Chapter 74: What in Exchange?

Just like when someone brings you a pillow when you’re sleepy, just when the Reichswehr’s funds couldn’t cover its expenses, a family called Hardra delivered a huge sum of money. In the afternoon, a group of SS men dressed in Stormtrooper uniforms rushed into the old mansion of the Hardra family and killed everyone inside. Subsequently, news came that the number two figure of the Hardra family, who was in Munich for business negotiations, had also been shot dead in his car.

By the time the youngest member of the Hardra family was dragged out of a basement in the Ruhr region and finished off, it was already a month later. But this did not affect the Reichswehr’s carving up of the family’s assets in the slightest.

Merkel, with the help of the White Orchid Group, swallowed the entire Hardra family’s enterprise in one bite, monopolizing almost the entire pharmaceutical business in the Western European region, while the Reichswehr received a large amount of cash to expand its strength.

Although in the eyes of most people, it was the Nazi Party that had planned the bloody massacre of the Hardra family, there were still many well-informed individuals who discovered clues—the Hardra family’s property was carved up by the Reichswehr, the assassins who hunted down the peripheral members of the Hardra family had a large number of weapons, and the first to fall, the grandson of the Hardra family head, was confirmed to have been taken away by the Reichswehr.

Unfortunately, these well-informed individuals all sensibly kept their mouths shut, because Akado had generously distributed the Hardra family’s other pillar industry, food, and these well-informed individuals had all gotten a share of the profits in this distribution of interests. So everyone very tacitly ignored the many suspicious points of the whole incident.

And although many Jews were dissatisfied with Akado’s massacre of the Hardra family, they were helpless as they were currently in a fierce conflict with Hitler’s Nazi Party and did not want to make another powerful enemy like the Greater Germany Party. So, after receiving the guarantee from the Greater Germany Party’s vice-chairman, Krupp, that they would “no longer target the Jews,” they chose to forget this incident.

Because of the financial support, the Reichswehr, once again not knowing the value of money when not managing a household, “squandered” all this wealth in one go. Not only did they pay off a large portion of the debts owed to various companies, but they also purchased a good deal of advanced weapons and equipment. They even used a portion of the money to provide funding for the research and development of the newest secret fighter jets.

But at this very moment, Akado was receiving the new commander of the Leningrad Military District, who had secretly rushed from the Soviet Union, the head of the secret Soviet delegation visiting Germany this time, Tukhachevsky. This Soviet military leader had single-handedly facilitated the secret cooperation between the Soviets and the Russians and had also personally supervised the preparatory work for the several large arsenals Germany was helping the Soviet Union to build.

He had strongly advocated for the independent development of the Soviet Union’s first generation of tanks, insisting on basing the tank design on the French Renault F-17 tank, and abandoning the blueprints for the Panzer I provided by the Germans. He personally supervised the Soviet imitation of German military vehicles, and perfected the railway and highway systems within the Soviet Union. He even participated in the production preparation work for the Soviet-class battleships and the Tsar-class cruisers. And because of his many contributions, he was secretly dubbed “the Akado of the Soviet regime” by the German intelligence department.

Just now, in the newly established Joint Operations General Staff headquarters of the Reichswehr High Command, the two “Akados,” representing different countries and different interests, had met.

“Akado! Long time no see! Your promotion has been much faster than mine! You are now a lieutenant general of the Reichswehr! Simply incredible!” With Soviet-style heartiness, Tukhachevsky forcefully embraced Akado before him, casually tossing his leather hat onto the sofa, and laughed loudly. “Got any wine? The last time you came to the Soviet Union, this is not how we hosted you.”

“There’s none here,” Akado said with a smile, then mimicked General von Hammerstein-Equord’s deep voice, “Even if there were, I could only say there isn’t. Our Commander-in-Chief, General von Hammerstein, has instructed: ‘Those Soviet friends can drink too much! All our wine will be drunk up!'”

“Hahaha,” Tukhachevsky laughed heartily. “Since there is no wine, then compensate me in other ways. To be honest, I’ve come this time with a matter that requires your help.”

Here it comes! Akado thought with a secret smile. “If there’s anything I can help with, just say it! Aren’t we friends?”

“This time, I have brought 3 cooperation agreements: one is for our army, wanting to purchase the blueprints for your armored reconnaissance vehicles, tanks, trucks, and other equipment; one is regarding industry, we want to continue to exchange oil and anything else for your precision equipment, especially fine processing equipment and the latest machine tools; the last one is a naval cooperation agreement, we can help you hide your submarines and their crews, but we hope you will dispatch submarine manufacturing experts to assist us in producing Soviet submarines.”

Akado mentally calculated for a moment. Although the oil discovered in the Middle East had extremely large reserves, extraction and transportation were currently rather difficult. In fact, Germany and many parts of Europe were relatively dependent on Romania’s oil fields and the Soviet Union’s oil supply. However, for Germany, which had obtained a large amount of oil through technical cooperation, and especially for the German Reichswehr, which was not preparing for any large-scale movements in the near future, the oil reserves were already more than enough.

So he looked up, looked at Tukhachevsky, and said, “In terms of cooperation, we have been doing so for many years. We have sold all the technology we can provide to our Soviet friends. To be honest, you can also feel the great progress of Soviet heavy industry in these past two years.”

His saying this clearly indicated he was not very willing to expand the scope of cooperation. Tukhachevsky also knew that Germany’s appetite had been more or less sated by the Soviet Union these past few years. Continuing to provide basic raw materials was no longer enough to whet the Germans’ appetite. But he was carrying the mission of his motherland and had to try again. “You know that the Soviet Union’s foreign exchange reserves are almost depleted. The only things we can provide are minerals and oil. If you are willing, food, leather, and even timber are all possible.”

“Much of the technology is in the hands of private German enterprises. The technology we in the Reichswehr control, we’ve already sold most of it. I don’t know how many enterprises are interested in energy, but I can help you take a survey,” Akado said with a sigh.

“Thank you,” Tukhachevsky nodded, then immediately added, “Comrade Stalin is most concerned about the naval expansion plan this time. He very much hopes that you can visit the Soviet Union again and agree to help the Soviet Union manufacture submarines. We know that in the last war, the performance of the German submarine force was very outstanding. We in the Soviet Union also eagerly hope to possess an underwater force that can deter our enemies.”

“I think that should be no problem. But submarines are a high-tech weapon. To prepare new shipyards and ports within Soviet territory… we have helped the Netherlands produce 760-ton class submarines. If you are interested, there is also a 250-ton class. We call this type of pocket submarine the ‘coastal killer’,” Akado said with a smile.

“We want them all!” Tukhachevsky said eagerly, like a child who had just seen a toy. “We need all of these!”

“I can contact the shipyard in Kiel and send people to the Soviet Union to help,” Akado nodded and said. “I’m not trying to extort you, but our German technicians’ salaries are quite high, and their benefits are also very good. The Kiel shipyard will also lose a large number of high-tech talents because of this. I hope the Soviet Union understands the price you will have to pay.”

“No problem! We can convert it into oil, timber, minerals, food, anything Germany wants, and pay the German Reichswehr directly,” Tukhachevsky promised happily. “We will purchase 100 small submarines of the 250-ton class from Germany, and 20 large submarines of the 760-ton class.”

Akado raised his eyebrows. The Soviets’ appetite was really not small. To arm more than a hundred submarines in one go… it seemed the long-cherished wish of becoming a maritime hegemon was deeply buried in the hearts of the Soviets, and not just a whim of Khrushchev’s. “No problem! I will help you make the contact.”

“In addition, we would also like to purchase 3,000 BMW motorcycles, 300 new model military trucks produced by the Krupp company, 500 armored cars from the Mercedes-Benz company, and 20 Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans,” Tukhachevsky added after some thought.

Akado laughed heartily. “That’s no problem. I’ll have Merkel talk to you about the price in a little while.”

“Mr. Merkel is a very respectable German friend, but his habit of asking for exorbitant prices often gives us a headache,” Tukhachevsky said with a helpless shrug, hearing the name Merkel.

“He may ask for an exorbitant price, but you haven’t paid it, have you? Asking for an exorbitant price and then haggling on the spot is just a business tactic. It doesn’t affect the friendship between us,” Akado said with a smile.

“You’re right. May the Soviet Union and Germany be friends forever!” Tukhachevsky said, standing up.

“May we always be friends,” Akado also stood up to see him off. “Tomorrow, I will accompany you on a tour of the Reichswehr’s garrison in the suburbs of Berlin.”

“That would be great! I was just hoping to see it,” Tukhachevsky said very happily. The two men embraced warmly again and bid a reluctant farewell.

After leaving the back door of the Reichswehr High Command, Tukhachevsky ordered his adjutant, “Immediately send a telegram back home. Prepare the corresponding personnel and get ready to imitate the German submarines! Also, have the factories near Kiev and Minsk send personnel to be responsible for receiving the German cars and armored cars. Dismantle the samples for analysis and imitate them as soon as possible!”

“Yes, sir!” the adjutant nodded.

“Please have Colonel Smith from Britain come to see me,” Akado said, standing at the window and watching the cars of Tukhachevsky and his delegation drive away. He then instructed Captain Anna behind him, “Tell him I have a large business deal involving oil and timber, and I hope the British government and its merchants will be interested in these energy sources.”

“Yes, sir!” Anna also replied.