Chapter 6 Little East Germany

On November 25, 1917, Hersman, Chloe and Karl Stockhausen took a train to leave Petrograd. Near Petrograd under Bolshevik rule, the railway was barely usable. Hersman and the other three occupied a carriage, and he and Chloe sat facing each other by the window. Stockhausen sat at the door, fiddling with a scimitar with a walrus handle and a gold-plated scabbard all the way. It was given to him by Hersman - Hersman spent 20 gold marks to buy this knife. If the thick layer of gold on the scabbard was scraped off, it would definitely be heavier than a gold mark coin (20 mark face value)!

In other parts of this carriage, most of the chairs were temporarily dismantled, and the empty space was filled with antiques bought by Hersman - mainly furniture and pianos wrapped in blankets and firmly fixed with ropes. Of course, the blankets wrapped around them were also antiques. The price of these antiques was surprisingly cheap, costing only 3,000 gold marks in total, equivalent to more than 700 but less than 800 US dollars!

If they are shipped to Zurich, they can be sold at thirty or forty times the price! If they are sold in Berlin, they can also increase by more than ten or twenty times. Even after deducting all transportation and tariffs, there will still be quite good profits.

Just when Hersman was planning to set up a company specializing in the sale of Russian antiques. The train had passed the city of Pskov and stopped at a small train station 20 kilometers west of the city. This is close to the ceasefire line between the Russian and German armies. A day ago, the Soviet Union and the German-Austrian alliance negotiated a temporary ceasefire, and the two sides signed an agreement to ceasefire for 28 days. It was also stipulated that peace talks would be held in Brest-Litovsk on October 10. So at this time, there was no gunfire on the Pskov front, and even the railway traffic was barely restored with the efforts of the German engineers.

The German Eastern Front General Headquarters had long known about the arrival of a magical captain who facilitated the Bolsheviks' rise to power and the armistice negotiations. Hersman's emperor fan personally called Prince Leopold, the commander-in-chief of the German Eastern Front, and asked him to send this legendary German hero to Berlin as quickly as possible.

Prince Leopold sent his adjutant, a serious, thin, bitter-faced captain, to the small station closest to the front line with some gifts to greet Hessmann. When the thirty-something superior walked into the carriage where Hessmann was, he was stunned by the scene in front of him - where did the good things in this carriage come from? Could this "magic captain" have taken advantage of the chaos to rob the Catherine Palace?

"Captain? You are..." Hessmann was not wearing a military uniform, so he did not salute the visitor, but politely extended his right hand.

"Oh," the captain finally reacted, stretched out his hand and shook hands with Hessmann, and then introduced himself: "I am Captain Franz Halder, the military adjutant of His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front."

It turned out to be the future Chief of the Army General Staff of the Third Reich! A great military strategist, but unfortunately Hitler did not listen to his advice and dismissed him during the Battle of Stalingrad (Halder believed that the German army could not win in Stalingrad). Later, he was involved in a conspiracy against Hitler and was imprisoned in a concentration camp. After Germany was defeated, he continued to be imprisoned as a war criminal...

Hersmann thought about Halder's tragic fate of being imprisoned for life, and introduced himself: "Captain, I am Captain Ludwig von Hirsmann, and I have been ordered to return to Berlin from Petrograd." He pointed to Karl and Chloe, "They are my assistants, Karl Stockhausen and Chloe von Heinsberg."

That was all he could say. Halder did not ask more questions, but waved outside the door. Several German soldiers came up with baskets full of bread, cheese, eggs and meat, placed the baskets on a carved antique dining table, and then left.

"Captain Hirsmann, I have been ordered to accompany you to Berlin." Halder glanced at the antique furniture and piano in the carriage. "His Royal Highness Prince Leopold, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, gave me an order to send you to Berlin in the shortest possible time... Even if you have a lot of luggage, it is not a problem."

It's really thoughtful! Hersman smiled gratefully at Halder, then extended his hand and made a gesture of invitation: "Mr. Halder, please sit down. I brought some good coffee, let's drink it together. In addition, I would like to ask you something."

...

"Mr. Halder, how much do you know about the situation on the Russian Baltic coast?"

As the train continued to move forward, Hersman asked about the situation on the Baltic coast. Halder is now the military adjutant of the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, and should know more about the Baltic coast than Hersman-Lenin is ready to give up Courland, Livland, Estonia, Livonia and Lithuania...that is, the three Baltic countries later. But as far as Hersman knows, these three countries were not dominated by Germany after World War I, especially Courland, Livland, Estonia, Livonia and other places where the Germans have a considerable foundation. In the end, it seems that they did not become a "small East Germany" with an area of ​​more than 100,000 square kilometers, but became Latvia and Estonia.

"There?" Halder smiled. "Except for part of Estonia, it's basically under control. If it weren't for the armistice, we could have entered Petrograd within a week!"

"Mr. Halder, I'm asking about the political solution."

"Political?" Halder paused, glanced at Hersman, and then said after considering, "The political solution is still brewing, and some German nobles have proposed the idea of ​​establishing the United Baltic Principality."

There really is a plan to build a "Little East Germany"! Hessman suddenly showed an expression of interest. If this "Little East Germany" can come true, then Germany will have another "shell" that can be exploited. Many things that Germany cannot do can be done by "Little East Germany". This was extremely beneficial to breaking the restrictions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles.

And, consider that this "little East Germany" on the Baltic coast was right next to the Soviet Union. If the country could maintain close and friendly relations with the Soviet Union, it could become a bridge for cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany in the future.

Of course, in the more distant future, it may also become a bridgehead for Germany to contain the Soviet Union's westward advance!

"So, what's the difficulty in realizing this plan?" Hersman asked bluntly.

"The difficulty lies in the population!" Halder picked up the coffee brewed by Chloe, took a sip, and showed an expression of endless aftertaste. "The biggest problem is population... Our people (referring to Germans) are a minority after all. Even excluding Lithuania, in Courland, Livland, Estonia and Livonia, our people are not as good as Estonians and Latvians so many."

"How much difference?"

"It's a lot worse..." Halder smacked his lips, "The German-speaking population there is only a few hundred thousand at most, but the Estonian and Latvian-speaking population is nearly two million. If we can have more people Hundreds of thousands, reaching 700,000 or 800,000, then the problem is not that big. After all, there are many pro-Germans among Estonians and Latvians. I think that when the war is over, some immigrants will be organized to the Baltic Principality. Come."

Halder seemed not to realize that Germany was going to lose the war! Hersman frowned, "Hundreds of thousands of Germans... If we can get that many people before 1919, we can at least make the area around the Gulf of Riga our territory, and no one can take it away. "

He was thinking in his mind that if the hundreds of thousands of Germans in Russia could be relocated around the Gulf of Riga, then there should be no problem with the population exceeding 800,000. According to a mobilization ratio of 12%, it is possible to equip nearly 100,000 armed forces. If this country can be friendly with Soviet Russia again, then there is no need to be afraid of British interference...

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Here comes the third update, there will be an additional update at midnight tomorrow! Seeing how hard Luo Luo is working, please support Luo Luo again, okay?