On May 3rd, Hitler received news that the Soviet Union had signed the *Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance* in Paris. Although the treaty was signed, both parties agreed that it would not formally take effect until March 27, 1936.

After reading the document, and seeing no one else in the room, the little mustache leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh of relief. If he knew that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered this treaty merely a petty maneuver, he would have felt that the Chinese diplomats had seen through France's true colors.

What the European elites thought and plotted for was merely to maintain their current interests. Since Britain and France believed that "current interests" existed, any expenditure was viewed as a loss of these "current interests." Consequently, Britain and France would choose to achieve their goals at the lowest possible cost.

Hitler saw this with perfect clarity. Therefore, France's petty trick not only failed to unsettle him but actually unburdened him. The method to deal with Britain and France was simple: just make the upper echelons of these two countries believe that Germany did not intend to overthrow the global benefits the Versailles system brought them, and that Germany only wished to adjust the European order to eliminate the unequal treatment they had imposed upon it.

Reviewing China's actions from 1922 to the present—a span of thirteen years—in his mind, Hitler was convinced his assessment was correct. What Britain and France truly wanted to protect were the global benefits the Versailles system conferred upon them. Even though China had reconstructed the order in the Far East and East Asia, because this new order did not damage Britain and France's overall interests—and effectively allowed them to garner even greater benefits—they not only accepted He Rui's order but even adjusted their relations with China according to their own needs.

Hitler believed he had absolutely no need to care about Britain and France's petty maneuvers. As long as he did not alter the revenues Britain derived from the current world order, Britain's tolerance would be extremely, extremely high at this stage.

Having reached this judgment, Hitler put on his glasses and resumed reading the documents. In his economic forecast report, Schacht advised Hitler to lift restrictions on female employment in Germany as soon as possible and allow enterprises to recruit female workers. After two years of Nazi rule, Germany's unemployment numbers had dropped to less than 500,000, and the unemployed population was continuing to decrease. Based on this economic trend, a labor shortage would soon emerge. Schacht argued that rather than waiting for the gap to appear before finding a solution, it was better to proactively lift restrictions on women's employment before the problem arose, ensuring German enterprises had an adequate labor supply.

Hitler did not fully trust Schacht's judgment. He strongly suspected that the driving force behind Dr. Schacht's suggestion was Germany's big capitalists. After the Nazi Party came to power, it had struggled against these capitalists. For instance, in 1933, just days after taking office, the Nazi Party arrested the heads of several German aircraft manufacturing and heavy industry enterprises, forcing them to submit to the Party's arrangements and immediately form R&D and investment teams for the military industry.

Once these people yielded, the Nazi Party immediately released them and used Mefo bills to provide financial support to these aviation and other enterprises.

In addition, Hitler signed agreements with large German enterprises, such as the chemical giant IG Farben, allowing these companies to secure a stable 5% profit, with any excess profit to be turned over to the state.

At that time, these large German enterprises were deep in economic crisis. Let alone a fixed 5% profit, companies like IG Farben were nearly bankrupt due to a lack of orders. But two years later, having secured massive orders, IG Farben had begun lobbying everywhere, hoping to terminate this agreement. Hitler had to suspect whether Schacht was trying to speak for these big capitalists.

Although he harbored doubts, Hitler did not take immediate action. The Germany of today still needed Schacht, and Hitler hoped Schacht would continue to serve the country. Ultimately, Hitler approved the report and asked Schacht to submit a detailed plan.

Schacht hadn't expected Hitler's reaction to be so swift. Over the past two years, he had fully experienced the fanaticism and stubbornness of the Nazi Party. Schacht didn't care for Jews, but he didn't go so far as to view them as Germany's mortal enemy. Jews had indeed done many bad things, but there were truly few instances where Jews were the masterminds behind the evil. It wasn't that Jews didn't want to, but in the arrangements of the German upper class, Jews were merely a group of lackeys—where would they get the opportunity to dictate policy? Schacht very much wanted to return some Jews he considered usable to management positions, but he hit a wall every time.

Looking at Hitler's instructions, Schacht felt a twinge of suspicion. But on second thought, he called in his capable subordinates and began drafting the specific content. In the propaganda restricting women from working two years ago, the Nazi Party hadn't addressed the issue of employment opportunities. The picture the Nazi Party painted was this: women worked at home doing housework and educating children, while the male head of the household returned home with a wage sufficient to support the family, constructing a perfect image of a conservative family.

Using traditional family values to solve the reality of male unemployment was indeed an excellent political maneuver. But economic changes happened too fast. Schacht hadn't expected Germany's unemployment rate to plummet so precipitously; in just two years, it had fallen to a level where labor was becoming scarce. Shortages of skilled workers to operate equipment had already appeared in factories, and now it was necessary to call skilled women back to work.

Fortunately, these skilled women did not object to working. As long as the Nazis didn't stir up trouble, limited policy adjustments could solve the labor shortage problem.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the end of 1935. Schacht and Hitler were invited to attend the opening ceremony of an Autobahn stretching from Berlin to Frankfurt. A military band played vigorously at the entrance, and in front of the toll station, a mass of cars was already waiting to hit the road. At the very front was Hitler's car.

"Dr. Schacht, let us go up to the stage together. On the way, could you ride in the same car with me?" Hitler extended an invitation. Schacht had anticipated this and immediately expressed his gratitude. He then followed Hitler to the podium. Below, over ten thousand workers who had participated in the highway's construction had gathered. Seeing Hitler step onto the stage, the workers became agitated. They involuntarily surged toward the podium, trying to get a little closer to Germany's Führer.

The Nazi Party members responsible for order hurriedly stopped the workers from leaving their formations. Under their efforts, the tens of thousands of people at the venue returned to the appearance of disciplined square blocks.

Schacht looked at the scene from the podium. The formations looked like Teutonic Knight orders before a campaign; just looking at them, one could feel an immense power. Hitler, having taken the stage, used his slightly hoarse voice to express gratitude and congratulations to the workers. "...Comrade workers, you have completed another great achievement, contributing your toil and sweat to the Fatherland. And the Fatherland will repay you with job opportunities, bread, and dignity. I want to announce a piece of news to you, comrade workers: in 1935, German car sales doubled compared to 1934. The German people already have bread, and the day when every family owns a car will soon arrive!"

The masses below cheered from the bottom of their hearts, so much so that Hitler had to temporarily pause his speech.

Feeling the tsunami-like cheers, Schacht involuntarily felt a sense of unease. But Hitler, standing at the center of this acclaim, wore a solemn expression, his body straight as a javelin, radiating the aura of a leader, as if he were the physical condensation of these sentiments.

Schacht had intended to firmly expound some views to Hitler, but at this moment, he couldn't help but waver. Recently, his divergence from the Nazi Party had begun to intensify. The Nazi Party believed that investment in the military industry must be increased to drive continued rapid economic development. Schacht, however, believed that the returns on continued investment had reached their limit and could not yield the same results as before.

Schacht hadn't expected the Nazi Party to use China's frantic investment as a counterargument. Before 1933, the Nazi Party was indeed a populist party. After 1933, following the Night of the Long Knives which purged a large number of radical populists, the number of Party members considered to be from "good families" rose rapidly. Many people holding doctorates, master's, and bachelor's degrees joined the Nazi Party. The views of these people were no longer wishful thinking, and even Schacht could not dismiss them with contempt.

This new technical backbone of the German Nazi Party used content from French and British newspapers, which cited Chinese economic data showing that the He Rui administration's fixed investment ratio reached 40% of the national tax revenue annually. in many fields, the He Rui government raised funds for investment by issuing massive amounts of national bonds. Although the territory, population, and external environment of China and Germany were different, the new Nazi technical class generally believed that Germany's technological content was higher than China's. Although Germany's territory was smaller than China's, this meant the Nazi Party did not need such a huge investment scale as China. Their utilization of funds would be higher than China's.

This group of new technical stalwarts even used concepts proposed by He Rui. He Rui believed that the lifestyle of an industrial society carried the new wealth created by that society. Based on this concept, the Nazi technical backbone believed that since Germany's industrial level was higher than China's, the investment scale per capita that could be sustained also far exceeded China's. As long as Germany rebuilt sufficient military power, it could protect the wealth of the German people—who made up over 70% of the total population—from being plundered by foreign countries, thereby ensuring Germany's affluence.

Schacht detested this argument because these people's views were actually based on the extreme mindset of "as long as I have a gun, I can beat the creditors away." If executed according to this line of thought, it wouldn't be Germany fighting aggression, but Germany actively engaging in aggression. Schacht firmly opposed the plunder of Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, but he truly did not want to proactively start an invasion.

Pondering such issues, the overwhelming cheers outside surprisingly failed to affect Schacht's train of thought. In fact, during that small window of time when his mind was most active, Schacht turned a deaf ear to the commotion outside.

It wasn't until Hitler walked off the stage and came to his side, saying, "Let's go, Dr. Schacht," that Schacht snapped out of his thoughts.

The two got into the first car, and the military band immediately played a march. Confetti and ribbons were thrown into the air, drifting down slowly. Amidst the enthusiastic atmosphere, Hitler's car started slowly, leading a convoy onto the flat Autobahn.

German engineers now all had jobs, and through their efforts, the quality of the highway was extremely high; the car drove on it with hardly any bumps. As the cheers at the entrance faded into the distance, Hitler finally laughed, "Hehe, Mr. Schacht, Germany will soon have the ability to launch a war."

Hitler never concealed his determination to use military force, and he didn't hide it when saying such things. Although Schacht was somewhat shocked, it wasn't enough to affect his mood.

"Führer, we have reached the stage where we should reduce the scale of debt. I listed data regarding this in the latest annual economic summary report. Over 300,000 skilled female workers have returned to factories, and the number of technical positions will continue to increase in the future. Compared to domestic production capacity, Germany has done its utmost to develop external markets. All markets that can be developed in the short term are already saturated. Reducing the debt scale now can prepare us for debt repayment."

Hitler had read the report submitted by Schacht. According to Schacht's economic theory, this was indeed how it should be. But Germany's economic scale still hadn't reached the size Hitler hoped for. In Hitler's plan, Germany had to possess the strength to defeat France to be considered as having achieved the goal. Originally, Hitler also thought that following Schacht's economic plan, combined with Germany's military tradition which far surpassed France's, it was possible to achieve this goal by the completion of the first Four-Year Plan.

But Schacht had, to some extent, disappointed Hitler. Hitler replied calmly, "Dr. Schacht, I believe Germany's development has not fully unleashed the power the German people should possess."

Schacht felt the winter wind blowing in through the crack in the car window was exceptionally cold. From early 1933 to December 1935, roughly three years had passed. In these three years, Schacht had done his utmost, staking his own political credit to negotiate a vast number of commercial contracts for Germany. In these three years, Schacht had also witnessed Nazi Germany's rapid development with his own eyes. Because the Nazi Party possessed grassroots organizational capabilities that other German political parties lacked, the German people had accomplished an unimaginable economic miracle. Yet Hitler's reproach revealed dissatisfaction. According to the traditions of the Weimar era, upon hearing this, Schacht should have considered resigning. Or obediently obeyed all of Hitler's future orders.

Thinking of his own efforts, Schacht didn't want to give up yet. He replied, "Führer, the scale of investment has reached its limit. Continuing to invest like this will be pure expenditure with no further returns. Nationalization will not achieve the imagined results because nationalization does not create profit out of thin air. True profit is generated through industrial upgrading and increased production efficiency. Simply increasing orders has no necessary connection to rising profits."

At this moment, Hitler's car reached the first exit. The vehicle turned and drove off the Autobahn. This gave Hitler a chance to pause the conversation. This wasn't Hitler's first time on an Autobahn, so there was no need to drive from start to finish. Soon, the car was on the road back to Berlin. These old roads were quite bumpy, especially since materials for building the highway had to be transported via these old roads; under various heavy loads, the road surface was severely damaged and hadn't been repaired yet. These bumps brought the conversation to a natural pause.

When the car returned to a relatively flat road, Hitler resumed talking about economic issues. But this time, he didn't criticize Schacht for not working hard enough; instead, he listened attentively to Schacht's views on the soon-to-conclude first Four-Year Plan.

Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull publicly stated, "Schacht is completely untrustworthy!" This was because Schacht had played a little trick, using German industrial goods as a means of repayment to "pay back" debts to the United States and Britain. Since the U.S. desperately wanted to recover the money lent to Germany, it accepted this proposal.

Schacht, in turn, obtained loan quotas in the U.S. through this "repayment." He then borrowed dollars to buy American technology and purchase raw materials from the international market. Initially, the Americans didn't react, but after a year of this, the U.S. finally realized what was happening. The trick Schacht played was clever, and the harm to the U.S. was direct.

What the Americans wanted to recover were dollars; if Germany couldn't provide dollars, using German assets to repay the debt was also acceptable. But with Schacht's maneuver, the Americans merely received a large quantity of German goods whose quality surpassed similar American products. After the implementation of Roosevelt's New Deal, the domestic unemployment rate in the U.S. remained around 15%. Receiving such a large batch of German goods, the U.S. government couldn't sell them to other countries and could only sell them domestically. In this way, it was equivalent to German goods seizing the U.S. domestic market.

Meanwhile, using the dollar loan quota obtained after "repayment," Schacht borrowed dollars to continue buying raw materials and American technology, improving Germany's technological level and industrial capacity. This seemingly humble "repayment plan" turned into a mechanism where Germany inserted several tubes into the U.S. and sucked blood continuously.

If this development continued, by the time Germany "paid off the money owed to the U.S.," the U.S. unemployment rate would probably hit 30%. That was why Secretary of State Hull cursed, "Schacht is completely untrustworthy!" and terminated this repayment agreement. And Germany took advantage of the U.S. termination to stop repaying debts to the U.S. altogether.

Schacht didn't consider this his success; he was actually quite worried about it. Because under such quick-success operations, Germany was gradually cutting off its relations with European and American markets. What Germany could maintain now were actually traditional trade relations.

Although he knew his evaluation of China would likely provoke Hitler's dissatisfaction, Schacht couldn't care about avoiding suspicion. He frankly recounted his attempts over the past two years, "Führer, we have consistently been unable to open official trade with China, preventing us from obtaining sufficient returns from the Chinese market..."

"Say no more!" Hitler interrupted Schacht. He Rui lowering diplomatic relations with Germany was tantamount to stating that He Rui hoped for a change of government in Germany. The Nazis had completely seized political power in Germany, so naturally, they would not step down. Thus, there was no official friendly contact between the two countries. It wasn't that the Nazi Party hadn't tried; for example, the International Human Rights Organization was a breakthrough point the Nazi Party had hoped for, but Chinese officials had sealed that opening tight as well.

Those enterprises investing in China were engaging in purely commercial activities. Even such enterprises faced *de facto* discriminatory treatment. Unless Germany cooperated with China using its highest-tech enterprises, there was no room. And how could Hitler agree to that?