Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 225 >

“The right side has collapsed!”

“Enemy heavy tanks have crossed the hill! We must give up our defenses!”

“Fight! Fight back! Duche, Hitler will kill our whole family if this hole is opened!”

– In accordance with the strict judgment of the Prime Minister, Order No. 227 comes into effect. Fools on the front lines… All these words are lies and are doing things to the benefit of the enemy!

In conclusion, no more retreats allowed! All commanders of the front will have to dispel the atmosphere of retreat of the army, and those who withdraw without permission will be dismissed immediately and will be brought to a military tribunal. Those who permit the withdrawal of troops from all occupied territories without an order will also be brought to a military tribunal and immediately stripped of their ranks and vocations, whether commanders of regiments or battalions.

Goebbels’ propaganda broadcasts are also ringing with a crackling sound in the ears. It sounded like a crow that came to eat the corpses of himself and his family before the sacrament…

Beyond that madness, the screams of the family are heard.

“General.”

The lieutenant said quietly.

“The soldiers no longer listen.”

“haha………”

I was disappointed.

I just wanted to pick up the pistol and bring it to my temple.

It seemed to be over now.

***

Rome, Italy.

Rommel looked at the burning city of Rome.

“I feel like Nero.”

Of course, Nero did his best to put out the fire during the great Roman fire. However, when his discontent grew so severe that it seemed impossible to calm him, he made the Christians political scapegoats.

It was a process similar to that experienced by the Jews later on, but Rommel didn’t pay attention to it in the first place, so he turned it off.

“How is General Messe?”

“I committed suicide.”

“Twitter.”

Then, a car came running.

“General Rommel!”

“General Kesseling, what are you doing?”

“That’s what I’m talking about! What is this doing now!”

“This is the direct order of the wolf’s den not to leave any rebels alive. You told me to execute them all.”

“Yeah… that means you’re going to execute these people? Foreign Minister to Italian Crown Prince? Are you crazy?”

“I’m not crazy, I’m just carrying out orders.”

“The order to kill all those rebels didn’t go there!”

“Yes, Crown Prince Umberto, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ciano, you all ordered the execution by mentioning your name.”

“The leader of this country is definitely Duche, and Duche has requested that the executions be stopped immediately.”

“General Kesseling.”

Rommel sighed coldly.

“Are you loyal to the German Empire? Or are you loyal to the Italian government? After being sent to Italy for so long, did you get Italian citizenship now?”

“What nonsense… if we follow the instructions you gave us, the whole of Italy will be gunning us in less than three days!”

“If you shoot a gun, you have to pay back that much. As far as I know, in France, for every 100 wounded German soldiers and 200 killed, they said that even Spain was completely silent. Why not?”

“Are you really crazy? No, you were Erwin Johannes Rommel right!”

“Your Excellency’s orders are solemn, and I do not deny them, are you going to protest?”

At that moment, Kesselling looked into Rommel’s eyes.

Impatience, fear.

Now, Rommel was hated by many people, starting with Joseph Djugashvili, the second-in-command and injustice. It is a pity that Deputy Prime Minister Zhugashvili has withdrawn from the military and Prime Minister Adolf Hitler still favors him, otherwise it is no wonder that he is abandoned at any time.

So even if Hitler breaks into the Vatican and orders the pope to be shot and killed in St. Peter’s Square, Rommel cannot refuse.

But, anyway.

Is there a line that cannot be crossed as a human being?

“General Kesseling, I must return to the front immediately, I cannot leave Bernard alone, and before I leave, let me be clear, all those you objected to, including Prince Umberto and Foreign Minister Chiano, are all charged with treason, Fürer has ordered all of them to be publicly executed. To refuse is an objection.”

“It’s crazy, it’s crazy. Both of them are against it…”

“The purpose of Fürer is to instill fear in the bones if the pope or anyone protests.”

Saying so, Rommel got on his horse, the ‘Mammoth’. It was a gift from Montgomery.

On this day, the Kingdom of Italy became a vegetative man.

***

Kremlin, Russian Empire.

“Crazy guys.”

I stuck out my tongue.

The Kingdom of Italy was virtually destroyed, and antipathy against Germany, which had put a nerve parasite in Italy’s head, soared to the sky.

No, what did Stalin do? leave that one

Why did Kesseling enforce it? If that nobleman dragged out the Crown Prince and Mussolini’s son-in-law like a dog, made a beehive with a submachine gun and left the corpse in the square, wouldn’t he not know that all Italians, regardless of their inclinations, would turn their guns to the Germans?

I do not know. Did Hitler even threaten to annihilate his family if he disobeyed his orders?

Rather than thinking about such things, it is more important to contact the forces that can exert the greatest power in Italy at this moment.

Real name, Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, commonly called Pius XII, an organization headed by a bishop of Rome or a person called the Pope.

Yes, the Pope of Rome.

“The Vatican is under siege. It is said that German armored forces blocked all passageways, and orders were issued to unconditionally shoot anyone who came in.”

“Is there enough food there now?”

“Even if not, there are one or two underground passages in Rome, where Al Paceto or similar underground passages provide food. You will have to go in.”

“Is there no way to communicate with the Vatican?”

“It is impossible even with the full mobilization of Ohrana’s intelligence network. At the very least, we need to be able to communicate in Jeon Seo-gu, so we don’t have enough information about the opening in the Vatican.”

“Indeed, it has to be.”

The Russian Empire’s intelligence services were not spared enough to prepare ahead of time how to infiltrate the Vatican.

“Patton is doing a good job.”

Even though the rest of the field troops are still floating in the Atlantic Ocean, the skill of running wild with only one corps is very artistic. art.

I wanted to see how wild the dog was, and decidedly, it was not my subordinates anyway, so I released it to Italy.

When the collar and the muzzle were all released, the wild Patton went crazy and charged.

“If that person penetrates only as far as Florence, we are seriously considering opening up the U.S. military’s independent front.”

Before and after? Is there anyone who has the naive idea that American influence will become dominant in Italy just because the Americans shed some blood in Italy?

To put it bluntly, even in France, the main force has no choice but to be our military. It’s the same with Spain, and now the US has to do something from South America. There is not much room to project a large-scale military force into Europe. Like the original history, we will draw out several Army Groups, but that cannot come to Europe.

Then, let’s make a hundred concessions and let the United States push everything from the Italian peninsula to Sicily on its own before the end of the war, and let’s say we set up a new government that suits the taste of the United States.

It doesn’t matter if the Cold War doesn’t happen, but I’m hoping for this as much as possible, and what if the Cold War happens?

Once the US has physical access? Germany? They’ve already taken over, France? They are going to be captured, even Spain, North Africa is a bit vague, but our military is managing it,

So, with both Suez and Gibraltar closed, and overland friendly and no neutral, will Italy care about the United States or us?

Will the US permanently station hundreds of thousands of US troops in Italy, or will Italians not fully understand the situation to whom they should kneel?

Yes, even if Italy becomes a pro-American country, it is a nation-wide super-large West Berlin.

The Alps and even the natural Berlin Wall called Gibraltar were built perfectly without the need for us to build the Berlin Wall.

In other words, America cannot sustain this. Did the US military ever deploy any significant military force in West Berlin in original history?

I’d rather negotiate and get control elsewhere. Neither France nor Spain, but Italy is nothing more than a guise to the United States.

So I’ll leave Patton running or not.

Above all else, even in the original history, the whole of Italy was quite a troublesome region. It’s good to build a defensive line, and it’s easy to restrict passage because of the mountains, and even Rommel and Montgomery are stuck there?

In North Africa, they prefer to be flirtatious rather than fight, but Rommel and Montgomery both play one tune at a time. Montgomery at least defends well, and Rommel isn’t bad at fighting either.

It was not for nothing that I took over the Po River basin and tried to get rid of Genoa, the northernmost port. If you have to stick your head in, tell the US military to go.

“And there are other reasons. This is speculation, but it seems that the United States also wants to contact the Vatican. So we want to take Rome as quickly as possible.”

“The reason is? I think you know.”

“You’re the Pope, and you have an absolute influence on Catholics all over the world, and most of the South American countries that are now at war with the United States are Catholics.”

“Also.”

If the pope sends a broadcast condemning the Axis powers and supporting the Allied Powers once, it will rise up in France and Spain, Italy and South America will be turned upside down, and of course the Irish will also rise up.

In addition, there are quite a few Catholics in Germany, so support for the new government can be expected.

It is certainly advantageous to recruit the leaders of a large religion as an ally. That’s what I was thinking, too, and I tried to contact the Holy See.

Well, in the first place, Pius XII was a nobleman who hated the Nazis. And I hated communism.

But Nazi-red? Hate stacks will double.

But dislikes are dislikes, and tying them with us to gain strategic benefits is an area that cannot be solved in the first place without mutual communication.

Real, real Hitler might drive tanks into the Vatican if he went crazy, and even in the original history, the Vatican officials were concerned about that, so the Vatican officials planned a plan to escape the pope to a neutral country, but it was canceled because the pope refused to go where he was going, even though he was the bishop of Rome.

And Hitler was insane… was originally a crazy bastard. shit. In any case, if you can be a little sensible, you won’t be attacking the real Vatican. Hopefully, I know for sure what will happen if that happens, but is there any way to do that?

“If it is difficult to contact the Pope directly, try to recruit the Pope’s secretary… Sister Pascalina Renert, if you move her, you will have a high probability of moving the Pope.”

Of course, it was only after the end of World War II that the pope went into a chipmunk after a neurotic exacerbation due to a quack doctor that she began to act in earnest as an undeclared female pope, but that only came to the surface, and even now, to Pius XII, Sister Pascalina influence will be very high.

“Anyway, it is a proposal that the Pope cannot but agree to, and the Vatican has nothing to lose.”

I swept down the map of Italy.

“No, we will have no choice but to negotiate even if we lose money, because the destruction of the Axis powers has already come to pass as a clear reality except for themselves.”

I gave the last order.

“We have to show them our strength. Even if we’re not ready, let’s push the schedule for the amphibious operation. We will use the supplies and reserves we have so far to attack the Maginot Line, and prepare for the landing in southern France.”