Iron and Blood: A Triumph of the Will

Joachim and his men used thugs to occupy a small village. He didn't have much time left in Posen. Although the Polish forces there had been eradicated, there were still many hidden forces remaining in the village. Ludwig's next task was to completely eliminate these people so that they would not dare to vote for the Poles.

"Your Highness, everything is ready."

Tepkamer watched Joachim walk up the stairs and nodded softly, "What we need to do next is wait here until the Poles take the bait."

How many people do you think will vote for Poland?

Joachim smiled.

"There will probably be many people."

As the governor here, Tepkamer naturally knew how cunning the Poles were and how much they wanted to break away from German rule: "The Poles are not easy to assimilate; they are cunning, barbaric, and do not understand German."

"I remember that the Kingdom of Prussia implemented compulsory education here, so German should be the common language."

"Your Highness, you will never know how difficult it is for a place to promote a language."

"Moreover, Polish is not a language of ours."

"But I also know a little Polish."

"That's because you received a good education from a young age, while most Poles here can't continue their education after primary or junior high school because they have to farm."

"Farming?"

"In a sense, this region is highly intertwined with our homeland because every year a large number of Poles work for German landowners, namely the Junker officers. As you know, the Junker officers own a lot of land in the east, whether it is East Prussia or Posen. Their land accounts for the vast majority in these places. The nobles do not engage in agricultural production; they only enjoy the land and do not engage in commercial production. Therefore, in order to take care of these large amounts of land, they need a large number of Polish laborers."

"This is why a large number of Poles cross the border every year to work for German landowners. Because of this, they can understand some German, but they hate the Germans to the core because they believe that the Germans have seized their land."

"Are you trying to get me to implement land reform here?" Joachim asked, sounding somewhat uncomfortable. "That's a difficult thing. Many German officers own land here, and they are the backbone of our army."

"But without reforms, Germany's domestic agriculture will not be able to develop."

"You should know that the reason why food prices in Germany have remained high for so long is because His Majesty the Emperor is under pressure from the domestic nobles and dares not lift the tax. They are afraid that cheap food will flood the German domestic market and cause food prices to plummet."

"I knew this would bankrupt the German nobility, so they put pressure on my father."

"To ensure extremely high food prices, right?"

"You're right. If you really want Germany to develop well, you should let external food supplies impact German agriculture."

"Only by readjusting Germany's land distribution model in this way can a state of self-sufficiency be achieved."

"Can such land really be self-sufficient?" In Joachim's mind, Germany's agricultural self-sufficiency rate was only around 80%. He believed that the remaining 20% ​​gap could not be filled except by further expansion into Poland. Even with land reform, the agricultural provinces that Germany could develop had already reached their limit, at most reaching 85%. Such food would still require external land supply.

"As long as you don't give up, there will always be more solutions than problems."

"You know, this anticipated battle exposed our weaknesses, and if we don't want to show our wounds to the world, we have to do it."

"Doing so would cause me to lose the support of German officers, which would harm their interests."

"Then Your Highness can seek compensation from other sources."

"As you said, we cannot drive all the Poles off our land because that would create a labor shortage."

"So what we need to do with those Poles is to both punish them and win them over."

"..." Joachim remained silent, avoiding answering the question.

But the other man's gaze remained fixed on him. After a long silence, Joachim spoke: "You yourself are a nobleman. What benefit do you gain from doing this? This is undoubtedly harming your interests."

"My ancestors were indeed nobles, but we have transformed. I am a career bureaucrat, not a military noble in the traditional sense."

Tepkamer pointed to himself, gesturing for Joachim to walk forward with him.

"So harming their interests will not actually affect me personally."

"I didn't do this before because the empire hadn't collapsed, but now that the empire has collapsed, I have nothing to worry about anymore."

"You're really harming others without benefiting yourself!" Joachim nodded calmly. "But I need a sword like yours in my hands."

"Whether it's a sharp sword or not, let's get through this crisis first." Topkapi pointed out the window: "Look, our actors have arrived..."

Joachim followed the direction of his finger and looked out the window, where he saw a large group of people with various national flags on their clothes.

Some of them rode in Mercedes-Benz cars, while others rode in American-made sedans; they were all dressed smartly.

He appears to be a true Allied official, but deep down he reveals the despicable nature of a petty person.

The camera zooms out, and in Joachim's eyes, the group of men in suits are looking around furtively, showing no trace of the demeanor of high-ranking officials.

In addition to these, various soldiers dressed in Allied uniforms emerged from the nearby jungle.

They were holding rifles, looking like they wanted to kill.

"The actors you hired to simulate the referendum look so fake."

Focusing his gaze on the "thieves," Joachim felt a headache coming on.

How did this German governor end up with such a bunch of cowards?

He doesn't look like a high-ranking Allied official at all!

"The important thing isn't that they look like us, but that they're disgusting and repulsive enough." Tepkamer was completely confident. "Your Highness, the first thing you should know is that getting the Poles to vote for us isn't the most important thing, but rather instilling a genuine fear of us. That's what's truly important."

"What do you mean?"

"Anyone who votes for us now is a friend."

"We will treat them all leniently."

"Anyone who votes against us will be eliminated."

"Once we've purged the first wave of die-hards, we'll infiltrate their ranks and divide them."

"Then we'll have a second round of voting, eliminate another wave of die-hards, and then give them some benefits."

"This way, we can divide another group of people, and the last small group of die-hards will be easier to deal with."

"This cycle continues until they become completely numb."

"Isn't this just the story of 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'?"