The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 388

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: 1.446s Scan: 0.111sThe aids from these countries are mainly food products such as rice, flour and oil. Except for the bears, the aid from other countries is transported by sea, while the bears directly use trains to transport it! The bears are the largest agricultural country in Europe, and their annual grain exports are one of their main export products, so it is easy for them to take out some of their grain to aid Hans!

Mainz’s surprise about this matter mainly comes from the bears’ intention to do so. What does the bear want to get from Hans by doing this?

This is what he cares about most!

“The Russian bear seems to have implicitly indicated that it hopes to purchase a batch of machinery and equipment and the design drawings of the Type 1 tank from my country!” The person who contacted Ribbentrop was Yarkov, the Consul General of the Russians stationed in Europe.

He was the first Russian to contact Hans, and his qualifications were enough to serve as the Russians’ foreign minister. However, because Starling trusted his confidant Motolov more, Yarkov lost the competition.

With the death of Lenin and the expulsion of Tolo’s driver from the country, the Russians had now completely fallen into Starlin’s control.

Yarkov did not have a good relationship with Starlin. Although he was not from Tolo’s driver’s faction, he was not from Starlin’s faction either, so Starlin did not trust him very much.

Moreover, the Russians had gradually purged Tolo’s driver’s followers in the country since the end of 192. By 1926, this behavior had not only not stopped, but had a tendency to intensify, so Yarkov also began to seek a way out for himself.

He was the first Russian to contact Hans, and he even had a good relationship with Mainz, so when he informed Ribbentrop of the news, he very obscurely leaked some other information.

“The design drawings of the Type 1 tank?”

Mainz frowned when he heard this. The Type 1 tank was the first tank specially developed by Hans.

Although the technology was not advanced and the performance was not strong, this tank was still very good among the same type of products. It was normal for the Russians to be thinking about this tank!

However, Mainz was very skeptical. Did the Russians really have the ability to develop and produce tanks at this time?

In Mainz’s impression, it was not until May 6, 1924 that the Central Administration of the Defense Industry of the Russians was established in Moscow. This was a sign of the beginning of the Russian state tank manufacturing.

After the establishment of the Defense Industry Administration, a department in charge of tank design and manufacturing was immediately established. It was called the GKBAT Design Bureau from 1926 to 1929. The task of this design bureau was to Develop tracked combat vehicles, that is, tanks!

However, due to the lack of necessary tools and equipment, GKBOAT’s early work had little effect, and the problems faced by the Russians in this era were far worse than in real history.

Their domestic industrial system was almost destroyed in the war, and Tsarist Russia itself was not an industrially powerful country in World War I. It was at best a second-rate industrial country.

Coupled with the destruction of the war, by the time the Russians took over, there was no decent heavy industry in the country!

Over the years, the Russians have obtained a lot of machinery and equipment from Hans by exporting resources such as grain and oil.

They used these machinery and equipment to build a factory with great difficulty. The name of this factory is Kharkov Locomotive Plant.

However, their industrial system is very Often in short supply, the production of tanks requires a large number of supporting enterprises, including steel mills, engine factories, artillery factories, etc.

These supporting enterprises in the country of the Russian Bear have not been established at all, and the technical forces and production equipment have not been organized to produce tanks. Therefore, the Kharkov Locomotive Factory had no choice but to design and manufacture tracked tractors in 1925, wanting to imitate the German army’s methods, such as producing tracked vehicles, and then accumulating them to prepare for future tank manufacturing!

Moreover, the German-Polish War has proved that tracked tractors can actually be used on the battlefield. Although they cannot completely replace tanks, it is still feasible to pull them out to act as meat shields in an emergency to cover the infantry’s attack!

After producing tractors for a year, the Kharkov Locomotive Factory finally accumulated enough experience to start building its own Tank.

However, the Russians could not complete the forging and welding of the tank’s main gun for the time being, so they decided to produce a tank without a main gun and without the need for forging. Looking around the world, there are not many countries with such tanks, and there are even fewer countries that can import them.

Hans, who has a good relationship with the Russians, just has this kind of tank, which is the No. 1 tank!

So, the Russians started to think about introducing the No. 1 tank from Hans. In their opinion, the No. 1 tank is fast and has strong mobility, which is very suitable for a country like the Russians with a very vast land area. If they have the No. 1 tank, if there is a rebellion in any part of the country in the future, they can immediately send troops and use the excellent mobility of the No. 1 tank to quickly rush to the battlefield and deal a fatal blow to the enemy!

It is precisely for this purpose that the Russians have so generously transported a lot of food this time. They want to get Hans’ advanced weapons by showing goodwill to Hans!

After listening to Ribbentrop’s words, Mainz sorted out the ins and outs of the matter.

“President, should we reject the Russians’ request? The performance of the Type 1 tank is very advanced in the world. If this tank is handed over to the Russians, they are likely to obtain a large amount of advanced technology, which may have the consequence of aiding the enemy!”

Ribbentrop’s words make sense. The cooperation between Hans and the Russians is very beneficial to the Russians. They are currently lacking equipment and technology, but their potential is huge. Once they master Hans’ advanced technology, their potential is likely to be activated.

“Tell the Russians that the design drawings are our core secrets, so it is not convenient to sell them. However, if they want tanks, we can increase exports to them. Various types of tanks, including the Type 1 tank, can be exported. They only need to exchange them for food!”

It is better to teach a man how to fish than to give him a fish. This principle is exactly the opposite in the arms trade.

All countries want to sell weapons, but none of them want to leak their own technology.

The reason is simple. The international arms market is so big. If only a few countries can manufacture and sell weapons, they can easily monopolize the arms trade market. Leaking their own technology at this time will not only cause them to lose the market of one of the countries, but may even cause the country that has learned their technology to join the ranks of foreign arms sales, and from their arms exporter, become their competitor!

This kind of thing is probably what countries least want to see!

Therefore, Mainz is willing to sell advanced weapons such as tanks to the Russian Bear, but is not very willing to sell its own technology to the other party.

If they only sell weapons, the Russian Bear market is likely to be completely opened up by them, and they may also sell more tanks in the future and earn more foreign exchange. If the technology is provided to the Russian Bear, the Russian Bear can manufacture it by itself, and there is no need to import from Hans. Maybe in the future the Russian Bear will export weapons to other countries, not only seizing Hans’ arms market, but even threatening Hans’ national security!

“”Okay, I’ll reply to the Russians right away!”

After leaving Mainz, Ribbentrop immediately told Yarkov Mainz’s decision.

After that, he added one more sentence:”If you can help us make this deal, we can give you this commission!”

Ribbentrop raised five fingers and said to Yarkov.

Yarkov was surprised. Five percent commission?

This is not a small number!

If the number of tanks purchased by the Russians is large, then this commission will be very large!

Yarkov was originally dissatisfied with Starlin, and his loyalty to the Russians began to decline. At this time, he received such a large kickback provided by the Hans. How could he not be tempted?

“This, let me think about it, I am not sure if I can succeed!”

Although he wanted to agree to it, this kind of thing was not something he could decide on his own, he had to go back and test the waters.

Ribbentrop had no objection to this. It was President Mainz’s intention to alienate and win over Yarkov. He wanted to win over one of the senior officials of the bear. In this way, in addition to the intelligence obtained by the SS, Hans could also obtain internal intelligence from the senior officials of the bear as quickly as possible.

Although the bear is still very weak now, the potential of the bear is huge, so it deserves such attention!

After solving the problems on the bear side, Mainz focused all his attention on domestic affairs!

At this time, five days had passed since Smith and other merchants started to stockpile food!