AN: Credits to Vasilisa, perfect_shade, Aldrin, geo_113 and Sunny for feedback and revisions. Much of the South American discussion scene was originally drafted by Vasilisa.

I also tried keeping the South American history lore inline with the omake from Aldrin: threads/the-cold-war-youjo-senki-saga-of-tanya-the-evil.948007/page-223#post-94285784

1953 August 25th, Grozny, Caucasia:

Li surveyed the street filled with wrecked or burning Rus vehicles, and the corpses strewn around them.

"I had deep skepticism of your intentions until the Rus bashed their head against this place, repeatedly. Normally they give up after the first or second time of probing a heavily defended area." Khanpasha Visaitev spoke in Rus to a Chinese translator. "What did you do to anger them? This is the third time they tried to push into this city, and my scouts report they might try yet again. I haven't seen them being this stubborn of trying to push into Caucasia until your army showed up."

Li sighed, "General Secretary Pisarev betrayed me. So I ordered the destruction of the Kremlin area and commandeered numerous trains, aircraft, vehicles, equipment and supplies in my retreat from Moskva. All those things that I allowed your men to take from our abandoned trains in return for our safe passage were stolen from the Rus."

A visibly impressed Visaitev tilted his head, "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier? I was wondering how you had all of those trains full of goods. You could have given me a recording of the destruction in Moskva and I would have allowed your army to set up defensive positions without question! You have recordings of the battle in Moskva?"

"It's a sore topic, but yes, I can have one of my mages who attacked the Kremlin area give you their recording," Li stepped around a turret that was ejected from a burning tank. "I thought we would embark on a great journey to free Europe from the evils of capitalism. He instead had conspired with my arch-rival back in the CSR to destroy my army and murder me."

"Betrayal by the Rus. We have something in common."

"What is your story?"

Visaitey kicked at one of the Rus corpses. "During the Second Great War, while the world was focused on Kieva, a mass deportation of Caucasia was attempted even with many people from the region fighting for the Rus, then the operation was delayed when it became clear that the Russy Federation lacked the manpower due to the deterioration of the front lines, and abandoned when the Rus civil war ignited. But unfortunately, my family was among the few that were exiled somewhere to Sibyria when I was fighting for the Rus, and I never heard from them again."

Visaitey then turned around to face Li. "Now regarding your desire to crush capitalism, what is your plan for Caucasia?"

"I didn't even know this region existed," Li looked down at his feet. "Not until after I was sent running by the hostile Rus and Chinese forces. I don't intend on making this a permanent stay, but I can't leave as long as they are out there to launch another attack."

"You didn't answer my question about the independence of the regions in Caucasia," Visaitey narrowed his eyes.

"The future of Caucasia is in your hands when I fight my way out of here," Li gave an annoyed look. "Not mine, because I need to return to Nanjing and overthrow the despotic government sitting there. And Nanjing is about… 6,500 kilometers from here. It will be a long march, even without having to fight my way there."

Suddenly Shusheng landed in front of them with a panicked look on his face.

"What is going on?" Li stood in place while Visaitey looked unsettled.

Shusheng spun up a recording spell of unencrypted radio communications. Visaitey immediately frowned. "Those languages are in Qajarian, possibly Afghan, and something else. Where were the radio signals coming from?"

"I think the third language is Bharatian," Shusheng said as he unfolded a map and used magic illumination of the approximate radio signals' locations, and the presence of CSR and Rus mage signatures. All of them in the south.

"So Kang called in his Qajarian, Afghan and North Bharatian minions to invade from the south…" Li's eyes twitched.

"Caucasia is a heavily mountainous region. We can wage a long running insurgency and bleed them out," Visaitey sighed. "But who is this 'Kang'?"

"Kang controls the CSR and he is willing to sacrifice an entire army just to kill me. He will grind us down until he finds me, and staying put in this region would just make it easier for him to do that." Li gripped his hands, then turned to Visaitey and pointed at the map, specifically at the coastline next to the Caspian Sea. "No, we take a different approach. How many boats are available?"

"Boats for what?" Visaitey had a confused look on his face.

"For my army to sail across to get to Afghanistan."

"You're going to need to build a lot of them."

"Then I'll need to send a portion of my army to do that, while using the rest to fight rearguard actions," Li then pointed at the southwestern portion of Caucasia. "As for you, I would suggest heading to the border with the Turkmen Empire. My agents have been working to acquire supplies and arms shipment from the Turkmens to send to Caucasia. You're going to need all of that to fight off the storming of Caucasia, because once this entire region is fully occupied, the occupiers may decide to start annexing chunks or all of Caucasia."

Shusheng's face twitched, and he displayed another dot to the north. "I just got word from the scouts that Kang's main forces have started moving across the Ural River. Which means they have cleared paths through the minefields and rebuilt the bridges. They will have the numbers to potentially overrun this city."

"It seems we are short on time," Li smiled sadly. "I wish you luck with your goal of independence."

"And I wish you luck with your long march," Visaitey offered a handshake.

"I almost forgot," Li turned to Shusheng. "Do you still have the recording of your attack on the Kremlin?" He asked, gesturing to Visaitey. "My dear comrades would love to see it."

1953 August 26th, at a safehouse, Hambrück:

Hard at work, Adenaue and I were trying to ignore the thick tension that hung in the air. Relations with Chancellor Adenaue had been getting more and more strained these past few weeks. I found we were having more disputes on a whole range of matters. It was clear his dissatisfaction with my policies, or even my presence, was increasing the closer we drew to the elections.

We had tensely hashed out a plan to keep the Germanain shipbuilding industry afloat with generous low interest rate loans in mark or dollar currency of their choosing and a small down payment for them to prepare for the eventual construction of two new aircraft carriers and three amphibious landing ships. Other critical industries would also be given similar loan offers.

I wasn't exactly a fan of going around bailing out failing businesses with cheap money, because that could provide a perverse incentive for them to keep taking major risks with the assumption that the Germanian government would always save them if anything went wrong. Many Japanese companies and banks turned into zombie enterprises during Japan's bubble economy of the 80's, indefinitely dependent on steady infusions of cheap debt to stay alive and sucking up land capital and human resources in the process, eventually leading to its lost decade in the 90's.

I almost dropped my cup of coffee when Adenaue shifted the topic by proposing another use of the growing surplus of US dollars: paying the American semiconductor businesses to have them build a copy of their semiconductor manufacturing industry in the OZEV, instead of just letting the money pile up. I wanted to congratulate him on recognizing that having a steady supply of advanced solid state electronics would be important for our future computing, which includes everything from crunching numbers in massive quantities of records to missile guidance to maintaining our stealth magic computational orb advantage. Unfortunately his method would also ignite economic tensions with the Americans when we need their help to contain communism.

Instead of kicking him through the wall, I reminded myself that I needed a functioning democracy which means people shouldn't be afraid of suggesting different ideas and there would be a need for debates.

I thinly smiled, "Chancellor, while that may help ensure that OZEV would be able to maintain its steady technological progress if trade with the US is disrupted, it could spark the disruption in the first place. They could act jealous and restrict their businesses' ability to export semiconductors technology to us to stop us from copying their industry, and that would include the Fairchild-Rosenvelt-Degurechaff Semiconductors company, as it is based in the US."

"If they do restrict FRD Semiconductors or any other strategic technology supplier then we would restrict export of our nuclear technology in turn," Adenaue huffed.

"Which would ignite an out-and-out trade war! Straining relations with the US is the last thing we need," I sighed deeply. "They are a valuable trading partner and we need them to focus on the communist threat."

"What would be your plan if the US decides to withhold their most advanced semiconductors technology from us so they could maintain a technology lead over us?"

I racked my brain of how the semiconductor industry operated in my previous life. The details were hazy, especially since I didn't really dig into the specifics. But like any other modern industry of my previous world, it had a massive sprawling supply chain that spanned the globe. After the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, many companies around the world scrambled to find substitute suppliers and clients. Toyota for example could not resume its full automotive production due to the loss of critical suppliers.

Critical input…

A smile crept across my face while Adenaue had an uncomfortable look on his face. Yes, we make OZEV a critical part of the US semiconductor industry. And also bring in Akitsushima Dominion while we're at it because they have a rapidly developing electronics industry. We also shouldn't just stop at the semiconductor industry. The more the American economy is intertwined with our economy and our allies' economies, the harder it is for them to remain isolationist when something threatens their living standard.

"The semiconductor industry has many necessary inputs for it to function. Who will supply the production machines to make the manufacturing possible? The components of the production machines? The processed materials and other highly-refined ingredients? Raw material on its own is useless."

"You're suggesting OZEV should establish secondary suppliers of the US semiconductor industry?" He looked at me.

"Yes. We use part of our US dollars to invest in American companies, not just the semiconductor industry. On the condition that they establish supply chains or other local manufacturing in the OZEV and the Akitsushima Dominion, Formosa, Malagasy and South Bharat. President Taft would find it much harder to stop that, and once it gets going, the Americans would be heavily incentivized to protect their sprawling supply chains. So if the communists or the Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic get any funny ideas, the US will intervene to protect their involuntary global economy." I continued to grin. "And a conflict where the US joins our side is comparable to dropping a boulder on a balance scale, sending the other side flying off into the air."

"I'll have the State Investment Ministry and other ministries draft a proposal," Adenaue waved his hand as if it was a settled issue. "Look at the time, it's almost due."

I nodded and rose, stretching my sore limbs as I made my way to the door. Opening it wide, I gestured to the people waiting outside. Lergen, Dertinge and Elya trouped in and found chairs. While they made themselves comfortable, Visha escorted our special guest in.

"Madame President, this is Professor Konrad Lorenz of the Freie Universität Berun." Visha made the introductions.

I gave him the once-over as we shook hands and made small-talk. The man wore some sort of native robe of many colors. Long white hair and beard stuck out wildly in every direction, and a strange, unidentifiable smell wafted from his body. He clutched a long walking-stick in one hand and a briefcase in another. His eyes were hidden by some sort of homemade sunglasses. I could hardly tear my eyes away from the man's flamboyant attire. As he set up his materials on the table, I seized the opportunity to whisk Visha into a corner.

"Uh, Visha ... is this guy … you know, alright in the head?" I whispered.

"I … think so," she replied doubtfully. "He spent decades in the jungles and mountains of South America, studying anthropology, history and pharmacology … after a while, he apparently went native. Even after living in Berun for the last eight years he refuses to change his more unusual 'habits'."

She noticed my blank stare, and hastened to add, "But I'm sure he's reliable enough! He's only been a minor bother since his return to civilization."

"A bother in what way?" I asked with growing suspicion.

"Oh, it's nothing serious. He's been pestering the government to allow importation of all sorts of strange plants and fungi for their supposed medical benefits. He calls them 'theogens', whatever that means. The Ministry of Health keeps telling him no but he's being stubborn about it."

"Great, so he's the anthropologist version of Schugel?"

"More or less."

"Then it's probably better to find someone else," I sighed.

"I'm afraid there isn't anyone else."

"What?"

"We don't have any other experts available," she said apologetically. " Lorenz is the only Professor of Latin American studies in all of OZEV. It's him or nothing."

"It doesn't have to be an academic. What about from our diplomatic corps?"

"There's nobody with the expertise. We only have one embassy in all of Latin America, in Caracas. And that was only established near the end of President Paul's tenure."

"I suppose there's no other option but to bite the bullet then," I groaned. With nothing else for it, I called the meeting to order and addressed our dubious expert.

"I speak for all of us here when I gladly welcome such an eminent visitor. Professor Lorenz, thank you for letting us take up some of your very valuable time. Your country is in need of your deep expertise. Unfortunately, in spite of my best efforts, Germania seems to keep getting dragged into South American affairs, and I have a bad feeling that it will be difficult to extract ourselves any time soon. I'll be blunt, we're flying blind here. Nobody in the government knows much about that continent; we've tried gathering information from our contacts in the Unified States, but the Americans don't seem to know anything about their southern neighbors, and the foreign companies operating in South America, such as the Vaccaro Fruit Company, aren't exactly reliable with their explanations. We need your enlightenment."

"I appreciate your vote of confidence, Madame President, but I hope you don't set your expectations too high," Lorenz muttered, gaze firmly fixed on a section of bare wall for some reason. "I haven't lived in South America for many years. Much of my knowledge of current events is long out of date ..."

"That's fine, I'm mainly interested in general historical background. What are the capabilities and national strength of New Granada and Brasilia, what do their governments and peoples want, how did they get to where they are today? Things of that nature."

"Very well, I can do that," he nodded, extracting a large map from his briefcase and rolling it out on the table for us all to see. "To start at the beginning, here is the breakdown of states. I presume you know about the Ispagnish and Lusitanian Empires carving up the continent between them?"

I looked around at the sea of blank faces surrounding us. "Only the fact that it happened," I replied.

"Good enough I suppose," he snorted, with an air of tolerating a classroom of errant schoolboys. "Suffice to say, the Ispagnish territory was divided into four administrative districts: the Viceroyalty of New Granada in the north, the Viceroyalty of Peru along the west coast, the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata in the south, and the Viceroyalty of New Ispagnia in Central America. After the wars of independence against Ispagna 150 years ago, these districts became the new republics of New Granada, Peru, Platia, Mexica and a few small ones respectively."

I examined the map, comparing it to the countries of my original world. New Granada comprised the territories of Mexico, central American states, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Peru comprised of Chile and Peru. Platia comprised of Argentina and Bolivia. Brasilia is just Brazil, and the same goes for Paraguay, Uruguay, Francois Guiana, Suriname.

"As you can see, all countries share long land borders with at least two of their neighboring states."

"What happened to Mexica?"

"New Granada built up a large navy, and while it was significantly outclassed by European fleets, it was good enough to blockade and land soldiers to conquer the central American states until Mexica intervened. Then New Granada struck an agreement with the Unified States to partition Mexica between them, as the US and Mexica had significant territorial disputes, such as a large portion of what would be the western part of the US."

"And I'm assuming the other South American states just sat by and watched?"

"They were embroiled in their own wars and when they did form a coalition to stop New Granada, the US was only several days away from declaring war on Mexica. The war dragged on for a while, but once Mexica was fully occupied, New Granada could turn their full attention to the south. The final blow came when the US negotiated to take more portions of Mexica to create the present day borders and for some favorable trade deals, in return for sending their navy to help the Granadian Navy to blockade the entire coalition and also landing their marines at various coastal cities. Without the ability to import European weapons or finance their wars by exporting goods, and the US marines occupying their largest cities, the war was over for the coalition. This also contributed to Peru to focus heavily on their navy to avoid a repeat of the devastation from losing control of their long coastline."

"So no shortage of locations to choose from if one side wanted to invade the other, and some old historical bad blood to provide incentive for future conflicts," Lergen observed.

"Correct, Minister."

"I'm assuming that war also set the stage for the close relations between the Unified States and New Granada?" Visha looked intently at the map.

"Also correct."

"And what's the situation with Brasilia?" I asked.

"That's an entirely different sack of jabuticaba. Unlike its Ispagnish counterparts, Brasilia never seceded from its Empire. 200 years ago, Ispagna launched a surprise invasion of its neighbor Lusitania. The Ispagnish had long coveted the Lusitanian Empire's resources, and when they heard rumors the Lusitanian Emperor had just died, it was judged the ideal moment for a sneak attack. The Lusitanians were caught with their britches down while the Ispagnish made deals with other European powers for them to stay out of the war, and the entire country was conquered within a month. Ispagna unified the entire Iberian peninsula under its rule and Lusitania ceased to exist from that time on. The country disappeared faster than a ship capsizing at sea."

"So what happened after the sinking of Lusitania?" I asked.

"The very much still alive Emperor Dom John, the so-called 'Sun-King', led his family and retainers to flee the country with whatever wealth, troops and weaponry they could load onto their ships. To make a long story short, their navy escaped to Brasilia, and re-established the imperial capital at Rio de Janeiro. The Ispagnish proceeded to swallow up all Lusitanian territories in Africa and Asia, but were never able to conquer Brasilia, which remained the sole remaining holdout. Not for lack of trying of course. For half a century, multiple invasions set forth from New Granada in the north and Platia in the south, but all to no avail. As a result, the Empire of Brasilia has endured to this day."

I mentally shook my head, not surprised by the failure. How many troops would Ispagna have needed to conquer over 26 million square kilometers of some of the toughest terrain on Earth? It was an undertaking comparable to Imperial Japan's attempt to conquer China in my original timeline, but without Japan's technological advantages.

"So that's the root cause of the bad blood between the Granadians and Brasilians?" Visha asked.

"Only in part. There's also what happened during the wars of independence against Ispagna, which was when Mexica first broke away. New Granada and Brasilia wanted to take advantage of the chaos of the immediate aftermath of the independence wars to seize more territory for themselves. New Granada tried to seize the Brasilian province of Amazonas. Which led to the Battle of Manaus, the bloodiest conflict in South American history. That is, if you don't count the original Ispagnish and Lusitanian conquests of the native populations. Manaus was besieged by Granadian forces for just over five months. Vicious street-fighting reduced the city to rubble, but the defenders managed to hold out until a relief army finally arrived and cut off the Granadian supply lines, forcing them to withdraw in shambles. Half the Granadian army vanished forever in the rainforest during the retreat, due to Brasilian partisans. Ahem, that said, there hasn't been another war in South America for almost a century after the partition of Mexica, so all this could be water under the bridge. I have no idea if the Granadians and Brasilians of today bear any grudges."

"No wars at all since then?" Lergen queried. The two of us shared a glance. That seemed a trifle unbelievable.

"Inter-state wars? No. Military efforts have been focused entirely on pacifying rebellious minorities, squelching riots, stamping out labor strikes, launching punitive expeditions against native tribes, rebels and insurgent groups lurking out in the jungles or mountains or deserts, that sort of thing. For Brasilia, the occasional slave revolts that were brutally put down."

"That means no Latin American state has the slightest bit of experience fighting a modern war… Well, we already surmised as much," I mused. "What sort of chance do you think New Granada has to beat Brasilia?"

"Difficult to say. I must re-emphasize, Madame President, that I am by no means a military expert. Their record against the Brasilians stands at one loss and one win, and while that one win was with the help from the US, that was while they were fighting against almost all of South America while conquering Mexica. I think it all comes down to how the Confederados decide to deal with the invasion."

"Who?"

"The Confederados, of course … ah right, I haven't mentioned them yet, have I?" The Professor ran a hand through his wild mop of hair in embarrassment. "Long story short, after the failed coalition war, Brasilia faced a twin crisis of financial ruin and social instability. The royal family felt their power base was far too fragile, so they decided to enlist some outside support. They got their lucky break when the American Civil War ignited and then concluded in favor of the North, especially when New Granada threatened to invade the Confederates to "help enforce the Monroe Doctrine" in response to the Europeans strongly considering breaking the North's blockade. After that war, Emperor Dom Pedro began an advertising blitz throughout the South to induce former Confederates to relocate to Brasilia. Settlers were offered all sorts of incentives: free grants of land to farm, subsidized travel costs, preferential tax rates, commercial trading concessions, and so on. He even threw in a bunch of free slaves for each family unit of ten or more! The deal was that these 'Confederados' could set up new plantations and re-create their aristocratic 'genteel' slave society in Brasilia, on condition they offer loyalty and support to the crown."

"How many emigrated?"

"Who knows? No historian has ever tallied up the totals. But most estimate approximately 10 to 20 percent of the white Southern population that survived the Civil War, which comes to between half a million and a million settlers. Unsurprisingly, many Confederates, when faced with the specter of grinding poverty and ruination in a devastated American South, found the idea of starting again in a country where slavery was still legal, rather appealing. And the Yankee government was more than happy to be rid of them."

"Didn't the Boers end up in Brasilia too?" asked Dertinge. "I seem to remember something along those lines."

"That's right, after the Albish-Boer War in South Africa, many Boers emigrated en masse after their defeat. They preferred to join the Confederados than live under the Albish boot. But they weren't alone: former slaveowners and sympathizers in North America, Albion, Francois, Haiti and Jamaica also found a new home in Brasilia."

"I can hardly believe my ears," I shook my head.

"Disbelieve all the ears you wish," Lorenz continued, unfazed by my reaction. "Originally, Dom Pedro was only interested in using the emigrés to establish a domestic cotton industry. But he soon realized that a group of highly-educated former generals, politicians, administrators, judges, lawyers, engineers, academics, businessmen and craftsmen, could be put to much better use. In short order the Confederados became the backbone of royal power and the core of Brasilia's military and federal bureaucracy. Their population exploded over the years and they even built their own city, Americana, between Rio and Sao Paulo. They make up a substantial proportion of all three major cities."

"And their status today?"

"Today their descendants still comprise the main force supporting the regime and are a ruling class in their own right. Most of the governmental, economic and military elites are of their number. After the Emperor established a federal parliament, presidency and voting rights for all free citizens in 1891, every ruling coalition and every president has either been Confederado, or a pro-Confederado ally. Any war against New Granada will be masterminded by them."

"So the Emperors successfully imported their very own caste of janissaries," I noted sourly.

"I prefer to call them the Varangian Guard myself," he retorted. "But either way the analogy is apt enough."

"And what of the slaves?" I was almost afraid to ask.

"Brasilia remains to this day one of only two major states that still permit legal slavery, along with Abyssinia."

"Their 'peculiar institution' is even enshrined in the Brasilian constitution," Dertinge piped up.

I swiveled to face him. "You knew about this?"

"Uh, of course …?"

"So why the hell didn't you tell me about this ages ago?!" I demanded.

Dertinge looked bewildered. "Would it have made a difference?"

"Of course it makes a difference!" I snapped. "If I'd known I could've framed all of our military assistance to New Granada as doing our part to make this mighty scourge of slavery speedily pass away from the earth! We'd be seen as international humanitarians, instead of money-grubbing war profiteers! Do I have to do everything myself?! Ugh!" I flounced back into my chair. "Never mind, no use crying over spilt milk. How is it even possible for the great powers to allow an honest-to-goodness slave-state to thumb its nose at international norms for so long?"

"Ahem, Brasilia ceased importing slaves in the 19th century, and relies solely on the domestic birthrate to maintain and grow its slave population. And when mechanization started removing some of those labor demands, domestic and foreign companies found new demands for cheap labor, both low cost laborers and rented 'contracted laborers' from slave owners. This also meant those companies were on a very short political leash, as the Vaccaro Fruit Company found out the hard way when they acted with impunity in Brasilia and consequently had their assets nationalized." Dertinge replied in a meek tone. "And the nation doesn't involve itself in international affairs at all. Any economic restrictions from the continued usage of slavery is met with simply shipping the exports to other countries that were willing to pay a lower price in return for not asking questions, and of course the involved merchants either resold those goods in the anti-slavery countries or processed the imported material for re-exports to the anti-slavery countries that tried closing the loopholes."

"What is it with the Americas and isolationism?" I sighed, rubbing my temples to ease my headache. How did the Lusitanian royal family degenerate from ruling a global trading empire to presiding over an inward-looking hermit kingdom? Was Brasilia trying to imitate the Oda Shogunate's old Sakoku policy? Because that didn't end well for Akitsushsima. For both the Akinese and and now the Brasilians, the Unified States eventually came knocking at the door.

Surely the Brasilian government must realize that they could grow their economy to a first-world level if they were to abolish slavery and expand their foreign affairs. Or did the Confederados consider economic stagnation and global irrelevancy an acceptable tradeoff in exchange for avoiding international pressure to abolish their irrational and inefficient system of slavery?

"Hang on," a thought occurred. "If they have minimized contact with the outside world, how are they able to nag the South Bharatians for low cost modern weaponry and equipment?"

"Via the mediation of the Platian government," Dertinge explained. "Most Brasilian dealings with non-South American states are through the Platian embassy network and diplomatic corps."

"And the Platians are okay with the Brasilians free-riding like that?"

"They have little say," the Professor interjected. "It all comes back to history. You see, Brasilia didn't take kindly to the numerous Ispagnish invasions through Rio de la Plata. So after Platia became independent, instead of starting a war they began efforts to subvert and control the Platian government. An effort that lasted 150 years and continues through to this day. Bribery, threats, blackmail, extortion, sinecures, drugging- you name it, Brasilian agents have done it all. Many Platian politicians and bureaucrats are either in their pocket or have been publicly disgraced and retired. Brasilia also applies economic pressure and military saber-rattling along the border from time to time."

"You're telling me that Brasilia has reduced Platia into a vassal-state, and is using it as a frontman for any international outreach, so it can continue to hide in the shadows? Why didn't the Platian government seek assistance from Peru or New Granada?"

"New Granada doesn't care," he said. "The only state that cares is Peru, and they're hardly in a position to point fingers at Brasilia."

"Because…?"

"Because Peru is doing the exact same thing. It has been a long running tug-of-war of influence and occasional proxy skirmishes between Peru and Brasilia for over a century."

"Is nobody standing up for themselves in Platia?" Elya scowled.

"Perhaps. There has been a change in leadership recently," Dertinge stated. "President Illio has recently suffered some severe medical problems. Details are being kept under wraps, but the key point is that his wife, the Vice-President, is acting in his stead for the foreseeable future. She is considerably more outspoken, aggressive and nationalistic than her husband. If anyone would be the figurehead for a movement to wrest control of their country back from foreign powers, I'd bet on her."

"Eva Illio is now acting President?" Lorenz's eyes lit up. "That's wonderful news!"

"Possibly." Dertinge was diffident. "There has been some controversy about her sudden elevation. A lot of rumors are circulating in the international press that suggest President Illio may have been poisoned in order to get him out of the way."

"Bah, gossip and old wives' tales!" Lorenz sniffed in disdain. "Pay no attention to baseless speculation. Eva Illio is a great woman, and immensely popular with the people. In many ways she's just like you, Madame President!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Just like me, you say. In what way? Was she an aerial mage?"

"Ah, no. She … er, was a movie star before she married and entered politics …"

"Well then, did she lead her country to war, or rebuilt its economy from scratch? Did she raise living standards or modernize its military?"

"Um, no."

"Are you suggesting that I poisoned my way to the top? Or took power through a coup?"

"Certainly not! Nobody could possibly dream up such an absurdity, Madame President!"

"So in what way is she similar to me then, Professor?" I asked in a flat tone.

"Er, well … she's … blonde too …"

"I think we're getting off-topic here," Visha interjected, rescuing the sweating Professor. "The important thing to determine is: what do the Confederados want? What are their goals and aspirations? And most importantly, how would they react to a Granadian assault?"

"Aspirations? Hmmm," the Professor mopped his brow. "Judging from their books, films, and other cultural output, the Confederados dream of the day Brasilia becomes powerful enough to invade the US and avenge the death and destruction those 'damn Yankees' inflicted on their ancestors during the Civil War. Which also of course includes bulldozing New Granada for their passive-aggressive role in that war and subsequently often helping the US exert their influence over South America. In fact, the only time New Granda was involved with Platia was to back the US over a political crisis a few decades ago, much to the annoyance of Brasilia and Peru."

I blinked. "That's absurd. Both for the Confederados and New Granada."

"Yes, it's a totally unrealistic pipe-dream of course, but we're speaking of hopes and emotions here. The hostility towards the 'Yankee' Unified States and their 'lapdog' New Granada is very real. And for New Granada, the opinions of the average people have little effect on their government when US companies effectively control it."

"So the Confederados are a bunch of war maniacs, who are probably chomping at the bit to conquer New Granada and then march north. Fantastic," I griped. "You know, I'm beginning to understand why the US is so keen for the Granadians to stomp Brasilia. I did previously wonder why, if the Americans' only aim was to indenture and seize control of mineral wealth, they didn't side with Brasilia against Granada? After all, when it comes to natural resources ripe for exploitation, Brasilia has orders of magnitude more to plunder than Granada. But this puts everything in a whole new light. Nothing may make the US government happier than if Brasilia were to collapse into a hundred bickering statelets."

"Maybe. But I caution you against jumping to conclusions," the Professor warned. "I could be mistaken. I did say earlier that those wars happened a long time ago. It's possible the Confederados consider it all ancient history which has no bearing on government policy today."

"I'll bear that in mind," I stood up and stretched. "Alright, you've given us more than enough to chew on, thank you, Professor Lorenz. Unless anyone has any further questions they want to ask…?" Everyone was silent. "Very well. I don't need to mention that everything said in this room must be kept strictly confidential, right?"

"Of course, of course, that goes without saying," the Professor said hastily, packing away his maps. "Farewell everyone, it was a delight to make your acquaintance. You know where to find me if you need any additional information. By the way, before I go, there is a little matter of unfair import restrictions I'd like to raise. Did you know the Amazon rainforest produces thousands of unique species of plants whose psychedelic effects on the human brain may have enormous positive benefit to –"

"Out."

"Yes, yes, of course," he hurried out of the room and a secretary closed the door firmly behind him.

I looked around at the room. "Let's take a 15 minute break. There's a lot to unpack about what the professor said so that we can start planning our next moves. This South American diplomacy is going to be messy."

Meanwhile, in the outskirts of Berun, Germania…

A security guard walked over to his preferred smoking spot and lit a cigarette. He looked up and before he could take the first puff, he saw two utility vans rumble down the service road and then come to a stop.

"What are you doing here this evening?" The guard dropped his cigarette and stomped it out as one of the van occupants stepped out of their vehicle.

"Just some maintenance checks," the utility worker sighed and walked up to the guard with a clipboard. "Look, here's the authorization paperwork."

The guard grabbed the clipboard and flipped the pages, then suddenly he saw a knife in his chest. He looked up at the supposed utility worker in confusion as he fell to the ground, then lost consciousness as the person went about cutting the chained gate with a bolt cutter.

The first van made a U-turn and waited for the person to come back. The second van's two occupants got out and boarded the first van. As the first van drove away, the second van's engine revved up from a timer device connected to the gas pedal, and it accelerated through the opened gate and towards the electrical substation.

The quiet of the dusk was abruptly shattered by a thunderous explosion and a brief supernova of light. As Berun's lights flickered, more explosions followed. Then the city was plunged into endless darkness.

AN:

wiki/Deportation_of_the_Chechens_and_Ingush

wiki/First_Chechen_War

wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1994)

Reference to the 6,500 kilometers march: wiki/Long_March

wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil

Demand for enslaved Africans did not wane after the decline of the mining industry in the second half of the 18th century. Cattle ranching and foodstuff production proliferated after the population growth, both of which relied heavily on slave labor. 1.7 million slaves were imported to Brazil from Africa from 1700 to 1800, and the rise of coffee in the 1830s further expanded the Atlantic slave trade.

Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.

Reference to Japan's 1990's economic stagnation:

wiki/Lost_Decades

wiki/Zombie_company

wiki/Zombie_bank

Some of the Asianometry videos that inspired the "globalize the supply chain" discussion:

watch?v=bwhU9goCiaI

watch?v=9fVrWDdll0g

watch?v=vrZ-tZTy1Dg

watch?v=5ZdmS-EAbHo

watch?v=cxrkC-pMH_s