I Will Stage A Coup D’état

Around the time Hitler was on the verge of victory at the Munich Conference, an anti-Hitler conspiracy was ripening within the German Wehrmacht.

"Hitler, that crazy bastard, if we leave him be, he'll ruin our empire just like in the last world war. How can we face Britain and France head-on with a country that's only been rearming for a few years? We can't allow that madman's recklessness any longer."

This plot, led by Hans Oster¹, gained strong support within the military.

Moreover, they had an exemplary case(?) that gave strength to such a coup.

It was Lee Sung Joon.

"Even in Korea, the military succeeded in a coup."

It wasn't even a small country, but an overthrow of a bona fide great power.

The Junkers couldn't help but nod in agreement.

Besides, they had more resources than Lee Sung Joon.

Lee Sung Joon plotted a coup from his position as an Army Policy Researcher without an actual post, but the Junkers were positioned in key posts throughout the Army.

Most of the high-ranking officials representing the Army, including Army Commander-in-Chief Walter von Brauchitsch², Abwehr Chief Wilhelm Canaris³, and Army Chief of Staff Franz Halder⁴, put their names to the anti-Hitler conspiracy.

If they all joined forces, their chances were more than sufficient.

"Britain and France will never accept Hitler's demands, so let's start the operation when the war crisis explodes."

The conspirators set the day of action for October 1st, the day of Operation Green, which was planned for the invasion of Czechoslovakia.

However.

"What? The Anglo-French capitulated to that Bohemian corporal?"

The Junkers were bewildered.

This made things tricky.

"With public support for Hitler skyrocketing, how can we overthrow the regime?"

It was a dilemma.

If Hitler had been as unpopular as the Park Han-jin regime, they might have pushed through even without justification, but the Bohemian corporal's popularity was formidable.

The justification for eliminating a dictator driving the country into crisis also evaporated as the war crisis ended.

What justification could they possibly use to overthrow Hitler?

The Junkers decided to suspend their conspiracy plans.

"There will be another opportunity. Let's plot then."

The Junkers' coup plot thus ended in failure.

Hitler was completely oblivious to this fact.

Unaware that conspirators had held a knife to his throat and then retreated, Hitler declared victory with a triumphant face.

"Look at this. When we roar, the West has no choice but to back down. They're all cowards. And to think those who said we should retreat out of fear of such people were once this country's leaders."

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"It's thanks to Your Excellency the Führer's leadership that our great Germany has achieved victory."

"Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Heil Hitler!"

The Germans cheered for the Führer's victory.

While the French and Czechs were dejected, the British cheered for their 'diplomatic' victory.

"We prevented war!"

British Prime Minister Chamberlain (Neville Chamberlain, British PM known for appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany) saw this agreement as buying time to arm, but he couldn't tell the public the truth.

He reassured the British people, waving a piece of paper.

"Ladies and gentlemen, rest assured. Here is peace for our time!"

"One man has saved us from the greatest war!"

The British lavished praise on Chamberlain.

Watching this absurd spectacle, the Soviet dictator Stalin turned to his staff and said:

"Is there really any effectiveness in us joining hands with those Western imperialist bastards who even sell out their allies?"

The Soviet Union questioned joining the anti-German encirclement due to this Western betrayal.

Of course, they weren't eager to withdraw from the four-power security arrangement surrounding Germany.

It was because using Germany as a common enemy prevented the Union from becoming a target.

Anyway, the impact of this Munich Conference on the world was immense.

As the West capitulated to Fascist pressure, everyone in the world realized that the League of Nations' international law no longer applied.

Now it was okay to hit others and take their land if you had the power.

As long as you had the strength to deal with the consequences.

It was a world where even small countries like Hungary were raising armies and looking for opportunities to expand their territory.

This stimulated one particular country.

That country was the Korean Empire, the most powerful and strongest empire in the Far East.

*

"Your Excellency! This conference has confirmed the importance of the League of Nations. We need to take this opportunity to annex Japan and solidify it as imperial territory."

"Now is our chance, with the world's attention focused on Germany. Your Excellency, please make a bold decision for the Empire's national interest."

The National Military Committee bastards swarmed in during Lee Sung Joon's contemplation time, when he was busy mentally drafting plans to modernize the Korean Empire's army, begging to annex Japan.

It was truly an insane proposition.

However, the fact that these were loyal subjects devoted to me made it difficult to scold them harshly.

How could I make these quasi-Imperial Way factions, Prussian bastard offspring, act like proper human beings?

For now, I decided to logically explain to these fools why we shouldn't annex Japan.

"Gentlemen. What's the population of Korea?"

"50 million, sir."

"Then, what's the population of Japan?"

"I believe it's around 70 million."

Right, 70 million.

That's a significantly larger population than our Korean Empire's homeland.

In terms of population weight class, Japan is bigger than us.

Even the former Japanese Empire had indigestion for a long time after swallowing Joseon, which was less than half its size.

Colonial management was consistently in the red.

And now, we're supposed to swallow whole a country with a much larger population than ours?

It wouldn't be surprising if the Empire's stomach burst.

Do we really need to do this?

We were already sucking profits from Japan in various forms.

A structure where we outsourced governance to the Japanese government, while we, the headquarters, suck up all the profits.

We're already doing this great 21st-century style governance, so why directly employ them, provide infrastructure (like the four major insurances), and fight to suppress those who resist our rule?

It doesn't make economic sense.

I told them about the philosophy of the great capitalist teacher 'Agui'.

"Gentlemen. We need to approach this from a capitalist perspective. Whether managing a colony or creating a protectorate, it needs to be profitable. What benefits can the Empire gain from directly ruling Japan?"

"Well, wouldn't it increase our weight class? To compete with America, we need to surpass 100 million in population."

That's true.

However, annexing Japan doesn't mean we could immediately use it as a national power.

Even if we tried, could militaristic Korea possibly assimilate Japan?

No way.

I firmly inputted the coding into these quasi-Imperial Way Faction bastards' brains that annexing Japan was absolutely out of the question.

This is getting tiresome.

How many months of trouble has it been because of those European bastards?

Wait a minute.

Thinking about it, I began to suspect that besides our military, the government officials might have different ideas too.

After all, how many sane people could there really be in a militaristic state like the Korean Empire?

I called Prime Minister Roh Jae-Woo to discreetly probe whether there was any talk of annexing Japan in the government.

"To be honest, there has been some talk."

"Who on earth is it?"

"Vice Minister Lee Wan-gu, who works as an economic advisor to the Japanese government, submitted a proposal to that effect."

Lee Wan-gu?

Where had I heard that name before?

Ah.

That bastard, isn't he the son of Lee Wan-yong⁵?

I was shocked.

While quite a few historical figures appear in the webtoon, this was the first time I'd directly heard a name I recognized.

"That's nonsense, Prime Minister."

"I think so too, but there are quite a few opinions in support of Vice Minister Lee Wan-gu's statement."

"I understand for now."

This is ridiculous, why are there so many crazy bastards?

Even after stripping them of their positions and chasing them out, lunatics still filled every corner of the government and society.

Well, the National Military Committee bastards in charge of the cleanup were extreme militarists themselves.

When Hungary took southern Slovakia on November 2nd, the desire for expansion within the Empire intensified even further.

Now even memorials to the throne appeared.

"As Asia's great power, Korea has a 'duty' to save our neighboring brothers from Western threats. Your Majesty, we petition Korea to take up the 'Korean Man's Burden' for our Asian brethren. If you refuse this plea, strike our necks with this axe."

The literati collectively came to the capital to petition for Japan's annexation.

Ah.

The moment of clarity arrived.

What the hell am I supposed to do with these bastards?

No matter how many times I stripped them of power, beat them down, or purged them, militaristic thinking was ingrained in the lowest levels of society, leaving no solution.

To begin with, why are these so-called scholars in an uproar about annexing another country?

"Military Police Headquarters. It's me. I need to mobilize the military police right now. Yes. I'm very displeased."

This country is desperate to push me into becoming a militarist, and imperialist.

Fine then, I'll show them.

What taste a military dictator can provide?

"Defense Security Command. I need you to prepare something for me starting now."

I decided to operate on Korea's lunatics.

If left alone, who knows how far they'd drag Korea by the collar.

I'll educate them to be proper democratic citizens.

I ordered the Defense Security Command to establish 'Revolutionary Re-education Camps'.

1. Deputy Head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence2. Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch was a German Generalfeldmarschall and Commander-in-Chief of the German Army during the first two years of World War II. Born into an aristocratic military family, he entered army service in 1901.3. Wilhelm Canaris (born January 1, 1887, Aplerbeck, Westphalia, Germany—died April 9, 1945, Flossenbürg concentration camp, Bavaria) was a **German admiral, head of military intelligence (Abwehr) under the Nazi regime and a key participant in the resistance of military officers to Adolf Hitler**.4. Franz Halder was a German general and the chief of staff of the Army High Command in Nazi Germany from 1938 until September 1942. During World War II, he directed the planning and implementation of Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union.5. Lee Wan-yong, a pro-Japanese Korean politician who signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910