The fireplace is warm and the lights are bright. The hot coffee is held in the palm of your hand, giving you a unique warm atmosphere of winter.

"As of now, this war has lasted for a full seven months. During this period, a large number of workers, citizens, farmers, and even students responded to the call of the imperial government to join the army and embarked on the battlefield; the consequence of this was that the empire's material production capacity had an inevitable decline. Take oats as an example alone. Last year, our total output was 4.4 billion kilograms, but this year it fell directly to below 3.8 billion kilograms, and we could not achieve a wheat yield of 1,080 per mu. If Romania had not provided us with a large amount of precious food supply, the empire would have to implement grain and oil rationing after this winter." Facing William's puzzled gaze, Qingying slowly expressed his thoughts.

After hearing Qingying's words, William's face gradually became solemn, and he no longer had the relaxed expression he had before. As the monarch who had been in charge of this empire for a quarter of a century, he knew almost nothing more than anyone about the unfavorable situations that Germany had encountered in the war transformation. Although driven by Qingying's proposal, German factories and fields began to let women enter the front line of labor in large quantities, as the war continued, the phenomenon of insufficient manpower continued to appear in Germany. Looking at the beautiful face of the person in front of him, William suddenly moved his heart and said, "Etel, do you have any strategies to solve the problem?"

"I don't have a way to completely solve the shortage of material production. However, we have a batch of ready-made labor for use." Qing Ying paused and then said, "that is the Russian prisoners we captured."

Qingying smiled slightly and said softly: "In the past six months, we have captured more than 1.3 million Russian prisoners. They eat the food that German farmers have worked hard all day long. Now it is time for them to make a reward. We can let these people grow livestock, or absorb them into military factories to produce guns and ammunition; as long as they are managed properly, they can only act as pigs and sheep driven by people under the pressure of our guns. What's more favorable is that there is almost no labor cost for these prisoners as laborers; working 14 hours a day to give three full meals are all the treatment conditions offered by the most kind capitalists! Most of them are from regular soldiers and their physical fitness is no problem. If they are transferred to factories, I think they will definitely be snatched by those capitalists who pursue interests."

William snorted, and his face that had just condensed suddenly seemed to melt the ice and snow. The guy in front of him did not know how much planning he had planned in his heart. Whenever he proposed something worth worrying in front of him, he would almost certainly have good solutions to alleviate or solve the problem. In fact, the German government had used prisoners as coolies before this. The newly renovated railway in Poland is the masterpiece of the 140,000 Russian prisoners in the Battle of Tannenburg; however, these prisoners were systematically used and integrated into Germany's huge war machine. This was a new idea proposed by the young man in front of him. If he could really break up these groups of people and turn them from the source of unstable food consumption into a laboring serf who created a lot of wealth value in Germany, no matter from any perspective, it would be a big profit!

"In addition, while driving them to work, we should also give these prisoners a re-education of their thoughts like a spring breeze, so that they can realize from the depths of their consciousness that Germany is not only a powerful country with invincible power, but also a sincere and kind friend of the Russian nation. The Bolsheviks are their unforgettable hatred." Qingying said slowly. In his heart, a blueprint for Eastern Europe after the war had been drawn.

At present, although the war lasted only half a year, and there was still a big gap between the time and conditions for the outbreak of the February Revolution in Russia in history, the revolutionary party forces in Russia have already become much stronger than history with their secret support. In addition, the main force of the German army has already moved eastward in advance, and is now carrying the minions of Austro-Hungary and Romanian to drive straight into Russia. The Tsar's life may not be better than in history in early 1917. Combining the intelligence and information collected by the Qing and British layout in Russia for ten years, the rule of the Romanov dynasty would almost inevitably collapse in the wave of domestic revolution. What he had to do next was to prevent the growth of the new Soviet Russia.

Historically, after the Bolsheviks seized central power in the October Revolution, it was by no means the situation of surrender in the Ultimate under the manifesto as many imagined. Belarus and the Baltic Kingdom were occupied by Germany. Ukrainians and Kazakhs realized the dream of founding the country. Denikin's "volunteer army" relied on the newly established Don Republic in the North Caucasus, and the Belarusian regime led by Admiral Kolchak occupied Ula.

The entire Siberian region east of the Ershan Mountains. In addition, the coalition forces composed of Britain, the United States and Italy occupied the entire area around the White Sea. The only one that truly belongs to the Red Soviet was the European region with Moscow as the core. After more than four years of fierce war, the Bolsheviks finally established a complete Soviet regime on the bodies of more than 10 million people, and the whole process was accompanied by cruel destruction and killing.

What Qing and Ying planned was to allow Russia's separatist civil war to continue after the revolution. The more than one million prisoners of war in the German barracks were the best source of armed forces to realize his concept. As the war between Germany and Russia was pacified, these prisoners would inevitably be sent back to their country; and most of them were orthodox soldiers, and the ability to carry rifles to fight civil war was absolutely unquestionable. If these personnel, who were originally regular Tsarist Russian troops, could join the White Army to fight, they would definitely become a huge disaster for the Soviet Union; as long as Russia's separatist chaos did not stop for a day, this would be a good situation for Germany!

William raised his eyebrows slightly, and a sharp light appeared in his eyes. Although he did not have the thinking of a time traveler like Qingying, his experience and experience in the European storm had already made him see a hint of clue. He nodded and said, "I have no objection to the handling strategy of Russian prisoners of war. Tomorrow morning, you should propose this consideration to Otbaden (Holvig).

"The wisdom is nothing more than Caesar." Qingying savored the mellow fragrance in the cup and whispered, "In fact, there is another thing I want to ask Caesar to report, that is the shortage of raw materials that the empire is about to face."

"Long before the outbreak of the war, we had prepared some supplies for the future European conflict; however, after these seven months of consumption, less than a quarter of the amount still hoarded in the warehouse. Only coal and iron ore can be self-sufficient, rubber, scarce metal and other items rely on imports; especially oil consumption is even greater. Our airships, armored combat vehicles, submarine warships, and chemical companies all need this black viscous liquid to drive. The shortage of these primary raw materials is no more than secondary industrial products. No matter how much labor we have, it cannot be obtained through production; therefore the empire needs to resume pre-war maritime trade as soon as possible and obtain these supplies from overseas." Qingying looked up at William's eyes, and his eyes showed a solemn look for the first time.

William nodded slightly, his face full of recognition. Although Romania's annual oil production of 1.2 million tons can be said to be rich, it still seems quite insufficient to digest it in Germany, a war machine of 66 million people. Even with coal as the main energy source, Germany needs more than 3 million tons of oil every year to maintain normal operation. Before this, although William and his staff and secretary had formulated many strategies for this, as Qingying said, since raw materials cannot be obtained through industrial production, these strategies have never achieved decisive results.

However, now, the situation is very different from the early stages of the war. The strength of the British fleet has dropped to the bottom in a night battle, and its control over the North Atlantic has been reduced sharply: German merchant ships can go north along the Norwegian waterway, enter the North Atlantic through the Denmark Strait, and then sail directly to the Hozhong Lighthouse on the other side of the ocean. Even if the threat of British surface warships is threatened and harassed, the German high seas fleet based on Fair Island and Shetland Islands is enough to protect a large-scale transport fleet. What's more, Germany can directly absorb American merchant ships to take the initiative to transport goods from Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg and other places. The high rewards can make these greedy merchants flock to them.

Qingying had explained to William many times before the war the strategy of kidnapping the United States' foreign attitude by economic means. Compared with the losses caused by the Americans' robbery, they were isolated from the war machines of the Allies, which were obviously the allied camp led by Germany, which was far higher than the former. What's more, Germany could also regain costs from other countries that were defeated, or even sacrifice the interests of these countries to block the Americans' greed. Against the background of this almost one-sided European war, Qingying had absolutely confidence in dealing with the attitude of this rich man.

"Then, let's contact the empire's ambassador to Washington to discuss the issuance of bonds in the United States and the procurement of raw materials and materials." William spoke lightly, with a hint of long-cherished desire in his words. "Britains in the United States have no capital raising, and they can use massive amounts of material assets for their own war machines. Why can't I, Germany, follow this approach? Under the current situation, it depends on whether the pound sterling franc is reliable or the German Mark is strong!" (To be continued)

ps: Thanks to book friend Miracle Jack, Midnight. Canlang for his monthly ticket support, and Ding Zi, Zhouyu1976 rewards~~~

Speaking of which, the subscription volume is still tragic, and the author lacks motivation to update...
Chapter completed!