Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 897: Body of Civil Law

Chapter 897: Body of Civil Law

Bruno wasn’t surprised to find that his new desk was stacked to the brim with paperwork. A second pile of paperwork after that which he had cleared during his first day as Chancellor.

Bureaucracy was the backbone of every empire after all, and whether that bureaucracy was lean and efficient, or bloated and corrupt determined how long an empire lived.

Bruno had come to the position of Chancellor for a singular purpose. To excise the fat of the German Reich’s bureaucratic compartmentalization and to restructure it in a way that would endure.

Wartime measures had only given him so much power and so much scope in authority. In the past, he had relied heavily on his family’s political connections and the influence that wealth brought him.

But now… now was the time to dismantle every single loophole he had used and exploited over the course of four decades to shape the Reich in his image.

If he could exploit things so thoroughly, then who is to say the next time a capable man rose to his position he wouldn’t do so for his own benefit, rather than the benefit of the Reich?

External threats had been crushed beneath his boot time and again. The Reichsheer was more efficient than it had ever been, and he had left it in good hands.

But politics and bureaucracy, there was much work to be done. If Bruno was being honest, he had little time for the well wishes sent to him by politicians, monarchs, and despots the world over.

But he also would not leave words written by men of global importance to rot in a pile of loose letters. He had ordered the aides he had been given to look them over and let him know if anything more important than flattery or contempt was delivered.

After this, Bruno began looking over every bill, every law, every bureaucratic statute that had ever been written, passed, ratified, and enacted.

Though most didn’t realize it, Bruno had proven himself twice in this life as a stable and capable administrator.

While his accomplishments in the political field were largely overshadowed by his military achievements, he had once very briefly been the General-Governor of Albania during his invasion and occupation of it during the Great War.

There he had written things into law that had helped stabilize the anarchic situation he had inherited. Many of those laws were still in effect to this day, despite Albania ending up under Greek control in the years since.

Another instance of Bruno acting in an executive capacity in the political field was the short lived Grand Principality of Transylvania, which had been gifted to him as a holding during the Great War by the late Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Bruno had introduced agricultural reforms that ensured Transylvania modernized at a swifter rate than it otherwise would have had he never bothered to govern it properly.

During the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Grand Principality of Transylvania was broken up and annexed by various powers that, in the decades sense had now ended up under the control of the Kingdom of Hungary.

But the fingerprints of Bruno’s governance could still be seen across the region. With every bit of wheat grown and reaped, farmers thanked Bruno for the agricultural reforms and the establishment of local tractor plants to produce the tools necessary for harvest.

In just a few months in Albania and in Transylvania, Bruno had changed those regions for the better.

And now that his scrutinous eye scanned through every single document of law, and statute of enforcement that existed in the German Reich, he stood at the precipice of an undertaking not attempted in scale since the Body of Civil Law enacted by Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire during the 6th century AD.

Evidently, however, the process was not completed in a day as Bruno signed off for the night. Taking the first train home to Innsbruck after five o’clock.

He had made a strict agreement with the Kaiser: he would give the Reich eight hours of his day, five days a week, and no more unless there was some crisis that forced his hand. The remainder of that time would be spent with his family.

Wilhelm had begrudgingly agreed, expecting more out of Bruno than just a solid nine-to-five work ethic. But within a single week, Wilhelm was staring at proposed reforms, bills that Bruno had completely shot down, bills that Bruno had revised to the point where they barely resembled their initial drafts.

Wilhelm stared at a mountain of paperwork on his desk, much of it needed his co-signature, others did not but were stacked in terms of contextual relevance, nonetheless.

Bruno sipped from a cup of tea while Wilhelm tried his best to read through the papers Bruno had brought him.

“You did all of this within a week’s worth of time?”

Bruno continued to sip his peace without disturbance, placing his cup down on its saucer only when he felt satisfied.

“Forty-hours to be precise. Not a minute over, not a minute under. Exactly as agreed upon.”

Wilhelm could not believe what he was witnessing.

“How did you get so much work done? Kurt couldn’t get the Bundesrat to agree on half of our proposals…”

Bruno scoffed as he grabbed one specific folder and handed it over to the Kaiser.

“As Chancellor, I have sole authority in regard to the imperial bureaucracy. Most of what I have been up to is going through every law, every statute, every bylaw across the Reich in regards to bureaucracy, and cutting away the unnecessary fat. I’ve also dismissed 1,322 federal employees, and am currently bringing charges against 517 of those former federal employees. And those are just the ones I was able to catch during my first week in office.”

Wilhelm looked over the list of names and charges. He could hardly believe what he was reading. How did so many federal employees with evidence supporting a variety of charges against them not get removed from the imperial bureaucracy sooner?

But his thoughts didn’t linger there for long. He, instead, was quick to speak about the thing he had previously mentioned. Something Bruno had glossed over entirely.

“And the Bundesrat?”

Bruno sipped his tea once more while he rolled his eyes.

“I didn’t need to say a word to them. Politicians fear consequences more than they fear principles. The idea of a man like myself sitting in the Chancellor’s office compelled them to act better than any vague threat I could have bothered with. They’re toeing the line, and that’s all that matters for now.”

It was only then that the door opened to reveal the Crown Prince Wilhelm, and his son Prince Wilhlem next to him. The two of them escorted the aides into the room, each of which carried more and more boxes filled with folders and documents.

Wilhelm at first didn’t recognize what he was looking at, and then he looked back at Bruno almost begging for this to be a dream. But Bruno shattered those hopes with a smug smirk on his face.

“There’s more….”

Wilhelm immediately chose to no longer stand on ceremony, he quickly broke out the fine liquor he had been saving for a celebratory moment and popped off its cap. Pouring himself a drink, he drank from the glass not out of relief or celebration, but exhaustion.

“In all my years as Kaiser of the Reich, I have never witnessed such efficiency. If this is how you administered the Riechsheer it is no wonder why we won so many wars… Our enemies never stood a chance.”

Bruno grabbed a pen and handed it over to the Kaiser, his smirk growing even wider.

“I’m glad you feel that way, Your Majesty. Because many of these documents still require your co-signature before they can be processed. I hope you have as much fun as I have had this past week. Enjoy your weekend…..”

Bruno then left the room without saying another word, leaving Wilhelm II to scowl as he scribbled his signature on each document. But only after thoroughly reading its contents.

He could not fathom how Bruno had done all of this in a week. What kind of man, no… machine could have the energy and bandwidth to do so!

Regardless of his complaints, the aging Kaiser scribbled away until his hands could take it no more.

As for Bruno, he returned to his home in Innsbruck, where he would spend the rest of the weekend away from paperwork and instead relaxing with his family.

Bruno no longer had a war to fight; only a realm to administer. And despite his initial reservations, he had come to realize that was a far more relaxing endeavor than making sure the bullets and shells arrived at the front line on schedule.

If the first forty years of Bruno’s life had earned him a reputation as one of history’s greatest generals. Then there was no telling what the next Chapter in his life had in store for his legacy.