The Capital Question
The capital was the worst possible choice, at least from a purely geographical standpoint. Right now, there was always the risk that the Italian navy might shell it if things went south. The same would hold true if tensions with Britain flared up again. Even the Ottomans had once seen Constantinople threatened by German warships. And with the Russian fleet still in ruins, they would struggle to fend off even the Italians.
“That would be rather difficult. Not unless we fully secure both Anatolia and Greece.”
In the current situation, shouting about conquering Turkey and Greece under the banner of restoring Byzantium was completely out of the question. The Roman National Party seemed to understand this as well, for one of them cleared their throat. The initial excitement had cooled, and everyone began responding with cold realism.
“Well, Moscow does have the deeper roots, after all.”
“If Her Majesty the Tsarina has set her heart on Moscow, then that settles it.”
There was no need to propose a third candidate when the Tsarina herself favored Moscow. Had she expressed a desire to move the capital to Constantinople, they might have held a serious debate. But if her mind was already made up for Moscow, there was no reason to even consider Constantinople.
“Then let us decide on Moscow.”
“Officially, the capital shall be Moscow.”
“We should also contact the Orthodox Church. The remains of the previous Tsar must be transferred to the Cathedral of the Archangel.”
With the decision made in favor of Moscow, one member of the Roman National Party still looked deeply dissatisfied. Why had the all-powerful Tsarina Anastasia not appeared in person? Why were these Progressive Party upstarts the ones bringing up the topics of the capital and the imperial remains? Even if the old regime had collapsed, was it truly appropriate for the State Duma to decide the fate of a former Tsar’s corpse?
Of course, the final decision was indeed to move the remains to the Cathedral of the Archangel in Moscow. But why wasn’t the Tsarina herself resolving the matter directly?
Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. As the de facto leader of the Roman National Party in this chamber—standing in for Grigory Semyonov, who was off in Asia—he found the entire situation utterly unacceptable. So he rose from his seat with bold confidence.
“However, if I may.”
“Baron Ungern, what is it you wish to say?”
“Why has Her Majesty entrusted this matter to the leader of the Progressive Party?”
“Hmm.”
Georgy Lvov paused for a moment. In truth, this was the Tsarina’s way of telling the Duma to handle things properly for once. Even though power had been formally transferred to the State Duma, the Tsar’s authority remained immense. Given that she had personally appeared on battlefields where bullets and shells rained down, such authority was only natural. Still, the Tsarina genuinely wished for the Duma to resolve this matter, and she had assigned them this task as a test.
But Baron Ungern was a die-hard monarchist. No, more accurately, he was a loyalist to the Romanov imperial family. He probably suspected that something had gone wrong.
“Has something happened to Her Majesty?”
Ah, there it was. Not even a full day had passed, and he was already jumping to conclusions. Georgy Lvov let out a deep sigh. Even if the Tsar herself disliked it, everyone had come to rely on Anastasia completely. They may have changed the signboard, but this country was still essentially an absolute monarchy.
Georgy Lvov had seen enough to understand. Yes, there was nothing to be done about it. But the problem was that if he allowed the Duma to formally acknowledge the Tsar’s authority like this, he—Georgy Lvov—would be the one scolded by Anastasia. Especially during the marriage issue, he had been thoroughly reprimanded.
“No, she simply said that since she respects the Duma’s opinion, the Duma should resolve it.”
“Ah, yes. It is indeed a matter for the Duma to handle. Quite right. Ahem.”
“And Her Majesty seems to wish to invest more in scholars.”
“That doesn’t sound bad at all. I understand Dr. Einstein is quite the remarkable figure.”
Support for scholars was not a bad idea. After all, the parliamentarians gathered here were all filled with the determination to truly transform Russia—unlike the Bolsheviks.
“While we’re at it, it would be good to allocate some budget to the White Army as well.”
The White Army generals affiliated with the Roman National Party seized the moment to speak up. Each member of the White Army was now an elite, but the quality of their weapons still left much to be desired. They had only just begun properly using the Fyodorov Avtomat. Even that was a tremendous leap forward, since they were now producing rifles domestically instead of relying on foreign manufacturing from the old empire days. However, they were still severely lacking in tanks and aircraft.
“Since Her Majesty has negotiated with the German Kaiser to transfer technicians specializing in tanks, battleships, and aircraft, we can allocate the budget at that time.”
The meeting between the Kaiser and Anastasia had only covered technical cooperation on tanks and battleships, but the Foreign Ministry had negotiated further with the German Empire’s—East Prussia’s—foreign office to secure cooperation on fighter aircraft technology as well. With Sikorsky’s airfield working hard to strengthen air power, the White Army was looking forward to Russia’s future air force with great anticipation.
“Understood.”
“What about the Jewish issue?”
The Jewish question was raised as well. A significant number of Jews had fled from Poland. Although Russia had now shifted to a pro-Jewish policy, it had long been an anti-Jewish state, and they remained a headache. During the Red-White Civil War, at least some had taken up arms alongside them or provided financial support from the rear. But these newcomers from Poland had done neither.
“There was some initial unrest, but once we offered to support their settlement, most decided to head to North Manchuria.”
“That’s fortunate. North Manchuria still has many Manchus and Han Chinese remaining. We need to send Jews there to mix the population.”
“Have you looked into the matter of Korean immigration?”
The Koreans flowing into North Manchuria. The Duma had recently begun paying close attention to Far Eastern affairs and had learned about the influx of Koreans. Originally this would have been an item to present to the Tsar, but with the intention of letting the Duma handle such matters, they had investigated it themselves. Especially since this issue was deeply connected to the Asiatic Cavalry Division.
From what they had found—
“From what we’ve gathered, it appears that Koreans who migrated to Manchuria via the South Manchuria Railway from Japan proper have grown dissatisfied with Japan and are moving to North Manchuria. The White Army must have looked into this through the Asiatic Cavalry Division as well?”
“There are those, and apparently others are coming to rely on a man named Hong Beom-do, who commands the Korean unit within our Asiatic Cavalry Division.”
“Hmm. Not bad at all.”
The Beiyang government had encouraged the Manchus and Han Chinese in the Manchurian region to migrate to North China, which had significantly reduced their numbers. But many still remained. If Jews and Koreans continued to flow in as well, then… well. In a situation where sudden immigration could destabilize public order, it would be good if the scale of the Asiatic Cavalry Division could expand to secure stability.
“What is the current state of the civil war between China’s Beiyang government and the Constitutional Protection government?”
“It still appears to be a muddy stalemate.”
“Still? Didn’t we send our military advisory group to the Constitutional Protection side?”
With Russian military advisors present, were they still dragging their feet like this? Of course, they had expected it to be slow, but the White Army generals were appalled at how utterly pathetic the level of those who had received Russian military guidance truly was.
“On the contrary, the Beiyang government is being supported by Japan.”
“Her Majesty has marked a man named Chen Jiongming as the future leader of China. Is it acceptable to let things continue like this?”
The fact that the Tsarina was directly supporting Chen Jiongming essentially meant she was backing the next leader of China. But was it fine to let things drag on at this rate?
“Although the warlords have not unified and it remains a muddy fight, the Constitutional Protection side holds the advantage. In the end, the Beiyang government will have no choice but to retreat.”
“That is fortunate, but…”
It was fortunate, but there was another problem. If they won in such a half-hearted manner, could the man the Tsarina was pushing—Chen Jiongming—truly become a proper leader of China?
“Even so, if things continue this way, won’t it be difficult for Chen Jiongming to become a proper leader of China? Even if he has a close connection with us, there are simply too many warlords.”
Although warlords opposing the Beiyang government were causing it to lose ground to the Constitutional Protection faction, the Constitutional Protection side was itself barely held together under the name of Sun Yat-sen. Once the Beiyang government was pushed out, internal divisions might arise.
“Is there a problem with there being many warlords?”
“The existence of many warlords means that when Chen Jiongming later becomes the leader of China, there will be more people who will resist him by relying on military force.”
Especially in China’s case, even now the Constitutional Protection government was little more than a gathering of warlords. In such a situation, even if the Constitutional Protection government defeated the Beiyang government and Chen Jiongming ousted Sun Yat-sen, could he truly become a proper leader?
“Then even if Chen Jiongming luckily becomes the leader, the country will soon fall back into civil war.”
“Wouldn’t the others suffer heavy losses in the war as well?”
“If he achieved a perfect and overwhelming victory, that might be different. But if the civil war drags on like this, it means competitors who will later eye his position will emerge.”
No matter how much Chen Jiongming was currently ahead, that very fact could become a problem. The longer the war lasted, the more likely it was that someone would achieve similar merits to Chen Jiongming, or that someone would build up power behind him and aim for his position. In that case, it would be difficult for Chen Jiongming to completely control the political situation.
“Then should we intervene?”
“What is the Foreign Ministry’s assessment?”
If they intervened here, they would almost certainly clash with Japan.
“Further intervention would be difficult. There is no reason to unnecessarily worsen relations with Japan at this time.”
Russia had developed considerably, but it still could not afford friction with Japan in the Far East. Moreover, if they intervened too deeply now, Britain and France might accuse Russia of overstepping and start causing trouble.
They could only hope that at the current level, the Constitutional Protection side would win and Chen Jiongming would prevail.
“Good grief. So we can only watch.”
Federal provincial autonomy. Chen Jiongming. Upon investigation, it turned out that China’s proposed system of federal provincial autonomy was essentially the stage right before Russia’s federal constitutional monarchy. Unlike Russia, which had been overturned in one go, China had too large a population and too many warlords to jump straight to a federal system. Considering that, having a monarchy was indeed better. At least the White Army had been able to rally around the Romanovs as a focal point.
But the Tsarina had chosen this seemingly inadequate Chen Jiongming as the next leader of China. Since she had met with him directly, she must know something they did not.
“Hmm. Shouldn’t we report this to Her Majesty?”
In the end, contrary to Anastasia’s intentions, the number of things she would have to grade only kept increasing.
As expected, it seemed I wasn’t meant to rest. I was playing with Belka when Prime Minister Krivoshein came to see me.
“It’s about China?”
“Yes. The fighting has become far too muddy.”
The war between the Constitutional Protection government and the Beiyang government was dragging on.
“Wouldn’t it be good for us if they reduced their numbers?”
Yes. If the Constitutional Protection government fell into complete deadlock, that might indeed become a problem. After all, we had helped them—wouldn’t it damage Russia’s prestige if they couldn’t even win properly?
“Still, we did send military advisors from the White Army itself. If the civil war remains stagnant for too long, wouldn’t that be rather problematic?”
Hmm. Well, that was something to consider. But there was no real need to worry about prestige in the first place. From what I could see, the Constitutional Protection government seemed to have started in an even more miserable state than in real history. Simply turning their military situation around could already be considered an achievement.
“It’s fine. Didn’t we grab them by the collar when they were on the verge of losing and drag them up to equal footing? Besides, the more their strength is worn down, the less they’ll dare complain about our actions in North Manchuria.”
“That is true, but…”
What exactly was he trying to say?
“Is there something else?”
“If the civil war drags on, won’t Chen Jiongming’s position become dangerous?”
Chen Jiongming? Ah, that made sense. The longer the civil war lasted, the more warlords capable of rivaling him would emerge.
“Hmm. You’re right. Even if the Constitutional Protection government ultimately wins, other warlords will grow during the process.”
“Exactly. That is why I came to seek Your Majesty’s advice.”
He wanted my advice. Hmm, well. Advice, huh. Was there anything I could say? After all, what I wanted from the beginning was to maintain the status quo. I hoped China would bleed as much as possible before reaching the stage of federal provincial autonomy.