Chapter 26: The Cannon King

“Who are you! This is German territory! You cannot enter as you please!” a Reichswehr soldier carrying a rifle said, staring deadly at the French officer standing before him. Behind him was German territory, and the large French army in front of him showed no intention of stopping.

The French officer, his hand resting on the pistol at his waist, looked smugly triumphant. “Get out of the way! We are here under orders to collect the war reparations Germany owes France. If you dare to obstruct us, we will open fire!”

As the officer’s words left his mouth, the dozen or so French soldiers behind him all took their rifles off their shoulders, aiming them at the mere three German Reichswehr soldiers at the roadblock.

The three German soldiers were just as resolute. They also raised their rifles, aimed them at the French officer, and stood motionless. “I’m sorry! Without orders, no army shall enter German territory!”

“Spare me the ‘ready-to-die’ act! I don’t believe there’s anyone who isn’t afraid of death! Get out of the way now or we’ll open fire!” the leading French officer shouted, his voice fierce but his manner betraying his nervousness. Anyone could hear the tremor in his voice.

“Click-clack!” Without a word, the three German soldiers answered the French officer with the crisp sound of their bolts being pulled back. With rounds chambered, they were ready to defend their country with their lives.

“Ring, ring, ring.” In the guardhouse by the roadblock, the telephone rang. One of the German soldiers holding a rifle ran over and picked it up. “This is Border Post 76! We were the ones who sounded the alarm! We are holding our position! … Yes, sir! The enemy has not entered our territory by a single step! … Yes, sir! Executing immediately! I repeat! Lay down our weapons and let them pass! I will execute the order immediately! Long live Greater Germany!”

Putting down the phone with some reluctance, he walked back to the roadblock with tears in his eyes. The soldier loudly issued the humiliating order: “Let them pass!”

The French were visibly relieved. As they walked past the three German border guards who still stood ramrod straight, they even lightened their steps. Tears streamed down the three soldiers’ faces, their eyes filled with hatred. They stood there like three poplar trees, tall as if fanning the wind, insurmountable.

Similar scenes occurred at several border checkpoints. The German Reichswehr, due to its own weakness, offered no resistance to the invading French army. All of France was shocked; this probing action seemed to have gone poorly from the very beginning.

“Crash!” A beautiful glass was smashed to pieces. The flames in the exquisite fireplace leaped, illuminating a twisted face. A short, middle-aged man stood before the fire, panting with rage. “This is too much! They think they’ve won? If it weren’t for those officers and politicians being so afraid of death, how could we have suffered such humiliation?”

“Calm down, Father.” A young man sat on the sofa, swirling the wine in his glass, completely unconcerned. “Let them do whatever they want. It’s not like we don’t have enough money to spend.”

A noblewoman stared at the young man who had spoken and slapped the armrest of the sofa. “Shut up! Your father has worked his heart out for this family. If it weren’t for him, it wouldn’t just be half the rooms in our mountain villa being closed off—we would be bankrupt and sleeping on the streets!”

“The Krupp factory will not perish in my hands!” the man who had thrown the glass said viciously. “Butler! Give the order! Prepare the car! Tomorrow, I will go to the factory myself!”

“Yes, Master Krupp!” The butler nodded and exited the room.

But not long after, the butler returned to the hall, bowed slightly, and whispered in the ear of the family head, Gustav Krupp, “We’ve received news from our people in the Reichswehr! The Reichswehr will support us in passive resistance and is willing to provide funds to compensate for our losses.”

“Hmm! With the support of the Reichswehr, that will be enough! It’s time for Ebert and the others in the government to have a taste of their own medicine. I, Gustav, am not someone who can be pushed around and bullied by just anyone!” Krupp said with full confidence. “That colonel named Akado who sent the plan is very interesting. I’ll meet with him when I have the chance. You arrange it.”

“Yes, my lord!” the butler said respectfully. “I’ll see to it at once.”

On March 22, 1923, the workers of the Ruhr industrial zone went on strike. The workers who did not participate also engaged in a slowdown, no longer producing military supplies for the French occupying forces. More than half of the smokestacks in the entire Ruhr industrial zone stopped smoking. The constant black smoke that had plagued the Ruhr region for years actually disappeared.

As the strike expanded, the workers even began acts of sabotage. With the secret promise of the factory officials and the strong support of the Reichswehr, the workers began to destroy some of the old industrial equipment, thwarting the French army’s attempt to continue producing military materials.

Frustrated, the French army launched retaliatory actions in a rage, arresting a large number of labor leaders and sentencing some of them to death. These actions, far from intimidating the German workers whose patriotic fervor was running high, instead made the acts of sabotage in various places even more frequent.

On Saturday, March 23, 1923, which was Easter, a large-scale conflict inevitably broke out.

A squad of French soldiers rushed into a warehouse at the Krupp factory, demanding to inspect the vehicles inside. However, this inspection did not go as smoothly as imagined.

Just as the French soldiers entered the warehouse gate of the Krupp factory, a worker spotted the squad. He quickly ran to the air-raid siren and pulled the lever.

“Wooooo…!” The piercing siren immediately echoed, and the long, sharp sound could be heard throughout the entire Krupp factory.

“The French are here to steal things again! Brothers! We must defend the fruits of our labor with our lives! We can’t let these vampires leave!” a middle-aged worker with a scar on his face shouted robustly, raising his large sledgehammer high.

An old worker wearing a monocle and suspenders angrily followed, raising his wrench and shouting in his aged voice, “We can’t let these vampires leave!”

“Don’t let these Frenchmen get away!” More voices rose up, from all directions, one after another.

People swarmed in from all sides, surrounding the French troops. At this time, Gustav Krupp was sitting in his office not far away. He listened to the siren and calmly read the newspaper, making no move to disperse the angry crowd.

The French soldiers were terrified. They had no idea that coming to inspect the vehicles at the Krupp factory would be such a difficult task. They completely lost their composure and hastily occupied a building, setting up a machine gun at the entrance in hopes of scaring off the agitated crowd. They never imagined that even more people would gather around.

But they had clearly underestimated the people’s anger. Several Krupp factory workers climbed onto the roof of the building occupied by the French, opened the steam valve of a pipe up there, and immediately, scorching hot steam filled the entire building.

The sudden steam threw the French into complete chaos. They began to open fire on the surrounding crowd, killing 13 innocent Krupp workers on the spot and injuring at least 50 others.

Not far away, a German officer stood on a high tower and lowered his binoculars. He looked at his adjutant. “Look at these French soldiers. And this is supposed to be their main force. Bicycles, horses… a single Reichswehr regiment could easily defeat this unit! Give me two regiments, and I’d even dare to annihilate it!”

His adjutant pursed his lips and said confidently, “Major Guderian, you’re being too conservative! If we follow Colonel Akado’s thinking, a single armored regiment could finish off this French army, with no losses other than artillery shells!”

Guderian smiled. “That’s enough observation of the French army for now. If they can’t pull off any more tricks, they’ll probably be packing their bags and crawling back to France in a few months!”

The next day, the infamous Bloody Saturday Easter Massacre immediately became the front-page headline in major newspapers around the world. This time, the United States and Great Britain stood with Germany. They did not want to see Germany controlled by France, so they strongly supported the German Ebert government and condemned France.

The deceased from this tragedy were hailed as martyrs throughout the nation. They received large pensions provided by the German military and the Krupp factory, and all were given honorable burials. The Krupp workers, dressed in three-button formal coats and wearing hats adorned with feathers, escorted the hearses of the deceased to their graves. The hearses were covered in flowers, and people lined the streets to bid them farewell.

Although public opinion leaned towards the victim, Germany, France stubbornly persisted. They brought Gustav Krupp to trial, a move that turned the short man into an idol and hero of the German people. The story of Gustav using his small stature to challenge the French invaders became a household tale in Germany overnight.

The French sentenced Gustav Krupp to 15 years in prison, but this immediately drew condemnation from world opinion. The British ambassador lobbied among the various political parties in France on this matter, and the pressure on French Prime Minister Poincaré instantly became immense.

In the end, it was the French who failed. Just as Akado’s plan had predicted, Krupp only spent a very short time in prison before being released by the French government, which had been battered by public opinion, under the pretext of a “Christmas amnesty.” All in all, he only sat in a prison cell for six months.

During these six months, even the Pope was pleading his case, and many international dignitaries called on the French government to release him. In the face of such a powerful outcry, Krupp’s imprisonment was almost a farce. His cell was not locked, and friends and family could visit at any time.

And while Krupp was in prison, the French military had already begun to glumly discuss proposals for withdrawing their troops from Germany’s Ruhr industrial zone.