Imperial Elite

Chapter 138 Hans
The inhabitants of Germania are proud.

Among the cities of the Old World, Germania is by no means ancient.

Even without comparing it to Italy, a city that existed before the Savior walked the earth, Germania appears very young, even too young.

When the Gauls roamed the Old World with their proud Edict Knights, Germania was just an unremarkable little city, not even on the Gauls' list of must-eat Teutonic dishes.

It wasn't until the Great Emperor and his old guard swept across the Old World that Germania developed somewhat, making it onto the Gauls' Teutonic list and allowing the Great Emperor to become the first person to boast of conquering Germania.

However, as time went by and the city developed, Germania, which was re-selected as the capital by the Teutonic Kingdom, quickly became one of the largest cities in the Old World.

In the past, due to its weakness and lack of power, it was not even on the list of must-eat foods for the Gauls' Teutonic tradition. It was only after the rise of the Great Emperor that it fell once, and this "achievement" has been repeatedly mentioned after the National Socialist Party came to power.

While Germania was indeed conquered by the Gauls only once, the main reason was that Germania was too small and too poor. The Gauls' loot from one attack was not even enough to cover the cost of fodder for their horses.

But that doesn't stop the Germans from being proud of their record after they made that boast.

So what if a city is relatively young? Salzburg is ancient, with no record of being conquered. Even if the Great Emperor came to attack you, you wouldn't be conquered, but would surrender on your own.

However, since everyone's record of being conquered is the same, and it's all the same anyway, it makes perfect sense that Germania is also an invincible city.

Consider this: even during the Great War, when other parts of Teutonia were suffering from severe famine, Germania still had a supply of beer. We Germania are truly amazing! No wonder it's said that even a dog in Teutonia longs for Germania.

But that night, the residents of Germania were plunged into panic and confusion.

First, a group of people dressed as the National Defense Army suddenly set up a roadblock on the street, arrested the once arrogant members of the head of state's guard and members of the National Socialist Party, and then executed them on the street.

The broadcast was still reporting that the head of state had been kidnapped and that a new government had been formed in Teutonic.

This news reminded the old Germanians of the time when the war was nearing its end, when the emperor left Germania and the republican government was established, and the Germania city was in a similar state of affairs.

However, unlike last time, shortly after the new government issued its announcement, armed head guards in black uniforms entered Germania in tanks and armored vehicles.

What followed was a scene never before seen by the inhabitants of Germania: two armies, each bearing the Germanic cross, fought a desperate battle in Germania.

Shouts of "Long live the Führer!" and "Long live the Teutons!" echoed throughout Germania amidst the booming cannons and incessant gunfire, and the fires ignited by the shelling illuminated the entire country.

The war was not only raging inside the German city, but also outside it.

Holtz had just left his post to inspect the blockade line when his troops were attacked.

The enemy's firepower was so intense and their shooting so accurate that, if it weren't for the lack of Wagner's rocket launchers, Holz would have thought he was being attacked by Wagner's paratroopers.

Fortunately, as the Führer's Guard Division, Holtz possessed equipment that was considered luxurious even by the standards of armored divisions in the Wehrmacht.

After being repeatedly reprimanded by Joe, Erich's armored divisions became tough and resilient, and even his reconnaissance units went so far as to fully mechanize themselves.

As the head of state's personal guard, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler's equipment was even more luxurious.

During the border conflict between the Russian military government and the People's Revolutionary Union, Erich found that the role of light tanks was rather awkward.

Firstly, tanks are inherently not very good at seeing, and secondly, due to their limited tonnage, they lack both powerful cannons and robust defenses.

Basically, they can only bully light infantry that lack anti-tank capabilities, but the People's Revolutionary Alliance's light infantry is not lacking in anti-tank capabilities.

During the protracted border conflict, the People's Revolutionary Alliance's troops were not only equipped with a large number of anti-tank guns, but even each infantry squad had a dedicated anti-tank gunner.

With an anti-tank rifle in hand, they could shoot tanks above and infantry below. From machine gun positions to armored vehicles, there was no target these anti-tank gunners couldn't hit.

Therefore, Erich halted the development of light tanks early on. While replacing light tanks with tracked armored vehicles, he also developed Teutonic tanks that were heavier and larger, capable of breaking through defenses like the super-heavy tanks in the last war, as well as medium tanks that were fast, powerful, and had usable armor.

However, a typical tank division only has one or two heavy tank battalions, which are used as the spearhead for breaking through the defenses.

The tank configuration of the SS Vanguard was luxurious, half heavy tanks and half medium tanks filling the front line.

Although the mechanized infantry riding in armored vehicles suffered heavy losses in the first wave of attacks.

However, the tank units did not suffer significant losses. Although visibility was poor for both heavy and medium tanks at night, they were still able to return fire at the direction of the fires in the woods, thanks to their thick armor.

Thanks to the thick armor of the armored units, Holz's troops, after the initial panic, began to stabilize the battle line and even began to attempt a counterattack.

Joe, who had been keeping a close eye on the situation in Berlin from Bohemia, also received a message from the Kremlin.

Following the bloody battle of the Rhine, Joe further reconciled with the People's Revolutionary Union, and the two sides also established an emergency communication channel.

There was no way around it; in the south of the People's Revolutionary Union, the conflict between the Lucia military government and them almost never stopped.

To maintain this long front from Vinnytsia to the Caucasus region, the People's Revolutionary Union needed to maintain a large force.

After the Battle of the Rhine, facing the Teutonic Knights who were rapidly rebuilding their military strength, George faced the same predicament as the People's Revolutionary League: the front lines were too long and the troops were insufficient, so he could only shorten the front lines as much as possible and concentrate his forces.

Thus, under the cold reality, Joe, who originally came here to isolate the leftist plague in the East, reached a reconciliation with the People's Revolutionary Alliance.

However, while a reconciliation was reached, it was not a complete reconciliation.

Because on the Polish issue, Joe shared the same desire as the People's Revolutionary Union, hoping to bring Poland into their camp. Even if they couldn't bring Poland into their camp, they couldn't let Poland side with others.

The People's Revolutionary Union (PRU) hopes that Poland will side with them, so that the PRU can not only instantly restore land links with Upper Silesia, but also transfer their influence to the core of the Old World.

Joe hoped that Polande would side with him so that NATO could establish land links with Bohemia, which at that time had the strongest industrial and military power in NATO.

Similarly, for the Teutons, if Poland were to side with them, they would be able to completely sever Bohemia's connection with NATO while also opening up a land route to Upper Silesia.

Even if Poland doesn't side with them, as long as Poland remains neutral, the Teutons can shorten a long front in the East, thus saving a lot of troops.

However, although Joshua and the People's Revolutionary Union (PRU) have almost irreconcilable differences on the Polish-German question, they share the same views on the Teutonic question.

The Teutons cannot be allowed to continue expanding like this. If they continue to change the status quo, the Teutons who could single-handedly challenge the entire Old World before the Great War will eventually reappear. Therefore, when the Berlin Crisis broke out, the Kremlin quickly received the intelligence. However, even with the intelligence, the Kremlin, being far away, could do nothing. So the People's Revolutionary Union chose to deliver the news about Germania to Joe through the communication channel.

The meaning is very simple: as the number one villain in the Old World, don't you want to do something now?

Two years ago you were able to airdrop troops into the Rhineland, so why can't you airdrop troops into Germania now?

Theoretically, Joe could indeed airdrop troops into Germania, which would not have been much more difficult than the airdrop into the Rhineland.

Even after bringing Wagner to Bohemia, Wagner's paratroopers remained in a state of combat readiness, ready to carry out airborne missions and launch a surprise attack on the Teutonic forces from behind.

However, although Joe received the message from the Kremlin and had the ability, he dared not act rashly.

In addition to the message from the Kremlin, Joe also received a message from the delegation.

After launching the coup, in addition to purging Nazi Party members throughout Germania, the Royalists also made diplomatic statements. As for Old Joe, while they promised to resolve the issue through diplomatic means, they also indicated that...

If Joe dares to intervene, then the Royalists have backbone! They can lose, but old Joe cannot win.

Faced with such a statement from the Royalists, although they could be parachuted into Germania at any time, it would be meaningless to parachute into Germania now.

It simply means that either side in this coup will declare that the other is colluding with Wagner.

As for taking advantage of the Teutonic strife to launch an attack from Bohemia and directly invade Germania?

Joe sighed and sat down in the chair at the command post.

"I hope the royalists will win."

All night long, the sounds of artillery fire and gunfire in Germania never ceased.

As dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight touched the Germanic land, the sound of airplane engines filled the sky.

A dense swarm of planes, like a flock of migrating birds, arrived over Germania.

Migrating flocks of birds, passing through cities, leave at most a little droppings, but the arrival of these aircraft leaves behind a much more intense mess than the birds.

With the sharp whistling of the planes as they swooped down, bombs were dropped by air force pilots onto the royalist positions.

After a night of fighting, the Teutonic air force's terrifying bombing raids completely ended the royalist resistance.

After repeated bombing raids by the aircraft, nearly half of Germania was destroyed.

The guards that had been blocking the city began to enter Germania in large numbers, and this time only the occasional gunshots from the ruins, like the heartbeats of dying people, proved that there was still resistance.

The air force's attacks were not limited to the city; the paratroopers who had been fighting Holz for most of the night outside the city were now at their end.

Even the most elite paratroopers couldn't withstand a 500-pound aerial bomb falling from the sky, and were caught in a violent explosion.

The paratroopers' defenses first wavered, and then completely collapsed.

Although the paratroopers continued to fight desperately after the defenses collapsed, as the sun illuminated the earth, the heavy tanks, no longer blind, began to advance with a rumble.

According to the leader's orders, all rebels must be executed without mercy or any pity.

So, as they advanced, the guards would fire a final shot at the bodies of the fallen paratroopers as they passed by.

As the tracks advanced, the paratroopers' last resistance was quickly crushed.

Perhaps out of curiosity, or perhaps out of the pride of a victor, after crushing the paratroopers' last line of defense, Holtz got off his heavy tank and came to the position the paratroopers were defending.

The guards leading Holtz had already cleared the area before Holtz entered the position. Under the fire of pistols and submachine guns, most of the survivors in the position were shot in the process.

Except for the colonel who looked like the commander of the paratroopers.

"Hans?"

Holtz frowned as he looked at Hans, who had lost an arm, was covered in mud, and was leaning against the foxhole, seemingly on his last breath.

"It is you……"

Hans noticed a faint smile, or perhaps not a smile, appearing on Holz's face.

"Are you prepared to offer my head as a reward to your leader?"

Faced with Hans's taunts, Holz drew his pistol and pointed it at his old superior and friend. Looking at Hans, whose gaze was calm, Holz placed his finger on the trigger and softly asked, "Why?"

"why?"

With a deathly pale face and barely breathing, Hans muttered softly, "Of course, it's from you bunch of madmen that the country will be saved..."

Before Hans could finish speaking, Holz pulled the trigger.

With Hans's body lying in the ground, Holz frantically pulled the trigger until the empty pistol made a crisp "click-click" sound.

Holz took one last look at Hans's body, then turned and left the foxhole.

"Cremate everything, scatter the ashes into the river, leave nothing behind."

"Yes!"

While the armored soldiers dragged the paratroopers' bodies together and began dousing them with gasoline, Holtz returned to his tank.

Taking a deep breath, and amidst the morning smell of burning gasoline, Holz began to hum "Ride of the Valkyries."

(End of this chapter)