I'm in Europe, I'm an antique arms dealer

"Wow~Wow~~"

The waves of the Baltic Sea crashed on the beach of Warnemünde, and the lazy late autumn sunshine shone on the old town of Rostock, a small seaside town in Germany.

After visiting the old lighthouse, church, museum, and city hall, tourists in twos and threes wandered into a square with dozens of open-air stalls.

This is the local second-hand flea market that is only open on weekends.

Glassware, silver tableware, Wu small commodities, and various antique small items are all available here.

But those uranium glass lamps that glow with green light can easily lead to leukemia. The mummy powder in those boxes and jars with the word "mumia" printed on them cannot ***, not to mention the antique tin kettles with excessive lead content. Everything you drink is just sweet water.

Collecting is risky, so be cautious when entering the market.

“2euro! 2euro! (Two euros!)”

The Asian stallholders in the market are selling small toys and daily necessities in their hands, but some have different styles of painting.

In the corner, an Asian male stall owner wearing a raindrop camouflage coat and exuding a faint smell of machine oil was concentrating on petting a German black-backed dog less than half a year old.

On the stall in front of him were three or four M38 folding engineer shovels, two or three M31 kettles with felt covers, one or two coffee cups made of M24 grenade shells, and cooking pots with stamped edges from M35 helmets.

There are also German army public hair shampoos in paper bags, Solingen razors with the eagle logo, and a limited-edition soap sold under the Farben label instead of the Nivea trademark...

Of course, in addition to these antique groceries, the most numerous thing on the stall is a whole row of trench machines.

These lighters from the last century have been manually repaired and can be used normally. Compared with plastic lighters that are thrown away after being used, they have more collection and use value.

"Boss, how much is this imco4700?"

A slightly bald German uncle squatted down and picked up a big piece of t-shirt and asked.

You can tell by looking at the yellowed index and middle fingers on his right hand that he is a heavy smoker, and at this age, he is also interested in antique lighters.

"Sixty euros."

Xia Yu said and quickly took out a pack of soft-shell Huazi from his arms, took out one and handed it to the other party.

"嚓~~"

The lighter filled with gasoline started smoothly, and the two people lit the cigarette together.

"This cigarette tastes good. Did it come from China?"

The uncle took a sip and commented sharply.

"That's right. I usually only smoke this one and others for coughing."

After Xia Yu finished speaking, he brought up a portable ashtray made from an M30 gas mask tin can behind him.

Interesting, this Chinese guy is a bit interesting.

"Sixty euros is a bit expensive, how about fifty euros?"

The uncle bargained.

"Deal!"

The price is sixty yuan, Xia Yu's psychological price is fifty yuan.

Except for some rare models, the trench machines mass-produced during World War II are not expensive, and he usually only earns a labor-hour fee for manual repair.

"What about this ap20?"

Pull out 50 euros and take out this old Aiko. After flicking the ashes into the can, the uncle fell in love with the high-end goods next to him.

"Sir, you have good taste. This Aibi Le pure copper is chrome-plated and has no scratches. I will give you two hundred and thirty euros."

Seeing that there is still business, Xia Yu said with a smile.

Soldiers mostly use imco, which is relatively cheap, while officers with stronger financial strength mainly use brands such as Carl Vuitton and Aibili.

However, for a new product in such good condition, the price he bought it for was not cheap.

After some bargaining, the uncle successfully won this Aibi Le ap series at a price of two hundred euros.

After successfully making a profit of fifty euros, Xia Yu sent Genhuazi to the other party.

He is not addicted to cigarettes, but cigarettes are the most effective way to close relationships with potential customers. Every year during the summer vacation, there are students who will help others carry out the soft war against China and return to Germany.

If you make a few dozen, you will get one or two pieces. If you make a few hundred, just stuff one or two packs. As for those who make a few thousand, just send them in strips.

But there were not many opportunities to make thousands. Xia Yu subconsciously glanced at the motorcycle behind him.

As a graduate student at the Technical University of Berlin, it was a long story that he became a hawker selling military products at a stall, but after a long time, this kind of life turned out to be surprisingly good.

Probably because I don’t have the anxiety of being unemployed!

In addition, he was more interested in machinery and automobiles, so he directly applied to a German university and studied vehicle engineering.

But the sudden rise of Tesla and the strong bet of a big country in the East seem to tell everyone in the industry that new energy is the future and traditional fuel vehicles are yesterday’s thing.

Xia Yu went to graduate school only to realize that it was too late to change his major.

If you continue studying and get your diploma and join a traditional car company, you might be laid off in a few years, so you might as well drop out and find your own way out.

He didn’t really want to go to work at first, so he decisively left school to start a business, practicing stall and doing some “small business”.

Yes, these lighters, kettles, engineer shovels, etc. are just to subsidize living expenses.

What Xia Yu really made money from was the gray-painted Audi motorcycle parked behind him and Mark.

Or more accurately, it is the dkwnz350 military motorcycle.

Never ask a century-old German company what products it was producing during World War II.

DKW, which is a good manufacturer of road motorcycles, has directly switched to producing military off-road versions and military sidecar versions.

This dkwnz350, which was worth 875 Reichsmarks at the time, was assembled and repaired by Xia Yu with parts recovered from an old German farmer at a cost of 1,000 euros.

It is also the tenth antique motorcycle that he has restored by hand.

Modern fuel vehicles are hard to sell, so why not sell antique fuel vehicles?

Xia Yu, who decisively changed tracks, repaired and sold one car and successfully made a name for himself in the circle.

On weekdays, he is busy shopping for goods and repairing cars, and only goes to the flea market in the city on weekends to practice stalling. In addition to earning some living expenses, it is also his special way of trading.

There are very few customers who can buy a motorcycle just by visiting a flea market, but if you negotiate in advance, the success rate of viewing the car offline is much higher.

But this time the other party’s scheduled time is in the afternoon, there are still several hours left!

Xia Yu glanced at the Glashütte Spezimatic Blackwater Ghost worn on his left hand and confirmed that the time was approaching noon, and the number of customers in the flea market began to decrease, or to concentrate on the food truck stalls.

The best business is undoubtedly a stall selling Turkish kebab burritos.

"Mark, help look after the stall. If there is business, just shout twice."

Xia Yu, whose stomach was growling and his turnover barely exceeded 1,000 yuan, ended his business in the morning and rubbed his pet dog's little head.

"Woof~~"

After receiving the order, Mark responded and looked around cautiously.

A small business cannot afford to hire a clerk, so it would be nice to have a dog.

Xia Yu shook his head, stood up and walked towards the burrito stand.

"I want a standard mutton kabab, with side dishes and sauce."

It was his turn in line, and Xia Yu ordered as per his weekly routine.

In Germany, this thing is equivalent to the Chinese pancake fruit. Grandma Mo even said it was good after eating it.

The price has been rising continuously in the past two years, from 4 euros to 5 euros. He feels that it will rise to 8 euros or 10 euros in a few years.

Even if it is not as exaggerated as 500,000 marks, it is difficult for ordinary people with a salary of more than 2,000 euros after tax to afford it!

Just eat dry bread and spread it with butter. If you feel it is not nutritious enough, you can add two more slices of sausage and an egg. Shredded salad can also be arranged.

In order to eat so healthily, Xia Yu has been working hard to make money.

In the time it took to eat, he even sold a set of lunch boxes. However, the customer did not smoke and only picked up two handfuls of Mark's dog heads.

It’s not for nothing that the owner named it Reich Mark. The dog boy’s cuteness really has the effect of attracting wealth, and he will be rewarded with a freeze-dried bag when the stall is closed.

After lunch, sleepiness began to rise, and Xia Yu’s eyelids began to tremble.

That’s the only bad thing about setting up a stall. You can’t take a nap.

He tore open a pack of tongue from his hometown and brewed it with hot water in a thermos cup.

After drinking a cup of tea, the caffeine gradually takes effect and people no longer feel so sleepy.

"Writer?"

After doing a few more small businesses, Xia Yu finally got the client he was waiting for.

Writer is both a secret code and a nickname in the industry.

As for why a car repairman is called a writer, this has nothing to do with the fact that Xia Yu has been writing novels for four years.

Nine out of ten people who come to study in Germany are poor. Even if there is no tuition fee, the living expenses are not cheap. He just wants to do something in his spare time to reduce the burden on his family.

I didn’t know how to repair cars at that time, so my strengths were that of being a senior Internet article reader, and that I had a relatively good understanding of the history before and after World War II.

When I opened Word, I read a book called Red Empire Pushing Back Europe. When I opened a new book in my junior year and changed camps, I read a book called The Last Madness of the Third Reich, and then there was no more.

When the bookshelves were cleared, Xia Yu also reached a stage of academic confusion.

When he was hesitating whether to open a Liangjian fanfic or a war movie with unlimited streaming, he decisively chose to close the book and drop out of graduate school, and resolutely devoted himself to the antique restoration industry.

However, due to the publicity of several fellow international students, many teachers and classmates knew that there was a writer from the School of Mechanical Engineering and Transportation Systems.

It’s just that every time someone asked Xia Yu the title of his book, he was a little sweaty, so he found a fellow author named Big Craftsman to fool him.

From school to society, the code name writer has stayed with me.

Of course, there are other reasons.

"It's me, but let's call me Hugo!"

Xia Yu said.

Hugo is the foreign name he took when he first came to Europe.

Compared with Chinese people using it as a surname, Germans prefer to use it as a first name.

For example, a famous fashion designer-Hugo Boss, or a more accurate translation is Hugo Boss.

"So Mr. Hugo, what's the status of that dkwnz350?"

Otto, who came by train from New Brandenburg, has applied for a temporary license plate, and he plans to ride back the motorcycle he gave to his father.

"It's a bit bragging to say it just left the factory, but as long as it is properly maintained, it will be no problem to ride it for another twenty years"

"Buzz~buzz~~"

Xia Yu said starting the engine. After more than seventy years, the old guy still made a surging roar unique to a two-stroke.

"That's great. My father owned an izh-350 (nz350 produced in post-war East Germany) when he was young, but I know what he wanted most was the one he saw when he was a child."

Otto said happily, he was very satisfied with the condition of the car.

"The nz350 repaired with parts removed from izh in the circle cannot be bought at a high price, but if the use attribute is greater than the collection, I suggest that some wearing parts be replaced with izh ones first."

Xia Yu said from the customer's perspective.

East German goods are not valuable, only pure blood World War II originals can be sold at high prices.

"How much?"

Otto asked for a quote.

He has a certain understanding of the market price of dkwnz350, but it should be higher if it is in such good condition.

"This number!"

Xia Yu stretched out his hands, bent the ring finger and little finger of his left hand, and made an eight.

The Chinese word eight here means two, so his price for this motorcycle is eight thousand euros.

"It's a bit expensive, how about we barter? I heard Karl said that you are very interested in typewriters, what do you think of this?"

Otto said, taking off his backpack and unzipping it.

The Karl he said was the middleman of this transaction and Xia Yu's friend, and knew what his hobbies were.

Some people like to collect mechanical keyboards, but Xia Yu prefers purely mechanical typewriters, which happen to be plentiful in Europe.

After becoming financially independent, he collected more than a dozen units, but most of them were bargains that cost several hundred euros.

This typewriter can cost 8,000 euros. What a rare and limited edition it is!

I saw the other party take out a wooden box from the bag, and opened the lid to reveal a machine that looked like a typewriter inside.

"This, is this the Enigma cipher machine?"

Xia Yu recognized this famous rotor mechanical encryption and decryption machine in World War II at a glance.

Turing, the father of computers, deciphered this cipher machine on the basis of the Bosch people, which also allowed the later Mustache to have no secrets in front of the Allies.

The bell for the end of World War II was sounded early, and all the remaining struggles of Santoku became garbage time.

"Is it good?"

Xia Yu asked with a glimmer of hope when he saw many areas of rust on the cipher machine's body.

"If it is good, the eight thousand euros will be just a fraction."

Otto said regretfully.

He is willing to exchange it for a motorcycle only if it is broken.

The Enigma machine, which was in good condition and could be used normally, was put up for auction. The starting price was 200,000 euros. Xia Yu had to sell dozens of nz350s to afford it.

But as long as he gets this Enigma machine and a few more as accessories, he can try to repair it.

When it is repaired, even if the quality is different, it can be sold for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of euros, which is much less effort than repairing a motorcycle.

Of course, Xia Yu, who is still in the entrepreneurial stage, is not qualified to collect such an expensive Enigma machine. Even if he likes it, he has to sell it to raise funds.

"That's right, then the deal is done."

The two shook hands to announce the conclusion of the deal.

Xia Yu took out two standard contracts and filled in some of the blanks. After confirmation, both parties signed their names.

Otto rode away on his motorcycle, and he looked at the time.

It was not even half past three when we met, but Xia Yu planned to close the stall and go back.

The time saved was just time for him to study the Enigma cipher machine.

Xia Yu is no longer in a hurry to repair the BMW sidecar that is missing an engine at home. He is now more interested in this thing.

Ma Liu closed the stall and prepared to go back, but the car was not here, so Xia Yu had to carry the goods to the parking lot first.

When I came here in the morning, I could still ride a motorcycle, but now I can only drive No. 11 to get there.

Eager to go back, he took a shortcut, holding Mark in his hand and shouldering it, and turned into a small alley where there were no tourists.

However, two teenagers (little gangsters) in their mid-teens and sixteens with Middle Eastern faces blocked his way from the other side of the alley.