Chapter 11: The Geopolitical Landscape of North Africa

"Koman," General Dragon whispered helplessly, "family matters are indeed rather complicated. As a father, I truly..."

"I understand. You didn't cheat while Mother was alive, and since she passed away from illness, what could I possibly say? As for Adilai? I understand that too; men will always have a penchant for eighteen-year-old women."

Koman raised a hand to cut him off. "Let's not discuss family affairs. Is there a map in the study?"

Koman’s family life in this lifetime had started out fine—both parents were present, and he was the second of three sons. However, his older brother had fallen victim to the old adage that those who drown are usually the ones who know how to swim; he had died in an accident. Koman had never actually met this elder brother, who existed only in stories, which was why he often misremembered his name.

Later, not long after Koman’s younger brother, Komo, was born, their mother passed away, leaving the household with just the father and his two sons.

Whether it was a failure to adapt to the climate in Syria or some other form of exhaustion, General Dragon began to suffer from a variety of ailments three years ago. In hindsight, it was clearly an immune system breakdown caused by overwork, leaving him in a frail, sickly state.

But in this era, such a condition was difficult to diagnose. At the time, General Dragon feared he didn't have much time left to live. It was because of this fear, combined with Koman’s constant whispering in his ear, that he had been persuaded to launch a coup during the Syria-Lebanon campaign, imprisoning the commander, Henri, and the French military leadership in Syria.

It was also around that time that Adilai appeared in their lives. His younger brother, Komo, certainly couldn't accept this newcomer, and even now, at ten years old, he still found it difficult. In a way, Koman’s family was a bit scandalous—the scandal being that his stepmother was only a year older than him. Yet, considering that General Fontaine, a victim of the White Feather movement, had also found a lady of equal status to his wife in Syria, such arrangements were not uncommon among the colonial elite, making it seem less scandalous after all.

Koman had initially thought he had been handed the template of a legendary military strategist, but after his "cheap" older brother succumbed to a swimming cramp, he realized the template was shifting toward that of a prince raising three thousand death-defying warriors.

General Dragon, turning his back to Koman to search for a map, did not sense that his son was standing on the edge of a precipice. Based on his understanding of him, Koman was simply too lazy to overthink things.

The General spread a map of the Mediterranean on the table, and together they studied the current strategic landscape. The trajectory of the World War had been clear since last year, or even earlier—at least in the Mediterranean theater. By the end of 1942, Algeria had been reclaimed, and by the first half of last year, the Axis powers had been driven out of North Africa.

Throughout this process, French Syria had been one of the first regions to mobilize the Free French forces on a massive scale. Even if General Dragon lacked breathtaking tactical brilliance, his contribution was undeniably monumental.

It was mostly because the United States had provided the opportunity. In reality, given its national structure, America’s conversion of national strength into military power was quite slow, and its industrial system was plagued by many issues. The U.S. performance in the war did not quite match its actual national potential. While recruitment was rapid, its military production failed to meet the standards expected of a primary belligerent in a world war.

Koman remembered the unit costs of American weaponry; they had remained largely unchanged from beginning to end. One would expect costs to be higher during the initial stages of production and then decrease as mass production ramped up, but that wasn't the case for the U.S. While other major combatant nations saw costs drop significantly after the first ten thousand units, the U.S. did not. One could argue that the U.S. didn't need to exert its full strength to complete the mission, but from another perspective, it was a case of being undeserving of its status.

"The Axis powers have been expelled from North Africa. Regarding the occupation of Libya, we have insisted on an east-west partition in our dialogues with the British." General Dragon pointed to the center of the Libyan map. The country looked as if it had been split down the middle, with Tripoli and Benghazi falling under the control of the French and British, respectively.

"Excellent," Koman remarked with admiration. In another world, the occupation of Libya had still been a joint Anglo-French affair, but the partition had been north-south. The British had taken the coastal north, while the French were relegated to the south—which was nothing but desert. That division had been unfair to France, but the Free French had lacked the military strength to demand better.

If there was one difference in this world, it was the ruthless, scrap-the-bottom-of-the-barrel mobilization in French Syria, which had stopped just short of forced conscription, gathering three hundred thousand men to form the First French Army.

With troops in hand, one no longer needed to read the menu; one could sit at the table. Although Britain could still pose as a hegemon in front of France, some in Britain had already realized that, in the post-war era, they might need to huddle with France for warmth against the two superpowers, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Out of a need to court France, Britain had shown goodwill for the first time since Napoleon, agreeing to the east-west partition of Libya.

After General Dragon finished his briefing, Koman found a ruler and placed it at a right angle to the easternmost tip of Tunisia. "We want all the land to the west of this line. The local tribes must be completely eradicated. I wonder how far that process has progressed?"

"That covers about two hundred thousand square kilometers, perhaps a bit less," General Dragon said, eyeing the angle of the ruler. If this plan were realized, Tripoli would become a border city, and everything from the eastern tip of Tunisia southward would become part of Algeria.

"The specifics depend on reports from the local military, but the 7th Infantry Division has already liquidated several tens of thousands of tribesmen there, so it shouldn't be a problem," the General replied.

Koman nodded, reflecting. "We don't harbor delusions of occupying half of Libya, but since Libya is an Italian colony, it is possible to quietly carve off about ten percent of its territory. This world war is our only chance. If we don't seize it, God will not grant a second one."

At this time, Libya’s oil reserves had not yet been discovered; that wouldn't happen until the fifties, with large-scale commercial fields not appearing until the sixties. Therefore, at this moment, Libya held little strategic value and lacked the "mold" of complex political interests.

Still, this was as far as they could go. The area Koman had marked represented about a fifth of Libya’s oil reserves. They couldn't push further east; if they included Tripoli, even the British wouldn't agree.

"And one more thing," Koman said, shifting his gaze to the island of Sardinia. "Father, do you think it could be annexed into France?"