Episode 10 Birthday Conspiracy

  November 11, 1941 was Magda's 40th birthday; she was the current wife of Reich Minister for Propaganda and National Enlightenment Joseph Goebbels.

  Due to the Führer's bachelorhood, Magda was actually the First Lady of the Third Reich, an unprecedented honor that greatly satisfied her vanity and made her turn a blind eye to her husband's philandering. Hitler needed Goebbels' devotion so he invited his wife to Berchtesgaden for her 40th birthday.

  Goebbels came to Berlin to fetch her in high spirits. At noon, Magda arrived in Upper Salzburg with a large group of children of all sizes, like riding a camel and driving chickens.

  Her appearance made other women pale in comparison: her noble and elegant demeanor, combined with the fact that she was the de facto first lady of the empire, drove other women mad with jealousy, especially Annelies Henkel, the wife of Ribbentrop and daughter of Heinrich Henkel, the German champagne king. Judging from her sour face, the acid in her stomach had already reached her throat. The self-aware Mrs. G?ring simply didn't show up, avoiding public humiliation.

  Eva suffered even more, for the imperial crown of the First Lady should have been on her head. Unfortunately, the leader had vowed to remain unmarried for life in order to revive the German nation, making her name not sound right and not being able to speak properly, in other people's eyes she was just a plain and unremarkable "Miss Eva".

  Lee wore a freshly changed tailcoat and was secretly talking to Bormann in the room until Linge urged for the third time that the guests were getting impatient, Lee came to the grand hall outside the dining room. He first greeted Eva Braun and then greeted each guest, apologizing for his tardiness, then he picked up Goebbels' youngest daughter Haidi and played with her for a while before coming in front of Magda and kissing her hand.

  The servant in black trousers and white jacket announced: "My lord, dinner is served. Please lead the lady or miss to their seats."

  Lee Tung stretched out his arm to Magda, taking her to the dining room. Behind him were Eva with Goebbels' arm in hers and other couples of guests. Some female guests looked at him wearing a tailcoat and snickered behind him, only the aristocratic wife of Ribbentrop held her head high, occasionally casting a sideways glance at Magda, who was radiant, and muttered "parvenu" to balance her mind.

  Guests slowly enter the spacious hallway, and the first thing that catches their eye is the magnificent vaulted ceiling supported by large columns. Passing through this hall, you can see a spacious staircase made of textured cedar wood, from which you can go upstairs to the east side where the dining room is located. On either side of the two large doors of the dining room stand two people. Along both sides of the rectangular dining table are placed 24 red leather armchairs for guests to sit on.

  At the far end of the dining room is a small semicircular hall. On bad weather days, early risers sit at round tables here for an informal breakfast. But most people still have their breakfast in their own rooms. If the weather is good, everyone has breakfast on the platform. The white fine china features hand-painted Alpine flowers such as gentians, rhododendrons and edelweiss.

  Near the dining table, there is a sideboard with a surface made of hand-painted ceramic tiles inlaid with patterns reflecting life at Berghof. For example, one tile shows Mrs. Endres holding a bowl full of meatballs. On the right-hand side of the hall stands a glass-fronted display cabinet containing fine porcelain, a gift from Winifred Wagner to Hitler, as well as hand-painted ceramic plates and bowls, and of course, exquisite craftsmanship from China, the homeland of ceramics.

  Lee sat in the middle seat facing the window, gazing at the distant mountains. On the dining table were small peach trees and long-stemmed roses. These fresh flowers were provided by first-class florists from Berlin and Munich. To his left was Eva, to his right was Magda.

  The porcelain and silverware here were made according to Hitler's design. In the middle of the plate is a gold-embossed national emblem and an eagle with outstretched wings, on either side are the first letters "A" and "H" of Hitler's name in Latin script.

  A male chef came over and carefully ladled a spoonful of grayish-green porridge into each plate. Li De poked at it with his fork, and it turned out to be a pea salad. Next came a fruit salad, with pickled cucumber and marinated tomatoes. The only difference between his dish and the others was that theirs had a few slices of thinly cut ham.

  As guests nervously picked up their forks and brought the meat to their mouths, they waited as usual for the leader's grand words.

  In the past, when eating vegetarian food, the emperor would describe a bloody slaughter scene to them and then indulge in poetic sentiments: Look at those farmers in the fields, taking slow big steps, diligently sowing seeds, the seeds sprouting and growing luxuriantly in the ground, forming rolling green oceans, slowly turning golden under the sunlight. Today this surreal description did not appear, leaving everyone deeply surprised: Could it be that the emperor's conscience has awakened, and the monk has become secular?

  The guests had their first dinner without anxiety in years, although the food was not sumptuous, but the mood was very comfortable. Magda whispered to Goebbels that a month ago, the Führer said that elephants were strong because they ate grass, and she retorted that carnivores were more ferocious than herbivores. Today, the Führer corrected his mistake, not letting those who didn't eat meat feel embarrassed, possibly as a result of her retort. Goebbels responded casually, his eyes fixed elsewhere, Magda followed his gaze and saw an unfamiliar maid clearing the plates.

  "Who is she? I've never seen her before?" She asked her husband, Goebbels finally reacted after a while, absent-mindedly saying: "Rania, the Fuehrer picked up an Oriental woman from the front line."

  "Head of State... chose her?" Magda looked at him incredulously, suspecting that this was the handiwork of her philandering husband, but this time she had wronged him. After Li De brought her from the Northern Army Group, he temporarily arranged for her to join the entourage, to assist Lin Ge, but Lin Ge did not want to have this foreign beauty by his side, so he pushed her onto the Head of State's chef.

  After the banquet, Li De first kissed Ava Braun's hand and then kissed Magda's hand. He told Goebbels to take a walk in the small tea house.

  Li De and Goebbels arrived at the "Small Teahouse", a not-too-tall pavilion with a pointed roof. The two stood on the protruding stone steps, gazing out at the distance, seeing that half of the sunset had already fallen into the mountains, while the clouds beside it changed colors constantly - sometimes golden yellow, sometimes half purple and half yellow, sometimes half gray and half red; as soon as you blinked your eyes, it turned into a deep purple color. The two people's faces seemed to be coated with a layer of gold.

  "The sunset is infinitely good, only near dusk." Li De muttered the famous phrase of Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin, then led Goebbels into the teahouse, first taking off his outer garments in the front hall, and then sitting down on a flower-patterned sofa chair between the marble-floored fireplaces. Li De still seemed to be lost in thought as he gazed through the high and narrow south-facing windows of the teahouse at the distant mountains, while Goebbels stared at the gold-edged mirror hanging above the fireplace.

  The two men who held the fate of the Third Reich in their hands sat silently for several minutes, like boxers sizing each other up before a match, or practitioners of Zen meditation. It was Goebbels who finally broke the silence: "My Führer, I have not seen any sign of Himmler, the head of the SS, from start to finish."

  Li De said: "He has called me on the phone and said he is inspecting Auschwitz Concentration Camp No. 2, which has just been built."

  "Camp No. 2?" Goebbels was apparently unaware of the details.

  "Yes, Camp 2, in Birkenau." Lide explained.

  Goebbels continued staring at the mirror, his words always betraying his petty-bourgeois origins: "That must cost a lot of money, huh?"

  Li De followed his gaze to the mirror, where the crystal glass crown candelabra and the wall lamp with a yellow wax candle were reflected. Li De sighed: "The things in the mirror are beautiful, but they are all illusions, just like our current German Empire, which looks very powerful, but is breeding a series of crises."

  Goebbels' eyes suddenly moved away from the mirror and stared at Lide's melancholy face. Seeing Lide wanting to speak but hesitating, he became impatient and asked urgently: "My Führer, what can you tell me, no matter when or where, I will always stand by your side."

  Li De's heart was filled with joy, but he knew he wasn't calm enough and had gotten impatient too quickly. One needs to be patient when fishing. Napoleon once said: In politics, there is only the brain, no conscience. The same applies to subordinates, who need to be handled with tact; voluntary obedience is far more effective than forced submission, and loyalty is essential. The empire has sailed into treacherous waters filled with shallow reefs, while those on board are still intoxicated by their own illusions of a strong ship and powerful cannons.