Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 239: Meritocracy Above All



"Tattered Banners on the Greek Border" were the headlines that appeared throughout international news outlets over the course of the following days, depicted corpses as far as the eyes could see, many of which were grouped together around both national and regimental colours.

To put it simply, after being caught in between the German Army, and their rapid advance, as well as the courageous sons of Leonidas who held their ground long enough against overwhelming odds for it to pay off the Allied Forces in the South of Serbia were completely annihilated.

Annihilation in terms of military context didn't necessarily mean the death or injury of every soldier. It simply meant reducing the enemy military's capabilities to fight to a non-existent level forcing the enemy commanders to surrender.

And surrender they did, but only after losing the majority of their entire force. What remained of the Serbian Provisional Army, or at least those who had not found a way to desert the chaos with their lives intact, had surrendered their arms and waved the white flag.

But enough casualties were sustained to forever change the course of Serbia's history as a nation. Even though the Austro-Hungarians and Russians were miles behind their German Allies, having not yet even captured the city where the Serbian Provisional Government hid away, the war in Serbia itself had effectively come to an end.

All that was needed was for Bruno to officially accept their surrender. And surrender they would. There was no other option. Even their attempts to rally their entire population, which was capable of taking up arms had resulted in an unmitigated disaster.

There was simply no feasible solution for them to continue to resist. Serbia had fallen, and Montenegro was surrounded and currently being assaulted by German forces on all sides. This meant that the only other player in the Balkans currently on the allied side was the Ottoman Empire, who were already dealing with an invasion from Russian Occupied Armenia into their territory in Anatolia. However, with Serbia's fall, Thrace had now become Bruno's concern. There was just a matter of finding out how exactly to launch such an invasion. Hence why he first decided to deal with the aftermath of battle, along with visiting the Serbian Provisional Government where he would wait for the German Kaiser, Austro- Hungarian Emperor, Russian Tsar, and of course the King of Greece to come together and force some form of peace treaty acknowledging their victory, and whatever terms the Habsburgs required for satisfaction.

Bruno had no way of knowing it, but the Kaiser was extremely tempted to just throw medals at him. Technically speaking, the man had already accomplished all that qualified for awards that had only ever been given to monarchs.

For example, the Grand Cross of the Pour Le Merite with Oakleaves. But... Bruno was only really now showing his capabilities as an exceptional military commander on behalf of the German Army. Every battle he had won in the past for the Fatherland was a junior officer during the Boxer Rebellion.

And those were small scale skirmishes in a war not worthy of issuing a grand decoration such as the Iron Cross. Not to mention, there were certain people whispering in Wilhelm's ears like his own daughter towards a more measures approach with rewards rather than just spamming the man with them.

After all there would be many more opportunities for Bruno to prove himself, and history would look far more kindly on the German Reich's greatest general if he had to struggle for each award given, rather than just be handed them out for convenience.

Hence, Bruno was not the least surprised to find that he was being granted two medals for his victory over Serbia. First and foremost, he was being given the Iron Cross First Class for his destruction of the Serbian Royal Army at the opening stages of the war, as well as his defense of Belgrade after its extermination and occupation.

In addition to this, Bruno was granted the Knight's Cross with Swords of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, which since the outbreak of the war had begun being issued as an intermediate award between the Iron Cross First Class and the Pour Le Merite.

Bruno knew more or less that with his repeated and overwhelming victories, the Kaiser intended to give the man the highest class of medals for valor on the battlefield. Thus, even though other men such as the Red Baron who had quickly become the first and greatest Flying Ace of the War had been granted a Pour Le Merite for his service, Bruno had yet to be given

one.

Because the Pour Le Merite came in four grades. The Pour Le Merite, the Pour Le Merite with Oakleaves, the Grand Cross of the Pour Le Merite, and the Grand Cross of the Pour le Merite with Oak Leaves.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Five men throughout the history of Bruno's past life had the honor of being granted the Grand Cross of the Pour le Merite, all of which were either members of the House of Hohenzollern themselves or foreign monarchs.

While even less had been granted the supreme award for military performance and valor, which was the Grand Cross of the Pour le Merite with Oakleaves. The award, which was more or less Prussia, and by extent the German Reich's greatest award for courage on the battlefield, also came in a civilian variation for exceptional achievements to society.

But this was not of consequence to Bruno who was a soldier first and foremost. Because of this, he rather rightly assumed the Kaiser was waiting until he won the war on behalf of the German Reich altogether to give him Germany's greatest honor, and instead his next award after defeating Serbia, would likely be after he had concluded the Balkan Campaign altogether.

Which would either come in the form of one of Prussia's many chivalric orders, or perhaps a lesser order or merit. Or maybe even the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.

Either way, Bruno was completely and totally unphased when the Kaiser pinned the two medals to his chest that he had earned after arriving along with his allies in Belgrade which was solely inhabited by the soldiers of the Imperial Powers for the sake of having a conference with the Serbian Provisional Government regarding their surrender.

Bruno's promotion to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall within his mid thirties was indeed unprecedented, but it was also perhaps because of this that he was by far the least decorated of the men throughout history who had held such a rank.

Even now, with these two new medals, he was still woefully undecorated. And because Bruno personally wore only the medals recognized by the German Reich with his uniform, there were even Lieutenant Colonels beneath his command who walked around with more medals on their chests than he had.

Despite this, nobody dared to make a snide remark about this. Bruno's rapid rise through the ranks of the German Army had been purely due to the meritocratic society that he lived in at this point in time. In a true meritocracy, the exceptional rose to the top at a far quicker rank than the mediocre.

Minimum time requirements for one's promotion sounded good in theory, but the reality was that this only imposed restrictions on the exceptional, and favored those far less capable. Think of it this way, would you rather have a 35-year-old prodigy on par with history's greatest strategists in control of your army, or a 65-year-old man who was nothing exceptional, but had been in the military long enough to achieve his status, while said 35- year-old still had yet to meet the minimum time requirements to become a colonel?

Do you think that Alexander the Great, at the age of 20 when he ascended to the throne was somehow less worthy of leading his armies to victory than his father's generals who had been in the Macedonian Army for the entirety of their lives?

Strict adherence to service length requirements more often than not made the exceptional fed up with their position in the military and retire before they truly lived up to their potential. And because of this, in the era following Napoleon's rise, which was largely because of his belief in meritocracy, Bruno was allowed to become a Generalfeldmarschall at such a young

age.

Whereas he had never come anywhere close to such a prestigious rank during his past life because of the Bundeswehr's rejection of lessons learned by greater men and far superior

nations from the past.

Either way, Bruno did not complain in the slightest about the lack of medals pinned to his chest in comparison to his foes, for his achievements on the battlefield in this life were more than enough to gain him the respect he had earned, even if he didn't have the bits of metal and cloth to prove it.

Meritocracy was above all, and Bruno was the living embodiment of such ideals.

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