AN: Credits to gdstriker and PervySageChuck for the revisions, and TheBattleSage for suggesting ideas that lead to the character "Subha Dutta".

If "crossed the line" means "to go beyond what is proper or acceptable", what about sprinting across multiple lines?: /dictionary/cross

The old Ch 8 is at the bottom of this page.

1943, August 8th, in South Bharat:

Subha Dutta pushed aside the microphone as the technicians in the back continued working on the speakers and barked at an assistant. "Give me the acoustic megaphone, I'll just raise my voice so that everyone can hear me."

After being handed a battered, plain metal megaphone, Dutta then turned to face the crowd of the fresh Bharatian recruits that had finished the last phase of their training under the supervision of the OZEV instructors.

"When I was staring at my final exam to enter the Bharatian Civil Service, I made the decision that the independence of Bharat was more important. When I found myself in prison repeatedly, I refused to yield to the Albish authorities. To see our homeland torn in half by the communist rebels and the Albish incompetence, was not the future that I wanted, nor will I accept. We are now handed an opportunity to right those wrongs. To restore our homeland and bring independence and freedom to everyone in Bharat!"

The roaring cheers from the recruits deafened Dutta, but after waiting several seconds, he extended his arm forward and held up his right hand, palm facing the crowd, to motion for them to stop, and they all instantly complied.

That was when General Romel, sitting next to the stage with his translator, shifted to an upright position after taking notice of Dutta's commanding presence among the recruits.

"Speaking of the communists, they are the ultimate betrayals to our homeland! They threw off their shackles with the Albish, and proved to be no better, or even worse than the Albish! They looted the lands during their march south, and now that they are encircled, they are looting whatever scraps they can pry from innocent people's hands instead of accepting their inevitable defeat and surrendering! We will crush them to save our people!"

Another round of cheers, after which Dutta then ended his speech with an abhayamudra hand gesture, where his right hand was held upright while the palm faced outwards.

"Give me blood, and I shall give freedom to this land!"

As General Romel and other VIPs stood up from their chairs to clap, Romel's thoughts ran in his mind.

'He was instrumental in helping with the recruitment drive and inspiring the recruits to push through their training challenges. Even before this speech, I knew many Bharatians held him in high regard and he would likely be a major positive morale factor for the new South Bharatian army.'

'But I am afraid he may prove to be difficult to work with…'

Meanwhile, in the central part of South Bharat, about 200 kilometers from the closest main coalition forces:

Major Neumann whistled in amazement as his and Birgit's mage companies crested over the large hill.

"They punched well above their weight. I was worried about how far inland these men were deployed and the following supply airdrops to keep them sustained." Birgit remarked at the sight of a derailed train that was split in half by a collapsed bridge, with the forward column of artillery guns stuck in the twisted metal mess, the middle column of troop carrier cars sunk into the river with the surviving North Bharatian soldiers struggling to either swim to the river bank or drown in the process, and the rear column smoldering with white smoke. The fraction of the North Bharatian soldiers that made it out of the river were pinned down by the paratroopers' gunfire.

Then the rear column exploded, illuminating the entire area with bright fireworks of detonating artillery ammunition.

"Where are the enemy mages that the paratrooper company reported?…" Neumann scanned the horizon. "They just turned an artillery division into a foot infantry battalion with that ambush, but I don't see enemy mages."

Suddenly magic gunfire from the ground erupted, scattering both Neumann's and Birgit's battalions.

"Enemy mages on the ground and in the air!" An American mage called out as an aerial North Bharatian mage battalion crested over a hill in the distance, while the enemy mages on the ground scattered to resume hiding among the rest of the regular infantry.

"Where are the Chinese mages?… They're mixed in with the regular soldiers!" Neumann shouted as he peppered the ground with explosive spells until one of the explosions revealed a flickering shield from a Chinese mage on the ground.

"8th company, put suppressive fire on the ground and flush out the ground mages! Let the Germanians handle the aerial threat!" Birgit shouted as she picked off the identified ground mage, before barely dodging a shot from another Chinese ground mage that revealed themselves, her shield flickering from the glancing impact.

"3rd company, with me!" Neumann flew higher up into the sky and towards the North Bharatian mages.

1943, August 11th, somewhere in the CSR:

Wang Ming was seated in the center of the room as he looked down at his watch.

Gao Gang entered the room and shut the door behind him.

"Just in time my old friend," Wang looked up. "We will need to be back at our offices soon to avoid any suspicions."

Luo Ronghuan, Marshal of the Army, set down the teapot after filling his cup. "If we're doing this, we need to time this right and cleanly do it. A messy job or an outright civil war would destroy everything that we seek to accomplish."

"And wait for them to keep running our country and the entire international communist movement into the ground?" Gao sneered as he took his seat. "We should have done this earlier instead of waiting for them to complete their traitorous acts!"

Hua Guofeng, Secretary of the Hunan Province, tapped on the table to get everyone's attention. "Zhang Wentian has subordinates that are loyal to him. If we are to correct the course of our country, we will need to go after them first before openly making our moves. Without them, he will be left vulnerable and unable to stop our righteous movement. And some of you are in the perfect position to accomplish such tasks."

The men nodded in agreement, just as Colonel Shi Yousan barged into the room.

"I apologize for my tardiness," Shi looked around the room, ignoring the shocked expressions. "I don't see any open seats."

Wang narrowed his eyes, "Who told you about this meeting?"

"I figured it out on my own," Shi smiled. "I did have a chat with Li Lisan, and even though he is in prison, his numerous contacts and followers have still managed to communicate with him. He's aware of your plotting, and wishes to support it."

Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably or had a concerned look on their faces.

"He's... extreme," Wang cautiously says. "While he and his equally fanatic followers could be helpful to our cause, we would have to kowtow to him if he is freed from prison. There would be no going back."

"Even if he doesn't cause trouble for us, the Chairman will have us shot first before questioning us, if he even suspects that we are working with him," Hua added in, earning the agreement of the rest of the room.

"We're not including him in our cause?" Shi sighed.

"Our cause?" Wang raised his voice. "What, you think you can be part of this? I am well aware of what you have done in the past."

"What was I supposed to do back then?" Shi jabbed a finger. "Die with the Shun Dynasty when the communists initially refused to accept me? And if I didn't believe in your cause, I would have reported your meeting and then stayed far away while the Chairman's lapdogs stormed this place. Instead, I come here and you insult me."

Wang laughed, then his face had a flash of anger. "You initially betrayed the Shun Dynasty to join a warlord, then betrayed your boss when you took loans from the Akinese. Then betrayed the Akinese to join our cause, which was when they published the secret deals you made as part of the loans. And yet the Chairman still brought you into our fold. Even if you have honest intentions right now, you'll run at the slightest moment of the wind changing direction."

"If I had stuck with them to the very end, I would be dead. The isolated, squabbling warlords were my only option as the Shun Dynasty collapsed. The same isolated, squabbling warlords would not have lasted for very long against the might of the communist revolution." Shi shrugged with a sly smile. "As for the Akinese, they were delusional if they thought they could even enforce half of their 21 demands on our land and people, when the Russy Federation's war machine was gearing up to grind them to dust. And I took full advantage of them while they were still around, even getting some advisors to train my army and old but still usable equipment."

Then he put both hands onto the table while still standing up, while still smiling. "I knew they were going to be too busy holding off the Rus to come after me with a military force for loan repayment. Especially when I built an army with their loans. I did survive about a dozen assassination attempts from them. Or two, I lost count."

"So instead of you assisting them in fighting the Rus, you ditched them when they needed you the most, to turn around and use that army of yours to muscle your way into our government," Wang growled. "I may have hated you for willingly joining the Akinese, but I hate backstabbers even more. I should have you shot right now!"

"You can complain to Chairman Zhang for being pragmatic to utilize my army for his own political agendas to eventually make his way to being the Chairman, instead of declaring war on me and leaving this country in a battered shape. All I did was do what he told me to do, and then step away from the political stage to quietly run a labor prison." Shi then took a step back. "I know you're the idealistic type. Dogmatic, actually. But you're going to have to do some dirty work for your plot to succeed, or the wolves will eat you."

Gao walked over to Shi to whisper to him as Wang visibly fumed, and Shi immediately exited the room and slammed the door behind him.

Gao then turned to Wang. "He may be a self-serving bastard, but he's also in charge of Laogai facilities in Henan province and friends with other provincial Laogai directors. It is through him that we can maintain contact with labor prisoners that were incarcerated for opposing the Chairman and his cronies, and free them at our time of choosing."

"I still don't like the idea of him joining us."

"We've been friends since childhood and now you want to question my judgment?"

Wang appeared to be in deep thought for a moment, then stood up. "Who objects to Shi joining us?"

"I don't," Hua stood up.

"I do," Luo stood up.

Wang then turned back to Gao. "If you still want Shi to join us, he needs to bring something more to our table soon."

Then his voice lowered. "Because otherwise I'll have to consider him as a liability as he knows too much, and as ironic as it may be, I'm not going to bother sending him to his own Laogai facilities, or any of them."

Gao nodded. "I won't let a schemer take us down. I will keep an eye on him. He has many enemies so even if he tries to reveal our plotting, we can portray that as him just backstabbing more people and have him arrested instead."

"Well then, unless anyone else has something to say, we should probably get going soon." Wang walked back to the center of the room. They all looked at each other but no one had anything to say.

"Good." Wang continued, "This concludes the meeting. Proletariats and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!"

"Proletariats and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!" Echoed the rest of the room.

Meanwhile, in Germania:

Visha had not forgotten about the interview proposal, much to my despair. I had been dreading this moment even though I had prepared the talking points and rehearsed my answers to likely questions.

I should have told Birgit not to record what I did in that slaughter of the communist mages over the ocean. I'm such an idiot.

I picked a setting I was familiar with when it came to difficult interviews. An executive suite in the football stadium where there would be a match in a few days. I recall General Lergen mentioning something about the military being more selective with who to send over to South Bharat, and a few senior officers had decided to have professional athletes play and keep the public distracted from the war. Unlike our previous war against the Francois Republic and then the Russy Federation, even if South Bharat completely collapsed, Germania's existence wouldn't be directly threatened. Besides, it would be a shame if Carl Troeger was shot down over in Bharat when he could be keeping the populace entertained.

I slouched onto the sofa and picked up my papers from the adjacent stand to keep reading my notes on Gunter Groz. The impression I had so far was that he had a preference for investigative journalism while occasionally dabbling in tabloid stuff, of which that last part is a concern as he could spin my words against me for his own benefit.

I was reading a bit more while waiting for him to arrive when Visha spoke up.

"Tanya, you seem a bit nervous."

I looked at her and was a bit flustered. I need to work better on concealing my thoughts. Then again, Visha had spent well over a decade with me so she knew the little tells I had.

"I still don't have a way to explain our relationship without offending the people. That's why I'm nervous."

"We have to control the narrative before others create a narrative for us," Visha winked.

There was a knock on the door. It's him.

I let out a small sigh. "Come in."

An aide opened the door and Gunter Groz stepped in. "Good afternoon Chancellor-President and Deputy Chancellor."

"Please, take a seat." I motioned to a couch. He walked over and sat down, and after a few minutes of pleasantries, that was when the interview kicked off.

"The Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic have been quite public about their suspicions of your intentions for South Bharat, and the rest of Southeast Asia." Grotz glanced up from his notebook. "What is your perspective on the matter?"

"If they have such a problem, they can formally ask OZEV to leave South Bharat. Saves us lives and money in the short term instead of stopping the communists from overrunning Asia." I rolled my eyes. "Of course, that would mean the Chinese Soviet Republic, Russy Confederation, and their allies would have deep manpower reserves, including aerial mages. Which OZEV would be the first ones to bear the brunt of if the communists invade eastern Europe, and I have doubts if the Albish and Frankish will support us in that situation."

I paused for a moment before continuing. "As for South Bharat, my interest in them is the establishment of a well-functioning democracy, which will prevent the communists from spreading their influence through non-military actions."

"Do you have plans of returning to South Bharat?" Groz raised an eyebrow. "People in Germania and elsewhere were quite ecstatic of what you've personally done over there."

I glanced at a smirking Visha before turning back to Groz. "When there isn't a threat of war, I will be with my Deputy Chancellor so that she can keep me in check."

As Groz chuckled, I decided now was the time to shift the discussion so that I can save the romantic stuff for the very end.

"Speaking of South Bharat's democracy, I have a similar goal for the new republics in eastern Europe, including Crimea, Caucasia, and Kazakh. The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"Are you worried about the Russy Confederation trying to reclaim their 'lost territory'? My colleagues in eastern Europe mentioned that the locals have already seen signs of growing revanchism from the Rus, and Rus propaganda efforts targeting them."

"I'm not concerned about the Rus starting another war," I dismissively waved my hands. "The Rus can talk big all they want and try to puff up their chest, while OZEV will help grow the new republics' economies. I pity the communist fools that think they can easily pry liberty and a good life from people and not expect severe backlash."

"What is your perception of the Legadonia Entente and their influence over the Baltic states?"

I stretched out both of my arms as if I was welcoming a great gift. "I welcome their help in the spread of democracy and containment of communism! This is something that requires a global effort."

Gunter Groz started on his next question. "I've read about your recent statements regarding veteran benefits and care. What gave you the idea to try something so… new?"

"With so many people returning from the Second European War and the need for our economy to eventually shift back from this partial wartime economy to an actual peacetime economy, droves of service members would find themselves unemployed after post-war drawdown while the industries readjust." I shook my head at the last part. "Back in the 18th century after the European powers had finished their great war with the Albish defeating the Frankish, many veterans found themselves unable to find work after they were discharged from the military. Some went down the path of crime or piracy to make ends meet. Instead, I want to give our service members the opportunities to get higher education or go to a trade school, and by the time they finish training, the economy would be ready to hire them."

"And for the veterans that will be returning from the Bharatian War?"

Visha spoke up. "It would only be fair for us to extend the benefits to them. We are currently in the process of working on a bill for the veterans of the First European War, especially since many of them were left penniless and jobless after the Empire's collapse. While it may have been many years by this point, they still deserve recognition for their services, no matter how long ago it has been."

My face twitched at that last part, reminding me of the immediate post-war memories. Groz immediately picked up on that. "It seems your Deputy Chancellor's comment regarding the plight of the veterans after the Empire's defeat had touched a nerve."

I wasn't exactly prepared for this, but he had a very good point. If there are still people who would be opposed to helping veterans even after hearing about my immediate post-war experience, then I'm going to be taking a dim view of them.

I sighed. "When I woke up from my coma in the hospital, I was told that the war was over, the Empire lost, and I had no pension. When I went to the bank where all of my savings were kept, my account was also gone because the bank's assets were seized. I had no other applicable job skills other than war. That was why I went back to the orphanage, to work for food so that I wasn't left begging on the streets or turning to a life of crime."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

I shrugged my shoulders. "But that was a long time ago. Now all I can do is ensure that no one else has to experience what I went through."

He looked at his notes. "I'm assuming the veteran's healthcare is also based on the same reasons that you laid out?"

"Broken people can't contribute to the economy, physically or mentally. And for those that are permanently disabled, it's not fair that we neglect them when they sacrificed so much for our country."

"Mentally?"

"It is Germania's responsibility to help veterans who simply saw too much on the front line. Many of our service members will have combat fatigue from seeing the brutality of war. Especially with the communists disregarding the laws of war in Karachi."

Visha and Gunter Groz gave me a puzzled look. Did I say something completely out of the ordinary?

"Um, President, could you explain what is 'combat fatigue'? I never heard of that term."

Ah, that explains why. They are probably still thinking of shell shock. "It is a collection of a variety of symptoms caused by experiencing severe trauma. Thousand-yard stares, debilitating flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, high stress, sense of guilt, depression, and other symptoms. Some might call those veterans 'weak-willed', but I would be deeply concerned if someone was not bothered at all by watching a city being burned to the ground. I certainly wouldn't want such a callous monster in the military."

"Would you say that you also had… issues with readjusting after the Empire's defeat?"

I just walked myself into a trap set by him! To tell him that I had problems would be admitting weakness. To tell him that I was perfectly fine could be seen as dishonest or be used to undermine my platform for mental health treatment.

I looked at Visha. She smiled and took my hand. "Well, she did say people need help. We've been with each other for about two decades now."

Well, I wasn't sure how to bring up this topic that I would have to eventually talk about, but here we go.

Gunter Groz gave us an eager look. "How did you two first meet?"

"It was when the President was just a Lieutenant, and I was a Corporal," Visha said. "During the first European War, I simply admired her. It wasn't until I watched her campaign for a political party when I started to have romantic feelings for her."

"What convinced you to turn those feelings into an actual romantic relationship?" he asked as he rapidly scribbled notes.

Visha blushed. "I was initially hesitant as homosexuality is generally frowned upon, but there were two events that convinced me to pursue it. The first one was when she asked if I was dating a guy, and when I said no, she then assumed it was with one of my female friends. She said she fully supported that sort of relationship and seemed surprised when I also said no. The second one was when I talked with one of my friends and they suggested 'just let it happen'."

Now this was something I was unaware of.

"Was she aware of your romantic feelings?"

Visha said "Maybe" and I said "No" at the same time. Groz seemed very interested in that as he said, "Ah, the classical one-sided relationship where one person is unaware of the other person's deep love. President, what were your thoughts during that time?"

I chewed on my lip. I don't think Visha is even aware of exactly why I was avoiding a relationship. I looked at her and she nodded, so I took that as a cue to tell the truth. "To be in love with a direct subordinate, in the military, politics, or government, was something I was trying to avoid. I was keeping a distance out of professionalism."

"And what changed all of that?" Groz asked as he continued writing.

I continued. "When OZEV was at war with four countries simultaneously, I was feeling very stressed. I mean the Empire had only dragged in countries one at a time, so I was concerned about us being defeated even faster than the Empire. Visha walked in and..."

"I kissed her." Visha giggled. "She was shocked, but it was like a switch was flipped and that was when she stopped trying to keep her distance."

"So with both of you being in love, are there future plans between the two of you? Marriage? Adopting kids?"

I chewed on my lip for a moment, unsure of how to answer that. "Unlike war, politics, or government matters, this is something I haven't been planning ahead."

Visha nodded and also added, "We still have much to learn from each other."

Groz pondered for a second and asked the next question. "Do you think Germania should be open to homosexual relationships?"

"Should Germania's government be involved with dictating how people should live their lives? Judge their beliefs, culture, and lifestyle?" I shot back with my own question. "How can we claim we are a democracy if we repress our own people? How can we tell our current and future OZEV members, South Bharat and Akitsushima Dominion that we respect them and that they should trust us if we are quick to judge? At least the former Russy Federation didn't pretend when it came to dealing with anyone who had the slightest possibility of disagreeing with their government. If they hadn't lost the war, there would have been no more people left in Kieva to oppose the Rus."

Visha squeezed my hand. I paused for a moment to calm down and to allow Grotz to finish writing. "But I can understand why people would frown upon seeing different things that they aren't used to. Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence."

"In other words, it's about respecting differences and treating others with fairness?" Gunter Groz summarized my statement.

I smiled. "Yes."

1943, August 28th, Berun:

General Lergen cleared his throat to begin his presentation to Degurechaff, Serebryakov, and her ministers, with the Director Muller of the BND standing next to him.

"Our encirclements of North Bharat's invasion forces are ahead of schedule, and are mainly slowed by the logistic demands for keeping our forces supplied for them to keep pushing farther inland." He pointed at the two ends of the forces pushing towards the center of South Bharat, then to the center region. "Our paratroopers and mages have taken the brunt of the fighting in the first week, but have been able to consolidate their blocking positions with the communists suddenly letting up on the pressure."

"Why aren't they fighting to break out of their encirclement?" Degurechaff looked on with alarm. "Just yesterday I was briefed that the Ablish-Frankish coalition had unexpectedly laid waste to Karachi after looting it thoroughly and had begun withdrawing from the city. The North Bharatians should be redeploying their reserve forces to the south."

"No, the communists are throwing most of their reserves at Karachi, and now the Albish-Frankish coalition is calling off their withdrawal to dig in amongst their numerous booby traps." Muller smiled. "I suspect our allies wanted to bring their naval bombardments to bear onto the concentrated North Bharatians and make them bleed for every building. They have also dispatched a portion of their naval and marine forces to continue coastal raids elsewhere now that the North Bharatian reserve forces are mostly pinned in Karachi."

"What are the encircled communists doing in North Bharat in the meantime?"

"Digging in," Lergen shook his head as he gestured a line across the map. "Along the southern front, they stopped their offensives and switched to building trenches and fortifications. It was something I didn't expect."

"That makes no sense, they would starve…" Degurechaff trailed off, then had a look of horror on her face. "They have looted to support their breakneck advances…"

"Yes," He had a flash of anger in his face.

"Then they could intensify their looting to build up their supplies, at the expense of the civilians." She paused for a moment. "We can't just starve them out because they'll starve the civilians to death first. We have to go on the offensive and force them to surrender immediately!"

Perhaps I was wrong about her… But that doesn't explain why she has such a personal interest in South Bharat to begin with.

"What about the North Bharatian reserve forces that eventually make their way south when they give up on retaking Karachi, or if the CSR finally moves their armies across the Himalaya mountains?" Serebryakov for the first time expressed her concerns.

"We push north to easily defensible terrain, such as rivers and mountains and build a massive defensive line to stop their counterattacks dead in tracks. The priority is pressuring the encircled forces to surrender as soon as possible, to reduce civilian deaths." A magic illumination projected onto the map from Degurechaff's casting, highlighting some of the possible defense line locations.

"What if we pushed all the way north to the Himalayas mountains?" A skeptical Lergen suggested. "It would save us the effort of needing to build the defense line. As for the CSR, I am skeptical of how much force they can bring across."

"No, the Chinese will bring their armies to bear, no matter the attrition losses, and we need to be prepared to stop their hordes from breaking through us to relieve their encircled comrades." Degurechaff then turned her head to look at someone else. "Director Muller, tell me again how did the Chinese forces in Sibyria survive the harsh winter?"

"Tree barks and hunting," Muller had a mixed look of contempt and disgust. "Then cannibalism of the Rus corpses, and they pressured captured Rus soldiers to help them hunt down more Rus people. That terrified the Rus forces."

"As expected," Degurechaff waved her hand as if she was a prosecutor resting their case. "I won't take my chances of our men and our trusted allies being ambushed in the mountains during a bitter winter and then being chased by cannibals all the way back to the original border between North and South Bharat. Instead, we'll take some moderate territory gains and lock them down, forcing the communists to come to the peace talks to beg for their territory to be returned."

She seems oddly confident that the communists would try to ambush us in the mountains.

Then a wide grin emerged across her face as if she was expecting to be greatly pleased. "Or they can uselessly throw bodies at a brick wall, I don't care either way."

And there's the Devil that I know.

1943, October 3rd, in one of the five palaces in Aegyptus:

"You're saying our men have thoroughly looted Karachi to the point where the Albish had to stop them from stealing all of the telegram, phone, and electrical lines because some of it was still needed for the defense of the city?" King Ismail set aside the report to resume eating his lunch.

"Yes my king," Mahdi curtly replied.

"And the Albish commander for the Bharatian subcontinent wanted the city looted?" King Ismail then took a bite of the buttered lobster flesh.

"To ruin the city should the communists recapture it," Mahdi sighed. "Scorched earth tactics."

The king laughed, then took a deep drink of his wine glass. "That solves our sluggish recruitment efforts, and that damn ambassador has been a nuisance over that."

"What do you mean?" Mahdi apprehensively asked.

"Use the gained wealth from the loot as a recruiting drive," King Ismail scoffed as if Mahdi didn't understand the genius idea.

"That might end up mainly attracting the more… criminal elements of our population, rather than people with proper soldier attitudes."

"If Londinium wants our expeditionary army to raid cities, then Ambassador Powell will get what he is asking for. We're just fulfilling his demands to the letter." King Ismail dismissively waved his hands, before cutting into the steak. "Also, have the loot appropriately taxed by officers that demonstrate their loyalty and political reliability. They also deserve a share of the reward."

"It will be done," Mahdi nodded as the king chewed on a steak piece.

King Ismail then swallowed. "Speaking of loyalty, any updates on the less reliable ones that were sent to Bharat?

"They have been volunteered for all of the dangerous missions, with insufficient resources and manpower, and not allowed to be in the rear. Nor allowed to retreat." Mahdi smiled. "Already one of them has been killed in combat."

"Good," King Ismail then reached for the fruits. "Keep volunteering them for whatever insane plans that the Albish throws our way. And if they die, suppress the recognition of their achievements. I don't want any martyrs or war heroes from the unloyal rabble."

1943, October 7th, Londinium:

"They're letting us fail," Churbull angrily chewed on his cigar. "There's no way General Romel would refuse to advance north to break the communists' besieging of Karachi and link up with our forces unless he had orders from the top…"

Churbull glared at the rest of the attendees in the meeting room.

"We underestimated her again," Viscount Guysborough, the foreign secretary, fumed. "She wants to cement her control over South Bharat."

"I read General Law's reports," Defense Minister Alan Brook added. "Based on his assessment of the buildup of North Bharatian forces in the mountains north of Karachi, the communists will only come down south after they retake Karachi. Also concerning is the detection of rocket artillery trucks among the North Bharatians, which means the communists have started working on rocketry technology. The Devil of the Rhine wants us and the communists to kill each other first so that her so-called 'volunteers' and the South Bharatian soldiers that are under her administration remain intact to claim all of the subcontinent."

"The corruption investigations in our former crown jewel colony is causing replacement of the sacked personnel with those that are suspected of working with the Germanians or at the very least having pro-Germanian sympathies. And the South Bharatians are ecstatic about the perception of this so-called 'justice', which means Degurechaff is winning their popular support." Stewart Graham, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, contemplated drinking his tea but pushed it aside. "While I do have operatives in South Bharat to assist in fighting against the encircled communists, the available options I have with them are distasteful and have a high risk of causing unintended consequences."

Guysborough leaned back in his chair. "We can't force the Germanians out of South Bharat. That ship has long since sailed past us. The other things that have been concerning are Burma, Afghanistan, and Francois Indochina. Riots instigated by Buddhist monks have sent Burma into a state of anarchy, the Afghan monarchy suddenly refused to allow any of our officials to step onto their soil, and communist rebels are storming Indochina."

Churbull suddenly spoke up. "What if we invade the Chinese? We escalate the war to show them that they can't get away with their pathetic proxy war efforts, in order to de-escalate the war or end it outright."

There was a long silence.

"You mean their homeland?" Brook stammered.

"We don't have the intelligence networks in the CSR to support such a risky operation…" Graham choked.

"Yes, we cut the head off at the source of our problems." Churbull took a long draw of his cigar, then exhaled. "We pull out of Karachi so that the Germanian coalition is forced to fight the North Bharatians. It seems the CSR has taken control of Afghanistan and Burma to use them as land routes to march their armies into the Bharatian subcontinent. We bring war to CSR's doorstep after the bulk of their military crashes into the Germanian coalition forces. When the Chinese surrender, North Bharat would have no choice but to unconditionally surrender and thus we get credit for bringing a decisive end to the war. This will also put a stop to the problems in Burma, Afghanistan and Francois Indochina. We will prove that the OZEV are cowards who sat behind their defense line."

Guysborough blinked after his long stare at Churbull. "How will we force the CSR to surrender?"

"We take Nanjing," Churbull chuckled. "If you recall, it's what we did in the Second and Third Opium War. And again in the following Boxer War before looting and razing the imperial palace in retaliation to their mass executions of all of the diplomats, missionaries and other foreign dignitaries there. Then the Akinese marched their military into Nanjing and occupied the capital to extract territorial concessions and the control of Joseon from the Chinese. The Shun Dynasty didn't last much longer after those strings of black eyes."

"I would suggest a more cautious approach than directly rushing towards Nanjing," Brook waved his hands down. "We could reuse our coastal raid strategy against the CSR. That would prove to their people that their government is incapable of protecting them."

Churbull frowned for a moment, then sighed. "Does anyone have objections to his suggestion?"

He scanned the meeting room and upon seeing that no one had anything to say, he crushed his cigar into the ashtray. "Let's make our destiny and history."

1943, October 12th, in the Hyderabad State:

Captain Teyanen's ears perked up when he heard a patrol boat's autocannon open fire, and he put his binoculars to his face.

"Ah, looks like they caught some communists trying to cross the river."

Then he smiled as he watched another patrol boat open up with its napalm flamethrower to silence the brief bursts of gunfire from the river.

"Sir, I'm picking up some magical signatures, coming from behind us." One of the subordinates checked the ammunition in their rifle magazine. "Possibly a company of North Bharati mages. They're heading straight for the patrol boats."

"Let's position ourselves to intercept them when they crest over that hill. Can't have them turning the flamethrower boat into a fireworks show and swarming the other one. They won't think of looking down in the trees. Hold your fire until I give the order." Teyanen motioned his team towards a hill. "We can go back into hiding after we take them down."

As the oblivious North Bharatian mages flew over the hill and also over Teyanen's squad, Teyanen let off a burst of bullets at the back of a targeted North Bharatian, tearing through their shield and body. The rest of the mages were quickly downed by his squad's hail of fire. The last two North Bharatians that dodged all of the gunfire and spun around to face Teyanen's squad were shredded by the boat's autocannon fire.

"No witnesses. Good. Let's get going."

Elsewhere:

Captain Green and his company were resting on a forested hill that was overlooking a heavily used road.

"Just a bit more lads, and we'll be heading back." Green put down his binoculars. "The communists really stuffed it up with how they're handling the revolts. Maybe the war will be over by Christmas."

"Why don't we just give the anti-communist rebels weapons?" One of his men asked with a full mouth from chewing on a biscuit.

"That's for the higher-ups to decide." Green waved his hand dismissively. "Can't do it right now with communist mages and their magic detectors still being around. Besides, our primary mission is to observe what is going on and report back."

"I see movement on the road, a few kilometers out." Another mage reported as they looked through their binoculars. Green also pulled up his binoculars back up to see it for himself. It was a large convoy of wagon carts, and being pulled by humans for some reason.

"Pack up boys, we're moving again." Green gestured at the treeline facing the road. "Get into ambush positions. Wait for my signal."

As the men slowly moved into positions, Green could definitely see that the wagon carts were not being pulled by volunteers or North Bharatian soldiers. It was forced labor, and they all looked miserable. The cart pullers had restraints that prevented them from being able to escape, while a few North Bharatian soldiers were off to the side to monitor the forced laborers.

Green quietly shuffled from one man to the next, directing them which North Bharatian soldiers to target.

After the unaware convoy began to pass them, Green sent out a voice spell.

"Take down the guards."

After the guards were all quickly dropped with not one of them having the chance to react, Green and a translator walked over to one of the laborers. The translator asked something in different local languages before starting a conversation. He then turned to Green.

"Sir, they said the North Bharatian soldiers are seizing all of the food, medicine, fuel, livestock, and their fall crop harvests. They are conducting mass arrests, and then forcing the captured civilians to march to the frontlines to build fortifications or other jobs. This all happened shortly after people heard about the North Bharatian army being encircled, and then the revolts kicked off. There's also some serious chaos going on in Hyderabad."

"Everyone, set the prisoners free. Platoon one, keep an overwatch in case we get any unwelcome company. Once they're all freed, we're going to Hyderabad to see how badly the communists cocked it up."

As the freed people fled into the forest with some of them carrying weapons looted from the dead soldiers, Green was interrupted when he sensed multiple North Bharatian mage signatures. A lot of them.

Thankfully they still haven't learned how to suppress or conceal their magic emissions…

"Everyone get back into the woods before they see us!" Green shouted as he gestured to his men to get back to their positions. "Only fire on my command!"

Just as the last of his men dived into the woods, the North Bharatian mages barreled through the sky and immediately opened fire on the straggling freed prisoners, while shouting something in multiple local languages.

"They think the forced laborers had overwhelmed their guards and are now ordering them to reassemble to push the carts or be shot." The translator muttered to Green.

"We're outnumbered," Green hissed. "As much as I want to protect the civilians, we have to wait for the right opportunity before shooting."

Suddenly, a crack of gunfire was heard from a far-off distance, taking out some of the North Bharatian mages. Green's men immediately opened fire as the remaining North Bharatian mages turned around to face the unexpected attack, catching the communists in a lethal crossfire.

"Looks like we're not the only ones sneaking around here," Green let out a sigh of relief as the last North Bharatian mage tumbled out of the sky. "Let's get going before we draw more attention."

Somewhere else in South Bharat:

Staff Sergeant Georg Eschenbach and his platoon marched through the jungle as his mind wandered.

Lieutenant Reitzel and Storch answered the volunteer call like many other veterans. I hope they're doing alright, as I haven't seen them at all.

"Hurry up everyone, we have to finish this mission and head back before it gets dark!" Second Lieutenant Andrea encouraged the platoon with his naive smile.

He'll shape up soon. It's unfortunate for us, but fortunate for him, that he just missed the second Great War by a week. At least I don't have to worry about his knack for land navigation.

As the fortifications came into view, Eschenbach motioned to his men. "Careful, we don't want to stumble into their patrols."

"Looks like they're turning that village on a hill into a fortress," Andrea remarked as he scanned the fortification with his binoculars. "They seem to be lacking on patrols in the area."

"They're still doing construction work?" Eschenbach asked.

"I think so. Do you want to use your H7 orb to get a better look at them?"

Eschenbach spun up his orb and used his binoculars to scan the fortification. He could see that there was lots of activity, but it was difficult to tell what the laborers looked like as their view was mostly obscured by all of the dirt and other materials piled up.

"I can't make out what the laborers look like. The only good view I got was a handful of guards, and it seemed they were more concerned with keeping an eye on the laborers than on the outside. I don't see any anti-aircraft weapons unless they're behind the dirt walls."

"Do you think there might be civilians in that construction site?" Andrea looked worried.

"I have no idea," Eschenbach shrugged. "Our order did state that if the fortification is manned, we will have to call in an airstrike to neutralize it. They should have evacuated the civilians from the front lines. I would not be surprised if the laborers will pick up weapons to open fire on us if we approach their fortress."

"I'm not willing to risk our men to get an even closer look. This is as far as we can go before having to leave the cover of the forest. There's not much cover out in the harvested fields. I don't know what to do if there are many civilians in the fortress, but the command doesn't want an enemy fortress overlooking a major road."

Eschenbach bit his lip. Andrea had a good point. They had to protect their men, and to risk throwing lives away to see if there were civilians in the fortification would be reckless. And they might have to bomb the fortress anyway to clear the path.

"You're right sir, we have to protect our men, and conducting further reconnaissance would be reckless."

Andrea nodded and motioned at the radio operator to begin the coordination for having a bomber show up at the right spot and hit the right target.

"Should we back up a bit?" Andrea asked.

"We'll be fine," Eschenbach nonchalantly took a drink from his canteen.

Eventually, the radio operator moved their headset off of one of their ears, "They're going to be dropping the fast burning stuff so we can move in relatively soon instead of waiting for hours."

"Couldn't they just use regular bombs?" Andrea sighed. "I really don't like the smell of burning human flesh."

Soon, they saw the faint outline of four planes high up in the sky and some escorting planes.

"Something's not right." Eschenbach looked up. "The North Bharatians should have opened up with their anti-aircraft batteries or scrambled their mages for interception by this point."

Four guided bombs fell towards the fortification and as they approached the ground, they exploded into a shower of brightly burning liquids that rained down on the fortification. Eschenbach could hear the screams from the burning fortification, and he could have sworn he heard high-pitched squeals that sounded like they belonged to children.

In Hyderabad:

"Impressive…" Green stared at the outskirts of the city from an abandoned farmer's shed that his company was resting in. "The whole place is burning and I can hear the crowds screaming and yelling from all the way over here."

"The communist garrison forces are under siege. They completely lost control of the city and their radio communications are in chaos." Green's radio operator chortled. "There is something that seems to be going on at the city's palace, and a Chinese mage group has been called in to rescue the VIPs there."

"We're not going to be able to sneak our way through the city…" Green trailed off as he suddenly saw mages fly over their position.

And they had the same magic signatures as the previous encounter with the unexpected assistance.

That's when it hit him that for this moment, stealth is optional.

Green cracked a smile. "We're going to the palace, and announce our presence to rally the crowds. Any communists that try to stop us, we'll shoot them and move on to let the mobs finish them off."

"There's another company of mages right on our tail!" One of Teyanen's subordinates shouted in panic.

"Are they hostiles?" Teyanen asked as he looked behind him.

"People of the righteous South Bharat. We are here to save you from the invaders! Your protests are just!"

Teyanen chuckled at the other company's translator's speech. "False alarm, looks like they are friendly mages that we weren't told about."

Then he noticed the voice spell from the other company. It was definitely an Albish voice spell.

"What are you doing here?" Green looked confused.

"I had the same question for you." Teyanen was equally perplexed. "But that doesn't matter. We're both here to make the communists' day worse."

"Do you have a place that you have in mind? We were heading straight for their palace."

Tenyanen thought for a moment, his eyes scanning the urbanity ahead, "I agree. We could at the very least take down North Bharat's flags and put up South Bharat's flags, to rally the city.

The two mage companies flew towards the palace. While they were on high alert for any possible ambushes, there were seemingly no responses from the North Bharatians.

Once the palace came into view, both companies could see that whoever was holding out was not doing well. They landed on the rooftop of a nearby tall building.

"I have a feeling we may have to rescue some high-ranking North Bharatian officials from the locals." Teyanen chewed on his lip, while looking through his binoculars. "We need information from them. Hanged corpses can't talk."

"Rioters in their courtyard, and a lot of them." Green smiled. "They are indeed in a spot of bother, assuming the mob hasn't already lynched them."

"Well it doesn't look like they're celebrating over the lynching, so they probably haven't gotten to the communist officials yet."

They spent a few minutes discussing what their next moves would be when something caught both of their attention.

"The Chinese mage company that we earlier heard about on the radio. It doesn't look like they're coming after us." Green put up his binoculars.

"No, they're heading straight for the main structure." Teyanen checked his rifle. "I guess we were right about some high ranking officials being trapped there if the CSR is directly intervening in this mess."

The CSR mage company hovered over a courtyard, and blasted their voice spell in the local language with a very heavy accent, as Green's translator started their work on deciphering what the CSR mages were saying.

"Release unaffiliated members of the general population immediately. We can't allow your lynching to continue. We demand the release of citizens according to article 26, paragraph 3 of the Rules of War on Land."

Green and Teyanen looked at each other in bewilderment.

"This is a warning for the irregular combatants of the armed revolt. Following article 8, paragraph 5, of the Rules of War on Land, I demand someone meet with our representative to discuss the subjects of North Bharat that you so unjustly attack."

"Is it me, or does that seem oddly familiar to the Empire's warnings that they issued before starting the Arene massacre?" Green held back his laughter. "And the North Bharatians threw out the Rules of War in Karachi!"

"They copied the entire damn speech." Teyanen gritted his teeth. "I have a bad feeling about this."

There was a burst of machine gun fire from a guard tower that the rioters took over, their bullets ineffectively bouncing off the Chinese mages's shields. The mages fired explosive bullets at all of the guard towers to neutralize them and then pulled out their swords and axes.

"What are they doing?" Green's rapid breathing intensified.

One of the CSR mages screamed something. The translator gasped in horror, "They're saying to the civilians that they aren't worth the bullets."

Then the CSR mages charged into the mob, knocking many to the ground from the impacts. Green and Teyanen looked on with horror as they watched the CSR mages hack their way through the rioters. In a few seconds, the courtyard was already being splattered with blood, body parts, and corpses. The mob was now trying to escape, but they could not outrun the CSR mages and some were being trampled in the chaos.

"We need to stop them. Company, to the air!" Teyanen ordered. Green motioned his men to also follow suit.

As they hovered over the courtyard while the CSR mages were still tearing through the mob, Green noticed a problem.

"How are we supposed to shoot the enemy mages? They're mixed in with the civilians. If we fly down there, we'll get cut up instead."

"I have no idea," Teyanen shook his head in dismay. "But the longer we wait, the more they're going to kill. We have to take the shot, even if it means shooting through the civilians to get to them."

"May God have mercy on our souls," Green muttered as the CSR mages continued to paint the courtyard red. He then turned to his men. "Engage the enemy mages when I give the order. Then we'll search the palace for the communist officials."

"We'll also engage the enemy mages, and then we'll keep an overwatch of the area," Teyanen said.

The CSR mages were so focused on cutting down the rioters that when they looked up to find the source of the new magic emissions, the two mage companies were about to fire down at them. Only three CSR mages survived the aftermath, and they threw aside their weapons to put their hands in the air instead of taking on the two companies.

Green's company surrounded the CSR mages to disarm and restrain them. As they fanned out in the carnage-strewn courtyard, one of the windows shifted open and a hand stuck out waving a white fabric.

"I think we found the besieged officials. How does it look from the air?" Green used his voice spell to talk to Teyanen.

"We don't see anything just yet. We are picking up some increased voice spells and radio communications that mention something going on at the palace, so you should move fast. Also, what are the surrendering people saying?"

Green looked at the officials who were performing Namaste greeting gestures.

"Looks like they're going to be cooperative with us. Grab them and let's get out of here before the communist garrison realizes that we're here."

Andrea and Eschenbach lead their platoon to investigate the smoldering ruin of the fortification with the flames dying down.

"There were a lot more people than I expected," Andrea muttered.

A figure could be crawling in the distance. Some of the men raised their rifles, but Eschenbach waved his arm down. "He's in no condition to fight back. Have the translator go over to them to ask what they were doing."

A few minutes later, the translator shot the person in the head, causing a shocked Andrea to rush forward.

"Why did you do that?!" Andrea demanded.

"It was his last request," The translator responded flatly, "He said it was too much pain to keep going."

Meanwhile, Eschenbach puts a hand on one of his men's shoulders who is vomiting at the sight of a pile of burnt corpses piled up high behind a fortified gate. Something in the pile then caught Eschenbach's eyes and he moved forwards to take a closer look.

"Ugh," Andrea expresses his disgust as he walks up behind Eschenbach. "This is all so wrong."

Eschenbach didn't say anything for several seconds. "They brought entire families here to build the fortification," He spoke with his eyes locked onto a particularly small corpse. "All of them. Including the kids."

Andrea looks at the Germanian in disbelief, "That can't be…"

Eschenbach shakes his head and steps aside, his hand motioning towards the pile of corpses, "Then why else am I staring at what appeared to be a woman holding her child!?"

In the CSR:

Zhang Guanghou was pacing back and forth in his office, strewn in papers, chalkboards covered in scribbles, and attached pieces of papers, film recordings and computational orbs that also held recordings. The instruction from his superior was simple: Understand the Germanian President's psychology, habits and anything that would help the CSR anticipate how she would respond to scenarios or negotiations.

He took a long drag on his cigarette.

It's been a few months now, and the results he was getting didn't make any sense. Or they are making sense, if it means accepting what would normally be impossible.

His team had analyzed every single audio and video recording of her, dating back to the Empire, thanks to the efforts of the CSR students studying in the Francois Republic and the NKVD finding scraps of information to send back to the CSR. When they found the recording of her issuing the so-called warning in Dacia before blowing up their capital, that was when one of the linguists said "I've studied in Germania before. Her dialect does not match the dialect commonly spoken in the region that she grew up in."

That didn't make any sense. If it was the only thing that was abnormal, it could have been overlooked. But it got a lot more confusing as they dug deeper.

Then there was how Degurechaff never seemed to suffer a bad consequence in the long run and always came out on top of any military or political situation. Such a long winning streak was almost unheard of. An anomaly based on the statistical analysis of all of the major current and past leaders of empires. Even Ottone von Bismarck's records paled in comparison, especially since Degurechaff started her personal non-stop winning streak during her childhood.

Germania's wars and foreign policy after she took over? Also a long winning streak. Absolutely absurd.

It was simply not possible. But it happened anyway.

He had other mathematicians calculate using the information. They had generally similar conclusions, so if there were errors, it had to be with the raw data that he used. But if there were such errors, where could they be?

The only thing he could think of was this person called "Doctor Adelaide von Schugel" where the Chancellor had participated in some orb testing. It was after that that her aerial mage performance skyrocketed. But of course, there was no way those R&D documents would be made publicly available at least for decades, and if the NKVD was afraid of visiting an orphanage in Germania to learn about her early upbringing, there was no way they were going to try to steal secret documents or meet the doctor.

He sat down, tossed the now burnt-out cigarette into the ashtray, opened a bottle of painkillers, took a few tablets, and downed them with tea that had been sitting at room temperature for at least a few hours.

If there was one thing for certain, the Germanian President is likely not a natural being. Maybe an artificial creation of some sort.

Ah, well, all he could do now was write a report so he had something to show his superiors. All of this research required a lot of resources and time, and his boss would be demanding results.

A week later:

"There's a conspiracy against you and the rest of the council," Shi Yosan blankly stared from across Kang's desk.

Kang also kept a blank face, then nodded. "Could you tell me more about it?"

"They believe not enough is being done to protect the global revolution," Shi brushed a speck of dust off of his shirt. "They were, in particular, outraged that we would not aggressively push south to rescue their communist brethren and believe the council members are traitors to the communist cause."

"Who is a member of it?"

"People from across different parts of the government, including your subordinates. I will provide the full list after this meeting."

"Why are you telling me about this instead of going along with them?" Kang leaned forward with a suspicious tone.

"It wasn't hard for me to figure out something was going on. I dug into it and stumbled into their meeting uninvited to determine exactly what they were doing, and they soon kicked me out."

"Ah, so they already know someone is onto them. A simple mass arrest won't do…" Kang frowned. "And why should I trust you?"

"To do nothing when I knew about their activities would make me complicit in their scheme if they were discovered, and I would be speaking to you in an interrogation room with no tea rather than your office with tea." Shi shrugged. "If they succeeded, they would have me purged for knowing too much. Name my other options."

"How many of Li Lisan's letters have you intercepted and deciphered since he has been in prison? Why did you allow him to communicate with the outside world against the Chairman's explicit order, and why did you hold onto the information all this time?" Kang leaned forward as he casually dropped the bombshell, while Shi kept a straight face.

"I convinced him that I was his ally that was allowing him to communicate with the outside world, so that I could determine what plot his supporters are coming up with. This went on long enough for me to learn about the conspiracy against you. And that the conspirators refused to work with Li Lisan as they greatly feared freeing him." Shi then laughed as if he had a victory. "There are no other plots as his remaining supporters are more interested in keeping a low profile. I am confident that no one is breaking him out of his cell."

"I was worried you had other plans for Li Lisan…" Kang trailed off, then his face hardened. "Maybe freedom."

"I can assure you that I am not delusional enough to release a wildcard that will not dance to anyone's music," Shi scoffed, then whispered. "I fear no man, but him? He scares me."

Kang sat back and non-verbally stared for an uncomfortable period of time, then finally broke the silence.

"Do you support the Chairman and his council?"

"I am not familiar with the politics of the upper echelon," Shi deflected.

"Yet you uncovered a conspiracy that I didn't know about, and came to me instead of others." Kang dismissively shook his head. "So tell me how you actually feel?"

"Did you have disagreements with the rest of the council?" Shi raised an eyebrow.

"Disagreements are always going to happen," Kang tapped on his desk. "But recently the situation has changed. I received a lengthy, rambling report from my analyst team on Tanya von Degurechaff. On the first read, I concluded the entire team had lost their damn minds and all of them needed to be sent to the psychiatric hospital. On the second reading, after they were sedated and taken to the hospital due to their violent non-cooperation with the guards, it's apparent that there was some logic in their report and that our current foreign policy might not be sufficient against her. On the third reading, I could feel my mind slipping. So I burned the report and hesitantly ordered the execution of my analyst team and the psychologist that interviewed them."

Then Kang leaned forward with a now unsettled, maniac facial expression, "I want to hear your perspective on our foreign policy, when we are dealing with an enemy leader that oddly seems to have combined traits of Napoleon and Ottone von Bismarck, in terms of military, political and diplomacy skills. Or the traits of Emperor Taizu of Qing, Emperor Taizu of Ming, and Genghis Khan."

Shi pulled back briefly upon seeing the shift in Kang's expression, but then appeared to be in deep thought. "Appeasement won't work against an aggressive leader, that's for certain. They'll just keep taking from us until nothing is left."

"So, aggressive actions to contain them?"

"While those might be contrary to Chairman Zhang's desire to stay isolated, we will have to increase our foreign presence to stop the capitalists from surrounding and destroying us. She has already built a formidable alliance in Europe, and it's clear she wants to control the Bharatian subcontinent. The combination of the European industrial and technological base, and the vast Bharatian population, would be a force to be reckoned with."

"Do I have your support?" Kang leaned back.

"Let me know how I can help," Shi slightly smiled.

Kang nodded with a wide, crooked grin. "When it is time, I expect you to do your part without hesitation. After all, you have a talent of identifying and backing the winning side. Now, the names of the conspirators?"

The clock ticked in the background.

AN:

wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose

wiki/Indian_Legion

wiki/Indian_National_Army

Referenced hand gesture: wiki/Abhayamudra

Inspiration for the Albish amphibious invasion plan of the CSR:

wiki/Second_Opium_War

wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War

wiki/Boxer_Rebellion

wiki/Gallipoli_campaign

wiki/Dieppe_Raid

Regarding cannibalism, it was fairly common during WW2: wiki/Human_cannibalism#Modern_era

watch?v=deoNAOfkXxc

And I may have written that winter battle section while listening to Frostpunk's "The City Must Survive" soundtrack. Then again, fighting in Siberia's winter just sounds like a brutal way of testing both sides' logistics capability and ability to endure suffering. It also reminds me of The Dark Knight movie's Joker's quote of "As you know, madness is like gravity...all it takes is a little push."

As the 'Generation War' TV series shows, anyone can be a minesweeper, once: watch?v=FYEpih1T4wI

As for how the Rus got their hands on the unexploded rocket: wiki/K-13_(missile)#Background_-_the_Sidewinder_missile

On 28 September 1958,[3] a similar engagement resulted in one of the missiles becoming lodged in a MiG-17 without exploding, allowing it to be removed after landing. The Soviets later became aware that the Chinese had at least one Sidewinder, and after some wrangling, were able to persuade the Chinese to send them one of the captured missiles.[4] Gennadiy Sokolovskiy, later chief engineer at the Vympel team, said that "the Sidewinder missile was to us a university offering a course in missile construction technology which has upgraded our engineering education and updated our approach to production of future missiles."[5]

As for the rocket artillery, well, sometimes munitions just fail to detonate: wiki/Unexploded_ordnance

Reference to the Chinese forced labor system for prisoners: wiki/Laogai

Reference to Shi Yousan: wiki/Shi_Yousan

Shi is also notable for joining/defecting to, and betraying the forces of Wu Peifu, Feng Yuxiang, Chiang Kai-shek, Wang Jingwei, Zhang Xueliang, the Chinese Communist Party, and Japan, in that order.

For his many betrayals and defections he is known as the "Defector General" (Chinese: 倒戈將軍; pinyin: Dǎogē Jiāngjūn) or as Shi Sanfan (Chinese: 石三翻; pinyin: Shí sānfān, "Shi [who] turns three times").[1]

In 1928, Shi's troops set fire to the Shaolin Monastery, burning it for over 40 days, killing more than 200 monks and destroying 90 percent of the buildings including many manuscripts of the temple library.[2][3]

watch?v=LEIhPddX-cY

Reference to the secret loans: wiki/Nishihara_Loans

Reference to the 21 demands: wiki/Twenty-One_Demands

Reference to the palace looting and destruction: .

The napalm strike scene was inspired by Spec Ops: The Line's white phosphorus scene. NSFW: watch?v=-b7TaLjdXMc

I may or may not had this NSFW Vietnam War era song playing while writing about the napalm strike: watch?v=t9eybY9qFfY

References to Emperor Taizu of Qing and Emperor Taizu of Ming:

wiki/Nurhaci

wiki/Hongwu_Emperor

Inspiration for the prison letter interception: watch?v=pQMXqmuj2Zw

wiki/Francis_Walsingham#Espionage

OLD CHAPTER 8, IGNORE THE BELOW WRITING IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT MY WRITING BACK IN 2021 LOOKS LIKE

Chapter 8, Crossing the line

AN: Edited by Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid

Somewhere in the CSR:

"Chairman Zhang's openness of using Buddhist monks to help secure Burma from the Allied Kingdom disturbs me, especially with Tibet still remaining semi-autonomous. The only main thing he asked from the traitorous monks was to allow the CSR to build railways and roads through Burma, access to ports, freedom of movement, and CSR's final say on Burma's foreign policy." Wang Ming said while tightly gripping his cup of tea. "We had recently made a similar deal with Afghanistan where the king doesn't need to implement any of the communism ideas, at least until we start building a railway to connect Kabul to our Rus-Bharat railway, and even then they can drag their feet thanks to the vagueness of the agreement. In fact, the deal is so much in favor of the king that as long as he ensures the security of the roads and railway passing through his country and consults with the CSR on any foreign deals, he can do almost whatever he wants."

He took a sip of tea before continuing. "I had also learned that when North Bharat asked the CSR for advice on the conflict between communism and religion, the chairman's response was 'Why not both? We have a war to win. We can't afford to have a religious civil war when our front door is being kicked down.' So instead of spreading communism, all we're getting is a whole bunch of religious states surrounding us and deals that are favorable to them. How can we trust them in the long term?"

Luo Ronghuan, Marshal of the Army, nods in agreement, "The Chairman is so focused on knocking down our enemies and using his "be flexible like water flowing around stones" doctrine that he forgets that he will become like them over time. He even got rid of the political commissars in the military with the justification that they are redundant and only cause confusion in military command!" The Marshal banged his fist on the table, the mere memory of the decree having resurfaced his disappointment and anger, "He should have told the NKVD to stop pushing North Bharat into war. Now our influence in the Russy Federation will rapidly decline while our army is slogging through the mountains. The fact that the Rus factions are renaming the Russy Federation to Russy Confederation should indicate how loosely aligned they will be. It would be like herding cats!"

"You knew he was going to get rid of the political commissars." Wang Ming responded. "He had been slowly cutting them down before he was even the Chairman, and it was only several months ago when he prohibited them from overruling military officers for combat planning and orders."

Gao Gang set down his tea. "We should have been securing peace between the Rus factions instead of jumping straight into the civil war. While we did secure some major allies, it also secured enemies that begrudgingly tolerate us. Especially after our Sibyrian Army used 'alternative' food sources during their winter operation."

"That's on the idiots for having a no quarters policy!" Luo Ronghuan shouted. "You never back a rat into a corner and not give it a way out!"

Gao Gang and Luo Ronghuan glared at each other until Wang Ming motioned at someone else who wanted to speak.

"The whole Bharat war ruined the Great Leap Forward, especially with North Bharat facing the possibility of being wiped out." Hua Guofeng, Secretary of the Hunan Province, said. "Zhang Wentian has subordinates that are loyal to him. If we are to correct the course of our country, we will need to go after them first. Without them, he will be left vulnerable. And some of you are in the perfect position to accomplish such tasks."

Other people in the room nodded in agreement.

"Should we also invite Li Lisan?" someone asked.

Multiple people in the room shifted uncomfortably or had a concerned look on their faces.

"He's... extreme." Wang Ming cautiously says. "His recent denunciation of all 'old' history and culture as being deadweights on the communism cause disturbs me. And he is a very uncompromising person."

"Even if he doesn't cause trouble for us, anyone that sees him around us will get suspicious." Hua Guofeng added in, earning the agreement of the rest of the room. They all then sip at their beverages in silence until Wang Ming speaks up:

"Well then, unless anyone else has something to say, we should probably get going soon." They all looked at each other but no one had anything to say. "Good." He continues, "This concludes the meeting. Proletariats and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!"

"Proletariats and oppressed peoples of the world, unite!" Echoed the rest of the room.

1943, September 13th, Berun:

My mind is still in a bit of a daze from Visha asking to have some time to herself and thus I had to sleep in a separate bedroom again. I walked straight into that ambush in that discussion regarding Miss Caldwell, yet I still don't understand - she's just a journalist.

There was no point in trying to push Visha though, and doing so might just shatter our relationship that was going so well before the war kicked off.

I heard a knock on the door. "Come in."

Elya stepped in, followed by General Lergen. She looked around nervously, and then moved to start putting up a privacy spell.

That's... not a good sign.

Elya looks at me, "Chancellor, it would be best if we speak in your sound-proofed room."

Definitely not a good sign.

After we entered the room, she handed me a report as she started to speak. "Chancellor, there were some interesting developments from the new republics, especially Caucasia and Kazakh Republics, and also from the Russy Federation. We also got some valuable information on how the CSR conducts their war against the hostile Rus factions. The intel from the combination of numerous information pieces alarmed us."

I glanced through the first two pages. "Insurgency activity is going down. Isn't that a good thing?"

"If you flip to page 4, Major Koenig has obtained some information."

I read that particular page, and froze. He had interrogated several prisoners, including a CSR agent and a suspected NKVD agent. They all claimed that they were told the CSR was having their forces move westward after Koenig beautifully used the prisoner's dilemma concept to make them talk. He then took a team across Kazakh border into the Russy Federation for confirmation, and had orb recordings of CSR forces marching mainly southward instead.

The CSR's rear forces were constructing roads and a railway, and there were a lot of detected magic signatures. If they could use a large number of mages for construction work, how much do they also have for combat?

He captured more prisoners, and learned that there were peace talks between the Rus factions. Elya's own intelligence agents reported that the siege of Moskva had been lifted.

"The CSR is panicking at losing North Bharat. So why are they sending their Sibyrian army south instead of using the Trans-Sibyria railways?"

I looked at the world map on the wall.

"The only obvious shortcut route is through Afghanistan, and it's very mountainous. The western portion doesn't have as many mountains, but they still have to cross them anyways." I said as Elya and General Lergen nodded in agreement.

I had a flashback when I reminded myself of that; Asking me to get involved with what is often called "The Graveyard of Empires" in my previous life is almost equivalent to someone asking me if I want to get pushed in front of a train again, or use the Type 95 orb. I don't know the exact details of the Soviets and then the Americans stumbling around in that hell hole, but the CSR marching an entire army through it might accelerate the future "War on Terror" that I need to avoid at any cost. Last thing I want is a 9/11 on my land, some terrorist group trying to kill me in my sleep, and then OZEV burning through billions of Marks and thousands of lives for over a decade of frustrating counter-insurgency operations with little to show for in the aftermath.

"That has been confusing me as well. They would have to cover about 2,500 kilometers, and it looks like much of that would be on foot. There might be some railways in central Asia for them to use to reduce the walking distance, but certainly not within Afghanistan." General Lergen replied.

An entire army crossing the mountains. I read something about this in the War College a long time ago - It was Hannibal's famous crossing of the Alps. And speaking of marching long distances, I recall there was something about "Mao's Long March" in my previous world. All I remembered was that Mao took his army on a march halfway through the country, through the jungles and mountains, to avoid annihilation from the pursuing nationalist armies.

"Elya, General Lergen, do you remember anything about Hannibal's crossing of the Alps?"

"It sounds familiar." Elya said while Lergen just nods.

"I wasn't expecting the CSR to pull a repeat of that." General Lergen replied. "Even Dacia from the first Europan war brought artillery pieces with them for the invasion of the Empire. For the CSR, they would have to go without that if they want to cross that much distance over rough terrain in a few months. It would be an entirely light infantry army."

"Did the CSR's Sibyrian army make extensive usage of heavy equipment and vehicles in their operations in the Russy Federation?"

"It was mostly infantry and mages. They primarily relied on railroads, and locally acquired vehicles and horses to get around. But their infantry marched on foot when transports or roads weren't available, often for weeks through rough terrain."

Elya paused for a moment as if she was recalling something, and then continued. "I read a report from one of the analysts stating that the CSR's Sibyrian army was well known by the Rus to ignore roads to move through the forests and mountains in order to avoid detection. During the day, they would camouflage themselves and not move to avoid aerial patrols. At night is when they would march. Page 8 has information on that."

"How do they attack? Human wave assaults?"

"Sort of. They would use one group for frontal offensives at night time to pin the enemy forces in place, and have the rest of their units stealthily march around to flank and encircle the enemy positions. Once they find a weakness, that is when they commit their reserve units to exploit them. Rus factions that are hostile to the CSR often resort to shelling or bombing their own positions because of how close the CSR infantry gets. Sometimes the battle starts when the CSR infantry enters their enemies' fortifications first. They have performed feigned retreats to try to lure their enemies out of their fortified positions."

"Of course the Rus would shell and bomb their own men." I sighed while putting my hand on my forehead. "Wait, if they can march for weeks, where are they getting their supplies?" as I pointed at the vast Sibyria region on the map.

"The traditional method from before we had trains. Have each man carry at least a week or two worth of supplies. Pack animals. Human porters when there weren't enough pack animals, which either used bicycles or went on foot. For small forces sent on long range patrols or to attack deeply remote outposts, they also foraged for food, water and firewood to maintain their stealth by minimizing the size of their supply lines. Intel suggests that they heavily rely on locals' advice to rapidly adapt to new situations." Elya paused for a second. "And there were also cases of... cannibalism."

"What?"

"There was one battle during the late fall where a hostile Rus faction shot most of a CSR divison's pack animals and set the supplies on fire. This was while temperatures were approaching below minus 20 Celsius, not including wind chill. The CSR division was already more than a week away from the closest road. The Rus commander ordered the execution of surrendered CSR soldiers because he was concerned about running out of provisions during the winter, and also strongly disliked the CSR's interpretation of communism."

They sure did back that CSR division into a corner.

Elya continued speaking. "The Rus position was later overrun from a series of desperate attacks. The survivors that escaped reported that the remainders of the CSR division cannibalized corpses and prisoners, and only spared prisoners that helped them track fleeing forces to hunt them down. It was after that battle where the CSR Sibyrian Army's cannibalism incidents steadily increased in areas far away from the railroads with the onset of winter, and it only tapered off when the winter ended. There were many other cases of atrocities from both sides."

There was a moment of silence between General Lergen and I. I remember how the Rhine Front between the Empire and Francois Republic was brutal, but I never imagined the communists would go at each other like that. Who knows how they would treat the non-communists in a direct war.

"When faced with the prospect of either retreating and starving to death in the freezing cold on the way back, being defeated and starving to death afterwards, or win and not starve, the decision was already made for them." General Lergen shrugged.

"Food is a strong motivator. I remember Operation Desert Pasta." I nod my head before speaking. "Anyways, what kind of weapons and equipment does the CSR use for those night attacks?"

"Few heavy equipment, if any. Usually the most are some mortars, grenades and explosive charges. Their Sibyrian Army has fully adopted Rus equipment. They do make use of a lot of submachine guns, shotguns and melee weapons for the close quarter battles. Now if they capture vehicles and aircraft from the hostile factions, they will make use of it, although another report mentioned that they were concentrating captured and purchased hardware in several divisions to conduct combined arms warfare for conventional battles. So far they are struggling with combined arms warfare, but they do have Rus advisors to help out."

I hum at the information, "How about mages? How do they use them against the hostile Rus factions?"

"If they aren't doing aerial patrols, they march with the infantry to blend in." Elya said. "For night time attacks, the mages are often mixed in with the infantry and if they have to use magic, they quickly blend back into the infantry masses. The CSR mages in pairs also make use of noise canceling spells when conducting raids to draw less attention."

"I suspect the CSR mages stopped using traditional mage tactics in the presence of heavy anti-aircraft fire and magic detectors that the Rus historically fielded, and now the CSR is using their mages as shock infantry to get around those counters." General Lergen said. "Besides, there's no need for aerial spotters if they didn't bring any artillery guns with them."

I remember clearing out about a dozen commies that showed up to disrupt my political rally at a bar back in my early years, and that was without a computational orb. The best chance the poor Rus infantry would have is to have someone pull a Banzai and charge in with explosives strapped to their chest to take out the blood knight, or call an artillery or bombing strike on their own position. And if the mages were using noise canceling spells, the only indicator that something is amiss is when the magic detectors go off. In the middle of a battle when regular infantry are also pouring in, it would be even harder to locate and respond to the CSR mages.

"How have the hostile Rus factions fared against the CSR in guerrilla warfare?"

"Mixed results, especially after the winter." Elya said. "Although the CSR's Sibyrian army took heavy losses during the winter, they still remained highly effective and had improved their combat performance in the following spring. "It is difficult to conduct insurgency against an army that also conducts their own guerrilla warfare."

"Did they conduct the same stealth attack operations in Bharat?"

"No, but I guess it's a matter of time before their lessons in the Russy Federation are transferred to the war in Bharat."

"General Romel and our allies need to know about their warfare doctrine." I pointed at the Himalayas and the mountains on the border between North Bharat and Afghanistan on the map. "I won't be a host to a Hannibal-style attack over the mountains nor lose men on overextended lines in some forsaken mountain range. We're digging in."

"Chancellor, I'm concerned about revealing how much we know about the CSR's operations in the Russy Federation to our allies."

"Why's that?"

"The more people know about this, the more likely the CSR will ask themselves "They know. How?". And that could put our intelligence operations in the Russy Federation in jeopardy, which would leave us blind to their future activities. I expect them to resume their meddling with the new republics once they stabilize North Bharat, and it would be essential to know if they are changing any of their insurgency strategies."

"Plausible deniability seems to be the new popular thing." I sighed. "I guess all we can do is hope that the rest of the coalition will agree with Romel's plans even if he's not allowed to disclose exactly what we know about the CSR's military."

"Should we have our agents head over to Afghanistan to support the locals against the CSR?"

Isn't that what the Americans and other countries did when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan? And all they got was some trained and equipped extremist groups that the Americans had to fight afterwards? With Afghanistan having communist neighbors on three sides, the only way to get any materiel to the rebels is either through the inevitable powder keg Middle East, or somehow find a way to drive a wedge between CSR and the Rus or North Bharat.

"No, we should be having our agents focus on ensuring the safety of the new republics and get an idea of the shifting political situation between the Rus factions. Considering that some of the factions were neutral or even hostile to the CSR, we could potentially find opportunities to drive wedges further between them or establish base of operations for intelligence gathering. We also still need to establish the oil industry in the Caucasia and Kazakh Republics, and now is a perfect time with the CSR distracted."

"What should we do about our forces and allies in Bharat?" General Lergen asked.

I traced my hand over the Bharat on the map. "We should tell General Romel to find suitable defensive terrain and stop advancing to dig in. General Lergen, find commanders and strategists that helped design the Degurechaff Line and have them fly to Bharat to consult General Romel on preparing for a defensive war. The CSR is going to be pouring their men over the mountains, and if we're fighting against a vastly numerically superior enemy, I would like for them to crash into fortifications and bleed themselves dry before we launch our counter attack. I think our river boats might be helpful as well."

I paused as I got an idea. Napalm doesn't really make for good PR, but a wall of fire is a sure way of stopping a human wave assault, and a great way to light up the dark night to reveal hidden commies.

"General Lergen, how effective are napalm weapons?"

"Napalm?" he asked with a deep confusion on his face.

"Sorry, the petroleum jelly mixtures - the ones used for the riverboats"

"Ah, that thing." The General thinks for a moment, a hand on his chin, "Our army, air force, and the OZEV volunteer forces love it. They found it useful for any situation, ranging from caves to tanks. North Bharati soldiers that survived the incendiary strikes often surrendered or fled when faced with another round of burning. The commanders have been clamoring to get more of it." He then seems to wince as looks at me before hesitantly speaking, "Speaking of incendiary weapons... the army has requested a rocket artillery system that can deliver the flammable mixtures over a long range instead of just relying on bombs and flamethrowers, which would also serve a dual purpose of blocking the enemy's line of sight with the fire and smoke."

Ah, Lergen must be worried about me denying such a request. He shouldn't worry though, I know how effective napalm can be against materiel and morale, "If the high command wants more of those mixtures and a rocket artillery system to deliver those, they have my full support." I say with a smile, "Though I would also recommend ordering much more flares, searchlights, flashlights, night vision goggles, and other gear to deal with the CSR's night time attacks. It'll be harder for them to conduct night time attacks if we turn the night into daytime."

General Lergen raised an eyebrow and Elya had a look of confusion.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, no. It's fine. Let us know if you have any questions regarding the full report." Elya said.

As Elya and General Lergen walked out of the Chancellor's office, they entered another room, looked around, and Elya put up a noise blocking spell.

"Night vision goggles?" General Lergen asked. "Does she mean the experimental infrared systems for our tanks? It's not exactly manportable though."

"There's also the Zielgerät 1229, but that's for snipers and scouts as a rifle attachment for night time reconnaissance and shooting." Elya said. "Did we ever brief her about those devices?"

Lergen scratched his head. "Not that I recall, unless she had paid R&D a direct visit without telling anyone else about it. Do you think she was referring to a night vision device for general infantry usage?"

"R&D would have panicked if she had dropped by unannounced, so maybe someone gave her files about those. We should ask R&D if they have a general use night vision device. If they don't have one in development, then I guess you'll have to ask them to make one."

1943, September 25th, Bombay, South Bharat:

"You're saying the CSR might be marching directly south and over the mountains, and it's already approaching winter?" General Law asked. "Half of their army will be dead from attrition!"

"It's the report I got directly from my high command back in Berun." General Romel shrugged.

"It's certainly a bold move." General McArthur rubbed his chin. "Maybe they're counting on us to not expect that. But any forces they can send over the mountains would be insignificant as there are very few roads for them to use, and I wouldn't consider many of those paths to be proper roads, and more like hiking trails."

"Even if they march over the mountains, it would take several months for their full force to come over." General Poulin said as he plotted the possible marching routes that the CSR would have to take. "We could use that time to finish off North Bharat and fortify in the defensible mountains, instead of letting North Bharat rebuild their military."

"We could have been having this meeting in Bhopal and then have a party in the evening by now, except we're still clearing out the pocket that North Bharat's southern army has fortified itself into." General McArthur said as he motioned at territory that the encircled army was still controlling. "At least the encircled eastern army called it quits instead of fortifying in Dhaka and forcing us into house to house fighting. I know the Aussies have been doing a great job capturing Panta and continuing to advance west, but that's not enough, and now they're being slowed by the CSR's attacks from their Tibet territory."

"I can't believe they decided to drag out the fighting." General Poulin complained. "I thought they would recognize the inevitable doom and lay down their arms. It's completely... illogical."

"Yes… illogical." Romel said with a smirk on his face.

Poulin glared at Romel before the Pullish representative put forward a hand to stop things from escalating. "Now now, we're not supposed to beat each other up. At least save it for after we defeat the communists."

A few tense moments passes until Romel speaks up:

"Perhaps we should have left a small opening for the encircled army. Give them a hope of escaping."

"We already tried that and all that did was allow more supplies and equipment to flow in before we put an end to it." General Poulin said as he pointed at the location that they had tried to allow the encircled army to flee through. "They also fell back to more defensible locations and started digging fortifications instead of trying to push through the gap, which tells me that their command is aware of what would happen if they took the bait."

"I'm also concerned with the increased presence of CSR personnel within North Bharat's replacement army."

"You mean almost all of the replacement army. At least we know that North Bharat is scraping the barrel when it comes to conscription." Henry Law said.

"I want to hear General Romel's proposition." the Akitsushiman representative said.

General Romel motioned to his mage aide to project the maps showing the rivers and naturally defensive terrain for possible defensive works locations.

"Along the east side, the main defensive line will be at the Brahmaputra River and the southern part of Ghaghara River, with Lucknow city being part of the defense. In the center, Ganges River will be the main defensive line, and a fall back line if Lucknow falls. Our combat boats will also be able to assist in the river defense. Defending Delhi after capturing it will be difficult due to the relatively flat terrain directly north of it with no natural defensive terrain, and North Bharat will be strongly motivated to retake it from us, for strategic, economic, cultural and political reasons. Lucknow would be in a similar situation due to the flat land north of it which is why we have to assume it might fall. To the west, Rajasthan province's Aravalli mountain range and the Luni River will be a great asset. The Gujarat province has two major lakes to create chokepoints in between them, and some mountainous terrain as well."

"We can help hold the rivers with our boats and ships." the Akitsushima Dominion representative said.

"You intend on just being satisfied with South Bharat?" Law asked, his skepticism evident by his expression. "Besides, that's about 4,700 kilometers of defensive works that you have to build. The trench network that the Empire and the Francois Republic built was only about 800 kilometers in length, and that took well over a year."

"I would prefer to bleed the CSR dry, and then counter-attack." Responded Rommel, "Besides, nature already built most of the defensive terrain for us. We just need to apply the finishing touches." He says as he pointed to some of the natural terrain on the map.

"There wouldn't be a North Bharat left for the CSR to save if we hold the mountains farther north!" Poulin boasted with confidence. "They can't bring in artillery, tanks or other heavy equipment through the mountain paths. And there are no nearby airfields for their aircraft to support them, other than in the Tibet region. Just relying on massed infantry assaults would be suicidal against us."

"I'm going to have to agree with the Albish and Franks here." McArthur said. "Go for the finishing blow and get this war done before CSR can fully mobilize and send their army over."

The other representatives nodded at Douglas McArthur's suggestion.

"I can't participate in the attack beyond the proposed defensive lines." Romel said to the disappointment of the rest of the officers. "I have direct orders from my high command to dig in, protect specific high value areas, and wait for the CSR to attack."

"What about your air force and mages?" Law asked.

Romel nods, "Our air force, mages and navy can continue to assist in the offensives."

"That seems fair enough... At least we can rest easy knowing that we have fallback positions in case the CSR has mobilized faster than expected." the Ispagna representative said.

"You're going to just sit in your trenches and let us bleed?!" Poulin demanded.

"I would have preferred if we all sat in the trenches and let the CSR bleed instead, but I can't disobey the orders from my command." Romel said calmly. "Otherwise they'll just find a more compliant general to replace me. Besides, there has to be a reason why the encircled North Bharatis are making us pay in blood for every kilometer that we advance against them even though we're tightening their noose by the day. Maybe they know something about the CSR's intervention plans that we don't."

"The CSR won't be a major worry." McArthur chuckled. "The recent wars in Europe showed that human wave assaults with minimal vehicle, artillery and air support are completely obsolete against a modern army."

1943, September 30th, Londinium:

Churbull had his doubts of Tanya von Degurechaff before he was fully committed to knocking out the Russy Federation, and then a change of heart after talking to her. Now he's having doubts again of what the Germanian Chancellor's true intentions were the whole time.

"They were making a play for South Bharat all this time." Viscount Guysborough, the foreign secretary, fumed. "They built bases on their islands in the South Bharati Ocean and sent their entire fleet to conduct exercises next to South Bharat. Then they showed their true color by exploiting the deep divisions within South Bharat's government so that the pro-Germanian factions can push out the rest to gain full power, and then she set up a parallel military structure that is run by OZEV's and Germania's military personnel, and paid by Germania. Coincidentally, South Bharat's original military grows weaker with every day and now the civilian government that is under the Chancellor's control is conducting corruption investigations into their own military instead of being worried about the parallel military force."

Rear Admiral John Godby, head of the Office of Naval Intelligence, spoke up. "And Captain Flemons reported that several dozen South Bharatis from the parallel military force, including mages, are being flown to Germania. Either Germania has a secret plan for them, or will be training them for something."

"The thing that concerns me is why the OZEV's forces and their local volunteer army insist on digging trenches instead of helping us fully defeat North Bharat." Churbull said as he took out a stick of tobacco from his cigar box.

John Godby rolled out a map of the predicted logistic movements of the CSR. "Our intelligence concluded that if the CSR is redeploying their forces from the Russy Federation, they would use the Trans-Sibyria railways, then move south through their country, and then attack through their Tibet region, which they have already launched several attacks from to disrupt the Australanders' advance. If the Russy Federation can use those Trans-Sibyria railways to move an entire army east to crush Akitsushima Dominion, and then back west to have a go at OZEV, then the CSR should be able to do something similar."

He rolled out another map, this time displaying the known mountain road routes in Tibet. "Limited aerial reconnaissance showed they have built a road network in Tibet's mountainous terrain, which could definitely support a large amount of reinforcements. Or they can cut through Burma."

"If they invade Burma, that would be a major escalation." Viscount Guysborough said

"Since when did diplomatic considerations stop communists from marching in anyways?" Alan Brook, Chief of the General Staff, asked. He drew a line between the CSR and South Bharat's eastern province. "Cutting through Burma would give them another way to send their forces into Bharat instead of being limited to the mountain roads."

Churbull places a cigar in his mouth and lights it, "Speaking of Burma," He says between puffs of smoke, "there has been a rise in pro-independence protests, labor strikes and other disruptions. Is the CSR involved with that?" His eyes sweep across the other men in the room, "It would seem like a great way for them to kick off their invasion of Burma, by doing it when the region is up in flames and we're busy putting down rebels."

"The Francois Republic has also been dealing with rising unrest in their Indochina colony." Guysborough said. "Some local nationalist named Phan Văn San escaped from his house arrest, and ended up being gunned down by the Francois authorities sometime later. Now the locals are using him as a martyr to rally around, and it appears he's a greater threat as a martyr than being alive."

"We are not sure if the CSR is involved with one or both of those regions. While there are some socialist or communist leaning protests, the vast majority of the unrest seems to be simply tied with people wanting unions, better living conditions, and independence. There have also been some protests and riots led by extremist Buddist monks." John Godby said. "If the CSR has their hands in it, they are certainly more deft at it instead of immediately igniting a communist revolution."

"So from what I'm getting at, we need to station garrisons along the Tibet and Burma border regions for their counter offensive?" Churbull asks and then took another puff of his cigar.

John Godby cleared his throat. "It's the most sensible option. While Germania thinks the CSR is going to march through Afghanistan, it's a long march for them and by the time they emerge in North Bharat, they won't have any heavy equipment if they are to complete the march before winter sets in. If they're still marching through the mountains in the middle of winter, then I'll pity those fools. General Henry Law assured me that when the coalition makes their way closer to the mountains, they will be conducting aerial reconnaissance over the mountains to spot any troop movements. If the CSR is sending in a large force, it should be easy to locate it."

"I'll also be sending a diplomat over to Afghanistan." Guysborough said as he scribbled something in his notebook. "Just to get an idea of their situation, such as if they've been facing any pressures from the Rus or CSR."

"I remember proposing that mountain invasion route against the Rus." Churbull said.

"And you changed your mind after meeting with the Chancellor." Brook responded. "If she had doubts about us sending an army through Afghanistan for an invasion of the Rus, I'm not sure how the CSR will have success with that same region."

Everyone else in the room nodded. Churbull then asked, "On a different topic, what do the Germanian elections look like right now?"

"Predictable. Tanya von Degurechaff isn't even bothering to campaign like last time and we expect her political party to win another landslide victory. While there have been some increasing number of protests against Germania's involvement in a faraway, expensive conflict, I don't expect that to pose a problem for the Chancellor. Not as severe as the anti-war protests in the Unified States, which looks like it will have an effect on their upcoming presidential elections." Guysborough said. "The only thing that is fluid is that some of the cabinet positions are up for grabs, especially with their Foreign Minister, Hans von Zettour, stating that he was seeking to step down to be just a foreign advisor. There are rumors that he had complications from a surgery."

"Preaches about democracy while pulling all of the strings to make sure that she stays in power." Churbull laughed. "I suppose I should be thankful that she wasn't born in the Allied Kingdom and thus make a complete mockery of our politics."

"We also noticed that the Chancellor and Vice Chancellor appear to be more… distant from each other." Godby said. "We're not sure what happened."

"Probably lovers' dispute over something insignificant such as cooking or other household chores." Guysborough sneered. "There's no way their unnatural relationship can be stable."

"I wouldn't want to be in their way if they were fighting. I wouldn't be surprised if they cause lots of damage." Churbull said. "But on a serious note, maybe they had some major policy disagreements. Is there a way to find out more?"

"If they had policy disagreements, they certainly kept it hidden from Germania's press. They have been a hard nut to crack ever since Degurechaff came to power." Godby said. "Just trying to learn about their military R&D has been filled with failures."

"Find out what you can." Churbull said as he put out his cigar in the ashtray. "I don't want to be surprised with something major shifting in their government and Germania going in an unexpected direction. And where Germania goes, OZEV will likely follow. We were already surprised by their military technology and tactics in the last war, fortunately it was the Frogs that were subjected to it."

1943, October 9th, Kabul, Afghanistan:

As the Allied Kingdom ambassador left the palace, the king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, breathed a sigh of relief and then walked back to his office. It was too late for him to turn his back, there was no point in alerting the ambassador of the CSR's activity as the Allied Kingdom and other countries were in no position to save his country when the CSR was marching about half a million men through his lands, with more arriving to build the roads and railway behind the advancing army. Even if he did try to warn the ambassador, the CSR mages would immediately kill them both and begin their purges.

The CSR's deal that he signed more than a month ago was straightforward. Ally with the CSR and keep his position, power and wealth. The envoy said they would be building roads and a railroad linking the Russy Confederation and North Bharat. They even claimed that the CSR doesn't need his country to be communist, and emphasized that they wanted to minimize disruptions. He knew eventually the CSR would start pressuring him to "reform" his country or find a more pliable puppet, especially if North Bharat survives the war as a communist country, leaving three major communist neighbors on the three sides of his country. Might as well squeeze more infrastructure projects and other concessions out of the CSR to help his country slowly modernize.

He knew some of the tribes would be deeply skeptical, but the alternative was for the communists to directly run things, and he doubted they would be able to carefully navigate the tribal politics to avoid a full blown revolt on their hands.

If he had refused the deal, the CSR mage company that came in as a "garrison" while the CSR's army was still far away would have purged his entire family and government. And even if he survived the purge, there was no way he could fight the eventually arriving army. Betting that the coalition would defeat North Bharat backed by the massive number of CSR soldiers and mages, then crossing over the mountains into his country while still fighting off CSR reinforcements, and then hoping that they would help modernize his country after the war is over, was a fool's dream.

1943, October 12th, in the Hyderabad State, North Bharat's southern army pocket:

Captain Teyanen was enjoying his time in Bharat, causing chaos for the communists like what he previously did in the Russy Federation. He missed working with Koenig, but apparently Koenig was needed elsewhere and could not come down to Bharat.

In the aftermath of the encirclement, the mass uprising among civilians was a great opportunity, as it meant the trapped North Bharati army was stretched thin with holding their pocket, suppressing the uprisings and also dealing with agents of chaos like him.

He was about to have his company get moving again when he heard some commotion from the nearby Krishna River. He pulled up his binoculars and observed that a small group of North Bharati soldiers were attempting to cross the river, but were spotted by a patrol boat and were fired upon. Some of the soldiers attempted to fire back, but were quickly cut down by the boat crew's machine guns and the autocannon. The communists had quickly learned that any large crossing attempts typically invited attention from the flamethrower and rocket artillery boats, and that is when the body counts skyrocket.

"Sir, I'm picking up some magical signatures." one of the subordinates said. "Possibly a company of North Bharati mages. They're heading straight for the patrol boat."

While he knew all of the boats had 20mm or 30mm autocannons as anti-air defense, isolated boats were still vulnerable to large numbers of mages. There were a few airbases that were recently established so OZEV's aircraft could patrol the skies along the Krishna River, but that didn't stop the communists from trying to probe at the river, as the Krishna River was both their defensive line and a logistics highway. Thankfully they only had very few anti-tank weapons and even less tanks to deal with the boats, and have yet to drag their naval mines into the rivers.

"Let's position ourselves to intercept them. They won't think of looking down in the trees. Hold your fire until I give the order." Teyanen said. "We can go back into hiding after we take them down."

As the North Bharati mages came into view, Teyanen waited until he saw the boat's autocannon swing around at the incoming mages.

"Engage."

Many of the North Bharati mages suddenly came tumbling out of the sky from the explosive spells fired from the trees below them. The last two had spun around to aim at the trees when they were gunned down by the boat's autocannon. Tenyanen watches as the torn corpses tumble down from the sky.

"No witnesses. Good. Let's get going."

Captain Green and his company were resting on a forested hill that was overlooking a road.

"One more day of this lads, and we'll be heading back." Green said. "The communists really stuffed it up with how they're handling the revolts. Maybe the war will be over by Christmas."

"Why don't we just give the anti-communist rebels weapons?" One of his men asked.

"That's for the higher ups to decide after we report back." Green responded. "Can't do it right now with communist mages and their magic detectors still being around."

"I see movement on the road, a few kilometers out." Another mage reported as they looked through their binoculars. Green also pulled up his binoculars to see it for himself. It was a large convoy of wagon carts, and being pulled by humans for some reason.

"Pack up boys, we're moving again. Get into ambush positions. Wait for my signal." Green ordered.

As the men slowly moved into positions, Green could definitely see that the wagon carts were not being pulled by volunteers or North Bharati soldiers. It was forced labor, and a lot of it. The cart pullers had restraints that prevented them from being able to escape, while a few North Bharati soldiers were off to the side to monitor the forced laborers.

"Quietly spread the word, avoid hitting the wagon pullers."

His two nearby subordinates nodded and moved about to have the order passed from person to person.

After over 10 minutes of waiting and with the full convoy in front of him, he used his voice spell to order them to fire. It didn't take long for all of the North Bharati soldiers to be gunned down.

He and a translator walked over to one of the laborers. The translator asked something in different local languages before starting a conversation. He then turned to Green.

"Sir, they said the North Bharati soldiers are seizing all of the food, medicine, fuel, livestock, and their fall crop harvests. They are conducting mass arrests, and then forcing the captured civilians to march to the frontlines to build fortifications or other jobs. This all happened shortly after people heard about the North Bharati army being encircled, and then the revolts kicked off. There's also some serious chaos going on in Hyderabad."

"Everyone, set the prisoners free. Platoon one, keep an overwatch in case we get any unwelcome company. Once they're all freed, we're going to Hyderabad to see how badly the communists cocked it up."

As the freed people fled into the forest with some of them carrying weapons looted from the dead soldiers, Green is interrupted by platoon one. "There's a mage company heading our way."

"Everyone get back into the woods before they see us. Only fire on my command."

The North Bharati mages searched around, and started opening fire into the forests as they descended to it. Green knew they had found the escaped prisoners, and there was nothing to stop the enemy mages from rounding them up and possibly just executing them on the spot.

Just before he gave the order, a crack of rifle fire was heard from a far off distance, taking out about half of the North Bharati mages. His company opened fire as the remaining North Bharati mages were turning around to face the unexpected attack.

"Looks like we're not the only ones sneaking around here. Let's get going before we draw more attention."

Somewhere else in Bharat:

Staff Sergeant Georg Eschenbach and his platoon were scouting ahead to check on a fortification construction that was previously spotted by aerial reconnaissance. He had one been one of the many veterans who joined the OZEV's volunteer force, especially after seeing TV broadcasts of recordings of the Chancellor personally fighting to defend South Bharat's capital in the beginning of the war. He knew Lieutenant Reitzel and Storch had also answered the call, but unfortunately never saw them in Bharat. Instead, he was paired up with Second Lieutenant Andrea, who had just missed the Second Europan War as he had completed training about a week before the Russy Federation's collapse. The one good thing about Andrea is that despite his lack of combat experience, he had a good knack for land navigation from years of recreational mountain climbing.

As the fortifications came into view, he motioned to his men to carefully creep forward to avoid detection. They hadn't seen any North Bharati patrols yet, but he was not going to be taking any chances.

"Looks like they're turning that village on a hill into a fortress." Andrea remarked as he scanned the fortification with his binoculars.

"They're still doing construction work?" Eschenbach asked.

"I think so. Do you want to use your H7 orb to get a better look at them?"

Eschenbach spun up his orb and used his binoculars to scan the fortification. He could see that there was lots of activity, but it was difficult to tell what the laborers looked like as their view was mostly obscured by all of the dirt and other materials piled up. He did see some armed soldiers.

"I can't really make out what the laborers look like. The only good view I got were the soldiers or guards. I don't see any anti-aircraft weapons unless they're behind the dirt walls."

"Do you think there might be civilians in that construction site?" Andrea asked.

"I have no idea. Our order did state that if the fortification is manned, we will have to call in an airstrike to neutralize it. They should have evacuated the civilians from the front lines. I would not be surprised if the laborers will pick up weapons to open fire on us if we approach their fortress."

"I'm not willing to risk our men to get an even closer look. This is as far as we can go before having to leave the cover of the forest. There's not much cover out in the harvested fields. I don't know what to do if there are many civilians in the fortress, but the command doesn't want an enemy fortress overlooking a major road."

Eschenbach bit his lip. Andrea had a good point. They had to protect their men, and to risk throwing lives away to see if there were civilians in the fortification would be reckless. And they might have to bomb the fortress anyways to clear the path.

"You're right sir, we have to protect our men and conducting further reconnaissance would be reckless."

Andrea nodded and motioned at the radio operator to begin the coordination for having a bomber show up at the right spot and hit the right target.

"Should we back up a bit?" Andrea asked.

"We'll be fine." Eschenbach said.

Eventually the radio operator reported, "They're going to be dropping the fast burning stuff so we can move in relatively soon instead of waiting for hours." Soon, they saw the faint outline of four planes high up in the sky and some escorting planes.

"Something's not right." Andrea said. "The North Bharatis should have opened up with their anti-aircraft batteries or scrambled their mages for interception by this point."

Four guided bombs fell towards the fortification and as they approached the ground, they exploded into a shower of burning liquids that rained down on the fortification. Eschenbach could hear the screams from the burning fortification, and he could have sworn he heard high-pitched squeals that sounded like they belonged to children.

Green could clearly see that the North Bharatis were losing control of Hyderabad. The enemy mages that he could identify were all busy trying to suppress the rioting. The radio communications his company could pick up betrayed the communists' desperation with their constant requests for reinforcements, more ammunition, notifications of falling back, or begging for help as they were besieged. They picked up on something about a situation developing at the palace, but couldn't make out anything more than that. The translator said that they could hear the faint chants of "Where's our food?" and "Seize the means of production? They seized everything!"

He couldn't try to sneak his way through the city, not with everyone out in the streets, and they would not pass as the locals either.

He was about to consider turning back to head home and report to the command of the situation when he saw mages fly directly overhead. He was pretty sure it was the same mages that helped him with the earlier group of North Bharati mages.

It was ingenious really. The North Bharatis were in no position to stop two companies of coalition mages from doing what they pleased over the city unless they wanted to take their focus off of the rioters. And in the worst case situation, his men could disappear into the massive, chaotic crowds where the locals were likely to help them escape or hide.

"Let's follow their lead."

"There's another company of mages right on our tail!"

"Are they hostiles?" Teyanen asked.

Then he noticed the voice spell from the other company. It was definitely an Albish voice spell.

"What are you doing here?" Green asked.

"I had the same question for you." Teyanen responded. "But I think we're both here for reconnaissance or infiltration."

"Do you have a place that you have in mind? We were just going to fly over the city to see how badly the communists managed the place."

Tenyanen thinks for a moment, his eyes scanning the urbanity ahead, "Let's check out their palace. Last thing I heard from the radio communications is that they're not in a good situation. If they're still holding on, a few well placed explosive spells would tip the balance in favor of the rebellion."

"Seems like a sensible target."

The two mage companies flew towards the palace. While they were on high alert for any possible ambushes, there were seemingly no responses from the North Bharatis.

Once the palace came into view, both companies could see that whoever was holding out was not doing well. They landed on the rooftop of a nearby tall building.

"I have a feeling we may have to rescue some high ranking North Bharati officials." Teyanen said, while looking through his binoculars.

"Rioters in their courtyard." Green responded. "They are indeed in a spot of bother, assuming the mob hasn't already lynched them."

"Well it doesn't look like they're celebrating over the lynching, so they probably haven't gotten to the communist officials yet."

They spent a few minutes discussing what their next moves would be when something caught both of their attention.

"CSR mage company. It doesn't look like they're coming after us." Green said.

"No, they're heading straight for the palace." Teyanen said. "I guess we were right about some high ranking officials being trapped there if the CSR is directly intervening in this mess."

The CSR mage company hovered over a courtyard, and blasted their voice spell in the local language with a very heavy accent.

Green's translator started their work on deciphering what the CSR mages were saying.

"Release unaffiliated members of the general population immediately. We can't allow your lynching to continue. We demand the release of citizens according to article 26, paragraph 3 of the Rules of War on Land."

Green and Teyanen looked at each other.

"This is a warning for the irregular combatants of the armed revolt. In accordance with article 8, paragraph 5, of the Rules of War on Land, I demand someone meet with our representative to discuss the subjects of North Bharat that you so unjustly attack."

"Is it me, or does that seem oddly familiar to the Empire's warnings that they issued before starting the Arene massacre?" Green asked.

"They copied the entire damn speech." Teyanen said.

"Communists following our rules of engagement?"

"They're just using them as a sheet of paper to hide behind if they attack the civilians."

There was a burst of anti-aircraft fire from a guard tower that the rioters took over. Most of the CSR mages dodged the fire with a few falling out of the sky. The mages fired explosive bullets at all of the guard towers to neutralize them, and then pulled out their swords and axes.

"What are they doing?" Green asked.

One of the CSR mages screamed something. The translator said, "They're saying to the civilians that they aren't worth the bullets."

Then the CSR mages charged into the mob, knocking many to the ground from the impacts. Green and Teyanen looked on with horror as they watched the CSR mages hack their way through the rioters. In a few seconds, the courtyard was already being splattered with blood, body parts and corpses. The mob was now trying to escape, but they could not outrun the CSR mages and some were being trampled in the chaos.

"We need to stop them. Company, to the air!" Teyanen ordered. Green motioned his men to also follow suit.

As they hovered over the palace while the CSR mages were still tearing through the mob, Green noticed a problem.

"How are we supposed to shoot the enemy mages? They're mixed in with the civilians. If we fly down there, we'll get cut up instead."

"I have no idea." Teyanen said. "But the longer we wait, the more they're going to kill. We have to take the shot, even if it means shooting through the civilians to get to them."

"May God have mercy on our souls." Green muttered as the CSR mages continued to paint the courtyard red. He then turned to his men. "Engage the enemy mages when I give the order. Then we'll search the palace for the communist officials."

"We'll also engage the enemy mages, and then we'll keep an overwatch of the area." Teyanen said.

The CSR mages were so focused on cutting down the rioters that when they looked up to find the source of the new magic emissions, the two mage companies were about to fire down at them. Only three CSR mages survived the aftermath, and they threw aside their weapons to put their hands in the air instead of taking on the two companies.

Green's company surrounded the CSR mages to disarm and restrain them. As they fanned out in the carnage strewn courtyard, one of the windows shifted open and a hand stuck out waving a white fabric.

"I think we found the besieged officials. How does it look from the air?" Green used his voice spell to talk to Teyanen.

"We don't see anything just yet. We are picking up some increased voice spell and radio communications that mentioned something going on at the palace, so you should move fast. Also, what are the surrendering people saying?"

Green looked at the officials that were performing Namaste gestures. He recognized that was a non-verbal way of respectfully greeting and honoring guests.

"The translator earlier said that they're tired of the war and are willing to cooperate. One of them claimed to be the governor of the Hyderabad State."

"Grab them and let's get out of here before the communists realize that we're here."

Andrea and Eschenbach lead their platoon to investigate the smouldering ruin of the fortification with the flames dying down.

"There were a lot more people than I expected." Andrea muttered.

A figure could be crawling in the distance. Some of the men raised their arms, but Eschenbach waved his arm down. "He's in no condition to fight back. Have the translator go over to them to ask what they were doing."

A few minutes later, the translator shot the person in the head, causing a shocked Andrea to rush forwards.

"Why did you do that?!" Andrea demanded.

"It was his last request," The translator responded flatly, "He said it was too much pain to keep going."

Meanwhile, Eschenbach puts a hand on one of his men's shoulders who is vomiting at the sight of a pile of burnt corpses piled up high behind a fortified gate. Something in the pile then caught Eschenbach's eyes and he moved forwards to take a closer look.

"Ugh," Andrea expresses his disgust as he walks up behind Eschenbach. "This is all so wrong."

Eschenbach didn't say anything for several seconds. "They brought entire families here to build the fortification," He spoke with his eyes locked onto a particularly small corpse. "All of them. Including the kids."

Andrea looks at the Germanian in disbelief, "That can't be…"

Eschenbach shakes his head and steps aside, his hand motioning towards the pile of corpses, "Then why else am I staring at what appeared to be a woman holding her child!?"

AN:

Regarding cannibalism, it was fairly common during WW2: wiki/Human_cannibalism#Modern_era

And I may have written that winter battle section while listening to Frostpunk's "The City Must Survive" soundtrack. Then again, fighting in Siberia's winter just sounds like a brutal way of testing both sides' logistics capability and ability to endure suffering. It also reminds me of The Dark Knight movie's Joker's quote of "As you know, madness is like gravity...all it takes is a little push."

Night vision history: wiki/Night-vision_device#History

As the 'Generation War' TV series shows, anyone can be a minesweeper, once: watch?v=FYEpih1T4wI

The napalm strike scene was inspired by Spec Ops: The Line's white phosphorus scene. NSFW: watch?v=-b7TaLjdXMc

I may or may not had this NSFW Vietnam War era song playing while writing about the napalm strike: watch?v=t9eybY9qFfY