Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 188 I'm waiting for the tank, what are you waiting for?

The calendar turned to October 25, 1915.

Sixteen days have passed since the German 6th Army annihilated the more than 300,000 soldiers south of the Dnieper River.

Seven days had passed since the troops, after a brief rest, resumed their northward advance and captured Dnipro.

Sevastopol and Kerch to the south have been completely occupied and pacified. The four divisions that were freed up on the Crimean Peninsula, along with some other rear troops, totaling about two corps, were also transferred from Crimea to Melitopol, a small railway hub north of the peninsula.

This force was directly commanded by an unnamed senior lieutenant general from the 6th Army, with von Bock and others as staff officers and mid-level personnel. After making slight adjustments in Melitopol, they planned to continue eastward along the railway towards Mariopol, 170 kilometers to the east.

Meanwhile, in the north, Rommel led the two armored divisions of Lelouch and Bockna, concentrating almost all of the army's armored vehicles, and after capturing Dnipro on the 18th, he rested for only two days before starting his eastward advance along the railway on the 20th, heading towards Donbas.

In just five days, no enemy could stop Rommel's frontal attack. He easily advanced more than 100 kilometers and was about to reach the city of Donbas.

The local reserve troops temporarily brought in to fill the gaps, as well as the Cossack cavalry, were all unable to stop the armored vehicle assault. At most, the Cossack cavalry could only harass the logistics and sabotage the railway line behind Rommel.

Even so, the Cossack cavalry paid a heavy price. Since suffering a major defeat last month, they no longer had the courage to confront armored vehicles head-on, and would flee at the sight of them, their morale extremely low.

If things continue to develop in this direction, Lelouch believes that Rommel will definitely be able to enter Donbas by the end of October, and a little later, Bock may also be able to advance along the coastal railway to Marieupol.

If these two then launch a pincer movement from the north and south, they will surely complete the new encirclement of the eastern region by early November. With a little initiative, they might even be able to achieve it faster.

Seeing that the battle in the east was no longer in doubt, Lelouch stopped worrying about the military details and quickly turned his attention to the conspiracies and schemes.

They began to devise ways to create more obstacles before the final battle of Kiev, aiming not only for victory but also to annihilate as many enemy troops as possible, preventing the enemy from fleeing at the first sign of trouble. They also wanted to deplete as much of the enemy's manpower as possible before the decisive battle…

Fortunately, Lelouch had an inexhaustible supply of military strategy and history in his mind, and he quickly came up with some good ideas, which he then went to Marshal Rupprecht to sell.

……

The headquarters of the 6th Army in Zaporige on the night of October 25.

Marshal Rupprecht was staying up late drinking coffee and reading battle reports when his attendant suddenly came over and whispered, "Chief of Staff Lelouch has something to discuss with me."

Marshal Rupprecht was taken aback: "Why is he suddenly being so polite? He could have just come in! From now on, no more announcements are allowed; bring him in directly. This is a one-time exception!"

A few seconds later, Brigadier General Lelouch appeared in the Marshal's office, unusually empty-handed.

Marshal Rupprecht knew him too well; anyone else wouldn't have been surprised to see Lelouch arrive empty-handed.

But the marshal immediately sensed something unusual.

Under normal circumstances, Lelouch's late-night visit must be related to military matters.

If a military intelligence report is submitted without any reports or documents, it means that the intelligence does not require data or military details to support it. Therefore... it is most likely some kind of psychological warfare or sowing discord by exploiting interpersonal relationships...

When reporting these things, Lelouch himself did not want to leave any written evidence; it was enough that you, I, heaven, and earth knew.

"It seems the enemy is in for trouble again?" Marshal Rupprecht said with a playful tone, picking up his coffee.

Lelouch was taken aback: "You could tell that?"

The marshal smiled smugly: "You've been following me for a whole year, always scheming and plotting. How could I not know you? Every time it's late at night and you're empty-handed, it's definitely some shady plot, and the enemy is going to be in big trouble again."

Lelouch stopped holding back and readily shared some of his latest thoughts from the past few days:
"This is what I was thinking. Our original plan was to take Zaporizhzhia and Dnieper and then continue upstream along the Dnieper River to attack Kiev, right?"
The reason we attacked Kiev was because we fought too fast in the previous phase, completing the mission almost half a month earlier than expected. As a result, our tank units had not caught up and our equipment was not in place, so it was not suitable to attack Kiev immediately. That's why we spent an extra half month turning around and heading east to attack Donbas first.

The problem was, we knew we were only half-heartedly attacking the Donbas, waiting for tanks and new off-road breakthrough equipment after the mud season. But the enemy didn't know we were waiting for tanks; they were completely unaware of their existence.

The Demacians had a reason for slowing their advance. But that reason was so closely guarded that the enemy could never figure it out.

I'm waiting for the tank, what are you waiting for?
Marshal Rupprecht followed this line of thought and also found the thought experiment quite interesting.

“Yes, the enemy cannot understand our intentions, so… how do you think the enemy will speculate about this?” the Duke asked thoughtfully.

"What the enemy thinks is not important. What is important is that when the enemy cannot find an explanation, we can guide them and give them an explanation." Lelouch put forward his core point of view.

"Oh? Tell me more!" Marshal Rupprecht put down his coffee cup, lit a cigar, and his expression became serious.

Lelouch: "We can easily pretend that we're not continuing our attack on Kiev from the Dnieper River upstream, not because we don't want to, but because we're too exhausted to fight. We can spread rumors that 'the banks of the Dnieper River are too swampy, and after the autumn rains they become far muddier than other places, so all the armored vehicles have been stuck in the mud for days.'"

That's why we had to turn our attention eastward to launch an attack, because the Donbas region in the east is far from the Dnieper River valley, so it's not as muddy, and the enemy forces are relatively weak, making it a good opportunity to expand our gains.

We could even allow some domestic newspapers to publish more photos of armored vehicles stuck in the mud, or have news brokers deliberately leak information to foreign newspapers so that enemy newspapers would publish similar reports.

To boost morale, the enemy will undoubtedly publish any information they obtain on this matter. At that point, everyone from the Tsar to the Commander-in-Chief of the Lushad army will know the situation at the front and that our army is incapable of attacking Kiev.

This would give the enemy more confidence to amass heavy troops around Kiev. We could even use more bait, such as spreading propaganda that "our army is unable to operate in the muddy Dnieper River bend area and has therefore transferred a large number of troops to the eastern front to expand our gains."
In reality, the military presence in important iron-mining cities such as Krivorog, Sofifka, and Nikopol on the north bank of the Dnieper River leading to Zaporizhzhia was already very weak.

At the same time, we will add some propaganda, saying that the enemy country attaches great importance to the construction of the Krivorog iron mine, and that within just half a month after the occupation, it has already done its best to repair many of the iron mine's facilities, and that it will soon be able to resume production and continuously supply iron ore to the war machine in the rear...

In that case, do you think it's possible that the Lusa army could be lured into launching a counter-offensive within the Great Bend of the Dnieper River on the western front? Don't they want to temporarily recapture the iron ore region, carry out more thorough destruction, and prevent the enemy from obtaining massive amounts of iron ore? If they think they can hold it, they might even want to maintain the iron ore operation for a few more months to further fuel their war machine.

In short, our army can use all intelligence deception methods to deliberately mislead the enemy into believing that "we are powerless to launch any offensive in the muddiest Dnieper River bend during the autumn rainy season, and we are also convinced that the enemy is equally powerless to counterattack in the muddy conditions, so we can confidently transfer troops to the east to expand our gains."

If we lure the enemy further in and launch a counterattack, then when we finally deploy our tanks to encircle them, it will be much harder for the enemy to retreat once they realize the situation is unfavorable!

Marshal Rupprecht listened attentively, and he had to admit that if Lelouch's idea could be implemented, the results would be excellent.

"But how do we trick the enemy? Will they believe it?" The marshal raised what he considered to be the most crucial challenge.

Lelouch: "I think I will believe it, because belief is never something that happens overnight, but rather a process. In war, no one will completely believe in their predictions about the enemy, nor will they completely disbelieve them."

Therefore, we only need to offer some incentives when the enemy is hesitant and testing the waters. Because as soon as we show similar signs, the Tsar will surely pressure his men to attempt a counterattack. If that attempt succeeds, will they be able to stop?
The price we have to pay might be that the Krivorogg iron ore mine will start production two months later—didn't you already plan the reconstruction and restoration of the Krivorogg iron ore mine?
We might allow the enemy to briefly reoccupy this iron mine for a month or two, and slightly undermine our previous reconstruction efforts. But I assure you, the price the enemy pays after taking this necessary sacrifice will be ten times greater! Or even more!

Furthermore, to ensure the enemy falls into the trap, we can supplement it with other strategies. For example, didn't we previously spread the word that "after we capture Dnipro, we will no longer attack Kiev upstream, not because we don't want to, but because we can't"? Following this line of thought further, we can release even more information:

He only said, "Actually, at that time, our army was already struggling to capture Dnipropetrov; we were at our last gasp. Our army thought that Dnipropetrov was the railway hub leading to the Donbas coalfield in the east. Even if we didn't attack Kiev, but only to attack Donbas, we had to take Dnipropetrov at all costs so that our supply trains could be diverted eastward to support the Donbas campaign."

In this way, we can subtly imply that General Alexei Evert, commander of the enemy's 6th Army responsible for defending Dnipro, had finally lost heart at the last moment. He feared that our armored vehicles would bypass Dnipro and encircle and cut him off from behind, so he abandoned the city and retreated in large strides.

If we hadn't scared off General Evert, our armored vehicles, all stuck in the mud, wouldn't have been able to take the Dnipropetrov blockade, let alone later advance eastward into the Donbas coal mines.

Thus, as early winter approaches in the north, and the entire nation of Lusha faces industrial shutdowns and freezing temperatures due to coal shortages, doesn't the empire need a scapegoat to appease the anger of its people? Evert, who abandoned Dnipro and deserted his post, will surely suffer the consequences!

Marshal Rupprecht gasped involuntarily upon hearing this. This was a ruthless attempt to destroy the commander of the enemy's 6th Army, the former commander of the Romanian Front!

Rupprecht himself was an army group commander, a respectable noble marshal. He did not want the war to escalate to this point, where high-ranking enemy officers were being exterminated.

After all, he himself was in this circle, and his identity determined this limitation. He hoped that in the end, only the lower-ranking soldiers would die or be wounded, and that the nobles, dukes, and marshals could end the war with dignity.

Driven by personal motives, Rupprecht couldn't help but press further: "But... as far as I know, General Alexei Evert isn't exactly a capable commander, is he? Whether he lives or dies shouldn't have much impact on the Lusa Empire's fighting strength. Do we really have to hold onto him? Wouldn't it be more advantageous for us to let him continue leading troops and remain incompetent?"

Lelouch shook his head firmly: "Your Highness, you only know one side of the story. Evert may not be a great general, but he's not too bad either. Once we get rid of him, the Russa people are unlikely to choose a more capable general to replace him, so there's no need to worry about the enemy benefiting from this."

On the other hand, while Evert's actions may not significantly impact the enemy's command capabilities, they will certainly have a major influence on the enemy's subsequent judgment and morale.

Once Admiral Evert is severely punished, enemy generals will certainly be terrified in the short term and will no longer dare to easily retreat. When the Tsar orders them to counterattack, they will have no choice but to obey.

This will greatly reduce the chances of the enemy escaping when we attack Kiev! As long as we can annihilate the enemy's main force in Kiev, we can quickly advance and seize the entire southern plains region!
Moreover, what will the mid- to high-ranking officers of the unit that retreated with a general think when a general has just been removed from the rank of general? Will the morale of neighboring units be affected?
These negative effects, if given time, can be gradually mitigated by the enemy. But we will not give them that time. We will launch a sudden attack on the enemy in the Kiev direction after Evert is killed by a counter-espionage plot, at the peak of the morale impact! Killing a general in the heat of battle is a grave taboo!

Lelouch only wanted the Tsar to commit the "killing a general in battle" debuff; who he killed was completely unimportant, as long as it wasn't some utterly useless idiot.

Even if the generals killed in battle were only mediocre figures like Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, it would still have a brief but significant impact on the morale of the enemy army.

If you seize the opportunity of the morale boost after the defeat of the enemy general to launch an attack, the effect will be particularly good.

Moreover, Lelouch has other backup plans in hand, which he can use simultaneously to achieve two goals at once.

Duke Rupprecht felt a chill run down his spine, but his intuition told him that he should heed his chief of staff's advice.

"I agree to implement this plan. You can allocate any resources you need yourself... I hope you succeed."

(End of this chapter)