[DM Event] Coup in Kyoto!

[aimway921]

"Very well," Yuzuru said. "Kodama, take the men you already know you want to carry over with you to Kahokai. They shall be your force for this night. Yamachiro, you shall stay with your soldiers and reinforce the Royal Guard that remains in the palace. While here, you shall also select the 400 that will stay with the Guard permanently."

She then turned to Kondo again. "It is imperative that today's operation goes under complete secrecy. I do not want Kempeitai members outside of the city catching wind and fleeing before we get to them. How you wish to get to them, I will leave to you."

"Now. Are there any other concerns that anyone wishes to express before we close this meeting?"

[alxeu]

Neither Kondo nor Kodama had any further concerns, and prepared to move quickly to begin the mass purge of the remaining members of the Kempeitai.

While Kodama assembled his preferred men, Kondo planned a path through the city that involved moving from district to district, while also relying on the army regiments within the city to ensure inter-district travel was restricted to just the members of the Kahokai. Once both had done their preparations, the planned operation began.

The two would report on the full affair the next morning, as soon as the Empress was ready to accept them, and then return to their newfound duties, working on rapidly bringing the Kahokai up to full strength.

[aimway921]

There would be only one thing left to clear up before the day could be called done. Yamachiro told Yuzuru of the demands - no, "requests" made by the other Generals.

"Very well," she said. "Go tell him that I request his presence. I want to see him deliver these requests to me directly."

[alxeu]

It wasn't long at all until the General responded to the summons, having expected such a thing to occur in the next few days. Bringing with him a few aides, and ensuring that his officers knew where he was should they need to reach him, he arrived at the Palace.

Bowing low in respect of the Empress, the General remained keenly aware of just who he was speaking to for the entire upcoming conversation.

Noting Yamachiro's presence, he began, "Thank you, my Tenno, for the invitation to your Palace today. Assuming my fellow General has briefed Your Majesty regarding our proposal for the future, I'd like to offer a defense for why I believe such a proposal to be necessary - and why I cannot allow such a plan to be rejected as a seizure of power. Your Majesty, with all due respect, the Nobles were, perhaps, the simplest enemy for you to have faced. You would be hard-pressed to find anyone sympathetic with their goals of an oligarchic rule of the richest landowners in Ashigawa. The allies they had were ones of convenience, and such partnerships would be temporary at best."

"There may yet be a day when you face a more popular enemy. Populists and rabble-rousers tend to rise fast in electoral systems, and both will seize power for themselves, and that power must come from somewhere. Eventually, they might even use their power to undermine your divine power, and, perhaps, remove you entirely. This unconsciousable action would be devastating for our nation, and, simultaneously, would be difficult to oppose without seeing like a tyrant."

"Your Majesty, such an issue can be rectified by allowing the Army to take the fall. Granting the Army the independence to take such necessary and unpopular actions against a rogue civilian government will bolster the stability of our nation all the more. I... recognize the importance of the reforms you've implemented to you, and I wouldn't ask you to revoke them. I actually happen to agree with the need for us to act less belligerently against the other nations of the world, for example."

"What I'm asking is for an independent Army that can maintain whatever system you establish as its arbiter and defender. Any unpopular actions performed to defend the power of the Tenno and the defense of institutions Your Majesty wishes to have maintained can be done by the Army. All that the Army wants from this is included within the proposal. With our independent powers, we'll be free of invasive civilian oversight which will only weaken our armed forces in a time when we are still rebuilding our international image and where war still looms on the horizon."

"A constitutional state where the Army defends the Tenno and the Constitution... from the elected government itself, if necessary."

[aimway921]

Yuzuru would sit in her throne, thinking over what the general has said for several minutes, before responding.

"Your views on the matter are respectable and understandable. However you must understand that the perspective from which other nations would view this. Do you have an idea of how to implement your proposal without it looking as if I am going back on my promises of liberalization, thus tarnishing the image of Ashigawa, instead of rebuilding it as I aim to do?"

[alxeu]

"Such a problem can be handled with two solutions, provided in tandem," the General responded.

"The first would prevent any accusations of back-tracking on your reforms: the powers the nobles used to have over the state shall be jointly assumed by the Army and civilian government. The Army shall be presented as the penultimate check on any action by the National Diet, with Your Majesty being the final check on their activities. By making our position be ones of last resort, it would simultaneously make the perceived influence less than if we were more openly meddling in the elected government."

"The second is a matter of rebranding: the Army could be remodeled into a different, less belligerent force, perhaps called something along the lines of the Ashigawan Self-Defense Force. This could be followed up by further actions to either reduce garrison commitments to more heavily disputed zones, or by redeploying most of the navy to remain in the Home Islands until the referenda are concluded. Make it clear that our nation is perfectly willing to follow through with our promises to withdraw from our empire, if that is what they wish."

"Nevertheless, the ASDF and Navy, once properly brought onboard with our knew foreign policy stance, will remains as defenders of Ashigawa, the new constitution, and the Tenno. Our first duty will always to be defending against our enemies, but  we must be able to defend that system from those who wish to undermine it from within. There will need to be reassignments or dismissals of those who oppose the new duty of the armed forces, but better they be removed than start a war against enemies that span our entire world."

[aimway921]

Yuzuru worked over what the general said in her head.

"I am in favor of the rebranding. The entire military shall be renamed Ashigawa Self Defense Force. The Army shall be named the Ashigawa Ground Self-Defense Force. The Navy - Ashigawa Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Airforce - Ashigawa Air Self-Defense Force. AGSDF, AMSDF, AASDF respectively, shall all be part of the ASDF."

"I shall grant a provision that only members of the military can be elected into the Ministry of Defense, which would give you full membership in the civilian government. It shall allow you to advice the civil government directly, as well as not let the civil government take decisions that shall affect the military without knowing the effect of those decisions themselves."