The Red War God of Anti-Japanese War

Chapter 354 The Great Leap Forward of Steel

The completion of the railway project from Dihua to Aktoka has made the whole Chinese command happy.This diplomacy is so difficult!Finally, he quietly plotted against the Russians.

Whether or not the loan would be recovered was a secondary question compared with the imminent benefits of the railway.

In order to show the importance attached to this cross-border railway, on the third day after the agreement was signed, the Government Affairs Council arranged for another 3 engineering divisions with a total of 45000 construction troops to go to the northwest to speed up the construction of the Lanzhou-Dihua railway; After the railway design plan was presented, the Chinese side would directly dispatch five engineering divisions to the territory of Soviet Russia, striving to open this "Eurasian artery" to traffic before July 5.

When China reported its plan on the "Eurasian Artery" to the Soviet Union, Stalin laughed and said in the Kremlin: "This China is very interesting."

China is really interesting.For example, China agreed to export 1940 million tons of rice, 200 million tons of flour, 100 million tons of corn, and 100 tons of edible oil to Soviet Russia every year from 20, which greatly eased the food supply problem of Soviet Russia.

The agriculture in Soviet Russia was a collective farm. After the early enthusiasm dissipated, the grain production in Soviet Russia continued to decline, and it had already fallen below the food security line. Moreover, the workers in the farm were usually in a state of starvation, and their labor enthusiasm was low. How can it be improved?The situation in Soviet Russia is very much like the people's communes where the Chinese dynasties eat from big pots. They can't support themselves or the country at all.Even if Soviet Russia has a high degree of agricultural mechanization, it still cannot solve the food problem.

However, in the agreement with China, China has a very strange requirement: He signed a five-year steel import contract with Soviet Russia for a total of 5 million tons, but China requested to supply 500 million tons in 1940, and in other years 200 tons per year, 80 tons in the last year.

The explanation given by the Chinese side is: "China is constructing more than a dozen railways and several large bridges at the same time, and 1940 and 1941 are the peak periods of steel consumption. However, China's own steel output is less than 60 tons (actually Produce more, but keep it secret)."

Although China's explanation and Soviet Russia did not agree with it, the steel output in 1939 was already 1200 million tons, and there was no big problem with the quantity on the contract.Considering that Soviet Russia needed advanced aircraft technology from China, even if there were doubts, the contract was signed.

In fact, asking for steel from the Soviet Union was just a "prank" by Wu Aihua.Among the major countries in the world, the steel output of Soviet Russia is only equal to that of Germany and far behind that of the United States.The main source of China's steel imports is the United States.

Fortunately, until 1940, the United States was pursuing "isolationism", and the United States also liked to make a lot of war fortune.Because of this, since 1937, Wu Aihua has increased the purchase of steel and machinery from the United States, especially steel. The annual import volume has increased from 1936 tons in 50, 1937 million tons in 100, and 1938 million tons in 200. , It reached 1939 million tons in 400, and the steel that needed to be delivered by the United States in 1940 was an astonishing 600 million tons.

Therefore, in terms of relations with China, the American steel giants have the best relations with China.Therefore, in addition to steel, American steel giants have also helped a lot in terms of crude oil and machinery imports.

Naturally, the payment for these heavy industrial products in the United States is firstly a large number of light industrial products produced in China, secondly US dollar cash, and thirdly installment payment.For example, for a steel transaction of 100 million tons, the payment is usually borrowed from a US-funded bank, and the principal and interest will be paid off by the Chinese side in three or five years.If you need a mortgage, that's fine too.China has no shortage of collateral.What kind of port construction rights, airport construction rights, mine development rights, waterway development rights, etc., what to mortgage.The premise is that China can't afford the money, and you can come to "build".

Wu Aihua knows very well that without steel, there is no need to win World War II!

In addition to importing a large amount of steel like a madman, Wu Aihua also focused on the construction of Shenzhou Iron and Steel Group, Baotou Iron and Steel Group and Maanshan Iron and Steel Group in the "Three-Year Plan".

Therefore, after resolving the negotiations with the Soviet Union, Wu Aihua invited Zhou Nl, the Prime Minister of the State Council, and Chiang Kai-shek, the chairman of the Central Assembly, to inspect these projects under construction one by one.

For Fuzhou Iron and Steel Group, 70% of the iron ore and coal needed come from the French colony of Vietnam, and the other 30% comes from small iron ore and coal mines in Fujian and Guangdong.At the end of 1938, this iron and steel group contributed 20 tons of crude steel and 30 tons of pig iron.

In the "Three-Year Plan", Fuzhou Iron and Steel Group will reach 1941 million tons of crude steel and 150 million tons of pig iron by the end of 150, with a total output of 300 million tons.

Since Fuzhou Iron and Steel Group started construction in 1936, especially with the world's most advanced smelting technology (produced by the system), the output and quality of special steel in Fuzhou occupy a certain position in the world.It's just that almost all of its special steel is for its own use and not for export, so the outside world doesn't know about it.

However, Baotou Iron and Steel Group and Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Group were Wu Aihua's "hole cards" in the fight in World War II!

Among the citizens of the later generations of the Celestial Dynasty, there is almost no one who does not know Baotou, and there is no one who does not know what Baotou is most famous for.Iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, and rare earths are the three major brand resources of Baotou.In later generations, Baotou's steel output can reach more than 1000 million tons, and the output of non-ferrous metals can reach more than 100 million tons.As for rare earths, Wu Aihua is prepared to develop them in an orderly manner and will never export them to foreign countries, no matter how the future generations will be. This is a real strategic resource.

In the "Three-Year Plan", Baotou will be built into a large-scale heavy industry base with an annual output of 200 million tons of iron, 200 million tons of steel, and 5 tons of aluminum, among which aluminum is an important material for manufacturing aircraft.

The construction of Baotou actually originated in July 1937, when Wu Aihua led his troops to North China.But throughout 7, infrastructure construction was mainly carried out. In 1937, the first blast furnace and the first converter began to ignite and smelt, and 1938 tons of steel were produced in that year; and 5 tons of steel production was contributed to China in 1939. .

Beginning in the second half of 1938, Baotou ushered in a new construction climax. According to the plan, before the end of 1939, a production scale of 60 tons of steel would be formed, and before the end of 1940, a production scale of 120 million tons of steel would be formed. Finally, by the end of 1941, before the outbreak of the Pacific War, a production capacity of 200 million tons was formed.

In addition to iron and steel and non-ferrous metals, Baotou's light industry is also developing very well.For example, the textile printing and dyeing industry, leather industry, food processing industry, etc., because a large number of advanced industrial technologies are used, most of the products of these factories are exported.

For example, the canned beef produced in Baotou sold 1939 tons and 5 million cans to Germany in 1.5. Germany has an army of 500 million, and each soldier can get 30 cans of beef from China every year.

If Baotou is a comprehensive industrial base based on heavy industry, then Ma'anshan is completely a steel base.

Ma'anshan belongs to one of the seven largest iron mining areas in China, but the mining history of Ma'anshan iron ore is relatively early. In 1918, the 7th year of the Republic of China, Ma'anshan built the first mining area railway with a length of about 2 kilometers. Mining of ore.

The total iron ore reserves in Ma'anshan are about 16 billion tons, of which 10 billion tons can be mined, and the average iron content of the ore is 36.5%. The mining and smelting value is very high. Compared with the overall quality of iron ore in China, Ma'anshan's Iron ore belongs to high-quality iron ore.

Because Ma'anshan is very close to Nanjing and is located in the south of the Yangtze River, it has a convenient location.Therefore, in the "Three-Year Plan", Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Group will be built into one of the world's largest iron and steel enterprises with an annual output of 300 million tons of iron and 300 million tons of crude steel, with a total steel output of 600 million tons.

In order to complete this construction task, 500 steel experts were hired from Germany alone.As for various construction personnel, there were as many as 20. When these people arrived in Ma'anshan at the end of 1938, a medium-sized city was formed almost immediately.

在建设档期上，1939年将形成100万吨产量，1940年为200万吨产量，1941年为300万吨产量。

If these three major iron and steel bases are successfully completed as scheduled, China's steel output will reach more than 1300 million tons.This number, in the history of China's steel production, is absolutely awesome!

Later generations of China, through the efforts of "all people making steel" in 1960, its output reached 1351 million tons. Of course, its quality is needless to say. It was only in 1969 that it steadily increased to 1333 million tons.

Wu Aihua's "steelmaking" is so fanatical, is it considered a "Great Leap Forward" of steel?Both count and count.

Counting refers to the speed of development, which is crazy in all countries in the world; counting refers to strength.Wu Aihua's "merit system" has a series of smelting technologies, and these technologies are even far ahead of this era. Fortunately, Wu Aihua did not frantically take out the steel technology of the 1980s, but only took out a few of the 1945s. Iron and steel smelting is at most at the level of the 1960s.

In fact, the output of steel seems to be so much, but it is actually nothing.For example, in a certain area, no iron ore has been discovered before, and its steel production is zero. However, once it is discovered and mined, it only takes one to two years, or three to five years, to build a production base of millions of tons. steel industry.As for the construction speed, it is related to the consideration of investors, but has little to do with the steel production technology.

The "Great Leap Forward" of the later dynasties, the reason why there was a problem was that every village was engaged in steel projects, and steelmaking was completely done by indigenous methods. How could the quality of the steel produced pass the test.That kind of steel may be fine for use in the Tang or Song dynasties, but it is too demanding to be used to produce modern machinery.