Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 261: France Bleeds



Following the events of the Russian Civil War, which began over a decade prior in this timeline when compared to that of Bruno's past life. Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Anarchism, et cetera were all universally condemned by all the major powers in Europe.

Whether it was the German Reich, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or even the French Republic a major crackdown and suppression began to affect far-left groups. Who were presented as radical extremists whose sole objective was destruction, violence, death and chaos for its own sake.

Because of this, many of the people who adhered to such foolish beliefs were quickly driven underground, those who were not apprehended and tried as seditious individuals went deep into hiding.

But... War presented opportunities for a return of humanity's single most destructive ideology. And as the Great War continued to wage, and the French Republic continued to suffer horrific loss after horrific loss. The people of France began to become a bit... agitated. Demonstrations began to take place across the country. And while they started off as peaceful, there would always be those willing to take things too far and escalate them beyond their original intent.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Agitators were embedded within the ranks of the protestors who stood outside the French Parliament demanding an end to the war. Too many of France's beloved sons had either been wounded or worse already.

It would be one thing if they were exchanging losses for wins. But eight months into the war, and France had yet to gain a single victory worthy of note. The only reason Paris had not been seized already was because the Germans were what one from the 21st century might call "farming the French soldiers for xp..." at this point.

Many citizens had grown concerned about the state of the ongoing war, and why they were continuing to fight when Serbia, their ally who had dragged them into this mess to begin with had already capitulated.

Shouts and slogans were being made, as French citizens forced their voices to be heard. Not the slightest bit aware that their protest had been fully infiltrated by some rats whose intentions were far from pure.

A French woman, wearing a distinctive red overcoat, and a striped scarf no older than roughly twenty years of age looked over at a man perhaps ten years her elder, and nodded her head. Before uttering her thoughts aloud.

"This is for Leon..."

She then pulled out her satchel and yanked a draw cord that was attached to it, before hurling the device at the police.

As the satchel landed in front of the wall of police who were trying to get what until now had been peaceful demonstrators to go back to their homes, causing one of the younger lads to go and fetch it. Unfortunately for him, the satchel was a timed explosive, which detonated the moment the young officer reached to grab it.

Killing him and several of his fellow peace officers, while wounding a dozen more. Instantly causing panic, as the reds embedded within the crowd's ranks withdrew pistols from their coats and began firing randomly. All while shouting their call for revolution.

"Vive la revolution!"

Realizing that the demonstrations had suddenly escalated into a state of lethal hostility, the police responded to these attacks by withdrawing their own pistols, but by the time they had managed to understand what was happening and retaliate, the Marxists had fled with the other demonstrators, blending in with their ranks as the police returned fire as wantonly as they had.

The result was, of course several innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the Marxist revolutionaries being shot dead in the streets. Contrary to what may have been their intent however, the papers the next day would blame the attack squarely on the shoulders of the revolutionaries.

Either way the Marxist attack, as well as the response conducted by the Police at the scene would make international headlines, as the world began to question whether or not France would continue to fight the Germans in the East when their own situation began to unravel on the home front.

Bruno was actually sitting at his desk when he saw the news article on the front page of the paper he most often preferred to read early in the morning while enjoying a cup of coffee. He could help but sigh and shake his head as he read the headlines, as well as the text beneath it.

After ensuring that he properly understood the situation, he placed the paper back down on his desk and made a comment to nobody in particular.

"I swear to God... They're a bunch of fucking roaches... You can never truly be rid of this insidious ideology as there will always be idealistic idiots who think it can work... And unfortunately there is no cure for stupidity in this world..."

As Bruno said this, Heinrich approached him with his own cup of coffee in his hands, quickly noticing the headline on the paper his boss had been reading. The man made his own thoughts on the matter known.

"At this point, do you even think the French will continue to fight? I mean, if my house was on fire, the last thing I would be trying to do would be attempting to burn down someone else's home, right?"

Bruno shook his head and pointed at the paper. And the opinions expressed within it by those French citizens interviewed for comment.

"Believe it or not, it is hard to undo the public opinion on Marxists that I have forged across the last decade. Even now, most of France's citizens hold these revolutionaries responsible for the innocent deaths, as they are the ones who escalated the peaceful protest into an attack on the government, while using said peaceful protestors as human shields to escape the consequences of their actions.

Most people are idiots, but it should be noted that it is extremely hard to change an idiot's mind once it is set in stone. And because of that, this attack has not gained the revolutionaries the support they wanted.

I might be giving these pond scum fed troglodytes too much credit to their intelligence when I say this. But it is possible that their intent was never to gain support with this attack to begin with. Rather, it is possible that this is simply their way of announcing to the world while it is busy attending to more important matters that they never really went away and that they still

exist."

Heinrich looked at Bruno as if he was merely being paranoid again, and his tone was equally as incredulous when he finally spoke after a long pause.

"Come on man, really? Who is crazy enough to go commit mass murder just to prove that they are still around? This was an obvious attempt to provoke the government into harming innocent civilians and then trying to spin that narrative to gain more members and power." Bruno however responded to this statement, which while perfectly sound in reasoning with three clicks of his tongue followed by a condescending tone in his voice.

"Tsk... Tsk... Tsk... Oh my dear and stupid old friend... You really don't understand who you are dealing with do you? Even after all that time we spent in Russia fighting these vermin together, you never really learned quite how they think, did you?

Heinrich, of Marxists was remotely capable of logical and rational thought. They wouldn't be Marxists to begin with... No, we are dealing with highly emotional, spiteful, and petty ideological fanatics of which are driven mad by the idea of falling into obscurity.

They did this not out of any practical gain, but rather out of a desire to let the world know that they are still here, and will return in full force, eventually. It's a pity... Had I operational control over France I would send my attack dog on these rats, and he would take care of the problem within a year at the latest.

Unfortunately, I currently do not have any jurisdiction over the French Republic, its lands, and its people. And because of this, I cannot send our dear friend Erich to go exterminate these vermin. Hence, we will have to wait and see how the French government responds to these

attacks.

Either way, we have our own guerilla problem to solve now don't we? So how about we focus less on what is happening in the west, and more on what is happening here in our own backyard, shall we?"

After this, Bruno and Heinrich had a relatively complicated discussion about how they would hunt down and destroy the various ethno-nationalist and religious paramilitary organizations that were still causing problems in the Balkans.

Even though things had begun to die down as a result of Albania's restoration of law and

order. The violence never really ended, and because of that Bruno would now begin a mission

of seek and destroy.

All the while France was forced to deal with its own internal civil strife, one that would continue to grow as the war waged on.