Greetings Comrades in Japan

A desperace struggle for peace

The Polish state has great prospects for development but it is necessary for people in politics to learn as quickly as they demoralize themselves.- Roman Dmowski

March 25, 1975 P.C/1640 C.C.Y.

Empire of Parpaldia

Polish Occupied Zone

City of Almater about 100 km north-west of Ravenna and about 180 km in a straight line east of the capital Parpaldia

Over the city of Almater a new dawn was slowly approaching which looked promising and was even worth capturing in a photo, which of course many soldiers from the garrison forces and engineering troops did if they had a camera with the simple name Ami. For the rest it meant that the sun would start to shine more, heralding a full spring.

The Almater was getting ready for another gloomy day under the Polish boot. There was a good reason for this, namely the universities, of which there was a large number in the city, which surprised the Poles when they entered the city and some of the students were very hostile to the conquerors, which attracted the attention of the Polish secret police. The city itself surrendered without a fight due to the fact that the units that were to defend the city were defeated well before it.

Of course there were attempts of resistance organized by students of universities, but all will to fight evaporated when Polish vehicles entered the city, mainly because of T-55 tanks that easily rammed the barricades. Due to youthful bravado, 10 people were killed, including the son of a well-known and respected aristocrat.

Although his son had a reputation of a troublemaker and womanizer but he was known for his devotion to his country which did not end with shouting patriotic slogans, so even his greatest enemies cannot say that he was a coward who hides from the enemy. It is a pity that Corporal Jan Kowal did not hear about this and simply ran over the poor nobleman with his tank when he did not want to leave the road and tried in a noble but stupid action to stop the tank with a sword.

But wisdom was not a characteristic of this man.

Of course it made a big fuss because how could it be that an ordinary peasant simply ran over an aristocrat (although it should say wiped out) although his father after seeing this T-55 decided that only an idiot would try to stop this damn thing with a simple sword, his opinion of his son dropped even lower when he learned that his son could easily avoid death if he just fell on the ground between tracks and waited until the machine passed over him.

In fact, they even showed him a part of infantry training in which there is an element of fighting with a tank!

Eventually, the matter was settled by one of the agents of the UB, who convinced the father to stop his actions. Of course this was not the only case in which the Urząd Bezpieczeństwa took part. It had jobs up to the ceiling of the top floor of their headquarters in Warsaw when it came to pacifying rebel sentiment in the occupied territories.

He was especially used in Almater because of the universities there. For obvious reasons, Polish agents began to carry out communist agitation among the students and carried out the procedure of first removing those few dangerous students who could threaten the peace in the future (most often this consisted of so-called 102, i.e. 100 kilometers from the city and 2 meters underground).

And those who seemed promising, that is, anyone who seriously believed in communism or saw where the political wind was blowing from, or was just a common scoundrel who could be easily kept on a leash by means of files with their crimes, were led as future administrators of Parpaldia under Polish trust.

This was not too difficult, the number of those fascinated by Polish ideology of Marxism-Leninism was surprisingly for such a short time, many of them students from poorer families from the really exploited parts of Empire.

Particularly helpful was the acquisition of the great thinker, poet, and novelist Severus Defacto who, upon learning of the "truths" proclaimed by the Polish agigators, very quickly realized that they were the answer to his questions about the socio-economic state of Parpaldia which he included in his novel "The Cases of Nicolas Expertus".

Of course, "voluntary" donations to his activities also helped to enlighten this artist.

With his help all propaganda actions in occupied areas were facilitated, thanks to his influence and knowledge. In particular, thanks to him it was possible to put off the threat of a resistance movement to a later date, and even thanks to him it was possible to convince after a few days to lay down their arms those groups of imperial soldiers who were omitted in the raid on the capital.

Unfortunately, even his help could not effectively kill all thoughts of resistance and small groups of students gathered in places they considered safe and discussed attempts to thwart the Polish actions. So far, these are just thoughts and not real actions, and the mysterious disappearance of the city's most vocal group the day after the protests began has deterred them from real action for some time.

This does not mean, of course, that there were no protests, but these rather concerned the introduction of food ration cards and complaints about the actions of the Polish sappers who were adapting the merchant warehouses and the small city barracks occupied by the army. All this reconstruction is to build the necessary infrastructure for military needs.

Part of the old city walls have been blown up to allow trucks and other heavy machinery from the logistics and engineering fields access to the part of the city where the necessary buildings are located.

You may ask why the Poles took over the buildings in the city instead of just taking a military fortress nearby or building a new building or just setting up tents.

Well if you asked that question then the answer is simple, it was simply faster and the city of Almater itself is one of the many supply points in the logistical chain leading from the port cities to the front which was stabilized on the great Abovo River leading from the Agnus Mountains some 3,000 kilometers north of Almater in a straight line.

The river itself stretches across almost the entire continent and after crossing the Dragonius Valley it begins to turn left and falls into the sea some 300 kilometers west of the capital city of Parpaldia. Formerly this river in turn had another mouth called today Marubovo what means from Parpaldian Dead Abovo passing through the capital. About 500 years ago, that is in 1126 C.C.Y., the river began to break through to the west and carved out a new channel for itself, which we have today on maps.

According to the legend this was caused by the Master Warlock Merdinus, who at the time when Parpaldia was only a republic and called Parneus used his magic to create a new riverbed in order to make the capital city inaccessible to the neighbouring kingdom with which Parpaldia had been at war for many centuries.

This kingdom was called the Kingdom of Sianis, today a province of Parpaldia proper, and it sought to conquer the Republic, for it was formerly a part of that kingdom which had fallen away during its feudal disintegration under King Luds V the Fool.

For this King, after the death of his father, who had divided the country between his sons to avoid civil wars, wished to rule the whole kingdom alone. As the eldest son, a year after his coronation he announced a decree, prepared in great secrecy, declaring his father's will null and void and all agreements to keep the kingdom together null and void.

The result was that anarchy suddenly swept the country, followed by six years of civil war as the king's troops tried to enforce the decree. Many of the king's brothers rebelled against this decision as unjust.

Of course, as a result of this turmoil, all sorts of merchant and oligarchic republics and tribes previously subordinate to the king, which had enjoyed relative autonomy for decades but which Luds' actions were designed to make disappear, were also outraged, with the result that the territorial unity of the southern part of the continent crumbled like a house of cards.

It was not until about 400 years after the breakup of the Great Kingdom of Sinas (the breakup occurred in 847 C.C.Y.), that is in 1357 C.C.Y., that the Republic of Parneus, finally transformed into the Empire of Parpaldia by Ludius I the Magnificent, a distant ancestor of today's Emperor Ludius VI named after him, conquered Sinas and began its nearly 300 year campaign to unite the continent under their banner.

By 1639 C.C.Y. almost the entire continent of Philades was under their rule, only the northern reaches of the continent remained independent, although the plan was to complete the Great Unification by the end of the century, unfortunately the northernmost territories proved to be unstable all the time and expansion in that direction was halted for some time.

This was not the first time in History such an event happened, so Emperor Ludius VI took care of other goals, waiting until faithful Imperial agents as always remove all resistance from the conquered territories. Unfortunately as later historians will define it this was the beginning of the end for Great Parpaldia and the dream of unification of the continent remained only a dream.

Returning to the city, the city itself began to work, all craftsmen and merchants began to open their businesses, stores and markets, which despite the war still worked quite well, and some even made a fortune. Unfortunately, not necessarily the usually buying citizens were satisfied with this fact, because the People's Army in order to improve the logistics bought out immediately after opening almost all food for military needs.

Only after a few days the market system returned to normal, although it was necessary to introduce cards for food and other products coming from the village, because of the partial anarchy in the non-urban areas. Of course besides with the state consent began the process which must be called simply plundering. Not that Poland did as the Soviets did during WW II and after.

Namely after taking control on the city, for money, with unfavorable ratio of exchange of goods for money Poland bought up huge amounts of unprocessed raw materials such as wood, meat, iron, or cloth and so on. Which were exported to the Country. In this way the merchants' warehouses quickly became empty, reducing the amount of raw materials available to the locals.

And we should not forget about agriculture, whole herds of horses, pigs or cows belonging to the rich aristocrats (peasants were omitted for obvious reasons) began to be exported to Poland.

And you may ask where did they get that money? Well, the prisoners and corpses had quite a lot of it, and sometimes a little help and general fear of Polish action, resulting from the shock of defeat.

Of course there were some Poles, who smelled the business and for example took from home the historical books showing the Polish nobility costumes and paid for making copies of them, then sent to friends in Poland, who in Nowe Kresy, as the newly annexed eastern lands were called, sold them legally for a good sum, which was possible because the whole territory of Nowe Kresy was a so-called special economic zone.

This zone was modeled after the People's Republic of China, though restricted to Polish citizens only, and was an attempt to create Polish market socialism. The idea was suggested to Gierek simultaneously by the intelligence, who simply found a lot of information about it in libraries and bookstores in Japan.

Equally by Prime Minister Yomoye was suggested a similar advice, who pressed by Japanese corporations looking for highly qualified workers (and low-paid, considering that in Japan, along with the relocation also passed about 5 million tourists from all over the world and somehow these companies are not eager to hire them, although there is a good reason why not), and unfortunately such outside Japan and Poland cannot be found, suggested this idea in talks with Gierek.

And so two types of zones were created, the first one being New Eastern Borderlands limited only to Polish citizens, and three smaller ones located respectively in Gdansk, Warsaw and Upper Silesia, where Japanese companies entered.

Of course, as in China, each Japanese company had to enter into cooperation with its Polish counterpart and so, for example Toyota entered into cooperation with FSO while such Sony with Unitra. What is more, companies that were already known in Poland and had already cooperated with Poles had it easier and only deepened the existing cooperation, often having priority, and Poland willingly bought from them modern machinery for its factories or learned know-how from them.

Of course, the prevailing economic crisis in Japan, thanks to the detailed trade agreements signed till March this year, was used by the Poles, who bought out shares or entire Japanese companies (less often) or Japanese branches of foreign companies (more often). This was neither cheap nor pleasant for the Polish budget, although easier than before because the exchange rate between zloty and yen was fixed.

Poland so far repaid debts with goods, because its currency was not convertible and the role of trade money was fulfilled by the so called foreign exchange zloty, or simply by foreign currencies. 1 such zloty was worth 0.25 American dollar and the money itself served to buy something and was hard to get, therefore it was not used for debt repayment.

Although the transfer to the New World de facto removed all foreign debts of the Polish People's Republic and Japan demanded necessary economic benefits for the cancellation of Polish debt (special economic zones for them in Poland are one of these economic benefits). The disappearance of the debt was the necessary flywheel for the Polish economy (damn it, it was the debts that killed the PRL and the desperate attempt to pay them off was the last nail in the coffin of People's Poland).

And the general low technological state of the world and the general lack of adequate knowledge causes that countries of the third zone of civilization do not see much difference between the Polish product and the Japanese one even though each of you readers knows that there is an obvious huge gap between them! Because of this they can sell these products for much higher price than someone from the West would ever pay for them.

But less about the urban economy, more important is the rather palpable fact that Poland was gathering for another offensive, which could be seen as all sorts of Olds, mainly the 660 model, as well as the Star 266 produced since '73 and belonging to the Polish army drove back and forth with all the necessary military supplies such as fuel, spare parts, ammunition, food, weapons and so on.

Special attention must be given to the area of the former barracks, which was manned by newly formed auxiliary units consisting of sifted volunteers from among the prisoners of war, residents and those students who lost their livelihoods because of the front that separated them from their families. So far 128 volunteers have joined the unit, forming 2 infantry companies.

They are armed with Mosin rifles and P-64 Czak pistols and Militia batons called bananas and differing from those used by Japanese police in white color, as their uniform and equipment is the uniform of Polish Militia with changed patch from Milicja Obywatelska to Straż Parpaldzka. On their heads they have French helmets from pre-war Polish supplies of Adrian type. Quite a number of them survived despite the war turmoil and Germany's need for raw materials.

And so, dressed in a bizarre mosaic of equipment from almost the entire 20th century, they were a relief to the Polish units that were to secure the area, so they could focus on getting rid of any resistance groups that remained. Of course, this was the final state as far as equipment and uniforms were concerned, because many units were forced to use the equipment of the Parpaldian Army, which was simply readily available and did not have to wait for its arrival.

The units themselves were commanded by seconded officers of the MO, which was also busy with their training. It wasn't too difficult to say that some of them were former city and village guards who kept order and wanted to continue doing so, so after checking them they were released from captivity (of course there were some who lied to escape from captivity and if they were lucky they did, if not, well guess what happened to them).

So of course you may wonder why they are armed with firearms.

Well, the answer is the bandits who started to spread after the destruction of the Imperial Army, many of them were soldiers who miraculously survived the pogrom and avoided capture. The Military Police and WOWew (Wojska Obrony Wewnętrznej/Interior Defence Troops) of PRL turned out too few to restore order on many territories, despite their obvious superiority in almost everything.

Therefore, auxiliary units called the Parpaldian Guards were very quickly established. Their role was to take care of the duties previously performed by the Imperial Army. Because it was the Imperial Army that guarded the order the moment it was annihilated by Poland, the entire social order went by the wayside.

Yes, the People's Army of Poland was prepared like any other self-respecting army of the 20th century to guard the order, but the scale of the required reaction surprised even the most pessimistic estimates. And it must be remembered that Poland does not have an infinite number of soldiers and fuel is available only in cities and at logistics stations which are being built all the time.

Therefore, when it was seen how the citizens began to form all sorts of defensive formations on their own, it was simply decided to take them under the wing and uniformly arm them so that they would constitute an even orderly force and not a random gathering of people, and train them so that the army could be delegated to more important tasks.

These measures also blunted some of the guerrilla and bandit raids by screening volunteers to avoid moles in the forces.

A little less known fact is that the Poles took over the ruins of an old castle near Almater and turned it into an airfield from which transport planes flew in to deliver weapons and ammunition to the rebels from the lands conquered by the Parpaldia, who started making a mess everywhere they could. Of course Poland was sending instructors with equipment to these guerrillas.

The castle itself was a really big fortress and only because of the lack of sense to keep such a building in the heart of the country it fell into ruins.

The oldest part of the castle was located on a steep hill and this part was converted into a weather-radar station and air traffic control tower.

Particularly striking was the highest and best preserved tower of the castle, on top of which there was a radar. From the tower itself you can see a beautiful view, which of course is reserved only for the tower staff. Of course all wooden parts were replaced with new ones.

The youngest part was at the bottom of the rather flat terrain and consisted of a wall starting from the steep part of the hill and ending on it. In turn the wall from the top looked like a horseshoe. Of course, it collapsed in a few places over time, but the whole thing was in relatively good condition and was the place where all the hangars for planes and helicopters were located, as well as mechanic teams and, of course, warehouses with supplies necessary for the functioning of the airport.

Of course, inside the walls there were abandoned buildings and most of them, except for a few stone ones, were demolished and replaced with warehouses, barracks, some hangars and a landing field for Mi-4 transport helicopters. The runway itself was built on a large empty castle foreground, the nearest forest was 10 km away from the castle. The walls were converted into airplane hangars by simply adding steel buildings to the walls and creating passageways to the other side.

Not to forget the network of caves under the castle, which are currently being converted into more rooms needed for the air base and perhaps a military base in the future. The entire base has been given the name "Nowy Wawel" (New Wawel), which surprisingly quickly becomes accepted by the locals, easily supplanting the forgotten old name.

Meanwhile, in one of the buildings near the runway, a squad of the Captain Cena they had met earlier was called in for a briefing.

"Okay Captain what's the mission?" Mydło asked.

"A mission with a higher risk of action" Cena replied.

"Every mission we do is high risk." Said Karaluch sarcastically

Cena just nodded his head in agreement and then after a long moment in which he started the projector he began to speak when an image appeared on the wall, showing an aerial photo of the city.

"So as I mentioned this is a high risk mission. Our assignment is the city of Romus and more specifically this building." Cena pressed a button on the projector and an aerial image of the palace was displayed, he then began to show more pictures this time from below showing the walls of the building and the surrounding area, these were pictures they had quietly received from Japan whose delegation had left for the North after most of the Imperial offices had moved with the Emperor to a safer place.

The soldiers quietly stared at the photos calmly trying to remember as many details as possible. "Our job is to catch the important person." Cena added.

"Again?" Groaned Karaluch while Soap tapped him with his elbow to make him stop.

"Who should we deliver in a package this time?" Asked Mydło coldly as always.

Cena smiled and changed the image to a man in rich clothes on a throne. "Emperor Ludius himself."

Mydło whistled in appreciation, while Karaluch's jaw dropped for a moment in amazement, while Mydło showed no emotion.

"So when do we go into action?" Asked Karaluch frantically as amazement turned to excitement.

"Relax Karaluch we have two weeks to prepare for the action, we move along with the offensive on April 8." Replied Cena reassuringly

"Two weeks? I thought the offensive would be sooner." Mydło said in surprise.

"They're a bunch of idiots from the Napoleonic wars, why are we waiting two weeks?" Said Karaluch

"I don't know." Replied Cena smoothly cutting off the subject. Of course he was lying but as ordered he kept quiet about the reasons for the delay. The reason, of course, was logistical problems and the need to be prepared to supply mechanized units so far out to sea. The number of trucks and transport helicopters proved to be simply too small for such a low level of infrastructure.

This, of course, was due to the fact that all these mechanized units were built to fight in well-developed areas, which, as one can easily guess, was NATO territory. The obvious lack of railroads and low level of roads on the territory of Parpaldia, even for Poland, forced the Polish People's Army to rely on trucks and helicopters and very soon it turned out that there were simply not enough of them! (A typical Polish oversight)

Of course, the Polish Stars did very well in that difficult terrain, which was not surprising, as they did really well both in the desert (Libya, Yemen) and in the jungle (Burma).

Unfortunately, the helicopters did not fare as well, which was due to the fact that they were much less numerous than the Stars, which made them more overloaded.

So, for this reason, both the Starachowice Truck Factory producing the Stars and the Polish Aviation Factory in Świdnik producing the reverse-engineered Mi cars captured from the Soviets as well as those produced earlier started working three shifts in order to increase production, and of course all capitalist methods were used (wage increases, bonuses for exceeding work standards, and various vouchers for luxury goods such as Japanese cars) to increase worker productivity. And as a last resort, very severe penalties for "sabotage", i.e. stealing from the workplace and the like, introduced right after the transfer in order to weaken the perpetual economic crisis in which PRL has been since its establishment.

And of course in factories producing necessary parts and components for these machines.

In turn the South of the Continent Philades was beyond the nearest coastal areas, it was like Italy on the heights. And the further north you went, the more rivers, valleys, and other terrain obstacles that made land transportation difficult. Which was also the reason for much feudal fragmentation for hundreds of years before Parpaldia united everything in its steel grip.

Turning back to our commandos the Captain asked "Any more questions?"

"Yes one, do we move alone or do we get backup?" Mydło asked

"We will have the support of the entire 6th Pomeranian and a Su-20 key assigned solely to our disposal, on one word from us they will blow up a damn quarter of the city if need be. Or at least that's the initial plan." Karaluch whistled at his commander's reply. "Well there's nothing to it, you can see they're not going to leave everything in a classic Polish fuck up this time like last time."

Cena raised his eyebrows slightly but said nothing to that while Mydło asked, "What about evacuation, should we wait with the paratroopers in the city or do we get a helicopter to escape?" Cena waited a moment looking for an answer "As far as I know it is still in the planning stages, but it is assumed that the entire division will be hit rather quickly as our diversion and then the whole thing along with us will be evacuated after we complete the task."

Mydło looked at him questioningly, "Isn't it a bit excessive to drop an entire division of paratroopers just to get one man? We've got two weeks to work out the whole operation, we can easily handle it on our own with just these Bitches."

Cena shrugged his shoulders "I told them that too but they told me that this was the first version of the plan for now and everything could change."

"Oho just wait until the final plan calls for the four of us armed only with knives to blow up this fancy palace knowing our dear staff." Mydło said very sarcastically.

Cena just nodded at that and added "I know, that's why gentlemen let's get ready for all this craziness." And then an aerial photo appeared on the wall depicting the city. And the soldiers began to think about how to bite the subject.

26 March 1640 C.C.Y/1975 P.C

Empire of Parpaldia

City of Romus

War Room

The people gathered in the hall listened to the counteroffensive plan concocted by Supreme Commander Arde. Although he tried to sell it as an inevitable victory, no one in the hall believed it. The atmosphere was rather gloomy and grave.

"So you want to throw over 700,000 men at the enemy and hope that the Poles don't kill them all?" One of the Generals asked mockingly.

Arde looked at him and his eyes showed disbelief for a moment. "Did you listen Mr. Hardin to what I said? I wasn't talking about throwing them all in and hoping they don't kill them but throwing 50 legions to tie up the enemy's main force with combat and 25 legions in turn are to cross the Abovo in places undefended by the enemy's actions of the main assault to surround and then attack the enemy from the flanks."

"What about the perimeters?" Another commander asked. Arde turned and answered calmly "Our perimeters with a strength of 42 legions will be divided into two groups one to support the main assault while the other will follow 25 legions and move forward to destroy the enemy's valuable road infrastructure."

Of course it escaped him that the first group would be much larger, and the expected duration of the soldiers from it would be a few minutes. And most of them are survivors from the shattered over 500 thousand Army of Parpaldia which defended the places where the Invasion happened.

From this whole Army miraculously managed to retreat beyond the river Abovo about 200 thousand, the rest either died miserably in bloody battles and skirmishes or were captured or a few groups are resisting in a guerrilla war cut off from the rest of the country.

Those who survived and escaped after the first shock, many of them wanted revenge, but noticed a disturbing phenomenon among the local soldiers.

Namely, frequent nightmares among them, outbursts of anger which caused problems such as disobeying orders, reactions inadequate to the situation, general depression and irrational fear during loud explosions for example of cannons, or many soldiers as if lost the ability to feel pleasure, and many other symptoms of this strange unknown disease.

Although, of course, these slip-ups were quickly covered up, the fact is that each of the soldiers suffering from it took part in fights with Poles. Furthermore, the same phenomena is found among the surviving sailors from the Battle of the Dazur Coast in the Entrelazon Sea and the lucky ones from the Battle of the Deadlands in Altaras.

The phenomenon itself was called Polish Neurosis or Polish Fear, given that the mere mention of Poland in a sentence, no matter how it is phrased, causes an attack of symptoms of this disease.

Meanwhile, one of the commanders noticed the difference if the approach to the battle and asked. "Excuse me, Supreme Commander, but if I see correctly you are not planning a decisive battle but you want to surround the enemy and destroy him in an encirclement and you are sending the most mobile units to spread chaos in the enemy's rear. This is a completely different approach to battle than you have used so far, isn't it too risky by any chance?"

Arde looked appreciatively at this officer and then remembered that he was one of those who was quite brilliant unlike many others in the general corps. "That's right General Julius Gaius with the help of our experts and the reports we gained from the units during the Polish Landing we were able to see the Polish movements quite effectively. Inspired by the effectiveness of such an attack, I have decided to introduce our version of such an offensive."

Of course Arde may not have been too keen to notice or perhaps the stress of commanding it made the Imperial Army in no way able to replicate the Polish Action which upon further reflection even from the Polish Point of View was madness in just a day to drive 300 km from the port cities to the capital.

Such a feat was accomplished only because literally the Polish troops were as fast as lightning and any attempt to stop them for the Parpaldians was the same as trying to stop a tidal wave during a storm using wooden planks joined together with adhesive tape.

Returning to the meeting, after further explanations and arrangements, the meeting ended and the Supreme Commander himself was asked by the Emperor to come to his office.

As you enter the study you cannot help noticing that the room is relatively dark and the emperor himself looks as if he has suddenly gone from being a vigorous 34 year old to being an old powdered grandfather from under the liquor stores. Those long 11 days since the start of the Campaign in Parpaldia proper have added 40 years to his appearance. One thing is certain, regardless of the outcome of the entire war, the mark it left on the Emperor is visible and permanent and the so-called Ludius curse has once again worked.

The curse itself originated from the fact that emperors named Ludius usually had a tendency to quickly depart into the afterlife. Apart from Ludius I, none of the subsequent emperors ruled for more than a decade. The only exception was the sixth emperor of that name, and this year will mark the 15th anniversary of his reign. Now Arde was afraid that the Emperor would not last until the anniversary, and if they did not prepare a plan B in case of failure it was possible even death from exhaustion.

After a long while, the Emperor raised his eyes as he put down another sheet of paper on top of the large mountain of papers. "Arde, Arde, Arde how long have we known each other?"

Arde somewhat surprised replied "For six years now your highness." He remained Arde alert sensing that the Emperor had something important to convey.

The Emperor nodded and then with a motion of his hand said "By the way where are my manners please sit down and call me Ludius my old friend." Arde still suspicious complied with his emperor's request and sat down.

"I see you remained alert all the time eh Arde? Never mind may I offer you a new kind of tea to try?" The Emperor chuckled noticing the Commander's gaze.

Arde nodded in agreement curious as to what this was about and the Emperor rang the bell. After a moment a butler entered the study. "Carus please bring two teas the Japanese one of course." The butler bowed at the command and left to fulfill the order and Arde looked at his sovereign with a frown. What are you playing Emperor and why did you mention Japan?

The emperor only smiled weakly and a flash of satisfaction could be seen in his brown eyes. After a short while, the butler returned with two green teas and after putting them down, the Emperor thanked him and then the butler left.

Then the Emperor looked at Arde and seeing that he was not drinking as if to encourage him took a sip from his cup and added. "Easy Arde, drink it is not poisoned." After which he laughed faintly. Arde complied after a while and he had to admit it tasted interestingly different from the black tea he had known so far and brought from the Central Continent.

"And how does it taste?" The Emperor asked his Supreme Commander with undisguised curiosity. "It is not bad, Ludius" replied Arde neutrally without much trouble, this was not the first time he had spoken to his suzerain by name.

"True my friend, who would have thought there would be civilized people in our zone!" Replied Ludius somewhat madly. Arde in spite of himself looked at him in dismay, such a tone boded ill for the future no more so for the Emperor's mental health.

"So what's the matter with Japan Ludius?" He decided to ask firmly but respectfully Arde after a moment of weakness towards his Emperor.

"Putting the tea on the bench eh Arde?" Asked the Emperor rhetorically after which he nodded "You see my overlord Kyos the head of the 3rd Foreign Affairs Department was caught by the master spy trying to connect to Poland through Japan." Arde hearing opened his eyes wide with astonishment.

"What a little aro..." he interrupted when the Emperor raised his hand. "Let me finish Arde, when he was brought to me, do you know what he said when I asked him why he went to such an action equal to treason?" Arde looked at him questioningly for Ludius to continue and the man surprisingly smiled.

"He said, surprising me by the courage he had not hitherto shown, that he had done it for Parpaldia to save it from complete destruction at the hands of Poland through the fault of a complacent fool like myself, and that he, not long after he had complied with my request to send our demands to Poland, had decided to investigate why Poland had so lightly rejected the demands, and what he discovered horrified him."

The Emperor took a sip from his cup while allowing Arde to digest what he had heard. "And what next?" The military man asked.

"You see he discovered the reasons why she did it but it was not until the defeat of our Navy that he became more active when his fears were confirmed and it was he who was behind the warning to the Japanese Delegation to go north with us here. Then with her help he began probing the Polish Embassy in Japan for attempts at peace or at least a truce."

Arde nodded and asked after a moment, "Forgive me Ludius but so far I hear nothing to suggest treason after all he is a diplomat, it is within his duties and Poland technically still falls under his department even though it should fall into the same category as the superpowers after what we have seen."

The Emperor looked for a moment at the map on the wall of his study and then after a sigh said "The problem is that after what he learned from the Poles he decided that the only way to save our country..." he interrupted theatrically building tension

"...is to stage a coup d'etat and make an unconditional surrender." Finished the Emperor after a moment of waiting, causing Arde to suspend for a moment. When the phase of deep shock had passed the Supreme Commander got angry and shouted "WHAT THE FUCK DID THAT INNOCENT FUCKER AND DEVILISH CUNTING CUNTER THINK?"

The Emperor smiled at his friend's outburst of anger expecting such a reaction, he ignored the obvious affront to him respecting his friend for approaching some things in simple terms. Gods only know how many times that helped him and Parpaldia.

"TELL ME THAT PRICK HAS ALREADY BEEN HUNG BY HIS BALLS AND HIS FAMILY HAS FOLLOWED HIS EXAMPLE FOR SUCH TREACHERY." whereupon Arde took a deep breath and continued, "AND THAT EVERYONE WHO FOLLOWED HIM HAS ALSO PAID."

Then as he unloaded he sat down quietly Arde when he realized he had risen from his chair. "Excuse me your highness."

The Emperor waved his hand "That's okay Arde, I understand you just because I'm the Emperor I couldn't say it to his face but you effectively expressed my thoughts I had at that moment."

He then added "But I didn't sentence him to death, I didn't do anything better, I told him to continue his actions, without a coup of course, though that's exactly Plan C if B doesn't work out. What's more, in case you're wondering, if he fails to carry out this plan he and his family will say goodbye to life, a gift for botching the job, the master spy will see to that." Arde looked at him in shock "Plan C?"

The Emperor calmly replied "As you already know, don't deceive me Arde you know it well, the war is already lost the enemy has struck quickly and unexpectedly and only our quick reaction can save our Empire. That is why Plan A i.e. winning the War against Poland can be considered unrealistic. Plan B assumes that you will try to carry out the plan you came up with while avoiding as much as possible your own losses and a sudden conscription to be able to have relatively strong cards at the negotiating table so as not to be condemned to fulfill Polish demands."

He then took another sip from his cup and added. "Plan C, on the other hand, is that in the event that attempts at peace talks and a controlled surrender fail, Kyos will stage a fake coup and place me under house arrest and take my younger brother Visius to the throne and then with a clean slate he will lay down his arms but the Imperial military is to do everything in their power to maintain control of as many colonies as they can."

Arde looked shocked at the Emperor hearing this. "But how so, both of these plans doom our Empire to disintegrate anyway because it is only fear of us that keeps most of the Continent under our boot"

The Emperor squirmed "Arde, damn it! Do you think I have any choice? Either we do this and still save Paparldia as an Empire maybe under Polish rule but still as the Parpaldia we both know or we don't and then Poland will destroy the achievements of tens of generations and hundreds of years by converting it into a People's Republic like the Soviets did to them!"

Arde looked with renewed concern at Ludius when he heard this. "The People's Republic? The Soviets? What are you talking about Ludius?" Ludius hid his face in his hands in despair. "I am talking about the evil of Arde, something that will destroy everything you know, annihilate us in a furious rage of the Arde masses." Then he looked deep into Arde's eyes and began to explain what Kyos had learned from the Japanese and from Japan.

And so the meeting went on for two hours during which Arde saw the film of the 1966 Polish Millennium Parade which he had acquired by some miracle. What's more, the whole story Ludius told him scared him more and more every minute. Ludius told him briefly about the conflict called the Second World War, about the October Revolution, about the civil war in Russia and about what happened after the war in Poland, and of course about communism.

While listening to this he had to go to the bar and drink something stronger, the Emperor did not begrudge him. When the story ended with the words "At least that's what I understood from what Kyos told me and what he learned second hand from the Japanese and the accounts of the envoys".

Arde nodded slightly "I already understand Ludius why. It is awful, I just can't believe it that they come from another world and such! While they may exaggerate to urge peace the story is too complicated to be false."

He next paused for a moment "So we are on the precipice and we will either go down on our own terms by laying down our arms or die on the Poles' terms if we keep fighting."

And the Emperor added "Of course Arde you must take into account that this is what the Japanese gave him in the conversation when he asked them Poland and what Communism is in general according to them, it is not the full picture but little snippets of it but still they are terrible and it is better not to risk them doing it to us."

"And when did he find out about it and when did you?" Asked Arde curiously.

The Emperor thought for a moment "Kyos found out about this four days ago and I found out yesterday."

Arde laughed grimly "If I found out about it four days ago I would consider it a fool's tale but after what happened yesterday not anymore." The emperor looked at him questioningly.

"Ludius, yesterday out of over 15 resistance groups in enemy controlled areas only 2 groups remained but their commanders say that either they will cut a passage to us within the next week or they too will disappear. The enemy has enlisted the help of Mr. Defacto so they have been able to encourage many groups to lay down their arms, what happened to them is a mystery now but those that didn't were slaughtered to every soldier except for those two groups."

Ludius bared his eyes in astonishment "Why wasn't I informed of this?" Arde looked at him calmly "Because you didn't let me know wanting to convince me of your approach." Ludius nodded in agreement and then asked "When is the counteroffensive planned?"

Arde buried his head and replied "For April 6 Ludius" Ludius squinted his eyes and replied "I change it the offensive is supposed to start in a week!"

"But it takes time Ludius! If it's a week from now the soldiers will be too exhausted with preparations, plus I need time to secure all future encampments with illusion magic. I need these four days!" Said Arde sharply in defense of his original deadline.

Ludius raised his hand "I know, but Remille's meeting with the Polish Ambassador Zygmunt Milewski is scheduled for April 4, if he is to have any cards of military strength we must move before then before the Polish commanders launch their counterattack."

Arde looked at him in astonishment "But after all it will be peace talks! Why should we attack earlier, they might see it as an act of unwillingness to make peace!"

Suddenly Ludius laughed unexpectedly "And this is where my dear friend the Japanese come in, their naive love of peace will force them to nudge the Poles into agreeing to hold preliminary talks."

The Supreme Commander looked grimly at the Emperor and replied "Understood Emperor, the first date for the offensive will be April 2 and if the required level of preparation for that date cannot be achieved then April 4 will be the final date." The Emperor nodded and gave the hand sign that the conversation was over and Arde moved with a firm step towards the exit preparing for the battle ahead.

April 4, 2016 J.C./1975 P.C

Empire of Japan

Polish Embassy in Tokyo

The Polish Embassy was where ever near the Meguro River on its right side, in a district with the same name as the river. What might be funny is that about 110 meters northwest of it is the JMSDF Commad and Staff College.

The embassy site itself is a typical residential neighborhood in the hinterland of Tokyo full of narrow and one-way streets. It was not a poor neighborhood, living so deep in the city costs money which is evident from the residents' cars which are not typically cheap cars. The Embassy itself was unusually besieged for several months by tourists who came with Japan.

The reason for this was the economic crisis in Japan that followed the relocation. Contrary to the dreams of ultranationalists, breaking contact with the world is not the solution to Japan's problems but its nightmare. The sudden disappearance of existing contractors caused the collapse in the first 4 months of many companies that focused on production abroad or offering services abroad and whose financial reserves were low.

What's more, large companies that had significant foreign shares in terms of sales of their goods suddenly had very quickly filled their warehouses with products that were no longer needed, which had a very negative impact on their price for the manufacturer (or more accurately fell below the cost of production, making their sales unprofitable) and were forced to cease production.

And so the collapse of companies sending their goods only to foreign countries caused a domino behind which were pulled companies that were focused on the domestic market because, after all, everyone who knows at least the basics of economics knows that the economy is a system of communicating vessels and a bump in one sphere reflects everywhere therefore subsequent companies during the year were forced to close their operations when they ran out of money or were quickly sold while they still have some value.

The lucky ones were those who had huge financial reserves as big corporations, although the transfer very quickly showed which of the corporations are really big, or they had loyal and regular customers in sufficient number to keep on running. What's more, many companies in order to save themselves from collapse began to cut costs, i.e. lay off unnecessary employees, leaving themselves an absolute minimum of staff from each department.

Especially hard hit was the service industry, which in many cases without countries with a similar level of development as Japan was simply unnecessary at that moment.

And banks, well everyone can guess what happened in this situation.

And the best had those who had land and were in agriculture, at the moment of transfer and arrival of this information to the public food prices jumped to a level not seen since the crisis after World War II!

Only an uncharacteristically very quick government response and the imposition of a state of emergency throughout Japan allowed the economic crisis to be contained and social stability to be maintained. Unfortunately the train called economic crisis is slowly but inexorably slipping out of the government's hands which is why a 10% drop in the GPD in a quarter is considered a good thing and 2015 has gone down in history as the worst year of the post-war economy.

It easily murdered and reversed any growth Japan had recorded since the lost decade in the 1990s.

Some glimmer of hope came from friendly countries like Que Tonya and Quilla but the real bomb was the emergence of Poland, albeit communist Poland, on April 1. Unfortunately, this hope turned out to be in vain, free trade zone with countries on Roderius turned out to be impossible when a sudden flood of products from Japan and then Poland began to cause negative trends in local economies, which yes gained a lot of raw materials and food, but those who had nothing to do with it greatly lost and new investments are not able to absorb all the unemployed.

The end result is that these countries begin to look partly like the world of the nineteenth century, when capitalism was just being born and the first factories were established.

Of course they were prepared for this earlier, because the same thing was happening during trade with Parpaldia, but she was more focused on external commsupation and rather saturated from these countries raw materials offering almost nothing in return and what's more threatening invasion in case of resistance to this situation.

But it was so wealthy that this harlotry was rather a sign of dominance and power over the area and although the effects were negative they were not so pronounced as to be a major problem. Of course, Parpaldia planned to change the status of things by using Louria and quietly helping in the conquest of the continent and then collecting the debt and in the long run annexing Louria without much bloodshed.

Poland and Japan were much kinder (Japan more) and often gladly invested in these countries, but because of the higher productivity in production and larger scale of operation of the two countries of the first and second world, the negative effects were much more visible when whole families of craftsmen in the cities were forced to close their businesses not withstanding the competition from the huge surviving Japanese and Polish aggressive industrial combines.

Traders, on the other hand, were just beginning to make profits they had never seen before, because the natives, seeing the much lower prices of foreign products than those previously known, eagerly began to buy them. The situation was not helped by the fact that new companies made the so-called aggressive takeover.

Mainly Poles, who in most cases are able to compete only in this way with the Japanese, although there are sectors in which it was not necessary, such as the arms industry. Simply having to choose between exquisite but expensive and few and difficult in production Japanese equipment which has quite big limitations, what they can sell and cheap, numerous and possible in case of standard weapons to produce by them without problems the size of Mount Fuji without limits, what they could sell.

What's more, Poles as opposed to Japanese do not have any resistance to sell to countries with lower cultural level the machines for the production of equipment to inflict pain and death to their neighbors, well, maybe except the weapons they use themselves.

And the companies producing equipment which simply could not gain a foothold in countries with a medieval level of technology, disappointed themselves solidly on the Polish market, where the Communists out of spite and simply for the safety of their backward towards Japan industry, placed quite a big duty and limited the number which they could deliver to Poland monthly.

Well, unless it was something that Poland really doesn't know how to produce such as mobile phones, Internet cables or telephone communication towers then the duty is much lower and what's more Polish local governments very willingly employ Japanese infrastructure companies to work on their territory such as the city of Gdynia to modernize its commercial port.

Of course even these limited supplies were a salutary drip but unavailable for many due to restrictions. Consequently, they were forced to vegetate on a domestic market torn by shocks.

But even this was not the worst thing for Japan, the problem turned out to be the tourists. Namely some of them after learning about what happened confirmed the information committed suicide, or at least tried to. In turn a few went mad and tried to murder themselves and their families. In turn many went through a nervous breakdown and the worsening state of the Japanese economy did not help them in their lives.

Of course, the government of Japan immediately after the appearance of Poland began a campaign to find and recruit prominent personalities among the tourists not wanting to give them into the hands of Poland, which, despite attempts to hide was tracked down by one of the journalists supporting the extreme right was noticed and incidentally ended in a scandal.

This is where the Polish Ambassador Zygmunt Milewski, when the transfer took place and he found out about it, like many other ambassadors of his ilk, used his country's cultural institutes in Japan as a foundation for his further life in Japan.

And so he was surprised when, on April 28, 2015, he was asked to attend a meeting at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Seeing no reason to refuse to appear he arrived at the appointed time at the Ministry.

He was led there to a room where he was introduced to Mr., excuse me Comrade Stefan Olszowski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Polish People's Republic in 1972-1976, he knew him by sight because his picture was displayed despite attempts to get rid of it in the building of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw although supposedly the new one was supposed to do something about it as well as other communist stuff that existed and which nobody got rid of despite almost 25 years since the fall of Communism!

At first he thought it was a joke when he saw him, because as far as he knew he lived and died in New York, where he had emigrated in the 80's. But when he spoke to him, his speech was very communistic, in a style he knew from his childhood in the 70's when he heard such talk on the radio and on TV.

In spite of will, he ordered him to stop and began to inquire, what is this dichotomy with a commie in chief. Only after a while he realized that this is not a joke and that for real a month ago the People's Republic of Poland from '74 came to this world. What pleasantly surprised Milewski was the fact that Olszowski was very understanding and that he didn't mind coming out with, quote, "a fucking Commie from a fucking country that has as much in common with the people as the average American has with a manual transmission".

What's more he made him a very interesting proposal to reinstate him as Ambassador to Japan this time of the People's Republic of Poland with many concessions to him. Seeing that it was an interesting proposition, because rarely when the people's government approached the whole matter so pragmatically, after a long moment of consideration he agreed.

Of course, his first task after accepting the ambassador's job again was to introduce a group of emissaries from the People's Republic of Poland to the modern world and to start recruiting foreigners useful for the People's Republic of Poland, who were lost in Japan after the transfer. It was neither too easy nor too difficult, as those who were left on their own were ready to work for anyone as long as they had something to put in the pot, so a lot of them left for Roderius or the island kingdoms west of Japan, tempted by the offer of work for nobles and kings.

That's why after launching an advertising campaign which is half full of communist slogans, a big surprise was a large number of people willing to come to totalitarian Poland. Literally the Polish embassy and both honorary consulates in Kobe and Hiroshima were flooded with applications (although it's more accurate to say that it was a level to which employees of these institutions were not accustomed, but standard for the embassies of for example USA, UK or Germany), and both consulates were previously one-person institutions run by the Japanese, and in the face of the crisis, both institutions were expanded by sending people from Poland.

In turn, the willing were divided into three categories, the first are tourists consisting of people who in the time of crisis either began to get rich (as it happens in crises, someone loses and someone gains) or were economically stable. In order to relieve the level of work, all such people were sent to Hiroshima immediately. What is more, Poland is so far the only country where you can go as a tourist, the rest is inaccessible for obvious reasons and going there requires a special permit.

The second category is business people of all sorts or highly qualified professionals who, after being sifted out from the pool of candidates at the Embassy, were sent to Kobe for more specific talks. The first ones are divided into Japanese, those who managed to build a business in the time of crisis and want to cooperate with Poles, and non-Japanese who did not manage to do so but are interested in building a business in Poland (such people later go to the New Borderlands supporting the colonization of these areas). The same applies to the Professionals.

The last category is the people officially called acolytes of communism and Marxism-Leninism or, more bluntly when no one can see, useful idiots.

That is, those who are simply gullible believers in communism as a way of progress, strangely enough many of them do not have much to offer because their knowledge is useless for Poland, in fact, of greater value is the average Polish child who knows more than they have forgotten.

At first it was intended to use them as agents and defend against their admission, because many of them have views condemned in the Eastern Bloc as leftist (yes, there was such a thing, Trotsky was for this expelled from the party) but the Chief of Polish Intelligence proposed to invite them to the country and use them as colonists in the mountainous borderland on the other side of the Carpathians and Sudetenland.

Difficult conditions of life and the constant threat of the primitive inhabitants of Vestal should knock these clowns out of their heads, as he said, and sending them far from the ordinary Poles should avoid the moral degeneration of the general population. What's more, the Japanese government itself is helping in this and giving incentives to take advantage of the Polish offer.

Therefore, as soon as they spotted such a person, they started to grant them a visa and Polish citizenship. The catch, however, is that after being accepted they have to work for 10 years before they can apply for a passport to be able to go abroad. Of course, there were some useful ones, and they stayed in Japan and became the faces of an advertising campaign to come to Poland.

Of course, anyone who wants to come to Poland permanently is required to pass a compulsory course in the Polish language, which takes place in Poland, although it should be noted that the colonization policy itself will force them to learn at least the primitive form of the Polish language, without variant through cases, because the people's authorities carefully supervise the allocation of housing so that no minority in the newly colonized part of Poland could build neighborhoods typically not Polish.

But there are two towns in Nowe Kresy whose inhabitants speak a language other than Polish on a daily basis, which so far is a pillar of salt in the eyes of the authorities who want to change this state of affairs.

You also have to remember that coming from crisis-ridden Japan to a country that heroically overcomes problems that do not exist in any other system is still a shock, you have to get used to the general coarseness, clumsiness, poverty (the golden period in the People's Republic of Poland during the time of Gierek is still poverty compared to Japan, not to be vague in 1974 GPD per capita in Poland amounted to $ 1,358 in today's Poland is about $ 16,000 can you see the difference? ) very visible by the way that even the biggest poor person from those willing to come is a rich person!

To show an even greater difference per average Japanese in 1974 was about 4 353 $ and already in our 2015 was about 34 524 $ and in the case of this Japan should be cut off more than how much in caused the crisis in the 90s when from more than about 43 000 $ per capita from 1995 fell to about 38 000 $ per capita in 1996! And the following years were even worse in this respect.

So as you can see even crisis-ridden Japan is still richer on average than appreciating Poland.

So here are the economic graphs left for those who like to say that Poland is shit and should only go for cooperation with Japan (as if I needed that information but thanks and now stay here making up more arguments out of your ass. Because I know that). And let's go there for what we came here for.

Which is where?

Waiting Room at the Embassy

14:45

Remille was unhappy that instead of being treated as a person of this rank, that is, the Head of the First Department of Foreign Affairs and the person generally responsible for foreign relations of the Parpaldia Empire, she was treated as a mere supplicant! After all, she was a member of the imperial family and the fiancée of the Emperor! And she was forced to stand in line and submit an application! Then she had to wait two days to be informed when to appear at the Embassy, with instructions that she should arrive earlier.

This obvious diplomatic affront was, she rightly guessed, revenge for the similar treatment she had received in Parpaldia before the war. Only she, and gods know how sorry she is that they did that! Now she is ridiculed by the Poles by waiting in the waiting room for two hours as if she was nothing.

Here she is simply wrong: a certain meeting with a very important person from Japan was prolonged, but how could she know about it?

Any further thoughts hidden behind a poker face are not suitable for quoting but I guess it is easy to guess what direction it goes in? Fortunately for her mental state and the general feeling of everyone in the waiting room Remille was approached by a nicely but neatly dressed with short hair Japanese woman Haruna Sairenji working in the Polish embassy informing that the ambassador was waiting for the delegation from Parpaldia.

Hearing this only after repeating it so deeply into her thoughts Remille quickly but calmly got to her feet and followed Sairenji, fortunately the embassy itself was not large so it did not take more than a minute to get there.

In the room they entered there was a simple long table, under the window there was a Polish flag and next to it the flag of Parpaldia. On the wall she saw the Polish Coat of Arms with a white eagle on a red background, not knowing why she felt clearly that something was missing from the coat of arms, as if someone had cut out the crown on the eagle's head?

Not that stupid, what am I thinking about? Remille thought, not realizing that she was right. She then turned her attention to the black and white photo next to the colored eagle depicting a man in a suit with short hair with a calm but striking light gaze straight ahead. What she couldn't tell from the photo was that she could see the 62-year-old Gierek when he was 57, but the photo didn't show that at all. What's more, it gave the impression of a much younger person which resulted from the fact that because of the colors and looking straight ahead you couldn't see Gierek's gray temples.

The rest of the room was a typical 21st century conference room by virtue of its use. Apart from the photo of the First Secretary and the coat of arms, there was no sign that this room belonged to a country from the 1970s.

After secretly inspecting the room Remille turned her attention to the two men waiting for her. She immediately noticed that they did not look Japanese, in fact even with their suits they would not stand out much among the officials of the Parpaldian Empire although their attire had some noticeable differences but they would disappear into the crowd.

The first one was a middle-aged man, something between 30 and 40 years old, he didn't look like a typical diplomat, rather he had the posture of a commoner not fit for such a job but Remille was still vigilant, she knew very well that you can't judge a book by its cover especially in such a delicate art as diplomacy.

The other one was of a good age, partly bald and his hair was white as snow. He was clearly someone who had lived through a lot, and his gaze was stern and appraising, which made Remille tense up as if her former teacher was appraising her. He really did look like an experienced educator whose mere sight could calm even the biggest troublemakers.

They were both dressed in navy blue suits with black shoes polished to a shine. As Remille noticed and they gave the impression of being solid trusting people.

When she finished assessing what in reality was a short moment the ambassador spoke up in Polish and the older man explained.

"I welcome the esteemed Duchess of Coniuspolscium to our embassy, it is my hope that these talks will prove fruitful in concluding the much prized Peace between our nations." The interpreter then switched "I am Karol Kojtyla I will be the interpreter for Mr. Ambassador Zygmunt Milewski."

Remille slightly nodded with understanding and replied. "I understand Mr. Kojtyla and please convey to Mr. Milewski that I welcome you warmly also and that I also hope that we can work out a peaceful agreement."

Then Miss Sareji brought drinks and food and the diplomats from both countries began a very fierce as it turned out later discussion which lasted until the evening while the talks themselves dragged on for five days becoming the number one topic among international opinion when the very fact of holding talks leaked out.

In a way a big shadow on the ongoing talks was cast by the ongoing counteroffensive of Parpaldia, and depending on who held the initiative on the front, the same was true of the talks. In turn, the event itself was remembered in the future as the Hot Talks, which were one of the important events leading to the change of the hitherto known face of the world.

April 5, 1975 P.C/1640 C.C.Y.

Ferrum Hills

About 60 km south of Abovo River and 120 km northeast of Almater and 300 km in the same direction from Esthirant

Hill "Zośka 153"

9 Zaodrzanski Mechanized Regiment, 12 Mechanized Division

12:00

The gates of hell opened, and only such words came to the minds of Polish defenders on the hill when Polish artillery, right after the obligatory bombardment with napalm and thermite by Lim-6bis, covered the advancing enemy with its accurate barrage fire. Once again the enemy suffered heavy losses, the pity being that it was a barrel of water in a burning forest in the face of enormous numerical disproportion.

In this assault on the hill alone, Parpaldia lost two thousand men in a few minutes, reduced to nothing more than a mountain of burnt flesh, the unpleasant smell of which spread throughout the area, joining other similar smells from the death zones located in front of the Polish defenses.

Yesterday was a much better day for the Parpaldians. In total they lost only about three thousand men in the attack and five thousand were seriously wounded. Fortunately for the attackers their huge human mass overwhelmed the few Polish posts on the Abovo river which was not strange at all if you know that from a total of over 500 km of the river section conventionally controlled by Poland only 100 km is relatively secure and that only on the main trade and travel route to the capital from the north of the continent.

Many fords and bridges were simply not controlled except for standard air patrols which after the offensive turned into hunting flights for the columns of the Imperial Parpaldia Army.

The Parpaldia ruthlessly exploited this fact to its advantage, but it very quickly became apparent that flanking maneuvers were impossible when the 12th and 13th Mechanized Divisions guarding the Abovo River were joined by the two Landing Divisions recalled from anti-partisan operations which, thrown in single regiments, were effective in slowing the enemy's advance but are forced to retreat when the enemy uses their manpower to encircle the Polish troops.

Of course it was no problem at all to break through the encirclement, but Polish officers acted conservatively and always retreated to avoid being cut off from supply from the rear. The closer we get to the river, the less supplies we have and ammunition disappears like crazy in this mass of men.

But today the losses for Parpaldia already reach about eighteen thousand dead as of 8am and twice as many wounded and countless missing counted among the dead. A real nightmare, but for Parpaldians acceptable, well maybe except those who have to die in this meat grinder.

The Poles, on the other hand, lost less than 50 soldiers. Most of them died during the defense of the trading town of Ferrubs not retreating in time, the rest were single outposts or when they could not retreat and ran out of ammunition, rightly guessing that the Parpaldians would not take prisoners.

Of course the natives quickly did justice to the collaborators, if these were known and did not run away together with the People's Army of Poland.

Returning to the Zośka hill the battlefield queen salvos ended revealing a moonscape while in the distance below the enemy army could be seen after the camouflage spell went off again.

"And what do you see?" Private Jan Kowalski asked his colleague Józef Odzimkowski who was an artillery observer looking through binoculars.

"I can see that they are getting ready to be hit in the snout by a howitzer once again as a greeting and then baptized with AK if they survive this encounter of the third degree with an artillery grenade." Odzimkowski replied in a feisty voice.

"Fucking idiots, they're pushing into this slaughterhouse like pigs, we've been here since yesterday digging in and getting to know the terrain and what's better they probably don't know the range of our artillery." Said another soldier Zbigniew Stonoga shaking his head.

"They're about to find out." Odzimkowski replied with a smile then handed over the new artillery coordinates. After a short while, the Polish orchestra, consisting of BM-21 Grad multi-propelled rocket launchers, 2S1 Goździk self-propelled howitzers and numerous classic World War II-era MŁ-20 artillery pieces, played again.

Parpaldia, literally at the last moment, hid again using magic, but it did not help to hide from the falling artillery grenades. The first closest ranks were blown to pieces by howitzers, while those further up to 20 km from the hill were showered with unguided rockets, causing panic and probably the death of the team of mages responsible for the spell.

Because after a while the whole army appeared again. The closest ranks as Kowalski estimated were about a kilometer away and were climbing the hill in another wave of assault. The enemy artillery had probably already been silenced in its entirety because for a long time there had been no counter-attack from the enemy and their trenches were a smoking crater.

No matter what, the modern war, as Kowalski estimated, was really murderous, and only the fact that the enemy is a few technological levels lower makes them sit on their asses and watch the murderous spectacle.

For a moment Kowalski stopped watching the Polish artillery display and looked at other fortified positions manned by the 9th Mechanized Regiment. Other hills and fire points between them also repulsed their wave of attacks, killing hundreds more enemy soldiers.

Battle cries heard from time to time were easily drowned out by the staccado of machine guns, BWP-1 or SKOT-2A automatic guns, or the whirr of artillery grenades. From time to time he noticed T-55s dug into the ground, which with their fire were destroying more dangerous targets among the enemy.

As one could see, the enemy was attacking like a wave flooding Polish positions, but they were crashing ashore. And as Kowalski thought probably the same was happening on the 30 km section of his division's defense. One mechanized regiment stayed in the perimeter with a regiment of medium tanks in case the enemy tried to use their manpower to make an encirclement.

His continued viewing of the area was interrupted by the arrival of their platoon sergeant Radoslaw Biernat, he quickly saluted the NCO and he just nodded and then walked over to the above in their trench and pulled out his binoculars. After which he nodded "Well, there's no question, they've got momentum motherfuckers." And Stonoga asked "And I wonder how many of them there are, we are so in the regiment 1636 soldiers, and in this section we should be from two and a half thousand peasants to three thousand."

Biernat lowered his binoculars and thought for a moment before revealing this theoretical secret information, which was quite well known. "According to reconnaissance, between sixty and one hundred thousand are going into our division." Stonoga said in shock, "Fucking how much? I thought we'd fucked them up and here it's nothing."

The platoon sergeant was about to reply something before he squinted and then picked up the binoculars. After a brief moment he cursed, "Holy shit, those rats hid from the artillery cannonade and now they're coming out when they're done. Odzim when will they be back in action?" Odzimkowski quickly replied "In about half an hour Comrade Platoon Sergeant."

Biernat tapped his fingers off the binoculars a few times expressing his anger quietly. "In ten minutes a whole pile of those pseudo-Romans will be on our heads."

Kowalski looked down and in fact about half a kilometer from their position the enemy was gathering and moving sharply toward them in a tyral. After a moment he heard the shots of the sharpshooters and noticed single enemy soldiers falling.

The fire from the SWD only infuriated their opponents more and made them move faster and faster towards them in spite of reason, which ordered them to fall to the ground. We didn't have to wait long for the effects of this when Polish mortars and then machine guns of all types came into play.

The first wave of the next assault was cut down about 300 meters from the trenches, when the shooting was joined by ordinary Polish infantrymen with their AK's of all variants from AK to AKMS, as the enemy infantry stubbornly made their way uphill over their own dead bodies to the area without craters or ground cover.

Kowalski himself had fired two of the three rationed magazines by the time the enemy opened the first volley, when suddenly the whole area was covered in a fog.

Thick as cream limiting visibility to a mere 50 meters.

"What the fuck, after all we had the fucking sun and clear skies!" Shouted one soldier, Kowalski couldn't tell which one by his voice because it blended in with the rest of the similar shouts.

"That's fucking their magic! Keep pounding the fog these fuckers want us in close combat!" Shouted another. As if on cue a message came through the radio operator from the SKOT behind them which had a thermal sight unlike the regular infantry. Remember, they're from '74, which is still from the Vietnam War!

"The enemy is running en masse into the trenches, prepare for the inevitable melee." Kowalski, meanwhile, looked with the rest of the soldiers at his Platoon Sergeant. The Platoon Sergeant, after a moment's consideration, decided that any retreat under these conditions would end in massacre for him so he shouted. "Bayonet to arms!" Kowalski quickly obeyed the command, easily securing his scissor bayonet on the barrel of the AK, and then pulled a grenade out of his haversack and threw it into the field before warning the rest.

A short moment later and loud Parpaldian curses and shouts of pain pierced the air clearly speaking of the effects of the grenade. Kowalski's success was a moment later magnified by more grenades thrown by the soldiers in the trench. Meanwhile, more bullets from the SKOT machine guns flew over their heads.

Suddenly everything went quiet for a moment and then all sounds were drowned out by the battle cries of Parpaldia.

AVE IMPERATOR!

AVE PARPALDIA!

Along with the shouts the stamping of hundreds of feet was heard. "You have to do the Parpaldians justice if they get stubborn they can almost threaten us," one of the members of his platoon said out loud next to Kowalski. He then picked up his unusual AK called the wz.60 grenade rifle and fired a cap grenade at the emerging group of enemies from the fog.

"But as we know almost makes a huge difference," he added with the nastily evil grin of a sadist as the grenade tore apart an enemy trying desperately to avoid death.

Further statements were drowned out by a volley of enemy muskets which finally came into effective firing range, instead of shooting God through the window as before, considering they were shooting upwards this saying was quite literal.

In response to the Parpaldians, the entire Polish infantry switched to continuous fire in their AK's and began covering their enemy with rifle fire. Kowalski, courtesy of another of his colleagues, got more magazines for his AK without having to move.

Unfortunately, the fog didn't allow us to see how many enemy soldiers were in front of the Poles, except for the thermovision vehicles which, with robotic precision, were killing them one by one.

Unluckily for the Poles, one of the opponents gave the password for hand-to-hand combat, rightly considering that it was stupid to exchange fire with an enemy of much greater speed. His unit moved first and was shot just before the trenches, but the milk had been spilt and the enemy began to charge.

As befitted members of the Eastern Bloc, they prepared for close quarters combat, but above all, they fired as much as they could at the advancing enemy, most of the bullets hit, but a small portion of the Parpaldia soldiers survived and fell into the trenches causing the chaos of close quarters combat.

Especially unlucky was Kowalski, on whom three enemies fell. He started to pray in his heart that he would not come out of such a fight unscathed, and certainly not alive. He took his AK just like during the training and was preparing to fight off the enemy, the weapon was unloaded because he had to dodge the charging enemy during reloading and the new magazine fell out of his hands.

Fortunately this was better, the weapon would weigh less, certainly less than the opponents quite big guns.

The first to attack was a pig-eyed, sour-faced opponent covered in blood and dirt. With fury in his voice, he thrust carelessly towards Kowalski, who, seeing the opportunity, easily deflected the opponent's musket and thrust his bayonet into his opponent's stomach.

The first sure kill and that in front of Kowalski's eyes but he could not have obvious remorse for that because immediately after pulling the weapon in the attack was already the second of the opponents trying with a beautiful apparel in surprisingly clean clothes and appearance shouting something like. "Hoc est pro Marcus! Tu bastardis!"

Kowalski instinctively knew he was already dead and out of desperation raised his left hand to shield his face and turned his left shoulder towards his opponent. After a moment he felt a pain in his left shoulder because the enemy had stuck in there seeing that it was impossible to get to his neck, then the opponent pulled the gun out of his shoulder and turned Kowalski to face himself when he let go of the gun not being able to hold it with one hand.

"Nomen mihi est Aulus. Canem illum Poloniae memento. Cum in inferno es amet frigere." Said in his language strangely similar to Latin a soldier who from what Kowalski understood was called Aulus and was probably calling him something unpleasant. When he saw that his opponent was preparing to attack, he closed his eyes without any retort, considering it an unnecessary prolongation of the torment.

But instead of the expected pain he heard two gunshots. He opened his eyes and saw the surprised Aulus fall to the ground bleeding and spitting out blood from his mouth. He looked to his left and there he saw Odzimkowski with his new P-70 pistol. Happy to have survived, he forgot about the last of the three opponents right behind him, but was quickly taken down by a burst from Stonogi's AK.

Odzimkowski quickly ran to Kowalski, and the wounded man himself noticed that he was terribly pale in the face as he looked at Kowalski. "Fuck, man, he got you pretty good!" He said in a frightened tone to him and Kowalski himself looked at his wound and it was indeed bleeding and he was slowly getting weak and then said in surprise. "And where is the fog?"

Odzimkowski who quickly pulled out a first aid kit and started looking for bandages replied. "It disappeared while they were playing with you, perhaps the hostile spells ran out because the mage kicked the bucket or got tired." He then added "Hang on Jasiek, help is on the way." as he began dressing the wounded man all the while forcing him to look at himself.

Centipede meanwhile was alert and hit the surprisingly still alive Marcus with a shot to the head then spat on him. "That's for Kowalski the trash retarded by your father when he was doing you and your mother."

When Odzimkowski finished dressing Kowalski he took him under his arm and began to lead him to the sanitation station, while Kowalski before he lost consciousness just before entering the sanitation station looked up and saw a key Mi-2 flying with a vengeance at the enemies.

As for the rest of the events on the hill, the disappearance, as sudden as the appearance of the fog, quickly revealed that the trenches had been reached by perhaps three dozen Parpaldians, who were easily slaughtered by the much more numerous defenders.

In turn, those who were at the bottom were killed by Mi-2s, and it is suspected that it was their raid that turned the magician off. Because right after they opened fire, the fog disappeared. And so did many enemy infantry columns. So by the evening another thirty thousand or so Parpaldians had died on this piece of land before the command considered it a waste of lives and started looking for another solution.

Meanwhile, as the main attacking force bled out, literally the entire 8 legions were declared destroyed and many more had to join together due to heavy losses. A force consisting of a perimeter of 30 Legions (the average Legion has 6,000 men) took the side roads towards Almater avoiding the cursed defensive position of the 9th Mechanized Regiment.

To their misfortune, the Polish Brigadier General commanding the 12th Division, Kazimierz Lesniak, noticed this and sent a perimeter consisting of the 41st Mechanized Regiment and the 25th Dresden Medium Tank Regiment to stop the attack. The reason for sending such a significant force is mundane, to smash quickly without much air support. The air support for his division was almost all used up for those defending themselves from the huge human tsunami that prevailed in the main direction of attack.

As these forces were joined by massive reinforcements of 150,000, the Parpaldian advance in that direction is more promising so more forces were sent where it has more effect. The 13th Mechanized Division has better terrain to defend and is doing better against the enemy than its twin on the right flank.

April 6, 1975 P.C/ 1640 C.C.Y.

Plain Rectus

5:15

25 Dresden Medium Tank Regiment

T-55AD

Major Henryk Daliniuk looked through his binoculars at the enemy camp that was not hidden by magic. His regiment was a few kilometers from the camp and would be tasked with destroying the enemy camp. It wouldn't be too difficult, in fact, it would be a damn sight easier than training.

Daliniuk was especially sensitive to this action because in practice it would be a baptism of fire for his subordinates; the entire 12th Mechanized Division, having landed, de facto drove up to the river avoiding clashes because the enemy simply surrendered at the mere sight of them. It's not hard to see the surprisingly rapid rate at which the enemy learned of their invasion and how quickly enemy morale rotted to the bottom.

Turning back to the Major, as he gazed in awe at the massive size of the enemy camp he noticed enemy patrols in the area with sources of light created by magic. Sizable bonfires deep within the camp, constant guards on guard towers. Crocodiles locked in their cages and their guards.

"When do we attack Comrade Major?" Asked his commander his gunner Jan Kraśko leaning out of the second hatch.

"In five minutes." Replied the Major tearing himself away from the binoculars and glancing at his watch

"I see," said Kraśko, then began looking around at the T-55s standing in line. "Such a force, if we'd had it in '39 the Krauts would have been fucking up in front of us."

"That's right," replied the Major perfunctorily. Then they waited a few minutes in silence watching the enemy in the distance after which the Major went inside and to use the radio.

"To all units, Polonaise time to begin!" Uttered the Major's magic words, which are heard every year by the students of the last year of high school at the studniówka, being the slogan for the start of the operation with the not very creative name of Dance of the Hussars.

The moment the order fell as if on a salute of honor all 16 T-55s opened fire on the enemy. It didn't take long to see the effects when the first shells hit the target, killing everyone from tents filled with sleeping soldiers to cages with animals. One of them hit a tent with magical stones, which if hit hard enough, as noted in the tests, could cause an explosion.

The force of a 100mm shrapnel shell is more than enough to make a huge firework out of an enemy warehouse. This explosion illuminated the area for several kilometers and swept everything within 300 meters turning it into one big crater. And destroying a huge part of the camp.

"O Kurwa!" Cursed the gunner who scored that hit.

"Somebody get a medal for that hit." Said Kraśko in the tank, before once again all the tanks opened another murderous salvo.

The Major only briefly said "Yes" before ordering the entire formation to move forward after the third salvo to look for the next marked targets on the map.

"It's going to be a long and bloody morning" Said the loader in the tank to himself while loading another shell.

April 7, 2016 J.C./ P.C.

Empire of Japan

Turszewski Household

12:00

"This is Program I of the Polish Radio, broadcasting the latest news from the front. The People's Polish Army is gaining successive victories with minimal losses fighting against the Imperialist Army of Parpaldia which is retreating on all fronts unable to withstand the battle with the mighty Polish Army. Despite their great numerical superiority ..."

Jan Turszewski stopped listening to the radio when he realized that nothing had changed except the obvious successes at the front. He had no great sympathy for the People's Republic of Poland, of course, but it was some kind of Poland after all, and it was still nice to hear about Poland punching someone in the face for a change, especially if that someone was not a rather overly nice country to its neighbors.

"Something new darling?" Asked his wife Akemi in Japanese, with whom he has been with for over 8 years since he came to Japan 13 years ago. After all, it took some time to adjust to the new conditions when he left here for bread, unable to find a decent job with good money in Poland of the early 21st century.

There is no denying that the first decade after the fall of communism was a crazy one for everyone and Poland entered the new millennium with crazy economic growth trying to make up for the time lost behind the Iron Curtain. Unfortunately it also meant a lot of political scandals, gang warfare in the 90s, corruption and general instability when the Balcerowicz's shock therapy literally brought Poland into capitalism through economic shock.

Many companies that were created in the 90's were able to collapse very quickly after a few years of uneven competition or just not well thought out shock therapy. That is why, when he got a chance to work abroad, where it is simply peaceful, he took it. First he worked in a Japanese company (he was lucky that he studied Japanese philology at the University of Warsaw) and after he earned some money and the atmosphere at work was not very friendly for foreigners, he started his own travel company combined with a photographic studio showing people around Japan (mostly his fellow countrymen but sometimes foreigners, although the main profit for a long time was photography).

He met his wife about two years after arriving in the country, and it took a while before we ended up in a traditional Japanese Wedding. And so he managed to arrange his life abroad with some difficulty, collecting money for his retirement in Poland.

The relocation came as a huge shock to him and his tourist clients, who he had to help on their own to get by in this country, even though it was neither easy nor simple during the massive crisis. Somehow he manages to make ends meet, until suddenly a message popped up on his e-mail, asking him to meet in Tokyo.

He was a little distracted from non-business news trying to survive these bad times for everyone so he missed the news of Poland's arrival, as it turned out his wife was more into the subject than he was. Therefore, he was surprised to read the end of the e-mail, which read Embassy of the People's Republic of Poland in Japan.

Of course he accepted the offer, after all, money doesn't stink even from communists and he could hardly count on permanent and well-paid orders. And so he joined the group of people responsible for the PR of the People's Republic of Poland in Japan, and even showed around interested tourists from People's Poland who came with their families and had special requirements.

Just nothing special like where are the libraries, important tech companies, what is a computer and so on and so forth. In short, things from which intelligence is able to extract 80% of necessary information and the fact that these were agents was felt at once. He had experience with them, having been from time to time in People's China or North Korea, sometimes he offered trips there.

He did not feel the need to report it because he rightly thinks that Japanese counterintelligence is keeping an eye on these "tourist trips".

Back to reality. Jan replied to his lovely wife "Nothing new Akemi, Poland continues to win and so on." Akemi nodded slightly then added "What did you call it? The Success Propaganda that was eternally alive during Gierek's time?"

Jan smiled at that "Yes dear." He then went back to packing his suitcase and asked "Have you washed my socks yet?"

Akemi clouded "Yes Jasiu they have been hanging ready to be photographed since yesterday on the balcony" She then added "Are you sure you think it is a good idea to go to Poland?"

Jan who was on the balcony taking off his socks replied "Ake, those were my childhood days I can handle it, the 70's were so much better than the 80's which literally choked us all in fear".

Akemi not letting up asked "What if you meet a younger version of yourself?"

John paused for a moment removing his socks but gave no answer when they heard their youngest child crying.

"There goes Hania again, she's awake and wants a boob" Jan said jokingly changing the subject to a more comfortable one.

Akemi shook her head slightly before she went to feed their five month old youngest child they were trying for before the world stood on its head. Jan, on the other hand, went back to thinking about what he would do when perhaps he would meet the almost two year old version of himself and the younger version of his parents in Poland.

Same Day

Hotel in Tokyo

16:55

Remille, with frustration deep within her, dined in the five star hotel, cursing Poland for their demands, Kyos for botching the job so badly before knowing anything about them other than that they were some barbarian state looking to make contact, her fiancé Emperor Ludius, and herself for allowing Kyos to botch the job.

These Poles in particular were driving her nuts with their very aggressive and repulsive demands trying to subjugate the glorious Empire of Parpaldia.

And they were as follows

- The Empire of Parpaldia disbands its navy and limits its armed forces to 150,000 soldiers of the Army.

-The Empire of Parpaldia pays reparations and compensation in any form to the Polish People's Republic, the Kingdom of Altaras, the Kingdom of Fenn, the Principality of Qua-Tonye and the territories wishing to liberate themselves, for their imperialistic aims and the damage caused by these aims for a period of 40 years in the amount of 50 million zloty per year for each country separately

-The Empire of Parpaldia shall pay war reparations to the Polish People's Republic and to the Kingdom of Altaras in the amount equal to that spent by both countries on military operations

-The Empire of Parpaldia authorizes the introduction of an international supervisory commission to supervise the necessary political changes in order to prevent future wars

-The Armed Forces of Parpaldia will be under strict Polish control and can only be used with the consent of the Polish People's Republic

-The Empire of Parpaldia withdraws from all overseas bases and returns freedom to all territories conquered by it and willing to liberate themselves from its rule

-The Empire of Parpaldia will hand over the instigators of the war against the Altaras to the International Tribunal in Tokyo for trial and conviction

-The Empire of Parpaldia renounces all claims to liberated territory

-The Empire of Parpaldia withdraws all customs duties against foreign companies and the necessity for them to pay taxes for a period of 35 years

-In exchange for the fulfillment of these demands the People's Republic of Poland and the Empire of Japan guarantee the perpetual inviolability of the borders of Parpaldia and the maintenance of the ruling house in power, and any aggression on the territory of Parpaldia will be treated as an aggression on the home territory of the People's Republic of Poland and the Empire of Japan

How dare they treat Parpaldia like this as if it were a meaningless barbarian kingdom and not a great superpower! She thought furiously as Remille ate a five-star dish from the magnificent glass hotel.

Japan in general was a great shock to her and she nearly fainted from what she saw. Magnificent buildings of glass going up to the sky, hundreds of steel carriages called cars. Huge merchant ships eating up even the largest dragon carriers for good measure. Lots of ultra-fast airplanes.

Great picture quality television, hundreds of people on the streets making you barely see the sidewalk. Simply put, Japan amazed her, especially when she saw the live TV coverage of the ruined capital of her homeland.

She saw an ordinary janitor, rumored to be a friend of the fleet commander in chief who helped him get the job and in return would be the creator of his spy network in the fleet, talking to a Japanese reporter in the ruins of the main naval base and in the background was a Polish steel warship.

When she saw this she understood why Ludius her beloved was on the verge of insanity and why he told her to do whatever it took to get along with Poland even though it wasn't easy for her and she thanked the gods that at least with Japan they hadn't botched the launch. Who knows what would have happened? Maybe some 200 people would have died for example?

No, this is stupid. Why order the murder of ordinary people to punish someone and force obedience from another country, moreover one you know nothing about really. What kind of idiot would come up with that? Remille thought, somewhat amused by such a silly thought without sense or logic.

After finishing her lunch, she went back to her room wondering how to handle this extremely difficult negotiation with an extremely stubborn opponent. In a way even that was a good thing, she hadn't had such a big emotional challenge in a very long time and she could use a little change from the usual boring diplomatic talks.

Then she pulled out her magical communicator from the drawer and started to connect with her old friend who taught her diplomacy and introduced her to this position as his successor. After a few minutes an image appeared and Remille spoke to the old man on the screen "Hello Uncle Martin, I need your help with a little matter.

The old man raised an eyebrow and asked "I am listening my dear child, I am listening carefully."

Remille crimsoned slightly and began "You see uncle...