The expeditionary force began to dominate Southeast Asia by recruiting defeated soldiers

Chapter 260: The Bear Envoy and the Pineapple (Part 2)

Steel, weapons, heavy industrial equipment, these things seem to be really good at first glance.

Bago, which has a lot of work to do, is about to embark on large-scale construction, especially large-scale infrastructure construction, which requires a large amount of steel.

But steel is heavy and takes up space. Unless the Russians cover the transportation costs, the freight for transporting it all the way to Pegu will be quite scary.

As for arms, what the Russians will give to the younger brothers in the Red Camp in the future will be second-hand equipment or specially made monkey-version equipment. What good stuff can they provide?

Zhang Chi has the system in hand, but he doesn't want a bunch of BT-7, T-37, T-28 and other things that are on the verge of being obsolete.

He is more optimistic about things like the AK-47 automatic rifle, PRK machine gun, BMP-1 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle, etc., but the Russians themselves don't have them now.

至于火炮，安民军目前使用的都是白鹰标准的75、105、155火炮，换成毛式的76、122、152意味着整套炮兵体系都要换，得不偿失。

Thinking of this, Zhang Chi touched his chin.

The B-4 203mm howitzer (pictured at the end of the chapter, the author says) can be used as a supplement to the super-heavy artillery role, but I don’t know if the Russians will sell it?

However, we can import some heavy industrial equipment.

Although everyone says that the Russians' equipment is clumsy, big, and crude, most of Zhang Chi's industrial workers are novices with only elementary level skills.

No matter how high the precision of the machining equipment is, it will be useless if the workers' skills are not up to par, right?

It would be better to practice with some Mao-style mechanical equipment first.

As for whether there is enough supply in Bago, Zhang Chi is not worried.

With the large-scale immigration he organized, a large number of Qian people poured into Bago and changed the local people's lazy agricultural habits of relying on the weather for their livelihood, and began to cultivate the land intensively.

At the same time, with the large-scale production of synthetic ammonia industrial lines, fertilizers and other materials are also used heavily.

This has led to a dramatic increase in the production of staple foods, including rice, wheat, corn, and potatoes.

Since there was enough staple food, and Bago had abundant rainfall and a tropical climate, it would be a waste of land not to grow some fruit, so a large amount of land was developed into orchards at Zhang Chi's request.

For these orchards, Zhang Chi also spent a huge amount of money to purchase a large number of seeds of high-quality fruit varieties, including Gros Michel bananas, from the United Fruit Company in White Eagle.

In addition, in view of the fact that fruits are difficult to preserve, Zhang Chi also takes a two-pronged approach.

On the one hand, the Construction Corps built simple roads everywhere to improve the transportation level in rural areas.

In addition to roads, we also need means of transportation. In view of the fact that there are many rivers and mud in Bago, Zhang Chi encouraged those Nanyang families to open factories to produce cement speedboats and Bobcat off-road vehicles on a large scale to enrich the transportation in the area.

As a highly mechanized force, the People's Army of An naturally has a large number of trucks, Lynx vehicles, and tanks facing scrapping and elimination.

Zhang Chi, who was too lazy to physically put these vehicles into the system for refurbishment one by one, simply asked Kang Huojian's logistics department to convert these vehicles into agricultural vehicles and sell them to the public at low prices to improve the overall level of agricultural mechanization.

On the other hand, Zhang Chi found several major families in Nanyang and jointly opened a large number of canning factories and sugarcane factories. They used the sugar produced by squeezing sugarcane in the sugarcane factories and combined it with fruits that could not be consumed in the short term to produce canned fruits such as pineapple in syrup.

In Zhang Chi's opinion, at a time when refrigerator technology and freeze-drying technology are not well developed, canned fruit is the best way to preserve freshness besides eating it right after picking it. At least it is more like the original fruit than dried fruits such as candied fruits, right?

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As for the pineapple salt soda, it was an unexpected product.

As we all know, steel workers work in three shifts. Due to the temperature of thousands of degrees in front of the furnace, they will sweat a lot, so they must replenish water and salt regularly.

Qiang Guorong, the director of Xinwangping Iron and Steel Plant, simply set up a small workshop to produce salt water with sugar added and provide it to the workers on a regular basis.

Later, Qiang Guorong heard that the Anmin Army all drank carbonated cola, so he used the carbon dioxide produced by the steel plant's air separation equipment and a pressurizing device to make salt soda.

Later, a worker suggested that it would be boring to add only sugar to the salty soda, so it would be better to add some fruit juice or something to make it a fruity salty soda.

So Qiang Guorong decided to apply for a budget and set up a juice processing plant to collect the leftover defective fruits from the fruit canning factory to make juice.

After the pineapple juice was produced, Qiang Guorong called a few masters to discuss and decided to make something else besides pineapple salt soda. After all, in terms of the richness of machinery and equipment, Nanhua Iron and Steel Group is second to none.

As a result, the Xinwangping Steel Plant, as a steel joint venture, has become the largest canned beverage producer in Bago.

Steel brand's pineapple salt soda, pineapple beer (with non-alcoholic version), pineapple pure juice and other glass bottled drinks not only enrich the choices of steel workers, but are also marketed throughout Zhang Chi's control area.

Even after Zhang Chi learned that his subordinates had quietly developed such a large satellite, it was specially selected as a military supply product, and along with Coca-Cola, became a high-quality product for the front-line security army soldiers.

Both raw materials and production lines can be easily replicated and expanded on a large scale, and the required assembly line workers do not need to have too high a level of technical or cultural expertise and can be easily recruited.

Therefore, after thinking for a moment, Zhang Chi said, "In principle, I think it's fine. Of course, the specific price should be left to the people below to negotiate. And let's make it clear up front that we won't be responsible for transportation."

After hearing Anna's retelling, Yuri suddenly opened his arms and shouted, "Stop Hala, Stop Hala!"

For the Russians, transportation is not a problem.

At this time, the Russians maintained a neutral relationship with the Japanese.

The Kwantung Army suffered from Nomonhan PTSD and hid in the Tiger Head Fortress trembling, fearing that the Russian bear in the Far East would rush down with a steel torrent one day if they disagreed with him.

Therefore, as long as cargo ships fly the Russian flag, they can sail freely on the Eastern Sea. The Japanese navy can only make some small moves at most, and will not risk angering the Russians and starting a war by intercepting Russian cargo ships on a large scale.

Zhang Chi was shocked when he saw the giant Siberian bear rushing towards him. He quickly waved his hands, indicating that you should not give me Su Xunzong's "kiss on the cheek" ceremony, as he would not accept it.

Finally, the two sides shook hands and sat down again.

Zhang Chi calmly took out a small bottle filled with penicillin powder and placed it on the table.

Yuri and Anna both recognized that it was the current flagship product of the White Eagle United States across the ocean, Pfizer's injectable penicillin, 10 units per bottle, with a standard market retail price of $12.

As a senior bureaucrat in the diplomatic field, Yuri naturally knew that there was a secret route for importing penicillin in Southeast Asia.

"Does this little bottle Zhang took out look familiar?"

Yuri remained calm on the surface, but his heart was already in turmoil.

The same penicillin, combined with the distance between Siam and Pegu, and the large amount of White Eagle equipment in Zhang Chi's hands.

Could it be that?