AYKRR Chapter 10

The Communist Perspective

12th August 1942,

NKVD Headquarters, Moskva

Sergei Kruglov, the current head of the NKVD, fancied himself a man of little regrets in life, and even fewer guilt. He did not regret choosing the NKVD as his choice of career. He did not regret being responsible for purging disloyal NKVD agents. He did not regret organising mass executions of deserters and cowards in the army. And he definitely did not regret throwing that cur Loria out of the window the moment the news of General Secretary Jugashvili's death broke out.

It was always a possibility that the General Secretary could be assassinated. As paranoid as that man was, no one was truly invulnerable. So, Kruglov had made a small list of people who were the likeliest to vie for the utmost position of power in the Russy Federation in the event of Jugashvili's untimely demise. Loria had been at the top of that last. Therefore, Kruglov killed him. He had no need for a superior or a rival. Good riddance too. That bastard's taste in girls was sickening.

Taking full control of the NKVD had been simpler than he expected. With his expertise in purging NKVD agents, making sure that the NKVD was filled only with his loyalists was easy as pie. Taking full control of Moskva simply required him to know who to befriend, who to threaten, and who to dispose of. In mere months, he had managed to seize complete control of Moskva and spread his influence into the neighbouring oblasts.

What wasn't simple was how to deal with the Russy Tsardom.

Kruglov realised his mistake. He had been too… heavy-handed with his enemies. Perhaps showing mercy would have made people more ready to surrender to him. But he had to take Moskva with haste. So, no mercy could be spared to his enemies, just a quick death.

His mistake was biting him in the back now. Realising that there was no point in surrender, any hostile faction that he targeted would fight to the last man, causing him to suffer more casualties than expected, even though the NKVD had the only mages in the Russy Federation.

And because of their collective fear, the factions in the north had united, held together by this Tsar. Kruglov realised that if he wanted to reunite the Russy Federation, the Russy Tsardom had to be demolished.

Having conquered Moskva and the surrounding oblasts, he had martialled men and weapons. At first, he didn't order full-scale assaults. Simply quick probes, skirmishes and raids into the Russy Tsardom's territory. His aim was not to cause casualties or grab land but simply test their defences and training. He had found them to be lacking.

Having no mages on their side, the Russy Tsardom was slow to respond to any attack. Nor could they counterattack back, as Kruglov's mages, equipped with dual-core orbs, were always there to beat them back. The SV-1 computation orb, which was nearly as good as the Type 97 it was reverse-engineered from, gave his NKVD mages magical superiority over most mage forces in the world, with the exception of OZEV and the Unified States. The only problem he had was that he couldn't produce enough of them.

In the past three months, his leading personnel responsible for manufacturing the SV-1 orbs had vanished, as if spirited away. The researchers responsible for developing the SV-2 orbs had mostly disappeared too. To add insult to injury, the main factory that was producing his SV-1 orbs had exploded in the middle of the night, with many sightings of mages flying to the west after the explosion. Now he only had his auxiliary factory left, which could only produce at a quarter the speed as the factory he lost.

He, of course, knew who was responsible for his current woes. OZEV. Not only were those greedy capitalist swine uncontented with stepping in the way of the proletariat miracle that was communism, but they also wanted to pry out the brains of the Russy Federation and add it to theirs. Truly, the greed of capitalists knew no bounds. When communism has overrun the world, he will not put them in the gulag. No, he will trap them in pig pens while the righteous proletariat butcher them.

Nevertheless, despite his current predicament, his Red Army was more than enough to crush the Russy Tsardom once and for all. And this was the best time to do it. Give the Russy Tsardom more time, and they would woo more factions into joining them.

In four weeks, his men will be fully trained and prepared. His weapons, ready. His orbs, produced. His logistics, secured. All that was left was to declare war.

His aid, Igor, walked into the room briskly and gave him a report, indicating that it was important. Thanking him, Kruglov opened the report and read it carefully.

This was incredibly troubling. The new OZEV member, the Legadonia Entente Alliance, was selling weapons to the Russy Tsardom. Assault rifles, anti-air guns, artillery, tanks, and even those brand-new jet planes. Where was the Russy Tsardom getting the money from? They must have either bought them with credit or promised Legadonia rights to the Motherland's natural resources. Those damn traitors, selling the Motherland to foreigners!

Even worse news, the Russy Tsardom had just received a squadron of volunteer mages from Legadonia. The report had included the name of notable mages in the volunteer battalion. Chief amongst them were three aces and one ace of aces.

He immediately recognised the ace of aces. Simo Hayha. The Suomilander who betrayed the Motherland during the Second Great War to side with the enemy simply because he thought communism was evil. Known as the White Death, he was famous for his sniping off mages from unseen locations, before disappearing back into the snowy landscape. The tactics of a coward.

Time was running out. If the Russy Tsardom keep receiving more weapons and mages, Kruglov's forces could fail their invasion or be vulnerable to a counter-invasion. He had to act now.

"Igor! Tell my generals that they no longer have four weeks. They only have twenty days to get everything ready! We attack on the first of September!"

14th August 1942,

Hyderabad, North Bharat

General Raheeq Syed, Commander of the North Bharat People's Forces, paced in his war planning room, attended by his generals and officers. Couriers ferried reports to the room in a constant stream.

"How's the situation in Lahore?" He asked.

"We managed to beat back the Albish but suffered over twenty thousand casualties." A major reported.

"Is that military casualties or overall casualties?" His general of the Southern Front, Mohammed Bahti, asked. A man in his late fifties with a kind face, he looked as though he should be at home playing with his grandchildren than be at a war room.

"Military casualties, sir. Civilian casualties are estimated to be over thirty thousand." The major answered.

General Syed shook his head ruefully. The sin that was urban warfare. The lowest truly was to attack a city. All those lives lost…

The first year of fighting had gone well for them. They had pushed as far south as Pune, having taken the Albish oppressors by surprise. The Albish might have better training, weapons and technology, but the Bharatians had the population on their side. For every Bharatian that fell, two more rose up in his place. By sheer numbers, they had advanced.

Their oppressors weren't going to let their most important colony fall into communist hands, of course, and had counterattacked and started pushing them slowly. However, they were unfamiliar with the new type of warfare that the North Bharatians had taught themselves.

Jungle warfare. They had relied on ambushes, booby traps and psychological warfare. They often lost as many men as they had killed, but the ones that survived their attacks were often left with mental scars and would be unable to fight the next time. The Albish could push, but they would bleed for it.

Then about one month ago, things had changed. The Albish, revitalised by supplies and brand-new weapons that no longer failed in the humid conditions of the jungles, started to make faster progress. Albish planes were always hovering above, ready to gun down men that leave the jungles or bomb the jungles itself.

And when the North Bharatian forces had been pushed out of the jungles, the Albish had started dominating the battlefield. Syed and his forces were pushed back to the northwest corner of the subcontinent, barely able to hold their frontlines.

Their coastal cities were lost, taken by the mighty Royal Navy. Karachi fell just yesterday. Now Hyderabad was their stronghold.

They had only barely fended off the last assault on Lahore. There was no telling whether they could fend off the next one.

"How many fighting men do we have left?" Syed inquired his Chief of Staff.

"1,100,000 strong, sir. As per your orders, we have sent 200,000 to Lahore to reinforce them."

1,100,000 men. Down from the 4,000,000 he had at the start of this war. This could not go on. The longer they fight, the further they would be pushed back and the more men they would lose.

They had to do something.

"Yusuf," Syed turned to his head scientist, Yusuf Sethi. "How are progress on reverse engineering the SV-1 orbs?"

This was his trump card. Some of the NKVD mages that were fighting with them had been killed. Most of their orbs had been destroyed or irreparably damaged during the fighting, but a couple were intact. Syed had his army hide this from the NKVD until their mages fled from the country.

"We have deciphered and replicated the schematics for the SV-1 orbs, but we simply don't have any facility capable of manufacturing them, especially one far back enough in the rear to not be in a vulnerable position." Yusuf reported.

Syed cursed. Karachi surely had the factories they needed, but it was impossible to take the city back now. Not when it was guarded by an armada.

Syed took a deep breath and accepted the facts. They couldn't win. Not alone. Not with the NKVD abandoning them. So, what could they do?

They had to seek allies using the SV-1 computation orb schematic as a bargaining chip.

Eran was not a feasible ally. Although they were undergoing heavy industrialisation and would likely have the factories needed to manufacture the SV-1, they were also hostile towards North Bharat for disrupting their oil trade with Bharat and the Albish. If anything, once North Bharat was vulnerable, Eran might just invade them.

Next was the Kingdom of Afghanistan. They were a country with a strong stance of neutrality. It would be difficult for Syed to convince them to change this stance. Furthermore, Afghanistan was not very industrialised, and a large chunk of their GDP was reliant on agriculture. It would be impossible to manufacture the SV-1 there.

That left the last country that North Bharat still shared a border with – Communist Qin. Not only were they also communist, the Qin communists were also promoters of international communism and liked to trade with communist allies, as seen with their selling weapons to Annam. The communist faction in Qin had also heavily industrialised by building hundreds of factories in their western regions. The factories there were also well-established and secured. Nationalist boots had not stepped into Western Qin for over fifteen years.

They were the perfect partner to share the secret of the SV-1 with. With the SV-1, their communist brethren could push back the nationalists in Qin, and then help North Bharat deal with the Albish, who only had single-core orbs. North Bharat could then use communist-controlled Qin's factories to produce their own dual-core orbs and strengthen their own mages, until they mustered enough strength to take back Karachi.

However, this was dependent on North Bharat maintaining a land border with Qin. If the Albish took Lahore and continued to push west, they would be cut off from Qin and lose their last hope for survival. It was now or never.

"General Gujjar, I want you to take another 300,000 men to reinforce Lahore." Syed ordered.

"But that's half of our forces guarding one city!" General Gujjar protested.

"I have a plan to invite our Qinese communist brothers to this war. Lahore has now become our most important city. We will be moving our headquarters from Hyderabad to Lahore shortly. In that time, Lahore must not fall."

18th August 1942,

Zhaoqing City, Guangzhou Province, Communist-controlled Qin,

Wang Ming, current Chairman of the Qinese Communist Party, had not had many good months this year. Just this March, he had to band together a resistance to purge former Chairman Mao Zedong for his dangerous emerging Maoist personality cult, something that went against Wang's principle as a Marxist-Leninist. A united front of progressive forces in class society could be useful in a pre-industrial country to foster a wave of revolutionaries, yes, but Qin was already rapidly industrialising. To him, it was clear that the workers were the wave of the future, not peasants. Furthermore, Mao's stance against intellectualism was dangerous for the future of the country. Much like a human, a country could not function without brains. Wang Ming had also feared that Maoism might encourage personalities that were too zealous.

Early May, Wang Ming's heart was torn apart when he heard of the fall of the Russy Federation, who the QCP had a close alliance with. The Comintern being dissolved as a result was just another wound. In June, he had received a report of communist-uniform-wearing soldiers destroying the harbour in Hong Kong.

As someone in charge of all communist forces, he knew that it was a false-flag operation by the nationalists in an effort to pit the Allied Kingdom against them, but he could not prove it to the Albish. They were lucky the Allied Kingdom was indecisive. If the Albish had declared war on the QCP, it would have been an unprecedented disaster.

In July, his marshals kept returning with the same news of the siege in Shenzhen being held in a deadlock, with the only difference being the climbing casualty number.

Finally, this August, he received his first good news. The North Bharatian were open to an alliance. Although as communists, the North Bharatians should have contacted the QCP as soon as possible. But the North Bharatians had been too proud and too focused on maintaining absolute independence in their revolution to bother sending correspondences to the QCP.

Nevertheless, it was better late than never.

When he had heard of their offer, Wang Ming had to order his secretary to repeat what he just said, lest his ears were already failing him.

The North Bharatians had the schematic for a dual-core orbs. And they were offering it to the QCP. Of course, this was in exchange for them being able to borrow some of their factories to produce their own orbs and ship it back to North Bharat, but that was a small price to pay. With the massive technological advantage dual-core orbs have over single-core orbs, the QCP would easily demolish the Nationalist Party, whose orbs were outdated even by single-core orb standards and unite all of Qin under a communist banner!

Of course, after the Nationalists had been defeated and Qin borders firmly secured, the North Bharatians likely expected the QCP to help them beat back the Albish. And Wang Ming was inclined to do that. The Bharatian subcontinent had a massive population and untold amounts of natural resources. If the QCP could help push out the Albish and set up industries in Bharat, Asia would be dominated by two powerful communist countries.

He even had further ideas about helping the Russy Federation reform itself by sending men there to help them reunite, as soon as the Nationalists were no longer a threat. If the Russy Federation was restored, the communist bloc of the Russy Federation, the QCP, Bharat and Annam would be a force even OZEV, the Albish Empire or the Unified States would have to respect.

After confirming the message from North Bharat was legitimate, he had taken a copy of the message to his party's leadership body.

"This is not fabricated by our enemies?" Marshal Zhu De asked, his voice incredulous. Likely he was already thinking of the increased performance of their mages.

"Yes, a North Bharatian mage using an intact SV-1 dual-core orb flew to my residence and gave me the message directly. I then relayed the message to the Chairman." Wang Jiaxiang, the head of his Foreign Relations Department, confirmed.

"If this is true, we can produce approximately one hundred of these dual-core orbs each year with our current industrial capacity, even if we have to lend the North Bharatians some factories." His Chief Economist, Zhang Wentian, inputted.

"Do the North Bharatians expect us to help them after we defeat the Nationalists?" Qin Bangxiang asked.

"Yes." Wang Ming nodded. "It would be in our interest to form a strong communist bloc in Asia and foster international communism to combat foreign powers."

"Indeed. I've been thinking that we should try to spread communism to the rest of Indochina. Laos and Kampuchea would quickly rise to the revolution in my opinion. Joseon is an option too. Afghanistan might be feasible, but it would be an ambitious undertaking." Liu Shaoqi commented.

Wang Ming nodded. "I'm receptive to that idea, I'll try to relocate some people for you to send to those countries to incite a strong communist movement. If you can drive them to revolution, even better."

"On the topic of the siege of Shenzhen," Marshal Zhu De said. "Do we wait until we can arm enough of our mages with dual-core orbs to beat back the nationalists?"

"No," Wang Ming shook his head. "We need to push back the nationalists soon, if we wait for too long, we will lose the city, then maybe the rest of Guangzhou as well."

"I actually have an idea to help us lessen the pressure on Shenzhen." Qin Bangxiang said. Wang Ming motioned for him to continue.

Qin Bangxiang took a deep breath, before launching into his explanation. "Since they tried to get a foreign nation to declare on us with a false-flag operation, why not do the same for them?"

"What do you mean?" Zheng Wentian asked in alarm. "Do you want to blow up a part of Hong Kong as well?"

"No, here is my idea. We load a few fishing boats with mages, then have these fishing boats stealthily sail to the strait of Taiwan. There, they will launch an attack on the Taiwanese coast, targeting military installations and disabling the Akitsushiman navy stationed there. The mages participating in the mission will be wearing uniforms from the Nationalist Party and preferably can speak with dialects from the regions the nationalists control."

Zhu De interrupted. "The Akitsushimans won't fall for that. The Nationalist Party might hate the Akitsushimans, but even they won't make an unprovoked attack like that when they're already tangled up with us. The Akitsushimans will realise that it can't be the Nationalist Party."

"But that will not matter to the Akitsushimans." Qin Bangxiang stated.

"What do you mean? Akitsushima will declare war on the Nationalist Party, despite knowing it wasn't them that attacked Taiwan?" Zhu De asked.

"You need to pay more attention to foreign politics. The military is gaining more and more control in Akitsushima. The emperor's pacifist stance has frustrated them to no end. They yearn to restore their lost honour when they were defeated in Manchuria. With the Russy Federation vulnerable, the military head brass is likely salivating at the thought of an invasion of either Qin or the Russy Federation. They simply need a probable excuse. The Nationalist Party will be a more palatable target than us since they have a larger coastline. Moreover, the Nationalist Party has always held a more aggressive anti-foreigner stance than us." Qin Bangxiang explained.

"And what if they're too successful? What if they take over all of the territory held by the Nationalist Party?" Wang Jiaxiang asked.

"That's where our dual-core orbs come in. We'll be able to push out the invading Akitsushima Dominion with our more advanced computation orbs and higher number of mages. And we'll be lauded as heroes of Qin while doing it too."

Wang Ming rubbed his chin in thought. It was worth a try. Even if Akitsushima doesn't declare war on the Nationalist Party, they wouldn't be able to prove that it was the QCP who launched the attack either. And if the QCP could drive out the Akitsushimans by themselves, there would be no need to propose a Second United Front.

Wang Ming nodded. "Alright, you have my permission. When we have enough SV-1 orbs to equip a full battalion, I'll give you permission to assemble mages for your mission. In the meantime, we shall contact general Peng Dehuai and ask him to continue holding out in Shenzhen for three more months. Any words from Zhou Enlai?"

Wang Jiaxing answered. "His latest correspondence told us that he managed to convince Chiang-Kai-shek to hold a one-week ceasefire for us to evacuate civilians."

Wang Ming breathed a sigh of relief. Some more time has been bought for them. Best make use of it. "Zheng Wentian, I want you to get our factories producing the SV-1 orbs as soon as possible."

"Yes, Comrade Wang."

"With that, I pronounce this meeting adjourned." Wang said, before starting his party's slogan.

"We proletarians have nothing to lose but our chains! Workers of the world, unite!" Wang Ming shouted.

"Workers of the world, unite!" Everyone echoed.

20th August 1942,

Hanoi, Annam

Ho Chi Minh, President of the Annamese Socialist Republic, sat in silence as his military leaders squabbled amongst themselves.

Many of his generals, having seen the Francois forces being ravaged by Annamese guerilla tactics, wanted to turn to the offensive and push down south to take Saigon. His most trusted general, Vo Nguyen Giap, had vehemently opposed the plan, citing the lack of logistics and the huge difference between fighting a defensive war and an offensive one.

Furthermore, despite having beaten back every Francois push so far, they were suffering at least two times the casualties. Ho Chi Minh knew that deaths and sacrifices were unavoidable in a revolutionary war like this, but finding a way to lower casualties was always preferable.

"We don't have the weapons and vehicles to make a push down south!" Giap argued.

"We just have to buy more from the Qinese." Hoang Van Thai, Chief of General Staff said.

"They're too damn expensive. I've had my spies in foreign countries check what the price of those weapons truly are. The Qinese are charging us three times as much for the same weapons. Equipment that is years out of date!" Giap shouted, angry that they were being shaken down for pennies by the Qinese communists.

So much for international communism. The Qinese may harp about cooperation between communist states as much as they want. At the end of the day, every country wanted to preserve their own interests the most.

Ho Chi Minh spoke for the first time. "Yesterday, I called for aid from the Americans to drive off the Francois." The entire room went silent. Many looked at him in shock. A couple in betrayal. Those ones will have to be supervised by his mages.

"I called President Roosenvelt himself. I thought that America's preaching about freedom and liberty and the self-determination of countries might mean something. I thought that a country that won its existence through fighting a war of independence would understand our plight. I never received a response."

"President, you can't expect much from capitalists." Someone scoffed.

"Nevertheless, I understand that as of right now, we will take years, perhaps decades, to push the Francois out of Annam. Time where our people continue to die and be oppressed. I intend to try and petition again. A different country this time."

His men looked at him curiously. Looking at their eyes, Ho Chi Minh asked them a question.

"Everyone, what is the purpose of this war?"

"To drive out the Francois and establish an independent democratic socialist state of Annam." Was the most echoed response.

He shook his head wryly. Back in his youth, when he had been an overseas student yearning for Annamese independence, yet so enamoured by socialism, perhaps he would have given the same answer.

"It's to establish an INDEPENDENT democratic state of Annam. Socialism was simply a means to an end. I adopted communism because I was enamoured by its red lustre. Socialist states were willing to support Annamese independence, so I thought communism was the only way Annam could find itself broken from its chains. But look at us now. The Qinese weapons are more of a drain on our treasury than assistance to our army. Yet we are beating back the Francois by ourselves. Not through ideology, but through new tactics, ingenuity and grit. The country and our independence are more important than socialism."

"President, are you telling us that you're willing to abandon socialism if a capitalist country was willing to help us gain independence?" An incredulous voice belonging to his secretary sounded out.

"Maybe not abandon socialism entirely," Ho Chi Minh admitted. "But perhaps adopt some capitalist ideas to stimulate our economy when we do achieve independence. We do need trade partners other than the Qinese. We could even call it Socialism with Annamese characteristics. Whether we'll switch to capitalism after that or go back to pure socialism, depends on the circumstances."

"President, what country are you going to petition after America?"

It was quite obvious. What country had the advanced military technology that Annam needed? Weapons and vehicles that were proven to work against the Francois. A country that would have no qualms about beating down the Francois Republic, and in fact would take glee in it. A country that would be glad that Annam was putting its independence over socialism. A country whose leader once advocated for the right to self-determination of nations.

"I'm going to Germania to personally petition Chancellor Tanya von Degurechaff."