Chapter 77: The Bright and Clean Moonlight

“Major Kalck! What is the meaning of an emergency assembly of the army so late at night?” a captain on duty asked, looking with confusion at the superior officer and two soldiers who had just walked into the room.

“We are under orders to advance into the Berlin urban area and place the entire Third District under martial law,” the middle-aged officer named Major Kalck said, taking off his gloves and giving the order in an unhurried manner.

“Martial law? The Third District?” The captain looked puzzled. “I have not received any orders from division headquarters! Placing the district where the High Command is located under martial law is no small matter. I apologize for questioning you, but I must confirm this order with Division Commander Hauck!” As he said this, the captain on duty reached for the phone.

“I think there’s no need to confirm! Because I have this,” Major Kalck said with a sneer, pulling the pistol from his belt.

“You!” The captain was stunned, then put down the phone in his hand. “What are you trying to do? Surround the High Command? This is treason!”

“The Minister of Defense, Mr. Otto Gessler, has already declared Akado Rudolph a traitor! You and that fellow Hauck are finished!” Kalck said, waving the gun in his hand smugly.

The captain, seeing Kalck’s pistol waving but not pointed at him, immediately bent down to draw his own gun, his movement as fast as a meteor. He had no intention of sitting by and waiting for death. If he didn’t resist, he himself would be finished once the matter was over.

“Bang!” With a single gunshot, the captain fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. Blood flowed out, seeping into the cracks of the floorboards. Although he was fast, he was still one step too slow. Kalck’s pistol, after all, was already in his hand. In the end, he had lost.

“Long live… the Greater Germany… Party…!” the captain gasped, spitting blood as he struggled to speak. After saying this, his last ounce of strength dissipated, and he moved no more.

…

“Akado,” old Karl Benz said, seeing Akado in the reception room of the Reichswehr High Command, his face a mask of shock. “You should be in the barracks! It’s not safe here!”

“Rest assured! I have already made all the arrangements! Tonight! We will eliminate many enemies that are usually difficult to get to,” Akado said with a cold laugh. He tossed the gloves he had taken off onto the conference table, found a seat, and then looked up at Krupp, whose face was slightly pale. “Has Mrs. Krupp been taken care of?”

“I just received a call. My wife said that two companies of Reichswehr soldiers have entered the mountain villa and are protecting her and my children,” Krupp said with a slight sigh. “Can we really make it through tonight?”

“Rest assured!” Akado said with a smile. “The Greater Germany Party has two pillars. One is the support of the financial consortiums and the government, the other is the support of the Reichswehr! In the past, I relied on the power of the consortiums and the government to make the Reichswehr strong. Now the time has come when I need the Reichswehr. They will not disappoint me!”

…

The night in Berlin was peaceful and beautiful, but this peace and beauty were soon shattered. A pitter-patter sound echoed in the quiet night, clearly a large group of people in leather boots ascending a wooden staircase.

“Knock, knock, knock.” A knock sounded at the door, carrying a hint of ferocity, a hint of arrogance.

“Who is it?” a woman’s voice sounded from inside the door. “Mills isn’t home! He said he had business today and wouldn’t be back.”

“The Reichswehr is here under orders to protect your safety!” a resolute voice sounded from outside the door. “Please cooperate, madam.”

“Don’t come in! I have a gun! If you dare to make a move, I’ll shoot!” Inside the room, Mills’s old voice rang out. “By dawn, you will receive orders to withdraw! Don’t joke with your own lives! I guarantee… if you…”

Before he could finish, the sound of a new model submachine gun rang out from outside the door. “Rat-tat-tat!” With the sound of gunfire, the main door was shot to pieces.

Two soldiers in steel helmets, their gun barrels still smoking, took a step back. Three or four soldiers holding Mauser 98k rifles rushed forward, smashed open the door with their rifle butts, and then a large group of soldiers rushed into the room with their guns raised.

“Bang!” With a single shot, the revolver in the old Mills’s hand fired, hitting one of the soldiers in the arm. “You! You dare to attack a member of parliament?”

“Fire!” a Reichswehr major who had rushed into the room behind the soldiers said with a wave of his hand. “Kill this traitorous dog.”

“Rat-tat! Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!” Gunfire rang out again. Flashes lit up the window of MP Mills’s room, looking so piercingly bright in the pitch-black night.

…

“That fellow named Mills! That fellow named Block! That one named Felton! And Bastekor! Tonight, I will send people to pay them all a visit! The politicians who want to control the Reichswehr, I will purge them one by one!” Akado said coldly. As he spoke, he looked at Krupp and Karl Benz. “No one can control my Reichswehr! Just as no one can stop you from making money!”

“How will we explain tonight’s events to Hindenburg? After all, he still has a lot of influence in the Reichswehr,” Karl Benz asked.

“Explain? He won’t give me an explanation, and I don’t need to explain anything to him. The victor tonight needs no explanation, and the loser tonight won’t need one either!” Akado said, closing his eyes as if he were very tired. “We just need to wait for the result!”

Krupp’s face finally regained some color. He nodded. “That’s all we can do! We will just wait for the result.”

There was one sentence he did not say out loud—this result had two extremes: either victory, after which he would become a de facto ruler of this country and ascend to a pantheon, or failure, after which he would become a traitor to this country and be hanged by a piano wire.

…

“This is the Minister of Defense, Otto Gessler! Help me ask the district police chief, Mr. Felton! When can the operation begin?” It was already late at night in Berlin. Gessler, who had been waiting anxiously for news, asked into the phone. This was the fourth time he had picked up the phone to confirm the status of the operation.

“Mr. Gessler! This is Felton! My men are surrounding the High Command right now. In ten minutes, we can celebrate!” On the other end of the line, Felton said proudly. “Our police department has deployed all our personnel, and at least 1,000 Nazi Party Stormtroopers! The High Command’s guard battalion has always been short one company and has less than 400 men! Victory is ours for the taking!”

“This is bad!” Just as Felton was boasting, a police officer with a bandage wrapped around his head burst in. His funereal voice was clearly audible even to Gessler on the other end of the line.

“What’s all the panic! What happened?” Felton asked with a frown. “Did the surprise attack not succeed?”

The officer reported with great dejection, “The 2nd Regiment of the 1st Reichswehr Division, which was supposed to launch the attack with us, didn’t show up for some reason. What came instead was the reconnaissance training battalion of the 15th Reichswehr Division! A dozen armored cars scattered our men!”

“What?” Felton felt his vision go black, a premonition of collapse. He barely managed to steady himself and asked weakly, “What about Hitler’s Stormtroopers?”

“They are currently engaged in a firefight with the Greater Germany SS on Fourth Street. They say the other side has machine guns. The Stormtroopers have suffered heavy losses and are reorganizing their men to attack! But it’s impossible for them to break through the SS defensive line and reach the Third District in the short term,” at this point, the reporting officer was on the verge of tears. “Chief! This isn’t what was planned!”

…

“Assemble the soldiers! Say that someone is going to attack the High Command. Place the Third District of Berlin under martial law! Don’t let anyone in or out!” Kalck ordered, agitated and furious.

He could never have imagined that the plan to take over command without any effort and move the army into Berlin’s Third District to surround the High Command, which should have been so easy, had been going poorly from the very beginning. He had shot and killed a duty officer in the guardhouse, and had been forced to kill two more guards who came running at the sound of gunfire. By the time he had barely stabilized the scene, he looked at his watch and saw he was already a full hour behind schedule.

A soldier heard his command and immediately turned to go out. Before long, the soldiers of the entire barracks were dressed and assembled on the parade ground. The motor vehicles had all been driven out of the garages, the roar of their engines rising and falling. The soldiers were all checking their weapons. Some engineers were loading barbed wire and obstacles onto the trucks.

“Wooooo!” A piercing siren sounded throughout all the barracks of the 1st Reichswehr Division. This sound made Kalck instantly panic. “Damn it! Something’s about to happen!”

“Screech—!” A sharp sound came from the camp’s broadcast speakers. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked towards the speakers.

“This is Division Commander Colonel Hauck! The commander of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Reichswehr Division, Major Kalck, in collusion with treasonous members of parliament, intends to stage a mutiny and attack the Reichswehr High Command. I now order the immediate arrest of Kalck! If he resists, he may be killed! This order is to be executed immediately!”

The expressions of several of Kalck’s trusted men standing not far away froze. They dropped the cigarettes from their mouths and turned to run, but they hadn’t run two steps before they heard gunshots. Kalck shuddered and saw these few trusted men fall to the ground, contorted. One’s toes were still twitching. He immediately raised his hands high and shouted, “Don’t shoot!”

“Bang! Rat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat!” The gunfire did not stop because of his plea. Instead, it became more intense. Kalck felt as if his chest had been hit by a large hammer. He looked down and saw a dozen holes in his body, gushing pillars of blood. Then his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

…

“The 1st Reichswehr Division, because it was formed the earliest, has also been infiltrated the most by various factions! I have never dared to use this unit heavily! But after tonight, this unit will become the most elite airborne paratrooper unit in Germany! A powerful fist!” Akado stood by the window, looking at the bright and clean moonlight, and said to Krupp and Karl Benz, “After tonight, we can formally discuss the matter of entering the Parliament!”