Chapter 571: Focus
Mercedes would certainly not refuse the gift from Rome. In her eyes, this was a gift that absolutely could not be refused. Everyone has their selfish side, especially a mother fighting for the interests of her son; don’t expect her to put aside her strange ideas. Looking at the serene, blond-haired infant in her arms, Mercedes’s maternal love overflowed like a bursting river. And so, the title of Grand Duke of the Iron Cross was firmly placed on her son’s head, immovable by anyone.
If a person can truly love another with all their heart, it must be their child. Every parent pours all their love into their offspring, whether they are rich or poor, talkative or quiet. Perhaps their methods are wrong, perhaps their ways are clumsy, but it is undeniable that they all love their children, without exception.
Akado, of course, knew what Mercedes wanted this title for. Once he ascended to the throne of the German Emperor with the support of his subordinates, this title of Grand Duke of the Iron Cross would make Akado’s descendant the legal heir to the German throne. A mother fighting for the greatest interests of her child—even Akado could not bear to deny this selfish desire.
“Alright, Mercedes, don’t use the White Orchid Group issue to increase your bargaining chips. I did indeed hurt you regarding that matter. I promise to keep the title of Grand Duke of the Iron Cross for our son, alright?” Akado surrendered with a sigh under Mercedes’s offensive.
However, surrender was surrender. He still reminded his wife in the end, “My dear, although I understand your feelings and have chosen to support your decision, you must know that leaving a child a fortune is always inferior to teaching them to fight for their own. I still believe that if our child has no real interest in developing in business or politics, then we should cultivate his other interests and hobbies.”
To place a person full of artistic cells in the position of a national leader is either a tragedy or a disaster. For example, the familiar Li Yu, Emperor Huizong of Song, and Hitler—they all proved the accuracy of this statement with their own personal experiences.
“Don’t worry. Our child has the blood of both of us flowing in his veins. He is the child of Akado Rudolph and Mercedes von Cassia, so his life is destined to be extraordinary!” Mercedes gently stroked the tip of the baby’s nose with her finger, causing the little one to squirm and pout his little mouth.
To say that Akado did not love this child would be impossible. In his two lives, he had never had his own offspring. Now, at almost 40, he finally had a son. It could definitely be said that he had come into fatherhood late. How could he not love him?
This son gave him a true sense of belonging in this world. Looking at this son, he finally felt that he had left his own mark in this timeline. So when Mercedes was fighting for her son’s interests, Akado did not object too much but chose to nod in agreement.
To be able to leave something for one’s descendants is a tradition of Chinese thought that has been passed down since ancient times. Since Akado had a soul from China, he, at his core, very much hoped that his son would follow in his father’s footsteps. And the family fortune he had built in this life was not thin. Even excluding a vast empire, there was still a commercial miracle waiting to be inherited.
“Akado, what do you think we should name the child?” Mercedes asked Akado softly, still immersed in her happiness.
What name? Akado was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly remembered that he had once joked with his girlfriend that if they had a son in the future, they could have some fun and call him Gu Long or Louis Koo. Of course, it seemed that this wish was now difficult to realize, because in Germany, a child’s name could in no way be related to Chinese.
If he had to have the character “Gu,” it wasn’t impossible. If Akado were to really go all out and insist on a name with the “Gu” sound, there were still ways, such as naming the child Gustav.
Unfortunately, this name always reminded Akado of the 800mm super railway gun from his memory. That cannon had been presented as a gift to Stalin by Akado and Krupp to fool the fragile Soviet production capacity, so Akado did not want his child to be associated with a cannon with such a less-than-positive symbolism.
“My ideas might not be good… How about we ask old Sir August?” Akado was stumped by his son’s name. Surely all fathers in the world are stumped when it comes to naming their children. It seems that no name in the world is good enough for one’s own son.
Mercedes was also at a loss. The few names she had been fond of before had been rejected one by one by Akado. Later, she herself realized that those names seemed too ordinary for her son, so she had no choice but to wait for Akado to give him a nice name. And so, Akado’s son’s name had still not been chosen by the third day after his birth.
While the Führer was racking his brains for a name for his son, his trusted favorite, Rommel, was in North Africa, organizing his summer offensive.
The hot North African temperature was becoming even more unbearable. Most of the German and Italian soldiers had put on shorts, their knees exposed and puttees wrapped around their legs to cope with this difficult weather. The working environment for the tank crews was even worse; many even fought naked inside their tanks.
Sometimes, Rommel really hated the soft nature of the Italian soldiers. The strong defensive lines deployed around Tobruk had originally been built by the Italian garrison to deal with the British. As a result, the British had now occupied Tobruk almost without firing a shot and were using the fortifications built by the Italians to deal with the Germans.
Rommel had asked the commanders of his Italian allies for a topographical map of Tobruk. In the end, the Italians had delayed for a week before handing over a roughly drawn deployment map to Rommel. But when Rommel looked at this Italian military map, he simply couldn’t figure out what on earth was drawn on it.
The Italian, General Garibaldi, also felt disgraced by this matter. However, the German capture of Malta had indeed instantly made the originally long supply line very smooth. The British submarines and planes seemed to have vanished from the Mediterranean. From mid-April to mid-May alone, Rommel had received over 150,000 tons of supplies, more than three times the amount he had received in the previous month.
The increased logistical supplies gave Rommel an unprecedented sense of abundance. For the first time, his German mobile artillery units could squander their shells with impunity. Forty “Friedrich” rocket launchers fired a full ten salvos at the British garrison in Tobruk.
With a “whoosh,” the chassis of the Friedrich rocket launcher’s truck rocked back and forth slightly with the launch of the rockets. This slight rocking ensured that the rockets had a very reasonable spread and could ultimately cover a large area simultaneously.
The Italians observed this terrifying weapon and personally witnessed it fire off, in just a few minutes, the ammunition that had been accumulated over several days. However, the results of this rocket attack were still very remarkable. That day, the British army in Tobruk reported that no fewer than 400 soldiers had been killed or wounded by the rockets because they had not had time to take cover, and the remaining 3,000 or so were thrown into a panic by the fierce German artillery fire.
Rommel emphasized the development of his firepower. He concentrated most of his artillery to sweep the Tobruk area. Subsequently, he organized his troops to begin to infiltrate Tobruk, capturing some of the British defensive positions. His idea was very simple: to eat away at the entire outer defensive line of Tobruk, bit by bit, to ensure that the entire Tobruk area was covered by the Friedrich rocket launchers.
The German Afrika Korps was now very wealthy. After about three weeks of silence, they had restored their tank numbers to their original level, and had even slightly increased them. And the British troops stationed in the Tobruk area had been weakened overall.
The capable Australian 1st Division, due to the unusually active Turkish forces in the Middle East, had been transferred to the region to prepare for war. The American expeditionary force was also resting and refitting in the Egyptian heartland due to losses and other issues. The remaining forces in the Tobruk area were only two Indian divisions of low combat effectiveness and one British division of higher combat capability.
Montgomery’s frontline forces, especially in the Tobruk area, had been reduced to three divisions, with only a pitiful 49,000-plus men. And Rommel at this time had 1,050 tanks. In addition to the elite 7th Panzer Corps, a division from the K Army Group’s 12th Panzer Corps had also been sent to the North African front. The forces under Rommel’s command were unprecedentedly strong.
This time, Rommel brought out his entire lineup, including 70,000 Italian soldiers. The force of the German-Italian North African allied army attacking Tobruk exceeded 100,000 men.
“General Friederici, your troops will attack from the front!” Rommel said, pointing at the map before the battle to give the final deployment orders. “General Garibaldi, your Italian legion will be responsible for attacking simultaneously from the southern region.”
As he spoke, he pointed with his pointer to the easternmost part of the map. “I will lead the armored forces and the mechanized infantry regiment to enter the battle last from the east, to capture the fortress of Tobruk in one fell swoop!”
“Yes, sir!” General Garibaldi and Friederici replied in unison, nodding. The North African front, after a month of silence, was once again in an uproar, once again becoming the focus of the entire world.
Published: 2025-09-07T03:15:02.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-02T16:41:50.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c571-focus-138319061
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