Mediterranean hegemon

It was mid-October when the news of the attack on Algerian oil field facilities reached Contini's ears. At this time, he was watching the test flight of a carrier-based torpedo plane with a group of technicians.

Recently, the progress of other industrial construction has been in line with Contini's expectations. In addition, the major plan has been formulated, and the rest is supervision, so there is no need for the president to work hard personally. Of course, his management team was busy. Contini raised the requirements. Steel production must exceed 1 million tons by 1929, and the installed capacity of 2.4 million kilowatts must be fully built. Electrolytic aluminum, electrolytic copper, refining, coal chemical industry and other industries must keep up.

It's not that he covets good indicators, but there are so many objective needs: United Real Estate alone consumes more than 3 million tons of rebar a year. There is no technology like ground steel in this era, and the president will not agree to use ground steel, so steel production can only continue to leap forward, otherwise it can only continue to increase imports from Germany. With cement, glass, aluminum alloy, refining, (PVC pipe), cable and other industries comprehensively upgraded and leaped forward, a booming era with housing as the main line and infrastructure as the core is unfolding in an all-round way.

The three banners, four greats, and comprehensive construction are not equal to the fascist general line? The only thing missing is the five-character policy of "more, faster, better, cheaper, and more complete". However, in Contini's dictionary, the word "saving" is usually ignored, so it is generally only "more, faster, better, and more complete".

Industrial construction is one leg of the United Group, and the other leg is capital operation. The United Group has done well in this regard. The United Bank has signed a letter of intent with the US investment bank and is preparing for an IPO in April next year. United Petroleum will land in New York in a year. Now Wall Street is persuading him to inject the Libyan oil project into it. Because of the recent deployment of 4 divisions of troops and oil guards, the president feels that he has some confidence and has increased the reserves by 20%. This makes the Wall Street tycoons jealous. Once it goes public, it will be another gold mine.

Therefore, the six-year corporate bond of the United Group was successfully issued, with an amount of up to 200 million US dollars. In China, the long-term construction bonds of 6 billion liras were also snapped up. In order to support the United Bank, which is about to go public, Leo gave up the method of profit transfer and reflected the profit to a large extent: although the interest margin of the United Bank loan to the United Group is only 1.5%, the problem is that the volume is large and the cost is low. The annual loan scale is more than 20 billion liras. At the same time, it has to undertake the issuance of bonds, the operation of the two lines of income and expenditure, etc. The profit is considerable, and the annual profit can reflect at least 500 million. It is not unattainable to set its valuation at 500 million US dollars.

Compared with the smooth progress of these two battlefields, the situation in Libya began to become delicate. The low-key intervention of the British gave him a strong sense of crisis, so he devoted more time to armaments and defense, focusing on the development and deployment of various equipment.

Prior to this, the United Defense had achieved two outstanding results: first, the Italian Army accepted the standard caliber of the next generation of rifle bullets as 7.92mm; second, it agreed to equip the 98k and Czech light machine guns, collectively referred to as the 1926 rifle and 1926 machine gun.

What is ridiculous is the process of equipping. This is not the result of careful comparison and scientific demonstration, but the result of the president's use of money. The Army Light Weapons Committee only took a simple look at the power of the 7.92mm bullet and agreed to adopt it. Because Contini opened his mouth: he was responsible for providing the Italian Army with 200,000 updated rifles, that is, an old Charlemagne rifle could be updated to a brand new 26-type rifle; the bullets were replaced equally; the Hotchkiss machine guns and Breda machine guns originally used in the army were also replaced with new 26-type machine guns according to the update principle, with no limit on the number.

This opening was so big that the army could not refuse it and adopted it at once.

The most annoyed about this matter was the Carcano rifle factory. This meant that their company didn't even want to take orders. Others had free new guns, so they paid you to buy them. Isn't that stupid? But Contini didn't care about it. Anyway, he had promised Mussolini to donate 50 million lire to the army. He would deduct it from here first. If it was not enough, he could just subsidize another one.

However, the Army Committee expressed doubts about the semi-automatic Garand rifle and believed that it needed to be further observed. Contini was not in a hurry and thought that further improvement might be better, so he agreed to continue the review after a year.

Contini had certainly considered all the factors before adopting such a replacement policy: first, the rifle factory and Breda company he had taken over could now produce at full capacity, which could effectively boost production and employment; second, he actually mastered the standards of subsequent bullet calibers and official rifles. In other words, if Carcano did not want to starve, it would soon have the hope of joining the production of the Type 26 rifle; third, it could effectively reduce corruption in the procurement department. If the old-for-new exchange did not involve procurement, kickbacks could not be collected. Although necessary arrangements still had to be made, there would be fewer opportunities for manipulation.

As for the retired old rifles, Contini would not use them to equip the oil guards. He sent them to the Far East in the name of scrap steel for the army and sold them at a low price. Marshal Zhang's power was greatly weakened after Guo Songling's anti-Fengtian movement, and he had an urgent need for arms. At the same time, the Great Revolution was in full swing, and a large number of scrap steel from the army returned to China with Li Xi and others. Marshal Wu of Hunan and Marshal Sun of Jiangxi were eager for these arms, and even Marshal Chang of Huangpu bought several thousand.

No special reason, it’s just cheap! Moreover, the Italians are very loyal. In addition to the ocean, they can also get grain, agricultural products, bristle, tung oil, tungsten ore, antimony ore, tin ore, and copper ore for top money. They are responsible for package transportation. Some workers can go to Libya to exchange for money. As a result, the reputation of Italian scrap steel has spread like wildfire in China, and it has the potential to sweep across China. A few years later, Italian scrap steel became a proper noun in the dictionary and was required to be tested in history classes.

And these merchant ships are not empty-handed. When they return to Italy, they usually carry people and materials to Libya to unload the goods first, and then return to Italy to load scrap steel. This cycle starts over and over again. If you manage it well, it can cycle once every three months. As soon as the transport ship begins to leave the port, the next batch of goods is prepared and ready for delivery as soon as it arrives, to everyone's satisfaction. Can this business make money? Of course you can’t make money! If you can make money, there will definitely be a lot of people rushing to get in. But Contini’s starting point is not to make money, he is to reduce losses, otherwise who will sell these 200,000 scrap steel? However, the fact that the president is a good friend of the Chinese people is confirmed, so kind!

Copper, tin, and tungsten ores were turned into arms and sent to the Italian Army. All grain and agricultural products were digested locally in North Africa. It is said that Chinese rice can still be sold at a good price among laborers. United Group's apparent losses were replaced by deep-seated gains in strength. This is what Contini thinks is the most cost-effective, and what management professors will be most emotional about in the future.

This new torpedo bomber is similar to the T3M torpedo bomber of the American Martin Company. It adopts a single-engine structure, but uses a liquid-cooled engine; and is different from another torpedo bomber T2D (produced by the American Douglas Company). It uses two air-cooled engines.

On the issue of single-engine or double-engine, Contini's attitude is very clear. Carrier-based torpedo aircraft must use single-engine and double-engine. Although it is more reliable and safer, it takes up too much space.

Fortunately, at this time, United Power also launched a 12-cylinder V-type liquid-cooled engine based on the products of Rolls-Royce and Fiat. The standard output reaches 435 horsepower, which is 35 horses larger than the engine used in the T3m.

In terms of body design, this verification machine is much more luxurious than the T3M. It has a complete aluminum alloy body. This is not ordinary Duralumin, let alone the aluminum alloy used by United Real Estate, but the latest chrome-nickel product produced by United Laboratories. Manganese-based superhard aluminum alloy is slightly stronger than steel, but its unit weight is only one-third of that of steel. This suddenly makes the aircraft much lighter. Not only is the surface tension and strength of the aircraft body enhanced, but it is also Deck takeoff and landing performance is better.

Of course, this alloy is not the same as the Igarashi aluminum alloy used in Japan's Zero War in later generations. That alloy contains magnesium, zinc and other ingredients. However, the joint laboratory is also stepping up research because the president said that not only aluminum alloys should be used for To manufacture airframes and, if necessary, aluminum alloys to manufacture airplanes, cars, and tank engines, it is unimaginable without breakthroughs in materials science.

Take this prototype code-named T1 as an example. It has an empty weight of 2.37 tons, three seats, and can carry a 600 kilogram simulated torpedo. It exceeds the T3m's ability to carry 454 kilograms. Its practical ceiling exceeds 3,000 meters, and its maximum level flight speed exceeds 200 kilometers. km/h, except for a slightly shorter range of about 1020 kilometers, all other indicators are superior.

Veterans such as Goering have even conducted experiments. On the premise of mounting a 600kg simulated torpedo, two 25kg auxiliary fuel tanks can be mounted on the wings, but the rolling distance must be increased by 9-12 meters accordingly.

Seeing the plane flying steadily from the deck, Contini and others gave warm applause. He explained: "The next step is to use this simulated bomb for training. You must do it step by step and don't rush."

"But there is no such aerial torpedo yet!" Goering scratched his scalp, "You can't practice fake training every day, right? That would feel too bad!"

"I will rush out a batch of them, but don't expect any performance, just usability." Contini shrugged, "Torpedoes commonly used in the navy now are more than 1 ton or even 1.5 tons, and they can't even use 600 kilogram torpedoes. I haven’t thought about it. It’s not possible to rely on the master of the Navy. It’s up to the United Shipyard to do it by itself. Of course, this is also a good thing. After we can build it, won’t this order be firmly in our hands?”

Everyone laughed...