Germany does not seek survival

Faust was confident: "Let Salzburg and Vienna tremble. The Habsburgs are doomed to fail. We need not worry too much. The royal rule has become a bubble. Believe me, in time, even the pretenders to the throne will flee. One day in the future, even if the royalists can control a regime on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only the royalists will dare to act as regents, not the Habsburgs who dare to truly become monarchs."

Faust could hardly remember that he had ever met Queen Mother Josephine. He only remembered that the Habsburg family had a very beautiful little princess, was her name Princess Agnes?

Faust had no good feelings towards any of these royal members, and he could also feel Princess Agnes's obvious affection for him. However, Faust could only wish Princess Agnes well and hope that she would not be too conspicuous and bring unnecessary bad luck to herself.

Because the gift of fate has already been marked with a price.

Chapter 153: Heading North to Munich

The Brenner Pass, which is over 1,000 meters above sea level, is one of the most important north-south passages in the Alps. A highway was built in 1772 and a railway was completed in 1867. Contrary to what most people imagine, the transportation routes through the Brenner Pass were much more complete than highways at that time.

The road from Innsbruck to Munich, crossing the Brenner Pass, is mainly a land route called the Inn Valley Road. It is basically a gravel road and only light vehicles and horse-drawn carriages can pass.

Moreover, in winter, traffic efficiency will be greatly reduced due to the influence of Alpine snow and wind.

On the contrary, since its opening in 1867, the Brenner Railway has been the core channel for the mobilization of the Austro-Hungarian army and the supply of materials. During the World War, in order to facilitate support for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany also used its industrial strength to carry out a large-scale modernization of the Brenner Pass Railway.

During this renovation, Germany helped the Austro-Hungarian Empire upgrade the Brenner Pass Railway from a single-track railway to a double-track railway. In many sections of the railway, which were previously limited by the industrial strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and had to take long detours through the mountains, they were now straightened.

Germany helped the Austro-Hungarian Empire to dig a six-kilometer-long tunnel in the Brenner Pass railway project, greatly reducing the time required to travel from Innsbruck to Munich by rail.

In the valleys at the northern foot of the white-capped Alps, military trains are heading north. The white smoke spewing out from the steam locomotives blends perfectly with the wind and snow of the Alps.

Trains painted in three-color camouflage are mostly transport trains used by the German army. The models include the civilian BR57 class and the military T9.3 and G7.1 classes. The colors are all based on field gray, with ochre yellow and sand yellow textures, and some dark green and brown spots. The roof of the carriage is also covered with waterproof cloth and awnings.

On the front of the locomotive of the German military train, there is a metal black eagle badge with an eagle's claws grasping an iron cross, symbolizing the Hohenzollern dynasty of the German Empire. The sides of the carriages are often painted with an iron cross pattern and white and yellow friendly identification strips.

There were also some trains, which were Austrian military trains requisitioned by the Wehrmacht in Tyrol. Most of them were older MAVAG 83 steam locomotives, with a coal-water carriage design. Their maximum speed was about a quarter slower than that of the German trains.

Due to the limited industrial capacity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the painting process was relatively crude. Although it also learned from the German army to use camouflage colors for camouflage, by November 1918, most of the camouflage paint had faded and become very mottled. From a distance, the main color was still black.

There are a few Austrian military trains, and the pattern of the Hungarian Saint Stephen's crown can be seen on the side of the carriages, which allows people to intuitively feel the ethnic complexity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Given the distance between Tyrol and Munich, the Wehrmacht could reach Munich by train in half a day at most, less than a day.

Just a few days ago, a revolution broke out in Munich. Eisner, one of the leaders of the Independence Party, had successfully seized power and took control of the Bavarian Royal Guards in Munich. He proclaimed himself the provisional Prime Minister of the Bavarian Republic and Chairman of the Munich Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee.

The word "committee" is often used in German to directly correspond to the Russian word "Soviet", so the Munich Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee, of which Eisner was elected as chairman, can also be called the Munich Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Soviet in nature.

The Stasi reported to Faust the specific circumstances of the Munich Revolution. Faust also lamented that a revolution had taken place in Munich, and this revolution was a typical German revolution, similar to the situation in Innsbruck, and did not cause much war.

Even more exaggerated, the Tyrol Uprising lasted for a short night of fierce fighting, resulting in the deaths and injuries of some Austrian officers.

In the Munich Revolution, not a single person died. More than 100,000 people flocked to the Theresienwiese stadium to protest. Then Eisner appeared wearing a black round hat, a unique Jewish hat. After an almost hysterical speech, the crowd waved red flags and surrounded Eisner as he broke into the military camp closest to Theresienwiese.

Eisner, along with several members of the Independent Party and representatives of the Munich workers, linked their arms, formed a human wall, and led the masses into the military camp. The Bavarian Royal Guards in the camp immediately raised the red flag and announced their joining the revolution.

Then came Ludwig III, the Bavarian prince of the Wittelsbach dynasty, who was surrounded by the masses in the palace. Amid a series of insults and rebukes from the people, the palace guards quickly laid down their weapons and joined the revolutionary camp.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Ludwig III had to leave Munich by car. The Wittelsbach dynasty, which had a longer history than the Hohenzollern dynasty, came to an end in such a farce.

In 1180, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I deprived his enemy Henry the Lion of his territory, the Duchy of Bavaria, and gave it to Count Otto I of the Wittelsbach family. Since then, the Wittelsbach family has ruled Bavaria to this day.

Seven hundred years of deep-rootedness and seven hundred years of sacred royal power disappeared in an instant.

The 700-year rule of the Wittelsbach family was not tyranny for the Bavarians. However, at this moment, no soldier in the city, including the royal guards gathered by the nobles, was willing to fight for the Wittelsbach family.

The era of emperors, princes, and nobles is truly over and will never return.

"Second Lieutenant Jean Pilar, your report is excellent and very valuable."

The Trento armistice negotiations had just ended, less than a day later, and that afternoon, Faust had already boarded a train to Munich with the rest of the Wehrmacht officers and soldiers.

In an officers' carriage, Faust met Lieutenant Jean Pilar, the station chief of the Stasi Munich station. At this stage when the war was heading towards an armistice, Lieutenant Pilar's French identity gave him greater freedom of movement in Munich.

The Stasi was founded entirely by Sorge, who applied what he had learned from the Eastern General Planning Group and Manstein: how to set up an intelligence agency, how to divide the work, how to choose the enemy's weak links, etc.

As for personnel training, it all depended on one-on-one training between Sorge and other comrades.

At first, what Sorge learned from Manstein was not entirely useful. In addition to copying various rules, regulations and documents, the Stasi agency also had to spend a lot of time binding them into loose-leaf books.

This method was a tradition left over from the Napoleonic Wars. No one knew why it was done this way, and no one in the German General Staff questioned it.

Faust still couldn't stand it and intervened. He told Sorge that at least at the current stage of the Stasi's establishment, it must be a small organization with a skilled staff and must avoid cumbersome bureaucracy.

So a small figure like Lieutenant Jean Pilar, who was originally insignificant under Manstein and Sorge and had no position or military academy, was able to stand out.

Lieutenant Pilar is a very old-fashioned Marxist. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party before the outbreak of the World War. His father's generation was a supporter of old Bebel. He himself studied history at Humboldt University before the war. He is knowledgeable and erudite. Although his intelligence gathering ability is not strong, he is an excellent intelligence analysis expert who can analyze more valuable information from limited intelligence.

Faust appreciated this approach because he believed that careful reading of newspapers and magazines was often more rewarding than reading secret intelligence provided by spies.

The most important job of an intelligence agency is not to create 007 spy wars, but to organize massive amounts of public information and analyze valuable intelligence from it.

Lieutenant Pilar reported, "Colonel, it's clear that Kurt Eisner has replaced Prince Ludwig. He has drafted a communiqué announcing the establishment of the Bavarian Republic. However, from my observation, the new republic's government is still primarily composed of the royal ministers from the monarchy."

"In the days following the Munich Revolution, Mr. Eisner was not with the soldiers, he was not in command of the army, and he was not reorganizing the government. Instead, he was busy discussing the future form of the Bavarian state: multi-party parliamentary democracy or a complete dictatorship of the proletariat."

Eisner was a typical Independent and Kautskyist. After being pushed to power by the masses in the Munich Revolution, he did not infringe on the interests of the aristocratic landowners, the business community and capitalists, nor did he expel royalist officials. He only implemented nominal reforms of a few progressive measures such as the eight-hour work day and women's suffrage.

To be honest, the only thing Eisner did that had an impact on the overall situation was probably that he dug up many confidential documents of the Bavarian army and exposed many war crimes committed by German soldiers during the World War.

But what can be said about this matter? Although it was an act of promoting justice and could also undermine the prestige of the military, at a time when Germany and the Allies were negotiating an armistice, it would definitely seriously offend the military and might also put Germany in a more unfavorable position in the armistice negotiations.

Chapter 154: The First Battle After Returning to the Country

The provisional government of the Bavarian Republic led by Eisner also made another very serious mistake. They were too soft on the princes and nobles in the republic, allowing these nobles to retain too much property and influence.

For example, Ludwig III, the Bavarian prince of the Wittelsbach dynasty, had already fled from Munich, but the Eisner government did not immediately announce the confiscation of the Wittelsbach family's assets in Munich as state-owned property.

On the contrary, Eisner claimed that in order to maintain social stability, or in order to unite the powerful nobles in Bavaria, the new government only sealed the Wittelsbach family's palace and kept it for safekeeping, claiming that the new government would make the final decision on these royal palace properties after the future National Constitutional Convention elected a new government.

As for the rest of the property owned by the Bavarian nobles, such as a large number of royal castles and palaces, jewelry and paintings, ranch estates, a large number of manors and mansions owned by ordinary nobles, as well as shares in various factories and banks, they were also retained.

For a while, although the revolutionary wave was surging in Bavaria, the Bavarian nobles were initially shocked and desperate about the sudden collapse of the monarchy. They were like rats crossing the street and could only choose to keep a low profile and wait and see the situation.

However, due to the weakness of Eisner's provisional government, the counter-revolutionary nobles soon reacted and began to act quietly, using various means to secretly establish various paramilitary organizations in an attempt to regain the privileged status of the aristocracy.

In this counter-revolutionary struggle of the Bavarian aristocracy, it was often the smaller nobles who took the lead in organizing the army and serving as officers, while the larger nobles provided money and manpower behind the scenes and manipulated the situation secretly.

Among the counter-revolutionary aristocrats, there were many frontline soldiers who were frustrated, depressed, angry, and could not find a way out in the revolutionary society, and had become numb and brutal because of their experiences in the blood and swords.

They mainly participated in the war on the Eastern Front and believed that they had conquered the inferior Slavic races in the East. They also developed a brutal style in the war on the Eastern Front. They believed that there was no need to pay attention to aristocratic manners and chivalrous codes when dealing with inferior races and revolutionaries who destroyed Germany. It was enough to use naked violence openly.

Lieutenant Pilar's report mentioned that because the Eisner government did not control the Bavarian army itself, except for the public security power in Munich which fell into the hands of the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee, the order in other towns and villages in Bavaria was ordered by the Eisner government and continued to be controlled by the local old government and old army.

Many counter-revolutionary nobles used their own estates as cover to store munitions and organize armed forces. It seemed that the Independent Party had successfully seized power in the Munich Revolution. While the Eisner government was in full swing, the counter-revolutionary forces were already surging undercurrents.

"Before the Munich Revolution, the Bavarian garrison consisted primarily of the 1st Royal Bavarian Reserve Division, the 17th Royal Bavarian Infantry Division, and the Royal Bavarian Guard, totaling approximately 30,000 troops."

"During the revolution, a large number of the old army disintegrated, and many soldiers voluntarily left their units and returned home. The Bavarian garrison had shrunk significantly. After the Munich Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee took control of Maximilian II's barracks on November 7, they recruited some soldiers to form the Munich Revolutionary Guard. This guard was nominally under the Munich Workers', Peasants' and Soldiers' Committee. It numbered around 7,000 to 8,000 men, but its actual combat effectiveness was uneven, and the positions of many officers were questionable."

"In addition, Bavaria originally had several military depots and hospitals in its rear, and it is estimated that there are still two to three thousand personnel left behind. The police and local reserve soldiers in each town also have about one to two thousand people. These forces are almost all controlled by the influential local nobles."

The November Revolution in Germany in 1918 occurred simultaneously with the complete collapse of the German army. A large number of German troops, affected by the impact of the defeat on the front line and facing the pressure of domestic revolution, collapsed on their own.

After the November Revolution, both the newly born revolutionary regime and the counter-revolutionary armed forces controlled by the great nobles and the bourgeoisie were actually mainly new armies rebuilt using the defeated German soldiers.

Therefore, the confrontation between revolutionary and counter-revolutionary forces, to a large extent, depends on which side can form a new army faster and better.

In this regard, the counter-revolutionary camp had a great advantage because most Junker officers held counter-revolutionary positions.

The tens of thousands of Red National Defense Forces under Faust's command were the only exception in this devastating flood.

In the vast expanse of white snow, the train loaded with the Red Wehrmacht's 1st "Greater Germany" Grenadier Division, 2nd "Republican" Grenadier Division, 3rd "Faust Guard Flag" Grenadier Division, and 4th "Tirol First Uprising" Grenadier Division has crossed the border between Germany and Austria.

After passing through the six-kilometer-long Brenner Tunnel, hundreds of train cars were speeding towards Munich. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Faust ordered all military trains to assemble at Kufstein Railway Station first. The officers and soldiers of the Großdeutschland Division, who served as the vanguard, got off at Miesbach Station near Munich and used cars, horse-drawn carriages and other means of transportation to travel to Munich by road.

Miesbach is a small town located in the southern suburbs of Munich. There is an ancient water castle in the area. It is said that the Hohenstaufen family, the early ruling royal family of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Welf family, the early ruling royal family of Bavaria, once fought a fierce battle over this water castle.

As a result, Frederick I "Barbarossa" of the Hohenstaufen family decisively defeated Henry the Lion of the Welf family. Then Frederick I "Barbarossa" deprived Henry the Lion of his territory of Bavaria and transferred it to the lower noble Wittelsbach family. This led to the Wittelsbach dynasty that ruled Bavaria for seven hundred years.

After the Munich Revolution, Ludwig III of the Wittelsbach family fled in a hurry. However, many members of this family were senior commanders in the German army, the most prominent of whom were Crown Prince Rupprecht on the Western Front and Prince Leopold on the Eastern Front.

These people will certainly not sit idly by and watch the dynasty fall.

For safety reasons, Crown Prince Rupprecht is still on the Western Front and has not returned to Munich. However, he has sent many of his subordinates to sneak back to the suburbs of Bavaria, secretly contacting his old subordinates and organizing armed forces under various names, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

After the Munich Revolution, various parts of Bavaria established their own independent party governments and workers, peasants and soldiers committees, including the small town of Miesbach.

However, the Independence Party government was very weak, with a large number of aristocrats and bureaucrats remaining in the old regime. The Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee was a mixed bag, with all kinds of illegal elements from all walks of life mixed in.

The garrison at Miesbach was controlled by an officer sent back by Crown Prince Rupprecht.

Faust was no stranger to this man.

Colonel Franz von Epp was the first battalion commander when the German army first attempted to form the Grossdeutschland Battalion.

Later, Faust used a little trick to sideline this person, causing the General Staff to transfer Colonel Epp. He later served as an adjutant to Crown Prince Rupprecht. After a while, after the Munich Revolution, he was sent back to the Bavarian countryside to secretly control the army.

Colonel Epp was very cautious. He formed an army in the name of the Miesbach Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Committee and gave it a very revolutionary name, the Miesbach Free Corps.

The Miesbach Free Corps now has nearly a thousand soldiers, and its officers are a group of old subordinates recruited by Colonel Epp. Almost all of them are from Bavarian aristocrats, and most of them are sons of earls and viscounts.

They were fully armed. On that day, under the command of Colonel Epp, they were confiscating guns from the workers' pickets controlled by the Independent Party government in the name of "maintaining revolutionary order", and thus relaxed their surveillance on railways and roads.

Under cover of heavy snow, a convoy of dozens of motorcycles, cars and trucks, filled with Wehrmacht soldiers, had stopped outside the town of Miesbach.

Guderian, riding on a motorcycle, was already sweating profusely. It was a rare opportunity for him to independently command an assault squad of the Wehrmacht, and it was the first battle in the march to Munich!

If such an important task is successful, it will definitely be appreciated by the top leaders of the National Socialist Party and the future will be bright.

If it failed, not only would Guderian's future career in the Wehrmacht be uncertain, but it might also affect the entire Nazi revolution.

Guderian shook the searchlight on the front of the motorcycle, and the light swayed slightly in the snow. After a while, two green flares rose in the town of Miesbach. They were the Stasi's undercover personnel in Miesbach, who sent out the signal that "the train station is empty of troops."

"Comrades, this is the Wehrmacht's first battle back in Germany. Its future historical significance will be no less than the Tyrolean Uprising!"

Guderian was wiping the sweat off his face in the dead of winter. His face, which originally looked humorous, was now full of murderous intent.

"Success is the only option. Failure is not permitted. To save the 60 million German people from imminent danger, I now declare the start of the offensive!"

The commandos of the Grossdeutschland Division got off dozens of vehicles. In addition to their field-gray World War I uniforms, they wore red armbands on their arms and a white snow cape on the outside for camouflage. Then, everyone fixed their bayonets and formed platoons into three-person assault and cover groups. They concentrated their MP18 submachine guns, MG08 light machine guns and other automatic weapons to launch an assault on the town.

The Wehrmacht's infantry tactics were derived from the stormtroopers of World War I. The basic principle was to form assault and cover groups of three to four people to cooperate in combat. The assault group carried submachine guns and grenades and was responsible for close combat breakthroughs; the cover group was equipped with machine guns and mortars to provide fire support.

Guderian's assault team was swift and did not carry any heavy field artillery. The heaviest firepower they had was a few mortars.

Chapter 155: The Agreement of Compiègne

On the open snowy ground outside the town of Misbach, the roar of mortars was heard first, followed by countless footsteps walking on the snow.

Guderian clenched the pistol in his arms. He was also very nervous. The task of the assault team was to quickly seize the Miesbach railway station with the cooperation of the Stasi insider, and then meet the arrival of the Wehrmacht troops.

If the royalist troops guarding the city reacted and the two sides became stalemate, it would affect the overall situation. If the situation in Munich got out of control, Guderian would become a sinner of the revolution.

In the city of Miesbach, Colonel Epp also heard gunshots and quickly ordered one of his adjutants to see what was happening.

Colonel Epp's adjutant, also a student at the University of Munich, had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a dignified appearance. According to the German aesthetic standards of the early 20th century, he was an absolutely handsome and heroic man.

This man's name was Rudolf Hess, who was also the deputy head of the Nazi Party in later history. However, at this time Hess had not yet met Hitler, and the two were even about to meet in battle.

Hess was ordered to check the situation, and he quickly rode his horse to the streets of Miesbach. After the Munich Revolution, the Free Corps built a large number of barricades on the streets of Miesbach, which were full of sandbags, roadblocks and barbed wire.

After the Wehrmacht's mortars sounded, the people on the streets had already fled back home and closed their doors. Hess galloped on his horse across the empty street. The scene before him immediately made Rudolf Hess feel cold all over.

More than ten trucks have entered the town of Misbach, each truck is loaded with armed soldiers, and there are infantry squads of three or four people in front and behind the trucks to provide cover. When they saw Hess, a man riding a horse recklessly, they immediately opened fire to greet him.

Before Rudolf Hess could react, he was shot by a Wehrmacht soldier's rifle. His left shoulder was hit and blood spurted out. Hess touched the wound on his shoulder and saw a pool of bright red blood on his palm. His body shook and he fell off his horse.

The Wehrmacht soldiers immediately rushed forward, and two infantrymen clamped their bayonets on Hess's neck. Rudolf Hess then said in pain, "You... who are you? Imperial Army or Allied Army?"

The Wehrmacht soldiers grabbed Rudolf Hess and shouted, "We are the Tyrolean Revolutionary Army, and we have been ordered to take over the Bavarian government!"

Under the leadership of Stasi undercover personnel, Guderian had led the assault team into the Miesbach railway station. There was only one company of troops from the Free Corps guarding the railway station. They were suddenly attacked by the Wehrmacht and were panicked.

The Free Corps had not yet figured out the situation. Many of them thought they were being attacked by the Allied forces. At first, they put up a fierce resistance with constant gunfire. But as the Wehrmacht continued to shout, "We are the troops sent by Colonel Faust to take over Bavaria, please lay down your weapons! We are not your enemies!"

The Free Corps guards at the train station looked at each other, and no one could figure out what the situation was. But they were sure that it was not foreign troops invading Germany, but a revolution that had broken out again.

Revolutions broke out one after another, and neither the old government nor the provisional government had much authority. Most of the people in the Free Corps temporarily formed by Colonel Epp gave up resistance after hearing the name of Faust.

Only a few noble officers were still firing back in a hurry, but they were outnumbered and were immediately subdued by Guderian's troops.

After Guderian took control of the dispatch room of the train station with a dozen soldiers, he immediately picked up the phone on the table and called directly to the train station in Kufstein.

The person who answered the phone was Rommel.

Guderian said excitedly on the phone: "Commander, our army has taken control of the Miesbach railway station. Please send the main force into the station immediately."

Rommel was very confident on the other end of the phone: "Please make sure to hold the station. The Great German Division will enter Miesbach in 30 minutes."

Train after train is arriving at Miesbach station from Kufstein station. The railway is constantly flowing, carrying an entire division of soldiers and a large number of heavy weapons. Once in place, the Miesbach Free Corps will be no match for them.