Chapter 49

This evening was a disaster for some people, but the majority of the lower-class citizens were not affected.

The next morning, before dawn, long queues formed as usual in front of KFC locations. Although the previous government had set up relief points, hardly anyone wanted to go there to collect food. The food provided by the government was not only pitifully small in quantity, but also not very fresh. Sometimes, people even received moldy black bread.

Compared to these damn government officials, His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, showed more concern for the people's situation. These days, all they did was eat the food they received, find work, or take to the streets to protest the government's inaction.

Unexpectedly, the scale of the protests kept growing. Although there were several incidents of conflict along the way, it eventually had an effect: the parliament dissolved, the prime minister resigned, and the emperor once again took power.

"Erich, what are your plans for later?" a middle-aged man standing in the middle of the queue asked his companion. Erich shrugged and replied helplessly, "What else can I plan? I'll continue looking for work. Hey, I wonder if His Majesty the Emperor has any way to solve this terrible situation. Edward, look at my clothes, I've patched them three times already."

Edward looked around and whispered, "You don't know yet, but the Emperor is currently not in the country. The one in charge now is Prince Wilhelm."

"Huh?" Erich was puzzled. "How do you know?"

Edward spoke with a hint of satisfaction. "My relative's child is in the Imperial Guard, and yesterday..." But he immediately shut his mouth when he saw several military trucks approaching from a distance. Wasn't that the Imperial Guard he was familiar with, standing on those trucks?

To the curious gazes of the crowd, several trucks parked in front of the KFC. Edward noticed that apart from the first truck, which had ten Imperial Guard soldiers, the other truck compartments were empty.

Just as he was wondering what was going on, the deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, wearing the rank of lieutenant, stood on the passenger side of the first truck, holding a makeshift loudspeaker in his hand. "Hiring, we're hiring! Those willing to work, get on the truck. Not only will we provide meals, but we'll also pay you daily. You can still make it in time for breakfast!"

The crowd hesitated for a moment, then rushed towards the trucks, competing with each other. If it weren't for the Imperial Guard maintaining order, they might have started fighting. The lieutenant continued to shout, "Stop fighting! Don't fight! There's plenty of work, even if all of you go, it won't be enough. Take your time getting on the truck!"

Although he said that, people were still worried about not being able to secure a job, so they pushed forward as much as they could. Soon, the first truck was filled with people and left the KFC. Just a few minutes later, the second truck was also filled and left.

Edward and Erich were lucky enough to squeeze onto the first truck. After the vehicle started moving, Edward spoke up, "What kind of work do you think it will be?"

Erich didn't care much and replied, "Who cares? As long as there's work."

After a bumpy ride of over half an hour, Edward suddenly sniffed the air. "What's that smell? It's so fragrant!" Following the direction of the scent, he saw several military cauldrons set up not far ahead. The waves of fragrance were emanating from those cauldrons.

Without even looking, he knew there was meat in those cauldrons. The aroma of the meat kept wafting into his nose, making him uncontrollably salivate, wishing he could jump off the truck immediately and indulge himself.

However, there are also dozens of Imperial Guard soldiers here maintaining order, and no one dares to cause trouble. The leading lieutenant stood on top of a stack of boxes and shouted to the people below the truck, "Each person receives a lunch box. After finishing the meal, make sure to keep the box. We won't provide replacements if you lose it."

Once again, the crowd lined up to receive the military lunch boxes. Each person received a piece of black bread, a potato, and a lunch box of meat soup.

Edward held the meat soup and walked aside, eagerly taking a sip. The scalding hot soup brought instant relief, but his expression changed, torn between wanting to spit it out and not wanting to waste it. He couldn't swallow it either because it was too hot. He could only hold the soup in his mouth, struggling to swallow it slowly until it cooled down.

Erich, who followed along, looked speechless. "You're too impatient, aren't you? Didn't you burn yourself?"

Edward managed to swallow the soup in his mouth and smiled bitterly. "Well, it's been a while since I had meat." He blew on the lunch box a few times and cautiously took a big sip.

At this moment, the lieutenant continued to shout, "The work here is road construction. Those with relevant work experience, please stand on the left. Like truck driving, excavators, forklifts, bulldozers, road rollers. If you have engineering or demolition experience, even if you can cook, you're welcome. Those who don't know anything, please go to the right to receive tools."

"Finally, something that suits me," Edward said with a mouthful of black bread, unable to help but nod. He used to operate a bulldozer at a construction site.

Wilhelm was shocked by the amount of wealth they had looted during the previous night's operation. But this was just a small part. The deposits of these people, along with other properties, have not yet been accounted for. If they liquidated everything, they could rival a rich country.

It reminded him of the law of the preservation of wealth, "Wealth doesn't disappear; it only transfers!"

When the poor workers couldn't even have bread to eat, the capitalists were pouring large quantities of milk directly into the river!

Now, it seemed that everyone was equally poor, but in reality, the capitalists' wallets were full!

According to the official data recently compiled, the number of unemployed in Germany reached 6 million. However, according to Wilhelm's intelligence agency's investigation, the actual number should be higher, including those working temporary jobs. The estimated figure was 8.75 million! Considering that Germany's population is still less than 70 million, if you exclude the elderly, the weak, and the disabled, among the able-bodied working-age men, 1 in 4 were unemployed.

This was a ticking time bomb!!

After all, the United States could endure and overcome the crisis with its own strength. The United Kingdom could survive thanks to its vast colonies. But Germany was in a dire situation. As a part of the capitalist camp, it faced the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles and the exploitation from countries like England and France, making its situation even more dangerous.

This was one of the reasons why Wilhelm acted ahead of schedule, but the outcome turned out much better than he had expected. Those troublesome bigwigs, like Juncker, were burned to ashes in the fire, saving even the cost of cremation. Without these backbone figures, the remaining forces were unable to react and were wiped out in one fell swoop.

There was a bit of turbulence in the military, but when certain individuals attempted to rebel, they were countered by the lower and middle-ranking officers and soldiers under them. They didn't even need military courts. The rebels were sent directly to concentration camps.