Arnold, one of the former bosses of German Baoji Company, returned to Shanghai from Germany.
At the beginning of the European War, no one expected that it would evolve into a protracted war. Most of the participating countries did not make the necessary preparations for this long-term war. The war had just been going on for a year, and Germany’s reserves
Supplies will be exhausted, especially some heavy and rare metals that Germany lacks.
Arnold was ordered to return to China. He knew that Lin Shuo had tungsten, antimony, manganese and other rare heavy metal resources in Germany. Baoji Foreign Trade and Lin Shuo had been friends for decades. Baoji Foreign Trade in Xiamen was the Lin family's camphor exporter.
One of the main agents, Lin Shuo has also exported tungsten, antimony and other raw materials through it in recent years.
When Lin Shuofeng saw Arnold, he couldn't help but smile to himself, and he had to pretend to be surprised: "Ah, it turns out it's Mr. Arnold, haven't you already returned to Germany?"
"That's right, I returned to China a few days ago, and I want to ask you to cooperate on some important business." Arnold smiled, "I think we just need to sit down and have a good talk."
Lin Shuo invited Arnold to the study, "This is a good thing. If you want to open a foreign bank in Fuzhou, I will definitely support it!"
"Oh, no, no, it's not convenient for me to do business publicly this time. I am now the representative of German Reliance & Co., or the thing behind it." Arnold said, Reli & Co.'s major shareholders include Krupp, Hamburg Digital
Famous large German companies such as the German shipyard, Rheinland Heavy Industries, Siemens, Deutsche Chemie and Zeiss Optics have behind them the shadow of the German government.
"What's the meaning?"
"We need important metal materials such as tungsten and antimony. I know you have these things in your hands. We are willing to pay a higher price than the British!" Arnold said. Metal tungsten is a necessary raw material for making armor-piercing projectiles, and metal antimony can be used to make armor-piercing bullets.
Lead bullets are more likely to break, thereby increasing the lethality of the warhead. They can be said to be important war metals. Germany does not have these materials and can only rely on imports.
Before the European War, most of the tungsten ore imported into Europe was produced in Myanmar, the British colony in the Far East, and Germany did not have much strategic reserves. After the war began, the Germans discovered that the British had cut off Germany's import channels for important materials, and metal
Tungsten is an essential raw material for the production of high-quality alloys. Several important metal raw materials used by the Germans can almost only be obtained through smuggling, and the quantities are very limited.
In order to obtain these precious metals, the German government even dispatched ocean-going submarines to exchange gold for these supplies on the east coast of the United States. However, due to the increasingly strict economic controls in the United States, it has been difficult for smugglers to obtain these items.
Lin Shuo was thinking about what price he should offer.
"The tungsten sand we produce is sold to the British for about 6,000 pounds per ton. I can send the goods to the Mediterranean or the North Sea. This will risk the cargo ship being seized by the British. I think the German government may be willing to pay for it.
The bidding price for each ton of ore is eight thousand pounds." The output of tungsten is very low. The domestic output is only a little more than 3,000 tons per year, and the total tungsten output in the world will not exceed 7,000 tons. Before the war, the international market
The price of tungsten on the Internet is about 300 pounds per ton, so Lin Shuo’s price is not excessive.
In addition, Lin Shuo asked the Germans to provide technical support, including steel, metallurgy, machining, chemical industry, shipbuilding, military industry and engine manufacturing. This surprised Arnold and had to say that he would not be able to give a reply until a few days later.
Shuo guesses that he can't make the decision on these matters and needs to seek instructions from the country.
However, he is not worried that the Germans will refuse. Important strategic materials such as tungsten and antimony in the international market are basically priceless and cannot be bought even if you have money.
His guess was correct. The efficiency of the Germans was reflected here. Five days later, Arnold returned to Fuzhou from Shanghai, bringing with him three engineering staff who claimed to be employees of Lihe Yang Company. However, Lin Shuo was confused by their skin color. It can be seen that these three people must be mining engineers who have been engaged in field surveys all year round, but he does not want to tell them.
Lin Shuo sent someone to take the three people to the military warehouse in Mawei Port to inspect the mineral sand in stock, and he personally discussed the details of the cooperation with Arnold.
The Germans are willing to provide technical cooperation, but some of the patented technologies still require Lin Shuo to pay corresponding fees.
Soon, three German engineers returned to the office. After discussing with Arnold for a while, Arnold said that they would help Lin Shuo manufacture two sets of the latest smelting equipment and provide the latest tungsten smelting technology for free. The tungsten extracted in this way would The purity of the sand can reach over 70%.
The Germans are willing to do this for the sake of more convenient transportation. Now they can only send large submarines to the high seas to pick up the goods.
The Germans also said that the wolframite produced in southern Jiangxi is also needed for smelting alloy steel. With only a little refinement, high-strength tungsten-manganese alloy steel can be produced.
It went very smoothly. Both parties got what they needed and quickly reached a cooperation agreement. Arnold will be stationed in Fuzhou as a secret representative of the German government.
According to this secret agreement, Lin Shuo will sell approximately 16,000 tons of tungsten, antimony, copper and other rare metals, as well as rubber and other strategic materials to Germany every year, in exchange for a large amount of gold, silver and US dollars from the Germans. In addition, according to Under the cooperation plan between the two parties, the German government will send no less than 2,000 engineering and technical personnel to China every year and provide China with technical support in steel, metallurgy, machining, chemical industry, etc.
With the technical cooperation of the Germans and the joint efforts of domestic scientific and technological talents who have returned from studying abroad, Lin Shuo has quietly established his own complete scientific research and industrial technology system.
The shipbuilding industry is currently developing the fastest in China.
With Lin Shuo's huge investment, the five major shipyards of Hudong, Luoyuan, Mawei, Haimen, and Chongming, as well as the Jiangnan Shipyard and Xiamen Shipyard affiliated to the Ministry of Navy, are able to build merchant ships of more than 10,000 tons. Lin Shuo is not only focusing on cargo ships. , are still actively building ocean-going fishing boats with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons. In this era, no country has the concept of exclusive economic zones. As long as you do not enter the twelve nautical miles of territorial waters, you will not be able to fish even if you reach someone’s doorstep. Never mind you.
In order to adapt to the development of offshore fisheries, Luoyuan Shipyard developed a offshore fishery auxiliary ship with a displacement of 13,000 tons and a large refrigeration equipment, which can process aquatic products into canned food at sea.
During the European War, food prices rose. One such ocean-going fishing auxiliary ship plus four to five ocean-going fishing boats could create an economic value of nearly 400,000 yuan per year. However, it only cost 1.2 million yuan to build these ships. Around this time, huge profits attracted investment, thus promoting the rapid development of the domestic shipbuilding industry.
In fact, the largest consumption during the war was food, clothes, shoes, hats and other daily supplies. On the battlefield, the number of cigarettes consumed every day was more than ten times that of bullets. A steady stream of orders from Europe stimulated the development of domestic textile, food and other light industries. Rapid development, in the history of another world, due to the constraints of the machinery manufacturing industry, the development of national industry has been greatly restricted, but in this world, due to the several major machinery manufacturing plants to which Lin Shuo belongs, this situation has been A great relief.
After the war began, the U.S. government quickly banned the export of large-scale machinery and equipment. With the huge profits made by the steel plant after the war, Lin Shuo was forced to independently develop the manufacturing of large-scale equipment while thinking of expanding the scale.
After receiving technical support from the Germans, by mid-1916, the major heavy machinery factories affiliated to the Linshuo Group were able to manufacture gantry cranes, large mining equipment, 3,000-ton hydraulic forging machines, large machine tools and
Heavy equipment such as iron-making blast furnaces, steel-making converters and open-hearth furnaces, and large rolling mills provide the necessary technical support for further expansion of production scale.
Relying on self-manufactured equipment, the Sanming Iron and Steel Works founded by Lin Shuo was able to continue construction.
In this era, steel represents the will of a country, and steel output and metal processing capabilities are the most direct reflection of a country's industrial strength.
Benefiting from the soaring steel prices during the European War, steel mills were able to earn a high profit of 250 yuan for every ton of steel sold. Driven by this profit, officials from gentry and businessmen joined forces in some iron ore areas in the country.
Together they began to raise funds to start some steel companies.
For example, in Tangshan, Handan, Anyang, Chongqing, Wuyang, Hefei and Shaoguan, Guangdong, there were local gentry and businessmen joining forces with local officials to establish steel companies. After the companies were opened and they now had money, these talents discovered that there was no need for steel now.
Iron-making blast furnaces, steel-making furnaces and steel-rolling equipment cannot be purchased.
The United States, the only country in the world that can manufacture steel-making equipment, now bans the export of these equipment.
After signing a secret agreement with the Germans, more than a hundred German engineers came to Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant. With the technical support of the Germans, Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant first developed the first domestically produced medium-sized iron-making blast furnace. Although the capacity was only one hundred
Cube, but finally can no longer rely on foreigners.
After receiving this news, domestic factory owners who were looking forward to ironmaking equipment came to Wuhu one after another.
The annual steel production of Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant has reached 250,000 tons, which means that it can generate nearly 50 million profits every year, which is enough to build two or three steel plants of the same scale. How can such huge profits make people
Not jealous.
Like other steel plants controlled by Lin Shuo, Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant is undergoing large-scale expansion. According to the plan, in the next three years, the output of the steel plant will reach an annual output of one million tons. Now in the newly expanded factory area
Inside, more than 50,000 migrant workers are working hard on the construction of more than a dozen branches of the new factory, working overtime.
"This is our new 300-cubic iron-making blast furnace, which can produce 500 tons of pig iron every day. It is expected to be put into operation in three months! The latest 500-ton iron-making blast furnace is also under design. When all these equipment are put into operation, Wuhu
The annual output of the steel plant will reach 1.2 million tons, becoming the largest steel conglomerate in Asia!" In front of Zhou Xuexi, Schneider, the chief designer of the second phase expansion of Wuhu Steel Plant, said in a very proud tone, although at the beginning
He left Germany reluctantly, but he soon found a career here.
Schneider, who comes from Rheinmetall, has been involved in the steel industry since he was 24 years old. During his 25 years in the industry, he has designed and supervised the construction of sixteen large ironmaking blast furnaces. As a senior manager of Rheinmetall,
Assigned by the German government, he went to China to serve as the chief engineer of the Wuhu Iron and Steel Plant.
At present, the five major domestic steel plants in Hanyang, Wuhu, Xinyu, Xuanhua, and Taiyuan have an inseparable relationship with Lin Shuo. Capital investment sometimes turns into a political force. If you have money, everyone can make it. If you follow Lin Shuo, he will definitely not give it to you.
Lose money.
Lin Shuo uses his huge capital network to control the entire Beiyang Group. Life in this world is nothing more than fame and fortune. Who would really have trouble with money?