Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 16: Killing Two Birds with One Stone, Snipe the Royal Navy
"You forgot something? Tell me! Are you trying to keep me in suspense?!"

Seeing Lelouch panting heavily as he spoke, Major General Karl urged him to get to the point.

Lelouch then added his analysis: "As far as I know, when the war first broke out, the Empire didn't expect the Britannians to join the war at all. At the time, many people thought that if they could pass through Bilygin quickly enough and intimidate the Bilygins, then Britannia would have to accept this established fact."

But what was the result? The Britannians decisively seized the opportunity to join the war. This shows that the Imperial high command had greatly underestimated the danger posed by the Britannians! The Empire never realized that Britannia had long considered it its greatest adversary and was willing to destroy it at all costs.

Now, the Belighin Army has been almost completely annihilated by us, yet the British Navy Minister had previously promised to 'rescue the Belighin Army by sea'—how will other countries view this if word gets out internationally?
They would believe that Britannia was not only incompetent in its army, but also incompetent in its Royal Navy! The allies that the Royal Navy claimed it would protect were wiped out by the Empire before they even arrived!
Given Minister Wharton's petty and vindictive nature, and considering his consistently bold, adventurous, and radical approach, do you think the Royal Navy would retaliate at any cost just to save face?
The 40-kilometer coastal corridor from Dunkirk to Ostend is indeed impossible to bypass if only the land battlefield is considered, allowing the defending side to inflict heavy losses on the attacking side.

But if the enemy commits their navy to flank and bombard the Imperial Army, can the Imperial warriors withstand the bombardment of battleships' 12-inch main guns from the ruins of two small towns?

Upon hearing this, Major General Karl finally felt a lingering sense of fear.

Without a doubt, the houses and ruins in Neoport, under the bombardment of a few 6-inch light cruiser guns firing horizontally, had already reached their limit in holding out.

If a battleship had come, even an old-fashioned pre-dreadnought, the Germans wouldn't have known how they died.

The logic is actually not hard to understand, but these people are all army generals who didn't know much about the navy before and didn't have this in mind.

Moreover, the topic we just discussed was only a hasty preliminary discussion, and no one had time to think about it in depth.

The problem is that Lelouch was also asked the question on short notice, so he didn't have much time to think either.

But he was able to respond immediately and instantly grasp the crux of the problem.

Lelouch's intelligence, reaction speed, and understanding of military strategy immediately left a very deep impression on Major General Karl.

"Indeed... if the Burkina Faso people suffer a major loss of face this time and retaliate at any cost, the Empire really can't withstand it. It was the right thing to let Neoport's army retreat as soon as possible. Alas, what a pity, such a good opportunity to stall and wear down the enemy, but we have to give it up..."

Major General Karl sighed a few times in regret.

However, just when they thought the matter was unsolvable, Lelouch pointed out some room for maneuver:

"There is still a chance for this, but we need to change our approach and make a more careful plan."

Major General Karl's eyes lit up, and his spirits lifted instantly. He immediately made an excuse to dismiss everyone except Lelouch and Colonel Lister, and found a conference room to continue their private conversation.

"Quick! Tell me the details!" Major General Karl had completely abandoned his composure as a general; all he wanted now was to gain more merits.

In particular, Major Karl's 6th Army was composed of soldiers from the Kingdom of Baria, one of the four southern German states. They were already a minority within the German army and were suppressed by the Junker officer corps in northern Germany.

If they remain jealous and resentful of talent in this situation, they will never be able to break the deadlock.

The weaker we are, the more we need to stick together for warmth and promote talent.

Feeling empowered and treated with respect by the general, Lelouch didn't hesitate to refine his strategy further:

"To break this deadlock, I think we need to solve at least two problems. First, we need to ensure that the troops left in places like Neoport to buy time can be safely withdrawn if the coastal highway is blocked by enemy heavy artillery."

Therefore, they could not rely on the coastal highway as their only escape route. The coastal highway could be completely blocked by warships and heavy artillery at any time. The only way to avoid naval attacks was to take the flooded area south of the coastal highway, and to achieve this, we had to temporarily gather enough small boats on the spot.

These flooded areas are normally unnavigable by boats; those areas were originally farmland. But since these flooded areas were formed by the breach of the Isère Canal, it's entirely possible to tow small inland waterways from the Isère Canal across them..."

Upon hearing this, Major General Karl immediately waved his hand and said, "No problem at all! Gathering some small canal boats, enough to transport several battalions of infantry, is entirely feasible. I will personally assign someone to handle it."

Once this is resolved, it will at least ensure that the decoy rearguard can safely withdraw after completing their mission.

Although battleships are formidable, they cannot navigate into the flooded areas of the canal. Furthermore, the lack of a clear viewing angle across the coastal highway makes it impossible to accurately fire upon small boats on the other side of the water from across the land.

Then Lelouch continued to discuss the next point: "Secondly, the Imperial Navy must also dispatch a high-speed fleet as quickly and discreetly as possible, sufficient to deal with any artillery fleet that the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso might send. This will definitely require some intelligence deception. Ultimately, the Imperial Navy will be able to outnumber the enemy and bully their old warships—as far as I know, the main force of the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso's newest fleet is in Scapa Flow, Scotland, which is usually quite far from here."

The ships that can provide timely support to the Billy King coast are mainly the 'Straits Fleet' which is usually stationed in Dover and Portsmouth. According to publicly available intelligence, the Straits Fleet's main force consists of only three pre-dreadnought ships. And these old ships may not all be in a ready-to-go state.

However, the biggest problem here is that we need to coordinate with naval commanders; we need someone willing to trust our judgment and take the responsibility and risk of sending warships..."

Colonel Lister, standing to the side, looked somewhat troubled as he listened to Lelouch's boastful talk.

This demand is far too large, exceeding the 6th Army's ability to coordinate.

Fearing the general would be angry, he quickly stepped on the brakes: "Lieutenant Lelouch... don't you think what you said is too overstepping your authority? This is such a cross-service cooperation requirement, how can we interfere!"
Within the Navy, the seniority system and conservative practices within the Junkers officer corps are even more pronounced than in the Army! Your unrealistic request, made so hastily, is absolutely impossible! Don't cause trouble for the General; let's just abandon Neoport altogether.”

However, just as Colonel Lister was pouring cold water on the idea, Major General Karl's expression grew increasingly solemn and serious.

He pondered for a long time, then suddenly waved his hand: "Lister! Don't dismiss other people's ideas so easily. It's good that Lieutenant Lelouch has such thoughts; whether they can be implemented is another matter. We must allow people to speak freely."

Moreover, what he said isn't entirely impossible for him to go alone... The vast majority of high-ranking officers in the navy have no connection with us. But there are a few who are from our Barea faction. For example, Rear Admiral Hipper, who commands the First Assault Squadron, is from our Kingdom of Barea. In his youth, he even served as the adjutant to his elder brother (Duke Rupprecht, commander of the 6th Army)...

Moreover, Rear Admiral Hipper is known in the navy for his daring and decisive actions. In the three months since the start of the war, he has led three battlecruisers to bombard several ports of Burkina Faso! Each time, he would fire a few rounds of gunfire quickly and then escape at high speed, never losing a capital ship.

Given his audacity, if there were a real opportunity to annihilate the enemy's former dreadnoughts and gain merit, he would definitely be tempted! However, we must first ensure that our intelligence forecasts are accurate and that we can absolutely win if a real battle breaks out... If we can really do that, I dare to send a message to my brother, and then have my brother send a message to Rear Admiral Hipper..."

Major General Karl was analyzing to himself, but just as he said this, Lelouch, disregarding etiquette, hurriedly interrupted:
“General! Your other decisions are all very wise and prudent, but sending a telegram to discuss this matter... I think it might introduce more risks. The Empire’s communication system can hardly be said to be secure these days.”

Lelouch said that a bit hastily, but there was no other way.

As a time traveler, he naturally knew how the Empire's telecommunications codes had been deciphered by the enemy during World War I—they were practically one-way transparent.

So even though he lacks solid evidence, he can only rely on a few clues to make a definitive judgment to attract the general's attention, and then try to slowly steer the conversation back on track.

Moreover, in Lelouch's mind, before he even brought up this topic today, he had already determined one point: if this plan were to be realized, then the radio deception element would be essential.

In fact, it could be said that if we cannot achieve reverse radio deception of the Britannians, then we should pretend that we never said these words today, and we should give up the so-called fighter jets!
Major General Karl's expression changed as expected. Even though he had previously trusted Lelouch immensely, now that he had said such things, Karl had to reprimand him: "Lieutenant Lelouch! I accept what you said before, but you can't just say things like that! What gives you the right, a mere lieutenant, to say that the Empire's communication system has a huge vulnerability?"

Lelouch's mind was also racing. He knew very well that he absolutely could not mention now that "the Empire's radio codebook had long been cracked by the enemy," as this was completely unfounded.

Although he had read history books and knew that back in August, when the Britannians sank an Imperial submarine, they retrieved a codebook from the wreckage, he had no reason to know this now, and no one would believe him if he said it; instead, he would be seen as a charlatan.

Fortunately, Lelouch had another excuse. He remembered the submarine cable that Siemens had laid along the coast of Belgium and Nigeria before the war, which had been destroyed by a Britannian cruiser three days earlier.

Previously, even the higher-ups did not know the specific reason why the cable had broken.

Lelouch personally took charge of this repair work, so he has absolute professional authority on this issue.

Lelouch immediately seized the opportunity to make a big deal out of nothing, offering a very logical analysis: "A few days ago, our platoon was temporarily dispatched by the army group headquarters to Neoport to inspect a certain submarine cable. Afterwards, based on my review, I was able to confirm precisely that the break in that cable was located more than three kilometers away in the sea."

If the enemy hadn't obtained the precise coordinates of the undersea cable blueprints beforehand, they wouldn't have been able to retrieve and cut it at the designated point. Afterwards, I repeatedly investigated, and among the three parties who could have leaked the blueprints, Siemens wouldn't have betrayed its country without a reason. The Belighians didn't have time to leak the information, so there's a 99% chance there were Britannian spies within the Dutch National Telegraph Company!

I don't know the extent of the Dutch Telegraph Company's influence in the Burkina Faso communications, or how much of our communications secrets they have access to. But I think it's always better to be safe than sorry. This matter absolutely cannot be discussed via telecommunications. We could even use this opportunity to turn the tables and test whether there has truly been a code leak, or whether the wired telegraph cable has been physically intercepted..."

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P.S.: New book seeking comments, updates, favorites, and votes. Thank you!

(End of this chapter)