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Sure. Communism is spreading.

I don’t know how it is in actual history, but at least here, the existence of Communist Germany is real.

How powerful can Germany be, when it’s just chewing up the Treaty of Versailles and looking out for its own interests?

Didn’t they completely disregard the Treaty of Versailles after their revolution?

They might actually be stronger than expected.

“It’s Germany.”

With Britain and France currently drained of their strength, they’re stirring things up from within.

Whether or not Germany has the capability for that is another question entirely.

Once again, the fear of the Reds is not their military might.

It’s the effect of their propaganda.

If there are slaves willing to act as meat shields for Germany, it benefits them even if they don’t have weapons due to communist agitation.

There’s no real need to go that far for a rebellion.

If even a little attention could be diverted from Britain and France towards the colonies, Germany would have a good chance to strike.

Of course, the media tends to exaggerate things a bit.

If they say communism is spreading, it would just be at the level of “Oh, is that a thing among the colonists?” at most.

Hmm, inciting the colonies.

But how likely is it that those meat shields from the colonies would coordinate a communist protest at the right time?

Even if the stars align, Germany would still need to hit the jackpot like in the original history.

“How far has it spread?”

I don’t know the specifics.

“I’m not certain yet, but the important part is that it’s spreading, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

It’s possible that they might even provide weapon support in some time.

While Britain and France did end World War I a bit early, they might have drained quite a bit of strength supporting the White Army in the Civil War.

If news of the spread of communism has gotten out, the British and French governments would know about it too, and they’d be busy worrying about that.

It’s probably better to just leave that side alone.

It’s better to let Germany be than to strangle it now.

If they clamp down on Germany when it’s in a tenuous position, it might lead to them siding with the communists, saying that the colonial empire is trying to crush communism!

It’s better to suppress it after something bursts out.

“Very well. Understood. Please take good care of it moving forward.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Alright, the radio broadcast is done.

Now, what’s next? The Baron Beria.

Recently, he’s been visiting the Kremlin quite often due to military agreements with Turkey and such.

“Your Majesty, Mount Ararat has been completely occupied by the Turkish army.”

Then, it seems the Kurdish uprising is really over.

I do feel a bit guilty, but there’s nothing to be done.

If Russia takes the moral high ground and supports the Kurds, then they’d have to help Britain and France with their colonies, which doesn’t sit well.

“Airborne seems to be somewhat useful, I guess?”

“The results from airborne operations in the mountains weren’t that great. It’s not totally ineffective, but it’s best to occupy nearby villages with airborne troops and starve them out.”

We probably ran out of all the weapons we supported anyway, so that’s probably the end of it.

If Turkey succeeded with their airborne operations, then that would be enough.

Since they’re successful in Turkey, they’ll probably use airborne troops more cleverly in the future.

“Is that right? So, they do have some usefulness, huh?”

“Just as Your Majesty says. As long as the skies belong to our Russia, we can send airborne troops to crush the enemy’s resistance.”

“That’s a relief.”

“And Turkey has requested to purchase our Russian weapons.”

“Not bad. That means our weapons have increased in credibility.”

When I think about the old imperial days when we produced weapons through alliances, this is really great.

At this point, I believe I’ve shown my value enough.

Though grading always feels like a hassle.

“How is Hungary doing?”

“Just as Your Majesty said, the Hungarian army seems to be frequently conducting military drills at the border. The Romanian army appears to be training in response.”

That’s amusing.

Hungary is ostensibly doing military training to stand against the Communist Party.

And Romania also seems to be doing military training to guard against Hungary’s army in order to stand against the Communist Party.

The attacker and the defender.

King Ferdinand must be rotting from the inside out.

He should know that they’re silently protesting for Transylvania at this point.

I mean, Hungary probably won’t want to train on the Austrian side like, “Aren’t we Hungary?”

If they train on the Romanian side, there’s also the pretext of defending against incursions from Yugoslavia.

Of course, even with that, Romania wouldn’t think Hungary would actually invade.

“Romania probably doesn’t really think Hungary will invade, right?”

“They must know the loopholes in the defensive agreement.”

They probably do.

Especially Ferdinand I might not know. But Queen Marie, unlike her glamorous achievements of cheating and even causing upheavals, was a capable queen.

But what can even such a queen do?

Her eldest son is like that.

Could they even handle both Russia and Hungary?

“They probably know. But special military operations would be unknown to them, right?”

To suddenly occupy Transylvania under some ridiculous pretense.

It would surely surprise Romania, me, and even Hungary, who made the move.

Moreover, special military operations are not just simple plans.

“Would Romania really expect Hungary to suddenly pull such a stunt at a troubling time for their throne?”

Would Hungary realize that it now sees the power structure of Romania and approaches Carol precisely around the time Ferdinand dies?

And even if they realize it, what can they do?

What’s a weak country like Romania going to do if they refuse Russian mediation?

Will they start whining to distant Britain or France again?

As long as Britain maintains West Ukraine, they won’t care much.

The Brits and French should know about the loopholes in the defensive agreement if they’re thinking ahead.

Would they really micromanage the situation in the Balkans?

“Is that really true? That the King of Romania might die?”

“Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Romania hasn’t had any significant historical changes, right?

The war ended early, but they still devoured what they could like in real history.

But the problem would be whether Hungary can hold back till 27.

Who knows what could explode in those few years?

“But.”

“Yes?”

“Military drills are quite nice.”

They’d also serve as preparation for landing in Italy later.

It would be good to make Romania feel like, “Uh? Are those guys onto something?”

While subtly making Romania feel some strangeness, we could get their army to split towards the beaches in preparation for a Russian landing.

No matter how weak the Russian navy is, they should be able to beat the Romanian navy. Romania would surely get stimulated.

It would also be a good idea to inform Romania about the drills in advance.

“What are you thinking?”

“Don’t we have the Black Sea small fleet of our Russia?”

We’ve also received some battleships during the Civil War.

We also used that to rebuild the Black Sea fleet.

I have personal matters to attend to, so I plan to bring that up.

“There are a few battleships being constructed with German technology. But I hear it’s still far from being ready at the navy department.”

Well, that’s not that important.

We do need to strengthen our naval forces, but at the end of the day, the main battlefield for Russia should be on land, not at sea.

We can also get some help from the British fleet for disaster control.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll ignore naval reinforcement. It’s just that now isn’t the right time to be discussing naval matters. What I plan to bring up is not fleet enhancement.

I have only one thing in mind.

“How about we conduct naval landing drills?”

Naval landing drills. This should be something fresh.

By using this method, we can psychologically pressure Romania. They will probably have to move their troops a bit.

“Naval landing drills?”

“It would be good to hold them near Romania.”

I stood up and pointed to Romania’s eastern coastline on the map on the wall.

Just roam around that vicinity.

Even if they’ve made a defensive agreement, they’ll still move their ground forces because they have to protect their own waters.

Wouldn’t it make it more convenient for special military operations in Transylvania?

Well, Ferdinand probably knows Russia’s stance of supporting the restoration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

He’s promised Transylvania, but that is still rather unsettling for him.

“Are we doing landing training in Romania?”

“We’ll request cooperation from Western Ukraine. Practicing landing operations from Sevastopol to Odessa isn’t really viable. That might provoke the British.”

That said, planning landing operations at Novorossiysk or other Russian beaches from Sevastopol probably wouldn’t raise suspicions in Romania.

We conduct landing drills in another country.

Even that might provoke Romania a bit, I think.

“Yes, Your Majesty. How about requesting the Bulgarians instead? We could say we want to practice landing operations in Varna or Burgas.”

“Bulgaria?”

Bulgaria. Indeed, that might be better.

“Anyway, we’ve also accepted Bulgaria’s demands. It would be good to give them a heads-up that it’s for the purpose of preparing for a possible landing in Italy.”

Bulgaria. Not bad.

Bulgaria has limited its military might due to defeat.

I didn’t bring that up during the last defensive agreement, but for future preparations against Greece, I could suggest solving military disarmament issues while practicing landing operations.

“That sounds good. At times, hinting that we could assist in a landing in Greece would work well.”

“Yes, that sounds pretty good.”

Assisting with a landing in Greece.

That would be incredibly intriguing for Bulgaria.

After all, Bulgaria and Russia have already made deals.

If Bulgaria happens to get suspicious, we could play it off as preparing for future landings in Italy while helping Hungary.

Or maybe. Just wait a moment. It might be good to pile on a bit more there.

“Actually.”

“Please, go on, Your Majesty.”

This sounds quite promising.

There’s no need to play it off like a performance, right?

The most properly utilized landing operation was the Normandy landings.

If we’re going to do it, let’s do it right.

“Let’s just say we’ll conduct landing operations with both Bulgaria and Turkey. Wouldn’t that work? Both of them would need to strike Greece, so they’d have to cooperate somehow.”

After all, we’re defense allies, right?

In fact, it’s already been promised that Bulgaria and Turkey would support each other in a war against Greece.

This should be something they’d accept.

Aren’t I quite clever? Even if I don’t know much about warfare, this seems to show I can think well.

“Oh, that sounds good.”

“The navy department should be under Admiral Kolchak, right?”

Meanwhile, the air force department is operated by Igor Sikorsky at the airfield and design bureau.

Since we’ll be using aircraft for military purposes anyway, it’s justified to directly support the design work there.

“Yes. Currently, they’re strengthening the Black Sea and Pacific small fleets.”

“Let’s have them practice landing drills this time.”

The truth is that even landing operations in this era need a bit of practice.

Just the Gallipoli landings alone had many complex issues.

“We should aim to not just enter the land but land successfully in Greece and tie them down from all sides. So let’s practice landing operations for this reason.”

“Since we’re starting, let’s not just train against Romania but openly conduct proper training.”

“Right. We should prepare a manual for it as well.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound bad.”

“The fleet and air force will obliterate the enemy stronghold at the landing area, and we’ll land infantry through the landing ships. After all, we’ll need to practice landing soon in order to deal with Communist Italy later. It’ll be essential.”

We’ll conduct landing operations to restrain Romania.

However, we also have multiple justifications for the future of taking Italy, and practicing landing operations seriously isn’t a bad idea.

If Bulgaria directly assists, it shouldn’t be too hard.

 

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