Ch.398OGAS Project

* * *

“So, how exactly are you going to help us?”

“Either just hand over Goto. Otherwise, unless war crimes occur, it’s difficult for us to intervene.”

Of course, handing over Goto was difficult.

After all, this invasion had completely destroyed the Guangxi warlord faction to the point where its leader had to flee to the National Government.

“We can end this reasonably if you just hand over the Guangxi region.”

“What do you mean by ‘reasonably’!”

“Otherwise, we will attack—I mean recover—Guangdong and Yunnan to reclaim Nam Viet’s true territory!”

While Nam Viet’s actual historical territory included Guangxi and Guangdong, Vietnam was now intent on crushing China’s unification efforts and preventing history from repeating itself.

“Don’t be ridiculous! The founder of Nam Viet was originally a Chinese general! This is outrageous! We absolutely cannot accept this!”

Eventually, the National Government representative, speaking for the warlord alliance, walked out of the negotiations.

In truth, while the National Government would benefit from the disappearance of the Guangxi and Guangdong warlords, handing these territories to Vietnam was equivalent to surrendering Chinese mainland territory, which was absolutely unacceptable.

This meant they needed to coordinate with Qing, the Federalism Movement, Shanxi, and Zhang Xueliang’s autonomous region. The National Government requested support from these three regions, but…

“Without Balhae’s permission, it’s impossible.”

Balhae, which held the leadership position in the Co-Prosperity Sphere thanks to massive support from the Roman Treaty, declared non-intervention, and the Northern Chinese federal governments receiving Co-Prosperity Sphere support rejected the National Government’s proposal.

Eventually, the warlord alliance formed a British-style coalition to face Vietnam.

“Hmm? This might be an opportunity?”

As Israel also began to move again, the Third Southern War commenced.

* * *

Another day begins at the State Duma.

Vladimir is now carefully watching my reactions while diligently taking notes.

“With Qing, the Federalism Movement, and Shanxi refusing support, the southern Chinese warlords have formed an alliance.”

“That’s essentially a southern unification, isn’t it?”

Well, it lasted quite a while, and even if it’s called unification, it’s not even half complete.

China, due to its prolonged civil war, isn’t even at a level where it could threaten neighboring countries.

In the midst of this, a half-baked unification—and not even a proper half at that—has come together under the pretext of countering Nam Viet’s northern advance.

Still, it will be difficult for them.

The Roman Treaty and the United States have mediated peace at the request of the federal governments whenever the Chinese civil war tilted too far in one direction.

However, Vietnam, formerly a colony, had bulked up thanks to the Roman Treaty’s policy of supporting former colonies toward normalization and America’s investment to secure Vietnam as a firm pro-American ally.

Additionally, the cause of reclaiming Nam Viet’s ancestral homeland was enough to boost morale. Guangdong collapsed instantly under the Nam Viet army’s attack.

“If the Nam Viet forces target Chinese territory beyond what’s necessary, the US and Roman Treaty plan to mediate peace negotiations while accepting up to half of Guangxi and Guangdong.”

Looking at the map, I’m not sure about the exact historical territory of Nam Viet, but taking this much will drain the strength of the southern Chinese warlord alliance, even if they’ve united.

So we should allow the Nam Viet army’s advance as much as possible.

“What’s the expected endpoint of the Nam Viet offensive?”

“Given the Nam Viet army’s combat capabilities, supply capacity, and the current state of the warlord alliance forces, they should be able to reach their stated goal of ancestral homeland recovery.”

That makes sense. These bastards have been gorging themselves for so long.

This should be considered inevitable.

“The warlord alliance has the larger population, right?”

“Yes.”

The Nam Viet army knows that the Asian branch of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Organization is with the National Government, so they’ll observe certain boundaries.

They understand the Roman Treaty and the United States better than anyone.

But the warlord alliance remains the problem.

These guys can never return to the former glory of China, no matter what they do.

They can’t even make nuclear weapons, but still, I prefer to see China weakened.

If the south is going to unify anyway, we need to drain their strength.

We need to ensure the Nam Viet army completely takes control of Guangxi and Guangdong.

“Wouldn’t Vietnam become too powerful?”

“Hmm.”

“That’s true. It would be problematic if pro-American Vietnam becomes too strong. But since they’re firmly in the American sphere of influence, there’s not much we can do.”

The representatives now seem capable of handling things well without me.

A powerful American ally is emerging in Asia.

This is an important issue to consider, but from my perspective, Vietnam seems to be just trying to benefit from being in the middle.

Much like how Korea in the original history benefited greatly from being between the US and China.

The difference is that Balhae is completely pro-Roman Treaty, while Nam Viet is just profiting from being between the two.

From the Roman Treaty’s perspective, they’d like to let go, but Nam Viet keeps bringing up its former colonial status, insisting it needs more support from the Roman Treaty.

“The problem is that they’re also wagging their tails at us.”

“Then, our perfect story would be…”

The perfect story? That’s very simple.

“The Vietnamese forces and the warlord alliance need to become entangled in fighting each other.”

That would be the best story for us.

The warlords and Nam Viet consuming each other. This would increase Nam Viet’s casualties and keep southern China busy with reconstruction throughout history.

Nam Viet should lose some strength for a while.

Meanwhile, Balhae, Western Japan, and Northern China will grow significantly. That’s better.

If the gap between Northern and Southern China widens, Northern China might abandon federalism, not wanting to feed and develop the impoverished South.

This side is also falling apart just as we want.

The fundamental reason Korea couldn’t unify with North Korea was partly due to asymmetric weapons and neighboring countries, but also because unification would mean South Korea would have to support tens of millions of impoverished North Koreans and invest an enormous budget.

In the end, China will remain divided as we desire.

I look forward to the distant future.

“The question is whether the warlord alliance can stop them.”

“Well, the Nam Viet army might withdraw appropriately.”

“The warlord alliance has experience, so if they throw in enough manpower, it’s certainly possible.”

Throwing in manpower.

“Even if Guangxi and Guangdong fall to Vietnam, Vietnam will be busy digesting them for a while.”

“Just taking Guangxi and Guangdong means tens of millions of people. It will take Vietnam a long time to process them somehow.”

That’s right. They might expel all the Chinese or find some pretext to kill them.

Southern China has truly become hell.

No matter how you look at it, Southern China will suffer, and if Nam Viet gets too greedy, both China and Nam Viet will inevitably weaken.

After some time, the meeting finally reached a conclusion.

“Your Majesty, we’ve decided to maintain our non-intervention principle regarding the Southern China war with the Roman Treaty, but to intervene if they go beyond reclaiming their ancestral homeland.”

Since Russia is essentially the core of the Roman Treaty, this represents the Treaty’s position.

Wow, the world is truly interesting.

Who would have thought Vietnam would grow large enough to be discussed within the Roman Treaty?

The pretext of reclaiming ancestral homeland is honestly just an excuse to expand territory. Nam Viet simply wants to build its strength. That’s all.

If Nam Viet just takes Southern China and stops there, there’s nothing more to say. It won’t harm us, so that’s fine.

“Proceed with that plan.”

I wonder how South America is doing.

It would be interesting if South America were countering the United States in South America. South America has clear limitations, so rather than military victory, they should aim for cultural or scientific victories.

Their mere existence has value.

It might also be entertaining to see Argentina provoke the United States and get beaten later.

“We’ve submitted documents related to Dr. Viktor Glushkov’s e-government project.”

Glushkov.

In the original history, he planned the OGAS project.

Here, I believe he’s involved in the Anastasia Project.

The content is simple.

Automated Information Processing Accounting Network System—OGAS—Anastasia Project.

A network based on cybernetics.

“E-government.”

Probably named after AI Anastasia.

The project name is Anastasia Project, not OGAS.

Project Anastasia. What would have been called OGAS in the original history.

But the OGAS project was proposed in 1962.

Ah, of course, this must be a more advanced result.

It’s different from just being a proposal.

Shouldn’t ARPANET be emerging by now? If ARPANET is coming out, then what Glushkov is talking about is… huh?

This document says the internet has been developed.

“Internet?”

What’s this? The content says the internet has been developed. No, that can’t be right. At least, it can’t be the internet as we know it.

Even if it has emerged, it must be a much earlier version of the internet.

It’s too new to allow the kind of web surfing we’re familiar with today.

It must mean this is how it will emerge.

“The plan came out a few years ago. It seems that since ARPANET was developed in the United States, this has now been made public.”

ARPANET has been developed in the United States.

“Ah, I see.”

ARPANET is probably what I know as the predecessor to the internet.

If that’s the case, it’s acceptable. Still, I wonder if this is coming out early.

It makes more sense to create something perfect before releasing it, rather than rushing it out.

The document also describes how it will emerge in the future.

But OGAS failed because it was nothing more than an expansion of local information management systems, and it failed when the United States and France produced results.

Therefore, Project Anastasia will organize its own internet, and Anastasia will be the one to control this internet.

“Continue as planned.”

We’ll use the internet developed by the United States as the global public network, and Anastasia’s network system will serve as the e-government for the Roman Treaty.

What if it fails?

That’s not my concern. By that time, they’ll figure out how to live well anyway.

What matters is the attempt.

The effort to reach the destination somehow. Isn’t that what’s important?

The spirit of challenge is what advances the world.

“Yes.”

Our progress into space is also far ahead of the original history.

I’m quite satisfied now.

For the time being, watching developments in Asia should be sufficient unless war breaks out.

The State Duma seems to understand my thoughts and is handling things well.

Though I don’t want to worry about this either.

Since Southern China is unifying, we need to create plenty for the Nam Viet army to consume in order to drain their strength.

And the Nam Viet army needs to struggle with consuming Guangdong and Guangxi.

This way, my pre-established goals will be achieved, resulting in a satisfactory outcome for me.

The future will continue to develop, but what will my position be in the midst of it?

My authority increases daily as I prove my immortality.

That’s why the Anastasia AI must be completed.

Then in the future, people will know that Anastasia was deified because of the AI, not because of immortality.

Rather, it will be known that with a mortal body, as a woman, she worked hard on the battlefield.

That’s enough for me.

“Your Majesty, there’s also the matter of expanding the European integrated railway.”

“Railway?”

“The Hellenism Railway connecting to the Islamic-Hellenism Federation, and the Eurasian Railway connecting to the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Both are planned.”

The Hellenism Railway connects Europe to the three Middle Eastern countries.

Since we’re developing their resources and consuming them ourselves, connecting railways was obviously necessary.

We’ve been too busy to address this until now.

“I see.”

“There are also plans to install gas pipelines to the Co-Prosperity Sphere.”

The Eurasian Railway. Something that was planned in the original history as well.

With gas pipelines added, Balhae can import gas at cheap prices.

“We’ll also sell gas cheaply to Northern China.”

“To Qing and the federal states?”

This is also a way of boasting about our sphere of influence. This way, the United States won’t think about cutting off Asia.

“This will solidify China’s division. Northern China doesn’t support Southern China, right? If Northern China alone enjoys the gas pipeline, how will Southern China feel?”

“I see.”

They’ll probably feel excluded, and while they’re struggling to survive, Northern China is living well—how unjust they’ll find it.