Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 189 made Nicholas's infamy known to everyone from Ireland to the Khitan.
Lelouch's plan was approved by the Duke that very night, and the following day, the propaganda machine began to operate in an orderly manner, spreading the message that Lelouch wanted to spread.

At the same time, he also secretly laid the groundwork for two other minor, insidious military schemes, which need not be elaborated on for now, but are expected to yield results within ten days to half a month.

Just two or three days later, related rumors began to circulate throughout the vast interior of Russa. Several reports showing that "Kievan Rus' frontline troops fought bloody battles and prevented the Demanian army from continuing its northward advance along the Dnieper River" were also published in Russa's mainstream newspapers.

The morale of the troops in Lusa has also temporarily recovered and been boosted, as if they had taken a bait with stimulants and were briefly energized.

As Lelouch had expected, the news eventually reached the ears of Tsar Nicholas II—reportedly during a casual conversation at court, when Rasbukin, a charlatan favored by the Tsar, congratulated him.

The charlatan said that the Demanians' continued northward offensive failed because of God's will, which caused the autumn rains in the Dnieper River basin to be particularly heavy this year, the water levels of the Dnieper River's tributaries to rise sharply, the lakes and marshes to become deeper, and the surrounding land to become more muddy, thus stopping the enemy.

Nicholas II's mood improved considerably for several days afterward.

But soon, another piece of bad news from the front lines shattered Nicholas II's good mood once again, plunging him into despair.

This day was around October 30th.

As usual, Nicholas II handled state affairs within the Winter Palace, paying no attention to the happenings of the city outside.

But his two princesses, Olga and Tatiana, couldn't stand the loneliness and went to St. Petersburg incognito by carriage to visit other noble ladies and their friends.

While passing by the coal market in St. Petersburg, Olga and Tatiana witnessed a looting frenzy, with carts, horses, and mules blocking the road.

"What's going on up ahead?" Tatiana couldn't help but question the driver.

The attendant couldn't answer immediately, so he probed a little and, after confirming that it was correct, cautiously reported:
"Your Highness, it seems that the fighting at the front has triggered a buying frenzy to stockpile coal for the winter. I heard that the price of coal has tripled in one day, and it's only afternoon now. I wonder how much it will rise by tonight."

Neither princess was well aware of the hardships of ordinary people, and they were quite surprised to hear this: "What? Why has the price of coal suddenly increased so much?"

Attendant: "I heard that the city of Donbas in the south was captured the day before yesterday by a Demanian division commander named Rommel. Ninety percent of the Empire's remaining coal comes from there. The news of the fall of Donbas only reached St. Petersburg and Moscow last night. This morning, people lined up to grab coal, and many unscrupulous merchants wanted to hoard it and hoard it."

There are still some coal reserves on the market, but they are only enough to meet the minimum needs of residents for winter (20-30%). At least 70-80% of urban residents will not have coal for heating this winter and will have to find ways to burn firewood.

Olga and Tatiana were stunned by what they heard, but their curiosity compelled them to continue observing the situation.

Finally, by evening, when the coal market was completely sold out and the coal was snapped up, the last transaction price had risen to six times that of the previous day!
Whenever there is a food shortage or a shortage of heating energy that would freeze people to death if not used, the price increases are not small.

It is not that when "there is only enough food to feed 90% of the population and there is a 10% shortage", the price of food will only rise by 10%.

Because the prices of these essential consumer goods are usually low, but if people die from not having them, the prices will inevitably skyrocket.

If there is only enough food to feed 90% of the population, then food prices must rise until the poorest 10% of the population cannot afford food and starve to death.

In a country like Lusa, where winters are very cold, the same applies to coal. So almost overnight, the price of coal in St. Petersburg skyrocketed sixfold due to fears about the future.

And that's not all; prices may continue to rise.

When they returned to the Winter Palace that evening, Olga and Tatiana both looked sorrowful, and the joy of going out to play with their best friend was nowhere to be seen.

During dinner, Nicholas II noticed that his daughters looked unusual.

He hadn't really cared at first; who cares about children's little moods at a time like this? But the fact that his two eldest daughters looked so serious made him think twice, so he kindly asked them a few more questions.

Olga and Tatiana didn't hide anything from their father and told him the truth about the coal price surge of six times that they had witnessed that day.

Nicholas II was also greatly shocked upon hearing this.

He knew of the fall of Donbas much earlier than his daughters. He also knew that the newly recruited reserve forces in the Donbas region were no match for that young Demanian armored officer named Rommel.

Even the valiant Cossacks of the eastern steppes were helpless against those enemies.

However, Nicholas II's mind has been preoccupied with military affairs these past few days, as he has been thinking about how to mobilize troops to plug the leaks or launch a counterattack, or at least minimize the losses.

Therefore, he hadn't had time to learn about the local people's livelihood situation until now, when he learned this detail from his daughter.

The details of everyday life can always have the most genuine impact, far more direct than the cold, hard casualty figures on reports.

Nicholas II looked very grim, remembering that just two days ago Rasbkin had told him that the heavy autumn rains in the south were God's will.

It was God who wanted to save Lusa from being overrun by the Demacians, to buy time for the Allied side to catch up on the technological gap, and to build their own mass-produced armored vehicles.

Now, when I think about how the troops at the front were so incompetent, even though God was on our side, they still lost the position and retreated so quickly, leaving Donbas to the enemy for nothing, it is simply unforgivable!
Nicholas II sulked for a while, then ordered an investigation into the situation at the front, to find out why Dnipro had been abandoned, which allowed the enemy to occupy a railway crossing that led to Donbas.

If Dnipro had held firm back then, wouldn't it have been much more difficult for the enemy to get to Donbas?

His close advisors immediately went to organize a military investigation in accordance with the imperial edict, but it would take several days to reach a clear conclusion, so he could only wait.

On the other hand, after hearing about the soaring coal prices, Nicholas II was also very upset these days. The next day, he tried to discreetly send people to investigate the changes in coal prices in the market.

The situation turned out to be worse than he had anticipated.

While awaiting the investigation results, coal prices continued to rise, finally closing at 20 times the price on October 28th! Absolutely outrageous!

Of course, this is also due to the fact that coal originally had a very low base price.

As a basic fuel for people's livelihood, coal was worthless before the shortage.

Prices must increase several dozen times to ensure that even if the poor tighten their belts, they still can't afford to burn money, or even if they freeze to death, they still can't afford to burn money. Only in this way can the less urgent demands be squeezed out.

This shocking figure finally enraged Nicholas II.

At the same time, the investigation results were also released, and the main responsibility for the fall of Dnipro and even the Donbas lay with General Alexei Evert, the former commander of the Romanian Front, who was later demoted to commander of the 6th Army due to poor performance in combat.

This man repeatedly avoided battle and deserted his post. Even when the city he was defending was not yet surrounded, he dared not hold out to the death. He broke out of the encirclement prematurely out of fear of being surrounded, and refused to fight to the death and die for his country.

He fled once when he was in Odessa, then again in Zaporizhzhia, and a third time in Dnipro, before finally escaping back to the vicinity of Kyiv.

This frequency of escapes was observed by Nicholas II.

Basically, it's similar to how Han Fuqu was viewed by a certain military commander on Earth.

Moreover, during Nicholas II's investigation, food prices in St. Petersburg experienced another surge, with wheat and flour prices quadrupling compared to a month earlier.

Before the outbreak of war, Russa was a major granary in Europe, and the price of flour was only 12 to 15 kopeks per kilogram (similar to fen, 100 kopeks equal 1 ruble).

Unthreshed wheat costs only 7-8 kopeks per kilogram. In the year following the outbreak of war, grain prices had already surged several times. Before October of this year, the wholesale price of flour was already 40 kopeks per kilogram. Retail prices in large cities like St. Petersburg, due to storage and transportation costs, would be several kopeks higher, around 45-50 kopeks.

But what about now? In St. Petersburg, the retail price of flour in grain shops has skyrocketed to an outrageous 2 rubles per kilogram!
Whole wheat flour, made directly from whole wheat without removing the bran, costs 1.5 rubles, while rye flour costs 1 ruble.

All of this made Nicholas II realize that the southern troops could no longer be allowed to retreat! The troops had to hold out until the wheat harvest in the southern black soil plains was complete and the grain was transported to the north!

Moreover, the civil officials in charge of collecting grain must act even faster! In previous years, administrative efficiency was low, and the collection of taxes often dragged on until winter without being completed. This year, it is absolutely unacceptable!

If we collect too late, the grain may fall into enemy hands. For the survival of the empire, we must collect it by force at all costs! Those who resist paying taxes will die!

The source of all these problems was quickly identified by Nicholas II: the reason why the southern army collapsed at the first contact and dared not use their bodies to withstand the armored vehicles of the Demanians was because they had been too lenient with the generals who had deserted and retreated repeatedly in the face of battle!
Nicholas II finally hardened his heart and issued several emergency edicts in succession. Of course, the necessary procedures still had to be followed, and the judicial process of having the ministers in charge of the relevant state affairs discuss and determine the crimes still had to be carried out. After all, it was the 20th century, and the emperor could not arbitrarily execute civil and military officials based on his personal will.

In conclusion, a specially expedited military court found General Alexei Evert, the former commander of the Romanian Front and now commander of the 6th Army, guilty of desertion.

He must be held responsible for the empire's loss of its southern coalfields, which led to soaring coal and food prices and plunged urban residents across the country into misery.

He was sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately.

Effective immediately, any soldier of the Southwest Area Army who deserts in the face of battle, and whose circumstances are similar, will be dealt with in the same manner!
On November 2, the emergency execution order was sent to Kiev, and General Pavel Plevey, commander of the Southwestern Front, was ordered to oversee the execution.

General Pavel Plevey was also terrified and fell silent. He had expected that the defeat in the south would be mainly blamed on this incompetent and unlucky colleague, but he never expected that he would end up as an army group commander and general, and be directly executed by the Tsar.

As for the unfortunate General Alexei Evert, he did want to protest and struggle, and had even considered fleeing. But since he was now essentially a commander without troops, his chances were already over when he retreated to Kiev.

Because everything in Kiev was controlled by Plevy, the commander of the Southwestern Front, Evert was rendered powerless upon arrival, just like Han Fuqu was doomed once he arrived in Kaifeng.

When he first retreated to Kiev, he had no idea that Rommel would turn around and attack the Donbas; he thought Rommel would continue his advance towards Kiev. Some things cannot be assumed.

Before his execution, Evert still had two corps commanders and five division commanders speaking on his behalf (but the fact that so many officers escaped did not mean he still had so many troops; his total strength after fleeing to Kiev was less than a corps), making a final appeal and defense:
"Commander Plevy! I hope you can plead with His Majesty that Admiral Evert was definitely framed. When he abandoned Dnipro, Rommel's offensive was indeed exceptionally swift and fierce; it was absolutely impossible for them to hold it!"

You haven't witnessed the horror of an armored vehicle swarm attack firsthand; you can't possibly understand the despair at the time! Continuing to hold out would have been futile; we had done everything we could.

General Plevy could only ask in a businesslike manner: "Then why did Rommel not dare to advance further towards Kiev after capturing Dnipro, but instead turned back to the Donbas to pick on the weak?"

You're not suggesting that the Demacians, despite having the resources to advance on Kiev, deliberately chose not to, just to frame Evert, are you? What kind of general is he that the Demacians would go to such lengths to frame him?

Those army commanders and division commanders could only remain speechless.

Yes, is Admiral Evert really that strong enough to be deliberately framed by the Demacians?
They certainly don't seem to deserve it.

With a few crisp gunshots, General Alexei Evert finally fell into a pool of blood, several bloody holes in his back signifying that his crimes were off the table.

……

"So General Evert is finally dead? Yes, although he was just a mediocre talent, his death won't have much of a substantial impact on the Lusa's command system. But at least at this critical juncture, the morale of the Lusa people is definitely temporarily low."

Late on the night of November 2, at the headquarters of the German 6th Army, which had moved from Zaporizhzhia to Dnipro, the army's chief of staff, Lelouch, learned overnight that the Lussaurus had executed the army commander.

Lelouch, who was already feeling a bit exhausted and planning to get some sleep, was so stimulated by the news that he was like a shot of adrenaline, and was so excited that he couldn't sleep for at least three more hours. He probably had to stay up all night to find out about the situation on the front lines and make some corresponding arrangements.

He first approached Field Marshal Rupprecht, the army group commander, and requested that, in accordance with the original plan, the garrison in the western Dnieper River bend area and Krivorog and other places (the large iron mine on the north bank of the Dnieper River between Kherson and Zaporozhye) be slightly redeployed in the next few days to adopt a flexible defense posture.

If the enemy launches a counterattack, retreat appropriately to give the enemy a taste of victory first, which will also make it easier to keep the enemy in check for a short period of time.

The marshal was almost asleep when he approved the request in a single stroke of his pen that very night, instructing the frontline defense commanders to comply and maintain a flexible defense, without needing to fight for every inch of ground. It wouldn't matter if the enemy temporarily recaptured the large iron ore mine or even caused further damage.

Lelouch then informed the Marshal of another piece of military intelligence on the southeastern front, and then requested the Duke's approval to proceed as planned:
"Your Highness, our army has made considerable progress on the eastern front in the past week. Rommel, with his two divisions equipped with armored vehicles, captured Donbas on the 27th of last month."

Meanwhile, in the south, von Bock and Rundstedt, along with two armies, began their eastward advance along the coast on the 26th of last month. They had just reached Mariopol today, November 2nd, advancing 170 kilometers in six days.

而隆美尔在10月27日打下顿巴斯后，休整了1天，28日就开始南下，11月2日也已经和冯.博克在马里乌波尔会师了。

Now, all the important cities in the Donbas coalfield area have fallen into our hands. However, the enemy has not given up resistance because our advancing troops are relatively isolated and have a small total force, so we cannot spare many troops to fill in the gaps along the way.

Therefore, our encirclement was not very secure. The enemy also had a large number of Cossack cavalry divisions attempting to bypass our heavily protected vanguard area and specifically sabotage the railways from Dnipro to Donbas and from Melitopol to Marieupol in our rear.

They were attempting to use this hit-and-run tactic to deprive their main forces, which had penetrated deep into the eastern cities of Donbas and Mariupol, of supplies, and then slowly whittle them down. Therefore, I suggest we begin implementing the backup plan we discussed that day; it would definitely achieve multiple objectives at once.
Over the past week or so, our navy has cleared all the mines from the Kerch Strait, and has also secretly cleared moored and bottom mines from some dangerous areas in the Sea of ​​Azov. However, the enemy has no navy presence in this area, so they are completely unaware of our mine-clearing achievements.

I suggest that the navy's supply transport fleet make a grand docking at Marienupol port in the next day or two to provide supplies to our vanguard troops advancing into the east.

At the same time, some shallow-draft warships were to harass enemy forces along the coast from Melitopol to Mariupol by shelling them—if there were indeed Cossack cavalrymen present in the coastal areas within the range of the warships and attempting to sabotage the coastal railway.

I don't expect these shells to kill many cavalrymen; I just want to tell the enemy that the Imperial warships are now able to sail into the Sea of ​​Azov, and that sabotaging the railway line from Melitopol to Marieupol is pointless and a waste of lives.

Because the Empire can now transport supplies to Mariupol by sea. At the same time, the garrison in Donbas only needs to hold the north-south railway line from Mariupol to Donbas to ensure that the Donbas garrison will not run out of ammunition and can hold out indefinitely.

Originally, our army had to guard two long east-west railways and one relatively short north-south railway to ensure the logistical support of the frontline troops. But now, we only need to concentrate our forces to guard the shorter north-south railway. The two east-west railways are no longer relevant, as they have been replaced by sea routes.

I believe that once this news gets out, the enemy's Cossack cavalry will be completely demoralized and will feel that harassment warfare has lost its meaning.

Moreover, we can concentrate our armored forces and take the opportunity to launch a fierce attack and pursuit against the enemy cavalry forces that have penetrated deep into our rear. We can take advantage of the weakest moment when they lose their will to fight and sense of purpose to inflict as much damage on the enemy as possible!

Finally, we also need to use these Cossack cavalrymen to tell the Lussa army throughout the Kievan Rus' war zone that the previous purging of the navy was not because there was a traitor in the navy who betrayed the mine-laying map.

Because the Lussars had completely abandoned Black Sea shipping after losing the main force of the Black Sea Fleet, they had previously taken emergency measures to completely block the Kerch Strait and the main shipping lanes of the Sea of ​​Azov, leaving no safe passage.

Now our fleet is able to appear off the coast of Mariopol. Isn't this a huge blow to the enemy's morale? The enemy will know that it was because the Empire invented new mine-clearing weapons that they broke through the enemy navy's mine-laying blockade, not because there was a traitor.

Back in late September, the Baltic Fleet had already created some unsolved cases when it broke through the Gulf of Bothnia, but the Russo people were still investigating and hadn't figured them out yet.

Recently, I heard from Admiral Hipper in the north that they had successfully intercepted and destroyed another enemy convoy in the Gulf of Bothnia. The enemy, considering that they wouldn't allow it to happen more than three times, has completely abandoned the Gulf of Bothnia shipping route and will only dare to resume maritime transport after a thorough investigation.

At this point, if our navy were to openly break through the Kerch Strait and the Sea of ​​Azov, which the enemy had completely sealed off with mines, the combined evidence would definitely lead the enemy to believe that this was caused by our new minesweeping weapons.

In this way, the naval commanders who had been purged by the Tsar were now completely labeled as 'persecutors of loyal subjects'. This was in addition to the fact that, in order to stabilize the Southwestern Front's fighting resolve, the Tsar had just executed Admiral Alexei Evert, the former commander of the Romanian Front, for desertion.

We must unleash a concentrated barrage of information about the Tsar's misdeeds, bombarding the world with propaganda, so that everyone knows he was a tyrannical and incompetent ruler who slaughtered naval and army generals, and utterly persecuted loyal subjects! Then, taking advantage of the enemy's demoralized state, we will launch a decisive attack on the vast area surrounding Kiev! We'll use the tanks that are about to arrive as the vanguard!

Before the final assault, Lelouch wanted to make Nicholas II's infamy known to everyone from Ireland to the Khitan.

(End of this chapter)