Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 104 >

“It’s a report.”

“Die……..”

Again the papers were placed on a beautiful desk.

“It’s an urgent matter in a red envelope. Please do it first.”

“Kill me.”

No, what if urgent means take up half of the documents?

When I looked again, it wasn’t half, it was about a third, but it was overturned.

I opened the first envelope.

Inside the envelope was something like a simple greeting card.

No, it wasn’t like a greeting letter, it was the greeting itself.

It was written by Olga.

“Irina. Is this an urgent document? This is a personal letter.”

“A letter from the imperial family can be said to be official.”

Irina answered calmly. I continued to read the letter.

“Well?”

At that time, there was a part in the middle of the letters written on the front and back of high-quality stationery that bothered me.

-… I’m doing it, right! And these days in St. Petersburg, a cold is fashionable. Among the ministers and nobles, the number of people coughing has increased significantly, and your father has also had a cold for the past few days, such as a fever and coughing. Fortunately, none of Alexei and my sisters have a cold, and my mother and grandmother are fine. I don’t know where you got it from, do you catch a cold in the Caucasus? Duke, be careful not to catch a cold. Wouldn’t it be funny if a doctor who was recognized around the world and won a Nobel Prize went on a business trip and fell ill with a cold? Please take care of yourself….

cold.

It was a strange word that caught my eye.

“Irina, how many cold cases have you ever reported in the unit?”

“Are you talking about a cold patient?”

“Those who show symptoms such as cough, fever, sore throat, vomiting, nausea, headache, muscle pain, lethargy, dizziness, whether with a cold or flu.”

“Let’s see. If the scale was large, I would have reported it, but seeing that there have been no reports yet, it seems that the level is either absent or negligible.”

“Just don’t look for it, don’t try to hide it in each unit, and tell them to report all personnel with fever. No, it would be better to ask the medical officers to take the body temperature of everyone in the barracks and record it and submit it.”

If I tell you to write down everything, you won’t be able to go.

“Make a list of all those who appear above 37.5 degrees Celsius at that body temperature, and mobilize the military police to isolate them, regardless of whether they are officers, non-commissioned officers, or privates. All close contacts are advised to be vigilant.”

“All right.”

The early symptoms of the Spanish flu are similar to those of a cold. And contagiousness starts to explode one day before the end of the incubation period.

Therefore, if symptoms have already appeared, there is a possibility that they have already passed it on to those around you.

I immediately finished reading Olga’s letter. It was more urgent to find content about the cold than anything else.

‘The source of the Spanish flu is not Russia. Even in the 21st century, the outbreak site of the Spanish flu was narrowed down to one of Britain, the United States, and China, but nothing was said about Russia.

Saint Petersburg is a port city. Moreover, although diplomatic relations have deteriorated, exchanges between countries have not been cut off. Not to mention the US.

If so, the most likely thing is that it was introduced by sea from the United States or the United Kingdom. Of course, the assumption is that the current flu is a precursor to the Spanish flu.

‘If my hypothesis is correct… the timing is one of the worst.’

Biting my lip inwardly, I folded Olga’s letter into my arms and picked up the other papers.

“What’s this?”

The documents were written in a script other than Cyrillic.

It is not an unknown letter.

One was in English and the other was in Japanese.

“The United States of America has requested permission to dispatch an Inspector General.”

“Bare?”

“It was approved by the Prime Minister. You must have ripped something out.”

100% of the money must have been ripped out, now Stolipin suffers from budget shortages every time, but this time, he even cut taxes, so even if he repealed the Prohibition Act and paid for it with liquor tax, it would be plus or minus zero.

If there was something to come out of, I wouldn’t miss it. Whether you took the dollar outright or received it in some other way.

“Anyway, did that Stolipin approve?”

“Yes.”

There is nothing wrong with being friendly with the US. When we go to war, we think of the United States as our partner.

It has already been proven repeatedly that there is nothing impossible in the world if the United States and Russia work together.

“Then accept it.”

“All right. and……”

“What is this document?”

“ah.”

Irina coughed a bit before answering.

“This document was ‘unofficially’ delivered to us by the Imperial Japanese Army. This is the first time I bring you to your foe.”

“It’s informal.”

I broke the seal.

After a while, I blinked.

“Irina.”

“Yes?”

“This situation is one of four. Either I’m crazy, they’re crazy, they and I are both crazy, or the world is crazy.”

Irina glanced at the document and answered immediately.

“That one is crazy.”

***

A fairy in downtown Tokyo. Japanese Empire.

“Long live the Great Japanese Empire! Tenno Heika Banzai!”

The bright man drank like a warrior.

All those who drank three, three, five and three were wearing military uniforms, laughing out loud.

The lead role, attended by many of the major figures of the Imperial Japanese Army, grew hotter, and the atmosphere began to change.

Gradually, the banquet began to heat up as a place of naval burial, and a place of accusations against Britain.

so did it

There was no one who liked the navy if it were a boy who was in the army of the Great Japanese Empire.

Besides, the navy seized power in a coup d’etat. Even more so if you are messing around with the UK and messing around with state affairs.

At the center was a group.

one time. A power that later became the forerunner of the zodiac.

Originally, it was a private organization in the military created out of antipathy to the satcho bee, but the satcho bee was a new force that quickly emerged as the center of the army’s faction as it collapsed due to the navy’s coup d’état, loss of power, and consequent controversy over responsibility.

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Moreover, they are well suited to the taste of the army now.

The members of the military corps that fought in Europe during the Great War had a strong pro-Russian attitude. They were arguing that the army of the older Japanese Empire should be reformed into a Russian-style, more precisely, a modern army in the style of the Russian Interior Army.

In this period, pro-Russia is a reflection.

In fact, regardless of whether Russia liked it or Britain hated it, the navy was pro-government, so the army had to be a reflection.

And reflection is coming soon.

Therefore, the army had no choice but to show pro-Russian behavior regardless of whether they liked it or not, and Il Seok-hoe, who had been claiming a pro-Russian stance earlier than anyone else, was quickly supported as a ‘pioneer’ and advanced to the core of the army.

“They said they didn’t even know the subject and started arguing with Russia.”

“Twitter, you should have known my subject.”

“Isn’t this also an opportunity? This opportunity is to advance to Manchuria! If the Jina people join forces with Russia to punish them, they will please his Majesty from above, and from below, the subjects who are tired of long depression will be enthusiastic. Outside, it will strengthen our friendship with Russia.”

At the same time, you can f*ck off a navy that wants to get along with Britain. This was the part that didn’t need to be said.

“We don’t have a single tank like that! because! Those damn naval bastards take all the money! Indeed, if they wished for the empire to prosper and prosper, it would be foolish not to do it!”

“If you are curious about the future of war, you should go to Russia. The Russian Empire must be the future of the army!”

“What the hell did Britain do to the Empire? Didn’t you let only the blood of young people shed!”

If the British government heard it, they would vomit blood. Even at this moment, it was impossible to hear how much money they were spending to keep Japan as an ally of Britain.

“Besides, the young hero who created the internal army, the Duke of Vostok, is not an Asian child. Isn’t the fact that such a big figure came out of Asia doesn’t show that we yellow people are never behind white people?”

Concurring voices came from everywhere.

Asians are by no means inferior to Europeans.

It was a remark that scratched their itch.

In addition, there was one place in the interior that, despite its dramatic decline in influence, still remained as an army estate.

It was the Korean peninsula.

If the navy tried to take the post of governor-general of Joseon, the army decided that it would be a life-and-death decision, so the navy left Joseon to the army. Thanks to this, Joseon became a very important existence for the army.

In such a situation, there were many people who were worried about the fact that a Korean-born Korean became a Russian dignitary.

As it turned out, there were people within the army who extended this interpretation.

Beyond just not paying attention, he is hoping for the status quo, that is, acknowledging the imperial domination of the Korean peninsula. In other words, he is Asian and pro-Japanese! It was the same logic.

But the problem is that it was accepted plausibly within the army.

To be precise, they wanted to believe that their love for Russia, which follows Russia, was not a one-sided unrequited love, and therefore wanted to believe that the duke, a key figure in Russia, was a pro-Japanese person.

Therefore, this proposal was approved.

Six cadets and active-duty rank-and-file officers are included in the military service corps, and in addition, students are sent to Russia to study.

By the way, about half of the students were selected from the inner city, but the other half were from the colonies, including Joseon, which was difficult to understand from the outside. They also had their reasons.

“These days, the selling of the name of the Duke of Vostok by the Bulyeongseon people in the inner city is going too far.”

“Ttt, it’s like you’re talking about something you don’t even know, and as expected, Koreans are something we need to educate ourselves on. They rush in behind those who run in front like a herd of mice.”

“That’s why I made an offer for international students this time, isn’t it?”

Among the young students who will become the main pillars of Joseon in the future, I will select and send them to Russia among the most influential among their peers.

Then, they will be edified by the duke they respect, abandon the rebellious attitude they engage in as a non-spirit, and become faithful subjects of the Empire!

“That is a real mystery! Heh heh heh!”

It was a logic that could be called bullshit, but no one pointed it out.

If I had heard of it, I would have had to put up posters on electric poles to suspect that the Japanese army was doing drugs as a group or to find a runaway idiot. They were very serious.