Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 150: Demonizing the Enemy

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Leon Sinclair had quickly found that the life of a general in the army, even one as low as a Brigadier General, was more often than not an occupation filled with paperwork, and sitting in a chair. The days of him requiring fitness tests, or even going out into the field to test his mettle in war, were long gone.

Then again, the man had only ever fought wars on behalf of the Third French Republic in colonial territories. He wasn't exactly fighting against civilized nations, or at the very least nations whose military might was not on par with the nation he hailed from.

His allies in the Marxist underground had been driven into silence. The French Government stamp out Marxist political activity the best they could after their former Army Chief of Staff was allegedly assassinated by them.

Frankly speaking, his career was stonewalled at the time. He had been appointed to the position of Brigadier General within his mid-thirties as a political stunt.

The man's actions in Madagascar had earned him a fearsome reputation, and with the rise of the "Loup de Prusse" as the French referred to as Bruno, and his tales of infamy on the world stage, the French felt the need to appoint their own menacing figure in order to save some reputation.

And while the French propaganda machine was fully backing Leon, the reality of the situation was that his accomplishments paled in comparison to Bruno's and the higher ups in the French General Staff were acutely aware of this.

Hence why, even as years passed, he remained in his position as the lowest possible general rank given by the French Army. Leon was a spectacle to keep the masses feeling secure. He was a poster child, nothing more, nothing less.

With the assassination of the previous Chief of the French Army General Staff, and Bruno's rise in reputation on the international scale, the French people began to feel a bit insecure. Especially as the Germans continued with their efforts to build fortifications on their western borders.

Leon was chosen for the purpose of being France's own "martial genius" for several reasons. Firstly, his actions in Madagascar had left some with a fearsome impression of him. A man unwilling to give mercy to those who shed the blood of French citizens. This was similar to the infamy that Bruno had gained as the "Red Scourge" in Russia.

Secondly, Leon was of a similar age to Bruno, albeit a little older, and by extension, having more years' experience in the military. Giving a sense of security to the less educated French citizens by virtue of fallacious reasoning.

Finally, Leon and Bruno had a brief history together in the East. Something most people were unaware of, other than the highest-ranking generals in the French Army. Or at least this was the case before propaganda began displaying this shared experience.

So much so that currently Leon was walking through the streets of Paris, where a flier pinned to a nearby wall caught his interest. There were a series of propaganda posters spread across the wall, but one of them was a particular annoyance to the man.

On the left side of the poster, they had Leon, standing in front of French artillery and faceless soldiers. His appearance had been over-exaggerated, almost as if they were trying to make him look like some kind of fairy-tale prince charming.

Leon was holding a label rifle and pointing it across the poster to the right. Where was there a fictitious depiction of what was supposed to be Bruno? He was wearing a German uniform, but he had the face and form of a rabid werewolf, one that appeared to be eating a French Flag while on all fours, while an army of wolves dressed in German uniforms gathered around to feast on the scraps.

The caption was written in French, but when translated basically said "Slay the German Wolves!" Such propaganda was increasingly becoming common in France, and there were plenty of others that painted the Germans as murderers, monsters, and fiends.

For example, there was one which displayed the Kaiser as a man hellbent on world domination. An aspiration that Leon thought was ludicrous, and something that only an idiot would ever actually believe someone would make their life's ambition.

Of course, it was a quite common tactic to portray your enemy as someone who wanted to conquer the world, and it was a tactic that would repeat itself over and over again in propaganda well into the 21st century. As Bruno was all too aware, it was not that Leon was remotely cognizant of this fact.

Leon could only tear the propaganda off the wall. An act that one might find conflicting with his character if they didn't fully understand who he was.

Did he hate the Germans? Oh yes! But to depict them as monsters, and megalomaniacs who were hellbent on absurd goals that nobody in the history of mankind had ever actually aspired to. Well, that detracted from the real reason he believed they should be hated. And only served to mythicize their military capabilities.

After all, an army of werewolves was a terrifying prospect. According to legend, a werewolf could only be harmed by silver, a truly daunting concept considering there wasn't enough silver in the world to turn into the munitions necessary to kill the enemy in sufficient numbers to win a war against them.

Germans were mere men, and men could be killed as easily as any other, regardless of their nation of origin. Hence why Leon found this propaganda to be nothing but offensive. He tore it apart in the street and tossed it aside. All the while, a group of young children witnessed it.

One girl in the street pulled up the scraps and gazed upon the "handsome prince" depicted in the propaganda only to realize it was oddly reminiscent of the man standing in front of her. When she went to approach the man to ask why he tore up the poster, he simply looked at the girl with a menacing gaze and scared her off in a fearsome tone.

"Get lost, you little bitch!"

The girl quickly fled with tears in her eyes, and though Leon didn't realize it, she would take this matter to heart. Spreading rumors to all her friends and family that the man in the propaganda wasn't a prince, but rather a monster like the Germans were depicted as being. Unfortunately, nobody would believe she even met the famous Brigadier General Leon Sinclair, and that she was merely making things up, as children often do.

Regardless, the propaganda was simple proof that the public sentiment in France was rapidly becoming viler and hatred towards their eastern neighbors as the French themselves began to prepare for the potential outbreak of a war with the German Reich.