Chapter 105: Grand Aspiration

That night, Speer went to Yannick's office to report on the company's work in the previous quarter.

After listening to the report, Yannick personally poured him a glass of champagne. "Professor Speer, I'm grateful for your care of my private property over the years."

Speer took the glass with trepidation. "Your Highness, thank you for the compliment. All this is thanks to your discerning eye."

Yannick laughed. "Haha, speaking of discerning eyes, I was right. You are more of an economic genius than your major."

Sometimes one has to sigh that some geniuses are born. Speer was born in a wealthy family in Mannheim, Germany in 1905. He loved mathematics when he was a child and dreamed of becoming a mathematician. If he was allowed to develop, he might really become a mathematician in the future.

It's just that his father was a popular architect, and arranging a good future for their children seemed to be a common point for parents at home and abroad. His father insisted that Speer inherit his craft. As a result, Speer followed his father's will and studied architecture in Karlsruhe, Munich and Berlin, and obtained the qualification of architect in 1927.

And he also showed his talent in architecture. Once he passed by the demolition site of Nuremberg Tram Terminal and saw the steel bars in the concrete columns exposed and rusted. This decadent doomsday scene deeply stimulated Speer. After repeated thinking, he proposed the so-called "Ruins Value Ethics". He believed that it was impossible to imagine that rusted and collapsed reinforced concrete buildings could have the value of passing down through the ages. Special materials should be used and certain statics should be applied to make the buildings have the value of Roman architecture even if they collapse into ruins hundreds of years or even thousands of years later.

This concept was also deeply appreciated by the mustache, and soon he was appointed to design the scenery of Deppelin Airport.

Speer designed a huge rostrum 300 meters long and 24 meters high. The length is twice that of the Caracana Baths. On the top stands an eagle with its wings spread out, 33 meters wide. There are 130 searchlights installed throughout the venue.

Later he wrote in his memoirs: The actual effect far exceeded my imagination. 130 clearly outlined beams of light shot from around the venue to the night sky at intervals of twelve meters. They were still clearly visible at six to eight thousand meters in the sky, and then gradually blurred and merged into a brilliance, giving people the feeling of a huge space. Each beam of light was like a fence, forming an infinitely high outer wall. Sometimes a cloud passed through the halo, adding a surrealist fantasy factor to this magnificent effect. I think this "Church of Light" is the first luminous architectural design of this type. For me, it is not only my most beautiful, but also the only spatial work that exists in its own way beyond time.

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

According to his plan, Germania will have two central railway stations in the north and south, with a "Glorious Street" 8 kilometers long and 120 meters wide between them. With this street as the axis, both sides are lined with various buildings that can show Germany's political, military and economic strength. There are theaters, shops and office buildings of all German ministries, including a new staff headquarters building, a memorial hall for field marshals, and a new parliament building.

A new German "Arc de Triomphe" will be built in the middle of the street, twice as high as the French Arc de Triomphe, reaching 100 meters. Perhaps it was the Place de la Concorde in Paris that inspired Speer, who planned to build a square in the middle of the "Glorious Street" that could accommodate a million spectators. There is also a huge copper dome building as a conference hall. The building is modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, more than 400 meters high, and can accommodate 150,000 people. After completion, it will become the largest hall in the world. The eleven ministries of the empire were scattered on the road from the Arc de Triomphe to the Great Hall, with the "Circular Square" at the intersection with Potsdamer Strasse at the end, followed by a kilometer-long shop and entertainment venue: Germania would have two-thirds of commercial and civilian buildings. On the streets 150 to 200 meters wide, he planned to build a luxury cinema, a 2,000-seat mass cinema, a new opera house, a new concert hall, a "National Palace", and a hotel with 210,000 beds.

Interestingly, after seeing this model, Speer's father only commented. "You are completely crazy." I don't know if the old man regretted pulling his son into the construction industry at this time.

"Your Highness, you are embarrassing me. Speaking of genius, I'm afraid no one in the world can compare to you." This is not flattery, but admiration from the bottom of my heart. I'm afraid no one can imagine that a person can be so versatile. In philosophy, astronomy, geography, literature, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and all existing scientific achievements, your highness has already stood at the peak. According to his inventions, there are hundreds of registered patents alone, and countless unregistered secret inventions.

The "Zeus" company founded by his highness has penetrated into all walks of life in Germany, and it can be said that it truly controls the economic lifeline of Germany. Even if he is not the crown prince of Germany, it is enough to shake the German economy. His highness spends a lot of money, and this money is like a snowball that gets bigger and bigger, and magically returns to his pocket in the end. The net profit of "Zeus" company has achieved a growth of more than 100% for several consecutive years, which can be called a miracle!

Could it be that as His Highness Yannick's name suggests, he is a gift from God?

Of course Yannick didn't know what Speer was thinking at this moment, so he put away his smile. "Let's stop flattering each other. I'm going to change your position."

Speer put down the wine glass in his hand and said seriously. "Your Highness, just ask."

"You first go to the railway department and stay for a while, and try to find ways to maximize the railway's transportation capacity and try to make it transport more materials. After you come back, you will be responsible for the empire's military production, that is, armaments and wartime production, as well as logistics. This The burden is not small, how about it, are you confident?"

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

Yannick nodded. "I think one year is enough for you to familiarize yourself with the operation of the railway department, and another year to familiarize yourself with the business of military production. That is, after two years the empire will begin to enter the wartime system. 10% in the first year, 30% in the second year , 50% in the third year, and can be increased to 75% if necessary. "Because Germany in the original time and space misestimated the true strength of the Soviet Union, it did not hastily start wartime production until the defeat was determined. system, it turned out that it was too late.

This time Yannick will enter the wartime system in advance and carry out partial industrial mobilization. However, it is simply impossible to achieve 100% mobilization of the entire country. Seventy-five percent is already a very astonishing value.

After giving these instructions, Yannick walked to the window and looked at the sky. "The moon is so round tonight, is it full?" He said and turned to look at Speer who was following him. "Professor Speer, do you know why I started the war?"

Speer thought for a moment and replied. "Your Highness, are you trying to wash away the humiliation of the last war?"

Yannick shook his head noncommittally, staring at the moon in the sky and said slowly. "The moon is 380,000 kilometers away from our earth. Even based on the speed of our current fastest fighter jet, it will take 31 days of continuous flight to reach it. Of course, we can't even get rid of the earth's gravity now, but within ten years we will Launching rockets into space, followed by manned rockets, lunar exploration rockets, and lunar exploration manned rockets, we humans will set foot on the moon in the near future.”

Speer had already been stunned by Yannick's grand idea.

Yannick glanced at him and smiled. "I started the war not for revenge, expansion, or conquest. I just wanted to integrate as many resources as possible for space exploration. Our human journey should be to the stars and the sea, not to be trapped on this tiny earth. "The endless cannibalism in the world." When Yannick was a child, he couldn't figure out why all the countries on the earth didn't put aside all their prejudices and work together to develop outer space?

Later I realized that prejudice and selfishness are the weaknesses of human nature. Six thousand years have passed since the origin of civilization, but human beings have never diluted their aggression and various discriminations. If we want people all over the world to work together, there is only one possibility, and that is when facing great common external pressure (please refer to the movie 2012).

However, Yannick suspects that even if that time comes, there will still be differences between closeness and distance, and it will still involve the distribution of interests; all kinds of conflicts will continue.