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Post by aimway921 on May 6, 2024 2:14:55 GMT -5
The atmosphere in the nation since the start of the Great War, and even a little bit before the start too, has been tense, to say the least.
The nobility, especially the upper nobility, were beginning to worry about their positions, their status. Queen Yuzura had a reputation of an anti-traditionalist for years now, long before she was crowned and was merely a teenage Princess. Once she got the power that came with the crown, she began, bit by bit, undoing centuries of established traditional ways. The recent edict of racial desegregation, allowing non-Ashins into higher positions of power was the last straw for them.
A number of the most influential families in the country began working together to fix the situation. These included Sahno, Dubynia, Kushnir, Scherbak, Shpakovetski, Yuschenko, Fesenko, Bordechuk - all but two of Royal Ministers. Aligned with them was also almost half of the noble families that held Provincial Governor offices.
While it was ultimately dismissed as them finally taking their responsibilities more seriously, the Royal Guard did notice an increase in traffic going in and out of the Government Wing of the Royal Palace as the nobles started having more and more secret meetings - right under the Queen's nose.
Over a million people, mostly men but also several thousand women, have either volunteered or have been conscripted into the Royal Army. This was over a million people that no longer participated in the workforce, but still needed to be fed, supplied and serviced. And after a year, the nation was starting to feel that sting. Quantity of consumer goods saw a decline as factories - some of which became understaffed because of the conscription - were focusing on the production of military equipment. Worse still - a great deal of the conscripts were from rural farmer communities - which meant less farmers available to till the land and grow crops - meaning food shortages were not far away. To remedy this, the Army would begin rotating the units - who had nothing else to do right now anyway - between drilling their combat skills and helping out on the farms. While the food crisis seemed to have been averted for now, there were many more problems dripping into the stew of the unfolding situation.
The Royal Army was growing uneasy. Soldiers were starting to get increasingly bored. Discipline began dropping, as the freshly trained soldiers - especially those who volunteered - that were promised adventure and action at the recruitment office, instead were met with the mundane routine of drilling for almost a whole year - and now that they were finally being ordered to march, it was only to discover that they would be doing that what many were glad to be taken away from as they joined up - farming. Except now instead of farming because their noble-born landlord said so, they were farming because their Sergeant Major said so.
The island of Eyrie seemed to be removed from the troubles of Nizhyn. Or at least half of it was. While in the East, the Province under the Baron's rule was under similar strain, in the West, the socialists that have won over their autonomy were prospering in comparison. While they contributed little to the growing Royal Army, they had no shortage of workers. The citizens there, while facing their own issues of being left to rebuild on their own after the declaration of autonomy, were under less stress compared to citizens elsewhere in the Hetmanate. And rumors of that were beginning to spread, as some citizens from the East started moving West to become part of the Autonomous Republic.
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Post by aimway921 on May 6, 2024 22:01:27 GMT -5
Spring evenings in Ashinara were a little bit colder than usual this year. The Vaylien breeze brought cool air from the ocean into the streets of Kyograd, as the city was getting ready to fall asleep. Most of it, anyways. The Royal Palace was bustling with activity, as Ministers were coming to and fro - not an unusual sight in these turbulent times, but bordering on suspicious when several important figures entered a meeting chamber just 2 hours before midnight - something important must have happened that the Queen called an urgent night meeting, however, she was fast asleep in her private chambers.
4 Ministers - Scherbak, Yuschenko, Fesenko and Sakhno came into the chamber, followed by 3 Governors - Doroshenko, Yaroshenko and Slobodyan, along with several members of their families who held important positions in the country, and especially the capital.
"Well, gentlemen, everyone is here?" Scherbak began the meeting. It was noted that Demyanenko, a Governor, was absent, but otherwise everyone was in attendance.
"Unfortunate... But unsurprising that he's having cold feet. Gentlemen, I'll begin. We're all here in agreement that something must be done about the Queen. She has too many idealistic ideas, and not enough experience to lead our nation. Look at what it's resulting in. That mutt Feyrr is gaining more power. Eyrie is a complete disaster, instead of sending in troops to shoot, catch and hang the traitors, she allowed them to run their social experiment. Now I'm hearing their ideas are starting to spread and infect minds of people outside Eyrie."
"It's like the whole Hetmanate is going to shit now that Gavrylo took his steel fist into the grave with him!" Doroshenko exclaimed. "Have you seen what's going on in the capital?! Tavrians and Kanivians are starting to move in, thinking they have the right to jobs in the city. Ever since she passed that law, they decided they can do whatever the hell they want. Who is even allowing them to leave their Counties?!"
"And that's another thing!" Yuschenko butted in. "Ever since she stopped enforcing the Kripak laws, people started moving around unsanctioned."
"Not to mention that she basically stopped listening to us on the Rada meetings!" someone else proclaimed.
For almost an hour the nobles voiced their grievances to each other. And they were lucky that Baron Viktor Yakubovich - a nephew of Knyaz Doroshenko, who was the Ispravnik - chief - of the Kyograd Gendarmerie, had his men standing guard around the meeting chamber, ensuring no eavesdroppers could overhear the treasonous words being spoken. Especially not the Royal Guard of the Queen.
"So, Gentlemen, this is all nice that we find ourselves in agreement, but what shall we do?" Scherbak asked the room. Suddenly, everyone fell silent. They knew what he was hinting at, but no one wanted to say the words out loud. That would elevate them from treason to high treason.
"No, I am not suggesting we continue on without her," Scherbak said, and several sighs of relief responded. "What I am suggesting though, is that despite her being an adult and already having been crowned, she clearly needs a Regent."
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Post by aimway921 on May 13, 2024 19:39:29 GMT -5
Kunitsyno Hamlet, Garkon' Province
Thump, thump, thump, the horses rhythmically stomped the fertile ground as they pulled the ploughs across the field. Two ploughs next to each other, ploughing together in hopes to finish the work twice as fast. Two completely different men operate them.
One plough was being pushed by an older man. His fur was loosing it's vibrant color as it grayed, and his beard that reached half way down to his chest was as unkempt as the simple clothes he was wearing. The other plough was handled by a much younger man. While he wasn't wearing his jacket, his boots, wide-legged pants and cap indicated military bearing. He was one of the troops assigned to help the farmers to give the Army at least something to do while they wait for favorable conditions to ship out.
"...so I'm telling you," the young soldier rattled on. "We've joined up what now, a whole year ago?! And what have we been doing this whole time? Sure, the first 6 months we trained intensively. But then what? An exercise here, a parade there, but other than that, we're basically kicking shit."
"Mhm, and all the meantime the food we're growing is going to you while you're just sitting there."
"That's what I'm saying! My dad's a farmer too, I come from a farm. I know how hard it is to grow the food. And then that fat bastard, what's his name... Ah, I don't remember, that gold-collared blue-blood fuck they put in charge of us - had us walking around farms and exa- exp- exapr... Fuck, taking the fucking rice from the farmers, is what he made us do!"
"Yeah, I heard that," the old man replied. "Three months ago our neighbor had majority of his harvest taken. And for just 3 Hryvnias per bushel when he's normally sell it for 20."
Slirondia Provincial Army Base, Barrack Number 149
"Comrades, please, quiet down!" an Eyrian soldier called out to his fellow conscripts. Kuzyma was one of the several hundred "volunteers" the government of the Eyrie Autonomous Republic has sent to the Royal Army with a mission - spread the republican sentiment across the nation.
As members of his unit shuffled in for one of his - officially unsanctioned - political lectures, he was excited at the turn out. First time he agitated, he only got the ear of 3 people. Now there were almost a hundred in front of him. And each of them was talking to a friend or two, and his message was spreading like wildfire. But it was a double-edged sword. While roughly half the Sergeants in this boot camp were sympathetic, the same couldn't be said the upper echelons of Army leadership. Each time he held a meeting, he was risking a court martial.
"So tell me, how was your dinner today?" Kuzyma asked, once the doors finally closed and everyone settled down.
"Great!" several soldiers called out from the crowd.
"And do you know where it came from?" Kuzyma asked. "The... kitchen?" someone replied sheepishly, and the crowd laughed.
"But did you think where the kitchen got it from?" Kuzyma continued. "Perhaps you have not heard how the 31st Platoon was sent out to the local farms to collect grain. And how they didn't pay the farmers a fair price for it!"
"So what?" someone in the back called out.
"So what?" Kuzyma repeated. "I'll tell you so what. Who are those farmers? They are our fathers! Our sons! Our brothers and cousins! They are our families! And now it's come to what? The most military action the great Ashinaran Royal Army has seen in this Great War so far is robbing it's own farmers of their produce! Sure they call it requisition, but do they compensate properly? Of course they don't! Now take a look at this!"
He pulled out several letters from his pocket. "I had several of my boys in 31st ask the farmers - on the side, where other soldiers wouldn't hear - for their honest opinion on what's going on. And maybe share some insight that our commanders aren't telling us. And what did we find? The peasants are poorer than ever. Many are starting to struggle put food on their own table, as what little they're able to produce, especially after hundreds of thousands of young men left for the Army, is all being taken by the Army!" The barrack was silent. Most were indeed from farmer families. Some even received letters from home over the past few months. At first they didn't believe what they were saying. Surely they were exadurating. The Royal Army, commanded by noble officers and headed by the, for all intents and purposes, progressive Queen, would never stoop this low. Right? But then they were assigned on several requisition missions and saw it first hand. And now Kuzyma confirmed the worries of their families in those letters.
Feeling of resentment towards higher-ups, especially those of noble birth, began spreading among the troops. But not all of them...
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Post by aimway921 on May 18, 2024 16:59:49 GMT -5
Admiral Kolvan woke up late in the day after another night of drinking. Ever since the decimation of entire Ashinaran fleet in the early days of the War, the honor of the Royal Navy was further tarnished by being completely neglected. Only a few military ships remained operational, not counting the armada of coastal patrol boats which, as practice has shown, were completely useless against even the greatly decreased naval blockade from Galra. Ministry of Defense constantly denied construction of new ships, citing the deficiency of current Ashinaran designs, and inability to procure new ones. Attempts to contact the Queen directly have been futile, with requests drowning in bureaucracy - with Kolvan starting to suspect that someone in the Royal Government is deliberately trying to keep him and the Queen from meeting.
He was not the only one in the Navy suffering from the idleness. With most of the surviving crews and new recruits being grounded due to the lack of ships, they've been relegated to drilling infantry tactics. The one good thing from all this was that now most sailors could play the role of Marines - except the lack of naval exercising meant their ship-related skills were starting to suffer. Many officers were uneasy, starting to question their purpose. It was as if the Royal Navy now existed purely as a nominal organization, with no task or purpose.
As months went by, the troops were given increasingly longer leaves. Weekend passes turned into week passes. Many soldiers - and officers - used them to visit families. And as the cracks in the national order were slowly growing, a number of them were exposed to certain sentiments, that they started bringing back with them to the Navy.
Socialist sympathies began to spread like wildfire in the neglected Navy.
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Post by aimway921 on May 22, 2024 15:19:53 GMT -5
The time has finally come. Evening of 8th of Sablien. Falsified reports over the previous few weeks brought the fear into the capital that the Galran Navy, that was still enforcing a blockade, are preparing to actually land troops on the ground. This gave an excuse to deploy several thousand troops into the capital itself. Troops from the 18th Army - all loyal - be it through idealistic beliefs or promise of great reward for a job well done - to Omelian Scherbak. A 500-strong unit was deployed to the Royal Palace to, as they claimed, "assist the Royal Guards by bolstering their numbers."
Captain of the Royal Guard, Tamara Verhovetska, has had her suspicions for a while now - but it was too late when she realized what was actually going on.
10:05 PM. The Royal Army soldiers outnumbered the Royal Guard in the palace 2 to 1 - at least if only counting the ones currently on shift. The Royal Guard, however, was for the most part evenly spread out across the Palace, meaning there was never more than 4 of them within shouting distance at a time - with the exception of the Queen's personal quarters, where 20 Guards were congregated.
10:07 PM.
10 Royal Army soldiers come up to a Royal Guard caught alone in a corridor. "Under the order of Minister of Justice, you are under arrest under suspicion of treason against the Queen." The Royal Guard, taken by surprise, was about to start defending herself, both verbally and physically, but saw that the 10 men surrounding her already had their hands on their weapons, ready to draw and cut her down if needed. Surrendered, she is taken to a stable outside the Palace where the Queen's horses reside - or at least used to, for it seemed they were relocated just for this operation, and locked inside.
This scene is repeated many times over across the Palace in the next 13 minutes. Not a single shot fired - but several saber clashes did take place, with 15 Royal Guards killed, 20 wounded, and 195 "arrested" - vs only 5 soldiers killed and 15 wounded.
10:20 PM.
Captain Verhovetska already had her saber drawn, and the 19 women behind her had their rifles pointed down the only doorway available to freely enter - the servant doors have been hastily barricaded, and the secret passageways well, they were secret. Or so they thought, at least.
10:22 PM.
Major Alexandr Denikin, saber in right hand and pistol in left, rounded the corner and stood across the corridor from the Royal Guards. "Captain Verhovetska. You are under arrest for treason against the Queen. I request you surrender immediately.
"That is bullshit an you know it, Denikin!" the Captain replied. In response, 60 soldiers piled into the corridor behind Denikin.
"It is sad it had to come to this," a voice echoed from behind the corner, before it's owner appeared. Omelian Scherbak. The mastermind behind the plot. "Arrest them."
With a shout, the soldiers, sabers in hand, charged. The guards fired a salvo with their rifles, with how packed the corridor was, 19 bullets all hit - but only 3 soldiers. They fell and the rest continued charging. Second salvo. 5 more soldiers down. Now they were too close to rack the bolt to load the third bullet in their chambers. They Guardswomen dropped their rifles and drew their sabers.
It was hopeless. Despite their superior training, the Guardswomen, who managed to cut down 20 more soldiers, were simply squashed with numbers. Only Captain Verhovetska - heavily wounded - was taken prisoner alive.
10:38 PM.
The soldiers barged into the Queen's bedroom. It was empty.
10: 42 PM.
The Queen emerged from the dark corridor. Escaped through a secret passageway. Not as secret as she hoped, however, as when she raised her head now that she didn't need to carefully watch where she stepped, she saw the Royal Guard escorting with her arms raised, a soldier holding a saber to her neck.
Taras Kushnir - Minister of Information - greeted the Queen. "Your Majesty," he said. "I am relieved you are safe. We came just in time to thwart these traitors' plot against you," he continued, as he looked at the Guardswoman. Then he nodded to the rest of the soldiers. "Please, escort Her Majesty safely back to the Palace. We need to discuss matters of State immediately."
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