Chapter 110: Madness and Stupidity
Bruno and Svetozar returned to the German encampment that had been made in the mountains for the sake of housing and supplying the 20,000 or so German Soldiers who Bruno had brought with him to the Austrian alps.
Quite frankly, Bruno did not know how much time the German Kaiser and his Austrian counterpart had been planning this joint military exercise, but it must have been months in the making. Either way, he really didn't care, as that was not his responsibility.
Though the Kaiser didn't explicitly explain his reason for sending Bruno to Austria as the leader of his forces. The answer was already obvious to the man. He was here firstly to show off the failures of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and to strengthen the relationship between the German Reich and their southern neighbors.
Despite his rather blunt nature, Bruno had shown a remarkable ability to impress powerful men and their families. The Tsar had seemingly forgotten the fact that Bruno was both the cause and a solution to the Bolshevik Revolution, which tore his country apart and threatened the livelihood of his entire royal dynasty.
Instead, he simply remembered Bruno as the "Red Scourge." A man who had annihilated the Red Army at every turn and hunted down their leaders to the ends of the Earth in order to remove their stain on history.
Nicholas only had good things to say about Bruno, seemingly forgetting the previous conflicts between the two of them. While Meiji also spoke of the man as if he were some kind of legendary figure, seen throughout history once every few centuries.
Now was the chance to make his mark on the Austrians. And Wilhelm was smart enough to send his envoy to do just that. And though the Austrian military leadership was offended by Bruno's remarks and actions. The House of Habsburg had a fairly good opinion of him, even though they had really only gotten to know each other over the course of a single day.
In addition to that, the most important general of the Austro-Hungarian Army was now sitting across from Bruno as they addressed the problems that plagued the army. With Bruno taking a sip from his beer before offering his views on the matter.
"Frankly speaking, there are several issues I have with the Austro-Hungarian Army and its current organization. If I may be so bold, your organization to three distinctive branches is, frankly speaking, a nightmare.
You have the Common Army which is itself split between German and Hungarian Regiments. But the problem is that there are Italians, Poles, Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, and God knows how many other ethnic groups with their own distinctive languages within them as well.