Imperial Elite

Chapter 133 The End of the Beginning
London was the first place to receive news that Joe had arrived in the Rhineland, and the Overseas Intelligence Service immediately sprang into action after the conflict broke out.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Rhineland was still a demilitarized zone at the time, it was practically broadcasting live from London.

As the fighter jets cleared the area, the transport planes landed on the road and lawn in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Knowing that Old Joe had not gone to Germania but had instead arrived in London in the Rhineland, the London side finally breathed a sigh of relief and made a decision.

Joe can't possibly lose, so they should minimize their losses. The people of Buntania are the bosses; they need to have both substance and face.

Now that Old Joe has the Teutons pinned on the east bank, wouldn't it be possible for him to step in and mediate, keeping things under control?
After a long silence, the Prime Minister decided to summon the Teutonic and Gaulish ambassadors and prepare to make a statement on Wagner's march into the Rhineland.

Just before the Prime Minister was about to make a statement, a phone call came into his office from King's Palace.

On the other end of the phone was His Majesty George, who was on his deathbed.

His Majesty George's health has been poor since the end of last year.

He spends most of his day sitting in a recliner in his study, looking out at the garden.

Occasionally, he would suddenly summon his servants, anxiously inquiring whether Paris had been defended and what the situation was in Jutland.

Then the servants would comfort His Majesty, saying that we had won the great war and that Bonitania was now thriving.

Then, as if remembering something, His Majesty would sit back in his favorite recliner and continue to quietly look out the window.

So when the Prime Minister answered the phone and heard His Majesty George weakly say "reinforce the Guards for Joe," the Prime Minister simply gave a perfunctory reply, indicating that he understood and would do so immediately.

However, the Prime Minister actually regarded this as another relapse of His Majesty George's old illness, and he thought that we were still in the midst of a war.

The Prime Minister had just hung up the phone and hadn't even left his office yet.

The phone in the Prime Minister's office rang again.

When the Prime Minister answered the phone again, he received news they had been expecting: after the previous call, His Majesty George, blessed by God, had returned to the Lord's embrace.

After hanging up the phone, the Prime Minister sighed that once people get busy, everything happens all at once, and at the same time became certain that the phone call he had just received was just His Majesty George returning to the phantom of that great war that changed everything on his deathbed.

It looks like I'm going to be quite busy for the next while.

With this in mind, the Prime Minister walked toward the reception room, where he would meet with the Teutonic and Gaulish ambassadors, followed by a press conference.

Just as London was preparing to make a decision, the Polish Germans in Warsaw were also thrown into great chaos.

For the Polish government, what happened today was far too provocative.

I told you to demonstrate your abilities, not to fight Wagner!

Faced with the sudden rise of the Teutons, some in Warsaw felt this was a good opportunity to reclaim what they deserved from Bohemia and resolve the territorial dispute with the Teutons.

Even the Upper Silesia problem can be solved.

The reason they helped the People's Revolutionary League stabilize Silesia was that, compared to the Teutonics, the People's Revolutionary League, which was still embroiled in a civil war, posed a significantly lower threat.

But who would have thought that in just a few years, the People's Revolutionary Alliance would have become what it is today?

If the People's Revolutionary Alliance were to launch a simultaneous attack from the east and west, Poland felt it would be impossible to withstand it.

Therefore, weakening the People's Revolutionary Alliance (PRA) and causing it to lose its most prosperous region, Upper Silesia, would greatly weaken the PRA and thus improve its own geopolitical environment.

The best part is that you don't have to do any of this yourself; you just have to follow the Teutons and watch them do it.

Is there a better deal in the world?

For every person in favor, there is someone who opposes it.

Opponents argue that making such a decision is suicidal, as our current geopolitical environment, while bad, is not that bad.

Although we have conflicts with Bohemia, we have not offended NATO, and the conflict with Bohemia has not reached the point of armed conflict.

As for the People's Revolutionary Alliance, we even supported their takeover of Upper Silesia. As long as they have any sense of shame, they won't do anything to us before dealing with the Lucia military government.

If Old Joe wanted to interfere with us, he would have done so long ago. So, of the four directions—east, west, south, and north—only the Teutons to the west have the most irreconcilable conflict with us because of the Danze issue.

If we agree to the Teutonic proposal, we might be able to gain some territory, but doing so would offend all our neighbors, including the People's Revolutionary Union and NATO. In that case, we would have no choice but to stick with Germania.

While Warsaw was embroiled in controversy, the Germanic head of state paced anxiously back and forth in the map room, like a trapped beast.

He knew Wagner was a formidable fighter, but he hadn't expected him to be this strong. For an entire afternoon, the Wehrmacht deployed artillery, infantry, air force, and even the newly formed armored units.

However, none of these troops were able to break through Wagner's defenses.

This prevented the leader from expressing his anger.

Because the government officials in the map room had already started to panic when the second wave of attacks failed, if the head of state also showed anxiety or unease at this time, the political situation might get out of control.

Therefore, the leader could only point to the map and repeatedly say that the armored forces of the national defense army would arrive soon, and everything would be fine as long as the armored forces launched an attack.

And so far, neither London nor Paris has commented on this matter, so although we have encountered a minor setback, our chances of success are still very high.

Then the Führer heard that Wagner's follow-up troops had arrived in the Rhineland and were conducting an airborne landing.

At that moment, even though his armed guards were only ten kilometers away from Rhineland, and the armored forces of the National Army were about to arrive, for a few seconds, the Führer felt his heart stop beating.

Meanwhile, royalists holding a meeting in Germania's economy were also calculating their strength.

Since taking office, the leader, who comes from street politics, has established a strict, efficient, and brutal system of repression that will crush anyone who dares to offend him.

Therefore, to overthrow the leader, it was impossible to have a few generals accomplish the task as they did at the end of a major war, when they forced the emperor to step down. They would definitely need to mobilize troops, and it might even require a short but brutal battle.

However, this requires them to have an armed force.

Although there were many former military personnel and officers in the royalist party, and their ranks were generally not low.

However, due to the improvement of the economy and the enhancement of military benefits after the head of state came to power, many junior officers are supporters of the head of state. If these junior officers do not support them...

So when they are preparing to take action, they may even encounter situations like, "Why is the commander rebelling?"

Meanwhile, although most officers in the officer corps have some conservative ideas, how should I put it... on the bright side, these are all professional officers who take obedience to orders as their duty, and they support whoever is in power.

On the other hand, they won't take initiative; they'll help whoever wins.

Therefore, they must find a pro-Emperor force near Germania as soon as possible, one that is willing to fight to save the Teutons, and drive that madman away before everything becomes irreversible.

Amidst the royalists' anxious meeting, after the initial chaos, the Parisian side managed to hold off the Teutonic offensive, keeping them firmly on the east bank of the Rhine.

The soldiers in Paris began to have some ideas.

Initially, the Parisians were furious at Joe's unauthorized actions because they feared that his sudden move would drag them into a war, and the devastation of the last war made them unwilling to experience the same tragedy again.

So, starting six years ago, in order to deal with the Teutonic threat, the Gauls began to build a series of permanent fortifications along the border, preparing to turn the entire border into a strong fortress area like the Fort Dumont.

This ensures that the Teutons will never be able to cross the border.

But now, after Wagner withstood the Teutonic attack, and even with the arrival of a second wave of reinforcements, and even, according to rumors from London, after Joe himself had reached the Rhineland.

The Gallic generals thought that if the Teutons couldn't even defeat Wagner's paratroopers, then their heavy armored forces should be able to crush them.
Armored forces immediately began mobilization!
Old Joe defended Paris in the past; now it's time for us to lend him a hand!

Then, just as the Paris side finally made up its mind to take action, it received two pieces of news that prompted them to immediately halt the mobilization of their troops.

Just as Paris began mobilizing its armored forces, London summoned its ambassador and publicly announced that Wagner's operation was not authorized by London and that London had no intention of starting a war on the Old World.

They are willing to mediate the conflict and call for a ceasefire from all parties.

If London's statement was like pouring cold water on Paris's stance...

The news that Wagner had begun organizing a retreat after repelling two Teutonic attacks following his airborne landing sent shockwaves through Paris.

From the beginning of the war, the stereotype that Joe left on everyone was that he would always win, even in the worst circumstances, and the word retreat seemed to be non-existent in his dictionary.

And now Wagner is actually organizing an evacuation? What on earth is happening in the Rhineland?!

Meanwhile, in Rhineland, Old Joe was sitting in his Unyielding SUV, looking at the map in his hand.

Anyone who frequently commands troops in combat knows that commanding a troop retreat is a more difficult task than launching an attack.

Therefore, after the airdrop was completed, Qiao Xian organized his troops to launch a counterattack.

After pushing the Teutons back to the east bank of the Rhine, before the escorting fighters ran out of fuel to return, Joe immediately organized his troops to clean up the battlefield and quickly put the wounded and any bodies he could find onto transport planes so that the transport planes could return under the cover of fighter planes.

Joe then began organizing his troops to retreat.

Rather than waiting for hours for a transport plane squadron to pick him up, Joe chose to lead his troops south, even though it might cause some trouble, as long as they entered that permanently neutral country.

Joe will be able to save the rest of the boys.

Although it would be much shorter to travel to Gaul from here.

But Joe had no expectations of Paris, who had simply stood there watching from beginning to end.

Of course, as a seasoned veteran, Joe knew very well that one of the most enjoyable things on the battlefield was chasing after retreating enemies.

How can you prevent the other party from chasing you?

Let's ambush them.

So during the retreat, Joe personally commanded the 7th Truck Transport Company to cover the rear of the main force, preparing to give the pursuing Teutonic troops a little Wagnerian shock.

As London announced its hope that all parties would exercise restraint, Wagner began to withdraw from the position.

If Paris felt winter had arrived early, then Germania was ecstatic.

When the Foreign Office sent word that London was asking everyone to exercise restraint, the Führer roared in the map room, instantly relieving half of the pressure Wagner had put on him over the past few hours.

He is now certain that London and Paris will not react too strongly to his actions.

Even London's condemnation of his entry into the Rhine demilitarized zone was dismissed by the Führer as utter nonsense.

Although militarily, Teutons had just suffered what was almost the biggest setback since the army's rebuilding, a weak London delivered a perfect victory for him.

Now he can safely enter the Rhineland region.

The news that Wagner had begun his retreat, sent from the front lines, sparked a frenzy of celebration throughout the map room.

The cheers were so loud they almost lifted the roof off the map room.

The subsequent news from the front lines that Wagner's troops had begun their retreat caused the cheers to erupt like a volcanic eruption in the map room.

Some people threw their hats onto the chandelier, while others ripped open their collars, grabbed the water jugs in the map room, and gulped them down.

The leader stood before the enormous map of the Old World, his fists clenched so tightly that his nails pierced his skin and beads of crimson blood slid from his hands.

Amidst the volcanic cheers, the Führer cleared his throat, and the entire map room fell silent as if a mute button had been pressed. Everyone looked at him as if he were a prophet. "This is only a small step forward. Although we have paid a price, we will surely win. Now prepare a national broadcast for me, and at the same time, order Holz that the Wagners are already retreating. Retreating troops are always vulnerable. Have him eliminate those Wagners."

Just as the Führer was in the map room, he ordered his armed guards to pursue Wagner.

The room where the royalists were holding their secret meeting fell silent.

After a moment, a general said with a wry smile, "It seems he has succeeded."

"yes……"

A colonel leaned back in his chair, loosened his collar, and looked at the general, saying, "Who would have thought Wagner would retreat? This is the first time I've ever expected Wagner to win..."

So we're just going to give up like this?

A lieutenant colonel looked at his colleagues, whose faces were as dark as if they had just returned from the Dark Continent.

"Give up? No! Absolutely not."

The first general to speak stood up from his chair and looked at the map in front of him.

"He's a madman. How many troops did Wagner send this time? A battalion? A regiment? Just some light infantry, and they stopped us on the east bank of the Rhine. What if Wagner sends out a whole force next time?"

The general tugged at his collar, picked up a pencil, and began sketching on the map with agitation.

"NATO and the People's Revolutionary Union have a non-aggression pact. Poland and Germany will not invade NATO unless they go crazy. Joe has already integrated NATO's forces. The forces he can mobilize are definitely not just Wagner's division. Have you forgotten that Joe's specialty is amphibious landings? And how far is Germania from the coastline? 180 kilometers! Who remembers how many kilometers Joe advanced in a single day at the end of the war!"

The general put down his pencil and looked at everyone in the conference room.

"He won his gamble this time; London and Paris didn't intervene. But what about next time?! This madman won't stop! We can't just stand by and watch this madman drag our country into war!"

As the general surveyed the room, the officers nodded in agreement.

"agree."

"Agree."

"We can't let a clown lead us to hell."

"Then let's begin the preparations."

The general looked at everyone in the conference room and said.

"Although the losses are heavy, returning to the Rhine and expelling Wagner will garner him more support. We won't have an opportunity to act in the short term, but he won't stop there. When he's ready to take another military adventure, that's when we'll make our move."

The general removed the medal from his collar and placed it on the table in front of him.

"Win or die! We must save the Teutons from this madman!"

"For the Teutonic!"

The officers in the conference room removed the medals from their collars and placed them on the table in front of them.

Meanwhile, in the Kremlin, after the senior members of the People's Revolutionary Union had read the telegram from the West, the General Secretary made a speech.

"The situation is now very clear: the inherent contradictions of capitalism have arrived much earlier than we expected. Although the world revolution after the Great War was nipped in the bud, it was clearly not the whole story of the world revolution, but merely a rehearsal for the arrival of the new world."

The General Secretary held up the telegram he had just received, which detailed Wagner's retreat from the Rhineland, and addressed the people in the conference room.

"Joe and his Wagner tried to put the brakes on the inevitable conflict. He was a brave man, and I admired him. His failure also proved the weakness of the bourgeoisie. Friends, we are now at the crossroads of human civilization. In order to lead all mankind into the light, we must begin to prepare for war."

After thinking for a moment, the General Secretary said this.

"Get ready, we're going to express our support for Joe in tomorrow's Pravda and praise him as a defender of peace. After being betrayed in London, I don't think he'll refuse the friendship from Moscow."

As the Kremlin began preparing for war, news of Wagner's retreat plunged all of London into silence.

Upon hearing the news of Wagner's retreat, the Prime Minister immediately realized that he had made a huge mistake, a mistake that could bring down the government.

I made my stance on this matter too early, and I also trusted Old Joe too much. From the beginning, no one in London thought that Old Joe, the undefeated god of Brittany, would also fail.

When news came that Wagner had begun to retreat from his position, everyone thought it was fake news, or that Joe was up to something again.

But as Wagner headed south without looking back, London was thrown into complete panic.

If Wagner was able to hold out in the Rhineland, then their previous statements were a perfect diplomatic maneuver, both pushing back the Teutons, upholding the Treaty of Versailles, and not putting too much diplomatic pressure on the Teutons. It was all Joe's private action.

The Prime Minister had even decided that once everything was over, he should secretly award Joe a medal to reward him for his decisive action.

Of course, some restrictions must also be placed on Wagner again. After all, this airdrop operation took place in the Rhineland to uphold the Treaty of Versailles. But the fact that Joe was able to do this means that he could also airdrop Wagner to other places.

However, the invincible old Joe retreated this time, taking his invincible Wagner with him.

This made the government's declaration a joke.

What was originally intended as a declaration that would give Bunitania a more flexible diplomatic stance has now become the most shameless betrayal of Joe and Wagner.

Just as the Prime Minister had anticipated, news of Wagner's retreat from the Rhineland began to spread in Buntania as the Teutonic leader began his national address.

Almost instantly, a wave of protests against the government swept through Bonitania.

Faced with this political storm, the prime minister finds that they now seem to have entered that kind of situation again.

We declared that nothing had happened.

We declared that something might happen, but no action was needed.

We claim we should perhaps take action, but there's nothing we can do.

We claimed that perhaps we could have done something back then, but now it's too late.

The terrible state.

Meanwhile, since London had made a prior statement, the Parisians lamented that London indeed had no men, but were also glad that London had made that declaration before their actions.

This allowed Paris to pin the blame on London. We were already preparing to send troops, but it was London's stance that prevented us from making a timely decision. All the responsibility lies with London.

When news of Wagner's retreat and the annihilation of Wagner's forces reached Holz's hands at the same time.

Holtz's 1st Armed Guard Division had just crossed the bridge that the Wehrmacht had been unable to cross despite heavy losses.

Looking at the burning wreckage and the corpses scattered all over the ground.

Holtz felt as if he had returned to the past, to when he was just a Storm Commando member.

This is what war tastes like...

Sniffing the air, smelling the burning smell, Holz pulled out the map.

Although he really wanted to catch up with him, Holtz had fought Joe several times before, even though Joe might not remember him.

But Holtz knew very well what a dangerous opponent Old Joe was.

If you rashly chase after them, the only result will be that you run headfirst into a brick wall.

This has happened many times in the past.

After following the Führer, Holz gained some basic understanding of politics.

If Joe simply wanted to leave the Rhineland, then heading west into Gaul would be the shortest route.

However, Joe chose to head south instead of taking the shortest route, which clearly indicated his intention to enter a neutral country in the south.

This means that Joe's actions were not only unauthorized by London, but were also unknown to the Paris authorities.

So to avoid trouble, heading south became his only option.

In that case...

As an airborne force, Joe's supplies are definitely limited, so if I want to defeat Joe, I need to make him deplete his supplies first and exhaust those crazy Wagners.

When they are cornered, I will launch the final attack.

Now that he knew what Joe wanted to do, Holtz began to make arrangements.

Yes, Joe's troops have always been known for their speed, but can paratroopers be faster than a train?
After making his judgment, Holtz began sending telegrams to Germania, reporting his assessment to the Führer and requesting authorization from the Marshal to mobilize the National Army to intercept Joe's forces in the south, ultimately allowing the Armed Guard to annihilate Wagner at the border.

Soon Germania sent a telegram from the Führer, who acknowledged Holz's assessment and granted him supreme authority to use all Teutonic forces to annihilate Wagner's troops in the Rhineland.

At the same time, the Führer also told Holz that intelligence indicated that Joe might have personally arrived in the Rhineland. If it could be confirmed that Joe Harrison had indeed come to the Rhineland, then the ordinary Wagner could run away, but Joe had to be kept in the Rhineland at all costs, to keep him there forever.

Upon hearing the news that Joe might have already arrived in Rhineland, Holtz was stunned for a moment, first surprised, then overjoyed.

For any Teutonic soldier, if there is any highest honor in the world, then defeating Old Joe is something they would dream of.

Judging from Joe's past record, defeating him is indeed a bit difficult.

But now, he has a nearly full-strength armored division at his disposal, while how many troops does Old Joe have? Does he even have a regiment? And they're all light infantry.

At this moment, the dream seemed so within reach that Holtz, in a fit of ecstasy, began issuing orders to the defense forces around the Rhineland, in order to weave a massive encirclement to trap Old Joe within it.

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The disintegration of the Versailles system was a long process, but if we had to choose a point in time for its formal collapse, it would undoubtedly be Wagner's bloody battle in the Rhineland.

When Wagner descended upon the Rhineland in an attempt to stop the Teutonic advance, it was like a room filled with a powder keg, where a spark had already ignited, and everyone held their breath, watching to see if it would extinguish itself or explode everything.

Diplomatic channels were all blocked, but there was only the sound of gunfire on the front lines.

Joe's arrival in Rhineland is draining his most elite troops every minute.

He was not only fighting the Teutons, but also gambling with his life and blood to force the entire Old World to make a choice in the face of the fait accompli he had created.

London and Paris, however, chose the worst option out of all the choices.

When Joe acted as the brake, trying to stop or slow down the car that was hurtling toward hell, London instead slammed on the gas.

Wagner's retreat marked the complete disintegration of the Versailles system.

The brief period of peace following the great war officially came to an end at this moment.

The gunshots from Rhineland were like a starting pistol, waking the world from its slumber.

It did not solve the problem, but rather served as a prelude to a future war, turning a potential global conflict into an inevitable one.

Wagner's retreat was not the end, but the beginning of an even bigger storm.

——————A General History of the 20th Century

(End of this chapter)