Planes flew through the air as the German Army marched through Paris in parade fashion. The 8th Army showed off its advanced weaponry that helped the central powers win the war while Bruno sat on horseback.
The steed was one that had been brought to Paris for this exact affair, a true warhorse of an ancient noble lineage far older than that of the man who it carried. The horse’s magnificently strong body and elegant grace showed signs of having destrier ancestors, the same kind that the most noble and chivalric of knights used to have as their prized possessions.
Bruno sat tall as he was dressed in his most excessively embellished gala uniform. Every medal and decoration he had been granted by the German Reich was proudly on display as he led the army through the streets of the vanquished enemy.
The striking red white and black striped banner of the German Reich flew proudly behind him, as the colour guard ensured that its majesty was never tarnished. French citizens stood by the wayside with complicated expressions.
Over the past few weeks, as Germany prepared for this day, the German soldiers occupying France had begun providing food and medicine to those who needed it most. While German Feldgendarmerie pacified the banditry and revolts taking place in the countryside.
France had finally capitulated, and now it was time for the Central Powers to celebrate their hard earned victory. Two years of monumental bloodshed and global war, and now peace had been established, an armistice was declared and a proper peace treaty was being negotiated.
The end of the war came with diplomatic challenges, assuring that parties which had already surrendered and signed their own treaties aligned with the latest nation to fall to the might of German steel.
This peace could not be based upon vengeance, but the nations of the central powers needed something to show for their bloodshed. Sure, casualties were far better off for these nations than during Bruno’s past life, but few wars still collected such a toll of human life.
Reparations were needed, but they could not be so excessive as to crush the already fragile state of the failing French Republic. With all of this in mind, one could understand why the French bystanders were so torn.
It was hard to be thankful for your conquerors. Sure, they marched into París and provided some much needed aid to the starving and diseased population. And were even gentle with how they forced the nation’s surrender.
But these were also the men who had killed millions of Frenchmen during this war. Fathers, brothers, uncles, friends, were lost in this war on a scale so unthinkable the French had a hard time recognizing it.
An entire generation of young men now fertilized the fields outside of Germany’s borders, and it was not easy to let this go. This was especially true for the soldiers of the 8th Army, who had earned an infamous reputation in the war for being the Kaiser’s shock troops.
Breaking line after line of combat, they were the spearhead that lead to the allies collapse in every front. And its members were naturally decorated for all that they had done. They proudly wore their unofficial unit insignia on their sleeves, showing that they were the unit with the greatest Kill Death Ratio in human history.
Sure, they had not been in France long, but French soldiers were deployed and killed by these men in the Balkans and Italy. To see the German Army’s most elite and ravenous wolves marching through Paris while proudly waving the symbol of a skull, it was sickening to many of the French citizens, especially the women and children whose more emotional minds associated the logo with their lost loved ones.
Eventually the parade came to a stop at the steps of Versailles, where Bruno stepped forward, and prepared the speech that the Kaiser had come to expect of him. He started the speech with legendary words spoken by Wilhelm in both the past life and this current timeline. Words that this time finally rang true. Words that could no longer be denied.
"We shall defend ourselves to the last breath of man and horse. And we shall survive this battle, even against a world of enemies. Never has Germany been vanquished when it was united.
These were the words spoken by our Kaiser at the outset of this war. I feared when he said them that they would doom us all. But through our blood, and the power of German steel the Kaiser’s words have proven undeniably true.
We shall survive this battle, even against a world of enemies. Never has Germany been vanquished when it was united, and it never shall! Today, for the second time in 50 years, our banners wave proudly above the Palace of Versailles!
The old world is gone... France cannot contest us on the land, and Britain dare not intercept our ships in the sea. While the skies belong to Germany and her people alone! This is the dawn of a new Era, a German Era, where our Empire and those of our allies reign supreme in this world.
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With the combined might of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary there is no power on God’s Green Earth that can challenge us, whether in the field of science, medicine, economics, or military strength. We shall reign supreme!
Long live Germany! Long live the Kaiser! Long live Russia! Long live the Tsar! Long live Austro-Hungary! Long live the Emperor!"
The combination of soldiers from every nation who took part in the war in europe on behalf of the Central Powers had all begun to chant along with Bruno as it became clear that the war was over. And resistence to the new order was futile.
---
Woodrow Wilson’s face was ugly as he watched Bruno use the palace of Versailles to declare his new order. It was a slap in the face to the United States and its latent potential. Unfortunately for him, he had not been able to prevent France’s immediate downfall in the slightest.
The republic fell quicker than anyone could have thought it would, and now they kneeled before their German masters, currying favor for the sake of scraps while the Germans prepared to enforce their will on their defeated neighbor.
It was despicable, truly it was! If only the press didn’t paint him in such a slanderous light during the last election! He could have dismantled the America Frist Coalition once and for all! And in doing so, gotten the United States in the war early enough to make a difference!
Or so he believed... But now that the war was already over, and just before the election at that, Woodrow Wilson’s promises to rejuvenate the United States’ economy through the war industry had completely and utterly failed to manifest.
The primary promise to the people he had made was no longer possible. The war was over, and the allies lost. Woodrow Wilson was so upset by this news he threw his bottle of whiskey at the wall, causing it to shatter as he chastised his campaign manager for no particular reason.
"Just fucking great! The French couldn’t even hold on for another two weeks! Two weeks and we could have gotten them some much needed supplies! Yet look at them now! Surrendered within a single week of the German offensive beginning! How the hell did they manage to last this long without a freaking spine to prop them up!?!"
Having been used to the Presidential Candidate’s repeated drunken rages, the campaign manager simply sighed and shook his head, trying to remind Woodrow Wilson that the man had trusted the opinions of a young aide, which proved woefully incorrect.
"With all due respect, sir, we did try to warn you..."
The moment the man said this, he was dumbstruck by the flying bottle that hit him in the head and knocked him on his ass. Having been thrown by the Presidential Candidate at him with the intent to wound, Woodrow Wilson looked as if he was possessed by the devil as he shouted at the man he had just assaulted with all the fury of hell.
"Get the fuck out of my office and never come back you worthless piece of shit! If I ever see your face around these parts again, I will have you strung up by a noose. Do you understand me, you worthless shit!?!!?"
Though he didn’t realize it at the moment, this incident just now would cause most of Woodrow Wilson’s campaign staff to leave him, and at such a critical point in the race no less.
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With the upcoming election, and nothing to stand on now that his largest promise to the people was void, along with the majority of his staff quitting overnight as a result of his drunken antics, the man who would have been the 28th President of the United States in Bruno’s past life would find himself failing to achieve his goal a second time.