Beiyang reactionaries

"Prime Minister Dai, what do you think?"

After listening to Yan Huiqing and Jiang Hongyu's analysis, Duan Xun asked Dai Kan.

Dai Kan was writing with a pen, but when Duan Xun asked him, he put down the pen in his hand and said, "Prime Minister, I also don't think we need to sign a new military alliance agreement. The current 'Anti-Comintern' The agreement' is already a cooperation agreement. With this cooperation agreement, it is enough for us to maintain relations with Germany, Italy and Japan. I always think that in Europe, Germany will not be the opponent of Britain and France. If we cooperate with Germany and Italy It involves too much and restricts us too much. As for wanting to attack the Soviet Union with Germany, I think it is good to have it, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t. As Premier Jiang said, no matter how Germany chooses, the Soviet Union cannot really Don't worry about Germany. As long as Germany exists, the Soviet Union must vigorously defend against Germany in Europe. This is already very beneficial to us."

"Ah."

Duan Xun nodded.

After thinking for a while, he said to Wang Yongjiang, "Prime Minister Wang, what do you think?"

"I also think that Germany and Italy should not be the opponents of Britain and France. Britain and France have so many colonies. As long as the war is in a stalemate, Germany and Italy are far inferior to Britain and France. In terms of war potential, Germany and France Italy is no match for Britain and France. So I don't think we should be in direct conflict with Britain and France. And economically, we shouldn't be completely tied to one of the blocs. When war breaks out, the price of raw materials will skyrocket , This is a very favorable opportunity for our country. Why do we have to join a military group? Anyway, their wars have nothing to do with us. Before, I was worried that we would get too close to Germany. Now everyone’s interests are quite different. Pretext for refusing to attend a meeting to sign such a military alliance."

"Since everyone agrees, let's do this. Minister Shi (Shi Zhaoji), send a telegram to the Wei Chen group ambassador, and must insist on putting the Soviet Union on the list of enemies. Ask Germany, Italy, and Japan to conflict with the Soviet Union in our country They must support unconditionally. And they are not allowed to sign any form of separate contract with the Soviet Union. If Germany, Italy, and Japan agree with us, then we will continue to talk. If they do not agree, then our country will Withdraw from the current negotiations. Of course, we must also express that even if we do not sign a new treaty, our country will abide by the 'Anti-Comintern Agreement' and will continue to maintain our friendship."

China just doesn't want to talk about the military alliance meeting, and doesn't want to fall out with Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Historically, Germany and Japan failed to sign a cooperation agreement because of this problem.Before the start of World War II, Germany and Japan began to discuss the issue of military alliance.But at that time, Japan's plan was to "go north", so Japan hoped to treat the Soviet Union as an enemy.But Germany did not want to go to war with the Soviet Union. Germany aimed at Britain and France.Therefore, the two sides have been unable to reach an agreement, and the final result was that they could not sign a military alliance agreement, and the meeting was nothing.

Until later, Germany was preparing to attack the Soviet Union.Similarly, Japan also wanted to go south, and began to regard Britain and France as enemies.Therefore, more than a year after the start of World War II, the two sides signed a military alliance agreement.

Such is the choice of China now.

Either Germany, Italy, Japan and China sign an agreement to unify the pace.That is, once there is a conflict between China and the Soviet Union, other countries must support China unconditionally.This is unacceptable to Germany at this stage.

Because Germany does not want to fight on two fronts.

What Germany wants to do is to defeat Britain and France immediately after a little preparation.But now China and the Soviet Union have gathered a large number of troops in the Far East, and war may break out anytime, anywhere.This is unacceptable to Germany.

"Yes."

"All sit down."

"Yes."

China's opposition did not stop Germany, Italy, and Japan from moving closer together.It's all a matter of interest.At present, there is no major conflict of interest between China and Britain and France. On the contrary, in order to win over China, Britain has made a lot of concessions to China.The trade between China and Britain has also been on the rise during this period, and more importantly, British financial institutions have given a lot of loans to China.

Therefore, China has always emphasized that China's current enemy is the Soviet Union.

However, Germany, Italy, and Japan did not have much willingness to conflict with the Soviet Union.Japan does hope that China and the Soviet Union will have a conflict, because this can contain China.Although China and Japan have been considered allies in recent years, and the relationship between the two sides has always been very good, this does not mean that the two countries are really close.On the contrary, the two countries are cooperating and guarding against each other.

If China can fight the Soviet Union and be restrained by the Soviet Union, Japan will no longer have any worries in the north.The threat to the Japanese mainland will be greatly reduced.

The same goes for Germany.

Germany does not want to fight on two fronts. What Germany is most worried about now is the "collusion" of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.Therefore, people have been sent to contact the Soviet Union secretly.Hitler kept assuring the Soviet Union that he had absolutely no plans to attack the Soviet Union.Wanted to sign a "non-aggression" pact with the Soviet Union.

But the most unreliable thing in the world is this thing.

So Germany also wanted the Soviet Union to be stumbling on something.There are not many countries in the world that can tie the Soviet Union's feet, and China is one of them, and it is the most likely country.Once China and the Soviet Union break out in the Far East, it is impossible for the Soviet Union to threaten Germany in a short time.Because China is a big country with millions of standing troops.In a conflict with such a big country, how could the Soviet Union have the energy to manage Hitler.Therefore, Germany also hopes that China and the Soviet Union will go to war.

Both Germany and Japan want China to fight the Soviet Union, but this does not mean that they are also willing to fight the Soviet Union.Both of their countries hope that China will fight with them, but they will not be involved in this war.Therefore, after China stated that it regarded the Soviet Union as its main enemy, Germany firmly opposed it.The ambiguous attitudes of Italy and Japan brought the negotiations to an impasse.

Therefore, Wei Chen group stated that if China's conditions cannot be met, China will not continue to participate in the negotiations.Because no positive answer was obtained, the Wei Chen Group withdrew from the current negotiations in Berlin on behalf of China.

China's withdrawal makes Germany, Italy, and Japan regrettable.

After all, China is really important in the current situation.Germany, Italy, and Japan all lack resources, and China is the largest resource provider for these three countries.Moreover, it is also the country with the largest army and the highest industrial output among several countries.Having an ally like China is very much needed for any military bloc.

Therefore, although China withdrew from the negotiations midway, Ribbentrop immediately came to appease China, hoping to maintain the original friendship with China, and hoping not to affect the relationship between China and Germany.Including Japan and Italy have expressed such views.

Although they failed to sign the military alliance treaty, they all hope to maintain their current relationship.

Of course, these have special negotiators to discuss with Germany.

Duan Xun just set the general direction.After asking the cabinet for 260 billion military expenditures and deciding not to join the German-led military alliance, Duan Xun once again devoted his energy to the deployment of the military industry.

"Minister Ren (Ren Hongjun) and Minister Han (Han Linchun), I came to you today to ask about one thing. Minister Ren, the most important plan of your Ministry of Industry in the third five-year plan is industrial standardization. I want to ask , How is your completion? Once a war breaks out, can civilian products and military products be used in common."

"Prime Minister, in the current situation, industrial standardization is not as good as expected."

Ren Hongjun was ashamed.

The review said: "Prime Minister, when we formulated the standardization plan, we thought about many problems too simply. Many machinery and equipment currently used in our country are directly imported from abroad, and the proportion of machinery and equipment produced by ourselves is limited. And many domestically produced The equipment is directly imitated foreign machinery and equipment. Even if these machinery and equipment are imitated, we are only at the level of knowing it but not knowing why. We don’t know why they designed it in this way. We only know that it is right for them to design it this way. Yes. At present, most of the machinery and equipment manufacturing factories just follow the example of the gourd and make roughly the same machinery and equipment. Because of this situation, let these machinery and equipment use the standardized components we made, and many places It needs to be changed. After the change, we found that it seriously affected the operation of machinery and equipment. Many factories have such problems. This is a problem that I, the Minister of Industry, did not foresee in advance, and I am willing to take responsibility.”

Duan Xun frowned.

Industrial standardization, this is what Duan Xun has been pursuing.If China's industry wants to go to a higher level, the formulation of such standards is a must.Unexpectedly, such a problem appeared.

But it is also understandable.

China's industrial development time is too short, and the accumulation of industrial technology is not enough.This includes many material issues, but also many industrial design issues.Many industrial products, China is in a state of ignorance.Not to mention anything else, just talk about Chinese aircraft.There are many types of aircraft in China now, and almost every aircraft manufacturer has their own aircraft models, and they are all researching aircraft to improve their performance.

But many are less than ideal.

They produced a lot of aircraft, but most of them were directly imported from the aircraft technology of the great powers and then produced.During the production process and the flight test process, there will be many improvements.But this improvement is limited.They are all improving the local corners and corners, and adding some new performance.China's aircraft manufacturing plants are not strong enough to completely change the overall parameters of an imported aircraft.

It is all because of insufficient technology accumulation, and it is still impossible to carry out large-scale transformation of those aircraft.On the whole, they must follow their original overall layout.This is true of airplanes, and it is true of many other machines.

Of course not all are.

After all, China's industrial scale is so large, and more and more things are being manufactured.Once everyone has enough experience, they can slowly make various improvements.However, China's industrial development time is too short after all, and there is still no such accumulation in many aspects.

"Is that a failure?"

"No, it's just that the actual situation is more difficult than we expected. In fact, in the past few years, we have completed the standardization of many components, and they have begun to be used nationwide. It's just that it will affect the popularization of the original design."

"What about military industry and civilian industry?"

"Prime Minister, these problems in the military industry are more serious, because most of our weapons are imported from foreign powers. However, we have been cooperating with the Ministry of Industry in recent years, and basic accessories are basically universal."

Han Linchun replied immediately.

This industrial standardization not only involves civilian industry, but also military industry.Duan Xun's idea is very simple, some basic accessories, military industry and civilian industry must be universal.

This is war potential.

It is an important indicator to measure a country's comprehensive national strength that the civilian industry can be quickly transformed into a military industry in the war years.If military industry and civilian industry cannot share basic accessories, then industrial potential cannot be transformed into military strength.

"Minister Ren, I will tell you the truth. It is still a time of peace, but do you know how many planes and tanks the Soviet Union currently has? 12000 planes and more than 7600 tanks. If there is a war, with their current situation, one year It can produce 5000 aircraft and more than [-] tanks. This is the strength of an industrial country. We also need to have such strength. If we rely solely on our military factories, our war potential is limited. Therefore, mobilization during wartime, civilian factories also We must be able to undertake military orders."

"Prime Minister, as long as the country needs it, our Ministry of Industry will be able to complete the task."

Ren Hongjun immediately expressed his opinion.

China and the Soviet Union are currently facing each other in the northern army, and the top government officials are aware of it.Duan Xun directly stated his position in the cabinet that the outer northeast and outer northwest are China's inherent territory, and China must take it back.

Therefore, China's imaginary enemy is the Soviet Union.