Some people felt that a Chinese name appearing among a bunch of foreign names was abrupt.
I apologize for not noticing it earlier; it has now been completely corrected.
Thank you for your valuable feedback!
If you find any errors, please point them out, and I will correct them immediately!
Ferdinand had always been a man of action.
Since he planned to build a grain processing plant, he began making preparations right away.
His own territory mainly grew wheat, barley, sugar beets, potatoes, flax, etc., while animal husbandry was primarily focused on raising pigs and cattle.
Therefore, developing supporting processing facilities was the only way to maximize profits.
A flour mill was naturally the first choice, followed by a sugar refinery.
Oh, and potatoes—making french fries would be good, so that could be kept.
As for flax, should he open a weaving mill or a garment factory?
He would put that aside for now.
A slaughterhouse—that was feasible and wouldn’t require much investment.
Should he also…
The more he thought, the more ideas he had.
If all of them were realized, Ferdinand could proudly say: food, clothing, housing, and transportation—all self-sufficient.
He would have achieved the ultimate pursuit of feudal landlords.
Opening a factory was not that simple.
Since his father died early, the family’s assets were basically all conservative investments.
They were firmly in the aristocratic class and had not yet managed to transition into Capitalists.
Then he would start with himself—a combination of a great aristocrat and a great Capitalist, the mainstream of current society.
Right now, there was some trouble for Ferdinand.
Although his family held shares in some factories, they were not the ones in control, so they had definitely fallen behind in terms of talent reserves.
“Butler Chekhov, send someone to investigate the situation of the flour processing plants near Vienna!” Ferdinand finally decided to start with a flour processing plant.
“Very well, Your Highness, I will attend to it immediately!” Chekhov replied politely.
Ferdinand was becoming increasingly accustomed to his aristocratic identity, unlike when he first arrived and loved to do everything himself.
For instance, having maids help him get dressed—he was now living a life where everything was done for him.
Ferdinand planned to go to the City Guard to report for duty.
Apart from the first few days after he transmigrated, when he went to work on time every day, he had been absent without leave ever since.
Although no one asked about it, he still felt it was very wrong.
Where else could he find such a good job?
One had to know that the German nobility had a tradition of serving in the military.
If you didn’t serve, people would look down on you and consider you a coward.
By then, it would be difficult to even find a wife of equal social standing!
The Ferdinand family was also part of the German nobility and naturally maintained this tradition.
However, Austria-Hungary was truly decadent, and there were quite a few officers like Ferdinand who were just coasting through life.
The Old Emperor was also powerless.
To maintain the combat effectiveness of the army and prevent them from corrupting others, he simply threw them all into the City Guard.
Of course, if one was willing to endure hardship, they could transfer away.
The original Ferdinand had always looked down on these playboys and was unwilling to associate with them, so he didn’t have many friends there.
Entering the City Guard building, a smell of decay rushed towards him.
Just as in his memories, it was a dilapidated and unsightly office building that looked like it was on the verge of collapse.
“This is too run-down!
No wonder no one comes to work.
In this environment, who would want to come?
I don’t know how the original owner managed to stick with it!” Ferdinand complained inwardly.
Along the way, apart from a few lazy guards on duty, Ferdinand didn’t see anyone else.
He found his office, a small room of less than twenty square meters.
Inside was a small wooden table, a chair, a teacup, and a stack of expired newspapers.
These were all the belongings in the original owner’s office.
The room was already covered in a thick layer of dust.
It seemed no one had been there for a long time.
Ferdinand looked around and finally gave up on the idea of cleaning it himself.
He turned back directly.
There wasn’t even a single officer, so what was the point of reporting for duty?
The trip to the City Guard disappointed him greatly.
With a unit like this, no wonder they would get beaten so badly by the Russian Bear that they wouldn’t know which way was up if they had to fight.
Ferdinand also knew this was just a part of it, specifically prepared for them, with no training and no missions.
Other troops might still have some combat effectiveness; after all, they were one of the five major powers in Europe.
However, thinking about the chaotic ethnic groups in Austria-Hungary, Ferdinand shook his head.
The Old Emperor needed to speak eight languages; just thinking about it was terrifying.
“Then how should the army be commanded?
If they are formed into separate armies by ethnicity, then the country will easily split.
If they are broken up and mixed together, to ensure combat effectiveness, the commanders would first have to learn the languages of other ethnic groups.
Where would one find a group of geniuses for that?”
“This must be the root cause of the collapse of Austria-Hungary!
Unless they cut the Gordian knot now and unify the language and culture, this country won’t last long, even without World War I!” Ferdinand thought to himself.
He had already made up his mind to take this as a warning.
The ethnic problems in the Balkans were not much better than in Austria-Hungary.
The only advantage might be that there were fewer people!
When did having a small population become an advantage?
Thinking about it, Ferdinand couldn’t help but chuckle.
Walking on the streets of Vienna, Ferdinand was still somewhat unaccustomed to it.
Compared to later generations, the Vienna of now was just as prosperous, but unfortunately, it had nothing to do with being clean and tidy; many places were stinky!
If you can’t change the world, then adapt to it!
The current Ferdinand was a very good example of this.
Unknowingly, he was about to reach the entrance of Volvo, and Ferdinand stopped to observe.
Watching the bustling crowd going in and out, carrying big and small bags, people laughing and talking, returning fully loaded.
Ferdinand was very satisfied.
He strode towards Volvo and gestured to the security guards at the entrance, signaling them not to move.
He then entered the supermarket.
The service staff were busy working.
Seeing Ferdinand walk in, they were about to come over, but he quickly signaled them to continue.
It was a bit chaotic inside, with many goods in disarray.
The service staff were busy restoring order, and there was quite a bit of trash on the floor.
Ferdinand frowned, but then smoothed his brow.
Overall, he was still satisfied.
Everyone was doing their job, working conscientiously, and business was booming.
However, perhaps due to the limitations of the era, they had not considered the importance of hygiene and the comfort of customers shopping.
Of course, in the 19th century, perhaps the public was accustomed to it.
Vienna was stinky, and the streets were covered in trash; they didn’t have such high requirements for hygiene.
Ferdinand still found Franz, expressing his affirmation of his work while also raising requirements regarding environmental hygiene.
Ferdinand would rather increase costs now to retain customers.
After all, when faced with a choice between clean and tidy versus messy and disorganized, it was easy for people to make a choice.
This era was the most comfortable era for Capitalists.
They could freely make workers work overtime, without the unions of later generations, and even less the threat of the Soviets.
The labor costs Ferdinand had imagined did not increase, but the service staff had one more task: keeping the place clean at all times.
Protests, demonstrations, strikes, demands for wage increases, etc.—the terms deep in Ferdinand’s memory—did not appear.