On the second Wednesday after Chen Tian came to Qingdao, Christmas in 1929 quietly came. It was very windy outside and a little overcast on this day, but there was no snow. As the military and economic center of Germany in the Far East, the squares, streets and buildings next to the roads in Qingdao city are completely in accordance with the German Christmas habits are carefully arranged, on a certain scale and grade of shops, hotel doors can see Christmas trees with small lights and small gift boxes, some will also put a Christmas carriage to attract people's attention, even the poor economic conditions of the merchants will use pictures or large banners to write "Merry Christmas" in German.

Because of the bustle on the street, Chentian's car took some more time than usual when it passed through the city to the Far East Cluster Headquarters, but looking at the joyful pedestrians outside the car window, looking at the children of different heights, with Western and Eastern faces in the choir organized by the church, and listening to the natural ode sung by their children's voices, no matter how irritable the mood was, no matter how irritable the mood was.

"Merry Christmas!"

From the entrance of the headquarters to the main combat command room in a short distance of a few tens of meters, Chen Tian was busy and exchanged greetings with the oncoming officers, in Germany, Christmas is a good day to drink beer, eat roast duck and travel, although the soldiers here must continue to struggle in their respective posts because of their duties, but everyone's mood is very relaxed, except for only one person, that is, Chentian's first close intelligence officer Schubert von Mackensen, the nephew of the famous Marshal Mackensen.

"Your Majesty, this is a secret telegram from Berlin an hour ago!" As soon as he entered the door, Shawbert had an extremely serious expression, which made people know at a glance that he was bringing bad news.

Chen Tian took a piece of paper from his hand, on which there were only three paragraphs of text that occupied half of the page, roughly saying that the Rheinland newspaper published a more agitative anti-war article on today's second page, which accused the government of spending huge manpower and material resources to fight a war thousands of miles away, and causing a large number of outstanding German soldiers to die on distant battlefields, which is neither rational nor responsible, because the Rheinische newspaper has a lot of influence in central and western Germany, especially in small and medium-sized cities. This article is likely to bring more German civilians into the anti-war camp; In addition, the intelligence services learned that opposition parties such as the League of the Liberals, which had traditionally held peaceful and anti-war views, and some civil society organizations were actively preparing a demonstration against the war, and that their activities were aimed at mainly workers in major factories, and although their demonstrations would be scheduled on Sundays when most workers were resting, such activities would obviously affect the workers' motivation to continue working for the state war machine.

After reading this report, Chen Tian's expression was only a little more serious, and he said to Shaw Bert:

"I see, you go down first! If there is anything commanded. I'll call you again! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Shawbert left with the same look on his face as he had entered.

After thinking alone for three or four minutes, Chen Tian rang the bell on the table and asked the attendant to call Rundstead, Manstein, and Kleist, who had just returned to the headquarters to report on his duties.

5 minutes later, the three generals walked into Chentian's office in turn according to their ranks, they were all wearing new army uniforms today, and they were all very clean and tidy, but the color of Kleist's military uniforms was a little lighter than the other two's, and it was not obvious when they were seen separately, but when the three of them stood side by side. The difference is obvious. This is the difference between a general who commands a front-line unit that is exposed to wind and rain outside and who spends most of his time indoors.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please convey Christmas wishes to your families and subordinates on my behalf, and wish them a Merry Christmas, happiness and good health!"

The three of them replied almost in unison, "Thank you, Your Majesty." We will definitely convey it on our behalf! ”

"Please be seated!" Chen Tian led them to the square sand room on one side of the office, and after everyone sat down, he said: "I came to you today to tell you that the anti-war sentiment in China is gradually rising, and there are more and more calls for us to end the war as soon as possible!" ”

Of the three, only Kleist was more surprised, and as for Rundstead and Manstein, staying in the cluster headquarters allowed them to hear more from outside the battlefield, and they didn't bother to hide it.

Rundstead was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, with all due respect, the voices against the war have been there since the day we went to war with the Japanese. I think that these people either have economic or other ties with the Japanese, so they are afraid that the war will damage their interests; Either they are biased against the government and the military; There are also some people, I think they are spies of the Japanese or have been bought by the Japanese early! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, I think so too!" Manstein followed up and said, "At any time, there are people who try to maintain peace by non-war means, but history has proved that only by force can the security of a country be guaranteed, and true peace can be achieved!" ”

Kleist nodded slightly. But nothing was said.

"Both of you are right, but this time the situation is a little different!" Chen Tian said, "We only fought the battle with the French for 4 months, and the British for only 9 months, and then we spent 1 month to conquer Austria-Hungary, 4 months to defeat the United States, and only 3 months to divide Russia, but this time, more than a year has passed since we were from last autumn to this winter, and we have not even set foot on the enemy's soil!" ”

The three generals in front of them each thought for a while, and Rundstead said: "After all, the Japanese have built an unprecedentedly large defensive circle, and we can only suppress them by advancing step by step. ”

Like Chentian, Manstein considered a purely temporal issue:

"Including the Austro-Prussian War, which was won in less than four months, and the Franco-Prussian War, which lasted only one month, we have indeed fought this battle for a long time! Although we in Germany are now stronger than ever, the patience of the people is not unlimited! ”

Kleist was about to remain silent, but Chen Tian asked him directly: "Does General Kleist have no opinion?" ”

Kleist coughed a little embarrassedly, and said more cautiously: "Your Majesty, a war can last for a hundred years or only a month, depending on the strength, strategy and actual situation of the battlefield of the warring parties, I think our current strategy is very good, as long as it continues like this, it will be difficult for the Japanese to find a chance to turn the tables!" ”

"Hmm. Indeed it is! Chen Tian commented on the opinions of the three people very vaguely.

After a moment, by Rundstead asked:

"Dare to ask Your Majesty, what is the specific extent of the current anti-war situation in China?"

Chen Tian shook his head, "Although there is not yet a crisis, the growing number of anti-war supporters forces us to take action, otherwise, these citizens may be used by our enemies, and in serious cases, it will even affect the direction of the entire war!" ”

Rundstead and Manstein exchanged glances. Then, very cautiously, you asked:

"Does Your Majesty mean to end this war by means of non-war?"

Chentian looked at Rundstead, then Manstein, and finally Kleist, "Tell me, are you tired of this war too?" ”

Without the slightest hesitation, Rundstead stood up, followed by Manstein and Kleist.

"No, Your Majesty. I am a military man. As a German soldier, I never got tired of war, but I took every war and every battle as a challenge of life. As long as the motherland needs it, I can fight until I can't even hold a gun.

Your Majesty, everything I do is absolutely with the will of you and the country! ”

"Your Majesty, everything we do is absolutely based on the will of you and the country!" Manstein and Kleist spoke in unison, their tones filled with unmistakable firmness.

"Generals, I'm so proud of you!" Chen Tian stood up calmly, such a result had been expected by him, and he was indeed proud of his German soldiers who were brave, loyal, and qualified, because it was rare to find a better warrior in this world.

"We have spent so much money to fight from West Asia to East Asia. From the Central Pacific to the Western Pacific, we can accept the prayers of the French because they have no fighting spirit, and we can accept the prayers of the Americans because they have no guts, but the enemy in front of us is a brutal hungry wolf, and some damage, although it can temporarily suppress its ambitions, will make it more brutal from the bottom of its heart! So. As a last resort, we will never take the path of diplomatic negotiations to end this war! I firmly believe that in order to eliminate this enemy's threat to us, we must defeat them once and for all, so that they will never have a chance to come back! ”

In front of these impassioned words, the three generals had firm eyes and straight chests, as if they were about to rush to the front line immediately after Chen Tian's order. However, they still have a small question in their hearts: what to do with the anti-war voices in the country? Did His Majesty come to himself just to make sure of his loyalty?

No, of course not, before summoning them in, Chen Tian had already come up with a very good countermeasure.

"Once there is an economic crisis at home, launching a foreign war to attract the attention of the people is a common method used by all countries, and this has been proven to be very effective in history, the same reason, it is not difficult to silence the domestic anti-war forces, one way is to worsen the image of our enemies, such as using the enemy's hands to create evil ** to provoke the people, but this often seems to be inhumane, and this second way is to enhance the image of the army in the eyes of the people!"

"Raise the image of the army?" Rundstead and others were a little surprised, the German ** team has won countless victories, isn't this image in the minds of the Chinese people not good enough?

"That's right, raise the image of the army! However, at present, it is difficult to attract the attention of the public in the form of pure propaganda, so we need to make this image material, to be precise, to erect a special and glorious image of heroes in the minds of the people, so that people respect and worship them, and let people forget the horrors of war.