The world order

Eitel's disdainful tone instantly made the young man's face flush red.

"The October Revolution has already proved Bolshevism correct!"

"I believe we can succeed too!"

The young man protested, unwilling to concede, but dressed in a German army uniform as he was, his words sounded utterly hollow.

Eitel merely smiled at the young man's feeble rebuttal, turned his horse around, and waved a hand behind him.

"Keep up. Come back to Berlin with me."

With that, Eitel nudged his horse's belly with his heel, and the warhorse started forward.

Watching Eitel ride away, the young man gritted his teeth and followed on foot.

Several men who had been captured alongside him crowded over and whispered close to his ear, "Wilhelm, have you got a death wish? This emperor is just like those Junker nobles."

"No matter what you say, you can't change the fact that they're exploiters."

A conflicted look crossed the face of the young man called Wilhelm, but his resolve soon returned. "But they haven't treated us like prisoners. Instead, they've given us good food and drink."

"I think he's different from those nobles. If we can win His Majesty's support, perhaps we won't have to resort to such extreme action."

The other prisoners were all shocked by Wilhelm's words. "How can you think that? Your father is Karl Liebknecht! You should carry on your father's will and fight these exploiters to the bitter end!"

"Fight, fight, fight! How many people did we lose in just this one operation? The emperor still has three million troops like these at the front! What do we have to fight them with?"

Wilhelm's eyes instantly reddened at the word "fight." What had happened the night before had truly terrified them all.

The elusive Stormtroopers and the cavalry that came and went like the wind possessed fighting strength that untrained workers like them could not possibly match.

The previous night's experience had also made him realize that perhaps persisting in the struggle was the wrong path, at least in Germany.

If they could bring about a peaceful transformation...

At that thought, Wilhelm looked toward His Majesty Eitel, a glimmer of hope kindling in his eyes.

But somewhere out of sight of Wilhelm and the others, a soldier was recording their conversation in a notebook.

Before long, that notebook was delivered into His Majesty Eitel's hands.

As Eitel leafed through its contents, a look of understanding appeared in his eyes.

Although he had never paid particular attention to this period of history, his advisor had once assigned him history homework on the German November Revolution.

"Karl Liebknecht, one of the leaders of the Spartacus League?"

"This Wilhelm is his son. I thought there was something different about him."

"Perhaps this Wilhelm will be the key to quelling the workers' movement this time."

Eitel closed the notebook, slipped it into his pocket, and continued forward.

Previously, he had had no idea how to quell this workers' movement. Now he knew exactly what to do.

"As long as I can break up the Spartacus League, the other workers' movements will be nothing to worry about."

Having worked out the crucial point, even his expression relaxed. Apart from those navy men involved in the collusion, he truly did not want to move against these workers. After all, Germany had already lost far too many people in this war.

Every single worker was now immensely precious.

Moreover, many of those taking part in the workers' movement were experienced workers, and training an experienced worker was no easy matter in this day and age.

And so, from that day onward, Eitel kept Wilhelm by his side.

That night, beside a burning campfire.

Wilhelm was still tirelessly expounding their theories to His Majesty Eitel.

"Your Majesty, I believe this war is nothing but outright exploitation, exploitation of common people and workers like us."

"For the interests of those nobles, your father actually started such an evil war."

"This is an utter betrayal of historical development, and he will be pilloried for it in the future."

Well, Eitel was beginning to regret it. This Wilhelm really could talk.

"All right, all right. Stop talking."

Somewhat wearily, Eitel made Wilhelm shut his mouth. Wilhelm wanted to say something, but did not dare, and his face turned red from holding it in.

"Wilhelm, do you know what your greatest mistake is?"

To stop Wilhelm from continuing to fill his head with those ideas, Eitel posed him a question.

"A mistake? I don't think I've made any mistakes."

Wilhelm stiffened his neck, looking utterly unafraid of whatever might be thrown at him.

"Your greatest mistake is treating those dogmas and whatever-isms as imperial decrees."

"Yes, the Paris Commune and the October Revolution succeeded."

"But you have to consider their social conditions and the circumstances that allowed them to succeed."

At this point, Eitel picked up a twig and began drawing on the ground.

"What were the emperors of France and Tsarist Russia like? Incompetent and exploitative."

"But what about us? Under my father's rule, Germany grew so powerful that it could wage war against all of Europe on its own!"

"I know you're in difficult circumstances now too, but did we cause that?"

Eitel took a sip of water to moisten his somewhat dry mouth, then looked at the thoughtful expression on Wilhelm's face and continued, "Even in launching this war, our aim was to give the German people more prosperous lives."

"Do you know what Germany's greatest mistake in this war was?"

At Eitel's question, Wilhelm asked in some confusion, "What was it?"

"We didn't win this war!"

"The war will be over soon, and we still don't know what demands they'll make."

"But I imagine the terms of the peace treaty certainly won't make life easy for our great Germany."

Hearing this reason, a hint of contemplation appeared in Wilhelm's eyes.

"We didn't win this war?"

Eitel's eyes lit up as he watched Wilhelm. "Exactly! It's because we didn't win this war!"

"This is where Germany lies. We have no fewer than eight neighboring countries, starting with Denmark and the Netherlands to the north, bordering France and Belgium to the west, not to mention Switzerland to the south and Tsarist Russia to the east."

"Our German Empire is hemmed in between them, with absolutely no potential for greater development."

"I've heard that there was an emperor in the East named Qin Shi Huang. Only by unifying the six states did he give that country the vast territory it has today, and such enormous potential for development."

As Eitel spoke, he suddenly sighed.

"Europe today is fragmented, with countless countries large and small. Our ancestors clearly all belonged to the same people. Isn't this a betrayal of our ancestors' ideals?"

"Isn't this a source of regret for all of Europe? If Europe remains this way, its wars will never stop!"

"Europe must return to the right path! The German Empire will surely unify this continent!"

Eitel's words set off a brainstorm in Wilhelm's head, which was filled with Bolshevism.

"Unification..."

"Unification!"