Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 124 Annihilating a Million Enemies, Shocking the World

The series of battles from Carpathia to Golice to Lviv to Romania lasted for two months, from the end of April to the end of June 1915.

With the siege of Begladde over and the complete annihilation of the Cypriot army within the city;
Romania eventually switched sides and embraced the light.

These two landmark events ultimately signaled the end of this series of battles.

The general outcome of the battle is already known to the whole world: the allied forces of the three countries were annihilated, and of the two small countries that participated, one was destroyed and the other defected.

However, a closer look at the final results reveals a staggering number – even those who personally experienced this series of massive battles were shocked upon hearing the final outcome, let alone outsiders.

On the French side, the total number of troops deployed at the beginning of the campaign was 71, of which 54 were taken to the southern front by Yudovich and 17 were left in the northern front by Brusilov.

However, in the later stages of the battle, small numbers of troops were gradually sent to reinforce Lusa from the rear. These were either escort units providing transport and supplies, or were left behind on the battlefield due to insufficient troops at the front.

After Lelouch conquered Lviv, he continued his advance southeast along the Carpathian Mountains, across the western edge of the Kievan Rus' Plain, and into Romania, annihilating small numbers of Russian troops scattered along the way.

These two parts combined involved more than 20 French troops, of whom more than 10 were killed.

The only organized force that managed to escape from the Russa Army was the five divisions (two infantry and three cavalry), totaling over 60,000 men, that Brusilov took with him. The remaining, less organized attempts to escape likely numbered no more than 30,000 to 50,000—all abandoning their weapons and uniforms and attempting to cross the Carpathian Mountains on their own. At least half of these men would likely die from falls, starvation, or disease in the mountains, unable to make it across.

The scattered positive and negative losses offset each other out; the number of soldiers who fled with Brusilov and those who fled in small groups was less than the number of French troops lost between Lviv and Bessarabia, with a difference of tens of thousands of men.

最终露军的总损失兵力，竟达到了惊人的77万人，其中直接战死约22万人、伤病而亡15万、翻山摔死/失踪9万，总计死亡46万。投降被俘31万。

On the Serbian side, of the initial 330,000 troops who participated in the battle, 270,000 were lost. Moreover, due to the strong animosity between the Serbs and Austria, most fought to the death. Very few surrendered; less than 100,000 were killed. At least two-thirds of them perished.

Later, the border campaign resulted in the loss of another 4 veterans, and the siege of Belgrade resulted in the loss of another 7 veterans. By the end of the war, the total permanent loss of veterans reached a staggering 38.

In addition, hundreds of thousands of conscripts who had just been trained by the Latins for a few weeks were also annihilated in the border battles and the siege of Belgrade.

Belgrade was actually the last of the entire Southeastern Front campaign to end. When Romania surrendered, the siege of Belgrade was still ongoing, and it dragged on for a while longer.

However, the troops that besieged the city were all Austrian troops, while the German 6th Army had long since withdrawn to do other more important things.

The Austrian army ultimately did not launch a full-scale assault on the city; instead, they cut off all communication with the city and forced the Serbian army to surrender. This was done to minimize casualties on both sides, and also to undermine the prestige of the Serbian generals and civilian officials, making it difficult for them to rally civilians to fight for them in the future.

The Serbian army refused to surrender, but once the city ran out of food, ordinary civilians began to want to surrender. In the end, the most die-hard Serbian officials and generals were killed by their own starving people, and only then did they surrender and end the war.

Ultimately, only about 7 Serbian regular troops, who were not in Belgrade during the campaign but in the southern mountains, continued to hide in Macedonia and even Albania, persisting in harassing the region with mountain warfare. In addition, more than 10 newly recruited soldiers also went to the southern mountains.

Given the complexity of the local situation, Austria has no other option for the time being.

Later, after listening to the advice (and under duress) of the Demacian advisors, the Austrian leadership, in order to free up military and material resources, agreed to implement some enlightened minor reforms.
The Austrian authorities granted Croatians within their territory a high degree of autonomy and separated the Croatian mountainous region, along with the newly conquered Serbian-occupied territory south of the Danube River and the unconquered southern Serbian mountainous region, to form a single "Autonomous State of Croatia".
From then on, the Croatians were granted the right to rule Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and southern Serbia. At the same time, the local Bosnian people were allowed to govern themselves, and the Croatians were not to interfere.

In this way, Austria would only occupy Belgrade and the plains to its north, which would then be incorporated into Hungary.

The southern mountainous region will be excluded and given to an autonomous state. It is promised that Croatians will not have to pay any financial contributions to the Vienna authorities, and Vienna will not give them any money, allowing them to be self-sufficient.

Croatia only needs to ensure its military and diplomatic alignment with Vienna; it has no other obligations.

Direct governance of this money-losing region was thus relinquished. From then on, this powder keg region effectively withdrew from the world war, resolving its own problems behind closed doors and no longer consuming imperial resources.

When the state was first established, Germany and Austria provided it with a batch of start-up equipment, which consisted mostly of obsolete second-line equipment.

If more equipment is needed in the future, it can be purchased at internal prices, or Croatian soldiers can be hired as mercenaries for Austria or Demacia, and their mercenary wages can be exchanged for more weapons, equipment and ammunition. There is no need to elaborate on these points.

In summary, Serbia lost 38 veterans and approximately 40 militiamen, and subsequently withdrew from the war.

In the original history of Earth, when Cyprus withdrew from the war in 1916, Greece to the south had also been lured into the war by Blagoveshchensk, and Blagoveshchensk provided maritime transport to southeastern European countries. Therefore, the defeated Cypriot troops were able to retreat into Greece or be transported to Corfu by Blagoveshchensk's fleet.

However, due to Lelouch's butterfly effect, the Burkina Faso army was almost completely annihilated in Ypres, and even the Gallipoli campaign was forced to be postponed. Therefore, Burkina Faso has made no progress in the Eastern Mediterranean to date, and it is completely impossible for it to support the Cypriot army.

After Serbia withdrew from the war, the Bretonnians could no longer rely on the exiled manpower of their allies to fight for them, which indirectly reduced Breton's military manpower by 300,000.

...Of the three defeated countries in this war, Romania's total losses are actually the easiest to calculate and the clearest.

Because they only had a total of 16 armed forces, of which 11 were deployed. During the Hungarian campaign, after losing more than 2 men, they were completely stunned, and subsequent losses were sporadic and small, so they dared not engage in serious combat anymore.

So until the end of the war, Romania's total casualties and missing persons were only 4, while another 12 were either captured on the battlefield or surrendered with the rest of the country after the war.

However, when Germany and Austria calculated the results of the war, they would definitely have to include all 16 troops in Romania.

Defeating the enemy to the point of national surrender can also be considered a form of annihilation.

“所以，东南线持续两个月的战斗，共计歼灭露沙军77万人、塞军78万人、罗马尼亚军16万人？总计歼敌171万人？其中各种原因的死亡101万人，俘虏70万？”

When this figure was finally reported to Emperor Wilhelm and Emperor Franz, both royal families and authorities were astonished.

Lelouch himself, however, felt somewhat embarrassed when he finally heard the reported number, thinking to himself:
"Can you really calculate it like that? Serbia must have at least 40 militiamen they temporarily conscripted, right? If you deduct that, the actual number of enemy casualties is at most 130 million! Romania surrendered as a whole, not just prisoners of war, so if you deduct that too, it's only 120 million! The extent to which this battle report is inflated is truly..."

However, only someone like Lelouch, with a modern soul, would feel embarrassed about the exaggerated battle reports.

Everyone else thought this calculation was reasonable, and even the emperor and the general staff wanted to simply round it up and report that two million enemies had been annihilated!
……

The battle ended at the end of June. Because the results were so great, the emperor and the General Staff hurriedly set the rewards in early July.

Of all those who received the most prestigious award, it was naturally Field Marshal Leopold, commander of the 10th Army.

He became the first field marshal to receive the Grand Iron Cross during this World War!

The medal-awarding ceremony was held in Berlin, and the scene was very grand. Newspapers across the country also went all out to publicize the great victory on the Eastern Front.

Strictly speaking, in this battle, the 10th Army Group's military achievements were indeed more crucial than those of the 6th Army Group, but the 6th Army Group's final kills and expansion of the battle results resulted in far more gains.

It's fair to say that Duke Rupprecht also deserves credit.

However, considering that it was inappropriate to award the Grand Iron Cross to two marshals in one battle, and that the Grand Iron Cross was not so cheap and worthless, the Grand Iron Cross was ultimately given to Leopold first.

This also involves a comprehensive consideration of the relationship between uncle and nephew, as well as age and seniority. In particular, considering that Marshal Leopold is over seventy years old, what if he no longer has the opportunity to win battles?
Just like the Nobel Prize in later generations, the health of the awardees must be taken into consideration, how long they can live, and whether they will live long enough to win if the prize is awarded too late.

Regardless of the outcome, given Duke Rupprecht's results in this campaign, if he has another chance to achieve a major victory that kills more than 500,000 enemy soldiers, his Great Iron Cross is practically guaranteed.

Besides the two marshals, other officers and soldiers who made meritorious contributions in episodes 6 and 10 were also promoted and rewarded.

Lelouch himself is still a colonel for the time being. After consulting with the General Staff, he was somewhat reluctant to give the credit for his suggestion on the repair directly to a brigadier general.

As mentioned earlier, before Lelouch was promoted to colonel, Duke Rupprecht had the final say, and as long as Lelouch performed meritorious service, he would have a smooth path ahead.

However, to have the title "General" required the emperor's approval, which increased the difficulty of promotion many times over.

However, Lelouch was eventually compensated in terms of his title. Duke Rupprecht, in the name of the Barea royal family, added the suffix "Ritter" to the middle of his name.

This means that he was promoted from a regular "lifetime knight" with the title "Feng" to a "hereditary knight".

From then on, Lelouch's full name was "Lelouch von Ritter Hunt".

At the same time, although the emperor did not promote him to brigadier general, he approved his promotion.

Lelouch's position as "Head of the External Propaganda Division of the Propaganda Bureau of the War Department" has been promoted by half a rank.
He became "Deputy Director of the Propaganda Bureau of the War Department (in charge of external propaganda work)".

In addition, there are numerous hidden benefits, battlefield spoils, and the acquisition of prisoners of war, all of which await their utilization.

Putting aside everything else, just the development rights to the Romanian oil fields, and the many Austrian prisoners that Lelouch rescued himself, would require considerable effort to settle.

(End of this chapter)