Chapter 46:
Chapter 46
The night was quiet in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
Many young people had gone to the front lines to fight, and the military regime imposed a strict curfew on the citizens to prevent any unrest.
The citizens were afraid of the guns and swords of the military regime, and of the threat of Germany behind them.
They hid in their homes every night and did not dare to step outside.
But there were always exceptions. No one could stop the royal car with the king’s emblem on it.
The guard at the gate trembled and opened the door in front of the driver who was also a bodyguard and shouted at him, “How dare you block the king’s carriage!”
The guard bowed to the place where the car had passed and had to face another group of high-ranking people.
“How dare you! Do you know who I am!”
“Get out of the way! You bastard. How dare you…”
“Whew, you dogs.”
What a bad luck today.
The guard muttered to himself. What happened at the front?
Strangely, generals and senior officers who had no business at the headquarters suddenly gathered at the headquarters.
Do you know who I am! He seemed to hear this phrase a lot.
Of course, how would the guard know?
He didn’t know and didn’t care, but he had no skill to stop the cars with badges.
“Ah, ah, how much time do we have left for our shift? There are a lot of high-ranking people coming in today…”
[Two hours left. One more~car…]
Boom!!!
Suddenly, a loud explosion shook the earth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the explosion echoed, gunfire was heard from inside the headquarters.
Tatatang, tatatang, tatatang, bang!
“What’s going on! Answer me! Answer me!”
The air raid siren sounded throughout the city.
The horn that sounded loud enough to deafen his ears, another explosion that erupted again, and a gunfight that seemed to be happening inside the building he had to protect.
The guard had no idea what was going on.
“Hey, what’s going on! What are you doing there…”
[Click…]
There was no response from the radio. Just then, a cavalry unit was running towards the headquarters from afar.
In a country at war, especially under a military regime, the headquarters was a top priority facility, so there were plenty of police nearby.
The guard waved his hand at them.
“Here! Here! Hurry up! There’s a shooting inside…”
One of the cavalrymen who was at the front aimed his gun at him and fired.
Bang!
The guard felt his chest burning.
What… what’s going on?
Of course, he would never know what was going on.
He was confused as he bled and lost consciousness, and the coup soldiers didn’t pay much attention to one wounded soldier.
The colonel of the Soviet special forces told the king.
“Our special forces are composed of four battalions. Each battalion has a small number of personnel, but they are warriors who can do anything if they infiltrate. Your Majesty, please designate three facilities in Bucharest that we need to seize!”
“…The headquarters, General Antonescu’s residence, and…the radio station.”
The outline of the operation was simple.
Rather than splitting up their scarce troops and besieging each facility with guards, they deployed a hundred elite special forces to seize each facility.
The artillery battalion of the royal guard division started by shelling the positions of Antonescu loyalists.
The pro-king military forces led by one battalion of Soviet special forces each seized the Romanian headquarters, general’s residence, and central radio station.
The last battalion escorted the king and the coup leaders.
In case something went wrong, they would escape.
[Dear citizens of Bucharest! We, the Revolutionary Command, have launched an action tonight to stop the corrupt and incompetent regime from joining a hopeless war and driving our nation and people to the brink of disaster. The four divisions under our command are currently surrounding Bucharest and ready to fight any army that tries to side with Antonescu.]
Out of nowhere, an explosion sounded and made them wonder what was going on.
They cautiously lifted their curtains and looked around outside and turned on their radios.
The citizens were shocked by the news of the coup.
Revolutionary Command?
Four divisions?
Where did they get such a large force from?
There was not even one regular division in Bucharest right now.
The citizens held their breaths and listened to the news.
[We have risen up to stop this rotten regime from wandering in despair at this critical moment for our country. We officers have united for this purpose.]
[The Revolutionary Command aims to eradicate the corruption and evil of this country’s society, to stop the despair of the imminent defeat, and to solve the hardships of the people. As soon as we achieve our tasks after overthrowing the Antonescu traitor regime, we will transfer the power to the conscientious politicians and His Majesty King Mihai I, and return to our original duties…]
Only then did the people realize. It was a coup d’etat by the royal guard!
Antonescu and the Iron Guard, with the support of Germany, deposed the former King Carol II and installed the young puppet Mihai I as the king.
They turned Romania into a military state and ruled with an iron fist under the bizarre name of ‘National Legionary State’.
Of course, the Iron Guard was soon purged, but as long as Antonescu cooperated with them, the Germans would support his rule, and Mihai I would remain a puppet.
And Romania would have to be stuck in this hellish war until the end. Until now.
But fortunately, there were generals who supported Mihai I, and they mobilized a massive force to surround the capital and seemed to have already seized the radio station.
[The elite troops of the Revolutionary Command have captured and imprisoned the rebel Antonescu, who called himself ‘Conducator’. Antonescu will pay for his crimes of usurping power, collaborating with the enemies of the nation, and plunging the fate of the nation into crisis after a legal trial.]
[Our homeland will walk on a new and powerful path of history from this moment. For our homeland, we dedicate unity, courage, and patience. Forward! Only forward! Long live the Kingdom of Romania! Long live the Revolutionary Command!]
The coup seemed to be successful. Many people who had cooperated or rebelled with Antonescu under his command had to tremble in front of the four divisions of the Revolutionary Command.
“Where are the Germans, where are the Germans?”
One of Antonescu’s loyalist generals shouted at his subordinates with a trembling voice.
Of course, he knew where most of his loyalist troops were.
They had gone far away to bomb Ploiesti and repel the Soviet army.
The remaining troops also left to protect Constanta, the first naval port, from a possible large-scale landing operation by the Soviet army, so they had not yet received news of the situation.
As the central radio station broadcasted news of the coup’s success and victory by the Revolutionary Command, the generals were shaken.
The people cheered.
‘Did Antonescu really fall?’
In fact, even though they called themselves four divisions, they only had four battalions or at most one brigade each, but that was not important.
Each battalion made many fake divisional and regimental flags and hung them on vehicles, sweeping through major areas and roads, and they were able to suppress garrison troops who surrendered in fear and secure important facilities in Bucharest with only a few hundred soldiers.
As morning came, the city was full of people.
“Long live the king! Long live the Kingdom of Romania! Long live peace!”
“You did a great job!”
“Hahaha! Thank you. I’m proud of myself too.”
Borosilov seemed to be proud of his success in Romania’s coup.
I entrusted him with special soldiers who were former paratroopers, NKVDs, or front-line scouts, and Borosilov used his experience and talent in training troops to create a splendid special forces brigade.
Well, it was called a brigade-level force, but it was actually only one battalion or at most one brigade.
In a huge battlefield like the Eastern Front, where tanks, artillery, and bombers flew around, participating in one more brigade-level force would have limited impact.
But as Romania’s coup proved, these irregular forces could do things that regular forces could never do or very difficult to do.
Of course, our troops that marched to Bucharest could surround the city and force them to surrender.
But in that process, there would be at least tens of thousands of casualties and the operation period would be prolonged.
If you can solve it by sending only about 400 special forces, it’s a great deal.
And Borosilov, ‘my’ friend became very happy. Not just happy but also had other effects.
Almost all senior Bolsheviks hated Beria and NKVDs.
Those who had suffered from Okhrana’s secret police during Tsarist Russia hated even their own intelligence police who reminded them of them.
How about those who fought against enemies of people while making their old comrades brutally tortured and killed as criminals?
The Great Purge was officially ‘Yezhovshchina’, that is, Yezhov’s crime, and Beria was a hero who purged Yezhov but no one was stupid enough to not know that they were not much different.
NKVDs gained police forces and used them as combat units or military police, expanding their influence, and many people were wary of Beria who had gained power.
Fortunately, Beria did not seem to have any grudges against ‘me’ yet, but who knows what’s inside?
Meanwhile, Borosilov, a regular soldier and a party member who was clearly different from the intelligence police, had a special force in his hand that he trained and held, which could be a loyalist to protect the party from the persecution and coup of the secret police.
From the perspective of the supreme leader, it was not good to have a huge difference in scale or distrust each other.
I had to have no second-in-command under me, and the one who had the information always tended to rise to the second-in-command.
Even now, Beria’s mood didn’t seem very good.
Even if he got information from Turkey and Iran, the real ones who turned over a country were Borosilov and his Spetsnaz.
“Well, Romania has taken over the capital, so it’s half done. How is England doing?”
“They are still fighting to build a landing bridgehead. But… The British army is in a terrible state…”
Ugh… This. Hitler was supposed to be stuck in the North African front with his troops, but he ended the front early and turned them back to England.
He even had a parade in his country to show off his victory in Africa, so I thought England was a low priority.
But that was also a deception.
Churchill still declared a desperate resistance, but… Really? How long can he hold on?
The British navy disappeared into the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the army was annihilated at Dunkirk.
The air force was also exhausted after a year of consumption and in a miserable situation.
The intelligence department predicted that Germany would dominate Britain within a few months if they succeeded in landing.
“…There’s nothing we can do.”
I hurriedly proceeded with Romania’s coup for this reason.
Germany could end Britain. It would be best if they couldn’t.
But while stuck in the quagmire of the West, our choices increased dramatically.
We could harass the German army without air cover and dominate Romania and soon the Balkans.
And with the last buffer zone gone, literally, the biggest enemy would now turn to Germany.
That is… America.
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