Chapter 459 Heaven's Blessing
Chapter 459 Heaven's Blessing
Since both Britain and Germany were equipped with airship fleets, the factories of both countries were in trouble and were bombed every other day.
The arms production capacity of both sides has dropped significantly. If Germany wants to buy aircraft and diesel tanks to copy, it is not a problem. The problem is that there is no place to produce them safely.
Of course, there is no problem in producing a part of it, but to meet the massive needs of millions of troops, we must import it.
"Uncle Shao, this time Germany ordered 3,000 tanks, 4,000 armored vehicles, 4,000 wheeled personnel carriers, 2,000 bombers, 10,000 Mercedes-Benz light trucks, 2 million gallons of aviation gasoline, and 4 million gallons of diesel. This cost more than half of Russia's compensation in one go, and our cost is only 20%..."
Three days later, Wang Yongxian reported to Shao Quanzhong about the Germans' reaction when they learned that Shao Quanzhong had taken on Lucia's foreign debt.
All of this money became a special fund for arms purchases temporarily stored in Daxia. Daxia didn't have much money, but it had plenty of arms. What Shao Quanzhong showed Evan at the time was not just planes and tanks...
"We didn't sell a single passenger car to Germany, but the Americans urgently purchased 20,000 Mercedes-Benz and 400 Maybachs."
Shao Quanzhong was puzzled. "They bought so much at once? Can they sell it?"
"This is related to President Hayes' national policy after he took office. President Hayes was very unfriendly to us. The presidential decrees he issued on his first day in office were all aimed at containing us."
"The US is preparing to impose a 25% tariff on Daxia products, which will take effect on the first of next month, so their retailers are taking advantage of this time difference and desperately importing and stockpiling goods before the tax increase."
"At the same time, President Hayes vetoed many of President Johnson's plans and announced that the Panama Canal would be controlled solely by the federal government and Daxia would no longer be invited to invest."
"Restrict immigration from Daxia to the Federation. During President Johnson's administration, he vigorously recruited Chinese immigrants to the West Coast for western development. The Homestead Act attracted about five million Daxia people to immigrate to the Federation."
"There are now 10 million Americans, of whom Chinese make up %, second only to Germans and British, and equal to Irish."
"Hayes announced that he would no longer accept Daxia immigrants to avoid being controlled by Daxia."
"Stop providing technical assistance to Daxia and recall all experts and technicians within six months."
"But his policy is difficult to implement. The Federation cannot provide the same treatment as Daxia for experts and senior technicians. Most of the Federation's experts and technicians will become Daxia citizens. The scientists in Xiaoxiang Cliff have strongly criticized this policy."
Shao Quanzhong sighed. When poor, they hug each other for warmth. When rich, they go their separate ways and become rivals. This is human nature. Big countries have no real allies, only interests...
"Yuting, Yuting!"
Wenxiu suddenly broke into the study.
Wenxiu rarely disturbed Shao Quanzhong when he was working. Today, his adopted son was reporting to him, why did he suddenly come in? And his face was flushed, was he very excited?
"Yuting, our oil exploration team has made another major discovery in Tianfang Province and Babylon Province."
"They drilled a self-flowing well in the Burgan area of Kuwait in Babylon Province, and the oil column reached 300 meters high. Such a strong self-flowing phenomenon shows that the entire Kuwait is floating on oil. Experts estimate that the reserves exceed 140 billion tons."
"Almost at the same time, another exploration team started producing oil from the seventh oil well drilled in the Daman area of Tianfang Province, which was also an excellent self-flowing well."
"Yuting, we are rich, very rich!"
The wealth that can make Wenxiu, a billionaire, not remain calm must be wealth that is comparable to that of a country.
Originally, oil was mainly used to make kerosene for lighting, and Rockefeller became the richest man in the federation because of this.
Now Shao Quanzhong's airplanes, tanks, armored vehicles, wheeled personnel carriers, light trucks, and Mercedes-Benz Maybach are selling like hot cakes. With the emergence of gasoline and diesel engines, the importance of coal mines has been greatly reduced.
Most steam engines will be replaced by gasoline and diesel engines, and humans are about to enter the oil age. At this time, Daxia discovered the world's top oil field, which was a blessing from heaven.
Now Baku belongs to Daxia, Babylon and Mecca also belong to Daxia. Shao Quanzhong didn't know that in the Siberia that he "lost a huge sum of money" to buy, there was also a place called Tyumen... It was Wenxiu's sole decision to explore for oil within the area controlled by Daxia. Seeing Wenxiu so excited, Shao Quanzhong felt very moved and thought that marrying this wife was worth it.
Not only did Cheng Yiliang make a lot of money, but except for the telecommunications industry, almost all other big-money industries were managed by Wenxiu.
Shao Quanzhong suddenly felt that he had been paying too little attention to Wenxiu recently.
"Well, Xiu'er, you pick two large oil wells and register the shares in the names of Qimei and Jifang."
These two are Wen Xiu's daughters, one surnamed Wen and the other surnamed Shao, and Shao Quanzhong never cared about them. Now he feels a little sorry for Wen Xiu, so he should prepare more dowry for her.
Wenxiu said solemnly, "If we are going to prepare dowries for our daughters, it can't just be my daughter. Liuniang's Jiying, Jiqing, and Ping'er's Jimin must all have some."
Do I have five daughters? Shao Quanzhong never carefully counted them. As a feudal patriarch, he never cared about his daughters.
Shao Quanzhong had just made a fortune and was very open-minded. He waved his hand and said, "When we find an oil well, we'll give one to everyone."
She kissed Wenxiu on the cheek, "Xiu'er, you really have the bearing of a queen. Just take care of this matter. Well, I have to stay in Qingfeng Pavilion for a week."
Wenxiu blushed, stretched out her hand and pinched the soft flesh on Shao Quanzhong's waist, "Yongxian is here, always so frivolous. You have to go to Ping'er when you have time. She has returned from the capital and hasn't seen you yet."
"Don't worry about her. She has a bad heart. We need to ignore her for a while longer."
…………
Beijing, headquarters of the Commercial Bank of China.
This is a bank jointly established by the northern provinces, responsible for investing in various industries in the north.
When it came to selecting bank managers, Zhang Zhidong was very worried because there were no reliable people in the Northern Provinces who understood banks.
Finally, Li Hongzhang's aide Sheng Huaixuan caught his eye. Sheng Huaixuan was a man who was quite knowledgeable about Western affairs. Under Li Hongzhang, he was promoted to prefect at the age of 26 and was highly respected.
However, there was a period of time when he was transferred by Wenxiang to promote the "nationalization of railways", but he made mistakes and was "never employed again".
It was the Qing court that never employed him, but Zhang Zhidong was unconventional and promoted Sheng Huaixuan again. Not to mention, the bank was well managed.
Sheng Huaixuan didn't know much about banks, but he knew a lot of smart foreigners. He hired a lot of foreign managers and worked hard under them to study, so he was not fooled by them.
In the general manager's office, Sheng Huaixuan was looking at the financial report for the new month when his federal deputy manager White knocked on the door and walked in.
"Sheng, what I mentioned last time, how is the matter of Citibank acquiring a stake in the Commercial Bank and striving for the right to issue banknotes going?"
Sheng Huaixuan frowned, "The Marshal has strictly prohibited this, it can't be done at all."
"Sheng, after our club taught you how to operate the bank, you now have 20 million taels of silver in your Citibank account. You can't just sit there and do something."
"It's not that I won't do it, it's just that I really can't do it."
"Sheng, do you think Shao Quanzhong is a stumbling block that prevents us from getting rich? Let me tell you about the assassination of Alexander II..."
(End of this chapter)