Criminal Incompetence #4: The Ottomans Officially Declare War!
The Ottomans have officially declared war! This clearly meant a new front had opened in the First World War.
"Those traitorous bastards have staged a palace coup! They've sold out their country to Germany!"
What the hell was that? Your coup was a coup, but yours was a righteous decision for national salvation. The Young Turks, who had allied with Germany and loudly proclaimed their advance, immediately pictured that guy waving a white flag from outside the ring as soon as they took power.
"Where the hell is that bastard Hamid?!"
"He's nowhere to be found."
The former Sultan—no, now the former Prime Minister—Hamid, the ex-Prime Minister.
"An armed uprising has broken out in Armenia. Armies of unknown nationality are pouring in from Persia and Russia, joining the mobs."
"Ha! Just as I thought! That traitor. Keep the northern front in stalemate for now and march on Armenia immediately! Leave not a single one of those enemies alive!"
But what they saw in Armenia was already a breached front line, militias armed with rifles in their hands, and Persian troops.
You bastards, I knew it!
Yeah, what a shame!
In exchange for joining the war, Persia had been promised shares of the oil from the Persian Gulf and Baku. They had thrown their entire national strength into it. Even though Persia was a backwater everywhere, the introduction of tractors and trucks had freed up some hands even in those rural areas. Once farmers and landowners realized that buying and running tractors required oil, they had every incentive to enlist. Oil was now Persia's—no, Iran's—future lifeline.
And above all, victory seemed within reach.
'We'll set up an independent Armenia as a buffer state?'
'Can't we just take it for ourselves?'
'The Kurds are your kin, you gonna swallow them whole? Pick one: oil-rich land that's yours or oil-poor land that's someone else's.'
'Oil it is.'
Before the spring offensive, the Korean mobile forces had retreated to Central Asia to avoid the rasputitsa. Upon hearing intelligence that the Ottomans might join the war, they loaded up on fresh trucks and headed straight for the Caucasus. Now, with summer arriving even in the north and the German offensive seemingly at an end for the moment, they were assisting Persian troop transports.
The Ottomans had broken through the front with tanks they dragged in themselves, but honestly, as the Supreme Leader had said, this wasn't tank-friendly terrain by any stretch. It was a place short on truck drivers and lacking in every way, so they were driving those trucks themselves, encouraging the Armenian armed uprising.
Even they thought it made sense—if it was about building their own nation, it was their fight to lead.
But their vacation-like life was coming to an end.
"The Germans are advancing south."
"Finally, what we expected."
All the Korean generals had anticipated the Germans would come right now, timing-wise, and prepared operational plans accordingly. The north, where the Germans had pushed up so far, was still bitterly cold with long roads ahead. But soon summer would come, and even the north's roads would dry up.
In contrast, the Korean Southern Army Group—no, now reorganized as the Central Army Group—responsible for Ukraine had already endured the rasputitsa, and the roads there were starting to firm up again. The Germans could launch offensives too, but their childish game of "you hit me, I hit you" with the Ottomans was apparently winding down.
"Vacation's over."
"We've already dug over a thousand trenches. What's there to worry about?"
The Koreans hadn't just been playing Euro Truck Simulator. They'd been feverishly transporting troops by rail across the entire Ukrainian front they held.
"The war's goal is no reparations or cessions, but the strategy to achieve it—give ground in exchange for superiority in attrition—is pretty funny."
Massive amounts of painkillers, evacuation trucks, field hospital trucks, enormous hot-air balloons, mortars, and radios. The Supreme Leader had planned for a brutal defensive and war of attrition, anticipating massive enemy offensives. It reeked of blood and acrid gunpowder.
"Exhaust the enemy as much as possible, pull the front back to the max, then punch through at one point when they're worn out—that's the way to minimize deaths, I suppose."
"Yeah, probably. But don't worry too much."
Who did they serve, after all?
"Commander, there's a revolt in Adana, Turkey. The ex-Prime Minister and his supporters are calling for peace."
Who else would have planted that? The culprit was so obvious it wasn't even surprising.
"The Polish National Liberation Front."
I alternated glances between the independence fighter before me and the imperialist trying to use him.
"Is there a special reason you brought him here to introduce to me, Minister Churchill?"
"Now, now, don't think of it that way. It's truly important."
"You're saying what you want to say, but he rejects all forms of cession or reparations. And Polish independence too."
"Even in private, you say such rigid things? Even without that, I know full well the valor of the Korean forces fighting bravely on the Ukrainian front."
Well, that's not the issue, is it? Right now, the Korean army was locked in trench warfare with the Germans. Rumors said casualties were high but deaths low, but that didn't ease my mind.
And now? Pre-war deals? Post-war shares? The British really didn't get me.
"It was your side that first brought up post-war matters. I just think Poland should be included too."
"I disagree, but since you've come, we'll welcome you as a guest. Minister Churchill—no, you're not a minister anymore, are you? May I call you ex-Minister?"
A lot of people think World War II was due to Nazi atrocities and German expansionism, but that's knowing the answer without the reasoning—a partial credit at best, zero on a strict essay question.
Polish bravery against Nazi Germany? First off, that's the Brits, who had no army to give but wanted to prop up Poland somehow, spouting lip service.
Poland? In my view, if Nazi Germany was primarily responsible, Poland was second—no, zero-th—responsible. Doesn't it strike you as odd? How could Hitler, who broke promises like daily bread, brazenly demand land from Poland on the world stage?
It was possible because Poland had karma just as bad as Hitler's—maybe worse.
Born big from the power vacuum after World War I, instead of uniting properly, they oppressed Ukrainians, Germans, and Russians—stacking up debuffs. Sandwiched between Germany and the Soviets, barking at both, while carving land from weaker neighbors for more stacks. They agreed to encircle Great Germany but refused to help Czechoslovakia, then picked at its corpse when it fell—that's stack three.
When Germany's threat loomed and the Soviets offered to help against them, Poland rejected transit through Czech or Polish soil, distrusting the "enemy state." That pushed the Soviets toward the Nazi-Soviet pact and partitioning Poland later.
War with the Soviets? Distrust? If you're strong enough for a two-front war like America, fine—but getting partitioned twice? No excuses.
Poland needed to learn some shame. Me begging Britain and Japan for investment to industrialize Joseon? Not shameful. Inability to do it is.
I didn't bow because I liked them or trusted them—it was necessary. History has no ifs, and my knowledge might be short, but one thing's sure: Poland holds no appeal for me, and I don't want to get involved.
The problem? That plague-ridden Churchill brought him along. I stared at the man boldly staring back.
Hm, he's handsome. Hot damn.
So, Poland was like Gojong's Korea to me. I applaud their resistance spirit and victim mentality, but getting into that mess makes them regular losers in my book.
"Fought well but lost?" Sun Tzu says defeat means national ruin. Poland didn't just ruin itself—it ruined others too.
If Joseon hadn't been annexed, would Japan have aimed for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere? If Joseon was Japan's first domino, Poland was the domino chain itself.
Germany sparking world war...
'This war's retiring cavalry forever—wanna join hands, or rather, ride off into the sunset beyond the horizon?'
Selfish, but I'd prefer they stay fictional. Manpower? Living, breathing humans.
My planned Manbangdo wasn't much different from Poland, which made their existence grating. They hinted at World War II.
'When the world war frees the major colonies, maybe I won't need a second one? That's my hope.'
A true armistice, not Versailles. I had that hope, and to achieve it—regrettably for Poles—did the world really need Poland as its detonator? I wondered.
I get their zeal for a nation-state—I did it too. So I won't block them, but I won't help either.
No matter what Churchill or Britain says, I have zero interest in wearing the crown of Poland's liberator. I could roughly calculate what a "liberated" Poland would do post-liberation.