Re: Blood and Iron - Chapter 921: Grain and Gold
Chapter 921: Grain and Gold
Investment and manpower flooded into the Kingdom of Lower-Lorraine as quickly as it had been annexed.
A nation on the edge of financial collapse, even with the large influx of loans from the German National Bank over the course of the last year, had now found itself stabilized.
The German public and private sector quickly worked on getting the unemployed Dutch population back in business.
If there was one thing Germany never lacked, it was construction projects.
Within days of the referendum’s confirmation, engineering brigades, logistics coordinators, and industrial planners arrived in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht.
Rail lines that had sat idle for months were reopened under Reich’s supervision. Shipyards that had been operating at a fraction of their capacity suddenly found themselves flooded with contracts from German firms.
The unemployed Dutch laborers who had spent the past year protesting in the streets now found themselves lining up outside employment offices established by the new administration. For many of them, ideology mattered far less than the simple promise of steady wages.
Work, it seemed, had returned with the Reich.
The first trains running under Reich scheduling arrived three days later, their timetables printed in both German and Dutch.
And the people boarded them without delay. If there was one thing Bruno cared deeply about, it was efficiency.
It was Bruno’s ability to think about things from a systemic perspective that had allowed him to become so hyper competent as a general on the battlefield.
Today, like most of his recent days, Bruno sat in his office. The Kaiser across from him. There was a weary expression on his face. After over a year of this, he had long since grown weary of the tedious nature of governance.
And Bruno could estimate the aging Emperor was about to voice his grievances. With such precise timing, I might add, that Bruno placed his pen down and folded his fingers the moment Wilhelm opened his mouth.
“Honestly, Bruno. If I had known you were going to drag my ass out of the palace and into this office every day to co-sign every paper with you for eight hours a day five days a week. I never would have made you chancellor.”
Bruno simply scoffed and returned to reading paperwork and scribbling his signature in the necessary locations.
“I’m sure you would have… And then all of this work would have taken a decade, maybe longer to fulfill. The reason I come to your door every morning before I begin my shift, is precisely because I know you can’t refuse me once you see me there.”
Wilhelm scowled at Bruno, a gesture so remarkably hostile that is caused Bruno to chuckle.
“Don’t give me that look. The constitution demands that you co-sign every one of these damn bills with your chancellor. I’m your chancellor, and you chose me because you knew I would actually do the work assigned to me.”
Wilhelm could not believe the sheer audacity Bruno had. as the man read through another paper with astonishing speed.
He didn’t skim it; Wilhelm knew better than to assume as such by now. Bruno read it, understood it, and signed his name, or didn’t based upon the content within it. All within a span that was shocking to behold.
And it was then, and only then that Wilhelm realized that Bruno may not actually understand how exceptional his abilities were to fill out paperwork.
“Bruno… you do understand that over this last year alone you have done more work than the previous two chancellors before you had done in their entire careers combined, right?”
Bruno didn’t respond, at least not at first, his eyes intensified as they zipped through the lines of a bill. Which he rolled up and tossed into a nearby heap of other documents.
He didn’t even seem to notice the large stack of bills sent to him by the Bundesrat after having passed through the Reichstag, which were already essentially trashed.
By now it had become second nature to discard bills that Bruno considered being disadvantageous towards long-term stability and growth of the nation. Instead, he addressed the Kaiser’s comments as he glanced over the next document in the tall stack of paperwork that sat in front of him.
“That sounds about right… Few men possess the strength of will to sit here and do the tedious work that civilization requires functioning.”
In the past, the Kaiser may have scoffed at the comment, believing it perhaps to have been self-aggrandizing. But this last year he had overseen so much paperwork next to Bruno that he never wanted to see another piece of parchment again in his life.
Bruno signed the bill and added it neatly to the growing stack on the Kaiser’s own side of the desk.
And then he immediately began taking a crack at the next document.
“Allow me to pose you a question, your majesty… It’s not that deep, but it is important nonetheless… What are the two critical structures that all civilizations must have in order to survive?”
Wilhelm thought about it for a few moments and decided to answer philosophically rather than literally.
“I don’t know, perhaps blood and iron?”
Bruno didn’t even respond, physically that is, his focus was far too busy on the paperwork at hand, causing his voice to be stale and monotone.
“Incorrect… Grain and gold. Functionally speaking governance and warfare are both about these two things. Everything else stems from them. Do the people have enough food to satiate their stomachs? And does the Treasury have enough gold in its coffers to maintain daily functions? If the grain and the gold are secure everything else follows.”
Kaiser Wilhelm II looked up at Bruno as if the simple statement he had just made was absurdly profound. But he didn’t say anything, he watched Bruno continue with his thoughts while his focus remained entirely on the task at hand.
“As I said; war is the same really… Yes, time, distance, and throughput matter in terms of logistics. But that’s only if you consider a war in regard to the battles waged and the tactical victory gained from them. If you truly want to destroy a civilization, then you must demolish its capacity to harvest wheat and levy taxes.”
Bruno placed the next document on the table, continuing his lecture.
“That is why, out of all of Rome’s greatest adversaries Gaiseric stands alone. When we think of the Barbarian Kings who challenged Rome and its might. Many names come to mind, and he is often underrated among them.”
“Hannibal is remembered for his courage, tenacity, and tactical brilliance. He marched an army across the alps, a feat no man had ever achieved before. And when he got into Italy, he butchered the Roman legions at Cannae. But Rome rebuilt, and in the end Carthage was laid to waste. Partially in retaliation for the humiliations initially suffered at Hannibal’s hands.”
“Arminius is remembered for his cunning and deception. He led three Roman legions at the height of the Pax Romana into Teutoburg forest never to emerge again. Rome repaid its humiliation in blood.”
“Attila is remembered for the fear and terror he spread in the wake of his slaughter. He terrified the Romans, and rightfully so. He was known as the Scourge of God. A divine wrath forced upon the Romans as punishment for their sins.”
“Rome endured Hannibal, they punished Arminius, and they survived Attila…. But Gaiseric was different. He was the only one to ever truly succeed in cutting off the supply of grain and gold to the Italian peninsula.”
“He took Roman Carthage and all the wheat her fields produced, he set fire to the Roman Fleet, and he plundered Roman trade with impunity in the years that followed. The Western Empire never recovered from the campaigns he waged against them and ceased to exist as a political entity within a decade after Majorian’s War against the Vandals ended in defeat.”
Bruno then looked up from his paper and ceased his scribbling. Staring the Kaiser directly in the eyes as he finished his little speech.
“Grain and gold… It is how we survive… And it is where our predecessors have failed. Rome didn’t know that its stomachs were empty, or its coffers had vanished until after it was too late. This is why the work we do here and now, tedious as it may be, underappreciated as it may be, is so much more important than waging a campaign on some foreign soil. So if you want to complain, then complain. Nobody is going to stop you. History will not remember us for what we do here today. Because when you do things right, most people are completely unaware that you have done anything at all.”
Kaiser Wilhelm II stared at Bruno as if the man had somehow ascended to sainthood in front of him. His lips quivered slightly as they tried to find the strength to speak, only capable of doing so after Bruno finally returned to his paperwork.
“Bruno… Has anyone told you that you might be a genius?”
Bruno simply scoffed and rolled his eyes, not bothering to dignify the statement with a response.
