grading of commodity exports, targeted export of primary industrial manufacturing equipment and related intellectual property rights, so that external countries can achieve more kinds of resource development and primary processing, and provide Huamei with cheaper raw materials, labor and primary industrial products. Let the outside world also be integrated into the blood vessels of Huamei's industrial development.

The publicity of the "Model of Civilization" plan in public is very global and missionary, rebuilding post-war civilization, developing the economy and improving people's livelihood, and increasing the gold content of civilization in various places.

In Huamei. The security control levels of commodity exports are divided into five levels: I, II, III, IV, and V, which correspond to high risk, potential high risk, low risk, potential low risk, and no risk. In each grade, it is subdivided into several sub-levels according to specific differences.

Each level, and even the gaps between the stalls within each level. All this means that in this era, if there is no solid basic education and talent and technical reserves, it is almost an obstacle that is difficult to overcome.

For example, the IIID single-rise low-pressure 60-horsepower industrial-powered steam unit is compared with the IIIC-class double-rising high-pressure and 220-horsepower ship-powered steam unit. Strictly speaking, it's not a technical thing. The technological improvement of its material processing and manufacturing process took three years to restore the technical restoration project of Huamei through the years of Huamei, which involved a lot of disciplines, and it took a century to achieve this leap in Europe.

To get a group of 17th-century European or Ming Dynasty craftsmen to reverse copy a gorgeous IIID-class steam engine, not to mention the cost of money and time, just starting from scratch to build a usable medium and high precision cylinder boring machine is no less difficult than a group of middle school students in the 20th century to build an airplane.

Therefore, even if you can buy a IIIA reinflated high-pressure steam engine from Huamei, you can only use it, and whether it can be maintained normally is another matter.

The implementation of the "Model of Civilization" can not only bring a large number of external orders to Huamei's manufacturing industry, but also greatly optimize the production layout of domestic industrial labor. At that time, a large number of cheap industrial raw materials and primary processed products will be able to meet the needs of Huamei's large-scale industrial expansion, so that the output of final industrial products in Huamei will be greatly increased.

In the first phase of the "Model of Civilization" program, Portugal will be the only European country that is entitled to unlimited procurement or authorized assembly of steam machinery up to class IIC. A large amount of Chinese primary industrial technology, especially modern industrial equipment, which has a much lower threshold for export control than other European countries, will pour into tiny Portugal.

In addition to continuing to invest heavily in the agriculture and forestry industries in Portugal and the Brazilian colonies, a large number of mines, iron-smelting equipment exports and technical guidance and training will help Portugal establish a leading mining and iron-smelting industry in Europe in its native and Brazilian colonies within 20 years, so that Portugal's exports of concentrate powder and pig iron ingots to Huamei will increase at least three times compared with 1645.

In addition, through a joint venture with the Portuguese aristocracy, a series of primary machining enterprises were established in the new industrial zone of Barrero, so that Huamei could purchase a large number of cheap primary industrial semi-finished products or spare parts from Portugal.

As long as the manufacturing technology of medium and high-end terminal industrial parts and finished products is still monopolized in the hands of Huamei. If, more than a decade later, Portugal also has the ability to completely localize the 34A rear-loading flintlock pistol and the 42A front-loading rotary rifle field gun, the threat to the strategic security of China and the United States will be basically negligible.

In this regard, the neutral faction of Huamei, which controls industrial capital, is vigorously promoting the plan.

With such operational means, it is foreseeable that Portugal, which is obviously supported by Huamei, will definitely be shrouded in the brilliance of the "Model of Civilization" for the first time, and the so-called reform price paid by Portugal is nothing more than an additional cost fee charged by Huamei.

The follow-up cooperation of the "Model of Civilization" is scheduled to be launched after 1648, and will cover six countries, including France, the Netherlands, England, Sweden, Emden, and Luzon in the Far East. Among them, the Netherlands is the most important.

Industrial exports to the Netherlands will be concentrated in shipbuilding. The Netherlands has the most developed shipbuilding capacity in the world except Huamei, with a large number of mature shipbuilders and excellent designers, and its comprehensive shipbuilding cost is only one-third to one-half of Huamei.

Huamei will sell a variety of design drawings of civilian steam merchant ships, supporting steam units and other core spare parts and dock hoisting equipment to the Netherlands in accordance with the assistance model to the Royal Ordnance Factory of Barrerou in Portugal, so that it has the ability to assemble and build steam merchant ships by itself and continue to expand its maritime freight trade capacity.

First, it will continue to take advantage of the advantages of Dutch ocean shipping, and its future capacity can be used by Huamei, and second, it will use its power to suppress the marine transportation industry of other European countries. Create a confrontational conflict between European countries.

As a rough estimate, once the Netherlands can complete the imitation of the Huamei steam merchant ship, its price may be at least 30% cheaper or even lower than that of the same type of Huamei. Of course, the same as in Portugal. In the early days, Huamei would only sell three obsolete offshore ship type drawings and low-end steam-powered units to the Netherlands, otherwise domestic shipbuilding enterprises and ocean-going shipping companies would definitely rebel.

In order to make the Netherlands a new generation of European enemies after the Habsburgs, Huamei is actively preparing for an arms sales project to the Netherlands in addition to the "Model of Civilization": starting in 1648, eight Huamei Navy's Flower-class frigates will be decommissioned and refurbished and sold to the Netherlands.

These are the first generation of all-steam frigates that have reached or are about to reach 20 years of age. Combat readiness attendance is decreasing, and even if they are all stuck in port, the annual maintenance cost of each ship is as high as tens of thousands of dollars.

As the newest Sativa-class modified frigates are constantly being built into service. Therefore, the Chinese and US Navy has long given up the plan to overhaul and extend the service period of the Hua-class frigates, and has freed up the number of officers and men to accept the new ships.

Although it is a decommissioned second-hand warship, the price is not cheap because it will be converted into a twin Type 42B 12-pounder (75 mm) front-mounted Wisworth naval gun with three terrace gun rooms, and the unit price of each will reach $200,000. For the Netherlands, which is not short of money, this is an excellent opportunity to greatly improve its combat power at sea.

The newly equipped Flower-class frigate will be the first time that the European Navy has a fully steam-powered military ship, and its Type 42B long-barreled front-mounted Wisworth rifled guns can theoretically have an effective range of more than 1,000 yards, which is almost three to four times the range of traditional European sail warships.

However, in order to limit the combat effectiveness of these obsolete warships for sale, their power will be reduced, and the maximum speed will be less than 13 knots, which will not be able to catch up with most of the current ocean-going merchant ships of Huamei. The ranging equipment used for long-range artillery firing has also been dismantled, so the effective range of the Flower-class frigates sold to the Dutch Navy will still be less than 1,000 yards in actual combat, and they can only fight planes if they are far away, so as to ensure the naval superiority of the Chinese and American Navy.

Even Huamei intends to go one step further and completely open the export of Type 42B long-barreled front-loading naval guns to the Netherlands, so as to help the Netherlands realize the military armization of civilian steam merchant ships. Anyway, with the urine nature of the Netherlands, if it is not equipped with Chinese naval guns, it will also be equipped with other cannons, and it has always been its maritime tradition to take into account military armament, making it a thorn in the flesh of the surrounding European coastal countries, and setting off a maritime arms race in Europe for the next 30 years.

At that time, it will inevitably trigger a frenzy of European countries to order Chinese and American export-oriented military ships, or introduce the same industrial capacity as the Netherlands and Portugal at a high cost. The future Franco-Dutch and Anglo-Dutch wars would certainly be very good, and they would be a desirable thing for Huamei, who was desperate to expand its industrial manufacturing and military export capabilities.

As for the maritime threat to Huamei, it is negligible, and according to the exercises of the Huamei Navy, the combat effectiveness of a Princess-class or Peace-class light cruiser equipped with steel rifled guns alone is almost equivalent to the combat effectiveness of the eight Flower-class frigates currently in service with the Huamei Navy.

The Chinese and US Navy has a total of 9 Princess-class and Peace-class light cruisers in service, not including the Nuwa-class quasi-armored cruisers and 2 new enterprise-class armored cruisers, which have been built and put into service one after another, and their combat effectiveness has completely exceeded the total number of navies in the world.

The potential of the Dutch national foundation is so great that no amount of money can buy real modernization. Even if it continues to dominate Europe forever, it will be half a century before the maritime armed forces reach the current level of the United States, and what the Chinese and American navies will look like in half a century is basically a matter of the overall situation.

In addition to being of great economic and strategic significance to China and the United States, another of its "giveaways" is to follow the historical context and catalyze a number of continental public enemies in Europe that can seriously threaten the interests of neighboring countries, so as to achieve the strategic purpose of Huamei to balance Europe, such as France, Spain, Emden, the Netherlands, Sweden, and other countries.

A few decades later, the war in which half of Europe, led by France, will beat the economic hegemon of the Netherlands and the northern hegemon Sweden, will be the first stage for the verification of the achievements of the "Model of Civilization". Therefore, Huamei will tilt towards these countries in some details, so that it will grow to the extent that it is in line with Huamei's wishes. (To be continued.) )

PS: The third bullet on New Year's Day.