Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 213 Massive War Dividends
After finalizing the details of being granted a noble title and attending military academy for further training.

Duke Rupprecht seized the opportunity and, on the same day, used the victory banquet as a pretext to hold Lelouch's baronial investiture ceremony.

During wartime, everything is kept simple, and many red tapes are cut to save energy.

The other generals from the 6th Army who were present also came over to congratulate Lelouch upon hearing the good news.

"From now on, you'll be called Baron Lelouch. Congratulations!"

Lelouch replied with appropriate humility: "Regardless of rank, we all serve the Empire."

The revelry that evening goes without saying.

……

The next morning, Lelouch slept in late and didn't go to headquarters until 9 a.m. to handle official business.

The Duke also arranged some free time in advance to discuss with Lelouch the subsequent plans for the occupation of the Kievan Rus' region, industrial planning, and the handling of the spoils of war.

The Donbas coal mine has been back in production for two months, and the Krivorrog iron mine has been under repair and reconstruction since late November last year, a month and a half ago.

Except for some railway facilities that are still under repair for transporting iron ore in the mining area, other excavation equipment and other facilities have been repaired. The large iron ore mine has recovered to a monthly ore production of more than one million tons, but most of the mined ore is piled up there and cannot be transported out for the time being.

Moreover, even if transportation capacity is restored, these iron ore mines currently have nowhere to go because the Nikopol steel plant, located dozens of kilometers to the southeast, has not yet been repaired.

The Nicopol Steelworks was a large steel plant with an annual output of 3 million tons of steel, accounting for nearly 60% of the 4.2 million tons of steel production in Luzan in 1913 (Demania's pre-war steel production capacity was 20 million tons, and the United States' was 32 million tons, making them the top two steel producers in the world at the time).

When the Lussa people retreated, they completely destroyed the steel mill. After the Demanian army occupied the area, they immediately consulted Krupp experts, who determined that it would take nearly a year to fully repair the steel mill.

If a new large-scale steel plant were to be built, it would take even longer, possibly two or three years.

This speed is still plausible. After the destruction of Lusa on Earth, the USSR completed the Zaporizhzhia Coal and Steel Complex in four years within a five-year plan (except for the Dnieper River hydroelectric power station, which was far overdue, all other supporting projects were completed). In contrast, the first three major steel projects of the Eastern superpower were completed and put into operation in just two years within a five-year plan, with the help of external technical support.

If Demania in this plane wants to build a new coal and steel industry in the Kievan Rus' region, and if resources are plentiful and not hampered by war, it can definitely do it in two years, since the technology is all their own. They just need to have the Krupp people internally replicate it, which will save them a lot of trouble compared to the Russa people.

However, since there will definitely be a shortage of supporting resources during the war, it is reasonable to assume a 3-year delay.

To put it bluntly, this is like playing Hearts of Iron IV. Other games involve building civilian production before war and then switching to military production just before it starts. But in Demacia, it's like the war has been going on for a year and a half, and suddenly you still have to build civilian production, which greatly extends the production recovery period.

If so many resources were used to build new steel mills, and the war ended within two years, then the resources spent on building the steel mills would not have been recouped by the end of the war.

Therefore, when faced with the choice of whether to hire Krupp to fully expand the capacity of the new steel mills or simply to transport the iron ore and coal that were lacking in the country back home, Duke Rupprecht could not help but hesitate.

He wanted to hear Lelouch's opinion.

After assessment, Lelouch believed that it was absolutely necessary to ramp up production.

"Your Highness, I still maintain that peace can only be achieved through struggle. If we are determined that 'because the war will end within two years, we don't need to make plans for a protracted war that will only pay off after two years,' then the enemy will have already figured out this fatal weakness of the Empire, causing the war to drag on for a long time, and it may not end even after two years."

If we had made the necessary arrangements and the war ended within two years, it wouldn't be fair to say that the decision was wrong. On the contrary, it was precisely because we did these things that the enemy saw that dragging things out wouldn't kill us, forcing them to end the war within two years. This series of issues absolutely cannot be treated as cause and effect interchangeably.

Regarding your concerns about construction costs and whether it will consume military resources in the short term, I think there's no need to worry too much. Although in monetary terms, it takes two to three years to produce steel and four to five years to break even after building a large steel plant, the actual cost of raw materials and equipment accounts for a relatively small proportion of the construction cost; the bulk is the labor cost.

We now have captured 100 million Russa prisoners of war and 20 Bui-Italy allied prisoners of war. These 120 million people are idle during the winter off-season, so since we need to feed them, let's make them do some work.

We can cooperate well with Minister Baden of the Department of Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs to make good use of the more than one million able-bodied laborers and vigorously develop coal, steel and infrastructure. When the busy farming season comes, let them do farm work. After harvesting the winter wheat planted this year next summer, let them plant summer corn with a shorter growth cycle, and harvest another batch in late autumn.

The black soil of the Kievan Rus' Plain is very fertile and can withstand a two-crop rotation of winter wheat and summer corn for a short period. In the future, when the fertility declines and labor shortages occur, it can be adjusted to a three-crop rotation every two years as appropriate.

也就是第1年的冬小麦、第2年的夏玉米、第3年的春玉米、再接第3年的冬小麦。这样从第1年冬到第3年冬，2周年里种了1季小麦2季玉米，一共是3季粮食。

Then, during the off-season, these prisoners of war would be transferred to large-scale coal and steel infrastructure construction and railway building; in short, they couldn't be allowed to eat for free. We could also consider assessing their cooperative tendencies. For those extreme fanatics of Lusa's national interests, let them be prisoners of war for life, working hard until they die, doing the most dangerous and arduous jobs.

Those who have little affection for the interests of the Lusha people, such as Cossacks or others who traditionally "take the Tsar's pay and serve the Tsar," can be gradually reformed and absorbed into the empire later, or used as citizens of a future buffer state.

"A buffer state? You think it's necessary for the Empire to establish a buffer state in the Kievan Rus' region in the future?" Upon hearing this, the Duke couldn't help but perk up, eager to know the answer.

He certainly harbored an ambition for direct rule, though not by himself, but by the empire.

But the Duke was also aware that resistance among the common people of Lussa was gradually growing stronger, especially after the Battle of Kiev, as the troops continued to advance east and north, the resistance became increasingly apparent. By the time they reached Belgorod, the situation was relatively better, with fewer rebels.

However, by the time they reached Kursk and Voronezh, there were increasingly more instances of ordinary Rusha civilians spontaneously bombing railways, stealing trains, and sneaking up on guard posts. During the battle to capture Voronezh, the losses caused by the civilian resistance in Rusha even exceeded those of the Rusha regular army. These events all occurred between late December and early January.

The Duke had to admit that the fighting spirit and resistance of the Lusa people were still troublesome. The situation was quite different when they were fighting for themselves, not for the tyrannical Tsar. This should not be underestimated.

Therefore, Lelouch also took the opportunity to frankly explain to the Duke: "That's why I initially suggested that the Empire adopt a two-pronged attack along the coastline, instead of encircling Poland and Belarus as Marshal Hindenburg had hoped."

On the one hand, by attacking along the coastline, we don't need to rely too much on railway logistics; we can seize control of the sea and then use water transport. On the other hand, it's also because the coastal areas of the Lusha Empire have a large number of territories inhabited by non-core ethnic groups.

The Baltic Demanians are a given; in those places, virtually no one would resist us. As for the Kievan Rus' in the south, although Kievan Rus' and Rus' have been united for almost two hundred years, two hundred years ago they were also autonomous vassals of the Poles.

The Cossacks, especially those on the Kievan Rus' side, held a privileged position, essentially serving whomever paid them. Two hundred years ago, when Russo and Poland signed their last treaty of division in the Kievan Rus' region, it was customary to use the Dnieper River as the boundary. West of the Dnieper were the pro-Polish Kievan Rus', and east of the Dnieper were the pro-Russo Kievan Rus'.

Therefore, I think the best way for the Empire to maintain stable rule and ensure that there is no trouble in the east is to use the Dnieper River as the boundary, directly rule over the area west of the Dnieper River, and allow some ethnic groups that are friendly with Demania to move over from the east of the Dnieper River, while allowing the various ethnic groups that oppose the Empire to disperse to the east.

Of course, the Donbas coal mines are very important. The Empire could request that the countries east of the Dnieper River, which will eventually grant autonomy, grant the Empire mining rights in the Donbas region for 50 or 100 years. The Empire would be happy to give them 25% of the profits and taxes.

The water conservancy projects on the Dnieper River will also be constructed, operated, and profited from by the Empire. They will be granted free navigation rights, and in the future, once the large hydroelectric power station dam is completed, their ships will be allowed to use the locks for free.

Finally, in order to make the new nation grateful to the empire and to take into account their national sentiments, the city of Kiev could be exceptionally allocated to the new nation in its entirety in the land west of the Dnieper River (Kiev straddles the Dnieper River and has urban areas on both the east and west banks).

In this way, after the war ends, with such a new country as a buffer, the empire can secure the vast territories it has acquired in the east, without constant rebellions and disturbances.

Based on this long-term plan, I believe that future industrial construction in the Kievan Rus' region, except for projects like hydroelectric power stations and dams on the Dnieper River which must span both banks, should all be built on the west bank. Steel mills, thermal power plants, chemical plants, machinery factories, and shipbuilding facilities should all be located on the west bank, and this will not significantly increase costs.

Because the major iron ore mines are on the west coast and the major coal mines are on the east coast, having one large mine on each side makes sense in either case. The future coal and steel centers should be located in Krivoroğlu and Nikopol, perhaps with some benefit extending to Kherson and Nikolaev near the downstream estuary.

In the Earth dimension, when the USSR later developed heavy industry in the Kievan Rus' region, it mostly focused on the area east of the Dnieper River, primarily between Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.

However, Lelouch had observed the local mineral resources and knew that placing them on either the east or west coast would be scientifically sound.

The USSR is located on the east bank for military reasons, aiming to give the core heavy industrial areas greater strategic depth, placing them as far into the country's interior as possible. Adding another layer of defense along the Dnieper River will make the industrial areas safer.

Since that's the case, now that it's the Demacians' turn to build, they'll definitely do the opposite and place it on the west bank.

Lelouch's earlier remarks to the Duke about "potentially releasing puppets for stability in the future" were also an explanation for this strategic locational shift.

Anyone who's played Hearts of Iron knows that directly ruling newly conquered territory results in very low utilization of the occupied provinces' resources and factories. Local resistance and non-cooperation cause huge losses. It's much better to create "puppet states/autonomous dominions/colonies/commissioned territories" to reduce resistance, while also providing an outlet for resistance attempts from neighboring provinces, thus guiding the situation in a strategic way.

……

Lelouch explained these profound principles, and the Duke already had a concept of the future empire's general approach to ruling the Kievan Rus' region, and knew how to persuade and plan accordingly.

Of course, his word wasn't enough, nor was Lelouch's. It depended on Minister Baden of the Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs Department to lobby and persuade the Federal Diet and the Emperor. All they could do was rebuild the local industry and military sector according to this preliminary plan.

Because the plan involved at least one million prisoners of war being forced into heavy physical labor, the Duke also had to consider the issue of keeping his own food supplies.

He is not short of food now, because when Kiev and Kharkiv surrendered, there were huge amounts of grain in the warehouses that could not be transported north in time. This was all collected by the Tsar's administrative forces in the area this autumn and early winter, who forcibly exhausted the resources.

Unfortunately, the grain was collected but never transported north before being attacked by the Demagnesians. From this perspective, the Tsar's grain requisition officer ended up making Duke Rupprecht the villain.

They used to be ruthless and domineering, forcibly collecting grain taxes from various places, and all the money they collected went into the Duke's pocket.

Of course, the Duke wouldn't hide it from Lelouch, and he spoke frankly without any hesitation: "There's also good news. When Kiev surrendered, our army seized a total of 750 million tons of new wheat from the granaries in Kiev and the surrounding areas. These were all surplus grain taxes collected this year from the black soil plains on the west bank of the Dnieper."

When Kharkiv surrendered, 220 million tons of new grain were seized from the warehouses, and the situation was the same. How much of this grain do you think should be reported to the Empire? Don't worry about one thing: even if it's all reported, the Empire won't take the spoils for nothing; they'll exchange them for other military resources. At most, they'll just stop allocating rations to our army groups next year.”

Lelouch replied without hesitation, "I think we should at least pocket the lion's share! After all, it's war spoils, so it's hard to verify. For example, when we captured Kiev, most of this year's tax grain had already been transported to the north of Russa by Nicholas II, and no one could argue with that."

Duke: "Why? Don't you want to exchange food for other resources?"

Lelouch: "We must prevent the Empire from becoming even more ambitious because it knows it has had a bumper harvest on the Eastern Front this year, and from wanting to expand the war. We must also prevent those warmongers in the Armaments Department who want to divert all chemical resources to the military industry, and thus completely leave no room for synthetic ammonia production capacity in the domestic fertilizer industry."

The domestic famine isn't too severe this year. We should reserve a sufficient amount and secretly hide it away, only to use it when the crisis is most critical—it might save the empire. Using it too early will only allow those madmen to squander it.”

(End of this chapter)