บท 99: Romanov Dynasty (January-March, 1887
Sino-Japanese War: Conflict]
Between January and February, there is no reason to focus much on detail but we can talk about the specific advances of each power in their strategies to fight against the Qing dynasty of China.
Russian forces in southern Manchuria held out with logistics lines through the Yellow Sea, the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Korean peninsula (not officially in the war but essentially a puppet of Russia).
The advance of the Russian armies in Liaodong was little but constant, endeavoring to lock up the Qing forces in the center of Manchuria and to be able to unite with the armies of the north.
As the Russian forces from the north advanced south, the Trans-Siberian and other rail systems undoubtedly continued to play a vital role in the logistical function of deploying troops and supplies useful to the Russian forces.
In other regions of the Qing Dynasty, the armies did not make much movement, the east had to be protected (northeast and southeast), so Xinjiang and Mongolia, away from some skirmishes (which were not very successful for Qing), there was no fighting far from previous centers of conflict.
The Germans on the other hand, although they had some problems in their skirmishes with Chinese Buddhists, civilians and other Chinese citizens, they continued their destruction by Yunnan.
Vietnam had indeed fallen into German hands, but it was their navy (and the Dutch navy) that played a particular role in crushing the Qing in the south. The navy was vital to logistics, enabling rapid looting in southern China, and diverting Qing's attention to other important points while the Germans fulfilled their objectives.
France, on the other hand, was successfully continuing to plunder Chinese ships, and they were preparing a major military move to secure a much larger piece of the cake that the Qing dynasty represented.
Japan on the other hand could not advance much in the region further after the Weihaiwei takeover.
Partly because together with France it was the country which the war put the most strain on the economy despite Russian aid (the difference is that France was only there to loot and obtain resources for said economy, while Japan pursued geopolitical objectives), but also because the Empire of Japan was diverting its resources to the conquest of Taiwan and Hainan.
*******
On March 3, the Russian forces in Manchuria finally unite, leading to the elimination or capture of the bulk of the Qing forces in central Manchuria.
A bloody battle but the Russians got the upper hand, and now control the entirety of Chinese Manchuria (Inner Manchuria), allowing for simplified logistics from Port Arthur to the Trans-Siberian, Korea and other regions of the Russian Far East by land.
This pushes the Chinese westward, while the Russians plan their next move to Beijing across the coast (trying to mimic the attack on the Qing Summer Palace by other European powers decades ago).
On March 16, on the other hand, the Imperial Japanese Navy launches a successful deployment in the north of the island of Taiwan.
Over the next few weeks the Japanese forces will take the coast position by position, although obviously this turns out to be a slow process that only delays more and more the objective of the capture of Hainan Island by the Japanese.
Something precisely taken advantage of by Generalissimo Boulanger, who on March 23 launched the French operation to take the island of Hainan.
Obviously with notable casualties due to logistical difficulties, but with the Russians, Germans and Japanese having destroyed the bulk of the Qing navy (and the French themselves having harassed the Qing for months), at the end of the day the flag of the Second French Empire flies. for the first time in Hainan.
Of course similar to the Japanese offensive, the battles between the French and the natives spread over the following weeks of 1887.
*******
* Perspective of Alexey Brusilov.
The Battle of Changchun Tin (or simply Changchun, long spring translated from Chinese) had ended on the banks of the Yitong River.
The few surviving Qing forces were fleeing west to Inner Mongolia, not without huge casualties behind after the Russian armies in the north and south had carried out a maneuver where the Qing armies were encircled.
The artillery, cavalry and maneuverability of the Russian infantry had been superior to the numerically superior Qing army, however there were some problems regarding the brutal resistance exerted by the Qing.
In the battle Brusilov observed some of the Qing soldiers trying to build barricades or trenches around the city and the river, but due to lack of resources and time it did not work too well for the Chinese.
However despite this the casualties would not be a long-term inconvenience, the Russians were celebrating in Changchun Tin. Commander Brusilov wiped some sweat from his forehead using his hat.
"What do we have guys?" Brusilov asks, approaching his men, among them Cossacks, Russians, Armenians and the Chinese boy. In the street the Russians were throwing or stacking mainly silver objects, being more delicate with some pieces of porcelain, paintings or statues.
Most belonged to the wealthy class of the city of course, who left during or before the conflict. Only the poor of the city remained, now subject to Russian military authority.
Everything useful went to the administration, although some soldiers or officers could take some souvenirs of course. Very traditional in warfare.
"Hey boy. Here you can have this." Brusilov exclaims and presents his camp follower with one of the silver cutlery and a napkin after having delivered some of the loot to Brusilov and other officers.
Whether it seemed or not the boy was quite grateful to receive his own share of the loot, usually sticking to Russian soldiers for food or water.
"Spasibo" (Спасибо, thank you), the boy exclaims, after learning to speak thanks to his interaction with Cossacks of the Russian army.
"Hey, you learned to speak." Brusilov exclaims, not so surprised but it certainly helps. "Do you have a name?"
"Wan Fulin". The boy exclaims.
"...You can repeat it?". Brusilov asks a bit confused by the still somewhat broken Russian of the boy.
(OOC: Wan Fulin, 20 November 1880, Fengtian clique warlord, born in north-central Manchuria),
*******
[International]
January 20, some Mexican politicians during the Porfiriato defend the idea of the strategic position of Cuba (one of the last strongholds of the Spanish Empire) for the security of Mexico, especially to prevent the Americans from taking possession of the island first.
However, at the moment it comes to nothing, the Minister-President Porfirio Diaz has more important matters to attend to regarding the development of the Second Mexican Empire led by him (and in theory Maximiliano I of Habsburg).
January 24, another local king submits to the Russian presence in the Gulf of Tadjoura.
In North Africa, on the other hand, there is a small skirmish between the Italians and the Ottomans in Libya, where the Ottomans surprisingly have a victory.
Although the Ottoman-Italian battle does not go too far, it is still just another expense within the declining Ottoman Empire (above all, the Kurdish revolt in the east is more important, which remains without being crushed).
January 28, some of the heaviest snowfall in North America occurs during this time, leading to the death of cattle and the world's largest snowflake (15 inches / 38 cm wide and 8 inches / 20 cm thick).
February 4, railroad monopoly interests (a serious growing problem in late 19th century America) seriously affect the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.
The law required railroad rates to be "reasonable and fair"...but of course it did not empower the government to set specific rates, and of course all reasonable and fair is subjective since all is reasonable and fair with a little money in hand to change the government's mind.
The railroads did not have to advertise their shipping rates and it still allowed extensive economic discrimination between short-term and long-term rates, an attack on smaller markets (especially underdeveloped agricultural areas of the United States).
This law also does not federally regulate other types of shipping or transportation. First the Hancock administration had (in part) harmed railroad workers with income-based fees, and now the Cleveland administration harms agricultural areas. A strange 'balance'.
This is another act of monopolies within American industries, following in the footsteps of 1882 (four-five years ago, months more, months less) where John D. Rockefeller and his associates created the Standard Oil Company Trust to literally create a secret monopoly of multiple companies of the aforementioned.
February 23, one of Generalissimo Boulanger's projects involves the renovation (the state generates work through infrastructure projects) of the French Riviera in the Mediterranean Sea.
Among this due to commercial agreements, various semi-state companies (in theory private but supervised or controlled by the state, or that cooperate closely with the state) get favors in the projects.
It also increases considerably (due to agreements between the generalissimo and other states) the commercial exchange in the Western Mediterranean between English capitalists, Boulanger's France and certain Austro-Hungarian / Hungarian-Croatian investors.
March 4, after a decline in sales, the Romanov dynasty buys the business properties of Karl Benz.
Gottlieb Daimler moves to Russia to participate in the automotive industry.
March 13, attack by the Terrorist Fraction against Tsar Alexander III.
*******
[Terrorism]
On March 13, Tsar Alexander III was giving a tour of Saint Petersburg when in one of the city's districts he suffered a new attempt on his life. Remembered as the last great attempt on the life of the emperor.
The attack was very similar to the 1881 attack, due to the fanaticism of the Terrorist Fraction towards the Narodnaya Volya. So much fanaticism that they also failed in his assassination attempt against the tsar.
The vehicle of Tsar Alexander III had been reinforced, and obviously since the beginning of the Tsar's rule, there was extensive surveillance and security on important personnel.
The Okhrana already had some knowledge about the attack, but Tsar Alexander III allowed them to wait to finally arrest those involved (for some reason that he escaped the public eye).
At the scene, some angry mobs were quick to try to lynch the perpetrators of the crime, but the rule of law remained a vital principle of the Alexandrian government and any attempt at extrajudicial violence was out of line.
Violence was a state monopoly.
*******
* Alexandrian perspective.
The Okhrana had successfully caught all members of the Terrorist Faction, some collaborators (but not official members) and had possibly related people under surveillance (or arrest if they were too suspicious).
"Very well, all is under control... What do we do with Lenin?" The Tsesarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich asks, Aleksandr Ulyanov was behind bars, and he was one of the main instigators of the assassination attempt. A crime that could only end in death.
"You know, this is a bit like the baby Hitler problem? We have a person who we know could be very dangerous in the future, but who is not yet how we know him. I am not going to assassinate Lenin, yet, because there is a possibility of that it changes, that it be different from how we remember it, as I told you, this timeline is potentially different with each passing day. " Tsar Alexander III explains. "We will keep the related people, Ulyanov and Pilsudski, under surveillance. And if they go out of line, well, then if we can assassinate them without so much moral burden ...".
"Very good, if you want it that way old man." Nicholas exclaims. "You are well...Dad?".
"I am good, with a bit of arm pain, but it's nothing serious." The tsar exclaims.
*******
Most of the members of the Terrorist Faction would be hanged, regardless of whether they had a higher or lower social class. In the "best" case, the culprits would receive 15 to 25 years in prison with forced labor.
Bronisław Piotr Piłsudski, a member of the Terrorist Fraction, for example, would be one of the few to receive this latest sentence, and would become an ethnologist for the Ainu tribes in the Far East, build a school, teach mathematics and Russian, and currently would be a valuable element of Russian society.
The same cannot be said for all the Piłsudskis, Ulyanov or others involved in the case, Aleksandr Ulyanov decided that even after attempting to assassinate the tsar and almost being lynched, there were grounds to appeal for his life:
"I am fully aware that the nature and properties of the deed I have committed and my attitude towards it do not give me either the right or the moral reason to appeal to His Majesty with a request for condescension to alleviate my fate. But I have a mother whose health has suffered greatly in recent days and the execution of my death sentence will expose his life to the gravest danger. In the name of my mother and my young brothers and sisters, who, having no father, find in her only support, I decide to ask His Majesty to replace my death sentence with some other punishment.
This condescension will restore strength and health to my mother and return her to the family for which her life is so precious, and save me from the painful awareness that I will be the cause of my mother's death and the misfortune of all my family.
-Alexander Ulyanov. "
Of course, the appeal was denied. Currently Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova would survive until 1916. Aleksandr's sisters and brothers (Anna, Vladimir, Olga, Dmitri and Maria) would also survive.
*******
[Unreachable things_Part 1]
Josef Piłsudski was arrested in Vilnius on March 22, his anti-tsarist opinions were reported but had never gotten out of control, but suspicions due to Josef's relationship with Bronislaw Piłsudski (both being brothers) raised suspicions of the authorities towards the Polish Russian.
During his stay, Josef suffered a cold, one of the guards had hit his face and two of his front teeth fell out, he had even gotten a little sick.
But in the end there was not enough evidence to link Josef Piłsudski with the assassination attempt, other than blood ties and opinions. Still not enough for an arrest or execution, beyond a few weeks in prison.
However these events marked important scars on Piłsudski's psyche, not mental problems but they certainly further entrenched his ideas against tsarist authority, and guided him towards early theoretical activity.
The Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a Pole who, although he fought the Russians, also served them at times (until he went to France to serve as a crownless king and diplomat of a state that did not exist), wrote in his Essai sur la diplomatie (Essay on Diplomacy):
"Having extended her sway south and west, and being by the nature of things unreachable from the east and north, Russia becomes a source of constant threat to Europe."
And that Russia had cultivated slaves, never friends.
In Piłsudski's view, Russia was indeed a growing threat, one that only the British were watching but could not do much against. Not without the independence of the various peoples of the Baltic (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Finland), Caspian and Black Sea basins (Ukraine, Crimea, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Northern Caucasus).
This is why Josef raised Prometheism and the idea of Intermarium, among unpublished texts between 1886 and 1894.
Czartoryski had aspired to rebuild the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with foreign support (English, French and Ottoman), but federated with Czechs, Hungarians, Slovaks, Romanians and all South Slavs (or also called Yugoslavia). Under the supposed explanation that the Polish nation could serve as a mediator between Western Slavs and Hungarians, and Hungarians and Romanians.
On the other hand Josef Piłsudski in Prometheanism supported the separation of various minorities of Western Russia (break Russia to avoid being a threat or great power).
Also a project associated with ideology would be the formation of a democratic federation (a Commonwealth updated to modern times), called Intermarium (Międzymorze, between seas).
A natural counterweight was Russian imperialism in the east, and German in the west.
Piłsudski made several revisions to his Intermarium plan:
* Extended Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (would include Crimea, the whole of the Ukraine-Malorossiya-Novorossiya, the lands of the White Russians, Poland and Lithuania).
* Poland, Slovaks, Czechs, Hungary, Scandinavia (Sweden-Norway and Denmark), the Baltic regions of Russia, an independent Finland, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia and Greece.
Not all nations of the Promethean plan entered the Intermarium, for example Georgia, Armenia, the North Caucasus and Azerbaijan did not enter the Intermarium.
For them, Prometheanism would be the creation of a common defensive front with the Caspian, Black Sea and Baltic nations that would become independent from Russia. So some group-states would enter the Commonwealth, the Intermarium, or the common defensive front.
Supposedly the Promethean leadership would respect the sovereignty of all the states involved in the Intermarium / common front. Where all the partners would be equal in a common fight against the great Russians, but obviously there were "zones of internal influence" for the Poles in Ukrainian rural areas ...
Prometheus took its inspiration from the Greek titan Prometheus (Poland), a symbol of enlightenment and liberal-democratic values, and opposed to despotic authority (Zeus, Russia).
For the rest of his life Josef Piłsudski would defend the need for a unified Promethean effort against the Russians, the independence of Poland would not be achieved without the support and cooperation with the independence of other nations under Russia.
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