afterglow

Chapter 555 The enemy works harder than you; long time no see, Commander of the th Brigade

Since the beginning of this year, an increasing proportion of the federal government's fiscal expenditures has been devoted to military expenditures, which are expected to reach US$260 billion or more.

在九个多月、不足一年的时间里全美各大兵工厂和公司已经制造出了1.1万门大小火炮、2.4万架飞机、4775辆坦克、63亿发步机弹、9230万发炮弹在内的海量工业品。

In order to ensure sufficient resources for the military industry and the military, the degree of mobilization has been further increased. The federal government has increasingly intervened in state government affairs. The "loose" federation has become more closely united due to common crises.

In April this year, the War Production Board (WPB) passed a resolution to immediately suspend civilian car sales in the United States. Automakers must prioritize the production of more military vehicles. Ford, General Motors, and Pacific Motors and Foundry Company successively began to expand the production of trucks, armored vehicles, and tanks. production scale.

Ford Motor Company alone has undertaken contracts with a total value of up to US$21 billion this year. You must know that the total cost of the Manhattan Project in history was only US$18.5 billion.

这架巨型企业也不负众望，大半年时间就已经所生产的产品包括288万发炮弹、3.4万台飞机发动机、2265架飞机、2470辆坦克、19.4万辆卡车、21万挺机枪、73万支步枪和冲锋枪、5100万个滚珠轴承。

However, hidden dangers still exist.

Since Nanyang, the world's largest natural rubber producing area, has been occupied by the Ming Dynasty, the American industry is facing the crisis of having huge steel and aluminum production capacity but no rubber available.

The annual output of natural rubber in South America is only 1.6 tons, and the annual output of South Africa and Ceylon under British control is only 13 tons, which is completely insufficient. For comparison, the annual output of the Nanyang lands under the control of the Ming Dynasty reached 104 million tons, and the Annan Kingdom and Lanfang Republic could also produce 8 tons.

And because the technology and production capacity of synthetic rubber in the United States are insufficient, rubber products were the first to be strictly controlled, and private sales and purchases of tires were banned across the United States.

In order to save the consumption of rubber and gasoline, strict speed limit control policies have been implemented across the United States - the car speed limit is 35 miles per hour (63km/h). Many automobile events have also been suspended, and some state governments have even begun to ban people from traveling by car.

In July this year, the federal government ordered a halt to the sale of sugar. Sugar was included in the rationing system. Each person could only receive 0.5 pounds (227g) of sugar per week - which is roughly half of the daily sugar consumption of the people. .

After Germany and the United States officially declared war, a large number of submarines from the Workers' Navy crossed the Atlantic to the east coast and the Caribbean, and began to hunt the bewildered American merchant ships.

This period of time is undoubtedly a wonderful day for the officers and soldiers of the German submarine force. Compared with the alert British, these Americans are simply cute and innocent!

There is no easier task than this. In just one month, 51 merchant ships totaling 30 tons sank to the bottom of the sea!
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) strives to maximize resources into the military industry and the military, and more and more materials and commodities are in limited supply.

The list of rationed goods is getting longer and longer, and the sale of typewriters, leather shoes, bicycles, cheese, cans, and butter is also restricted. It is said that even jam and milk are under consideration.

Such a rationing system has significantly affected people's living standards. Where there is demand, there will be a market. The black market naturally arises rapidly. Thousands of people have been arrested and imprisoned for illegally trading restricted materials.

Many businessmen try to make profits by taking advantage of legal loopholes, but state governments continue to enact new laws to fill loopholes, vigorously suppress the black market, and severely punish organizers...

In contrast, the Ming Dynasty's rationing system has gone through the stages of pilot, conflict, suspension, small-scale implementation, and large-scale implementation so far, which can be described as twists and turns.

Nowadays, it is finally possible to spread all over the country, but the overall degree of "squeezing" is still not high. The list of restricted goods basically only includes key materials such as gasoline, aluminum, and sugar.

This is an ironic situation - an enemy who is more powerful than you even works harder and more conscientiously than you do.

The Kingdom of Heaven is rich in products and has everything!

But there is good news. After all, the enemies of the United States are not just the Ming Dynasty in the East.

The Germans rigorously evaluated the production capacity and combat effectiveness of the capitalist strongholds, and concluded that even if the Americans relied on the advantages of industrial scale to forcefully land in individual areas as bridgeheads, they would not have the ability to penetrate deep into the interior.

The War Council was so confident that it was even so optimistic that it disbanded 6 divisions and 9 divisions into reserve infantry divisions in July and August respectively - retaining the division headquarters and main officers, mothballing heavy weapons, and maintaining only 20% of the personnel.

The upper echelons of the German Society believe that the existing armed forces are sufficient to meet strategic needs, and manpower should not be wasted on confrontations, but should be invested in production and construction.

截止当下，德社人民军总计拥有157个步兵师和摩托化步兵师、8个山地师、11个装甲师、105个独立炮兵营、12个独立坦克营，总兵力310万人；空军则部署有4140架作战飞机，另有数千架库存飞机。

In the upcoming battle against Italy, 32 infantry divisions and 6 mountain divisions will be invested initially, and then additional troops will be added depending on the situation.

Because the combat area is completely different from that in history, both the Iberian Peninsula and the Apennine Peninsula are covered with mountains, which are not suitable for the deployment of heavy troop groups, and it is difficult to conduct long-distance and large-depth mobile operations.

In addition, the military strength of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other countries cannot be underestimated. The three countries together have dozens of divisions at their disposal.

Because of this, the Germans, who were under little pressure, were so calm that they even allowed some troops to disarm and return to their fields.

Hannover Machinery Engineering and IG Farben are still producing various equipment for the construction of the Eger fertilizer plant in Hungary; Henschel and Mercedes-Benz have also recently received a large number of production tasks - manufacturing tens of thousands of tractors and harvesters machine and aid to the Hungarian people to expand crop production.

The Hungarian Great Plains has fertile soil and flat terrain. It is an excellent agricultural production area and is also suitable for mechanized farming.

For Deshe, whose food self-sufficiency rate is 85%, it is very important to ensure the stability and increase production of agricultural production areas as much as possible. How can we build a society without a full stomach?

The German Society has been doing the same thing for more than ten years, significantly improving Hungary's farming efficiency, bringing its annual wheat output to 3730 million tons and barley output to 810 million tons.

After being "driven" out of the capital, Zhou Changfeng and his wife flew across thousands of miles of rivers and mountains to the western frontier of the empire.

Yili is a city with only about two hundred years of history. Its history is much shorter than that of the mainland.

This was Zhou Changfeng's first time to come to such a remote western frontier, with blue sky, white clouds, and colorful grass. All he could see was the shining river, the lush woods, and the endless mountains.

The practical needs of the Later Ming court's commitment to the Western Expedition were actually very simple, which was to solve the serious troubles in the north once and for all.

For the emperors and ministers of the Later Ming Dynasty at the end of the seventeenth century, many years had passed since they had tidied up the old mountains and rivers and unified the world. One generation had enough time to recuperate, recuperate, and rule the world again. Everything was brand new.

The situation before them was unprecedented - there was no way to expand territory in the interior, and all the areas with arable land and minerals had been captured, so they could only focus on the north.

While the people were migrating to develop Liaodong, the opportunity also came to completely eliminate the nomadic frontier troubles in the north that had existed for thousands of years.

Decades of blockade in the Ming Dynasty had weakened Mongolia. The glorious Mongolian heavy armored cavalry had been reduced to the point where they could only cook soup with leather bags and looted iron pots first when raiding south. Naturally, they were no match for Houjin.

After many years of war, the Khalkha Mongols never recovered.

The emperors and ministers of the Later Ming Dynasty acted with the intention of completely eradicating Mongolia - just like the former Ming Dynasty completely eradicated Yunnan when it developed the southwest.

It is the ancestral law to station large armies for a long time and set up many guard posts. At the same time, they strive to control the source of Tibetan Buddhism believed in by the Khalkha Mongols in order to achieve dual military and ideological control, so as to achieve peace once and for all. This was the motive for the later Ming court to send troops to Wusi Zang.

Correspondingly, in order to cut off the connection between Wusi Zang and Mongolia, there was also a need to regain the Hexi Corridor and the old lands in the Western Regions, otherwise the later Ming Dynasty would give up the Western Expedition like the previous Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the Qing Dynasty in history, the Later Ming Dynasty actually took advantage of the time difference.

Because the famous Junggar Khanate only reached its peak in the early 18th century, the Qing Dynasty missed the opportunity in order to quell the rebellion of the Three Feudatories. When it started to send troops to the Western Regions, it discovered that the Junggar Khanate had already strengthened its troops, so it procrastinated and fought for several times. It took ten years to finally settle down.

This was not the case in the later Ming Dynasty. Since it was at the end of the seventeenth century that it ended its bid to recuperate and recuperate, and began to launch a large-scale attack, the Junggar Khanate was equivalent to being thrown to death in its cradle.

Time flies until now, Zhou Changfeng and Xia Xiaoshi stopped in the Ili River Valley, admiring the beautiful natural scenery.

Away from the power struggles and intrigues in the capital city, it’s not to mention how pleasant it is here.

Moreover, there are still major newspapers to read in Yili, and it is easy to listen to the radio. You can learn about the fun in the capital in real time every day.

Zhou Changfeng couldn't help but laugh when he thought that the dissidents in the Consultative Yuan were struggling to cope with the verbal and written attacks from political opponents and private newspapers.

After returning to their hotel, the two of them took a bath together in a unique and comfortable manner.

After the passionate sex in bed, Zhou Changfeng sipped wine and listened to the radio.

He really couldn't hold it back when he heard the news that "rotten eggs were thrown at a congressman's house."

"Why are you laughing, sir?"

"Haha, I'm not laughing at anyone else, I'm just laughing at those congressmen who are too stupid, and some high-ranking officials in the DPRK who are short-sighted."

Xia Xiaoshi put down the novel "Old Love in Rongcheng" in her hand, listened to the radio news for a moment, and curled her lips and said: "The first bird will be shot, Zhou Kexing, if His Majesty hadn't protected you, you would have suffered if you made such a big fuss."

Zhou Changfeng yawned and said nonchalantly: "It's a pity that we left in time. It will probably be the end of the year when we go back, and the limelight has already passed."

In the last few days of September, the two of them spent many leisurely days in Yili, which can be said to be a rare golden holiday.

There was no official business to deal with and no daughter to take care of. For a moment, it seemed like I was back to the time when they had just met.

On the last day of the month, the foreign missions and military inspection groups arrived as scheduled, and passenger planes carrying dozens of people landed one after another.

The standards of the foreign affairs mission were very high, with Xu Hexiang, the left minister of the Ministry of Rites, and a commissioner from the Government Affairs Council of the Consultative Yuan serving as principal and deputy officials. They also brought with them a dozen rotating embassy staff.

The military inspection team was composed of officers from the army, navy and air force, as well as some officials from the Ministry of War, and also included engineers from several military industry departments. Zhou was fully responsible, and his deputy was Li Zhijie from the Military System Bureau of the Ministry of War.

Two silver Youyun-6 passenger planes arrived a few days ago and were carefully maintained in advance. Zhou even entered the cockpit with great interest and visited them for a while.

After a night's rest, the two teams set off as scheduled.

Nearly 10,000 liters of aviation gasoline filled the fuel tank. The huge four-engine aircraft gradually accelerated on the No. 1 runway of Iri Air Force Base and finally left the ground gracefully.

Not long after, everyone saw the light blue lake below through the square window.

"Is this Yibohai?" someone in the cabin asked uncertainly.

"Exactly."

Yibohai is later known as Lake Balkhash, which has been the natural dividing line of the ancient Western Regions since the Han Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty established the Anxi Protectorate in this area, but after Tianbao's defeat in the Battle of Talas in ten years, the Central Plains Dynasty lost control of this area until many years later...

When the Ming Dynasty encountered great changes and was busy with internal and external troubles, Tsarist Russia invaded this area. Although it was later expelled to the west of Iri, it still controlled part of the territory east of Balkhash Lake for many years, and the two sides often clashed here. Small border conflict.

"Zhou Changfeng"'s father was killed here, many years ago.

The plane soars above the clouds, and the pressurized cabin technology keeps the cabin at normal temperature. Flying at such a high altitude is more fuel-efficient because of the thin air and less resistance.

Flying over the mountains and vast grasslands of Central Asia, the seemingly vast Caspian Sea came into view, but it didn't take long before we saw land.

Everyone saw a plume of black smoke rising straight into the sky, but little did they know that it was the iconic feature of the Baku Oil Field.

Two small fighter jets painted in blue and gray approached from the right - these were Bf-3E fighter jets of the 109rd Fighter Wing stationed in Baku. After a circle, the two flew left and right until the passenger plane began to approach.

The nine-hour flight came to an end, and the shining silver Youyun-6 passenger plane landed at the airport in the northern suburbs of Baku at sunset.

"I've been flying in the sky all day, and my back hurts." Li Zhijie stretched out her hand to beat her waist and walked down the gangway to get off the plane.

Zhou Changfeng followed, holding his wife's hand and walking down the stairs step by step, embarking on a strange land.

The air I breathed contained a faint smell, somewhere between asphalt and kerosene. It smelled quite unpleasant.

Xia Xiaoshi raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose.

"There are oil refineries everywhere here, which has a great impact." Zhou Changfeng said.

After saying that, he looked at the many Germans who came to greet him and saw familiar faces.

The woman with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a captain's military uniform, raised her hands, saluted neatly, and said in Nanjing Mandarin: "Welcome."

She then smiled slightly and said in French: "Long time no see, Commander of the 50th Brigade."

(End of this chapter)