Laying the Groundwork in Eastern Europe

Hearing General Ludendorff's words, Eitel froze on the spot.

He had thought his plan was unrivaled under heaven, but after hearing what the general beside him said, he suddenly felt it was riddled with holes.

Pulling out a chair and sitting down, Eitel looked at the documents on the desk with some frustration.

"This won't work, that won't work. Now I can't even sell some weapons without running into restrictions at every turn. Fuck!"

Irritated, Eitel picked up the documents on the desk and began leafing through them one by one.

But he could not take in a single word. General Ludendorff wanted to say something, but he had no good ideas either.

He could only stand there awkwardly.

For a time, the only sound in the office was the rustling of documents.

Just as Ludendorff was beginning to feel as though he were sitting on a bed of needles, Eitel caught sight of the words on one document.

It was a diplomatic communication from France ordering them to complete the disbandment of their army and the destruction of their heavy weapons as soon as possible, and stating that inspectors would be sent the following January to personally oversee the destruction.

Seeing France's name on the document, a glimmer of delighted surprise appeared in Eitel's eyes.

"I have an idea!"

As he spoke, Eitel slammed the document onto the desk.

"Go get Chancellor Max."

Eitel gave General Ludendorff the order, then settled back into his seat.

General Ludendorff immediately acknowledged the order and withdrew from His Majesty Eitel's office.

He headed toward Chancellor Max's office.

On his way to Chancellor Max's office, General Ludendorff was still muttering to himself.

In his view, taking such an enormous risk to sell weapons and equipment to either the White Army or the Soviet Reds was entirely unnecessary.

They clearly only needed to cancel the severance pay or reduce the amount distributed. Even just arranging jobs for those soldiers would already count as doing everything that duty and kindness demanded.

But he had no choice but to obey His Majesty's orders, so he could only dutifully make his way to Chancellor Max's office.

The moment he stepped into Chancellor Max's office, General Ludendorff froze.

Smoke swirled through the enclosed office, and several thick stacks of government bills and documents had completely hidden Chancellor Max behind his desk.

Hearing the door open, Chancellor Max gave instructions without looking up. "Put them on my desk. I'll read them once I've finished dealing with these."

Seeing how hard Chancellor Max was working, Ludendorff instantly stopped finding his own work troublesome.

Sure enough, people's highs and lows only became apparent through comparison.

Now he felt nothing but relief-relief that he only had to handle the army's disbandment, rather than sit in a stuffy office poring over these headache-inducing government affairs.

Meanwhile, after hearing no response for some time, Chancellor Max poked his head out from behind the towering stacks of paperwork and looked toward the door, a flicker of surprise appearing in his eyes.

"General Ludendorff? Is something the matter?"

Chancellor Max had been entirely unprepared for General Ludendorff's arrival.

Only at Chancellor Max's question did General Ludendorff come back to his senses.

"His Majesty wants you to come to his office."

With that, General Ludendorff turned and left the office. The atmosphere here was simply too oppressive; he could barely stand it.

Upon hearing that His Majesty Eitel had summoned him, Chancellor Max immediately stood up as well.

Picking up a suit jacket from the coat rack beside him, he hurriedly put it on, then turned and left the room, walking briskly toward His Majesty Eitel's office.

If His Majesty had sent General Ludendorff to fetch him, he must have come up with another new idea that could help the German Empire develop further.

He did not want to miss any of this, and hurried to His Majesty Eitel's office.

Chancellor Max straightened his suit, making sure he looked presentable before gently knocking on the office door.

Only after receiving His Majesty Eitel's permission did Chancellor Max push the door open and enter.

Once inside, Chancellor Max could hardly wait to ask his question.

"Your Majesty, what did you summon me for?"

Hearing Chancellor Max's question, Eitel unhurriedly pointed to a chair in front of the desk.

"Sit down. We can take our time discussing it."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Chancellor Max answered, pulled out the chair, and sat down.

The moment he sat down, Chancellor Max eagerly looked at His Majesty Eitel. "So, what is it about this time? Something to do with the army, I assume?"

After hearing Chancellor Max's words, Eitel first nodded, then shook his head.

"Not quite. It's actually about what to do with those weapons of ours now that the war is over."

"Don't you think destroying those weapons would be far too wasteful? Besides, even if we destroy those large-caliber weapons, we'll still have countless rifles, machine guns, and other weapons that can only sit in warehouses."

Hearing His Majesty Eitel's words, Max began to think, weighing his words before speaking. "Your Majesty, do you mean you want to sell off these weapons? To the battlefields in Tsarist Russia? Or America, or perhaps the Nationalist Party, which has been contacting us all along about buying weapons?"

In just a few seconds, Chancellor Max named several potential buyers, all of whom had considerable financial resources.

Listening to Chancellor Max's analysis, Eitel nodded in agreement.

"There's no hurry with America for now. We can discuss these matters once the economic alliance agreement has been fully signed."

"For now, our main buyers are the White Army and the Soviet Government."

Hearing Eitel's words, Chancellor Max looked somewhat surprised. "Your Majesty, you mean to profit from both sides? But while the White Army still has ample funds, the Soviet Reds are so poor their pockets jingle with nothing. Are we really not going to take a loss?"

"Must you make it sound so ugly?"

Eitel rolled his eyes at Chancellor Max's words.

"Although the Soviet Reds are famously poor, that doesn't necessarily mean they can't scrape together the money to buy equipment. Besides, even if they can't, there are other ways to settle a debt, aren't there?"

"Their lands are vast and rich in resources. There must be something they can use to pay their debts. Here, for instance."

As he spoke, Eitel planted a small flag on Ukraine.

"And here."

Another flag was planted on Romania.

"There's nothing wrong with settling debts in resources."

Watching His Majesty Eitel's actions, Chancellor Max suddenly understood. He then asked the same question as General Ludendorff, though his thinking differed somewhat from the general's.

"But Your Majesty, how are we to get such an enormous quantity of weapons onto the battlefields in Tsarist Russia without the Allies noticing?"

Hearing Chancellor Max's question, a glimmer of confidence appeared in Eitel's eyes.

"First, set up several companies outside the German Empire, and put trustworthy people in charge."

"Then find a representative and, in his personal capacity, sell all kinds of weapons to both sides through the companies' channels. As for where the weapons came from, let those people guess."

"After so many years of war, aren't we the ones who get to say how many of our weapons went missing?"