Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 257: Benevolent Dictator



The advance into Albania was rapid, so rapid one might add that the Guerillas had no time to prepare for the German attack. Panzers swept through every town of the small Balkan nation with precision, German soldiers gunning down the various partisans who stood before them with expert marksmanship.

Or at least those who weren't torn apart by 20mm auto-cannons and 7.92x57mm belt fed machine guns. To say that shock and awe had been accomplished within the opening stages of the so called "Special Military Operation" was an understatement.

Just like in Iraq in 91, and 03, the moment the Albanian guerillas came across the German Panzers, they threw down their weapons and surrendered as it became very apparent within the first hour of combat that they had absolutely no offensive capability against armored vehicles.

Honestly, the Albanian guerillas didn't know what was worse, the unstoppable and rapid tidal wave of steel crashing upon them from all sides, or the bombs that fell from the sky on top of their artillery before the Panzers could even arrive.

Within a matter of twelve hours, the Capital of Albania had fallen, marking what was perhaps one of the quickest conquests of a nation in human history up until this point. With the coasts sealed off and blockaded by the Hellenic, and Austro-Hungarian navies, and the Germans having split up and advanced upon the capital of Albania from all sides.

Any and all rebel leaders of the various factions that had until this moment been fighting for control of the nation were either dead, or rounded up where Bruno made an example of them by having them publically executed via firing squad.

After which he pardoned all guerillas who survived the very brief invasion under one condition. They turn on those who had been involved in fostering dissent within the Austro- Hungarian Balkan territories.

As if starving wolves being consumed by their hunger, and an opportunity to finally engorge themselves to the brink of death by consumption. The rebels quickly ratted one another out, where those guilty were also executed.

Once this was the case, Bruno announced that the so called "Albanian Republic" and the anarchist state it had come to embody was thoroughly abolished, having been an "illegitimate state from the start."

He also stated that he would be Governor Pro tempore until the rightful Prince of Albania could return to restore law and order to the region. Albeit with the aid of Austro-Hungarian Gendarmes acting as an occupying force.

All in all, German casualties in Albania were minimal, zero deaths, and at most ten wounded in action. Leaving Bruno in a position of temporary power over the small Balkan nation, at least over the course of the next few weeks, until Prince Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich could be rounded up from whatever unit he had joined in the German Army to fight in the war, and sent back to Albania to restore his rule.

At first, Bruno really wanted nothing to do with ruling a nation. He was, after all, a soldier, and he was more concerned with putting down any potential insurrectionist sentiment from the recently pacified Albanian populace than he was actually governing the affairs of the nation.

But as the stacks of paperwork ended up on his desk, requiring his approval and signatures to enact. Bruno did the job with the same fervor he did any undertaking he began in life. And that was with his full ability and dedication.

It was as he sat there in an office, looking over paperwork presented to him by more or less the military run state he had set up during this transitional period that Bruno began to realize how inefficient Albania was being run prior to his takeover of the small principality.

Frankly speaking, it wasn't exactly the prince's fault. The state had existed as an independent nation for two years prior to the outbreak of WWI and his exile. Before that, it was run by the Ottomans. And the Ottoman Empire was in a state of decline.

So much so that finding anyone worth a damn to run provincial affairs was a far more difficult task than one might think. Hence why Bruno received very little sleep over the course of the next two weeks as the man spent day and night burning the midnight oil, ensuring that the entire country was overhauled to be more efficient.

Whether it was the simplification of its constitution, codification of laws, parliamentary system, or outright introducing agricultural reforms that were suited to the nation's topography. Bruno had laid out a long list of things that needed to be done to improve the nation and the wellbeing of its people that would go well above and beyond his time as the temporary governor of the Principality.

By the time the rightful prince finally returned to Albania, Bruno had bags upon bags under his eyes, and looked like a man who had crawled out of a coffin. It didn't help that when Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich found the man; he was sitting in the office, with a cigarette in his mouth, and ashtray full of spent tobacco, and a trash can full of bottles of hard liquor, and cartons of cigarettes.

Once Bruno noticed that his replacement had arrived he gently put out his cigarette, which was the last one he had on him, and tossed it into the trash, before walking over to the German Prince and handing him a stack of papers so large, it might as well be a volume to an encyclopedia.

The German Prince was about to protest until Bruno pointed out with his thumb that there were about 30 stacks of papers equal in size sitting on the desk behind him. All of which were typed via a typewriter, and had been double, triple, and quadruple revised for perfection.

Bruno's voice was as haggard as his appearance, as he said one statement.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Follow what the work I have laid out for you or hire capable people to do it for you. And your kingdom should be set for the next century. I've done my job as governor pro tempore as best as I can, the rest of the work will be up to you..."

After saying this, Bruno wandered off without saying another word to the man. When Prince Wilhelm looked at the first stack of paper, briefly skimming through a mere ten pages of the massive volume, he began to realize that Bruno had done more work than anyone would have ever expected him to do so, and in a mere month-long period as the temporary dictator of Albania.

History would remember that there was at least one Benevolent Dictator to ever walk the Earth, and he rescinded his position the moment his proper monarch returned. In doing so, he had proven to be the single most efficient ruler history had ever seen, even if it had only lasted for the span of a single month.