To be honest, Ernst was equally skeptical of the Nanjing government's ability to develop industry, especially heavy industry and the defense industry. During the Golden Decade, the Far East Empire's light industry had indeed developed fairly well, while heavy industry and the defense industry had instead regressed. In some people's words: "Making is inferior to buying, buying is inferior to renting."
This was also the mainstream thinking within the Nanjing government today. In this regard, they were not even as good as the former monarchist government or the Beiyang faction government.
After all, the Far East Empire was not the India of later generations. Especially with war likely to break out next, the Far East Empire's overseas channels for purchasing weapons could all be cut off.
This was no alarmist talk, but something that had genuinely happened in the history of Ernst's previous life. Their enemy had, after all, occupied nearly all of the Far East Empire's coastal regions, with its key ports basically falling into enemy hands.
Had that not been the case, the Americans could never have risked their lives to open the "Hump Route." If sea and land transport had been possible, then with its meager capacity and enormous cost, air transport would never have been the first choice—let alone when air transport itself was unsafe.
Rhine City.
For this aid operation, Ernst made several special arrangements.
"According to intelligence from the security department, we can determine that the Japanese Government will most likely launch a war next and invade the Far East Empire. Otherwise, Japan's current domestic economic crisis alone would be enough to make its government collapse. War has therefore become their inevitable choice."
"Although the Far East Empire has always been an important trading partner of the Empire, and although we possess immense tangible