A Journey Through the Flames of War in the Republican Era

These past few days, Song Hongfei has had a relatively leisurely time. He knows that his status and experience are still shallow, and he cannot be compared with the high-level officials in the Chinese delegation. He is not yet qualified to attend the high-level talks between the two sides.

Furthermore, the negotiations had not yet progressed to the point where he was involved, so he was arranged to stay at the hotel with his secretaries to summarize and organize the documents and materials related to the various negotiation matters.

Several days of document sorting gave Song Hongfei a clearer and deeper understanding of the matters the delegation was negotiating in various European countries.

In recent years, China has sent numerous inspection teams, yielding fruitful results. It has negotiated and reached many military procurement and industrial cooperation projects with major Western industrialized countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Belgium. Among these, Germany is undoubtedly the most trusted, with the broadest scope of cooperation and the greatest commitment.

What greatly encouraged Song Hongfei was that his research on the precise quantitative calculation and design of ballistics and gun mechanics, as well as some design theories, methods and patents of semi-automatic rifles and general-purpose machine guns, and his research on mechanized troops and infantry tactics, could all be used as "hard currency" and played a huge role in a series of military, trade and industrial construction negotiations with European and American countries, which greatly increased China's voice.

"There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies between nations, only permanent interests!" Song Hongfei said quietly.

He clearly recognized that the cooperation between China and European and American countries was a vivid manifestation of "only eternal interests," where each side took what it needed, without any so-called friendship or morality, and everything was based on self-interest.

The Hans' Republic itself lacked sufficient resources to sustain the enormous costs of war. After Hitler came to power, in order to revive the Hans' dream, he vigorously expanded the military and urgently needed to strengthen the import and stockpiling of strategic resources. However, considering the current situation, there were not many countries with which the Hans' Republic could cooperate. Since World War I, the victorious powers such as the United Kingdom and France had always been wary and strictly controlled the import of strategic materials such as tungsten ore into the Hans' Republic.

Although China was poor and backward, it was a major resource country, rich in rare minerals such as tungsten, antimony, tin and manganese, as well as agricultural and sideline products such as pig bristles and tung oil, which were essential for military supplies.

Since the Weimar period, China, facing financial difficulties and a shortage of foreign exchange, exported strategic resources and agricultural products, while obtaining a large amount of urgently needed military equipment and industrial equipment from the Hans. At that time, China was the Hans' largest trading partner in the Far East.

In reality, the expansion of the Hans' military had already begun before Hitler came to power. In order to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, under the strong advocacy of the "father of the Wehrmacht," Commander-in-Chief von Seeckt, the Hans' military began to relocate its military industrial enterprises and military personnel abroad.

This marked the beginning of a decade-long golden period of cooperation between the two sides, which lasted until the early stages of the full-scale war.

Four years ago, in the summer of 4, Yu Dawei went to West Point Military Academy in the United States to handle matters related to Song Hongfei's design of a semi-automatic rifle. After returning to China, he began to prepare for the testing and final production of the new rifle, and subsequently served as the director of the Ordnance Department.

At the beginning of the second year, with the help of Hanskov's chief advisor von Seeckt, Yu Dawei launched a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's arsenals, renovating old factories, building new ones, and establishing military research institutions. He also hired a group of technicians from Hanskov and purchased a large amount of equipment, resulting in significant renovations and expansions of the existing arsenals.

Subsequently, the Hans Kingdom established the "Hans Kingdom Industrial Products Trading Co., Ltd.", also known as "Hebulou" Company. In the same year, a barter trade agreement was signed, further strengthening the cooperation between the two parties.

In recent years, the two sides have carried out an "industrial cooperation plan" to introduce Han Chinese technology and capital, and plan to build modern industrial zones in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Southwest China, and Northwest China. The plan aims to build a large number of heavy industries, including steel, coal mining, fuel, machinery, electrical, chemical, and automobile manufacturing, and to cultivate a large number of industrial management and technical personnel.

The Ordnance Department also jointly built a new artillery factory with the Hans Krupp Group and a military optical instrument manufacturing plant with the Zeiss Company.

The new artillery plant had been in the planning stages for four years, with plans to import a complete set of advanced equipment from Germany. Two years ago, the Krupp Group submitted a comprehensive joint venture proposal.

The plan outlines the construction of a new type of arsenal comprising seven sub-factories: a cannon manufacturing plant, a shell factory, a copper factory, a steel factory, a testing plant, a power plant, and a gunpowder factory. The planned production capacity is:

16 75mm infantry guns are produced per month.

每月生产75mm炮弹4万颗；105mm炮弹1.2万颗；150mm炮弹5000颗。

Monthly production: 60 tons of gun ammunition; 150 tons of artillery ammunition; 1200 kg of black powder; 500 tons of gunpowder and white powder.

In April of this year, the two sides signed a supplementary agreement, officially establishing a barter channel. The Hansin State provided an indefinite, low-interest loan of 100 million marks, which China would use to purchase a large quantity of advanced tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, anti-aircraft guns, torpedoes, helmets, communication equipment, and other weapons and military supplies.

Song Hongfei felt a surge of excitement.

He knew that after the founding of the new China, it undertook large-scale industrial construction, with Russia in the north providing assistance in numerous projects, including steel, coal, smelting, electricity, machinery, shipbuilding, electronics, chemicals, textiles, and so on, essentially encompassing a complete industrial system. In just a few years, it transformed from an impoverished agricultural country into an industrialized nation capable of manufacturing airplanes, tanks, ships, and automobiles.

Although the industrial cooperation plan with Hans was not as extensive or as powerful as the aid from Russia in the north, and with a full-scale war looming, the short period of a few years was still too short. However, it could still lay the foundation for modern industrialization and prevent the country from falling into poverty.

Today, the butterfly effect, caused by the flapping of its wings, has quietly exerted its astonishing power.

Many of the plans that were originally just on paper are now in full swing, and some have already started production. He estimated that even if only 1/10 to 1/5 of the plans can be successfully put into production, at least the basic supply of weapons and ammunition can be guaranteed.

However, everything is in ruins and time waits for no one. I'm afraid Japan won't just stand by and watch you grow bigger!

Song Hongfei stood in front of a world map hanging on the wall, his thoughts racing.

He clearly recognized that the entire collaboration was actually controlled by Hans, whether it was the content, form, pricing power, or the method of exchange.

Given the international situation at the time, the actual value of the tungsten exported from China to Hans was no less than 100 million marks, and the price China paid was still too high.

Song Hongfei firmly believes that weak countries have no diplomacy, and only a strong country with great international influence can take more initiative in cooperation between countries.

The world situation is constantly changing, and Hitler's ambitions will only grow bigger. How long can this cooperation between the two sides last?

Once the Hans nation completes its military system and has sufficient strategic resource reserves, will the value of China still be so important?

What benefits can China rely on to encourage the Hansinian Empire to increase cooperation and supply advanced military equipment and industrial equipment to China?

He thought to himself, "When there is no need for profit, no value in cooperation, in the face of gains and losses, feelings and morality no longer have any meaning."

Song Hongfei was well aware that at the time, the relationship between Hans and Russia appeared peaceful on the surface, but was actually turbulent underneath. One of the important purposes of Hans' military cooperation was to win over China against Russia.

Compared to China, Japan is far more powerful. When a full-scale war breaks out and the relationship between China and Japan becomes irreconcilable, Hans will only choose its Japanese ally when faced with its own interests. By exploiting the conflict between Japan and Russia, Hans will win over Japan to counterbalance Russia, and its Far East policy will shift from pro-China to pro-Japan.

Faced with everlasting interests, I fear that the little mustache might turn on us at any moment!

Song Hongfei also noticed that China has focused too much on the advanced nature of weapons in some military procurement projects, failing to comprehensively and reasonably consider their applicability. Some of these projects are overly ambitious, with unrealistic expectations and disregard for China's national conditions.

When purchasing artillery, people only look for the most advanced and newest models, with all performance indicators at the world's top level. However, artillery designed by Europe and America is based on European draft horses, and the weight of disassembled parts is very large, often exceeding 100 kilograms. This is naturally not a problem for European horses, whose carrying capacity is 120-150 kilograms.

However, the native mules and horses of China could only carry 70-80 kilograms, and the road conditions were also poor. The native mules and horses could not bear the heavy load, which greatly restricted the movement of artillery and prevented it from exerting its combat effectiveness.

Song Hongfei recalls that in the later stages of the War of Resistance Against Japan, when the United States provided the Chinese Expeditionary Force with a batch of 75mm M1 howitzers, it also had to procure a large number of mules from the United States and transport them by special plane via the "Hump" airlift route.

Another crucial point is that the manufacturing technology and materials required for the new artillery were extremely demanding, and China's industrial capacity was simply insufficient to replicate them. Even the production requirements for artillery shells were difficult to meet, necessitating complete reliance on imports. After the outbreak of the full-scale war of resistance against Japan, the Japanese navy quickly blockaded China's coastal ports, cutting off external aid routes and leaving China without access to replenishment of equipment and ammunition.

Song Hongfei believes that artillery suitable for the national conditions must be lightweight, have light disassembled parts, be compatible with local mules and horses, be domestically replicable, and have its shells produced domestically.

However, due to the blind pursuit of advanced performance of new weapons from Europe and the United States, and insufficient anticipation of the difficult situation of future all-out war, the top leadership often overlooked this point when making selections.

Song Hongfei felt that he was facing a thorny problem: how could he raise these issues with the high-ranking officials?

Given his seniority and position, it was naturally inappropriate for him to comment on national strategies and policies, or to speak frankly without restraint, otherwise it would be considered "overstepping his bounds," which would be a great disrespect to high-ranking officials—"You think you can do that? We all lack vision?"

Where does this leave the superiors? What about their dignity and authority?

How am I supposed to get by after this...?