I Will Stage A Coup D’état - Chapter 38



Only Noblemtl

EP.38 The Fall of Poland (2)

The situation did not deviate one bit from expectations.

The Polish army fought well in battles such as the Battle of the Corridor and the Battle of the Bzura, but was eventually defeated by the overwhelming firepower and quantity of German troops.

In this situation, Soviet Ambassador Mikhail Slavutsky requested an audience.

‘I think I know what you’re talking about.’

I met the ambassador in the reception room.

The Soviet ambassador looked like an ordinary office worker, but his overall impression was sharp and nervous.

We exchanged greetings and got straight to the point.

As relations between the two countries are smooth, the conversation proceeded in an extremely friendly manner.

“Here is the letter the Secretary General asked me to deliver to the President.”

“Can I check here?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I broke the seal and skimmed through the writing on the luxurious letterhead.

The gist of the article was simple.

“We are trying to ‘protect’ half of Poland from Germany, and we would like you to understand or tolerate it. If Korea understands, we are willing to cooperate with what Korea is doing.”

Well, it sounded like something I’d heard in the 21st century.

When German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced rearmament, he said he would build up an army to protect the Czech Republic, Austria, and Poland.

However, I knew, and that man Baekjeong knew, that Stalin, like Scholz, was not really trying to deploy the army to protect his neighbors.

This was a predictable play.

But there was no reason why they couldn’t get along.

“I fully understand what Your Excellency the Secretary-General said. We will tolerate it.”

“Are you sure?”

Seriously.

So, in this age of imperialism, would we turn our backs on our great neighbors to protect the security of a country we are not even friendly with?

This was even more impossible from the perspective of considering the Soviet Union as an ally candidate in the long term.

The Soviet ambassador expressed his gratitude for my friendly reply.

“Thank you, President. I am sure the Secretary General will not forget the kindness that Korea has shown us.”

Yeah, that’s right.

That’s because I’m admitting that I’m cutting Poland in half.

I was determined to repay the favor I had shown this time with a heavy price.

Just six hours after the Soviet ambassador left, the Red Army crossed the Polish border.

It was as if it had been prepared.

The Polish border defense corps of only a few tens of thousands of men were helpless as a massive invasion force of nearly a million men advanced.

“My Polish friends are finished too.”

How are we supposed to deal with a million Soviet troops when we are already outnumbered?

The situation where the front lines were pushed back was clearly visible.

In my view, Poland had at most three weeks left to live.

Maybe it could have been shorter than that.

“You should have done better in diplomacy.”

September 17, 1939 was a disastrous day for Poland.

In Bzura, the main Polish forces, the Pomeranian and Poznań armies, were surrounded and suffered catastrophic losses, while a million-strong Soviet army advanced from the east.

Poland has been driven to a point where it is no longer possible to hope.

Now the situation was such that even the minimal hope of prolonging the war and obtaining generous armistice terms from Germany was beyond reach.

Not to mention a ceasefire, the entire country was on the verge of ruin.

“If it gets to that point, shouldn’t we just grab hold of the Nazis’ trouser legs?”

While I admired the fighting spirit of the Polish people who persevered to the end, I could not help but feel sorry.

And the fateful day is just around the corner.

On September 28, 1939, Warsaw, the capital of Poland, fell.

To be exact, it had effectively collapsed when the ceasefire was signed the day before, but it didn’t make much of a difference.

The destruction of Poland shocked our generals.

Rather than being surprised by the destruction itself, it would be more accurate to say that I was surprised by the speed of it.

“I can’t believe it. How could Poland, the leader in Eastern Europe, be so easily defeated?”

The old generals could not believe, even after seeing with their own eyes, that Poland, a great power with the largest army in Eastern Europe, could collapse in a mere four weeks.

On the other hand, the junior generals of our National Salvation Military Committee thought a little differently.

“This is the organic combination of motorized infantry, tanks, artillery, and air force with aerial artillery. The blitzkrieg that Germany demonstrated is the goal we should be pursuing, and the destination itself!”

Uh, um.

That’s not quite right.

I don’t know if you’re saying this knowing that most German soldiers run on foot and ride in carriages.

If you just look at the propaganda video, of course the German army all ride in cars and pull tanks.

But that’s not reality.

And even if you believed that joke as fact, there was a problem.

The question is whether we can put it into practice.

“Master. How are you going to mobilize a million imperial troops?”

How much money? How much budget?

The current cost of developing tanks and self-propelled guns is so high that it breaks your back.

Motorization of the entire army in this situation?

That’s not even worth half a penny.

“But if we fail to follow the trends of the world powers, won’t we collapse miserably like Poland? We must follow them even if it means tightening our belts.”

That’s not entirely wrong.

But that wasn’t right.

The core of the German army is drug-hardened infantry.

Those infantrymen were able to create an encirclement by running through the breach made by the few motorized and tank units and defending the flanks.

With the money you spend on cars, isn’t it cheaper to buy drugs?

Efficient.

hmm.

I remember once presenting a vision of a war on drugs, but that doesn’t matter at all.

Of course, what matters is whether the country survives or not. What’s the point of eradicating crime?

“Master, if you don’t have money, you can’t do anything. So, you have to find an economical alternative.”

Even the Japanese Empire was like that.

Since we do not have the ability to make portable anti-tank missiles like the Germans, such as the Panzerfaust, and stick them into tanks, we made impound charges (which do not guarantee the safety of the user) by attaching explosives to the end of a bamboo spear and directly striking the tank.

Since they didn’t have the capability to use things like the Goliath mine, which would fly under a tank with a remote control and explode, they used a human anti-tank mine, which would carry explosives and fly under a tank and lie down.

Why would Japan do that?

It is cheaper and more widely available to use landmines or human anti-tank mines than to spend money on imitating advanced weapons made by Germany.

We were no different from Japan.

“Your Majesty, then please increase the budget. If the Army is to survive the coming war, it will need more investment.”

Budget? I want to increase it too.

But, to do that, you have to cut the budget somewhere, and most areas are already strangled to the point of suffocation.

The only wealthy neighborhood is the Navy, which is part of the same military department.

But that was the place that was once inconvenient when the supplementary budget was cut in 1938.

If they touched that place again, it wouldn’t be strange if the admirals rose up.

What can I do?

Having no money.

If we export military supplies in large quantities, what can we do?

They had already sold everything that could be sold to the Allies.

As I was thinking about that, an idea struck me like a bolt from the blue.

‘Can’t we sell some ammunition to Germany through a roundabout export?’

If you think about it, it seems like the Allies wouldn’t notice if you just sold the ammunition through the communists.

Even in the 21st century, South Korea supplied hundreds of thousands of shells to Ukraine through roundabout exports.

The reason it wasn’t stamped on Russia was because they made an excuse that they gave it to the United States.

I could do that too.

‘You already owe the secretary a debt, don’t you?’

If we sold our ammunition to the Soviets and had them sell it to Germany, it would have been a perfect match.

If the Soviet Union takes some commission from the middlemen, it will be okay.

Anyway, the Soviets were the ones who would openly supply oil, chrome, and tungsten to Germany in the future.

I immediately concretized this idea.

“Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Just one day later, a positive response came from the Soviet Union.

“I will cooperate. How much will you send?”

Things weren’t so good between us and the Nazis anymore, but the Soviet Union wasn’t.

Thanks to Moscow’s presence in the middle, the business of selling ammunition to the Nazis went smoothly.

The Nazis, already short on ammunition, readily accepted this deal.

On October 5, 1939, when we had just begun exporting ammunition, German dictator Adolf Hitler visited Warsaw and inspected German troops.

The following day, on October 6, the last Polish troops surrendered, officially ending the Polish campaign.

The Second Polish Republic, founded in 1919, completely disappeared from history in just 20 years.

Some soldiers fled with the exiled government, but many remained in the country.

The losses Poland suffered in this short war were beyond imagination.

Almost every evil imaginable was committed: massacres of civilians, looting, rape, ethnic cleansing.

The Geneva Accord, which sought to maintain a minimum set of rules in war, collapsed in derision.

Indeed, it was a pity.

That’s why I was able to strengthen my resolve.

This country, Korea, must not become a second Poland.