Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 131 Curing the Demandians' Obsession with Perfection

After helping Gustav Krupp lobby the Navy and resolve a few minor troubles, Gustav and Lelouch's relationship grew closer, and they became more willing to cooperate deeply in business.

In the following days, Lelouch took advantage of his free time in Port William to discuss several business collaborations with Gustave.

Lelouch originally planned to open a steel plant in Dunkirk, but it was ultimately just a small, experimental plant. Its purpose was to overcome the resource constraints of building factories domestically and, incidentally, to utilize the scrap steel resources from the shipwrecks at Ironbottom Beach.

During wartime, the allocation of resources such as iron ore, coal, and electricity within Demania was controlled by the state. If you were to develop a new, innovative production capacity without proper verification, you wouldn't even be able to obtain the necessary approvals from the power sector.

Although Lelouch had military merits and a position, he had no foundation or reputation in the business world before, and no one would believe in his vision. Naturally, he needed to go out and do business to get started more quickly.

However, now that the first step has been successfully completed, the second step of returning home will face far fewer obstacles. Moreover, with Kruppken cooperating sincerely with him, everything will be much easier.

This time, Lelouch seized the opportunity to suggest: "Mr. Gustav, I think the production capacity of electric arc furnace steel can be further expanded. In the future, it should not only be used to make high-caliber gun barrels, but also to make more things, such as gears, bearings, and even other fields that have extremely high requirements for the removal of impurities from steel and the uniformity of alloy element distribution."

The use of electric arc furnace steel in these fields could lead to a qualitative leap in product performance, greatly benefiting the empire's war machine. Even at a higher price, the military would definitely be willing to pay the premium.

Gustav hadn't yet considered the technological applications and was somewhat confused. He humbly asked for advice: "I know that for gears and bearings, the better the steel, the better the quality. But metallurgy is only the first step; machining and heat treatment also need to keep up. Moreover, the current gears and bearings are already sufficient. If we want to further improve them, are there any military applications where new, high-quality gears made of advanced materials are absolutely necessary?"

Fortunately, Lelouch was very knowledgeable about the future trends of the military industry, and he could answer this question easily: "Isn't that easy to figure out? Think about it, we're at the Wilhelmshaven Naval Shipyard today, so I'll just use the battleship next door as an example—"

You've done a lot for the Navy, so you should know that the propulsion systems of the pre-dreadnought era, although the triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines were very inefficient, far less efficient than modern steam turbines, actually had a higher driving efficiency than the small-diameter propellers used in conjunction with the triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines compared to the small-diameter propellers of modern dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts.

Because reciprocating steam engines are characterized by 'high torque and low speed', while steam turbines are characterized by 'high speed and low torque'. High-power steam turbines rotate at extremely high speeds, and currently there are no sufficiently strong and precise 'gearboxes' to reduce the speed output of the steam turbine's main shaft; the propeller simply rotates at the same speed as the turbine.

However, if the propeller spins too fast, it easily creates cavitation, wasting much of the thrust on the seawater. A large-diameter, low-speed propeller would be better suited to utilize the engine's output. Currently, navies worldwide cannot achieve this because they lack high-quality steel and high-precision gearboxes. Gearboxes currently used in automobiles and submarines cannot be scaled up proportionally for battleships.

Without the high-strength, high-precision gearboxes required for large steam turbines, even increasing the steam pressure and output of the turbines, or improving boiler steam efficiency, would be pointless. The propellers couldn't be enlarged; they could only be made to spin faster, which was meaningless. Further increasing warship power would only result in piling on boilers and shafts, leading to waste. A 28-knot 350mm main gun battlecruiser would be 230 meters long, with numerous boilers and smokestacks.

But what if we build a large marine gearbox that can withstand tens of thousands of horsepower of torque? Then we can further develop high-pressure steam turbines, small water-tube boilers, large-diameter low-speed propellers... All of this must start with a transmission system made of high-strength electric arc furnace steel.

Even the blades for future high-pressure steam turbines will have to be made of electric arc furnace steel, not converter steel—this improvement is comprehensive! And better electric arc furnace steel bearings will allow the warship's hydraulic rotation system to withstand the heavier battleship main gun turrets, increasing rotational speed and enabling it to support triple-mounted large-caliber main guns…

The improvements are numerous. In short, expanding the production and procurement of electric arc furnace steel, and fully switching to it in bearings, gears, turbine blades, gearboxes, and drive shafts, will comprehensively enhance the mechanical efficiency of the Empire's entire war machine. There's absolutely no need to worry about a lack of buyers for such quality improvements.

After hearing this series of promises, Gustav finally had complete confidence in the widespread application of electric arc furnace steel. He realized that manufacturing gun barrels was just the beginning; large quantities of high-quality electric arc furnace steel with uniformly distributed trace elements could provide such comprehensive improvements to war machines.

"I didn't realize that electric arc furnace steel had so many popular applications... I understand now. I will have Krupp's machine shops purchase as much electric arc furnace steel as possible, however much you can supply," Gustav exclaimed sincerely.

Lelouch: "Moreover, expanding electric arc furnace (EAF) steel production has another advantage. Although EAF steel is more expensive, it doesn't require high-quality coking coal to reduce the molten steel; it only needs electricity. In peacetime, although the cost is much higher and it's easy for the steel to become unsaleable, in wartime, steel can be sold even at one or two times the price. Why not develop this kind of production capacity that doesn't occupy existing capacity and has fewer restrictions?"
The Empire has no shortage of coal for power generation; the Ruhr region's coal reserves could last for a hundred years. As long as generators can be built, more coal-fired power plants can be constructed. The Empire also has no shortage of iron ore; the Lorraine iron mines could be mined for another 20 years without any problem, and if all else fails, there's always iron ore from neutral Sweden.

But as far as I know, since the start of the war, the Empire’s total steel production capacity has been stagnant. The main bottleneck should be the availability of high-quality coking coal, right? The Empire’s massive thermal coal reserves, while high-quality, are of a single type. To produce high-quality coking coal for steelmaking, it is necessary to blend and mix coals of various compositions before coking.

The disruption of maritime trade and insufficient imports of other coking coal components for steel production meant that the empire's annual steel output, which was 20 million tons before the war, remained at a maximum of 20 million tons even after the outbreak of war, making expansion impossible.

The question Lelouch raised indeed deeply touched Gustav.

Demania has an annual steel production of nearly 20 million tons, of which Krupp alone accounts for about half, around 10 million tons, making it the largest steel magnate.

Gustav knew, of course, that the empire's steel industry had not experienced significant development since the outbreak of war, and where the bottleneck lay.

He couldn't help but sigh, "Who can argue with that? The empire's thermal coal can be obtained entirely by mining it in the Ruhr, but many of the components of coking coal had to be imported before the war. Although we can find ways to replace them now, the problem is still very big."

From what you're saying, you're planning to massively develop electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, ignoring the fact that EAF steelmaking actually consumes three times the energy of converter steelmaking? As long as EAF steelmaking can produce steel using only thermal coal and isn't hampered by high-quality coking coal?

However, building large-scale power plants would consume a lot of steel, and the generators themselves would require copper. There would also be significant construction costs, making the investment payback period very long. I don't think we can rush into it. If the war ends within one or two years, this kind of investment will definitely be a loss.

Lelouch interrupted decisively, "The war won't end in a year or two! Moreover, even if it does end in a year or two, we must be prepared for it not to end in a year or two. That way, the enemy will fear us, know that we have the ability to drag it out, and thus bring the war to an end in a year or two!"
Some capabilities you can choose not to use, or even create at a loss, but you can't be without them. As long as you lack them, and the enemy knows you lack them, they won't fear you. Confidence and anticipation are the most precious things, more valuable than gold!

Gustav was jolted awake by this wake-up call, and his train of thought was involuntarily swayed.

Only after calming down and reflecting on it carefully can one truly admit that Colonel Lelouch's words made perfect sense.

To win a war, the most crucial thing is to show the enemy our potential for sustainable development.

He reconsidered Lelouch's suggestion regarding costs, and then earnestly asked, "Well, I was too fixated on the profit return cycle at first. But even without considering the profit return cycle, the raw material bottleneck is still a very serious problem if we want to expand the steel mill and power plant on a large scale."

During wartime, even with money, it's impossible to buy enough steel and copper to build new factories. Thermal coal, on the other hand, can be mined almost indefinitely, but did you know that coal mines in the Ruhr region are now facing the problem of stockpiled inventory that can't be transported out?

The Empire's railway system is also under heavy load due to the pressure of war. Expanding capacity would require persuading the National Railways to repair sections of the railway at bottlenecks, which would incur significant expenses and manpower. After the repairs are completed, the shortage of locomotives and wagons would be an even more serious problem. The tracks aren't completely congested yet, but there are already far too few wagons.

Gustav launched into a series of very real questions that plagued him and Krupp every day.

The reason why the Demacian Empire's industrial expansion was slow during the war was ultimately due to the most critical bottleneck: locomotives and wagons, followed by railways, and finally other resource shortages. In comparison, the lack of copper and high-quality coking coal were relatively minor issues.

At that time, coal in the Ruhr could be mined continuously, but in the later stages of the war, in the winter of 1916 and even 1917, more and more people in remote areas could not even buy coal for heating in the winter.

The lack of heating fuel was also one of the important factors that led to people's desire for change during the "turnip winter" in history.

Demand is clearly a coal-producing superpower, yet its people ultimately lacked both heating and power coal. Isn't that ridiculous?

It wasn't that more coal couldn't be produced, but rather that the country's military department didn't allocate enough steel and materials to the railway and train manufacturing sectors to increase transport capacity and deliver coal to various regions.

Thinking of the current predicament and the prospect of it worsening in the future, Lelouch couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
All of this can actually be considered one of the sins of Rodendorff, that warmonger. Historically, after he became the Director of Munitions, he disregarded the people's livelihood and the country's potential for sustainable operation, and exhausted resources by diverting large amounts of steel to the military industry, hoping that everyone could grit their teeth and endure the hardship until victory was achieved.

But in reality, he couldn't win, so all his so-called "total war" strategic thinking became poison that backfired on the country. And these drawbacks can still be changed. At least at the root, the insufficient crude steel production and the inability to transport coal are actually easy to solve.

After Lelouch sorted out his thoughts, he took a deep breath and then earnestly advised Gustav:

"So, Mr. Gustav! It's a good thing that we've discovered so many problems. Discovering problems means we at least have a direction for solving them."

The empire currently has no shortage of coal, but its coal transportation capacity is insufficient. To solve this problem, steel is needed to build rails and trains, and steelmaking requires even more coal, especially imported high-quality blended coking coal.

So, one key breakthrough I can think of is that the Empire needs to massively expand its low-cost steelmaking capacity in the Ruhr region, producing steel that can only meet basic quality standards.

This kind of inferior steel doesn't require very meticulous impurity removal, nor does it use finely proportioned coking coal as a reducing agent; it's simply produced by directly coking ordinary thermal coal and then using that coke to produce low-cost steel. Krupp, as the steelmaking giant, bears undeniable responsibility in this regard.

Gustav, after all, was a meticulous Demanian industrialist. His decades of life experience and business acumen made it utterly impossible for him to have come up with such a despicable scheme. Upon hearing Lelouch's suggestion, he almost instinctively jumped up:

"Colonel Lelouch?! Do you know what you're saying? Are you trying to ruin the reputation of the Krupp brand? And what's the use of steel made by simply coking coal and then crudely manufacturing it? Which military customer would dare to use it?"

Lelouch: "I didn't ask you to use it for military clients—but haven't you noticed? The Empire's steel industry used to be too conscientious, setting the minimum quality standards for steel too high. Many times, some less important things don't actually need to be made with good steel."

If you're worried about not having customers, I can immediately help you think of two: First, you can apply to the China Railway Corporation to expand locomotive production capacity and increase the double-track rate during wartime. Some newly laid double-track railways don't need to use very high-quality steel.

Especially on railway tracks in plains areas, even slightly inferior tracks can be used by trains without safety issues. On freight routes, where trains travel slower than passenger lines, slightly lower track quality is acceptable. The only difference is the carrying capacity; as long as the sleepers and gravel foundation are solid and don't sink, it's fine.

In peacetime, the empire required railway rails to last at least 30 years, and with rigorous maintenance and inspection, 50 years was not impossible. But now it's wartime. What's the point of building such high-quality railways guaranteed to last 30 years during wartime? Can a war last 30 years?

Slightly cutting corners, within a controllable range, as long as it's technically proven to last reliably for 20 years and 30 years with proper maintenance, is enough! After the war, once the empire has recovered, there's plenty of time to gradually upgrade the infrastructure during peacetime!
As for train carriages, it goes without saying. The collision safety requirements for trains should be even lower than those for cars! Because no other car will crash into a train! Even if the locomotive can't be made of inferior steel, the carriages can definitely be.

With inferior rails and wagons, coal could be transported continuously to all parts of the country, and the transport of other civilian goods would not be significantly affected by military trains. You must understand that the empire's economy is more significantly affected by railways than that of other enemy nations. This is because our railways are so reliable in peacetime that all industrial and agricultural enterprises across the country are far too dependent on them.

Lelouch's viewpoint was actually inspired by the "Liberty Ship" case during World War II.

In the history of World War II, the United States devised a plan known as the "Liberty Ships" to counter submarine warfare, enabling its shipyards to launch a large ship every week. Ultimately, their shipbuilding speed outpaced the enemy submarines' ability to sink them, thus withstanding the submarine war.

The key to the success of the "Liberty Ship" lies in cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and in "cutting corners". Starting with the use of inferior steel, it cut corners at every step. Other ships may have a design life of 20 or 30 years or more, but the Liberty Ship's design life is only five years!
Some of them continue to run normally after five years, but they are usually taken for research to see why they can live so long.

Since maritime nations like the Ugly Kingdom and the Republic of England are able to engage in free trade...

Why can't a country like Demacia, which relies on railways, implement a "freedom train" system?
Furthermore, in his previous life, Lelouch had played Hearts of Iron IV, and the railway technology "National Railway Type 52" had left a deep impression on him. When he first started playing the game, he assumed that later-era trains would be more powerful than earlier ones, perhaps possessing greater resistance to air raids than the "Armored Train"—

But after playing more, I noticed that the biggest feature of the last generation of trains in the game is that they are "cheap," using fewer resources, while their performance is not improved at all.

Throughout Earth's history, trains in the later stages of World War II also underwent cost-cutting and reduced-quality construction. Unfortunately, the slow-witted bureaucrats during World War I failed to notice this area where savings could be made.

The original design life of the rails was thirty years. If Lelouch had a conscience, he wouldn't have sought to reduce the quality to five or ten years, but reducing it to twenty years would have extended their actual service life by several years, which would have been more than enough to finish this world war, survive the ceasefire in between, and finally defeat the enemy.

A minimum shelf life of thirty years is a bit too wasteful.

Train wagons, if used for transporting goods and not passengers, can also have lower quality standards. Nobody drives a car into a train, so why worry that a wagon made of inferior steel will just fall apart on its own?
The empire lacks high-quality coking coal with precise proportions, but has a large surplus of thermal coal and iron ore. Why not make inferior steel instead!
Gustav was genuinely tempted. He knew that if this deal went through, it would bring a huge amount of business and profits, and he could also do something for the country.

That's right, it somewhat damages the brand image of Krupp, a century-old steel giant.

Lelouch seemed to see the core concern in Gustav's hesitation, so he patted Gustav on the shoulder to help him strengthen his resolve: "If you're worried about the brand image, then don't use the Krupp name for the new steel plant you invest in."

The business is still your business, and I'll find a way to help you with the exclusive sales contract. You just need to focus on expanding production. Where else in the world can you find such a good deal? I only have one request: if you agree to the exclusive sales contract, you can supply me with a maximum profit margin of 15% above the cost price, and the price of steel cannot be increased.

I took your steel and used the 'Volkswagen' brand to build the Free Train. This brand had just collaborated with Skoda on a half-track tractor, which is known for making cheap, bulky, and easy-to-use low-end transportation vehicles. I'm not afraid of damaging the brand image.

The equipment and raw materials needed for the locomotive factory will also be purchased from you, and the money will be offset little by little by the payment for the goods delivered to you by my electric arc furnace steel plant. I can also put in tens of millions of marks for additional investment. As for the steel rails for the double-track railway, your inferior steelmaking plant can produce them directly. We'll work together to find a way to smooth things over with the people at the National Railways.

If all else fails, lobby Congress to reorganize the National Railways, allowing the Prosen Railway Company, the Balria Railway Company, and the railway companies of the states of Baden and Württemberg to form a deep wartime alliance, and to elect a railway planning director who would ideally also be in charge of railway planning matters in the occupied territories.

This way, I can garner votes from the three duchies of Baria, Württemberg, and Baden. The Grand Duke of Baden also controls the Ministry for Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs, so we're confident we can seize planning control into our hands. At worst, we can cede some profits to the Prossenjunks, and their people will manage the overall coordination of arms production.”

After much deliberation, Gustav was finally persuaded by Lelouch's plan to "massively expand the production of inferior steel specifically for making trains and rails":
"I hope you can get things running in time. I'll start expanding the steel plant right away and try to make progress within three months and start large-scale steel production for cars within six months."

Lelouch: "Faster! We need to produce enough low-cost wagons this winter so that the people of the whole country don't have to suffer from the cold. At least we need to ensure that the coal in the Ruhr region doesn't pile up and can be transported out whenever we want."

Gustav: "So fast? We might not even be able to find enough laborers to lay the railroad tracks and build the factories. This is wartime, and the demand for able-bodied men is too obvious. The empire has already conscripted more than 300 million young men into the army. The labor market is already regulated; you can't recruit people just by raising wages."

You should know that the biggest cost in building a railway is manpower. It involves leveling the ground, laying the roadbed and sleepers, tightening rivets, and all sorts of heavy manual labor. Compared to that, the cost of the steel rails is negligible.

Lelouch: "I'll ask Duke Rupprecht and Grand Duke Baden to solve the labor problem! We just captured 70 prisoners of war on the southeast front, and the Grand Duke Baden is the Minister of POW and Occupied Territories Affairs. The people who captured and distributed them are my superiors, and they listen to me without question. You can't go wrong by cooperating with me on this matter."

Having said all that, Gustav finally began to have complete respect for Lelouch.

This is a crucial structural hole that could make things happen!

People from all walks of life give him face. With such a wide circle of connections and influence, who else would he follow if not Colonel Lulusi?
Even Krupp, a century-old company, now has to rely on Lelouch's coattails.

"Alright, find a way to get me a batch of prisoners of war to do heavy labor as soon as possible. Once the labor shortage is filled, I'll expand the steel mill and prepare to build the railway. I guarantee that all of this will be on track within six months! Wartime speed!"

"Deal, cheers."

(End of this chapter)