Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 1: Go and hold off two hundred times more enemies!

"Ah! My eyes! My eyes are bulging..."

Lu Xiu was awakened by a burning sensation in his eyes.

Just as he was about to cry for help, a surge of tide rushed in, and the salty seawater filled his mouth and nose, interrupting his screams.

On the brink of life and death, he unleashed unimaginable potential, struggling to his feet while violently choking on water.

His eyes, washed by the seawater, gushed even more tears before he could gradually see his surroundings clearly.

He found himself on a beach engulfed in gunfire.

As far as the eye could see, there were ruins of buildings and piers, remains of equipment and soldiers, and wisps of smoke rising from gas canisters.

"Corporal Lelouch? You're still alive? Take cover! The enemy ships are still firing!"

Lu Xiu was still in a daze when he suddenly saw a soldier lying in a shell crater ahead, waving and shouting at him.

Without thinking twice, he was driven by instinct to run wildly, eventually rolling into a crater.

He didn't feel any pain while rolling over; all he felt was a numbness from the surge of adrenaline.

He had just lain down when a 6-inch naval gun shell landed on the mudflat he had just been on, sending up a cloud of mud and sand more than ten meters high.

Fortunately, he was breathing heavily with his mouth open, and his Eustachian tubes were fully open, so his eardrums were not damaged. However, he still experienced a violent surge of blood and qi throughout his body.

Everything feels so real, has this been time travel?
His comrade next to him was also splashed with mud and sand, but he seemed used to it. He dusted off his gray uniform, then took out a damp match and a captured Gilneas dart, lit it, and handed it to him.
"Squad leader, it's so good that you're still alive! I thought you had also suffocated from the tear gas! Your left eye is terribly red, remember to go to the hospital to get it checked out after you're done."

Lu Xiu took a few deep breaths, and the ominous premonition in his heart grew stronger.

I was originally an electrical engineer and a military enthusiast, and I enjoy playing Hearts of Iron after get off work. Last night, as usual, I stayed up late again, playing a fan-made World War I scenario mod.

In order to pass the STEAM Workshop review, the author deliberately toned down many extreme elements in the script. For example, neither side had any poison gas technology, nor were there any madmen who repeatedly violated the laws of war. In short, it was a world that was similar to, yet more harmonious than, real history.

Later, as Lu Xiu was playing, his eyes started to hurt, so he didn't turn off the computer and just lay down on the table and fell into a deep sleep.

When I was woken up by the pain in my eyes again, I found myself transported to a battlefield.

Looking around, everyone was wearing gray military uniforms, without helmets, and carrying Type 98 rifles, just like during World War I.

I just wanted to play games, I didn't mean to actually fight for my life!
But now that things had come to this, he had no choice. The enemy's shelling and gas attacks were not reasonable, and he had to find a way to survive!
From this moment on, I must adapt to my new identity!

Lelouch remained in a daze, lost in thought for a long while, until the half-Gilne burned his finger. He winced in pain, shook it, and, clinging to the last shred of hope, asked:
"I'm a little dizzy from the gas. Can you tell me where I am and who I'm fighting?"

The comrade didn't think much of it and answered almost every question.

After a brief conversation, Lelouch learned that the other person's name was Klose and that he was a private first class.

Like himself, he belonged to the wiring platoon of the communications battalion directly under the Demania 6th Army.

It is the afternoon of October 25, 1914.

This is Neoport, a town in the Kingdom of Billy Kings. Twenty kilometers to the west lies Dunkirk, a border city of the Frankish Kingdom.

The world war has been going on for three months.

In the first two months of the war, the Empire attempted to quickly defeat its old rival, the Franks, according to the Griffin Plan, but failed and was blocked by the enemy at the Meuse River.

Subsequently, both sides advanced northward, attempting to outflank the other through mobile warfare. Only when both sides had encircled the enemy to the coast and had nowhere else to maneuver did they switch to positional warfare.

Today should be the last day of "heading towards the sea," because the vast North Sea lies before us.

The town is currently defended by a friendly cavalry reconnaissance company and their communications platoon.

The cavalry company arrived last night and seized the town. The communications platoon was only temporarily transferred here this morning to repair the telegraph cables.

To the west of the town are the Franks, and to the east are the remnants of the Biligin army, who have retreated from Antwerp and are fleeing westward along the coastal road.

"As long as we can rely on the town to cut off the coastal highway and hold out until reinforcements arrive, the Belighin people will be completely annihilated!" As he said this, Klose's eyes gleamed with a desire to achieve great things.

But Lelouch suddenly felt a darkness before his eyes.

The hanging heart finally died.

He had reviewed the World War I storyline while playing video games last night, so he certainly knew that Billy King's country was not completely destroyed in World War I, nor was its army annihilated.

Historically, the Battle of Neoport was a failed standoff.

The defending troops were wiped out in a single day when they were attacked from both sides by an enemy force two hundred times their size.

The three remaining divisions of the entire country, in a desperate and reckless manner, launched a frantic and desperate charge, and finally broke through to Dunkirk by stepping over the corpses of Demanian snipers.

If I don't do something, I'll die here too.

Lelouch felt a surge of excitement and immediately shook Klose's shoulders, saying excitedly:
"They actually expect this small force to hold out until reinforcements arrive? They're insane! Does the division headquarters think we're gods? We're all going to die here! Klose, take me to see the officer! I have something important to report!"

Klose looked troubled: "Squad leader, you weren't always so cowardly. Besides, Platoon Leader Hanks is already dead."

Lelouch: "Then let's go scout the company headquarters!"

"Alright, you're the superior, you're in charge."

Klose sighed, crouched down and crawled out of the shell crater, running all the way through the gunfire, with Lelouch close behind.

……

The company headquarters was located next to a bombed-out mill on the west side of the town. Along the way, we could see our own soldiers using various building ruins as cover to put up a tenacious resistance.

Lelouch ran for several minutes and was only one street away from the company headquarters, but bullets were flying everywhere on the street, which startled him so much that he stumbled and didn't dare to cross the street despite the machine gun fire.

A captain across the street noticed the commotion and shouted, "Everyone, take cover! Don't move!"

Lelouch had no choice but to hide behind the broken wall and, together with Klose, hold their rifles and fire repeatedly through the cracks in the wall.

Before his time travel, he often played real-life battle royale games. After pulling the bolt for a while, his tension subsided somewhat, and he gradually got used to the recoil of the gun. The Frankish soldiers were still wearing the bright red military trousers from the era of being lined up for execution fifty years ago, making them very conspicuous. They charged directly into the town along the main street.

Lelouch killed an enemy after changing only two magazines.

Seeing a large hole drilled into the enemy's chest, with blood and flesh splattering everywhere, Lelouch's heart rate instantly soared to two hundred, and his palms sweated profusely.

But he didn't realize this at all, and just kept mechanically firing his gun.

He didn't know how many more bullets he fired, but the recoil of the rifle caused the sweat-slippery stock to slip from his hand and hit his cheek, making him see stars from the pain.

But all his comrades were busy killing the enemy, and no one paid any attention to him.

The Franks were numerous and charged closer and closer, seemingly having crossed most of the street.

But at that moment, the tide of the battle turned.

After several shots went astray, one of our own mortars finally hit the enemy's Hodges heavy machine gun position.

Once the enemy's heavy machine guns fell silent, the pressure on the defending troops was immediately relieved.

Seizing the opportunity, the captain shouted, "All units, open fire! The enemy is a bunch of cowardly rabble! If we can hold out until today, the Billy Kings are finished!"

"Drive back the Franks! Encircle and annihilate the Belighians!" The soldiers on the position fired with unstoppable momentum.

Two 1908 heavy machine guns, which had been well disguised and hidden in the rubble at the street corner, suddenly opened fire at the same time, forming a crossfire that swept down the enemy on the main street.

The enemy finally collapsed, and hordes of soldiers fled in panic, leaving behind a hundred or so corpses in red trousers in front of the position.

Seeing that the fighting had temporarily subsided, Lelouch seized the opportunity to rush across the street and head straight for the captain.

The captain looked at his swollen cheek with a hint of disdain: "You're a technical sergeant, aren't you? Never killed anyone before? You can even slip up when you fire a gun?"

Lelouch didn't argue, he just saluted: "Corporal Lelouch Hunt, Wire Laying Platoon, Communications Battalion, 6th Army."

"Captain Hans Andri, Reconnaissance Company, 12th Division, 6th Army," the captain introduced, then preemptively asked, "Is the cable that was cut last night fixed?"

Lelouch: "We encountered a battle as soon as we arrived. Before we could even repair it, Platoon Leader Hanks was killed in action, and the other squad leaders were knocked unconscious by the gas."

Andri shook his head helplessly: "So, it's now your turn, corporal, to call the shots in the communications platoon? Speak quickly if you have something to say, I'm busy, and the enemy is getting more and more frantic."

Lelouch then whispered in his ear, "Captain, we should prepare early. This town is not going to hold."

Andri's expression immediately changed, and he whispered menacingly, "If you had dared to say that any louder, I would have executed you for undermining morale!"

The enemy does outnumber us, but they can't all reach the battlefield at once. As long as the main force of the division arrives tonight, victory will still belong to the Empire!

Lelouch scratched his head impatiently and sighed softly, "But based on what we saw on our way here this morning, the 12th Division is very likely not going to make it."

Andri exclaimed, "Impossible! I just contacted the rear by radio at noon, and they said the division headquarters is only thirty kilometers away. Can't we get there in half a day's forced march?"

Seeing that Andri's anger was about to spiral out of control, Lelouch could no longer afford to make his lie more convincing; he had no choice but to risk making a definitive judgment:
"But this morning when we crossed the Isère Canal to the south, we saw the Billy Kings planting explosives on the riverbank! They must be planning to blow up the riverbank to cut off our reinforcements if our breakout fails!"

Bilikin is a low-lying country, and the elevation on both sides of the Isère River is negative! If the dikes were breached, seawater would flood in, turning it into a vast swamp several kilometers wide!

As soon as Lelouch spoke, not only was Captain Andri shocked, but even Klose, who came with him, stared wide-eyed.

When they arrived in the morning, they did see Billy King's troops operating downstream of the Isel River, but they did not see "planting explosives on the riverbank".

How could you possibly see clearly from that distance? Since you can't see clearly, this matter can only be described as baseless.

Klose knew the squad leader was lying.

Lelouch lied, of course, but he had to tell the lie because he knew the plot—

In the years that followed the war, northern Biligin remained a swampy area, preventing either side from launching an effective offensive. The root of the problem lay in the fact that on the final day of Operation "Run to the Sea," the Belgian army breached the dikes to release seawater and impede the enemy.

Because of the flood, the main force of the 12th Division failed to reach the seashore and was submerged on the way. The division's direct reconnaissance company, which arrived earlier, was also completely wiped out by the enemy's pincer attack.

Faced with Lelouch's sensational claim, Captain Andri instinctively retorted sharply:
"That's impossible! We just want to fight the Franks through Billy King's territory! We don't have any deep-seated hatred for them! Do they really think they'd rather destroy their own homes and die together than stop us? The civilians on both sides of the canal will drown because of them! Don't they have any sense of military honor?"

Lelouch felt a chill run down his spine; convincing a traditional officer like Captain Andrei to believe all this was simply too difficult.

The situation was too urgent for him to explain, so he could only forcefully grab Klose and give him a meaningful look: "Tell the captain, did you also witness all of this?"

Klose broke out in a cold sweat. Was he going to deceive the company commander of the friendly forces for the sake of his squad leader?

Finally, looking at the squad leader's bloodshot left eye, which was bruised by poison, and recalling the bond they had forged through thick and thin together, Klose couldn't help but feel a pang of doubt: there must be a reason why the squad leader lied!
So he gritted his teeth and testified: "I swear on my honor as a soldier that I saw the enemy tampering with the riverbank at the time."

He was ultimately not used to lying, and when the words came out, he changed "planting explosives" to "tampering with things".

Andrei finally believed it to some extent and quickly began to think of a solution.

"What should we do then? What should we do right now?"

Lelouch had already thought it through, and upon seeing this, he quickly suggested, "Sir, I need to borrow the reconnaissance company's radio! The most important thing to do now is to immediately issue indiscriminate warnings to friendly units within the communication range!"
Those who have already crossed the Isère River should quickly abandon their heavy equipment and march at full speed! Those who haven't crossed yet can retreat to the nearest high ground and hold their ground.

The Billy Kings probably haven't breached the dike yet, but they could do so at any moment. If they do, water will flood the valley within half an hour, and the water level will rise to sea level within two hours!

Captain Andrei thought it made sense, but he was still a little worried and asked again, "What if the intelligence is wrong, or you've misread it?"
If the enemy doesn't breach the dike, you'll actually delay the arrival of reinforcements and cause them to suffer losses of supplies!

Lelouch said with a sincere and firm look in his eyes, "If there were no flood, our army would definitely be able to firmly control this war zone. Even if the equipment is temporarily lost, we can pick it up again in a few days."

But if there's a flood, the losses would be enormous! As the reconnaissance company commander, you failed to discover this major danger on the army's advance path; you can expect to be executed by a military court!

Andri couldn't help but shudder. After weighing the options, he decided that for the safety of his entire division, it was better to believe it was true.

He gritted his teeth and ordered, "You guys, take Corporal Lelouch to the radio room immediately! He's authorized to broadcast warnings to nearby friendly forces in his capacity as the 12th Division's reconnaissance company commander!"

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P.S.: I'm asking for comments, updates, favorites, and recommendations for my new book. It's a niche genre, so keeping up with the updates is very important.

(End of this chapter)