Pax's Alternate History Snippet repository.

[ATP]

Entire county come? how many lived there? and what they could made?
For example,could they made car engines and radios?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Entire county come? how many lived there? and what they could made?
For example,could they made car engines and radios?

Click to shrink...

About a hundred ten thousand people, modern car engines probably not that requires a degree of electronic investment that the county doesn't have, stuff from like the seventies or specifically non computerized tractor engines yes, thats actually a plot point, because... well diesel and coal fueled trains in a few years.

 

[ATP]

About a hundred ten thousand people, modern car engines probably not that requires a degree of electronic investment that the county doesn't have, stuff from like the seventies or specifically non computerized tractor engines yes, thats actually a plot point, because... well diesel and coal fueled trains in a few years.

Click to shrink...

Wery good,you could not made computers after all.!970 cars and truck would do.
You could made armored cars on truck chasis - soviet BA-10 was something like that.And,if you do not have fuel,use coal - USA made steam cars till at least 1920,so you should have plans of that.
Weapons - you could probably made 60mm,81mm,120mm and 160mm mortars with your tech.For 1628 it still would be overkill.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Wery good,you could not made computers after all.!970 cars and truck would do.
You could made armored cars on truck chasis - soviet BA-10 was something like that.And,if you do not have fuel,use coal - USA made steam cars till at least 1920,so you should have plans of that.
Weapons - you could probably made 60mm,81mm,120mm and 160mm mortars with your tech.For 1628 it still would be overkill.

Click to shrink...

*snerk*

Yeah that is definitely a thing. We weill get to that, well down the road. Mortars are supremly useful than early modern cannons, and well we will get to that.

 

[ATP]

*snerk*

Yeah that is definitely a thing. We weill get to that, well down the road. Mortars are supremly useful than early modern cannons, and well we will get to that.

Click to shrink...

You could not made HIMARS,but something like Grad or Uragan could be made,too.And drones to recon and cordinate fire.
P.S When you made heavy armored cars on trucks chasis,they could carry troops,too.

 

[Imperator Pax]

You could not made HIMARS,but something like Grad or Uragan could be made,too.And drones to recon and cordinate fire.
P.S When you made heavy armored cars on trucks chasis,they could carry troops,too.

Click to shrink...

Yeah when ...

one second let me find it

... I've done a snippet where they basically use fin stabilized improved Katyusha rockets (electric ignition) against the danes in 1633

 

[ATP]

Yeah when ...

one second let me find it

... I've done a snippet where they basically use fin stabilized improved Katyusha rockets (electric ignition) against the danes in 1633

Click to shrink...

Plausible,with their technology.And,if they could mass-produce ammo,then they could mass prduce AK47 and PKM,too.
Europe is theirs,if they want it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Plausible,with their technology.And,if they could mass-produce ammo,then they could mass prduce AK47 and PKM,too.
Europe is theirs,if they want it.

Click to shrink...

Scrap Segment: October 1633​

"I don't intend to meet the French on the field as anything more than artillery practice." He replied, "I'm hoping that the recoil system on the guns will work, that the barrels won't burst, and the shells explode like they're supposed to. Realistically though the French Army should be about a hundred thousand men. Even if they've swollen to double they'd still have to move them." And he doubted that the French were going to strip their border defenses with Spain and the Netherlands too deeply. Never mind the occupation of Lorraine. "The idea that there will be any significant french force in Denmark is, rather unlikely, but if they are there, we'll deal with them."

"And we get on the continent?"

"Then we shred their morale with artillery." He turned to the large map, "We can't march into France and march on paris. Shliffien was a dumb plan hampered by problems in the German Army of 1914, we're not even that far. We do not have the reserves, or the economic base to go into France and fight them. We have to beat them without taking much in the way of casualties, and that means breaking them with artillery." That meant closing the kattegut and turning the Baltic into a swedish lake. He said as much.

"Simpson thinks he can have two ships ready November."

So a month.

"We should have the straights closed by them." He was very doubtful that the new ships of the Grantville Navy would be much help right now, but any ships down the road, "But if its November well maybe they'll do to keep the straits closed." Stralsund, or more accurately their own displaced town nearby had already opened rail lines to ports like Wismar, and Lubeck was a swedish fortress already. The Viridian Rail Line also ran now down to Berlin, and the Swedish Garrison there.

What they did not have was a direct rail link down to Thuringia. The next best thing was of course canal, which was not great, but certainly better than by road. The canals really only went down to Magdeburg, Grantville was not properly connected yet but it likely would be, eventually either by canal, and or by rail. Rail would have been what he would have preferred, but nascent industry ran into needs versus means. "What about the Royal Navy?"

"War in the Baltic means that they cannot build up their navy anymore, of course the problem is that they have over a dozen second rate ships, even if most of those are rebuilds. If we can destroy them with coastal gunnery we're good. If we can't and they get into the Baltic, we're going to have to run them down, or starve them out." They needed to do a lot of things, but moving to copper sheathing was not something he had expected needed to be a priority. The swedish navy in general was not something he had considered truly pressing.

His watch chimed.

"Its time."

"Yes." He turned to the entrance of the 16 man tent and strode out. "Gentlemen," He bellowed beginning his speech in common german, "It is now mid day. The city of Copenhagen has refused to throw open its gates, and surrender. So we will grind them into grist. In moments we will begin the bombardment of Christianhaven, the Danish defenders will be forced to contend with the orchestra of our rockets unceasingly." Victor continued, even if unceasingly was hyperbole.

They had entrenched breastworks after having landed at Amak from the smaller island of Saltholm. They were additional batteries of sort of Katyusha's on the island still. Those were sighted in already, zeroed to be fired at midnight tonight to give the danes a good shock to the system while the rockets here were resupplied.

A swedish colonel of the artillery saluted and the first rockets began to streak towards the Danish city five miles in the distance. "Even the sound they make is deadly."

Viktor laughed at his friend's quip.
--

Click to shrink...

This is from an old scrap segment, not explicitly canonical / finalized version.

Specifically this addresses a number of / or sets up for a number of things.

The first (and this is a partial quote) by this point Poland was providing the majority of grain that was consumed by the Netherlands by this point, the dutch had diversified into commercial agriculture specialization primarily for export (cow, diary, cheese, etc,etc. The three field rotating crop system had reached polish-lithuania about roughly a century earlier spreading from the royal estates into the polish noble holdings, which was massively economically productive, especially with the introduction of new world crops and other developments later on), the English had been dependent on Swedish export of timber for about the same time period, and would continue to be until the 19th century made most timber ships obsolete (deforestation is a bitch)

The railway thing we're talking primary trunk lines here. The Katyusha is an electric ignition system, they're described as sort of katyusha because they operate on the same general design principle and industrial logistics planning, they're basically lightweight, smokeless powder, electric ignition etc etc. They're not the larger Grad but thats a choice on logistics and transport rather than making them.

 

[ATP]

This is from an old scrap segment, not explicitly canonical / finalized version.

Specifically this addresses a number of / or sets up for a number of things.

The first (and this is a partial quote) by this point Poland was providing the majority of grain that was consumed by the Netherlands by this point, the dutch had diversified into commercial agriculture specialization primarily for export (cow, diary, cheese, etc,etc. The three field rotating crop system had reached polish-lithuania about roughly a century earlier spreading from the royal estates into the polish noble holdings, which was massively economically productive, especially with the introduction of new world crops and other developments later on), the English had been dependent on Swedish export of timber for about the same time period, and would continue to be until the 19th century made most timber ships obsolete (deforestation is a bitch)

The railway thing we're talking primary trunk lines here. The Katyusha is an electric ignition system, they're described as sort of katyusha because they operate on the same general design principle and industrial logistics planning, they're basically lightweight, smokeless powder, electric ignition etc etc. They're not the larger Grad but thats a choice on logistics and transport rather than making them.

Click to shrink...

Yes,Poland and Netherland was very important bussiness partners.
And Poland was,in fact,Repuplic cosplaing as Kingdom.
Gentry would not go to war for religion or politics,but if somebody cut their grain export.....then you coud have war.Or not.They really feared that polish King would use war as pretext to get more power.
And,in case of Władysław IV who ruled then,they were right.

About rockets - using 82mm against infrantry or wooden ships would be enough.But,against fortyfications you need something bigger.I think,that for tat you could use copy of soviet 160mm mortar from WW2.Easy to produce,relatively small,6km range....it could fire at fortyfication out of range of any gun european had in 1628.

P.S Schieffen plan could actually work,if germans do not send few corps to East Prussia,which was not really treathened,and even if they were...russian sodiers were not soviets,they woud not rape and murdere there.
And,aside from old castles,there were nothing there worth keeping anyway.

 

[Imperator Pax]

June 1917
In response to the circulars sent out by the Beiyang Clique generals, or maybe they would have done it anyway Allen wasn't sure he could be certain, the newspapers had clambered up on their own soap boxes. Talking about the 1912 constitution... that had existed for basically no time at all, but the parliamentarians who'd been elected under it and due to be seated in 1913 and were still in parliament now, for the most part, were waving around as their legitimacy. Allen had no interest in wading into that.

They weren't trying to convince anyone, because the messages were aimed at assuming anyone nodding along had already decided on their side. Yunnan needed to be thought of as functionally independent. Szechwan was in anarchy. The south ... no the provinces were effectively independent.

Shansi was an uncertainty the north. The Ma Clique in the west would agree with the Beiyang clique. The Beiyang could militarily dominate the Yangtze river provinces as they had done previously... but south of the river lay the problem. North china would not write off the south, and it seemed likely they'd fight to assert military control hoping that the southerners would back down again, as they'd done repeatedly... but that didn't solve the problem. Similarly the south's unwillingness to stay down meant they'd keep coming back to cause trouble.

... and they had the money to do it, at least to rebel time and again. Lack of provincial tax revenue flowing to Peking meant money in provincial coffers, which money to buy arms and train troops. Could Yunnan sustain that though? Could they sustain the 19th​ division, or even Tsai O's old 37th​ brigade on their own? Allen was skeptical that they had the resources to do that. Yan Xishan to the north wanted to institute provincial reforms modelled on Prussia, or modelled on Japan modelled on Prussia of the 1880s. Would that work? He wasn't sure. Shansi was perhaps the poorest and least developed of all the northern provinces, and Yan wasn't without challengers. He thought back to the Shansi Revolutionary Corp who had largely been destroyed during Bai Lang's final battle.

The anniversary of that battle drew nearer. Time he was cognizant of. Tsai O being from Hunan had let him rally support in his home province. His military success had won him the support of his Yunanese junior officers, and that success had also allowed him to exercise power through Szechwan. All that together had created a coalition of sorts in the south west of China to resist the Beiyang... at least locally where the north was far from their center of power, and where they were facing closest to Tsai O's.

But Tsai O was dead now, and any ties he had had to Bai Lang likely meant nothing given they were both dead. Tsai's O's death had in turn fractured his coalition. That was why he was comfortable deploying Shang to the border with a much smaller force than the nominally several divisions that were supposed to exist in Szechwan.... because without Tsai O those in reality many battalions were really divided among many regional leaders... the recent artillery spate from Chunking came to mind. Shang was in place in a geographical sweet spot, where the enemy could only mount an attack through a mountain pass and that meant a battle favored the prepared defense.

... if the enemy came as an army.

"In theory," He summarized looking at the others, "That makes our rear guard secure." A threat from the Bashan marching into southern Shensi seemed unlikely. "But I would feel better if we could sit down with Yan Xishan and secure things to the north as well."

A couple of the others nodded. Without any objections then they had a quorum. The entire cadre didn't need to be present, just enough that they could reach out.
--

There was a ruffling as she picked out a few choice columns, or their headlines. "Eliminate confusion, promote stability"... as their own publications had started to circulate. Tangibility. "Tangible facts. Had Bai Lang not professed his allegiance to the southern doctor," Tao Jun clicked her fan closed to punctuate the rhetorical, "We merely remind them of what is."

He'd noted the reminders highlighted that Tsai O had sat out the second revolution. He didn't say anything, June didn't put her name officially on any of the publications. She probably only edited some of them before allowing them to go out... but it was soft power. Bai Lang's aggressions had resonated most strongly with the Hui, but he hadn't ingratiated himself with the province more broadly as a whole either. Associating Bai Lang's own publications with Sun helped under mine the Guomindang to the south. Associating him with Tsai O through the later offering haven to Bai Lang's southern front force that had been cut off did the same.

What it didn't necessarily do was endorse the Beiyang as a whole. Tsao Kun didn't seem to have noticed taking it implicitly at face value as a condemnation of the southern rebels and their association with bandits. The Ma clique, predominantly ethnic Hui, and now with brigades of troops engaged across the border in Szechwan, and apparently also other parts of the western provinces had little in the way of public mouthpieces, and seemed content to rely on distributions of papers, broadsheets sometimes read by town criers even to distribute news. The emphasis of the bandit participation, or collaboration justified their own cross border raids into Szechwan, and the prospect of the broader beiyang provincial association under the pig tail general seemed to be welcomed by the Ma Clique as it would mean going into hunan.

"Have you determined who revealed the loans to Duan Qirui?" The extensions of money to the Beiyang clique Nishihara had made.

He leaned back at the question, resisting the urge to reach for the cup, buy time, "I would guessed Reinsch, but" While the midwesterner was outraged, his surprise seemed authentic. It didn't seem likely he would have leaked that to the papers. "He's flat foot with all of this." It had been two weeks since the paper had broke... and the loan details, in an english language paper, it should have been nothing. The Japanese, and the British didn't make sense. They would have had no reason to publicize the details. "I suppose its possible since," Basically everyone of importance in Tietsin had known, "everyone in the diplomatic circles knew someone went... but the choice of distribution was odd."

"The southern doctor opposes war against Germany."

He tapped his foot. He wasn't sure if that was just Sun being contradictory or ... "There is the matter of the silver dollars," He replied. The parliament had supported a declaration of war initially, but something had changed between march and may... Li had torpedoed the declaration of war for some reason... but having not been in Tietsin or in the capital he hadn't been around to sus out what the devil had happened between the two. Then there was the Vice President to consider for that matter.

The British, Percy didn't seem to know, and that seemed to have been the point when the British had pressured Duan to be more assertive about the matter. Had Li known about the loans? "Everybody knew, so Li could have found out about the loans," The paper, not the least of which being in English, had been swept up in everything... and a week later Duan had resigned.... and now they were in this mess.

That had been a week ago Wednesday, and in the distance the Friday shift end bell whistled through the summer air. "Do you believe so?"

"Its probable." He hedged again working back through things. He hadn't been in Peking there were currents in the capital that were hard to track without being there. Blaming Sun was too easy.... Sun was a money man... and he had ties to the papers, the KMT was media savvy they knew how to use them like that... but... "Sun wouldn't have gone to just one paper, and it wouldn't have been a Peking paper. Shanghai maybe, but certainly Canton, or Nanking would be talking about if they'd been told."

"There are many liberals in the capital." She replied.

That was true. The university, but again, "I don't think he'd have gone to just one paper, it'd be too easy." Yuan had demonstrated, just as the Qing before, that raiding one paper before a publication ran, was easily doable with the apparatus of state. Li should have known that too, he'd been on the side doing the raids. "This feels like it came out of the legation, Jun." It felt American...

"Or someone wishes you to believe that."

He shrugged, and decided to change subject, "You've barely touched your food." Allen considered the conversation... the news back in May. Hina wasn't showing yet, and it seemed ridiculous that they'd both carry at the same time, after all the trouble they'd had conceiving before the war.

"I am not hungry right now." She replied turning away. It wasn't particularly hot outside, Jun was prone to losing her appetite in high summer heat, but today was relatively mild out in the sun, never mind inside as the machines worked to press air, and fans turned high overhead. "The planting is done?" She made her own change of subject without any of her usual preamble or word games, not trying to realign the conversation.


The Portuguese, and then the Spanish, had introduced new world crops. The sweet potato, the pepper, peanut, and others. Centuries later those crops had had sustained a population growth that had no peer near as he could tell anywhere in the world... he thought about the demon called famine... the planting season, there were probably some people still running behind but the farms managed scientifically were all done, "We were finished two weeks ago," He thought about the mechanization, the tractors, and reapers waiting and how it tamed a hundred thousand acre farm. "We put food back every year." He had thought of it in the Roman sense, but Jun thought of it in terms of grain stockpiles in this country's ancient history, but it didn't really matter. There were modern reasons to do it. Stockpiling food kept food prices stable, while still having grain in the silos for feed, either for men or beast if they needed to march, or if they needed to address another crisis.

"Summer is here, the itinerant, and listless will swarm like locusts for things to do with their idle hands." Swarms of bandits from the south, Szechwan's population, Hunan. "Given the political turmoil I wouldn't be surprised if they are recruited for easy manpower."

There were only so many ways into the north china plain of course. The traditional passes allowed access in certain directions. Shang sitting on the Bashan frontier land was one, and the one he considered the biggest issue, but there were others... and of course time had moved on from the middle ages so they couldn't ignore how railways defeated ancient geographic boundaries.

--
The swell in troop numbers made other requirements necessary. The RPF had been a militia, a gather of avaialable men capable of martial service called upon in a time of crisis. He recalled shotguns, and revolvers. Of the gun cabinets of cadre members being pulled open to distribute hunting rifles in 1911. As the sun rose, and noon approached on Saturday men worked out. Some ran, some in loose fitting clothes, others in grey uniforms.

It was the change though of the years. The RPF men had of course been northern Chinese, prone to higher average height than southerns. It was a known fact, the minimum height under the qing for soldiers had been five six, but had been lowered to permit five two for recruits of southern provinces. Despite that older RPF veterans tended to be leaner rangy men compared to young men who had reached adulthood in the last five years. Parents who had three square meals a day, and children who got the same seemed to just grow better.

He grunted and racked the farmer's weights.

Dawes snorted , the red leg leaning crooked, and glanced to one of his fellow artillery men, "What's eating you, John Allen."

"Just have the feeling," That Cole was right, "We're about to bowl into a bigger fight." He thought about the province's population, and versus those provinces wholly south of the Yangtze. He rolled his left shoulder against the tension. "I was considering increasing the frequency of drill to be honest." He thought about how incongruous Percy had considered it, and thought about how little live fire training had been done at garrison in the Army. Issuing two hundred rounds a man nowadays just seemed ... so normal. There was a certain economy of scale to producing bullets. "What about you?"

"That winds always blowing for me," The older man threw his head back to the truck. A ford in quintessential black. "Sam and I have been working on the mortar question. Eight hundred yards, is fine for leg infantry, you can hit a man at that distance, if he jumps in a hole, and you can't see him you lob one of stokes bombs at him." And the rifleman would clearly see it... not a new conversation at all.

He nodded. It was how they fought. How they had been fighting. If the bandits weren't attacking a defended position, they were generally maneuvering either through farmland or bounding from hill to hill chasing after them. There were occasional skirmishes where one side or another caught the opposite in a town street... but this was the new west. No central authority to reign the brigands in, and too many problems beside... especially as provincial revenues continued to decline.

At the notion to continue, Dawes nodded towards the truck. "At the company level we throw some of 'em in with the Vicker" , "guns as part of heavier detachment. Leave my red legs to handle heavier still weapons."

Ah, that was what this was about. For all intents and purposes you had six months of training, turning any recruit into a rifleman, be damned whatever their actual job was going to be because especially before Yuan had died their numbers had been smaller. Recruiting and training though as the division put on weight that wasn't going to work. He smirked, "Ok, so what then?"

"I figure we can work on rifling the mortars, or boring them out to fire something heavier, more propellant, but the experimenting should still sit with the artillery."
--
Notes: This is more or less an abridged explanation of why Xian adopts mortars first, and more heavily than it does, grenades. In terms of fighting this similar to open prairie fighting where as mentioned you don't have a lot of urban or fighting in between buildings. To go back to white wolf there was the fall 1913 mission siege where the mission was built on a hill, had clear lines of fire and they had artillery. Similarly in the 1916 segment its less fighting over a town and more contact in the hills and farmlands outside of towns or in proximity to railway lines.

Hand grenades, or even rifle grenades are less important, especially up until the point where previously you had ranges of letting the enemy attack. Cup launchers will work for attacks from Ambush, but without built up trench warfare there is less impetus to mass issue grenades versus mortars, especially for open field engagements. Its also the impetus for mechanization. Horses take a lot of fodder, and without the inertia of having an established cavalry there is more pressure to adopt 'new scientific / mechanical methods of war' rather than many of the arguments for retaining the horse. Yes trucks and tractors break down but you need one of those to tow a howitzer versus an entire team. Coupled with most of your movement is occurring over rail lines, get off the rail, hitch and move overland from there, and that rail lien the train handles most of your baggage. (You see this particularly in the western front where your rail networks are what are responsible for keeping units in the trenches supplied by going straight up into the network of defenses.) This makes feeding troops relatively easy among other things. Also good for evacuating your injured.



As an aside, the reason I generally describe the Shliefen... or more specifically the Shliefen Moltke plan that Germany went with as impossible... is because I'm making that judgement on two separate factors, the first is the internal factor where the Tirpitz/Admiralty League lobbied and got funding for the Kaiserliche Marine that deprived the army of the funds needed for the army corp that would have made the numbers (and also not approving those naval bills may well have kept England from going to war in the first place, but that again Edward Gray is the primary reason the cabinet was convinced to go to war) and the second Shliefen-Moltke was written on the basis of we are going to be fighting on two fronts and the General Staff papers that said we're going to have to fight the russians sooner rather than later. S-M was by 1914 emblematic of War Optimism. Now had the admiralty bills not diverted money to the army Germany would have had more army corps and might have been able to reach Paris in the allotted timeframe. [and in Freiherr von Zemo this is what Helmuth talks about after he finishes destroying the 5th Armee, effectively that the momentum is gone we didn't have the reserves available to make the plan work because the money went to the navy.]

 

[ATP]

June 1917
In response to the circulars sent out by the Beiyang Clique generals, or maybe they would have done it anyway Allen wasn't sure he could be certain, the newspapers had clambered up on their own soap boxes. Talking about the 1912 constitution... that had existed for basically no time at all, but the parliamentarians who'd been elected under it and due to be seated in 1913 and were still in parliament now, for the most part, were waving around as their legitimacy. Allen had no interest in wading into that.

They weren't trying to convince anyone, because the messages were aimed at assuming anyone nodding along had already decided on their side. Yunnan needed to be thought of as functionally independent. Szechwan was in anarchy. The south ... no the provinces were effectively independent.

Shansi was an uncertainty the north. The Ma Clique in the west would agree with the Beiyang clique. The Beiyang could militarily dominate the Yangtze river provinces as they had done previously... but south of the river lay the problem. North china would not write off the south, and it seemed likely they'd fight to assert military control hoping that the southerners would back down again, as they'd done repeatedly... but that didn't solve the problem. Similarly the south's unwillingness to stay down meant they'd keep coming back to cause trouble.

... and they had the money to do it, at least to rebel time and again. Lack of provincial tax revenue flowing to Peking meant money in provincial coffers, which money to buy arms and train troops. Could Yunnan sustain that though? Could they sustain the 19th​ division, or even Tsai O's old 37th​ brigade on their own? Allen was skeptical that they had the resources to do that. Yan Xishan to the north wanted to institute provincial reforms modelled on Prussia, or modelled on Japan modelled on Prussia of the 1880s. Would that work? He wasn't sure. Shansi was perhaps the poorest and least developed of all the northern provinces, and Yan wasn't without challengers. He thought back to the Shansi Revolutionary Corp who had largely been destroyed during Bai Lang's final battle.

The anniversary of that battle drew nearer. Time he was cognizant of. Tsai O being from Hunan had let him rally support in his home province. His military success had won him the support of his Yunanese junior officers, and that success had also allowed him to exercise power through Szechwan. All that together had created a coalition of sorts in the south west of China to resist the Beiyang... at least locally where the north was far from their center of power, and where they were facing closest to Tsai O's.

But Tsai O was dead now, and any ties he had had to Bai Lang likely meant nothing given they were both dead. Tsai's O's death had in turn fractured his coalition. That was why he was comfortable deploying Shang to the border with a much smaller force than the nominally several divisions that were supposed to exist in Szechwan.... because without Tsai O those in reality many battalions were really divided among many regional leaders... the recent artillery spate from Chunking came to mind. Shang was in place in a geographical sweet spot, where the enemy could only mount an attack through a mountain pass and that meant a battle favored the prepared defense.

... if the enemy came as an army.

"In theory," He summarized looking at the others, "That makes our rear guard secure." A threat from the Bashan marching into southern Shensi seemed unlikely. "But I would feel better if we could sit down with Yan Xishan and secure things to the north as well."

A couple of the others nodded. Without any objections then they had a quorum. The entire cadre didn't need to be present, just enough that they could reach out.
--

There was a ruffling as she picked out a few choice columns, or their headlines. "Eliminate confusion, promote stability"... as their own publications had started to circulate. Tangibility. "Tangible facts. Had Bai Lang not professed his allegiance to the southern doctor," Tao Jun clicked her fan closed to punctuate the rhetorical, "We merely remind them of what is."

He'd noted the reminders highlighted that Tsai O had sat out the second revolution. He didn't say anything, June didn't put her name officially on any of the publications. She probably only edited some of them before allowing them to go out... but it was soft power. Bai Lang's aggressions had resonated most strongly with the Hui, but he hadn't ingratiated himself with the province more broadly as a whole either. Associating Bai Lang's own publications with Sun helped under mine the Guomindang to the south. Associating him with Tsai O through the later offering haven to Bai Lang's southern front force that had been cut off did the same.

What it didn't necessarily do was endorse the Beiyang as a whole. Tsao Kun didn't seem to have noticed taking it implicitly at face value as a condemnation of the southern rebels and their association with bandits. The Ma clique, predominantly ethnic Hui, and now with brigades of troops engaged across the border in Szechwan, and apparently also other parts of the western provinces had little in the way of public mouthpieces, and seemed content to rely on distributions of papers, broadsheets sometimes read by town criers even to distribute news. The emphasis of the bandit participation, or collaboration justified their own cross border raids into Szechwan, and the prospect of the broader beiyang provincial association under the pig tail general seemed to be welcomed by the Ma Clique as it would mean going into hunan.

"Have you determined who revealed the loans to Duan Qirui?" The extensions of money to the Beiyang clique Nishihara had made.

He leaned back at the question, resisting the urge to reach for the cup, buy time, "I would guessed Reinsch, but" While the midwesterner was outraged, his surprise seemed authentic. It didn't seem likely he would have leaked that to the papers. "He's flat foot with all of this." It had been two weeks since the paper had broke... and the loan details, in an english language paper, it should have been nothing. The Japanese, and the British didn't make sense. They would have had no reason to publicize the details. "I suppose its possible since," Basically everyone of importance in Tietsin had known, "everyone in the diplomatic circles knew someone went... but the choice of distribution was odd."

"The southern doctor opposes war against Germany."

He tapped his foot. He wasn't sure if that was just Sun being contradictory or ... "There is the matter of the silver dollars," He replied. The parliament had supported a declaration of war initially, but something had changed between march and may... Li had torpedoed the declaration of war for some reason... but having not been in Tietsin or in the capital he hadn't been around to sus out what the devil had happened between the two. Then there was the Vice President to consider for that matter.

The British, Percy didn't seem to know, and that seemed to have been the point when the British had pressured Duan to be more assertive about the matter. Had Li known about the loans? "Everybody knew, so Li could have found out about the loans," The paper, not the least of which being in English, had been swept up in everything... and a week later Duan had resigned.... and now they were in this mess.

That had been a week ago Wednesday, and in the distance the Friday shift end bell whistled through the summer air. "Do you believe so?"

"Its probable." He hedged again working back through things. He hadn't been in Peking there were currents in the capital that were hard to track without being there. Blaming Sun was too easy.... Sun was a money man... and he had ties to the papers, the KMT was media savvy they knew how to use them like that... but... "Sun wouldn't have gone to just one paper, and it wouldn't have been a Peking paper. Shanghai maybe, but certainly Canton, or Nanking would be talking about if they'd been told."

"There are many liberals in the capital." She replied.

That was true. The university, but again, "I don't think he'd have gone to just one paper, it'd be too easy." Yuan had demonstrated, just as the Qing before, that raiding one paper before a publication ran, was easily doable with the apparatus of state. Li should have known that too, he'd been on the side doing the raids. "This feels like it came out of the legation, Jun." It felt American...

"Or someone wishes you to believe that."

He shrugged, and decided to change subject, "You've barely touched your food." Allen considered the conversation... the news back in May. Hina wasn't showing yet, and it seemed ridiculous that they'd both carry at the same time, after all the trouble they'd had conceiving before the war.

"I am not hungry right now." She replied turning away. It wasn't particularly hot outside, Jun was prone to losing her appetite in high summer heat, but today was relatively mild out in the sun, never mind inside as the machines worked to press air, and fans turned high overhead. "The planting is done?" She made her own change of subject without any of her usual preamble or word games, not trying to realign the conversation.


The Portuguese, and then the Spanish, had introduced new world crops. The sweet potato, the pepper, peanut, and others. Centuries later those crops had had sustained a population growth that had no peer near as he could tell anywhere in the world... he thought about the demon called famine... the planting season, there were probably some people still running behind but the farms managed scientifically were all done, "We were finished two weeks ago," He thought about the mechanization, the tractors, and reapers waiting and how it tamed a hundred thousand acre farm. "We put food back every year." He had thought of it in the Roman sense, but Jun thought of it in terms of grain stockpiles in this country's ancient history, but it didn't really matter. There were modern reasons to do it. Stockpiling food kept food prices stable, while still having grain in the silos for feed, either for men or beast if they needed to march, or if they needed to address another crisis.

"Summer is here, the itinerant, and listless will swarm like locusts for things to do with their idle hands." Swarms of bandits from the south, Szechwan's population, Hunan. "Given the political turmoil I wouldn't be surprised if they are recruited for easy manpower."

There were only so many ways into the north china plain of course. The traditional passes allowed access in certain directions. Shang sitting on the Bashan frontier land was one, and the one he considered the biggest issue, but there were others... and of course time had moved on from the middle ages so they couldn't ignore how railways defeated ancient geographic boundaries.

--
The swell in troop numbers made other requirements necessary. The RPF had been a militia, a gather of avaialable men capable of martial service called upon in a time of crisis. He recalled shotguns, and revolvers. Of the gun cabinets of cadre members being pulled open to distribute hunting rifles in 1911. As the sun rose, and noon approached on Saturday men worked out. Some ran, some in loose fitting clothes, others in grey uniforms.

It was the change though of the years. The RPF men had of course been northern Chinese, prone to higher average height than southerns. It was a known fact, the minimum height under the qing for soldiers had been five six, but had been lowered to permit five two for recruits of southern provinces. Despite that older RPF veterans tended to be leaner rangy men compared to young men who had reached adulthood in the last five years. Parents who had three square meals a day, and children who got the same seemed to just grow better.

He grunted and racked the farmer's weights.

Dawes snorted , the red leg leaning crooked, and glanced to one of his fellow artillery men, "What's eating you, John Allen."

"Just have the feeling," That Cole was right, "We're about to bowl into a bigger fight." He thought about the province's population, and versus those provinces wholly south of the Yangtze. He rolled his left shoulder against the tension. "I was considering increasing the frequency of drill to be honest." He thought about how incongruous Percy had considered it, and thought about how little live fire training had been done at garrison in the Army. Issuing two hundred rounds a man nowadays just seemed ... so normal. There was a certain economy of scale to producing bullets. "What about you?"

"That winds always blowing for me," The older man threw his head back to the truck. A ford in quintessential black. "Sam and I have been working on the mortar question. Eight hundred yards, is fine for leg infantry, you can hit a man at that distance, if he jumps in a hole, and you can't see him you lob one of stokes bombs at him." And the rifleman would clearly see it... not a new conversation at all.

He nodded. It was how they fought. How they had been fighting. If the bandits weren't attacking a defended position, they were generally maneuvering either through farmland or bounding from hill to hill chasing after them. There were occasional skirmishes where one side or another caught the opposite in a town street... but this was the new west. No central authority to reign the brigands in, and too many problems beside... especially as provincial revenues continued to decline.

At the notion to continue, Dawes nodded towards the truck. "At the company level we throw some of 'em in with the Vicker" , "guns as part of heavier detachment. Leave my red legs to handle heavier still weapons."

Ah, that was what this was about. For all intents and purposes you had six months of training, turning any recruit into a rifleman, be damned whatever their actual job was going to be because especially before Yuan had died their numbers had been smaller. Recruiting and training though as the division put on weight that wasn't going to work. He smirked, "Ok, so what then?"

"I figure we can work on rifling the mortars, or boring them out to fire something heavier, more propellant, but the experimenting should still sit with the artillery."
--
Notes: This is more or less an abridged explanation of why Xian adopts mortars first, and more heavily than it does, grenades. In terms of fighting this similar to open prairie fighting where as mentioned you don't have a lot of urban or fighting in between buildings. To go back to white wolf there was the fall 1913 mission siege where the mission was built on a hill, had clear lines of fire and they had artillery. Similarly in the 1916 segment its less fighting over a town and more contact in the hills and farmlands outside of towns or in proximity to railway lines.

Hand grenades, or even rifle grenades are less important, especially up until the point where previously you had ranges of letting the enemy attack. Cup launchers will work for attacks from Ambush, but without built up trench warfare there is less impetus to mass issue grenades versus mortars, especially for open field engagements. Its also the impetus for mechanization. Horses take a lot of fodder, and without the inertia of having an established cavalry there is more pressure to adopt 'new scientific / mechanical methods of war' rather than many of the arguments for retaining the horse. Yes trucks and tractors break down but you need one of those to tow a howitzer versus an entire team. Coupled with most of your movement is occurring over rail lines, get off the rail, hitch and move overland from there, and that rail lien the train handles most of your baggage. (You see this particularly in the western front where your rail networks are what are responsible for keeping units in the trenches supplied by going straight up into the network of defenses.) This makes feeding troops relatively easy among other things. Also good for evacuating your injured.



As an aside, the reason I generally describe the Shliefen... or more specifically the Shliefen Moltke plan that Germany went with as impossible... is because I'm making that judgement on two separate factors, the first is the internal factor where the Tirpitz/Admiralty League lobbied and got funding for the Kaiserliche Marine that deprived the army of the funds needed for the army corp that would have made the numbers (and also not approving those naval bills may well have kept England from going to war in the first place, but that again Edward Gray is the primary reason the cabinet was convinced to go to war) and the second Shliefen-Moltke was written on the basis of we are going to be fighting on two fronts and the General Staff papers that said we're going to have to fight the russians sooner rather than later. S-M was by 1914 emblematic of War Optimism. Now had the admiralty bills not diverted money to the army Germany would have had more army corps and might have been able to reach Paris in the allotted timeframe. [and in Freiherr von Zemo this is what Helmuth talks about after he finishes destroying the 5th Armee, effectively that the momentum is gone we didn't have the reserves available to make the plan work because the money went to the navy.]

Click to shrink...

About mortars - you could invent new ammo before french,and made 60,120,160 and maybe 240mm mortars,too.You then get money from other countries instead of Brandt.
Horses - according to what i hear,problem with calvary was that provisions for them must be delivered by horse pulled wagons anyway.And when horse could go through bad terrain,horse wagon need good road,just like truck.
Trucks - if you do not have oil,then use american steam cars.They were produced at least till 1920.And were as good as normal one,with one exception - need more time to start engine.
Schieffen plan - so,germans need to abadonn East Prussia from the start to win.Small lost,there was nothing there worth keeping.

P.S You could start checking placed in Germany and A-H when you could get technology after they fall.Planes,to be precise - A-H is better choice,becouse they falled first and have stronger engines/167kwh compared to 138 german/.

 

[Imperator Pax]

About mortars - you could invent new ammo before french,and made 60,120,160 and maybe 240mm mortars,too.You then get money from other countries instead of Brandt.
Horses - according to what i hear,problem with calvary was that provisions for them must be delivered by horse pulled wagons anyway.And when horse could go through bad terrain,horse wagon need good road,just like truck.
Trucks - if you do not have oil,then use american steam cars.They were produced at least till 1920.And were as good as normal one,with one exception - need more time to start engine.
Schieffen plan - so,germans need to abadonn East Prussia from the start to win.Small lost,there was nothing there worth keeping.

P.S You could start checking placed in Germany and A-H when you could get technology after they fall.Planes,to be precise - A-H is better choice,becouse they falled first and have stronger engines/167kwh compared to 138 german/.

Click to shrink...

For the mortars, and arms sales in general, Xian is already effectively selling to the British under the munitions ministry, and specifically to supply the Anzacs with equipment that England needs producing but doesn't have the lines to make them at home, well Australia historically would keep a lot of her ww1 era equipment into even Vietnam, but through the interwar years especially. So in the short term there is export of specialty weapons and munitions planned [which of course is one of the ironies of 1919, where the IC embargo happens and England's ambassador signs on to banning new imports (going into china) of military hardware) as well as the later half of the twenties prior to the actual war in China there when Chiang crosses the Yangtze. Again thats a ways in the future, and of course I'm omitting hte other major client after 1919 to the west

As for the horses versus trucks, that is dependent not so much on the roads but on the weather conditions. What finally really got US cavalry to accept mechanization and trucks was in the twenties coming to the realization that their trucks were being used to move them, their horses, and their supplies basically right up to the point where they departed friendly lines and that trucks even by that point in the interwar years were sufficently off road capable that for what the US doing made more sense than the logistical requirements of a horse unit. There were still people in the US army who tried to hold on, but ultimately in part it came down to money in the interwar years. In other places horses stayed on longer because of not just cost, but political inertia, as well as in some places it made more sense due to weather, and specifically how the rainy season tends to effect roads

which brings us to oil. from a resource perspective Xian, especially after moving into governing the Tarim basin is capable of producing and refining oil for its own needs, like when this is talked about in story this one of those things where the original plan had been to partner with standard oil (before trust busting) and before other concerns made that not viable and now down the road, there is sufficent capital (from war time contracts in other heavy industries) to support petroluem ventures , which will in turn support expansion into other related heavy industries, Manufacturing of kerosene, and then kerosene's replacement with other fuels and so on feeds the domestic market at home as well as export means revenue for the quasi governmental budget means its more practical to sustain more mechanization. Even during this period Standard Oil (much reduced from its hey day) was very active OTL in selling in Sian, and other cities in Shaanxi province (their main product was kerosene for houses, but they sold automobile fuel OTL as well).

[Jumping ahead to after the second war, in the fifties and sixties the partnership with Edsel Ford will mark a greater interest in the Edsel electric, and then in the late sixties production of the sodium electric batteries for town cars in the pacific basin countries driven by the oil shocks that are somewhat unavoidable due to global politics., these will be the kei cars of this timeline made possible by economy of scale, but thats very far down the road]

I was going to mention something else, but its slipped my mind now.

 

[ATP]

For the mortars, and arms sales in general, Xian is already effectively selling to the British under the munitions ministry, and specifically to supply the Anzacs with equipment that England needs producing but doesn't have the lines to make them at home, well Australia historically would keep a lot of her ww1 era equipment into even Vietnam, but through the interwar years especially. So in the short term there is export of specialty weapons and munitions planned [which of course is one of the ironies of 1919, where the IC embargo happens and England's ambassador signs on to banning new imports (going into china) of military hardware) as well as the later half of the twenties prior to the actual war in China there when Chiang crosses the Yangtze. Again thats a ways in the future, and of course I'm omitting hte other major client after 1919 to the west

As for the horses versus trucks, that is dependent not so much on the roads but on the weather conditions. What finally really got US cavalry to accept mechanization and trucks was in the twenties coming to the realization that their trucks were being used to move them, their horses, and their supplies basically right up to the point where they departed friendly lines and that trucks even by that point in the interwar years were sufficently off road capable that for what the US doing made more sense than the logistical requirements of a horse unit. There were still people in the US army who tried to hold on, but ultimately in part it came down to money in the interwar years. In other places horses stayed on longer because of not just cost, but political inertia, as well as in some places it made more sense due to weather, and specifically how the rainy season tends to effect roads

which brings us to oil. from a resource perspective Xian, especially after moving into governing the Tarim basin is capable of producing and refining oil for its own needs, like when this is talked about in story this one of those things where the original plan had been to partner with standard oil (before trust busting) and before other concerns made that not viable and now down the road, there is sufficent capital (from war time contracts in other heavy industries) to support petroluem ventures , which will in turn support expansion into other related heavy industries, Manufacturing of kerosene, and then kerosene's replacement with other fuels and so on feeds the domestic market at home as well as export means revenue for the quasi governmental budget means its more practical to sustain more mechanization. Even during this period Standard Oil (much reduced from its hey day) was very active OTL in selling in Sian, and other cities in Shaanxi province (their main product was kerosene for houses, but they sold automobile fuel OTL as well).

[Jumping ahead to after the second war, in the fifties and sixties the partnership with Edsel Ford will mark a greater interest in the Edsel electric, and then in the late sixties production of the sodium electric batteries for town cars in the pacific basin countries driven by the oil shocks that are somewhat unavoidable due to global politics., these will be the kei cars of this timeline made possible by economy of scale, but thats very far down the road]

I was going to mention something else, but its slipped my mind now.

Click to shrink...

Cost of calvary - horse take one person and served 4 years.Truck take 20 persons and served at least 20 years.So,it replaced 100 horses.
Not mention,that unused truck could just wait in garage,when unused horses still need food and water.And somebody must remove their shit.

Oil - so,you do not need steam cars.Pity,they would be more cool.Steam tanks,especially lanbattleships,even more!
If that depend on me,i would made them during WW1.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dominion of the Baltic Sea​

Ring of Fire +48
"You see the guy on the horse?" It was kind of rhetorical question even at this distance.

This was second... no third contact, Oliver amended mentally as the Bushmasters cracked. The terrain break was really the definitive matter. They were sitting on high ground, and the enemy had to come up to them... which would have been a bad idea against any sort of rifle never mind semiautomatics with ACOGs.

The terrain was the critical factor, it funneled the attacking for into a break created by the ring of fire out in the open before they had to move up the incline... and it was a steep one. A minimum of two hundred feet of elevation from where where they'd been ripped from north America to... this chunk of northern Germany.

Of course, calling it an attack was probably an exaggeration. Probe might have been more accurate... reconnoiter

"The river would have flooded whatever we switched with anyway." Luke replied from behind the civilian version of the 417, a 7.62 x 51 like the SCAR H that were in the County Swat's team inventory, "without the dam to stop the river, elevation wouldn't make any difference."

That was probably supposed to be reassuring. Oliver Larkin adjusted the glass from the 'mountain side'... before the transition this had really been a big hill, when compared to the nearby blue ridge mountains... previously nearby Blue Ridge, and Appalachia he supposed.

"So where are we?"

"I think," He emphasized, "That that was the baltic." Referring to the body of water the river exiting the dam was now ultimately flowing into. "They flipped us north to south, you noticed that, our lowest point is oriented towards the sea, and the county ridgeline is in the south now." and they were now on the opposite side as a result.

That could be a problem... Michael had gotten lost yesterday driving from one end of the county to the next... probably in part because of that.

Oliver shut his mouth as the electronic ear protection of his peltors dimmed the report from the already suppressed 175 gr's crack. About eight hundred yards down a horse tossed a man and bolted back away from the shift in terrain. "I couldn't tell if you got him, he's not moving. What do you think?"

"I'm hoping that was an officer." Luke replied adjusting his supporting hand and moving the rifle.

He adjusted his grip on the field glasses. "He's still not moving," At this distance he couldn't really see the man's hands, much less register if he had chest movement, but he certainly hadn't gotten up. "He was doing something anyway." Messenger maybe... Oliver figured it didn't matter

"I don't think they know what to make of the topography change anymore than we do."

They being the downtimers not whatever alien space bats thought it was funny to wrench them to the renaissance or whenever. "SO we should be safe from the south?" There was an elevation shift in general, "So what would be to the west of us from here?"

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure we're in north germany, without anyone to talk to I can't be sure of anything else, but if the Baltic is to the north of us... I would guess we're in Mecklenburg, Pomerania." As if to preempt the question they had been asking for two days now, "These are probably troops from the Holy Roman empire or one of the german principalities, and its probably 1627, 28."

"Why?"

"If these are Imperial troops its after the partition." He shrugged from behind the rifle, "I doubt its any earlier these are relatively well equipped soldiers." As if to emphasize that point another guy with a matchlock went down to a 556 fired from further down the line from his and Luke's position. "And that's a bad thing. It means someone is paying them, and it means they're going to keep looking in this direction."

"So what's to the west of us?"

"I'd have to look at a map, and I have no idea how much of topography is changed from... never mind us, but over... call it four hundred years." Even twenty thirty years was enough for topographical changes that you needed to update the maps you issued people... not enough to necessarily stop him from recognizing where they were... except that he had the aforementioned problem of the county having been dropped on the baltic sea. "The best way is to ask someone local what's the nearest big town, and then pin it on the map."

... and hope they hadn't been swapped with the town in question he supposed.
--
He slung the rifle bag onto the couch. Forget regular, AvGas was damn sure going to be a limited resource, but the local airport had put a couple of birds up to try and take pictures. The consensus did seem to be that the whole county had come along. With no real air pollution to speak of and it being fairly clear weather the telemetry looked good... if you got passed the sheer what the fuck of the terrain differential. It was even more glaring from a loitering rotary wing aircraft piping it through the local news channels... and now dominating the great room's big screen television.

"Yeah?"

"It occurs to me that to our south east is the polish border," In the car he had guessed about 'Fifty miles give or take', which to Oliver seemed absurd to have a country that close to you.... but whatever

Michael Stewart looked up from the other couch, "I was thinking more about how you can see the Via Imperia continuing to run north to what must be Stettin."

It was a minute difference.

Political boundaries of different sorts. A city was a place of political power projection. Borders were lines on maps that really were more modern conceptions of who's territory went where, and even then in most places it was pretty easy to just walk across the line and go somewhere else in the modern world, really what was important was the resources, the human capital, the things that generated value... and Stettin was probably pretty valuable.

But the down timers were attacking from the other side. "That makes I'd guess the other one," Michael grabbed for a world history book, but Luke beat the other professor to it.

"I think we replaced Griefswald, to our west should be Stralsund. It would explain the bay to our north, and why these troops keep stumbling into the area. If Stettin isn't under Swedish control already then its before 1630."

"So what were you two doing, you missed the meeting at the university." He remarked to Luke.

"Luke can have my uncle write him an absentee note." Oliver found himself grunting to Michael's question. It was monday afternoon and all... if it had just been a monday then it should have been nothing but regular office hours... but Saturday's crazy ring of fire and the dome overhead had changed all of that, and now they were fighting off invaders from ... wherever the capital of the not really holy roman or an empire was. "The assholes we saw Saturday had friends, and they're rooting around."

"I think they were foraging parties at first, until they realized something was wrong about the terrain."

"I heard gunshots, but."

Michael probably had still been in the up time mindset of the time they had come from where occasional even repeated rifle cracks in the countryside weren't anything to raise a fuss about. That was going to have to change, and quickly, especially with the intermittent power to parts of town. "We're gonna have to do something about the highway, it bisects the county, if you can get on it leads straight through town."

"Not just that, there is the railway too," Luke added. "Any of hte county or forest access roads is going to be a problem potentially as well."

--
Notes: So most likely this will become the standard Wednesday update for August, as opposed to taking place on Friday, and JumpChain will slot into Friday.... or back into Friday I suppose.

This is one half of the monday morning after the ring of fire, the other half will go up after some edits next week probably, but we will begin to deal with logistics, fuel, electricity and so on over the next roughly few weeks of in timeline... and then Swedes in June / july ish.

Also plague, and Wallenstein.

(and I'm sure ATP is aware of this) in addition to being less politically centralized around the monarchy (Poland did have occasionally strong kings, but that was very much personal clout not institution, it was a not an absolute monarchy, we are talking a more classic feudal 'first among equals' type monarchy not 'je suis l'etat' in ideal never mind practice.) the royal house of Poland during the period the House of Vasa would rule through separate monarchs (different branches of the family).

The difference is of course the polish parliament was vastly less inclined to let the Polish king get up to the sort of shenanigans Gustaf Adolf II was allowed to get up to. This is important in universe because it makes a wonderful excuse to obsfucate the realpolitic of treaties that are mostly written for monetary benefit, trade and so forth after a certain cardinal engineers the league of ostend and makes a mess of certain other trade relations that people enjoyed beforehand.

 

[ATP]

Dominion of the Baltic Sea​

Ring of Fire +48
"You see the guy on the horse?" It was kind of rhetorical question even at this distance.

This was second... no third contact, Oliver amended mentally as the Bushmasters cracked. The terrain break was really the definitive matter. They were sitting on high ground, and the enemy had to come up to them... which would have been a bad idea against any sort of rifle never mind semiautomatics with ACOGs.

The terrain was the critical factor, it funneled the attacking for into a break created by the ring of fire out in the open before they had to move up the incline... and it was a steep one. A minimum of two hundred feet of elevation from where where they'd been ripped from north America to... this chunk of northern Germany.

Of course, calling it an attack was probably an exaggeration. Probe might have been more accurate... reconnoiter

"The river would have flooded whatever we switched with anyway." Luke replied from behind the civilian version of the 417, a 7.62 x 51 like the SCAR H that were in the County Swat's team inventory, "without the dam to stop the river, elevation wouldn't make any difference."

That was probably supposed to be reassuring. Oliver Larkin adjusted the glass from the 'mountain side'... before the transition this had really been a big hill, when compared to the nearby blue ridge mountains... previously nearby Blue Ridge, and Appalachia he supposed.

"So where are we?"

"I think," He emphasized, "That that was the baltic." Referring to the body of water the river exiting the dam was now ultimately flowing into. "They flipped us north to south, you noticed that, our lowest point is oriented towards the sea, and the county ridgeline is in the south now." and they were now on the opposite side as a result.

That could be a problem... Michael had gotten lost yesterday driving from one end of the county to the next... probably in part because of that.

Oliver shut his mouth as the electronic ear protection of his peltors dimmed the report from the already suppressed 175 gr's crack. About eight hundred yards down a horse tossed a man and bolted back away from the shift in terrain. "I couldn't tell if you got him, he's not moving. What do you think?"

"I'm hoping that was an officer." Luke replied adjusting his supporting hand and moving the rifle.

He adjusted his grip on the field glasses. "He's still not moving," At this distance he couldn't really see the man's hands, much less register if he had chest movement, but he certainly hadn't gotten up. "He was doing something anyway." Messenger maybe... Oliver figured it didn't matter

"I don't think they know what to make of the topography change anymore than we do."

They being the downtimers not whatever alien space bats thought it was funny to wrench them to the renaissance or whenever. "SO we should be safe from the south?" There was an elevation shift in general, "So what would be to the west of us from here?"

"I don't know. I'm pretty sure we're in north germany, without anyone to talk to I can't be sure of anything else, but if the Baltic is to the north of us... I would guess we're in Mecklenburg, Pomerania." As if to preempt the question they had been asking for two days now, "These are probably troops from the Holy Roman empire or one of the german principalities, and its probably 1627, 28."

"Why?"

"If these are Imperial troops its after the partition." He shrugged from behind the rifle, "I doubt its any earlier these are relatively well equipped soldiers." As if to emphasize that point another guy with a matchlock went down to a 556 fired from further down the line from his and Luke's position. "And that's a bad thing. It means someone is paying them, and it means they're going to keep looking in this direction."

"So what's to the west of us?"

"I'd have to look at a map, and I have no idea how much of topography is changed from... never mind us, but over... call it four hundred years." Even twenty thirty years was enough for topographical changes that you needed to update the maps you issued people... not enough to necessarily stop him from recognizing where they were... except that he had the aforementioned problem of the county having been dropped on the baltic sea. "The best way is to ask someone local what's the nearest big town, and then pin it on the map."

... and hope they hadn't been swapped with the town in question he supposed.
--
He slung the rifle bag onto the couch. Forget regular, AvGas was damn sure going to be a limited resource, but the local airport had put a couple of birds up to try and take pictures. The consensus did seem to be that the whole county had come along. With no real air pollution to speak of and it being fairly clear weather the telemetry looked good... if you got passed the sheer what the fuck of the terrain differential. It was even more glaring from a loitering rotary wing aircraft piping it through the local news channels... and now dominating the great room's big screen television.

"Yeah?"

"It occurs to me that to our south east is the polish border," In the car he had guessed about 'Fifty miles give or take', which to Oliver seemed absurd to have a country that close to you.... but whatever

Michael Stewart looked up from the other couch, "I was thinking more about how you can see the Via Imperia continuing to run north to what must be Stettin."

It was a minute difference.

Political boundaries of different sorts. A city was a place of political power projection. Borders were lines on maps that really were more modern conceptions of who's territory went where, and even then in most places it was pretty easy to just walk across the line and go somewhere else in the modern world, really what was important was the resources, the human capital, the things that generated value... and Stettin was probably pretty valuable.

But the down timers were attacking from the other side. "That makes I'd guess the other one," Michael grabbed for a world history book, but Luke beat the other professor to it.

"I think we replaced Griefswald, to our west should be Stralsund. It would explain the bay to our north, and why these troops keep stumbling into the area. If Stettin isn't under Swedish control already then its before 1630."

"So what were you two doing, you missed the meeting at the university." He remarked to Luke.

"Luke can have my uncle write him an absentee note." Oliver found himself grunting to Michael's question. It was monday afternoon and all... if it had just been a monday then it should have been nothing but regular office hours... but Saturday's crazy ring of fire and the dome overhead had changed all of that, and now they were fighting off invaders from ... wherever the capital of the not really holy roman or an empire was. "The assholes we saw Saturday had friends, and they're rooting around."

"I think they were foraging parties at first, until they realized something was wrong about the terrain."

"I heard gunshots, but."

Michael probably had still been in the up time mindset of the time they had come from where occasional even repeated rifle cracks in the countryside weren't anything to raise a fuss about. That was going to have to change, and quickly, especially with the intermittent power to parts of town. "We're gonna have to do something about the highway, it bisects the county, if you can get on it leads straight through town."

"Not just that, there is the railway too," Luke added. "Any of hte county or forest access roads is going to be a problem potentially as well."

--
Notes: So most likely this will become the standard Wednesday update for August, as opposed to taking place on Friday, and JumpChain will slot into Friday.... or back into Friday I suppose.

This is one half of the monday morning after the ring of fire, the other half will go up after some edits next week probably, but we will begin to deal with logistics, fuel, electricity and so on over the next roughly few weeks of in timeline... and then Swedes in June / july ish.

Also plague, and Wallenstein.

(and I'm sure ATP is aware of this) in addition to being less politically centralized around the monarchy (Poland did have occasionally strong kings, but that was very much personal clout not institution, it was a not an absolute monarchy, we are talking a more classic feudal 'first among equals' type monarchy not 'je suis l'etat' in ideal never mind practice.) the royal house of Poland during the period the House of Vasa would rule through separate monarchs (different branches of the family).

The difference is of course the polish parliament was vastly less inclined to let the Polish king get up to the sort of shenanigans Gustaf Adolf II was allowed to get up to. This is important in universe because it makes a wonderful excuse to obsfucate the realpolitic of treaties that are mostly written for monetary benefit, trade and so forth after a certain cardinal engineers the league of ostend and makes a mess of certain other trade relations that people enjoyed beforehand.

Click to shrink...

Good chapter.And somebody there was good in school.

About Poland - we never had feudalism.First we have strong rulers/but not absolute/,then first ariscocrats and then gentry get real power,and from 1569 we were in fact Republic.
With gentry considering themselves more ancient romans then poles.And sarmatians at the same time,but people not always use logic.
In 1628 we just defeated Sweden,so we had strong army with genius commander hetman Koniecpolski.
Which army never attacked anybody,becouse gentry do not allowed King start war.We only smacked Moscov when they try take old lithuanian city Smoleńsk in 1633.And we made peace with them.

Only way to made gentry mad enough to let King attack you would be if you stopped grain coming to Holland.

P.S Why support Sweden at all? they were not knights in shining armours,but another faction which try conqer americans.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Good chapter.And somebody there was good in school.

About Poland - we never had feudalism.First we have strong rulers/but not absolute/,then first ariscocrats and then gentry get real power,and from 1569 we were in fact Republic.
With gentry considering themselves more ancient romans then poles.And sarmatians at the same time,but people not always use logic.
In 1628 we just defeated Sweden,so we had strong army with genius commander hetman Koniecpolski.
Which army never attacked anybody,becouse gentry do not allowed King start war.We only smacked Moscov when they try take old lithuanian city Smoleńsk in 1633.And we made peace with them.

Only way to made gentry mad enough to let King attack you would be if you stopped grain coming to Holland.

P.S Why support Sweden at all? they were not knights in shining armours,but another faction which try conqer americans.

Click to shrink...

Combination of canonical inertia, (its 1632 fic), coupled with practical economic reasons, part of that Sweden has good quality easily accessible iron, and already has by this point a relatively diversified economy (they're already 'transitional' in terms of steel manufacturing, bar iron is still the principle export, but jumping to crucible steel would be very easy ), so assuming you could get through Gustaf adolf, and Oxenstierna's collective thick skulls they do actually make a good base for an actual EU a few centuries earlier

(Christian IV's denmark doesn't work for that, I certainly wouldn't trust the Prussians, especially with the decline in the Hanseatic league by this point... not that trusting them would be wise either). In theory Sweden's constitutional law code and basis is the the most similar to what up americans would recognize (especially given the current state of Stuart England... and the fact Cromwell is alive, which willl have to be addressed) and the EU concept of a trade union, not so much a unified political not-HRE is more theoretically reasonable with Sweden, especially if after Richeliu does his idiotic league of Ostend stupidity you could secure a the trade benefit in the baltic as a whole.

Some of this when this was originally plotted out in 2014 was fix-fic esque how to we address some of the more glaring issues of 1632, (i.e. the US-E.) You need an incentive to introduce free trade and such early

 

[ATP]

Combination of canonical inertia, (its 1632 fic), coupled with practical economic reasons, part of that Sweden has good quality easily accessible iron, and already has by this point a relatively diversified economy (they're already 'transitional' in terms of steel manufacturing, bar iron is still the principle export, but jumping to crucible steel would be very easy ), so assuming you could get through Gustaf adolf, and Oxenstierna's collective thick skulls they do actually make a good base for an actual EU a few centuries earlier

(Christian IV's denmark doesn't work for that, I certainly wouldn't trust the Prussians, especially with the decline in the Hanseatic league by this point... not that trusting them would be wise either). In theory Sweden's constitutional law code and basis is the the most similar to what up americans would recognize (especially given the current state of Stuart England... and the fact Cromwell is alive, which willl have to be addressed) and the EU concept of a trade union, not so much a unified political not-HRE is more theoretically reasonable with Sweden, especially if after Richeliu does his idiotic league of Ostend stupidity you could secure a the trade benefit in the baltic as a whole.

Some of this when this was originally plotted out in 2014 was fix-fic esque how to we address some of the more glaring issues of 1632, (i.e. the US-E.) You need an incentive to introduce free trade and such early

Click to shrink...

Then work with Holland and Poland.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Then work with Holland and Poland.

Click to shrink...

Poland is in the cards, Holland runs into not just the canon 1632 issues, but its more geographically distant and it honestly doesn't provide as much benefit. (Getting central banking started early is one of the things that any good sized town of ISOT people could probably manage to introduce, now would you be sure it would stick, probably not, but you don't need holland's help to integrate LLCs and business acumen) Holland's trade fleet is less useful really than it would seem on the surface, and without railway, you need geographic proximity to your allies.

Yes, when we get to 1632 and Grantville shows up they're absolutely try the canon route of going everywhere, but at least if the current outline holds [and canonically Grantville arrives in 1631, but thats not a great title] even though they try, there is actual fallout to the things they do wrong. Just as there is fallout elsewhere Holland has in this period to many strategic liabilities, Sweden has the mixed economic base that if you can keep everyone fed, and keep G.A. from getting his ass killed or at least insuring a stable succession down the road you have the resources on hand to introduce railways early not just in technological knowledge (uptimers) but in easy access to the raw materials and iron supplies that.

and frankly Stockholm is tiny during this period. I'd have to double check my notes but Grantvill in canon might actually be larger than Stockholm was in 1632

 

[Imperator Pax]

June 1917
Rifle fire cracked as the present units of 1st​ Regiment worked through their drills. The course of fire was an evaluation designed to simulate at least the noise of battle. Men were supposed to discharge a requisite number of rounds on targets at known and unknown, to them, distances. At the same time at adjoining ranges, artillery were firing colored shells at a fewer number of targets, in both a direct fire, and indirect engagement.

The history of a regiment, and her shared traditions were critical to the espirt de corps. He supposed that should apply to brigade and division , but at a certain point you could hardly claim a whole unit's history applied to the whole damn army.

They were now in a position of having multiple 'native', to use Percy's term, colonels, and a host of other field officers. The englishman's scandalized tone at the comment had been absurd. Percy had fallen back away from the thunder of the 105s that were testing their new carriages.

"He looks like he's going to piss himself." Dawes declared. "What do you reckon?" The older man drawled.

That was the question. Li had succeeded in getting Duan to quit... and was now reaping the consequences of it... it would have been funny, if the ironic turnabout was fair play wasn't otherwise so serious. Li didn't have any troops of his own. Now the various Beiyang tujun were circulating in public plans to declare their independence from peking. The circular telegrams were a blatant emulation of how the south's provinces had done and that was probably intentional.

Li was not Yuan Shikai, and was scrambling for some way to talk them out of it... but all reports, and the rumors, Duan Qirui was hanging out in the international settlement with friends at the hotel, just enjoying 'retirement'. He was ignoring anyone Li sent to talk to him, and most weren't even getting there before being stopped or turned away. John Paul said it had been funny the first time, but it started getting pretty pathetic after a couple of days.

Allen broached the subject, and the older man shrugged. The truth was Allen had pointedly been avoiding a train ride to Zhili, especially now with Cole ensconced at Zhengzhou's railway depot. The legation knew the gendarmes were there of course... that wasn't the problem. It was their railway, and legally speaking they had a right to it, and they'd been exercising that right regularly with the regular troops. Maybe it was because of the European war, and the fact there hadn't been French troops, maybe it was the recent unpleasantness in Szechwan... in Chunking but the journal du peking was a known to them front of the French foreign service and its published article was enough to rankle.

"The question is why?"

"They could be needling Reinsch."

Allen shrugged as another burst of red dye smoke rose up a trench. That was true. It wouldn't have been the first time the paper had been used to heckle or pester the American Legation, and Reinsch in particular. The journal at the direction of the French minister had angrily tiraded against Standard Oil several years earlier, which had as a result caused the delay of their own oil explorations... or at least had contributed to the delay.

It couldn't have been oil at this point. Standard Oil, and well the situation with Bai Lang had changed. The dynamic was different now. He thought of the Texas Germans who were scooped up and shepherded for Bill's oil work. He thought about the Cadre shift since the war had begun.

"You got that look on your face again."

He shook his head, "We've changed so much." Never mind that even in just the last six months there was starting to be a current that agreed the Nakamichi's suggestion should have been heeded, should they really have started moving towards three divisions last year instead of putting it off.

"Introduction of scientific management you mean? I mean if it stops a famine." Dawes hawked and spat, "These folks have had potatoes, since what the Ming right? Portuguese brought all of Americas fixings from the new world when Queen Elizabeth was around."

Centuries... and the population showed it. Complex agricultural organization with new advantageous crops, you get a population boom... then three hundred years to cook "I wasn't actually talking about farming." There were farmers who much like some people who distrusted or feared telegraphs disliked tractors. The mechanization process outcompeted the old ways, and it wasn't as if tennant farmers had been doing well anyway. "I was thinking about the original cadre. That's scientific management too."

Dawes mmhmmed in response nodding, "Yep, Management, and special projects. Trunk and line still needs work. Will need somebody or a couple somebodies if we're serious about the ford thing, and thinking about the office in Switzerland. Its a lot of work."

He was interrupted by a whispy haired lieutenant colonel on staff duty. The news wasn't really a surprise. "You think Percy knew?" He had to have suspected.

"That the Fukien bastards were going to make this move. Probably, hell we were expecting them to do it." The two of them tossed a look backwards from the observation deck to Percival Graves bawking, fidgeting under a sun shade and clearly fretting up a storm. "You better go see what he wants, he's a spring waiting to fly."

With a grimace they did that leaving the exercise yard behind by a ford, and to one of the offices where a bevy of company fellows sat at their teak escritoires busily. The names on the wall map were pressing. Pins in Chunking, and other parts of the west. Towns in Gansu, and Tibet. Young Ma ... well Allen was starting to suspect that the brigade commander was enjoying himself, and ignoring his uncles and the order to return... because he wasn't coming back yet. He wasn't sure what Hongkui thought he was doing, but it sure seemed like he had no idea what was going on in the capital... or it was possible he just didn't care.

Allen wasn't sure which of those two possibilities was worse. It was not hte sort of thing he wanted to discuss with Percy especially not given the mess Szechwan and Yunnan were without Little Ma trying to whack moles. China was a country as large as the states, and the mountains were high... and apparently not just Peking was far away. Percy spared the Journal du Peking copy a look, and settled into a chair leaving the staff sergeant to close the door, and look menacing to anyone outside, with surprising levity for as wound as he was Percy shrugged, "Oh come now John Allen the game is the game. Really." The englishman shook his head

Though it was called the Beiyang Fleet it really had nothing to do with the Beiyang army in a political affiliation sort of way. It wasn't just interservice rivalry. The Beiyang fleet, the modern chinese navy, had been humiliated as a result of its own corruption and ineptitude during the war with Japan... it didn't matter that ten years later Japan would trounce the Russians. It didn't excuse the Beiyang Fleet's own failings. So official name be damned Fukien clique was more accurate.

And the situation was a mess.

They weren't backing Li, per se. The admirals wanted a return to the 1912 constitution... the one that had never really been in effect, and even at the best had lasted months before reality had set in. It was a contrast though between what the Navy clique wanted, and... for example the pony tail general wanted. He was demanding parliament be dissolved and that Li resign. Duan was still staying quiet, so maybe the Tujun Association of Beiyang generals had talked all this out. Let the monarchist get loud and bang on, for some compromise

"That would be reassuring, the royalist party in parliament wants a constitutional monarchy."

He shrugged shaking his head, that wasn't news at all, "They've wanted that for years."

"They've asked Zhang Xun to ask Duan Qirui to support it."

... there was only one question to that, "Has he?" He paused, "Asked Duan?"

"We assume so." Percy accepted a brandy and sipped. "Hsu," Shih'chang, "is refusing to get involved." Allen wasn't surprised. Despite holding the rank of general, and having been a long time friend and confident of Yuan, in the Beiyang army he had no troops to his name.

... it made sense... then... the royalists ask pony tail, Zhang asks Duan... and by that point Zhang's had to have done the math... Li has no troops the southern provinces are fractured, threaten independence demand Li and the southern parliamentarians quit... the bigger question was really why now? Chunking? Probably not. ... he supposed it really could have been everyone was fed up with it. "So what's England going to do?"

"Goodness John Allen." Percy replied, "What are we supposed to do, this is a disaster. We can't just let them disolve into civil war." He wondered what Percy had been doing when Tsai O had declared independence, and Yuan Shikai had tried to make himself emperor and all of that... but he supposed in 1915 most of the trouble had been concentrated in the southwest with the Yunnan clique and it hadn't effected the international outlook. Taking a breath, and then a steadying sip, he shook his head, "Feng is being quiet... we don't know whats going on in Kiangsu."

Feng was unlikely to support a southern revival.... but... the possibility of Nanking, the largest city in the province revolting was another matter entirely. Feng might have been hesitant to give the firebrands an excuse unless he was sure he could handle it... Nanking was a powder keg for tongs and triads even after the manchu had been thrown out, and it wasn't just the cantonese revolutionaries that were a problem.

With little else to possibly calm the Englishman there was one card left to play, and he reached down to the leather file, and the documents in. "Here is your Buhkharan problem." He unfolded a map of the Trans Caspian railway, as it had been, when they had opened the company in Peking... but he doubted it was much out of date given the sluggish capital flows of the Russians, and of course the war that was now nearly three years on. "These are the Russian Railways. This is the Tian mountains between, and this is the now furthest extent of our building." He indicated, "We can dynamite and grade through the mountain, but I am not authorizing building on Russian soil without something in writing,"

Percy was salivating over the railway map, "Perfectly understandable John Allen... this is more than sufficient to start." The reality was things were disintegrating faster in Russia's large western cities now that the summer months had arrived. Inflation, and the stripping of workers and beasts to work the farms for years had meant a steadily declining rate of productivity of farms making the Russian Empire dependent on foreign stocks , which of course only increased prices. The unpopularity of the Tsarina, the disgrace of the Tsar, and the influx of revolutionaries backed by foreign capital only had worsened things over the months of 1917.

 

[ATP]

Poland is in the cards, Holland runs into not just the canon 1632 issues, but its more geographically distant and it honestly doesn't provide as much benefit. (Getting central banking started early is one of the things that any good sized town of ISOT people could probably manage to introduce, now would you be sure it would stick, probably not, but you don't need holland's help to integrate LLCs and business acumen) Holland's trade fleet is less useful really than it would seem on the surface, and without railway, you need geographic proximity to your allies.

Yes, when we get to 1632 and Grantville shows up they're absolutely try the canon route of going everywhere, but at least if the current outline holds [and canonically Grantville arrives in 1631, but thats not a great title] even though they try, there is actual fallout to the things they do wrong. Just as there is fallout elsewhere Holland has in this period to many strategic liabilities, Sweden has the mixed economic base that if you can keep everyone fed, and keep G.A. from getting his ass killed or at least insuring a stable succession down the road you have the resources on hand to introduce railways early not just in technological knowledge (uptimers) but in easy access to the raw materials and iron supplies that.

and frankly Stockholm is tiny during this period. I'd have to double check my notes but Grantvill in canon might actually be larger than Stockholm was in 1632

Click to shrink...

Poland is easy to manage,as long as you remember to not stop selling their grain and made their King stronger.Becouse that would made gentry mad.
Sweden - making them stronger is ill-advised,they wanted everything which they could take.In series author made their King friendly for unknown reasons,when in reality they would you use american against Habsburgs and then take them.

Railorads - you could use lighter made from wood and iron to pull wagons by horses,that could pull 10 times more compared to normal road.
Althought - ships woud remain better,even if you manage to made real trains.
So,rather canals then railroads with barges propelled by steam engines.

About 1917 Chins - they do not manage to keep entire China,so some kind of Confederacy should work for the time.

And agents in Switzerland - they do not need take much,
only plans for new ammo and longer barrels for gun from germans,and planes with engines from A-H.Preferably with constructors and engineers.
You arleady have guns and mortars,no need tanks for now,so - nothing more.

P.S reember about Avtoat Fedorova from russians !

 

[Imperator Pax]

Ring of Fire +3 Days
(Part 2)​

Gas & Diesel.

He wondered if he shouldn't have tried harder to buy the Edsel... but no. It would have been a quirk, and he wasn't sure he could have kept it running. Limits. Luke paid little heed to the SUV working its way down the ... or more accurately, up the driveway to the house given the lack of rain creating not just the grind of gravel underneath but an accompanying impressive amount of dust. His large oak table was now occupied by topographical maps that would have been current when reagan had been president. The Army evaluations still delineated the border between Communist East Germany, as well as showing Czechoslovakia as one country. The map though was useful because it showed topography, not for its political boundaries.

If they were in 17th​ century... then there would probably never be a soviet union in this world. The Stewart brothers had zeroed in on that fact after the map had been unfurled out of its tube. Tony glanced out the plantation blinds and stepped back, "Thats Walt's truck."

He grunted an affirmative as the non com moved back to the boxes he they'd been digging through since lunch. Tony moved to adjust the slung daniel defense. Mikey was the only one not armed, or at least not visibly, but Luke doubted the other professor was armed, especially since he'd seemed to come from the university straight here. What Tony hadn't done was change into his cammies, which created the odd contrast in attire. "I'm not sure how accurate these are going to be, this is still post industrialization, and the earliest I might have would be from world war 2," Which might have even been inaccurate or off due to faulty measurements, but, "It has the major features."

"Its not my area of study either." Michael replied shaking his head looking through the box. He paused, "The school might have earlier, remember the WW1 project, those should be in the library archive."

He wondered if maybe they had lucked out and someone in the department had done any post graduate research in the napoleonic war, or maybe any Renaissance specialization. The problem was modern cartography had only really begun with the early modern period, and topography had only really emerged in the Napoleonic period. That would roughly two hundred years closer... but frankly it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference... they had been ripped through time, and space and there was no telling how much use any map was going to be beyond the large landmarks. "Maybe, something for tomorrow." It was nearing five o'clock, "Is the school's geothermal," vanity project, "Working?"

"Yes," The response was shaky.

Michael didn't sound confident in his answer.... but then the reason he referred to it as a vanity project was because it was mostly for show. The university was technically powered by green energy, running off a nearly century old hydro electric dam before anyone thought about anthropogenic climate effects... and thus someone had gotten it into their head when they broke ground on the new student center to make it 'Green green' and geothermal... the end result was that it couldn't run the AC by itself in the high summer months of the south...

There was a clamping of boots up the ramp, and onto the deck and the door turned, "Hey Oliver can you move your truck-" Maybourne entered the great room clearing the mud room, and stopped, looking around.

"He got a ride back into town, I've have his keys." Luke replied as they walked outside and down to the gate with the vehicles parked on the otherside, "What have you been doing?"

"I got sent to show the fucking flag." He grunted, with a shake of his head, and a look skyward a direction northways that would eventually reach the baltic... The basic geography seemed to match particularly if Mike was right. That gave them points of reference to work from.

He threw a quick peak into Walter's vehicle, and the gear bags. "There a problem I should know about."

"Look I know the cell phone tower here works, and has power, but there is a radio in there." and while that was probably true, Maybourne seemed to have brought a lot of other stuff in the bed, "I mean I know we don't have satellites anymore, but its about the only thing the county and the city fuckers could get on the same page about."

"What happened in town?"

"The County Admin went at it with the city council, and then the undersheriff tore the police chief a new asshole. Shit," He drawled the word out and slumped against his vehicle, "Fuck Oliver should have been there. Clusterfuck... there is gonna be a fight over who gets to deputize who, and where people live and shit... and." He blew out another breath...

He wondered if Walter had been sent to the city center down town without being told what the sheriff's department had been doing on the now 'western' side of the county. Had the sheriff not told them to keep it from the city? That seemed ridiculous.

Walt's head thumped back against the side, "Stupid motherfuckers. Got to listen to some real unamerican shit from the usual suspects."

"The mayor?"

"No, surpassingly not.... like her and the old man were playing good cop, but the county wants the sheriff's department to protect the farmers market, and the farm bureau needs to meet or something?"

"Walt, there is a good chance Wallenstein," If that was who this was, he wasn't entirely sure if the books he had pulled were accurate, but it made the most sense for an Imperial army operating in the area, "'s troops seem to be foraging they'll try and hit our farms if they find them."

"Yeah, fuck, man I get that." He straightened, "Come on, man this is bitch is heavy I want to back it up."

"Right." Viktor pulled Oliver's spare key fob and unlocked it, before hitting the start button as he pulled into the cab as the motor revved. As it was parked, all he had to do was put it in drive, and move it away from the interior gate that separated the fenced in garden yard and the deck. The sixteen foot gate was opened, swinging both sections out and open to admit the backup camera equipped SUV to the ramp's lip. They turned the vehicles off, and opened the rear section. "So besides a radio what else is in here?"

"Some of this is my gear, my scar is up in the front seat, cause you know ... fucking killer clowns man. That's the," He gestured to a massive storm proof case, "radio, and antenna extension, and a bunch of cables. Apparently the county bought them to replace the shit FEMA had us buy after 9-11."

"I thought you liked going to those emergency management seminars."

"I do... but this is the county DHS's rig. Or their spare... I guess." he shrugged and jumped up into the back of the SUV and grabbed a drag bag to move it out of the way. "So whats with the 417 on the counter in there, anyway, you've got the can on it. And shit that Daniel Tony's carrying, did you just paint that?"

The MK 18 had been painted green, and scrub while he'd been off with Oliver, "Tony found some krylon in the game room, and in his defense he was left unattended."

Maybourne laughed. "Shit, bro. Grab that end, this bitch is heavy." He wasnt kidding. The storm cases were no bullshit supposed to be rated for hurricanes and tornados so they weren't light, but whatever was in here was a couple hundred pounds.

"Who helped you move this?"

"Its got fucking wheels at least." Maybourne grunted before the cased clunked onto the treated deckboards of the ramp without landing on his toes. "Communications redundancy. The old man wants as much of it as he can get. I figured Oliver must be up here since I was getting sent with it."

Lloyd Harris, the retired sheriff... and effectively emeritus to the position had had ambitions to be governor before the ring of fire, and thus had organizational ties through his successor, and the county apparatus. Communications so long as the power held would be a major advantage... not just tactically, and for security, but in the event of a fire, or other natural hazard. "I don't suppose they brought up gas rationing yet?"

"Probably too fucking late for that. I mean... I know BP doesn't have gas, and the indian store on the highway probably sold out by sunday... I'd be shocked if they've got gas." He grunted. "I mean the city cops are directing traffic where the lights are wonky, but..."

All the gas had probably sold out ... before anyone had really figured out that they were four hundred ish years in the past. Biofuels would be possible, salt water solutions and corn.... assuming they could harvest the corn without an issue or not starve, but not just messy the chemistry department was going to have production bottlenecks.

 

[ATP]

steamcars,then. It could be done with their technology.
Germans used during WW2 trucks fuelled by wood,they could do the same.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Poland is easy to manage,as long as you remember to not stop selling their grain and made their King stronger.Becouse that would made gentry mad.
Sweden - making them stronger is ill-advised,they wanted everything which they could take.In series author made their King friendly for unknown reasons,when in reality they would you use american against Habsburgs and then take them.

To be fair to Flint, it is very easy , especially in US circles to lionize Gustaf Adolf II, and also there was in US academic marxist (the historianss not the economic system) that wanted to completely divorce any religious Sweden had for intervening into the thirty years war, ascribing everything down to economics, and there is some validity to that, Sweden had been trying for years to vie with the hanseatic, and they were declining, Sweden was already competing with the Russian fur market, and they were supplying timber to both the dutch and the english. Some of it was purely imperial monarchial ambitions, some of it was economics sure, some of it was legitimately religious fervors... but the protestant reformation (and the counter reformation) was used for economic gain by political elites.

I suspect, that Flint adherred to this for cultural reasons, as well as academic reasons and theories. I do think Sweden would have been very practical about Grantville, but not to the xtent we see in canon. Frankly we will adhere to the 1632 canonical interpretation of Gustavus's character but if I were writing the explicitly historical 30 years war (and again in 1632 as a series, there are a number of fictional towns of size that appear) he would be vastly less sunshine and bunny hugs for the up timers. We are effectively looking at an economic triangular trade.

Poland supplies grain, sweden supplies iron and steel, and into this proto european union you get a circular out put of mechanization, stirling engines and such run off of wood, and then coal, gradual hydro electrification (and of course mechanization makes sense across the entire trade network because a railine moves goods and services all around). Eventually moving to steel shipbuilding in down time slips and so on, (though that will be by the time the Ming plot line (which was always silly in canon) down the road and steam power)

Click to shrink...

Railorads - you could use lighter made from wood and iron to pull wagons by horses,that could pull 10 times more compared to normal road.
Althought - ships woud remain better,even if you manage to made real trains.
So,rather canals then railroads with barges propelled by steam engines.

About 1917 Chins - they do not manage to keep entire China,so some kind of Confederacy should work for the time.

And agents in Switzerland - they do not need take much,
only plans for new ammo and longer barrels for gun from germans,and planes with engines from A-H.Preferably with constructors and engineers.
You arleady have guns and mortars,no need tanks for now,so - nothing more.

P.S reember about Avtoat Fedorova from russians !

Click to shrink...

Xian's constitution which will in timeline start being drafted in about eighteen months (and be finalized after the Romanov excursion concludes 1918) is based off of the Meiji constitution, and is cognizant of there not being an emperor and the response Zhang Xun's stant to put Puyi on the throne elicited it, so it makes no claims to the whole of the country. Its one provincial constitution Shaanxi, then Shanxi, the western provinces, but it more or less stays there as a coherent entity. This leaves Xian as defacto capital while other cliques and groups cobble together their own, and so forth Its only in the late forties that Xian has enough institutional and force projection to put all of China back together, and part of that is because of the war

 

[Imperator Pax]

June 1917
The 'soviet congress' on that Saturday had been inconsequential... fully prepared to dismiss English handwringing as the same sort that somehow marx had been responsible for the paris commune. So obsessed with the situation that somehow somewhat it was a must that the Germans be responsible for the gathering of socialists. It was such that the telegraph made it possible to know that such was happening that the embassy could send the message abroad that was the greater fact.

... the details though were lacking. Allen regarded the cable with concern. The British were sure that German money was supporting the socialists in Russia. The French mutinies were supposedly also the work of german spies... the old lion's government had hastily arranged show trials to try and prove it but really the French army was just tired.... that they had lasted so long was more impressive... but French were obviously at their breaking point. All of their plans for war had been to draw up and invade Germany. For thirty years the French had planned, and revised, planned and revised... and when war had finally come the French Grand Offensive, their Elan Vitale had been ground out, put through a sausage maker and expelled... and for what, what was the price of a mile?

He supposed when one got right down to it... after having been pushed into the war by Edward Gray strong arming the cabinet... the Briti... the Empire' War strategy could be thought of as the same grand strategy as against napoleon. Keep France and Russia in the fight and grind Germany down try and bring in as many other allies as possible. The broad moves were the same, especially in terms of the economics. Cut the enemy off as much as possible from support from abroad... from foreign capital.

The war couldn't last forever but it sure seemed like it could.

He did the only thing he could imagine appropriate in this situation and groaned. In solidarity one of the cavalry veterans raised his glass of beer. Cole himself was absent so the veteran of the 7th​ cavalry wielded his proxy vote in the cadre as his friend garrisoned Zhengzhou's railway depot. "Cullen reckons a fight is now inevitable." The Virginian drawled. He was dressed Allen noted in the gray uniform, and with pins signifying a command staff placement with 3rd​ Regiment, and not a place with the Gendarmes. "Intercepted telegrams hold that Duan wants to secure the Hankow rail line... from the sound of it otherwise, he means to mass the divisions from Peking and invade hunan directly through the rails."

"So it was a farce?"

It being the discussions between Li, and ole pony tail. The President had agreed to dismiss parliament. The Fukien clique had rebelled in protest demanding the reinstatement of the original constitution... and now this. "It might, or just as likely Duan is upping his ante."

Hunan was the gateway to the south. Holding that rail line meant he could push 8th​ and 30th​ divisions of the Peking army all the way to Canton. And roll troops to reinforce the Kiangsi, as well as move troops into Szechwan. The only limitation really was that of Yunnan. Even though its leader was dead, the Yunnan clique could still follow the same strategy and withdraw into the province's foothills beyond the reach of the railway and fight the larger, better equipped Peking divisions on their own terms.

... but that would be all that the Yunnan army could hope to do... but of course that would bleed an already perilously short of funds northern military of money, and material. Losses that had been enough to get Yuan to back off his whole imperial ascendancy plan.
--
The report had snuck up on him. He hadn't been thinking about summer, or the evaluations or any of that... not summer in that way. They were a monopoly in so many ways. He'd been expecting next month's steel and oil reports. Vertical and horizontal integration of goods and services put their hands in so many pies. He was expecting reports from what he still occasionally caught himself thinking of as the 'new arsenals' Watie, and Simmons were both due to report in on the machine tooling situation, and their adoption of the Pattern 1913 rifles to their 200gr 7.92... but he had forgotten was due to cross his desk were the school board reports.

Chinese written with vernacular characters. Chinese romanized. English.

Pidgin English, and Vernacular English were not the same thing. The British be damned... but there was an existing habit of clipping words, dropping unnecessary ones and relaying commands such that ... he had expected that there was a borrowing of phrases both back and forth that lended to some confusion.

Then of course if not that then there was the perennial problem of busybodies sticking their noses where they didn't belong.

Allen was glad to be interrupted from civil administration... even if it was to confront the increasing acceleration towards conflict. The horse trading was getting irritating. Li said dissolving parliament was unconstitutional. Three days later, all of sudden Zhang's demand was reasonable. The Fukien clique wanted the original provisional constitution reinstated Duan agrees. Duan then starts maneuvering troops to the railway hub to as they presumed invest Hunan.

Since 1911 the Japanese had just started tallying everything as 'the Chinese incident' and numbered off as the years went by as it happened year in year out. He could understand why Japan's General staff had taken to just assigning all of this a number and writing out what they knew even as Nakamichi finished bringing him up to speed. Duan agreeing to the original proposed constitution flew straight in the face of ... not just his apparent agreement with constitutional monarchy with Zhang Xun, but also the former premier's own political ambitions. Duan wasn't going to honor that agreement, and the navy boys had to be sun baked to think he would.

Not that a constitution was a terrible idea, but ... well

Nakamichi adjusted his spectacles in contemplation.

Allen blew a breath out, and glanced at the man who'd taken the seat across the table. "How many troops is Zhang bringing into the city?"

"Officially it is a regiment." Five thousand of the roughly twenty thousand division that was the Wu Wei Corp as it existed in the here and now.

"Does Zhang know?"

"About the motion to reinstate the Provisional Constitution?"

"To the best of our knowledge no." The answer only redoubled the necessity of getting a hold of Percy... and probably the US Legation as well.

He sucked in a breath, and thought back to Yuan sending old pony tail to Nanking during the 'second revolution' 1913. If he got to Peking thinking everyone was on the same page, that parliament had been dissolved, and that they were getting a constitutional monarchy only to find that there was talk of the provisional constitution there was going to be blood.

Nakamichi nodded in agreement, "Of course that could be the objective. Zhang may be investing the capital while troops prepare to move to quash the rebels."

Underhanded, but sure. A ruse du geurre. "Yunnan is still de facto independent." Even though they had 'cancelled' their 'declaration of independence' it wasn't as if they were sending taxes to Peking... and they weren't the only ones. There had also been at least one semi successful mutiny, in so far as they managed to seize the ship for a time, in Shanghai in that year. Kiangnan Arsenal was at Shanghai in full view of the international settlement, which was going to bring in the French, and British and very likely both Japan and the States.

There would be unrest though potentially dangerous amounts of it... and even though it had been overshadowed by the war in Europe, Bai Lang wasn't forgotten, and nor had the Boxers been erased from the memory. Nakamichi's mission separate from the internal feuds of the Legation, and disagreements between differing cliques, was security. The same sort of protection and extension of protection of foreign nationals, namely foreign missionaries as during 1913 and 14.

"We have no presence in Shanghai, or Shantung," Admittedly the army's 15th​ division and the leathernecks had a small mixed force in the bay area, but he couldn't make promises of US forces, given the situation... especially as Japan had seized the German concession there two years earlier.

Perhaps though, the biggest news, the pivot was the foreign ministry under Terauchi's government from Okuma. Terauchi wanted Duan, China to join the war against Germany... for whatever a Chinese declaration of war on Germany would mean... and well Hayashi seemed to be in agreement now advocating for a complete severing of relations with the south, including the vital supply of japanese arms to the KMT.

... which was a hell of a change of direction for the minister. Allen was sure something must have happened, that they had missed, beyond just the new government coming into power in October.
--
Notes: Among other things this is part of the reason Xian will go on to promulgate a written constitution in 1919/1920... besides that a lot of provinces were doing that, and that even though the Peking government was still recognized (such that it was represented at the 21-22 Washington Conference) it no longer ruled even the northern provinces. And of course in that same time frame, Japan, France, America, the UK etc etc made a host of differing aggreements and then broke them as governments changes, and conditions changed. June 1917 ends in the next update, and in July we begin the actual shooting phase.

 

[ATP]

Lenin was send by germans,but Trocky&thugs by Wall Street.And they win revolution for Lenin.
And,if british really wanted quick victory,they would made real blockade in 1914,not 1917.
Becouse,till 1917 germans was getting food and war materials from Denmark and Holland.Sometimes from british ships.

Becouse England wonted long bloody war which would exchaust everybody.

 

[Imperator Pax]

June 1917 Conclusion​

What would come over the course of the next few days proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The only rationalization that was made after was political struggle, the struggle over who was going to actually be in charge. Zhang Xun, or Duan Qirui, and then Feng through his hat into the ring of the Beiyang officers, and that was enough. So instead of fighting the south a fracas emerged between northern troops. It wouldn't turn into a free for all... but all of sudden it was Beiyang troops on both sides. One supporting a silly Manchu restoration under an alleged constitutional monarchy, according to the Royalist party that the pony tail general was a friend of, and the other ironically beiyang troops supporting the provisional national constitution in name only under Duan Qirui. Then there were all the people caught in between. Feng chose to sitting the fight out among them in Nanking.

It was to be what one journalist accurately described as a completely farcical affair where no one was quite sure who was on which side, and entirely prototypical of many future struggles. The backroom deals and everything were only part of it.

"Pony tail commands the largest number of any single Beiyang officer." A full modern, an overstrength really, Division. "The Wu Wei corp is twenty thousand men. Cao Kun had the 3rd Division which is understrength, but near enough to put him in the running of largest forces after Feng and Duan." The average Beiyang division was no where near their paper allotment of men or machine guns... realistically that was just a matter of money, but a secondary factor had been political reliability. The Qing had opened the army to attempt to modernize and then the uprising had occurred, and the northern divisions had turned to support Yuan Shikai. Yuan had moved to downsize and disarm the southern divisions that had joined the rebels and to an extent cut them from funds , keeping or attempting to keep about half a million men under arms...

Allen nodded running his tongue over his teeth and picking up a long brass case. 200 grains, slightly heavier than the original match loads they had used, but the same spitzer boat tail shape, just mild changes in production. The original load had been without any sort of assumptions to machine gun usage... what would they have shot it out of, at the time... then later that became a realistic need, and they had had more and better machines so a little heavier bullet, fifty grains of powder. A first place finisher to be sure.

He put the bullet down and picked up the silver dollar... "Cao needs ammo again I take it?"

"Yeah." The affirmative was grunted out.

Which meant he was afraid a fight was going to break out. This wasn't the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last. The offer of silver mexican coinage wasn't unusual. It was good currency and was Cao's normal fare. It shouldn't have been bothering him. "And Cole, anything?"

"Situation seems tense."

Zhengzhou was a special city. The Qing had started directly administering it as the railway network had come through, Yuan Shikai had kept that up... but things had already been complicated by that point... and the status quo had just sort of been shambling along for the last year.

Zhengzhou was not technically within the confines of Zhili province. It was in Honan, and its direct administration by the capital, as a result of the mass of rail hubs, and mills caused the province to chafe a bit at it. There were gentry who complained... who had agitated in the railway scuffle in 1910 and then the year after and there were still some doing it. From Zhili, to Zhengzhou, and then about ninety degrees heading west that was how their line went, and the property rights that went with the line... because the line got built, and because of the expansion. Coal. Steel. He thought of the oil explorations that had had to be sidelined and were only now really coming underway.

Zhao Ti had declared independence of Honan from Peking a month ago. That meant he was confident he could hold the province against any revolutionary sentiment, but they'd have to see if that was born out in truth.

"He hasn't been able to keep the southern bandits quiet."

Or stop Hsu, the one in the south of the province, not the one in Tietsin, from coming over the border either. They were both kind of sort of trouble in their own rights, but as June had dragged on all sorts of people had started to walk on eggshells.

They had been attempting to do the later... but manpower was short... and the truth was shooting Hu wasn't... wouldn't have been neighborly. Hu was at least so far as Shaanxi's public was concerned fighting bandits, ... "Hu?"

"Has surprisingly stayed off the telegraph for the last couple of weeks. I think he's waiting to see what's going to happen." The last that they had heard was that he supported returning to the provisional constitution, and then at the end of may had condemned the dissolution of parliament... so him being quiet was a potential concern.

They ran through the list. Peking was distracted, and if a fought broke out it would be all too clear that there wasn't going to be anybody to stop them from settling scores.
--
Chen was in Tietsin of course. So was Cao. The consensus was Zhao didn't have the troops to hold the province on his own in the face of any significant uprising. Not when he had to share military power with the Hongwei army and with other older green banner types.

He knew the Hongwei had a couple of old... he wondered when he had started thinking of 1903 Krupps as old... mountain guns. 75 mm, but not enough of them. Similarly there was Yunnan, whose officers complained about their lack of modern guns, loudly and often about their distaste for their dated french artillery. Guns that were the same vintage as those used in the Chunking incident that had made the paper last month.

Allen tossed a look to the 'parking lot'.... which was more accurate he supposed than motor pool or garage since it was just a big interior square with not maintenance bays.

"Still thinking about the car?"

The cherry red mitsubishi Hayashi had was a lovely vehicle. All of the interior hardwood and upholstrey was handmade specific for each order ... which would mean it wouldn't exactly be a surprise. "Just trying to find the time."

"So Yan?"

He drummed his fingers on the paper. The prospectus was uncertain because of the war in Europe, not so much because of a fight here.. but Zhengzhou needed to remain open and running west and northword.

"Yes."

In contrast to plenty of others, the dujun of Shensi had accepted more or less from the outset Yuan's monarchial proclamations... it had been an odd development... and Yuan had awarded the governor who just the year earlier he'd been accusing of sedition a title of nobility within his new dynastic system. It hadn't come to anything, not really the fighting down south had cost too much money to sustain for too little gain, and Yuan had abdicated returning to merely being president, and then had passed away a year ago this month.

"How is the staff taking it?"

"I haven't had the chance to talk to Shan, but Major Deng," who was currently in his staff rotation as adjutant in place of the older Manchu colonel, "is skeptical."

"Why's that?"

"Says they're too poor." He paused, and shook his head, "Deng thinks they're too poor to help, but I think thats looking at it wrong. Yan has done a lot of good for his province for what little capital he has access to." He looked at Griswold . "Why?"

"Chen is barely in the province at all Allen. His running off to Tietsin looks bad when there are already bandit issues, and having Gansu brigades here fighting bandits coming from Szechwan, makes it all the worse. It might be one thing if it was Cao Kun as Dujun," but they weren't talking about Zhili so Cao's marital relations didn't count. The fact was that that was even a point of consideration in army movements was ridiculous. "we have to do something."

"We're approaching a situation where capital divide is going to be an issue," he rejoindered. "The swiss office is up, and have funds in the bank, and the word from Europe is concerning." Leaving aside the Russian matter the franc was near to worthless now. The pound was doing better , but the franc had cratered from its pre war value... the french had been printing money like crazy of course, and the US had been taking on gold reserves until the french had suspended exchange. "Powell-"

"Has talked to Edenborn about the office." Griswold replied, "and I'm gonna be honest, he's been talking to others as well. That rail job is tempting, and I think its about time we start adding local hands to the cadre. Some of us are going to move on anyway, but we take that job in the banana republic, and we can ship stock to them via the pacific, and that will let us ease down production."

"We'd be losing Powell to the job."

"Probably so," It would have other effects than that, but 1917's problems were looking more immediate... the real end to the war still seemed far off. The war still seemed like it was never going to end. The prospect of constitution at the provincial level would be discussed but would take time, and by the time they started drafting there were other reforms. Shansi as a province started to move to a municipal, and revised county structure before the constitution that was to be was drafted... made possible simply because of Xian's population relative to the rest of the province. It was NYC to New York, more or less, while also being Albany... but the coming violence justified the reforms at the 'state' level, and justified changes that would be rapidly in place by August.

... and of course when the cutting was done this summer those changes would spiral into even more changes. "Anything else I should know about?"

"Percy is up to something."

Not a surprise, "What makes you say that?"

"He's talking about some Russian German Count something or other." He raised an eyebrow, the Georgian shrugged, "Its whats been said. "I've heard his name before... paper, distinctions," He scrunched up, and then reeached into the broad breast pocket of his gray uniform, "Keller." Griswold muttered looking at the telegram copy.

"What about him?"

"The British think the Russians are going to exit the war under this new government, especially with what's going on." The implication of course was that the British might well have been wanting to stage a counter revolution, a coup to keep the Russians in the war... and of course possibly put someone they trusted in the top slot over the French's man there currently, or some unknown later.
--
Notes: June is basically the political set up chapter, both locally, internally, externally, nationally, internationally... etc WW1 related fuckery is still going on, there is the matter of other things in the timeline that strictly speaking are municipal politics, but there are also the old china hands (as they would be come to known) after the war in the diplomatic corp, and of course in the broader timeline sense, the Cadre as a China based trading house/firm/corporate entity is about to start preparing to subdivide into other firms that will continue to play a role into the timeline into the cold war.

In the next chapter (July) we go back to active shooting phase and small battles focused on the sub units, because that is basically all July is up until its conclusion. It is roughly a twelve days of small skirmishes and who controls what chokepoint, and what resources.
--
As to update schedule in general, thus far August's planned schedule has currently derailed. I will probably figure a new schedule next week sometime.

 

[ATP]

June 1917 Conclusion​

What would come over the course of the next few days proved to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. The only rationalization that was made after was political struggle, the struggle over who was going to actually be in charge. Zhang Xun, or Duan Qirui, and then Feng through his hat into the ring of the Beiyang officers, and that was enough. So instead of fighting the south a fracas emerged between northern troops. It wouldn't turn into a free for all... but all of sudden it was Beiyang troops on both sides. One supporting a silly Manchu restoration under an alleged constitutional monarchy, according to the Royalist party that the pony tail general was a friend of, and the other ironically beiyang troops supporting the provisional national constitution in name only under Duan Qirui. Then there were all the people caught in between. Feng chose to sitting the fight out among them in Nanking.

It was to be what one journalist accurately described as a completely farcical affair where no one was quite sure who was on which side, and entirely prototypical of many future struggles. The backroom deals and everything were only part of it.

"Pony tail commands the largest number of any single Beiyang officer." A full modern, an overstrength really, Division. "The Wu Wei corp is twenty thousand men. Cao Kun had the 3rd Division which is understrength, but near enough to put him in the running of largest forces after Feng and Duan." The average Beiyang division was no where near their paper allotment of men or machine guns... realistically that was just a matter of money, but a secondary factor had been political reliability. The Qing had opened the army to attempt to modernize and then the uprising had occurred, and the northern divisions had turned to support Yuan Shikai. Yuan had moved to downsize and disarm the southern divisions that had joined the rebels and to an extent cut them from funds , keeping or attempting to keep about half a million men under arms...

Allen nodded running his tongue over his teeth and picking up a long brass case. 200 grains, slightly heavier than the original match loads they had used, but the same spitzer boat tail shape, just mild changes in production. The original load had been without any sort of assumptions to machine gun usage... what would they have shot it out of, at the time... then later that became a realistic need, and they had had more and better machines so a little heavier bullet, fifty grains of powder. A first place finisher to be sure.

He put the bullet down and picked up the silver dollar... "Cao needs ammo again I take it?"

"Yeah." The affirmative was grunted out.

Which meant he was afraid a fight was going to break out. This wasn't the first time, and probably wouldn't be the last. The offer of silver mexican coinage wasn't unusual. It was good currency and was Cao's normal fare. It shouldn't have been bothering him. "And Cole, anything?"

"Situation seems tense."

Zhengzhou was a special city. The Qing had started directly administering it as the railway network had come through, Yuan Shikai had kept that up... but things had already been complicated by that point... and the status quo had just sort of been shambling along for the last year.

Zhengzhou was not technically within the confines of Zhili province. It was in Honan, and its direct administration by the capital, as a result of the mass of rail hubs, and mills caused the province to chafe a bit at it. There were gentry who complained... who had agitated in the railway scuffle in 1910 and then the year after and there were still some doing it. From Zhili, to Zhengzhou, and then about ninety degrees heading west that was how their line went, and the property rights that went with the line... because the line got built, and because of the expansion. Coal. Steel. He thought of the oil explorations that had had to be sidelined and were only now really coming underway.

Zhao Ti had declared independence of Honan from Peking a month ago. That meant he was confident he could hold the province against any revolutionary sentiment, but they'd have to see if that was born out in truth.

"He hasn't been able to keep the southern bandits quiet."

Or stop Hsu, the one in the south of the province, not the one in Tietsin, from coming over the border either. They were both kind of sort of trouble in their own rights, but as June had dragged on all sorts of people had started to walk on eggshells.

They had been attempting to do the later... but manpower was short... and the truth was shooting Hu wasn't... wouldn't have been neighborly. Hu was at least so far as Shaanxi's public was concerned fighting bandits, ... "Hu?"

"Has surprisingly stayed off the telegraph for the last couple of weeks. I think he's waiting to see what's going to happen." The last that they had heard was that he supported returning to the provisional constitution, and then at the end of may had condemned the dissolution of parliament... so him being quiet was a potential concern.

They ran through the list. Peking was distracted, and if a fought broke out it would be all too clear that there wasn't going to be anybody to stop them from settling scores.
--
Chen was in Tietsin of course. So was Cao. The consensus was Zhao didn't have the troops to hold the province on his own in the face of any significant uprising. Not when he had to share military power with the Hongwei army and with other older green banner types.

He knew the Hongwei had a couple of old... he wondered when he had started thinking of 1903 Krupps as old... mountain guns. 75 mm, but not enough of them. Similarly there was Yunnan, whose officers complained about their lack of modern guns, loudly and often about their distaste for their dated french artillery. Guns that were the same vintage as those used in the Chunking incident that had made the paper last month.

Allen tossed a look to the 'parking lot'.... which was more accurate he supposed than motor pool or garage since it was just a big interior square with not maintenance bays.

"Still thinking about the car?"

The cherry red mitsubishi Hayashi had was a lovely vehicle. All of the interior hardwood and upholstrey was handmade specific for each order ... which would mean it wouldn't exactly be a surprise. "Just trying to find the time."

"So Yan?"

He drummed his fingers on the paper. The prospectus was uncertain because of the war in Europe, not so much because of a fight here.. but Zhengzhou needed to remain open and running west and northword.

"Yes."

In contrast to plenty of others, the dujun of Shensi had accepted more or less from the outset Yuan's monarchial proclamations... it had been an odd development... and Yuan had awarded the governor who just the year earlier he'd been accusing of sedition a title of nobility within his new dynastic system. It hadn't come to anything, not really the fighting down south had cost too much money to sustain for too little gain, and Yuan had abdicated returning to merely being president, and then had passed away a year ago this month.

"How is the staff taking it?"

"I haven't had the chance to talk to Shan, but Major Deng," who was currently in his staff rotation as adjutant in place of the older Manchu colonel, "is skeptical."

"Why's that?"

"Says they're too poor." He paused, and shook his head, "Deng thinks they're too poor to help, but I think thats looking at it wrong. Yan has done a lot of good for his province for what little capital he has access to." He looked at Griswold . "Why?"

"Chen is barely in the province at all Allen. His running off to Tietsin looks bad when there are already bandit issues, and having Gansu brigades here fighting bandits coming from Szechwan, makes it all the worse. It might be one thing if it was Cao Kun as Dujun," but they weren't talking about Zhili so Cao's marital relations didn't count. The fact was that that was even a point of consideration in army movements was ridiculous. "we have to do something."

"We're approaching a situation where capital divide is going to be an issue," he rejoindered. "The swiss office is up, and have funds in the bank, and the word from Europe is concerning." Leaving aside the Russian matter the franc was near to worthless now. The pound was doing better , but the franc had cratered from its pre war value... the french had been printing money like crazy of course, and the US had been taking on gold reserves until the french had suspended exchange. "Powell-"

"Has talked to Edenborn about the office." Griswold replied, "and I'm gonna be honest, he's been talking to others as well. That rail job is tempting, and I think its about time we start adding local hands to the cadre. Some of us are going to move on anyway, but we take that job in the banana republic, and we can ship stock to them via the pacific, and that will let us ease down production."

"We'd be losing Powell to the job."

"Probably so," It would have other effects than that, but 1917's problems were looking more immediate... the real end to the war still seemed far off. The war still seemed like it was never going to end. The prospect of constitution at the provincial level would be discussed but would take time, and by the time they started drafting there were other reforms. Shansi as a province started to move to a municipal, and revised county structure before the constitution that was to be was drafted... made possible simply because of Xian's population relative to the rest of the province. It was NYC to New York, more or less, while also being Albany... but the coming violence justified the reforms at the 'state' level, and justified changes that would be rapidly in place by August.

... and of course when the cutting was done this summer those changes would spiral into even more changes. "Anything else I should know about?"

"Percy is up to something."

Not a surprise, "What makes you say that?"

"He's talking about some Russian German Count something or other." He raised an eyebrow, the Georgian shrugged, "Its whats been said. "I've heard his name before... paper, distinctions," He scrunched up, and then reeached into the broad breast pocket of his gray uniform, "Keller." Griswold muttered looking at the telegram copy.

"What about him?"

"The British think the Russians are going to exit the war under this new government, especially with what's going on." The implication of course was that the British might well have been wanting to stage a counter revolution, a coup to keep the Russians in the war... and of course possibly put someone they trusted in the top slot over the French's man there currently, or some unknown later.
--
Notes: June is basically the political set up chapter, both locally, internally, externally, nationally, internationally... etc WW1 related fuckery is still going on, there is the matter of other things in the timeline that strictly speaking are municipal politics, but there are also the old china hands (as they would be come to known) after the war in the diplomatic corp, and of course in the broader timeline sense, the Cadre as a China based trading house/firm/corporate entity is about to start preparing to subdivide into other firms that will continue to play a role into the timeline into the cold war.

In the next chapter (July) we go back to active shooting phase and small battles focused on the sub units, because that is basically all July is up until its conclusion. It is roughly a twelve days of small skirmishes and who controls what chokepoint, and what resources.
--
As to update schedule in general, thus far August's planned schedule has currently derailed. I will probably figure a new schedule next week sometime.

Click to shrink...

In OTL Kerensky was keeping Russia at war becouse he was french bitch.Or,to be precise,french masons bitch.And he lost power becouse he do not crush Lenin,which was still possible for him.
Instead,he choosed to let Lenin agitators work in russian army - when they could be taken and schoot.

I remember many memories of polish gentry who was russian officers - they all agreed that soldiers becomed pro-soviet after months of work of Lenin agitators.
If Kerensky let them schoot those agitators,there would be no revolution.
And no any offensive,of course.Letting part of army go home and only defend themselves,with addition of schooting Lenin and his thugs,would keep Russia at war.

Another important thing - not Lenin,but Kerensky let Poland be free/and other states,like Finland,too/
Only reason why France formed polish army in France was becouse Kerensky Russia acknowledged free Poland.

P.S China is on its marry way to dissolving itself - all SI need is wait and later catch falled pieces for himself.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Lenin was send by germans,but Trocky&thugs by Wall Street.And they win revolution for Lenin.
And,if british really wanted quick victory,they would made real blockade in 1914,not 1917.
Becouse,till 1917 germans was getting food and war materials from Denmark and Holland.Sometimes from british ships.

Becouse England wonted long bloody war which would exchaust everybody.

Click to shrink...

Again, the British, well Imperial General Headquarters and cabinet was operating under... basically serious misconceptions about how things would go, and again the main reason that the British entered the war was gray threatening to resign if the cabinet didn't declare war and the British French alliance had not precisely been legal under British law, Parliament had very little involvement compared to the Foreign Ministry (1902-1910, but especially that latter half period) making agreements behind the scenes that Parliament was not privy to. Yes, quick decisive action by the royal navy (which I'm going to be honest, given the RN's performance at Jutland may not have worked as well as numbers suggest) could have knocked germany out earlier, but the reason they didn't go that route, again misreading the situation, this will be quick this will be like the last few conflicts and since 'it will only be a couple months we don't dare act ungentlemanly to the neutral powers', and British mercantile interests remained very, very influential in parliament even as the government grew in what influence had, in 1914 the British government didn't have the will or the authority yet to do what it did in 1917.

And again, doctrine wise, the British had misjudged the situation, and were not prepared in doctrine to go forward with things that in hindsight that to us are obvious.

In OTL Kerensky was keeping Russia at war becouse he was french bitch.Or,to be precise,french masons bitch.And he lost power becouse he do not crush Lenin,which was still possible for him.
Instead,he choosed to let Lenin agitators work in russian army - when they could be taken and schoot.

I remember many memories of polish gentry who was russian officers - they all agreed that soldiers becomed pro-soviet after months of work of Lenin agitators.
If Kerensky let them schoot those agitators,there would be no revolution.
And no any offensive,of course.Letting part of army go home and only defend themselves,with addition of schooting Lenin and his thugs,would keep Russia at war.

Another important thing - not Lenin,but Kerensky let Poland be free/and other states,like Finland,too/
Only reason why France formed polish army in France was becouse Kerensky Russia acknowledged free Poland.

P.S China is on its marry way to dissolving itself - all SI need is wait and later catch falled pieces for himself.

Click to shrink...

Kerensky's problem always struck me as a combination of being unable to commit to an actual course so much as trying to cajole people into agreements rather than acting on the problem in front of him, Kerensky just seemed to lack a spine to act, and yes I get the French were holding the purse strings and Kerensky needed their money to run the interim government, and it is from that, that welll... the French were getting the money from the British who were getting the loans from wall street, so given the Foreign ministry

here it makes sense for Britain to want 'their guy' meaning whoever they can find to go along with their plans, over the French's guy, to be incharge since its 'their money' anyway unfortunately here, its too little too late, Lenin is already in country the dice has been rolled and civil war is ultimately unavoidable at this point.
--
I'm going to sideline in to late 19th early 20th century theory and history for a minute, and this is abridged, and quick and dirty

Spoiler: Theory and Practice 'mahon-ism'

So really up until the end of ww2 everyone was on the same page in terms of naval theory so from basically 1891 to 1945, basically half a century Mahon was the dominant school of naval theory.... and part of this is that basically right after it gets written and everyone agrees with it in principle it gets tested, and as a result it seems confirm whats written,

Japan beats China in the Sino-Japanese war, seeming confirming the thesis, and specifically for Japan confirming decisive battle. The British look at this (Japan and England are allies already) nods and agrees. A couple years later the US fights spain after the maine goes up. The US gets confirmation bias, the theory is sound, the difference for both the US and England is that Mahon's thesis is more than just decisive battle.

However what has happened in the interim is that the Admiralty has becoming increasignly conservative, in part due to the expense of having to replace the RN with steel warships with coal, and then later oil, powered steam and that more or less cripples the British ability to act in decisive manner out of fears of losing very expensive ships (Again, Beaty at Jutland, had he been an admiral a hundred years earlier, would have executed for cowardice for his conduct at Jutland. If he had been in Nelsons navy the best he could have hoped for was to be cashiered for his failures. Jutland was a failure of doctrine in practice, and and failure of men, but in the strategic sense suceeded in forcing the germans back to port)

It wasnt however in Mahon terms the decivise battle of capital ships with total victory

 

[ATP]

Again, the British, well Imperial General Headquarters and cabinet was operating under... basically serious misconceptions about how things would go, and again the main reason that the British entered the war was gray threatening to resign if the cabinet didn't declare war and the British French alliance had not precisely been legal under British law, Parliament had very little involvement compared to the Foreign Ministry (1902-1910, but especially that latter half period) making agreements behind the scenes that Parliament was not privy to. Yes, quick decisive action by the royal navy (which I'm going to be honest, given the RN's performance at Jutland may not have worked as well as numbers suggest) could have knocked germany out earlier, but the reason they didn't go that route, again misreading the situation, this will be quick this will be like the last few conflicts and since 'it will only be a couple months we don't dare act ungentlemanly to the neutral powers', and British mercantile interests remained very, very influential in parliament even as the government grew in what influence had, in 1914 the British government didn't have the will or the authority yet to do what it did in 1917.

And again, doctrine wise, the British had misjudged the situation, and were not prepared in doctrine to go forward with things that in hindsight that to us are obvious.




Kerensky's problem always struck me as a combination of being unable to commit to an actual course so much as trying to cajole people into agreements rather than acting on the problem in front of him, Kerensky just seemed to lack a spine to act, and yes I get the French were holding the purse strings and Kerensky needed their money to run the interim government, and it is from that, that welll... the French were getting the money from the British who were getting the loans from wall street, so given the Foreign ministry

here it makes sense for Britain to want 'their guy' meaning whoever they can find to go along with their plans, over the French's guy, to be incharge since its 'their money' anyway unfortunately here, its too little too late, Lenin is already in country the dice has been rolled and civil war is ultimately unavoidable at this point.
--
I'm going to sideline in to late 19th early 20th century theory and history for a minute, and this is abridged, and quick and dirty

Spoiler: Theory and Practice 'mahon-ism'

So really up until the end of ww2 everyone was on the same page in terms of naval theory so from basically 1891 to 1945, basically half a century Mahon was the dominant school of naval theory.... and part of this is that basically right after it gets written and everyone agrees with it in principle it gets tested, and as a result it seems confirm whats written,

Japan beats China in the Sino-Japanese war, seeming confirming the thesis, and specifically for Japan confirming decisive battle. The British look at this (Japan and England are allies already) nods and agrees. A couple years later the US fights spain after the maine goes up. The US gets confirmation bias, the theory is sound, the difference for both the US and England is that Mahon's thesis is more than just decisive battle.

However what has happened in the interim is that the Admiralty has becoming increasignly conservative, in part due to the expense of having to replace the RN with steel warships with coal, and then later oil, powered steam and that more or less cripples the British ability to act in decisive manner out of fears of losing very expensive ships (Again, Beaty at Jutland, had he been an admiral a hundred years earlier, would have executed for cowardice for his conduct at Jutland. If he had been in Nelsons navy the best he could have hoped for was to be cashiered for his failures. Jutland was a failure of doctrine in practice, and and failure of men, but in the strategic sense suceeded in forcing the germans back to port)

It wasnt however in Mahon terms the decivise battle of capital ships with total victory

Click to shrink...

1.I hope,that you are wrong - i prefer cold evil british who let their allies bleed to idiot british who let germans survive till 1917 becouse they were only stupid.Becouse world ruled by evil intelligient cabals is more interesting then world ruled by idiots.
And,you could except what cold evil character would do,when idiots are unforeseen.

2.According to all memories i read,Kerensky was all talk and no decision - he come to some unit with soviet agitators,made speech about patriotism/even good one/,left,and...did nothing to agitators and let them work there.And it happened many times.
British had good idea in replacing him.Pity,that Wall Street choosed Trocky who win revolution for Lenin.

3.Mahon idea was good one - till the time when reliable submarines with good torpedoes was made.And,especially when planes get engines strong enough to take torpedoes,too.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Week 1 (A)​

The dusty bin was a pelican case. It had been scuffed, and scratched, and vinyl stickers added to. The inside were peltor com tac III wires to interface for the Harris radios. It was clear though that Mikey didn't have a clue what the fuck he was looking at. His brother, the senior enlisted man did know what the Army Civil Affairs man didn't.

"So?"

"Luke has been paging through that book," In between some snarling about histiography and something about academic interests and something else the older Stewart brother hadn't quite parsed, and then cleared his throat, "Anyway, he's right we're really fucked on fuel in the short term so if you guys are going to the university then carpool." Biking was out of the question, walking was out of the question, even without the security concerns...

Which was the problem.

"Whats in the book?" His brother gestured to the blue cover that was flipped up on the counter top.

"A bunch of guys in stupid costumes, and tin suits." He grunted untangling the wires. "Tin suits who want to shoot us with really big lead balls." He shook his head, and threaded a line through the guide, "Walter makes it sound like there is trouble in town."

Michael paused and exhaled contemplating the third leg of the demographic problem with the county. There was the county seat and the smaller surrounding towns, and the rural spread, but the county seat was home to the university, and that meant a significant population of kids who ordinarily would have been going home for summer and leaving the dorms if this... whatever this was had happened closer to the end of the month. "I ... I, there are a lot of people scared right now, and don't know what's going on."

"You went to Afghanistan the same as the rest of us."

Mike started to shake his head in his older brother's comment "Under the individual ready reserve. And just for the one time, and nothing really happened where I was." He clipped his mouth shut. Tony had left for Paris Island as soon as he'd finished his senior year, and had been near through a contract when the towers had fallen. "This isn't the same thing?"

"Far as I can tell it kind of is." Tony replied with a snort tossing the plate carrier onto the heavy oak table, "The guns are different, sure, but its us, and them," He didn't have an immediate response to that, "Look," They stopped talking as a sweaty pair of former marine officers came back in.

Walter leaned over the box, and pressed a tan box, and glanced at the house's owner. There was a wrinkled expression of disapproval.

"Its the older model. I know its not the latest and greatest." Luke grunted. "Thankfully it does take the newer rechargeables like yours." The batteries of the radio... well they hadn't been great in the desert heat, and if they were in north germany it would be interesting to see how they handled the weather here, but it would probably be less of a drain on performance. "I don't know if we will need it right now." It was monday afternoon.

"You're going to the school tomorrow."

Not because he was teaching. Michael had technically had monday classes but the school had cancelled them. There had been an emergency staff meeting that Luke had missed, but frankly Mike got the impression from the dark greens and browns, and more pointedly the large caliber rifle that ... presumably whatever he'd been doing might have been more a hair more important.

"Fuel, batteries too," When the ring of fire had first hit they had left the the ren faire and hit the agrarian retail store and even without access to cards had paid in cash... admittedly probably a good time for that sense taking cash to the faire had been something of the norm for years... "In all honesty looking at the well, it doesn't seem to have effected the water table." Which was obviously good.

"Ok so tomorrow?"

The university had been bequeathed the old mill building, and indeed everything that had gone along with it at the end, so there was some of the machinery for the engineering and history departments to squabble over in terms of... and it was going to be probably horrifying to see what all exactly the warehouses had been stuff with over a century and a half of collection the school had gathered up through such bequests.

The conversation derailed as Michael glanced out the window, "Uhm Luke... there is a cow."

"Yeah."

"You don't have cows."

"Its one of the McCullochs they've used the south pasture for-"

"Fucking ever. Was there ever a time they didn't." Walter interrupted as glancing out the window, "Like hell a hundred years?"

"Longer," Luke replied, "The McCullochs have always been our neighbors, Fergus McCulloch fought in the revolution," alongside the Gunther ancestor who had progenitated Luke's own paternal line, "and I think they've always had cows," He paused turning from the historical anecdote, "And I think Leroy actually bought the families dairy equipment when my great grandfather got out of the trade."

"Would they still have that?"

"... In a barn somewhere, maybe, I know Patrick," The current McCulloch patriarch. "Upgraded all of his pasteruization, what six seven years ago."

"Its more than one cow though."

"Michael, cows are stupid but they do occasionally find ways out of their pens, in all honesty with everything we can go out there in a minute and make sure its nothing."
--
It had been nothing. The cow had found a spot where a cypress tree had been blighted and had finally given way into a fence and had decided to trundle through said gap out of ... what was now the 'north pasture' and explore ... the heifer had probably been wondering what the fuck was going on.

Luke pulled the yellow electric chainsaw and slotted a battery in, and took it off safe. Chopping the cypress took about a half hour dividing the labor between him cutting and Tony piling. "Yeah see it hit there. This won't even be hard to patch." He pointed to the gathering other cows who had started to congregate at the nose and were now eyeballing the humans as if they were asking 'what the fuck are you doing'. "We just need to make sure they get nosey and want to come over here."

There was a moo.

"Luke."

"Yes Mike?"

Luke turned, and looked at the juvenile bull. "Him, he's going to be a problem." The juvenile was a little over a year old, he was tan, almost russet with a head that looked disproportionate on his body... despite the latter being stacked. A prize specimen of the breed, and back up time worth a lot of money... he was also currently knocking his head against a post impatiently. "I'll go get Mr McCulloch just leave him alone." Luke tossed a look at the dimming sky... and they probably weren't going to get this done today.

Walter piled into the shotgun of the polaris off road vehicle, and they headed down towards the cattle gate,

"So is Tony in the bunk house?"

"Nah I was letting him stay in the lake house." There was a pause, "I mean he was only going to be stateside for so long." Which of course... now they were back in the 17th​ century... and if Luke was honest, at least he would have known what to expect being back in Afghanistan.... or hell Iraq, Libya even... going into Mali with the French would have been a known unknown... not this unknown, unknown, "We're here and we'll just have to make the best of it."

"Yeah you said Wallenstein will try the farms."

He leaned forward on the wheel, "Yeah, property rights are a keep what you can hold thing in the army. Wellington's army of scum wasn't exactly a lie." He said referring to the Napoleonic wars.
--
Notes: Due to having caught covid, this is shorter than the original plan, as I had planned to append a revised scene onto this with edits, but with the headach that goes along with the covid i'm having to minimize the time I use the computer.