Chapter 11: The Army Attacks the Logistics

Weihai Port is located within Weihai Bay at the northeastern tip of the Shandong Peninsula and is an important coastal port in Shandong Province. It consists of two port areas: the old port area in the city center, which primarily handles passenger and Ro-Ro (roll-on/roll-off) transport, and the new port area outside the city center, which focuses on bulk commodities such as coal, minerals, construction materials, and timber, as well as international container shipping. By the end of 2013, Weihai Port had a total of 16 berths with a total quay length of 13 kilometers and a maximum berthing capacity of 400,000 tons. It possessed 488,037 square meters of storage space, including 14,444 square meters of warehouse area and 345,093 square meters of yard area. It was equipped with 173 various loading and unloading machines, with a maximum lifting capacity of 254 tons, and 17 port service vessels. Although Weihai Port was enterprising, the sudden onset of a global economic winter and the sharp decline in the Yanhuang Republic's foreign trade, combined with competition from traditional major ports like Qingdao and Yantai, caused the port's daily import and export throughput to gradually shrink.

Weihai Zhenguo Logistics Co., Ltd. is a medium-sized local logistics and warehousing service company. Located a short distance southwest of the Weihai port area, the company owns two large logistics and warehousing parks. In the past, these areas were bustling with vehicles, business was prosperous, and they raked in gold daily. However, since the end of last year, the records of large container and bulk cargo movement have steadily decreased, and the warehouse utilization rate has dropped to only 15%. After deducting land rent and labor costs, the company suffers a monthly net loss of 1.75 million yuan. The company's General Manager, Zhang Yuanshan, has been deeply worried about this. Although the company's bank deposits are relatively sufficient, the lack of any sign of recovery in domestic foreign trade makes him feel as if he is sitting on needles.

Two days ago, Manager Zhang's luck turned. He welcomed a business owner claiming to be from the south. After a few words of conversation, he learned that because the man's relatives were investing in factories in Shandong, he had large volumes of export goods. The southern boss's idea was naturally to "keep the fertile water within one's own fields"—he wanted to contract Zhang Yuanshan's warehousing park to handle his relatives' export business. Upon hearing that the man was willing to subcontract at a reasonable price, the two parties reached a mutual agreement, and the two logistics parks were smoothly subcontracted. Once the handover procedures were completed, the southern boss hired local construction crews and, at a high price, spent two days building a 5-meter-high wall along the edge of the warehouses, completely replacing the old wire fences that had been installed to save money.

After two quiet days, large transport vehicles began arriving one after another to deliver goods. The cargo was covered with waterproof tarps, making it impossible to see the contents. Meanwhile, the original warehouse management personnel were all gathered at a certain school under the guise of "training." The entire warehousing center was managed by new faces. Because this area was somewhat remote in Weihai with no residential areas, and the passing vehicles were relatively low-profile, it did not cause even a ripple in Weihai City. After seven days of this coming and going, the gates fell silent once again. As international funds were transferred into designated accounts, the warehouse security personnel gradually decreased, and those new faces vanished, leaving only a few essential gatekeepers.

On a dark and windy night, a blurred shadow appeared in the woods 15 kilometers away from the warehouse. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, swung his arm, and vanished from the woods once more. The next day, a strange text message was received on the mobile phone of Second Lieutenant Yan and his contact at the African Department of the National Defense Ministry: "Payment made, goods shipped, pleasure doing business, looking forward to the next transaction!" The person conducting such secretive activities was, naturally, Comrade Wang Fan. As for the shock caused by the sudden disappearance of the munitions, that was not his concern. After all, once he used the ring's camouflage function, no one could recognize him. Furthermore, those accounts had traveled around the world through dozens of shadow accounts in dozens of banks across more than ten countries before finally reaching the designated bank account of the National Defense Ministry. If anyone wanted to trace the source, they wouldn't stand a chance without the cooperation of those dozens of banks opening their depositor records!

While waiting for various military supplies to be transported into the Weihai Port warehousing base, Wang Fan was not idle. Through online platforms, he began purchasing various consumable supplies for the army's food, clothing, and daily needs. Usually, when reading novels, wars are described as being god-like—as if the protagonist simply raises an arm, emits a burst of "overbearing aura," and the enemy offers their necks to the sword. Great battles are described simply as "so-and-so many hundreds of thousands of troops attacked," "so-and-so much equipment opened fire," or "so-and-so many towns were captured." It was only when he actually estimated the supplies needed to replenish the German Sixth Army that he deeply realized the complexity of military equipment and the hardship and importance of logistics!

First of all, all German tanks that participated in actual combat during World War II used gasoline; they never used diesel! Nani? You didn't read that wrong; they used gasoline. Wang Fan had always believed that tanks "ate" diesel—it was so much better, with higher horsepower and a higher flash point! Moreover, ever since he started reading military journals, it seemed like all tanks ran on diesel! It was only after searching for information on Baidu that he learned that although Germany recognized during WWII that diesel engines had advantages for tanks—such as higher output, lower fuel costs, and being less prone to catching fire after combat damage—they failed to develop a mature, mass-producible diesel tank engine until their defeat. It was quite frustrating, wasn't it? Thus, from the earliest Panzer I ultra-light tanks to the final Tiger II heavy tanks, they all used gasoline engines for power. The problem was, what grade of gasoline? 90, 93, 97, or 100 octane? No one knew; if you asked a German soldier from WWII, they wouldn't even know the term "93 octane." Fortunately, the power of the people is infinite. He would just buy a bit extra of everything to cover his bases! Alibaba, the expert of convenience!!

Wang Fan bought 5,000 tons of 97-octane from one place and 10,000 tons of 93-octane from another. By breaking the orders into smaller pieces and dispersing them, he purchased nearly 100,000 tons of various grades of gasoline. Hehe, there's always one that will satisfy you, right? At the same time, he requested the vendors to pack them in standard tin drums, uniformly painted black with no other markings, only the German word for "Gasoline" and the grade, such as "97" (naturally, he prepared this under the guise of being for export). This solved the fuel problem while preventing any leaks regarding the fact that he was time-traveling.

As a side note, during WWII, only the Soviet Union possessed mature tank diesel engine technology. The tanks of all other countries, including the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, could only use gasoline engines. It wasn't until the mid-1950s that diesel tank engines became gradually popularized worldwide. Although historical records mention that small amounts of alcohol could be added to gasoline as a supplement for tank fuel, this mixture would cause the gasoline engine's power to drop by 10% to 20%, so it was prohibited under normal circumstances. Pure alcohol could not be used in gasoline engines. While German tanks did use alcohol-based additives in emergencies, these were isolated cases and not a general practice. This illustrates why Germany was so desperate for oil.

To add more detail, tracing back to the last two years of World War I, Germany experienced severe oil shortages, with its only sources being the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Romania. Ludendorff pointed out at the time: "Romanian oil is of paramount importance, but unfortunately, Romania's oil production capacity has reached its limit and is insufficient to change the overall situation of Germany's oil shortage." The British beat them to the punch, occupying Baku in August 1918, which Ludendorff called "a heavy blow to us." Before WWII, in the first year of the Nazi regime, economic strategic experts pointed out that once war broke out, a heavy reliance on crude oil imports would be a key bottleneck restricting German military operations. The "Kalinn Plan" proposed on July 12, 1938, required an oil production of 11 million tons by early 1944, but Hitler clearly could not wait that long. His strategy was to start the war through reserves and then solve the oil supply issue during the war. In the first half of 1939, German oil imports peaked, with the largest source being Romania. Despite the cutoff of sources outside of Europe after September, Germany still imported 5.165 million tons of oil that year, which was more than the total for all of 1938. On May 1, 1940, Germany and Romania signed an oil agreement; of the 7.5 million tons Germany imported that year, 4.97 million tons came from Romania, with another 657,000 tons imported according to the Soviet-German Commercial Agreement. In 1941, imports from Romania increased to 10.07 million tons, with 4.3 million tons imported from the Soviet Union in the first half of the year.

In the second half of 1936, Hitler took several decisive steps to rearm Germany to prepare for the war expected to occur in 1940. He began implementing a Four-Year Plan, one of whose goals was to reduce dependence on foreign oil through new technology and chemistry. When proposing the plan, he said: "We must now develop Germany's fuel production at the highest possible speed. This task must be handled and completed with the same determination as in combat, because the future conduct of war depends on the resolution of this issue." He added, "The production cost of such raw materials is irrelevant." To this end, Germany established a very powerful synthetic fuel industry. By September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and WWII broke out in Europe, it already had fourteen hydrogenation plants operating at full capacity, with another six under construction. By 1940, the production of synthetic fuel had grown sharply—reaching 72,000 barrels per day, accounting for 64% of the total oil supply. From a military necessity standpoint, the significance of synthetic fuel was even greater. The Bergius hydrogenation process provided approximately 95% of Germany's aviation gasoline. Without those synthetic fuels, the Luftwaffe would not have been able to take to the skies.

Despite Hitler possessing the powerful war machine and an increasing supply of synthetic fuel, the oil problem never gave him peace of mind. Indeed, that anxiety prompted him to form a basic strategy based on "Blitzkrieg"—concentrating mechanized forces to carry out fierce and short-term attacks to achieve a decisive victory before fuel supply issues arose. Initially, whether in Poland in 1939 or ravaging Norway, the Low Countries, and France in the spring of 1940, this strategy was applied with astonishing success. The Western Front campaigns actually improved Germany's oil situation, as the oil reserves looted by the German army far exceeded the fuel they consumed in their wars of aggression. Even when Hitler's attempt to conquer the British Isles through massive aerial bombardment failed in the autumn of 1940, Germany still appeared close to dominating Europe!

It was also in 1940 that the situation in Romania became precarious; Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union all made territorial claims against it, and the Soviet Union simply sent troops to occupy Bessarabia on July 1. On November 23, Romania joined the Axis and signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. That year, Germany's dependence on Romanian oil reached 94%; by the time of Operation Barbarossa the following year, the 860,000 tons of oil exported to Germany were more valuable than the 1 million Romanian soldiers participating in the war. Germany believed victory would not be difficult. Therefore, when Romania's largest oil field, Ploiești, came under threat from the Soviet Union, Hitler turned his gaze east toward his next target—the Soviet Union. From the start of Barbarossa, occupying Baku and other Caucasian oil fields was the center of Hitler's Russian campaign. A historian once wrote: "In the economic sphere, Hitler's goal was oil. Capturing the Caucasian oil fields was even more important than taking Moscow! To Hitler, oil was an indispensable element of the industrial age and economic power. It was the lifeblood of the war machine!"

Having finished talking about oil, let's talk about food. On the German Eastern Front, each infantry division consumed 80 tons of supplies per day, and each armored division consumed 300 tons. This was a single day's consumption; of the 80 tons, dozens of tons were food and fodder, 13 tons were fuel, and the rest were miscellaneous items like ammunition and vehicle parts. This was likely wartime consumption, but certainly not combat consumption. During WWII, each infantry division consumed 22 tons of provisions daily. The logistics unit's supply capacity consisted of: a bread company producing 1,100 loaves of 1.5 kg each; a meat processing station processing 15 cattle, 1 pig, or 240 sheep daily, totaling 3,000 kg of sausage; and military horse fodder: 10 kg for a warhorse (5 kg oats, 3.5 kg hay, 1.5 kg straw) and 14.5 kg for a draft horse (6.5 kg oats, 5 kg hay, 3 kg straw), meaning each infantry division consumed 45 tons of fodder daily.

Returning to Wang Fan, it would have been simplest to just transport rice, flour, and fodder, but fodder could be eaten directly by horses, whereas other things required cooking on-site. Not only was this a waste of time, but the light from fires could easily attract artillery fire. Furthermore, after mid-December 1942, German soldiers seemed to have no choice but to eat snow for drinking water, as there was very little fuel left for boiling water. Therefore, Comrade Wang Fan decided to go all the way. He found several enterprises around Jinhai City and placed massive orders to produce large quantities of steamed buns, bread, ham, sausages, jam, flatbreads, and canned goods every day (his actual estimate was enough for 1 million people daily). Additionally, Wang Fan ordered a large amount of winter cotton clothing (many soldiers in the Sixth Army had only single layers and froze to death in the bitter cold of Stalingrad), and then bought a large amount of export-style kerosene heaters, kerosene lamps, and other extremely practical field equipment on the internet (large quantities of kerosene and diesel for Type 59 tanks were also purchased).

Finally, there were medical instruments, medicines, and medical consumables. Things like absorbent cotton, pure cotton elastic bandages, elastic bandages, medical tape, iodine, cotton swabs, alcohol, glucose powder, saline, tourniquets, various surgical instruments, and various ointments for burns were relatively easy to handle. The biggest problem was antibiotics, which would be directly inactivated after transport, making them unusable. He also needed to solve the issue of production dates; since many production packages were printed with manufacturer advertisements and production dates, they would expose him if seen (Wang Fan had other plans after completing the Battle of Stalingrad, and if he were identified by Yanhuang characters on the supplies, it would cause much trouble for subsequent plans). Finally, after a full day of making phone calls, Wang Fan ordered large quantities of industrial-grade medicines from small pharmaceutical factories and requested that the manufacturers print the production dates on the cardboard boxes instead. This way, the medicines inside would leave no trace. Once the supplies arrived, he would replace the boxes in the warehouse with unmarked white cardboard boxes (the same color as snow, considering artillery fire) and attach German-language instruction leaflets printed on A4 paper. Everything was set.

Regarding the list of medicines, Wang Fan referred to the *WHO Model List of Essential Medicines* and purchased large quantities of injectable drugs such as ketamine and propofol; local anesthetics like bupivacaine, lidocaine, epinephrine, and ephedrine; pre-operative drugs and short-term surgical sedatives like atropine, midazolam, morphine, and aspirin. After storing all of these into the ring space, Wang Fan began his next journey through time.