Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 17 Uncovers Hipper's Solo Nature

If Lelouch were to directly say, "The Empire's radio code has been cracked by the Kingdom of Burma," Major General Karl would absolutely not believe it.

How could a mere lieutenant, especially one who was a corporal just three days ago and had never been exposed to top-secret information before, have the right to make such an assertive judgment?

But Lelouch chose to approach the issue from his own specific area of ​​responsibility, using the previous incident of the undersea cable being destroyed by enemy ships and the presence of a Britannian traitor within the Netherlands Telegraph Company as a starting point.

Then, by subtly adding a bit of their own agenda and exaggerating the potential risks and scope of leaks, Major General Karl would have no choice but to believe them.

Major General Karl can now be certain of at least two things:

First of all, there must have been leaks of communications intelligence.

Secondly, the extent of the leaked information is currently unclear.

However, since it is wartime, when the situation is unclear, for safety's sake, we must be overly optimistic and try to think of the worst-case scenario.

Therefore, the actions we need to take now should avoid using telecommunications methods as much as possible, whether wired or wireless.

Demacian officers are generally not good at intelligence work and deception, so Major General Karl could only continue to "avoid having two people do the same thing".

"So how do you think we should convince Major General Hipper about this? And what means of communication should we use to contact him? How do we verify your idea of ​​'using a counter-strategy to verify'?"

Having an external aid to help your brain is great; it's never a bad thing to listen to it first.

This is a big question, and Lelouch couldn't answer it immediately. He could only think about it carefully for a long time before speaking in a probing tone:
"At present, the safest way to contact Major General Hipper is to send a plane directly to Port Wilhelmshaven to meet with him in person."

To ensure safety and bypass Dutch airspace, the flight would be approximately 500 kilometers, but a plane should be able to reach the destination within three to four hours. However, for a face-to-face meeting, a high-ranking official would need to be present in person, or at least have a sufficiently weighty handwritten letter bearing the official seal of a prominent figure.

Before Lelouch could finish speaking, Major General Karl immediately patted his chest and said, "That's no problem. I can give a handwritten letter. The plane can even make another stop along the way to get higher-level authorization from my brother, as long as the letter is convincing enough."

Major General Karl realized his persuasiveness might not be enough, so he tried to involve his elder brother, the Crown Prince. His brother was a general and had been Major General Hipper's former superior; that connection would likely be more convincing.

After finalizing the means of communication, Lelouch continued by explaining how to turn the tables on them:
"In addition, to confirm whether the enemy can intercept our wired communications or decipher our wireless communications, we can send two false intelligence messages by wired telegram and wireless telegram at the same time while we are physically flying by plane to deliver the real intelligence."

The first point could be used to cover for Major General Hipper. As you know, in the three months since the start of the war, Major General Hipper, leading the First Raiding Fleet, has bombarded Britannian ports twice, each time destroying some dock facilities, shipyards, and docked merchant ships, before quickly retreating and making a quick getaway.

So this time we can simply use wired telegraph to send a message to Wilhelmshaven, which could say something like, "Upon investigation, the Britannia cruiser that previously took away King Billy King has set up a new outpost anchorage near de Panne..." The specific wording is not important, because I am not an expert in the selection of specific tactical targets for the navy, and I can let General Hipper think of it himself.

In short, the message was to tell the enemy a false message: the Empire was "enraged" because the Burkini cruiser had unexpectedly taken away King Billykin. Now they had discovered that a certain port had become the new anchorage for the Burkini light cruiser patrol, so they wanted to retaliate and sent warships to bombard the anchorage. The specific tactic was to hit and run.

If this cable message is intercepted by the enemy, and the enemy strengthens the naval defenses of this forward port as a result, or if they choose to temporarily divert the artillery fleet that might have been used to bombard Neoport for defense purposes, then the Empire will have to be careful in the future. It is no longer possible to contact the domestic territory through the submarine cable that passes through the Netherlands. It is certain that there is a spy leaking information at the relay station in the Netherlands!

The content of the second telegram could be either sent wirelessly or a reply from the rear. The content would be something like, "The above request has been relayed to General Hipper's forces, but the general has already gone to sea on another mission and is currently in a state of radio silence. His fleet's radio station is in 'receive-only' mode and cannot reply, so as not to expose the fleet's position at sea." At the same time, the reply could vaguely mention in coded messages that General Hipper's original objective was "to randomly bombard one of the ports on the east coast of Britannia, depending on the actual situation."

In this way, if the Britannians strengthen the defenses of these ports, or even send warships south from northern Scotland to ambush us, they can conclude that our radio codes have also been broken. Of course, given Minister Wharton's cunning, he might also deliberately leave them undefended to reassure us that the codes haven't been broken, thus preventing us from considering any changes.

Upon hearing this, Major General Karl and Colonel Lister felt their minds were starting to go blank.

Why are there so many twists and turns? I'm getting dizzy just listening to it!

"Wait a minute! You said you used wired telegraph for one communication, but radio for the reply. Doesn't that seem a bit too deliberate?" Major General Karl thought for a long time before discovering a loophole and quickly asked for advice.

“That’s easy. When we send a telegram, we can say, ‘The situation at the front and the battle lines are changing rapidly. The location of the 6th Army Headquarters may change at any time. Please do not reply by wired telegram.’ As long as the headquarters moves, the original wired telegram sent back will definitely not find the recipient.” Lelouch casually plugged the loophole. To a modern person like him, such a reason was too easy to come up with.

It's like when someone calls another person using a landline, but the other person calls back and asks to use their mobile phone. Isn't that reasonable? They could just say, "I'm leaving soon, I won't be here anymore, you can't reach me by landline."

Anyone living in the mobile communication age can easily come up with a similar excuse without even thinking. But people in 1914 might not have been constantly thinking about the idea that "wireless communication is more flexible and mobile than wired communication," so it's not surprising that they couldn't think of it right away.

Major General Karl pondered Lelouch's words for a moment, and when he looked at him again, his eyes were filled with increasing... awe.

This young man is incredibly smart.

Lelouch then added, "Of course, for this whole scheme of deception to be perfectly executed, we'll definitely need to do some follow-up checks and fill in the gaps."

For example, if General Hipper were to win this impending naval conflict, we cannot be complacent afterward, otherwise the Britannians would immediately know that we know they know our code.

We could even consider setting a trap, luring the high command of the Imperial Navy to reprimand Rear Admiral Hipper, questioning why he "disobeyed orders and went his own way," failing to bombard the enemy port according to the Navy's original plan. We could portray Admiral Hipper's victory as his personal "bold defiance and reckless pursuit of credit," rather than as part of the Imperial Navy's pre-planned strategy.

In this way, even if the Bretonnia suffered a setback, they would think, "It wasn't that our intelligence work was bad or that the intelligence we obtained was incorrect. Rather, it was because there were disobedient frontline commanders within the enemy ranks who didn't follow the orders in the telegrams."

Lelouch felt that this last point was also very crucial.

The fact that "the Demacian Navy knew that the enemy knew their radio codes" is itself of immense value.

It would be a huge waste to expose such a big secret just to verify something, bombard two ports, and sink some pre-dreadnoughts and cruisers.

Historically, the main reason why the High Seas Fleet was always stuck and unable to do anything was because of the one-way transparency of radio communication. Finally, when they finally decided to launch the Battle of Jutland, the enemy had already used their X-ray vision to see the entire composition of their forces.

What if the Demacians had known this and kept the secret until the Battle of Jutland? Wouldn't they have been able to eat a whole bunch at once?

This secret must be kept safe. It's only a test for now, so the aftermath after the test is also very important.

We must make the enemy believe that "the operational plan discovered by the Britannian intelligence service is real, and the reason for the defeat is simply because there was a fool in the enemy who disobeyed orders and did not carry out the agreed plan."

When Major General Karl heard this, the way he looked at Lelouch was as if he were looking at a ghost or a god.

This must be God's will!
It was God who wanted to punish the wicked Britannians, so He sent this sage to deliver divine revelation!

With such a brilliant strategist on our side, how can we not achieve our great cause!
Major General Karl stared intently into Lelouch's eyes, trying to discern sincerity or hypocrisy in them.

Lelouch's gaze remained sincere and unwavering, without the slightest hesitation.

When Major General Karl saw Lelouch's blood-red left eye, which had not yet returned to its normal color after being poisoned by tear gas, he felt a strange sense of admiration and trust.

This eye proves that this young man has risked his life for the empire, and I have no reason to doubt his loyalty.

In 1914, many remnants of mysticism still existed in the world, and many high-ranking officials in various countries, especially ignorant royal families and nobles, still believed in miracles.

For a fleeting moment, Major General Karl even told himself: Lelouch's blood-red left eye must possess the divine power to see through all schemes. So, believing him was the right thing to do.

(End of this chapter)