“Take everything you can, and blow up anything you can’t take!” On the way back with his troops, William did not rest.
He specially arranged for people to pack up and take away all the supplies that could be taken along the way.
To meet the operational needs of the German Army at the front, the German Army built many supply depots behind the battlefield.
These supply depots were not built on German territory, but on French territory.
With the end of the war, territories occupied by the German Army, including Alsace and Lorraine, were to be returned to the French.
These supply depots, built on enemy territory, would only benefit the French if all the supplies inside couldn’t be taken away.
Of course, in addition to the supply depots built by the German Army itself, the German Army also seized food, supplies, and even people from farms and towns along the way.
Alsace and Lorraine had been under German Army rule for nearly 50 years, and the area had a large population of German-speaking people.
These lands had long been considered core territory by the German Empire, but now, due to defeat, they had to relinquish them.
The land can be temporarily given up; after all, it can’t run away.
We can always take it back later.
But the Germans living in these lands cannot stay.
Given the French hatred towards Germany, if these people do not leave, they will certainly be persecuted by the French, and it is hard to say how many will be left.
The residents of both places were initially hesitant to accept the German Army’s advice to relocate back to their home country, but after hearing that it was His Highness the Crown Prince who was concerned about their safety and had personally issued the order, they no longer had any worries.
They quickly packed their belongings and left with the German Army.
This decision was originally just an unintentional act by Crown Prince Wilhelm, but to his surprise, after he relocated nearly a million residents from the two places, he received an extra reward from the system.
[Complete the side quest – Protect the remnants of Alsace and Lorraine, rewarding one-tenth of the number of people protected with military merit.] [Mission Description: As the future emperor of the empire, you have a duty to protect all its subjects from persecution by other nations!] William had previously researched the system and found that it did not actively issue tasks.
The fact that he accidentally triggered and completed this side quest was a complete surprise.
According to the military’s registration and statistics, as many as 1.13 million Germans have migrated from the Alsace and Lorraine regions.
Based on a reward of one-tenth of their population, he will receive 113,000 military merits for completing this task.
Including the military merits he accumulated during the week-long battle with the US military, his current military merits have reached 228,000, which would be approximately 2.3 billion RMB in the future.
He was originally worried about how to earn military merits in peacetime, but now he has such a windfall, so he won’t have to worry about running out of money for at least a few months.
The purchasing power of 2 billion RMB is definitely a considerable fortune, allowing him to do many things freely after the war!
Moreover, this evacuation mission broadened his thinking: If Germans who evacuate from the Alsace and Lorraine regions receive a reward, will Germans who evacuate from the Danzig, Sudetenland, Silesia, West Prussia, and North Schleswig regions also receive a reward?
There are tens of millions of Germans living in these areas.
If this method really works, wouldn’t there be millions of rewards to be received?
Thinking about it this way, it doesn’t seem so painful that so much territory was taken away after the war.
William, who had made a small fortune, was not stingy.
He spent 30,000 military merit points to exchange for 80,000 tons of rice, flour, cooking oil, and medical supplies urgently needed by the wounded soldiers in the system mall, in order to ensure the morale and normal operation of the army.
This supply is not only enough to meet the needs of 700,000 German Army soldiers for six months, but even with the addition of the more than one million civilians he relocated, it is enough to feed them for three months.
Three months later, even if the government in Berlin is inefficient, it should be able to solve the supply problem for these people, right?
Unfortunately, due to the war, many civilians in the Alsace and Lorraine regions fled their homes.
According to data from a 1910 census conducted by the German government in the Alsace and Lorraine regions, the total population living there was approximately 1.83 million.
If all of these people were still alive, he could have received an additional 70,000 in bonuses.
It’s great to receive the rewards, but how to settle these people after bringing them back to their home countries is a big problem.
Germany’s economy was in dire straits after the war.
Not only were civilians who had lost their land struggling, but many soldiers who had been discharged from the front lines were also going hungry.
How about 500,000 marks for a loaf of bread?
…
Because they were evacuating with a large number of civilians and supplies, Army Group B’s retreat was much slower than that of friendly forces in other battlefields.
By December, they had all withdrawn to the empire’s homeland.
Meanwhile, the border regions of the Empire were already crowded with German Army troops who had withdrawn from the front lines.
Compared to the listless and demoralized allies stationed here, Crown Prince Wilhelm and his Army Group B were like an anomaly, attracting everyone’s attention as soon as they appeared.
Due to the domestic turmoil and the extreme shortage of supplies at the front, these soldiers who were withdrawn from the battlefield were exhausted when they arrived at their post after traversing mountains and valleys.
The border town is small in area and has a small population, so it simply cannot accommodate so many people.
They could only set up their camp on an open space outside the city, but due to a lack of tents and other supplies, their camp looked extremely rudimentary, and many people even lived in shacks.
Some soldiers wore clothes that hadn’t been washed in who knows how long, covered in mud, oil, and even bloodstains, and looked no different from beggars!
In contrast, Crown Prince Wilhelm and his Army Group B, having won a battle before their retreat and with a large amount of supplies purchased by William from the system mall, were well-dressed and in high spirits, looking nothing like the army of a defeated nation.
Instead, they resembled a victorious army returning home!
Even more outrageous, other German armies were surprised to find that they were also accompanied by millions of civilians.
Other German Army units were surprised by Army Group B’s neat appearance and high morale.
The soldiers of Army Group B were equally shocked to see their allies in such a disheveled state.
The condition and morale of the other friendly forces seem to be in a bad state!
Crown Prince Wilhelm was deeply saddened to see the morale of other German armies so low.
These are all seasoned veterans, yet they’ve been reduced to this state!
They should have been the victors, basking in the glory of their triumph on the streets of Paris.
Instead of living like a filthy rat, barely surviving.
As the crown prince, he felt he had to say something: “Soldiers, I am Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander of Army Group B, and your future emperor!”