Chapter 594: The Big Case

“Read all about it! Read all about it! An unprecedented, earth-shattering case in the Third Reich! The Director of the Timber Reserve Bureau, guarding the national stockpile, embezzled and sold state-reserved timber for profit! A minor director becomes the number one corrupt official, with assets confiscated amounting to over 700,000 Imperial Marks!” a newsboy shouted, waving the newspaper in his hand as he hawked it wildly on the street.

This was the first corruption scandal to be reported since the founding of the Third Reich. And this time it was different from usual; the director involved was actually a member of the Greater Germany Party. Akado had ultimately given the order for a truthful report. He had decided to face the people’s condemnation with a frank attitude.

“This is not the first damned person to be corrupt. I firmly believe that there are many, many more such people within our Reich! Even some of my own confidants and friends have played very bad roles in this!” Akado’s hand holding the phone trembled slightly with anger. An empire he had painstakingly built was being eaten away by a group of vermin. Anyone in his position would probably be shaking with rage.

The war was not even won yet. Germany was still beset by internal and external troubles; a single misstep could lead to eternal damnation. Yet at a time like this, at such a critical juncture, someone had put aside the interests of the nation and had begun to think about getting rich for themselves. How could this not break Akado’s heart? How could it not infuriate him?

You really couldn’t blame those who profited from national disaster. Everyone had contributed resources to support the state in launching a war, and it wasn’t driven by some selfless spirit. Everyone valued the benefits that war brought. Patriotism couldn’t be eaten. So once the war was won, everyone would be eager to start sharing the spoils. But Akado knew that now was not the time to divide the loot. If everyone went to divide the loot, then in the end, everyone would have to pay the price.

As the Führer of this empire, Akado slept very little each day and had even begun to sprout strands of white hair. His generals were fighting bravely at the front, sometimes not returning home to see their families for a whole year. His soldiers were bleeding and sacrificing, even shouting “Long live the Reich” before they died.

“How can I face those dead soldiers? They gave their precious lives for the Third Reich, and is the Third Reich such a filthy den of thieves? Does such an empire deserve to have soldiers fight to the death for it?” Akado roared into the phone at August. “Investigate it thoroughly! Get to the bottom of it! No one is getting away with this!”

For Akado, this was as detestable as having a gun pointed at his head. He had exhausted his heart and soul just to build an unparalleled empire. For this impulsive idea, he had lost his freedom, lost his wealth. If this empire were to eventually collapse for some reason, that would be no different from killing him.

Once the Third Reich went down the old path of failure, then what awaited Akado was that dim room in the bunker, the poison capsule, and the cold pistol. Thinking of this, Akado was filled with uncontrollable rage. He really wanted to personally break that damn director’s bones one by one, and then empty a full magazine from an MP-44 into his head.

This was not just about screwing over Akado’s life alone; it would even implicate Mercedes, Anna, Fanny, and almost all the German people. When the curtain of war fell, because of these vermin, Germany would become a pile of ruins. The halo of a world power would disappear, leaving only a scene of devastation and endless tears of apology and repentance.

It was a matter of course for the enemy to counter-attack and to fight for territory. But if one’s own people were to undermine one’s efforts, to stab one in the back, that was even more infuriating, even more enraging. The logic was very simple: no matter how sinister and cunning the enemy was, that was to be expected. But for one’s own people to harm one’s own, that was unforgivable.

“My Führer, this kind of thing happens in any country at any time. I hope you will do your best to restrain your emotions,” August said on the other end of the line. He, of course, had no idea how far Akado’s thoughts on this matter had wandered. He did not know that Akado had already seen the end of the story once, and although the protagonist of that ending was Hitler, it could not be denied how deep a memory that failure had left on Akado.

If it were really because of his own mistakes that this life ended in failure, Akado felt that he could completely accept it. It would simply mean that his own level was not enough, that he was unable to protect his loved ones and the things he cared about. But if someone dared to ruin his good work from behind, then they had better be prepared to bear his incredibly heavy retaliation.

“August, our lives, our future reputations, are no longer our own to decide! Victory, and we will be the founding fathers of the German Reich, our names will be carved on monuments for all to worship! Failure, and we will be war criminals, executioners, devils, butchers… All the people we love will be hanged!” Akado’s tone grew heavy, and he spoke in a sinister voice, “While I am trying by all means to touch victory, someone is pulling my leg. Even if the force is negligible, I still feel that such an act is a capital crime.”

“Then, my Führer, we can use the charge of treason to punish the criminals and send his family to the concentration camps in Poland. If you are still not satisfied, it is not out of the question to have them all shot,” August, who had called, was clearly not trying to plead for the culprit, but was hoping to soothe Akado’s emotions. “But there is no need for you to be angry at all.”

“I’m sorry, August, I lost my composure,” Akado said, letting out a breath and admitting his overexcitement. “The spy case here in Kiev has also shown some progress. Heydrich secretly executed 30 people, and the Wehrmacht intelligence department also took care of 11. The Soviet spies here have reined themselves in a bit now.”

In fact, the situation was much more serious than Akado had said. The Soviet spies had already begun to secretly discuss how to sabotage the tank modification factory that the Germans had established in Kiev. They had prepared two highly feasible plans, which had greatly surprised the German spy agencies when they were uncovered.

One plan was to attack the tank factory with large-caliber mortars. A Soviet artillery team had even gotten their hands on 40 large-caliber mortar shells and was just waiting for the mortar tube to be delivered from the suburbs into the city to launch the attack. When Heydrich saw the mortar tube, his face turned green. He severely punished the SS intelligence officer in charge of the Kiev station and personally drew up a plan to improve the espionage activities in the Kiev area.

The other plan was to plant explosives in the tank repair workshop in Kiev. This plan did not go as smoothly as imagined. Due to a lack of cooperation from the local Ukrainians, the Soviet spies could only plant the explosives secretly at night. But when the German intelligence department began to pay attention to the Soviet spies in Kiev, this plan became full of holes. The Soviet agents were captured by a German patrol, and their leader was also caught by following the clues.

At the same time, in Berlin, in the headquarters building of the German propaganda ministry, the mouthpieces of Germany were holding an emergency meeting to assign propaganda tasks. Not far to the left of this building, a new 35-story propaganda ministry building was under construction. Eleven landmark buildings were being built in Berlin at once, most of them magnificent, displaying the unparalleled power of the Holy German Reich.

“The public’s attention to the corruption issue is clearly lower than that for war news. The newspapers for that day did not sell well. Even the news from the day before about Berlin’s bid for the next Olympics was more interesting than a corrupt director,” Fanny summarized the attention level of the recent newspaper issues in her office. She had analyzed the recently released news from a professional perspective.

In fact, even though Akado had ordered the specific details of the corruption to be made public, the German propaganda ministry had still used the intermittent nature of the news to reduce the negative impact of the incident on the Greater Germany Party. At least in this report, the sentences mentioning the involvement of the Greater Germany Party and the German government were few and far between, and the entire incident was portrayed as an isolated case.

At the same time, Fanny had also deliberately arranged for two pieces of inspiring news to be released at the same time. One was a report on Rommel’s forces reaching the Egyptian border. This news was also accompanied by a huge photograph, an image taken by a war correspondent of 10 German grenadiers pushing over the Egyptian border marker.

The content of the next day’s newspaper was even more exciting: news of the Japanese invasion of Australia, and the great victory of the German sinking of three British destroyers in the North Atlantic. Logically, this kind of news was something the Greater Germany Gazette would have disdained to put on its front page on a normal day, but to connect this combat record with an exclusive interview with the 100th submarine commander to sink an enemy ship made it a good headline.

“If the matter escalates further, we will release the prepared materials and the results of the disposal. This method, as a contingency plan, must not be taken lightly! But now it seems that this contingency plan is not needed for the time being, so we will continue to report on the Eastern Front war, and the education popularization plan issued by the Führer,” Fanny said to the dozen or so newspaper tycoons without any stage fright. Everyone was waiting respectfully for her instructions. She was like a queen on her throne, imposing and majestic.

The disobedient tongues were already weeping in the concentration camps in Poland. Even the most foolish person could see the deep relationship between the woman sitting at the head of the table and the SS. Heydrich had no reason not to support Fanny. At least, before Fanny was rejected by Akado, the SS would treat Fanny’s orders as important and carry them out seriously. To send a few people to Poland was as easy as could be. Heaven only knew how many disobedient “disloyal to the Führer” people Heydrich’s men had buried alive.

Published: 2025-09-09T03:27:18.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2026-01-12T19:49:52.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c594-big-138474467

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