A man (Chiang) can dream. But dreams are just that. Dreams
The Sun, The Stars and The Sickle: Alt-WWII and a Tripolar Postwar World
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A man (Chiang) can dream. But dreams are just that. Dreams
There are two more problems with Puyi:
The first is that he's a succession crisis in the making. Puyi was well known to be bisexual, as well as impotent. While concubines were often the true mothers of Imperial heirs, it would be well known that any child born to one of them isn't Puyi's legitimate child.
Secondly, Pujie's wife, Princess Hiro, is extremely well connected in Japanese society, and she is a large part of how Pujie got the throne TTL as well. The daughter of a highly respected Marquess and distant relative of Emperor Hirohito, she is no stranger to Japan's high society, and has proved extremely helpful in introducing Pujie to that world and helping him navigate it. The couple have two daughters, but there is precedent in the House of Yamato in which adoptees are considered legitimately part of the family- and TTL, there is no reason why the Peerage and collateral branches of the Imperial Family would be dissolved immediately postwar. Even if Pujie and Hiro do not have a biological son, the very new succession rules can allow one of their daughters to become Empress, or for an adopted son to become Emperor, thus propagating the House of Aisin-Gioro.
Oops. Travelling through a war zone... well, you know how these things go sometimes...
Ah, on the USN's idea for a twelve-gun, 4x3 cruiser...
The Navy as of now favours the two small (but improved rather than repeat battleships, and a class of world-beating heavy cruisers, each roughly half the tonnage of the small BB. The French ship Jean Bart, being completed in New York, provided much inspiration and engineering knowledge for the quads.
There is, in some sense, a restraint on it- nobody really wants a 27 000 t (all figures herein reflect standard displacement) cruiser after all, since the savings over a battleship at that point are marginal, and the BB might wind up being cheaper per ton all things considered. Then, there is the matter of the turrets- in case the quads proved to be more trouble than they were worth, a 10-gun design with 5 twin turrets was proposed.
Initially, a 17 000 t displacement was specified, but even on paper, that resulted in an unacceptably top-heavy 10-gun ship and a 12-gun ship that had unacceptably low freeboard and would have trouble making its design speed in any sort of weather, as well as a high recoil effect.
On 20 000t standard, both designs were much improved. They diverged slightly in that the 12 gun ship, which was shorter and beamier, got a transom stern to improve high-speed performance, whereas the 10-gun ship, a longer and finer design, retained a cruiser stern, to improve efficiency at cruising speeds.
The Navy has yet to decide which one to ultimately pursue. On roughly the same displacement, the 12-gun ship has more firepower, more armour (as the 3 quads take up less space than 5 twins) makes its speed on less machinery, but at the cost of worse fuel efficiency and higher cost per unit. The 10-gun ship is cheaper, a better seaboat, less thirsty, maneuvers better at moderate speeds, but at the cost of two 8" guns on the same hull, more machinery, and slightly less armour.
The Navy as of now favours the two small (but improved rather than repeat battleships, and a class of world-beating heavy cruisers, each roughly half the tonnage of the small BB. The French ship Jean Bart, being completed in New York, provided much inspiration and engineering knowledge for the quads.
There is, in some sense, a restraint on it- nobody really wants a 27 000 t (all figures herein reflect standard displacement) cruiser after all, since the savings over a battleship at that point are marginal, and the BB might wind up being cheaper per ton all things considered. Then, there is the matter of the turrets- in case the quads proved to be more trouble than they were worth, a 10-gun design with 5 twin turrets was proposed.
Initially, a 17 000 t displacement was specified, but even on paper, that resulted in an unacceptably top-heavy 10-gun ship and a 12-gun ship that had unacceptably low freeboard and would have trouble making its design speed in any sort of weather, as well as a high recoil effect.
On 20 000t standard, both designs were much improved. They diverged slightly in that the 12 gun ship, which was shorter and beamier, got a transom stern to improve high-speed performance, whereas the 10-gun ship, a longer and finer design, retained a cruiser stern, to improve efficiency at cruising speeds.
The Navy has yet to decide which one to ultimately pursue. On roughly the same displacement, the 12-gun ship has more firepower, more armour (as the 3 quads take up less space than 5 twins) makes its speed on less machinery, but at the cost of worse fuel efficiency and higher cost per unit. The 10-gun ship is cheaper, a better seaboat, less thirsty, maneuvers better at moderate speeds, but at the cost of two 8" guns on the same hull, more machinery, and slightly less armour.
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It probably doesn't help his mental health either knowing he is likely seen as "inconvenient" by his own house's supporters; especially with how well his brother is doing for the Dynasty and bringing actual respect to the state of Manchouko.
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There's definitely that, too.
There's always been a part of Puyi that has been jealous of his brother. Pujie got to have the childhood that Puyi never had, the marriage that Puyi never -and can never- have, and now the respect that Puyi never commanded. Yet, while nobody ever truly understood Puyi, his brother came closer than anybody else could.
For Puyi, life now is better than it was as Emperor. Finally free from the constant incursions, it turns out that being useless to anyone is better than being used by everyone. Puyi, at the sanitarium, has continued to spend his days meditating, transcribing poetry, and now gardening.
Wanrong, still not entirely recovered from the loss of her daughter, has nonetheless been forced into treatment for her opium addiction, at the insistence of the Prince and Princess Regent, the latter especially being one of the few people Wanrong trusts.
On January 20th, 1942, another tragedy (as if there haven't been enough!) has befallen France.
That morning, Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain died at age 85 from complications of pneumonia, likely contracted from one of the humiliating ordeals where he was made to stand out in the rain without any cover to watch another Nazi victory parade. Apocryphally, his last words were an echo of his famous ones at Verdun "On les aura" ("We'll get them!"), although this cannot be verified.
If you were to ask the average Frenchman, however, they would tell you that the cause of death was murder.
TTL, there is no Pétain the collaborator, nor the pathetic old man who soils himself and can't recognize his own wife- only Pétain, the Hero of Verdun. And the Nazis just killed him, perhaps to complete his humiliation, perhaps as revenge for WWI.
There is mourning throughout France, an visceral anger at his death. The mood in Algiers is grim too, as can be expected, but there is also something of an unexpected panic among the Nazi occupiers. This wasn't supposed to happen, and now, inadvertently, a martyr has been made of Pétain.
That morning, Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain died at age 85 from complications of pneumonia, likely contracted from one of the humiliating ordeals where he was made to stand out in the rain without any cover to watch another Nazi victory parade. Apocryphally, his last words were an echo of his famous ones at Verdun "On les aura" ("We'll get them!"), although this cannot be verified.
If you were to ask the average Frenchman, however, they would tell you that the cause of death was murder.
TTL, there is no Pétain the collaborator, nor the pathetic old man who soils himself and can't recognize his own wife- only Pétain, the Hero of Verdun. And the Nazis just killed him, perhaps to complete his humiliation, perhaps as revenge for WWI.
There is mourning throughout France, an visceral anger at his death. The mood in Algiers is grim too, as can be expected, but there is also something of an unexpected panic among the Nazi occupiers. This wasn't supposed to happen, and now, inadvertently, a martyr has been made of Pétain.
Ouch.
France will be stronger post-war (and Britain too), and the USA proportionnally less involved in liberating Europe. Italy might join the fray late in the war.
Germany might end up partitioned, under the insistance of Soviets (who want it weak), French (who might get the Saar for themselves and some client-states in Rhineland and Thuringia), British (welcome back, Hanover) and Italians (those Austrians and Bavarians are our Catholic brothers).
France will be stronger post-war (and Britain too), and the USA proportionnally less involved in liberating Europe. Italy might join the fray late in the war.
Germany might end up partitioned, under the insistance of Soviets (who want it weak), French (who might get the Saar for themselves and some client-states in Rhineland and Thuringia), British (welcome back, Hanover) and Italians (those Austrians and Bavarians are our Catholic brothers).
Now, just to clarify, the Nazis didn't murder Pétain, but the substandard treatment he received for his pneumonia and being rushed to a German doctor too late certainly didn't help matters.
The government in Algiers elects to rename their nearly-complete escort carrier Maréchal Pétain, reserving the name Le Résistant for a contre-torpeilleur instead.
This incident really destabilizes the German situation in France. Rioting does not wait until the spring season to begin, and more and more people are beginning to join the Resistance. The unrest has also enabled Anglo-French forces to launch a series of air and naval artillery raids, taking advantage of an enemy that is unable to respond with full preparedness.
The government in Algiers elects to rename their nearly-complete escort carrier Maréchal Pétain, reserving the name Le Résistant for a contre-torpeilleur instead.
This incident really destabilizes the German situation in France. Rioting does not wait until the spring season to begin, and more and more people are beginning to join the Resistance. The unrest has also enabled Anglo-French forces to launch a series of air and naval artillery raids, taking advantage of an enemy that is unable to respond with full preparedness.
Wouldn't France also want the Left Bank of the Rhine too, and in exchange, set up their client state in Westphalia instead?
The Battle of Moscow- Aftermath
AN: This was bar none the hardest update to write and I tried several different rewrites, but I felt like none really did it justice.
---
Entries from the diary of war correspondent Sidney "Sid" Wilkes
Hotel Metropol, Moscow
Late January/ 1942
THE "news" the Soviet censors feed you is utter garbage. Pravda, Red Star, all of it. You can't believe a word it says, even though you have to re-write it as if it were God's honest truth.
It's the whispers you hear in hallways, scraps here and there, that hold the real truth. They keep you a virtual prisoner here, but you can catch the pieces and put them together. There are too many parts, too many people involved to hide everything.
It makes me sick to know what the world hears will not be what actually happened here, but I must get the record, before it is erased by bullets or vodka.
The Battle of Moscow was at once glorious and ugly, on scales I have never seen before
{NOTE IN MARGIN, added 1948}
[What I could not know at the time were the sheer scale of casualties. 1 100 000 Germans and 2 600 000 Soviets participated in the battle. German casualties were approximately 290 000 and Soviet casualties were, at best estimate, 780 000. The scale is shocking. Losses in tanks and planes, guns and trucks, I cannot even think about given the human cost]
Battle isn't exactly accurate either. It was a series of battles, perhaps from mid-November, and turning into a Soviet counterattack now. The fighting went into the city at several points, levelling about 1/6th of Moscow. Air raids, a mini-Blitz, and shelling by German artillery happened too, but the Muscovites bore it well.
They -we- perhaps? I don't even know how to characterize my relationship with the Soviets, pushed them back. They had to. This is a war of annihilation, and the Nazis believe themselves ordained to rule Russia, and have no problem removing the problem that is the Russians living there.
Nobody even knows if the Stalin that swore he would fight in Moscow was Stalin at all or merely a body double, but because of the intensity and necessity of the defence of Moscow, nobody really cared anyway.
The sheer ugliness is overwhelming, but, I must say again, it must go on the record, before it is destroyed by bullets, bombs or the bottle. May I never have to write about such a battle again.
---
Entries from the diary of war correspondent Sidney "Sid" Wilkes
Hotel Metropol, Moscow
Late January/ 1942
THE "news" the Soviet censors feed you is utter garbage. Pravda, Red Star, all of it. You can't believe a word it says, even though you have to re-write it as if it were God's honest truth.
It's the whispers you hear in hallways, scraps here and there, that hold the real truth. They keep you a virtual prisoner here, but you can catch the pieces and put them together. There are too many parts, too many people involved to hide everything.
It makes me sick to know what the world hears will not be what actually happened here, but I must get the record, before it is erased by bullets or vodka.
The Battle of Moscow was at once glorious and ugly, on scales I have never seen before
{NOTE IN MARGIN, added 1948}
[What I could not know at the time were the sheer scale of casualties. 1 100 000 Germans and 2 600 000 Soviets participated in the battle. German casualties were approximately 290 000 and Soviet casualties were, at best estimate, 780 000. The scale is shocking. Losses in tanks and planes, guns and trucks, I cannot even think about given the human cost]
Battle isn't exactly accurate either. It was a series of battles, perhaps from mid-November, and turning into a Soviet counterattack now. The fighting went into the city at several points, levelling about 1/6th of Moscow. Air raids, a mini-Blitz, and shelling by German artillery happened too, but the Muscovites bore it well.
They -we- perhaps? I don't even know how to characterize my relationship with the Soviets, pushed them back. They had to. This is a war of annihilation, and the Nazis believe themselves ordained to rule Russia, and have no problem removing the problem that is the Russians living there.
Nobody even knows if the Stalin that swore he would fight in Moscow was Stalin at all or merely a body double, but because of the intensity and necessity of the defence of Moscow, nobody really cared anyway.
The sheer ugliness is overwhelming, but, I must say again, it must go on the record, before it is destroyed by bullets, bombs or the bottle. May I never have to write about such a battle again.
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It's... really discutable. On a pure geopolitical consideration, yes, sure, the maps say so. On a deeper level, the absence of that generation of resistance survivors and the complete redefinition of society that was forced by the defeat and the liberation might very well harm it in the long term.
Different? Yes. Stronger? I am not sure at all.
That's exactly it, for a lot of nations involved.
A wise woman once told me that you usually learn a lot more from losing than you do winning.
And I don't think the USA will allow Germany to be dismembered to that extent. An occupation will happen, but come 1948 and the elections, that large German-American community and its votes is going to be very tempting. Add in the fact that Germany is critical to the European economy and failing to let it recover is tantamount to just begging the Soviets to take advantage of Europe...
True, I was only talking about geopolitics (and the post-war fate of Germany) but on the internal level, it might be a mixed bag. There will still be a transformation of society, as while France was never vanquished (and no armistice, state collaboration, Vichy laws, etc), the métropole was still occupied entirely, and Résistance will clearly exist there too (especially after Petain's death), but it won't be as radical and deep as IOTL.
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