It had been three months since Bruno sent Ludwig home. During this time, the Volga region was cleansed of the Red Menace that had infected it. The result of which was tens of thousands of casualties. Primarily civilians were affected, as those remnants of the Red Army that cowardly hid in the Volga region did so while taking up residence in towns and holding the civilians inside at gunpoint.
It was a hostage situation to put it simply, but Bruno did not negotiate with rebels. And quite frankly, he felt unusually bad about the deaths that occurred after shelling the Red Army and their positions within the innocent villages.
After all, starting in the second half of the 18th century, ethnic Germans began to move into the region and create entire towns of their own. Under the reign of Catherine the Great and her successors, German farmers were invited to the Russian Empire to farm the land, having been enticed by extensive land grants similar in a way to the American homestead act which occurred over the course of the 19th century.
These were technically Bruno’s people, at least to some extension. And he felt bad having to shell them along with the despicable Marxists who held them hostage. But, using CS gas here and now in the open for all nations to observe was not a price Bruno was willing to pay to ensure the safety of civilians who were ultimately not citizens of the Reich, and thus not under his protection by any measure of his moral compass.
With this in mind, Bruno’s result was to warn the civilians in advance that they would be shelling the city and give them 72 hours to flee by any means necessary. If they could not, then it was simply God’s way of saying that their time had come, and thus they could enter the pearly gates sooner than they had anticipated.
After repeated losses against the Iron Division and the accompanying Russian forces. It became clear to the Red Army that defeating their enemies in a siege was an impossibility. They were simply equipped with too many machine guns, and such weapons made a significant difference on a modern battlefield.
And since they could not defeat the enemy in a siege, it meant that there were two options left. One was to fight in the field, in a decisive battle that would determine an end to the war. Or two were to engage in a protracted guerilla campaign.
Both of these had their faults. For example, in a field battle, the Russian Army could make full use of its cavalry units. But the upside was deploying machine guns in any meaningful capacity was almost an impossibility. Or so the Bolsheviks believed, as their understanding of such weapons, while expanded upon by Bruno’s tactics, was not fully enlightened.
As for the Guerilla campaign, it was almost certain that the Iron Division, the Russian Army, and the supporting Black Hundreds of loyalist militias would begin dragging out anyone suspected of harboring Marxist sympathies and simply execute them in the streets. Or perhaps brutally interrogate them for information on the identities and locations of their comrades before doing so.
The brutality shown towards those who supported the Bolshevik party thus far in the war was an indicator that the enemy did not see them as human. Rather, in the eyes of the Tsar and his loyalists, Marxists were nothing more than a pest that needed to be fully exterminated. And they would use any means, no matter how wicked, to achieve this.
Perhaps because of this, Lenin, Stalin, Litvinov, and the other leaders of the Bolshevik revolution feared undertaking such an endeavor. As it would no doubt result in them being hunted down in the streets one by one until they were all dead.
Truly, their options were limited. Both of which were less than ideal. Bruno had single-handedly forced the Bolshevik leaders into a ruinous situation. Their recruitment had been reduced to miserable numbers. They were barely able to replace their losses sustained in the Volga region.
Meanwhile, their own acts of cruelty during the combat in the Volga region, which resulted in mass casualties to civilians, did the Red Army no favors either. Though they tried to blame these deaths on the Iron Division and its commander.
The Tsarist propaganda actively countered these efforts for the most part. Thus, their two options of fighting and dying in a pitched field battle or being slowly exterminated by the Tsarist forces in a guerrilla campaign were all that remained for the Bolshevik Revolution.
And thus, they chose the slower, more cruel fate of fighting a guerilla campaign against the Tsar and his allies. As their only hope was that comrades abroad would help them escape Russia should things really take a turn for the worst.
With all of this in mind, the Red Army began stripping off their uniforms under the commands of Joseph Stalin, who had assumed control over the organization after the deaths of Leon Trotsky and Yakov Sverdlov at Bruno’s hands.
From now on out, the war would be waged in the streets, via ambushes against the Iron Division, Russian Army, and the Black Hundreds of loyalist militias. Thus began a game of cat and mouse between one of History’s most brutal dictators, and an anomaly in the timeline who should never have existed.
Currently, Bruno was playing a game of chess with a Russian General who sat across from him. The two of them were in Saint Petersburg, which had become the center of Tsarist forces after they repelled Trotsky’s siege on the city.
Bruno had a temporary office established for him to organize the war effort alongside the Russian General staff. And as the war transitioned back to a Guerilla campaign, he spent most of his time here.
On days like this, where there was not much to do, he would play chess with the Russian Generals, who generally lost to him. Despite this, one general in particular was adamant to play Bruno time and again, no matter how many times he lost. Seeing it as a learning experience against a man whose skill was easily on par with the greatest of grand masters.
This General was quick to comment on the recent change in developments regarding the Russian Revolution, of which Bruno simply smirked as he checkmated the man on the spot.
“It would appear the Reds have gone underground after their defeats within the Ingria and Volga regions. I have heard rumors of their attacks on our troops being repelled quickly. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about this, now, would you?”
Bruno sipped on some tea as he sat back smugly in his seat. Having just defeated the Russian General again, the man simply sighed heavily and admitted his defeat. All while Bruno answered his previous question with a tone of confidence that the Russian General found deeply unnerving.
“If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither your enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle…. Do you know who said that?”
The Russian General had obviously heard the quote before. The Art of War by Sun Tzu was famous in modern military circles. One could not graduate from a military academy of any respectable nation without having learned these words. And because of this, he quickly responded with the correct answer.
“Sun Tzu, but why are you bringing this up now?”
Bruno’s words were rather cryptic as he responded to the Russian General’s words, which had a hidden meaning that only he could understand.
“In all of this world, there is nobody who understands our enemies more than I do. I know everything there is to know about the leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution, every detail of their life is permanently seared into my mind.
I also understand myself to a similar degree. Because of this, it is a matter of chess. For every move the enemy makes, I know in advance, and have predicted a thousand counter measures.
Do you think my actions have been merciless? If so, do you understand why I have taken them? From the moment I stepped foot in Russia, it was an inevitability that these rats would scurry from any battlefield and instead seek to wipe us out slowly like the plague infested vermin they are! Naturally, I made plans in advance for this new guerilla campaign of theirs. If you want to know the truth—”
Bruno’s next words were cut off as a lieutenant in the Iron Division stepped into the room with a letter in his hand. Saluting the two generals before handing it off to Bruno. After being dismissed, the man left the room, allowing Bruno to open the letter where a wicked smirk appeared on his face.
The Russian General immediately grew concerned with what the letter contained, but before he could read it Bruno tossed it into the fireplace. Where he then stood up and thanked the Russian General for the game of chess.
“Well, it has been fun, General. But duty calls, I can no longer stay here and play chess with you, at least for the time being. I hope the next time we meet; your skills will have improved.”
Bruno put on his greatcoat as he walked to the door and grabbed hold of his steel helmet, which was sitting on a nearby tabletop. As he stepped out, the Russian General called out to him, questioning what was so urgent that he needed to step out.
“Wait a second. Where are you going? Must you really leave now?”
Bruno turned around once more, his smirk while friendliness was full of wicked intent. But not towards the Russian General, after all his thoughts were elsewhere, which he spoke about as he left the office building.
“Sorry, General, time is of the essence. There are some roaches that need to be gassed, and if I don’t do so swiftly, they will simply move to another location and infest it as well!”
The Communists didn’t know it yet, but Bruno had long since embedded spies in their ranks. Currying favor with the fearful by making promises of pardons in exchange for information on their comrades.
And just now Bruno had received verified intelligence on the current location of a Bolshevik Leader who he very much wanted to meet in person.
