Iron Cross Fire

Although Kuster and his men made good progress on the battlefield, completely crushed the enemy's attack, and drove them all the way out of the suburbs, the situation of the German army being surrounded was no longer obvious.

But a news from Berlin in the distance seemed bad, but it was quite good.

Kuster received a letter saying:

"I, Ludendorff, and Marshal Hindenburg will launch a coup against the current Chief of Staff Falkenhayn on Monday, and we will take over the troops at that time. I hope you can help me for the friendship of fighting together."

Although Kuster did not have a good impression of these two people, it was the Germans' own business, so why should he care about it?

He personally answered the phone call from Austria and reported the matter in the letter to Vienna, and asked about the emperor's health.

After making sure that his motherland knew about it, he went to do other things.

In order to prevent the soldiers from knowing and affecting morale, various channels were closed, and even the positions were not allowed to leave.

Some officers who knew about or participated in it were strictly restricted, and their every move would be under Kuster's eyes.

On the front line, he strengthened the defense because he felt that the turmoil brought about by the coup had a great impact on the front-line war, especially the transfer of commanders. During this period, the army had almost no ability to take the initiative to fight and could not carry out any strategic activities.

But Kuster was still optimistic. After all, they had the upper hand, didn't they?

Then soon, he received a thunderbolt of news:

Turkey was attacked by the Allied forces in North Africa, suffered a disastrous defeat and was forced to abandon the vast territory of North Africa and retreat to Suez. Even though the German colonial army attracted a lot of hatred, the Turkish army that controlled the Suez Canal was their focus.

Turkey's defeat was not a shame, and it had its reasons.

Who did he fight? It was the Allied forces full of American equipment. Could his broken slippers and a rifle stop them? No.

Kuster had seen their simplicity before, so it was understandable that they could fail. Moreover, the equipment of the French army has been getting better and better recently, which is undoubtedly because they have a good godfather to maintain.

The two bad things merged together, thus allowing the initiative to be exchanged between the Allied and Entente camps.

However, the only place that was exchanged was North Africa. The Allied forces were deeply rooted in Europe, and there was a steady stream of supplies from the defeated Russia, and the people's dissatisfaction was successfully suppressed.

It is worth mentioning that in order to collect the transportation of defeated supplies, the Russians allowed their soldiers to rob food in peacetime, killed their compatriots with their own hands, and then handed over hundreds of lives and several kilograms of food to the Germans.

This led to constant famine and rebellion in Russia, but the German troops stationed there took the initiative to help suppress it, and some surrendered traitors also participated in it, exploiting Russian peasants together.

Many examples of disasters for the country and the people forced the people of this country to run out of Russia, even if they ran to Siberia, it was much better than staying in domestic towns.

I am afraid that the revolution is not far away, but the prerequisite is to be able to defeat the German troops stationed there. Without this prerequisite, don't dream of the possibility of establishing any anti-imperialist regime.

These things had nothing to do with Kuster, and he didn't want to get involved. He just wanted to focus on his own battle and rescue the troops in Le Mans.

However, there was a promise that really attracted him, and he, who was originally neutral, also tended to Hindenburg and the others.

If there is anyone willing to sacrifice his life for the benefit, there should be no one else in this era except Kuster.

Hindenburg told him that if the coup succeeded, the two of them would stand firmly on his side in the Austrian political arena, no matter who he was against. As long as Kuster planned to take action, even if Kaiser Wilhelm was dissatisfied, they would dissuade him.

Moreover, they said their plans after taking office: strengthen the power of the royalists and weaken the emperor's autocratic power; they would propose to de-parliamentarism, de-independence, and de-election; consolidate the status of the military and reaffirm the tradition of "the military owns the country."

"The military will control the country, the generals will enter politics, and politics will enter the military." These are their original words. Obviously, their army will be politicized.

A politicized army would seriously reduce its combat effectiveness, just like the placement of political commissars, which was a hindrance for Kuster, a professional soldier.

But again, Kuster was no longer a simple professional soldier, and he had already stepped half a foot into politics; that set of reforms would only be implemented in Germany, and the politicization of the army was also a German matter, so what did the Germans' difficulties have to do with him?

Besides, the weakening of Germany was not entirely a bad thing?

He looked at the setting sun that was about to approach the horizon, and the afterglow could still sweep away the darkness, but his life was coming to an end. I'm afraid his life would be like that setting sun, burning romantically to illuminate the earth, and then completely falling into darkness.

He ordered the army to stop all actions except rescuing Le Mans until the martial law was lifted.

No one knew how far away from the beautiful Aquitaine was; Kuster had ordered all the troops to stop attacking southwards and retreat to the north bank of the Loire River, leaving only a few bridgeheads as important locations for another breakthrough in the future.

Everything was ready. After sending off batches of people to rescue his four divisions, he devoted himself to political activities in support of Hindenburg and his comrades.

They were recommended to the General Staff, and Falkenhayn was "unwell" as an excuse to suggest that the German Emperor dismiss him, even if it was a paid leave. After all, he still had a ministerial title, and another chief of the general staff would be a bit hateful. Moreover, during his tenure, the progress on the Western Front was minimal, and he only fought five kilometers away from Paris, while the duo on the Eastern Front destroyed Russia.

Five kilometers, this is the distance between the German and French armies, and it is also the permanent distance between Falkenhayn and the position of Chief of the General Staff.

In the German cabinet, many people used this as an excuse to advocate the impeachment of Falkenhayn and kept writing letters to advise the German Emperor.

Although the German Emperor and Falkenhayn had a good relationship on weekdays, at the critical moment, he really didn't know which faction he should support. He was smart enough to jump left and right, compromising with both sides in exchange for the possibility of peace.

However, he didn't know that compromising with both sides at the same time was equivalent to going to war with both sides at the same time.

In such affairs that affect two parties, it is inevitable that only one party can be satisfied and the other party can be harmed.

Germany does not support Falkenhayn either, because Hindenburg's reputation is so great that he can be said to be the Kuster of Germany. Some people may say that they are in name only, but it must be denied that they are popular.

Falkenhayn has no advantage in either the cabinet or the masses. This court infighting seems to have ended with his failure from the beginning.

The German emperor was forced by the people's demands to show the image of a people-friendly ruler and had to announce that he would take a "vacation" and wait until the storm was over.

Falkenhayn was certainly not satisfied, but his personal opinion was nothing; what was more fatal was that the other cabinet members were also very dissatisfied with the German emperor's plan, and there were many voices of opposition in the court.

Obviously, William II got nothing again, but angered people on both sides. I can only hope that there will be fewer such major events in the future.

Under pressure, the German Emperor finally announced that on September 18, 1916, just after today, Falkenhayn's position as Chief of the General Staff would be revoked, and Hindenburg would replace him to command the new operation.

How would Hindenburg, a loyal royalist, deal with the German Emperor?

Warm reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may cause the loss of reading progress. Please save the "bookshelf" and "reading record" in time (it is recommended to take a screenshot to save). We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you!