Field Marshal Hindenburg was quietly pleased. To see a young major speak with such knowledge and conviction reassured him greatly. At least, he thought, the army would not be left without worthy successors once men of his generation retired.
Of course, words alone meant nothing to him. Men who could only talk but not act had no place in his army. But Major Mainz was different—his brilliant performance during the Bastogne campaign had already elevated him in Hindenburg's eyes.
To Hindenburg, this young officer might one day become the very hope of the Imperial Army.
The war had dragged on for four long years, bleeding the empire dry. The wealth carefully accumulated since the rise of Prussia had been shattered in a single conflict. Worse still, once the Entente signed a peace treaty with Germany, the empire would almost certainly be burdened with crushing war reparations. Under such circumstances, rebuilding the military power of the Reich would take not years, but perhaps decades.
Hindenburg was seventy-two years old. To reach such an age was already rare, and he knew that his own life was nearing its twilight. He might not live to see the rebirth of the army.
Therefore, the burden of the future would naturally have to fall on the shoulders of men like Mainz—young, capable, and steady. Hindenburg made up his mind. He would cultivate and promote this promising officer. When the peace talks in Versailles concluded, he even considered assigning Mainz to the General Staff.
By long tradition, Prussian generals who had served in the General Staff were regarded as the true elite—men forged in both strategy and command. It was precisely for this reason that the Entente, in the Treaty of Versailles, demanded the abolition of Germany's General Staff altogether. They feared the unique power it had to breed brilliant commanders.
Yet despite his hopes for Mainz, Hindenburg had not forgotten his present duty. His immediate task was to suppress the rising tide of worker uprisings and stabilize the fragile Weimar Republic. Since Major Mainz was already with the army, Hindenburg resolved to test him directly by sending him to the Ruhr industrial region, the very heart of the unrest.
That very evening, the 1st Battalion under Mainz received orders to move north by rail to Dortmund, one of the Ruhr's key cities.
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The First Industrial Revolution had transformed Europe, filling the continent with factories and swelling the ranks of the working class. From the Paris Commune of 1871 to the October Revolution in Russia in 1917, the labor movement had only grown in strength.
The Great War not only shattered the German Empire—it also brought deep social turmoil. By the time the Second Reich collapsed, the labor movement was at its peak, erupting from the naval ports in the north to the capital, Berlin, and into the industrial Ruhr.
Among these movements, the Bolshevik organizations—emboldened by the Russian Revolution—were especially active. Neither the bourgeois politicians of the Weimar Republic nor the Junker military aristocracy could tolerate such threats. Thus, the government and the army found common cause in suppressing the uprisings.
Major Mainz himself disliked the thought of turning his guns against his fellow Germans. But he knew that without order, the fragile republic would collapse into chaos, and civil war would consume the nation. Germany's history was scarred by such horrors—from the Thirty Years' War of the seventeenth century to the bloody chaos after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. To Mainz, the only way to save the country from another descent into ruin was to strike quickly, crush the uprisings, and restore stability—even if it meant sacrificing some for the greater good.
With that conviction, he led his men northward by train into the Ruhr.
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The system prompt chimed softly in his mind:
[Main Quest: Rebuilding the Empire]
Description: With the end of the Great War, the German Empire was gone. In its place, the Weimar Republic staggered, beset by enemies abroad and divisions within. Uprisings, revolutions, and foreign threats pushed the nation toward the abyss. But from this wreckage, the Third Reich would one day rise again. From this moment onward, every action the host takes shall become the cornerstone of the empire's rebirth.
Objective: Within one month, the host must suppress workers' uprisings in at least three cities.
Reward: 1 random new skill, +1 skill point, 1000 system funds.
Mainz's eyes lit up. There were quests—there would be rewards. At this crucial time, he needed them more than ever. Whether skills, points, or resources, everything was valuable. The war might have ended, but his mission had only just begun.
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