From leaving Berlin to leaving Vienna, Johann spent a whole week.

Professor Bierrot was indeed old, and he did not know what had happened in the last two or three years, just like the last time John had seen him. However, the old man's enthusiasm for surgery was still so persistent, and he dragged John to discuss the research of the past few years for several days, and finally reluctantly let him go.

John knew that he would probably see this venerable old man for the last time.

Among the two most striking surgeons in Europe in this era, Liszt has finally come to the end of his life in recent years, and will soon ascend to the throne of President of the Royal Society......

"Woo ......"

Just as a train is honked every time it departs to alert passengers, so every time a train arrives at a station, it also honks to remind certain passengers that they have arrived at their destination.

It wasn't until the train had stopped before John reached the door, his face full of tiredness that he couldn't hide. After leaving Vienna, he did not return to Berlin, but left for Karlsruhe. The car reversed three times, and the long journey tossed him badly. At this point, when he finally arrived at his destination, John only felt as if he had been shaken by a giant for a whole day, and his bones were about to fall apart.

"Mr. Huntelaar?"

No sooner had he stepped off the train than John heard an uncertain greeting. Turning his head, he saw that his two old friends, Daimler and Maybach, were standing a few meters away from him, looking at him with some doubt.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Daimler, good afternoon, Mr. Maybach."

Taking off his hat, John greeted with a smile. No matter how tired his body was at this moment, the education he received from "Xiao" still made his expression immediately refreshed.

"Good evening, Mr. Huntelaar."

After confirming that it was their big boss, Daimler and Maybach immediately greeted them with a look of surprise, and when they received a telegram saying that John was coming, the two were ready to greet them, and they were waiting at the station at noon today. In such a cold weather, the station is not a comfortable place, and I am naturally full of joy when I see the big boss.

Maybach smiled: "Haha, I haven't seen you for two or three years, and Mr. Huntelaar has changed so much that I almost didn't recognize it!" ”

John didn't grow taller, but his thin body was much stronger. Of course, the most important thing is that after marrying Anna, John began to grow a beard, especially after coming to Europe this time, plus other subtle changes, his whole image and temperament have changed dramatically - at least in the eyes of Maybach and Daimler, John has long been less youthful than when they first met a few years ago......

After some greetings, the group left the station and got on the bus.

As the second of the big three of General Motors, Daimler and Maybach naturally have their own Aurora II cars, and soon John and his two entourages got on the train and left the station.

"Mr. Daimler, hasn't Mr. Benz returned to Karlsruhe yet?"

After the car drove more than 100 meters, John suddenly asked.

"Uh...... Not yet. ”

While driving the car seriously, Daimler shook his head with a wry smile and said, "He happened to be in Paris when you sent the telegram...... But I've already sent him a telegram and I'm sure I'll be back in the next two days. ”

"Hmm......"

With his eyes narrowing slightly, John nodded slowly, and there was no trace of fluctuation on his face.

Daimler was silent after the explanation, because he knew that the two founders of General Motors did not seem to be so harmonious in the past two years.

If the reason is concerned, it is naturally the debate about the production capacity of automobiles.

Since the launch of the Aurora generation, General Motors' production capacity has been slowly growing. At John's insistence, a large amount of money was invested in technology research and development, and General Motors has accumulated hundreds of patents in the past few years, but he has been firmly opposed to expanding the factory to increase production capacity. For Karl Benz, it is more important to expand production capacity, reduce costs, meet the needs of more people, and let as many people as possible use the car he invented!

Completely different ideas led John and Benz to disagree.

It's just that as a major shareholder with 60% of the shares, John has absolute control over the company, and Daimler and Maybach were also very supportive at the beginning, so Bentz's proposal to expand production capacity was rejected several times. Naturally, Benz was very unhappy with this result, and he complained to Daimler in private, and several times expressed the hope that more shareholders could be brought in and investment could be expanded......

In the eyes of Daimler and Maybach, the contradictions between the two major shareholders have become irreconcilable.

In fact, John himself is very clear about this, and he also understands the key point of conflict between Benz and himself. To put it bluntly, as the inventor of the automobile, Bentz's greatest wish is to make the car really popular, and he even has the dream of letting the car replace the carriage and the train, so he has always insisted on using GM's funds to expand production capacity, rather than investing in research and development of new technologies. As a futuristic man, John is well aware that in this era, it is impossible for cars to be truly popularized.

At the end of the 19th century, the automobile was destined to be a luxury business!

On the one hand, this is naturally because the price of cars is too high, in the era when the monthly salary of ordinary workers is less than a hundred marks, the price of thousands of marks is destined to be owned by only a very small number of people, due to the limitations of technology and productivity, even if the scale can reduce the cost, the reduction is not affordable by ordinary people, and it is impossible to change this situation; On the other hand, the popularization of automobiles also requires other conditions, such as traffic conditions, gas stations, maintenance personnel, etc., which are necessary for the automobile industry.

Without a qualified road, the car cannot be driven safely, without enough qualified gasoline, the car cannot be on the road at all, there are not enough trained maintenance workers, and the car with a high failure rate will only make customers complain frequently! And these things are simply not something that General Motors can solve. But now Aurora is in a state of monopoly, and the performance of the only few competitors is too poor, so General Motors must solve the problems of maintenance personnel training and so on......

So all along, John was reluctant to increase the production of automobiles.

At least for now, because GM's Aurora II production is extremely limited, the situation of Aurora in short supply has never changed. But if it really increases the production capacity several times in one go, as Benz thinks, can this situation be maintained?

John is not at all optimistic about this.

People's income levels, the state of roads between cities, the gasoline needed for cars and the improvement of supporting repairs all need time to advance, even if the world has a traverser to advance, don't think about it for twenty years. So John didn't think about going over to do any assembly line, because it didn't make any sense until he got it......

"Mr. Huntelaar, how many days are you going to stay here?"

Just as John was frowning and pondering, Daimler suddenly said, "Can you wait for Karl to come back?" I think you two should sit down and have a good talk if you can. ”

"Well, that's what I thought, too."

After a little hesitation, John nodded and smiled: "After returning to the United States, I may not be in Europe for a long time, so this time I will come to Karlsruhe, and I also hope to have a good talk with Mr. Bentz, preferably to resolve the ......differences between the two of us" (To be continued. )