Professor Karl Haushofer returned to the German Legation in China and immediately sent a telegram to Berlin. The Professor did not know how long it would take for Hitler to reply, and much of what He Rui had said needed to be reported to Hitler by Karl Haushofer personally. Thinking that he might soon return to Berlin, Professor Karl did not want to waste time. He immediately asked the German Legation to send a car; he wanted to see the appearance of China's capital with his own eyes.

As described in the reports, the most obvious characteristics of China's capital were its broad streets, smooth traffic, rational urban design, and abundant service facilities. As the vehicle passed through the wide avenues, one could see neat seven-story red brick buildings in the residential compounds on both sides. There were absolutely no shanties or haphazardly built small houses to be seen.

Professor Karl knew that Hitler wanted to design a magnificent "New Berlin" as a testament to his governance of Germany, and he assumed that He Rui also liked to build grand capitals. He did not know that He Rui was simply drawing on the experience of future demolition and relocation; from the very beginning, he did not want to add avoidable trouble to the future.

The current city was only a transitional form, completely different from the high-rise buildings of later generations. Even so, Professor Karl felt the power of urban planning. Residential areas, commercial districts, and leisure zones were arranged neatly. There was a public entertainment area for every section of the city. It was currently the time for people to get off work and school, and bicycles were everywhere on the streets. Under the traffic lights, traffic police standing in the middle of the road directed the vehicles.

People getting off work picked up their children, bought vegetables and steamed buns at the market, and some squeezed together in front of pushcarts or shops selling side dishes to buy various prepared foods before taking their children home. People were also streaming in and out of the department stores, creating a lively scene.

Seeing such prosperity, Professor Karl could not help but recall Germany before the outbreak of the Great War; Germany in those days had been equally prosperous. There were more people on the Chinese streets than in the Second German Empire, so much so that the flow of people and traffic on the entire street seemed like a ceaseless great river.

Professor Karl read the He Rui administration's annual government work report every year. These reports always placed great emphasis on employment rates, enrollment rates, the urban permanent resident population, the industrialized population, people's income, and daily food intake. These contents directly related to people's livelihood were always written in great detail, listing the consumption of staple grains, meat, eggs, poultry, milk, and vegetables.

Compared to these, coal and steel output and industrial product output were bland, dry figures in the report, with no intention of vigorous propaganda.

As an expert, Professor Karl was very concerned about those dry figures. China now had a population of 650 million, ten times that of Germany. This was already a terrifying figure. The agricultural and industrial figures were even more terrifying; China's per capita grain availability was slightly higher than Germany's, and per capita coal and steel figures were already half of Germany's. Although German industry had shrunk severely in 1932, the German economy would develop. But China's economy was developing at a high speed, and China's future economy would be even more powerful.

With China's current coal and steel output, if Chinese industry reached the German level, it would be enough to launch a European war. If China's industrial level could double, Professor Karl believed the probability of winning a war would exceed 60%. Mobilizing 20 million bayonets was extremely difficult for Germany. For China with its 650 million people, it was only 3% of the total population. During the Great War, all countries had mobilized more than 20% of their population. If China mobilized 20% of its population, that would be 130 million people...

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Professor Karl did not want to consider a fantastical figure like an army of 130 million. He currently found it hard to understand just how useless the Qing Dynasty must have been to be beaten to pieces by a chaotic force of a few tens of thousands in the Eight-Nation Alliance. With China's manpower, material resources, and level of talent, it should never have ended up in such a state.

Thinking about this, the German Legation's car carried Professor Karl through the streets. When Professor Karl recovered from his various strategic thoughts, he saw that there was still city on both sides of the road. The Professor hurriedly asked the driver, "Is all of China's capital like this?"

The driver was very familiar with the capital and immediately answered, "Sir, China's capital is just like this."

Professor Karl was very concerned about news related to China. The scale of China's infrastructure construction was so large that many European and American reporters described it as "a super scale no less than the American railway construction era." The funds required to complete such construction must be astronomical. Many experts in Europe and America believed that the He Rui administration would soon face the problem of fiscal exhaustion. But this claim had been raised every month for the past two years, yet it had never happened. The He Rui administration's finances not only had no problems, but economic development was changing with each passing day.

The current President of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht, was preparing to issue "MEFO bills," which drew heavily on China's experience. Professor Karl had once discussed the key points of German economic development with Dr. Schacht. Dr. Schacht had spoken of China's economic development with some envy. Starting in 1924, China's Land Redemption Policy had carried out an economic bankruptcy and reorganization of China's rural areas in a relatively mild environment. Completed simultaneously with the rural economic bankruptcy and reorganization was the deprivation of all privileges of the old Chinese aristocratic class. Therefore, China's explosive economic development was built on the foundation that no privileged class occupied the majority of national wealth.

Professor Karl still remembered Dr. Schacht saying with emotion: "The consumption power of the people is the true pillar of the country. Building a cruise ship for the enjoyment of the privileged is indeed a large amount of wealth. If this money is used to build housing for ordinary people, it can provide shelter for 100,000 ordinary workers. Once these 100,000 people have solved their housing problem, they can work with relative peace of mind. Professor Karl, I very much admire the He Rui administration's economic policy. They grasped the two economic key points of employment and inflation, developing the economy through debt. 20 billion francs, 300 million pounds, 1 billion US dollars—it is indeed a very large debt. But the promotion of the Chinese economy by this money generates an amount of economic growth every year that can almost pay off these debts. The increase in the consumption power of the Chinese people can completely digest the products produced by these investments. With national credit as the guarantee and continuing industrial categories as the investment direction, this state-led economic development is very beneficial to the country."

Although he did not know if all Chinese cities were driven by the Chinese government's investment and built like the current capital, Professor Karl recalled China's government work report from last year. The population with urban household registration in China already accounted for 23.8% of China's total population. Nearly one-quarter of the population lived in cities and towns, which was 160 million people. This group of people definitely lived on industry. The number of these industrial people alone was equal to the sum of the populations of Britain, France, and Germany.

The funds supporting such a scale of urbanization were provided by the Chinese government. Therefore, Dr. Schacht believed that Germany could adopt MEFO bills to achieve the same thing.

MEFO bills were not currency; they were a type of bill that could only circulate within Germany and could not be exchanged internationally. These bonds were a non-redeemable bond; they would not pay any interest or principal, and their holders could not transfer them to others.

Holders could use them as payment tools for government departments, enterprises, and other institutions without going through the cumbersome procedures of other securities. At the same time, MEFO bills could also serve as wages and loans paid by the government to military suppliers and other companies supporting the German war economy.

Most importantly, MEFO bills could actually be considered notes for targeted investment. In the view of Schacht and Hitler, this money would be invested in Germany's infrastructure and industrial development sectors. These fields would provide massive employment opportunities for Germany, and Germany's unemployment problem could be greatly alleviated.

At this time, the car had reached the suburbs, but it was getting late. Professor Karl regretfully asked the driver to turn the car around. He saw that the streetlights on both sides of the street were lit. Although the streetlights were not bright, they provided light for the citizens. Many citizens were walking on the streets or hurrying along. It still dispelled the darkness. Lights also lit up in the windows of the seven-story red brick buildings. The myriad of lights made the city look vibrant.

The car paused at a traffic light, waiting for the traffic signal to pass. On the crosswalk crossing the road, a group of dark-skinned young men and women passed in front of Professor Karl's car. There were as many as several dozen of them.

Professor Karl rubbed his eyes and looked carefully, finding that his eyes were not playing tricks on him. The people passing in front of his car indeed had very dark skin. Compared with the surrounding Chinese people, there was a very obvious difference in skin color.

"Turn, follow them and take a look," Professor Karl ordered the driver. Such a large group of young men and women, who might be Black people, were dressed no differently from the surrounding Chinese. Moreover, Professor Karl knew very well that China never kept slaves, nor was it an immigrant country. So many "inferior races" passing through the streets of China did not cause surprise among Chinese citizens. There must be some reason for this.

Having heard enough of He Rui's anti-racist rhetoric, Professor Karl wanted to see how China actually treated "inferior races."