Iron and Blood: A Triumph of the Will

The soldiers, who had been clamoring for Joachim to come out and give them an explanation, immediately fell silent and lowered their heads.

Only a few courageous officers remained, staring silently at the German prince: "We need an explanation, Your Highness."

The speaker was someone Joachim recognized; he was General Goldhart Heinrich, whom he had transferred from President Albert.

He looked to be in his thirties and wasn't very tall, but he was wearing a crisp captain's uniform.

He was indeed from a military family.

"What explanation do you want now?" Joachim asked, knowing the answer already.

"Why did Your Highness sever ties with His Majesty?" Heinrich boldly stepped forward.

Upon seeing this, the two guards behind him immediately shielded Joachim in front of them.

"What are you doing?"

Joachim rudely pushed aside the two men and faced Heydrich directly.

The situation was extremely precarious.

Wolf retreated into Joachim's shadow and silently placed his hand on his pistol.

If the other party dares to make a move, he will immediately draw his gun and shoot, taking their life...

"This matter is complicated and not easy to discuss openly."

"Please speak frankly, Your Highness, otherwise we will not know what we are fighting for."

Heinrich did not back down to Joachim; instead, he pressed on relentlessly, demanding an answer today.

Otherwise, I wouldn't know what the point of him staying here is.

"Of course, we are fighting for our country, not for the emperor."

Seeing that the other party had taken the bait, Joachim said, "I gave up this identity so that I could live as an equal with you and walk freely on German soil."

"And I must tell you this as well. I have summoned you here not for the sake of the Emperor, nor for the sake of our Hohenzollern family, but for the sake of all of Germany."

"The whole of Germany?" Heinrich paused for a moment, then couldn't help but press further, "Your Highness, do you think you can shoulder the burden of the whole of Germany at this time? You were neither famous nor outstanding during the reign of the Kaiser. In terms of status and position, it should be the Crown Prince who should bear this responsibility. After His Majesty passes away, the throne should be passed to him..."

"But he ran away like my father; he left Germany."

Upon hearing this, all the royalists fell silent.

Heinrich, in particular, was in an increasingly bad mood.

"He failed to shoulder the burden God entrusted to him; he is unworthy to be the leader of all of Germany; he is unworthy to be the savior of all of Germany."

"Do you consider yourself the new savior of this era?"

"I don't consider myself a savior." Joachim raised his right hand and made the sign of the cross on his chest. "But I feel it is necessary for me to shoulder the obligations God has given me at this time. I cannot flee Germany like my father and brothers did, like cowards. I must stay and take on the responsibilities God has entrusted to me."

"The flower of Hohenzollern will never fade!"

"Can you really see our future?" Heinrich looked at the prince before him and felt only a sense of unfamiliarity. "Peace is coming soon...we will all live good days."

"A ceasefire is not peace. If you don't believe me, you can follow me for a while."

Joachim's eyes were incredibly sincere, but his words already carried a bait: "I guarantee that an absolutely humiliating peace will be imposed upon us."

"The British and the French are sharpening their knives, ready to devour our country."

"We Germans today stand on the land of our ancestors, and we absolutely cannot sit idly by and wait for our doom."

"You might tell me, Your Highness, that I cannot disobey the government's orders, and that I cannot let my child lose his father."

"Yes, you're absolutely right. Living is perhaps too important for ordinary people."

"But what I'm about to tell you is that in these chaotic times, a humiliating peace is absolutely not true peace."

"This thing, which is more important than peace, is our backbone as Germans, and the dignity of this German land."

"If we allow you to disband today and fail to unite everyone's strength into one fist, then the Poles will take away our Silesia."

"They will divide our country in two!"

"You may not know this, but the French have already promised the Poles that they will give them access to the sea."

"Given Poland's current land area, where would this outlet to the sea be?"

"It will be in Danzig, it will be in West Prussia!"

"If we disband here today without any resistance, the next day the Poles will plant their flag on the land we are so proud of. Then they will laugh at us and say that such Germans have no backbone. We just waved our weapons and they readily ceded the land to us."

"A bunch of cowards, a bunch of spineless bastards!"

"Your Highness, please tell us, what should we do next?"

A pair of angry eyes were already fixed on Joachim; the Germans themselves are a group with very strong nationalistic sentiments.

From Fichte to the present day, they have always considered themselves to be God's favorites.

Just by being manipulated by Joachim, they were immediately united by him.

This is the situation he desperately wanted to see.

"What we need to do next is to root out those terrorists who are disrupting the government from government agencies."

"When we have consolidated our homeland, we will lead our army into Warsaw."

"Grab that ungrateful bastard, Piłsudski."

"Tell him fiercely that we have kicked those damned Polish separatists back to Warsaw."

"Silesia and Prussia will always belong to Germany!"

"Well said! Silesia and Prussia will always belong to Germany!"

"Get out, Poles!"

The crowd cheered!

Heinrich felt a surge of heat rush from his spine to the top of his head.

This was not fear of Joachim, but rather a heartfelt excitement.

This was also what he wanted to do; the betrayal by the Poles was truly infuriating.

It's worth noting that their expansion of their independent status was only possible with the support of the German Empire and the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Now, they've repaid kindness with enmity, extending their fangs into Silesia and Prussia, which is truly infuriating!

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then he probably remembered what he had just done.

He shut his mouth, his face filled with remorse.

Joachim, who had been observing the other's expression, seized the opportunity to offer a way out: "Is there anything else you want to say, Heinrich?"

"I..." The Germanic man in his thirties was too ashamed to speak, but after a moment's thought, he decided to cut to the chase: "Your Highness, please give our unit a name. Our Free Legion doesn't have one yet..."

"As for the name..." Joachim's mind raced, and after a long pause, he said, "Let's call it the Sword of Barbarossa!"