I Became Stalin?! - Chapter 209:

Chapter 209

“What the hell…”

“Has the coup plan leaked?”

Leclerc gritted his teeth. He was screwed. There was a mole.

He looked at the generals who were flustered like hens clucking around with cold and icy eyes. Even if they acted surprised now, there might be a traitor among them.

“Shouldn’t we stop the coup?”

“Now that it’s come to this…”

“Stop!”

The conference room became quiet as if cold water had been poured over it. The generals swallowed their saliva and looked at Leclerc, who had become the leader of the ‘military revolution’.

“If the information about this coup has leaked, do you think you will be safe if you cancel the plan now? If the mole sold us out for his own life, for his own reputation, what do you think he would want the most? To send us to the gallows and shut us up forever!”

“Gulp.”

There was only the sound of someone gasping in surprise, and it was so quiet that even the breathing could not be heard. Leclerc slammed the table.

“We have only two choices! The gallows or the Elysee Palace! Mobilize the troops immediately. If they have noticed, we have no choice but to act swiftly!”

“Yes, sir!”

“But…”

Clang. Leclerc pulled out a gun like lightning and pointed it at the hesitant general. He threatened him between his clenched lips.

“But? You want to back out now? You might be the mole.”

“No, no! I’m for the military revolution… Eek!”

“Take him away!”

The two big soldiers who had been quietly guarding the door grabbed the general’s arms. He was frozen in front of the gun barrel and was dragged out.

“Listen well. Win or d*e. The dice have already been thrown.”

***

“Huh? Did we get a message that our transport unit arrived? Answer! Answer!”

[…]

At the control tower of Orly Airport on the outskirts of Paris, they kept sending radio messages without any response.

They were clearly friendly transport planes, but they didn’t know what they were coming for.

“Ah… Should we land them? Okay. Nimier, Jenan…”

Of course, the question was solved in an instant. The administration office that managed the airport contacted him directly. It was for a secret operation, so he had to allow them to land.

What kind of secret operation was this, he grumbled, but he started to guide the transport planes one by one.

The empty runway was filled with transport planes arriving one by one.

“Huh…? What’s that?”

And from the transport planes, fully armed soldiers began to descend. The foreign legion’s white hats (kepi blanc) and green berets held their rifles firmly and headed out of the airport with a dignified walk.

The controller sensed something was wrong and wondered who to report to, who to contact, but someone kicked the door of the control room and came in.

“Well, thank you. We’ll take over the control tower now.”

The colonial garrison that entered the French mainland through Orly Airport in the south of Paris began to march toward Paris.

And the main force of the rebels, the 2nd Infantry Division 1st Battalion, dragged the US-made M4 Sherman tanks that were given to the new French army and advanced to the city of Paris.

Most of the officers and men just obeyed the orders. In addition, the rebel leaders propagandized to the soldiers.

“Communists in Paris have staged a coup and captured the parliament and cabinet members! The Soviet Union is reaching out its bloody claws to France! Army, rise up!”

“Foreign forces are infringing on our sovereignty and trying to take away our colonies. Soldiers! Will you stand by and watch this?”

In fact, it didn’t make much difference to the colony, the foreigners of the foreign legion, or the young soldiers.

But the right-wing politicians rebelled hysterically against the fact that France was no longer a great power and could not influence the world situation. Would they become pawns between the US and the Soviet Union? They spat blood and rejected such a future.

“Advance! Advance! Suppress the rebels!”

“Long live France! Long live freedom!”

The citizens screamed and disappeared on both sides of the street as they saw the tanks they had never seen before running on the road with a clattering sound.

They didn’t know what their purpose was, and the police who couldn’t stop them, even if they had a purpose, had to watch the tanks advance toward Paris with their eyes wide open.

When they received the flyers that they were spreading as they advanced, the people realized what their purpose was for turning the guns to the capital.

“It’s a coup!”

***

“Prime Minister, urgent news! The rebels are marching toward Paris!”

“Is that so? Faster than expected.”

Prime Minister Torres lost his appetite as he looked at the young secretary who ran in and delivered the urgent news.

The suppression army was not yet organized.

“A coup cannot succeed unless it suppresses the legitimate government. The troops loyal to us will annihilate them. We, we…”

We just have to survive and wait for salvation. As long as we don’t give up in fear, we can win this fight.

But now France will no longer be great.

Secretary General Torres was also a Frenchman and wanted his country to be great. He wanted to form a kind of loose federation by uniting the French-speaking countries of the former colonies, even if he was not the second great power and the strongest country in Europe.

He wanted to exert his influence in the ‘third world’ that Stalin claimed, and play the role of the second-in-command of the socialist camp, but this coup ruined his plan.

He didn’t want France to become a crazy imperialist country again in the colony, but he didn’t like France becoming a pawn of the Soviet Union, a huge country, either.

“Where did it all go wrong…”

Was it when we lost to Germany in six weeks? When we liberated Paris not by our own armed struggle, but by following the Kremlin’s orders to coincide with Germany’s downfall?

Nazi Germany was on a rampage to swallow the world whole, but they were turned back by the Soviet Union.

Everything that Germany had gained went into the hands of the Soviets.

And that nuclear weapon.

The weapon that destroyed Berlin and devastated Japan.

Without it, no other countries could claim to be ‘great powers’.

The Soviet Union shared the nuclear weapon only with the United States, and refused to share the status of a great power.

In the newly established ‘United Nations’, France would never have a permanent seat as it did in the League of Nations.

He felt powerless and buried himself in his chair.

***

“Citizens, comrades! The reactionary rebels are coming to overthrow our government that we have established!”

“Arm yourselves! Arm yourselves! Comrades!”

The leaders of the labor unions and the Communist Party, who had already grasped the situation, quickly mobilized their members.

Their armament level was poor, with only old-fashioned rifles or makeshift homemade explosives, but they were burning with the will to defend the republic government that they had created with their own hands.

“Let’s build barricades! Let’s build barricades to stop the tanks from advancing!”

The city of Paris, the city of rebellion, was familiar with this kind of fight.

From the French Revolution, to the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire, to the July Revolution, to the 1848 Revolution, to the Paris Commune, and to the recent Christmas uprising of the Resistance!

The Parisians, who had been trained in the long struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, quickly built a barrier to block the tanks.

And above it, the flag of France, the tricolor, fluttered.

“Uh… uh?”

“Aren’t we here to suppress the rebellion?”

The junior officers and soldiers were shaken by the sight. They had marched in after hearing that the regime was collapsing due to an illegal coup d’etat, but they were stunned when the citizens voluntarily built barricades and blocked their advance.

“Captain! The soldiers are refusing to fire! What the hell is going on right now?”

“I don’t know either. Maybe…”

“We can’t point our guns at the citizens! If we are involved in an illegal rebellion…”

“Watch your mouth, lieutenant!”

The captain slapped the lieutenant who mentioned the rebellion, but he himself was also seriously flustered.

Some of his ‘successful’ classmates had said that if they did well in this affair, they would have a bright future ahead of them.

They would either get promoted quickly in the staff headquarters, which would be replaced by patriotic soldiers, or lead the elite combat units and earn glorious military honors!

Not all the officers who participated in the coup d’etat dreamed of success, and there were also people like the captain who were swept away by the tide, but they didn’t hate making a name for themselves either.

But what is this? The citizens were fiercely pointing their guns at them, as if they were ready to fire at any moment.

Those shabby barricades would collapse in a few shots of tank fire, but the captain had no confidence to take responsibility for what would happen afterwards.

A soldier who was supposed to protect the country, firing a tank gun at civilians?

The famous Napoleon had fired grapeshot at the counter-revolutionary protesters during the revolution, but that was possible because he had the backing of the high-ranking officials of the revolutionary government. As a politician-soldier, Napoleon was able to rise, but the captain did not think he was a genius comparable to Napoleon.

“…I’ll be back in a minute.”

There must have been quite a few lieutenants who were in a similar confusion as him.

The lieutenant saluted with a suspicious expression and watched the captain’s back.

But the captain also knew what the lieutenant was thinking.

“You, what are you going to do?”

His friend, who was his classmate and the captain of the next company, asked him as soon as he leaned his face in. His friend also looked flustered.

In fact, they were all the same.

They had participated in the coup d’etat hoping that maybe they could dream of a better future than now, or because the next person was doing it, or because they were afraid of the consequences if they didn’t.

Now that their short dream was about to burst, they were scared.

“Let’s turn around.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“The tanks. If we explain the situation and join the government side, they’ll follow us. You saw the atmosphere, right?”

There were also people who were more cunning and opportunistic than others among them.

The captain was trying to persuade his friend.

The failure of the coup d’etat seemed obvious anyway. He didn’t want to get involved in a doomed rebellion and get into trouble, so he decided to switch sides and join the government forces! At least that way, his subordinates wouldn’t point their guns at the back of his head.

“Can we do that?”

“F**k! Was this rebellion ever going to work? The army that should protect the country is turning its guns on the citizens’ government? Colonies and b******t, we have to follow the law first!”

“…”

As his indecisive friend hesitated, the captain turned around with exaggerated anger.

That friend was always like that. When things seemed bad, he would be scared and do nothing, and then follow the others.

But it was important that he commanded one company of tanks.

“Okay! I’ll follow you too.”

While calling out a cheer inwardly, the captain just nodded his head and went outside.

He took a deep breath and shouted to the soldiers in the most resounding and dignified voice he could think of.

“Soldiers! Patriotic soldiers of France! Reject the illegal coup d’etat!!!”