New World Order (1)

Many point to World War I as the reason for the fall of the German Empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. However, the true, decisive cause lies elsewhere.

Even during the Great War, the Kaiser had already been reduced to a mere figurehead stripped of all real power. He had completely lost the initiative, eclipsed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who had won massive victories on the Eastern Front.

This reveals the true cause behind the collapse of the German Empire. Enduring the extreme crucible of total war, everyone—from the aristocratic Junkers to the common citizens—had grown utterly sick and tired of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Even if they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had won the war, the outcome would likely have been no different. The ruling faction seizing control of the state would simply have been the Junkers instead of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. One way or another, the German Empire was doomed to ruin, driven to the brink by the Kaiser's sheer incompetence.

In this timeline, the outcome was no different.

Erich Ludendorff executed his own "Retreat from Belgium." He moved his forces toward Belgium even faster than Auguste Dubail had raced toward Frankfurt.

Admiral Hupper, who had been intentionally dragging his feet with the fleet, gritted his teeth and dashed toward the Kiel Naval Port, the strategic stronghold at Germany's rear.

"Representative Stahl was right. Ludendorff really moved."

"Admiral Hupper, did Ludendorff really move to overthrow the regime? Or did the Kaiser issue another absurd order...?"

"Not a chance. By now, the Kaiser is probably half-mad, hallucinating the Eiffel Tower right before his eyes."

"Then what should we do?"

"Is there even a need to ask? We head for Kiel immediately."

The admiral landed his sailors in an instant and seized control of the Kiel Naval Port. The vast majority of Germany's home forces had already been wastefully spent at Frankfurt, and Ludendorff had taken every last remaining soldier with him to the Western Front. With massive battleships and a handful of sailors, taking the naval port was easier than taking candy from a baby.

The German public, already utterly fed up with the Kaiser's incompetence, quickly rallied behind the rebellion. With France already broken, they figured they might as well seize the opportunity to drive the Kaiser out. A mutiny within the military was nothing less than the opening shot of revolution and the collapse of the state. When the very armed forces meant to preserve the nation and suppress traitors turned their backs, it was no ordinary crisis.

"The... the Kaisermarine...? Those ungrateful wretches...! That savage, lowborn Admiral Hupper! If not for me, he would be tightening nuts in some factory like a common insect! How dare he...!"

The Kaiser, predictably, flew into a towering rage. His son, Crown Prince Wilhelm III, wore a greasy smirk as he chimed in to support his father.

"Father, we must teach those scoundrels a lesson immediately."

"Indeed! We have won the war, yet those despicable pirates have plunged our nation into crisis once more! Forget about France for now. They are on the verge of collapse anyway because of their own rioters. Summon Ludendorff immediately! Order him to recapture the Kiel Naval Port and bring back my precious battleships!"

True to form, Wilhelm II was flooring the accelerator straight toward Germany's ruin. The ministers, who had clung to a shred of faith in the Kaiser until the very last moment, now abandoned all hope. They were already well aware that Ludendorff was ignoring orders and marching straight for Berlin. They had deliberately withheld any reports about Ludendorff's movements from the Kaiser.

"Do not worry, Your Majesty. Soon... Ludendorff will arrive to rescue you."

"Indeed, Ludendorff is my only loyal subject! Yes, marvelous!"

The ministers sneered inwardly at the Kaiser's words. His only loyal subject, Ludendorff... They were deeply curious to see what face the Kaiser would make when Ludendorff burst into Berlin. Their curiosity was satisfied soon enough. Leaving more than half his forces behind to maximize speed, Ludendorff rushed from Belgium to Berlin. It was roughly two weeks before Conrad von Hötzendorf launched his own coup in Austria.

"Ah, my loyal general has arrived! Do you intend to pass through Berlin on your way to Kiel?"

Under normal circumstances, Ludendorff would have flashed a genial smile and said something like, "My word, Your Majesty, are you a genius?!" But not today. He merely glared at the Kaiser with a cold, stony expression.

Still entirely oblivious to the situation, the Kaiser grinned and asked again.

"Why, Ludendorff! Why the long face? Has something happened?"

His tone was warm, like an aging father speaking to a highly successful young son. But Ludendorff said nothing, merely gesturing to the men behind him. It was an act of unspeakable insolence in the presence of the emperor. Only then did the Kaiser realize what was happening, but it was already too late.

"Drag that excuse of a monarch off his throne immediately!"

"W-what?!"

"Your Majesty—no, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert of the House of Hohenzollern... what was it again? Dammit, I'll make sure you never have to use such a long name again. Just 'Wilhelm' will do."

"You... you dare...!"

Red-faced with fury at the unimaginable insult, Wilhelm leaped to his feet. He reached out and snatched the sword from the scabbard of a nearby guard. Ludendorff let out another mocking laugh at the Kaiser's archaic behavior. Unbelievable. Even in a fit of rage, the man drew a fancy ceremonial dress sword instead of a pistol. It was the perfect metaphor for every idiotic thing the Kaiser had done up to this point.

"Y-you dare betray me...? I will kill you!"

"Wilhelm, you are unfit to be Kaiser. Step down from the throne of your own accord. The price of refusal is your life. Choose."

Lest Wilhelm actually charge with the sword, Ludendorff aimed the pistol at his hip straight at him. Wilhelm II did not panic like Hötzendorf, nor did he conjure up some brilliant scheme to salvage the situation. Due to the relentless abuse he had suffered at the hands of his mother, he was actually somewhat desensitized to the concept of death. Needless to say, he lacked Hötzendorf's intellect. A man who knew no fear of death, Wilhelm charged forward, ceremonial sword in hand, heedless of his own survival.

"The roots of the German Empire lie in the Teutonic Order and the great knightly traditions of Brandenburg! Like those great knights, I shall hack you to pieces with my blade!"

Ludendorff felt all the tension drain from his body as he watched Wilhelm II charge with his dress sword. What a lunatic. The man belonged in the streets as a raving drunkard, or perhaps on a stage as a court jester.

"Subdue him immediately!"

"Yes, Commander Ludendorff!"

The operatives of the Armed Cooperative Alliance who had entered with Ludendorff immediately pinned the old Kaiser, twisting his arm behind his back. Since one of his arms was already withered and useless, they only had to pin the other.

"H-hyeeek! Please, please spare me!"

Clinging tightly to Wilhelm II's side was his son, Wilhelm III. Though notorious in public rumors for his cruelty and debauchery, when faced with mortal peril, he whimpered like a frightened Maltese.

"The father is actually ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠better than the son. What a pathetic wretch. Grab him too!"

"Yes, sir!"

"P-please spare me... Aaaargh!"

Seeing this display, Ludendorff couldn't help but think that Wilhelm II had at least received a proper upbringing. Foolish as he was, Wilhelm II had shown a certain "knightly" mettle. It seemed his mother's constant drilling of the fear of death into him had produced some strange sort of backbone.

Having disarmed Wilhelm II, Ludendorff snatched the sword, raised it high, and roared. The words he proclaimed here would become the very first sentence of the new republic's constitution.

"None, sir!"

This was the political system Ludendorff had dreamed of day and night ever since he first awakened to his destiny as a modern Napoleon in Alsace-Lorraine. Of course, his ambitions did not stop at establishing a mere "democratic republic" or a "Stahlism-based republic." He had not nurtured Napoleonic ambitions for nothing. He planned to run the state through an indirect electoral system. On paper, the citizens held voting rights and political franchise, but the candidates they could vote for would all be Ludendorff's handpicked puppets. It was, in essence, a rigged rubber-stamp election.

"And I shall serve as the Interim Alliance Leader of the German Armed Cooperative Alliance. The Kaiser's idiocy has left our land in ruins. We cannot afford to leave the seat of power vacant for even a single second. Do you agree?"

"Yes, Alliance Leader!"

"Good."

Armed Cooperative Alliance—abbreviated as Muhyeop. It was the exact moment Ludendorff became the Alliance Leader of the German Muhyeop-maeng—the Martial Arts Alliance.

The Sino-Japanese War was not yet over. However, the war between the Beiyang Army and the Imperial Japanese Army had reached its absolute end. The Beiyang Army, once boasting the title of the second-strongest military in Asia—the very force Li Hongzhang had poured his heart and soul into raising—had been utterly annihilated by the Japanese.

Of course, this did not mean Yuan Shikai had any intention of ending the war. Was the Beiyang Army the only military force in China? Having already branded himself as the ultimate icon of anti-Japanese resistance, Yuan Shikai needed to drag the war out as long as possible to maintain his grip on power. But the warlords, who had been suppressed under his iron fist, had other ideas.

"The only reason we ever submitted to Yuan Shikai was because of the Beiyang Army backing him."

"There is no reason to do so anymore. Why on earth should we remain under that tyrant's heel?"

Starting with Zhang Zuolin, the warlords across the country who had once bowed to Yuan Shikai broke away one by one. Now, Yuan Shikai's rule barely extended beyond the Beijing region. Even so, his self-proclaimed imperial title remained intact. Though the people's livelihoods were ruined and his approval ratings plummeted by the day, he was still, in theory, the heaven-ordained protector shielding the people of the Central Plains from the Japanese clutches.

But the real danger did not lie with the scattered regional warlords. It lay with Yuan Shikai's three most loyal lieutenants: Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang, and Wang Shizhen. They were the ones who posed the greatest threat.

"Because of that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠son of a bitch, we lost our entire army!"

"...Warlords across the country are declaring independence like bamboo shoots after a spring rain."

"Two million people! Two million have died because of that tyrant Yuan Shikai! We must put an end to this madness!"

Feng Guozhang, the "Dog of Beiyang," out of sheer fury over losing his army; Duan Qirui, the "Tiger of Beiyang," watching the regional warlords declare independence; and Wang Shizhen, the "Dragon of Beiyang," witnessing the endless slaughter of the people of the Central Plains—each of them resolved to launch a coup.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Yuan Shikai, still utterly detached from reality, was throwing a lavish banquet even as Chinese conscripts were dying like dogs on the battlefield.

"Come! Let me feast like a true emperor! Bring me Peking duck!"

Plastered on alcohol, Yuan Shikai demanded his roast duck. Soon, a silver platter containing the dish was delivered to him. But when the servant lifted the lid... what lay inside was not a duck, but a single revolver.

"W-what is the meaning of..."

"Pay for the blood of the innocent people of the Central Plains, you traitorous wretch!"

Without hesitation, the servant pulled the trigger, shooting Yuan Shikai straight through the heart. It was a pathetic, abrupt end for Emperor Yuan Shikai.

"Well, we have killed Yuan Shikai... but what do we do now?"

"First, we end the war."

With that, the new Beiyang government signed a peace treaty with Japan. The Japanese, desperate to bring the conflict to a close, agreed to a treaty that simply secured their dominance in Manchuria. It was not a terrible outcome for China either. However...

"What do we do now? We don't have a shred of legitimacy!"

"..."

Had Yuan Shikai been overthrown by a popular uprising, things might have been different. But as it stood, they were nothing more than usurpers. They were in danger of being viewed as just another group of warlords rising up in the fractured continent.

It was then that Duan Qirui proposed an idea.

"Let us restore the Xuantong Emperor, Puyi, to the throne."

"What?! That is madness! Who in their right mind would welcome the restoration of the Qing dynasty?"

"No, it actually makes sense."

Wang Shizhen agreed with Duan Qirui and offered further explanation.

"Do we not have the King of Joseon?"

"W-what?"

"If we coerce the King of Joseon into re-establishing a lord-vassal relationship with us, won't that grant the restored Qing dynasty instant legitimacy?"

The Three Heroes of Beiyang immediately went to work. This unfolded just a day after Ludendorff claimed his title as the Alliance Leader of the Martial Arts Alliance. The Central Plains plunged into a state of chaos unseen since the era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

Regardless of the chaos, the Japanese military, despite suffering heavy casualties, managed to secure dominance in Manchuria and strike at the Far East. The vital import route between Russia and the United States—which ran from Alaska through the Far East and onto the Trans-Siberian Railway to the West—was now completely severed.

The German forces, having wrapped up the Western Front, were also preparing to march east. The fate of the Russian Black Army now hung by a thread.