Rasputin of the East

47

Galata Tower. Constantinople, occupied territory of Russia.

“You can see the whole city!”

“Isn’t the scenery nice? They say it’s fantastic to come at sunset on a clear day.”

While Olga and Tatiana, wide-eyed, watched the scenery, I looked south.

It was the British fleet that arrived this morning. The ground forces were included as well as the troops in Gallipoli.

“Mustafa Kemal, you fed me the most.”

Fortunately, they arrived after they had seized all of Constantinople and started sending troops into Anatolia.

If it was not possible in the first place, I was going to push more troops into Anatolia even if I had to cut the shichimi, so it doesn’t really matter.

“It seems that Admiral Fisher is getting hot because he wants a quick meeting.”

“Tell them that you don’t need to run up and scream for anything other than what a pretty girl does in bed.”

“Are you really going to say that?”

“Are you crazy, tell me that this evening, we will have a meeting over dinner at the Topkapi Palace as scheduled, and the princesses… you better rest in Dolmabahce Palace.”

Even though the main building has not yet removed all the bodies – among the confirmed dead, the Ottoman defense minister was also – there was no resistance, let alone resistance, in the harem, so it would be easy to put the two princesses to sleep.

Fortunately, my authority in this campaign also included diplomatic rights with the negotiating countries.

To be precise, all the powers to leave Constantinople in the hands of the Russian Empire include diplomatic power to some extent.

Of course, I didn’t have many options in the first place. For example, the current Hagia Sophia was in the process of being converted into an Orthodox church.

As soon as I posted the victory report, the tsar was so excited that he converted Hagia Sophia into an Orthodox church and boarded the train saying that he would definitely attend the first Mass to be held. Thanks to this, our soldiers were struggling with preparations in the face of a terrifying and terrible situation that the tsar would come to inspect, even though it was terrible even if it was a four-star inspection.

It is impossible to restore all the mosaics that were painted 500 years ago and do what they do in such a short time. It was all we could do to make it look like a cathedral, but…it’s better than having a mass held in a mosque.

And before the tsar arrives, we’ll have to get rid of those Britons in moderation.

***

“Admiral Fisher.”

“Vostok… Count or General? Which name do you prefer?”

“Call me Captain Vostok. But is it surprising that someone who used to be a 1st naval police officer came directly to the front line?”

“Well, there were circumstances, the cabinet was overthrown, the prime minister was replaced… and things got complicated for us too.”

“okay.”

Well, I’m pretending to be relaxed, but I’m not in a particularly good situation either.

It’s going to burn over there, but I’m also concerned about the front line. Brusilov was fighting the German offensive without taking a single step back, but it is said that the casualties are increasing rapidly.

I can vividly remember how shocked I was when I got a call from Brusilov saying that the Germans would shoot me with a vomit-inducing agent when a large-scale bombardment of poison gas was being poured out, and that they were using submachine guns even though there were a small number of enemies there.

Come to think of it, there was plenty of time left to copy that, and I’m glad there’s no sound of those guys rolling their tanks yet.

We know that there is no case of tanks being captured by them on our side, but I heard that the British or French forces had been attacked on the Western Front and then reversely broke.

We had the extra supplies we had to spend on it, but at this rate, I thought that the Southern Front might collapse due to lack of troops without ever being defeated.

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Moscow is sending in recruits, but the proficiency is severely lacking, so in the end, I have to go and help.

Only after we fix those pirates who are drooling over the fruits we picked.

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Meanwhile, Admiral Fisher had been having a headache for a few days.

Negotiations proposed by the officer, mustafa Kemal, were far beyond his authority, and Admiral Fisher had to urgently contact his home country.

Fortunately, Mustafa Kemal did not declare that the negotiation was a negotiation for the surrender of himself and his combat troops, but not the surrender of the Ottoman Empire.

In the first place, with the battle between the Ottoman Navy and the Russian Black Sea Fleet still ongoing, it is also correct to view that even if Colonel Kemal is leading the last ground forces of the Ottoman Empire, he has no authority to negotiate the surrender of the entire country.

“Don’t you think it’s right to end the Ottoman Provisional Government first, get the documents of surrender from the sultan, and then discuss the occupied territories?”

The British troops currently stationed in Gallipoli via the route Kemal had opened were running like crazy.

To get more, even if it’s literally just one occupation.

As soon as the Russians capture any port in southern Anatolia, the hundreds of thousands of them left in Gallipoli are meaningless. It’s Gallipoli’s job to keep them from coming out of the Sea of Marmara, but there’s no way to stop Russia from advancing into the Mediterranean just as there is no way to stop water from leaking if the bottle is broken.

In fact, there are reports that Russian troops are moving toward Adana and Izmir. Izmir is much closer to the British, so the British could take it sooner or later, but Adana?

Of course, it would be shocking to hear the Russians, who were not interested in the port and were moving with the aim of forming a front line to protect Constantinople.

Because of this, they were unable to divert the sortie fleet from the home fleet and had to change their destination to receive the surrender of a major port in southern Anatolia.

There is a further problem. If Russia occupies the Anatolian Peninsula, at the very least, if it occupies Armenia or if a pro-Russian Armenian independent state is established, then Persia, a major oil producing region, will be placed within the range of Russian ground forces.

Both are huge nightmares.

Already, the Caucasus Front collapsed at the same time as the capture of Constantinople, and the Russian army is rapidly advancing towards Anatolia.

Therefore, the British decided that it would be best to expand the occupied territory as much as possible with British troops and hold Russia through negotiations.

Anyway, since we are allies now, shouldn’t the issue of occupied territory be discussed only after the war is over and the issue of territorial adjustment after the war is over?

***

Germany, Kiel naval port.

“Now is your only chance!”

Admiral Franz Ritter von Hipper shouted in front of the sailors.

“Now the main force of the Royal Navy is in the Mediterranean Sea and the French Navy is in the Bay of Biscay, now the main enemy of the enemy is gone! We outrun them and land our troops in London!”

Admiral Hipper clenched his fists, announcing the invasion of the British mainland.

Originally, the Royal Navy concentrated its forces on Scaper Flow to block the North Sea, but now the blockade has a hole in it.

In the midst of such a sudden change, the Daeyang Fleet also drastically revised its plans. The original operational plan of the Ocean Fleet was to lure and consume a portion of the British Grand Fleet’s troops, but the British Navy’s battlecruisers have already escaped in large numbers.

As some of the battleships and most of the battlecruisers rushed to the Mediterranean, the North Sea blockade was considerably weakened, and there is no reason not to take advantage of this gap.

In the Battle of Dogger Bank, the German Navy, which had to flee after suffering heavy damage from the British battlecruisers, planned to slaughter the battlecruisers first. It was the judgment of the German Imperial Navy that if the battlecruisers returned to battle, they would only be destroyed individually.

Then you can really win. Even when the German army had already withdrawn a significant portion of its troops, they unilaterally smashed the Italians four times at Isoncho, and were confident in the Western Front only.

After taking this opportunity to get Britain out of the front line and negotiate appropriately with France, it concentrates all its efforts on Russia, inflicting great damage and ending the war by negotiating.

That was the German idea.

***

UK, Navy.

The admirals were gathering and drinking tea.

It was a brief tea time and a brief mental break. It seemed like everyone would go crazy because of the stress without that brief break.

“Churchill, what the hell is this for that bastard!”

“Admiral.”

“Well, why! Did I say something wrong?”

Admiral Beatty grinded his teeth, and Jellico sat still.

Unfortunately for Germany, the British code-breaking department was cracking the German code with a code tag obtained from a German warship that was sunk in the early days of World War II.

This was actually the cause of Germany’s failure to achieve its strategic goals in the Battle of Jutland.

The problem was that even cracking the password was a headache.

It was a sortie for the entire German navy, a sortie for Kaiser Marine’s pride. A sortie that squeezed the last drop of the German navy far beyond what the British had expected.

“According to the communications intercepted by the intelligence service, it can be said that there are very few battleships that do not sortie. All battleships and battlecruisers are sorties, with the exception of the battlecruisers that were handed over to the Ottoman Empire and the one Darflinger-class battlecruiser Lucho, which is currently under maintenance.

The meaning was simple.

The German Navy was literally declaring that it was going to a decisive battle without a back.

Then, of course, you should accept it. Otherwise, London would really be a sea of fire.

“Can you?”

“I can’t do it, I have to.”

The German navy had to be stopped.

“All available ships are being pulled together, so if you can float and fire your guns, you have to pull out even a fishing boat. If we lose this naval battle… we will not be left behind.”

It was painful to see all the high-speed ships rushing to the Mediterranean Sea. Of course, it is possible to issue an order to return now, but at the end of the meeting, the Ministry of the Navy decided that it would be better to complete the purpose for which it was originally dispatched if it is not possible to return in time anyway.

At first, I thought that even if Germany went to a decisive battle, it would be able to stop it to some extent even with the battlecruisers missing, but it was not difficult to astonish all the admirals with the strength Germany gathered this time.

It is a situation where the battlecruiser squadron must be restored immediately, but it is difficult to make the fleet run in the opposite direction right now.

“The French navy is dispersed in the south, so I’m concerned that if we run right now, we’ll be able to make it on time.”

“Come and see, it will only be meaningful after our navy is annihilated.”

It is impossible to participate in the naval battle on time, and it will only be reached when the enemy fleet appears in London, so it will not help in the final battle.

Even if it was the biggest threat since the Battle of Trafalgar, it would not be strange, no, considering that the Battle of Trafalgar did not fight with insufficient power, it might be more suitable for the Battle of Calais.

Of course, it is not an extreme level like the Battle of Calais, and it is a level of boiling that makes it difficult to determine victory or defeat.

“The Royal Navy’s sailor proficiency is unparalleled in the world. They will not even be able to see the shores of England.”

“Of course it is.”