Rasputin of the East

20

I woke up with a significant headache.

‘The film broke. How much did I drink?’

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My head hurts too much, and the sunlight pouring in from the window made my head hurt more so I closed my eyes again and replayed what happened yesterday.

Finally, World War II broke out, and when I was not accepted until the end of the war, I brought a strong drink, which I usually finished with one or two drinks, from a balcony in the imperial palace and blew a bottle.

Then… then… then…

‘aah!’

In an instant, I felt the urge to shove my nose in the water on the plate and die.

‘What did I do…’

I felt a sense of shame that I wanted to die like I was lying in bed right now, but there was no time to rest.

The moment I got out of bed, I realized then that this wasn’t my room.

No, the arrangement of the furniture is different. I can move on or not, but… But this quilt and curtains…

‘Am I f*cked?’

Wouldn’t that door open right now and a shotgun would fly?

Putting on my go-out clothes with my brittle hair suppressed, I opened the door thinking that I had to drink a glass of water and tidy up the situation.

“uh? Count, are you awake?”

“……Princess? How are you?”

“It’s my sister’s room, you couldn’t say goodbye last night and you were supported by your sister, don’t you remember?”

“……I don’t get it at all.”

“… You seem to be very worried about the war, but you can still win, if you win. I mean, there hasn’t been a single proper battle yet.”

“France will also participate in the war tomorrow at the latest. Luxembourg must have been occupied by now. Can I ask you just one more thing?”

“What?”

“Yesterday… did nothing happen?”

Then a questionable smile appeared on Maria’s face.

“I do not know? I just saw the Count yesterday being supported by his sister, and today the Count didn’t show up too late, so I just came to pick him up. I do not know?”

“No…but what do you guess…”

“Is there something more important than that now? It’s an hour before the meeting. Shouldn’t it be a simple yogi to prepare?”

Indeed it is You can recall what happened last night later, and the meeting is a priority right now.

The Tsar will be busy preparing for the meeting right now, so he won’t be shot with a shotgun right now…

“Excuse me, Princess, can I use the phone? I think I’ll have to ask the secretary to bring me some materials.”

“follow your heart.”

I called Irina and asked me to bring the materials, and I rushed to get ready for work.

It was then that she opened her mouth while watching her prepare for work.

“You know that my sister likes the Count, right?”

“……I didn’t know.”

“Then you know now that the Count doesn’t like only one person, right?”

“……”

I gently averted my eyes.

“Honestly, I was a little embarrassed, because I never really thought of it like that… I really don’t know, me…”

“You were guessing.”

“…a little bit.”

“My brother and I keep a secret, and we will keep it for each other. But no matter what the sisters choose, whatever decision the Count makes, please don’t hurt your heart needlessly. Do you know what I mean?”

***

The eyes of Nicholas II, who had been sitting in the Imperial Palace’s courtroom before the meeting even started, were bloodshot.

I couldn’t sleep all night, thinking about the possibility of a compromise. The declaration of war has already been delivered, but how can we end it well?

Or is war really inevitable? If war is inevitable, can we win?

If we lose, is the price of defeat at a level we can afford?

The tsar, unable to sleep at this thought, read the thick report, forgetting to say goodbye to his children for a single day.

Reports from GRU were worn out overnight.

In Nicholas II’s head, who had just woken up the night, he vividly pictured the image of hell that the report calmly portrayed.

The prophecy he showed was too accurate to ignore as just a report.

He seldom prophesies, but his predictions are always cruelly accurate.

The tsar felt himself a hero in mythology, who had heard the cruel prophecy from the priest of Delphi.

For him, the Count’s warning had long since become a prophecy. And so was this prophecy. There is no need to doubt its authenticity, even if it is cruel like Delphi’s prophecy that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother.

‘But there is no guarantee that we will be defeated.’

The Count didn’t even say that they would be defeated. He only warned that he would not be able to bear the blood that would flow out in the process.

But wherever they bleed, France and England will bleed together.

And there was the count.

‘If it was the Count, what would he do?’

It was a seemingly irresponsible idea, but the water had already been spilled.

Since the Russian Empire has already received the German Empire’s declaration of war, the war has already begun.

Although not yet engaged in military action, it was limited to the Russian front, and battles were already taking place in Luxembourg and Serbia.

It was too late to turn back. It was already too late to back off.

‘What can Austria do? If it is the spy network laid down by the count, as the military says, it will be able to grasp the enemy’s various operations, so it will be okay. Germany… Germany has France and England.’

While conquering Austria-Hungary and consistently defending on the German front, France and Britain are expected to somehow subdue Germany or come up with a sharp edge.

With limited information, it was the least bloody way Nikolai could think of.

There was no way to overcome the situation and end the war, but there was an expectation that something would be squeezed out through the Count.

Of course, if the Count of Vostok, who was drunk and cut off the film at that time, knew of the Tsar’s thoughts, he would have been in a hurry.

After World War I, there is no way to stop the Russian Revolution. Of course, he can make the Russian Empire win consecutive victories through military operations that he is aware of.

Of course, it is not easy to defeat the German Empire by a country that manufactures all of its main machine guns, such as the PM1910, in foreign countries, as it lacks the ability to produce new artillery or machine guns for the German Empire on its own. Because it wasn’t as disastrous as World War I in the original history.

First of all, just having the production capacity of an automated machine was a huge improvement compared to the original history. The problem is that Russia’s only munitions factory with automatic machine production capacity is a private business of the commander of the Interior Ministry, Count Vostok.

However, in this battle, which will be essentially a battle of attrition for national power, no matter how much Stolipin has strengthened its original history, it is not enough to make the Russian Empire, which is far short of other powers, handle the supply line, call Marshall, who will be on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. can’t even come

If that were possible, it would be the USSR, not the Russian Empire. No, even the Soviet Union relied on US land leases for civilian living items, so what could be a way to calm the anger of the people who had to spend the winter of Russian turnips to supply military supplies in World War I, when there would be no land leases.

It would be impossible to bring Goebbels from Nazi Germany decades later—apart from the lack of radio to deliver his speeches.

Beat the communists and stop them? If you defeat one, two will commit themselves to the revolution, and if you destroy one organization, 10 new organizations will be created.

This is one of the reasons why the Count of Vostok stopped taking precautions against Lenin or Trotsky. Rather, it is better to have a person who knows the original tendencies well and can predict what to do to become the main axis of the revolution.

The Count himself thinks that the best he can do is to block off St. Petersburg by mobilizing the Baltic Fleet and the Internal Affairs Force, and if a revolution occurs, he will flee to the Far East with the Tsar family and pray for victory in the Red White Civil War. However, the Tsar himself had no way of knowing.

After a while, people came in one by one.

The door to the conference room was closed after the Earl of Vostok, who was clearly suffering from a hangover, entered the room holding the documents in his and his secretary’s hands.

“It’s not time for the start yet, but it seems like everyone is here, so let’s get the meeting started. Please speak from the foreign minister.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, first of all, the French Republic has unanimously issued a declaration of war against the German Empire, but the British Empire seems to be reluctant to declare it.”

“Why?”

“The British Empire is perceived to be exhausted. Aren’t you embarrassed to see the war that should have ended on a small scale in the Balkans spread all over the world in an instant…”

“Then what are the chances of Britain going to war?”

“It’s 100%.”

I opened my mouth.

“100%? Why do you think so?”

“First of all, I want to ask the military. How long do you think it will take for the Empire to complete its mobilization and enter wartime posture?”

“……It’s impossible in a short time.”

“Yes, and the German Empire knows this too. Therefore, we currently have minimal troops and Austro-Hungarian forces deployed on our front lines. And we intend to use all our remaining resources to subdue France in the shortest possible time and wage a decisive battle with us.”

“What if it was the shortest time?”

“Six weeks.”

“Six weeks? Is that possible?’

“It’s difficult in reality, but General Moltke (Helmut Johannes Ludwig von Moltke, aka Minor Moltke, then Chief of Staff of the German Army) seemed to see it as the only way. To this end, the German Empire gave up the method of breaking through the Sedan area head-on.”

“The French will actively defend.”

It’s a good thing that you can understand what you say, really.

“then…….”

“There is only one path they can choose. It is a low-lying corridor. Belgium and Luxembourg.”

There is also a Swiss Corridor… You’re going to cross the Alps with an army? Hannibal is not for everyone.

”And Belgium is a country guaranteed independence by Britain, and at the same time, Britain’s national security is devastated when it invades the lowlands, so Britain has no choice but to participate. I assure you, the Germans will cross the Belgian border during today, and the British will decide to enter the war tomorrow.”