Rasputin of the East

27

read at https://readwn.com

Moscow. Kremlin.

“Nice to meet you. General Brusilov.”

“…Thank you for inviting me like this. Count.”

“Congratulations in advance for being the commander of the 8th Army.”

“… Count.”

“Say it.”

“I know nothing about politics. I am just a soldier protecting my country, and I want to live and die as a soldier until the last moment.”

“You have an attitude worthy of being a role model for a soldier.”

“But the Count is different from me. I hope you don’t feel bad about it.”

“Let’s just say we serve our country in different ways. Does that make me reluctant? Don’t worry, I won’t arrest or summon the general for disloyalty.”

After the disastrous defeat of the Tannenberg Offensive, the GRU managed to gain control of the military through a political offensive. It was the price of beating the heads of several generals in the Russian army, including Rennenkamp.

That is why the officers of the Russian Empire were very reluctant to associate with the GRU. The reason was obvious. I don’t like it physiologically either. It’s because they’re opponents who don’t look good together.

“I have no interest in politics, nor do I want to get involved. I just want to punish those who invaded the country with their mud feet.”

“I also prepared this place to help the general with all my heart. I think that the general is not lacking even if we call him the last lamp of the empire.”

“What does it mean to help with all your heart?”

“Won’t there be a battle on the southern front soon? Against the Austro-Hungarian army. The supreme commander is Konrad von Höchendorf, the current chief of staff of the dual empire. It will be easier to deal with than the German Empire. They do not have an efficient rail network and excellent artillery.”

Although the Russian Empire has a poor rail network, it is no different. Either way, they’re on the same level.

“Yeah… it will.”

“The enemy has already crossed the Russian border, and the goal is probably to cut the railroad between Kyiv and Warsaw.”

“Then you must stop…”

“It has to be stopped, of course it has to be stopped. That’s what I called you for. The 8th Army will be deployed on the Southern Front. Your mission will be to stop the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German 9th Army.”

“There is no such unit as the 9th Army.”

“It will happen soon. Specifically, next month. Its main purpose is to support the Austrian army. By the end of the year, the center of the battle, I would expect, will be Poland, on the west bank of the Vistula River.”

The front line would be the Carpathian Front, a front centered on the Carpathian Mountains, which is also the eastern border of Hungary.

I continued to look at the map.

“If that happens, there will be a massive German offensive during the next year. So do enough merit, so that I can convince the tsar to make you commander-in-chief of the German and Austrian fronts.”

“you are……”

“There will be plenty of support as well. My munitions factory in the Far East is the only factory in the Russian Empire that can produce automated machines, and it is also possible to produce several new weapons. All of that equipment will be provided to your troops, and I am willing to lead and support the internal forces if necessary.”

“Why do you want to help me? If all of this is part of a conspiracy to expand your political standing, I will decline.”

“No, absolutely not. Because, General Brusilov, you are one of the only two generals in the whole of the Russian Empire who have no poop on their heads.”

“poop….?”

Brusilov was bewildered by the naked expression.

“The other is me, and I thought you were better than me. That’s it.”

“What is the rationale?”

“It’s hard to justify that, but, you know, I don’t fight by leading millions of armies, smashing and smashing the enemy’s multiple defenses and taking the enemy’s head, although I won’t decline if necessary.”

Brusilov looked confused. I continued talking while making eye contact with him.

“I poison the minds and bodies of my enemies, plant tumors, find out what they think and how they move, what their habits are, what they are good at, and what they are not good at, and then strike their head before they can respond.”

It was something he had done in his previous life, except for beating his head. At least until I came here, there was no war or anything like that.

“But in this war, it is very difficult to save my organs. The continents of Russia and Europe are too wide, and the battlefield of the defender is far beyond that of the attacker. Even if I use my organs, it’s a fight that won’t be easy to win.”

Looking at the sizzling Russian army, even if you know which front is weak, you will end up with minced meat on a machine gun before you even break through that front.

The only exception is the Home Affairs Army, but the Home Affairs Army is not capable of taking on a single front on its own.

One corps, that was the limit I was able to prepare before the war.

In World War I, there’s not much you can do with a single corps. It’s impossible to break through the enemy’s defenses and occupy the capital with just one legion.

‘In the Gornicke-Tarlov Offensive, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is also deployed.’

If there is a Russian Imperial Army led by Brusilov and one corps of the Interior Army in the German offensive in 1915, it may not be possible to give up Russian Poland as much as in the original history.

“So I need you, General Brusilov.”

If all goes according to plan, it could make Germany beg for a deal before 1916 is completely gone.

‘It is as difficult as threading seven ears of needles with one thread at a time, but otherwise, there is no way to stop the civil war.’

The previously assumed time limit was so short that the plan was so inflexible that it could never be stopped once it was triggered, laughing at the Schlieffen plan, which eventually extended the war into World War II and brought Britain into the war. It seems that was not what I was going to say, as I was in a position to connect with .

Of course, it’s not unprepared for a civil war, and there’s no guarantee that even if it succeeds, it can be safely avoided.

‘This is the only way.’

I could have come up with five or six other plans if the tsar was in good shape, but I had long put my hopes aside for the tsar.

I’m just trying to help as much as possible because I’ve had what I’ve received so far, and I didn’t expect the tsar to do anything on his own to help.

“The Russian Empire must change, and it will change so rapidly that it has never been seen before. But before that change, there are some things that must be premised. Do you know what?”

“What is?”

“It’s survival.”

I said bluntly.

“Operating on a patient is done while the patient is still alive, and reforming the country is only possible when the survival of the country is guaranteed. Now, this country is too fragile and precarious to withstand reform, so we have to create a situation that can sustain the life of this country and have surgery.”

If it is a decaying tumor that is too old and deeply rooted to take the patient’s life at the moment of resection, we need to find a way to save the patient’s life and somehow make sure that the patient can survive the moment when the tumor is excised.

“What I want is to be a doctor who protects the patient so that he can save his life from the threat of the German Empire, which will kill the patient as soon as the general begins the operation. There are not many people who love this country as much as you, and there are even fewer people who have the ability.”

I don’t know much about the man named Brusilov. What kind of thoughts he came here with, what point of view he sees about me, etc.

“And as soon as the threat of the German Empire is gone, I will begin the operation. It’s bloody and I don’t know yet how many parts it will have to be removed, how much pain the patient will suffer, but I do know one thing.”

But in history I was able to figure out one thing.

“This is the last chance for the Empire, and if it fails, the blood and tears of millions of people in this country will be shed until the war is over by the general, and the blood that will be shed during my operation will be nothing.”

I got up from my seat and held out my hand.

“Will you come with me, General?”

After looking at me for a while, Brusilov opened his mouth.

“I tell you in advance, I don’t trust you yet.”

“is it?”

“But not a single word was wrong in what you said. Clearly, there is something seriously wrong with this country, and reform is necessary for this country to survive, but it is also true that this country is too precarious to withstand the reform…”

He loves Russia. I loved the people who lived in Russia, and I loved the country called Russia.

“But it means that what I am doing for the Russian Empire is really for the sake of the Empire, or whether it is just a plausible and meaningless, well-packaged work that I am doing for an entirely different purpose. Wrong?”

He is not loyal to the government and the tsar, but to the people and the state. He joined the Red Army because, in the end, the Red Army fought against the Polish Army, while the White Army attracted foreign powers, and Russian territory was trampled by foreign forces.

“It was not wrong. In fact, I doubt that.”

What should we call such a feeling? Pride? patriotism? whatever it is

“Good doubt, keep doubting, questioning, I’m not perfect, I need someone to keep questioning me. And you will know, and you will understand. In the not-too-distant future, you will know why I am in such a hurry.”

When I finished speaking, Brusilov got up and took my hand.

“I will try to trust you.”

I don’t know how noble or what kind of belief it is, and it’s really hard to understand, but if it’s available, I just use it.

“Keep watching over me.”

I smiled, either outwardly or under the mask of emotion that had been firmly entrenched from the moment I met him.

“I am Alexei Alexeievich Brusilov, commander of the 8th Army of the Russian Empire.”

“This is Mikhail Nikolaijevich Kim, the first Earl of Vostok, commander of the Interior Forces, and director of the GRU and Ohrana.”

This has secured another collaborator. The last commander of the Russian Empire, Alexei Brusilov.