Ch.76Tsarina Watches the Rocket

“Hmm. Is that so? Doesn’t the home country have anything to say about this?”

“No. You don’t need to worry about that!”

Wait, aren’t you American? Worry or not, shouldn’t you be returning to America? Are they still telling you not to come back?

How many years have you been here now, from the civil war until now?

Maybe I should just pretend I didn’t notice. America hasn’t really said much anyway.

Perhaps they’ve forgotten since Wilson became partially paralyzed, but anyway.

“Then. Can the Foreign Ministry handle the Ethiopia situation?”

“Should we approach them directly?”

“Hmm.”

If this were exactly the same future, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War would break out in ’35, so we’d try something a few years before that.

But now we don’t know when it might happen. Perhaps we should start strengthening Ethiopia aggressively from now?

Looking at the state of communist Italy, I doubt the Stresa Front (the alliance between Britain, France, and Italy to counter Germany) will emerge anyway.

“Let’s first use the Okhrana to monitor the Italian situation while gradually approaching them.”

Since the Okhrana is essentially functioning as the secret intelligence service now, it would be good to send them to Italy right away.

Just because history has changed doesn’t mean I plan to let my guard down.

“Shouldn’t we also provide weapons to Poland?”

“Yes. Since they’re so against letting our military in. Let’s give them weapons as we discussed earlier.”

Poland has joined the Anti-Comintern Pact and is busily arming itself with Russian weapons.

Communist Germany will treat Poland like Russia’s second battalion.

That alone will provoke those bastards.

Now Poland has inevitably become our hunting dog.

Of course, Poland’s weight class is far below what it was in the original history, but if Russia supports them, they’ll fight desperately if only to avoid being killed by communist Germany.

They’ve essentially certified themselves as fools to the whole world by declaring “I’m on Russia’s side, hehehe.”

Rather than trying to turn back now, they might as well accept being fools and eat the scraps from their master who watches their back.

Perhaps they still dream of rebuilding the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Anyway, since Britain and Russia are jointly responding to the communists, Poland might vigorously pull at communist Germany’s hair from one side, then ask, “Couldn’t you give us Lithuania as change?” Something like that.

Without the Soviet-Polish conflict that existed in the original timeline, they’re itching for a fight and will pounce viciously if anyone attacks them.

“Your Majesty. I have something to say about the Jewish issue.”

Grigory Vyacheslavovich, the Minister of Agricultural Land Management, spoke up.

“What’s the problem?”

“Jews from Poland are crossing over and settling in Russia.”

Jews are coming over from Poland?

Oh, that’s something I’m hearing for the first time.

Well, let’s hear what this is about.

“Why from Poland?”

“It seems Poland is persecuting Jews with anti-Jewish policies. They appear to be fleeing to either Russia or communist Germany.”

Around this time, Poland was not just anti-Russian and anti-German, but also an anti-Semitic country.

Being anti-Russian doesn’t seem possible now, and they’ve become anti-German, but since they can’t wage war, are they attacking the vulnerable Jews within their borders?

“But I wouldn’t have thought Piłsudski would allow such a thing?”

Even though it was an anti-Semitic country, Piłsudski was conciliatory toward Jews.

What this means is that such things would be difficult to happen at least until that gentleman dies.

It’s a bit strange.

“It seems he’s had some discussions with nationalists. According to the Interior Ministry, he appears to have coordinated with someone named Dmowski from the Polish National Democratic Party, Endecja.”

So they’ve decided that in exchange for siding with Russia, they must persecute Jews? Is that it?

But when I went there, I never met this Dmowski person. I don’t know much about Polish history, so I’m not sure who this person is.

If he’s a figure from the National Democratic movement, is he someone targeting me?

Or conversely, was he someone who controlled the nationalists but failed to do so?

“What did this person do?”

“He’s a political rival of Józef Piłsudski.”

“Is he the leader of the forces that threw a bomb at me?”

“No. When the Tsarina went to Poland, Dmowski had gone to England to respond to communist Germany.”

To seek support, I suppose.

Unless England deliberately supports Poland, with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth issue and the bomb attack on the Tsarina in their country, it would be awkward for them to help.

So, conversely, it must have been because he was absent that the nationalists ran wild.

I’m not sure exactly what internal affairs were like, but it seems they cracked down on the nationalists through the returned Dmowski, and in exchange, carried out anti-Jewish actions for Dmowski, who is an anti-Semite.

And since we’re implementing pro-Jewish policies, they’ve come over to our side.

“Hmm. I suppose it’s because we’ve been implementing pro-Jewish policies.”

“Yes. But there seems to be an issue since these are external Jews immigrating, excluding those who supported or fought alongside the White Army during the civil war.”

That makes sense. After all, we did have anti-Jewish policies for a long time. Even though we’ve become pro-Jewish, Russians probably won’t be entirely pleased with Jews suddenly crossing over from Poland and trying to settle.

“What about settling them in Northern Manchuria?”

I’ve heard there are Han and Manchu people in Northern Manchuria, but their numbers have decreased significantly.

I think the Beiyang government was accepting large numbers of people from Manchuria to secure population. What if we send the Jews there?

“Hmm. That location would certainly avoid conflicts.”

“We need people for Manchurian development anyway. It might be cold, but wouldn’t it be good if they had a place where only they could live comfortably?”

After all, I’m not persecuting them and I’m giving them land.

Isn’t that enough?

“Yes. The department was already considering Northern Manchuria for Jewish-related issues.”

Unlike the “states” of the United States, the United States of Greater Russia has various republics within it.

There could be a Jewish Republic incorporated into the United States of Greater Russia, or something like that might happen.

For now, even our bastard Hitler might suddenly go crazy and decide to attack Jews!

That could happen, so resolving this on our side is one approach.

So we’re sending Jews to Northern Manchuria, telling them we’re giving them land to cultivate.

The Jews will be happy to find land for themselves. For us, it’s not bad because we can develop Northern Manchuria, and if Jews settle in Northern Manchuria, they’ll ultimately have to rely on Russia.

Or later, we could take over Poland and establish Israel on Polish land, that’s also an option.

But Northern Manchuria it is.

Yes. What would the ethnic composition be like now?

“What’s the ethnic composition there now?”

“It’s multi-ethnic. There are significant numbers of Chinese ethnic groups like Han and Manchu, but there are also Russians who migrated due to the civil war, as well as Jewish and Korean populations.”

Since I heard that White Russians and Red Russians clashed in Harbin, I thought there were many Russians there. There are Koreans too?

“Koreans?”

“There are quite a few people who came over from Northern Manchuria. Recently, someone named Renya Mutaguchi from the Manchuria Railway Army sent thousands of people, saying he would fill the Asian Cavalry Division of the Russian Northern Manchurian Army.”

As expected, they’re the independence fighters of darkness.

They might all stab Japan in the back later.

At this rate, I really wonder if he was Korean in his previous life.

Or maybe, like me, he might be possessed by a Korean.

Could it be true?

He was such a peculiar figure in the original history that I’m beginning to suspect he might really be Korean.

Well, it’s good if they fill Northern Manchuria’s population on their own.

Those Koreans who crossed over will also help develop Northern Manchuria.

“Well, let’s propose Northern Manchuria to the Jews coming from Poland. Tell them we’ll support their settlement if they accept.”

“Yes.”

Northern Manchuria, Northern Manchuria. Come to think of it, I only heard that Northern Manchuria was occupied by the Asian Cavalry Division but didn’t pay much attention to it.

Northern Manchuria. Eventually, we’ll have to stab Japan in the back.

If so, we should pay more attention to that region.

“The main city in Northern Manchuria is Harbin, right?”

“Yes.”

“It would be good for me to visit Harbin. After the civil war, I paid attention to Europe, but it seems I neglected the Far East.”

I stood up confidently.

Originally, since the Far East was where the Far Eastern Republic emerged, I should visit the Asian region.

Now that the White Army has won the civil war, many communists have left that area. Personally, I want to visit because it’s the closest part of Russia to the Korean Peninsula. That’s what I’m thinking.

I also want to see the Koreans in Russia during this era.

“Your Majesty going to Harbin in person is a bit…”

“Has security been established, or is there still nothing noteworthy there?”

“Yes. It would be better to visit after the Jewish migration has taken place.”

The ministers seem to be discouraging me.

Usually, being told not to do something makes me want to do it more.

Is it not good to go now?

It might be better to go after the Jews have settled a bit.

I sat back down with a dejected expression.

“Separately, a man named Robert Goddard has expressed a strong desire to meet Your Majesty.”

The Black Baron, who had been watching my sullen expression, spoke up.

I never expected to hear Goddard’s name from Wrangel’s mouth.

I suppose since weaponization is planned, Wrangel has been managing Goddard.

“For what reason?”

“He wants to demonstrate a liquid-fuel rocket launch experiment to Your Majesty.”

“Well, I should at least see that.”

Yes. Let’s see what our Goddard has created.

* * *

It seems the White Army Department has been supporting Goddard with rocket-related work.

In a military facility on the outskirts of Moscow, our Mr. Goddard was busily preparing a rocket model.

“Your Majesty. Have you been well?”

“Ah, enough with such trivial greetings. I want to see it right now.”

“Hahaha. Of course! I won’t disappoint Your Majesty!”

As if ready to launch at any moment, Goddard immediately prepared to launch a rocket in front of me.

Whoooosh!

“Oh. That’s impressive.”

But that thought lasted only a moment. Like a flat soda, it suddenly plunged downward.

Even though our help doesn’t immediately guarantee success, seeing it in person makes the disappointment a hundred times more palpable.

Still, this experiment originally wouldn’t have happened for another two years.

In other words, it’s happening two years earlier here.

This man spent a lot of time solving this problem.

What if I help solve it in advance?

He later gets advice from someone to solve this problem, but since he’s come to Russia, the same development probably won’t happen.

So what if I give him some hints?

Anyway, rocket technology had many problems during World War II in various ways.

I did look into some rocket knowledge when trying to destroy those street racers’ shelter. I’m not sure if this will help.

Here, I’ll subtly share my knowledge.

“Is that supposed to be a rocket?”

“It’s certainly interesting, but how long would it take to weaponize something like that?”

The ministers who came to watch also look unimpressed.

That’s understandable. After all, the Tsarina herself initiated this project, and this result seems rather disappointing.

Still, this is just the first step.

“But doesn’t it seem to fall too close?”

I carefully asked Goddard, who was sweating profusely.

Goddard himself seems to know this and is very cautiously watching my reaction.

“I apologize. The experimental results are too inadequate.”

No, that’s not it.

I’m not angry about that at all.

Rather, I highly appreciate that he’s conducted an experiment two years ahead of when it would have happened in 1926.

Here, I’ll gently drop a hint for the solution.

I looked at Goddard with a subtle smile.

“Hmm. Isn’t the problem that the nozzle is at the top?”

“Pardon?”

I pointed to what looked like a design blueprint that Goddard was holding.

I’m just pretending to know what I’m talking about, throwing something out there.

Instead of saying, “Try this and that,” before putting the knife to the mole, I’m naturally suggesting, “How about this?”

I pointed to the rocket lying on the ground.

“This fuel tank seems to act as a weight, but isn’t the thrust from the nozzle being obstructed by this fuel container?”

“Ah.”

I only said what I knew, but seeing his immediate reaction, I guess a genius is indeed a genius. Let me add a bit more.

“That seems to be drastically reducing the thrust. How about arranging it in the order of liquid fuel, liquid oxygen, and then the nozzle?”

“Ah.”

“It might also be good to try adjusting the direction using a gyroscope.”

At my words, Goddard rolled his eyes and then clapped his hands.

We’re on the same wavelength.

“So that’s what it is. Thank you, Your Majesty!”

“Now that we’ve seen the potential, I expect to see something better next time, right?”

“Yes! I will definitely show Your Majesty results!”

Goddard bowed his head and then hurriedly gathered up the fallen rocket.

If he feels some change from my words, that’s good enough.

Perhaps next time we’ll see somewhat better results.

With a two-year head start and my advice, the Russian military’s weapons during World War II might be more advanced than expected.

“Your Majesty.”

Suddenly, an old man appeared who must have been nearby. It’s someone I’ve never seen before.

“Who are you?”

What’s this? A homeless person? How is the military managing this facility?

“I am Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. May I research rockets together with this fellow?”

This strange old man just said what he wanted to say and thrust some papers at me.

This is quite forceful. Isn’t this a bit rude?

Sighing, I looked at what he was showing me, and it was a theory about space travel.

Huh?

For a moment, I wondered if this gentleman had come from the future, but he had already created something like this?