Fedorov Armory (2)
The thought crossed my mind: did he really believe he hadn’t been caught? Or was this some kind of journalistic role-play? I see. Even the Tsar has a mountain of work to do, so perhaps this was simply a way to unwind. Still, it would be rather childish to complain about the food while someone was trying to relax. Besides, I was genuinely satisfied. Honestly, I had no real grievances to speak of. So Sergei answered with complete honesty.
“Uh, well. I have no complaints.”
“Is that so? You may speak freely. I’ll make sure none of it reaches the ears of those above.”
Well. Even if there were complaints, wouldn’t it make more sense to direct them at the invisible factory owner named Fedorov, who was supposedly busy developing weapons? Sergei had grown up in crushing poverty and had been tossed around Moscow under Bolshevik rule for quite some time. He was old enough to understand certain things. Perhaps the Tsar had come to check whether her subjects were slacking off instead of working? Looking at it that way, the answer became obvious.
The so-called Anastasia Five-Year Reform was constantly praised by the older men as the reason the country was finally becoming a proper nation. Yes. That was it. Lately, the factories had begun spreading the slogan: Those who do not work shall not eat. The Tsar must have come in person to see whether the workers were truly earning their wages or simply loafing about. How could the citizens of the United States—how could the Tsar’s own subjects—possibly idle away their time!
Completely contrary to Anastasia’s intentions, Sergei had fallen into a magnificent misunderstanding.
“What are you saying? We have no complaints whatsoever. We had just finished lunch and were about to return to work! Isn’t that right, everyone?”
“Y-yeah. That’s right.”
“Compared to the Bolshevik days or the time of the previous Tsar, this is an incredibly good era.”
The factory workers answered Sergei’s question in perfect unison, as if they had rehearsed it. Anastasia had no idea. She didn’t know that as the reforms progressed and Russia grew stronger, living standards had risen to the point where the era of workers begging for shorter hours and more bread had passed. Instead, it had become strange not to work as much as one was paid.
Anastasia had no idea that these factory workers were men who had been conscripted by the enemy, and that they were the very people who had witnessed the Empress leading the charge when Moscow was recaptured by the White Army.
The factory workers and Sergei, united in a single heart and mind, had discerned the Tsar’s profound intentions. Anastasia responded with the smile of a saint.
That gentle smile looked more beautiful to Sergei than anything else in the world.
She truly is beautiful.
The Russia led by this person would undoubtedly stand tall above the world. The fact that the Tsar was disguised as a reporter would remain a secret among the workers.
Returning to the office, I settled comfortably into my chair.
Wow. Pretending to be a reporter was actually pretty fun. It was hilarious how they spoke so openly without realizing I was the Tsar. What shocked me more, though, was that they truly had no complaints. Had only the black-company workers whose heads had been cracked open during the Bolshevik suppression remained? The kind of people who would shout Even if our heads are cracked, long live the Tsar!
After all, those with actual grievances had probably been killed in retaliation by the White Army during the Red-White Civil War.
“Your Imperial Majesty.”
“What is it?”
The ministers looked as though they had a great deal they wanted to say. Yeah. I suppose my little journalist disguise must have seemed rather odd.
“It’s nothing. In any case, all’s well that ends well. The citizens of the United States still have no complaints. If nothing else, the fact that there have been no protests like before should tell you everything.”
Ah, right. I had forgotten while excitedly touring the factory. I had overlooked that.
“Hmm. So that’s how it is.”
I had forgotten. There had been an event like Bloody Sunday. Yes. The mere absence of such demonstrations was already remarkable. I had been a bit too hasty.
“Indeed.”
“That worker’s name was Sergei, wasn’t it? He seemed like a diligent young man.”
I rather liked him. A young person in this era who showed such loyalty to the Tsar. I didn’t dislike that type at all. People like him would surely shoulder a rifle on their own when the nation was in crisis. Or, at the very least, they would run the factory diligently and churn out firearms to arm our White Army. Quite appealing, wasn’t it?
Could it be that all the workers who remained were of that sort? Then the answer was clear. Thanks to the Reds being thoroughly purged during the Red-White Civil War, only the genuine ones were left. In that case, perhaps I should give them a special wage increase or something.
“Yes.”
“Since that friend and the other factory workers cooperated so well with the interview, wouldn’t it be good to bestow some small reward or gift upon them?”
It was only natural to reward those who spoke well. Now I understood why monarchs tended to listen to the words of flatterers.
“It shall be done, Your Majesty. It seems that would be the best way to keep their mouths shut as well.”
“Pardon?”
“It is nothing.”
I wasn’t quite sure what he meant. Well. It was only right to receive a prize for working hard, and a bonus for listening well. The Fedorov factory had made me nervous because of the American newspapers, but this visit had eased some of that tension.
“Now that I think about it, the Fedorov factory is producing significantly more firearms than the others.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Perhaps because it is located in Moscow, they seem to be working especially hard.”
It made sense. After all, this was the city where Charina resided. Fedorov would naturally be paying extra attention. Still, it would be nice if other sectors showed similar enthusiasm.
“It is said that the socialists are already encouraging the workers, and coal production has increased as well.”
So socialists can be useful at times like this.
“That’s good to hear.”
Coal mining and the like—Russia was a country rich in resources. We had to mine them diligently and turn them into our strengths. Come to think of it, the Stakhanov movement came to mind. During Stalin’s Second Five-Year Plan, a miner in Kadievka had extracted fourteen times the quota of coal and became a symbolic figure in propaganda. I wasn’t sure if the same would happen in this history, but if we were facing Communist Germany, we needed to hurry a little more.
“How about we do some propaganda like the Reds? In the weapons factories, we could spread the message that every firearm produced is military power that will protect Russia.”
“Wouldn’t that make it look like we are preparing for war?”
We should always be preparing for war. Our Communist German friends could turn the People’s Self-Defense Force into the People’s Army at any moment, proudly invade Poland, and declare that the old Bolshevik grandma had returned. Besides, it wouldn’t look like we were preparing for war. The weapons coming out of the factories these days were being used to arm the Far Eastern Army—including the Asiatic Cavalry Division—and then sold to the Chinese Constitutional Protection Army.
The funny part was that the Japanese had opened up South Manchuria completely, making it easy to sell weapons to the Constitutionalists. Looking at the current situation, it seemed our Japanese friends were selling weapons to the Beiyang government as well. So we sell to the Constitutionalists, and Japan sells to the Beiyang. In effect, we were both running weapons tests on each other. Those warlords had nothing left to squeeze out of the Beiyang Army, so they were probably thinking of selling even more weapons. In that sense, they had actually helped us sell ours. It wasn’t as if we had volunteer troops embedded with the Constitutional Protection Army anyway.
Suddenly thinking of something, I tapped my fingers.
“Ah, Poland. Make sure Poland is fully stocked with weapons as well. Enough to arm the entire Polish army with Russian-made weapons. Don’t give them away for free, but sell them cheaply. After all, they are a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact, aren’t they?”
This way, it would look less like a warmongering nation and more like we were making defensive preparations to serve as a shield against communism.
“That armed force might one day turn against us.”
“That’s exactly why we must do it. If they only use Russian-made weapons, how could they possibly attack us?”
It was preparation for any eventuality. On the surface, it looked like we were generously supporting them while cheering them on to fight well, but in reality, we were making them addicted to the taste of our weapons. Wouldn’t attacking Russia with weapons received from Russia create a massive case of cognitive dissonance?
“Ah. I see.”
“If things go this way, they may later ask for even more weapons so they can strike Germany instead.”
That was what happened when one became overly dependent on Russian arms. No matter how short-tempered they were, they would use the Communist Germans—who could be legitimately labeled as enemies—as cannon fodder for expansion. And that would inevitably force them to deal with Communist Germany. I had said it many times before: Germany was easier to deal with than Russia. At least geographically. A Germany isolated from everyone else, compared to Russia which had to cross the Urals, would force Poland to make a choice. And both Poland and China—who were currently killing each other—were excellent markets where we could produce and sell weapons in bulk.
At first glance, it made me sound like a merchant of death. But it was still better than using those weapons ourselves, wasn’t it?
“Has there been any progress regarding the Anti-Comintern Pact?”
“Everyone has responded positively.”
“Really?”
That was fortunate. Romania had been a bit of a concern. Still, it ultimately came down to choosing a side. How many countries in the world would side with an isolated Germany? Especially one that wasn’t even a monarchy, but a pack of Reds. We must never let our guard down, but the options available to those Balkan states were limited. Romania and Bulgaria were monarchies, after all. Just look at the current communist nations. The Bolsheviks who lost the Red-White Civil War had slaughtered the Tsar’s family, and Communist Germany had chased down the Kaiser only to eventually wipe out his entire line. I had also heard that Mussolini in Italy, though he hadn’t killed the king, had overturned the country with German support and placed the royal family under house arrest. The Kingdom of Romania and the Tsardom of Bulgaria would surely be wary. If they grew too close to Germany, a communist revolution might break out in their own countries. They would keep their distance out of caution.
Come to think of it, there were quite a few monarchies left.
“Austria and Bulgaria have said that the Kaiser and the Tsar will come in person.”
“Is that so? That’s not bad at all.”
Around this time, Bulgaria was under Boris III, wasn’t it? I recall he died during World War II after a meeting with Adolf Hitler. In this history, it seemed Boris III would align with Russia. Wasn’t he the one who established an absolute monarchy, joined Germany in the Second World War, and expanded his territory? If Yugoslavia turned communist, that side would be able to expand its territory as in the original history. But I was a little uneasy. Roza Luxemburg and that Karl fellow—both originally died after their revolutions failed. Even if we divided the factions in advance through agreements, we must always account for variables. When Wilhelm sent Lenin into Russia, did he truly believe Russia would be completely overturned and turned red? He probably only expected them to withdraw from the war.
“While we’re doing anti-communist propaganda, how about sending our own anti-communist propagandists to each country?”
“Anti-communist propaganda?”
That was an intriguing suggestion. I had seen communists working tirelessly to spread revolutionary propaganda, but this was the first time I had heard of Russian anti-communist propagandists. Well, we had done it domestically, but never sent them abroad. It might be interesting to send some to Austria.
“It is said that Communist Germany is secretly sending party members into Austria and Hungary to conduct underground propaganda. There is no law that says only they are allowed to propagandize, is there?”
Oh, that made sense. That was exactly the right attitude. After all, a good Red is a dead Red.