Ch.92The French Occupation of the Ruhr

# The Reluctant Oracle

I find this ridiculous.

Now even Rothschild wants to ask me about the future?

Recently, Prime Minister Krivoshein, Duke Yusupov—they’ve all been asking me about the future.

“So?” I asked sharply, raising the corner of my eye.

“In Your Majesty’s view, what will become of Palestine’s future?”

First Prime Minister Krivoshein, then Duke Yusupov, and now Baron Rothschild.

Why don’t they just ask me to become a fortune teller while they’re at it?

“You mean the future after Jews settle in Palestine?”

“Yes. Can you see that as well?”

Is that what’s bothering him?

Well, as a representative of British Jews, he would be curious. Even with British backing, the fate of Jews living there would depend on local circumstances.

In this situation, with a supposed clairvoyant saint right before him, he probably wants to ask casually, like getting a tarot reading.

The more I think about it, the more irritated I become.

Why do they believe this so readily? Perhaps they just want reassurance from a woman known as a saint.

About what future the Balfour Declaration might bring.

“Well? But really, considering Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour’s declaration, the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, and your collusion with France, can’t you already predict what the future holds when Jews settle in Palestine, Baron?”

“Ahem.”

I don’t understand why even foreigners ask me this.

If you think about it lightly, the answer is already obvious.

Rothschild surely knows about England’s machinations.

To beat the Ottomans, they wagged their tongues to appease the Arabs, then wagged them again claiming it was for the Jews.

After all that verbal maneuvering, wouldn’t they know what would happen in that land?

“England won’t manage that place forever. They’ve schemed to dismantle the Ottoman Empire, so they’ll inevitably sow blood that can’t even be compared to the forbidden fruit. That original sin runs deep.”

“Then is China acceptable? Would a China that unifies the warlords leave Jewish settlements alone?”

No. If China were ‘unified,’ they would certainly wage war to drive Jews out of what they consider Chinese territory.

But that’s only possible if they actually unify.

With China’s current capabilities, unification through federalism would take years, and even then, if Japan invades, they would collapse fighting Japan just as the Song Dynasty, once considered pre-industrial, was devastated by the Mongols.

Chen Jiongming, an Anastasia fan club member, strongly advocates federalism. Without figures capable of unifying the warlords, it’s over.

Even Chiang Kai-shek only eliminated corruption after being driven to Taiwan.

Establishing a Jewish state isn’t entirely unrealistic.

“Unification will be difficult. They’re already divided under the name of federalism, and who would object to settling Jews on land received as payment for helping in a war?”

“Your Majesty, I will help with the Northern Manchuria oil exploration. Not as Royal Dutch Shell, but as Baron Rothschild myself—I’m curious about the picture Your Majesty is painting.”

You see?

Looking at this now, yesterday he spoke to me purely as a banker on business terms, but today he’s speaking sincerely as an individual. Isn’t that right?

“Seeing how you’re repeating what we’ve already agreed upon, I suspect you were planning to draw a line between us if you didn’t like what you heard.”

“Hahaha. How could that be? But as the head of the Rothschild family rather than as a businessman. I simply want to deal with Your Majesty as a Jew. In other words, the Rothschild family itself, not the company, will help with oil exploration in Northern Manchuria.”

That’s quite a sophisticated play on words.

Basically, he’s saying my plans are truly interesting, so he wants to establish a credible relationship directly with the Rothschilds, not just the company.

“You’ve thought well. After all, I’m just a symbolic Tsarina established by the State Duma. If you were just speaking casually, I wouldn’t be able to exert any influence.”

“You joke well too. Hahahahaha!”

What’s with him? I really am just a figurehead.

Calling it a joke when I’m truly a symbolic Tsarina—that’s going too far.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you.”

Unexpectedly, Anastasia and Walter Rothschild shook hands as individuals.

Baron Walter Rothschild stayed in Moscow for a while afterward, learning about Russian animals.

I seriously had the Okhrana investigate whether he was actually researching Anastasia, but was surprised to find he was genuinely looking for animals.

Shortly after, Duke Yusupov visited with someone from Branobel.

“Your Majesty, this is Emanuel Ludvigovich Nobel, who manages Branobel. He should have requested an audience with Your Majesty first—we apologize.”

A warm-looking middle-aged man bowed before me.

Emanuel Ludvigovich Nobel.

So this is the manager of Branobel who will extract oil with the Romanovs.

He apologizes? I should be the one apologizing.

He’s going to share Branobel with me and work hard extracting crude oil—I’m the one who should be grateful.

“Not at all. Thank you for coming.”

I took Emanuel Nobel’s hand directly and smiled broadly.

His coming this far means he’s been considering it positively.

“We will establish a joint venture with Your Majesty’s Romanov oil company.”

I like how direct he is.

Since we’re talking about a joint oil company, Emanuel Nobel probably doesn’t see much benefit in it.

After all, a joint venture essentially means transferring shares to the Romanovs.

But looking at it differently, it also means the Romanovs will back the Nobel family. If they develop more oil fields thanks to me, the Nobel side will also receive significant profits.

At least it’s better than the bankruptcy of the original history.

That’s how I see it, anyway.

“Is that so? A wise choice.”

It would be troublesome if he refused.

I’ve already shown off to Baron Rothschild.

At that time, I was planning to threaten Branobel by saying I’d bring Standard Oil or Royal Dutch Shell into Russia.

If that didn’t work, I would have had to build up the Romanov oil company itself.

His immediate acceptance also means we could potentially expand into other areas of the Nobel family’s business in the future.

“Our company nearly collapsed once during the revolution. Moreover, since Your Majesty is considering the Nobel family, this much is only natural.”

I see. Does he believe the Romanovs will guarantee their position?

The Nobel family is backed by the imperial family!

But the guarantee of the Romanovs, whose authority has declined more than expected, doesn’t seem that impressive.

“Very well.”

“However, I am concerned about Standard Oil.”

“That will be fine.”

Thus, the Romanov-Branobel Oil Company was established.

Of course, Standard Oil might express dissatisfaction.

Although I didn’t mention it, the Duma had reached out to Standard for oil exploration.

It wouldn’t look good if the Tsarina openly courted Branobel and Royal Dutch Shell while ignoring them.

But they weren’t just whining for free support either.

Besides, what could they do if Branobel was extracting oil exclusively in Russia?

They’ve already made plenty of money anyway.

If they make too much noise, I’ll dangle the bait of several oil fields in China.

I’ll tell Standard Oil that we’ll develop the area with local warlords and share the crude oil profits, diverting their attention there.

Alternatively, I could give them opportunities to explore more in Siberia.

This might even accelerate the Sino-Japanese War through the miraculous logic that Japan can get oil by consuming China.

People need to consider such diverse variables.

Well, with this, we’ve helped establish a nation for Jews and prevented future wars in the Middle East.

Of course, other wars might emerge as variables, but that’s beyond my concern.

While protecting Jews and extracting some capital, there might be talk from foreign countries, but European powers know that Jews helped the White Army during the Civil War, so they won’t criticize Russia for protecting Jews.

Rather, from the perspective of foreign governments, they’d be satisfied if Russia accepted Jews who only cause discord in their own countries.

Now, how will Europe unfold?

Will the Ruhr occupation happen as in the original history?

# # #

Around this time, France was very uncomfortable with the existence of the Free Socialist Republic of Germany.

After all, they had openly called for the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles.

Why call for abrogation? It was essentially a bold declaration that they wouldn’t pay reparations.

The revolution in Germany temporarily emboldened communists and Commune supporters within France.

“If this is how it ends, why did we fight the war?”

“Seriously, we can’t even get reparations. What was the point?”

“Perhaps our Commune should take power…”

The Commune quietly suggested that Germany’s refusal to pay reparations raised questions: Why fight the war? Where were the wages owed to workers? And so on.

There was truly much talk.

Raymond Poincaré, the anti-German French Prime Minister, wanted to argue that it was those communists ruling Germany who were ignoring the reparations, but what would be the point?

Additionally, he had wanted to turn the Rhineland region of Germany from a demilitarized zone into a buffer state, but even that was impossible due to fierce resistance from locals.

Moreover, with revolution breaking out in Italy, France, which shared a border with it, couldn’t focus solely on Germany.

America watched like a spectator across the river, while Britain was busy building a containment network around communist Germany, but where had the great British Empire gone? It had become a toothless lion, shamefully withdrawing its troops.

Communist Germany continued to insist they couldn’t pay, essentially saying “too bad.”

At least they weren’t arming the demilitarized Rhineland, but they were secretly building up some kind of “people’s defense force” behind the scenes, which was exasperating.

This was damaging both France’s prestige as a victorious nation and its future prospects.

The coal and timber promised as reparations were not forthcoming from communist Germany, which acted as if no such promise had ever been made.

East Prussia?

How much could the Kaiser of that tiny East Prussia pay in reparations? The real substance was the Free Socialist Republic of Germany.

Raymond Poincaré had to make a decision at this point.

“This cannot continue.”

If they refuse to pay reparations, send in the army and collect directly.

Though some time had passed due to the communist revolutions in Germany and Italy and the Commune issues at home, Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré resolved to send troops.

Thus, in 1924, French and Belgian forces finally pushed into the Ruhr area of the Rhineland in the Free Socialist Republic of Germany.

In actual history, France’s occupation of the Ruhr, which would last from January 11, 1923, to August 25, 1925, began a year later but proceeded more aggressively.

The French army initially took over the Ruhr coal mines and tried to acquire BASF’s nitrogen fertilizer expertise, but the fertilizer plant employees resisted. When a French officer beat one of these employees, the incident led to a strike.

“We are not French workers!”

“French and Belgians out of the Ruhr!”

“We are Germans!”

Just as the Weimar Republic government had done in actual history, the German Communist Party ordered the Ruhr workers to go on a general strike.

Secretary Karl Liebknecht, who had been monitoring the situation in France, had already sent German Communist Party members to the Ruhr as workers to incite the local laborers.

The failure of the plan to turn the Ruhr area into a buffer state was due to such sabotage by the German Communist Party.

It was some consolation to France that the Ruhr area workers weren’t yet indoctrinated with communism. However, the French army, acting more aggressively than in actual history, shot striking workers on charges of sabotage, going beyond the executions of the original timeline.

Bang! Bang bang bang!

The gunshots echoing through the Ruhr were enough for the German Communist Party to incite unrest.