Chapter 754: Being Poor

How to deal with someone who has rendered meritorious service in the past? Just ruin their reputation. So as long as you set up a decent trap, you can turn this person into a sinner condemned by thousands. The trick Akado used was like a child cheating at a game; to be frank, it wasn’t very clever. But his series of moves gave everyone a taste of the sweetness, so those who had benefited all chose to keep their mouths shut.

The wealth of the dead, Akado did not take a single cent. He directly distributed it to the merchants he trusted. And so, at least among the business community in the Netherlands, Akado had minimized the damage to his own reputation.

As for the domestic front, Fanny’s media group had maintained a unified tone throughout the empire: that these executed businessmen were traitors, sinners of the state, a group of parasites who only knew how to exploit others. In the face of such a powerful state propaganda machine, the business groups that had already been mostly wiped out could no longer make their own voices heard.

Every dynasty has to deal with certain interest groups, just as it has to deal with a batch of corrupt officials. There are many ways to deal with them, but they have never been very effective. These interest groups, or rather, family financial magnates, have stood tall for countless ages, and compared to those short-lived state powers, they are the true masters of this world.

The reason Akado was able to become the head of state of Germany was, in fact, inseparable from the support of these financial magnates. When Akado was just starting out, these interest groups had chosen to support him for their own reasons, so it was impossible for Akado to really go after all the financial magnates and consortiums with a lethal hand.

There is an old saying in China: “When the water is too clear, there will be no fish; when a person is too critical, he will have no followers.” So, to survive in this world, a person can never act arbitrarily according to his own ideas. Even a head of state must weigh the pros and cons to deal with difficult events. Akado had weighed them for a long time and had come up with this method of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey.” It might not be the most effective, but it was the limit of what he could do now.

He could not lay a hand on the descendants of August, Krupp, and others who had supported him. After all, in terms of human feelings and reason, these “juniors” of his did not deserve to die. Even among those who had already been hanged, there were many who did not deserve to die. But on the national level, Akado could only have them executed, and in a way that would ruin their reputations and leave them with no place to be buried.

But to move against the real big financial magnates, one had to be careful and proceed step by step. And as one of the few big capitalists in this country, these people would not do anything too shameful—to become a rich man, at least proved that they had a certain vision. So, these trivial but agonizingly painful matters were generally not done by the big shots.

But this time, Akado knew that there was actually a real big shot who had gotten involved in the matter of exploiting workers in the Dutch factories. This person was not very famous, but he was one of the biggest grain dealers in Germany. Because he often prepared military rations, he also had some close relationships with military generals. Otherwise, it would not have been an easy matter to make General Dek, who commanded the local garrison, bow his head.

And so, Akado had ordered the actual controller of this family business, who was also the main culprit in this incident, to be brought in. He looked at this man of about sixty. The other was also sizing him up. The two of them sat face to face without speaking. Akado had seen him more than once at meetings, and the other was clearly also very familiar with Akado. It seemed as if the two of them were holding in a certain aura, and whoever spoke first would lose the upper hand.

What Akado hated the most was this so-called “aura.” If you have serious business, don’t just say it. Wasting time and getting nothing out of it. So he was the first to open his mouth and said the first sentence they had spoken since they met to the sixty-year-old merchant in front of him: “I know you think I’m very unfair, to have spared the people from Krupp’s and August’s families, but to have singled out and killed your son.”

“Yes, you’re right. Everything you’ve said is right. You are the Führer, after all. It’s best to treat everyone equally. Otherwise, you will also have to pay a price for your own impulsiveness,” the old man said with a sneer. He didn’t even give the customary “Heil Führer” greeting before speaking directly to Akado.

Anna, behind Akado, frowned. But Akado didn’t mind. He continued to stare at this face he was somewhat familiar with and said slowly, “I know you have dealings with many army generals. Even the house where Field Marshal von Brauchitsch’s family now lives was a gift from you. You have done a lot for this country and have even helped me secretly raise grain for the Wehrmacht. So… is this the capital you have to speak to me like this today?”

“I know that you, Führer, have done even more for this country, but not everyone is like you, who gives without expecting anything in return,” the old man replied. “I just want to take back what I deserve. My son did not break the law, but you killed him, and even framed him with a trumped-up charge of treason! I hope you will give me an explanation for this matter.”

“Watch your tone! You are speaking to the Führer of the Empire!” Anna couldn’t help but say from the side. Akado was the man she admired most, and also her lover. She would naturally not tolerate anyone showing the slightest disrespect to Akado in her presence.

“Then tell me, what other tone can I use to treat the person who took my son’s life?” the old man said, looking at Anna and continuing to challenge her with a snort. “While you’re at it, please also pay attention to your own tone. You are speaking to a man who has been awarded the Iron Cross! During the First World War, I also shed blood for the motherland!”

“It seems you are very angry,” Akado said, signaling Anna not to speak and taking over the conversation himself. “Now you finally understand my feelings, understand the furious mood I was in after I learned what you were trying to do in the Netherlands! I wished I could hang you and then throw you into the street to rot to the very end! But your status and power have forced me to reconsider the consequences of this matter.”

The old man said nothing, just stared at Akado, waiting for him to finish speaking. And Akado did not make him wait long. “In October of 1937, the Imperial Army’s battle in Poland was coming to an end, and the Polish campaign was successfully concluded…”

The content he spoke of was something that had happened more than a year ago, but he quickly came to the part that was related to this incident. “And so, in the spirit of taking precautions and weakening monopolies, my wife, Mercedes, established a food company. Using the liquid funds of the White Orchid Group, she purchased a piece of territory in the occupied Polish territory and started a food business. At that time, our family was much richer than now, so she spent a lot of money, probably… probably 1 billion gold marks.”

“You! You couldn’t have had that much money… you cooked the books!” the old man said, immediately sitting up from the sofa after hearing the amount. He pointed his finger at Akado and said fiercely, “You are so despicable, to use the state’s reserve funds to purchase land for your own industry!”

“In fact, Chancellor August was also aware of this matter, because at that time, the main purpose of purchasing the land was to supply the secretly expanding Eastern Front Wehrmacht,” Akado said, looking at the furious old man, his speech still unhurried. “In fact, to this day, the output of this grain base, apart from some that has been embezzled and flowed into the civilian market, has all been purchased by the Wehrmacht.”

As if he had lost all his strength, the old man sat back down on the sofa. Only now did he know that he had been tricked, and with a trick that had pulled the rug out from under him. His monopoly on the grain industry now had a competitor, and this competitor was, in fact, the entire country’s “state-owned” grain company.

“Do you want me to talk about the stock part?” Akado seemed to be rubbing salt in the wound, as if he were lashing out for the old man’s disrespect to Anna earlier. He stood up, walked to his desk, picked up a file, and waved it. “The White Orchid Group has unknowingly acquired 29% of your company’s shares, and with the 17% held by my supporters, we have already controlled a considerable portion. Recently, your son died, and the 10% of the shares in his name were confiscated as state property. You see, I still need to find another 4%, and your company will be mine.”

“I was wrong on this matter, my Führer. I now represent my family in apologizing to you and guarantee that in the future, we will stand by your side as your loyal supporters,” the old man, who was after all a big shark who had been fighting in the business world for a long time, immediately realized that his situation was not very good, so he quickly gave in. His reaction also gave Akado a glimmer of hope.

To use economic means to sanction people that the law could not sanction became another of Akado’s trump cards. He had the state machinery in his hands, and the behemoth of a business conglomerate, the White Orchid Group. These things gave him a more covert and advantageous means than killing to deal with those financial magnates or merchants who did not obey his control.

The old man looked at the smiling Führer in front of him. At this moment, he finally knew just how terrifying this man, who was not yet 40 years old, was. A single force could no longer stand against Akado, who possessed the state machinery and could tilt policies to support the behemoth of the White Orchid Group. He was the god of this country, a god who could not be contradicted.

“Your guarantee is worthless, sir,” Akado said with a smile.

“I will give you another 2% of the shares,” the old man replied wearily.

“Deal,” Akado said with a wave of his hand, making a gesture to see him out. “Make no more mistakes, or else you’ll have to buy a one-way ticket to America and be a poor man.”

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