German Red Prince

Page 179

They first misjudged the number of troops stationed there, and then, tactically, instead of attacking from the flanks, they chose to confront the Red Army brigade head-on, wanting to see who was stronger.

Although the Red Army Brigade had a firepower advantage, the enemy had too many men. Fighting like this would definitely be a loss. If they wanted to wear down the enemy, then fighting in urban warfare was the best solution. Just like the stormtroopers stationed in Dransfield, although they were few in number, they still inflicted heavy casualties on the Red Army Brigade.

The Red Army brigade only held off the city's outskirts for a period of time before retreating and dispersing into smaller units within the city, waiting for the stormtroopers to break in.

After a brief exchange of fire, the Red Army brigade's firepower weakened. The assault team was overjoyed to see the enemy retreating and knew they had to press their advantage. The Red Army brigade soldiers covered each other as they retreated to their defensive positions. The real battle had just begun, and they had to defend this area for at least a day.

Before the assault team could even cheer as they stormed into the city, someone stepped on a landmine. The front lines were heavily fortified with landmines and tripwires, forming the first line of defense. To enter the city, they had to get through the minefield, which contained not only landmines but also a dense network of fire.

In short, this forward position is enough to give the storm troops a hard time. The Red Army brigade's goal is simple: even if they all die here, this storm troops will not be able to advance without suffering heavy casualties. Even if they fail to stop the attack, as long as they cause enough casualties, the troops behind them will be able to counterattack more easily.

392. This road is blocked.

Perhaps because they hadn't expected it, the stormtroopers suffered heavy losses in their first assault, with landmines scattered along the streets and houses, which could be triggered at any moment.

Besides landmines, several layers of barbed wire also hindered their progress, making the road to Dransfield a road of lamentation for the stormtroopers.

The Red Army soldiers were scattered in the houses in front, firing at the enemy below. Haigar felt that the stormtroopers below were scurrying around like flies, and he could never hit them, which made him very angry. He pulled a grenade from his coat pocket and threw it down.

At this moment, Hyjal could finally understand how the stormtroopers had felt. The troops were scattered throughout the city in twos and threes, but the density of firepower had not decreased at all; on the contrary, it had increased. So the stormtroopers did not know how many soldiers were in the city.

They mistakenly assumed the city's soldiers were about the same size as their own, so they attacked very cautiously. If they had known the Red Army brigade defending the city only had three or four hundred men, they probably would have charged forward recklessly.

The biggest disadvantage of this assault team was the lack of heavy weapons. In fact, this was the disadvantage of the entire assault team.

Hess's current actions are like a series of calisthenics to the army's sensitive nerves, so he hasn't equipped the stormtroopers with many heavy weapons. The army absolutely does not allow the stormtroopers to be equipped with heavy weapons now; if they can be equipped today, they can be replaced tomorrow.

If they were equipped with heavy weapons, the Red Army brigade would not have had such an easy time. A few cannons would have made demolishing buildings much easier. Although the Red Army brigade did not have heavy weapons, at least they had a few tanks and armored vehicles.

Although tanks and armored vehicles cannot fully utilize their advantages in urban combat, as mobile firepower, they can still inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. Fortunately, these tanks arrived; otherwise, it would have been much more difficult to stop these enemy troops.

Tanks are the greatest enemy of infantry. These kings of land warfare are incredibly powerful when they start up. Just watching these behemoths drive forward is unbearable for most people.

Although a tank's caliber doesn't have the power of a heavy artillery piece, a hit from it wouldn't just leave you with bruises, but rather scattered bruises. Just now, a shell hit a soldier in the assault team directly, and in the huge explosion, the soldier disappeared instantly.

From his high-rise apartment, Hyjal could clearly see the entire process: the shell exploded, the soldier was torn to shreds by the shrapnel, and his entire body was shattered. Soldiers near him should have been able to clearly feel what it was like to have pieces of flesh hitting their bodies.

Aside from the soldier who was blown to pieces, he was actually lucky. At least he died in an instant and didn't feel any pain. Some people were not so lucky. Shrapnel was embedded in their bodies, cutting open wounds, and they lay on the ground convulsing. Others had their legs or arms blown off and were crawling on the ground with half their bodies hanging off.

"Blow up that tank!"

At this point, the other side also realized that it would not be so easy to rush through; these tanks were the biggest obstacle and they had to be destroyed.

"Blow up the tanks, or nobody will be able to get through!"

The stormtroopers were unlike the army of the Kingdom of the Rhine. Although the Kingdom of the Rhine did not have weapons like RPGs, they had Panzerfaust rocket launchers. In Friedland, the Kingdom of the Rhine's Panzerfaust rocket launchers gave Prussian tanks a good beating.

The stormtroopers lacked effective anti-tank weapons. It was previously mentioned that they were not equipped with heavy weapons, which meant they couldn't possibly have anti-tank guns. To destroy the tanks of the Rhine Kingdom, they could only use anti-tank grenades.

As mentioned before, no matter how skilled a person is, they can't throw an anti-tank grenade forty meters. To destroy these tanks, you have to get close, and to get close, you have to break through the fire net.

"smoke bomb!"

Several soldiers picked up anti-tank grenades, while the other assault team soldiers began to provide covering fire, helping these men approach the tank. Infantry anti-tank warfare is a required course, and tank anti-infantry warfare is also a required course. Judging from this posture, it was clear that the other side wanted to get close to the tank.

Tanks have blind spots, so a safe distance must be maintained. The tank commander promptly reversed the tank and fired into the smoke screen.

The defenders upstairs naturally knew what the other side wanted to do: to provide fire support. The Red Army brigade's firepower was several times stronger.

The machine gun firepower could directly block the streets, making it extremely difficult to advance. After several failures, the enemy realized that they had to clear out these buildings if they wanted to move forward.

"You guys go over there and take down those two buildings!"

A dozen soldiers formed a group and entered the building in front. The assault team was clearly desperate and fought the Red Army brigade to the death, fighting for control of building by building. This was exactly what the Red Army brigade wanted, as they wanted to drag them into a brutal street battle.

One of the assault soldiers kicked open the door, only to be blown away by a trip mine at the entrance. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and many soldiers didn't even plan to leave the building.

Rekov was quite clever; he led his men to climb in through the window, and hearing the gunfire coming from upstairs, he pulled out a grenade and threw it up.

After the huge explosion, he led his men to rush forward immediately. Some soldiers were blown to the ground and tried to pick up their guns to fight back, but were shot down by Rekov with a single pistol shot.

"Go! Go!"

He rallied the others to charge forward, and just as one of the team members reached the top, a burst of gunfire rang out, followed by a body falling straight down.

"hidden!"

Rekov retreated with his gun. Even if he didn't go up, the firepower of this building had already been contained, and the people upstairs would definitely reduce their downward firepower in order to deal with them.

Just as he cautiously and slowly made his way up the stairs, Rekov saw a helmet, followed by a human face. Both of them were startled. Before Rekov could react, a grenade rolled down.

"hidden!"

The position was awkward; the grenade was rolling down the stairs. If he wanted to run back, it would be too late. Survival was the priority, so he didn't care about anything else. Rekov leaped down the stairs.

A huge explosion rang out, followed by another burst of gunfire. The firefight resumed upstairs. Clearly, their firepower was no match for the enemy's, and Rekov and his men were forced back downstairs.

"Damn it! If we had a heavy artillery piece, we could just tear this building down!"

Rekov was furious. If it weren't for the opposition from that bunch of useless soldiers, they wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses here. Those guys were no good at fighting, but they were great at dragging the team down.

Wave after wave of men were sent to the front, and the stormtroopers were indeed advancing, but very slowly.

"Sir, we've taken the second floor!"

"Report! We're fighting for the living room on the first floor!"

"Report! We've been kicked out of the second-floor kitchen!"

This isn't a fight over an entire building; it's a fight over each room. On average, each room will result in the loss of two people, and a building has at least four rooms.

Some people even hid in the bathroom, and when the stormtroopers attacked, they surrounded the troops coming upstairs together with the troops below.

The Red Army brigade only had a few hundred men. The battle for the building was extremely fierce, and the tanks had been withdrawn from the battle because they were basically destroyed, and even the cannons were damaged.

The wounded soldiers who were able to move came to support them. The assault team just couldn't get through this road that was only a few hundred meters long. The flag was still flying. The Red Army brigade was determined to use their lives to tell the assault team that this road was impassable.

The battle raged on for an unknown period of time, from daytime until nearly dusk, the blazing fires reflecting the ferocity of the fighting.

Visibility on the battlefield is poor, but the fighting continues. Both sides are waiting for the other to reach its limit. The tanks have had their guns repaired, but their tracks have been broken, so they can only serve as artillery support for the infantry.

Rekov was covered in bruises, but they had successfully demolished several buildings and were now close to the town center.

Haigar and his group gathered in the last few buildings because they couldn't get enough people together. The last few people were gathered here. Haigar was fine, but Ropol was hit in the arm, and his arm was still bleeding.

"Comrades, this is the final moment. You have all done a great job. We have successfully held off the enemy for nearly seventeen hours. It is a great honor to be in the same company as you all."

"These mad dogs really do bite quite hard," a soldier said with a laugh, blood seeping from his wound.

"Hahaha, yes, these mad dogs are quite formidable, but we are not afraid. Our cause will be remembered! We can be wrapped in the Party flag after we die!"

"Long live!"

The remaining soldiers were prepared for a decisive battle, and the opposing side was clearly ready to charge forward in one fell swoop. However, the soldiers of the Red Army Brigade truly lived up to the saying, "This road is blocked." The last hundred meters seemed insurmountable to these men.

And so the fighting went on from night into day. Several tanks were destroyed, and the tank crews got off their vehicles, grabbed their guns, and rejoined the battle.

Fewer and fewer people can handle a gun; Rekov's teammates have changed several times.

"Damn it! If we had a heavy artillery piece, would we still be attacking this hell for over ten hours?!"

Rekov roared and shouted a few times. The artillery fire had indeed come, but it wasn't on their side; all the artillery fire landed on the stormtroopers' positions.

Guderian's reinforcements finally arrived at the last moment.

393. Opposition to Hess

"Beep—beep beep—beep—"

The telegraph machine beeped rhythmically. The recorder sat at the table, wearing headphones, listening to the rhythmic sound, and began to slowly translate.

"From the Göttingen direction... two thousand stormtroopers... were annihilated by the enemy yesterday... in the entire Dransfield... enemy forces are advancing towards Göttingen from the Friedland and Dransfield directions..."

The recorder was shocked. He read the telegram carefully and found that it was indeed correct. The Rhine Kingdom's troops were surrounding Göttingen and were about to launch a flanking maneuver. If the Rhine Kingdom occupied Göttingen, Hanover would be in danger. If Hanover was lost, the entire front line would suffer a devastating blow, and the entire battle line would have to retreat.

Such important intelligence was too much for the recorder to ignore. He quickly stood up, ran to the front office, and handed in the intelligence.

"Colonel, a telegram from the front."

The recorder handed the telegram to Colonel Witzlerben. After reading it, Witzlerben remained silent for a long time before waving the telegraph operator away. As a soldier, he could now clearly sense that the scales of victory were no longer tipping in their favor.

The consensus before the war was that Germany's war had to end quickly, and everyone thought so too, believing that the war would end soon. However, everyone underestimated the strength of the Kingdom of the Rhine and was too confident, with a kind of blind optimism.

Especially after the previous few minor victories, this optimism became even more exaggerated, as if victory was inevitable. Witzleben had been skeptical of the war before, and the current situation confirmed his earlier thoughts: the Kingdom of the Rhine was not afraid of civil war at all, or rather, they had been waiting for Prussia to make a move all along.

"We have no chance of winning; we have already lost."

Witzler muttered to himself in his office that consolidating the front lines was already a troublesome matter, let alone launching an offensive. Moreover, the German civil war could not be delayed; if France reacted, it would be a devastating blow.

The safest course of action now is to immediately negotiate with the Kingdom of the Rhine. At least Prussia still has some strength and resources for negotiation. If it were to be wiped out later, it would be at the mercy of others. There is still a lot of room for negotiation. Giving the occupied territories to the Kingdom of the Rhine is not out of the question. They are all on our side, so we can settle for that.

If they are really dissatisfied, at the very least they can save the Hohenzollern family. They are all royalty, so they can't just start killing them, can they? They have to maintain some noble dignity. Besides, the civil war was orchestrated by Hess from beginning to end. If the royal family wants to put forward someone, Crown Prince William probably can't escape. It's better to cut off an arm to save the body than to die.

However, upon thinking about this, Witzleben suddenly realized something. The war had been going on for so long, yet Crown Prince Wilhelm had been in charge all along. Where was the Kaiser? Why hadn't he shown his face? He had to make a statement on such a big matter. The official explanation was that Wilhelm was unwell and had handed everything over to Hess. But it had been so long, and he was still unwell? There must be something going on.

Hess now wields immense power, perhaps even more than the German Emperor. He is completely united with everyone, promising all sorts of benefits and drawing people from different social classes onto his chariot, which he is now driving toward the Rhineland. He is playing with the future of Prussia and Germany.

After glancing at the telegram in his hand, he learned that more than two thousand stormtroopers had been annihilated. Witzlerben almost laughed when he saw this. Well done, very well done. He had long disliked these people. A bunch of hooligans and villains. Did these people even deserve to stand with the army? They had lowered the status of soldiers. What were they thinking, replacing the army with these people?

They don't deserve it. He's not angry at all that the Rhine Kingdom's army wiped them out. Wiping out more people will actually relieve their pressure. Hess has been pressuring the army with the stormtroopers, talking about how great the stormtroopers are and how great the army is. Now, more than two thousand of them have been completely annihilated. No matter how heavy the army's losses are, they have never been wiped out like this, not counting those who surrendered.

After all, they are all on the same side. It's just a matter of changing the emperor. The army is still the army. However, Witzler may not know that Thorne has already defected to the communists. He will also target the army in the future. Therefore, if Thorne wants to become emperor, there will be very little resistance. The resistance from the Prussian army may not be very fierce.

However, if they were to defect to the Communists, the army would be much more difficult to deal with. This is not as simple as a change of dynasty; it is a complete reshuffling, and the status of the army would also need to be reshuffled. They have worked so hard to get to this point, how could they give up so easily?

However, Witzlerben does not know these things yet. He only knows one thing, one thing that must be done: to stop this damned war as soon as possible. Something must have happened to Emperor William. He even doubts whether William is still alive. Could it be that Hess is keeping his death a secret?

That would be terrifying. If the war were won, Hess's prestige would reach a new peak. His ambition for power would go far beyond that of the Imperial Chancellor. Even if he didn't want to, people would willingly haile him as a "dictator," a head of state admired by all.

Holding the telegram, Witzler paced back and forth in his office for a long time. It was late at night, and the only sound in the quiet office was the ticking of the clock, which was also the sound of Witzler's inner struggle. He needed to make a choice quickly, a choice that would directly affect his fate and that of the entire country.

Finally, the bells rang, and Witzlerben made his choice: the war had to end. He knew Hess would never stop the war, so he would shut him up forever!

He started by targeting the military, cultivating a large number of his cronies and absorbing them into the National Party, abandoning the conservatives, and now even the neutrals. He's infiltrating the military, which seriously affects the interests of the neutrals. Let's shut him up forever.

Hess certainly couldn't fully grasp all the complex relationships within the military in a short time. Although the conservatives had lost power, they still wielded considerable influence and connections. Their decades-long network of relationships hadn't been built in vain. At dawn, Witzlerben left his office and quietly went to a manor, knocking on the door of August von Mackensen's estate.

The conservatives may lose power temporarily, but their influence remains within the military. To silence Hess, they must win him over, gain enough strength to completely oust Hess and his damned party from the government, and reclaim everything that belongs to them.

394. Military Operations

It's nothing short of a miracle that Hess was able to control the army. What's the most important thing to control an army? Of course, it's having their people first. But who was Hess? He was neither a nobleman nor a soldier. Before he rose to power, he was just a down-on-his-luck politician on the streets.

Many people actually looked down on Hess. Those who held positions in the government were all graduates of prestigious universities and were Germany's elite. Who was Hess? A homeless man on the streets of Cairo. Why should people take his orders?

However, he still managed to keep all the power in his hands. It could be said that Hess was even more powerful than Wilhelm II. Wilhelm II was actually always in a state of being sidelined and didn't have much power. The army was completely controlled by the old nobles, and the emperor himself didn't have much influence. Otherwise, he wouldn't have created a new army.

However, Hess miraculously solved a problem that even the emperor couldn't. He successfully reformed the army, sending all the old guys home to live their lives. He nominally gained control of the army, but it was clearly difficult to truly control it.

Although those old generals have gone home, their influence remains. For example, Ludendorff was stripped of his power by the Kaiser, but he can still rely on his influence to raise an army in East Prussia.

Witzlerben arrived at Mackensen's estate. The old marshal was a former military leader who had been in control of the army since Hindenburg and Ludendorff stepped down. His loyalty to Wilhelm II was the reason he had remained in power for so many years. After the emperor's incident, he was dismissed in a flash.

It was impossible for Hess to eradicate the old forces within the army in a short period of time. He now wanted to bind the army to himself through war, but with successive defeats, Hess's idea had obviously failed.

Visiting the old marshals was a taboo subject, but on the surface, Hess still showed respect to them, after all, he still needed to win over the Junker nobles, and he had to do a good job of appearances.

Although Mackensen has been unemployed at home, it doesn't mean he is unaware of outside news. Like Ludendorff, he can know what is happening in Berlin and Germany even without leaving his home.

"marshal."

As soon as Witzlerben sat down and began to speak, Mackensen waved his hand.

"It's about our prime minister, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Humph."

Mackensen snorted coldly. He was of noble birth and naturally looked down on the prime minister of the empire who was of commoner origin. It was laughable that the prime minister of an empire was a commoner. What kind of nonsense was this?

"Tell me, what has our prime minister done this time? He deserves to be slapped twice by the Rhine people."

"The latest news is that the more than 2,000 troops he sent to Göttingen were completely wiped out by the Kingdom of the Rhine. Two armies of the Kingdom of the Rhine are besieging Göttingen. Besieging Göttingen is a minor matter. Once they move north and besiege Hanover with their Weser Legion, they can directly blockade Hamburg. At that time, we will lose the entire north, and we will have no bargaining power at all. Hess is giving bad orders right now. We should not go to war with the Kingdom of the Rhine. This farce should end."

Mackensen wasn't particularly interested in the more than two thousand men who had just been annihilated at the front. Those were the SA, not the army. Who could tolerate the SA trying to take on the army? They were dead, but what about the later ones? Once the northern defense line fell, the Rhine army could directly penetrate deep into Berlin.

This is terrible. Mackensen is, after all, a Prussian nobleman who is loyal to the Hohenzollern family. The loss of Prussia is indeed a troublesome matter for a nobleman like him.

"You mean to end this war? That prime minister has lost his mind. How could he possibly end the war so easily?"

“We can shut him up.”