The Co-Prosperity Sphere

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 493: Coprospist States: the Empire of Yankoku:

Original opposing of the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, Yan Xishan knew that that he still needed at least until 1941 to prepare for their assault against him. However his support for anti-Japanese riots and his arming of anti-Japanese rebels in Manchuria. However in 1934, when Yan accused the Japanese of desiring to conquer all of China over the next two decade in a open letter. However the autonomy the Japanese proclaimed could already seen in Manchuria, they even had installed the Empire of Chosen (Korea) again and so Yan Xishan many others inside Northern China were at least a little bit pro-Japanese and would partly subordinate themselves to the Japanese in exchange for protection from Chiang Kai-shek. Because of this Yan entered into negotiations with the Japanese in 1934, quiet enthusiastic about his new autonomy as the Japanese promised him to controll over all of Hebei, Shanxi, Pingyuan and Shandong. Knowing that Chiang Kai-shek had abandoned and sacrificed northern China to avoid fighting the Japanese in the He-Umezu Agreement, Yan knew the Kuominang would not fight against the Japanese if they invaded him too. So with support and the help of Yan Xishan, the Japanese created the Empire of Yankoku (also Yankukuo or Yanjiang), named after the ancient Chinese Yan state in the Area as well as after Yan Xishan himself, Yan became known as Emperor Yan or Father Yan, the founder of a new independent nation that quickly joined the Co-Prosperity Sphere alongside Japan, Chosen, Manchuria and Mengjiang. Residing in the former Palace of Beijing (Peiping). Yan Xishan then used the Japanese Zeibatsu (Conglomerates) to further industrialise and modernise his nation alongside the companes he established himself with their help.

Knowing that Communism would have much support among his citizens, Yan sended his Imperial Yan Army out against them, organized the gentry and village authorities into anti-corruption and anti-communist political organizations and undertook a large-scale program of land reform. Still aroung 34,000 Communist troops led by Liu Zhidan and Xu Haidong, but Japanese reinforcements soon forced most of this Communist Forces to withdraw, while some formed partisan forces against Yankoku. At the same time Yan had given up on Suiyuan, in exchange for the other controlled territory the Japanese gave him in the East, Suiyuan was therefore given to Mengjiang as a part of their Inner Mongolian territories. To strenghten his Imperial Yankoku Army against further communist infiltrations and campaigns, Yan used Japanese advicers, trainers and officers and even forced all students to undergo several months of compulsive military training and formed an informal alliance with the Communists for the purpose of fighting the Communists. Mao's Communists meanwhile sabotated a supply depot in Datong and Yan used his best troops and most able generals, including Zhao Chengshou and Yan's son-in-law, Wang Jingguo, under the command of Fu Zuoyi to fight against the Communists. Yan's victories in Suiyuan over the Communist forces were praised by Chinese newspapers and magazines, other warlords and political leaders, and many members of the Chinese public.

However under Father Yan, who saw the whole nation of Yankoku as his Children, other poliical parties and groups were not existing, only the Yan Family (Yan Clique). Yan Xishan was therefore in constant search to improve the morale and loyality of the people in his state. Believing that no single ideology existed to unify his people at the time that he came to power, Yan attempted to generate an ideal ideology himself, and once boasted that he had succeeded in creating a comprehensive system of belief that embodied the best features of militarism, nationalism, anarchism, democracy, capitalism, communism, individualism, imperialism, universalism, paternalism and utopianism". Much of Yan's attempts to spread his ideology were through a network of semi-religious organizations known as "Heart-Washing Societies". He supported Confucian virtues of moderation and harmony under the Confucian Doctrine of the Mean and he saw himself as Junzi, the epitome of Confucian virtue. Yan's interpretations of Confucianism were mostly borrowed from the form of Neo-Confucianism that was popular in the Qing dynasty. He taught that everyone had a capacity for innate goodness, but that in order to fulfill this capacity people had to subordinate their emotions and desires to the control of their conscience. He admired the Ming dynasty philosophers Lu Jiuyuan and Wang Yangming, who disparaged knowledge and urged men to act on the basis of their intuition. Because Yan believed that human beings could only achieve their potentials through intense self-criticism and self-cultivation, he established in every town a Heart-Washing Society, whose members gathered each Sunday to meditate and listen to sermons based on the themes of the Confucian classics. Everyone at these meetings was supposed to rise and confess aloud his misdeeds of the past week, inviting criticism from the other members.

Yan attributed much of the West's vitality to Christianity, and believed that China could only resist and overtake the West by generating an ideological tradition that was equally inspiring. He appreciated the efforts of missionaries to educate and modernize Shanxi. He regularly addressed the graduating classes of these schools, but was generally unsuccessful in recruiting these students to serve his regime. Yan supported the indigenous Christian church in Taiyuan, and at one time seriously considered using Christian chaplains in his army. His public support of Christianity waned after 1925, when he failed to come to the defense of Christians during anti-foreigner and anti-Christian demonstrations that polarized Taiyuan. Yan deliberately organized many features of his Heart-Washing Society on the Christian church, including ending each service with hymns praising Confucius. He urged his subjects to place their faith in a supreme being that he called "Shangdi": he justified his belief in Shangdi via the Confucian classics, but described Shangdi in terms very similar to the Christian interpretation of God. Like Christianity, Yan Xishan Thought was permeated with the belief that, through accepting his ideology, people could become regenerated or reborn. In 1911, Yan came to power in Shanxi as a disciple of Chinese nationalism, but subsequently came to view nationalism as merely another set of ideas that could be used to achieve his own objectives. He stated that the primary goal of the Heart-Washing Society was to encourage Chinese patriotism by reviving the Confucian church, leading foreigners to accuse him of attempting to create a Chinese version of Shinto. The Japanese who later believed this to supported his efforts and Yan Xishan mixed traditional Chinese Faith, Confucianism, Christian ideas of God and Shintoism into his new faith. Yan told his people, that the principles of nationalism and democracy was not as important as the principles of virtue and knowledge unlike Sun Yat-sen believed. Values like honesty, friendliness, dignity, diligence, modesty, thrift, personal neatness and obedience were encouraged.

Yan Xishan's own version of Coprospism borrowed many ideas from the Soviet Union, like his own five-year plan, using state control of industry and finance, and he was successful in bringing most major industry and commerce under state control by the late 1930s. Yan then suppored the economic distribution according to labour. When the threat of Chinese Communists became a significant threat to Yan's rule, he defended the Communists as courageous and self-sacrificing fanatics who were different from common bandits (contrary to Kuomintang propaganda) and whose challenge must be met by social and economic reforms that alleviated the conditions responsible for communism. Similar to Marx, Yan wanted to eliminate what he saw as unearned profit by restructuring Yankoku's economy to reward only those who worked. Unlike Marx, Yan reinterpreted Communism to correct what he believed was Marxism's chief flaw: the inevitability of class warfare. Yan praised Marx for his analysis of the material aspects of human society, but professed to believe that there was a moral and spiritual unity of mankind that implied that a state of harmony was closer to the human ideal than conflict. By rejecting economic determinism in favor of morality and free will, Yan hoped to create a society that would be more productive and less violent than he perceived communism to be, while avoiding the exploitation and human misery that he believed was the inevitable result of capitalism. Because of this Yan interpreted Roosevelt's New Deal as promoting socialism in order to combat the spread of communism. "The New Deal is an effective way of stopping communism," Yan said, "by having the government step in and ride roughshod over the interests of the rich." Yan then undertook a series of public works projects inspired by the New Deal in order to reduce unemployment in his own province. In his very own form of Coprospism, Yan mixed all this ideals to form his own perfect version, Yan Xishan Thought or Yanism. He used major reforms and strictly controlled his officials, if they abused their power and encouraged them to teach his ideology, so it would become popular among his 84,950,000 citizens and the common people. With the help of the Japanese and their combined propaganda, Yan's ideals were explained in easy words, not to for the common people.

To do so Yan Xishan published two books after his ; first "Our Father Yan", were he explained his traditionalist and dictatorical rule similar to a strict but loving father. His Kuomintang, Traditional and even some leftover remnants and influence from the former Zhilin Clique and the Fengtian Clique (pro-Japanese) could be seen in the book. He explained that every member of a family or clan was also a member of the greater Yan ethnic group and their nation state, that it was all the same on different levels. His Imperial Yankoku Army however was as the book showed too, influenced partly by the Imperial Japanese Army, as well as the former Guominjun (National People's Army) of the former region. Yan Xishans second book in the meantime was called "Shangdi", a sort of Yan Xishan Bible, or Quran, were Father Yan mixed Confucianism, with traditional Chinese Faith and Spirit believes, Spirituality, Christian views of god and Shintoist elements. The book promoted Shangdiism as it's own religion and formed the Heart-Washing Society into the Shangdiist into it's own religion and people's cult. Both books were a continuation of his first book as Emperor of Yankoku; "For my Yankokurians" where Yan Xishan had outlined the roots and tradition, culture and modernization, in short the vision, how he embodied for the future of the young nation state, and continued and perfected his original thoughts. In population census his Shangdi faith, similar to the Chosen/ Korean Shinist/ Shindo and the Manchurian Shénto ws viewed as the same as the Japanese Shinto and all were counted as the same, boosting their official numbers besides strong proselytizing. However Yan Xishan's early support and Christian and European Influence vanished after 1930, when the Japanese Influence began to grow and remnants of the Yihetuan Movement (the Militia United in Righteousnes/ League of Harmony and Justice, also known as the Boxer) openly oppowed any European and Western Influence, such factions were welcomed by the Japanese, who supported their growth and influence with propaganda and Yen money, aligning them with their own Coprospist Views and that Asians with the help and guidance of their elder Japanese Brothers or Fathers would be able to modernize and industrialize on their own without Western Imperialist help, influense and domination over them as Colonies.

 

[CountofDooku]

And so our first Coprospist Religion/ Sect/ Cult/ Brotherhood has emerged.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 494: Ardengo Soffici and the Italian/ Roman Fascist Royalists:

Ardengo Soffici (born April 7, 1879), was an Italian writer, painter, poet, sculptor and intellectual. Soffici was born in Rignano sull'Arno, near Florence. In 1893 his family moved to the latter city, where he studied at the Accademia from 1897 and later at the Scuola Libera del Nudo of the academy. In 1900 he moved from Florence to Paris, where he lived for seven years and worked for Symbolist journals. While in Paris, during his time at the Bateau-Lavoir, he became acquainted with Braque, Derain, Picasso, Juan Gris and Apollinaire. On returning to Italy in 1907, Soffici settled in Poggio a Caiano in the countryside near Florence (where he lived for the rest of his life) and wrote articles on modern artists for the first issue of the political and cultural magazine La Voce. In 1910 he organised an exhibition of Impressionist painting in Florence in association with La Voce, devoting an entire room to the sculptor Medardo Rosso. In August 1911 he wrote an article in La Voce on Picasso and Braque, which probably influenced the Futurists in the direction of Cubism. At this time Soffici considered Cubism to be an extension of the partial revolution of the Impressionists. In 1912-1913 Soffici painted in a Cubist style.

After visiting the Futurists' Exhibition of Free Art in Milan, he wrote a hostile review in La Voce. The leading Futurists Marinetti, Boccioni and Carrà, were so incensed by this that they immediately boarded a train for Florence and assaulted Soffici and his La Voce colleagues at the Caffè Giubbe Rosse. Reviewing the Futurists' Paris exhibition of 1912 in his article Ancora del Futurismo (Futurism Again) he dismissed their rhetoric, publicity-seeking and their art, but granted that, despite its faults, Futurism was "a movement of renewal, and that is excellent". Gino Severini was despatched from Milan to Florence to make peace with Soffici on behalf of the Futurists – the Peace of Florence, as Boccioni called it. After these diplomatic overtures, Soffici, together with Giovanni Papini, Aldo Palazzeschi and Italo Tavolato withdrew from La Voce in 1913 to form a new periodical, Lacerba, which would concentrate entirely on art and culture. Soffici published "Theory of the movement of plastic Futurism" in Lacerba, accepting that Futurism had reconciled what had previously seemed irreconcilable, Impressionism and Cubism. By its fifth issue Lacerba wholly supported the Futurists. Soffici's paintings in 1913, like. Linee di una strada and Sintesi di una pesaggio autumnale, showed the influence of the Futurists in method and title and he exhibited with them. In 1914, personal quarrels and artistic differences between the Milan Futurists and the Florence group around Soffici, Papini and Carlo Carrà, created a rift in Italian Futurism. The Florence group resented the dominance of Marinetti and Boccioni, whom they accused of trying to establish "an immobile church with an infallible creed", and each group dismissed the other as passéiste.

After serving in the First World War, Soffici married Maria Sdrigotti, whom he met in a publishing house in Udine, while editing Kobilek. They moved to Poggio a Caiano and had three children, Valeria, Sergio and Laura. Soffici created a distance from Futurism and, discovering a new reverence for Tuscan tradition, became associated with the "return to order" which manifested itself in the naturalistic landscapes which thereafter dominated his work. Remaining in Poggio a Caiano, he painted nature and traditional Tuscan scenes. There, he continued to write and paint and was visited by many artists, some of whom he helped in finding their place in the art world. In 1926, he discovered the young artist Quinto Martini when the latter visited Soffici's workshop with his work. In Martini's first experiments Soffici recognised the kind of genuine and intimate traits he was seeking and became his mentor. In 1925, he signed the Manifesto degli intellettuali fascisti in support of the regime, and in 1938 he gave support to the rising Italian Fascist Royalism in the Italian Kingdom, as it transformed into the Roman Empire. As a Mussolini loyalist, Soffici supported the new Fascist Royalist Regime and even was the co-founder of Italia e Civilità, a war magazine that supported patriotism, he new Roman Empire, the Germany Empire and the principles of Fascist Royalism. During his work in support of the government let him met several other artists and writers who were likewise supporters of Fascist Royalism. Together, they wrote, painted and set up plays to support and promote the Roman Empire, Soffici would continue to do so until his death on September 24, 1964 after a car accident.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 495: Coprospism: Sumatran Tuankuism:

Once they had liberated Sumatra from Dutch rule, the Japanese installed Tuanku Raja Ibrahim, the son of the last Aceh Sultan Aladdin Muhammad Da'ud Syah II, who had died on February 6, 1939 as the new Sultan of the independent Sultanate of Sumatra, with Palembang as the new Capital. Teuku Muhammad Hasan, the former local governors and regional deputy governors, who had before be involved in anti-Colonial uprisings for Independence in East Sumatra, became the Head-of-State. However pan-Indonesian local political parties such as GERINDO (Gerakan Rakyat Indonesia) and the Great Indonesia Party (Partai Indonesia Raya) were banned, as Japan intendet to seperate Java and the other major islands. Many of this early independence fighters joined the Japanese established collaboration government and administration for Sumatra, others rose to political prominence or influence, locals who rose to prominence after undergoing military trainings in Japanese military organisations during the period of Japanese occupation were also responsible for the revolution. These people’s volunteer armies were equipped with rich military experiences and that has imbued them with a deeper commitment to radical nationalism. They formed the base for the Sumatran Sultanate Militia, the later Sumatran Sultanate Army. The Japanese used the new Capital Palembang under the reason that the original lands of the Sultan's ruling family were to close to a potential Allied/ British Invasion or raid region. Christian and Animist minorities, as well as Chinese, Javanese and other ethnic immigrants were expelled from the newly independent islands during the liberation and nationalisation, their lands were given back to the Sumatran authorities and locals. The Japanese used this, as well as the economical, religious, ethnical and racial tension, to get most of the Sumatran princely states (Sultans, Rajas and Kerajaan) on their side in fear of the revolutionary movements overthrowing and ousting them. At the same time the Japanese promised reforms and a new constitution from the people, for the people and their national Sumatran Movement that grew in the urban and educated communities of Sumatra. The Japanese needed both groups to work for them, as their main priority was to obtain the oil and estate produce in Sumatra.

(members of the Princely Council/ Princely Representative Palace)

To stabilize this on the long-run, the Japanese encouraged the Sultans, Rajas, Kerajaan (Rulers) and other aristrocrats to form a constitutional monarchy under Coprospism. This way they hoped to get the Mohammedan reformists and the national indepencende forces to support their newly created state. The Sultans meanwhile claimed that the Mohammedan Reformists advocated a faith that differet to much from the original Malay orientation it had in Sumatra. To form a newly, independent government, unlike the Dutch implemented politics before, the Japanese, the hirarchy of the traditional, nationalist and religious leaders was partly broken up by Coprospism. Under Sultan Tuanku Raja Ibrahim the Princely Council (or Princely Representative Palace) was established as a federal council, were the Sultans, Rajas and Kerajaan served as representatives of their princely states (provinces). The representatives voted as ordered by their Sultans, Rajas and Kerajaan (if the Sultans, Rajas and Kerajaan were not sitting and voting in the Princely Council directly). Over this hirarchy, the Japanese exported food, labor, oil and other goods from the peasent community, while the Sultans, Rajas and Kerajaan gain access to various incomes, titles, and religious authority that they used to have in the 1930s. At the same time the Japanese introduced the Sumatran House of Regional Representatives House/ Regional Representatives Senate (as a legislative body) were they would elect their own leaders. Local farms, towns and neighborhoods, provinces and districts were allowed to vote for their own representatives and judges and govern themselves to some extent, as long as they payed their taxes and tributes. Here the Japanese hoped to use the newly formed leadership made up by the pemuda (youth) who had received their formative education under the Japanese military groups (Giyūgun, Heiho and Tokkeitai) to influence in their favor. Their military training was guided by Japanese ethics and values and supported their nationalism and motivated them to defend their lands, including the wish to stay independent from Java. Together both the Senate/ House and the Council/ Palace formed the government of the Sumatran Sultanate. New laws and decrees only were able to pass as long ad two-thirds of either as well as the Sultan together with them approved of them. On the other hand the Council/ Palace and the Senate/ House were also able to overcome the veto power of the Sultan and his need to pass a decree and law, as long as they both agreed on it with at least two-thirds of their members.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 496: The Indian Legion:

The Indian Legion (German: Indische Legion), officially the Free India Legion (German: Legion Freies Indien) or Infantry Regiment 950 (Indian) (German: Infanterie-Regiment 950 (indisches), I.R. 950) and later also partly the Indian Volunteer Legion of the German Orders (German: Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Deutschen Orden), was a military unit raised during the Second Great War in Imperial Germany. Intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India, it was made up of Indian prisoners of war and expatriates in Europe. Because of its origins in the Indian independence movement, it was known also as the "Tiger Legion", and the "Azad Hind Fauj". Initially raised as part of the Imperial German Army, it was officially assigned to the German Orders in December 1942, as well as to the Indian Liberation Army (German: Indische Befreiungsarmee). Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose initiated the legion's formation, as part of his efforts to win India's independence by waging war against Britain, when he came to Berlin in 1941 seeking German aid. The initial recruits in 1941 were volunteers from the Indian students resident in Germany at the time, and a handful of the Indian prisoners of war who had been captured during the North Africa Campaign. It would later draw a larger number of Indian prisoners of war as volunteers.

Though it was initially raised as an assault group that would form a pathfinder to a German–Indian joint invasion of the western frontiers of British India, only a small contingent was ever put to its original intended purpose. These parts of the Indian Legion were smugled to the western and southern coast of British India by German long-range blokde runners and transport submarines, intndet to reach the Co-Prosperity Sphere for ressources. Landing in India these parts of the Indian Liberation Army worked as spies for the Axis Central Powers and partly even the Co-Prosperity Sphre (even if their coordination was not the best most of the time). They sabotaged railroads and communication lines, yes the few successful landed members of the Indian Liberation Army even formed a few local rebellions and tried to spread greater uprisngs all over British India. A bigger contingent, including much of the Indian officer corps and enlisted leadership, was transferred to the Indian National Army under Bose in South-East Asia. The rest of the troops of the Indian Legion were only ever stationed in Europe in non-combat duties, in the Netherlands and in France (most under the Burgundian Order). There they were fighting mostly against the French Resistance, but one company was sent to Africa in 1943, where it saw action against American and British forces and even undertook anti-partisan operations.

The parts of the Indian Legion that had been send to the Japanes, Bose and the Co-Prosperity Sphere were used to increase the Size of the "Azad Hind Fauj" (Indian National Army or the INA) that would support the Japanese and partly even Burmese, Yikoku and Siamese/ Thai forces during their Invasion into India in 1943 (Assam and Benghal). While the majority of this fighting and battles were done by the Imperial Japanese Army, the assisting Indian Foces under Bose, helped to legitimize the Japanese Invasion, as a true fight for Indian Liberaton. This, together with the current Famine in Benghal at the time, helped the Japanese and even more so Subhas Chandra Bose to gain massive local support. With this Bose quickly found volunteers and supporters to form local government and support councils for his new administration in the region. However, to constantly hold this support Subhas Chandra Bose and the Japanese had to do something against the devastating Famine. The Japanese did so in hopes to further increase their support in the Indian Population and maybe even start more anti-British Riots, however this and the difficult Benghal terrain (jungle, swamps and hills), slowed down the Co-Prosperity Sphere Campaign in Eastern Benghal greatly. This allowd the British to prepare their Defences in Western Benghal and halted the Co-Prosperity Sphere push further into British Raj an Central India.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 497: The Yankoku Railway Crisis:

Inside of the Imperial Yankoku Palae in Beijing, many important members of the government, including Father (Emperor) Yan Xishan himself, President and “Head-of-State” Wang Kemin, Yin Tong (the adviser and counselor of the Ministry for Railway, as well as at the same time Governor to the General Office for Construction), Wang Shijing (the Minister of Finance), Wang Yitang (a Council Member, as well as the General Manager of the Tianjin Financial Bank and Executive Member of the Political Commission) who had gathered because of a possible diplomatic and economic crisis between the Empire of Japan and the Empire of Yankoku. Unlike in Manchuria, where the Japanese held South Manchurian Railway had merged with the overall national Manchukuo National Railway, held partly by the Japanese, the overall Situation in Yankoku was somewhat different. Here the Japanese Invetors an Conglomerates had gained the former German Possessions, together with the Schantung Eisenbahn Gesellschaft (Shandong Railway), that had a similar extent as the South Manchurian, reaching from Beijing in the North all over Shantun, ro Tsingtao over Kiautchou, Wei and Tsingschi to the intersection at Tsinan. Fom ther the former German, now Japanese Shandong Railway actually left Shandong into Hopeh, where it followe the Grand Canal to Tand and finally all the way up to Tientsin, where it connected with the formerly British Railway Concession now owned by the Manchukuo National Railway (or Imperial Manchukuo National Railway coming from the North and becoming the Yankoku's own Hopeh Railway continuing over Shanhai and Jungping to Tientsin. From Tientsin it followed the Peiho River to Beijing and further to Kalgan in Mengjiang. In Beijing, were the second and main part of the Hopeh Railway was going down over Tscho, Ji, Ting, Hsingtai, Anyang, Shunty, Kwangping, Weiwei, Tsinghwa and crossing the Yellow River into Honan, under National Han China. The western path from Tsyengtiag coming over Pingting to Taiyuan meanwhile became the Shansi Railway, planned, and created under Yan Xishan himself.

By now Japan literally had archived in Northern China what they had wished in their 21 Demands. The Shandong Railway not only connected the Manchukuo National Railway and the Mengjiang Khanate Railway from the North, with the various Railway Companies in Yankoku (mainly the Hopeh Railway, Shansi Railway and a few smaller, local companies) and along the Grand Canal over Tsuschou, Hwaingan, Fengjiang, Nanjing, Shanghai and Hangtschou (all part of the National Han Chinese Railway and former also British Concessions). The only railway connecting Yankoku with National Han China outside of Japanese possession was the secondary, longest part of the Hopeh Railway crossign the border into National Han China and following a path over Hsu, Hsingjang to Hankou (the National Han China Central China Railway). Both had before been part of a Belgian Concession and were now under Yankoku and National Han Chinese control. While this National Han China Railway was partly in Japanese hands (Shanghai and Hankou), the Government Conference in Yankoku cared more about the strong Japanese presence in Tientsin and their control of the Shandong Railway. With the British Concession and Leased Territory of Weihaiwei ending in 1930, the Japanese took over there and expandet their Shandong Railway from there over Tschifu, Taitschou and Tsingusch, connecting it with their already existing railway system in Tsinan. This was troubling for the Government of Yankoku and Yan Xishan himself was very concerned, since this meant that Japan with their more modern, faster trains, controlled the Yankoku trade from all it's major ports (Tsingtao, Weihaiwei and Tientsin), thereby controlling all trade between Manchukuo, Mengjiang in the North and National Han China in the South, instead of the Empire and State of Yankoku doing so itself. This could mean, that the Japanese who had just started to buy all remaining smaller Shandong Railways could extend their dominance over the Yankoku trade of silk, silk textiles and silk dresses and all other major and lucrative Yankokuan trade goods now without much opposition. To counter this development, known as the Yankoku Railway Crisis, the Yankoku Conference in the Imperial Palace in peking came to the conclusion, that the various seperate railways centered aroung the Shansi Railway and the Hopeh Railway should be unified and nationalized under Father Yan and his state directly, such a idea however would clearly have to involve the Shandong Railway too and doing so could greatly harm the Yankoku-Japanese relations in diplomacy and trate, something very unwise in times of war, when Japan supplied so much advisers, officers and Yen to help Yankoku industrialise and modernise and at the same time the Japanese had a major hegemony over the overall trade and economy in Yankoku itself. In the End Yan Xishan unified the Shansi Railway and the Hopeh Railway with national fundings and even incorporated the Japanese owned Shandong Railway into the Imperial Yankoku Railways (similar to the turms under wich the Japanese owned South Manchurian Railway had become a inegrated part of the Manchukuo National Railway. The Japanese still owned the majority of the Shandong Railway, but in exchange for their shares got a equal percentage on the overall Imperial Yankoku Railways. In the End both sides, Yankoku and the Japanese, were satisfied with this solution and the Yankoku Railway Crisis finally ended after months.

 

[CountofDooku]

The Question is what should Yankoku do in such a situation:
a) Nationalize the Shansi Railway, Hopeh Railway and Shandong Railway into the Imperial Yankoku Railway, giving Yankoku more independence and self-determination just like Father Yan had always hoped for in his deal with the Japanese. And by doing so angering the Japanese you depend so much on right now.
b) Unify the Shansi Railway and Hopeh Railway to the Imperial Yankoku Railway and support them with government funding, in hopes that is enought to counter the Japanese Shandong Railway.
c) The Manchurian Model; unify the Shansi Railway, Hopeh Railway and Shandong Railway into the Imperial Yankoku Railway, but with Japan staying in control of the Shandong Railway and gaining parts over the other too. While this might prevent Japan from taking all of it over, it also surrenders Yankoku even more into their mercy, something Father Yan wishes to avoid.
d) Do nothing and hope the situation turns out good for Yankoku either way. This might not threaten Japanese interest, but definetly anger many inside Yankoku itself and is nothing Father Yan would favor, but maybe it buys time and on the long run helps him gain more independence once he get's a deal with the Japanese held Shandong Railway, or somehow manages to nationalize it later someway.
Vote here!

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 498: The Emperor Summit/ Kaisertreffen:

In the Emperor City of Prague, the Imperial Austrian-Hungarian City, were German and Austrian-Hungarian Emperors have meet frequently in the Past, the Axis Central Powers had summoned a meeting of all Axis Central Powers Emperors and Kings, as well as their Head-of-States, Chancellors and most important Ministers. Very similar to the Delhi Conference, Bagdad Conference, Teheran Conference, the Washington Conferences or the Moscow Conferences of the Allies among one another or with the Soviet Union, this Axis Central Power summit had the same goals and views in mind, focussing on their victory in the Second Great War and poutlining the goals and changes for Europe and the Whole World once the war was finished in their favor. Even the Japanese Diplomats in Berlin were invited, as some of the goals and plans involved them too in Asia. Similar to Japan, Germany wished to create a Central European Alliance, as well as their own plan for a Großraumwirtschaft a German led War Economy and overall European Economy and Trade Sphere, were the German Imperial Mark (Reichsmark) would reign over all other member states. However that was a plan followed by the Germans secretly, as a too quick and overall German take-over could antagonize many other members of the Axis Central Powers against them.

Therefore their Mitteleuropa Monarchisten Allianz (Middle European Monarchistic Alliance) as a pan-European Movement against the Allies had to make some compromise between Germany and all the other major and minor powers of the Axis Central Powers. However the future goals of the various member states of the Axis Central Powers were immensely different from one another, as this Congress would show. Their Post-War plans were significent in determening the Future of Europe and the whole World. The main goals of the German Empire were to unify the Axis Central Powers and Monarchistic Erope into a unified, German dominated and lead Alliance, as well as to include the ethnic German (Netherland/ Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Baltic Duchy's and even the Polish Border, as well as secretly all of Poland and the Finnish State as well to some extend, even as a puppet/ buffer state) Kingdoms as new provinces and states of a Greater German Empie that woul span over most of Central Europe (even more so as some Pan-Germanists also included German-Austria, the Eastern part of France/Burgundia and sometimes even norther Italy into these plans). Austria-Hungary on the other Hand planned to annex the Balkan Kingdoms dominated by the Dual-Kingdom (mainly Romania, Bulgaria an Greexe, but Italian Albania was also included in their plans and sometimes even Poland and Ukrainia, as well as Lombadia and Venetia, should things got bad with the Italians as part of the Axis Central Powers).

Funny enough most of this German and Austrian-Hungrian plans were supported (at least the ones not directed against Italy/Rome itself) by the Roman Empire/ Italy and mainly Senator Benito Mussolini, who believed the Futue of Europe were big national empires, not small and weak rivaling states. The French meanwhile opposed some of this plans, mainly the ones trying to grab even more of the Imperial French Mainland and the Imperial French Colonies, then they had already lost until now. Instead the French hoped to gain more Colonies by annexing some of the British (in Canada, Africa and India) ones for their support of the Axis Central Powers, as well as retake the ones lost to the Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Scandinavian member states mostly hoped to stay somewhat independent, as did the Balkan member staes, who at the same time hoped to gain some disputed border regions from one another, a situation used by the Austrian-Hungrian Emperor in Vienna to keep them divided and under his dominance. The Spanish Kingdom meanwhile hoped to gain some British and even Portuguese Colonies (mainly all Portuguese in Africa, but the most ambitious Spanish plan hoped for outright annexing all of Portugal into a unified Iberian Kingdom once again). The Japanese Delegation meanwhile demanded the full recognition of all liberated Co-Prosperity Sphere member states, even those of former Axis Central Powers and suggested paying them off some of this regions, or paying with continued trade rights and important ressources out of the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Even the payment for the former German Asian and Pacific Colonies, that the Empire of Japan had gotten as Mandates of the League of Nations, was suggested to get rid of any possible demands and tensions there, a offer the Germans gladly accepted together with trade rights for the Allgemeine Ostasien-Gesellschaft (AOG, General East Asian Company, also known as AlgOstasien GmbH) in China and South-East Asia.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 499: From the Mon National Rebellion to the anti-Burmese Kingdom Opposition:

When Burma was conquered by the British in a series of wars, after the Second Anglo-Burmese War, the Mon territories also were completely under the control of the British. The British aided the Mons to free themselves from the rule of the Burman monarchy. Under Burman rule before, the Mon people had been massacred after they lost their kingdom and many sought asylum in the Thai Kingdom. The British conquest of Burma allowed the Mon people to survive in Southern Burma. With support of the Japanese, the Mon founded Mon Liberation Front (MLF). The MLF with further anti-colonial support from the Soviet Union, and Comintern Socialist Forces in British Burma, soon became a Communist Rebellion among several others in South-East Asia. However when the new Burmese Kingdom was announced under Ba Maw, many Mon feared Burmese Tyranny once again and would have wished self-determination instead. Under Ba Maw's government, U Nu and others at first refused Mon authonomy and because of that and their declaration of a Buddhist, National Burmese State, the Mon rose up in rebellion against them. This meant that the Mon remained a repressed group in the Burmese Kingdom nd would rise to revolt against the monarchic, central Burmese government on a number of occasions. With Allied and Soviet support, the original Mon People's Front, the Mon Resistance Army and the Mon Liberation Force merged into the Mon National State Party (abbreviated MNSP, Burmese: မွန်ပြည်သစ်ပါတီ) is a unified opposition party in Burma. While fighting the government, the MNSP unlike many rebells in Burma still maintained diplomatic contacts with Ba Maw and trie to push for constitutional and political reforms through the government, something the Burmese government was only ready to do after they had layed down their arms. As their military, armed wing of the MNSP, the Mon National Liberation Army (Burmese: မွတပ်မတော်; abbreviated MNLA) was formes as a insurgent group to directly fight the Burmese government forces.

Wherever the MNLA was holding territory, the MNSP governed a partially autonomous Mon state, like they always had dreamed about since Burma had conquered the anciend Mon Kingdom of Hanthawady in Pegu. The MNLA and MNSP operated near Tenasserim, Pegu and the Ayeyarwady River and celebrated the ancient founding of Hanthawady, their last Mon Kingdom on the full moon on the 11th month of the Mon lunar calendar as their Mon National Day. However with the End of Japanese supplies for them and the Soviets unable to really supply them with much more then ideological and military advisers, the Mon dependet heavily on Allied supplies and captured equipment. To lure smaller Burmese and Japanese Army forces on patrols into ambushs and capture their equipment, at the same time some Allied and Chinese United Front spies and supporters who had infiltrated parts of the Wang Jingwei Regime and other Chinese member states of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, or used local Rebells to assault lonely garrisons and arsenals and steal weapons for National Chinese and Communist Chinese rebells behind Co-Prosperity Sphere Lines. However thanks to further coordination and supplies from the Allies some of this weapons (even some Allied produced) found their way into the hands of Anti-Japanese and Anti-Co-Prosperity Sphere rebells and guerillias across South-East Asia. This included the MNLA, who was one of the participants in the independence and guerillia warfare against a member state of the Co-Prosperity Sphere (in this case the Kingdom of Burma). While they had hoped for much further and stronger support, they were still quiet glad to got further outside help, because otherwise they, like so many oher anti-co-prosperity government guerillias they would have been forces to end their fighting and come to some form of agreement with their central government to further survive. However, all of the sudden the Mon National State Party and the Mon National Liberation Army foung a unlikely ally in the Shan State Communist Party (Burmese: ရှကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ; abbreviated SSCP), Communist Party of Burma (Burmese: ဗမာပြည်ကွန်မြူနစ်ပါတီ; abbreviated CPB), the People's Revolutionary Party (PRP, or Socialist Burmese Party) and some socialist and communist influenced Student Groups had foundet the Anti-Fascist Royalist Organisation (short AFRO), the predecessor of the 1944 foundet Anti-Fascist Royalist People's Freedom League (Burmese: ဖက် အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, abbreviated AFRPFL), or hpa hsa pa la (ဖဆပလ) by its Burmese acronym, the first anti-government coalition of parties, rebels and uprising ethnic groups against the Coprospist Burmese Kingdom. It would paved the way for a unified resistance movement (democratic, liberal, socialist, communist and monarchist) against the Coprospist Burmese Kingdom once Allied and Commintern supply would decrease further after 1944 and lead to a strong militant opposition to the Buddhist, Burmese Coprospist National State from Rangoon and later Mandalay.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 500: The Grain and Steel Speech:

Not many speeches were as famous in German History, like Chancellor Otto von Bismark's “Blood and Iron” speech Bismarck as the Minister President of Prussia in September 1962 in the Prussian House of Representatives, but the speech by German National People's Party (German: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) Chancellor Alfred Hugenberg, later known as the “Grain and Steel Speech” from November 1942, hold directly after the failed Red Army Counter-Offensive in the Caucasus Region. The speech clearly showed patterns of old and partly outdated Prussian Military Logic, when Hugenberg reffered to the German Position in the heart of the European Continent and as the leader of the Axis Central Powers from Norway to Italy and from Spain to Russia, that in this Position the German Empire could not be stopped by any outer European Power ever again, (clearly meaning the British Empire and the United States of America). The Speech was good, a masterpeace of propaganda and pride and arrogance even, but it wasn't this far from the Truth as long as the Eastern Crusade was going well and the Allies did not manage a successful Invasion in Western Europe. The Grain and Steel that Chancellor Alfred Hugenberg mentioned in his speech clearly reffered to that of the Kingdom of the Ukrainia and the Russian Empire, cementing the Idea from the First Great War that the vast territory and ressources of the East could supply and make the German Empire self-sufficient, even without relying on it's Colonies.

However Hugenberg at the same time Questioned movements like the Teutonic Order and the Gothic Order in the East as well as the Burgundian Order in the West. He claimed that this paramilitaric, partly still Nazi inspired elite forces were wrong if they believed that German Colonization and Settlement could spread even more in Europe han it already had and he told the world so in his speech. German Colonies and Settlement could not come at the cost of a fellow European Christian Empire, Culture or Civilisation. Insteat they should chose to further cultivate and educate the Savages of Africa and Asia, to civilise these barbarians and to Settle Germans and other Europeans there, were already just small numbers of people lived in the Colonies, like the German Colonies the German Empire intended to take back after their Victory in the Second Great War.

This part of Chancellor Alfred Hugenberg's Grain and Steel Speech was seen as a ensurence to the German Empire allies and sympathisers in the Axis Central Powers that Germany would not outright annex large portions of their territory in Europe and let many of them relax, even if the Imperial German High Command and the German Orders had other plans. However they realised what a possibility Chancellor Hugenberg had given them in his Speech, when he denounced such plans, after all doing so only would decreas resistence to them now and on the long run, once the Second Great War was won for Germany, no one could deny such German Demands backed by the Imperial German Military anyway they believed. Because of this the Speech was seen as highly problematic by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who both believed the clearly Propagands Speech could question their own Propaganda of how the Germans planned to take over all of Europe under their own Empire. Mainly they were concerned how this might affect the German, or German descendant citizens inside the United States, who while not favoring Germany, did not dislike it either. After all the general Allied Citizen was not in favor of the Dictator Stalin over the German Emperor, even if they would preffer neither having any Hegemonic Rule over Europe.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 501: Freedom isn't given, it is taken:

Subhas Chandra Bose did not simply just sit by in Sadiya and wait for the Japanese to make a move, making daring speeches over the radio, broadcasted into British India, like “Freedom isn't given, it is taken”, “Give me Blood and I will give you Freedom”, or “One Individual may die for a Idea, but that Idea will, after his Death incarnate itself in a thousand Lives.” With his speeches, Bose reached parts of the Indian public and thanks to Japanese help, who printed flyers, propaganda posters and his portrait to leaflets that were dropped by Japanese bombers and fighters over Assam and Benghal, as far as they could reach. While the Japanese did bomb British Airports and Railway lines in the region, they did not direct target civilian targets, mainly because they were not backing such a assault up with nearby forces of the Imperial Japanese Army, then ready to take the weakened enemy defence lines. This helped Bose's propaganda and speeches claiming the Japanese to be pro-Indian independence fighters for the Liberty and Independence of India under him. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill heard concerned reports, about how Bose's popularity rose rapidly, even compared to Gandhi, wo advocated a more peacefull, passive resistance route to Indian Independence. Bose's supporterd were persecuted and imprisoned at first, just as Gandhi's were, but this only increased the public outrage and unreast against the British rule in general, so the British authorities in Indian quickly stopped from using this method too often and to massive during public demonstrations or riots.

However this only drove the Indian resistance underground and increased their suspicion and resistance against the British Rule, especially among the Hindu/ Hindi and Indian population that wanted independence rather sooner or later. The Mohammedan population meanwhile feared such a Indian independence and would have preffered a participation of British Raj among religious lines instead, as they believed that in a independent, democratic India, their wishes and goals would always end up a minority and never get trought at all. Their situation in Benghal however had drastically changed, ever since the Japanese had invaded and liberated British Burma into the Co-Prosperity Sphere Kingdom of Burma. Many Burmese and European refugees from Burma had during the Japanese Burma Campaign flooded into Benghal, meeting the British Authorities there unprepared. This caused trouble in infrastructure, supplies and even ethnic and religious tensions in Benghal because of it. The sudden overpopulation that had to be supplied there caused food shortages, that however did not particular effect the ruling European and Christian Elite that ruled British Raj from there. For Subhas Chandra Bose however this hardship and suffering of the Indian Population was a welcome means for him and the Japanese to gain further support for Coprospism and anti-British sentiments in all of India. Bose saw this as even more important and major, as it affected Calcutta, that from 1858 till 1911 had been the Capital of the East India Company and a major stronghold for British and European rule ever since, even getting many Europeans and the European Parties under Sir Leslie Hudson elected in with eight seats in the 1934 Indian General Election.

Because of this Subhas Chandra Bose and the Japanese secretly send their agents and spies to Calcutta in Bangladesh to establish direct links between them, the Indian National Congress Party led by Mbhulabhai Desaiand the local dominant Congress National Party led by Madhav Shrihari Aney, as the All-India Mohammedan League under Muhammad Ali Jinnah already sympathised with the Japanese who secretly had allready promised them a independend Mohammedan State or States in India to their liking, secretly planning to split up India just like they had done in China to keep it divided and depending on their dominance and protection, a plan unknown to Bose and the majority of the Co-Prosperity Sphere fighting alongside the Japanese. Growing a mustache, longer hair and getting a different pair of glasses and clothes, disguised and undercover, Bose even went to Calcutta himselved a few times to unify the anti-British groups under his Coprospis banner in hopes to rally enough support to take over all of British Raj and transform it into a fully independent Free India under himself as the Netaji (Hindustani: “Respected Leader”).

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 502: General Vlasov's Mission to the Cossacks:

In the Middle of the Russian Civil War, during the Eastern Crusade, General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov held a popular speech to encourage the former Russian Liberation Army (Russian: Русская освободительная армия, Russkaya osvoboditel'naya armiya, abbreviated as РОА, ROA, that had since it's creation been transformed into the Imperial Russian Army (Russian: Rússkaya imperátorskaya ármiya), also known as the White Army (Бѣлая Армія/Белая Армия, Belaya Armiya), the White Guard (Бѣлая Гвардія/Белая Гвардия, Belaya Gvardiya) and the White Guardsmen (Бѣлогвардейцы/Белогвардейцы, Belogvardeytsi) once again. General Vlasov encouraged Imperial White Russian Commissars and Orthodox Priests in the Imperial Russian Army and talked daily on the radio or in his public speeches to the forces about how much different their own Commissars were to the Soviet Union's Red Army Commissars. These Imperial Commissars, White Guard Officers and Orthodox Priests further encouraged their Forces to fight for the Tzar/ Tsar and to liberate the Russian Motherland from Soviet Tyranny and Opression. They were further encouraged by the reforms and liberal options and possibilities suddenly allowed by the new Imperial Government, the Imperial Duma they were now allowed to vote for or the Orthodox Churches they could suddenly openly visit again in Imperial Russia. Together with Tzar/ Tsar Vladimir, General Vlasov made a speach trying to start further anti-Soviet insurrections and anti-Communist uprisings to form inside the Soviet Union.

For Tsar Vladimir, General Vlasov even undertook a secret Mission to the Caucasus in attempts to once again recruit the Cossacks for the new Imperial Russian Army. Since most of the region was at this time occupied by Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Neo-Ottoman Empire and their allies. Under the Imperial Russian Army, the Cossack had made up mostly of the 250,000 irregular soldiers beside the 900,000 regular ones. This was something the new Russian Tsar, the Russian Generals like Vlasov and their Axis Central Power Allies tried to fully support once again to bring down the Red Army and the Soviet Union. To improve the chances of his mission, General Vlasov even brought some Cossacks who formerly fought in the Red Army and had been Prisoners of War nefore joining the Russian Liberation Army beside him, to help with the nagotiations. As a military diplomat for the Tsar and the new Russian Empire, Vlasov promised the Cossacks once again fame and glory, should they join forces with them against the Soviets and their Red Army.

The Cossacks were quiet eager to accept this proposial, as Tsar Vladimir demanded much from them, but also offered much in return. While the new policy of the reborn Russian Empire was a National Russian State, the Tsar was nor willing or ready to give up much needed and strategic important regions all together, just because no Russian Majority lived in these territories. One of the most important and major promises of the Russian Empire and Tsardom to the Cossacks was the promise to them, that they would be allowed to self-govern their own lands by themselves. A suggestion gladly accepted by them as the Soviet Decossackization had killed between 300,000 to 500,000 out of the 3,000,000 Million Cossacks and divided their traditional lands. Naturally the Cossacks had no passion or love for the continuity of the Soviet Union and were gladly accepting their old position and pride together with new authonomy in the new Russian Empire. Similar to the Crimean Tartars fighting for the Kingdom of Ukrainia, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire, the Russian Empire tried to use their Cossacks again in a similar way, fighting alongside other Axis Central Powers in the Eastern Crusade.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Good to see the Cossacks get treated properly. The way the Allies sold them out IOTL, and how no one really seems to care, was an utter disgrace.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 503: Lessons learned at Midway: Yamato-Class, Tairyū-Class and Taikaku/ Taitsuru-Class Changes

The devastating Battle of Midway had shown that the Japanese Design had a flawed armor joint problem, defective armour joint holding the upper and lower belts, but the armor joint problem that could not be currectly adressed because of the Imperial Japanese Navy ambitional naval conversions and new constructions, that already utilized their full Naval Dockyard capacity for the near future. Therefore there was no time at the moment to correct the flaws of the older armor joint problem with a new design,instead they decided that the areas where the joints were employed will also be welded in hopes of adding some additional strength. The older armor joints had been testes as a underwater protection system was tested on 1:3 scale models. In 1939 in a final test, a full-scale mock-up was tested against 400kg of explosives. In that test the holding bulkhead failed, but did not split open. The weakness was the bottom connection between the holding bulkhead and the shell, and thus was redesigned. Several Japanese Naval Constructors were aware of the armour joint problem, and suggested delay to the Super Heavy Battleship Yamato's construction for an improved design. This weakness waould later become undeniable in late 1942 after being torpedoed by the United States during the Solomon Campaign. To correct this problem the Yamato and all other ships of the Class would require an additional 5,000 tons per ship, however this would increase displacement and draft to unacceptable levels. Originally the design of the joints connecting the armour belt to the lower torpedo-holding bulkhead was dictated by the steelmakers' ability to manufacture the special shapes required in a reasonable amount of time. The joint was therefore entirely dependent for transfer strength on the shearing strength of the tap rivets and three-ply rivets. The joint itself did not give adequate support in the transverse direction. The considerable use of electric welding was made to achieve weight savings. However, it was mostly limited to Yamato's upper structure and superstructure than for the hull, as traditional riveted joints were considered more resilient due to welding problems encountered on previous warships. Critical elements such as the longitudinal members were riveted.

The overall the Yamato-class suffered from unprotected bow and stern sections. The lack of subdivisions in the bow would contributed to excessive flooding and list, which could resulted in the loss one of this major ships way to easily. Because of this, during the more modern conversions after 1942 and troughtout 1943 the number of subdivision compartments in the bow and stern of the Yamato-Class were massively increased for already build ships and newer planned ones, including the Shinano Aircraft Carrier Conversion that would lead to the later Tairyū-Class as well as the Taikaku/ Taitsuru-Class. This and the changes to the overall water pumping system for flood control, that planned to design and install more powerful pumps and increase pumping capacity for the above Classes, causing massive construction delays in 1942 and 1943 and slowing down the Imperial Japanese Navies ambitious programm. This gave the United States Navy more time to breath and rebuild, but also got rid of some of the Japanese originall design flaws and inadequate pumping systems. The flooding and pumping system was designed within five minutes of damage control going into action after a first torpedo hit that list be reduced to under 4 degrees and trim 2.3m difference in draught fore and aft. After a second torpedo hit the list and trim be corrected to previously mentioned standard within 30 minutes. The Japanese designers believed that in combination with shifting fuel from one side to another, along with existing flooding and pumping systems the ship classes with this system could be brought to an almost even keel from a list of 18.3 degrees.

Another change involved the original Type 0 Hydrophone equipped to the first ships of the Yamato-Class. The equipped Type 0 Hydrophone could only detect a submarine if the ship was at a dead stop or moving slowly, a problem encountered during the Solomon Campaign in 1942/ 1943, when the Musashi was hit by a American Submarine torpedo. This overall changes meant that around 100 tons of steel more would be needed for every future ship of the Yamato-Class to complete all of these modifications. But after the problematic situation after Midway and the ambitional naval conversions and new constructions planned by the Imperial Japanese Navy, all future planned ships of the original Yamato-Class were canceled for the Rest of the Second Great War in the Pacific. The steel saved from this unbuild Yamato-Class ships would allow for the construction of two or three new aircraft carrier at then freed up and newly renovated dry docks. Most of this changes for the Yamato-Class were also made for the future Tairyū-Class as well as for the Taikaku/ Taitsuru-Class. This included the three original classes, as well as their later Super Yamato-Class (Super Battleships), the Super Tairyū-Class (Super Aircraft Carrier) and the Tairyū (Super Battle Carrier-Class) after the Second Great War, once the Axis Central Powers under the German Empire started their own version of the Yamato-Class, the Kaiser (Emperor)-Class.

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 504: The Tsar's Duma Speech:

After the Battle of Moscow the Russian Imperial Public and Population was not that happy and eager, but the stop the White Army and their Axis Central Power allies put to the Red Army counter-offensive lifted the spirits gain. In the wake of this campaign Tsar Vladimir gave a passionate speech to the Duma in Saint Petersburg and over radio and it was even filmed for the cinema and the public propaganda shows there.
"In 1917, the Soviet Union was born ... and Russia died. But now, the Russian Empire and Russia is reborn once more and the Soviet Union will die!" began Tras Vladimir his passionate speech.
“We will replace the Red Terror and Tyranny with our White Russian Liberty and Justice. The Soviet Union is near collaps, we have liberated nearly two third of European Russia, where ¾ of our overall population of nearly 180,700,000 people live. We all know about the devastating Bolshevik war of annihilation against our Russian People.” declared Tsar Vladimir in a sad voice.

“Our overall population in cities had been shrinking from 3,6 percent to 0,01 percent under Soviet Rule. The number of our peasents and farmers had decreased from 65,1 percent to 22,5 percent. The number of our affluent farmers, the Kulaks had nearly been eliminated, from 12,3 percent to 0,09 percent under the Red Terror, because the Bolsheviks forced them all to become part of their Kolkhoz, collective farms, or the Sovkhoz, Soviet State farms tha until our return already made up nearly 45,9 percent of the population. It was a part of the Bolsheviks Red Class Struggle to eliminate aristrocratic landlords and to erase former feudal structures. Just ask the people in Ukrainia and Southern Russia how that has worked out in the great Famines there. The only other thing that has risen under Soviet Rule is the Proletariat from 16,7 percent to 28,1 percent now, but without Soviet mismanagement that growing number would have already been higher had the Russian Empire stayed in control.” claimed Tsar Vladimir, even if he had no true evidence that this was really the case. “Another thing that has increased was the number of Students and Soldiers, from 2,3 percent to 3,4 percent, but only because the Bolsheviks tried to spread their misguided worldview and failed social and economic experiment with the means of propaganda and weapons all over the Rest of Europe and the World.” announced the Tsar, painting the Axis Central Powers Eastern Crusade as a pre-emptive strike before the Red Army could attack them.

“Instead we should go back to the Obshchina, or Mir system in some form as the principle of our commune societies was much better then the Bolshevik Kolkhoz System. Our Selskoye Obshchestvo, our rural communities as village communities are far superior to the Khutors as individual farmsteads. Within this communities, land will once again used in communal ownership, were the village government acted as the cooperative, so that arable land could once again be divided in sections based on soil quality and distance from the village. Each household then will once again have the right to claim one or more strips from each section depending on the number of adults in the household. The whole purpose of this system had not been so much social that each could fullfill his needs, then it was practical, so that each person could pay his taxes. The Strips will once again be periodically re-allocated on the basis of a census, to ensure equitable share of the land. This will be overwised by the state, which is interest in the ability of households to pay their taxes, but overlooked by the local villages themselves. But one thing has changed until the times of the former Russian Empire, our agricultural innovations and machines provide us with a much better economical outcome and once the Obshchestvo govern themselves once again, they will buy and supply modern machines for their communities, that will be owned by the individuals in each section and strip, allowing them as a part of their village commune to work greater land much better then ever before. At the same time they will elect the local village government and decide local metters independently on their own. The same system will work for cities and bigger provinces too, all the way up to the Imperial Duma.” said Tsar Vladimir pointing around to the elected and appointed members in the Russian Diet as the Lower House.

“The local village commune will also establish local supply points to deliver much needed goods to every of this village communities outside of the major cities. To further increase this, we will support and promote the industrialisation in this areas with government support. Like the Obshchestvo they will be allowed to buy the machines and equipment to help increase and spread the industrialisation of our Russian Empire. Unlike the Bolsheviks however we will allow the people to get their fair share of the wealth, to grow into affluent Kulaks. Landowners, Mineowners and Factoryowners of their own in a open marked, as long as the local use of such things is profitable enough. The times of government mismanagement and overall control that keeps down the people's creativity, wealth and overall freedoms, from religion to speeking their mind will be finally over.” promised the Russian Imperial Tsar Vladimir and wherever his speech was heard in the already liberated parts of Russia and even within the Soviet Union, it gave the citizens hope for future, better times ahead of them once the Red Army was beaten and the Soviet Government had ended for good. One hing the new Russian Empire would coninue was to establish new towns and cities in the new industrial and armament centers like Kusnezk at the Ural Mountains, to not depend so much on the European Part of Russia alone in the Future.

 

[Jaenera Targaryen]

Long live the Tsar!

 

[CountofDooku]

Chapter 505: Imperial Japanese Mine laying:

One of the major problems for the Imperial Japanese Navy, was the fact that their mine laying operation against the Allies in the Indian Ocean (mainly British Raj, the West Coas of Australia, the Arabian Peninsula, but sometimes also the East coast of Africa) and the Pacific Ocean (mostly the East Coast of Australia, the West Coast of New Zealand and some higly contested regions, like the Solomon Islands, the Aleutian Islands or the Gilbert and Ellice Islands) were endagered when using regular cruiser and destroyers, or even transport ships for such a task. The Allied patrols, convoys and escorts often quickly spotted the Imperial Japanese Ships and either prevented them from fullfilling their whole mine laying mission or even sunk them too. The same was true for Japanese submarines, who suffered from a nearly daily increasing and constantly better Allied air cover from land bases, more convoy escorts and better Allied detection for finding submarines and better equipment to destroy them as well. The Japanese Empire knew from the increasing Allied submarine raids against them how devastating and dangerous these could get and tried to find measured and new ideas to implement this against the Allies themselves.

One of the first major ideas implemented, was the use of local Burmese, Indians and various other South-East Asian or Chinese as the crew on this ships, paired with a few Europeans from the Axis Central Powers trade transports or submarines, as Officers and Captains, or Japanese who spoke English not that bad themselves. They would disguise themselve and their ships with captured or produces allied uniforms and flags and hide their main batteries and guns. To do so these former truly civilian transport, convoy or tanker ships were quickly repurposed and converted to secret auxillary warships. A few of them even had the ability to lay mines themselves and the newer models even had torpedo launcher secretly installed on them (some on the deck, others behind parts of the ships side hulls, that could be quickly removed to get them fireing). Often they wated till the other ship was very close to score a hit with this partly inacurrate and failing system. This form of Privateering clearly violated international rules of Naval Warfare, but not only the Co-Prosperity Sphere did so, the Axis Central Powers too, believing that it was the victorious party who would write and rewrite history as they pleased. This pricateering former civilian ships sometimes had seaplanes on them for better spotting and covering greater spaces of the sea. Sometimes they even worked together with Japanese Submarines, land-based naval bombers, or even Imperial Japanese Navy warships. Some of this ships even served as tenders for Japanese Midget Submarines and would deploy them far behind enemy lines, largely utside of their original able maximal reach. Overall this ships were viewed by most histricans as a waste of Japanese ressources and crew, but they would pave the way to much better armored and armed Japanece transport ships, tankers and convoys after the Secand Great War to secure their trade lines in South-East Asia against Pirats lurking in the Island Atolls.

Another idea to get rid of the problem, was the Wingman system, were two Japanese submarines worked as a group. Mostly one of the two Submarines in a group would attack from another direction then the other, luring Allied convoys into a killing zone, but sometimes the first submarine worked as a bait, luring the Allied escorts into one side of their convoy and creating a hole in the defences, were the other one then would slip trought. Another plan was the construction of more, specialised minelayer Submarines, were the mines were stowed in horizontal galleries exiting through the stern. This boats were specialised mine laying submarines with two mine tubes aft each. The Imperial Japanese Navy however designed and produced two more minelayer submarined, one were equipped with more mine tubes in the middle of the ship and had only a small crew at the center. Their floating mines would be laid by flooding the mine tubes and then blowing them out over the upper central tubes behind the tower, a system later used for rockets fired from submarined too. This way they were in no danger of hiting their own submarine tower with the mines. They were used by diving right beneath enemy convoys, or laying there in a surprising ambush, to then release their floating mines over the tubes, right ino the middle of a enemy convoy. Another method to improve this raiding system, was to develop new mine s, sized to be deployed from a submarines torpedo tubes, so that every regulair submarine could used as a minelayer with this new type. While not as big and not carrying as much esplosives in them, this new mines could be carried in a much bigger capacity and once deploayed spread trough a much larger area, making them ideal for the tactic, so much that even the German Empire's High Sea's Fleet copied this technology later during the Second Great War.

 

[Alpha-King98760]

Great updates Count! Though I must add, I hope nobody is developing the atomic bomb.

 

[CountofDooku]

Great updates Count! Though I must add, I hope nobody is developing the atomic bomb.

Thanks a lot. The Americans are at it and to a much lesser extend the Germans too (for now a least).

 

[Alpha-King98760]

Thanks a lot. The Americans are at it and to a much lesser extend the Germans too (for now a least).

What about the Japanese?