The midday sun pours in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, illuminating the brown-purple office.

A middle-aged general, with a sturdy figure and a rugged face, walked from the marble gallery into the Führer's office, none other than Lieutenant General Guderian, then the director of the armored forces. In the face of Hitler, who stood up to greet him, Guderian saluted solemnly with a standard military salute; After shaking hands, Guderian was invited by a smiling Hitler to sit down on the golden armchair next to his desk.

"Heinz, how is the construction of the army's armored forces going now?" Hitler still had a shallow smile on his face, but his eyes were already bright and sharp. In the summer of 1933, shortly after he became prime minister, it was the same general in front of him who conducted a drill with a motorized unit, which deeply shocked him by the tremendous power of the mechanized unit and gave rise to a sense of longing and yearning. A year later, Hitler appointed Goodry to oversee the construction of the German Panzer Corps, and used his supreme power as head of state to clear all obstacles to the latter's problems in the fields of personnel and funds.

To some extent, it was Hitler's discernment that made Guderian's Bole; Compared with the cold reception and ridicule in the French military circles of Charles de Gaulle, who was also an advocate of armored forces, Hitler's vision was obviously an era ahead of them!

"Dear Führer, I have now formed 3 armored divisions with complete combat effectiveness, with a total of more than 1,400 No. 1 tanks; With the cooperation of the Air Force and motorized infantry, they can be a sharp sword to break through the enemy's battle lines! Guderian replied with a scrutiny of words, his words full of gratitude to the Führer in front of him who had given him great support. He paused for a moment, then added: "Although I may have some imperfections in the formation of this new armored division, the Spanish Civil War that is currently going on has given me a perfect opportunity to make up for the shortcomings. Through the actual performance of our intervention forces on the battlefield. I can clearly find the misunderstandings in the existing establishment of the armored division and the combat methods. It won't be long before a force that will shock and tremble the whole world will appear in the sequence of German armies. ”

Seeing Guderian's affirmative expression, Hitler's heart couldn't help but be reassured. He knew that the generals before him were not rhetorical ones: since Guderian had given such certain assurances, the situation could only be more favorable than what he had described at the moment. Hitler exhaled and said happily: "General Guderian." I sincerely thank you for all your hard work for the revival of the German armed forces! However, the glory of Germany is still far from being restored to the prestige of the former empire, so I hope that you will continue in your present cause until the final victory. Can you inform me when the 4th to 6th Panzer Divisions will be formed? I remember you said to me that 3 panzer divisions would only allow us to deliver a surgical blow to Austria or Czechoslovakia; If the target of the operation were to change to Poland, at least 6 or more armored divisions would be needed to achieve this goal. ”

Guderian nodded and said, "Now that the general structure of the armored division has been determined, the rest of the matter is only to use enough personnel and equipment to fill the vacancies of various grassroots units." Presently. The formation of the 4th Panzer Division has been underway for more than four months and is expected to be completed by the beginning of next year. As for the 5th and 6th Panzer Divisions, they had to wait until the spring of 1938 and 1939, respectively. You know, now new tanks for the army have appeared. Although Volkswagen has made a lot of efforts to reduce the technical difficulty of the Bobcat, this tank is a 12-ton fast tank armed with a 50mm gun, and the price per unit is almost four times that of the No. 1 tank. If the 20-ton tank is successfully developed in the future, the inherent cost of forming an armored division will be further increased. Therefore, if there is no corresponding increase in funding. Then the formation time of the subsequent heavy armored divisions will obviously not be comparable with the first three light armored divisions. ”

"General. The cost of tank procurement alone shouldn't cost much, right? Hearing Guderian's explanation, Hitler was greatly stunned, and couldn't help but immediately speak, "The unit price of a Bobcat tank is only 40,000 marks, and even if you arm a large armored division with 500 tanks, the total tank cost is not much more than an armored destroyer in the navy." Other than that. Didn't I tell you to go to Dr. Ley and ask him to allocate a portion of the expenses from the Labor Front to cover the cost of building the armoured troops? There shouldn't be any problems with this money for him. ”

There was a look of surprise in Guderian's eyes, he had no idea that Hitler would still be so discerning in such detail. However, Guderian, who had real difficulties, obviously did not back down from Hitler's superficial words; His face gradually turned solemn, and he said, "Your Excellency." Now the problem of funding is with Dr. Ley's support. He has made it clear to me that the Labour Front's support for the expansion of the army has now reached its limit, and that if he were to be asked to contribute more than 20 million marks a year, the only way to do so would be to collect more dues from the workers. ”

Hitler couldn't help but freeze in place. He vividly remembered that Ley had reported to him at the beginning of the year that the Labour Front's dues income in 1935 had reached 3. DM 500 million; Even if it is engaged in cheap tourism with "joy comes from power" and at the same time spends a lot of money on the expansion and development of the navy, it will not be impossible to get even 20 million marks. And with the further prosperity of the economic situation this year, the income of the Labor Front is expected to exceed 400 million marks!

When Hitler first proposed the establishment of this workers' organization, one of the most important intentions was precisely to obtain a considerable amount of liquidity from the workers: this money would be a good way for the government to achieve a healthy fiscal turnover, and to keep the deficit and public debt within a reasonable range. It was only because Schacht's economic means were so unruly that this liquidity never got its due use.

"I'll ask Dr. Ley about this carefully." Hitler's eyes flashed sharply. Since the Labour Front is an organization of the National Socialist Party, its finances do not appear in the government's records; Even he, the Führer, lacks understanding of the details of this, and Ley is responsible for the specific operations. Now Guderian actually claimed that he could not receive financial assistance from Ley, which deeply shocked Hitler.

After sending Guderian away, the sharp light in Hitler's eyes did not fade for a long time. He grabbed the phone on his desk and dialed a special number that he didn't often contact. Ten minutes later, a medium-sized man with a round face, high forehead, and small disc glasses appeared at the door of the prime minister's office. Dressed in a dark SS uniform, he displayed the utmost docile and submissive look in front of Hitler.

"Himmler (Mulan), I need you to find out the details of the Labour Front's finances." Hitler spoke slowly, staring at the man in front of him, who was 11 years younger than himself. The man with glasses, known as Himmler, had the same expression and immediately claimed that he was. Hitler was greatly satisfied with the absolute obedience of the man in front of him, and he felt more and more that it was a very wise choice for him to use this chicken farmer to take charge of the SS.

Although the Gestapo lost Heydrich, a shrewd and capable leader, there were still strong leaders in the SS who had a strong leadership over the organization. Half a month later, an investigative report was secretly placed on Hitler's desk. The report reveals the current worries of the Labor Front: the organization has degenerated from a mere collection of workers into a bloated bureaucracy with more than 200,000 full-paid employees, and as much as 25 per cent of its annual income is spent on administrative expenses.

Seeing the investigative report that Himmler had provided him, Hitler, who sat at his desk, was silent for a long time. There was a complicated look in his eyes, and he couldn't tell whether it was anger, sigh, sadness, or helplessness. In the nearly four years since he took office, he has not heard the news that many party members are secretly enriching themselves, but what makes him feel shocked and angry is that this trend and speed of corruption have reached such a level. The cost of being swallowed up in the Labor Front alone was more than four times the amount that Guderian had asked for!

But what could Hitler do? His position still needs these people to support him, and purging them is tantamount to cutting off his own hands and feet for his rule. And to some extent, how could Hitler himself not be part of the corruption of the system? Although he did not solicit bribes from anyone, and the frugality and simplicity of his daily life was obvious to all, his personal secretary, Martin? In 1934, however, Bowman set up a special fund for the "Thanksgiving Führer" to allow large industrialists who had made huge profits in the war to make personal donations to him. This money was used not only to pay special allowances to senior Wehrmacht generals, but also to build Hitler's private castle in scenic Berchtesgaden - the Eagle's Nest!

It didn't take long for Hitler to calm down. Even if he has a monopoly on power, he is currently powerless to touch the darkness within this system, and at most can only acquiesce to its existence in the midst of shock and shock. However, he had no intention of reusing Ley. After a few groans, Hitler found that only the deputy minister of the Ministry of Economy, ******, was able to barely meet his targets in terms of subjective will and objective talent. (To be continued.) )