Imperial Elite

Chapter 136 The Berlin Crisis
1938 was not a good year for the whole world.

The war has been raging in the Far East for some time, and now even the Old World seems to be shrouded in the shadow of war.

A Y-2 passenger plane, painted with NATO, Bohemian and Wagner insignia, slowly landed at an airport in Germania.

Reporters at the airport immediately pointed their cameras and microphones at the plane.

However, compared to the densely packed reporters present, the number of Teutonic officials responsible for welcoming the passenger plane was much smaller.

Apart from the mayor of Germania and a representative from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, only a few security personnel were present at the airport, a stark contrast to the arrival of representatives from Paris and London a few days earlier.

In fact, Bohemia was not even invited to the initial talks in Germania regarding the status of the Sudetenland in Bohemia.

The negotiations to determine the ownership of Bohemia's territory were held without inviting Bohemian representatives, and this negotiation is something that must be mentioned.

After discovering that Paris, London, and the Teutons were negotiating under such circumstances, and following strong protests from the government of José and Bohemia, London and Paris had no choice but to agree to allow Bohemia to join the negotiations.

As the Y-2 came to a stop and the cabin door opened, reporters raised their cameras. After Joe's declaration in Bohemia, ordering a general mobilization, everyone wanted to know if he would be present at the meeting.

But the journalists were soon disappointed; only the Bohemian foreign minister and an officer in a Wagner uniform emerged from the plane.

The Teutonic reception was also very cold. The Germanic mayor did not even shake hands with the Bohemian foreign minister and the Wagner officer, but simply nodded and led the two out of the airport.

After using up a lot of film, the reporters felt that something big was about to happen.

Just as Germania was shrouded in gloom, a small incident occurred in London.

After the Rhine Wars, Joe realized that the Old World was no longer safe, and coincidentally, the oldest of his children had now come of age.

Meanwhile, the advanced experience from 40k also made these kids' grades passable, meaning they could get into college without a recommendation letter.

Since that's the case, and considering that his younger brother Ron was doing quite well at Citibank, having risen to the rank of junior officer, spending his days flying his little plane, speeding in his little car, and changing girlfriends frequently, he was living a rather prosperous life.

So Joe thought it best to send the kids to Citibank.

As for Joe's application to send his son over, Citibank's universities naturally welcomed it wholeheartedly.

So that was settled.

The children who have reached adulthood will take a boat to London and then transfer to a cruise ship to Citibank.

Joe thought that sending his kids to college in Citibank couldn't possibly cause any problems.

Then, unsurprisingly, things took an unexpected turn.

When Joe's bunch of kids arrived in London, it was just as Joe was announcing a general mobilization of NATO.

With Joe announcing a general mobilization, some minor changes naturally occurred on the streets of London.

Due to the long-standing ideological division, in London at this time, some people saw Joe's tough stance as the roar of the imperial lion, while others thought it was simply a case of someone tired of living and wanting to die.

And as a bar owner, one can legally call the police to kick drunk customers out of the bar's wild realm.

In this enthusiastic atmosphere, many heavy drinkers naturally began to express their thoughts on the current situation.

Logically speaking, such a drunkard wouldn't say anything nice.

But this is no ordinary liquor bottle; it's a liquor bottle from London.

So while the group of kids were waiting for their ship and exploring the streets of London, Andrei encountered a drunkard holding a bottle of liquor and giving his opinion under Old Joe's statue.

Perhaps life was too hard, or perhaps the strong liquor had a strong effect; in any case, this drunkard was clearly very drunk. However, he not only spoke loudly but also very logically, which attracted a lot of onlookers.

Somewhat curious, Andrei also went over to listen to what the drunkard was saying.

Then Andrei heard the most cheesy praise he had ever heard for his father in his entire life.

This flattery was so excessively sycophantic that Andrei was so embarrassed that he dug a Germania into the ground with his toes. Just as Andrei was about to turn and leave, the drunkard shouted at the top of his lungs, "Why has the country become like this? It's because none of you are willing to enlist! If we had enlisted as enthusiastically as before the war, would London still be so afraid of the Teutons?! Another war! Maybe one of us will become a new Old Joe!"

Aside from the part praising Old Joe, Andrei was surprised to find that what the drunkard said made some sense.

My father's success today is indeed due to the small contribution he made during the war.

Back then, his father was just a street urchin who had just started to make a name for himself, but now he had received rigorous training, knew tank tactics, could dig holes and blow things up, and could even fly airplanes.

Isn't this version of myself much better than my father?

Now, judging from the current situation, it seems that another great war is about to break out. In that case, why not try to win a title and a place for one's family on the battlefield?

Logically speaking, even if he wanted to join the army, Andrei should have gone back to join Wagner's or NATO's forces in this situation.

However, Andrei felt that he was facing two obstacles to joining the army. First, his father wanted him to study in Citizens' country. Now that he was going back and expressing his desire to join the army, he figured he would have to choose between his left and right legs, given his father's temperament.

This is the consequence of my dad finding out. If my mom had found out first, it wouldn't have been a small matter like how long I would have to wear a cast on my leg.

Based on Andrei's understanding of his mother, if she found out, he would definitely be carried onto the ship in a full cast.

So...maybe I can join the army in Bonitania and follow in the footsteps of my father?
Old Joe was unaware that his eldest son was harboring a dangerous idea. If Old Joe knew, he would probably bring up Andrei's Christmas dinner from last year.

At this moment, Old Joe was in his command post near Cheb, anxiously awaiting the arrival of NATO reinforcements and the outcome of the Germania negotiations.

After Joe announced the general mobilization, the entire NATO began preparations for war.

Prag's mountain infantry, Esti and Livonia's mechanized infantry and paratroopers were also constantly arriving in Bohemia by air.

Meanwhile, Wagner's troops were ruthlessly carrying out Joe's orders.

The prelude to this Sudetenland crisis was that the Teutons instigated the Teutons living in the Sudetenland region to cause trouble.

As for these thugs, Joe had nothing to say. If they weren't using weapons, Wagner's principle was to use the baton with force and enforce the law with attitude.

If the other side dares to use weapons, then there's nothing more to say. Let them talk to me about my 7.2mm intermediate-power rounds!

If negotiations fail, then Joe is prepared to remind the Teutons in the Sudetenland of how they fought at the Somme and Verdun.

While Joe was preparing for war, the Führer was also making war preparations.

However, the Führer's war preparations were slightly different from what Joe had envisioned.

After merging with the Habsburgs, the Führer found that he had accomplished what almost every Teutonic emperor in history had wanted to achieve, and the Teutonic geopolitical environment had also greatly improved.

Now there is a land link between the Teutons and the Russian military government, so Teutonic industrial products can be transported to the Russian military government in a steady stream, while the minerals and oil that the Teutons crave can be transported from the East in a steady stream.

But Bohemia was like a thorn embedded in the Teutonic heart.

Meanwhile, Bohemia's relationship with Joe, and their choice to join NATO, also made the Führer feel threatened.

After all, for any Teutonic, the fear of being attacked from both sides, with enemies advancing from the east and west, was already ingrained in their very bones.

Therefore, from the moment he came to power, the Führer continuously extended goodwill to Poland and Germany, expressing his willingness to resolve the territorial issue with Poland through diplomatic means. Even at the Germania Conference, which originally did not invite Bohemian representatives, the Führer invited Polish and German representatives to attend as observers.

In order to ensure Poland's continued neutrality, the Führer will propose at the meeting to cede a portion of Bohemia to Poland, as a demonstration of his sincerity in reconciling with Poland.

But for the leader, all of this was nothing more than a smokescreen to attract the world's attention.

The Sudetenland crisis was instigated simply to draw the world's attention to Bohemia, while also giving the leader an excuse to mobilize troops on a large scale.

However, in reality, most of the troops on the Bohemian border at this time were newly formed second- and third-line troops. The truly elite part of the Teutonic Army had already gathered near the Ardennes Forest under the guise of exercises.

In the last great war, Old Joe broke into the Teutonic heartland from here, and now Erich's plan is for the Teutonic armored forces to break through the Gauls' defenses from here, severing the connection between the Gauls and the Low Countries while the Gauls are unprepared, and then march straight for Paris.

While the armored forces are operating, NATO and Wagner, the only ones who might be able to react, will be stuck in Bohemia.

At this time, neither the Gauls nor the Bunitanias were prepared for war. Unlike the last major war, they did not have to face both the Gauls and the Bunitanias at the same time, which greatly increased their chances of success.

If the second-line troops in the east can hold out until the troops on the western front finish their battle, the troops returning from the western front will be completely annihilated—this guy who dared to resist them.

Because speed was the core of this plan, they had to break through the defenses, capture the city, and destroy the resistance with lightning speed. Therefore, this method of warfare was called Blitzkrieg by Ehrlich.

The Teutonic army will no longer be bogged down in trench warfare and street fighting as it has in the past. All battles will be fought in mobile warfare as troops advance, and the enemy forces will be completely annihilated in open field battles, just as Joe did in the past great wars.

As a massive military adventure, the Führer kept the plan under the strictest secrecy. Even among the top members of the National Socialist Party, very few knew about it. Within the National Army and the Armed Guard, only the plan's executors, who were most trusted by the Führer, knew about it.

And after the Führer approved the plan to blitz Gaul, he announced this ambitious plan to the army groups and the generals who would carry it out.

Therefore, in order to continue to complete this grand plan, the Führer had to draw the world's attention to the Sudetenland and make everyone believe that the Teutons were now preparing to take action against Bohemia.

To reinforce this impression, even after Bohemia and Wagner, representing NATO, arrived in Germania, the head of state displayed an unusually arrogant attitude.

While the Polish representative was listening in the meeting room, the Bohemian and Wagner representatives were not even allowed to enter the meeting room.

The weakness of Buntania and Gaul was also within the Führer's expectations. If nothing unexpected happened, he would soon gain control of the Sudetenland at the negotiating table. This made the Führer hesitate for a few seconds about whether to launch the plan.

Bonitania and Gaul were so weak that perhaps they could have demanded more and made more preparations for the war before going to war. But in that split second of hesitation from the Führer, the meeting room door was flung open, and Officer Wagner, representing NATO, kicked it open, declaring to the shock of everyone in the room that NATO countries would not recognize any negotiations they had not participated in.

If you want to engage in backroom politics, then you've only created a worthless piece of paper.

Faced with such an arrogant Wagner officer, the Führer, who had just been in a good mood, instantly flew into a rage.

The last time the Führer was so angry was at the end of the war when he saw the leftists who came to the camps to incite the soldiers.

The Führer immediately stood up, slammed his fist on the table, and angrily denounced the Wagner officer for provoking the great Teutonic Knights.

With things developing this way, the meeting naturally couldn't continue.

Outraged, the head of state continued to loudly proclaim to the representatives of Bonitania and Gaul that, given the attitude of NATO countries, he was determined to take decisive and resolute action against Bohemia.

However, he only said that; once the head of state got into his luxury car, a smile appeared on his face.

Bohemia's eagerness to sit down at the negotiating table allows him to further escalate the situation. Now the world's attention is focused on Germania and Bohemia, giving him the opportunity to complete his final war preparations.

The head of state was in a good mood, so when he was in the car returning to the Prime Minister's Office, he suddenly stopped his driver.

The leader saw a group of youth group members handing out leaflets by the roadside.

Seeing these young people reminded the leader of his own youth, and he suddenly had the idea to talk to them and see how they viewed the world now.

So after getting out of the car, the head of state instructed his driver to drive back to the Prime Minister's Office first, and that he would call him again if needed.

As fervent fans of the Führer, the members of the youth group were overwhelmed with excitement when they saw their idol appear before them. They quickly struck up a cheerful conversation with the Führer, making him very happy.

Meanwhile, news of the head of state's car returning to the Prime Minister's office reached the royalist command, which was already prepared.

Although the Führer has not yet signed the order, after today's negotiations concluded and the Führer roared that he would stop negotiating and resort to war, the royalists felt that now that the Führer had made such a statement, what were they waiting for if not to take action?!

So when the Royalist command sent a telegram saying "Honor is the desire of every Teuton," the Royalist troops that had been lying in wait in Germania immediately set out.

Since there was no prior warning, although the guards protecting the National Broadcasting Station and the soldiers of the National Defense Forces guarding the Army Headquarters, as well as some officers, put up an instinctive resistance.

However, the royalist rebel forces still managed to take control of these important departments very easily.

Meanwhile, the paratroopers' raids on Hermann's air force headquarters and the Nazi Party headquarters building were also very successful.

Even though the guards here were extremely fanatical, the paratroopers still managed to drag the Nazi Party's deputy leader out from under his bed.

However, the paratroopers encountered a slight mishap at the Air Force Command headquarters.

Firstly, Hermann, as the Air Force's deputy commander, and Red Knight, as the Air Force's commander, did not have a good relationship.

So, as always, the Red Knight wasn't at the Air Force Command Headquarters, but instead went out to inspect the troops and have meals and chats with the young men in the Air Force.

Secondly, as a close friend of the Führer and an ace pilot from the last war, Hermann displayed astonishing courage in the face of this mutiny.

When the attack occurred, he not only organized resistance in the Air Force headquarters, but even personally took up a pistol and fired at the paratroopers.

Thus, Hermann met a far more dignified end than the Deputy Führer, falling in a pool of blood amidst heavy fire from the paratroopers.

However, this minor mishap will not prevent the royal party from achieving success.

After seizing control of the army headquarters, the royalist generals immediately followed the plan, using the pretext that "the Führer has been kidnapped by radicals and national order needs to be restored," and issued a supreme alert order to all Teutonic military districts, declaring a "state of emergency."

He also ordered the army to disarm the guard organizations in various military regions and cities, as well as the National Intelligence Agency.

At the same time, the royalist forces controlling the broadcasting building also cut off all Nazi Party propaganda broadcasts and issued a statement to the nation and the world in the name of the General Headquarters of the Defense Forces: "The head of state has been taken over by radicals and the Defense Forces have taken over power to protect Teutons from an unnecessary war."

Even the royalist representatives from Buntania, Gaul, and Bohemia, who were in Germania at the time, sent envoys to say that this was an internal affair of the Teutonic Kingdom and had nothing to do with them. They said that the Sudetenland issue would be resolved at the negotiating table, and that the Teutons were a peace-loving people.

At this point, the royalists' coup was almost successful, except for one small problem.

That is, the head of state was not in the Prime Minister's residence at that time.

As the most important objective of this coup, paratrooper commander Hans personally led the operation to arrest the head of state at the Prime Minister's office.

Of course, as a veteran who survived the last war, Hans was well aware of his problem of getting lost.

So this time, to prevent himself from getting lost again, Hans walked the route three times a day after arriving in Germania, from the location where the paratroopers were hiding to the Prime Minister's office, to ensure that he would not get lost when the operation began.

When the operation began, Hans indeed arrived at the Prime Minister's Office without any trouble; this time, Hans did not get lost.

However, this rare experience in Hans' military career of not getting lost plunged him into his deepest nightmare.

After suppressing the resistance in the Prime Minister's residence, Hans searched the entire residence thoroughly, even sending people to check the septic tank. To his horror, Hans discovered that the most important target of this operation, the Führer, was not in the Prime Minister's residence.

Meanwhile, the shocked and furious Führer, dressed in ill-fitting clothes, was riding a bicycle hurriedly through the streets of Germania, protected by several members of the youth group and his bodyguards.

As royalist soldiers began setting up roadblocks to intercept pedestrians and arresting and executing members of the National Socialist Party, as well as guards who had not yet been armed, the streets were in chaos.

To avoid being discovered, the leader not only swapped clothes with a member of the youth group who was similar in build to himself, but also messed up his hair and shaved off his beard, which made him look much younger, though also somewhat comical.

“My lord, there are patrols ahead. It’s my turn to distract them this time.”

Hearing the sound of a car engine ahead, a member of the youth group sped up and, under the watchful eyes of the bodyguards, approached the head of state and spoke to him.

"Turn right ahead to avoid the main road, and then follow the river to get out of the city."

The leader looked at the young man whose face was full of fanaticism.

"Survive, protect yourselves, you are the future of the Teutonic Kingdom."

Upon hearing the leader's words, the young man blushed, his excited expression as if the leader had just awarded him a one-ton medal.

The young man nodded vigorously, his right hand twitching as if he wanted to do something, but in the end he just lowered his voice and squeezed out a "Long live the Führer!" through gritted teeth.

Then he nodded to his companion and rode off in the direction of the car engine.

Watching the young man's departing figure, the leader gritted his teeth and rode his car onto a side road.

As the Führer pedaled his bicycle furiously through the alley, several gunshots seemed to ring out faintly in the distance.

An hour later, the head of state, riding in a police car, arrived at the gate of the 1st Armed Guard Division, the garrison of the Guards Regiment.

Although the man's appearance was somewhat comical, the sentries at the gate recognized him as their leader, who now looked quite disheveled.

“Take me to see Holz.”

As the sentry opened the gate, the Führer spoke in a low voice, like that of a wounded beast.

The news of an armed rebellion in Berlin and the possibility that the Führer had been imprisoned shocked the world.

London and Paris erupted in jubilation. Some old-school MPs began boasting that they had foreseen this day. The rapid expansion of the National Socialist Party was bound to cause discontent, and their ruling style meant that this discontent could only be vented through rebellion.

Celebrate, gentlemen! The world has regained peace! But this time, peace is not written with the blood of our young men!

Meanwhile, Joe, in the command center, also fell into confusion for the first time.

From a military perspective, if we want to gain an advantage, we should immediately deploy our newly formed armored division and mechanized infantry units to deliver a heavy blow to the Teutonic army, which is in chaos on the border.

But such an action would be politically suicidal, and Joe couldn't do it.

But if Joe did nothing in the current situation, he felt that something was not right.

Perhaps, this is the new world.

Looking at the map before him, and at the telegram from the delegation members promising to resolve the Sudetenland issue through negotiations and to withdraw troops from the border region to ease tensions once the situation stabilized, he was struck by the promise of the new Teutonic government.

Joe decided to hold back for the time being and observe how things developed.

Meanwhile, in the headquarters of the 1st Armed Guard Division, the Führer had already turned it into his temporary command post.

Upon meeting Holz, the Führer immediately ordered him to mobilize the entire armed guard and send all troops except for the necessary garrison to Germania.

We must retake the National Broadcasting Station and the Army Headquarters building as quickly as possible and cut off the rebels' illegal broadcasts.

At the same time, the Führer ordered Holtz, the leader of the guard, to immediately begin broadcasting to the entire Teutonic Kingdom to announce that the Führer was still alive and fighting! It was NATO and that warmonger Joe who supported a small group of traitors in the Teutonic Kingdom to launch this rebellion. They brutally murdered the war hero Hermann and imprisoned government officials.

All Teutonic Army units should now be placed on high alert and remain in their barracks awaiting further orders from the Führer, while refusing any orders from the Army Command, which is now under the control of the rebels.

While Holz was broadcasting, the Führer immediately made a phone call that could determine the course of the coup at that very moment.

After a brief busy signal, the call connected, and before the other end could speak, the Führer said, "Manfred, it's me..."

(End of this chapter)