Preparations before Visit

"Dear, when did you leave? Where did you go so early?" Mrs. Baon asked in surprise as she saw Mr. Baon enter the kitchen looking exhausted.

Like most Germans, Mr. Baon strictly adhered to a routine, and his habits were as precise as a clock, without any deviation.

But today, to her amazement, Mrs. Baon woke up to find that Mr. Baon was nowhere to be seen. The absence of a few clothes in the wardrobe indicated that he had left early.

Mr. Baon approached the dining table, picked up a glass, and gulped down more than half of it in one breath. After catching his breath, he sat down at the table and said, "Dear, I need to tell you something."

Mrs. Baon placed the pan-fried steaks on the table and casually asked, "What is it?"

Mr. Baon lightly tapped on the table and said, "I've sold our house and several factories."

Mrs. Baon was taken aback. "Why?"

While sprinkling seasoning on the steak, Mr. Baon explained, "Yesterday, Baon came back and said that Prince Wilhelm asked them for money."

"The Crown Prince borrowing money? That's quite surprising. Does the Prince need money? How much did he borrow?"

"Ten million dollars. The Prince obviously knows that these rascals couldn't possibly have that much money. He borrowed from us, the parents."

Mrs. Baon was even more puzzled. "But there's no need to sell everything. You can come up with ten million, right?"

Mr. Baon put down the seasoning bottle and sighed. "Isn't it for the sake of our son? With his character, when the time comes and neither you nor I are around, he'll either squander the family business or be deceived. Do you want him to starve to death? Prince Wilhelm is the future German Emperor, and in light of our dedication, he won't let him starve, right?"

"...," Mrs. Baon sighed, thinking about their naive son. "How much money did you manage to gather?"

"Prince Wilhelm said he can repay it by early 1930. So besides the funds we've barely managed to get by these past two years, I've gathered everything I could and borrowed a lot from some friends. It adds up to approximately 150 million dollars. We'll have to cut down on meat in the future, and save wherever we can."

"Understood."

************

When Wilhelm counted the amount written on the promissory note that Baon handed him, he couldn't help but freeze for a moment. There were 30 promissory notes, each worth 5 million dollars. "Isn't your dad extremely reluctant to spend money, even on buying a car?" From Wilhelm's memories as "Wilhelm," he knew that Baon's family was relatively poor among those friends. They must have sold all their properties to gather so much money.

Chewing on a cookie, Baon replied foolishly, "My dad said he managed to scrape together every penny, selling everything we had, even the family burial plots. From now on, my pocket money will be reduced."

Watching this simple-minded and carefree boy, Wilhelm patted his shoulder and said seriously, "Thanks. Don't worry, I promise that within two years your pocket money will double."

His identity as the future German Emperor was quite useful. Several people had already sent money, each with two or three hundred million. However, David, who came from the wealthiest family among them, only brought ten million. Wilhelm smiled to himself without saying a word.

Adding the previous 200 million, he now had four hundred and eighty million dollars in promissory notes. His hands were shaking and he never dreamed that one day he would have hundreds of millions of funds in his hands.

After being excited for a while, he finally regained his composure and needed to attend to business. "Annie, can a private person start an oil company?"

Annie pondered for a moment and nodded. "It seems there are no laws prohibiting private oil extraction. Moreover, you are the Crown Prince. However, if you want to do business, you should do it in the name of the country, instead of creating competition with yourself, right?"

"That's good. Register an oil company for me immediately. Hire personnel and order oil exploration and extraction equipment for the factories. I want everything sorted out before I come back. Also, register an automobile manufacturing company." Wilhelm thought for a moment. If this continued, he would have to register many more companies. So he decided, "Register a company called 'Deutscher Zeus Company' with the business scope listed as 'unlimited'."

"Miss Monica, go find Ferdinand Porsche. He used to be a designer for Daimler-Benz, but I heard he resigned. Find a way to locate him and tell him that I want to hire him as the chief designer and technical advisor for my automobile manufacturing company."

In 1926, two giants in the world of automobiles, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, joined forces to merge Daimler and Benz companies, establishing Daimler-Benz.

Ferdinand Porsche (also known as Ferdinand Poersche) naturally became a member of the new company. He designed a series of products for Mercedes, such as the S, SS, and SSK. The SSK was an abbreviation for the German term "super short wheelbase sports car" and was specifically designed for hill climb races. Only 35 units were produced at the time.

On the board of directors at Mercedes, Porsche advocated for developing small cars but received no support. During that period, due to the rejection he faced, he had to leave Daimler.

"Miss Viola, purchase the land within this circle." He circled a small town on the map surrounded by mountains. The town was formed for the extraction of minerals from three mountains, but after the mines were depleted, it became a deserted ghost town. "It's a good place. After buying the land, send a construction team there."

Wilhelm planned to develop the area into District 51 of Germany, where all important research projects would take place.

"Miss Annie, secretly visit the heads of companies like Henschel, MAN, Rheinmetall, Krupp, and Daimler-Benz. Have each company design three types of tanks, telling them it's what I want. Miss Monica, ask Porsche to design three tanks as well."

As the secretaries left one by one, Wilhelm thought for a while and picked up the phone, calling the headquarters of the Defense Army. "Commander Seckt, it's Wilhelm. Hehe, there's nothing urgent. I just want to borrow a few people from you for a trip abroad. No need to make a big fuss, I only need four people. Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel, Heinz Guderian, Erich von Manstein, and Walter von Brauchitsch. Let them gather at the train station the day after tomorrow at ten o'clock."