Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 169 Lelouch's Plan to Secure Northern Europe
"Congratulations! You have indeed been promoted to brigadier general! Although this time it's not because of your military achievements in the land battle, with His Majesty's personal approval, what more can be said? The details are no longer important."

After meeting with Emperor William, the other key generals who participated in the Baltic and Latvian wars learned that Lelouch had also been promoted. They congratulated him and invited him to the victory banquet the following evening.

This time, Marshal Mackensen was commended, and four naval officers, Hipper, Scheer, Berdick, and Hermann, were promoted. Therefore, the celebration banquet was very grand, and it was not just a celebration for Lelouch alone, but a celebration for everyone.

These people all owed Lelouch some favor. Everyone knew in their hearts that it was Lelouch's scheme that forced the enemy to come out and fight in order to prove his innocence, which led to their annihilation by the Demacian Navy.

Faced with everyone's compliments, Lelouch was very modest: "What is my promotion to brigadier general? You all have been promoted from lieutenant general to general and from major general to lieutenant general. My achievements are really insignificant compared to yours."

As soon as these words were spoken, Admiral Hipper, who had already risen to the rank of Vice Commander of the High Seas Fleet, immediately objected: "That's not very interesting! Everyone knows that your achievements go far beyond that of a brigadier general. If you weren't only 25 years old, you would definitely have been promoted even further!"

You're at a disadvantage due to your age and seniority; you can only make up for it with ingenious strategies and military achievements. The merits that others can achieve directly might require two or three times more, but none of our own people dare underestimate your abilities! Okay, enough with the sentimentality. Don't be late tomorrow.

After saying this, Lelouch bid farewell to everyone and returned to the naval sanatorium where he was staying to rest, preparing to attend the banquet the next day.

These past few days we've been traveling at sea with the fleet, and the food and lodging conditions are definitely not comparable to those on land.

Although Lelouch had been to sea several times and was not seasick at all, his sleep quality had greatly improved after going ashore.

Mei Mei slept well, and the next day she got up, washed up, tidied up, and made an internal call to order room service. A waiter then pushed a cart and brought over freshly baked blueberry pancakes, cod fillets with asparagus, and fresh hot milk.

While having breakfast, Lelouch soon noticed a recent internal battle report on the dining cart, a report that only high-ranking officers could read.

This naval sanatorium is reserved for generals, so the military briefings it provides are quite accurate, unlike the embellished reports in newspapers published to the public.

Lelouch casually flipped through the document and found a statistic on the results of recent battles.

In the land battles, the campaigns in the Gulf of Riga and the Courland Peninsula were expected to result in the complete annihilation of the enemy's 12th Army, as well as the severe damage to two corps of the 2nd Army and the annihilation of one corps.

The enemy's 12th Army, with a full strength of 31 men, had suffered over 7 casualties in the previous fierce fighting. Now, with both land and sea retreat routes cut off, 24 of them were trapped on the Courland Peninsula and chose to surrender directly.

Of the enemy's 2nd Army, only one corps was completely annihilated. That corps, totaling more than 45,000 men, was surrounded and cut off within the city of Riga.

The other corps was routed by the Demanian forces in the battle east of Riga, and was forced to retreat while fighting. Therefore, it could not be completely annihilated, but only one division was destroyed and two divisions were repelled, resulting in a loss of 28,000 men.

Finally, there was one remaining defeated unit responsible for the defense of the Estonian coast. Since the Demanians had previously captured the islands of Shiuma and Saarema in a landing operation, the garrison on those islands was naturally annihilated.

The garrison responsible for the coastal area initially attempted a counterattack to retake the island, relying on salvaged civilian ships to try and re-enter the island as reinforcements. The result, of course, was a futile effort, resulting in many more casualties. The original garrison on the island was not rescued, and the reinforcements sent up were either surrounded or directly annihilated on the beachhead by the Demacian army.

This rescue attempt resulted in the loss of over 2 people in Lusa before they finally stopped.

So, all things considered, the Lushars lost all 31 men of the 12th Army and nearly 11 men of the 2nd Army, for a total of 42 regular troops annihilated.

In addition, if we include the fishermen and militia members on Shiuma and Saarema islands who have only received a few weeks of military training, there are more than 3 of them in total, which would bring the total number of enemy casualties to 45.

It was another resounding victory. The Northwest Front Army of the Lussa people lost at least 40% of its fighting strength.

The Northwestern Front of the Lussars originally consisted of only the 2nd and 5th Armies. The 12th Army was borrowed from the Northern Front by Commander Nikolai Ruzsky, and it was completely annihilated.

Therefore, the battle report mentioned that the Rusa people had made an emergency adjustment, and after this battle, they directly abolished the "Northwest Area Army" and merged it into the "Northern Area Army".

In any case, the entire territory of Latvia and the western coastal region of Estonia have already fallen, and more than half of the Northwestern Front's defense areas no longer exist. What's the point of keeping this front?

The Tsar urgently ordered the formation of the Northern Front, consisting of the 1st, 2nd, and 5th Armies of Luza. This Front was tasked with protecting eastern Estonia and the surrounding area extending to St. Petersburg, while also allocating a portion of its forces to defend Helsinki and other locations on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland.

The Northern Front was retained by General Mikhail Alekseev, while General Nikolai Ruzsky, who had just suffered a defeat, was temporarily demoted to commander of the 2nd Army.

In addition, because the 2nd Army had just been severely damaged, losing more than 10 men, the Tsar urgently conscripted starving people and refugees from the streets of St. Petersburg to fill the ranks. He conscripted hundreds of thousands of people without properly equipping them with guns and stuffed them directly into the 2nd Army to make up for the shortages, and they were given some basic training.

Nicholas II was clearly gripped by extreme fear, worried that the Dmanians would advance directly along Estonia into St. Petersburg. He even redeployed troops from all fronts in the south to the north, determined to defend his capital to the death.

"Very good. Nicholas II's piecemeal approach to problems makes it easier for us to launch a major operation on the southern front in the next phase," Lelouch couldn't help but comment to himself.

Lelouch glanced at his watch; it was September 10th, and the southern offensive he and Marshal Rupprecht had agreed upon wouldn't be ready until around September 20th.

Considering that the journey home will take another two or three days by train, and if I leave myself some leeway, I should head south within five days.

After all, once back in Odessa, he needs to recuperate and readjust to the southern climate; otherwise, he might fall ill and be unable to lead troops into battle. The troops are equipped with new weapons, and he also needs to work on his command tactics.

Nicholas II feared problems on the northern front. If troops continued to be moved north over the next ten days, leaving the south vulnerable, it would be convenient to take action.

After reading the army's battle report, Lelouch put it aside and continued to look at the navy's battle report statistics.

Naval battle reports indicate that a total of four enemy dreadnoughts were destroyed in this battle (four Gangut-class ships, two sunk and two captured).

前无畏舰4艘（‘保罗一世级’1沉、‘博罗季诺级’1沉、‘叶卡捷琳娜二世级’的老船1沉1俘）；

Five armored cruisers, nine light/protected cruisers, and fifteen destroyers.

A total of 2385 enemy sailors were surrendered or captured, and more than 15200 enemy soldiers were killed, drowned or went missing (of which 4500 were Tsarist guards sent by the Tsar to supervise the battle on the warships, who belonged to the army and were either killed along with the ships when the battle was sank or killed by sailors who mutinied on the front lines and by German soldiers who surrendered).

After this battle, the Rosapol Fleet was left with only two pre-dreadnoughts, the San Andrew and the old ship Twelve Apostles, which had been converted into fixed gun emplacements to block the waterway.

Dreadnoughts and armored cruisers were completely wiped out, leaving only 3 old-fashioned protected cruisers and 5 destroyers. They can be considered practically destroyed.

On the Demacian Navy side, the losses have only just been tallied.

The battle resulted in the loss of two dreadnoughts ('Rhineland' sunk and 'Posen' destroyed).
One dreadnought (HMS Nassau) was damaged, and two dreadnoughts were lightly damaged (Westfalen and Heligoland, with Heligoland suffering minor damage).

One lightly damaged battlecruiser.

Two dreadnoughts were lost ('Frederick III' was sunk directly, and 'Archduke Karl' was towed back for scrap).

One Dreadnought before it was severely damaged ('Barbarossa')
One light cruiser was sunk and two light cruisers were severely damaged.
Two destroyers were sunk and three destroyers were severely damaged.

A total of 1752 people were killed in action, drowned, or went missing, and 908 were injured.

The reason why the number of casualties was kept so low is mainly because, apart from the "Frederick III", "Bremen" and two destroyers which were sunk directly in battle, the other warships that were damaged were either beached and sunk or towed back and scrapped, which resulted in far fewer deaths.

Moreover, although the Frederick III sank, the Demanian Navy controlled the battlefield at the time, allowing for a slow salvage and rescue operation, saving nearly 300 lives. In contrast, when ships like the Bremen sank, Rear Admiral Berdik was in a hurry to break out and escape, leaving no time for rescue, resulting in a 9% casualty rate for those sunken ships.

Judging solely from the number of warships lost, the Demacian side did not gain too much advantage in this battle, considering that they also lost two dreadnoughts and two pre-dreadnoughts.

However, in terms of casualties, the Lusa suffered nine times more casualties than the Demanians. Even if we exclude the army casualties, the Lusa's casualties were still six to seven times that of the navy.

Moreover, the Demacian side lost a very cheap former dreadnought, which was almost 20 years old and was originally going to be converted into a training ship.

No matter how you look at it, this victory was incredibly profitable.

However, since it was an internal battle report, the document also included some official comments and reflections at the end, which can be considered as different perspectives.

Lelouch patiently continued reading, and then he came across some evaluations that made him quite unhappy.

"Some people actually think that the final, decisive battle of this war was not very strategic, and that the loss of two dreadnoughts and two pre-dreadnoughts may affect future naval pressure on the Britannians?"

Absurd! What kind of idiot came up with this on a whim? It's utter nonsense, nitpicking!

Lelouch couldn't help but laugh in exasperation upon seeing this.

However, it's true that some people did think that way at the time. A closer look at their views reveals that they were quite supportive of the first phase of the operation, which involved "luring and annihilating the Russa cruiser fleet with almost no damage."

That battle was indeed of strategic value, as it cut off the enemy's shipping lanes in the Gulf of Riga, severed the enemy's supply lines to the Gulf of Riga and the Courland Peninsula, and contributed to the collapse of the enemy's army.

However, they believed that sacrificing two of their own dreadnoughts and two pre-dreadnoughts to destroy the enemy's dreadnoughts and pre-dreadnoughts would be a lose-lose situation.

Furthermore, they believed that the latter half of the operation would have little impact on the overall battle situation, and that winning this second battle would not allow their fleet to penetrate deep into the Gulf of Finland and directly land in St. Petersburg.

Therefore, some people believe that "this is a pure war of attrition, and everyone has lost some combat power. Although two ships were captured, resources will still be spent to repair them. In short, after this battle, the overall combat power of the Empire's battle fleet will definitely be lower than if this battle had not been fought."

Therefore, some people believed that fighting this battle would jeopardize the overall strategy of dealing with the Britannians in the future. Even if they didn't fight, the enemy's dreadnoughts would not pose any threat, as the Tsar's strategy of "preserving the ships" allowed them to remain in Kronstadt as a fleet.

If we only look at the numbers, this argument is somewhat plausible, because before the battle, the Empire had 17 battleships in good operational condition, but after the battle, the number of ships in good operational condition temporarily dropped to 12, and it took more than half a year to rise back to 17.

Doesn't that mean "wasting six months of opportunity cost that could have been used to attack the Burkina Faso navy"? Lelouch guessed that Admiral Hipper or Admiral Scheer would be furious if they saw these arguments. It's just that these generals only know how to fight and kill; they don't understand politics, diplomacy, or economic blockades, so they can't offer any reasoned rebuttal to these fallacies.

But Lelouch was learned in both literature and martial arts, and possessed a precognition of history, his knowledge surpassing that of his contemporaries by a hundred years. He only needed a moment's thought to figure out how to refute these people.

During the victory celebration, I'll talk to Hipper and the others and offer some advice to the Navy on how to maximize the subsequent strategic value of "destroying the Russa Baltic Fleet".

……

That afternoon, at the Königsberg Palace.

A grand victory banquet, with the emperor's permission, was held in the imperial palace. All the army and navy generals who had recently distinguished themselves in the Baltic Sea theater attended the event.

There were also some civilian officials from relevant departments or local officials from the East Prosper region who came to the reception to make the generals happy.

During the year of the great war, and with the Bretonnian navy blockading the country, the supply of all daily necessities in Demania was quite tight. Therefore, the dishes at such public banquets would not be too extravagant, so as not to be unsightly and cause resentment among the people if word got out.

Just like when Lelouch had breakfast in the morning, there wasn't even bacon or sausage, only fish, a relatively uncontainable seafood. Königsberg was originally a port city, and the local fishing industry in the Baltic Sea was thriving.

Nowadays, the celebration banquet has been turned into a cocktail party-style buffet, with unlimited thick-cut raw salmon, but other poultry and meat dishes are not as plentiful.

After the party started, the initial eating, drinking, and congratulations were nothing special.

While eating and drinking, Lelouch also observed the guests at the event, and he actually saw several familiar faces besides the generals.

"Hey! Minister Baden, what brings you here? Weren't you in Berlin?"

Lelouch immediately went to greet him. Archduke Mark von Baden, who had been watching him with a smile, only responded when Lelouch reached him:
"I thought you would be the star of tonight's victory celebration banquet, surrounded by those generals toasting you. I didn't dare to come and bother you."

Lelouch smiled: "My insignificant work is all behind the scenes, and it's not appropriate for me to be high-profile right now. Let's talk about your business instead."

Grand Duke Baden: "I'm here on official business with the Occupation Affairs Department, of course. Marshal Mackensen just captured Riga and the Courland Peninsula these past two days, didn't he?"

His Majesty must have heeded your advice yesterday regarding the future resettlement of the Volga Demanians and Baltic Demanians. His Majesty later considered it and still hopes that after the collapse of the Russo Empire, the entire territory of Lithuania and most of Latvia can be integrated into the mainland.

However, he was also worried that the remaining Latvian territories north of Riga, as well as the entire territory of Estonia, would not be willing to submit to the Empire, so he also considered establishing an 'Osland Confederation'.

The specific division between the future directly occupied areas and puppet areas will require our Occupied Area Affairs Department to conduct a thorough investigation of local conditions and understand public opinion before making a decision. If there is fierce resistance from the people in some areas, and the cost of direct rule is too high, then we will not forcibly annex them.

(Note: "Ost-land" is actually a transliteration of "Ost-land," which means "land of the East" in German, but in the context of that time it referred to the Baltic states in later times.)
This matter is still some time away, so Lelouch just listened casually and wasn't in a hurry to offer his opinion. He figured he could just let the Grand Duke of Baden investigate it at his own pace.

Lelouch hates the idea of ​​opening champagne at the halfway point. In Earth's history, even if the final battle was won on the Eastern Front and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving them the legal basis to cede the Osland region, the Western Front ultimately failed, and it was all just a mirage.

The ultimate fate of this world depends on who can apply the brakes to the Emperor, the General Staff, and the General Armaments Department.

Grand Duke Baden had expected him to speak at length, but to his surprise, he seemed rather uninterested and lost interest in saying anything more.

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries. The nephew and niece who had come with the Duke of Baden were also very enthusiastic towards Lelouch, congratulating him on his promotion to brigadier general.

Just as the Grand Duke finished congratulating him and was about to say goodbye and chat with someone else, several generals suddenly walked over from a distance. They were Admiral Hipper and Lieutenant General Berdick, who joined Lelouch and Grand Duke Baden's conversation.

"Hey, Lelouch, what are you doing here? Do you have some civil or political matters to discuss?" Admiral Hipper asked Lelouch while raising his glass to the Grand Duke of Baden.

“Minister Baden and I were talking about official business of the Occupation Affairs Department, about the future handling and governance of the Osland lands,” Lelouch explained casually.

Hipper: "Really? It seems the Imperial army will soon reach Estonia? That's great! I knew it! Our navy fought a bloody battle and annihilated the Lusa's Baltic fleet, which will definitely help the army occupy more land along the Baltic Sea!"

Some ungrateful staff officers in the army write nonsensical simulations, even saying things like, "The main ships of the Russa Baltic Fleet are already part of the fleet, so whether we kill them or not won't make much difference. In fact, attacking them would leave the navy without combat capability to fight the Britannia for at least half a year." I get so angry when I hear that!

"Oh? You also read that internal reference wargame article?" Lelouch asked with amusement. "You even knew it was written by people from the Army? I didn't know that at all. I just glanced at it while eating breakfast this morning."

Lelouch was also puzzled as to why there would be an insider nitpicking and pouring cold water on things, but when he heard that it was written by someone from the Army rather than the Navy, it made a little more sense—it's not that Demania also has "land-sea conflicts," but factional struggles certainly exist.

Hipper: "Of course I read it! I was furious when I finished reading it this morning. I even used my connections to find out who wrote it. Do you know who wrote it?"

Lelouch: "Who?"

Hipper: "Hoffmann, the staff officer of the Polish theater!"

Lelouch even recalled: "Is it Hoffmann, the one under Marshal Hindenburg and Lieutenant General Rodendorff?"

On the Polish battlefield today, Marshal Hindenburg's Chief of Staff is Lieutenant General Rodendorff, and the second-ranking Deputy Chief of Staff is Colonel Mark Hoffmann.

Like Lelouch before him, this person was only a colonel. He was also quite capable and had a thorough understanding of the Russa people. However, he started from a very low position when the war broke out, so even though he helped with many successful staff work, he was still only a colonel, several ranks lower than Rodendorff.

This phenomenon is quite similar to the later observation that "the people who actually do the work in ministries are often a group of section chiefs at the grassroots level." The real leaders, on the other hand, can rest well and only need to make decisions occasionally at crucial moments.

Faced with Lelouch's persistent questioning, Hipper retorted bitterly:
"Which other Hoffmann could it be? His staff simulation must have been Rodendorff's idea. I think it's simply that Hindenburg and Rodendorff, seeing His Majesty's reluctance to launch the 'Polish Bulge Campaign,' instead listened to Marshal Rupprecht's strategic advice of 'flying along both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea.'"

Therefore, they currently lack sufficient troops and have been unable to encircle and annihilate the Polish salient, leaving them only able to confront the enemy's large troop concentration, which is why they are so envious. Hoffman wrote this article to diminish the strategic significance of the Baltic advance, hoping to persuade His Majesty and the General Staff to change their minds as soon as possible and shift their strategic focus back to the Polish salient.

Lelouch could understand the information Hipper had gathered.

It's a conflict of interests; there's no way around it. Currently, Field Marshal Mackensen is in charge of the northern coastal route of the Eastern Front, while Field Marshal Rupprecht is in charge of the southern coastal route. Field Marshal Hindenburg and Field Marshal Leopold are in charge of the central route.

This is similar to how, twenty years from now, the "Southern Army Group," "Central Army Group," and "Northern Army Group" on Earth will need to compete for resources. Who wouldn't want their army group's main offensive direction to receive more resources from the entire empire?

However, Lelouch did not intentionally target Hindenburg and Rodendorff; it was simply a matter of different times.

If we were to set the stage twenty or thirty years from now, with a fully mechanized army, motorized transportation, and a denser railway network, then launching a breakthrough into the heart of the enemy would indeed be a viable option.

The problem is that it is only 1915, there is no motorized transportation, the Demanian military does not even have enough cars, and the railway gauges of Germany and Switzerland are different.

At most, a breakthrough in the center would only annihilate a large number of enemy troops and wipe out the Polish garrison. But then what?

If they want to continue the offensive, how will they solve the logistical problem in the vast, rotten land of central Lusa, which stretches for thousands of miles?

In the era before motorized transportation, once absolute sea control was achieved, advancing along the coastline was undoubtedly the safest and easiest way to ensure logistical support.

Because Russo has too much mobilization capacity and manpower, even killing two million more of its troops wouldn't be a decisive help. But if its entire coastline is blockaded and its southern grain-producing areas are seized, starving it for several years, it might just self-destruct.

Therefore, Lelouch had to fight to the end against the "Central Breakthrough" doctrine of 1915. This was not a factional dispute, but because what Lelouch possessed was the truth.

The "Central Breakthrough Faction" of 1915 was a typical example of those who had not thoroughly studied Clausewitz's "On War," and did not know that war is a continuation of military affairs, nor that military affairs should serve the economy and politics.

……

Therefore, after hearing the inside story revealed by Hipper, and knowing that Hindenburg, Rodendorff, and Mark Hoffmann were once again downplaying the strategic significance of the "two-wing coastal flight doctrine" for the sake of their own small group interests,
Lelouch immediately offered Hipper advice, helping them come up with a counter-argument:

"General Hipper, you can rest assured that His Majesty will understand the enormous benefits of 'annihilating the Russa Baltic Fleet' compared to 'allowing its dreadnoughts to remain in port as a mere presence fleet'."

Our destruction of the enemy's dreadnoughts was not merely for the purpose of sinking the dreadnoughts themselves, nor was it for military merit! Some follow-up plans could only be carried out after the complete annihilation of the enemy navy.

For example, I think that now that you have seized absolute control of the Baltic Sea, you can make some more radical attempts—doesn't Vice Admiral Berdick have our reconnaissance cruiser fleet in his hands?

In the following days, we can continue our efforts to clear more mines in the Baltic Sea shipping lanes. We need to clear not only those in the south, but also mines in the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland in the north, so that our cruisers can reach that area in the future to search for and destroy enemy transport ships.

"If we didn't have the capability to completely annihilate the enemy's dreadnoughts, would our cruisers dare to operate so deep? If the enemy's dreadnoughts sailed out of the Gulf of Finland, then turned north and blocked the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, our cruisers entering the Gulf of Bothnia would be doomed."

Hipper was taken aback by these words: "Deep into the Gulf of Bothnia? If the goal is to penetrate the Gulf of Bothnia, then annihilating the enemy's dreadnought fleet is indeed necessary..."

But why should we venture deep into the Gulf of Bothnia? Ah! Do you think the Russo people will sail south along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia in Finland, carrying resources to Helsinki or St. Petersburg? Do you want us to intercept enemy transport ships on this route?

Hipper could understand the military necessity of doing so, but he clearly didn't understand economics, nor the economic value of intercepting shipping deep into these waters.

When the Navy was planning to annihilate the main force of the Russa Baltic Fleet, it did not think too deeply about the economic aspects; it only thought about destroying the enemy fleet as much as possible.

Furthermore, from the perspective of the Admiralty, even if interception was necessary, wouldn't simply blocking the entrance to the Gulf of Finland suffice? Why bother going around to the interior of the Gulf of Bothnia? Whether enemy transport ships were heading to Helsinki or St. Petersburg, wouldn't they all have to pass through the entrance to the Gulf of Finland? Wouldn't they all have to pass Cape Hanko?
It's like you already know the final destination of a flight route, so why not just block it at the final destination? Why bother with the extra effort and risk of blocking it halfway through?

Regarding Hipper's understanding, Lelouch could only shake his head helplessly before starting with the most basic facts to explain:
(End of this chapter)