Chapter 45: Printing money is a top priority!
On the Yamato, the flagship of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet, in a heavily guarded cabin, a group of people were surrounding a machine with serious expressions.
I saw Wang Qiu carefully taking out two brand-new Japanese yen banknotes from a small wooden box, stuffing them into the "era vending machine" in front of him, and then only heard a soft "ding" sound, and took the goods from the vending machine. A lot of Morinaga toffee in iron boxes fell out of his mouth.
"...Yeah! It's successful!" Wang Qiu turned around and gave Ma Tong a high-five with a smile on his face, "...let's print money as hard as we can from now on!"
Ever since it was discovered that Japanese yen banknotes could be used to purchase supplies through [chronological vending machines] in another world, during the subsequent adventure, in addition to some high-tech and cutting-edge equipment, the stingy relevant departments tried their best to issue banknotes to Wang Qiu so that he could He solves the problem of material supply by himself - in this way, it feels so good to use the yen of the 21st century to buy things at the prices of the Showa era or even the Meiji era!
——A box of cigarettes only costs one yen, a box of toffee only costs half a yen, and ten yen can provide a table of food and drinks. Even a Type 38 rifle only costs 80 yen, which in the 21st century is only equivalent to the price of half a rice ball... Although the [chronological vending machine] only sells Japanese arms, and does not provide too advanced The goods can only be provided until the Pacific War at the latest, but they are enough in this World War II dimension.
Therefore, before the combined fleet weighed anchor and sailed north, Wang Qiu only spent a mere 100 million yen, leaving enough grain and ammunition reserves for the Truk garrison - the modern Chinese government's backlog of expired supplies. In the late Ming Dynasty, The plane has almost been emptied, and there is not much inventory left at the moment...
Although being able to use the 21st century yen to buy things at prices at the beginning of the 20th century or even the end of the 19th century is already a huge advantage. But human greed is never satisfied. After all, no matter how worthless the Japanese yen is in the 21st century, it is still a foreign currency, and it can only be exchanged for it by paying real money. More importantly, not only does Wang Qiu and his small team need to use Japanese yen to purchase supplies and materials from [chronological vending machines], but relevant departments also need to spend Japanese yen to purchase some items from [chronological vending machines] that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Of course, this is not to save money and take advantage of buying Japanese rice from the Meiji era for ten kilograms per yen, but to collect certain things that cannot be bought with money.
Specifically, it means purchasing large quantities of a rare precious metal: palladium.
——Since Wang Qiu obtained the technology to produce palladium fusion reactors (the shiny thing on the chest of Iron Man’s suit) from Iron Man Tony Stark in the Marvel world, the domestic political and economic circles suddenly All experienced a major earthquake. Everyone is fascinated by this earth-shattering energy revolution! It should be noted that the palm-sized mini palladium reactor on Iron Man's chest alone has a peak power generation capacity of 3 billion joules per second, which is equivalent to one-third of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station! Such a small gadget can meet the daily power supply needs of a large city, while the power generation costs can be reduced to almost zero: users only need to bear the daily maintenance costs of the power grid! For the Chinese who need to import huge amounts of fuel and natural gas every year after realizing industrialization, such endless cheap energy is simply an irresistible temptation!
With such clean, pollution-free, portable and compact high-efficiency energy power, not only can China's manufacturing industry get rid of the bottleneck of energy shortage, but even rushing out of the earth and conquering the stars and the sea no longer seems to be the dream of science fiction novelists. .
But the problem is that although Iron Man's nuclear fusion reactor is very good and powerful, it consumes a lot of metal palladium.
However, the Chinese government does not have much palladium in its hands, and it is difficult to obtain a large amount of palladium at an affordable price.
——In nature, palladium rarely exists alone in dense concentrations. Instead, it appears as an associated ore of gold mines. Its reserves are scarce, smelting is difficult, and it is already expensive. When the technology of the palladium fusion reactor was revealed, the price rocketed to the sky, and there was even a price but no market!
What’s even more terrible is that most of the proven reserves of palladium on earth are located in Russia, Canada and South Africa, places that are temporarily beyond the reach of China’s influence. In China, it seems that only Guangxi has some small veins of palladium, and the reserves can only be said to be better than nothing.
Of course, there is no need to mention Russia. Canada is basically the exclusive territory of American imperialism... Think about the palladium fusion reactor technology that was finally obtained and could usher in the dawn of a new era, but it turned out to be cheaper than the two competitors, the United States and Russia. Relevant domestic departments feel about this, just like the Axis powers who were choked by oil shortages during World War II. They feel as if they have swallowed a mouse, as if they have eaten a dog, and are indescribably uncomfortable.
Relevant departments, pressed by the shortage of palladium, naturally found other ways to collect palladium through various crooked ways. The few bottles of [Synthetic Mineral Primer] that Wang Qiu obtained from the Doraemon plane were all used to make Palladium veins were produced, and then continued to be purchased using the [chronological vending machine].
However, using the [chronological vending machine] in Doraemon's plane and spending Japanese yen to purchase palladium will also encounter a very troublesome problem:
If the era is set too early, then palladium will not be available in Japan at that era; if the era is set later, the yen has depreciated, and the price of palladium will be very expensive, and it will not account for much Cheap - The [chronological vending machine] from Doraemon's plane can only sell products made in Japan, and in principle, it is basically impossible to buy imported goods from abroad. Whether it is European or American goods, this machine cannot provide... And in Japan, which had a backward industrial technology level in the earlier years, no matter how much money you spend, there is nowhere to buy expensive and rare materials like palladium. Heavy metals...
So far, Wang Qiu has been entrusted by the central government to purchase metal palladium from [chronological vending machines], with a total value of up to 10 billion yen, but the relevant departments still feel that it is far from enough: even if palladium is more durable than oil , there must be a strategic inventory of tens of thousands of tons! And it feels quite painful to spend so much money - in order to exchange for these yen, we have to sell many vegetables, fruits and textiles to the Japanese!
As a result, the relevant departments began to frantically make counterfeit Japanese yen banknotes - with the technical reserves owned by the government, it may be more troublesome to make modern Japanese yen, but Japanese yen banknotes from the First and Second World War should not be difficult to produce. Unfortunately, the results were very disappointing: although the counterfeit banknotes produced by the relevant departments were no different from the old Japanese yen banknotes collected by collectors and the Japanese yen banknotes collected in the World War II dimension, even experts could not tell the difference. But the [chronological vending machine] is able to tell the difference between the two. It only recognizes genuine banknotes from the World War II plane and does not recognize counterfeit banknotes from relevant departments.
However, in the face of the above setbacks, the relevant departments not only did not give up, but further opened their minds and suddenly came up with a whim: Since this [era vending machine] only accepts banknotes, and it accepts real Japanese yen banknotes regardless of the dimension. , then if you can control a Japanese government in another world, and then start the money printing machine like crazy and print Japanese yen reasonably and legally, wouldn't you just get whatever you want?
——What should I do if I find that I can’t use the counterfeit money that I spent a lot of effort on forging? Then just turn it into real money!
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Therefore, at the behest of Sophie, the ship girl, the government leader of the "Oceania Management Council" (Obu) and the first chairman of Obu, Horikichi, asked for unrestricted yen development during wartime when he first took office. Banknote Quan - According to him, now the enemy is strong and we are weak, the U.S. Navy The tonnage is five or six times that of our own. The Orb territory is isolated in the Southeast Asia. It will be isolated from the mainland for a long time in the future. It is impossible to guarantee that the transportation lines will always be smooth. If banknotes cannot be issued independently, then there will be great troubles in the economic operation. It will be difficult to The huge consumption that supports modern warfare.
The army and civilian officials naturally had doubts about this. After all, financial power was related to the security of the regime, and what Aub wanted was not the right to issue local bills, but the right to issue national currency, which was simply too much support. However, the Navy persisted and even threatened to overthrow the government. The Soviet representatives also supported it and cited the precedent of each base area of the Chinese Red Army printing their own banknotes. Therefore, in the end, the resolution was passed. Anyway, in wartime Japan, all daily necessities depended on ration vouchers, and you couldn't buy anything with just yen banknotes. As for after the war... let's wait until after the war! If Japan loses the war and Japan dies, the yen will become useless. Who will be able to take care of so much?
Just in case, the Navy not only obtained the imperial edict written by the Empress, but also forcibly wrote this clause into the constitution. Finally, they even "respectfully requested" the Empress to operate the machine in person and print the first batch of banknotes... and so on. After all the caution, the money printing plan finally succeeded.
To put it simply, due to some unexplainable secret principle of the universe, the [chronological vending machine] recognized this batch of "genuine banknotes".
Looking at the milk candies falling out of the [era vending machine], and the cans, rice, biscuits, snacks, pickles, lunch boxes, kettles, rifles, pistols, bicycles, and forced food that were taken out from it. Artillery fire, radio stations... For a moment, whether it was Chairman Horikichi, Commander Narumi Inoue, or Prime Minister Nosaka Sanzo, they were all stunned and their thinking was stagnant. "...This, this is unscientific... It's so unscientific! Wait, can you really buy anything from here?" After being speechless for a long time, Prime Minister Nosaka Sanzo suddenly asked.
"...Yes, you can use this to buy rice, sugar, ammunition, guns, fuel, airplanes, tanks, and even warships!"
Ma Tong explained with a smile, "...As long as you have enough money, you can have whatever you want... Are you confident in your future victory now?"
"...More than just confidence, victory is certain!" Horikichi, the first chairman of the Orb Committee, couldn't help laughing - if we say that the previous war between Japan and the United States was a judo match with a huge disparity in strength. Japan, a poor and weak island nation with a population of 70 million, faced off against the world's industrial hegemon, the United States, with a population of 120 million. It had to defeat the weak and the strong again and again before it could win a chance to breathe. So from now on, it's all evened out. The Japanese army has more abundant resources and supplies than the US military, and can in turn flood the Yankees with all kinds of "sea"!
Commander Narumi Inoue seemed to have an even bigger imagination: "...Wait a minute, I remember that the cost of building a Yamato is more than 100 million yen. If we print more than 10 billion yen at full power, Then wouldn’t it be possible to build up a hundred Yamatos to fight against the Yankees soon?”
"...Theoretically it's possible, as long as you can find so many qualified sailors to fill the warships..." Wang Qiu glanced at him and said.
So Commander Narumi Inoue, who had just become excited, suddenly became deflated again - Japan today has long been depleted of human resources, and even a cat's claws are wanted to be used. Where can they find so many skilled sailors? If we have to recruit people, it seems that we can only recruit fishermen’s daughters... Huh? Does this seem like an idea you can give a try? Although it is unfavorable to have women on board, at least it is better than leaving a new warship unmanned, right?
Prime Minister Nosaka Sanzo frowned and thought of another question, "...If this is the case, wouldn't our people be able to get something for nothing from now on? As long as they continue to print money, they can get everything they want... I'm afraid this is not consistent. The laws of economics will also bring about social problems..."
"...Uncle, you are thinking too much!" Ma Tong shrugged and interrupted, "...You don't think that this machine can be used forever for decades or hundreds of years, do you? How can there be such a good thing in the world? It will be scrapped after two or three years at most..."
"...Nani? Only two or three years?" Prime Minister Nosaka Senzo was shocked when he heard this, and suddenly fell into a new worry about gains and losses...
On the other side, Wang Qiu curled his lips and made a decision to himself, "...two to three years is not a short period of time to get something for nothing. The specific things you want to buy can be left for the future. Think about it slowly, even if you want everything, it doesn't matter if you are a pickpocket. Now our first priority is to print as many banknotes as possible as soon as possible. Let's print 100 trillion yen in the first batch. …”
"...One hundred trillion yen?!" Inoue Narumi was so horrified that she gasped, "...this...isn't even pulp enough?"
"...It doesn't matter. The raw materials such as pulp and ink required for printing banknotes can also be purchased from this machine..." Wang Qiu patted the outer shell of the [era vending machine] nonchalantly, "...I see , how about all the materials exchanged for the first batch of banknotes are used to buy food and use it to relieve refugees and distribute it to the citizens? How about letting them feel a little bit happy about the new emperor's enthronement..."
……
So, at the temporary base of the Army Staff Headquarters in a temple outside Hiroshima, Chief of Staff Neiji Okamura, who was worried about how to solve the logistical supply problem for hundreds of thousands of troops and military dependents, suddenly received a large batch of allocated supplies. He immediately I was almost scared to death when I took the list:
"... Nani? Two hundred thousand tons of gasoline? One hundred thousand tons of rice and wheat? Twenty thousand tons of canned Yamato boiled beef and whale meat? One hundred tons of sulfa powder? Fifty thousand motorcycles? Thirty thousand trucks? Zero Ten thousand fighter jets? Ten million 38-type rifles? One hundred million hand grenades? Five billion rounds of rifles? Where did the Navy get all that stuff? ”
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS: I am contemplating a new book and currently have three ideas: 1. "Dreadnaught Girl Avrol", all day long Drunk Maozi Ship Girl Unwilling to lose the status of the red holy ship, it coerces the protagonist to travel through the Russo-Japanese War and the story of the great naval battle against Ma; 2. "Auspicious Invincible Snow Wind", the modern Taiwanese shipgirl Danyang No. 2, a shady and malicious person who is greedy and cute A naughty child with chuunibyou disease who has serious violent tendencies, her soul traveled through time and became the Snow Prince Danyang I - Xuefeng. She shrouded the entire Pacific Ocean under her crazy and invincible fate, and also sought support from the militaristic imperialist powers. 3. "Girls of the Galaxy", a cosmic adventure story about the "primitive man" protagonist in the 21st century and the cute and playful girls in the interstellar era... Which one do you think is better?