Ch.122The Future of the British Empire

* * *

Watching from a distance as the Romanian worker (German Communist Party member) gave his speech, Beria let out an admiring sigh.

“Indeed, did the Tsar foresee even this?”

That All-Russian saint must have a vision as wide as her beautiful appearance.

Otherwise, how could she have instructed him to gather evidence of Romania’s collusion with the German Communist Party when there were such obvious signs of German communists infiltrating Romania?

Honestly, if Communist Germany had just stayed quiet, Beria might have considered seducing the queen to fabricate evidence.

He had planned to entice the queen and hide pre-prepared documents in her bedroom showing the Romanian royal family’s communication with communists, making a more thorough case.

But this development made things much easier.

The Okhrana director back in Russia had already instructed him to use these German communists, so the matter was essentially settled.

“I should give those fellows a little boost.”

Beria gazed at the communist agitator from afar with a sinister smile on his lips.

He immediately decided to mobilize fellow Okhrana agents from the Romanian branch to create new material.

“Mr. Beria. What would be the best approach?”

At his colleague’s question, Beria laughed mischievously.

“The queen isn’t particularly suppressing these protests right now.”

There was no need to intervene unnecessarily and create problems where none existed.

But, that said, this could be used to their advantage.

The queen’s behavior was notoriously immoral. If they had actually lost the war, these protests would have been much larger.

“Then, how about this: The queen, dissatisfied with the anti-communist pact her husband signed, is turning a blind eye to the protests to hand power over to communists with whom she’s having an affair. Will that work?”

“Do you think people will believe that?”

At his colleague’s question, Beria curled his lips into a sneer and wiggled his finger.

“Of course, despite this, the queen has her accomplishments, and the German reds might panic and try to back out. But we could use one particular person.”

Beria tossed a photograph onto the desk.

The person in the photo was none other than Carol.

“You don’t mean…”

“Prince Carol. What if the queen’s eldest son, who lost his position to his own child, pressures his mother to fix Romania by exploiting this situation? Although Prince Carol has quite a bad reputation, his mother the queen is known for her constant affairs, so that shouldn’t be much of an issue. If he rises up claiming to reclaim his rightful place, he’ll find supporters.”

“I see your point.”

From the Okhrana’s perspective, Prince Carol was exactly the type who would rise up to reclaim his position if given a justification.

Once conflict broke out between them, Hungary or Russia would likely intervene. And that would be the end.

“We just need to give a gentle push.”

The Okhrana wouldn’t act directly.

They would simply give a slight nudge to Prince Carol, who needed justification.

* * *

10 Downing Street, London, British Empire.

This residence of the British Prime Minister had been extremely busy lately.

This was because the Communist Germany’s attention-seeking provocations had been piling mountains of paperwork on the Prime Minister’s desk almost daily.

As a result, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was miserable.

In the original history, he had been popular for his various policies that took care of people’s livelihoods. Upon becoming Prime Minister, he had withdrawn troops stationed in the Baltics, Poland, Ukraine, and Austria, only to face provocations from Communist Germany.

On a day like any other…

Winston Churchill, now the Chancellor of the Exchequer, hurriedly entered the Prime Minister’s office.

“Chancellor Churchill. What brings you here?”

“After we contained Germany, now Russia, having absorbed the German fleet, is trying to return to the seas. I hear they’ve recently secured technical cooperation from Japan.”

Churchill’s reason for visiting was simple.

Russia, having somewhat recovered its former momentum, was trying to emerge again.

As the victor of the Great Game, Britain had a duty to stop Russia.

“And? I’m sorry, but you’re now the Chancellor of the Exchequer, not the First Lord of the Admiralty. I have enough troubles without you bothering me too.”

Baldwin waved him off. But our Mr. Gallipoli had no intention of backing down so easily.

After all, this was a critical matter involving the prestige and hegemony of the British Empire.

“Romania is currently under pressure from all sides due to loopholes in the anti-communist pact. Don’t you sense some connection here?”

“Yes. Russia and Hungary want to tear Romania apart. What are you trying to say?”

“We must immediately tell Russia not to touch Romania. With more than half of Ukraine about to fall, we must crush their intention to tear apart Romania! At minimum, we need to threaten military action to contain Russia before it grows too powerful!”

“I wonder who’s responsible for us being in this position.”

Prime Minister Baldwin curled his lips into a sneer.

Although everyone in the cabinet had approved, and France and America had agreed as well, it was Winston Churchill who had pushed to go after the communists first.

As a result, Russia had indeed done exactly what Britain wanted by excellently crushing the reds, and now they were returning to the seas to threaten Britain.

In truth, Britain’s inner desire had been for Russia to drag out its civil war, but the current Tsarina proved more capable than expected, and the German Empire had suspiciously helped White Russia, even building factories there.

In hindsight, it was the Kaiser’s scheme.

The German Empire, arguing that too many restrictions could trigger a new war, had actually been planning to stab France in the back when revolution broke out and the Kaiser fled to East Prussia.

“What?”

“Wasn’t it you who dismissed everyone’s opinion to attack Germany first and insisted on going after the communists, leading to this situation?”

Churchill had no response to that and turned his head away.

But soon he looked Baldwin straight in the eye again.

“Ahem. Well. That was originally the Kaiser’s problem. Who could have known that the Kaiser, who helped Russia more than anyone for fear of revolution breaking out like in Russia, would make such an insane plan to attack France again?”

“Yes, I know well. The Chancellor’s vision was for the current Tsar to drag out the civil war so that Russia would never again look to surpass Britain. Something like that. But look at reality. Didn’t it ultimately fail? Who knows? Perhaps the current Secretary Karl and Rosa Luxemburg learned from Russia’s civil war and succeeded in their revolution.”

“Prime Minister. This is not the time for this. We must act now, even if it’s excessive.”

He should have just gone along when asked nicely.

Baldwin was starting to get angry too.

“Who doesn’t know that? But we don’t have the capacity right now! We’re struggling just to contain Communist Germany, and you want us to threaten Russia? We should be thinking about persuading Russia to lend us their army instead.”

The British people on the British Isles, after experiencing the Great War and taking a solid hit from the Red Army’s human wave tactics in Ukraine, didn’t want war.

More accurately, the damage had been that severe.

“What do you mean?”

“Chancellor. Surely you don’t think Communist Germany has spread communism only to Algeria?”

“Hmm. Surely not.”

“Moreover, we have debts to pay to America. The British Empire you’re so proud of is struggling just to maintain the status quo! We cannot protest to Russia over Romania in this situation! The fact that Russia, which was struggling with civil war, is growing so large, and that Communist Germany has emerged, is too much for the British Empire to handle alone!”

Winston Churchill staggered.

Could the British Empire really be in such a state?

“Just how bad is it?”

“I’ll be frank. We’re at the point where we might need to grant autonomy to the colonies just to hold onto them.”

Churchill’s eyes widened at Baldwin’s statement.

The colonial situation was so bad that they needed to grant autonomy?

Churchill felt dizzy.

Of course, Baldwin wasn’t entirely serious either.

No matter how bad Britain’s situation was, they hadn’t reached the point of begging colonized people to remain colonies in exchange for autonomy.

Of course, that’s not the case right now, but the future is uncertain.

With debts to pay to America, the damned Germans were calling for the cancellation of Versailles through revolution.

They had enough sense not to cancel everything, but they claimed they couldn’t pay the most important reparations.

That was bad enough, but these cursed reds were spreading communists throughout the colonies.

They had caught as many as they could see, but they couldn’t stop the spread of ideology.

It might not be now, but soon there might be calls to grant autonomy.

‘No, to keep the colonies, we need to withdraw from Europe immediately.’

Current Britain couldn’t do both.

Protecting the colonies while stopping Communist Germany’s expansion in Europe.

Of course, Russia was trying to take on that role now, but that was also a problem.

It meant potentially having to cede European hegemony to Russia in the future.

“We must never give up the colonies!”

“Of course I don’t intend to go that far, but we need to make concessions to Russia in Europe. We cannot do both right now. At least Russia doesn’t seem to be thinking about fleet expansion despite receiving technical cooperation from Japan. Right now, maintaining the status quo is urgent.”

Churchill couldn’t say more.

There was no point in arguing further, and if this was the reality, making concessions to Russia was the right move.

He was a fierce imperialist but also a man who compromised with reality. He could only express his dissatisfaction as he left Downing Street.

With his shining head and thick build contrasting with his slumped shoulders, Churchill sighed repeatedly.

“Ah, how has the great British Empire come to this?”

How did the great British Empire end up like this?

They had joined the ranks of the victorious nations and received everything the reds had handed over to Germany through a secret agreement with Germany.

Of course, half of Ukraine had fallen into Russian hands, but still.

The great British Empire was supposed to remain great forever.

But the current British Empire was in a miserable state.

“This is all because of those damned communists.”

Yes, this is all because of the communists.

Those damn Bolshevik bastards triggered the Russian Revolution, drawing in Britain, which led to Germany proposing underground negotiations, but then Germany too was driven to East Prussia by communist revolution.

Is that all?

Now those vermin are sowing red seeds throughout British and French colonies.

Yes. For Britain to be great again, those communists must be eradicated.

For that…

-I understand, Mr. Gallipoli, sir.

That Russian Tsarina who once mocked him as “Mr. Gallipoli.”

At the time, he thought she didn’t know the circumstances. But given the Tsarina’s current abilities, she must have known what happened at Gallipoli when she was a Grand Duchess.

That’s why she mocked him.

But that doesn’t matter.

Since the Tsarina was quite a troublemaker in her Grand Duchess days, Churchill could accept it with humility.

The reason he suddenly thought of the Tsarina wasn’t because he had developed an interest in a young woman.

Since the civil war hero Tsarina’s accession, Russia had been developing day by day.

When a powerful monarch ascends, the country rises with that fortune.

A powerful monarch is also the antithesis of those communist bastards.

In other words.

Now is the time for a strong king to rule.

“Yes. The Royalist Party. That would be good.”

In Churchill’s mind, he was envisioning a new future for the British Empire.

* * *

Finally, trouble broke out in Romania.

Workers’ protests were reportedly occurring daily.

People who had suffered at the hands of German troops during the Great War had joined them.

Their anger was directed at Queen Marie, they said.

“Strange. Wasn’t she known as the glamorous queen with a boyfriend?”

“The communists must have gathered only the discontented. On top of that, rumors are spreading that the queen is a British whore.”

“They won victory, but it still came to this?”

“The nation may have won, but individual suffering wasn’t healed.”

Honestly, if asked whether Romania could have avoided World War I, the answer would be uncertain.

But looking at the results, Romania did win.

However, communists are now exploiting people who remember when Romania was trampled by the Central Powers during the previous war and nearly became a semi-colony, connecting it to Romania’s current security situation.

It’s a bit strange considering those communists are from Germany.

“Still, I don’t think it will lead to revolution.”

In my view, this is a minority faction.

After all, she’s the queen who led them to victory in the war.

Honestly, even if Romania had switched to the Central Powers, Germany probably wouldn’t have won.

They might have had to participate in the war one way or another.

Anyway, the Entente was the right choice.

If Romania had been defeated, it would be different. But since they ultimately won, these protests might end up being just a minority movement.

If there were actual evidence of Communist Party involvement, that would be different.

“But won’t it serve as an internal destabilizing factor?”

That’s true.

Looking at the reports coming from Romania, things are developing in an interesting way.

Calling the queen a whore? That’s quite something.

Some people even claim to have slept with prostitutes who resemble the queen.

I wonder if the people who said this were arrested.

They say the demotion of the House of Yi in Korea was successful.

Perhaps here too they’re trying to demote the royal family under the pretext of security issues.