At noon, Consuelo prepared a traditional Lyonnais meal for Adele and General Giraud (General Henri Giraud was also from Lyonnais). Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info Burgundy stewed eggs, Lyon potatoes, fish sausages, tripe, and stewed pork face in red wine made Adele full of praise.

It's been so long since John crossed over, and it's the first time he's seen a pig's face at the dinner table. In his previous life, John's favorite appetizer was the pig's head meat that his mother cooked at home. He tried a piece of Lyonna-style stewed pork face, and the smell of meat made him frown.

It turns out that whether Lyonnais eats beef or pork, they not only pay attention to freshness, but also pay special attention to the taste of meat. This so-called "taste of meat" is actually the smell of meat that makes John accept incompetence. I didn't expect the Lyonnais to have a strong taste.

Although the stewed pork face was a little unacceptable to John, the other dishes were quite to his taste. In particular, the Lyonnais potatoes are fried with onions and bacon and fried thick potato chips, and they have a very Chinese taste. In addition, the wines produced by Conzuelo's own estate are also excellent, and it is said that the winemaker was specially invited from Bordeaux.

Little Ella's taste is similar to John's, only eating a few Lyon potatoes, and she is not sensitive to the "heavy" dishes such as half-raw burgundy egg stew, tripe, and pork face. But the little one certainly won't go hungry, and Consuelo has prepared a fruit salad and lava chestnut cake for her.

John found that after only one morning of being together, little Ella had been very close to her Aunt Consuelo. The little one is now almost a fan of Consuelo, like a little heel, and she follows her aunt wherever she goes.

Cousin Consuelo also seems to be particularly fond of Ella, and not only allows her to sit on her lap. When the little one hooked his chubby little hands around her neck and whispered in her ear, Consuelo not only did not get impatient, but responded seriously.

Seeing the intimacy of the aunt and nephew, John knew that his cousin was missing a child. Consuelo and Jacques have never had children since their marriage, but she and her ex-husband, the Duke of Marlborough, have a son. But that was the heir to the title of the Marlborough family, the future tenth duke, naturally it was impossible to follow her. In fact, it has been very difficult for Consuelo to see his son since the divorce.

John secretly wondered if he would let Adele take Ella to stay with his cousin for a while when they returned from Leon. Anyway, he would be busy going to various places to take over the Foundation's industry, and it would not be appropriate for them to follow him around. It's just the right time to take this opportunity to let little Aylardo accompany Cousin Consuelo.

After lunch, Consuelo led John into his study. Of course, John's visit this time was not just to visit relatives, he also had business to do.

After marrying in England, Cousin Consuelo began to gradually get into contact with the family's business in Europe under the guidance of her father. Because Sanbo's main focus is on business in the United States, it is impossible to stay in Europe for a long time to take care of the foundation, and Consuelo is undoubtedly the best agent as his own daughter.

For so many years, the day-to-day affairs of the family foundation can be said to have been handled by Consuelo. At the time of his death, Cousin Consuelo had just divorced the Duke of Marlborough. The family once considered simply letting her take over the Foundation, but no one knew as well as she did anyway.

But before the family leaders could discuss the results, the news came that she was married to Jacques Ballesson. The water spilled by the girl who got married. Consuelo changed his surname to Balesund, and it was naturally unsuitable to take over the Vanderbilt family's foundation. Eventually, the Foundation fell into the hands of Uncle Frederick.

Like Uncle Frederick, Uncle Frederick didn't have the energy to take care of the Foundation himself. So everything went on as usual, except for major matters that required Frederick's nod and signature, and everything else was Consuelo's final say.

Let's put it this way, the foundation is like a company, the Vanderbilt family members are shareholders in the company, the family leaders are the board members, John is the new chairman of the board, and Consuelo is the CEO hired by the previous chairman. John came this time to listen to CEO Consuelo's introduction of the "company".

In the materials Frederick gave to John, the family foundation was nothing more than a few real estates in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and lived mainly on rent.

Although he still holds shares in some companies, John has hardly heard of them before, and they receive very few dividends each year. In addition to the 17% stake in Swinburg Steamship Company (the predecessor of Maersk Line), that is, the 1.2% stake in the British Rolls-Royce company is still somewhat valuable.

However, when John spent more than two hours listening to Consuelo's briefing on the Foundation, he found that it was very different from the material Frederick had previously given.

"When did the Foundation have so much more German industry?" John asked a question that was of greatest concern to him.

"It's all Objekte, which in the last year or two came through Stoller's bank." Worried that John didn't know about the so-called "Objckte" business, Consuelo took the time to explain it to him in detail.

It turns out that the word "Objckte" is a jargon that has only become popular in German business circles in recent years, referring to Jewish companies that have been cornered. Prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Nazis in Germany were anti-Semitic, but they emphasized the legality of plundering Jews, but rarely resorted to public confiscation or violent dispossession.

They enacted a whole set of laws from 1936 onwards that made it practically difficult for Jews to do business. As the courts ruled month after month, Jewish businesses were denied import and export licenses and raw materials, and their use of railways and shipping was restricted, and at last they could no longer continue to operate, with no choice but to sell them.

The market for buying and selling such "Objekte" is now very prosperous in Germany, and many well-informed German elites are scrambling to buy up these Jewish properties at very low prices.

"Wolf Stolle is Göring's white glove. Through Goering he could see the files of the secret police, and was therefore always the first to discover which important Jewish enterprise was no longer sustainable. Consuelo explained to John how Stoller operated.

First of all, all the buyers who are interested in "Objekte" are found and united, and a very low and unique purchase price is proposed. The choice faced by the owner is to accept or go bankrupt, with no other way out. Then Stoller's bank divided the enterprise into shares, and the lion's share would be taken directly by Goering, and the rest would be divided among the buyers in proportion to their contributions. Of course, in addition to earning commissions himself, Stoller often took a large stake in the "Objekte".

"I see." John nodded, and flipped through the information on the new industries. Sure enough, Goering is not an ordinary industry, heavy machinery, coal chemical industry, power companies, nitrogen fertilizer factories, each of which has a lot of "money". Although the Foundation's stake in each enterprise is very small, it adds up to a significant amount.

Although it did hurt John to sell them all, he decided to go ahead with his plan: "All the French, Dutch, and Belgian properties changed hands before 1940, and none remained." ”

"In such a hurry, isn't it early?" Consuelo, who had personally experienced the First World War, immediately understood John's reasons for selling these properties. She was well aware of the devastating losses the Foundation had suffered in the last war. But she still has some doubts about the time line of 1940.

"If you sell so many industries at once, you may have to suffer a loss in terms of price." She reminds John that if he moves too much, he will likely be robbed.

"We can't delay any longer, it's too late to focus on important industries first." John knew exactly when the war would break out.

"Don't you have to do anything about the German industry?" Consuelo was a little puzzled, Britain is across the channel, Switzerland is a neutral country, it is understandable that the industry there will not move for the time being, why does the German industry not need to move, is John sure that Germany can win in the end?

Of course, John couldn't tell Consuelo that France, Holland, and Belgium would be beaten down by the Germans as soon as the war began, so he could only say sloppily: "Of course, but I'm going to go to Germany to see for myself, it's a pity that some of the high-quality assets in it will be sold directly." ”

"Okay, I'll give you Stoller's contact information, and you can contact him when you get to Berlin." As he spoke, Consuelo handed John a sticky note with a phone number on it.

John took it and looked at it, "How long have you known this person?" John felt that Stole, who had such an oily "Objekte" business, could not forget to bring Consuelo, and the relationship between the two must be unusual.

Consuelo knew what he wanted to ask: "We met in 1914, when he ran a bank in Hamburg and had a deep relationship with his father. After the First World War, the German financial markets collapsed, and he went bankrupt. I lent him pounds so he didn't starve. ”

"But John, you have to remember that business is business, and personal feelings cannot be trusted." Consuelo reminded John: "I know you can't stay in Europe forever, but you'd better find a surrogate as soon as possible, I'm too old to care about it anymore." ”

"Okay, I'll consider the candidate as soon as I go back, and I'll ask my sister for more help when the time comes." John nodded hurriedly, accepting Cousin Consuelo's kindness.

John had also considered changing the issue of a "CEO" before, after all, the previous "chairman" Uncle Frederick was an elder, and he had no problem "calling" Consuelo. John and Consuelo are the same generation, and they are so young, how can they be embarrassed to criticize their sister in the future.

But because today is the first time we met, he is embarrassed to say it explicitly. Now that Cousin Consuelo has offered to abdicate, it is naturally better.