The Cold War (2024 rewrite, replaced 45K words and first 7 chapters) Chapter 1: Celebration hangover (2023 rewrite), a youjo senki: saga of tanya the evil fanfic

Introduction:

This is a continuation of the "A Young Woman's Political Record" fan fiction for the Cold War conflict. If you haven't read the AYWPR yet, I strongly recommend that you do so because this story picks up in the immediate aftermath of WW2 and thus a lot of spoilers will be used.

I have contacted jacobk on the Spacebattles website about basing our story on his fan fiction and he has given permission.

The maps I will be using is available on the Spacebattles website and they will be important to follow along in the upcoming battles, just type in the search terms to find the maps: "The Cold War" (Youjo Senki/Saga of Tanya the Evil)

I am unable to provide a direct link here as the FanFiction website keeps deleting the URLs.

Glossary:

OZEV: Organisation des Zentraleuropäischen Vertrags, aka Organization of the Central European Treaty

Kazakh: A western portion of Kazakhstan

Kieva: Ukraine

Caucasia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Chechnya, part of Russia and other Caucasus regions

Belarusia: Belarus

Livonia: Estonia and Latvia

Suomi: Finland

Chinese Soviet Republic: China

Akitsushima Dominion: Japan

Joseon: Korea

Malagasy: Madagascar

Bharat: India

Ceylon: Sri Lanka

It's been a long time since my first attempt at fictional story writing. 2.5 years and +370K words later, and I feel better equipped to go back and bring my early chapters up to the same or higher standards of my late chapters, without changing the late chapters' plot/characters.

My new chapters release schedule (e.g. Ch 52 and beyond) will continue, but will be slowed from the simultaneous rewriting of my first dozen chapters. Old chapters' writing will be at the bottom of the rewrite chapters.

I will be renaming this story from "The Cold War" to "A Magical Cold War, Remastered" when I finish rewriting the old chapters up to Chapter 6 or 12.

Credits to gdstriker, perfect_shade, Sunny and Vasilisa for the advice and revisions that made the start of the rewrite possible.

Chapter 1

August 24th evening, 1942, Berun:

I don't know when was the last time I felt true joy. My previous battlefield victories could have been undone by unexpected surprise. My previous political victories just meant I had more responsibilities. And when the Empire was around, every victory was just delaying defeat for another few days or weeks.

And this time the explosions in the sky were fireworks, not ordnance.

Visha tugged me along through the drunken crowds of not just Germanians, but also our allies that accepted our victory parade. After hours of watching the final day of the week-long victory parade march of the endless stream of men who returned from the front lines, it was finally time for me to let loose.

Well, not so loose that it causes a public outcry, but I finally felt free. I still worry about what the citizens think of our unique circumstances. Hopefully nobody will make an issue of it during this period of victory euphoria, and once that dies down, Visha and I will be safely retired, and it wouldn't matter a whit what any voter thinks about it.

Finishing my beer, I suddenly felt the tug from Visha pulling me along.

"Where are we going?" I blinked in surprise.

"Don't you remember that we're supposed to meet with the rest of the OZEV leadership at their party?" Visha huffed.

"Oh, yeah, that is kind of important."

"Don't tell me that you're already this drunk after a few drinks. Ace of aces, restorer of Germania and leader of an alliance, but you can't handle alcohol." Visha teased as we hurried down the streets.

"Visha, stop it." I pouted.

"You can order armies to make a vision possible, but you can't order me to not have some fun."

"I can order you to have some fun with me later, in a more private setting away from the prying eyes." I smirked at Visha, who tried but failed to conceal her blushing.

We soon found ourselves in front of the Berun Gate, seeing the flags of the allied countries that participated in the war. The crowd here was noticeably much more silent, with the temporary memorials of names of those that were killed or went missing in action arranged at the gate's park side, facing towards the rest of the city. The memorials also included the names from other countries that provided the information.

I had already held a public memorial service two days ago, but I felt obliged to pay my respects here for a moment.

"Visha, I need to take a walk through the memorials." I pulled her in the direction of the memorials.

"I'll come along with you." Visha nodded.

I randomly picked out a group of people to meet with. When I walked up to a family, they had shocked looks on their faces. Undeterred, I offered my hand to them.

"Good evening, I would like to learn about your loved one. He paid the ultimate price for our freedom, and it is my honor to at least recognize who he is, what he did and how it helped us all."

An elderly man stepped forward to shake my hand. "It is an honor to meet you, President Degurechaff."

I looked over at the memorial they were gathered around. A picture, name, birthdate and missing in action date, which was many months before the Russy Federation's collapse into civil war.

"Cavalry Captain Witold Osiecimska…" I muttered his name.

The elderly man cleared his throat. "We weren't told of what he was doing, nor would he tell us what he was doing. When the war was declared over, we were presented a posthumous award from the Pullskan military. They said he had infiltrated a POW camp and later launched an uprising in coordination with a Rus anti-communist resistance group that he was also leading. All contact with him was lost afterward."

That's one hell of a brave man, and if he was still around, Elya would have been very interested in learning about what he did. Although I will need to ask Elya if her agents were aware of Osiecimska's activities, and if not, then I'll have to push for more intelligence sharing between OZEV members in the event of future conflicts so that we aren't stumbling over each other.

"I will task my subordinates with assisting in the search for him. You have my assurances." I nodded while Visha took notes of the discussion.

I met several more families or groups of comrades around the memorial area, and was about to leave to head to the party when we encountered a flash and click.

American ace reporter Millicent Caldwell lowered her camera with a sheepish grin on her face.

There's just no escaping this woman, is there?...

"Were you tailing us?" I sighed, putting on a thin smile as I evaluated her purpose.

"When I saw you meet those who lost loved ones in the war, I felt that deserved public attention." She coughed awkwardly. "People love to read and watch about your life."

"Well, Visha and I are off to a private party, but there are plenty of people around here that you can interview." I nodded in farewell, then briskly steered Visha away from the memorial. Thankfully there were many plenty of people that Millie could interview, giving us an escape from that nosy bloodhound.

Later at the party:

I quietly stood off to the side, sipping on a glass of wine while observing an argument rage between Maciej Moscicki, the President of Pullska, and Luigi Falasca, the Prime Minister of Ildoa. The other OZEV leaders were taking sides or also passively observing the scene. I didn't want to interfere with their debates because I needed to truly know what my allies wanted to do.

I'd have to say, this wine from Croatia was quite good.

"After we finish recovering from this war, we need to rebuild again and finish off the Rus for good. Before a powerful Rus figure puts an end to their civil war and reunites them." Moscicki gestured aggressively. "Push them deep in the Sibyria where they can never pose a threat to us again!"

"Moskva is still a battlefield between the various warlords. We already pulled Kazakh, Caucasia, Crimea, Kieva, Belarusia, Lithuania, Livonia, and Suomi away from the Russy Federation. The Legadonia Entente has made it very clear to us that they see no point in continuing the war, and seem to be very interested in Suomi and the Baltic states. The Allied Kingdom is slipping back into their uncooperative phase, of course after being satisfied with denying the rump of the Russy Federation access to the Baltic Sea and Black Sea." Falasca dismissively shook his head. "As long as we support those new republics and provide security guarantees, even if the Rus invades again, they have a lot of territory and hostile people to bleed through before dragging themselves in front of the Degurechaff Line. They won't be able to 'pacify' those new republics thanks to their reckless genocide in Kieva. For Kieva, it's their new national psyche. For the other new republics, it's a warning of how the Rus treats other ethnic groups. It is not something that will be forgotten for a long time to come. By the time they manage to throw bodies at our defensive lines, we would have built a second Degurechaff Line for them to break themselves against!"

"I do not like the idea of passively waiting for the enemy to rebuild."

"And I don't like the idea of needlessly sacrificing men into the Rus wasteland when we could focus on economic prosperity. By the time the Rus could become a threat again, we could fight them without having to mobilize our countries for war effort!" Falasca almost spilled his drink while doing his hand gestures.

"That's enough arguing." Thorvald Buhl, the Prime Minister of Daneland, stepped in between the two red-faced men. "We should enjoy our celebrations for now, and await further information from what is happening in the Russy Federation before making our next moves."

"Wait for who wins the civil war." Moscicki had a disgusted look on his face. "You know, why don't we pick our own favorite groups to intervene in their little civil war and cause further chaos for the Rus?"

"You know that will cause unintended consequences. I have seen first hand what could happen with backing rebel groups." Boris Marinko, the Prime Minister of Carinthia, smirked as he slightly turned his face towards Falasca.

"That is very… true." Falasca was hesitant with his words, seemingly struggling to agree with Marinko.

The discussion about causing chaos inside enemy territory reminded me of a bold man…

I looked at Moscicki. "Speaking of causing chaos, someone that came to my attention was Cavalry Captain Witold Osiecimska. From what I've heard from his family, he organized an anti-communist resistance group in Rus territory, infiltrated a POW camp and started an uprising with the support from his rebels. Then went missing in action."

"Hmm, I'll need to look into that. How come nobody told me about that war hero?…" Moscicki furrowed his eyebrows.

"It'll take years to vet who is deserving of awards considering the scale of the war," Constantin Groza, the Prime Minister of Dacia, sighed.

"That's small potatoes, I'm more concerned about whether one of the new Rus warlords that's going to emerge might seek foreign assistance to tip the balance in their favor and seize control of the country. The last thing we need is a brand new Rus which is exactly the same as the old Rus," growled Moscicki.

"Hah!" snorted Falasca, downing another wine glass with an air of defiance. "Who would dare provoke OZEV like that after the world has seen the outcome of our war? Especially for the sake of the carcass of that dead bear?"

I could sense that the large quantity of alcohol that Falasca had consumed was rapidly removing his emotional restraints. This is going to be interesting.

"The Albish?" suggested Karlo Nazor, the President of Croatia, rolling his eyes at Falasca's braggadocio. "After all, they did assassinate Bronstein and Jugashvili in one fell swoop. And they can't be happy about us having no more major threats on our eastern flank."

"The Albish are already overextended," I stated with a fair amount of certainty, taking a sip of another drink after I had finished my previous glass. I winced, it tasted quite a bit stronger than the Croatian wine that I just had. "I predict in the coming decades they'll have their hands full just trying to hang on to their gigantic colonial empire. Not all of their subjects are thrilled with living under the Albish thumb."

"You're suggesting that any time the Allied Kingdom causes us grief, all we have to do is stir up a few rebellions in their colonies and they'll have to run away to go clamp down on the natives? Bahahahahaha, that's so delightfully vicious, I love it!" roared Falasca, slinging a massive arm around my thin shoulders. "A stab truly worthy of the Devil of the Rhine! prost!"

"Mmmm, thanks. I think," I muttered, clinking glasses together in a wobbly cheer.

"The only state I can think of that would have the resources, opportunity and motivation to help the remnants of a failed communist empire would be the Chinese Soviet Republic," Buhl suggested. "They had a communist revolution sometime before our war started. I've heard they've finished expelling the last of the Rus forces from their disputed northern territories and have seized Joseon, a former Rus colony."

My ears automatically perked up at hearing that. I had been so focused on European affairs that I forgot about the Chinese of this world.

"Wait, when did Jiuzhou change its name?" Benes had a surprised look on his face.

"Some new leader took charge and launched something that was called the "Great Leap Forward" campaign." Buhl shrugged before taking a drink. "I guess that was when they also went with a rebranding of their country."

"Tell me more about them," I demanded.

"What, about the Chinese Soviet Republic?" Buhl raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to know?"

The Chinese Soviet Republic? That sure didn't have a pleasant ring to it. Even in my buzzed condition I could sense that I might have another potential problem to deal with.

I caught Visha's eye across the table. She nodded slightly, put down her glass of champagne and made a note in her little notebook. Sometime in the near future we'd need Elya to research everything happening in Jiuzhou, or this so-called Chinese Soviet Republic.

I was still a bit concerned about Elya's potential political ambitions, especially when I retired and a new government took charge. Her willingness to casually dismantle the Rus leadership by assassination without my knowledge until well after the fact, still bothers me to this day. While I could handle her, I have no idea if she would listen to my successor or just end up becoming the puppet master.

But she's the only one that could find the puzzles for me to build a picture of what I could be dealing with.

"They don't matter," Falasca interjected, cutting short whatever Buhl was about to say in reply to my question. "As long as they don't support the Rus, there's no reason for hostility, especially when we have few interests in Asia."

Moscicki set down his drink. "True enough, but there's one point that still bothers me. The Russy Federation constructed many Trans-Sibyria railways to the Far East to support their war machine against the Akitsushima Dominion, and then used them to redeploy their entire military back west to start chewing on Europe. Railways that the Chinese could use."

"They wouldn't, would they? It would be such a great distance for them to travel to get to us. It's still a logistical nightmare. And when winter hits, they will lose many men from the exposure. There isn't much food in Sibyria for them to live off the land once they outrun their supply lines." Falasca stammered as the jovial mood among the group turned a trifle chillier.

"Even with the Rus civil war, much of their railway network would still be in place. And if the Chinese leadership is seeking glory, they could be willing to sacrifice their people to accomplish their political goals," Benes came to Moscicki's defense.

I hummed thoughtfully. I understood too little about the Chinese Soviet Republic to know if they even had the capability to come at us in the future. If they were stretching themselves thin, then we could safely sit behind our defensive lines and bleed them out. If they were in the midst of a rapid industrial revolution, then that could become a problem, and more aggressive measures may be required.

I mentally sighed at having to wait on what Elya could find to confirm the possible threat from the very far east. The very same person who could be a threat to me.

Istvan Ronai, Prime Minister of Hungary, suddenly pushed his way into the gathering with a tray of drinks, clumsily pushing Buhl, Falasca and Benes out of the way.

"What's with all the moping around, you bunch of sadsacks?! This is a victory celebration! Come, try these, the finest pálinkas that Dacia has to offer!" Ronai happily slurred. "Everyone drink up! I already drank half a bottle before realizing that I had to share it with the rest of you!"

A few days later, at the Presidential Palace:

I could have just slept in all morning to recover from the multiple days of heavy drinking and engaging in drunken diplomacy with the OZEV members to determine the future of OZEV and the rest of Europe. However, when Elya reported that two Chinese experts were arriving in the morning, I wasn't going to delay the necessary meeting to understand the potential dumpster fire that I might have to douse before retiring.

I sipped on my coffee in an attempt to stave off the hangover, until I saw Elya open the door.

"The guests are here, are you ready?" Visha had a proud look on her face.

"Come on in!" I beamed a smile and she beckoned to the experts out in the hallway.

As they walked in, I could sense I was going to get two very different perspectives. A Germanian man who was likely "Heinrich Rabe" as mentioned in Elya's report, and an Akinese fellow likely named "Yoshimi Sugihara" with what appeared to be his translator partner.

"Welcome, and please take a seat! Enjoy the refreshments as well." I continued to smile while the Akinese translator started his work. "Thank you for setting aside time in your schedule. I would love to learn more about the two of you."

The Germanian man was the first one to speak after he sat down. "My name is Heinrich Rabe. I grew up in the Empire's colony Kiautschou Bay in Jiuzhou, lived there for over two decades while helping run my father's business and had to leave during the outbreak of war between the Russy Federation and the Akitsushima Dominion."

"You were there during the Empire's last days?"

"By the time the draft was widespread, the Albish and American navies ruled the seas, so it was not safe to travel through the oceans." Rabe shrugged his shoulders, while Visha was setting up a map of the Chinese Soviet Republic in the background. "We didn't trust the Rus with traveling across their territory to get to the Empire. When the Empire broke up, there was no point in returning back to Europe when the economy in the Kiautschou Bay was doing fine. When our business was flattened by carpet bombing while my family and I just happened to be outside of the area, that was our signal to get out."

I have to admit, I'm jealous that he missed out on much of the hardships in the Empire and then in the early years of Germania.

I turned to the Akinese man. "And what about you?"

"Initially a diplomat in Jiuzhou. That came to an end when the communists overthrew the Shun Dynasty. I switched to running an informant network in the midst of that chaos for sometime before the communists started dismantling it, and I decided to leave before they tracked me down."

A businessman and a diplomat turned spy. Elya sure did her homework on finding experts. She's going to be impossible to replace at this rate.

"So how did the Chinese Soviet Republic get to where it is now, with Zhang Wentian taking power as the 'Chairman of the Central Executive Committee', and what would be their next moves?" I took a sip of my coffee.

Rabe again was the first one to speak. "It's my pleasure. As for the future of the Chinese Soviet Republic, we need to discuss what led to the communists taking over Jiuzhou to rename the country. Shun dynasty was the last imperial dynasty, unable to withstand the external pressures from foreign affairs and the internal pressures from internal revolts and corruption. The dynasty was so focused on preventing their governors and generals from being powerful enough to become autonomous warlords, that the communists ran wild and eventually overthrew the dynasty in a mostly bloodless coup about 30 years ago."

"A peaceful takeover?" Visha tilted her head.

Sugihara, through his translator, jumped in. "They allowed some of the governors and generals to retain their positions if they swore loyalty to their cause. The Shun dynasty was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, extracted some concessions to avoid having their blood painted against the walls from gunshots, and then fled from the country before the communists could change their minds. I had been reporting the events to my government, but at that time they were more concerned with the growing tensions with the Rus and then the later war, as the Chinese communists initially kept things to themselves."

30 years to build up their economy instead of lurching from the violent collapse of the Qing dynasty, to the Warlord Era, to an attempted democracy that ended when someone declared themselves emperor only to back down when the country revolted en mass, to a civil war between the nationalists and commies with the warlords trying to maintain their power, to an invasion from Japan, and then a continuation of the civil war where the nationalists ran off to an island to spend the rest of the century in a staring contest with the commies across the water.

30 years to practice communism, while Europe and the Akitsushima Dominion burned.

"What is their military capability?" I had an edge of nervousness in my voice.

"Other than the massive number of humans and mages they could field, not much else." Sugihara poured tea in his cup. "Their mages still use orbs that date back to the late 1910's."

"If OZEV is aggressively searching for Rus scientists and other technical staff, along with prototype designs, in the chaos of the Russy Federation, would the Chinese do the same?"

"I don't see what would stop them from competing for the same talent and knowledge. In fact that could be a major opportunity for their industrial and technological advancements. Especially with their Great Leap Forward campaign that is aimed at rapidly industrializing their country." Sugihara said while Rabe nodded in agreement.

"How should the rest of the world handle the Chinese?"

Rabe held up a hand. "They will default back to ruling how the previous imperial dynasties ruled. Paranoia and insecurity would overrule any sort of ideological beliefs in their foreign affairs. Their rulers grew up during a time when their turbulent society was abruptly forced out of their isolationism and was dominated by foreigners for decades, while also competing internal factions tore at each other. The Chinese communists would be strongly driven to avoid showing weakness like what happened when the Shun Dynasty crumbled. My recommendation is that we show restraint with military force and engage in dialogues to avoid provoking their paranoia."

I looked over at Sugihara who had an annoyed look on his face.

"And your opinion of the Chinese Soviet Republic?" I raised an eyebrow.

"They will seek to return to treating their neighbors like vassals, something that they used to do before the Europeans violently forced their way in. Joseon used to pay heavy tributes to the Shun Dynasty before Akitsushima Dominion intervened. The Shun Dynasty played the northern nomads off against each other for over a century, until the Rus stormed in to annex the nomads' lands and the Shun Dynasty foolishly attempted to directly fight the Rus. The Shun Dynasty also controlled a portion of Southeast Asia that is now part of Francois Indochina, and while the locals may despise the decades of the Frankish rule, they won't forget the Jiuzhou's centuries of invasions and pressures. I recommend aggressively containing them and combating their influences around the world."

The arguments between the two experts raged on for several minutes as I looked over at the map again, and my eyes narrowed on the northern Bharat border. The newly independent North Bharat.

"Is Tibet under Chinese control?"

Both of the experts ceased their arguing.

"The region is still volatile against Chinese rule, but the locals are in no position to wage even a sustained insurgency." Sugihara poured a second cup of tea for himself.

"So if Tibet is under Chinese control, I would be curious as to how North Bharat and the Chinese Soviet Republic would interact. Do those two countries have territory claims on Tibet and thus will be arguing with each other, or are they going to join together to spread communism throughout Southeast Asia?" I stroked my chin.

"At minimum, the Chinese would want to ensure that Tibet is cut off from any outside help if they revolt again. Maybe they might be willing to give small territorial concessions to North Bharat in return for a guarantee on assisting with suppressing the locals in Tibet. But I'm not too familiar with Bharat, so you would need to consult someone else on how North and South Bharat may interact with each other." Rabe replied, while Sugihara nodded in agreement.

The next day:

I hear a knock on the door.

"Come on in."

Elya stepped in.

"Good afternoon Chancellor, I have an update report regarding the situation in the Caucasia and Kazakh Republics. It should be brought up in the next OZEV meeting unless there's another update."

I was still holding onto an Akitsushiman newspaper when Elya looked down. I had been reading the newspaper's reporting of events in the CSR.

"Oh, I didn't know you could read Akitsushiman."

Well this was going to be awkward. I didn't want to tip my hand and give her the edge.

"Ah, I've just been practicing how to read it. It's a good opportunity since I have the translated one right next to me…"

Okay, now this was going to be even more awkward. I had casually tossed the translated one aside and Elya clearly sees that I didn't bother to read the translations. The translations were complete garbage.

"Anyways, do we have any eyes on North Bharat?" I tried shifting Elya's focus away from the newspaper.

"No. Why the interest?"

"I know it's an area that we haven't really operated in the past, but I have a feeling that their next door neighbor, the Chinese Soviet Republic, would be interested in helping North Bharat reunite with South Bharat under the same communist banner. Having eyes in the CSR would also be nice, but I'd imagine that might be even harder than the Russy Federation because of how few people in Germania can fluently speak their language and look like them."

"I will get right on that." Elya smiled before walking away.

Elya started thinking as she stepped out of the room. If there was one country that did have intelligence gathering in Bharat, it would likely be the Allied Kingdom. She could ask nicely for information through the official channel, or… well, it wouldn't be the first time she dug her nails into the Albion and pulled on the puppet strings.

And maybe she should let Vishia know about Tanya picking up on new foreign languages.

Somewhere in Sibyria:

"Do you smell that?" Huang Jing sniffed in disgust, refusing to hold his nose in order to accurately evaluate the situation. "This research facility smells like a slaughterhouse, except the meat has gone bad."

"Maybe this was where they were exterminating mages?" One of his subordinates withdrew a handkerchief to put over their face. "But wouldn't that be done at their labor camps through overwork?"

Huang Jing was paying a suspected research site a visit after a Russy scientist informed one of his agents about the location and some of the projects there. The Russy scientist wanted in return a safe haven for his family. All Huang knew was that the research site was looking into "improving the potential of mages". He had another team investigate the area to determine where the facility's staff had run off to in order to pull information from their brains instead of trying to decipher whatever scrap notes that were left behind at the research site. He couldn't blame them for leaving abruptly when the pay stopped flowing after the collapse of the Russy government, and they had families to look after. Huang had already recruited several military officers by just promising food and safety for their families, or assisting with their efforts at "restoring order to the Russy Federation".

Huang knew what he saw when he walked into the surgery room. An abandoned corpse laid on the operating table. Even in its start of the putrefaction process, he could tell that the likely unwilling patient suffered from extensive electrocutions and burns before their death. There were all sorts of electrical and mage equipment scattered throughout the room, some of them still connected to the corpse.

Undeterred by the stench, the slime, and the maggots, Huang carefully lifted the corpse to look at where some of the wires were connected to while his subordinate stood back.

"They definitely wired a computational orb to here and there, and that might have been the cause of death as well. Look at how charred the spinal cord and the base of the brain are. Meat and bone that are burned into charcoal don't rot."

"The Rus scientists probably didn't care about the death toll and had plenty of test subjects to work with, as the Russy Federation was busy purging mages." The subordinate shrugged, then recoiled in disgust when Huang wiped his slime covered hands on the subordinate's shoulder.

"You need to get used to the dirty work. You aren't a real agent until you hide in a full pit latrine for an entire night to avoid Shun imperial agents, and dig through garbage heaps to find useful information." Huang then pointed at the doorway. "Go back and retrieve some trucks. If the scientists were conducting mage augmentation research, there's bound to be a lot of documents and material lying around for us to retrieve. It's a good thing they didn't just burn the entire place down to destroy the classified information."

He took a closer look at the computational orb. It looked fairly advanced. He would need to send it to the mage research office for them to determine what it was.

"Mages with nearly unlimited mana as long as the liquids flow… Integrating orbs directly into their nervous system…" Huang openly muttered in amazement and excitement. "So many possibilities. What a shame that they simply ran out of time developing their weapons to contest or even outmatch Germania's famously excellent mages."

It was going to be a long day combing through the research facility. The scientists back home would be drooling all over this, especially with the Russy Federation having already done most of the messy trial-and-errors for them.

AN:

wiki/Brandenburg_Gate

wiki/Witold_Pilecki

Romanian alcohol drink: wiki/P

NSC-68 document that defined the US's national security policy for much of the Cold War period, which called for aggressively containing the USSR: watch?v=DIEOry0d1Pk

wiki/NSC_68

German colony in Qing Dynasty's China: wiki/Kiautschou_Bay_Leased_Territory

wiki/John_Rabe

wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

OLD CHAPTER 1, IGNORE THE BELOW WRITING IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT MY WRITING BACK IN 2021 LOOKS LIKE

Chapter 1, Setting up the chessboard

October 3rd, 1942, Berun

It turns out Elya's "unorthodox" operation was too successful. The Russy Federation was in such a chaos that we had to do the peace talks without any of their government representatives while their civil war was raging on, and those that wanted a seat at the table could only represent an unstable fraction of the Rus. Power grabbers were busy backstabbing each other to become the new General Secretary after the deaths of Jugashvili, the previous General Secretary, and Bronstein, the revolutionary that attempted to seize power until Elya's agents shot him in the head. Last time we heard anything from the Russy Federation, Moskva was a full blown war zone between multiple factions competing for power.

The one thing everyone could agree on was that there was no way we were going to let the Russy Federation remain in charge of the various ethnic minorities. Millicent Caldwell's report of the genocide in Kieva was still fresh on people's minds, and the representatives of the anti-Rus rebel groups made it very clear that they would not accept being re-integrated back into the Russy Federation.

Kazakh, Caucasia, Crimea, Kieva, Belarusia, Lithuania, Livonia, and Suomi were all created with the help of the local governments that we had initially established in the occupied areas during the war. There wasn't much the infighting factions within the Russy Federation could do about it with soldiers from the OZEV and Legadonia Entente being used to enforce the new borders. The Legadonia Entente was especially interested in Suomi and the Baltic states now that Daneland had fully joined OZEV. At least the Russy Federation won't have to worry about continuous war reparations compared to what happened to the Empire. It would be like trying to collect on the debt from a homeless person.

We could have gone farther and tried to occupy the entire Russy Federation, but that would make the Vietnam War look like a simple walk in the park and would guarantee undoing Elya's "start a civil war and watch them kill each other" plan.

And while it wasn't openly discussed, according to Elya, there's been a mad dash to "rescue" as many Russy scientists as possible, especially with those that were involved with military technology research. She said they found some promising individuals. Reminds me of the US and USSR taking in the Nazi scientists after WW2.

I would like to think that maybe we'll finally see world peace. But given how this world rhymes with the previous world, I know better than that.

If I want to retire, I would need to hand over the responsibilities to someone who won't let the peace become our doom. The Francois Republic thought the threat was over when they dismantled the Empire, and instead it was just a short armistice because of their incompetence. Then there's the Diet where although the Enabling Act was only supposed to last until the end of the war, the lazy idiots used the "legal technicalities" to argue that until the Russy Federation officially surrenders, they refused to hold new Presidential elections.

At this current rate, I don't think we'll be seeing new Presidential elections because all it takes is a new Russy Federation government to take a hardline stance of demanding all of the new republics to be reintegrated back into their glorious revolution. North Korea and South Korea in my previous world still hadn't gotten around to signing an official peace treaty so technically both still remained at war.

Elya's reports of Russy Federation started flowing in significantly, now that the NKVD was busy fighting itself instead of conducting aggressive counter-espionage, and Elya's agents could work their magic. And the reports are concerning.

While Europe was burning, Jiuzhou was officially renamed to Chinese Soviet Republic after Zhang Wentian took power as the "Chairman of the Central Executive Committee", and he launched a "Great Leap Forward" campaign to modernize the country. I'm not sure how successful it is, but apparently CSR agents and soldiers are starting to show up from the east, and they are also competing for "rescuing" the scientists.

The Russy Federation constructed many Trans-Sibyria railways to the far east to support their war machine against the Akitsushima Dominion in a previous war, and then to redeploy their entire military back west to start chewing on Europe. It would make sense that the CSR has an interest in the railways and intend on "bringing stability" to the Russy Federation. They had also occupied Joseon after the Russy Federation's collapse.

Not much I can do about that right now. Everyone just wants peace and to demobilize, especially the Unified States, and I can't blame them. Maintaining a big military is a drain on the economy. I myself would have advocated for full demobilization as it would allow resources and manpower to be productively used to raise the standard of living, if it wasn't for the Chinese Soviet Republic picking at the Russy corpse. I have a feeling that they're going to be the USSR of this world, and the Russy Federation is going to be like East Germany.

Instead, I pushed for the return to the "maintain a small army and continuously modernize its weapons" model again. I just have to strike a balance between keeping our economy strong so we can rapidly build up our military as needed, but also deal with any shenanigans that the commies might throw at us. I don't know which would be worse, dealing with a surprise invasion from the CSR and its soon-to-be puppet Russy Federation, or them continuously throwing shit at my doorstep with state-sponsored revolution, insurgency and terrorism, and maybe a coup, while hiding behind plausible deniability. The Russy Federation would be a perfect proxy tool for the CSR when it comes to really nasty business.

The Allied Kingdom, Francois Republic, Ispagna and Lothiern are the only ones that are maintaining or ramping up their military. Their colonies have turned into an expensive whack-a-uprising game ever since the Bharat's rebellion led the way and when the Francois Republic's cannon fodder colonial mages returned home. It would have been so much simpler for them to accept that their colonial empire days are over, but humans are irrational and will keep digging themselves deeper with sunk cost fallacy until they're bankrupted.

Wait, I haven't been keeping up with what has been happening in Jiuzhou for years. I pick up the phone and dial Elya.

"Yes Chancellor?"

"Could you provide me with a detailed history of what has been happening in Jiuzhou, or I guess now the Chinese Soviet Republic, since the mid-1800's? I know the Empire probably hasn't run many newspaper articles about Jiuzhou and their newspapers might be scarce, so Russy Federation and Akitsushima Dominion newspapers should work. Also, any information about the CSR's military activity, including their mages, would be great."

"I'll get on that!"

Somewhere in Sibyria:

"Do you smell that? This research facility smells like a butcher's place, except the meat has gone bad. And it's pretty cold here which means they've been handling a lot of something."

"Maybe this was where they were exterminating mages? But wouldn't that be done at their labor camps through overwork?"

Huang Jing was paying a suspected research site a visit after a Russy scientist informed an Chinese intelligence agent about the location and some of the projects there. All that Russy scientist wanted in return was safe haven for his family. All he knew was that the research site was looking into "improving the potential of mages". He had another team investigate the area to determine where the facility's staff had run off to. He couldn't blame them for leaving abruptly when the pay stopped flowing after the collapse of the Russy government and they had families to look after. They had already recruited several military officers by just promising food and safety for their families, or assisting with their efforts at "restoring order to the Russy Federation".

He knew what he saw when he walked into the surgery room. An abandoned corpse lying on the operating table with burn marks and all sorts of electrical and mage equipment scattered about. It looked like they were trying to directly wire a computational orb to the mage's spinal cord and brain. Given how the Russy Federation was purging mages even as the world kept finding new uses for mages, they had plenty of test subjects to work with. He tapped one of his men on the shoulder.

"Go back and retrieve some trucks. If they're doing mage augmentation research, there's bound to be a lot of documents and material lying around for us to retrieve. It's a good thing they didn't just burn the entire place down to destroy the classified information."

He took a closer look at the computational orb. It looked fairly advanced. He would need to send it to the mage research office for them to determine what it is.

There was a loud clash of someone stumbling over something. He went over to another room down the hallway and saw the other portion of the augmentation research. This room was full of drawings and prototype mockups strewn around. The researchers that were here had been working on attaching a pump and a tank of energy liquids and stimulates to an augmented mage, with the pumps directly delivering the liquids to the major arteries and the pumps being directly controlled by the mages. Mages with nearly unlimited mana as long as they replace the tanks. Integrating orbs directly into their nervous system. So many possibilites. What a shame that they simply ran out of time developing their weapons to contest or even outmatch Germania's famously excellent mages.

Perhaps I should have been more clear with my instructions. Elya provided me with detailed summaries, and a cart full of books and copies of newspaper collections. While they had no problem with translating the Russy Federation newspapers, the Akitsushiman translations by her staff were atrocious so I'll just read the original copies.

So the Shun dynasty crushed the would-be Qing dynasty to rule Jiuzhou. Not that it mattered because the Shun dynasty didn't perform any better than my previous world's Qing dynasty when the foreigners started showing up. The interesting thing is that the Shun dynasty was so focused on preventing their governors and generals from being powerful enough to become autonomous warlords, the commies ran wild and eventually overthrew the dynasty in a mostly bloodless coup. The commies allowed some of the governors and generals to retain their positions if they swore loyalty to their cause. At least the Shun dynasty was smart enough to see the writing on the wall, extracted some concessions to avoid having their blood painted against the walls from gunshots, and then got the hell out of the country before the commies could change their mind.

Instead of Japan, sorry, Akitsushima Dominion, showing up to get themselves stuck into a grinding slug fest with Jiuzhou, the Rus steamroller flattened Akitsushima Dominion before that could happen. Which means Jiuzhou has been left alone for about the past… 30 years.

There is that northeast territory where it was taken by the Akitsushima Dominion, and then it changed hands with the Russy Federation. But with the Rus out of the picture, the CSR commies had no problem just walking in to reclaim their land. And the Rus probably fixed up some of the infrastructure to help run their war machine against me. I wouldn't be surprised if the reason why the CSR was so quick at taking the Trans-Sibyria railways was because the Rus had extended it into their newly conquered land.

There are many unknowns regarding the CSR's military, but they do field mages, and with their total population size along with not having any recent wars to waste the mages in, they could outdo the Francois Republic when they ran around with 1000 mages. The Russy Federation would have been downright terrifying if they had not purged their mages in large numbers, especially when they had gotten their hands on the Type 97 orbs.

And speaking of those Type 97 orbs, I would not be surprised if the CSR got their hands on one of those. All because I sold it to the Americans. Reminds me of the theory of the butterfly effect, where a small change in an initial condition eventually causes drastically different outcomes.

And instead of Mao running the Great Leap Forward program, if this new Chairman Zhang Wentian is competent, the Chinese Soviet Republic is going to be the new communist superpower on the block. The Russy Federation is rightfully going to be upset with the coalition that just carved up new republics out of them, so they're going to be using those extensive railways to support each other.

Wait. North Bharat is right next to Chinese Soviet Republic and it was established with the help of Rus agents. Why does this seem familiar? Right, the Korean War.

I hear a knock on the door.

"Come on in."

Elya stepped in with a report.

"Good afternoon Chancellor, I have an update report regarding the situation in the Caucasia and Kazakh Republics. It should be brought up in the next OZEV meeting unless there's another update."

I was still holding onto the Akitsushiman newspaper when Elya looked down.

"Oh, I didn't know you could read Akitsushiman."

Well this is going to be awkward.

"Ah, I've just been practicing how to read it. It's a good opportunity since I have the translated one right next to me…"

Okay, now this was going to be even more awkward. I had casually tossed the translated one aside and Elya clearly sees that I didn't bother to read the translations.

"Anyways, do we have any eyes on North Bharat?"

"No. Why's that?"

"I know it's an area that we haven't really operated in the past, but I have a feeling that their next door neighbor, the Chinese Soviet Republic, would be interested in helping North Bharat reunite with South Bharat. Under the same communist banner. Having eyes in the CSR would also be nice, but I'd imagine that might be even harder than the Russy Federation because of how few people in Germania can fluently speak their language and look like them."

I let Elya write in her notebook before continuing.

Also, could you get me statistics on the American oil production and usage, highway constructions, their car sales, and their president's and vice president's opinion of highways? And any information about the car, rubber, tire and oil companies in the Unified States buying up public transportation companies such as streetcar services?"

"That information gathering shouldn't be a problem, Chancellor. Eh, what is a highway?"

"Oh, that's just the American term for the autobahn."

"Thank you."

And maybe she should let Vishia know about Tanya picking up on new foriegn languages.

October 21, 1942, Berun

The old gang from when we were planning on which countries to knock out was back again. It's kinda hard to lose reelections when you're part of the decisive victory over a deeply hated enemy. Especially when some of them were involved with partitioning Yugoslavia and helping themselves to some land. Unfortunately for Luigi Falasca, Carinthia had voted to remain independent. But that shouldn't be a major problem in the long run with future OZEV economic integrations, and Luigi should be happy to not be directly holding onto a hot Balkan coal piece.

Istvan Ronai, the leader of Hungary

Boris Marinko, the prime minister of Carinthia

Maciej Moscicki, the president of Pullska

Luigi Falasca, the Prime Minister of Ildoa

Constantin Groza, the prime minister of Dacia

Jan Benes, the president of Czechoslovakia

Thorvald Buhl, the prime minister of Daneland

Karlo Nazor, the president of Croatia, sat on my right.

"The border situations with the new republics and the Russy Federation are starting to quiet down." Maciej Moscicki said. "We could start considering withdrawing some of the forces still stationed in those republics once they start establishing their own professional military forces."

"Except for the Caucasia and Kazakh Republics, they're going to be the new hot spot." I pointed out.

"What's going on with them?"

"We have reports of Rus agents recruiting people for "self-determination, anti-foreigner" groups, pro-communist groups and ethnic supremacists groups. Which would only make sense as the two republics are sitting on a large amount of oil reserves, and the Rus knows that we need it. The problem is, the Russy Federation is still in turmoil, so that brings up the question of who is really backing the agents to support the groups? It's unlikely to be one of the many competing Rus factions as there still isn't a clear dominant faction yet."

There was an awkward pause. I leaned forward.

"I think it's the Chinese Soviet Republic. They had 30 years of relative peace to build their economy, and that requires fuel to maintain. They could get their oil and natural gas from Sibyria, but a prosperous Rus and CSR is going to need more than that, and even more if they go to war. What better way than to secure the Caucasia and the land around the Caspian Sea while also denying that same oil to us, the ones who dismantled the Russy Federation?"

Constantin Groza cleared his throat. "Dacia has no issue with continuing to supply oil to OZEV."

"Right now for peacetime usage? Yes. But we all saw how close we came to running out of oil in our war against the Rus. And what about in the future when our economy grows? There are diminishing returns with trying to extract more oil. There's no point in spending 50 marks to extract 40 marks worth of oil. We will need new technologies and methods that allow previously unprofitable or unreachable oil and natural gas deposits to be tapped into, such as hydraulic fracking throughout Europe or offshore drilling in the Caspian Sea and North Sea."

Constantin Groza raised an eyebrow at the last sentence, and nudged Thorvald Buhl.

Boris Marinko spoke up, "The Americans have been a reliable source of oil."

"That's the other thing that has been bothering me. I've been looking at the American economic statistics and their social trends."

I pulled out my orb to render graphic animations on the projector.

"The American oil consumption has been rising faster than their oil production, and that trend has greatly accelerated after their economy has begun to recover. The new craze over there now is a house with a lawn and full of appliances, and a car for each family. I think there's one American car company called Forde that is running an advertising campaign that claims every family should have TWO cars, and that they were offering a 50% discount on the second car purchase. We're seeing record car sales, which will continue to accelerate their oil consumption. Their automotive industry and other industries that would benefit from more cars have been buying up and then shutting down public transportation companies to further encourage people to buy cars."

I showed the next slide about President Frederick Rosenvelt

Appointed a National Interregional Highway Committee to study the need for a limited system of national inter-state highways. The committee recommended 40,000 miles of highway construction

Congress is currently in the process of working out the details of funding the construction of an autobahn network

And a slide about Vice President Trumen's background.

Owned a high speed 1911 Stafford car as a young adult

1922's Jackson County Judge campaign where he argued for improved roads

Involvement with car and road building associations that continued even as President

1926's Presiding Judge campaign where he again argued for good roads

1934's US Senate campaign where he campaigned by car

10,000 miles of car travel between US military installations across the country as Vice President.

"It's only a matter of time before President Rosenvelt gets a bill to sign to start the autobahn construction. I expect cities to soon begin demolishing large portions of themselves to build autobahns through them to accommodate the large volume of cars, which would encourage further car usage. Until they start using large amounts of hydraulic fracking and offshore drilling in new areas, which won't happen for years, the US will become a net oil importer."

The Constantin Groza was about to say something but chose not to, and instead scribbled something in his notes. Thorvald Buhl gave me a confused look and held a quiet side conversation with Constantin Groza.

Of course I wasn't going to mention that the Volksauto company was also involved with demolishing public transportation to sell more of the People's Cars. Considering that the US in my previous world still continued on with their love of highways, suburbias and big vehicles even with high gas prices of the 1970's and the 2008 recession, I'm assuming the companies that ripped up the streetcars only got slaps on their wrists. Not exactly the ideal version of free capitalism, but I'm not going to handicap my industries against other countries' industries in the name of "fairness" when the other country can't get their act together to update or enforce their rules.

"That is ridiculous!" Luigi Falasca shouted. "Who's going to supply the oil now?"

"Well there is the Middle East. But we don't have much relations with them so we can't assume that we can get a reliable oil supply from them. I'm also not sure about the stability of the region, and we can't use our military down there to enforce our will without risk kicking open a hornet's nest. Besides, if we can fully tap into the two republics while stopping pro-communist rebels from blowing up the pipelines, we potentially can ship oil to the Americans which would improve our diplomatic standing with them. The Americans don't have much relations with the Middle East region either, and I think they would rather count on us than unknown parties. The US might drop their isolationism should they find their way of life threatened by oil shortages."

Constantin Groza continued rapidly scribbling notes down. Thorvald Buhl also followed suit.

"Isn't the Middle East mostly controlled by the Allied Kingdom and the Francois Republic?"

"For now. Bharat used to be the Allied Kingdom's crown jewel, and all it took was some NKVD mages to light the powder keg of a massive independence movement to force them to abandon the colony. Bharat won't be the only colony on the edge. Francois Republic's colonial mages that were used as cannon fodder are not going to forgive their colonial master, and rooting out angry combat hardened mages in counter insurgency operations when your military is already stretched thin is just as much fun as you would expect."

There were some murmurs between the OZEV members.

"Chancellor, what is your plan regarding the two republics?" Jan Benes asked.

"We will need to develop a counter-insurgency operation plan. These are the general principles that we should be following. I want to maintain our goodwill with the republics and have them voluntarily be a partner with us rather than hold them at gunpoint."

I fiddled with my computational orb to display the slide on the projector

Encourage the development of at least a partial democracy, and clearly communicate a force drawdown plan when the local government has an operational local military.

Train the local military

Avoid relying on militia groups, or they may challenge the local government for power

Operate with legal authority

Minimize collateral damage or at least ensure that the insurgency causes far more harm than the counterinsurgency operations.

Avoid collective punishments or mass resettlements.

Ensure that the media coverage of the counterinsurgency is generally positive and the insurgency is portrayed negatively.

Infrastructure development and providing aid for the locals. A strong economy is needed to discourage people from supporting the insurgents.

Stricter border controls to strangle the insurgents' flow of foriegn funding and supplies.

Support insurgency groups in the Russy Federation as a counterweight against the Chinese Soviet Republic.

"That last point, wouldn't that just push the Russy Federation further into the CSR's hands and encourage the CSR to escalate their intervention?" Istvan Ronai asked.

"That is a good point. We could just back factions that are fighting against the Chinese-backed factions, regardless of their ideology. Rus will be the most dangerous if they become a direct CSR client state."

"Even if it's a faction that is even more extreme than the CSR or the previous Russy Federation?"

"The Russy Federation built many rail lines across Sibyria to deploy their war machine against the Akitsushima Dominion. Then used those same rail lines to send their war machine against us. The CSR can make use of those same rail lines if they control the Russy Federation to deploy their land army towards Europe. Kazakh, Kieva, Belarusia, Lithuania, and Livonia have relatively few natural defenses against an attack from the east, and Caucasia and Crimea can be easily isolated. They also have mages in their army instead of purging them, and if the Russy Federation had their NKVD mages equipped with the Type 97 orbs, it's only a matter of time before the CSR also gets their hands on those."

The men talked amongst each other. I could hear multiple topics going on at the same time.

"Unless anyone has questions, we should break for lunch and come back in two hours."

AN: I did some research on President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Truman. Both of them had a history of supporting highway construction.

For FDR's situation, the 40,000 miles construction that the committee recommended never happened because WW2 took priority.

For President Truman, inflation was sky high in the immediate aftermath of WW2 so the highway construction projects were constantly short on money, and many of the construction companies were tied up with building houses (as there was a severe shortage of housing inventory because of the earlier Great Depression). A lot of money was also being used to rebuild western/central Europe.

I used the fhwa's website (Federal Highway Administration - Department of Transportation) for the research.