I'm just gonna have to figure out how to pull off the upcoming war which may take some time.
20th Century Khan - A Timeline!
- Thread starter The Federalist
- Start date
I'm just gonna have to figure out how to pull off the upcoming war which may take some time.
Vault-Scope
Banned
The uppcoming war? Doesn´t the Japanes invasion of China come before this version of WW2 ??
Vault-Scope
Banned
Bump
Views: 16,683
China would certainly give a good field trial for the new Imperial army, just as IOTL situation in Spain proved usefull to the wermarcht.
Views: 16,683
China would certainly give a good field trial for the new Imperial army, just as IOTL situation in Spain proved usefull to the wermarcht.
Hope you figure out how to manage the war.
This is the only TL I know of which prominently features Evil Buhdists. Incidentally this will probably lead to Christains taking less flak for past transgressions from the Way of Christ.
This is the only TL I know of which prominently features Evil Buhdists. Incidentally this will probably lead to Christains taking less flak for past transgressions from the Way of Christ.
Not much of a development for the TL here, just a section I started writing before the one that appeared as the first part of this TL. So this is the actual first part of this TL. It contains an anecdote about a formative event in the Baron's life that should have provided an introduction to his personality to the would-be readers of this TL. So it is meant to be something of a prologue. Enjoy!
***
PROLOGUE
PROLOGUE
Ataman Grigory Semyonov of the Baikal Cossack Host rode off with a small unit of cavalrymen men to a railroad junction several miles away from the city of Chita to meet a train carrying vital supplies from Vladivostok to Adrmiral Kolchak’s forces in the West. The Ataman and his men were known as more of a vicious gang of bandits and thugs than a professional army even for the humble standards of the White warlords. They were supported by Japanese funds and arms and with that, they stopped trains and conducted raids on villages, plundering everything they could get their cold frostbitten hands on, raping masses of women and shooting terrified Jews on sight. He was sent there by the Provisional Government after the February Revolution to expand its influence to the Eastern frontier. After the October Revolution, he was left with control over the Transbaikal and had become an independent, full-fledged warlord. It was then that he came into contact with his Japanese benefactors who were looking for someone they could project their Russian interests into.
Riding beside the Ataman was his closest lieutenant, the Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg. The Baron von Sternberg, 33, was a Baltic-German born of a noble family in Graz, Austria and raised in the city of Reval, Estonia. After graduating from the prestigious Pavlovsky Military Academy in St. Petersburg, he was stationed in an outpost in Siberia where he got his first taste of the open wilderness. From his countless interactions, befriending and communing with the local Mongol and Buriat peoples, he learned about their ancient way of life as nomads and hunter-warriors, which had remained unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Soon, he developed a great respect and fascination with them, even becoming fluent in several dialects of Mongolian. It is said that it was here where he was first introduced to the mysteries of the East, entering the tutelage of tribal shamans and acquiring a great deal of Oriental wisdom.
In one popular account, the Baron fell off his horse while riding one day and breaking his leg, was unable to move. Immobilized, he fell into the mercies of local Buddhist monks who found him and brought him to their monastery where he was treated for several days. His leg healed under the strong scent of burning incense, the waving of magical talismans and the reciting of Buddhist prayers. And it is said that on his last night there, the monastery was haunted by a vision of Beghtse, the ancient Tibetan god of war who, with fire spewing from his mouth and eyes announced the christening of his latest incarnation. He vanished and the monks bowed to the Baron soon after and presented him with a talisman crafted in the image of that same demonic deity that had just appeared. He was released from that monastery with cheers and blessings from the monks. They were bidding farewell to the earthly incarnation of the God of War.
After a long absence he returned with a gift of several Caribou carcasses he had hunted himself only to see his beloved monastery being attacked by a small but savage of troupe of marauding Chinese bandits. The Baron and the four guards that accompanied him slaughtered them on sight and presented their gifts to the monks afterward. They shared one of the Caribou over a heartwarming supper where they laughed and recounted memories from the Baron’s stay there. The Baron told of how he never takes off the talisman he had been given and how it has saved him from falling off horses ever since. The Baron left by sunset to the same cheers and blessings that saw him off the last time. However, on the way back to camp, a grand revelatory idea was consuming the whole of his mind. He returned to the monastery at midnight on horseback with the Beghtse talisman still dangling from his neck. He rode in circles around the monastery and started throwing burning chunks of wood to its roof, setting the ancient building on fire. The fire raged and eventually reduced the monastery into a pile of ruble, incinerating every living monk inside it. The Baron returned to camp and slept a sweet slumber that night.
When he awoke, he recounted to his men with a gleeful joy, the dream he had just had. In this dream, the souls of the monks whom he burned alive were smiling heartily at him from atop the wheel of life. They had been reincarnated as gods. No more would they be so feeble and weak and pathetic as to be threatened by the advances of measly bandits. Now, they were mighty, invincible beings on top of the universe. The Baron had finally rewarded them for their compassion and hospitality. He celebrated and was filled with so much pride and fulfillment because he was the reason, the agent of their great cosmic promotion.
During the Great War, he earned the reputation of being a “brave but savage soldier being capable of actions that no other officer would even think of”. While defending trenches, he was fond of tripping incoming enemy soldiers, making them fall in where he would focus on trying to the break their jaws off with the butt of his rifle. He leapt like a madman when confronting an enemy soldier and stabbed them in the head or in the neck from the air. He tied their still living bodies to the back of his horse and paraded around with them. All this he did to the accompaniment of mad thunderous laughter.
While riding, the Baron thought of plunder, devastation and capturing several of the enemy to bring them back to camp for torture, he did not ponder the slightest bit on the possibility of succeeding his superior and ascending to the position of Ataman himself. So when the divine hands of fate intervened that night, he was struck with an awakening, enlightening sense of awe, such as he had never imagined before. As barely one night after Seymonov’s burial, in a bizarre but breathtaking ritual of inauguration, his cavalrymen, a diverse cast of Cossacks, Mongols and Chinese rode around him by the hundreds in a majestic equine circle, making the Earth tremble and proclaiming in a grand, unified chorus, “Long live our new Ataman!” This was his first taste of supreme power.
Riding beside the Ataman was his closest lieutenant, the Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg. The Baron von Sternberg, 33, was a Baltic-German born of a noble family in Graz, Austria and raised in the city of Reval, Estonia. After graduating from the prestigious Pavlovsky Military Academy in St. Petersburg, he was stationed in an outpost in Siberia where he got his first taste of the open wilderness. From his countless interactions, befriending and communing with the local Mongol and Buriat peoples, he learned about their ancient way of life as nomads and hunter-warriors, which had remained unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Soon, he developed a great respect and fascination with them, even becoming fluent in several dialects of Mongolian. It is said that it was here where he was first introduced to the mysteries of the East, entering the tutelage of tribal shamans and acquiring a great deal of Oriental wisdom.
In one popular account, the Baron fell off his horse while riding one day and breaking his leg, was unable to move. Immobilized, he fell into the mercies of local Buddhist monks who found him and brought him to their monastery where he was treated for several days. His leg healed under the strong scent of burning incense, the waving of magical talismans and the reciting of Buddhist prayers. And it is said that on his last night there, the monastery was haunted by a vision of Beghtse, the ancient Tibetan god of war who, with fire spewing from his mouth and eyes announced the christening of his latest incarnation. He vanished and the monks bowed to the Baron soon after and presented him with a talisman crafted in the image of that same demonic deity that had just appeared. He was released from that monastery with cheers and blessings from the monks. They were bidding farewell to the earthly incarnation of the God of War.
After a long absence he returned with a gift of several Caribou carcasses he had hunted himself only to see his beloved monastery being attacked by a small but savage of troupe of marauding Chinese bandits. The Baron and the four guards that accompanied him slaughtered them on sight and presented their gifts to the monks afterward. They shared one of the Caribou over a heartwarming supper where they laughed and recounted memories from the Baron’s stay there. The Baron told of how he never takes off the talisman he had been given and how it has saved him from falling off horses ever since. The Baron left by sunset to the same cheers and blessings that saw him off the last time. However, on the way back to camp, a grand revelatory idea was consuming the whole of his mind. He returned to the monastery at midnight on horseback with the Beghtse talisman still dangling from his neck. He rode in circles around the monastery and started throwing burning chunks of wood to its roof, setting the ancient building on fire. The fire raged and eventually reduced the monastery into a pile of ruble, incinerating every living monk inside it. The Baron returned to camp and slept a sweet slumber that night.
When he awoke, he recounted to his men with a gleeful joy, the dream he had just had. In this dream, the souls of the monks whom he burned alive were smiling heartily at him from atop the wheel of life. They had been reincarnated as gods. No more would they be so feeble and weak and pathetic as to be threatened by the advances of measly bandits. Now, they were mighty, invincible beings on top of the universe. The Baron had finally rewarded them for their compassion and hospitality. He celebrated and was filled with so much pride and fulfillment because he was the reason, the agent of their great cosmic promotion.
During the Great War, he earned the reputation of being a “brave but savage soldier being capable of actions that no other officer would even think of”. While defending trenches, he was fond of tripping incoming enemy soldiers, making them fall in where he would focus on trying to the break their jaws off with the butt of his rifle. He leapt like a madman when confronting an enemy soldier and stabbed them in the head or in the neck from the air. He tied their still living bodies to the back of his horse and paraded around with them. All this he did to the accompaniment of mad thunderous laughter.
While riding, the Baron thought of plunder, devastation and capturing several of the enemy to bring them back to camp for torture, he did not ponder the slightest bit on the possibility of succeeding his superior and ascending to the position of Ataman himself. So when the divine hands of fate intervened that night, he was struck with an awakening, enlightening sense of awe, such as he had never imagined before. As barely one night after Seymonov’s burial, in a bizarre but breathtaking ritual of inauguration, his cavalrymen, a diverse cast of Cossacks, Mongols and Chinese rode around him by the hundreds in a majestic equine circle, making the Earth tremble and proclaiming in a grand, unified chorus, “Long live our new Ataman!” This was his first taste of supreme power.
***
Please comment!
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I figured out the course of the war and am just deciding in what style to write it in.
Also, does anyone have any comments on the previous two sections on the Ukraine and Bukhara?
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yourworstnightmare
Banned
Liked the prologue, nice introduction for someone not familiar with the baron. I think it very well could have served as a first chapter even though most of it is before the POD.
Operation Chagatai
From his command center at Bukhara, the Baron Ungern ordered the commencement of Operation Chagatai on February 4th, 1937 [1]. In the early hours of that day, Russian tank divisions rolled into China’s westernmost province under the command of Marshall Tukhachevsky. Chinese military presence in the region was scarce and scattered which meant that the Russian tanks were able to cover vast tracts of land in a few days. It was a quick and smooth advance and it was not long before the Russians were at the gates of Urumqi. The Battle for Urumqi began on the early hours of February 7th and lasted for a mere two days. Small scale urban warfare and light air raids characterized the short battle. Its second day was a mere walkthrough of Russian forces into the inner city. Units of the Army and Air Force were then sent out to the countryside to consolidate what was now a full occupation of the province, eliminating remnants of the Chinese army and bombing remaining military installations into submission. More reinforcements poured in from Russia to form the nucleus of a second invasion force, aimed at the rest of China. It was much larger and more comprehensive than the initial invasion force, containing much of the new and modern military technology Russia had acquired in recent years. Under the command of two more Marshalls, Dozzdovsky and Markov, Russian forces assembled at the border with the neighboring province of Qinghai.
It took a Russian flag flying over Urumqi for the national government in Nanking to put together a decisive course of action against the Russian invasion. Before the fall of Urumqi, the Chinese reaction consisted of a sluggish mobilization of the army and a series of lukewarm demands for withdrawal sent to the Russian embassy. The National Revolutionary Army dramatically increased the pace of its mobilization after February 9. There was a great move eastward to confront the upcoming Russian onslaught. Hasty efforts were made to turn Qinghai into a vast fortification as bases, blockhouses and long lines of barbed wire were set up at a mad pace by a frantic army of engineers. It was already beginning to receive large numbers of Chinese forces from the west. Internationally, the Chinese pleaded their case to the League of Nations but did not get much of a concrete response. Its ambassadors in Europe and America called for action to be taken in support of China or in opposition to Russian aggression but these cries for help fell on deaf ears. The Chinese stood alone.
Chinese defense at the Battle of Xining
What the Chinese hoped for would be a long stand-off, turned out to be nothing more than shock and then an overwhelming offense at the hands of the Russians. The Chinese were not spared any time in their desperate effort to fortify Qinghai. What little time they did have, six days, was just time the Russians spent organizing and assembling their massive invasion force, in order for it not to spill so clumsily and messily over the rest of China. On Fedbruary 15, Russian forces crossed the Xingjian-Qinghai border like raging floodwaters breaking through a faulty dam. The Chinese had stationed a sizeable force to deal with the Russians and although the fortification effort had not been completed, what military installations had been set up proved helpful in hindering the Russian advance. The Chinese were successful in repelling a direct attack toward the capital, Xining which lay in the easternmost part of the province although Russian bombers did manage to cause some hefty damage there. The failure of this attempt to take Xining led the Russians to instead focus on taking the heart of the province which was protected by a series of incomplete fortresses, the largest one and the most complete was Fort Haixi which lay at the end of the Yellow River. After initial Chinese successes in turning back this latest offensive, the Russians eventually broke through and established its presence in three of the seven central fortresses. By the end of the next day, February 22, the Russians had taken Fort Haixi and were beginning to route their forces to Xining.
The Battle of Xining proved to be a much bloodier and more costlier affair than Urumqi as the Chinese concentrated everything they had left in the province into the dense streets of its capital. It was a long and difficult fight but not a military impossibility. The Baron could have taken advantage of the Chinese’s careless blunder by bypassing their concentrated forces in Xining and invading the neighboring province of Shaanxi. He could then encircle Xining, capture all the Chinese forces stationed there and then start an invasion of Ningxia and the rest of Shaanxi. The immense ease in which the Russians carried on this campaign contributed to the grand disappointment of the Baron’s soldiers and generals when on February 27, he ordered the signing of a twenty day truce in Xining. Chinese soldiers celebrated as they put down their weapons and rejoiced in the streets of Xining while their Russian enemies, just on the other side of the barbed wire fence, were infuriated. To reinforce this truce, the OMB would execute anyone who even talked about provoking the Chinese to restart the battle. But their superiors, the Baron’s Marshals were not as angry and disappointed as their fighting men because they knew the reason for the Baron abrupt decision to end the fighting for twenty days. The Baron was confident in his calculations that it took only twenty days for his armies to take Tibet and for the Japanese to reach the gates of Peking and Nanking. One day after the signing of the truce, on February 28, the Japanese invaded China from positions in Outer Mongolia, Manchuria and from a massive amphibious assault on its West Coast [2].
The Lhasa Air Show and "Two Living Gods"
Tibet was the Buddhist heartland, even more so than Mongolia. The Bogd Khan in Urga was just a loyal bishop to the Dalai Lama who was the supreme pontiff of the Yellow Faith. The cold, mountainous country was also home to some of Buddhism’s greatest shrines, such as the majestic Potala Palace, the Nechung Oracle and the mighty Tibetan mountains themselves, which were said to house a portal that led to Shambhala, the fabled lost kingdom where the Baron had hoped to one day retire. And now that the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Qinghai had been secured, the passage into Tibet was open and the Buddhist holy land was his to conquer.
The history of diplomatic interaction between the Baron’s regime and Tibet up until this point was very minimal. The Baron had only sent a few delegations to the court of the great Lama and it was through these delegations that the Tibetan people first heard the news that the Tsagan Burkhan or God of War had unleashed his latest incarnation. Since then, they have only occasionally heard about his glorious exploits, of how he defeated the Bolsheviki and introduced Buddhism to Russia or of how he saved the Bogd Khan from the hands of the barbarian Chinese. These stories no matter how rare and few gave birth to a formidable legend surrounding the Baron, one that had ignited the imaginations of the Tibetan people.
It was said that before Buddhism came to Tibet, the Tibetans were a fierce, warlike people who knew nothing but conquest and bloodletting. But when the gospel of the Lord Gautama reached them, they abandoned their old ways and under observance of the the laws of Dharma, turned into the peaceful, spiritually inclined people they are known to be. But some say that the ancient warlike spirit still lingered on somewhere within the soul of the modern, Buddhist Tibetan. And it was because of this history that they saw the image of the Baron who was a vicious, bloodthirsty warrior but at the same time a devout Buddhist, as the perfect representation of the dual nature of their people and thus, an ideal and natural leader, worthy to rule alongside their beloved Dalai Lama.
XIII Dalai Lama
However, the sudden appearance of this cultic mythology surrounding the Baron was no accident. Included in every one of the Baron’s delegations to Tibet was a shadowy team of OMB agents and spies who would depart from the official delegations by the time they had been received at the gates of the Potala. They would then stalk the streets of the ancient capital and spread their propaganda. Disguised as old bards, they would sing songs of the Baron’s victories ands triumphs at Lhasa’s crowded taverns. Disguised as merchants, they would sell elegantly weaved pieces of embroidery that bore images of the Baron in a fine tantric pose or talismans containing the mysterious OMB insignia. The greatest gift these sinister propagandists gave to Tibet though was the Military Buddhist holy texts they would drop off at the gates of local monasteries. It was rejected by some but accepted by some others. The OMB’s “social penetration” tactics formed a sizable Milibud following in Tibet both among the monks who started studying its deepest tenets and the common people who were merely enthralled by legends and stories of the Baron.
Another notable feature of the Baron’s delegation was a team of experienced physicians who were experts in both Western and Eastern medicinal practices. They would stay in the Dalai Lama’s court under a contract of several years and treat him to the best of their abilities. One of these doctors, Dr. Mikhail Adkhamov boasted that it was the work of his colleagues that extended the Dalai Lama’s life fore a period of ten more years.
The Baron planned for his invasion to be a quick and bloodless affair and indeed it would be. The Tibetans could offer no resistance and even if they did, why would they try to drive away the God of War? The Baron did not want to march his terrible horde into the streets of Lhasa in the same fashion as he had done in Urga and Moscow, and scare its people into submission. But he did however want to dazzle them and imprint upon them the impression that he was indeed the God of War. So in order to fulfill these intentions, he opted for his OMB paratroopers to enter Lhasa from the sky, making it seem to the technologically backward people of Tibet that these men were angelic messengers announcing the coming of their savior. It was to be a grand theatrical show, more than an actual military operation, the reason the Baron handed the plans for the operation over to the Propaganda Ministry instead of just the Army High Command.
Occurring on the morning of March, 2 1937, the “Lhasa Air Show” was a success. 1300 OMB paratroopers jumped off their planes and landed on the ground successfully with only five casualties. Four landed in deep rivers while the other one landed on a steep hill and rolled down to his death. The people of Tibet, as intended by the Baron, thought that they had just witnessed a “grand outpouring of the heavens”. The Baron’s paratroopers were greeted by a profound spiritual reaction from the people of Lhasa. At first, men, women and children alike stood, frozen by the sight of these strange grey-clad beings. But after they had overcome the initial shock, they opened up with smiling faces and joyous expressions, bowing down, offering flowers and bowls of porridge and chanting cheerful blessings. All this they did as a gesture of welcoming and hospitality. Some even wept out of joy but none did so out of fear, at least according to official OMB accounts. Pyotr Kherkinov, a Russian veteran of the “Air Show” remembers “It was our bold insignia of the dharma wheel and skull that assured the Tibetans that we were on their side. If it wasn’t for that, they’d have cowered into their huts in fear.”
The Lhasa Air Show
Amidst the exuberant mood that had taken hold of the city, the OMB General in command of the operation, Vasily Bodrovich ordered his men to immediately secure the Potala Palace complex and the city’s perimeter. By the end of the day, Lhasa was under the firm grip of the OMB. Bodrovich entered the grand palace that housed the Dalai Lama and proclaimed to a delegation of his representatives that the Baron Ungern von Sternberg, the God of War was about to enter the country. An airstrip was constructed outside Urga for the purpose of welcoming the Baron who was to arrive two days later on March 4.
His first step on Tibetan soil was greeted by an oceanic mass of adoring Tibetans. He rode into the streets of Lhasa to more cheers and cries of “Save us God of War!” His massive height, deathly pale skin, overbearing forehead and silky blond-whitish hair gave him the appearance of not only a foreigner from a foreign land but an otherworldly being from the realm of the Devas. He entered the Potala Palace and was presented to the court of the Dalai Lama. What resulted was a “meeting between two living gods.”
The Dalai Lama first inquired about the health of his bishop in Urga, the Bogd Khan and the Baron answered "Aside from the rabid syphilis and the occasional gonorrhea, His Holiness the Bogd Khan enjoys excellent health." After a comprehensive tour of the Potala and an hour long session of intense meditation, the Baron proceeded to introduce Military Buddhism to the Dalai Lama. He gave the Lama and his ministers a lively lecture on basic Milibud principles. He donated an entire library of Milibud texts and suggested the promotion of several monks who had strong Milibud leanings. The Dalai Lama’s reaction was something of a strong following and liking to the Baron and his new philosophy. “It’s as if Military Buddhism fills in all the gaps left by previous teachings and prophecies” one of his aides proclaimed. Afterward, they discussed the future of the Buddhist world. This was the point where the Baron told the Lama of his plans to build “a great Asiatic state from the Volga to the shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where Buddhism would reign supreme”. “Among the first steps” he said “in the building of this great state, would be to gain for Tibet, all the lands that history can prove is rightfully hers.”
The Dalai Lama and his subordinates were excited by these plans and this was the first time in centuries that the Tibetans started to look greedily over their borders with the desire for conquest. The Baron had awaken the ancient warlike spirit in the modern Tibetan soul. Plans were also agreed upon for the construction of a headquarters for the Baron and his forces in Tibet and the foundations were laid for the “Sternberg Castle” on an unnamed peak in a mountain range south of Lhasa. The unnamed peak was later named Mount Sternberg. The last thing the Baron told the Dalai Lama was “My armies have surrounded your country from its northern borders. I will put Tibet under military occupation until the war with China has been concluded.” The Dalai Lama nodded and returned to his throne room without objections.
NOTES
[1] The five year "preparation period" proposed by the Third Chita Agreement of 1934 was cut by two years after a series of negotiations between the Russians and the Japanese.
[2] Japan would indeed reach the gates of Nanjing and Peking by the end of those twenty days but the battles for those cities would last for months and would prove to be fierce and bloody engagements for both sides.
From his command center at Bukhara, the Baron Ungern ordered the commencement of Operation Chagatai on February 4th, 1937 [1]. In the early hours of that day, Russian tank divisions rolled into China’s westernmost province under the command of Marshall Tukhachevsky. Chinese military presence in the region was scarce and scattered which meant that the Russian tanks were able to cover vast tracts of land in a few days. It was a quick and smooth advance and it was not long before the Russians were at the gates of Urumqi. The Battle for Urumqi began on the early hours of February 7th and lasted for a mere two days. Small scale urban warfare and light air raids characterized the short battle. Its second day was a mere walkthrough of Russian forces into the inner city. Units of the Army and Air Force were then sent out to the countryside to consolidate what was now a full occupation of the province, eliminating remnants of the Chinese army and bombing remaining military installations into submission. More reinforcements poured in from Russia to form the nucleus of a second invasion force, aimed at the rest of China. It was much larger and more comprehensive than the initial invasion force, containing much of the new and modern military technology Russia had acquired in recent years. Under the command of two more Marshalls, Dozzdovsky and Markov, Russian forces assembled at the border with the neighboring province of Qinghai.
It took a Russian flag flying over Urumqi for the national government in Nanking to put together a decisive course of action against the Russian invasion. Before the fall of Urumqi, the Chinese reaction consisted of a sluggish mobilization of the army and a series of lukewarm demands for withdrawal sent to the Russian embassy. The National Revolutionary Army dramatically increased the pace of its mobilization after February 9. There was a great move eastward to confront the upcoming Russian onslaught. Hasty efforts were made to turn Qinghai into a vast fortification as bases, blockhouses and long lines of barbed wire were set up at a mad pace by a frantic army of engineers. It was already beginning to receive large numbers of Chinese forces from the west. Internationally, the Chinese pleaded their case to the League of Nations but did not get much of a concrete response. Its ambassadors in Europe and America called for action to be taken in support of China or in opposition to Russian aggression but these cries for help fell on deaf ears. The Chinese stood alone.
Chinese defense at the Battle of Xining
What the Chinese hoped for would be a long stand-off, turned out to be nothing more than shock and then an overwhelming offense at the hands of the Russians. The Chinese were not spared any time in their desperate effort to fortify Qinghai. What little time they did have, six days, was just time the Russians spent organizing and assembling their massive invasion force, in order for it not to spill so clumsily and messily over the rest of China. On Fedbruary 15, Russian forces crossed the Xingjian-Qinghai border like raging floodwaters breaking through a faulty dam. The Chinese had stationed a sizeable force to deal with the Russians and although the fortification effort had not been completed, what military installations had been set up proved helpful in hindering the Russian advance. The Chinese were successful in repelling a direct attack toward the capital, Xining which lay in the easternmost part of the province although Russian bombers did manage to cause some hefty damage there. The failure of this attempt to take Xining led the Russians to instead focus on taking the heart of the province which was protected by a series of incomplete fortresses, the largest one and the most complete was Fort Haixi which lay at the end of the Yellow River. After initial Chinese successes in turning back this latest offensive, the Russians eventually broke through and established its presence in three of the seven central fortresses. By the end of the next day, February 22, the Russians had taken Fort Haixi and were beginning to route their forces to Xining.
The Battle of Xining proved to be a much bloodier and more costlier affair than Urumqi as the Chinese concentrated everything they had left in the province into the dense streets of its capital. It was a long and difficult fight but not a military impossibility. The Baron could have taken advantage of the Chinese’s careless blunder by bypassing their concentrated forces in Xining and invading the neighboring province of Shaanxi. He could then encircle Xining, capture all the Chinese forces stationed there and then start an invasion of Ningxia and the rest of Shaanxi. The immense ease in which the Russians carried on this campaign contributed to the grand disappointment of the Baron’s soldiers and generals when on February 27, he ordered the signing of a twenty day truce in Xining. Chinese soldiers celebrated as they put down their weapons and rejoiced in the streets of Xining while their Russian enemies, just on the other side of the barbed wire fence, were infuriated. To reinforce this truce, the OMB would execute anyone who even talked about provoking the Chinese to restart the battle. But their superiors, the Baron’s Marshals were not as angry and disappointed as their fighting men because they knew the reason for the Baron abrupt decision to end the fighting for twenty days. The Baron was confident in his calculations that it took only twenty days for his armies to take Tibet and for the Japanese to reach the gates of Peking and Nanking. One day after the signing of the truce, on February 28, the Japanese invaded China from positions in Outer Mongolia, Manchuria and from a massive amphibious assault on its West Coast [2].
The Lhasa Air Show and "Two Living Gods"
Tibet was the Buddhist heartland, even more so than Mongolia. The Bogd Khan in Urga was just a loyal bishop to the Dalai Lama who was the supreme pontiff of the Yellow Faith. The cold, mountainous country was also home to some of Buddhism’s greatest shrines, such as the majestic Potala Palace, the Nechung Oracle and the mighty Tibetan mountains themselves, which were said to house a portal that led to Shambhala, the fabled lost kingdom where the Baron had hoped to one day retire. And now that the Chinese provinces of Xinjiang and Qinghai had been secured, the passage into Tibet was open and the Buddhist holy land was his to conquer.
The history of diplomatic interaction between the Baron’s regime and Tibet up until this point was very minimal. The Baron had only sent a few delegations to the court of the great Lama and it was through these delegations that the Tibetan people first heard the news that the Tsagan Burkhan or God of War had unleashed his latest incarnation. Since then, they have only occasionally heard about his glorious exploits, of how he defeated the Bolsheviki and introduced Buddhism to Russia or of how he saved the Bogd Khan from the hands of the barbarian Chinese. These stories no matter how rare and few gave birth to a formidable legend surrounding the Baron, one that had ignited the imaginations of the Tibetan people.
It was said that before Buddhism came to Tibet, the Tibetans were a fierce, warlike people who knew nothing but conquest and bloodletting. But when the gospel of the Lord Gautama reached them, they abandoned their old ways and under observance of the the laws of Dharma, turned into the peaceful, spiritually inclined people they are known to be. But some say that the ancient warlike spirit still lingered on somewhere within the soul of the modern, Buddhist Tibetan. And it was because of this history that they saw the image of the Baron who was a vicious, bloodthirsty warrior but at the same time a devout Buddhist, as the perfect representation of the dual nature of their people and thus, an ideal and natural leader, worthy to rule alongside their beloved Dalai Lama.
XIII Dalai Lama
However, the sudden appearance of this cultic mythology surrounding the Baron was no accident. Included in every one of the Baron’s delegations to Tibet was a shadowy team of OMB agents and spies who would depart from the official delegations by the time they had been received at the gates of the Potala. They would then stalk the streets of the ancient capital and spread their propaganda. Disguised as old bards, they would sing songs of the Baron’s victories ands triumphs at Lhasa’s crowded taverns. Disguised as merchants, they would sell elegantly weaved pieces of embroidery that bore images of the Baron in a fine tantric pose or talismans containing the mysterious OMB insignia. The greatest gift these sinister propagandists gave to Tibet though was the Military Buddhist holy texts they would drop off at the gates of local monasteries. It was rejected by some but accepted by some others. The OMB’s “social penetration” tactics formed a sizable Milibud following in Tibet both among the monks who started studying its deepest tenets and the common people who were merely enthralled by legends and stories of the Baron.
Another notable feature of the Baron’s delegation was a team of experienced physicians who were experts in both Western and Eastern medicinal practices. They would stay in the Dalai Lama’s court under a contract of several years and treat him to the best of their abilities. One of these doctors, Dr. Mikhail Adkhamov boasted that it was the work of his colleagues that extended the Dalai Lama’s life fore a period of ten more years.
The Baron planned for his invasion to be a quick and bloodless affair and indeed it would be. The Tibetans could offer no resistance and even if they did, why would they try to drive away the God of War? The Baron did not want to march his terrible horde into the streets of Lhasa in the same fashion as he had done in Urga and Moscow, and scare its people into submission. But he did however want to dazzle them and imprint upon them the impression that he was indeed the God of War. So in order to fulfill these intentions, he opted for his OMB paratroopers to enter Lhasa from the sky, making it seem to the technologically backward people of Tibet that these men were angelic messengers announcing the coming of their savior. It was to be a grand theatrical show, more than an actual military operation, the reason the Baron handed the plans for the operation over to the Propaganda Ministry instead of just the Army High Command.
Occurring on the morning of March, 2 1937, the “Lhasa Air Show” was a success. 1300 OMB paratroopers jumped off their planes and landed on the ground successfully with only five casualties. Four landed in deep rivers while the other one landed on a steep hill and rolled down to his death. The people of Tibet, as intended by the Baron, thought that they had just witnessed a “grand outpouring of the heavens”. The Baron’s paratroopers were greeted by a profound spiritual reaction from the people of Lhasa. At first, men, women and children alike stood, frozen by the sight of these strange grey-clad beings. But after they had overcome the initial shock, they opened up with smiling faces and joyous expressions, bowing down, offering flowers and bowls of porridge and chanting cheerful blessings. All this they did as a gesture of welcoming and hospitality. Some even wept out of joy but none did so out of fear, at least according to official OMB accounts. Pyotr Kherkinov, a Russian veteran of the “Air Show” remembers “It was our bold insignia of the dharma wheel and skull that assured the Tibetans that we were on their side. If it wasn’t for that, they’d have cowered into their huts in fear.”
The Lhasa Air Show
Amidst the exuberant mood that had taken hold of the city, the OMB General in command of the operation, Vasily Bodrovich ordered his men to immediately secure the Potala Palace complex and the city’s perimeter. By the end of the day, Lhasa was under the firm grip of the OMB. Bodrovich entered the grand palace that housed the Dalai Lama and proclaimed to a delegation of his representatives that the Baron Ungern von Sternberg, the God of War was about to enter the country. An airstrip was constructed outside Urga for the purpose of welcoming the Baron who was to arrive two days later on March 4.
His first step on Tibetan soil was greeted by an oceanic mass of adoring Tibetans. He rode into the streets of Lhasa to more cheers and cries of “Save us God of War!” His massive height, deathly pale skin, overbearing forehead and silky blond-whitish hair gave him the appearance of not only a foreigner from a foreign land but an otherworldly being from the realm of the Devas. He entered the Potala Palace and was presented to the court of the Dalai Lama. What resulted was a “meeting between two living gods.”
The Dalai Lama first inquired about the health of his bishop in Urga, the Bogd Khan and the Baron answered "Aside from the rabid syphilis and the occasional gonorrhea, His Holiness the Bogd Khan enjoys excellent health." After a comprehensive tour of the Potala and an hour long session of intense meditation, the Baron proceeded to introduce Military Buddhism to the Dalai Lama. He gave the Lama and his ministers a lively lecture on basic Milibud principles. He donated an entire library of Milibud texts and suggested the promotion of several monks who had strong Milibud leanings. The Dalai Lama’s reaction was something of a strong following and liking to the Baron and his new philosophy. “It’s as if Military Buddhism fills in all the gaps left by previous teachings and prophecies” one of his aides proclaimed. Afterward, they discussed the future of the Buddhist world. This was the point where the Baron told the Lama of his plans to build “a great Asiatic state from the Volga to the shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where Buddhism would reign supreme”. “Among the first steps” he said “in the building of this great state, would be to gain for Tibet, all the lands that history can prove is rightfully hers.”
The Dalai Lama and his subordinates were excited by these plans and this was the first time in centuries that the Tibetans started to look greedily over their borders with the desire for conquest. The Baron had awaken the ancient warlike spirit in the modern Tibetan soul. Plans were also agreed upon for the construction of a headquarters for the Baron and his forces in Tibet and the foundations were laid for the “Sternberg Castle” on an unnamed peak in a mountain range south of Lhasa. The unnamed peak was later named Mount Sternberg. The last thing the Baron told the Dalai Lama was “My armies have surrounded your country from its northern borders. I will put Tibet under military occupation until the war with China has been concluded.” The Dalai Lama nodded and returned to his throne room without objections.
NOTES
[1] The five year "preparation period" proposed by the Third Chita Agreement of 1934 was cut by two years after a series of negotiations between the Russians and the Japanese.
[2] Japan would indeed reach the gates of Nanjing and Peking by the end of those twenty days but the battles for those cities would last for months and would prove to be fierce and bloody engagements for both sides.
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YES YOU HAVE! But seriously, its not a hunger for praise that keeps me asking for comments its just that without any updates for a long time, I don't want the thread to fade away with inactivity. But thanks for the praise though!
Also, please take note that I have started using pictures for the TL. But these pictures will not be clever and diligently put together pieces of photoshop work, these pictures will just be ripped shamelessly from OTL.
Hnau
Banned
Hey, I really liked the last installment. I hope you don't mind me saying, but from the beginning of the timeline to the acquisition of the Russian Empire I was enthralled... I've been waiting for the next military conquest to pique my interest. Write on, man, this stuff is excellent!
yourworstnightmare
Banned
The Baron continue on, soon he will restore the Qing Empire (if the Japanese agree of course) and then he will stop republicanism once and for all. The British Empire is probably next. If the Baron secure an alliance with Japan he should be free to save Asia from the European oppressors.
Another very fine entry. Looking forward to more. You've obviously put a lot of thought into it - it all works together in a very plausible way.
Couple of typos there though - 'Fedbruary 15', 'Fort Haixi which lied' should be 'Fort Haixi which lay' and similar lied/lay typos in a few other places too.
Couple of typos there though - 'Fedbruary 15', 'Fort Haixi which lied' should be 'Fort Haixi which lay' and similar lied/lay typos in a few other places too.
Vault-Scope
Banned
Great job.
YES!
One state, from the Volga to the shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where Buddhism will reign supreme!
YES!
One state, from the Volga to the shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans, where Buddhism will reign supreme!
Vault-Scope
Banned
Bumpov!
So, are the Japanes going to divide China with Russian Imperium, at last?
Does the Spanish civil war still happen in this timeline?
So, are the Japanes going to divide China with Russian Imperium, at last?
Does the Spanish civil war still happen in this timeline?
Yeah, as soon as I get to writing that part.
Yeah, but since their is no Russian support for the Republicans, the Nationalists win the war earlier.