I Became A Hidden Powerhouse Of The British Empire [EN]: Chapter 348

< The Bad Guys vs. The Weird Guys (2) >

“…I’d like to hear more details.”

He was good at managing his expression, but the most pressing issue made him lose it. Look at that desperate face.

It’s a shame that a man who was an icon of harmony, peace, and unity in the original history is suffering because he was born in the wrong era.

If he were a citizen of the British Empire instead of the United States, we could have maintained a pretty good relationship.

But I’m giving him some consideration, right?

According to my advice, even in this world, Lincoln will be treated as a hero who saved the North from the tide of communists.

Moreover, he can live much longer, being treated as a hero without being assassinated.

Hmm, now that I think about it, shouldn’t Lincoln be thanking me for this?

“Your Highness? Could you explain how this process was derived?”

Ah, right. The reaction was so delicious that I was savoring it bit by bit, and my mind wandered off.

“Which part are you curious about?”

“How does it lead to the conclusion that communists are rampant in the South?”

“Didn’t I write it in the letter?”

“I don’t understand that part. How did Your Highness get such information?”

Well, it wouldn’t make sense if the president of a country readily believed information given by someone else just because it was tempting.

Trying to confirm is a perfectly natural step.

I was planning to tell him everything if he asked from the beginning anyway.

“The organization trying to bring communists to the American continent this time is the NBA.”

“King James, the head of the NBA, is a British citizen… Don’t tell me?”

“It’s not that far. However, since the NBA is an organization that aims for black liberation, black people are quite deeply involved. And among the black people, there are naturally many people who are related to Canada, and most of them don’t like communism. So, information can’t help but come this way.”

“I see. I was so distracted by other things that I didn’t even know.”

There’s no good in revealing that James is my confidant, so this is an excuse I prepared in advance, but it was more persuasive than I thought.

At the same time, I can also show off that I was worried about a colleague on the front lines of capitalism, so isn’t it killing two birds with one stone?

“You may not be feeling it yet, but in my opinion, communism will be a huge threat to all capitalist countries in the future. Therefore, in the Americas, Canada and the United States must form a stronger relationship of trust and jointly check the rise of communism.”

“I’ve heard that their momentum is quite scary in Europe.”

“Scary? If you actually see it, you’ll know it’s not just that.”

People don’t realize the seriousness of a problem until they actually experience it.

Right now, only Paris is making a fuss about the communists running rampant, while other countries are just watching from across the river.

Even Russia took this opportunity to legally cut wages by one-third for being late once.

They even showed the courage to decide not to delete the clause that even women who have given birth must go to work normally the next day.

There are many crazy people in the world, but those guys are really not normal.

If you watch them quietly, it’s not just communism, but it seems like a pseudo-nation that would have collapsed from any kind of revolution if it weren’t for those guys.

The time is coming when the anger towards them is slowly crossing the threshold, but they don’t realize it, so if I show them a taste, they won’t be able to grasp the reality.

In particular, the North, which directly borders the South, will be in chaos.

Think about how the countries near Russia reacted when Russia was turned upside down by the Russian Revolution, and it’s clear.

“But Your Highness, if communists run wild in the South, wouldn’t the black people in Canada be affected as well?”

“I’ve considered that too, but there’s no problem.”

It’s not hard to imagine what the regime that will be established in the South will look like.

Rather, there will be a mass exodus from this crazy country, so I should think about how to reform them.

I didn’t say it out loud, but I was planning to entrust that task to Edward and prepare in advance.

If the situation allows, it might not be bad to have Alfred accompany him to gain experience.

In that case, I should find a good husband for Adelaide… This is impossible for me, so let’s just pretend I don’t know.

I put aside the complicated calculations for now and told Lincoln my plan, disguised as a prediction of the future, to gain his trust.

“Thank you. Thanks to Your Highness’s information, I think I can solve the current and future problems at once.”

“I’m glad it helped.”

“But do you really want nothing in return?”

“Didn’t I tell you? It’s a gift for future friendly relations. But if you’re still bothered, please think of it as compensation for the losses your country unintentionally suffered in the last war, as I said earlier.”

Everyone knows that there is nothing as unsettling as a favor without a price.

Lincoln was no exception, and he showed a suspicious reaction until the end.

Believing this would be like believing Gollum; I didn’t think he would believe me so readily from the beginning.

But if you lay the groundwork like this, the next thing you say will be taken as sincere.

I lowered my voice slightly as if I couldn’t help it.

“My real purpose is for the United States to cut off the tide of communists before my Canada is affected.”

“Hmm.”

“Even though it’s divided, it was originally one country, so the commotion in the South will directly affect the North, right? So, depending on how the North responds initially, many things will be divided. In that regard, there is only one thing I want. Mr. President, please use the knife mercilessly if possible. Without hesitation, for sure.”

“If that’s the case, I understand. Now that I’ve received the information, I have to pay the price for sure. I will become a solid breakwater so that the communist wave does not cross this country and reach Canada.”

What I really want is the change that will be triggered by it, but there’s no need to tell him that far, right?

With this, setting up the breakwater was successfully completed.

All that’s left is to wait for the waves to come.

* * *

The reign of terror in the South intensified day by day.

This shallow strategy of blaming all the faults on black people could not last.

Moreover, now that it was completely separated from the North, the South had no choice but to develop its industry, and in this process, it forced enormous sacrifices on its citizens.

There was a justification: post-war economic recovery.

With this miraculous word, no matter how much people were ground down, it was justified in the name of patriotism.

The cotton business extracts black slaves even more fiercely, and industry grows by grinding down citizens in the name of patriotism.

“Repeal the lifting of the working hour limit? You bastard! You’re a traitor who thinks it’s okay to be invaded by the North again!”

“If we implement a 6-day work week, the country will collapse! Even while we are resting, the North is producing weapons to kill us!”

“The blood and sweat we are shedding now will eventually become a shield to protect our families! Work! Work without rest!”

What kind of hell is this?

Engels, who arrived in the South for the first time and looked around, could not help but be horrified.

He realized that even the labor rights in Europe, which he had so vehemently criticized as being impossible for humans to do, were like heaven compared to this place.

The justification for restoring the economy that had become a mess due to the war was understandable, but still, wasn’t this too much?

Of course, there was a reason why the South was implementing such harsh policies.

In fact, the leaders of the South did not believe that this slavery system could be maintained for thousands of years.

They are arguing that it must be, but if there is anyone who believes that this will last forever, they should doubt their intelligence.

Someday, slavery will end.

Then, we will not be able to maintain the current scale of the cotton business, so how will we fill the economic gap that will inevitably occur?

The answer is that we have no choice but to develop industry somehow.

However, the South did not have the resources or technology to develop an industry that could compete with the North.

So what can we do? We have no choice but to fill the gap by rolling them cheaply and a lot.

The leaders of the South were not trying to drive people so harshly forever.

When the level of technology rises, we can gradually release the workers and make them similar to Europe or the North, right?

Until then, if we emphasize patriotism, we will encourage them to work a little harder.

Of course, from Engels’ point of view, it was nothing more than dizzying nonsense.

“I’ve heard about it, but isn’t this just a crazy country? I expected it to some extent because it’s a country that affirms slavery, but this is at a level where not only black people are slaves, but even workers are treated as slaves.”

“Engels, isn’t there anything more to see? Let’s just gather people and start a revolution. There is no country as perfect as this to start a revolution.”

Bakunin, who came with him, looked around this hopeless country with eyes blazing as if this was the opportunity.

And Engels’s heart was no different.

“Mr. James, you said you already had a plan to start a revolution, right?”

“Of course. If you all agree, we can proceed with the plan right away.”

Revolution, revolution.

It is true that I had doubts about whether I could actually do this, even though I had been arguing so hard.

Besides, I was a little worried because I was really going to implement it.

But that was all before I set foot on this land.

Thanks to James, Engels and the socialists of the International [a socialist organization], who toured various parts of the South with a private security company, were already filled with anger.

“Escape! That black slave is escaping!”

“Catch him! You trash! Even we white people are working so hard, how dare a slave try to escape?”

“Die! Die, you bastard!”

“Hey, hey. Isn’t killing him a violation of private property? Don’t you have to pay the owner?”

“When did you not know that it was revised to say that you can kill a runaway slave if you have no choice? Let’s just hang this bastard as an example.”

When I saw a slave who couldn’t stand the harsh labor being caught and beaten to death, I felt like I was going to vomit.

It was the capitalists’ harsh treatment that made the citizens so violent.

In the end, this country is grinding down workers even more fiercely by putting up a shield called black slaves.

At the same time, citizens are working hard, so slaves are squeezed as they are.

Isn’t this a truly amazing double exploitation structure?

“Please limit working hours······.”

“You’re saying you want to rest when we have to build even one more factory now? This bastard is also a spy from the North!”

“Get out if you don’t want to work!”

Look at this madness that is going crazy.

Look at this miserable reality.

If we can’t stand up here, if we turn a blind eye to this, the International has no right to say that it represents socialists.

“Mr. James, how do you plan to start a revolution?”

“It’s simple. The South is now borrowing the hands of large detective agencies to monitor citizens and catch runaway slaves. It’s a similar line to the Pinkerton Detective Agency in the North. After the war, they hired a lot of veterans and became almost a private military company. We will receive their cooperation.”

“···Will such a place help us?”

“In fact, they are already helping us. The reason why we can walk around so freely now is because they are backing us up.”

Logically, how can those who don’t have proper know-how operate and manage a detective agency on a national scale?

James’s and Pinkerton’s capital and influence were heavily buried in the detective agency that had established itself in the South.

They were just quietly buried for times like this.

“The International should create a labor organization in the South and play the role of uniting them. They said they would block information so that the tail would not be caught until the scale grew, so don’t worry.”

The enemies to fight and hate are not the slaves, but the upper echelons of this government and the capitalists who force sacrifices under the pretext of patriotism.

If we can make this fact clear, not only the workers in the South, but also the general citizens who are fed up with the current high tax rates and government policies will join like a swarm of bees.

Then, the revolution will no longer be a dream but a reality.

From now on, this land will be reborn as a sanctuary for socialists.

“Good. Mr. James, let’s start. Now we will overthrow the Confederate States of America and build a new American Socialist Republic! The anachronistic barbaric country that advocates slavery will be transformed into a country for the workers, by the workers!”