sea ​​situation

Bearded Peter gave Lu Ming an all-round introduction to the planned economic policy implemented by the Soviet Union. He gestured with his hand to draw a big pie to emphasize that the planned economy can perfectly avoid the biggest drawback of capitalism: the economic crisis.

Lu Ming couldn't help being fascinated when he heard it. Although he felt that there was no perfect economic model in the world, theoretically speaking, if the government fully controls and regulates the economy, at least there won't be too much turmoil.

The lessons of history are painful.

Since October 1929, since the collapse of the New York stock market in the United States, an unprecedented economic crisis broke out and soon spread to the whole world.

In less than two months, the financial systems of London, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Rome and other metropolises collapsed like dominoes.

Shanghai, China was not spared either. Stocks around the world plummeted, and almost half of the wealth created by mankind evaporated within three months. The world fell into poverty, as if it had returned to the dark Middle Ages overnight.

Although Lu Ming did not study economics, he knew that economic crisis is an inevitable product of the capitalist system. It is nothing more than the length and intensity of the outbreak cycle, and it will happen every ten years or so.

After the outbreak of the economic crisis, countless banks around the world went bankrupt, and the middle class in rich countries became paupers overnight, and some even fell into abject poverty. Financial bosses jumped off buildings one after another, and newspapers reported suicide every day.

The ordinary people who were already living at the bottom are even worse, and their days are like years.

A few days ago, Lu Ming received a telegram from his teacher, Frank, describing to him the tragic situation of the devastated people in the United States. Tens of millions of unemployed people are struggling on the verge of life and death. These are industrial workers who originally created wealth for the country. , but now reduced to a beggar.

Citizens protested around the White House, intellectuals clamored for bailouts, but the U.S. government remained indifferent.

In his public speeches, President Hoover would never use the power of the government to intervene to save the market. He firmly believed that the market would automatically play a mediating role and allow the U.S. economy to recover automatically.

As a firm admirer and practitioner of market economy theory, Hoover believed that free economy is the greatest advantage of the capitalist system.

The people in dire straits are paying a heavy price for Hoover's firm belief.

Frank scolded Hoover for his inaction in his heart, but he was not worried. Mr. Roosevelt had the highest voice to be elected president in the next term, and the approval rate of public opinion has been rising all the way. It is almost certain that Roosevelt will be the next president of the United States.

Frank said in the telegram that Mr. Roosevelt had drawn up a comprehensive rescue plan for the U.S. economy, which was being tested in New York State. As long as he was elected president, the U.S. economy would be fully restored to normal under the stimulus of the new economic policy.

Frank called to let Lu Ming know how much the global economic crisis has impacted China.

Lu Ming saw the Shanghai stock market from crowded to deserted, but he didn't know the inside story.

Besides Jinglao (Zhang Jingjiang), Sheng Youde is the Shanghai Bund chaebol who has the most say.

Lu Ming immediately consulted Sheng Youde with questions.

Sheng Youde told Lu Ming that he did not suffer any losses in this economic crisis, because he had long expected that a tragedy that would hit the world would soon be staged.

A year ago, when the stock market reached a frenzy, he had already emptied all stock accounts and invested the money he earned in real estate, ports and oil companies in New York, the United States.

In this economic crisis, Sheng's industry not only survived unscathed, but its market value increased by more than 100 times.It is based on this that Jing Lao entrusted him with the difficult task of financing the party-state.

Sheng Youde told Lu Ming that China is still mainly an agricultural economy, not a plutocratic economy, so it has not been greatly impacted by the global economic crisis. China's banking industry is not developed, and the main system is the money bank system, and the money bank does not believe in banknotes and stocks. , but real money.

All in all, except for some capitalists in Shanghai, Beiping, and Guangzhou who mainly operated abroad, which suffered heavy losses, the Chinese economy did not suffer much.

Of course, this is not something to be happy about. It can only be said that compared with capitalist industrial powers, China is too poor, and if it has no money, it will not lose much.

Lu Ming wrote these letters and sent them to Frank. Since it was not an urgent matter and there was a lot to talk about, he did not use telegrams to send them, but mailed them.

Frank's prediction of the international situation made Lu Ming feel inexplicably worried and uneasy.

Frank said that the economic crisis is still spreading, but the United States can recover within a few years with its abundant resources and vast market.

Britain, France, Italy, and the Netherlands all have their own colonies and have formed their own colonial systems. Relying on this system, they can also stand up from the economic crisis one after another.

The most worrying ones are Germany and Japan. These two countries consider themselves superior nations, are too conceited, and will never be willing to live in poverty.

Although Germany is not a poor country, as a defeated country in the First World War, it has been constrained by the Treaty of Versailles. It was already out of breath, and now it is facing an economic crisis.

what to do?Instead of dying in silence, explode in silence.

This is exactly the case with Germany, either languishing in the economic crisis, or relying on military expansion, launching aggressive wars abroad, and plundering wealth to rescue the crisis.

Judging from the fact that the Nazi forces are becoming more and more mainstream in Germany, Germany is very likely to choose the latter path in the future, which is to launch a war of aggression.

Another crisis is Japan, the only industrial power in Asia.

Japan and Germany are just the opposite. They benefited a lot from the First World War and are in the stage of expanding desire.

However, Japan is an island country with poor resources, a large population, and a weak industrial foundation. If it wants to alleviate the blow brought by the economic crisis, whether it is competing for overseas markets or digging deep into the domestic market, it is far from being able to quench its thirst.

Seeing that the time was ripe, the Japanese military began to speak to the emperor, repeating the same old tune, advocating the revitalization of Japan with "Great East Asia Co-Prosperity", advocating launching wars abroad, plundering resources, and restoring and developing the economy.

Japan's primary goal is naturally China, which has a vast territory and rich resources, and then refers to the Soviet Union, which spans Eurasia.

Facts have proved that Mr. Frank's prediction was basically correct, but he also miscalculated a little. Japan did not dare to strike at its old enemy, the Soviet Union. Instead, it launched a war machine in Asia and launched an attack on the vast colonies of Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands.

The European and American powers were finally bitten severely by the hell hounds they raised.

The Soviet government can be described as "the saddle is never separated from the horse, and the armor is never separated from the body", and it is always on guard against Japan's attack from Siberia.

Stalin deployed a large number of elite troops in the Far East, and reached a cooperation agreement with the Republic of China government on the issue of dealing with the Japanese, with unconditional support.

Stalin planned to turn the Republic of China government into a sharp knife that stabs the Japanese in the back.

Unexpectedly, the Japanese devils were actually discouraged. They did not dare to point the finger of war at the Soviet Union, but instead took flesh from the mouths of the British, French, American and Dutch powers.

Of course, the military strength of these colonial or semi-colonial countries is far inferior to that of the Soviet Union, and Japan also picked a soft persimmon.

The 34 Siberian divisions that have been stationed in the Far East to prevent the Japanese army from attacking the Soviet Union survived unscathed, which is also God's punishment for fascism.

When Hitler launched a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, this elite unit appeared in the Moscow parade and became a new force that successfully defeated the German army, breaking the myth that the German Wehrmacht was invincible.

These are all things for later, of course Lu Ming doesn't know.What he could predict was that Japan's preparations for conspiring against China must have accelerated, and maybe the war would come tomorrow morning.

Lu Ming directly asked Sheng Youde about this: "Is war really not far away from us?"

Sheng Youde gave him an affirmative answer: "Yes, I seem to have smelled the smell of gunpowder."