German Red Prince

Page 101

Chapter 167 An Unforeseen Path

Soon they arrived at Prime Minister Klaus's estate, and Thorne held this highly respected prime minister of the kingdom in great respect.

After everyone arrived, the manor servants went to inform Chancellor Klaus. After waiting briefly at the door, Thorne soon met the Chancellor of the Kingdom.

"Good morning, Your Highness. What brings you to visit this old man today?"

Klaus greeted him with a smile, then slowly stood up, leaning on his cane, and walked toward Thorne.

"Isn't it usually because I'm afraid of disturbing your rest?"

Thorne quickly went to greet him. The manor was located in the suburbs of Frankfurt, and it was very quiet. Klaus was now in a semi-retired state, and his health was not as good as before.

Normally no one would bother him, and Thorne wouldn't have come over unless something was wrong.

"So something's wrong? Is there something Your Highness can't handle? Your Highness is a Germanic superman."

Hearing Klaus say that, Thorne was immediately embarrassed. How could anyone still remember such a shameful name? He had been back in Rhine for so long that he had almost forgotten about it himself. How could anyone still remember it?

However, since Klaus also knows this name, he must have been paying attention to the development of the kingdom.

As a law graduate, Klaus is very meticulous and has unique insights into various events. Thorne came here to learn from this seasoned politician.

"Your Excellency is too kind. How could my achievements possibly compare to yours?"

“That’s not necessarily true.” Klaus looked at Thorne and smiled mysteriously. “Your Highness has grown a lot in Poland. I estimate that you will achieve more in the future than several of me.”

The elderly prime minister sat on a bench in the courtyard, while the large black dog kept on the estate lay lazily beside him. Klaus watched this harmonious scene quietly.

"I really want to look at it a little longer."

"Your Excellency is in such good health, so this is naturally not a problem."

Thorne was at a loss for words when he heard Klaus's inexplicable remark. What did it mean? Why did it sound like he was about to die?

"Doesn't Your Highness understand what I mean?"

"what do you mean?"

"Your Highness Thorne, how long do you think the Kingdom of Rhine can exist?" Klaus's tone suddenly became serious.

"If there is no war in the future, I think it should be able to exist for quite a long time, right?" Thorne thought for a while and gave his answer.

“War is inevitable,” Klaus said calmly, stroking the large black dog that was dozing on the ground.

"why?"

"Because of you."

"Why do I?"

Thorne was taken aback by Klaus's words. What did the war have to do with him?

“Prime Minister, I do not understand your meaning. I am just an ordinary prince with no right of succession. I cannot control a kingdom. The outbreak of war does not depend solely on the Kingdom of Rhine. Why must it break out because of me?”

“Isn’t everything Your Highness has done in Darmstadt preparing for a war?” Klaus said slowly.

"All I did in Darmstadt was to change the lives of the local people."

"Is it really that simple, Your Highness? You know better than I do."

Hearing Klaus say this, Thorne felt inexplicably uneasy. What did he mean by these words? He did have some other purpose in doing things in Darmstadt, but why would an old man who was about to retire know so much about these things?

"Don't be nervous, Your Highness. Isn't this the very reason you came here?"

"Your Highness's ideals are surely far more ambitious than those of an old man like me. When the country was founded, King Charlemagne had already paved the way for the future. Perhaps he had been waiting for this day for a hundred years."

"wait for what?"

Thorne grew increasingly puzzled as he listened. The answer seemed obvious, but Klaus wouldn't spell it out, instead beating around the bush with Thorne.

"Waiting for someone like you to appear one day. Your Highness's biggest worry right now shouldn't be the French Commune, but Prussia, right?"

"If you want your ideals to succeed, you can never get around Prussia. The war will be much more complicated, and after the war, whether you win or lose, the country of the Rhineland will probably no longer exist in the world."

"So, do you support me?"

Thorne understood what Klaus was trying to say and directly stated his own thoughts. Although Thorne had tried many ways to avoid war, it now seemed impossible, both from the perspective of the Kingdom of the Rhine and Prussia.

If a revolution were to break out in the Rhineland, Prussia would certainly wage war against the Kingdom of the Rhineland. In an era of such strong nationalism, the Kingdom of the Rhineland would not be able to declare its withdrawal from the German Empire, and Prussia would absolutely not tolerate such a force within the empire. Revolution would involve bloodshed, and war would be inevitable.

“You shouldn’t ask me. Although I am the prime minister of the kingdom, I am just an outsider and I am about to retire. This is your business and the choice of the Stemmetz family.”

Klaus extended a hand. “The Kingdom of Rhine has two paths, and the Schermetz family also has two paths. You should understand King Otto and Prince Andreas’s intentions much better than this old man. When faced with a choice, you can’t escape it just because you want to.”

“Your Highness, you can be crowned in a grand and glorious manner and become the new leader of the Rhine Kingdom. With your talent, no one in the entire Rhine Kingdom will object. Or, you can lead the Rhine Kingdom onto an unimaginable path.”

“If you choose the first path, you may become a great monarch second only to Charlemagne in the history of the kingdom a hundred years from now. But if you choose the second path…” Clauston paused for a moment, “you may encounter many difficulties and crises. Even if you work hard, you may end up with nothing to show for it. One path is a golden road that has already been paved for you, while the other requires you to pave it yourself.”

"This is a difficult choice," Thorne said with a wry smile. He could have ignored everything now; his identity was enough for him to live out his remaining years in peace, and he didn't care what happened after he died. But from the very first day he transmigrated here, Thorne had already made his choice.

“A golden road, Your Excellency, I want to pave a golden road for everyone,” Thorne gave his answer.

"Are you sure you won't regret it? The kingdom's century-old foundation might be destroyed in an instant."

"I don't regret it. Besides, I came to you to solve this problem, didn't I? You should have guessed it when I first arrived."

"Your Excellency, these are things you also want to achieve, aren't they? I was just trying to confirm my stance."

Though there may be thousands of people, I will go; Thorne had already set a goal for himself as soon as he arrived here.

Thorne could clearly sense the same meaning from Klaus's words. That old man was wicked; wasn't his tone just now clearly inciting him to rebel?

Chapter 168 The Chosen One

"Is it that obvious?"

Klaus then pretended to be stupid, leaving Thorne speechless.

Yes, very obviously.

“Your Highness is a smart man,” Klaus smiled.

"Germany needs a true unification, and that is my goal. As for Your Highness, as I have said, your ideas are far more noble than mine," he said slowly, putting down the book in his hand.

German unification was not just a Prussian idea; the Kingdom of the Rhine and Bavaria also shared this vision, as the balance between the three kingdoms could be broken at any time, and no one wanted to be the one left behind.

Klaus knew Thorne so well because he had been observing Thorne for a long time. The Kingdom of Rhine needed a suitable leader, and Klaus was looking for such a person.

Initially, Klaus hoped that King Otto would complete the mission of unification, but after all, it was a very risky matter, and King Otto did not want to take the risk.

Prince Andreas was too kind and clearly incapable of accomplishing the task of unification.

Somewhat disappointed, Klaus then submitted his application for retirement, but Thorne's appearance changed his mind. Klaus had actually noticed Thorne at first.

Everyone knows about Prince Andreas's health; if he were to become king, he would likely be the shortest-reigning ruler in Rhineland history.

The prince himself was aware of this situation, which is why he had always been unwilling to become the heir.

However, as the second prince, Thorne is in good health, and it is estimated that no one would object if he were to become the next king.

But this guy was rather rebellious and refused to be bound to the throne. For this reason, he even went to Poland and went to the battlefield.

As it turns out, something happened to Thorne in Warsaw. Before he went to war, he said that he would go far away after returning from the battlefield, but when he came back, he suddenly had an epiphany and seemed to have become a completely different person.

Previously, he would never participate in any of the kingdom's policies, but after returning from the battlefield, Thorne began to actively participate in the kingdom's various policies.

He also handled a major case in Darmstadt, and according to King Otto, Thorne had also made concessions on the issue of succession to the kingdom, which rekindled Klaus's confidence, and he began to secretly observe Thorne.

Through various channels, Klaus learned about almost everything Thorne was doing. The old prime minister's network of connections was extraordinary; he even knew that Thorne had dealings with the Germans.

Klaus couldn't help but wonder what Thorne had encountered on the battlefield, given that someone who utterly despised politics was behaving so unusually.

After a long period of observation, Klaus discovered an extremely surprising coincidence. According to Thorne, he was knocked unconscious by artillery fire on the battlefield and then managed to escape. Thorne was a completely different person when he returned from the battlefield.

Although Klaus graduated with a law degree, as the kingdom's prime minister, he knew the history of the Rhine Kingdom by heart. Thorne's experience was not just similar to that of King Charlemagne, but almost identical.

The history of the Kingdom of the Rhine is now recorded from its establishment in 1814. The records usually portray Charlemagne as a perfect monarch with countless achievements, but rarely mention the history of the Duchy of Mainz during the first fourteen years of his reign.

In the French Revolution of 1792, the French expelled the Archbishop of Mainz and established the Republic of Mainz. Later, William the Savior, the father of King Charlemagne, overthrew French rule and established the new Duchy of Mainz.

Although he overthrew the French republic, the Duke of William still absorbed some of the ideas brought about by the French Revolution and carried out a series of institutional reforms.

These measures saved the Duchy of Mainz from annihilation when the French army returned in 1797, and also granted it many privileges, marking the beginning of the Duchy of Mainz's rise to power.

However, what troubled Duke William the most at the time was not the French, but his son Charlemagne. For the first two years after becoming the leader of the duchy, Charlemagne showed no talent whatsoever.

With his eccentric temperament and taciturn nature, the Duke of William had completely given up on him, but things took a turn for the better after an accidental fall from his horse.

In 1799, as Charlemagne was approaching adulthood, he fell from his horse in an accident, which seriously injured him so much that King Charlemagne suffered from headaches for a long time afterward.

However, after waking up from the fall from his horse, Charlemagne behaved exactly like Thorne, as if he had become a completely different person and began to care deeply about the development of the duchy.

Even the records couldn't help but marvel at how the runaway pony saved a duchy. Now, the coming-of-age ceremony in the Kingdom of Rhine involves jumping off a horse, and this tradition passed down from the older generation is probably somewhat related to this event.

Charlemagne became a completely different person after that incident. In 1803, the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Mainz. Subsequently, Charlemagne established the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, and later the Kingdom of the Rhine in 1814.

After reading this history and looking at Thorne, Klaus has good reason to suspect that Thorne and Charlemagne encountered the same situation. Even though he was an atheist, the coincidence was so striking that he couldn't help but wonder if it was God's blessing.

This was great news for Klaus, who had also been observing Thorne's series of political moves in Darmstadt.

Klaus discovered that Thorne's ultimate goal seemed even more radical than his own, going beyond simply establishing a unified Germany.

However, this was not Klaus's main concern. Given the relationship between the Schermetz and Marx families, he was not surprised that this day had come.

Duke Wilhelm had already set the tone for the politics of the Duchy of Mainz, and perhaps Charlemagne was also waiting for this day. In any case, Thorne was the chosen one to unify Germany.

Regardless of what kind of republic it would become in the future, Klaus himself was a democrat, and all he wanted to do was to help Thorne achieve the unification of Germany.

“Your Highness, I can help you. After all, we share the same goal: Germany.”

"Since the Prime Minister has said so, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. May I ask, Prime Minister, what good methods do you have?"

Klaus had no qualms about finding ways to target Prussia, because Prussia was probably also figuring out how to harm the Kingdom of the Rhine at that time.

Klaus's decades of experience as prime minister gave him far more political experience than the average person. He analyzed the domestic and international environment for Thorne and told him the key to breaking the deadlock in the Kingdom of the Rhine.

The Kingdom of the Rhine needs more friends.

Chapter 169 Your Name Is Unknown

Although the German Empire had vast colonies, these colonies had been under long-term management, and the voices for independence were growing stronger. Sometimes, the orders issued by the German central government had no effect whatsoever.

In other words, if a civil war breaks out in Germany in the future, Germany's vast overseas colonies will not come to Prussia's aid immediately.

They would help whoever offered them the greatest benefits, even though most of these overseas provincial officials were appointed by Prussia.

After listening to Klaus's analysis, Thorne also had his own ideas. Going head-on against Prussia alone was not a good choice. When you're out in the world, you need friends. Thorne had another good idea.

"Your Excellency, I apologize for disturbing you today."

After talking for a while, Thorne bid farewell to Klaus. The Rhine Kingdom didn't have much time to prepare, and now that he had a goal, he had to act quickly.

Before heading back, Thorne had some things to do. He took out a photo, a picture of Harvey and his mother, which Scheffer had asked him to bring back to Harvey's mother.

Thorne readily agreed to the request, but at that moment, he hesitated when he saw the photo. He simply couldn't bear to face a mother who had lost her child.

Kingdom of the Rhine, Frankfurt, Eschborn.

Thorne found the address and parked the car across from the house. Imagine if Thorne hadn't traveled through time; perhaps there would have been an extremely brutal war between Germany and France in the future, and perhaps Harvey's mother would have never received news of her child before she died.

Thorne didn’t know how old Harvey’s mother was, but he knew how devastating the loss of a child would be for a mother.

Thorne could lie, but one lie requires more lies to cover it up. When the lie is exposed, the damage to Harvey's mother is far greater than if she were told directly.

After struggling internally for a while, Thorne gritted his teeth and knocked on the door of that house.

"who are you?"

The woman who opened the door was very cautious. She felt that Thorne looked familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. After all, who would believe that a prince would knock on their door?

"Are you Harvey's mother?"

"Harvey? What do you need him for?"

The woman became alert when Thorne mentioned Harvey's name. Her son had been missing for a long time. Harvey had said goodbye to her, saying he had some things to take care of, but he never returned after that.

She had searched for him, but it was as if her son had vanished into thin air. Several years had passed, so why was someone suddenly coming to talk to her about this?

"Mom, who's outside?" A man's voice came from inside the house.

"It's nothing, hurry up and eat, don't be late," the woman called out into the house.