Chapter 752: Continue the Killing

Is Germany a good country? And how is this “good” to be defined? For a nation to be able to stand tall among the nations of the world, it must have its own commendable greatness. But sometimes, the greater the nation, the more brutal and tyrannical its foreign policy. Because the rise of a nation requires war, the ultimate goal of war is to expand, and the fundamental benefit of expansion is to acquire more places that can be exploited.

No army wages war for the sake of war. War will eventually end, and in the world after it ends, people will always try their best to continue to survive. This is an eternal truth. Unless humanity is extinct after the war ends, it will not change.

The army has expanded its territory. These newly acquired territories are naturally not as precious as the country’s own inherent territories. These occupied, formerly hostile countries naturally become the objects of exploitation. How to reflect the superiority of the victorious country? How to reflect the majesty of a state machine? Or, to change the subject, how to get back the money spent in the fastest way possible?

From ancient times to the present, war has not been a simple game of physical strength, but a complex system. An army at war spends money every moment. No monarch or government is willing to support an army for nothing and consume its own finances, especially when the neighboring country’s army is weak and incompetent.

More people are willing to make a big gamble, a big gamble with a very high chance of winning. They stake the rise of their own nation on a war with a considerable chance of victory. If they win, they can recover a lot of their previous investment. As for failure—only an idiot would fail, right?

To start a war and win is clearly not a very difficult thing. As long as one accumulates a military advantage in normal times, finds some not-so-stupid generals, and plays some technical and tactical suppression, one can achieve the final victory in the war. The problem is, how to turn victory into money.

If you compare the occupied territory to a pasture, and you want to earn more money from this pasture, what should you do? Most people like to directly harvest the pasture grass and then sell it for economic benefits. The result is that this land will quickly turn into a desert, raising a storm to swallow everything around it. But Akado hopes that Germany can be a herdsman, grazing with a plan on the pasture. Although slow, it will produce money endlessly without any side effects.

But now someone wants to break this plan. They are using the most primitive and stupid method to recover their investment, which is inefficient and more dangerous. But this group of short-sighted fools are still making excuses, thinking that what they are doing is right, is a matter of course.

Undoubtedly, the victor nation has a sense of superiority over the defeated nation. They are also worthy of pride and self-esteem. As the victor, it is not unreasonable to take back some industries in the chaos. But if one wants to annex and integrate this occupied territory for a long time, then there must be a detailed plan of appeasement and recruitment. From the very beginning, one must strictly follow the pre-arranged plan, to divide and disintegrate the local people, and ultimately to make the local people who have benefited from it integrate with the occupying country.

For this grand plan, Akado had even used his own family business, the White Orchid Group, to absorb and annex many Belgian and Dutch enterprises, taking the lead in giving the Dutch and Belgian employees in these enterprises relatively good wages and benefits, in order to divide and disintegrate some of the Dutch and Belgian resistance. The effect was not yet obvious, but it had been proven to be working. The result was that this little bit of effect had almost been ruined by a group of ignorant and short-sighted merchants.

“Ger, tell me, am I being too lenient with these idiots? Is that why they think they can deceive my eyes?” Akado stood by the window, looking at the firing squad at the gate, and the Dutch locals in the distance who were watching everything with indifferent faces.

With one slogan after another, the SS soldiers of the firing squad raised their rifles and aimed at the wall to the left of the main gate of the former Dutch royal palace. Then, with a command, they pulled their triggers.

Crack! A dense volley of gunfire came from outside the window. Some of the merchants, capitalists, and politicians who had once been well-dressed and had done well in German high society, were now falling under the guns of their own people. They were the merchants of the victor nation, who had once supported the government’s foreign expansion and had even taken out their own money to support Akado, this German Führer.

But now their chests were being pierced, and their mouths were full of curses. They felt that it was Germany, it was Akado who had betrayed them. Akado was “making a mountain out of a molehill” just to pay back a little less of the war bonds. So they would not admit their mistakes until death, would not admit that there was anything wrong with them exploiting the civilians in the occupied territories.

“Akado! You despicable bastard! How much money did I give you back then? You dare to kill me now? I’m not convinced! I won’t be convinced even if I die! Come and see! Everyone, come and see! See what kind of face this bastard named Akado really has! He is the Führer of the Dutch! Not our German Führer!” a middle-aged man shouted, still cursing non-stop as he was being pressed against the wall.

But his insults did not win him the sympathy of the people. The surrounding Dutch locals still stared coldly at this man. On a temporary platform by the side of the execution area, a German officer, holding the judgment document, was reading out the crimes of the man who had been put in the noose into a microphone.

He read a page of this man’s numerous illegal and wicked deeds in the Netherlands, then turned a page and continued to read, “The crimes committed by this criminal in the Netherlands are too numerous to be recounted here one by one. Now, according to the laws of the Empire, this criminal is sentenced to death, to be executed immediately!”

“Good! It’s this damn bastard who tricked all four of our young people into his factory. They haven’t had a day off in half a year, and can only see their families through the iron bars once a month! He’s not human! He doesn’t even pay half the wages stipulated by the Führer!” a Dutchman said through clenched teeth, pointing at the man who was about to be hanged. The people around him also began to cheer, and more people began to applaud, drowning out the man’s hysterical curses.

“My Führer, for any of your enemies, the SS will not hesitate to eliminate them,” Ger replied to Akado’s words, standing at attention. Akado did not turn his head, but this did not affect Ger’s answer. “Some people are not worthy of your mercy. They only deserve to be hanged.”

“If one day, many people want me to die, there will always be SS who will also raise their pistols at me,” Akado said, still looking out the window, at the corpse swaying on the gallows. The entire front of the Queen of the Netherlands’ palace had now become a slaughterhouse. A few SS soldiers, carrying rifles, were dealing with the bodies, while more SS were holding their guns and creating more bodies.

“Führer, at least I will always be loyal to you!” Ger said seriously. There is never a shortage of loyal people at any time. In fact, even the cornered Hitler still had many people who chose to follow him, let alone the now-triumphant Führer, Akado. After all, Ger could be said to have been by Akado’s side all along. If he couldn’t be won over after such a long time together, Akado himself would deserve to die.

“Report! My Führer! The third group of condemned prisoners has been disposed of. The fourth group is being escorted to the square. The execution officer, Colonel Kliffen, requests your instructions on whether to continue,” a guard stood at the door, saluting and reporting the situation of the recent executions to Akado. Those once-glorious elites of the Empire were now just cold corpses.

Ring! Ring! The phone on Akado’s desk rang. Ger walked over and picked up the receiver. “Hello, this is the Führer’s office. This is Ger. The Führer is right beside me. Yes, ma’am. I will hand the phone over to the Führer himself now.”

After he finished speaking, he covered the receiver with his hand and then handed the phone to Akado. “Führer, it’s Miss Fanny, the Minister of Propaganda. She is calling personally and requests that you take the call.”

Akado snatched the phone and said softly, “Hello, this is Akado. What is it?”

“My Führer.” On the other end of the line, Fanny clearly already knew what was happening, or rather, what was currently happening, in the square in the Netherlands. Her tone was a little hurried, a nervousness she hadn’t shown in a long time. “Someone has already informed me of what you are doing in Rotterdam. I ask you to consider the public sentiment and to be a little more restrained. It would be fine to deal with these people privately. There is no need for such a large-scale public execution. This will damage your reputation, Führer…”

“I am spending my own money for this country,” Akado said calmly, holding the receiver. “I have not asked everyone to be like me, to risk their own money for this country. But I only asked them to be a little more restrained when they were plundering, and they couldn’t even do that… I can only consider these people to be my enemies, the enemies of the Empire. You tell me, my enemies, don’t they deserve to die?”

“My Führer, your enemies certainly deserve to die. But tomorrow, people with ulterior motives will be spreading the story of you killing Germans for the Dutch,” Fanny said with concern. “This will indeed cause some damage to your long-standing public support.”

“Then, let everyone know,” Akado said coldly. “Remember one thing, and that is, those who violate my will must pay the price! If the German people do not understand me and ask me to leave, then I will leave!”

After speaking, he hung up the phone in his hand, then looked at the SS soldier who was still waiting for orders at the door and ordered, “Escort the fourth group of criminals to the square. Continue the killing!”

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