Chapter 5: Spanish Civil War (1)

The Spanish Civil War was triggered by a myriad of complex reasons, but if one were to pinpoint the decisive factor, it would be political chaos.From when the First Spanish Republic was established in 1873 until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, there had been over 40 coups and more than 60 political crises.

And it wasn't as if Spain's economy had stabilized. Externally, they were spending a massive military budget on the prolonged Rif War, while domestically, the nation was rotting from economic depression.

Despite witnessing this horrendous shitshow and ousting the Bourbon Dynasty and the military, the government of the Second Republic was equally incompetent.

Because of this incompetence, the Nation was torn between Republicans and Royalists, Secularists and the Catholic Church, Landlords and Land Reformers, Left-Wing and Right-Wing factions...

And who were merely waiting for a chance to destroy each other.

Neither the left nor right had any intention of allowing the opposing side to achieve victory.

In such a situation, the left secured a majority by less than 100.00 votes, while the right cried out for election non-compliance.

Originally, the Spanish military and the right-wing had already planned a coup during the elections in 1931, which the left-wing won and some regions saw uprisings.

Therefore, the notion that the right-wing would comply with the elections of 1936, when the same concluded in a near victory was absurd.

The left-wing government was also aware of the potential for a coup from the right.

They took measures to reduce the possibility by stationing right-leaning military officials far away from the capital, Madrid.

The renowned Francisco Franco1 was assigned to the Canary Islands 2 in the Atlantic, Chief of Staff Manuel Goded3to the Balearic Islands4 in the Mediterranean, José Antonio Primo de RiveraJ5 head of the Falange, was imprisoned, and Emilio Mola6 was posted as commander of the garrison in Pamplona7.

Unfortunately, such measures were insufficient to dampen the rebels' fervor.

On July 13, 1936, Jose Calvo Sotelo8, a prominent royalist, was kidnapped and assassinated.

Five days later, on July 18, the Nationalist forces revolted in Morocco and various parts of the mainland.

It marked the bloody start of the brutal Spanish Civil War.

Both the Nationalists and Republicans in Spain soon realized they couldn't manage the situation on their own and began soliciting assistance from all corners.

Among those solicited was the Korean Empire.

Just a few days after the Spanish Civil War began, the Koryo Ilbo published an editorial urging Korean intervention.

[Should the Korean Empire intervene in the Spanish Civil War?]

With the Empire focusing on friendly relations with Germany and Italy and preparing for the Anti-Comintern Pact, there was a growing tendency to align diplomatically with Berlin and Rome.

Of course, these actions would only further isolate Korea, as we would be taken as part of the 'Axis of Evil' in the eyes of the international community.

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Nevertheless, on a personal level, I agreed that there was a need to intervene in the Spanish Civil War.

Not for the benefit of the Korean Empire, but for my own interests.

The reason was simple.

The Spanish Civil War was destined to be a debacle.

Neither the right-wing Spanish Nationalists nor the left-wing Spanish Republican government were prepared for a prolonged civil war.

With incompetents leading the charge, the Civil War was bound to stagnate, regardless of the support of foreign nations.

Especially for an interventionist force from the Empire, which would struggle to communicate with the European armies, facing logistical nightmares.

With this in mind, I simply kept silent about the ongoing situation, waiting for the military's blunders.

When Nazi Germany intervened on July 26, 1936, and Italy on the 30th, Korea followed in the footsteps of their allies.

While Japan hesitated, preferring a Neutral stance amid the Anti-Comintern Pact and scrutiny of other nations, Korea showed no such doubts.

Marshal Park Han-Jin, as expected of a nutjob, supported the intervention in a military meeting, saying, 'Intervening in the Spanish Civil War will be a crucial step in preventing the spread of Communism!', he then argued that not showing our support would allow the Soviet Union to form more alliances.

With such a crazy Marshall spewing this nonsense, who could dare to say otherwise?

So, on August 1st, the Cabinet unanimously decided to intervene and began preparing to dispatch their interventionist force.

The forces sent were similar to the Nazis, with approximately 10.000 soldiers.

Even so, sending an expeditionary force to the opposite side of the globe would be a significant military burden.

Coincidentally, this was the same day as the opening of the Berlin Olympics, an event hailed as the 'Festival of Human Peace.'

Naturally, the citizens were more interested in the Olympics than the news of military deployments.

Thanks to the Olympic coverage overshadowing the intervention news, the Empire could prepare for the involvement without much noise.

On August 3, 150,000 workers in Red Square in Moscow demonstrated their solidarity with the Spanish Republic.

In the proletarian state of the Soviet Union, such mass mobilization of the public signified an imminent intervention.

Despite this, both the UK and France, permanent members of the League of Nations, didn't lift a finger.

As proven during the Rhineland incident, the British and French governments were utterly impotent.

Overall, Germany, Italy, and Korea stood with the Nationalists, while the Soviet Union sided with the Republicans.

Although the Republican side received less support from other nations, they held over 700 tons of gold.

With that amount of gold, the disadvantages of external support could be compensated.

Throughout August, the rebels made significant strides with the support of Germany and Italy, but come October, the tide turned dramatically.

The Soviet Union began flooding the Republicans with large quantities of military supplies and international brigades.

As the war front stagnated, the media, which had been boasting about the 'glorious Imperial forces' in Spain after the Olympics, fell silent.

Now, I decided to break my silence.

Of course, I had no plans to directly attack the government as a public person.

I had friends who could do that for me.

......Communist friends.

Using a few young officers who had become my loyal followers, I subtly conveyed the reality of the Imperial forces' intervention in the Spanish Civil War to my 'communist friends' on the university campuses.

[Why are our sons dying in a foreign land? A place where they can't even understand the idiom being spoken? Is the Spanish Republican Government truly a threat to our Empire?]

Once this message started circulating in the universities, the authorities became extremely nervous.

Heh...This was just the beginning and they were already losing it!

In my editorial, I meticulously pointed out mistakes committed by the Imperial Forces in this war.

[The biggest issue is the Military Doctrine. The Imperial forces are using an antiquated doctrine from the Last World War. Our tactics rely heavily on slow, outdated infantry that can't keep up with the swift vehicle-based combat. It's time for us to adapt to a new age of warfare.]

Of course, I was simply spewing hot air.

Did those Jap cunts of the Original history build their entire army with a focus on infantry and artillery during the World War because someone replaced their brains with Ramen?

No.

They simply didn't have the budget.

It was the same with the Empire.

With the Navy greedily leaching more than 60% of the military budget, where would the money for developing new tanks come from?

Besides, even if we developed new tanks, there was no place to use them.

China, the Empire's 'primary adversary', had an abysmal road infrastructure, making tanks night unusable.

They could be dealt with using normal infantry and artillery.

Tanks weren't needed for the Ching-chong army.

And as long as the Empire didn't fight the Soviets to the north, that would continue to be true.

'If we ever pick that fight, I need to be in command of the nation.'

I had no intention of fighting the Soviets.

Who in their right mind would fight a bunch of vodka addicts who sent 200 divisions after you, when you barely managed to eliminate 100?

Anyway, my editorial hit a sore spot with the high brass in the military.

If they said my claims were false, they had to explain why the Korean army was struggling in Spain.

On the other hand, if they agreed, that meant they were idiots who couldn't grasp issues even a mere 'general' could spot.

The actions of the Empire were no different from Mussolini, who fucked around too much and found out.

While I planned to expose the stupidity of the military through editorials and rumors whenever I felt like it, the high brass in the military weren't braindead fools...yet.

"What? You're assigning me to lead the intervention force in Spain?"

"It's an order from the higher-ups. Just accept it."

Out of nowhere, I was assigned as the commander of the Spanish intervention force.

The logic of the military heads was simple.

Fuck.

In hindsight, this shouldn't have been a surprise.

The commander's position in the Spanish Civil War was a cursed post that could ruin any general's career (for the Korean army, at least).

Not even legends from the past like Napoleon or Genghis Khan could win this thing with the Korean Army.

Our Army was indeed a marvel,

We could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory almost every time.

But, the one time these fuckers used their collective brain cell, they fucked me over.

Fucking bastards.

Thus,

On the following day, I embarked on an unplanned journey to Spain.

***

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