Chapter 50: William II

  Yang Feng and Alice first arrived in Rotterdam, Netherlands, then sailed up the Rhine River. His empty ship had a shallow draft, allowing it to travel all the way to their destination, Darmstadt, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, on this major European inland waterway. Along the way, they saw the sights of industrialized Europe, leaving Zhang Quan, who came from China, dazzled and wide-eyed.

  "Ren Quan, do you think those things are still useful now that you've read them? Can the Eight-legged Essay tell you how to smelt steel or how to mine?" Yang Feng said with a somewhat mischievous tone beside him.

  "The ancients said that reading ten thousand volumes is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. These words are indeed true, and it wasn't until this trip that I understood - a bookworm is useless in a hundred ways!" Zhang Quan said with deep emotion.

  "Can't you still play with your tongues and pens?" Yang Feng thought to himself, but he was able to make this transformation, which is not bad, after all, you can't expect someone who is about to take the imperial examination to suddenly become a revolutionary.

  In Darmstadt, Yang Feng received a warm welcome from his fan, the newly enthroned Grand Duke of Hesse, Ernst Ludwig, who had just discovered that being a poet was very promising. Yang Feng had plagiarized many good poems during this period, not only those of Khalil Gibran, but also Rabindranath Tagore, who was now in his thirties and whose poetry, written when he was over fifty, was already on display in major bookstores across Europe. This earned Yang Feng the fervent admiration of the European literary world, and with the hype from the Ming Daily, he had become a great literary master.

  After lingering in Darmstadt for a while, discussing his own creative process with the old glassmaker, and painstakingly studying literature and art with him until they were about to reveal their true forms, fortunately, Zhang Quan suddenly discovered that he could paint, so he hastily pushed him out as a scapegoat, and then let the colorful sister who followed him serve as his translator. It turned out that traditional Chinese ink wash landscape painting was still able to deceive Ludwig, who shared the same hobby of painting.

  The result was just as he had wished, the dreamy and ethereal Chinese ink painting immediately captivated the old glass, and they were almost reluctant to let Zhang Quan leave, until Yang Feng promised to find him a painting teacher from China, and only then did they reluctantly send them off on the train to Berlin.

  "I really didn't expect that this king would be so indulgent and reckless, yet his country is still so prosperous and wealthy. And he can even hand over the management of his own country to others without any worries." The political system of Heisen shocked Zhang Quan, who had been educated in authoritarianism all his life, and he was still marveling at it until he got on the train.

  Hesse was also a constitutional monarchy, Ludwig hardly interfered in government affairs, all domestic affairs were handled by the prime minister, as one of the states of the German Empire, it did not have the right to handle foreign affairs either, this monarch naturally had a very comfortable life.

  Yang Feng didn't even bother to explain, the political system in Europe was too complicated and couldn't be understood by someone with his traditional way of thinking. Not to mention empires, kingdoms, grand duchies, principalities, and free cities, just these confusing names could make him collapse.

  At this time, Yang Feng didn't have the energy to care about other things. This guy was harboring a huge conspiracy. What could William II's invitation be for? It must be to improve relations and pave the way for cooperation between German companies and him! As for what good things to give to the Germans, there wasn't much to study. Wasn't petroleum chemistry the only big killer? Imagine Germany having the world's largest petrochemical industry, while Britain tightly controlled the global oil supply. The money that the Germans worked hard to earn could only flow helplessly into Britain. How would William, who was already quite sensitive, view his aunt and uncle?

  Hit, hit, not even relatives are spared. Why should we Germans work hard to earn money just to put it in your pockets? Is it just because you grabbed the places first?

  Then help them build up their military strength. Suppose the Germans were to build the world's first dreadnought, what would the British think? Although they are now experimenting with diesel engines on the Majestic, the old Majestic design is clearly outdated compared to the dreadnought. At that time, all the warships being built on the British shipbuilding platform will become obsolete, and how angry will the British be?

  The British Empire cannot tolerate even a grain of sand in their eyes, they protect their dominant position with utmost care, and when they find that the Germans have the ability to threaten them at sea, Britain will choose war without hesitation.

  As for how to design this dreadnought, it's not that difficult. Just enlarge the Deutschland-class pocket battleship, change the original three turrets to four, with a lower-middle-upper layout, and increase the caliber of the guns from 279mm to 305mm. Increase the displacement to around 20,000 tons, and still use eight diesel engines provided by ourselves, with a total power of 56,000 horsepower. This far exceeds Dreadnought, let alone 21 knots, even 23 knots would be easy if we had the initiative on dreadnoughts. If Wilhelm II had the upper hand on dreadnoughts, he would definitely have the strength to teach his grandmother and uncle a lesson.

  But doing so might offend the British, and one must be careful. Of course, it's not a big deal, just find a secret channel to send it to William.

  The journey ended in this cargo full of brain schemes, the train soon arrived in Berlin, Yang Feng and his car made a stunning appearance, and even the servant officer Xiao Maoqi, who came to welcome him on behalf of the German Emperor, was shocked with his eyes almost popping out.

  "Respected Pasha, what is this?" He stared in amazement at the six-wheeled convertible limousine stopped in front of him.

  "This is the future, General Mao Qi. Are you interested in experiencing it?" Yang Da Boss, with his sunglasses on, said calmly as he looked at the future German Chief of Staff, while Alice, sitting next to him, smiled nobly, and the two looked like a pair of third-rate celebrities attending a dance party.

  Xiao Maoqi didn't hesitate anymore, Yang Feng's car was too visually shocking, whether it was a man or a woman, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous when they first saw it. Zhang Quan, who was sitting in the back seat, kindly opened the door for him. Xiao Maoqi nodded slightly and carefully sat down. As soon as he closed the door, he heard the strange car beneath him let out a violent roar, followed by his back slamming against the backrest.

  This powerful beast galloped through the streets of Berlin, with the cavalry guards behind it exhausted from chasing after it. It stopped in front of Charlottenburg Palace, a palace that Yang Feng was not unfamiliar with. In fact, he had lived here before. This guy had a bad habit of living in palaces wherever he went, whether it was the Red Fort in India, the Champs-élysées in France, or Charlottenburg Palace in Germany.

  The silver ghost limousine came to a beautiful stop with a flourish of its tail, and under the lead of Little Miao Qi's trembling hands and feet, Yang Feng met his most important collaborator in the reception hall of William II. At this time, William was full of pride and ambition, completely different from the old man he would visit half a century later.

  The meeting between the world's number one conspirator and the world's number one troublemaker was devoid of any excitement, instead filled with hypocritical flattery and courtesy. One sarcastically praised the great Emperor and his great empire, while the other exhaustively described the contributions to the world made by famous scientists, medical experts, and literary giants, as well as his own benevolent deeds that saved lives and healed wounds. To be honest, using such words on oneself would make even someone with a thick skin like Yang Feng feel somewhat embarrassed.

  Then, at the earnest invitation of William II, Yang Da Boss directly moved into Charlottenburg Palace, where he lived for two whole months. During this period, various invitations almost made him overwhelmed every day, from German naval and land military leaders, monarchs of various countries, to major entrepreneurs, and even some literary figures and poets who came to pay homage.

  Of course, many of these invitations were to give him money, especially after signing a contract with the German Vulkan shipyard for the sale of high-power diesel engines, and four were sold at once. The Vulkan shipyard plans to use them to build two protected cruisers, mainly also for experimentation as diesel-powered next step.

  In addition, he cooperated with the Mann company to set up a joint venture in Germany to produce diesel engines and gearboxes. He also cooperated with BASF to establish an oil refinery, using the cracking technology used in his Swedish refinery to produce gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as propylene gas for the synthesis of isopropanol, a widely used industrial solvent that had already begun production in Sweden as the first product of the petrochemical industry.

  Of course, this is just the beginning. Yang Feng's ultimate goal is still plastics. He wants to support Germany in becoming the world's largest plastic industrial base, just like he did in the Republic of China era when Japan became the world's largest plastic industrial base. However, this is obviously not an easy task. Any technical gap spanning a decade or two is not a big problem, but spanning half a century is quite terrifying. The technology itself is manageable; after all, they have everything from polyethylene to polypropylene, nylon, and synthetic rubber. But whether it can be achieved under current conditions is hard to say.

  He also sold his steam-powered torpedoes to the German Navy, and at this point the Germans were quite generous, buying 100 of them in one go. It's worth noting that these things cost ￡10,000 each, but the Germans also wanted Yang Feng to authorize a German company to produce them, which was no problem, as he could just hand it over to the Schwartzkopf shipyard, the manufacturer of the Blackhead torpedo. The price for this authorization was the same as what he had charged Whitehead's company: ￡500,000, or an equivalent amount in gold marks. The Germans didn't have any objections to this price, and after seeing the steam-powered torpedoes' trial shots, no one would have objected to it anyway.