Reincarnated as Nikolai II

Chapter 104 Return to Orbit (4)

and nicholas, who quietly observed all this.

"...with the great war approaching, it's better for reason to be paralyzed now."

he saw this only as a means to minimize wartime social confusion.

to him, popularity had no value beyond or below that.

==

forcibly selling bosnia and herzegovina.

the next day, the colony bulgaria notifies by telegram 'we're declaring independence'.

seeing others helping themselves one by one, the kingdom of greece went ahead and swallowed crete island.

with people watching their country being driven out of europe in real-time, internal chaos was inevitable.

so when italy drooled over libya with fork and knife in hand, mehmed vi's resistance was an unavoidable choice to maintain the empire.

i'm not sure how to take the fact that there were more people who disappeared without a trace during battle than casualties on both sides in the first clash, but there's practically no direct impact on us.

looking into the details, it makes sense.

"more die from retaliatory executions than combat deaths. also, both sides have more sick people due to poor medical care."

"well, they're living earnestly."

the sick man of europe versus europe's cripple. a battle of two proud fools.

just reading the observers' reports makes one sigh 'this is war?' at how ridiculous it is.

unlike japan which fought mobilizing a million men betting the nation's future, it would be stranger for the world to be shaken by such a war playing around with just a couple of divisions.

while the neighboring balkan nations watch this small-scale confrontation with keen interest due to their regional proximity and shared concerns, from our more distant perspective it appears more like children squabbling in a playground - hardly the kind of serious, full-scale warfare that truly threatens to reshape the geopolitical landscape.

thus my attention was focused on other matters rather than such things.

"asset price crashes will be unavoidable. no, each battle's victory or defeat will raise and lower the rear area's finances. however, the empire will be more free from those effects."

"our empire? why is that?"

[continued challenges toward the ottoman empire.]

[formation of balkan alliance.]

when they draw the world's attention is our opportunity. we were advancing slowly but surely.

"child labor cannot be allowed under any circumstances, even in wartime."

"prepare retaliatory taxes for companies that don't participate in the war effort."

"let's reactivate the closed ural iron mines that had no productivity."

there were very weak and seemingly trivial steps, but we tried to advance ahead of others.

thus we quietly spent another year in contrast to the noisy balkans.

just because we were silent doesn't mean the world was quiet.

now albania, the weakest balkan country with no distinct history, gained independence.

though uncertain how long it would last, when asked for recognition, france and russia together recognized albania as a proper state.

the qing dynasty, the frontline of our russian imperialism, completely collapsed and was succeeded by the republic of china.

however, the republic of china only inherited the shell, unable to actually govern, and the warlord era was in full swing with regional warlords growing their power.

emperor mutsuhito who used to give me generous pocket money in my childhood died and was enshrined as emperor meiji.

japan, still unable to escape the aftermath of the russo-japanese war like historical russia.

even amid rising internal dissatisfaction, they grandly held yoshihito's enthronement ceremony.

i sincerely congratulated them by sending tsesarevich mikhail.

though not even 10 years had passed since they warred with us, mikhail was reportedly treated, no, served exceptionally well.

though pretexts overflowed if i wanted to intervene, i never turned my eyes outward.

thus the new year dawned.

time remaining until the great war.

just 1 year.