Chapter 88: Dealing With Insubordination
Bruno was definitely surprised by the reports he had read after promoting his two closest friends to the rank of major and giving them a far more significant degree of control and responsibility in the war effort. The nicknames given to the two men couldn't have been more different.
On the one hand, the war had certainly hardened Erich's heart, rendering him incapable of remotely empathizing or sympathizing with another human life. His cruelty in pursuit of the Marxists was legendary, earning him the nickname "The Terror of Belgorod."
Whereas Heinrich had almost certainly progressed in the exact opposite direction. It was a war, and things such as collateral damage, civilian casualties, and the displacement of millions of innocent people were natural consequences.
Despite being a soldier fighting in the war and commanding an entire battalion of men within the city of Tsaritsyn, where Bruno left him in charge after withdrawing from the Volga region, Heinrich had become known as a local "saint" by the people.
He went out of his way to use military resources to feed and house homeless orphans who had aged out of the church's orphanages. In addition to this, he requested further aid for these humanitarian efforts from Bruno, who couldn't help but jump at the opportunity for good PR. As a result, Bruno reached out to the Kaiser, expressing Heinrich's request and emphasizing why it was a necessary expense. Within a fortnight, supplies and personnel flooded into the country to feed and house the poor, displaced masses of Russia.
Bruno, of course, gave credit to the man responsible, and Heinrich earned the nickname "The Savior of Tsaritsyn." Many began to refer to him colloquially as "Saint Heinrich the Caretaker." Heinrich's good deeds, however, masked the cruelty with which Erich hunted down the Red Army within his area of responsibility.
At least for a time. Certain actions couldn't be concealed for very long. Sooner or later, someone would take notice and report it up the chain of command. Eventually, word reached Bruno that Erich had been killing informants who had come forward to expose their superiors in the Bolshevik Party and the Red Army.
As a result, Bruno summoned Erich from Belgorod to Saint Petersburg, where he was commanding operations of the Iron Division from behind the front lines. Insubordination was a crime treated in this day and age with a bullet to the skull.
Bruno had, for good reason, given an order to all his troops to show mercy to informants who came forward to betray their masters. The Tsar had not issued a pardon to these people, but it was expedient to the cause.
If Bruno was being honest, he didn't really care that Erich was executing informants-not from a moral stance, at least. They were, after all, the most despicable of the Bolsheviks- those who refused to die for their cause and turned on their fellow rats the moment an opportunity arose to save their own hides.