Chapter 105 Ambition

　　That night Speer went to Wilhelm's office to report on the company's work for the last quarter.

　　After listening to the report, Wilhelm personally poured him a glass of champagne. "Professor Speer, thanks to you for taking care of my private estate all these years."

　　Speer accepted the glass with trepidation. "Your Highness is too kind, all of this is thanks to your Highness's discerning eye."

　　Wilhelm laughed out loud. "Haha, when it comes to a discerning eye, I really haven't misjudged anyone. More than your specialty, you are a genius in economics."

　　Sometimes one had to marvel that some geniuses were just born. Speer was born in 1905 in Mannheim, Germany in a rich family, he loved math as a child and dreamed of becoming a mathematician, if he was allowed to develop, he might really become a generation of mathematicians in the future.

　　But his father was a hot architect, and for the children to arrange a good future seems to be the common point of the parents at home and abroad, his father insisted on letting Speer inherited his own craft, the result of Speer to comply with the will of his father, successively in Karlsruhe, Munich and Berlin, studying architecture, and in 1927, received the qualification of architects.

　　And he showed his talent for architecture, too. Once he passed by the demolition site of the Nuremberg Tram Terminal and saw the exposed and rusted steel bars inside the concrete columns. This decadent and apocalyptic scene deeply stimulated Speer, and after much reflection, he came up with the so-called Ruin Value Len. He thinks, can't imagine the value of rusted and collapsed reinforced concrete buildings can be immortalized for ages, to use special materials, apply certain statics away from, make the building in hundreds of years - or even a thousand years later, even if dumped into ruins, still has the value of the Roman architectural role as such.

　　This concept was also deeply appreciated by the moustache guy, and soon after, he was appointed to design the scenery of the airport in Tipelin.

　　Speer designed a huge podium 300 meters long and 24 meters high. It was twice as long as the public baths at Caracana. At the top was erected an eagle with spread wings that were 33 meters wide. 130 searchlights were placed throughout the site.

　　As he later wrote in his memoirs, the effect was far greater than I could have imagined: 130 well-defined columns of light, spaced at twelve-meter intervals, shot out from the perimeter of the venue into the night sky, visible from 6,000 to 8,000 meters up, then blurred and merged into a single radiance that gave the impression of a vast space, with each beam acting as a zone fence, forming a façade of infinite height. Sometimes a cloud passes through the halo, adding a surrealistic element of illusion to this magnificent effect. I think that this "Church of Light" is the first luminous architectural design of this type, and for me it is not only my most beautiful, but the only spatial work that in its way transcends time.

　　Afterwards, Speer, who was awarded the title of "Director of Architecture for the Revitalization of the German Capital", planned the capital of a thousand-year-old empire.

　　According to his plan, Germania would have two central train stations, north and south, between which would be the 8-kilometer-long, 120-meter-wide "Glitterstrasse". The axis of this street was lined with buildings that demonstrated Germany's political, military and economic strength. There are theaters, stores, and office buildings for all German ministries, including a new staff headquarters building, a Field Marshal's Memorial Hall, and a new Reichstag building.

　　A new German "Arc de Triomphe" was to be built in the middle of the street, twice the height of the French Arc de Triomphe, at 100 meters. Perhaps it was the Place de la Concorde in Paris that inspired Speer to build a square in the middle of the "Strasse du Lumière" with a capacity for a million spectators. There was also to be a huge copper-domed edifice to serve as a congress hall. Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the building was to be more than 400 meters high, with a capacity of 150,000 people, and was to be the largest synagogue in the world. The eleven ministries of the Empire were scattered along the road from the Triumphal Arch to the Congress Hall, ending at the "Rotunda" at the intersection with the Potsdamer Strasse, followed by a kilometer-long stretch of stores and entertainment venues: two-thirds of Germania was to be occupied by commercial and residential buildings. On streets 150 to 200 meters wide, he planned to build a luxury cinema, a 2,000-seat cinema for the general public, a new opera house, a new concert hall, a "Palace of the Nation", and a hotel with 210,000 beds.

　　It is interesting that Speer's father, after having seen the model, commented only. "You're completely crazy." One wonders if at this point the old man ever regretted dragging his son into the construction business.

　　"Your Highness, you flatter me. When it comes to genius, I'm afraid there's no one in this world who can compare to you." This was not flattery, it was admiration from the bottom of his heart. I'm afraid no one can imagine that a person can be a genius to such an extent. Philosophy, astronomy, geography, literature, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and all the existing scientific achievements, your highness has already stood on the peak. Also according to his highness creation invention, just registered patent has hundreds, and unregistered secret invention is countless.

　　His Highness founded the "Zeus" company has penetrated into all walks of life in Germany, and can be said to be truly in control of the economic lifeline of Germany. Even if he is not the Crown Prince of Germany, he is still enough to shake the German economy. His Highness spent a lot of money, and the money was like a snowball that got bigger and bigger, and then magically returned to His Highness's pocket at the end of the day. "The net profit of Zeus had increased by more than 100% for several years in a row, which could be called a miracle!

　　Could it be that just like the name of His Highness, he was a gift from God?

　　Of course, Wilhelm didn't know what was going on in Speer's mind at the moment, and put away his smile. "Let's not brag about each other, I'm going to give you a new position."

　　Speer put down the wine glass in his hand and said seriously. "Your Highness, feel free to command."

　　"You will first go to the railroad department for a while, find a way to tap into the highest capacity of the railroad and try to make it capable of transporting as many supplies as possible. When you return you will be in charge of the Empire's munitions production, that is, armament and wartime production, as well as logistics. That's not a small burden, how about it, are you confident?"

　　A trace of shock flashed across Speer's face, then he solemnly promised. "I'm willing to give it a try."

　　Wilhelm nodded. "I think one year is enough time for you to familiarize yourself with the operations of the railroad sector, and another year to familiarize yourself with the business of munitions production, which means that in two years the Empire is going to start entering a wartime regime. 10% in the first year, 30% in the second year, 50% in the third year, and then you can raise it to 75% if needed." Germany in the original time and space had hastily started the wartime production system until it was too late because it had misjudged the true strength of the Soviet Union until its defeat was already assured.

　　This time Wilhelm was going to advance to the wartime system and conduct a localized industrial mobilization. But to get the whole country to one hundred percent mobilization is simply not possible, seventy-five percent, is already a very impressive value.

　　After ordering this Wilhelm walked to the window and looked at the sky. "The moon is so full tonight, is it full?" Said Wilhelm as he twisted his head to look at Speer who had followed him over. "Professor Speer, do you know why I want to start a war?"

　　Speer thought a little and returned. "Your Highness is to wash away the humiliation of the last great war?"

　　Wilhelm shook his head noncommittally, staring at the moon in the sky and slowly said. "That moon, which is 380,000 kilometers away from our Earth, even at our current fastest fighter speed, it would take 31 days of continuous flight to reach it. Of course, we can't even combat the earth's gravity at the moment, but not within ten years we will launch rockets into space, followed by manned rockets, moon rockets, moon manned rockets, and in the near future we humans will set foot on the moon."

　　Speer had long been stunned by Wilhelm's grandiose vision.

　　Wilhelm glanced at him and smiled. "I don't start the war for any kind of revenge, or expansion or conquest of this kind, I'm just trying to consolidate as many resources as possible to explore space exploration. Our journey as humans should be a sea of stars, not stuck on this tiny planet endlessly killing each other." As a child, Wilhelm couldn't figure out why the various nations of Earth didn't put aside all their prejudices and work together to develop outer space.

　　Later on, he figured out that prejudice and selfishness were the weaknesses of human nature, and it had been six thousand years since the origin of civilization, but human beings had never diluted their aggressiveness and all kinds of discrimination. There is only one way to get the whole world to work together, and that is when faced with great common external pressure (please refer to the movie 2012).

　　But Wilhelm suspects that even at that point, there will be a difference in affinity, a distribution of benefits, and conflicts of all kinds.