Chapter 943 D-Day (5)

The Navy's concession this time is relatively large, not even half of the request. Hortiyoshi was afraid that the Kwantung Army would be intoxicated by the victory of the blitzkrieg to the island, thinking that the Russians were just like that and wanted to move northward, which would be troublesome. There was a navy in North Sakhalin, and the Russians did not dare to do anything. Other fronts were about to fight. It was not an easy task. With the battles of Midway and the West Coast in full swing, he never wanted to start a fire in his backyard. Therefore, we would rather let the Kwantung Army have more points, but also tie their hands and feet to prevent them from messing around.

"I think it's acceptable, but with some adjustments." Ishihara smiled and said, "The diesel, gasoline and lubricating oil produced by the Kwantung Army's 500,000 tons of crude oil will belong to them, but they can't use so much marine heavy oil and other products. Keep one third for them and give the rest to the Ministry of Finance to make up for the special funds for train guns.”

The meeting finally passed unanimously. Umezu Yoshijiro was very satisfied with this. The "local specialties" were still powerful: the railway cannon was secured, the oil was also secured, and the "oil-for-grain" policy was also launched.

He confidently handed down the order: "All ministries must guard the defense line and are not allowed to cross, let alone open fire first. Anyone who disobeys the order will be shot on the spot!" This order extinguished the anger of many red deer who were about to move.

The next day, the quick-moving Kwantung Army used more than 200 wagons to load 10,000 tons of grain and delivered it to the Soviet Union—Eastern Russia to be precise. Although they are all in the Axis camp, Japan is afraid of overly provoking Stalin and has not recognized Western Russia yet, and has formally proposed "oil for food".

Japan has always had the idea of ​​"exchanging oil for food", but the Soviet Union did not have enough oil at the beginning, so how could it be exchanged? The situation is different now. As long as there is no war, there will be a surplus of oil. Even if 5 million tons of oil are handed over to Germany, there will still be a certain surplus. But food has become the biggest problem in Eastern Russia.

Although Stalin was extremely angry that Japan was taking advantage of the situation, Kuznetsov’s last words that day moved him: “Comrade Stalin, you cannot build socialism and demonstrate the superiority of socialism on an empty stomach, let alone fight a war. , In the future, our enemies will be all-round, and we must pay great attention to food issues.”

He calculated an account for Stalin. 200,000 tons of grain can solve the food problem of at least 400,000 people for a year. If it is used sparingly, 500,000 people can also cope with it. In this situation, these 200,000 tons are completely useless. Life-saving food, and except for Japan, it is difficult for other countries to provide large amounts of food to Eastern Russia.

Because of Kuznetsov's earnest persuasion, even at the expense of making some "****" remarks, Stalin finally gave up the idea of ​​revenge in the Far East, pinched his nose and agreed to the "Lease". Now that the lease has been approved, "oil for grain" is not a big problem. The two parties finally agreed that after Japan delivers 200,000 tons of grain, they will start promoting oil for grain at a ratio of 4:1, and the first batch of transaction limits is scheduled to be 100 Thousands of tons of oil.

In the past two years, due to the continuous losses of the Red Army, Stalin has been instructing to increase the development of the Ural Mountains and Siberia. He has successively explored the Kansk-Achinsk coal field and even discovered the marginal oil wells of the Tyumen Oil Field (the location of the main force is not yet known). This ensured that the Red Army could barely maintain more than 10 million tons of crude oil production after losing Baku and successively losing the Volga-Ural Oilfield (Second Baku), and coal production was also steadily consolidating.

Only Hoffman in the world knows the potential of Eastern Russia in the future. As long as Stalin doesn’t work hard and doesn’t want to dominate the world, Eastern Russia can still become a third-rate power (virtue is first-rate, and Britain, France, Italy, and Japan are second-rate). Be sure, if you manage well, your life will not be worse than that of the oil-producing countries in the Middle East.

In his opinion: The confrontation between East and West Russia must be balanced, and one side cannot be obviously weaker than the other. As long as the situation of both sides can continue to improve, there will be neither the risk of destruction nor the risk of merger in the short term, which is a good thing for Germany. Great thing - a Russia that is too strong is not in Germany's interest, and a Russia that is too weak is not in Germany's interest.

As for the future, he felt that he could not control so much. That was something that the fifth and sixth generation German leaders needed to consider. Kohler would be retiring by then...

While he was daydreaming, Keitel unexpectedly came in and reported: "Führer, good news, good news, those 32 train guns have been sold, and the Japanese want them all!"

Keitel walked into the head of state's office with a cheerful face, looking very happy. It took a lot of effort to clean up this pile of goods. According to the General Staff's vision, Polish and Soviet train guns should be dealt with first, because it will be troublesome to find spare parts after they break, but the German and French train guns can be relieved. Slow down, at least it will be of some use for the time being. Although 100 million marks is not much, since Germany wants to gradually recover war bonds, stabilize the currency value and prepare conditions for the issuance of the euro, of course it can do a little bit.

But Hoffman looked further and said to himself: "It seems that Japan's idea of ​​​​moving northward has been curbed?"

"Cole also sent a telegram, and Horikichi made a request to purchase an additional 500,000 tons of C3 aviation fuel, and tentatively asked whether he could obtain rocket technology."

Hoffman did not directly say yes or no, but asked reflexively: "Is the Japanese making any big moves?"

Because the Japanese Combined Fleet is more bullish than at the same time in history, the navy has a higher say and attaches great importance to energy supply. The entire support system has been greatly improved and optimized, and even one lieutenant general and two major generals were separately assigned to take charge of this work.

For example, Japan has never given up refining coal shale oil in Manchuria, but due to poor technology, the refined oil often clogs the nozzles of warship boilers, requiring sulfuric acid to clean and a 10% loss. In the past, the military has always refused to agree, preferring to wait until there is a malfunction, but after Hori Teikichi came to power, the 10% loss was borne;

Another example is coal-to-oil technology, which Japan has been trying and developing, but Japan's synthesis technology is poor, and the gasoline synthesized from the best coal cannot be used for engines and can only be burned in boilers, which is not worth the loss. However, after the introduction of German coal-to-oil technology, although the overall scale remains unchanged, this batch of coal shale oil has been converted into low-quality gasoline, which is not a problem for cars and motorcycles. The annual expansion here is nearly 1 million tons of crude oil, which is not as good as Germany's nearly 10 million tons of capacity, but it is also an unprecedented achievement.

Another example is the crude oil in Borneo. Historically, the highest production after Japan took over was only 75% of the pre-war period, and the refining facilities were severely damaged. In addition, transport ships were repeatedly knocked down by American submarines or aircraft, forcing the Japanese Navy to use unrefined high-quality fuel directly as heavy oil many times - this is a huge waste, but now the situation has improved greatly. With the help of European engineering teams, by the spring of 1944, the Borneo oil fields basically recovered to their historical production, and the refining facilities were also repaired to a scale of 500,000 tons. After the Navy established major war zones, the density of escort formations and anti-submarine aircraft exceeded ten times the historical level. Kurita Takeo commanded all transport units, and the loss rate was less than 15%, which was much higher than the same period in history.

In addition, the refined oil imported directly from the Middle East was supplied to the Indian battlefield, and North Sakhalin Island was snatched from Stalin. By June 1944, Japan's annual crude oil income on the books finally exceeded 10 million tons.

But oil alone is not enough. Japan's backward refining technology and additives (tetraethyl lead) level have made Japan's high-quality aviation fuel insufficient. Not only is the quantity small, but the performance is also very unstable. When the Zero was deployed in the early days, aviation gasoline could barely cope with it. As a large number of German-made aircraft were put into service, the demand for high-performance aviation fuel became greater and greater. The same aircraft has completely different performances when using Japanese fuel and German fuel. According to the temper of the Japanese military in the past, it might have been used as it was, but Hori Teikichi only wanted to give the troops the best equipment, so he spared no effort to spend money to import B4 aviation fuel and high-quality C3 fuel, especially the latest generation of improved C3 fuel, which has exceeded the US 100/130 fuel and is weaker than 115/145 fuel. The performance is between the two, which is more urgently needed by Japan.

Since C3 fuel must be produced in Germany, the supply is relatively inconvenient, and Germany itself has a strong demand for high-performance aviation fuel. In addition to the batch taken away by the Combined Fleet during its stay in Europe, Japan has only received 100,000 tons in succession, but B4 fuel has accumulated more than 500,000 tons in about a year and a half.

But now that Hori Teikichi asked for 500,000 tons of C3 fuel in one breath, Hoffman immediately thought that Japan was going to make a big move - definitely not the second expedition to the west, because if that happened, there would be no need to mention the fuel at all, Germany would guarantee the supply.

Keitel smiled: "You are right, Marshal Hori Teikichi is preparing to launch a large-scale attack in the deep Pacific after stabilizing the order in the Indian Ocean and taking over the Russian islands. Midway Island, Hawaii and even the West Coast are all his targets! Cole said that he was very humble and apologized for not being able to carry out the second expedition to the west as promised. He believed that the strength of the European fleet no longer needed a second expedition to the west. He planned to attack the United States from the east to cooperate with our army's attack. And he will formally apologize to us at the Cairo Conference."

Hoffman nodded: Hori Teikichi postponed the second expedition to the west obviously to wait for a good price, but he did not expect that the Royal Navy was completely destroyed, and the initiative in the Atlantic was instantly transferred. After waiting for Iceland, the necessity and feasibility of the second expedition to the west have been greatly reduced. Hori Teikichi saw through the current situation at a glance. Although smart people are full of thoughts and need to concentrate highly when dealing with people, it is convenient to speak and do things. It is annoying to deal with a fool like Mussolini who does not know his own abilities.

"Fortunately, he did not say that he would attack Australia and New Zealand."

Keitel was stunned: "I thought you would criticize him for being whimsical. Even attacking Australia and New Zealand is more reliable than attacking the West Coast."