It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 66｜Short of Money

Next, Shang complained to Sigrid.

"The Guard is far from being combat-ready. Tactical training hasn't even begun, and there's no actual combat experience. Most importantly, there's a lack of weapons and equipment."

"Machine guns? Less than thirty. Howitzers? Not a single one. The rifles are Mannlicher and Lebel, still firing round-nosed bullets. Even these antiques are not enough."

"I went to the Ministry of Defense's Armaments Department to ask for them, but they bluntly told me that the Royal Guards do not belong to the national armed forces and that I can't have any of their weapons and equipment."

After complaining, the resentful Shang Ke stared at Sigrid in silence.

This string of words made her silent.

After a long pause, she finally spoke, "I'm sorry to have you worrying about something that has nothing to do with you. The Ministry of Defense's reasoning is correct. The funds needed for the Guard should be borne by the Royal Family itself. However, the financial allocations received by the Royal Family are only enough to cover the Guard's salaries and daily expenses."

This is actually a bit difficult to talk about, and Sigrid doesn't want to say much.

After noon, the convoy returned to the Buda Palace.

The next day was a free day off. Sigrid, dressed in casual clothes, came to the guard station not far from the palace for another inspection and found Mr. Shang in the office building.

She said embarrassedly, "I can only give you 70,000 to buy weapons."

The exchange rate between the pago and the mark was close to two to one. 70000 pago was a huge sum of money for an individual, but it was childish to use it to buy arms. A Kar98k cost 160 pago.

Shang Ke helplessly explained to her that this small amount of money was not enough to upgrade the royal guards, and then asked doubtfully: "Doesn't the royal family have any savings? I don't believe that Horthy didn't have any private property when he was in power."

Sigrid said calmly, "He took a quarter of his private property to South America, and the rest was confiscated by the Treasury."

She sat in a chair sipping tea, while Shang paced back and forth beside her, deep in thought.

"By the way, I remember that when Her Majesty the Queen came, she brought many gifts from King Wei Dian. Legally, those things should belong to your private property." Shang Ke suddenly thought of something.

Those were quite valuable items, dozens of Bofors anti-aircraft guns and matching fire directors.

Even brothers settle accounts openly! Is it not unreasonable to ask the Ministry of National Defense for a batch of weapons and equipment based on this?
"I can't use this to ask for anything. They naturally have the moral advantage. Doing so will only increase the gap and highlight my selfishness and lack of concern for the country." Sigrid directly dismissed his idea.

Shang Ke was speechless.

Why do I, as an excellent time traveler, still need to worry about money?

He took a deep breath and said with a smile, "It's really frustrating to sit on this throne. Well, Your Majesty, we can only do it ourselves to have enough food and clothing."

"Maybe this is fate." Sigrid's green eyes revealed a hint of helplessness.

"I remember that many royal families in Europe are related. Have you tried to borrow money from royal families in other countries?"

"Our Bernadotte family is relatively independent, so this may not be a good idea, but I can try writing to the Norwegian royal family."

The Nordic countries were not yet rich at that time, and the small population in these small countries did not actually have much spare money.

Then Sigrid suddenly remembered that when she passed through Berlin on the way, old William hosted a banquet for her. Although he looked very old, he was very enthusiastic.

"Old William might be able to help."

"I think we can give it a try. Your Majesty, please remember to praise him more in your letter."

Shang Ke thought this was a real possibility. If the Kaiser was happy, he might just give away everything. Old William wasn't a bad person, but he was just too vain. It would be more appropriate to describe him as ambitious but lacking in talent.

The situation was even worse than before, as the Varland Empire withstood the Allied attack and remained undefeated, and Austria even voluntarily annexed Varland. This made Old William smug, so proud that he compared himself to Frederick the Great.

"As for this money, I suggest you use it for investment." Shang Ke smiled slightly and suggested, "The unstable situation is actually a good thing for some industries, such as medicine."

"You mean investing in the stock market?" Sigrid was incredulous.

She frowned and said in surprise, "How could I possibly invest the money in business when the threat of war is so imminent? If you think the funds are too little for purchasing weapons, then you can set up a foundation as welfare insurance for the guard members to deal with unexpected injuries."

Well, from this point of view, you are much more aware than Mrs. Song.

"Her Majesty the Queen is very responsible." Shang Ke thought for a moment and changed his tone, "In that case, I suggest redistributing the funds, using half to establish the Guard Foundation and the other half to pay down payments to arms dealers."

"I agree," Sigrid said, acknowledging the situation. Then, she pondered, "Major Shang, thank you for your dedicated consulting work. I'd like to offer you an additional allowance."

"This is not just work, it's also a hobby." Shang Ke smiled calmly and refused directly: "I don't need this allowance, thank you for your kindness."

Sigrid said no more.

She did not stay long, as there were still many complicated palace affairs waiting for her to deal with.

Logically speaking, Sigrid is not short of money.

The royal family is the royal family after all, and even a royal family without real power has ways to make money.

There is always a shortage of people in the world who pursue fame and reputation, especially entrepreneurs who have achieved business success. A considerable number of them are keen to obtain titles to highlight their own nobility.

Unfortunately, it is not a peaceful time now, and Sigrid, who has just arrived, is unwilling to do such an inappropriate thing.

After returning to the Buda Palace to settle a series of affairs, she began to write letters.

Norwegian and Welsh were originally a united kingdom, and they only separated more than 30 years ago. The royal families of the two countries are closely related.

Sigrid quickly wrote the letter to King Haakon the Elder of Norway. However, it was particularly difficult to write the letter to Emperor Wilhelm the Elder of Germany, as she had to write and revise it over and over again.

She glanced at the scrapped manuscript with a strange expression on her face, feeling extremely embarrassed and corny, as the wording was obviously too harsh.

Flattering others is a science. How to make others feel good in just the right way without appearing awkward or abrupt can even be said to be a technical job.

While Sigrid was worrying about writing the letter, Shank was also writing a letter to his fiancée as smoothly as flowing water.

When talking about medicine during the world wars, penicillin is an unavoidable topic.

Penicillin’s miraculous effects have been proven, but clinical trials and pharmacokinetics have not been fully verified, and industrial production is still a long way off.

Jian Keqiu is a PhD in inorganic chemistry after all, and has some knowledge of medicinal chemistry, so Shang Ke asked her to pay close attention to the progress related to penicillin.

In terms of investment direction, Shangke believes that now is the time to invest in pharmaceutical companies - evenly distributed among Yan's Pharmaceutical Company, Yihe Pharmaceutical Group, and Pfizer.

As for the military industry, he is not in a rush to buy the bottom of related companies for the time being because he remembers that historically the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to fall until the middle of the war, and then rebounded.

(End of this chapter)