Ch.309A Nation in Crisis

* * *

Half the world has already fallen to the Roman Treaty, so they’ll probably think about spending quite a bit of money before losing more.

They won’t reduce their military and will increase troops toward Canada. For America, it would be difficult to give up any position right now.

“If America had been more accommodating to Japan from the beginning, the Japanese wouldn’t have become this rabid.”

In the end, trying to crush them by force has led to this situation.

It’s pitiful, but this is essentially America’s self-destruction. From the moment America implemented Operation Downfall, coexistence with the Japanese became impossible.

“Still, there are former Japanese soldiers who are reporting Japanese communists and right-wingers to the Republic government or volunteering to help eradicate the Japanese Communist Party just to survive. However, since they’ve only just started accepting volunteers, the Kanto Republic currently only has the Kanto Security Force, which is a paramilitary organization.”

The White Army Department seemed to have investigated the current situation in East Japan in detail.

Kanto Security Force. Why does this remind me of the Korea Security Force from the original history?

I’m somewhat curious about Japan’s future.

If Trotsky really succeeds in his revolution, what will happen to Japan?

In the original history, Japan eventually managed to recover.

Even with the special economic boom from the Korean War, those who are destined to fail will fail. But now Japan is split in half, and West Japan, while relatively generously treated as a normal country with its own military, is still only half a nation.

How far can this half-nation succeed, and how far will Trotsky’s communist Japan decline?

I’m curious to see how far this snowball I’ve set in motion will roll.

“It will last quite a while.”

Perhaps the civil war will drag on.

Patton, having experienced the Russian Civil War, should know better than to give communists time, but who knows?

It’s uncertain whether Patton’s mobility will be effective in Japan’s island terrain.

As I read the report, I see that Patton has committed many questionable acts.

First, as soon as he was assigned to Japan, he immediately implemented what the Far East U.S. Military Command had been hesitating to do and mercilessly crushed Japanese right-wingers.

Not only that, but this also drove Trotsky to accelerate his revolution. While Trotsky still needs to gather his forces, Patton is strictly speaking an invader from outside, so the people of the Kanto Republic will follow Trotsky.

A communist who has the support of many Japanese versus an American general who is merely an invader and oppressor.

Who would you choose in this situation?

People tend to fall for the devil’s whispers that slip through the cracks in their hearts.

Perhaps if America committed to completely crushing East Japan, it might be different, but Patton alone might not be enough.

Well, he must have had his own reasons.

“Let’s just observe for now.”

It’s out of our hands anyway. What remains to be seen is how much attention Trotsky draws. That’s it. We can just watch from behind with South America for the time being.

“But sir.”

The Black Baron approached me with a concerned face and spoke carefully.

“What is it?”

“Doesn’t Trotsky know that Your Majesty sent him to Japan?”

“I suppose he does.”

I did deploy Trotsky, but Trotsky isn’t a fool.

The State Duma and I may have treated him like one, but he’s a man who started a revolution in America centered around Kentucky from nothing.

Such a man would understand my intentions in sending him abroad. Nevertheless, the fact that he started a revolution means that he remains a revolutionary to the end.

“If he’s captured later, Your Majesty’s noble name might come out of his mouth.”

Yes, that’s true.

Of course, he might not say anything, but Trotsky might also blurt everything out, wanting to take me down with him.

I anticipated this and didn’t say much when I met with him, but just because I don’t say anything doesn’t mean his mouth will stay shut.

If he decides to talk, he might add all sorts of embellishments about how I instigated him.

“Even if America knows, they can’t hold it against us. From our perspective, we simply deported him. Even if my name comes from his mouth, America should have managed things properly to prevent a revolution.”

No matter how much of a revolutionary Trotsky is, he can’t start a revolution without the right environment.

But he’s starting one in Japan.

This means America failed to properly manage the Kanto Republic as a puppet state.

Of course, they’ve been busy with reconstruction, but still, the fact that Trotsky could create an environment where communist cockroaches could multiply is largely America’s fault.

“For the time being, let’s keep our distance and just monitor the situation as if we have no connection to it. If they demand accountability later, we can respond then. What’s more important to us now is the National Government.”

The National Government on the map.

Their reputation recently took a hit after the nuclear test, and now they’re facing a civil war over federalism. The question is whether the National Government will hold.

The Qing and Shandong Autonomous Territory are just watching for now.

“It’s a shame. I saw this as an opportunity to give America a taste of their own medicine.”

Teaching America a lesson will come later. They haven’t even spread their wings yet, so it’s not time to confront them.

“Sometimes we must be patient despite our regrets. It’s better to pretend not to know and just keep an eye on the National Government for now.”

Japan has just erupted.

The situation is different from the National Government, which is in the midst of fighting. We have a connection with Patton, and we can’t support the communists, so we should just stay put.

We are a righteous nation, after all.

We couldn’t execute Trotsky, who worked for Russia despite being a communist, so we specially granted him deportation. And even though they’re communists, intervening in Japan would break our agreement with America.

We also can’t support communists just to spite America. We will continue to be a world-leading nation in the future.

So, for now, we need to focus on the situation in China.

If the civil war drags on, America might take notice.

Therefore, before that happens, we need to ensure that neither the National Government nor the warlords gain an advantage.

“Currently, Tang Shengzhi is commanding the National Army for the National Government. I understand that the National Army is blocking the National Government on the western front.”

“Oh, is that so?”

Tang Shengzhi? Thinking about the original history, that terrible man is leading the government army? Wow, this is quite something.

Even though Tang Shengzhi achieved the feat of killing the Emperor earlier than in the original history, he still killed the Emperor and drove Japan mad.

Despite this, the National Government holds Tang Shengzhi in high regard.

Well, I suppose he killed an emperor, so he’s essentially a symbolic figure for the National Government.

If Tang Shengzhi is commanding the army, the warlords’ armies will hesitate for a while.

“Chongqing, the capital of the National Government, is too close to the warlords’ invasion route, so the National Government urgently relocated to Hangzhou.”

Looking at the distance between Chongqing and Hangzhou on the map, they’re almost at opposite ends, east and west.

Chongqing has been the capital since Chiang Kai-shek’s time, with an administrative system in place, so Soong Mei-ling as acting president also made it her capital, but it’s right next to the warlords.

This is a bit of a problem.

“That’s a good idea. If Balhae continues to sell weapons via sea routes, they should be able to hold out.”

Far Eastern Army Commander Semyonov drew a line with his baton from the Korean Peninsula to southern China.

But I don’t see it that way.

“The question is how long they can hold out.”

“Do you have a different view, Your Majesty?”

Holding out is only possible when there’s enough money and supplies.

How can you wage war without sufficient war funds?

“Unless Soong Mei-ling is an idiot, she must have anticipated that the warlords would invade, even as she was planning her own unification war.”

Unless she’s a fool, Soong Mei-ling must have anticipated this. From the moment they broke away, she must have seen the possibility of warlords invading.

“I suppose so.”

Yet she didn’t relocate the capital.

If she had been thinking ahead, she should have abandoned Chongqing and moved elsewhere long ago, but she didn’t.

Look, if the warlords invade, they’ll attack the capital, Chongqing, first.

But she didn’t move? This clearly smells suspicious.

“So, the most dangerous place is the capital, Chongqing. Yet she didn’t relocate the capital earlier. This means she didn’t have the resources to do so. Of course, there was also the vague idea that unification would happen eventually…”

She probably rushed nuclear weapons development to the point where she didn’t have money to relocate the capital.

That must be why Soong Mei-ling hurried. She wanted to develop nuclear weapons quickly and strike immediately.

She didn’t want to be easily defeated. Since Hangzhou is far from Chongqing, she plans to hold out by sacrificing land and people. Isn’t that the idea?

It’s a typically Chinese approach.

The problem is that the commander is Tang Shengzhi. Considering the Nanjing Massacre, he might just retreat if he thinks he can’t hold out.

Especially since he’s fighting fellow Chinese soldiers, not Japanese.

“The battle situation seems to be that Tang Shengzhi is holding at Chongqing.”

Something doesn’t feel right.

“He probably won’t hold out for long. Moreover, Jiangzhen below Chongqing was caught in the nuclear explosion. Public sentiment toward the National Government must be poor.”

Rumors must already be spreading: “They conducted nuclear tests on their own citizens!”

Chinese people with ears will understand what this means. They might prefer to be under a warlord rather than under Soong Mei-ling.

Moving to Hangzhou might help them hold out, but the problem is that the National Army is commanded by Tang Shengzhi.

“Still, Tang Shengzhi has a high reputation among other warlords as the Emperor’s assassin.”

“Is that so?”

Tang Shengzhi. So, he’s holding out on his reputation for a while?

It’s unfortunate that I don’t know the current troop situation.

“How many troops does Tang Shengzhi have?”

“Tang Shengzhi’s army consists of a total of 300,000 National Army troops.”

A total of 300,000 National Army troops. The land area is larger than Balhae’s.

And the population is also larger than current Korea’s.

Balhae’s population is roughly 40 million. This includes Russians who fled south during the civil war, Jews who cooperated with Balhae and lived in Southern Manchuria, and Manchus and Japanese.

The National Government might have even more. Their population is estimated to be larger than Balhae’s.

Still, looking at China’s situation, they won’t grow like Balhae, which has a bright future.

Even now, they rely on Balhae for weapons.

Balhae is making money by mass-producing and selling the firearms we just transferred technology for.

“They’ve managed to raise quite an army from such a small territory.”

This is why division is necessary. The National Army alone has 300,000 troops. And this is probably excluding garrison troops, so there are likely more.

Of course, they’ve built up their military because they never know when war might break out in a divided China. But if China were unified, it would be formidable.

“So that’s why Your Majesty wanted to divide them.”

“Yes. China’s population is still larger than Russia’s even after all those deaths. Even we could mobilize 10 million people in a total war, so what about them? Looking at the current situation, we need to maintain the National Government.”

The sheer numbers these Chinese can muster are truly formidable.

It’s good that the White Army Department has realized this.

From the beginning, I hoped for this Chinese civil war. It doesn’t matter who the aggressor is. Initially, high-ranking officials start wars for their own interests and ambitions, but as they fight, they become enemies.

Wars that start simply turn people into enemies.

This is happening in southern China.

And if the Roman Treaty and America mediate whenever things get dangerous, ensuring that unification never happens, and shifting blame between the parties?

They’ll end up divided like enemies. The issue is that they need to be divided to the point where resentment remains in their hearts.

“It’s difficult for us to intervene militarily.”

“Decolonization is complete, and while intervention in China isn’t impossible, there’s the matter of justification, isn’t there?”

“That’s right.”

Justification is always important, as they say.

A war without justification will face all sorts of criticism in the future.

I don’t want that.

“From the White Army Department’s perspective, we should forcibly organize a peacekeeping force.”

“Organizing a peacekeeping force without their request might make it seem like we have ulterior motives. That won’t do.”

Ah, is it because they’re soldiers? There’s no need to go that far.

I’ve had a brilliant idea. A way to absolutely prevent these warlords from destroying the National Government.

“The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Headquarters hasn’t been established yet, has it?”

“No. It’s been postponed due to the civil war.”

Yes, that’s it.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Headquarters. We can use that.