1885, I came to save Greece

Chapter 343 The Industrial Kingdom at Dawn

The next day, at 5:50 a.m., Athens was still shrouded in the deepest darkness before dawn.

At the entrance of the hotel where the Fords were staying, a four-wheeled carriage decorated with the royal double-headed eagle emblem quietly and precisely pulled up to the roadside on time.

The person holding the reins in the coachman's seat is not a royal coachman.

It was Crown Prince Constantine himself.

He was dressed in simple riding attire and wore a baseball cap, making him look dashing and capable.

This was the scene that greeted Henry Ford as he stepped out of the hotel. He was stunned. He had considered countless possibilities, but he never imagined that the Crown Prince would personally drive him.

This ornately decorated open-top carriage, representing ancient aristocratic traditions, forms a strange and absurd contrast with yesterday's winning "tin box," which exudes a modern industrial feel.

"Come on up, Mr. Ford." Constantine didn't waste any time with pleasantries, simply tilting his head at him. "We need to hurry and greet the first rays of sunrise."

Ford jumped into the carriage and sat down next to Constantine.

The carriage did not head towards any palace or residence in the center of Athens. It traveled through the still-sleeping streets, heading west directly towards the port of Piraeus.

The horses' hooves clattered on the stone pavement, making a crisp "tap-tap" sound—the only sound in the silent dawn.

As the carriage arrived at its destination, the eastern horizon was just beginning to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

This is a newly reclaimed land area in the port district of Piraeus. Before them lies a brand-new factory area that is astonishingly vast. High walls isolate it from the outside world, and within the walls, rows of huge, uniformly styled factory buildings stand silently like giants in the pre-dawn mist.

Constantine pulled on the reins, and the carriage came to a smooth stop. He jumped down and, with Ford in tow, headed towards the largest and most prominent steel-structured factory building in the center of the plant area.

Just as they stood before the factory's massive iron gate, the first rays of dawn, like sharp swords, pierced through the clouds on the horizon.

Ford looked up.

The enormous factory building stood silently in the rising sunlight. It was like a steel behemoth that had been dormant for a thousand years, awakening from its slumber.

Sunlight streamed through rows of enormous glass windows high up in the factory, casting huge, slanted, almost tangible golden beams onto the empty, smooth concrete floor.

Within the beam of light, countless tiny dust particles seemed to come alive, dancing quietly and slowly.

The air was filled with a faint, salty smell, a mixture of fresh cement, cold metal, and the morning sea breeze.

Ford could even hear the whistle of the first cargo ship setting sail from the depths of the distant harbor. The sound was long and powerful, like a clarion call to awaken this sleeping industrial kingdom.

Constantine didn't speak; he pushed open the huge iron door that was big enough for a train carriage to pass through.

"Squeak"

The heavy metallic scraping sound was particularly jarring in the quiet morning.

A breathtakingly grand interior space unfolded before Ford.

Sunlight streamed down unobstructed from the row of huge glass skylights on the roof, illuminating the vast, seemingly endless space as bright as day.

Ford's footsteps, involuntarily, led him into this temple of steel and cement.

His leather shoes made a crisp, amplified sound as they stepped onto the smooth concrete floor.

despair.

despair.

despair.

He instinctively reached out and touched a cold steel structural column beside him, coated with red anti-rust paint. Its thick...

The pillars, assembled from countless rivets, exude a unique, cold, and solid sense of power characteristic of the industrial age, which permeates his entire body through his fingertips.

His eyes could no longer conceal the almost greedy obsession that belonged to an engineer.

His brain was working at lightning speed.

This space is simply perfect!

Its span, its ceiling height, its lighting, its layout—all of these seem to have been built exactly like the ideal car factory in his dreams!

Constantine walked slowly to the very center of the factory and stood under the brightest beam of light.

He opened his arms, breaking the sacred silence.

His voice resonated throughout the vast and empty space, creating a magnificent echo like that of a church choir.

"Mr. Ford!"

"In the United States, you're just an inventor fiercely competing with hundreds, even thousands, of peers!"

"Every brilliant idea you come up with must first convince those short-sighted, bloated bankers!"

"They will question you, modify your design, and ruin your entire perfect concept in order to save a little bit of cost."

!

'

Constantine turned around and pointed to every corner of the empty factory. His voice was full of power and irresistible allure.

"And here!"

"I'll give you a kingdom!"

"This factory building, along with all the supporting foundry workshops, stamping workshops, and warehouses around it, all belong to you!"

"I'll give you the world's finest German Krupp steel!"

"I will give you the smartest and hardest-working workers in all of Greece. They will worship you, the 'God of Industry,' who can provide them with decent jobs, as if you were a god!"

"I'll give you a sum of money—unregulated and abundant—that would put any American banker to shame!"

"Everything here—all the equipment procurement, all the worker recruitment, all the production processes—is under your control! You are the Tsar here, the one and only, the absolute Tsar!"

Constantine took a step forward, his gaze fixed intently on the American who was completely stunned and standing frozen in place.

"I don't want you to build me, or the Greek royal family, an expensive, gold-plated, silver-plated royal vehicle!"

"I want you here, on this land I've prepared for you, to pursue your great, crazy dream without reservation!"

Constantine's voice, like thunder, boomed across the factory.

56

"Let every Greek family own an affordable and reliable car!"