xymnovel Chapter 54 The Empire's Show of Power! Crown Prince, please stay at the hotel!
Chapter 54 The Empire's Show of Power! Crown Prince, please stay at the hotel!
The train spewed thick white steam, the steel dragon let out its final roar, and slowly glided into the platform of Berlin Anhalt train station.
Outside the car window, it was December in Berlin. The sky was leaden gray, and the cold wind swirled icy particles that pounded against the glass.
Constantine straightened his collar and stepped off the train.
There was no red carpet.
There was no military band.
There was no member of the Hohenzollern family.
The platform was deserted, save for a low-ranking protocol officer in a Ministry of Foreign Affairs uniform, who was anxiously peering out in the cold wind, rubbing his hands together. Several unassuming black carriages were parked not far away, without even the royal insignia on display.
A carefully calculated neglect, an undisguised humiliation.
The Prussian eagle, in its most indifferent way, is showing its icy claws to this "sparrow" from the south.
The accompanying Greek officials were ashen-faced, their fists clenched in their sleeves. This was blatant contempt for the Kingdom of Greece.
Constantine, however, seemed oblivious to the chilling cold.
With a gentle smile on his lips, he approached the protocol officer who was shivering from the cold.
"Thank you for your hard work, sir." The voice was gentle, without a trace of displeasure.
The official blushed deeply with embarrassment and stammered, "Your Highness, I am extremely sorry, but there was an important meeting at the palace, so..."
Constantine ignored his flimsy lies.
He looked up and gazed with great interest at the station's enormous dome, the magnificent structure made of steel and glass, which, under the gloomy sky, resembled the skeleton of a prehistoric behemoth.
"A magnificent masterpiece," Constantine exclaimed, his tone filled with pure admiration. "A steel structure of this span demands extremely high forging techniques for the load-bearing beams. I suppose every single main beam here was made at the Krupp factory in Essen?"
The protocol officer was stunned.
He was prepared with a bellyful of apologies and explanations, but he never expected the other party to discuss architecture with him.
Constantine turned to look at him. "I'd like to know how the settlement coefficient of the foundation was calculated to support this enormous dome? Was it based on the latest complex variable model?"
The official was speechless and couldn't answer a single word.
Not far away, several men disguised as baggage handlers and station police officers witnessed the entire scene. They were Prince William's spies, tasked with observing the Greek Crown Prince's every move.
They exchanged a glance, and one of them quickly wrote down the first comment in the notebook in his pocket.
"Extraordinary composure. No reaction to humiliation, and unpredictable focus."
The carriage departed from the station.
The direction they were heading was not towards the Sanssouci Palace State Guest House, but towards a luxury hotel near the Royal Palace.
Another clear signal.
You, Crown Prince of Greece, are not worthy to be a state guest of the German Empire.
The delegation officials were on the verge of exploding with anger. Alexandros asked in a low voice, "Your Highness, this is a completely undiplomatic arrangement. Should we lodge a protest?"
"Protest?" Constantine looked out the window at the street rushing by. "Protest to whom? Protest to someone who doesn't want to see you at all? That's not a protest, that's begging."
He leaned back in the soft chair and closed his eyes.
"Let them wait. The more anxious they are, the calmer we must be. They want to see a monkey jumping around, but we'll be an unmoving statue."
For the next three days, Berlin's elite circles were waiting to see a joke unfold.
Imagine a neglected, insignificant Balkan crown prince pacing anxiously back and forth in his hotel room, sending messengers to the palace three times a day to gather information, just like any other envoy from a weak nation awaiting an audience.
They were wrong.
Constantine did not wait.
On the first morning, his carriage appeared at the gate of the Siemens factory.
Accompanied by the factory manager with surprise, he walked through the dust-filled workshop and watched the huge generator set roaring.
"Your rotor coil winding method seems to be stuck in a design from three years ago." Constantine stopped and pointed to a spot on the drawing. "If you use a cross-wound coil and replace the insulation material with varnished mica, the power generation efficiency can be increased by at least three percent. Of course, this would require a higher purity of copper."
Siemens' chief engineer was urgently summoned, and after listening to Constantine's questions, cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
That afternoon, Constantine appeared at the Deutsche Bank headquarters on Unter den Linden.
He did not talk about loans or aid.
In a closed-door meeting with several board members, he presented only a three-year plan for the development of ports, railways, and mineral resources in Greece.
"Gentlemen, I am not here to ask for money." Constantine placed a prospectus for the "Greek National Reconstruction Bonds" on the table. "I am here to give you an opportunity, an opportunity to have a future in the Eastern Mediterranean."
That evening, he appeared in a physics laboratory at the University of Berlin.
Several of Germany’s top physicists are debating Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory.
Constantine listened quietly, and once in between their arguments, he asked a question.
"Gentlemen, since electricity and magnetism can be interconverted to form electromagnetic waves, is it possible that these waves not only exist but can also be used to transmit information?"
The laboratory fell silent instantly.
Constantine's every move was meticulously recorded by Prince William's secret agents.
Every evening, a detailed report would be delivered to the desk in Potsdam's New Palace on time.
Prince William, dressed in a tight-fitting hunting outfit, had just returned from the hunting grounds in the countryside. He picked up the report, rudely tore open the sealing wax seal, and wore a contemptuous smile.
"Let me see what tricks our distant Greek relative is up to this time."
He scanned it quickly.
"I went to Siemens this morning... to discuss generators with the engineers?"
"Went to Deutsche Bank this afternoon? And shamelessly tried to sell his pile of junk copper and iron ore?"
"Going to university to chat with a bunch of nerds at night?"
William let out a sneer.
However, when he saw the last page of the report, he stopped moving.
"Oh?" Prince William's signature, extremely upturned mustache twitched. He read aloud with interest, "He's more interested in our city's sewer system upgrade plan than in the Brandenburg Gate?"
He put down the report and looked at the adjutant standing to the side.
"He also spent two whole hours in the hotel discussing naval gun armor with that greedy representative of Alfred Krupp?"
For the first time, a genuine curiosity flashed in William's eyes.
"That's interesting."
This "sparrow" from the south seemed quite different from what he had imagined.
Just then, a palace attendant quietly entered and bowed to report.
"Your Highness, Crown Princess Victoria has just sent out an invitation."
The attendant paused, lowering his voice even further.
"His Highness the Crown Prince of Greece is invited to the New Palace tomorrow afternoon for a small family tea party."
Prince William paused for a moment.
He knew that his most hated mother had made her move.
The first real clash has arrived.