AN, credits to Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade, Nla Eid and Cabbie for helping me revise this chapter.
I know some are going to be upset that there is no mention of Tanya in this chapter. That is because I'm stonewalled on three major issues, starting with the highest priority:
1. Overhauling my approach with the characters to avoid the "wooden characters spewing information" problem.
2. What Tanya and Visha would be doing while still on "retirement".
3. Revising the plot lines to make it further deviate from the actual cold war history, and also expand upon the internal stuff going on in Germania, such as the emerging 1950's culture in a post-war era.
I simply can't continue with future chapters until I resolve at least the first issue.
1952, January 10th, somewhere in Londinium:
The silence in the room was deafening as Zhou Shu opened his briefcase's lock and removed a few sheets of paper.
"I'm assuming those papers won't be kept after this meeting?" Allen Shone asked.
"I was just planning on having my mage escort burn all of the papers at the conclusion of the meeting." Shu responded with a strong Frankish accent. "Of course, eventually if there is a final formal agreement, then we would need to balance the need for security for both sides to sign it."
"Did you study in the Francois Republic?"
"A few years, and about a year in the Allied Kingdom. I would have loved to visit the Ildoan Kingdom, but there was a civil war raging on there at the time. Anyways, the first thing I would like to discuss are your colonies."
"What about them?" Shone narrowed his eyes.
"Leaving them alone. Would you like to know more about the communist insurgents in the Malayan Emergency? Or how about the ones operating in the southern part of Burma? Or some of the contacts we met in Africa?"
Shone had a look of shock on his face, but quickly regained his composure. "You mean to betray them? For what?"
"Even if they are successful, they are not important for our national security. Other than the railroad and roads we built through Burma, but we're willing to settle for Burma being independent as long as traffic between North Bharat and the CSR is uninterrupted. What we are more concerned about is being able to sell ores and quarries from Afghanistan, and manufactured goods from North Bharat, to countries in the Middle East. In return, we wish to purchase oil at a fair market price from the Middle East."
Shu pushed one sheet of paper forward, showing a map of the Qajar Empire and neighboring countries, with proposed railways running through the country.
"Of course, to conduct such trade, we wish to build a railway network in the Qajar Empire and all the way to Baghdad, and possibly to Erbil as well which is north of Baghdad. Eventually we would also wish to build an oil pipeline linking the Qajar Empire to North Bharat."
"I can't have you violate the sovereignty of the Qajar Empire or other countries in the Middle East."
"We are willing to allow the Qajar Empire or the Allied Kingdom to hold operational control over the railroad network that we build as long as both parties' trade interests are met. The Chinese Soviet Republic has no intention of competing for influence in the Middle East as long as we have access to oil. As for Aegyptus, we will be maintaining a neutral stance over that conflict, and should Aegyptus interfere with the Suez Canal operations, we will enact sanctions on them."
"That's a lot of construction just to hand it over to someone else, when the trade could be handled with ships."
"...Have you looked at what territories Germania controls next to the Arabian Sea, as soon as merchant ships sail out of the Gulf of Aden?" Shu snapped as he pulled out a world map from his briefcase and traced a route with his finger. "To the south, they control many of the Bharatian Ocean islands. South Bharat is to the east. And if the merchant ships want to sail to the Chinese Soviet Republic instead of stopping in North Bharat, they would be within range of the Formosa Island and Akitsushima Dominion. You may control the Suez Canal, but what good is the canal if Germania can block off one side of it?"
"I see your point. They could choke off your trade at any moment… But why are you so worried about the Germanians that you are trusting us with the oil trade?"
"Who do you think is surrounding us on three sides? Germania's allies. OZEV, South Bharat and Akitsushima Dominion. The Devil holds a knife to our throat."
"She has retired from office." Shone responded.
"I would have expected Albion to have a better understanding of her after so many years of working with her. I would have expected that you had at least heard about her books. I read all of them, by the way. I would also have expected you were aware of her and her lover's adventures around the world during their so-called 'retirement', meeting with heads of states and industrial tycoons. And the political destruction her talk show is currently inflicting on the current Germanian President, on top of the existing destruction that the President had already inflicted on their political parties to weaken the legislative system. While I'm not religious, we can easily say we're dealing with someone who is essentially the second coming of Napoleon here. The man who was infamous enough that when he returned to power, all of Europe declared war against him, personally."
"And you're more scared of her than President Paul?"
"His only diplomatic leverage is his city busting bombs, right up until we were forced to reveal our own doomsday weapon. Have you ever wondered how long Degurechaff had been sitting on those bombs? There is no way Paul could have amassed enough bombs to decisively doom my homeland in the time span between Degurechaff stepping down and him making that first announcement."
Shone stared blankly.
There was a moment of silence between the two, the privacy spells humming in the background.
Shu continued. "Have you considered that she might have intentionally chosen to wait for the Allied Kingdom and their allies to first embarrass themselves with that Indus River campaign? And then waited again when your navy attempted to enforce a blockade on my country?"
"That's an interesting idea." Shone remarked.
"I would like to first hear from you of how I may have just misunderstood her." Shu pressed.
Shone stared at the wall for a few seconds, before nodding slowly, conceding the point. Shu began to smile before Shone continued. "Regarding your comment about how the communist rebels don't contribute to your 'national security', could you elaborate on that?"
"If the CSR had control of all of the European colonies in the Pacific and Asia, would that protect our homeland?"
"What kind of a question is that?" Shone asked, incredulous. "How would having those territories not help secure your country's future?"
"I'm curious as to why you believe that would be the case before I give my answer."
Shone's face explained exactly what he thought of such a response.
Shu thought for a moment before shifting track. "You didn't expect us to express disinterest in your colonies?"
Shone held back a sigh, before explaining what he thought self-evident. "Controlling those colonies would threaten the sea lanes between Akitsushima Dominion and South Bharat. It would also force Germania to go through the Panama Canal if they wanted to support the Akinese. And that's not even mentioning the vast natural resources of those colonies."
"From our analysis, the colonies wouldn't help us."
Shone had to put in a herculean effort not to react to that. "Please elaborate." He pressed, with a slightly strained tone.
"Without secure access to oil, we will be increasingly behind in economics and military technology. A modern economy can not exist without cheap energy. This is also why we are not interested in the oil from the Southeast Asian islands, because our adversary controls the sea." Shu pointed at the Sulu and Java Seas on the map. "What good would those faraway islands do when OZEV and their allies invade our homeland, Russy Confederation and North Bharat?"
"It would be a messy war." Shone noted.
"They would simply mop up the islands or starve them into submission with their naval fleets while we're busy protecting Moskva and Nanjing. They will take major losses, of course, but I am not aware of an instance where the Devil of the Rhine was outplayed in the long run. She has always recovered from any such setbacks before."
Shu took a deep breath, letting the impact of his near-traitorous words settle before he continued. "Finally, do you really think she will stop her conquest after crushing communism?"
The silence was deafening.
"...No, she wouldn't stop." Shone sighed, tiredly. "Do you mind if I use the restroom?"
"I'm fine with a short break." Shu said before taking a sip of water.
Shone exited the room and immediately beelined to the restroom. He spent several minutes washing his face, and then stared in the mirror.
Before this meeting, he feared a world where the Allied Kingdom would be stuck in a long running two front conflict against the communists and Germania.
Now he feared having the Allied Kingdom chained with the communists to bring balance of power back to Europe. Even if it was successful, then what? Would the communists be emboldened and start a global revolution knowing that Tanya von Degurechaff would not be able to threaten them again? And then what would the Allied Kingdom do in that situation?
But the alternative is allowing the Allied Kingdom to keep bleeding power while the Devil would finish off the communists, leaving the Allied Kingdom alone in the conflict.
"There has to be some way out of this madness." he said to himself in the mirror.
No, there really wasn't a way, he realized. The Allied Kingdom was stuck in this mad world. He would have far preferred the era before the Legadonia Entente kicked off the damn war with the Empire in the first place, setting in motion for the endless cascading effects that eventually lead to all of this. Now all he could do was ensure that Albion somehow comes out ahead of both the Devil and the communists.
After Shone returned from the restroom and settled back in his seat, he asked Shu, "So why is your country involved with our colonial affairs if Tanya von Degurechaff is such a threat to you?"
Shu shrugged. "With the Devil of the Rhine setting the 'give independence referendums to colonies' trend, it was inevitable that the colonial locals who didn't get that same offer would react violently in response. It certainly didn't help that the Americans and Akinese followed the Germanians' lead, or, in the Ildoans' situation, went through the trouble of establishing legitimacy for the Kingdom of Tripoli's monarchy before giving them independence. As for our actions, what do the Americans phrase it as; 'betting on the winning horse'? But we're willing to wipe the slate clean, give each other a fresh start."
"What about the Bharatian War? You know that allowed her to benefit from our misfortunes."
Shu put his hands up. "You might not believe us, but we were initially content with the status quo, as we were focused on building up our economy. The Rus were bent on revenge however, and thus wanted to unite the Bharatian subcontinent under a banner of communism. They had the Type 97 orb technology and production schematics, and various other Rus technologies that we lacked. We mostly had 1920's single-core orbs, and even some older ones as well."
Shone looked blankly at Shu.
"Speaking of technologies, I am also here to ask about licensing technology from the Allied Kingdom."
Shone frowned. "Didn't you give the Akinese a bloody nose over that jet shootdown incident?"
"And they now know our capabilities." Shu sighed. "They will come up with counters faster than we can find new solutions.
"What kind of technology are you seeking?"
"Jet engines, radar and rockets. We would also be willing to pay for Albish technical assistance with building a water canal from the southern part of our country to the northern part."
"That is asking a lot." Shone responded.
Shu paused for a moment to look at his notes. "I don't expect you to hand over those technologies for free, of course, which is why we are willing to make some political concessions. You have probably heard of the growing revanchism in the Russy Confederation and how that has been spilling over into the neighboring newly independent countries."
"I couldn't blame them for all of the territorial losses they took." Shone shrugged.
"We would like to see the Nordic Council as another European counterweight against OZEV. We can provide a guarantee that the Rus will leave the Baltic States alone and allow your government to take credit for the peace to help win the favor of the Nordic Council."
"Interesting proposal… But how would you guarantee that the Rus won't try something funny?"
"We would know if they intend on causing a war. We can have them focus their anger on OZEV, and the countries that OZEV has been supporting. Belarusia, Kieva, Crimea, Caucasia, and Kazakh. After all, it was Germania that was the main agent of their previous defeat."
Shone had a skeptical look on his face. "Have you heard of a new book that is gaining rapid popularity in the Russy Confederation? From what I've heard, it's titled, 'The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of the Rus'? Your suggested deals completely run counter to what those Rus nationalists are eating up."
"It's just revanchism." Shu waved his hand dismissively. "They'll calm down after the Devil has been knocked down a peg or two. It would be incredibly easy for our Ministry of Information to paint her as the sole reason for the destruction of the Rus. Just print posters comparing her to Napoleon marching into Moskva or something. Besides, with the Rus focusing on Caucasia, it would force OZEV to seek oil from the Middle East. Which you and the Francois Republic control, giving the two of you more political leverage against a returning Degurechaff."
"While we're on the topic about military technology…" Shone spoke as he pointed at the South Jiuzhou Sea. "What about the navy that your country had been building up?"
"Was the High Seas Fleet useful for the Empire?"
"What do you mean?" Shone asked.
"In terms of dealing with the Albish navy or at least breaking the naval blockade that was choking off the Empire's trade? Or distracting the Albish navy from being able to fully secure the Mediterranean Sea so the Empire's North African army could be reliably supplied? Or discouraging the Allied Kingdom from declaring war?"
"..."
"Then that's a no."
"So why do you think we would build a navy that could directly take on the Akinese, Germanian, Albish, Frankish and American navies? Even your navy would struggle against a combined Akinese, Germanian, Frankish and American fleet. We saw what happened in the 1st Russo-Akinese War when it was a minor naval power going up against just a single major one."
"Then why are you building ships and submarines anyways?"
Shu cocked his head. "I don't know about this submarine business that you speak of. Our official position is that the Akinese sank their own submarine to scapegoat us. Now if you want some sort of a naval restriction guarantee on paper, we have no issue with that."
Shone nodded, "And your mage augmentation?"
Shu's face hardened. "That is a state secret," then it softened before he continued, "But, we're willing to discuss it if your government has access to advanced orb technology. Surely you have agents in Germania?"
"Our agents' activities are also a state secret, but I'll reach out to my counterparts to see what they have available." Shone then pointed at the map. "Regarding the earlier talks about the colonies, what about the Francois Republic's and Ispagna's colonies?"
"What could you leverage from them if you tell them that you pressured the CSR to leave their colonies alone? And that's on top of also securing goodwill with the Nordic Council. After all, you need reliable allies against Degurechaff. Allies who aren't distracted with their expensive colonial wars or guarding their border against an angry Rus."
Shone was silent for about a minute. Shu pretended to be busy looking through some of the papers to give the man some time to think. Finally, Shone spoke.
"There will be a lot I need to discuss with his majesty before we can go forward with this… unprecedented… discussion. Unfortunately, some of my colleagues may choose to adopt a wait-and-see approach should Degurechaff rule OZEV again."
"I wouldn't wait for too long."
"Why is that?"
"Something major is going to happen in Francois Indochina. You know that Lothiern is rapidly losing control of their East Indies. My government would not be able to undo the results if the local rebels are ultimately successful, as that would put the CSR in a direct war against new sovereign countries. That would be unacceptable."
1952, January 24th, Berun:
"The Allied Kingdom and the Chinese Soviet Republic held multiple talks recently." Elya stated flatly. "I don't know what was discussed, but it's a bad sign that the two parties took such high levels of precautions and burned all of the papers at the conclusion of the meetings."
"Surely the Albish government would have been discussing details of the deal amongst themselves?" Chancellor Adenau asked.
"We know less than half a dozen people have been briefed on the details using the same level of precaution. They seem to be paranoid of any information leaking out."
"It's a repeat of the treaty between the Francois Republic and the Russy Federation. We need to prepare for war." President Paul groaned. "And using nuclear weapons on the Albish would be unacceptable, even if they weren't developing their own nuclear weapons."
"Do you remember the photographs of the sunken submarine that were provided by the Akinese? They noted that the submarine was not of Rus design."
Foreign Minister Dertinge pounded his fist on the table. "Albion must have sold their submarine design to the communists! There can be no other explanation, unless the communists have stolen not just the design schematics, but also the expertise to build the submarines!"
"And now they're trying to stonewall us on expanding our own submarine fleet that was meant to counter the CSR's." Paul laughed. "Ah, the perfidious Albion, how predictable."
"On a side note, what's with the situation in South America with the escalating border skirmishes between New Granada and Brasilia?" Adenau asked.
"That has not been a priority for the BND." Elya replied. "It wasn't in our interest to meddle in the Unified States' backyard."
"To be honest, I don't think we have any diplomatic legwork with those South American countries." Dertinge added. "There was no need for us to be involved with them."
"Fair enough." Paul waved his hand. "No point in annoying the Americans when they could be the last major restraint on the Albish. What about the Frankish?"
"They're still preoccupied with their counterinsurgency wars, and it's getting much more brutal." Elya replied. "They placed a massive order for incendiary bombs."
"Ah, that explains them talking about 'largage de bidons spéciaux', or 'dropping special cans'." Dertinge rubbed his chin.
1952, February 9th, somewhere outside of Nanjing:
"You all have heard of this 'secret deal' with the Allied Kingdom…" Wang Ming growled.
The dozen of conspirators nodded. Xiang Bangxian spoke up, "The Chairman is a traitor to our cause! He is too soft-handed with putting an end to the protests in Afghanistan. We should have replaced that monarchy with a people's government already!"
Gao Gang shouted, "It's now or never, we need to begin correcting the course of our history. Raise your hand if you agree!"
Everyone raised their hands in quick succession, but then Gao Gang put his hand down, and instead withdrew a whistle to blow into it.
The silence that followed was deafening. "What have you done?" Wang Ming whispered, his voice quaking in horror.
One set of doors suddenly burst open and mages stormed in, with Kang Sheng following behind. Xiang Bangxian raced over to open the other door, only to find it had been jammed shut.
"It was a simple choice for him to make." Kang Sheng said as Gao Gang walked out of the room. "It was either lead me to all of you, or his family would pay the price. Besides, you think I was stupid enough to think that you had no part with the attempted deal with Loria?"
Wang glared as Kang continued. "Time is short so I'll make this brief. Wang's associates that had not cooperated with me, have been arrested by now and are being interrogated. Simultaneously, the Marshal of the Army dispatched an infantry battalion to this area for a 'training exercise', so do not test my patience."
Kang then turned to Wang. "You know what the real betrayal was? You were working with Loria to bring me down, a foreigner, and offered concessions to him such as our sacred mage augmentation technology. What were you thi-"
Wang interjected, "You were part of the counter revolutionary gang that was pretending to be communists!"
One of the mages punched Wang in the stomach before Kang continued, "You helped him select and kidnap young girls, and that insubordination to my direct order to protect those girls is what led me to investigate. But, I do see that the current path of our country will need to change, and for change to happen, I need people. You are not fit to lead them, that's for certain. As the Chairman once said, the green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm."
Kang then turned to the conspirators. "You will clean up the mess that Wang Ming caused, or my men will. You will come back to work tomorrow morning as usual. And you will await my further instructions."
"Nobody is going to work for a self-serving opportunist like you! You're no better than the Chairman!" Xiang shouted, before spitting at Kang.
Kang nodded, "Ah, Xiang Bangxian, the ever bold and righteous one. I had expected this from you. It is the unemotional, reserved, calm, and detached warrior who wins, not the hothead seeking vengeance and not the ambitious seeker of fortune. The only person more dogmatically annoying than you was Li Lisan, but thankfully he's now rotting in prison."
The mages then handed a knife to everyone except Wang and Xiang. Each knife had a paper note attached to it stating 'Clean up the mess'.
Kang walked out of the room as the conspirators stared at Wang Ming and Xiang Bangxian, while the mages stood by, silent as the grave.
AN:
The railway from North Bharat (and Nanjing/Moskva) to Baghdad:
watch?v=8LCpbgVx9kY
wiki/Berlin_railway
During WW2, the USSR had some domestic development of radar: wiki/Radar_in_World_War_II#Soviet_Union
Before the Korean War, Stalin was not too interested in working with Mao, and only assisted Mao when it clearly benefited him. Stalin initially worked with the US to broker a peace between the communists and the KMT until it became evident that the KMT would lose. Mao himself mentioned about having to outmaneuver Soviet advisors. A major divergence in their priorities was Mao wanting to reclaim Taiwan, while Stalin refused to provide assistance. At the start of the Korean War, the PRC was hesitant to get fully involved until after Douglas MacArthur demanded North Korea's unconditional surrender: watch?v=lSX_B-rXRuU
Regarding the sale of technology, in real life, the UK sold jet engines to the USSR, who modified and enlarged those jet engines to use in their MiG-15s, just in time for the Korean War:
wiki/Stafford_Cripps#After_the_war
wiki/Rolls-Royce_Nene
Some of the PRC's most prominent politicians had previously studied in Europe back in the 1910's-1930's: wiki/Zhou_Enlai#European_activities
Reference to the "canal project": wiki/South_Water_Transfer_Project
Reference the to Rus book: wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
Its publication in 1997 was well received in Russia; it has had significant influence within the Russian military, police, and foreign policy elites,[1][2] and has been used as a textbook in the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian military.[1][3] Powerful Russian political figures subsequently took an interest in Dugin,[4] a Russian political analyst who espouses an ultranationalist and neo-fascist ideology based on his idea of neo-Eurasianism,[5] who has developed a close relationship with Russia's Academy of the General Staff.[6]
In Foundations of Geopolitics, Dugin calls for the United States and Atlanticism to lose their influence in Eurasia, and for Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances.[3] The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution". The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the U.S., and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us."[2][9]
The misadventures of the Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron in the Russo-Japanese War, including the part where the Russian fleet had to perform coal refueling at sea after the British denied them access to the coal supply ports. The refueling at sea was a lengthy, messy process: watch?v=9Mdi_Fh9_Ag
Regarding the 'Bidons Spéciaux' phrase, that was a code word for napalm bombs that the French military was using in the Algerian War.