Late at night on April 3, the head of state special train ran on the railway with a "clang clang" and galloped towards Poland. The head of state guard did not relax his vigilance because of the recent improvement in the security situation and the decline in guerrilla activity, and still maintained the highest alert.

For safety reasons, Hoffman rarely chooses to travel when he goes out now, and most of the time he takes special trains because he doesn't know whether his luck is as good as Hitler, nor does he know whether there are any remaining opposition forces in China. The safety of the train special train is far stronger than that of the plane. Although the carriage where the head of state looks exactly the same as other carriages, in fact, after a large amount of bulletproof strengthening, the defensive armor cannot penetrate the 37mm anti-tank gun at a long distance. In addition, the schedule and route of the special train are highly confidential, and even Hoffmann temporarily determined before driving. He did not want to give the conspirators some opportunity to take advantage of it.

In order to strengthen the transportation capacity of the Eastern Line, under the leadership of Sperer, the Eastern countries vigorously promoted the upgrade of railways with standard gauge transformation as the core, and changed the original Russian standard 1520 mm wide rail to the European standard 1435 mm, so that trains departing from Berlin can be smooth without stopping and changing wheels. This is the continuation of Germany's railway network transformation plan (Otto plan) in the eastern (including Poland) before the beginning of "Barbarossa".

Although the railway network in western Soviet Union was far less dense than Europe, it was still a huge project, especially the Soviet railway level was very low, and it was still at the level of World War I: most railways (except Kharkov to Moscow) were built on soft sandy and soil roadbeds, and the sleepers were also relatively soft pine, and the load capacity of the railway tracks was not as good as Germany: German standard railway rails weighed 49 kilograms per meter, while the Soviet Union only had 38 kilograms; Germany had 1,600 sleepers per kilometer, while the Soviet Union only had 1,440; Germans used screws and washers to fix the railway tracks, while the Soviets directly used long nails. The load-bearing capacity of the Soviet Union's railway bridges was also very low, and they had to be reinforcing to transport tanks and other heavy equipment. As for railway dispatching equipment, they were basically old antiques from World War I, and electric switches were even rare.

Imperial Minister of Transport and Railway Director-General Dorp Muller once made a special report: In theory, due to the wider gauge of Russia, the carrying capacity should be stronger under the same line length. However, in fact, due to Russia's backward management level, equipment and infrastructure, the carrying capacity is less than one-third of Germany. The damage before the Red Army retreated and the rapid advancement of the German army intensified the pressure on the railway network, causing the reduction of transportation capacity to only one-quarter of the typhoon battle to be related to material transportation and guarantee.

Historically, Germany limited its capabilities and materials and only made minor repairs to the Soviet railway network. However, after Hoffmann comprehensively weighed the trade-offs, he decided to use the labor force of Poland, Jews and Russian prisoners of war to perform systematic repairs: not only adjust the gauge, but also transform and upgrade as much as possible according to the German standards in the Otto plan. In addition to domestic enterprises, Belgium's rail and railway equipment capabilities are very outstanding in Europe, so it took a large part of the orders, and France also divided it into part. The renovation funds were first paid by Germany, and then the Eastern countries would pay with food, resources and other materials. Sperer ambitiously made a plan to complete at least 3,000 kilometers of renovation work in 1943.

Thanks to the smooth overall situation and the early purge of the "traitorous group", Hoffman's prestige is at an unprecedented peak. The discomfort caused by the general mobilization has also been selectively ignored by the people and focused on the current victory after victory. This spillover effect has profoundly affected the political situation in Italy. The Mussolini regime, which had been shaky in history, is now as stable as Mount Tai. After regaining Libya, taking Ethiopia, and merging part of the Sudan, especially after successfully controlling the situation in the Mediterranean, the Italians' original illusory "Roman Empire" dream looks a bit real, and the transfer of a large number of German industry and technology has made Mussolini win the favor of the big bourgeoisie. Italy's preparations for the war were originally insufficient, but after the vigorous strengthening of the axial integration policy, it began to look decent, which made people laugh.

"First of the People's Republic of China," Dargers' phone interrupted Hoffman's thoughts, "If you have not yet rested, Minister Spel hopes to report to you about your work."

"sure."

"There are some changes in several areas of arms production and need to be adjusted." Spel suddenly showed a embarrassed expression, "First of the People's Republic of China, I have to apologize to you. Some productions have not met their original ideas and expectations."

“For example?”

"For example, tank production." Sperer took out the report and explained, "March was the highest point in tank production in history, but even this month, the production of No. 4 tanks only reached 1,394, and the production of Tiger tanks was 204, which is still some distance from the 1,500 and 250 you requested."

"It has almost reached 90% or more than 80% of the expected results, which is also a very impressive achievement." Hoffman knew that the maximum monthly output of No. 4 tank in history was only more than 600 (including various deformation vehicles with No. 4 as the chassis), and the Tiger tank was only in its early 100s (the production difficulty of Tiger tanks in this plane was lower than history), and the current production level has exceeded the historical highest level, but now the production of No. 3 tank (including deformed vehicles) has completely disappeared.

"Because some production lines are preparing to convert to Leopard tanks, the number will begin to decline from April. I always keep your requirements in mind: I hope to reach the production scale of No. 4 1,500, Leopard 750, and Tiger 250, but we have no hope of achieving this target this year."

“What is the expected production capacity of the leopard?”

"Because of many parts and Tiger Type, the monthly output of Leopard Type will reach 100 vehicles after three months of conversion, and 150 vehicles in 3-6 months, and by the end of this year, it will reach more than 250 vehicles. This is the output of a production line, so we only have 2 No. 4 production lines. During the same period, the production of No. 4 tanks will drop to about 1,000 vehicles, and Tiger Type will basically remain unchanged. In the future, the conversion of each production line will go through this process."

Hoffman couldn't help frowning: This level is of course much better than history, but it still has a big gap compared to expectations, especially the fact that Italy can only produce assault guns in the future has caused Germany to bear the heavy responsibility of all tanks.

“When do you expect the level of 2500 vehicles to reach?”

"It may be until the end of 1944." After having an experience, Sperer did not dare to make a promise this time and said a time he thought was relatively safe.

"What will happen by the end of the year if all production No. 4 is now stopped?"

"The Leopard is expected to achieve 750 vehicles, and the Tiger is close to 250 vehicles."

Hoffmann pondered for a moment and nodded, "I understand. Please adjust according to the following plan: on April 4, the tanks will be able to achieve 1,500 units, and then maintain high production for 3-4 months, and postpone the conversion to the Leopard to discuss this matter again in July."

"Will this have an absolute impact on combat effectiveness? I heard that Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union are developing new tanks."

"They focused on the Tiger, but before 1944, they could not come up with new tanks that could compete with the Tiger, which was very beneficial to us. What we need to do is to increase the scale of the armored forces as soon as possible, especially the fuel problem is no longer a fatal constraint." Speaking of this, Hoffman simply took out paper and pen to calculate, "Before September last year, we had less than 500 No. 4 tanks, and from September to March this year, we produced about 6,500 units, with a cumulative scale of about 7,000 vehicles. In recent months, nearly 1,000 vehicles were lost, and 400 were allocated to the Marine Corps, plus tanks for Spain, Portugal, Romania, Italy, and Japan..."

"There are more than 500 vehicles in total, and you can calculate it based on 600 vehicles."

"In this way, the number of No. 4 is about 5,000 vehicles, the reserve army and armored schools need to divide 500 vehicles, and then deduct 200 vehicles sent to the factory for maintenance, and there are about 4,300 vehicles left in the middle of the transportation?"

"It's basically this number."

"Currently, the National Defense Force has a total of 25 armored divisions and the SS has 4..."

"The SS should be 5," Speer reminded in a low voice, "In addition to the guard flags, empires, skeletons and Vikings, you also agree to recruit Hitler Youth Division and book them as armored divisions."

The Hitler Youth Division was agreed by Hoffman, one of the few new expansion units. The soldiers were basically recruited by the Hitler Youth League volunteer soldiers born in 1925. Most of the non-commissioned officers and officers were transferred by the Guard Flag Team and other troops of the National Defense Forces. Although this was a young force and was nicknamed the "Bottle" Division by the outside world, Hoffman knew that this group of all volunteer soldiers had high morale and strong combat power, and was released very readily. He also personally attended the flag-raising and oath-taking ceremony.

"Then there are 30 in total, which are organized according to the 1943 standard. Each armored division has 3 armored battalions, and a total of 90 armored battalions are required. In addition, the National Wehrmacht Force is also preparing to complete the establishment of 16 standard armored grenade divisions, and the SS has 4. They are also assigned to one armored battalion, with a total of 110 armored battalions?" Hoffman made a bicycle, "Each battalion has 92 No. 4 tanks, if 110 battalions are... "

"10,120 vehicles." Spel calculated faster than him, and immediately came up with the result, and then couldn't help but shake his head. "Although we can add some of the T-34s in the hands of the troops, there is still more than half of the gap before completing the reorganization."

He knew the situation: the Russians had the ability to produce more than 1,500 T-34 tanks per month, and the Americans had the ability to produce more than 1,500 Sherman tanks per month. Although German tanks were stronger in performance, the sufficient number was still indispensable. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!