8 Borrowing Money 1

The next morning, Wilhelm II, rarely calling Wilhelm, went over to have breakfast together.

Before he could even take a few bites of bread, Wilhelm II suddenly asked, 'I heard you want 12% of the shares from Mauser Company's representative?'

'...' This damn guy not only doesn't know how to appreciate but also dares to complain?

After a moment's thought, Wilhelm asked, 'Grandfather, how did you know about this? Did Mauser's people tell you, or did my secretaries report it to you?' He had already guessed that the four beautiful secretaries sent by Wilhelm II to monitor him would surely carry the task of surveillance. After all, not long ago, he was a playboy who spent his days in debauchery. If he were in their shoes, he wouldn't trust himself to hand over the empire either.

Wilhelm II shook his mustache with a sense of amusement as he chewed on his ham sausage. After swallowing, he spoke, 'Does it make any difference?'

Indeed, those four secretaries were monitoring him. 'Of course, there is a difference. If Mauser told you, then I'll find a way to deal with them. If it was the ones you sent to report, I have nothing to hide. I just want to make a deal with Mauser. I'm not asking for their 12% of shares for free; I exchanged it for firearm design blueprints.'

Wilhelm II couldn't help but be curious. 'Firearm design blueprints? Who designed them?'

Wilhelm pointed to his own nose. 'Me.'

'You?' Wilhelm II's face showed a strange expression, as if he was about to burst into laughter. 'When did you learn firearm design? And you have the audacity to demand a 12% share from them so brazenly? A friend called last night and asked if you were in need of money.'

Wilhelm sighed helplessly and had to confess honestly, 'Grandfather, I can't hide it from you, uh, indeed, I can't hide it from you. You should know that I exchanged three sets of design blueprints with Walther Company for a 12% share. Walther didn't come to complain to you. I saw how excited he was when he left, almost waltzing.'

'Really?' Wilhelm II still found it hard to believe.

'If you don't believe me, you can send someone to ask. Firearm design is just a matter of learning from the best and adding a little innovation. It's not that difficult.' The simplest way is to directly plagiarize with knowledge from the future. 'Grandfather, please don't worry about this matter, okay? I think Mauser is getting too arrogant, relying on being the main supplier to the defense forces. I want to reduce the purchase of Gew.98 rifles by 30% and replace them with the new rifles I gave to Walther Company.'

Wilhelm II expressed some skepticism. 'Are the new rifles really that good?' His reaction was only natural. After all, Mauser was the royal arms factory established during the time of Frederick I and had a history of over 100 years. The company gathered top talents in various aspects of firearms, so it was unlikely that something his grandson came up with could surpass them. As for Walther, maybe they saw the future Emperor of the empire and wanted to flatter him.

"Even if it's not good, it's better than Gew.98, right? I don't think the design of Gew.98 is anything special. You should know that the Mauser-style bolt action, with front locking, is not as fast as the Lee-Enfield-style bolt action, with rear locking. Our soldiers have to move their entire arm to eject the shell and load a new round, while British soldiers can achieve it with just a movement of their wrist joint. The firing rate of Gew.98 is only 10 rounds per minute, while the Lee-Enfield can reach 15 rounds per minute."

"That's just the firing rate of an ordinary soldier. There are even videos on foreign video websites where the host fires 10 rounds with a Lee-Enfield rifle in 6.5 seconds. The most amazing record is set by a British shooting instructor in 1914, who fired 38 bullets within one minute and hit a target with a diameter of 30 centimeters at a distance of 210 meters."

"I gave them a chance, but they didn't take it, so don't blame me for being ruthless. Not only will I reduce the purchase quantity by 30%, but once I find a new partner and develop another rifle, the purchase quantity of Gew.98 will be reduced by over 60%. Well, I don't even need to find a partner; I can start my own arms company. Then my company will supply the military with firearms, and Mauser will mean nothing."

Looking at Wilhelm's resentment towards Mauser, along with his empty boasts, Wilhelm II raised an eyebrow and spoke, "Child, I can't make such a hasty decision. Let's wait for the Walter company to produce the rifle and have it tested by the military. After the evaluation, we can discuss it further."

Wilhelm nodded. "Alright then, Grandfather, I want... to borrow some money again."

Wilhelm II raised an eyebrow slightly. "How much do you want to borrow this time?"

"I'm afraid it might startle you if I say it upfront. But let me make it clear, I'll repay the borrowed money, including interest, around 1930." Wilhelm held up five fingers as he spoke.

"Fifty thousand?"

"Five million?"

"Fifty million?"

Seeing Wilhelm still shaking his head, Wilhelm II was on the verge of bursting into anger. If it weren't for the progress Wilhelm had made in recent days, he would have thrown this damn grandson, who knew nothing about the cost of living, out of the palace and let him beg on the streets for a few days.

Wilhelm II suppressed his anger and asked, "Then at least tell me where this money will be used."

"It's confidential for now." Of course, Wilhelm couldn't tell him that the US stock market would crash at the end of next year.

Unfortunately, he had traveled to this time too late. If he had come a few years earlier, with several billion or even tens of billions of funds prepared, he could have made the United States bleed heavily. But now, even if Wilhelm II could provide him with a hundred billion US dollars, he wouldn't dare to invest it all.

After all, he was only acting based on his future experience, while those financial tycoons on Wall Street were true experts. If those old foxes of capital noticed any signs, he would be the one to suffer the loss. Not only him but possibly the whole of Germany.

So he could only set a small goal for now, investing 500 million US dollars and making a profit of two to three times would be satisfying enough.

Wilhelm II was a bit annoyed. "Confidential to me as well? Do you know that the domestic economy is in a mess right now, and the foreign exchange reserves are already limited? Five hundred million US dollars is not a small amount."

Seeing that Wilhelm II was truly angry, Wilhelmquickly handed him a document. "Grandfather, this is the follow-up to the Elite Troop Plan that I mentioned to you before. The 'Invisible Troop' plan."

In the original timeline, on June 22, 1941, the little mustache completely tore up the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" and launched a lightning attack on Big Mustache's Soviet Union.

Within the first few hours, thousands of German aircraft bombarded Soviet airfields, countless Soviet tanks and artillery were destroyed before they even had a chance to be taken out of the warehouses. In the first few days of the war, entire Soviet armies and corps were surrounded and annihilated by the German army, and even whole army groups were not spared.

The bells of victory seemed to have already rung for the Germans.

However, faced with an endless stream of Soviet prisoners of war, the clear-headed German generals began to feel overwhelmed.

One German general even wrote in his diary, "We have seriously underestimated their strength. After careful screening of the prisoners, we have now identified and confirmed the existence of 360 Soviet divisions!" The German army had 153 divisions plus 37 divisions from allied countries, making a total of only 190 divisions. Even in the most favorable situation for them, they couldn't eliminate all of the Soviet Red Army. Moreover, the German general was only referring to the Soviet divisions that were in the first line of defense in the western region. How many more divisions were there in the second line? And the third line? After several large-scale battles, why didn't the number of Soviet troops decrease, but miraculously increased?