Chapter 84: Equipping the Beiyang Army
The Russian Civil War, as it was now being called across the world, was being closely observed by the other major powers. France had initially decided to supply the Red Army in a bid to screw with the German volunteers sent there, as well as to replace the Russian Tsar and its monarchy with a government more suited towards cooperation with the Third French Republic.
Of course, this immediately backfired after they tried to assassinate Bruno, only for the Red Army to take the blame for it. Marxism had quickly become the enemy of the world, and it was no exception in France where the death of the French Chief of Staff was also blamed on local Marxist organizations, as German Foreign Intelligence had framed local Marxist groups perfectly in this regard.
Because France had identified local Marxists as the culprits, they had immediately withdrawn any support they were going to give the Red Army before it even began. Meanwhile, their British allies simply stayed out of the matter entirely.
And while Japan consolidated its gains in Manchuria, Korea, and Sakhalin as a result of its overwhelming victory during the Russo-Japanese War, which as a result of Bruno's interference in this timeline ended the year prior. Another eastern power was currently doing everything it could to modernize its armed forces.
Quite frankly, the Boxer Rebellion escalated into a conflict between the Qing Dynasty and the Western Powers, while it had just begun its attempts to modernize its army. Such efforts were currently underway after suffering such a humiliating defeat and occupation by the European Powers and the Empire of Japan.
Not only that, but Russia had occupied Manchuria, a region from which the current ruling dynasty originated from. Only to lose it to the Empire of Japan in the years that followed. To say that the Chinese people were disgruntled with their current leadership was the understatement of a lifetime.
In fact, the Great Ming Uprising of 1903, which had only lasted for three whole days, did little to cement the Qing authority over an increasingly hostile population towards their reign. If Bruno had not been attending the Prussian War College at the time, and was instead a full- fledged general, he would have advocated for the German Reich to support the short-lived Heavenly Kingdom of the Great Mingshun.
Which was an attempt by the Revive China Society to establish a Westernized Constitutional Monarchy. It was preferable for China to remain ideologically in line with the German Reich than to stray towards the ultimate goal of becoming a liberalized republic, or worse, a communist dictatorship.
China was, after all, a sleeping giant, much in the same way the United States was. One which would be an enormous player on the global stage in the coming decades. Especially in the 21st century. Perhaps if China remained a monarchy at this time, albeit under the rule of the ethnic Han majority, rather than the Manchu minority, then it would have become a major player in World Affairs much quicker than it had in his past life.
As the chaos which followed the fall of the Qing Dynasty lasted for several decades and prevented the industrialization and rise of the Chinese nation for longer than it otherwise could have been had the failed Republic of China, and the following Warlord Era, Second Sino-Japanese War, and Chinese Civil War not occurred.