Mediterranean hegemon

ps: Thanks to "Miracle - Magic Swordsman" for becoming the leader of this book. He was also the leader of the previous book "Iron Cross". Thanks to all the friends for their strong support!

At 3:30 pm, Mussolini and others, who had recovered enough strength, rushed to the production base of United Motorcycle accompanied by the mayor of Milan.

In this era, there are still many industries in the urban area of ​​Milan. It is rare to deploy them in the periphery like United Motorcycle. Although the land in the suburbs is cheap, the employment and commuting costs are not small expenses. However, Contini's ideas are completely different from theirs. He is based on long-term and large-scale expansion when starting businesses. Therefore, although the current production capacity of United Motorcycle has not been released, it occupies a large area. In addition to using the original site and facilities, it is also building a large number of new buildings.

Arriving at the gate of the base, Contini first pointed to the huge planning signboard and introduced the United Industrial Park: the entire park covers an area of ​​nearly 400 hectares, and nearly 1,500 hectares of usable land and waters are reserved in the north, east and south. The easternmost section is the Milan Aviation Base, where the Milan Civil Airport will be located in the future. Then in the middle is the Aviation Town and the Special Park, including all kinds of living facilities gathered here, the workers' new village and the expert building are also located here, and of course, the Youth Daily Distribution Department, United Express, logistics warehousing and other facilities are also indispensable. The area closer to the city in the west is the location of United Motorcycle.

There is also a railway branch line connected to the Milan Railway Station on the planning map, with a total length of about 60 kilometers, which can realize convenient transportation of materials and personnel-as the son of the Minister of Transportation, this back door must be opened. Besides, Contini is not taking advantage of it in vain. This enterprise branch line is funded by him, and the Ministry of Transportation only needs to provide supporting vehicle dispatching.

Mussolini looked at a blank area in the southwest and asked, "What are you going to build here? Is it the second and third phase expansion of United Motor?"

"No, that is the remaining production area of ​​United Power..." Contini blinked, "In the future, this place will produce vehicle and aviation engines, but the staff are not in place yet and various facilities are still under construction. I am afraid it will not be officially opened until the second half of next year."

"It seems that you are also planning to enter the automotive industry?"

Contini nodded: "It is not enough for Italy to have only one Fiat. There must be more modern automobile factories, but my positioning will be staggered with Fiat. Our mid-term goal is to focus on trucks and other engineering surveying fields, appropriately involved in the production of large and medium-sized buses, and basically not involved in the production of small cars."

Alberto nodded: The staggered competition is still very scientific, and it is also reasonable from the perspective of park planning. The only difficulty may be funding. He believes that the current situation alone is not something that can be won by 200-300 million lira, and the overall completion may require 1-1.5 billion lira.

He had no idea that Contini's grand blueprint was to eventually build a heavy industrial base covering an area of ​​more than 10 square kilometers outside Milan, which would produce not only motorcycles, trucks, but also tanks and aircraft, forming an industrial base that would stand on equal footing with the Fiat base. The overall investment would not be less than 20 billion lire, and he ambitiously required it to be completed within 15 years - so that it could be in time for the war.

Mussolini was very satisfied with this. His relationship with the Agnelli family, which controlled Fiat, was currently very ordinary. The latter seemed to have not yet put themselves in the right position, and deeply realized that he was the supreme controller of the country, and thought that he was just a flash in the pan. He was very willing to support another brand to play against Fiat.

"I heard you are planning to buy land in the port of Venice?"

Contini admitted without hesitation: "Yes, but I don't speculate in land, that's for people with low vision. I plan to set up United Chemical, United Shipping and United Steel. United Chemical focuses on salt chemical and petrochemical. Given the lack of coal and oil resources in Italy, these industrial raw materials basically have to be imported, so it is more appropriate to put them in Venice - to the east through the Adriatic Sea to the Mediterranean, to the north through the Alps to the hinterland of Central Europe, it is the best of both worlds."

He thought very clearly that coal can only be obtained from Germany, Poland and other places, and oil can be considered from North Africa and the Middle East. Old Ciano originally wanted to persuade his son to put shipbuilding in Genoa, but because United Steel was going to be in Venice, it would be inappropriate to put the shipyard in Genoa.

"Galais, your industry is basically concentrated in the north, why don't you consider setting up some in the south?"

"South? It's difficult. Now the best we can do is to go to Livorna and Florence, of course Rome is not included..."

"Why? Although the industrial base in the north is better, the cost of resources and labor in all aspects is higher. If we go to the south..."

Contini shook his head as if sighing: "I also know that we can't concentrate all in the north. The problem is that I still need to hire a large number of German engineers and skilled workers. The psychological distance in the north is acceptable to them, but it's too difficult in the south."

When they heard that the Germans were hired and the layout could not be compared with Rome, everyone had a strange look on their face, but after thinking about it, they understood: Although Italy is known as a great power, there are significant differences between Italy and Britain, France and Germany in the industrial field. This difference is not only reflected in the overall industry. In terms of scale and strength, it is also reflected in the quality of personnel. Not only are there great differences in the field of cutting-edge science and technology, but there are also great deficiencies in the huge field of science and engineering engineers. Not to mention Germany, which has a much larger population than Italy, even the population is basically the same as Italy. In France and the United Kingdom, the number of engineers with standard university diplomas is 2-3 times that of Italy. If we talk about skilled industrial workers, the gap is even greater. Northern Italy still has the atmosphere of an industrial country, while southern Italy, especially Sicily, is almost an agricultural society. Let alone the great powers, it is worse than the Czech Republic and Austria, and at best it is on the level of Romania and Hungary.

"Currently, there are about 170 German engineers working for the United Group, and there are about 500-600 skilled industrial workers. If possible, I would also like to use all Italians, but Italy cannot produce so many outstanding engineers, and it is impossible. We found a lot of skilled workers at once, and there were quite a few unemployed people without any skills. However, they can only be used to do odd jobs and deliver newspapers. They are not qualified to work as serious technicians and technicians. And..." Kong. Tiny spread his hands and said, "The further south you go, the less disciplined and organized you are, and a lot of young people are just doing their jobs... Without vigorous training and organization, I'm afraid they won't be of use."

Everyone knows this well. Compared with the Germans' sense of discipline and obedience, the Italians are indeed far behind. How to strengthen the discipline of these people? Contini has given a prescription: forming a railway construction labor front and using Militarized management methods were used to organize young people to build roads. After 1-2 years of hard work, they would develop a preliminary sense of obedience and discipline. However, the old Ciano was worried that it would be done too hastily and the backlash would be too great, so he shelved it. Nigeria will not do such a thankless job when the government is newly established.

"As for engineers..." Contini even smiled bitterly, "There are many universities in Italy, but there are more liberal arts majors. There are a lot of talents trained in sociology, history, law, literature, accounting, business, etc. The advantage is that a group of college students can be trained at a very low cost. The disadvantage is that Italian students generally avoid majors and study these majors. Science and engineering are difficult, but liberal arts are easy to learn. Then they can sharpen their brains and squeeze into the government to become officials. It's just luck. Fortunately, coupled with my family background and my ability to speak well, I might be able to rise to prominence in two years..."

Then he pointed to his nose with self-mockery: "You see, I am not the best example? I changed from law at the University of Rome to history, then sharpened my head and became an assistant to the minister, and then worked in a newspaper I wrote articles on the Internet, and I returned all those science formulas that were annoying to the teacher..."

"Ha!" Everyone burst into laughter. This irony was so vivid that it was a true portrayal of Contini - lucky, well-educated, well-spoken, liberal arts major, and fast, he had it all. All done!

Now these bureaucrats find it even more interesting to see Contini. This is not a second-generation official who behaves randomly, but a second-generation official who has lofty ideals and ambitions and is capable of doing things! ——Of course, acting recklessly and being able to toss are two expressions of the same meaning.