Pax's Alternate History Snippet repository.

[ATP]

The 155 were French schneiders built for imperial Russia I'll have to be home in order to actually pull the specifics but they're very good guns

Click to shrink...

i remember them.Poland made them after ww1,and Russia mass produced 152mm version.fun thing - after german help,they developed it into new soviet 152mm howitzers used during WW2.
Practically all soviet guns were french construction improved by germans after WW2,yet they still claimed it as their own weapon....
Well,not all,37mm and 25mm AA were copies of Bofors,and 46mm AT gun copy of german PAK 36 with bigger caliber.

Only oryginal construction was 40mm automatic grenade launcher - who was not produced,becouse engineer who made it was killed in purges.

your China could do the same - buy french 155mm howitzer,develop them using Krupp ideas/longer barrel,bigger chamber,etc/ and get modern 155mm howitzer for WW2.

 

[Imperator Pax]

1921
In 1913 alone they had laid over a thousand miles of track as the rail network had pushed into the west, and population density diminished relative to eastern China. The current outline for the next four years was of a still more a massive expansion of rail industry for the total network. Urumqi needed a rail depot and the yard space that went with it, but more than that it needed the workshops and the braising centers for servicing engines crossing the .... silk road line into Kirghiz north and south all the way to Samarkand and parts further west still.

The notation on the paper highlighted other factors... and still beyond that drew attention though did not directly mention facts to a learned man. At the end of the 1870s, really the start of 1878, Khotan had surrendered to the Qing but the whole campaign of reconquering Xinjiang had cost the imperial treasury more than a thousand tons of silver.

In 1917 they had begun expanding from Urumqi admittedly even with the shortage of spare engines, and cars had been driven by economic factors. Commercial use of the line even with that shortage was in full swing by 1918. That was forty years...and while the Qing side of the line wasn't mentioned in the papers the Russian expansion into Kirghiz was. The Tsar's conquest had continued on another decade coming to reach the hitherto modern borders in 1889, five years after the Qing had created Xinjiang as a province. Lloyd George's man Curzon had travelled through the region of Russian expansion back then... and it sounded as if he was supportive of Mackinder's efforts.

The White Russian project though was now in an entirely different measure. In the 19th​ century the Tsar had looked upon his central asian gains as a colony like British India. The measure of Cossacks and others from the west though now needed to build a state divorced from Peter's city, and Moscow both of which were under the bolshevik's red terror. MacKinder thought the best way to do that was lawyers, and school teachers, which seemed optimistic.

The return, from England, had inundated them with new documents, everything from tractors to metallurgical sciences... a lot of it was insuring that quality control remained strenuous. Less waste in the production was good. "This is the report on the Type 41," Which was what Japan had declared their caliber 45 8 inch cannons to be, "admittedly its not like the reds have decided to muck around, but you know with what happened I can understand Iseburo wanted a few more."

Allen nodded. The russian radical shooting the king of england when he had meant to shoot the tsar right as the Bolsheviks had managed to get the Welsh Wizard to make arrangments on a trade treaty... Lenin was probably livid. And though John Allen wouldn't know it that would have effects in the long run. Indeed, while Stalin would conduct apurge of doctors as the blame for Lenin's series of strokes the more likely explanation for the first leader of the Soviet Union was the sudden compounding of stress on existing vulnerabilities.

"Yeah, its not a bad idea."Allen admitted after a minute. "Tell me about the construction?"

Dawes did so. "I expect that given the age the navy will want to replace them, from the sound of it Iseburo may even be encouraging it by suggesting that the use as coastal artillery would free the navy to select a longer barrel, or other changes.... but I really suspect what he and the government wants is for the Navy to retire the older ships using them without funding their replacements."

It was possible. The navy lobby wouldn't like that but the current PM didn't want to fund a costly naval build up, and with the soviets on the border in Siberia Iseburo needed the guns more than the Navy did. Railway guns had been something both the reds and the whites had been using in the course of the Civil War so it wasn't as if this was untested, or a revolutionary idea.

"Here," Shang's report was a little verbose. The commander of the eighth division had been thorough, but almost too thorough.

Dawes flipped through the bound papers. He wasn't reading the paper per se but looking at the tables and charts. "He's pretty quick to point out Japan only had about thirty eight hundred," 3800, "miles of rail in 1900." The artillery man observed wryly.

Allen leaned back, "Oh believe I'm aware, as soon as he found out that we had laid more track than Japan has total, no amount of commenting of acreage was ever gonna pull him off that cloud." The reality was that China, North China itself was larger and more expansive, it needed more rail especially with the ... dilapidated condition of the canal system as a result of neglect by Peking either under the republic or from the Qing before them... probably the Ming as well. Japan's assumption of railway control north of the great wall from Russian concessions and Iseburo's iron grip on the eastern half of the Trans siberian were just as a much a testament of those geographical realities. "We have a great expertise in the trade,"

"Eight inch guns are entirely reasonable for our locomotives to pull," Dawes remarked in the same tone," Could we build them? Sure. I've noticed that Iseburo, and Zhang Tso-lin, and his mad baron friend are all using Russian guns mostly cause I reckon that's what they have spare. Its a cost expedient measure, Kirghiz is probably about ideal for that. We have large howitzers and other guns which we can use for such things, and I think over the next couple years this 'distinction' of 'whites' is going to have give some way but the guns that they use work, no sense not using them until they're used up."

He decided that was as good of a reason as any, "And Ungern?"

"He married local, that was smart, it ties him into the community. He likes their religion, that's always a plus, whatever social quirks he has, and whatever backlash for the needed reforms that he's making, I think with the way he's set up the army and his training of recruits he should be able to hold on."

He sensed the but there, "But?"

"I expect that's between him, and your buddy Iseburo. The Kwantung office is busy in Manchuria sure, but there needs to be infrastructure built." He paused, "Ungern is in Manchuria, I think that he'll stay in Manchuria proper, Japan likes where the borders are, Britain likes where they are... we all need time to build back stronger... I don't see the reds having the strength to throw an attack to drive the Whites or the Japanese into the Pacific, but I wouldn't be surprised if they try it anyway banking on revolutionary elan and bayonets to carry them all the way to Vladivostok."

"We will have to be ready for that possibility," And that made Zhang, and Ungern's choice of the German Mauser all the better for everyone involved... among a host of other choices. "And we will be building up. The army is going to get bigger, and we will motorize the Rifle Divisions as much as we can as build more automobiles, which will mean building more roads as well." Something that all the Dujun tended to emphasize doing, building civic infrastructure held establish one to the public, and that it made marching soldiers easier to deal with the nearest bandit problem just compounded the thing being good.

 

[ATP]

Logistic - canals were great for that,barges could take more then trains,and be faster with modern engines then they were in old days.
Railroads are great idea,too.Next best thing after canals.
Roads are less impressive,since trucks from 1920 could take top 2T of things,but - you are right in making mechanized divisions.It still better then horses,and,in long run,also cheaper.
Not used truck could be leaved in some buiding for months and still work,when you could not do the same with horse.

Soviets attacking Siberia - fat chance,there was no roads which could support logistic for such thing.Unless all whites and japaneese decide to surrender.

Lenin - he was dying on syphilis,but it is funny that Sralin kil doctors for that.

Railguns - french used old 194mm guns during WW1,if i remember correctly.One battery used by germans was captured by soviets ,they gave it to commie Poland,and served as coastal battery for some time.
It seems,that everybody used the same caliber more or less.

Althought whites used bigger guns,too - 305,even 406mm from their never finished superbattleship.

Xinjang conqer - i read,that when it happened,it almost lead to China-Russia war,becouse some russians wonted India,and many brits knew that.
It would be interesting TL for world where 1890 Russia-England war happened - interesting,who would join,and on which side.

P.S Back to 155 Schneider howitzer - i saw it once in polish museum,and,compared to other heavy pieces,it was small.So small that could be compared to medium howitzers.

 

[Imperator Pax]

1921
Allen settled to watch the Ninth Regiment move through their paces. The 10th​ were on the ready mark waiting. In time they would form the nominals of the last authorized divisions ... of the Regular Army. That comment prompted a response as soon as it was remarked on, "We knew it was going to happen." He replied.

The authorized force strength was in part a matter of financial conservatism. It was also a matter of maintaining in code the standards of discipline. "Of course we knew it was going to happen." Griswold agreed. "We should elucidate the cadre position in the paper, anyway."

Yuan Shikai had attempted time and again to get the Republic's army down to a manageable size... but the Qing finances had been abysmal ... no Qing Emperor had conducted a fiscally sound national level top down comprehensive tax reform program, and institution of taxes.... the land survey, the last comprehensive land survey had been under the first Ming Emperor. Duan Qirui had remitted financial collection of the western provinces in exchange for a fixed sum payment annually being sent to Peking. That agreement was holding. They paid the taxes that were owed to the central government and were left to do as they would... and they stayed around rather than worrying about the Peking social scene.

The income tax, and education requirement though had created a strong urban rural divide, and the rural vote was further divided. There were no political parties as of yet... the closest that had emerged was the Constitutional Club which was still fluid and informal. The structure of the vote meant there wasn't an agriculture party... yet. There probably would be though. The Constitutional Club here in Xian would probably draw into a more structured nature as the officers and professional bureaucrats acted on the system.

"What do you think?"

"That we should write the reasoning in the paper,"

Allen shook his head, "I got that, I meant regarding parties."

"The founding fathers were optimists ... I think painfully so at times," The other Georgian remarked, "We have to accept that there will be parties, and that yeah Percy was right we have officers qualified to hold office, and they'll make assemblies of free men. "We should accept that there will probably be a 'patriotic wing' or some other veterans association that is going to be engaged in politics."

The truth was labor agitation, and Red subversions had been one of the main thing they had looked at and expected... but Bolsheviks were bandits and hooligans and such in the popular conception and wages were good, benefits were good. The men worked eight hour shifts. The bank's, the central bank that was, job was to make recommendations for keeping inflation under control, and that was increasingly to make recommendations on trade policy.... and they knew better than to ignore their own experts didn't they? That idea was of economic self-sufficiency, avoid buying European goods where it was feasible. The logic behind that though was rooted in pre war... nineteenth century logic... when China had been rushing to import goods that they couldn't make themselves. The greatest value Europe could in its postwar self provide were expertise, techniques especially developed during the war. They were not going to invite Belgian firms to build tramways when they could do it themselves.

There were slogans that before which had been said, but were now as the assembly had been seated were now in a new sort of prominence. "The other thing, with officers, is that we are unlikely to ever have a Quaker problem." The comment was lost on a few of the men elevated from the ranks, but there were still nods from American men. "That isn't to say pacifism isn't an unknown perversion but we don't need to worry about men lacking the will for a fight."

Allen had no objection to the comment, but also because the position of the cadre remained one opposed to conscription. A Quaker would never be in a position to plead his conscious if they ever had to call the reserves, because reservists had already volunteered for duty.

Reservists who had been inculcated into the same uniform, the courses of education, public education that established the standards. Classes which would change only slightly now to explain how their elected government and the provincial constitutions were intended to work, and their mechanisms. "There are other things we should consider..." Griswold continued, "Waite means what he says with his social insurance program...heaven above, Percy will never stop with his German comparisons its based off of Bismark bit, but who else should we use for an example that works?" But Percy wasn't really the problem, Iron and Blood were watch words to be sure, but for all they were talking of legislature establishing things... the frontier was a nightmare of near feudal skirmishing between villages across provincial borders that stretched back to King Arthur's day... and Szechwan teemed to the south a whole world of bandits.

--
He needed to pen a letter to Powell...but he'd been putting it off... and from the look Cole had come in with he doubted that that letter was going to be a particularly high priority given when in the day he was coming over. Allen picked over the oil fried chicken and the chilis in the dish as the clock struck the hour. "Xu is trying to have new elections called, now?"

"That's right. The assembly is too divided between the Anfu and the Communications clique so they can't get a budget passed, certainly not one that ... well that gets what is wanted funded."

He grumbled into his bowl of food, and shook his head. That was going to be a problem. Yes, certainly new elections needed to be scheduled... but that wasn't how you did elections, and having the president dismiss or discuss saying we'll just hold new elections was stupid and reduced confidence in the legislature. It was dumb, especially in a situation where no one had a whole lot of confidence in the government anyway after last year... which was the bigger problem up front actually.

"Look he has something of a point." Which wasn't what Allen wanted to hear, "Look I get he is doing it for a lot of the wrong reasons but they gave it a couple months."

"So how is it going to go over then?"

"Like shit," Cullen replied matter of factly. "Xu is doing this to try and well among other things get a budget passed you would have to be blind not to see and he's done nothing to get the south to even talk about participating... and its worse than that now."

Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Canton, Fukien, Hunan, Hupeh, Jiangxi... never mind Szechwan were nine provinces who wouldn't or couldn't participate for the chaos.

Allen put the bowl on the desk. "Cable Cao Kun, recommend that elections be scheduled for the fall and that enough time be prepared to hold normal elections." The elections that were supposed to happen this fall anyway and then they could seat the men who won come the new year, whether that was in January or March.

"Do you think that's really a good idea? That Xu won't have a problem?"

"I know Xu will have a problem, but our six provinces all have the necessary infrastructure to elect both their senators and representatives," With Zhang's Manchuria that was another 3, then Zhili , Shandong, Anhui, Honan and Jiangsu in theory... Mongolia and Zhejiang would be up in the air... and if the south didn't want to participate they couldn't really make them, and they should have had to. "We should go to the polls in the fall."

Cullen was right in his assessment though. Xu's decision was going to create problems. There were budget issues yes, there were political engagement issues but it was obvious he was trying to play political games in the increasing fraught situation between Beiyang factions. Where in years previous those would have been interactions that might have sparked arguments it had not been ... what was increasingly looking to be a new norm. "I'll draw something up, and nudge him with the telegram," Cole replied.

The telegram would go out, it would circle... Cao as who it was 'officially' addressed would respond first, and then most likely there would be other responses.

The point of any such circular was to facilitate a legal argument or an appeal to tradition, traditions which didn't really exist in north china with regards to going to the polls but to appeal to the idea of the law and just try and 'nudge' things.

"The elections in 1918 might not have been perfect, but it was past time they were held. Early elections aren't going to help. Not going to the polls isn't going to help, but the elections if they're every three years need to-"

Cole waved him off, "I know. Its just, you think I should go bother the legation too?"

"Too, nah, Crane seems alright enough, but I think Yan and I are going to have to pen something to go out for the provinces talking about how campaigning should start, or something." It was different than how Jun had used the mid autumn festival to organize positions but campaigning was going to need to have rules.
--
Notes: In the current draft, and I need to go back and address some stuff, this whole quarter has been completely hectic so IRL is messing me up, 1921 which was always going to be a relatively short series is looking like it'll be pretty short . This isn't really a change but its a pretty important fulcrum in how events later play out. Including how things in the south are effected by political detioration or changes in the north as northern provinces begin to solidify around more local power bases rather than Peking (the capital).

 

[ATP]

Yes,soviet agitation would be no problem as long as they treat workers good.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Yes,soviet agitation would be no problem as long as they treat workers good.

Click to shrink...

Yeah and this is one of the things that the Communist Party (China's) doesn't like talking about but Chinese wages up until Japan really started fucking around in the 30s were competitive globably, urban workers made good wages and yes Chiang after 27 starts fucking this up, but it is really the war that makes China's modern political system. Even in pre WW1 Russia Petersburg's actual working class didn't care what Lenin and the boys said (in 1913 this is actually clear from the Petersburg metalworkers dismissing Pravda as a publication of 'imaginary leaders'.)

 

[ATP]

Yeah and this is one of the things that the Communist Party (China's) doesn't like talking about but Chinese wages up until Japan really started fucking around in the 30s were competitive globably, urban workers made good wages and yes Chiang after 27 starts fucking this up, but it is really the war that makes China's modern political system. Even in pre WW1 Russia Petersburg's actual working class didn't care what Lenin and the boys said (in 1913 this is actually clear from the Petersburg metalworkers dismissing Pravda as a publication of 'imaginary leaders'.)

Click to shrink...

True,Czang really fucked things in OTL.I hope,that you manage somehow kill him here.Or,at least go full commie - till at least 1940 soviets supported Czang with T.26 ligh tanks/good for japanesses so called medium tanks/ and I.16 fighters which was good till Japan introduced Zero.
You could made czang here go dawn as commie supporter.

About Lenin in Petersburg was nobody in 1917,till Kierensky take over.Kierensky fucked thing by continuing attacking germans,and,at the same time,do not arresting soviet envoys who go to every units to pray for revolution.

I read many polish memories,when they wrote how their units/they were in russian army/ changed from averagely good army into mob becouse nobody arrested soviet envoys.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Tentatively: (and this is abridged for brevity, and to be as limitted spoilers as possible)

The Great Northern March / northern expedition happens, and gets beaten back representing a more coherent northern China, and then Chiang in a similar vein attempts round two to shore up his position with an analog to the Northern Plains war a few years later, which again is ineffective and that more or less pushes Manchuria under Zhang Tso-lin (who is still alive in this timeline) further into Japanese orbit leading to Manchukuo shortly there after with the '2nd Manchurian Restoration', which is what splits Xian from Manchuria diplomatically, along with the Shanghai Crisis (plural) playing out.

As for Chiang in the current draft after the war (WW2) he goes into exile in the states once China is reunified, and part of that is Chiang was willing to take aid from the soviets but he also didn't really like them and I don't see him as supporting especially a weaker soviet union of the late twenties and thirties. Because in the grand scheme of things here, the soviet position is weaker than in the OTL because Japan and the British Empire are stronger especially as while it didn't get explicit screen time a bolshevik supporter did shoot George V so the British (and for that matter the French public of the early interwar period) public are pretty pissed off even though he's alive (and this will be talked about in later segments in 1921, and also its repercussions for Lloyd George's government later on).

 

[ATP]

Tentatively: (and this is abridged for brevity, and to be as limitted spoilers as possible)

The Great Northern March / northern expedition happens, and gets beaten back representing a more coherent northern China, and then Chiang in a similar vein attempts round two to shore up his position with an analog to the Northern Plains war a few years later, which again is ineffective and that more or less pushes Manchuria under Zhang Tso-lin (who is still alive in this timeline) further into Japanese orbit leading to Manchukuo shortly there after with the '2nd Manchurian Restoration', which is what splits Xian from Manchuria diplomatically, along with the Shanghai Crisis (plural) playing out.

As for Chiang in the current draft after the war (WW2) he goes into exile in the states once China is reunified, and part of that is Chiang was willing to take aid from the soviets but he also didn't really like them and I don't see him as supporting especially a weaker soviet union of the late twenties and thirties. Because in the grand scheme of things here, the soviet position is weaker than in the OTL because Japan and the British Empire are stronger especially as while it didn't get explicit screen time a bolshevik supporter did shoot George V so the British (and for that matter the French public of the early interwar period) public are pretty pissed off even though he's alive (and this will be talked about in later segments in 1921, and also its repercussions for Lloyd George's government later on).

Click to shrink...

So,would Japan get here Manchuria as puppet state,but with better leader? If so,maybe they manage to find oil there? in OTL they almost did so.
And that could change history - no reasons for attacking Dutch India.

Also,China-Japan war here - in OTL it happened becouse of soviet provocation and japaneese belive in easy victory.Both could not happen here.
But,if it happen,China in 1937 should mass produce good planes.
I remember story with stronger China,where they mass produced first Fokker D.21,and later Dewointe D.520 and ,as a result,Japan never get aerial superiority there.
Forget title and author,as usual.

P.S If war happen on schedule,and China fight better,Japan here should develop better planes and tanks then OTL for 1941 and later.

 

[Imperator Pax]

May 1628

It was raining again... Patrick Huff groaned like a wind battered oak. He had actually started losing some weight... not because of lack of food, but because of the hours he was keeping as part of the hours the emergency management office was keeping. They hadn't even been here a month yet. He'd went around and gathered up everyone who had ever volunteered and tried to work on things over the last few weeks talking about all the basic necessities.

Most of it was just for the food kitchens. There were... there just wasn't a need sandbags, and there was no evacuating to be done. The work that had to be done was largely about feeding people who did not have power at home. They were using the churches, and their community outreach networks as best they could, but that wouldn't be able to reach everyone.

They were going to have to do more than that. Clean water was going to start getting scarce. They were going to have to start talking to home owners associations, and other people. He'd never expected to be responsible for any serious leadership... just advise until someone from the capital showed up...or if it was really bad FEMA.

FEMA wasn't coming. The state wasn't coming. They didn't have the diesel to run the generators with what had been with the generators... there had been talk about bio diesel conversion kits for automobiles and how some of the parts stores might have a few... but they hadn't done anything yet for that. At least the humidity was down. There were a handful of matters he knew how to address, and water purification was actually one of the easier ones by comparison. He was leery of putting a generator on the back of a truck, and driving it around town where they'd have to connect into a building to run pumps.

The rain wasn't all bad. The 'riots' had mostly been limited to thrown rocks, and burning trash... there had been a few cars burned, but that had been limited. It had still been wasteful of course, but the fires had been contained even without municipal pumps. Those would be safer than fuel pumps though, there was less he knew could 'theoretically' go wrong. It probably wouldn't but still it did keep him up at night. Then of course they'd still have to pump it out into new containers... and that was going to be controversial too.

The various cobbled together generators they had weren't enough not to run the city. The generators the hospital had weren't even enough to run all of their equipment, but that was the problem with the sprawling campus that had developed over the years. That was one more problem he hadn't been aware of...having the hospital administrator admit it to it was trouble to be sure.... but the reality was setting in things like the cancer ward weren't as important as more immediate medicine. They'd danced around that , around spelling it out exactly in a memo but it was true and people recognized it.

In hindsight the frozen goods, and stuff that needed to be refrigerated could have... they could have tried to move more quickly to do something about it... but really second guessing what they had done wasn't helpful. Still if they had had more generators, and the fuel ready of course they could have set them up and kept more of it running. Readily available fuel was getting sparse for diesel so they had to move since they had more generators... after the nationalization. After that had been done they really should have moved on the gas sooner.

It wouldn't go bad of course. Not in the time frame they were talking about... the city's current rate of consumption for current power meant they would consume the diesel long before that was an issue to be certain. That was part of the problem he was faced with, and what he was grappling with right now.

There was a knock on his open door...more as courtesy than anything. "Any luck?"

"We... we have stuff that we might need the diesel for Eli." He told the other man, and accepting the coffee, "I mean you've seen the county using diesel for large tractors." They were going to need to farm he was sure of that, "but we can't keep the lights on if we don't run the generators." That should have gone without saying. They had to say though, some had to actually say that at an open forum at the town halls, and behind closed doors with the city government. Both types of gathering had plenty of prickly people unused to having their egos banged up. It was precisely the kind of situation Paddy had tried to avoid, and he didn't have that option any more.

Eli nodded running a large hand over his shaved bald scalp, after he put his own coffee down on Paddy's desk. "They're farmers," He remembered that Eli's grandfather had grown up on a tenant farm, "They know you got to farm to eat. I'm worried about whether we will have enough."

"Ah, well." He opened his desk. The mayor had asked them, well asked... demanded... ordered...them to do some figuring. "We've been tallying things up." That they had some electricity let them use computers and printers...and that was a godsend.

The tall man waved a hand at his satchel, "Well we got one more," He unlimbered the messenger bag, and opened it. Inside were more medical paperwork. Not really what he wanted to see, not what he was looking forward to... since it would be preventable deaths in all likelihood.

Patrick Huff took the paperwork carefully. They were skirting all kinds of regulations, and probably breaking a few outright... but emergency and all that. Diabetics, and other insulin users were what he had assumed that this would be...but that wasn't the case, since they'd already been expecting to look at that. It wasn't heart conditions, or such either. It was pregnancies. Specifically it was first time pregnancies that they were being called attention to, "We're not doctors though, this is a medical question, why us?"

"I think the mayor already asked the doctors," He waited until Paddy had flipped a couple of pages down, "Nutrition and care information, eating for two and that."

Patrick slumped back in his chair...coffee wasn't going to spoil but stocks weren't going to last forever even after having taken the local walmart's stores. With limitted access to refrigeration though milk... and other stuff, that would be different. He'd really been thinking about Vitamin C, even if they had been in the middle ages and right 'where' they were supposed to be the where still wouldn't have been in the right climate for citrus growing... and that meant orange juice was going to be a problem.

 

[ATP]

Biodesel is not sometching new - but,they still need time for making it.
And,for future,making ammo.It would be not funny if somebody decide to bury them under bodies.Good thing is,only states which used such tactic was moscovites and Turkey,and both need to defeat other states to get there.

 

[Imperator Pax]

July 1921
The letter from Guatemala City had come by steamer from San Francisco, but it spoke of ships. It spoke of shipping, and of industry, and of course the turning wheel of progress which had so dominated their upbringings as the way forward. Powell's situation in Middle America was pretty cozy... or rather that he had other different things to contend with, but he'd only been there a few years... and in a decade... in two... never mind in three the years after the first world war would be looked back on as defining and change in central America in a way that they weren't in the history of China. For China this year, for China as a hole, this was just going to be another year in the strife that had come about after the collapse of the Qing... and you saw that firsthand foremost in the papers of Peking, and Shanghai as they talked about the condition of the republic.

... and for them, they could 'feel it' in how there were things that didn't get talked about. The fighting the spirit warriors conundrum as a result of the fighting in Szechwan and as it spilled over into neighboring provinces required action... but Peking and Shanghai's luminaries had other things they wanted to gab about.... wanted to waste time about in their papers but here far from the coast, far from the coast he had a fight on his border.

Allen made himself sit down... only about a third of the room were in civilian attire. The two gendarmes officers had traded their fitted suits for their dress uniforms but had left their broadswords at home. Even so they like every other officer here in Uniform wore the standard issue 45 caliber 1911 at their hip. "So there is a racket?" He asked.

"Yeah. Its not complicated." Cole replied. "The green gang trades for opium being grown in szechwan, which they've been doing for a thousand years anyway its not new by any means but it is a problem."

... because of course the Green Gang was taking the opium and selling it and then using the funds selling the opium generated in the first place it was being used to buy weapons which were being used well in lots of places, but in their consideration the problem were the various armed gangs growing the opium for sell in the first place... it was those bandits who were the immediate security concern on their southern frontier.

It was a problem that needed to be dealt with. "How do you plan to deal with it?"

"Shanghai is one half of the problem." You could go down the Yangtze from Chunking all the way down to the Shanghai Bund. "They've got their fingers in a lot of pies but we're not without options, on the other hand I want to start running spotting planes out over Szechwan," He held up his hands, "Just as observers, radios and cameras its all I'm asking."

John Allen paused and glanced to the two black coats that Cullen had brought with them... ah both men had pilots wings then for a reason. "Unless one of your birds go down, in which case I send the 1st ​to come drag you home." An aircraft could be replaced, it was a machine, a pilot had the potential to end up teaching trainees, or making contributions to doctrine further on. They were a literate society after all. "Observation from the air only, and while we will work out numbers later, if the planes start being shot at I expect to be told about it immediately." And of course pilots were officers, or were going to be predominantly officers, and aviation commanders would need to be pilots themselves or should in an ideal world.

--

"What are you writing?" He asked as the scratching on the paper continued. He had spent lunch at the hotel... it had given him a little time to spend there... but then it was back to work.

"Nothing don't worry about," Dawes replied

Waite shot him a look from his own desk, "Its about elections."

"Its just an idea I want to explore." The red leg grunted. He put the pen down, "Look, I get it that Federal terms back home are two years, that the congress sits those two but with everything going on I honestly two is too short. We just have too much to do." He stated, which was of course self evident with summer being here. "Now damn what that first assembly thinks but-" And it was immediately obvious that he was talking about the national assembly, and this tied into the issue of the parliament in Peking.

"We agreed that the whole point of fixed terms was to create the institutional framework so we could have something like the states, we aren't changing it." Waite grunted. "Those idiots down south can bitch all they like." He spat

And he was right. There had been people in the cadre who had been worried four years was too short of a term, but it was how back home did it. They couldn't flip flop especially right now."

"I'm not suggesting we arbitrarily extend the terms it wouldn't go into effect if it got accepted at all once we were going into a future election. I know we can't do it for this one, but I really expect that what we will see is that we need people needing to prove their bona fides in formulating policy."

It was a conversation at, that at the provincial level, within individual provinces, would go no where. With a fight on the southern border developing trade with Kirghiz and other factors... factors over these back in the states included as well of course things closer in Peking the topic was shelved.

In the long run when the time came to formulate a new lower house aimed at 'Federal formulations' that was when the longer term would be brought back up... of course by the time that came up, by the time those were words being thrown around things would be so much different. "We held elections in November of last year, they've had just about a year to get an idea of how the lower house works." It was certainly a start, there could be no denying that it was helping. The lower house provided a wider body to distribute weigh across... as did the growing professional bureaucracy that had been taking shape over the last ...roughly six or seven years now... longer if one counted the railway apparatus, and personnel trained to manage the telegrams and their operators.

"Yeah, but those of those fellas are used to being told, hey this is what the army needs," Dawes was quick to point out, "Or failing that, this is for the steel industry, or what not."

Waite looked at him with bewilderment, "And you're complaining about it? I mean yeah we get some pushback from some landholders in Zhili some of the time but, everybody understands what things are like in Szechwan, and frankly what Bai Lang was getting up to."

The White Wolf rebellion was the constant reiteration of storytelling even now years after the fact, few papers in Xian even spoke of the rebellion against the Manchus since then. There were some papers who talked about the overthrow and foundation of the republic but usually only in October, and over the last few years those had become markedly fewer... the urban population of the city had changed in how it worked as it had grown. The influx of people from the countryside and the new education system, and growing attempts at implementing a vernacular chinese meant that most of the young people coming for factory jobs hadn't had anything to do with, for or against, the old dynasty and its toppling. Not this far west... but plenty had at least heard that Bai Lang's bandits had made the rounds, and no one forgot the propaganda that he'd issued to try and stir up support.... and that had its own weight but in the opposite direction to how remembering toppling the Qing and the founding of the republic was looked at...

 

[ATP]

Mao topped Czang in OTL and destroyed tradition - but China are empire again with Xi as new emperor.
Could you really change anythching in China,or they are destinied to become new dynasty,too?

And Guatemala - did United Fruit arleady robbed indians there,or it would happen in Future?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Mao topped Czang in OTL and destroyed tradition - but China are empire again with Xi as new emperor.
Could you really change anythching in China,or they are destinied to become new dynasty,too?

And Guatemala - did United Fruit arleady robbed indians there,or it would happen in Future?

Click to shrink...

United Fruit is active in Guatemala but they haven't gone off the deep end at this point, we're still before the corporate (hostile take take over / change in management) coup and while United Fruit will play a role in Latin America here, its role as infrastructure builder is being superseded by the middle america cadre that they themselves invited in to help expand the rail network and infrastructure in the face of world war 1... we just don't see much of that side of the timeline since most of the focus is on China.

And as for dynastic politics. Allen will never be emperor , but after ww2 post unification thats what Augustus goes for is establishing a nominally constitutional monarchy with the Emperor as equivalent in executive power, modelled on presidential powers but with a relatively powerful upper legislature but thats after the cold war has begun in part because xian is a relatively neo confucian society in terms of public culture and with a heavy emphasis on a tradition that has emphasized 'this is what you should expect your professional leadership to do and this is what your bureaucracy does its why they exist'.

 

[ATP]

United Fruit is active in Guatemala but they haven't gone off the deep end at this point, we're still before the corporate (hostile take take over / change in management) coup and while United Fruit will play a role in Latin America here, its role as infrastructure builder is being superseded by the middle america cadre that they themselves invited in to help expand the rail network and infrastructure in the face of world war 1... we just don't see much of that side of the timeline since most of the focus is on China.

And as for dynastic politics. Allen will never be emperor , but after ww2 post unification thats what Augustus goes for is establishing a nominally constitutional monarchy with the Emperor as equivalent in executive power, modelled on presidential powers but with a relatively powerful upper legislature but thats after the cold war has begun in part because xian is a relatively neo confucian society in terms of public culture and with a heavy emphasis on a tradition that has emphasized 'this is what you should expect your professional leadership to do and this is what your bureaucracy does its why they exist'.

Click to shrink...

UF less bad - good.
And ,it is good that your MC do not try to change China into USA,many tried it in South America and ALWAYS failed.Culture is important,too,and you could not simply copy institution and expect them to work the same in different country.

So,it is good that they modernize China,not try to destroy it like Mao did.
Which,paradoxally,could lead to 2024 your TL China less focused on being imperial and more on developing.