"How could this be? What have the education department and the human resources department, which is responsible for recruiting technical personnel, been doing all this time?" Wang Zhenyu was extremely angry and his roar echoed throughout the entire building on the third floor of the administrative building. All the staff in the various departments were silent and dared not speak, fearing that they would be scolded.

  It's no wonder that Wang Zhenyu is so angry. Recently, he himself felt very smooth in politics and military affairs. Both the National Socialist Party and the SS have determined their development direction, and financial problems are about to be alleviated. But at this time, the economic aspect, which Wang Zhenyu had high hopes for, has also encountered problems.

  To be specific, it was a problem with industrial construction. Wang Zhenyu finally understood what it means for things to not go as planned.

  In the second half of the first year of the Republic, a large number of industrial projects planned had poor results after a lapse of one year, to the point where Wang Zhenyu wanted to shoot all the responsible persons. Now these unlucky ones are in the conference room on the third floor of the administrative building praying that the gods and Buddhas will definitely bless them to survive this disaster.

  The report in front of me is really terrible.

  The entire industrial construction plan, except for the two million-ton cement plants, which were completed half a year ahead of schedule, also saw the completion of the Rong brothers' Anjiang textile mill. With the help of the Xiangxi Development Company, the raw material problem was effectively solved. It is expected that by 1914, the cement and textile mills will be able to provide Wang Zhenyu with an annual return of up to 200 million silver yuan (2 billion Chinese yuan). However, Wang Zhenyu himself knew that once the European war broke out, this number would likely double automatically without increasing production. And if he were to recover the customs duties in the future, the number would reach 500 million taels.

  The good news ends here. Next is the steel plant project that Wang Zhenyu had high hopes for, which was really heartbreaking. The original plan was to produce 10 million tons per year, making China's steel production suddenly surpass Japan. However, when I arrived at the scene, I realized that industrial development is a systemic problem of matching construction. Building industry is like playing football, it must follow the basic rules of its own development. Many problems cannot be solved just by relying on funding. Otherwise, why couldn't the Qing dynasty, with the world's fourth-largest GDP, become an industrial power through the Westernization Movement?

  The most crucial thing in developing industry is still relying on people, specifically qualified engineers and industrial workers with experience. These people need time to be educated and trained, they are not something that can be generated instantly just by throwing a lot of money around or offering high rewards.

  But the officials of the Qing dynasty were just like the officials of the Football Association in later generations. Oh, I'm sorry, I said it wrong.

  Anyway, they don't pay attention to things like training and education that don't yield immediate results. They only focus on pursuing tangible products and outcomes. They built the house and got promoted and rich, but the house can't be lived in. Why? Because they didn't lay a foundation.

  Wang Zhenyu's Anjiang Steel Plant project, as well as other slightly more technical projects such as automobile manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and chemical engineering, have all been stalled. The steel project is doing a bit better, having poached a large number of technical personnel from the Hanyang Iron Factory. However, to be honest, the annual output was originally only 40,000 tons, so adding the Luxembourg people's efforts, it's still just 200,000 tons. Wang Zhenyu invested so much money in this massive project, but its production capacity hasn't even reached one-fifth of the original plan. It's not that he didn't have the intention to kill, but looking at the current 200,000 tons, it's not bad either. The problem is that there are not enough technical personnel, and the supply of coal and iron cannot keep up. This year's second revolution has caused chaos in Jiangxi, and the coal from Pingxiang cannot be transported out. Even if we transport more pig iron from Hanyang, it's still useless. As for the issue of technical personnel, it is also a historical legacy problem. Although I have established a specialized vocational technical school in Anjiang, due to the lack of teachers, it has not been effective. The current factory technicians are still following the old path of master-apprentice relationships. Moreover, it's not just the technical schools; our own nine-year compulsory education system has repeatedly shrunk to become the current four-year compulsory education system, and one of the main reasons is the shortage of teachers. Wang Zhenyu looked at the neatly dressed management personnel standing in front of him and knew that he had wronged them a bit. After all, they had done their best.

  "Just now I lost my temper a bit and apologize to you all, I know you've all done your best" Wang Zhenyu's apology left everyone staring at him in shock.

  "What are you looking at? I said you guys like being scolded!" Wang Zhenyu got anxious again.

  "There's a man from Luxembourg outside the main gate, claiming to be Paul Philips, the Consul of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in Hankou, saying he has an urgent matter and requests to see you. He looks like he's in a great hurry." Wang Chenhao knocked on the door and came in to report.

  "Phillips had a bit of an impression that they came with several people," Wang Zhenyu asked.

  Wang Chenhao immediately replied: "Just one, and also brought a translator."

  Wang Zhenyu took a look at the people from the industrial and educational departments, waved his hand and said: "I want to see a foreigner here later, I'll talk to you about this issue of industrial development later. If it's not resolved, Generalissimo will go to drink northwest wind next year. You think about it yourself."

  "Dear General Wang, our country needs your help." Phillips was indeed a consul on paper, that's quite unprofessional. The first sentence unconsciously betrayed his own country.

  "So you're saying your beloved uncle agrees to relocate the citizens and industries of your country to my territory?" Wang Zhenyu's current mood is very complicated, after hearing Phillips' words, he was both suspicious of the authenticity of this matter and thinking about how to settle them down and where to settle them.

  Phillips' next words dispelled his doubts: "Along with me, there is also our country's ambassador to Luxembourg and the Grand Duchy's Minister of Finance, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, Health and Education Minister, as well as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte, who is the younger sister of our Grand Duchess. According to my dear Uncle Paul's wishes, he hopes that you can allocate a piece of land, preferably a large enough city, for our Chinese subjects to live in. He is willing to provide a ￡50 million interest-free loan as collateral. If this matter fails, the ￡50 million belongs to you and does not need to be repaid. If it succeeds, my uncle hopes that you will use this money to first build good infrastructure. As for the relocation plan and cooperation issues, they are not what I came to discuss. The princess and the Grand Duchy's ministers will discuss them with you in detail."

  Actually, Phillips was also very surprised that he had never thought that Wang Zhenyu's power would expand so rapidly. Even after more than a month of traveling, they learned in Vietnam that they didn't need to go to Shanghai and take the Yangtze River, but could directly go upstream from Guangzhou along the beautiful Youjiang River to Laibin. The reason was that Phillips' damned warlord Wang had just launched a war in Guangxi and won the victory in mid-October, gaining control of this coastal province. Due to the short time since the victory, Phillips and his party found that the road was difficult to travel when they arrived in Guangxi. According to Mr. Huang Xuchu, the secretary-general of the provincial government who was responsible for receiving them, if they really had to take a bumpy ride by horse-drawn carriage all the way to the border before taking the train, it would take at least four or five days. This was still the result of the engineering troops' frantic repairs to the old post road. Phillips could only choose to ride ahead and clear the way for the noble princesses and ministers. Heaven knows whether the warlord who had grown powerful in a year would still need the friendship of Luxembourg a year later.

  Wang Zhenyu obviously still needs to, not to mention the issue of the ￡5 million pound deposit, if 300,000 Luxembourg people can eventually move half of them over, it will be a huge help for Wang Zhenyu who has been suffering from talent and labor shortages.

  It is more important to know that Luxembourg has a large number of steel industry technical workers, a large number of culturally educated professionals in various industries, and many basic livelihood industries are short of talent. The problem will be solved. As for whether this will allow the Luxembourgers to control their own economic lifeline, it doesn't matter. Wang Zhenyu's abacus is very loud. At least four years of war, he will use employment to attract Luxembourgers to work in various industries in China and arrange Chinese apprentices to follow and learn. By the time the war ends, a large number of Chinese technicians may have been trained, possibly three to four times the number of Luxembourgers. Even their own government can employ Luxembourg employees to improve various systems, especially laws. This damn Qin Zhen has not been able to establish and implement the judicial system until now. The judicial personnel sent out in advance were basically corrupted by the local tyrants with sugar-coated bullets, according to Zhou Lian's report.

  What attracted Wang Zhenyu the most was that the entire Luxembourg steel and military industry, led by Albed Company, had moved to Anjiang Military Factory, which was now run by his elder brother. The production volume in the country was almost among the best, but unfortunately, the products were limited to replication and innovation, which was not even worth mentioning. As a result, in the future national unification war, Wang Zhenyu's newly established Party Guard Army would likely only have an advantage in quantity, but not quality, in terms of weapons and equipment.

  The more Wang Zhenyu thought about the benefits, the more he couldn't suppress his inner excitement. However, a more realistic question presented itself: where should he place the Luxembourg people who had traveled thousands of miles to choose China, which was still turbulent and unstable, over the stronger United States and Japan?

  Luxembourgers' abacus, Phillips opened his mouth and Wang Zhenyu understood that he just wanted to reduce the cost of immigration while obtaining sufficient coal and iron resources to continue making money. After all, the survival of the 300,000 subjects of the kingdom depended on the steel industry.

  Wang Zhenyu stood up and walked to the wall in front of Phillips' astonished eyes. The vigilant deputy officer, Wang Chenhao, immediately pulled open the curtain covering the wall and handed the wooden rod over to Wang Zhenyu.

  Wang Zhenyu took over the wooden rod and gently pointed to the center of the map in front of him: "My dear friend is here, Liu Zhou"