Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 138: Is the campaign commander dead?
The pressure from the supervisors wasn't actually that great.

However, Leningkamp had no choice but to continue the offensive due to the fact that the Empire currently had to rely on equipment provided by Farland.

However, he also played a trick.

That is to prioritize delivering supplies to the First and Fourth Armies, and then transport them from the flanks of the army towards the center.

At the same time, he also suggested that the supervising officer from Farland should go to the front line to deliver supplies himself.

To everyone's surprise, the Farland officer agreed almost without hesitation.

In response, Leningamp could only sigh: those who know nothing and have just graduated from school are still the easiest to fool.

Of course, in this respect, his officers weren't much better.

By the time all the supplies had been prioritized and allocated to the First and Fourth Army Groups, it was already the next day.

Inside Insterburg.

After arriving in Insterburg at noon today, Renn did not go to the headquarters. He first took his troops to the field mess hall for a hot meal, and then rode his motorcycle around the entire city of Insterburg.

This angered Hindenburg, because he was waiting for Renn to give him a report. After all, he didn't really have anything to do in Insterburg. Apart from showing his face when he went out, he really didn't have any other work to do.

The main reason for this was that, as a retired general, Hindenburg's primary task in the army was to stabilize the morale of the entire force and to allow his staff officer Ludendorff to more easily mobilize those senior officers from traditional aristocratic backgrounds when he was in command.

This brings us to the issue of how traditional civilian officers like Ludendorff and Ryan were treated in the military.

It is well known that nearly 70% or 80% of the command staff in the Empire's army are officially ennobled military nobles.

Each of them possessed a gem bestowed upon them by the emperor himself, which could guarantee their safety.

The shield that saved Brinkman's life in the first place was activated by that thing.

Of course, in this day and age, such a so-called shield is actually quite useless - the new rifle bullets are incredibly penetrating, and if fired within 100 meters, it can basically shatter the shield in just two shots.

But in the past, when everyone was using flintlock muskets or other random firearms, these aristocratic officers often relied on these things to lead the charge at the forefront of the troops.

Over time, it became the empire's practice for commoner officers to be in charge of staff work and noble officers to be in charge of actual combat.

But things changed completely after the General Staff system of the Empire was introduced.

Regardless of rank, any officer working in the General Staff must periodically rotate from the rear to the front to command troops in combat.

It was at this time that discriminatory treatment of non-noble officers emerged in the empire.

Ludendorff was assigned to Hindenburg's command by the General Staff because the Chief of the General Staff at the time, Moltke the Younger, believed that the troops might not obey Ludendorff's orders, so he called Hindenburg up instead.

However, it's different for Rennes.

During the tour of Insterburg, although he was reluctant, Brinkman forced him to hang his Blue Star Max Medal on his collar.

Therefore, wherever he went, almost everyone around him, from the lowest-ranking soldiers to the highest-ranking lieutenant generals, gave him face.

This immediately made Rennes the most conspicuous figure in Insterburg, and even led to comments within the Eighth Army such as "The general offensive is about to begin."

There was no way around it; it was the Blue Star Max Medal.

There are probably fewer than twenty people in the entire empire who possess this thing.

In this atmosphere, Renn wandered around until the sun was almost setting before finally strolling back to the Eighth Command Headquarters located inside the Insterburg Cathedral (don't say I omitted any words, it was intentional).

Unlike the general staff of most army groups, the headquarters of the Eighth Army was located at the very front of the entire force, and its distance from the headquarters of every corps, division, and brigade was well controlled to be the same.

This allows most orders to reach the various units at almost the same speed, which is conservative, but not unacceptable, for city defense tactics.

Almost the instant Ryan arrived at headquarters, a messenger shouted, "Colonel Frieger has arrived!"

Before Renn could react, Hindenburg, who had been waiting at headquarters, strode out and said, "Colonel Frege, you've kept us waiting."

He grabbed Renn's arm in one swift motion. Although he was in his sixties or seventies, he still had enough strength to pull Renn directly into headquarters. Hindenburg: "We've been waiting for you, Colonel, to bring your troops ever since we received the news last week. The capital said you would be bringing a special task force, and our men have been waiting for quite some time."

"That might disappoint you."

Rein first nodded to everyone in the headquarters before looking at Hindenburg: "The task force's job is to conduct small-scale, company-level weapons field tests on the front lines, not to carry out large-scale combat missions."

His words immediately relieved many of the officers around him, but they aroused Ryan's curiosity.

He first handed a document to Hindenburg, gesturing for him to read it, then walked over to Ludendorff and asked in a low voice, "What's going on at the front?"

Ludendorff was still thinking about how Rein had cursed him out in the General Staff meeting room a few days ago, but Rein was different from others. He was directly under the General Staff and had the same level of actual command as the army group, so Ludendorff had no power to make things difficult for Rein.

But this also means that Ludendorff could argue or even fight with Ryan without any problem, so after thinking for a moment, he spoke in an even softer voice.

"The troops on both flanks of the Imperial First Army suddenly halted their advance a few days ago, and the command is currently considering how to deal with them."

"Is it because of what happened in the second episode?" Renn could roughly guess why the First Army had become like this. He had been hearing about the lower ranks, especially the troops responsible for the defense of the southern direction, while he was strolling around today.

They were constantly discussing the Russian Second Army's invasion of the Empire from the Masurian Lakes region south of East Prussia, and their minds were not on the First Army at all.

"How did you know?" Ludendorff was taken aback by Ryan's words, but quickly remembered that Ryan had been wandering around various military units all day: "You've been doing this all day?"

Then Renn patted the imperial sword hanging on his body, indicating that he was going on an inspection tour, and said, "Of course, what else would I be going there for?"

"Then I won't waste my words."

Ludendorff understood Rein's intentions perfectly: "We've been on the front lines for a month now, in Compiègne, confronting the Imperial Army. But just a week ago, supplies from the rear stopped reaching the front. In order to ensure that the troops have enough supplies, we had no choice but to retreat back to Insterburg."

"Of course, this is also because Pritwitz of the Ninth Army discovered in advance that the Empire wanted to bypass the Vistula River and surround us."

"So you all know that the main force of the Empire is circling around us?"

Renn was now completely confused.

"Since you knew in episode eight that a large force was preparing to circle around you, why haven't you moved your troops yet? Why are you blocking the way here? Where is Hoffman?"

Hoffmann was a mid-level staff officer in the Eighth Army, and historically he was the one who planned the specific strategy for the entire Battle of Tannenberg.

"What Hoffman?" Ludendorff paused, taken aback. "You mean Max Hoffman?"

“Yes, that’s right,” Ryan said immediately.

Then he heard something that made his vision go black.

Ludendorff: "He was killed by the Imperial bombardment last week."

"Depend on."

Now Ryan understood why the Eighth Army had been stuck in this godforsaken place since last week.

So the campaign planner died suddenly!

Ludendorff didn't understand why Renn was so agitated, so he asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

"No."

Ryan shook his head, and after thinking for a while, he went to the map in the corner of the headquarters and looked at the red enemy unit insignia.

Ludendorff was also standing to the side.

Then he heard Ryan's voice.

"The Eighth Army needs to move towards Velenburg immediately, and must depart within this week at the latest, or it will be too late."

"The Imperial Second Army Group will not advance quickly, but it will definitely be able to connect with the First Army Group in a week. You don't have much time left."

(End of this chapter)