German Red Prince

Page 56

Darmstadt is currently under martial law, with soldiers patrolling everywhere, each with a serious and indifferent expression.

These people looked like statues, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. Their eyes would frequently scan their surroundings, appearing very alert, as if searching for something.

At this time, you can still see soldiers wearing black uniforms and masks. Just by passing by them, you can feel the biting cold. Moreover, their high-tech uniforms also give people an extremely strong visual impact.

"Your Highness."

The soldiers patrolling outside the sanatorium saluted Thorne.

"Hmm, how's the situation here?"

"Nothing unusual has been found, and no suspicious persons have been discovered. Everything is normal."

Thorne listened to the soldier's report and nodded before entering the sanatorium.

Everything at the sanatorium remained the same. Thorne first went to see Domark, who was now conducting experiments there, studying the materials Thorne had left behind.

Domark, based on the information provided by Thorne, has been working tirelessly with his assistants for the past few days, barely sleeping. He has been completely impressed by the remarkable effects of streptomycin; this drug is truly amazing, and conquering tuberculosis is just around the corner.

Based on this information, Mayer and Maurice also learned about the efficacy of isoniazid. They were surprised to find that the drug they synthesized when they were doing their doctoral dissertation in 1912 had such strong anti-tuberculosis activity. At the time, they were completely unaware of the enormous medicinal value of their product.

Meanwhile, Chain wasn't in much better shape. He hadn't slept for days, and his eyes were bloodshot. Under these circumstances, he couldn't sleep at all. Chain was very interested in the bluish-green mold in the data. He conducted many experiments, extracted the substance, and discovered that this newly discovered substance could actually kill bacteria.

In the past few days of experiments, he used several different groups of pathogens as experimental subjects, and then put them into the newly discovered substance for comparative observation. The results were very good.

Chain was so excited he almost jumped for joy. This discovery was enough to change the world; if it were developed, it could save the lives of tens of thousands of people.

He actually managed to research and develop such a miraculous substance, a young man in his early twenties. Even if Qian En were to be hit by a car and die right now, he could die in peace.

Thorne was somewhat at a loss looking at the group of people who seemed to have gone completely mad. He hadn't expected researchers to be so crazy. These people were really resilient. The materials Thorne had given them had already helped them find the right path. Thorne believed that these researchers would soon have results, and if they could mass-produce their work, the money would roll in.

In Thorne's memories of his past life, early penicillin was worth as much as gold. If Thorne could develop these two products and sell them, he could earn a lot of money, which would definitely make his early development much smoother.

Developing equipment and building up power all require money. KFC and soft drinks don't make much money in the end. If we want to build airplanes and cannons in the future, we need to develop more other businesses.

"Gentlemen, how have you been lately?"

"It's Prince Thorne." Domark and the others realized what was happening and quickly came over.

"Your Highness, these are simply miracle drugs!" Qian En was trembling with excitement. "Your Highness, believe me, give me some more time and I will be able to develop the finished product. I believe they will definitely change the world!"

“Haha, of course.” Thorne nodded. “I’ve also contacted the Frankfurt institute, and they will send people over to help you with your research. I believe we should have results soon.”

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Thorne went to see Holman again. Arya has basically recovered now. She can not only get out of bed, but she also doesn't get out of breath when she runs like before.

The Williams family is also doing much better. The ailment that had plagued old William for so long has not recurred recently, and he feels as if he has become the healthy and strong worker he used to be.

The hospital was doing well. Thorne took a quick look around and then went back. He was currently the temporary head of Darmstadt and had many things to take care of.

King Otto granted him the authority to handle all affairs in Darmstadt in order to restore order to the city.

However, some people see it differently. Even Prince Andreas has never been in charge of the administration of a particular place on his own. So it's hard not to make connections when His Highness Thorne is now authorized to take full charge of all the work in Darmstadt.

Prince Andreas is in poor health and has little desire for the throne. Recently, he has been subtly implying that he is not capable of inheriting the throne. King Otto's appointment seems more like a test, examining whether Thorne is capable of managing a city and a country.

"Comrade Thälmann, now I am fully in charge of all affairs in Darmstadt, and I can finally get things done without any worries!"

Thorne and his group had arrived at the mayor's office. He looked at Talman with a smile, finally having a piece of land of his own.

"Can you contact any more comrades? Darmstadt is our base, and we need to recruit a large number of like-minded people to fight together."

“Mr. Karl, our organization suffered a great blow back in Berlin because of a traitor’s betrayal. If I hadn’t hidden in your shop when the army was making arrests, I would probably have been locked up by now.” Thallmann sighed. “Our organization was shattered, and I lost contact with my comrades and others. I guess it will be very difficult to find them now.”

"That's it."

Thorne thought for a moment, then stood up.

"It's alright. We can rebuild the organization if it's gone. Where there is oppression, there is resistance. The organization can be destroyed, but socialist ideology will not be destroyed, and communist ideals will not be destroyed. Failure is not terrible. We can always start over!"

Thorne pointed out the window, “Look, don’t we now have a city’s mass base? We now have a huge industrial city with countless proletarian brothers. With a little encouragement, we can unite closely with these working brothers.”

"At that time, our organization will continue to grow stronger. Once the right opportunity arises, we can mobilize these awakened people to completely break the shackles of the old world and lead all the people of Germany to complete liberation! To become masters of their own destiny!"

"Yes, Mr. Karl, I believe that in the near future, all the people of Germany will be completely liberated!"

“Now, Comrade Thallmann,” Thorne said, looking at Thallmann standing there, “let’s begin to formulate a plan, starting with a complete transformation of Darmstadt!”

Darmstadt Administrative Management Group Departmental Notification

Darmstadt, Kingdom of the Rhine

Wangguo Rhein Machinery Factory and Municipal Government Rectification Notice

General public and technical workers:

The report states that the mayor of Darmstadt and Brandt, head of the Kingdom Rheinmachinery Plant, illegally accepted bribes totaling approximately ten million marks, either directly or in collusion with their associates, by abusing their positions and the influence afforded by their authority and status.

Knowing that the Unity German Party had long been engaged in illegal and criminal activities, the two still acted as the organization's "protectors," allowing the organization to carry out illegal and criminal activities for a long time, helping the organization evade investigation and crackdown, and coordinating and providing weapons support for the organization, which enabled it to continue to grow and seriously disrupt the local economic and social order.

The two individuals have now been apprehended by the Kingdom's government, and their actions constitute the crimes of bribery, offering bribes, harboring and condoning organized crime, and human trafficking.

The mayor abused his position to traffic a large number of people, organized obscene activities to amass wealth, interfered in case handling with his power, seriously undermining judicial credibility, failed to act or acted improperly during his tenure, and allowed tuberculosis to spread in the city, causing a large number of citizens to be infected, with a terrible impact.

The factory manager exploited and disregarded the lives of workers, blatantly violating the Rhineland Workers' Rights Protection Law. The circumstances of the crime were particularly serious, the social impact was particularly egregious, and the interests of the Kingdom and its people were caused particularly significant losses. The Royal Court sentenced the two men to death in accordance with the law.

The current provisional municipal government has made the following adjustments:

1. The Royal Government, in conjunction with Merck, will conduct tuberculosis screenings for all citizens of Darmstadt. The Frankfurt Tuberculosis Research Institute will be permanently stationed in Darmstadt to resume vaccination efforts in the city. The Royal Government will provide financial support for medical subsidies to tuberculosis patients and restore the city's sanitation environment as soon as possible.

2. Promptly improve the urban environment, repair roads and renovate buildings, establish shelters to house homeless individuals, provide them with skills training, and facilitate their early reintegration into society. Establish service organizations for veterans and retired military personnel to safeguard their rights and interests.

3. Implement effective rectification of the factory, promptly pay back wages owed to workers, strictly manage working hours, adhere to the eight-hour workday, strictly implement the eight-hour workday system, comply with the "Rhineland Workers' Rights Protection Law," protect workers' rights, improve workers' production and living conditions, ensure the supply of normal meals, strictly prohibit child labor, increase workers' wages to 7 marks per day, pay double wages for overtime per hour, and pay triple wages for working on holidays.

The above adjustments will be implemented in Darmstadt in stages. The Kingdom is committed to protecting the interests of all citizens, respecting their personal safety and health, and revitalizing and governing Darmstadt.

King's Plenipotentiary

Urban administrative management group department

1927 January 5

Chapter Seventy-Eight: A Good Era Has Arrived

After a night, the martial law was still in effect, but it had been relaxed considerably, and citizens were now able to travel normally. Pedestrians instinctively avoided the soldiers patrolling the streets.

No one knows what happened yesterday; some people vaguely heard explosions and gunfire. At the site of the conflict, some people looked out of their windows and saw corpses strewn everywhere.

In short, these are not matters for the residents of Darmstadt to concern themselves with. All they know now is that Darmstadt has changed hands, and the former mayor has been arrested, along with the director of the Rheinmetall factory, seemingly with the intention of overthrowing the kingdom's government.

I really don't understand these people. They're all already in high positions of power, with no worries about food or drink, yet they still want to overthrow the kingdom's regime. They're just greedy after all.

The notice regarding the handling of the former mayor and factory director has been issued. Darmstadt is now temporarily managed by the Kingdom's plenipotentiary representative, His Highness Thorne. The notice has been posted on the wall, and a group of local citizens have stopped to look at it.

"What's going on here? What happened yesterday? Why are there so many soldiers today?" a citizen asked, puzzled.

"You'll know if you just look at the public notice," another citizen said, pointing to the notice posted on the wall.

"The Kingdom reports the crimes of the mayor of Darmstadt and Brandt, the head of the Kingdom's Rhein Machinery Plant."

The two men used their positions and status to engage in illegal and criminal activities for a long time, and embezzled a total of about ten million marks.

An investigation by relevant authorities in the kingdom revealed that the two individuals had long facilitated the activities of the Unity of Germany Party, acting as its "protector," shielding its crimes, providing it with substantial weapons support, and allowing it to endanger the personal safety of the kingdom's people. With their financial support, the party rapidly expanded, severely disrupting the local economic and social order.

The two individuals have now been apprehended by the relevant authorities, and their actions constitute the crimes of bribery, offering bribes, harboring and condoning organized crime, human trafficking, smuggling and selling arms, and plotting to subvert the Kingdom's government.

During his tenure, the mayor was consistently inactive and acted arbitrarily, lacking any organizational discipline, extremely weak-willed, and of extremely poor character. He betrayed the oath of Charlemagne, violated the code of conduct for civil servants of the Kingdom of the Rhine, defrauded the kingdom of a large amount of funds for reform, and concealed the tuberculosis situation in the city, allowing the disease to spread and causing a large number of citizens to become infected, with a very negative impact.

During his tenure, he abused his position to engage in human trafficking, organized obscene activities to amass wealth, and interfered in case handling, severely damaging public trust in the judiciary.

The factory manager exploited and disregarded the lives of workers, severely violating the Rhineland Workers' Rights Protection Law. He also engaged in long-term arms smuggling activities, causing immense harm to the Kingdom and its people. His crimes were particularly serious, and the social impact was extremely negative. After gathering sufficient evidence, the Royal Court sentenced both men to death in accordance with the law.

The citizens who read the report were shocked. They never expected that these two people had committed such a serious crime. They had never seen such a strongly worded report before.

"Good riddance, let's pop the champagne!"

After reading the report, one citizen cheered, "Damn it, these bastards embezzled so much money! Ten million marks! How many years would it take me to earn ten million marks? Good thing they caught them, they should have done it a long time ago!"

"How could they be convicted so quickly?"

Some people expressed doubts, saying that it had only been half a day since the conflict yesterday, so how could so much information have been extracted so quickly? It was too fast. Could it be that the two people had been confessing their crimes the whole time?

"Can't you take a look?" one person pointed at the notice. "Look carefully, after investigation by relevant departments, these two bad guys have definitely been watched for a long time. The kingdom has been collecting evidence for a while, but they didn't want to alert them. Now that the evidence is collected, they can come and arrest them directly without interrogation."

"The relevant departments—but they haven't said which department it is. It's so mysterious."

"Let me tell you, these people are the original urban management officers. Of course, they are now separated and are two different things. It is said that they are led by two young men. Those who do bad things and corrupt officials are most afraid of them. They are most afraid of those in black and blue uniforms coming to their door. If they are found, even God can't save them."

The man's words were so incredible that everyone was completely taken aback.

"How do you know so much? Have you been arrested before?"

"Can't you say something positive? This is what a police officer friend told me: it seems the Kingdom has set up a new agency, on the same level as them, but with much more power!"

The crowd sat there watching the announcement and boasting, and soon dispersed.

Municipal government departments play an extremely important role as an effective means for the kingdom to control local areas. The new government established in Darmstadt swept away the previous inefficiency and incompetence; the newly formed government group operated efficiently and quickly, soon promulgating numerous new policies.

These new policies brought enormous benefits to the local area as soon as they were introduced, so the new city government was very popular with the local residents of Darmstadt, after all, the previous government was really too incompetent.

The main guiding principle of the new government agencies that Thorne is now in charge of is to serve the people and build a service-oriented government.

After the new government was established, Thorne first launched the first new policy in the Darmstadt region – the "Life Transformation Program".

A range of free services will be provided to the citizens of Darmstadt to improve their living standards, reduce their burdens, and allow them to feel the help and care from the government while working hard, while also improving the work quality of government personnel.

Furthermore, the government's policies are completely open and transparent to the public, resulting in an unprecedented increase in the new government's credibility. This also allows ordinary people to participate in city management and effectively protect their own interests.

Because of the tuberculosis problem in the region, the new municipal government, in conjunction with Merck, is working to prevent and treat tuberculosis in Darmstadt and help patients recover.

However, because tuberculosis is very contagious here, we can only take slow measures to clear and isolate patients. First, we need to count and investigate the patients, and then send them to a unified place for treatment. All expenses will be paid by the Kingdom's Ministry of Finance.

Thorne still remembers the old soldier lying in the corner, a centenarian, a veteran from the time of Charlemagne, who was now wandering outside. Thorne could imagine the extent to which the kingdom managed its veterans, so he immediately established a service organization for veterans and retired soldiers to collect statistics on the veterans and retired soldiers in Darmstadt and to protect and safeguard their rights.

He also implemented policies for the homeless, providing them with food and shelter, and training them in a skill to help them reintegrate into society as soon as possible.

In short, Thorne's series of plans began to be implemented one after another. He also asked Frankfurt for a lot of people to help. He never expected that Darmstadt, an industrial city, would have such a bad infrastructure.

People's livelihood, infrastructure, and health are the three aspects that Thorne is focusing on in rebuilding Darmstadt, and he is undertaking large-scale construction to improve people's living standards.

For the locals, this means that a great era has arrived!

Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Age Belongs to the Workers

The martial law in Darmstadt has been in effect for some time. During this period, the city has been busy arresting the remnants of the Unity German Party, fearing that they might plan another terrorist attack. As a result, most of Darmstadt's factories and shops are currently shut down, with only a few small shops allowed to remain open to maintain the basic livelihood of the citizens.

However, to prevent the occurrence of zero-dollar purchases, Thorne would also arrange for several armed soldiers to stand near these small shops. Seeing the long guns in their hands, many people would give up their bad thoughts. After all, who would be so foolish as to fight against bullets?

The small shop was allowed to open and provide daily necessities to the citizens. The shop owner looked at the soldiers standing guard with some embarrassment. The soldiers were a little uncomfortable standing there, but with them there, no one dared to do anything reckless in such a chaotic situation, so he did not complain.

He hadn't seen the child who came to exchange bottles for a while and wondered how he was doing.

"Ugh."

The shop owner sighed, smiled at the soldiers on guard, and said that he had almost sold out of his shop for the day and was now preparing to close. The soldiers understood when they saw the shop owner's expression, nodded, and turned to leave.

"Wait a moment!"

Suddenly a voice called out to the shopkeeper, and a young man ran over from a distance, followed by a middle-aged man.

Williams and his companions have recovered considerably after some time, and at least outwardly there are no visible problems. The ailment that had plagued old William for so long has also been cured, and he is no longer as sickly as before.

He had been ill, and the burden of family and life fell on his son, Williams.

Although Williams didn't say anything, old William was still very remorseful. This boy shouldn't have tasted the bitterness of life at such a young age. He should have had better pursuits at this age.

"Long time no see," the shop owner greeted Williams.

"Long time no see, boss," Williams said with a smile. "I'm here to buy some things."

"I'm really happy today."

“Of course.” Williams smiled. “The factory resumed production today and started hiring again. My father has recovered, so I took him to the factory.”

"Okay, best of luck," the shopkeeper said after handing over the items.

"Give me another pack of cigarettes," old William said to the shopkeeper.

"Father, you just wanted to smoke?" Williams looked a little angry.

"Haha, sorry, the cigarettes are all sold out." The old shop owner also spread his hands helplessly.