Section 2: Outsmarting and Braving Entrepreneurs in the Military Industry

  A pale-faced Krupp grasped Hitler's arm, saying in a torrent of words: "Führer, please explain what this is all about? After the end of hostilities in Western Europe, I demanded that construction of the Dora cannon be stopped because France had been occupied and it was no longer needed. At the time, you ordered its continued construction to show the world Germany's strength. Now that it has finally been built, you want to blow it up? We have worked on it for five years, five whole years!" He held out his palm in anguish.

  Li De-ren glared at the young man, his eyes narrowing: "Are you questioning me? Let this guy waste half of my division's soldiers for nothing? Yes, we should show the world how powerful Germany is. And to give you some publicity, I had someone film the magnificent scene of the artillery fire earlier. I think that's enough."

  Li De was furious, pointing at Krupp's nose: "America has entered the war, and now the Empire is equal to opposing the world's industrial powers. America, the Soviet Union, Britain, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India... except for Japan, which produces small bean tanks, and Italy, whose tanks were overturned by Ethiopian natives, all weapons are aimed at the Third German Empire. Young man, I doubt you'll be busy enough later on, do you still have time to nitpick about this iron lump?"

  "But... this... is a major project after all..."

  Li Deqiang said, "I understand what you mean. Isn't it just a matter of money? Although you are a party member and a militia officer, and also hold a concurrent post in the government, at heart you are still a businessman. According to the situation, the factory needs to expand production again, I can understand that."

  Krupp let go of his hand, his face flushed with a lot of color, and forced a smile: "With the Führer's words, I'm reassured. I request that Minister Speer take into account our losses from the big guns when making next year's budget."

  Speer looked uncomfortable: "My Fuehrer, you know that our entire armaments production was based on the assumption of a short war, as in the blitzkrieg... now it's possible that the war will drag on..."

  Li De interrupted: "What delay? The war has been prolonged. All of you, including the commanders, must be realistic when discussing problems and difficulties from now on, bravely face them, don't cover up or evade, and speak clearly. Continue."

  Speer swallowed and spread his hands: "Yes, as the Fuehrer just pointed out, the war has been prolonged, and when we drew up next year's budget, there was already a gap of 55 billion Reichsmarks..."

  Li De coughed twice, and Speer suddenly realized that he had just been nervous and mentioned the specific data that needed to be kept confidential. He looked at the Führer with concern, but fortunately, there were not many dark clouds on his face, so he continued to talk boldly about the urgency and practical difficulties of imperial weapon production.

  "If all else fails, the only way to make up for the loss of money from selling the cannon is to take it out of the budget for developing new products." Schwerer said helplessly.

  "Who said I'm giving you money?"

  Speer stuttered, the blood that had just rushed to Krupp's face flowing back into his body, his mouth agape, his neck stretched out like a rooster about to be slaughtered.

  Lee De felt both angry and amused, and said to Krupp: "I'll give you 100,000 Russian prisoners of war."

  "1 million?" Krupp's heart almost jumped out of his chest, Speer held him and joked: "If I didn't hold you back a bit, you would have fainted from excitement."

  "I haven't finished speaking yet, what are you interrupting me for? 30,000 of which was used to make up for the economic losses caused by dismantling the Doragon cannon? And another 70,000 was used for other purposes."

  Krupp tilted his head and thought for a moment before responding listlessly: "It can't be helped"

  "But can you tell me something else?"

  The commander told him: During the typhoon operation, 500,000 trucks of the Central Group Army encountered muddy roads, many were stuck in the mud, and 150,000 were towed away. The tires were frozen on the iron-like fields. Now, he plans to install tracks under these wheel-less vehicles as all-weather off-road vehicles.

  "Chief's idea is absolutely right. Since the war against the Soviet Union, because all roads in Russia are dirt roads, motorized infantry advancing forward would be unable to move when it rains, losing many opportunities for battle, such as during the advance on St. Petersburg..."

  "In this way, linear motion becomes plane motion," said Brahmhacharya hastily. Hald stared at him.

  Lee presented a vivid picture to his generals: "In the dust that blocked out the sky, tanks led the way, armored cars followed, and behind them came German soldiers riding on tracked trucks. Suddenly, a heavy rain poured down, wheeled vehicles got stuck in the mud, while tracked trucks splashed through the water and continued to advance fearlessly."

  A lieutenant general of artillery walked over with his head hung low, looking at him in a daze. Li De stepped forward and said to the lieutenant general who was hastily saluting: "Take your men and the new big guns to report to the 11th Army Group and serve as the commander of the special artillery regiment."

  "Artillery Lieutenant General spirit for one vibration: 'Manstein? Good! Can ask what gun?"

  Li De said to him, and also to the crowd with a showy tone: "From November 1940 to August 1941, Rheinmetall built six Karl howitzers, each with its own name: Adam, Eve, Thor, Odin, Loki, and Ziu. How about you go command these gods?"

  "What's with the mortar?" The artillery lieutenant general seemed to shrink by half, his face bearing the helplessness of a phoenix turned into a chicken. He gazed at the majestic appearance of the Dora cannon with a mixture of pain and regret, then dragged himself away.

  ……

  The next day, in the grand conference hall of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Li De convened a meeting with the heads of military-industrial enterprises and research institutions. The bosses of Krupp, Henschel, Mauser, Wilhelmshaven shipyard, Mercedes-Benz, Messerschmitt, Augsburg Mechanical Factory, Rheinmetall, Hanomag, and Volkswagen attended the meeting, as well as representatives from the Imperial Science Bureau, the Association for Science and Technology, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Human Resources, and the Racial Affairs Bureau.

  The Field Marshals of the Empire responsible for the Four Year Plan, Himmler and Goebbels, as well as the two pairs of Generals from the High Command and the Army also attended the meeting.

  As it was a military-industrial conference, Speer naturally presided over it. After a brief opening speech, he represented the Empire and read out the draft of the "War Production Law of the German Empire", which had just been drafted. After revision and improvement, it was submitted to the National Assembly for approval with a rubber stamp. As it involved the vital interests of various enterprises, the discussion turned into a debate, and then escalated into a quarrel, which lasted for half a day without coming to a conclusion.

  The busiest at the meeting were Speer and his deputy, legal advisor Li. Earlier, he had listened intently, but those legal clauses were too dry, seemingly simple yet infinitely layered. He soon became muddled, thinking to himself that as a ruler of a country, he should grasp the big picture and not get bogged down in trivial details. With this thought, his mind began to wander back to last night's bedroom games with Eva.

  Li De was in the middle of a heated battle with Ai Wa last night, when her sister suddenly burst in, covering her mouth in shock. She grabbed a "listening device" - a sanitary pad - and didn't even knock on the door. No wonder she can't find a partner, it's really not harmonious between men and women.

  Li Dezheng smiled secretly, someone woke him up, others had already called out several times.

  。

  Speer asked: "My Fuehrer, are we still differentiating in our treatment of prisoners of war between the East and the West?"

  "Uh-huh, of course. Ah?" Li De's mind was elsewhere.

  Among the attendees, G?ring dozed off after 10 minutes and constantly looked at his watch. The only time he showed interest in the conference content was when Dr. Messerschmitt said that the Bf109 fighter plane was inferior to the Bf110 fighter plane, this famous World War I pilot vehemently refuted.

  Goebbels started writing in his notebook, later doodling on it, someone saw him drawing an angel with wings flying towards the prince on the ground.

  Himmler sat with his usual stern expression when someone asked about a certain advanced weapon used by the SS, unexpectedly discovering that he had the special talent of dozing off with his eyes open.

  Of the two pairs of Hee-haws, Kettler sat up straightest; the Commander-in-Chief was expressionless from head to toe and didn't utter a word; Halder kept looking at this one and that one until his neck couldn't take it anymore; Jodl frequently went to the toilet.

  The meeting lasted until evening, and there were still several things that had not been settled. Li De believed it was time for him to take the stage and could no longer cater to the selfish businessmen.

  Lee De slowly stood up, with his hands behind his back pacing in the conference room, Schpeel cleared his throat to signal everyone to quiet down, the leader was about to speak.

  The bubbling sound gradually subsided after a while, and another sentence emerged: "Germany's steel production last year was already quite high, reaching 200 million tons."

  Li De Xun looked in the direction of the sound and found it was Krupp boasting loudly.

  "Is that all?" Li De stared at him coldly. "You've all been talking for over ten hours, it's about time I get to talk for a few dozen minutes."

  Yodel rushed back to his seat after another trip to the bathroom. Everyone straightened up, looking eager to listen.

  Li De began pacing in the conference room: "I'll start with what Krupp said about steel production. Don't question the accuracy of my numbers, just believe the facts I'm telling you. In 1940, Germany's steel production was 26.1 million tons, according to reliable intelligence and analysis, while the Soviet Union had 18 million tons, Britain had 12 million tons, and what about the United States? It reached as high as 60 million tons."

  "Some people might say that our allies also produce warships and cannons, I agree with this point, but do you know how much steel Italy produces? 2 million tons, equivalent to the spare change of the British Empire. And what about Japan? Despite their pretentious appearance, they only have one armored division, and they treasure those small toy tanks that nobody wants. Even if they were to melt down all their pots and pans, and the Emperor himself were to donate his stainless steel chopsticks, their steel production would not exceed 7 million tons, most of which has been used to build aircraft carriers."

  He intentionally made a witty remark, but everyone was silent, and those entrepreneurs were busy taking notes.

  Lee pointed with his right hand, tapping the roof of the house: "It should be noted that after the US military industry switched to a wartime system, steel production increased at a rate of 20 million tons per year. In other words, the annual increase in output is equivalent to Germany's output last year. Mr. Krupp, do you still say that Germany has a high output?"

  Everyone's eyes turned to Krupp, who buried his head in his book, his face red and white.