Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 87 >

Winter wind blows on the pier in St. Petersburg.

In the cold wind of the beginning of the year, people went around with their collars fastened. At the pier, the workers were busily roaming around.

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Meanwhile, there was a person sitting on a bench and contemplating everything.

“You are late.”

“You just came. Anyway, it is very difficult to meet you.”

Stolipin looked out to sea.

“There was nothing nice about meeting you right away.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t come here openly. Rather, why did you hit it like that?”

“It’s a habit I can’t let go of even when I’m old. That is why I was photographed.”

“People were amazed. Was it the 30th day today?”

“……”

“To stand up against Your Majesty’s views and not to be officially dismissed or resigned for a month. Some are betting on when you will be kicked out.”

“What do you think?”

“Even though you said you were right, it would have been better to sit still and find a countermeasure rather than oppose it outright. Either way, your Majesty is still pushing.”

“I didn’t ask for that.”

“Your Majesty… you hate change.”

This is the worst monarch at this time. Because it is the 20th century now.

If you don’t change, you die, and you don’t have the ability to change and you hate to change.

“That’s why you’re underestimated. dismissal. You have always been calling for change.”

What is needed in this day and age is not a nanny who can help you sleep.

We need someone who can beat them, grab them by the collar and pull them out of bed, forcing them to open their eyelids and make them smartly face reality.

“Stolipin, the Empire needs you.”

You cannot rule on horses the world you have acquired on horses. That’s why I need someone to rule the world for me.

“You are young, and the Empire has a long, long way to go. But I am old.”

“Sir, someone who has not yet reached 60 is very strict.”

This year, that yangban is fifty-five. Isn’t he still in his prime?

“If you’re under half my age, keep your mouth shut and listen. Of course, I’m not saying I’m going to disappear right now, but I should wash the dishes properly before I finish.”

“then…….”

“You are right. If there is anyone in the Empire most fit to bear the weight of a double-headed eagle, it must be Olga.”

A seabird fluttered and flew away. Stolipin closed her eyes as if listening to the beating of a boat in the distance.

“Olga-sama is wise, rational and rational, but not too bold. You are the best person to lead the country. Your fiancee…”

“It hasn’t been announced yet.”

“The rumors have spread. In St. Petersburg, no one will know. Anyway, you can manage your business and you are a charming person, but that’s it. The problem is that Princess Tatiana has become engaged to you, and no matter who you are, the moment you get married, the person you know will take the throne. I am not going to marry anyone.”

“Who am I marrying again?”

“Well, there’s the Hungarian Queen or the German Princess…”

“yes?”

No, the former is just a kid… but you’re the same age as Anastasia, anyway, Germany? Have I ever fought Germany?

“No, what kind of haircut…”

“I’m joking, there’s a human across the sea who can’t take it as a joke.”

Wait, I think I just heard something you can’t ignore? What happened across the sea?

“Anyway, so are Maria and Princess Anastasia.”

“I know because I’ve been with her since I was little, but Maria is kind, but I can’t expect her to be a ruler. Anastasia is just a kiang, and what did that mean? What about across the sea?”

Then Stolipin smiled and looked away.

“If you don’t know, doesn’t that mean you didn’t do your job properly? Ohrana, you are the chief.”

“Oh, it was originally for domestic use. The collection of foreign information was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs…”

“Didn’t your GRU take most of the stake too? I’ll go to work and find out for myself. It’s not particularly difficult to access information, but I’m not doing it right.”

No, damn it, that old man is getting older and he’s just getting grumpy.

“Anyway, did your work go well? He said he was going to Kamchatka.”

“The engine of a monoplane fighter prototype being tested in Siberia exploded, breaking both the legs of the test pilot as he was escaping. It is difficult even with technical cooperation or recruitment of technicians, but it will be better if German scientists are put in earnest. Everything else seems to work, but the engine is having trouble. Maybe it’s because the output is raised too much.”

I wondered if it would be possible to extract high-speed boat engine or tank engine technology based on aircraft engine if it worked well.

“I don’t know if there was a design error by forcibly installing a supercharger. It’s probably the first in the world to install a supercharger on an engine…”

There may be trial and error. I know that, but I didn’t like it.

“I don’t know much about that technical part. Please understand that you are in trouble.”

“Well, understand that. It will probably take a few years for the actual deployment.”

“It doesn’t matter because there won’t be a war right now, no, it can’t be a war.”

“……”

“Why but.”

“I cannot guarantee that there will be no war.”

Stolipin took a deep breath.

“Where do you predict?”

“Europe is fine. Neither France nor Germany will start a war right away anyway, and Britain is also heavily in debt. At the most, it would be enough to send troops to Italy in a civil war that is likely to explode sooner or later, to have real-world experience and test new weapons.”

“I can’t bear that much.”

“The problem is the Far East. Especially in the US and Japan.”

The Taisho Democracy was stillborn before it even started. The runaway of the military, which originally had only begun after the Great Depression after the Great Kanto Earthquake ended, was ignited much earlier with the success of the navy’s military coup.

Of course, the army was not standing still, and the civilian government, which became a shrimp between the whales of the navy and the army, was bursting out.

Armaments began to explode in Japan’s national budget.

“The U.S. will not attack first. No, Americans cannot tolerate such a situation.”

It was the Zimmerman telegram that made the Americans finally decide to join the war. Of course, the war ended before the possibility of US participation in the war was even discussed here. Conversely, it is difficult for the United States to participate in the war unless it is that crazy. Unlimited submarine warfare didn’t even have much of a stake.

Of course, the truth is that the real cause of the Wilson administration’s decision to participate in the war was the Russian Revolution. Without a series of provocations from Germany, including the Zimmermann Telegram, it would have been difficult to persuade the people.

“But Japan is different. They place more importance on their personal success and prosperity and the interests of their faction than the interests of the nation. It’s a different story from simply corroding the state treasury by our aristocrats. That one officer could provoke a war without a declaration of war.”

I’m not that crazy yet, but right now, the war ended a few years early, the Taisho Democracy was completely lost, and the Great Depression has changed so much that it’s hard to predict when the Great Depression will come. It should be taken into account that the timetable is completely different.

“Is that… makes sense?”

No matter how much Russia was treated as a quasi-power, at least the military could not provoke war at will without the tsar’s approval.

“The difference between the emperor of Japan and the tsar is that the tsar has real power, while the emperor has lost all real power over a long period of time and has been incapacitated, and the real power exists separately. They were originally called shoguns, but now the shogun has disappeared and a new government has been established, and a democratic system has been tried to transplant, but the attempt ended in this coup. Currently, the Japanese military nominally returns power to the emperor, but in reality they lead the country. Even if the power is returned to the Emperor, the Emperor, who has been incapacitated for many years, has no ability to use it.”

The real Japan is amazing. For once I get dizzy just by explaining what I know.

“In other words, it is not clear who leads the country and who is in charge, and the person who decides the policy and the person who takes responsibility for it are separated. It would be more true to view Japan as an association of warlords rather than a nation.”

“And we’re more than assholes to them.”

“Actually, even then, Japan was on the verge of death. If it wasn’t for England, we would have won. In any case, Japan is now a clear power. If Japan goes wild and starts a war against us or the United States… Great Britain will have no choice but to join the war.”

Currently, for Britain, Japan is a lever to pressure Russia from the east and its best ally through the Pacific to contain the United States. Under such circumstances, it is impossible to terminate the Anglo-Japanese alliance unless we intend to give up our checks.

In other words, if Japan goes to war, Britain will be taken too. Whether the opponent is us or the United States.

“Not today. Not tomorrow, but surely, war is coming.”

***

When I returned to the office, Irina, who was sitting in my room, got up.

“Chief, people came from the Spanish legation.”

“Why without contact? You never agreed to an interview.”

The legation is not only a place where the corporation stays and manages diplomatic affairs, but also a subject of information work.

Of course, it was basic for our side to monitor all the embassies of major countries. On that side, if I’m gritty, I wouldn’t want to get involved.

“I don’t know for sure, but he said he wasn’t there, so he went back without saying anything.”

“Hmm.”

Something’s wrong with me

“Oh, and he asked me to tell you this.”

“Isn’t it a bomb or something?”

“It sounds like a ticking sound from inside.”

Irina smiled and opened the box.

“watch?”

There was a pocket watch shimmering in gold.

There are 10 to 20 years left for quartz watches to become popular, so even if you pretend to be a mechanical watch, jewels are studded as if you are boasting, ‘I have an expensive body’, and the exterior was gold. I don’t know if it’s real gold.

Watching the second hand move as smoothly as flowing water, Irina murmured.

“It’s a Swiss watch.”

“A Swiss watch? Why is this…”

“It’s just a bribe, isn’t it?”

“No, I know it’s a bribe, but what are you asking for a bribe, did we have anything to do with Spain? Or is there any reason for Spain to want our cooperation?”

When it comes to Spain, there is no way I can ask you to come back and take back the colonies of the New World. No, wouldn’t it be weirder if there could be some kind of conflict between countries that are far from the edge of Europe in the first place? The pirates are… British eating sardine pie, so that’s it.