Chapter 156 Hitler's New Deal VI

"1.5 billion gold marks? All in gold coins?"

"Yes, all in gold coins, stored in the vault of the German National Bank branch in Switzerland."

The gold content of 1.5 billion gold marks is equivalent to more than 300 tons and nearly 400 tons of gold! This can be said to be a timely help for Germany, whose foreign exchange reserves are almost exhausted. Although the Soviet-German cooperation provides Germany with raw materials, and Germany itself is an industrialized power, it does not need to import foreign technology and machinery.

However, the necessary gold reserves are still indispensable, which can give Germany more room for diplomacy. Without gold reserves and unable to use pound deposits (in the Bank of England), Germany can only rely on Soviet-German barter trade to obtain most of its industrial raw materials. Once the relationship with the Soviet Union breaks down, it will be difficult for the German economy to maintain.

And Hitler's action to clean up the Bolshevik Party is likely to quickly cool down the Soviet-German relations that were originally hot.

"Germany needs that gold!" Hitler looked at Hessmann, "I can give His Majesty the Emperor corresponding compensation, land or company stocks are fine!"

But what William II wants is the crown!

Hessmann smacked his lips and nodded, "Okay, you can persuade His Majesty. He loves the German motherland, so he will definitely give the gold to the Imperial Bank. But... 1.5 billion gold marks can't last long. So cooperation with the Soviet Union must be maintained, and it is better to try to expand it in order to obtain more war supplies."

Germany is a country with scarce resources. It lacks almost everything except coal. But this country happens to be an industrialized power and consumes a huge amount of raw materials every year. If it enters wartime, the consumption of raw materials will be even more amazing.

Therefore, under the auspices of Hessmann, Germany began to reserve raw materials as early as 10 years ago. Now it has established a strategic reserve system including various raw materials such as oil, copper ore, bauxite, chromite, tungsten ore, molybdenum ore, antimony ore, tin ore, manganese ore, lead ore, zinc ore, magnesium ore, uranium ore, nickel ore, opium (to produce morphine), silk (to produce parachutes), etc.

However, the various raw materials collected and stored were far from meeting the needs of a world war. According to the plan of Hessmann and Schleicher, the Second World War would take five years instead of a few months! Therefore, the various raw materials to be consumed were also astronomical.

And Germany had a history of "starting" a world war, so the action of collecting and storing raw materials from the international market could not be too conspicuous, otherwise it would cause interference from Britain, France and other countries.

The method adopted by Hessmann was to set up shell companies in friendly countries such as the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden, and purchase them in small quantities for a long time.

However, this could only solve a small part of the collection and storage needs, and the bulk had to be carried out through barter trade cooperation. The Soviet Union, because of its vast territory and abundant resources, had an urgent need for industrialization, and its domestic mining industry also had a certain foundation, it could provide a large amount of raw materials, so it became the main source of German strategic reserve materials.

"But our cooperation with the Soviet Union is also strengthening the power of the Bolsheviks!" Hitler paused, "This will have an adverse impact on future wars!"

He looked at Hessmann, "Ludwig, you don't really think we can always get along with the Soviet Union, right?"

In fact, the power of the Soviet Union is not much stronger than in history. Because while the Soviet-German cooperation was strengthening, the economic exchanges between the Soviet Union and the United States weakened. The reason is that the Soviet Union's ability to export raw materials is not unlimited, and their industrialization speed is also limited - industrialization is not just about importing some foreign machines and technologies, but also requires a large number of supporting construction projects and a large number of laborers from agriculture to industry.

The Soviet Union imported more than one billion marks of machinery and technology from Germany, and its domestic investment often required ten or twenty times this to match it. At the same time, it also involves the distribution of interests between industry and agriculture - in order to meet the labor demand in the process of industrialization, a large number of young and middle-aged farmers became workers, and the state needed to provide them with food rations, housing rations and other related guarantees. Therefore, the process of Soviet industrialization is actually a process of urbanization.

The scale of investment involved is extremely astonishing, and it is accompanied by a serious imbalance between the shortage of industry and agriculture - the agricultural labor force has decreased, but the population that needs to be supported has increased significantly, and at the same time, it has to bear the growing export task, which will naturally encounter huge difficulties.

Therefore, it is impossible for the Soviet Union to import the same amount of American machines as in history when the scale of Soviet-German cooperation has expanded several times - there is a mutual substitution relationship between Soviet-German cooperation and American machines, and it cannot be simply added. Otherwise, the Soviet Union’s domestic agriculture would not be able to afford it!

And due to the loss of the agricultural area of ​​Right Bank Ukraine, the scale of agricultural production in the Soviet Union was smaller than that of the same period in history. Although Stalin made up for it to a certain extent by developing Kazakhstan, it was ultimately not as good as the granary of Right Bank Ukraine (that was the best land in the world).

Therefore, the power of the Soviet Union did not increase much compared with history. Instead, the Polish Federation started a round of industrial construction after the establishment of the "dictatorship" of Piłsudski. Since the right-bank Ukraine belonged to Poland, the Polish Federation earned a lot of foreign exchange by exporting grain and meat. Therefore, with the help of Britain and France, some military and heavy industry-related constructions can be carried out in the Galicia region with rich coal reserves. The coal mines there have also been expanded and many power plants have been opened.

Moreover, Poland's military power is also stronger than in history! Not only because of the industrial construction in Galicia. The right-bank Ukraine and Lithuania not only brought more food to Poland. But also brought more than 20 million Ukrainians and more than 2 million Lithuanians. The population of the Polish Federation is now close to 53 million.

"Adolf, you forgot Poland, which has a population of 53 million!" Hersman pointed out, "It is a powerful country, with a land area 100,000 square kilometers larger than Germany and the Baltic Republic combined. And it has the second or third strongest army in Europe!"

According to the analysis of European military observers, the strength of the Polish Army far exceeds that of Germany - even if the German Army includes the Baltic Army and the Waffen SS, it is only more than 900,000. And most of them are new recruits with poor weapons and equipment. There are basically no tanks, and heavy artillery and machine guns are also very scarce.

The Polish Army currently maintains a huge scale of 1.5 million people (actually not that many, this is the number when all troops reach 80% full staffing rate), and has a lot of tanks, heavy artillery and machine guns.

In addition, in order to defend against the invasion of the Soviet Union, Poland is currently building the Pilsudski Line in the right bank of Ukraine, western Belarus and eastern Lithuania in imitation of the Maginot Line, and has imported a lot of German cement for this purpose.

"Well, Poland, everyone hates Poland..." Hitler gritted his teeth, "This may be the reason for us to cooperate with the Soviet Union, this is the only reason!"

"No, this is not the only one!" Hersman said, "In fact, we have similar political positions with the Soviet Union."

"What?" Hitler stared at Hersman with gray-blue eyes.

"Socialism!" Hersman said, "We and the Soviet Union are both socialist countries!"

"What? We and the Soviet Union are both... Ludwig, I think you have misunderstood National Socialism! This is different from Soviet socialism!"

"Yes! There is a difference between the two," Hersman paused, "but National Socialism is also socialism, and Soviet socialism is also socialism. From this perspective, Germany and the Soviet Union now belong to the socialist camp!"

"Stalin will not admit this!" Hitler reminded.

"I will make him admit it," Hersman said with a smile, "That's not a problem. Now not only does Germany need the Soviet Union, but the Soviet Union also needs Germany. So the differences between National Socialism and Soviet Socialism are differences between comrades. Therefore, Stalin must admit that National Socialism is socialism! This is very beneficial to us. It is not only beneficial to tie the Soviet Union with ideology, but also beneficial to our export of National Socialist ideas to the world... This will win many friends for Germany!"

"Capitalism" or "Socialism" actually has no constraints on Hitler and the Nazi Party. They don't care much about this. But it's different for Stalin and the Soviet Union.

If Stalin and the Soviet Union recognize that Germany is a socialist country, then the friendship between the Soviet Union and Germany will be more consolidated from the Soviet Union's standpoint.

Because once the Soviet Union recognizes that National Socialism is socialism, then the Nazi Party's coming to power in Germany is a sign of the "victory of the German socialist revolution." It will definitely be widely publicized by the propaganda agencies of the Soviet Union and the Third International as a sign of socialism defeating capitalism.

And when Germany and Britain and France go to war in the future, the Soviet propaganda agencies are also likely to say that it is the beginning of the "world revolution." In this way, the Soviet Union's national position will be influenced by its ideological position.

Even if the Soviet Union will not stand on the side of Germany to go to war with Britain and France, it will not easily abandon Germany, its "socialist brother". Otherwise, it will be easy to form chaos in the country - to abandon Germany, at least a period of propaganda must be carried out. Germany cannot be the vanguard of the world revolution today and the enemy of socialism tomorrow. That will make the Soviet people suspicious of the Bolshevik Party.

Moreover, in the 1930s, socialism was still a symbol of progress in the eyes of the working people and oppressed nations all over the world. Once Germany's socialist identity is "certified", it will be easier to export national socialism abroad.