The Rise of the Third Reich

On November 25, 1917, Hersmann, Chloe and Karl Stockhausen left Petrograd by train. Near Petrograd under Bolshevik rule, the railways were already barely functional. Hessman and three other people occupied a carriage, and he and Chloe sat facing each other by the window. Stockhausen sat at the door, fiddling with a scimitar with a walrus ivory handle and a gilded scabbard that Hersmann had given him - Hessmann had bought it for twenty gold marks. This knife, if the thick layer of gold plated on the scabbard were scraped off, would definitely be heavier than a gold mark coin (face value of 20 marks)!

Elsewhere in the carriage, most of the chairs had been temporarily removed, and the empty space was filled with antiques purchased by Hersman—mainly furniture and pianos wrapped in blankets and secured with ropes. . Of course, the blankets they're wrapped in are antiques, too. The prices of these antiques are astonishingly cheap. They only cost 3,000 gold marks in total, which is equivalent to more than 700 and less than 800 US dollars!

If they were shipped to Zurich, they could be sold for thirty to forty times the price! If you sell it in Berlin, you can get an increase of more than ten or twenty times. Even if all transportation and tariffs are deducted, you will still get a pretty good profit.

Just when Hersman was planning to set up a company to specialize in the trading of Russian antiques. The train had passed through Pskov and stopped at a small train station 20 kilometers west of the city. It is close to the ceasefire line between the Russian and German armies - one day ago, Soviet Russia and the German-Austrian Alliance held negotiations on a temporary armistice, and the two sides signed a 28-day armistice agreement. It was also stipulated that peace negotiations would be held in Brest-Litovsk on October 10. So at this time, there was no sound of gunfire on the Pskov front line, and even railway traffic was barely restored thanks to the efforts of German engineers.

The German Eastern Front Headquarters had long known about the arrival of a magical captain who contributed to the Bolsheviks coming to power and the armistice negotiations. Hersmann's emperor fan even personally called Prince Leopold, the commander-in-chief of the German Army on the Eastern Front, and asked him to send this legendary German hero to Berlin as quickly as possible.

Prince Leopold sent his adjutant, a serious and thin captain with a bitter face, to greet Hersmann at the small station closest to the front line with some condolences. When this thirty-year-old superior walked into the carriage where Hessman was sitting, he was immediately stunned by the scene in front of him - where did the good things in this carriage come from? Could this "Magical Captain" have taken advantage of the chaos and robbed the Catherine Palace?

"Captain? Are you..." Hessman was not wearing a military uniform, so he did not give a military salute to the visitor, but politely extended his right hand.

"Oh," the captain reacted, stretched out his hand to shake Hessmann's hand, and then introduced himself: "I am Captain Franz Halder, the military adjutant of His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front."

It turned out to be the future Army Chief of Staff of the Third Reich! A great military strategist, but unfortunately Hitler did not listen to his advice and dismissed him from his post during the Battle of Stalingrad (Halder believed that the German army could not win at Stalingrad). Later he was involved in a conspiracy against Hitler and was imprisoned in a concentration camp. After Germany was defeated, he continued to be imprisoned as a war criminal...

Hersmann, thinking about Halder's tragic fate of being imprisoned, introduced himself: "Captain, I am Captain Ludwig von Hersmann, and I have been ordered to return to Berlin from Petrograd." He also pointed out Pointing to Karl and Chloe, "They are my assistants, Karl Stockhausen and Chloe von Heinsberg."

That was all he could say. Halder didn't ask any more questions, but waved towards the outside of the car door. Several German soldiers came up with several baskets filled with bread, cheese, eggs and meat, and placed the baskets on a carved antique dining table. , and then leave.

"Captain Hirschmann, I have been ordered to accompany you to Berlin." Halder glanced at the antique furniture and piano in the carriage. "His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, gave me an order to send you to Berlin in the shortest possible time... No matter how much luggage you have, it won't be a problem."

It’s so considerate! Hersman smiled gratefully at Halder, then stretched out his hand to make a gesture of invitation: "Mr. Halder, please sit down. I brought some good coffee, let's drink some together. In addition, I also want to express my gratitude to Halder." Please ask me something."

…

"Mr. Halder, how much do you know about the situation on the Russian Baltic coast?"

As the train moved on, Hersmann asked about the situation on the Baltic coast. Halder is now the military aide-de-camp to the Commander-in-Chief on the Eastern Front and should know more about things along the Baltic Sea than Hessmann - Lenin was already preparing to abandon Courland, Livland, Estonia, Livonia and Lithuania... that is, later of the three Baltic countries. However, as far as Hessman knows, these three countries were not dominated by Germany after World War I, especially Courland, Livland, Estonia, Livonia and other places where the Germans had a considerable foundation. In the end, it seems that they did not become A "little East Germany" with an area of ​​more than 100,000 square kilometers became Latvia and Estonia.

"Where?" Halder smiled, "Except for part of Estonia, everything is basically under control. If it weren't for the armistice, we could have entered Petrograd within a week!"

"Mr. Halder, I'm asking about a political solution."

"Political?" Halder paused, glanced at Hersman, and then said after considering, "The political solution is still brewing, and some German nobles have proposed the idea of ​​establishing the United Baltic Principality."

There really is a plan to build a "Little East Germany"! Hessman suddenly showed an expression of interest. If this "little East Germany" can come true, then Germany will have another "shell" that can be exploited. Many things that Germany cannot do can be done by "Little East Germany". This was extremely beneficial to breaking the restrictions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.

And, consider that this "little East Germany" on the Baltic coast was right next to the Soviet Union. If the country could maintain close and friendly relations with the Soviet Union, it could become a bridge for cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany in the future.

Of course, in the more distant future, it may also become a bridgehead for Germany to contain the Soviet Union's westward advance!

"So, what's the difficulty in realizing this plan?" Hersman asked bluntly.

"The difficulty lies in the population!" Halder picked up the coffee brewed by Chloe, took a sip, and showed an expression of endless aftertaste. "Population is the biggest problem... Our people (referring to Germans) are a minority after all. Even excluding Lithuania, in Courland, Livland, Estonia and Livonia, our people are not as good as Estonians and Latvians so many."

"How much difference?"

"It's a lot worse..." Halder smacked his lips, "The German-speaking population there is only a few hundred thousand at most, but the Estonian and Latvian-speaking population is nearly two million. If we can have more people Hundreds of thousands, reaching 700,000 or 800,000, then it won't be a big problem. After all, there are many pro-Germans among Estonians and Latvians. I think that when the war is over, some immigrants will be organized to the Baltic Principality. Come.”

Halder seemed not to realize that Germany was going to lose the war! Hersman frowned, "Hundreds of thousands of Germans... If we can get that many people before 1919, we can at least make the area around the Gulf of Riga our territory, and no one can take it away. "

He was thinking in his mind that if the hundreds of thousands of Germans in Russia could be relocated around the Gulf of Riga, then there should be no problem with the population exceeding 800,000. According to a mobilization ratio of 12%, it is possible to equip nearly 100,000 armed forces. If this country can be friendly with Soviet Russia again, then there is no need to be afraid of British interference...

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Here comes the third update, there will be an additional update at midnight tomorrow! Seeing how hard Luo Luo is working, please support Luo Luo again, okay?