Reincarnated as Nikolai II

Chapter 275: The Union of Broken Bones (9)

While it’s inevitable that the imperial family’s influence grows during a crisis, having the imperial household’s inner workings exposed for propaganda purposes isn’t particularly pleasant.

“My imperial authority isn’t that weak, so why—”

“Can’t we just think of it as receiving the blessings of the entire empire?”

“Hmm, I suppose so.”

I wonder if my late mother felt this way too.

No matter how much pressure my son felt in the Tsarevich position, to delay marriage because of it?

There’s no greater filial impiety than this.

“You know it’s all your fault that Nikita got married so late, right? If you had just acknowledged and shown some affection for the child, he would have married long ago!”

“Why is that my fault?”

“How could he get married when he’s studying and working all day? And how absurd was it when he told me to choose the bride for him!” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“…Hmm.”

Is that so? But I managed to have a love marriage despite being busy, so why couldn’t my son do the same?

Well, does the process matter? Getting married at thirty isn’t even a flaw, and I was late myself.

In the end, it was only after Anna arranged dozens of meetings that Nikita’s match was determined.

A daughter from the pro-imperial Shuvalov family.

A family that was loyal to the imperial household to the point of stupidity during my grandfather’s time, yet ultimately had to be cast out for political reasons by my grandfather’s hand.

Incidentally, the new daughter-in-law’s maternal grandfather is Count Dashkov, who worked with me as the Minister of the Imperial Court.

“Not a bad choice.”

“Right?”

“Did he focus too much on looks?”

“You did the same thing, didn’t you?”

“…Indeed, he is my son.”

I don’t know if blood will tell or if the distinctions between nobility and commoners in marriages have long disappeared in this country, but if nothing else, I can see that Nikita’s criteria for a bride are truly worldly.

“Next year, send Dmitri, and the year after that…”

“Sasha is a girl. If she’s too late, she might miss her chance forever.”

“…Let’s see about that.”

Let me think about this later.

Anyway, if we can use Nikita’s marriage as an excuse to brighten this depressing capital’s recession even a little, that would be good in its own way.

After my son’s wedding, which brought back memories of Anna and me, while guarding the reception to the end with my aged body:

“Your Majesty, there was a rebellion in Japan last night.”

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Beren approached and informed me of the news from the Far East.

“All key personnel have gathered.”

“I’ll go right away.”

It was news that put strength into this shabby old man’s body.

==

Although I’ve always said there are only two solutions to this Great Depression—the New Deal and economic blocs—there is actually one more option.

‘There’s an approach that only the Japanese Empire could take.’

Economic integration.

Beyond enhancing solidarity by blocking large economic interest areas, how efficient would it be to simply swallow them like the mainland?

Japan is precisely this case.

The financial official Takahashi Korekiyo led the adoption of this approach.

Yes, the same man who met Witte while traveling around the United States selling bonds during the Russo-Japanese War.

He was the first to introduce Keynesianism to East Asian society, attempted policies prioritizing “deficit spending,” and created fiscal stimulus measures based on econometrics research that had an even greater effect than America’s New Deal.

After the Great War, an era of world trade opened, and Japan was no exception to the turmoil.

No, they were in an even more miserable state.

The reactionary depression and earthquake depression following the Great War.

The Showa Financial Depression of ’27.

The Great Depression of ’29.

And the agricultural depression overlapping with this Great Depression.

Whether primary or secondary, all industries were destroyed, farms collapsed, and businesses went bankrupt.

As a country that adopted the gold standard, they would have had difficulty even maintaining their currency.

The survival method Japan chose at that time was integration.

It was to bind the Manchurian economy together with the Japanese mainland.

This is somewhat different from the Korean colony, which was used to offload agriculture and deficits.

While Manchukuo might outwardly appear to be a mere puppet state for saving face, by unifying the currency and binding the economic zone as one, the economy became not much different from the mainland.

In 1930, 230 million yen of gold flowed out in half a year, and the yen became a foreign exchange speculation market, but after the integration of the Manchurian economy, they achieved the feat of successfully devaluing their currency, securing price competitiveness, and even pushing Britain out of the textile market.

All of that was because Japan digested the vast interest area of Manchuria.

However, today’s Japan:

“Has neither Manchuria nor Korea.”

There’s no economic zone to feed into their throat.

I’ve even heard that recently, due to Chiang Kai-shek’s rebellion, the rice and grains they had been dumping in China since the agricultural depression of 1930 have been blocked.

Takahashi Korekiyo, nicknamed the “Mayfly Prime Minister” due to his history of serving as acting Prime Minister for just one day.

A physical rebellion occurred while he was struggling to rebuild the economy.

Even as I briefly try to recall my memories before everyone:

‘…There are too many.’

Hmm… both the incident cases and the pool of candidates are too numerous.

The 1930s was a period for the Japanese Empire to overcome depression and build economic growth, but conversely, it was also a time of continued political rampages.

Setting aside the fact that massacres, rapes, and riots involving thousands of people occurred almost annually from the 1920s in the original history:

Incidents like when the Sakurakai led a coup with self-proclaimed Imperial Secret Society members, only to have General Ugaki, whom they wanted to install as Prime Minister, be shocked and cut ties with them.

Or when the secret society members, having failed to install Ugaki, tried to raise Sadao Araki to power, but again had the cord cut and were dragged to military trials one after another.

Such coups and military demonstrations were so common in Japan of this era that it’s difficult to even narrow down the candidates.

“This incident involves a secret nationalist military force—”

From the start: secret, nationalist, military force. Even with all three words, I can’t pinpoint the candidates.

As if such groups were few in number.

Nevertheless, I understand. No, I’m confident I wouldn’t be surprised even if some strange group with previously unheard-of claims emerged with mental illness.

With the neighbor openly raising Nazis, what more is there to be surprised about here?

“Beren, skip the miscellaneous explanations and summarize for me.”

“Understood. Everyone here knows that due to the wave of militarism in Japan, the army’s political influence has strengthened.”

“I understand the Russo-Japanese War was the beginning of that.”

That was a natural progression, as they would have been sharpening the blade of revenge behind the scenes.

However, the aftermath took so long and the aftereffects were so great that the nation was less consumed by the concept of militarism.