Chapter 42: Helping a Distant Friend

Seeckt glanced at Akado, smiled, and sat back down on the sofa. Now that the situation was decided, he actually felt a sense of relief.

“Do you still remember when I first brought you here?” Seeckt asked, crossing his legs with a hint of nostalgia. “Back then, you were still a…”

“Back then, I was still a captain,” Akado interjected with a smile. “You gave me a formation plan for the 1st Division, let me look at it, and then asked for my opinion. I said we should form a highly mobile mechanized division, and you agreed to give it a try.”

“But deep down, I didn’t trust mechanized divisions. The reliability of those motor vehicles and armored cars was very poor,” Seeckt said, glancing at Akado. “I agreed to let you try only because at that time, I really had no way for the Reichswehr to cope with a future war. So I let you go with a ‘let’s just try it’ attitude.”

“And the result was very satisfactory to you,” Akado laughed proudly. “I’ve said it before! In the entire Reichswehr High Command, only I am qualified for this job.”

“You did very well! Forming sniper units, developing the Gestapo, secretly executing the Operation Pluto you drafted, serving as an envoy to the Soviet Union, secretly visiting China… you completed the tasks I gave you and your own tasks very well. This is also why I couldn’t bring myself to deal with you even when you went against my wishes,” Seeckt said with a sigh.

Akado stood at attention, the heels of his leather boots clicking together with a crisp sound. He gave Seeckt a standard military salute, then bowed ninety degrees. “Thank you, General, for all your cultivation of this humble subordinate! I will inherit your will and turn the Reichswehr into the world’s number one strongest army.”

“Without my checks and balances, the Reichswehr will become your one-man show, Akado! You’d better not disappoint me,” Seeckt said, standing up. He walked over to Akado and patted his shoulder. “I am entrusting the Reichswehr to you.”

Akado nodded. “General von Seeckt, thank you for everything you have done for the Reichswehr.”

“General Hammon has followed me for many years. I hope you will treat him well,” Seeckt said, as if remembering something. He walked to his desk, picked up his fountain pen, wrote down many names and positions in a notebook, and then handed it to Akado.

He looked at Akado’s puzzled expression and smiled with the air of a good sport. “The struggle between us was for the future of the Reichswehr. Since you have won, it proves that you are the better choice! I have no blessings to give you, because after all, we were once rivals. And I really have nothing to give you as a gift, so take these.”

He pointed to the names and positions on the paper. “These are all my men. I am handing them over to you. If you don’t mind, I can call each of them to explain the situation.”

Akado burst out laughing. “General von Seeckt, I have no intention of killing you. You don’t need to hand over so much to me. You can take a week off, and then find some time to have afternoon tea with the people on this list.”

Seeckt’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re really not going to kill me? Are you that confident that I won’t make a comeback?”

“General, sir, as you said, what we were fighting for was the future of the Reichswehr. So if one day I lose, it will prove that the Reichswehr will reach a higher level under your leadership, correct?” Akado said.

Seeckt let out a breath and pointed a virtual finger at Akado. “Only today am I certain that I did not choose the wrong person.”

“I have prepared a villa for you in the suburbs of Berlin. I hope you will like it,” Akado said with a wave of his hand. “Gehr, escort General von Seeckt downstairs!”

Seeckt walked out of the office he had occupied for more than four years with a hearty laugh.

The next day, the German government announced that, in view of General von Seeckt’s reckless act of inviting the former German Imperial Crown Prince to observe a military exercise, General von Seeckt was permitted to resign and relinquish his power as Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr.

At the same time, General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord was appointed as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr, and Akado Rudolph was promoted to Major General to lead a new secret organization ordered by Hindenburg: the “Reichswehr General Staff.”

In fact, General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord was just a figurehead. All matters of the Reichswehr had to be decided by the Reichswehr General Staff before they could be implemented. The entire power of the Reichswehr had fallen into the hands of the newly promoted Major General Akado Rudolph.

The newly appointed Akado immediately ordered the promotion of Guderian to Colonel of the Reichswehr, to command the 25th Panzer Division; the promotion of Hauck to Lieutenant Colonel, to serve as the acting commander of the 1st Division; the promotion of Kluge to Lieutenant Colonel, to serve as the acting commander of the 3rd Division; the promotion of the newly joined Greater Germany Party member Brauchitsch to Colonel, to command the 4th Division. Lutz continued to command the 2nd Division, and Reo continued to command the 15th Division.

Adding in Kater, the commander of the 22nd Division which was personally formed by Akado, the Reichswehr divisions directly controlled by Akado’s faction already numbered seven, totaling over 100,000 men. He had already firmly grasped the Bavaria region, the Ruhr industrial zone, and the areas around Berlin, holding more than half of Germany in the palm of his hand.

Akado would not believe Seeckt’s one-sided words that the generals who originally supported Seeckt would switch to his side. So he transferred the generals connected to Seeckt to some insignificant posts. The most miserable was Seeckt’s die-hard loyalist, Colonel Nazmer. He was assigned to Guderian’s panzer unit to serve as a regimental commander. Guderian took “very good care” of this old superior who had once given him a hard time.

However, there were also clever men among Seeckt’s old friends. General Zeitzler applied to join the Greater Germany Party on the second day after Seeckt stepped down. His application was approved, and he was appointed commander of the 19th Division, replacing another of General von Seeckt’s old subordinates.

As for Seeckt, Akado did not let him remain idle either. He found a very suitable job for his old superior—sending this experienced general to China.

Originally, General von Seeckt was supposed to go to China in 1933. But Akado, out of national sentiment and self-interest, sent the newly retired Seeckt to China at the end of 1924. This was a full 9 years earlier than when Seeckt historically went to China.

Germany’s old friend in China, Chiang Kai-shek, was very pleased. He personally received this former Commander-in-Chief of the German Reichswehr and, after a long conversation, as if he had found a treasure, appointed Seeckt as his personal military advisor.

Akado hoped that Seeckt could help Chiang Kai-shek strengthen the Chinese army, to play a greater role in the future war of Japanese invasion, to bog down the Japanese, and to make them exhausted on the Chinese battlefield.

Of course, a single Seeckt was not enough. Akado sold a large batch of Germany’s obsolete equipment to Chiang Kai-shek, including over 2,000 bicycles discarded by the 1st Reichswehr Division.

Originally, this equipment was to be transferred to the newly formed second-line units. But Akado’s Reichswehr was in urgent need of money, so they had no choice but to sell this equipment. China got a bargain, and Germany got the urgently needed funds.

However, General von Seeckt, having gone to China ahead of schedule, also encountered unprecedented difficulties. Because of the earlier time, Chiang Kai-shek had not yet been able to control the vast majority of China, which meant Seeckt’s work could not be fully implemented. Moreover, Chiang Kai-shek was busy dealing with the warlord-partitioned Central Plains region.

Another unfavorable factor was that the Kuomintang leader, Mr. Sun Yat-sen, was critically ill at this time. However, he still accepted the invitation of Zhang Zuolin, Feng Yuxiang, and Duan Qirui to travel to Beijing to discuss national affairs. Akado knew that in a few months, this great historical figure would pass away in Beijing, plunging the land of China, which was on the verge of dawn, into a brief period of darkness.

Despite so many difficulties, Seeckt still brought many surprises to Chiang Kai-shek. With the rigor of a German soldier, he gave Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang army a brand-new look in just a few short months.

The secret plan to aid the Soviet Union also reached its peak. German engineers built two of the Soviet Union’s largest tank factories in Kiev and Minsk, and built ten large arsenals in other places to produce artillery shells and guns.

The Soviets were also very generous. They paid Germany with large quantities of oil and raw materials instead of foreign currency and even provided Germany with nearly one million tons of corn and potatoes for free. Although many farmers in their own country were still starving, it did not affect the industrial empire dreams of the Soviet high command in the slightest.

The Reichswehr itself wasn’t idle either. Akado scrimped and saved to build up a small fortune and, in one go, purchased another 30 new P-2 tanks from the MAN company. This instantly doubled the number of tanks in Guderian’s 25th Panzer Division. Although it was still not enough to meet the demand, it had at least doubled the number of tanks in the scarce armored force.

And Akado’s own White Orchid Group officially took root in the aviation industry. He established Imperial Airlines, which produced a new type of twin-propeller transport aircraft and undertook various air transport services within Germany.

However, the main business of this company was to provide training for Akado’s newly established German paratrooper units, and to be responsible for transporting Germany’s rapid assault forces and important military supplies in the event of a possible war.

While Akado was slowly reorganizing and developing the Reichswehr, his old friend Adolf Hitler was in prison compiling his oral accounts, the famous Mein Kampf. Because of his brilliant court defense and self-statement, the Nazi Party was completely transformed from a small political party into a major one.

So his life in prison was actually very free. He had a private room, which even had a bright window. He was even allowed to have visitors, and his assistants could come to his cell every day to help him write his autobiography.

He was waiting, waiting for the day he would walk out of prison. On that day, he would be reborn like a phoenix rising from the ashes, invincible.

Unfortunately, Akado was also waiting, waiting for a time to release this demon. He needed Hitler to stir up the political situation, to create an unprecedentedly good opportunity for his Greater Germany Party to emerge.