Chapter 30: Who Dies, and Who is Reborn

In the middle of the night, at the home of President Ebert, a dull cracking sound broke the silence as two Reichswehr soldiers in leather boots smashed open the main door.

Subsequently, a dozen more Reichswehr soldiers rushed into Ebert’s home with their guns raised, surrounding the shocked President Ebert and his family in the center of the room.

Akado, using his gloved hand to pat the crease on his left trouser leg, walked into Ebert’s living room with a smile on his face. He glanced at Ebert and said with a grin, “Hello, former President Ebert. You are under arrest!”

“Bastard! Do you know what you’re saying? This is a coup! This is an attack on the President of Germany! What you are doing is treason!” Ebert’s face was ashen. He stared deadly at Akado and said, furious.

“What a coincidence,” Akado burst out laughing. “Ebert, the crime you yourself have committed is treason! And you have the nerve to frame me with that same charge?”

“Me, treason? How could I possibly commit treason?” Ebert denied it with a sneer. “This is slander! A shameless excuse for a coup!”

“Then what about you and Secretary Seaman making phone calls to the Allied Military Control Commission in the dead of night to tip them off? Can you explain that to me, Mr. Ebert?” Akado chose a sofa, sat down, and asked with his legs crossed.

“Tipping them off? Oh, right, it was I who tipped them off! But I did not betray Germany! The ones who betrayed Germany are you! You despicable Reichswehr!” Ebert said viciously. “It is you who have made all of Germany so impoverished! You are nothing but a group of selfish vampires!”

He took a furious step forward, shaking off his wife’s hand as she tried to pull him back, and roared with rage, “The German Mark has already devalued to this state! Yet you continuously increase your military spending! You are extravagant, purchasing gasoline-guzzling vehicles and secretly funding the development of new weapons! I’ve had enough of you! That is why, for the future of Germany, I reported the Reichswehr!”

He held his head high and looked at Akado without fear. “Especially you! You violated the Treaty of Versailles to expand the Reichswehr for your own ulterior motives! You are sentencing Germany’s economy to death! Your damned Operation Pluto makes me sick! I wish I could hang you from a lamppost!”

He continued his tirade, “As long as the Allied Military Control Commission catches the Reichswehr red-handed, they can enforce their supervision more strictly! The Reichswehr will be forced to abandon those exaggerated plans for rearmament and war preparation! That way, the government will have more money to build our country!”

Akado gave a cold laugh. “Heh heh, but the Allied Military Control Commission did not succeed. And it led to the unexpected Ruhr industrial zone tragedy, causing the entire nation of Germany to suffer unprecedented losses! And that makes you a traitor to the country!”

“I do not plead guilty! These crimes are all yours! It was you, Akado, who committed them! If you hadn’t secretly expanded the Reichswehr, there wouldn’t be so many problems!” Ebert screamed hysterically.

“You’re wrong! All of this would have happened anyway, because Germany’s fragile military strength is not enough to defend its own country! That is why we suffer today’s humiliation! But I am planning our revenge! On that point, you can rest assured,” Akado said, standing up.

“You! You bastard! I want to see Seeckt! He will not let you run wild!” Ebert shouted.

Akado walked over to Ebert’s side, leaned in close to his ear, and whispered, “I embezzled a portion of public funds to purchase a dozen companies. The monthly profit of nearly a million is used to support an even more secret Reichswehr expansion plan. Not even Seeckt knows about it. One day, Germany will become strong, the number one power in the world.”

Ebert was stunned. He then looked at Akado with an expression of disbelief. “Tell me, are you really doing all of this for Germany?”

Akado nodded. “You are about to die. There is no need for me to lie to a dead man. Everything… is for the birth of a superpower.”

After speaking, Akado took a few steps back, waved his hand, and gave the order, “Fire.”

“Akado! You devil! You devil who will destroy Germany! One day you will be hanged by the German people!” Ebert watched in horror as the surrounding soldiers raised their rifles, pulled back the bolts, and took aim at him.

No one spoke. The second was terrifyingly quiet. “Bang!” The first shot rang out, followed closely by the second, then the third, the fourth, until finally there was a dense barrage of gunfire, impossible to count how many shots were fired.

In the dead of night on November 7, 1923, the President of Germany, Friedrich Ebert, was secretly executed in his home by the Reichswehr. He and his wife died together on their living room sofa, sustaining a total of 25 gunshot wounds.

Akado walked over to Ebert’s corpse and reached out to close his eyes. “I’m sorry. No one can stop the revival of Germany. Rest in peace. In your next life, do not be my enemy.”

Walking out of Ebert’s home, Akado got into Gehr’s car. “To Field Marshal Hindenburg’s place. Drive!”

Late at night, the German Army Field Marshal, Paul von Hindenburg, who was resting in his bed, was awakened by his aide. He was told that a colonel named Akado Rudolph had come to visit and claimed the matter was urgent and that he must see Hindenburg.

Originally, the aide was going to send this lowly army colonel away. But when he saw the truck following Akado’s car, and the at least 20 fully armed soldiers jumping out of it, he wisely abandoned the thought of chasing Akado away.

“Akado, I remember you! It was I who nominated you for your promotion to Colonel. It seems no one has taught you any manners recently! Do you not know that it is a very impolite thing to disturb an old field marshal in the middle of the night?” Hindenburg grumbled.

Frankly, from what Akado knew of Hindenburg’s life, the most glorious moments of his life were already over. The days of his brilliant cooperation with Ludendorff, where they influenced the outcome of the First World War, were gone forever. The Hindenburg of now was more of a symbol, a symbol representing the transitional era between the old and new Germany.

“Field Marshal! It is because President Ebert has betrayed the Reichswehr and sold out his own fatherland that I have rushed here in the middle of the night to disturb you! My sincerest apologies!” Akado stood before Hindenburg, a look of deep pain on his face.

“What? You woke me up in the middle of the night just to tell me a joke? Ebert betrayed the Reichswehr? Sold out his own fatherland? Do you know that speaking nonsense can cost you your head?” Hindenburg was stunned, then frowned and said, “Boy! This is not the way to get promoted and rich! Get out!”

“Field Marshal! President Ebert betrayed the Reichswehr and obstructed the implementation of Operation Pluto! The evidence is conclusive! General von Seeckt approved my arrest of Ebert. Just now, I went under orders, but he and his family resisted arrest! He and his wife have now been shot and killed,” Akado said with his head bowed. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead. The outcome of the most important gamble of his life depended on Field Marshal Hindenburg’s answer in the next second.

Perhaps because the amount of information was too great, Hindenburg sat there in silence for several seconds before slowly rising to stare at Akado. He frowned, his gaze unwavering, as if trying to see through to Akado’s true thoughts. After a while, he finally spoke. “You gave the order to kill the nation’s president?”

“No, Field Marshal! I gave the order to kill a traitor to the German people!” Akado said solemnly.

“Then what do you have to say for yourself now?” Hindenburg asked, looking at Akado again. “Want me to commend you for this operation? Promote you for killing the president?”

“Field Marshal, I know you have been preparing to run in the next presidential election. The Reichswehr will fully support you. By tomorrow morning, you will control all of Berlin. All of Germany will welcome the inauguration of their new president, Field Marshal Hindenburg!” Akado said, standing at attention and saluting.

This time, the silence lasted for a full ten minutes. Hindenburg sat back down on the sofa, stroking his chin in serious thought. Ebert was already dead. The vacant presidential seat was now his for the taking. Dealing with the colonel before him would do him no good. Winning over this pragmatic young man seemed to be the more profitable choice.

“Can I trust you, Colonel Akado?” Just as Akado thought he was about to be dragged out and shot, Hindenburg finally asked.

Akado didn’t speak. He walked over to the telephone beside Hindenburg, picked it up, and said loudly, “Get me the 15th Division headquarters… Reo! This is Akado! Order the troops to take control of Berlin! Field Marshal Hindenburg is the new president of Germany!”

Hindenburg straightened the military uniform on his body and looked at Akado with a smile. “Ebert’s death must be kept secret! I will speak to Seeckt on your behalf. Nothing will happen to you! Starting today, you will report directly to me.”

Akado smiled. He knew he had won his bet. This action had put Hindenburg in the president’s seat two years ahead of schedule. The price was that Seeckt would no longer value him. The reward was that he had gained more independent room to develop.

On the morning of November 8, 1923, the Reichswehr and several key government officials released a piece of news: the President of Germany, Friedrich Ebert, had been attacked by the German Communist Party on the night of the 7th. Both President Ebert and his wife were killed.

Subsequently, the German government announced an emergency plan, appointing the highly respected former German Army Field Marshal, Paul von Hindenburg, as the President of Germany, effective immediately.

Seeckt received the news of President Ebert’s death in his office. He smashed his favorite coffee cup and cursed Akado for half an hour. But when Hindenburg’s private secretary arrived and relayed Hindenburg’s support for Akado, Seeckt had no choice but to issue an order, putting Akado in charge of forming the new 22nd Reichswehr Division near Berlin.

Just as Akado, filled with satisfaction, was dragging his exhausted body back to his apartment, an unexpected guest knocked on his door.

“Who is it?” Akado asked, motioning for Gehr to get the door.

“I have come to seek refuge with you, Colonel Akado Rudolph!” The man standing outside the door said with a smile as soon as it was opened.