Chapter 78: Harmony and Discord

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” A frantic and brutal knocking on the door. “Open up! We are the Reichswehr! The former Minister of Defense, Gessler, is suspected of corruption and treason. We are under orders to bring him back to assist in the investigation! Open the door, now!”

Outside the door, a dozen or so Reichswehr soldiers stood menacingly, holding submachine guns and rifles. They were not here to arrest Gessler; the order they had received was to kill him on the spot.

The knocking continued for a while, but still, no one came to open the door. The people outside clearly lost their patience. They kicked open the flimsy wooden door and rushed into the house with their weapons raised. What they saw was Gessler’s already cold body, hanging from a beam in the ceiling.

His wife was already dead in the bed, vomit clogging her nasal passages. Her face was blue-black; it seemed she had died of poisoning. Judging by the suicide note on the coffee table in front of the sofa, the former Minister of Defense had poisoned his wife and then hanged himself.

…

“Bastekor!” An SS officer stood with his hands behind his back in front of a man in a suit who was hugging his wife and two children, cowering against a wall. The officer said smugly, “You have been accused of betraying the Greater Germany Party. You are now relieved of your position as the head of the Third District of Berlin for the Greater Germany Party! Do you have anything to say?”

“I am the true patriot! You bunch of stupid pigs! Sooner or later, Akado will drag Germany into the abyss of war! The German people will bleed dry! He is a devil through and through! Don’t be deceived by him anymore!…” Bastekor screamed hysterically.

“It seems you have nothing to say then,” the SS officer said with a sneer, raising his arm. “Long live the Greater Germany Party! Long live Akado Rudolph!”

“Wait! Let my wife and children go! They are innocent!” Bastekor cried out in anguish.

“Fire!” The officer held his chin high, ignoring Bastekor’s shouts.

“Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang-bang!” A line of soldiers in black SS uniforms beside the officer raised their rifles and pulled their triggers without the slightest hesitation.

…

“Ring! Ring! Ring!” The telephone rang incessantly, but no one picked up the receiver. Several Reichswehr soldiers were rummaging through things everywhere. On the floor lay a man who had died with his eyes wide open. This man was wearing the uniform of a police chief, but on his chest were three conspicuous, bloody bullet holes.

On the other side, an officer was holding another telephone, reporting to the other end, “Yes! That’s right! Felton has been killed! As he was dying, he said he was under the orders of the Minister of Defense, Gessler! Yes! That’s what he said! En! Yes! He did not mention a person named Block! But our men are searching his office for evidence now. Yes, sir! I will give you an update later! Long live the Greater Germany Party! Long live Akado Rudolph!”

Putting down the receiver, this Reichswehr officer immediately gave an order, “Search carefully! Do not miss any suspicious evidence! Felton is guilty of treason! All evidence of his crimes must be found! Quick!”

…

“General Block, your crime of colluding with the Stormtroopers in an attempt to attack the Reichswehr High Command has been confirmed. Do you have any last words?” Reinhard Heydrich said, taking off his slanted greatcoat cap and placing it on the coffee table in front of him. He sat down on the sofa with a thud and asked the old man standing before him.

“Young man! When I was commanding troops in the last war, you were still using a pencil stub to do addition and subtraction! Watch your tone!” the old general said arrogantly. “You are not from the government, nor are you from the military. You have no right to dispose of me!”

As he spoke, he pointed to the various medals hanging on his uniform. “I fought for His Majesty the Emperor! The old Field Marshal, Lord Hindenburg, will understand my actions!”

“En! I believe what you say!” Reinhard pulled at the leather glove on his middle finger, took it off, and casually tossed it next to the cap on the coffee table. He nodded and said, “That is why I came personally! To finish you.”

“Kill me? It’s just killing a peace-loving German! In the end, tens of thousands of peace-loving Germans will stand up! They will eat your flesh! Drink your blood!” old General Block said furiously. “You are destroying the peace we won!”

Reinhard looked at Block with some contempt. “The peace you won? You allowed the German people to suffer humiliation, in exchange for your own ignoble survival! We do not need pity and cowardice! We should practice an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!”

“Fool! With the strength of Germany alone challenging the world, we will ultimately be defeated! Ultimately be completely destroyed! When the German nation no longer exists in this world, what will you sinners use to repent?” Block asked fiercely.

“So what you mean is, the German people should live humbly under the crotch of the enemy?” Reinhard retorted.

“At least they would still be alive! That is what’s most important!” Block said with a sigh.

“To live without a soul is worse than to die for victory,” Reinhard said, his eyes narrowing.

“History will prove that I am right, you idiot!” Block roared.

“But tomorrow, the German people will make their own choice,” Reinhard said with a smile.

Block was taken aback, confused. “What?”

“The Greater Germany Gazette will ask all the German people tomorrow: will they choose to have General Akado, who single-handedly revised the ‘New Versailles Treaty,’ hand over his power, or will they choose to have the government that signed the Treaty of Versailles be replaced!”

As he spoke, Reinhard pulled out the Luger pistol from his waist. “It’s a pity you won’t be able to see it!”

“Bang!” A gunshot split the sky.

…

At the presidential palace, in the President’s office, an adjutant was reporting the night’s developments to the half-asleep President Hindenburg. “Mr. President, ‘Operation Star of Sleep’ has failed! There is fighting all over Berlin right now! It’s very unsafe outside! The citizens are in a panic! Also, we just received news! The Minister of Defense, Otto Gessler, has been confirmed to have committed suicide in his home!”

“Ring! Ring! Ring!” The phone on Hindenburg’s desk happened to ring. Hindenburg’s secretary picked it up and asked in a low voice, “This is the President’s office… May I ask who you’re looking for…”

“Hindenburg! Get President Hindenburg on the phone! This is Biel! They are right outside my house! Get Hindenburg on the phone, quick! Ah!” An anxious cry for help came from the other end of the line. A gunshot was heard, followed by the scream of the man named Biel. Then the phone just went to a busy signal.

The secretary put down the receiver, his face somewhat pale. He walked straight to Hindenburg’s side and shook his head at him. “A call from Mr. Biel. He may already be…”

“Akado is much more formidable than I thought,” an old man of about sixty, who had been standing behind Hindenburg, lamented. “If we do not compromise with him, it will trigger more bloodshed! Germany will be plunged into endless civil strife.”

Without answering the slightly plump old man’s words, Hindenburg sighed and said to himself, “Wilhelm, what time is it? Is it almost dawn?”

The man in his sixties nodded. “It’s already three in the morning. The sky should be brightening soon!”

“When the sky brightens, the light will come,” Hindenburg nodded, sighed, and said, “Groener! Our time has already passed… but I always feel… that our glory was just like yesterday!”

He stood up and looked at his secretary. “Call the Reichswehr High Command! I want to have a few words with General Akado.”

…

On the streets in the early morning, the newsboys who had gotten up early to pick up newspapers to sell everywhere stared in horror at the scene before them—although they had heard dense gunshots and the screams of people being hit last night, when they truly saw this scene, they were still completely and utterly terrified.

Hundreds of bodies lay scattered in the middle of the street. The cracks between the paving stones were filled with bright red blood. Most of the glass windows on the streets on both sides were shattered, and bullet holes, still emitting a wisp of blue smoke, could be clearly seen on the walls.

People in black SS uniforms stood by the walls on both sides of the street, carrying rifles. Some were still holding their guns and observing their surroundings, but more were dragging the bodies dressed in the brown uniforms of the Stormtroopers, throwing them onto a truck parked not far away. And around the truck were Reichswehr soldiers in grey-green uniforms.

These little newsboys carefully passed by this place, walked to the entrance of the Greater Germany Gazette newspaper office behind it, and from there received stack after stack of freshly printed newspapers, still smelling of ink. They saw clearly the headline in extra-large font on them: What is Your Choice!

This question, along with the sunrise, spread like sunlight through the streets and alleys of Germany, and also struck the heart of every German like a great hammer. What to choose? To choose the politicians who claimed to be for peace but sold out their own people, or to choose General Akado Rudolph, who had been constantly striving for the rise of Germany?

“Akado! You’ve won again! I really want to watch you walk this path step by step! I want to know how far you can go while facing the challenges from your own people and dealing with our obstruction,” Colonel Grudo said, tossing the Greater Germany Gazette‘s newspaper aside. He took a sip of coffee from the table and lamented, “But you truly make me feel it’s incredible! You now have status, money, and power. Why do you still work so hard to expand the Reichswehr? Do you really want to start another war?”

…

“Let Groener take the new Minister of Defense position! I will cooperate with you and announce that parliamentary elections will begin immediately!” Hindenburg said into the telephone receiver.

“No problem, Mr. President! I’ve said it before! The Reichswehr stands on your side!” Akado replied from the other end of the line.