Ch.160Hitler’s Dual Empire

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Of course, I hadn’t seen it up close, but since I couldn’t exactly deny it either, I spoke confidently.

“Ahem, as a man of the Empire of Japan, I naturally committed every detail of Russia’s combat capabilities to memory from that location. The Empress was indeed killing those Bolsheviks herself. The Bolsheviks’ bullets couldn’t hit her.”

I wasn’t lying.

Of course, Japan hadn’t directly helped by holding the reins or riding tanks—it wasn’t even a volunteer army. But Renya Mutaguchi had definitely observed.

As a result, the Russian Empress charged toward the Bolsheviks with reckless abandon, as if possessed by the Yamato spirit, spraying bullets and turning the Bolsheviks into bloody pulps—quite fitting for their beloved red flags.

Since it’s natural for people to die when shot, Renya calculated that the bullets must have all missed the Empress.

But this Ishiwara Kanji fellow’s eyes were gleaming dangerously.

“I see. As expected. There is potential.”

“What are you thinking?”

“We should build up the Manchuria Rail forces as a bridgehead for expansion into China and serve His Majesty. If the Russian Tsar, a woman, can throw herself directly into battle, there’s no reason His Majesty the Emperor couldn’t do the same.”

At this moment, Mutaguchi’s embarrassingly small brain began working furiously.

Serving His Majesty.

There was talk of direct imperial leadership, and he was saying this to him, the Governor-General of the Manchuria Rail Army.

Could he possibly be suggesting that His Majesty the Emperor should personally command the Manchuria Rail Army?

“Are you suggesting that His Majesty should personally command the Manchuria Rail Army?”

That certainly seemed to be what he was saying.

As Mutaguchi Renya continued listening, he began to wonder if this Kanji fellow might actually be a spy sent from the homeland to test whether the South Manchuria Governor-General was harboring treasonous thoughts.

What if His Majesty, the Emperor of the unbroken imperial line, were to suffer some misfortune while leading troops?

The South Manchuria Governor-General would bear full responsibility for such a disaster.

Mutaguchi Renya, priding himself on being an elite, could make a rational judgment.

The Russian Empress had simply been lucky.

But suggesting that the Emperor might ascend to heaven was dangerous in its own way.

Mutaguchi Renya chose his words carefully.

“Not immediately, of course. I’m suggesting we prepare in advance. The Chinese have traditionally excelled at human wave tactics. His Majesty of the unbroken imperial line cannot dirty his hands with such matters, can he?”

“Then what?”

“I noticed the Anhui Clique took significant damage in the Constitutional Protection War.”

The Anhui Clique was a warlord faction that had established itself in the Beijing area, excluding the Forbidden City where the Qing Emperor resided.

After the Constitutional Protection War, Beijing had been greatly weakened and was now garrisoned by soldiers from various warlord factions, nominally assigned to support the Qing Emperor.

But of course, things weren’t running smoothly.

With soldiers from different warlord factions guarding different areas, the command structure was fragmented.

Just mobilizing the South Manchuria army would shatter the enemy like brittle candy.

“You want to attack there?”

“Wouldn’t that be sufficient if we bring His Majesty along?”

“How do you plan to convince the homeland? The Imperial General Headquarters won’t approve, if nothing else.”

“I’ll handle that. Just prepare the troops, Governor.”

Ishiwara Kanji smiled coldly.

Whatever he was thinking, Mutaguchi Renya decided to give up trying to understand.

He just hoped this idiot wouldn’t cause harm to South Manchuria.

If the Imperial General Headquarters had any sense, they wouldn’t dance to this fool’s absurd tune.

Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to explode.

# # #

The State Duma was busy again today.

Partly because they were dealing with the Great Depression, and partly because more people were coming over from Western Ukraine.

Apparently, there was chaos over settling Western Ukrainians in Eastern Ukraine.

“Are many Western Ukrainians coming over?”

“Yes. We haven’t properly counted yet, but we estimate tens of thousands.”

I tilted my head at the new Prime Minister Georgy Lvov’s words.

“Estimate?”

“The numbers are still increasing in real-time.”

Still increasing in real-time, he says.

Even though this is the 21st century, having seen the war between Ukraine and Russia, it’s a bit strange to see Ukrainians voluntarily coming into Russia’s embrace.

Though it’s mostly formal, there is an Eastern Ukrainian Autonomous Republic.

“Hmm. If that’s the case.”

Still, I don’t understand why the numbers keep growing so much.

I’m starting to wonder if we’re kidnapping people from Western Ukraine.

The daily increase is far greater than North Korean defectors.

Though escaping North Korea is difficult too.

“Western Ukraine is a British puppet state. Being tied to Britain, wouldn’t they also suffer from the Great Depression?”

I had forgotten about that.

Western Ukraine, tied to Britain, couldn’t escape the effects of the Great Depression.

The Western Ukrainian government, already Britain’s puppet, has no way to solve the Great Depression, nor is it capable of doing so.

Ukraine hasn’t been independent for long, so what could they possibly do?

Moreover, Britain isn’t trustworthy, so the number of people crossing into Russia will inevitably increase daily.

Right. We might as well keep using the incoming workforce.

“Hmm. I see.”

Yes, that makes sense. Rather than starving to death in Western Ukraine, it’s more beneficial to enter the Ukrainian Autonomous Region.

If this continues well, everyone might cross over, and Western Ukraine could collapse.

Britain might eventually give up and hand over Western Ukraine.

If they can’t maintain it due to the Great Depression, what can they do?

Britain is busy with their own problems and would struggle to hold onto Western Ukraine.

They’re already having trouble with their other colonies, so what could they do with Western Ukraine, which started as a puppet state?

“Still, let’s not be greedy about Western Ukraine. When Western Ukraine self-destructs, that’s when we should push. We need to be a country that minimizes military intervention.”

We need to appear virtuous.

As much as possible, we should present ourselves as a normal country—not with the image of a gangster state, but as a saintly nation, a holy country.

“Your Majesty, Austria is asking us to recognize the Kaiser’s ascension to the Hungarian throne.”

This is getting serious.

Yugoslavia and Italy are going to go crazy.

As expected, Austria is drawing attention just as planned.

Now we need to support Austria more and make them fight bloodily.

“Will they hold a coronation ceremony?”

“They say they can’t hold it now.”

“Hmm.”

Well, I postponed my coronation too, so it doesn’t matter. A coronation would provoke the communist bloc too much.

After all, they’re still sensitive about the Sarajevo incident.

“Is the Austrian Kaiser being cautious because of the Sarajevo incident?”

“With Yugoslavia on edge recently, he has no choice.”

It seems the military is also thinking about a second Sarajevo.

Even during World War I, who could have predicted that Serbia’s Black Hand would move like that?

There’s no need to specifically mention Yugoslavia.

“Large-scale suppression of communists has begun in Austria.”

“I already know about that, but to what extent?”

“Hitler of the Danube United Workers’ Party is pushing it.”

Wow. As expected, his Holocaust experience hasn’t gone anywhere.

Hitler, who hates only communists, might be interesting.

“But if they’re too blatant about it, shouldn’t we protest?”

“Italy’s Secretary Benito Mussolini is already continuously pressuring Austria.”

Benito Mussolini?

Yes. That works well for Russia’s position.

Austria is drawing proper attention, and if Austria reunites to block communism, that’s good too.

“Let’s leave them be.”

They need to be armed with anti-communist spirit anyway.

By capturing and killing communists, Hitler will gain more propaganda material.

Communist threat—execution of internal communist sympathizers—communist threat—consolidating power through anti-communist propaganda.

Hitler is now repeating this process endlessly.

This way, even those hesitant about unification will support it due to anti-communism. He’s clever in many ways.

I wonder if Goebbels is in communist Germany? He and Hitler made a fantastic collaboration.

“The problem is something else.”

“Problem? What is it?”

“Hitler’s SS in Austria has created concentration camps specifically for communists.”

“Already?”

Concentration camps for communists?

Now, hearing this, I’m getting a very specific feeling.

Instead of a Holocaust against Jews, he’s trying to create a Holocaust against communists.

It’s not just “I hope they do that” anymore—it really seems like Hitler is trying to do exactly that.

No. Some level of suppression is unavoidable, but…

If they’ve created “concentration camps for communists,” isn’t that suspicious?

“Pardon?”

“No, they’ve created such things? Even before the war has started? Isn’t that too provocative?”

Is this the Hitler I know, channeling his rage against Jews toward communists instead?

As expected, he’s our bastard Hitler.

This might actually be a much better version of Hitler on our side than Nazi Germany’s Hitler.

“For now, it seems they created dedicated camps because they claim communists might spread communism if kept with other criminals.”

That’s what I’m saying. It’s a bit suspicious from the start.

Of course, we who shot all the Bolsheviks dead have no right to talk, but at least we had the justification of victory in a civil war to completely eradicate communism.

But their situation is different.

It’s good that Hitler is working hard on anti-communist propaganda, but I question whether they really need to create concentration camps.

Especially knowing the kind of person Hitler is.

“I see.”

“Why do you ask?”

Should I say this? No. This is honestly just my brain speculation.

No. Since I already know the original Hitler, I might be biased.

To be blunt, what could Hitler possibly do with that collection of communists?

Didn’t Hitler even plan a new Moscow city after the Russian Civil War?

That means he saw the summary executions of Bolsheviks by the White Army across Russia.

If you add the original revolutionary forces, the tens of thousands of Bolsheviks in concentration camps are just a fraction.

Anyway, Hitler saw those dead Bolsheviks.

Cockroaches that could be justifiably killed.

Since Austria also has Junkers who fled the revolution in the German Empire, anti-communist sentiment would naturally flourish.

Hitler will seize power with anti-communist propaganda and support from former German Empire officials.

In this process, capturing communists will help strengthen his power. He’ll probably just detain them. Even Hitler has enough common sense not to kill them like Russia did.

It’s just a show to seize power.

“But it seems internal reactions are positive as anti-communism strengthens. And Austria has requested weapons from us.”

“Weapons?”

Yes. They would need weapons.

Russia’s military technology is now second to none.

We’ve worked hard on developing the Fedorov Avtomat and other small arms.

Tanks are gradually coming out too. New aircraft models keep appearing.

“Do we need to provide more support? What could the German communists possibly have?”

“Even if the regime changed, German technology wouldn’t have fallen into the abyss.”

They might have used terror tactics initially to maintain the regime, but by now, as the world divides into communist and anti-communist blocs, communist countries would have stabilized their systems too.

Seeing how confidently they’re standing up, those communists might have indoctrinated key technicians from the imperial era.

We absolutely cannot let our guard down. So we can’t take them lightly.

After all, the German Army beat France, Europe’s strongest military power. I don’t think that spirit would change just because they became the German People’s Army.

Karl Liebknecht, if he has any sense, would think that much.

Then should we provoke the communists a bit more?

“Then we need to clearly show that we have Austria’s back.”

“But openly helping them is a bit dangerous. This Hitler is even saying that all communists should be killed like we did. If it were during a civil war like ours, there might be some justification, but wouldn’t it be difficult to interfere with the German side with Your Majesty’s authority?”

It might seem strange at first glance, but the upper class of the German Empire who joined Austria would want to kill the communists who took their possessions.

In the end, with Hitler’s silver tongue, Austria and its constituent countries will all want to kill communists.

So should I give Hitler some more power?

“Hmm, let’s give Hitler some support.”

“Pardon? Wouldn’t directly supporting Hitler be problematic for us Russians?”

That’s true. Right now, this country is a united states, but I am the Tsar.

And not just any Tsar. I carry the title of Saint.

Killing Russian Bolsheviks was unavoidable, but getting involved in communist suppression in another country might be a bit much for my image.

But we should at least show our will.

“Let’s provide guns and also send pesticide. Send the Zyklon B developed by Fritz Haber, the chemist who sought asylum with us.”

“Pesticide specifically?”

“Hitler will be dealing with communist vermin. We need to show our willingness to support him.”

Even so, would Hitler use this Zyklon to kill communists like Jews?

What would he do to build military power?

“Any news from Germany?”

“They’ve incorporated German Empire officers who couldn’t make it to Austria or East Prussia into the People’s Army, on the condition of ideological conversion.”

Is that really what happened?

Ah, this could be another variable.

Nazi Germany initially filled its army with veterans from the Great War and elites, creating a small but elite force due to the Treaty of Versailles.

As they rearmed, these soldiers’ strength would be further demonstrated.

I’m curious about what kind of Red Army communist Germany will create. Even that wouldn’t have good military capabilities.