Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 215 The Tsar was too cooperative.
Many of the wicked schemes Lelouch taught Duke Rupprecht were things that couldn't be discussed openly, but their effectiveness in governing the country was absolutely outstanding.

Some of these matters had to be discussed with Baden, the minister of the Department of Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs.

Although Minister Baden is a well-known figure in the center-left wing, he is still very pragmatic and not bound by dogma. He can understand and cooperate on some matters and guarantees to keep secrets from the outside world.

This is also one of the advantages of the plan Lelouch provided for them: all of Lelouch's plans can be explained by another set of logic on the surface, so there is no fear of leaks.

Take, for example, his decision to prevent the Emperor and Hindenburg from launching a rapid attack on Poland, aiming for a gradual offensive. However, he wouldn't reveal his true motives to a fourth person. He had a pre-existing technical reason—that "tanks would break down and be unable to move forward in the coldest part of winter because diesel fuel wouldn't ignite"—that he could openly state.

So no one can blame him for being slow in rescuing the Poles. It's like during World War II in Earth's timeline, the Warsaw Polo Bridge rebels wanted to save themselves at the last moment, without relying on external forces. But the external forces, due to technical malfunctions, couldn't continue their attack on the Vistula River and needed a break. In the end, the Warsaw Polo Bridge rebels were wiped out.

According to official history, the Polish people couldn't blame anyone for that; they brought it upon themselves.

Lelouch's scheme today will only be more perfect than the aforementioned schemes. As long as we follow his plan, future generations will have nothing to say about it.

This is the reputation of the world's number one poison master.

After finishing dealing with the affairs of the occupied territories, the spoils of war, and the arrangements for the pace and priorities of the war over the next three months, Lelouch rested for another day in Kiev before bidding farewell to Duke Rupprecht and preparing to return to Berlin to report to the Potsdam Military Academy.

Over the next three months, he didn't necessarily have to stay at the Potsdam Military Academy the entire time. He could also visit various military industrial enterprises in the rear, and gather information on how to develop military technology. He could also check on the progress of his sister and brother-in-law's electric arc furnace steel plant expansion, and whether the company that used inferior steel to manufacture wartime railway tracks and wartime train cars had successfully started production.

The entire journey will take two or three days on the train, and I estimate I will be able to return to Berlin on January 12th.

……

The words are divided into two parts.

As Lelouch returned to Berlin weary from his journey, across the English Channel in Britannia, and to the northeast in Russa, the disastrous defeats and annihilation of his army at the Gallipoli and Kiev campaigns cast a pall of gloom over the turbulent situation.

At 10 Downing Street, London, Prime Minister Asquith has been confined to his room for several days, claiming illness and avoiding public view.

The specific matters were temporarily handled by Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrew Bonner Law and Secretary of State for Armed Forces Lloyd George.

He knew very well that with the complete defeat at Gallipoli and the annihilation of 75 troops, not only would First Lord of the Navy Walton Spencer be held accountable, but even he, as Prime Minister, would likely be uneasy.

This gamble was too big, even undermining Greece's neutrality and causing the Britannian Empire's diplomatic prestige to plummet, ruining its international reputation.

Before they could even win, they encountered an enemy armored assault and infiltration, and their efforts were in vain just a few dozen kilometers from Istanbul, with their entire army surrounded...

If Asquith knew Chinese, he would surely roar to the heavens: "Heaven has forsaken me! It is not my fault in battle!"

The reason he hasn't stepped down yet is that Bretonnia has only suffered a complete military defeat so far, while a complete diplomatic defeat is yet to come.

If it were merely a military defeat, the resignation of First Lord of the Navy Walton would suffice. Only if the diplomatic failure also completely collapses would he, as Prime Minister, be in serious trouble.

Today, January 10, 1916, exactly 10 days after the military defeat, the shoe has finally dropped—a complete diplomatic failure.

Early that morning, the door to the Prime Minister's office was pushed open, and the Secretary of State walked into Asquith's office carrying a heavy telegram.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister... This is a telegram from Greece. King Constantine I of Greece announced today that the suppression of the rebellion in Greece has been successfully concluded. The traitor Venizelos has been captured alive in Thessaloniki and brought back to Athens. After an emergency trial, he was publicly executed by firing squad in Syntagma Square, witnessed by approximately 10 Athenian citizens..."

It's over. Everything is over.

The diplomatic failure has now become a reality.

With the execution of Venizelos, the Greek prime minister and a pro-Bolshevik agent, as a traitor, tens of thousands of Athenian citizens reportedly threw rotten food scraps at him and spat on his corpse.

Burkina Faso's previous claim of "responding to the invitation of the Greek people to help them overthrow the tyrant" has become a complete lie and a joke. This is the final blow to the Burkina Faso prime minister.

“I… I’m resigning to take responsibility. Could you draft a resignation speech for me?” Asquith swallowed hard, but it did nothing to relieve the dryness and tightness in his throat. He felt as if his throat had dried up, and he couldn’t even muster the strength to speak.

Later that day, Asquith officially announced his resignation, and subsequently, Navy Secretary Walton was also forced to resign.

After a series of urgent procedures, King George V announced, as per protocol, that Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrew Bonner Law would serve as interim prime minister.

At the same time, Lloyd George, who was both Secretary of the Army and Minister of the Armaments, was reassigned as Secretary of the Exchequer and Secretary of the Armaments. In other words, Lloyd George's position as Secretary of the Army was replaced by Secretary of the Exchequer, which can be described as a promotion back to his former position. Moreover, Lloyd George was in charge of both money and military production, managing everything from funds to materials, which can be said to have completely opened up the coordination chain of the Empire's military production resources.

From then on, the construction and command of the army had nothing to do with Lloyd George. In a way, this situation was quite good for him, because even if they lost a battle in the future, it would not be his concern. He could just focus on making the weapons.

If there are no problems with the production and quality of weapons, but the troops on the front lines still fail to win, then it is not the fault of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister of Armaments.

In the Earth dimension, after Asquith was ousted, Lloyd George, who was in the same camp, should have taken over directly, appearing as the "Reformer".

However, in this world, the military leadership of the country was so incompetent that Lloyd George, despite having served as Secretary of War, couldn't be promoted directly. He also had some issues, but unlike the Prime Minister and the First Lord of the Navy, he wasn't primarily responsible.

Therefore, the tone of this cabinet change changed from "reform" to "starting from scratch," which allowed Asquith's opponents to take power.

……

Following a major upheaval in the upper echelons of Burkina Faso, Andrew Bonner Law, who had little military experience, successfully rose to power as an opposition figure.

But he was completely baffled by the situation.

With the world war raging like this, are we really going to sue for peace with the Demacians? That would be too shameful, and it would mean a complete betrayal of the Franks and Russo. The three countries have signed a treaty that forbids them from making peace with the Demacians alone. If we do that, the diplomatic credibility that the Franks have built up over hundreds of years will be completely wiped out.

So Andrew Bonner Law decided to give it another shot.

Because he didn't know what to do, he decided to consult Walton, the outcast minister who supposedly had some military insights and resources but was just unlucky.

On the morning of the 11th, Boehner Law's first day as Prime Minister, he summoned Wharton, who no longer held an official position, to his office to ask for his opinion on the current situation.

"Do you think there's any chance of saving the Lusa people? To be frank, you've already left politics, so there's no longer any conflict of interest between us. Feel free to offer any suggestions you may have, and I'll naturally take them if they're valuable."

If it's unreliable, of course I won't take it; I'll just listen to it casually, since Bona Rau himself doesn't understand it.

Despite his resignation, the outcast Vogel remains highly motivated and willing to continue offering advice and suggestions to those in power, a stark contrast to the utterly demoralized Prime Minister Asquith.

He mustered his spirits and began to analyze with great effort:
"The biggest problem for the Lusa people now that the war has reached this point is that they have completely lost their ability to generate their own blood."

The remaining part of their territory has lost 90% of its coal, 80% of its iron ore, and 60% of its steelmaking capacity compared to its peak. Moreover, they face an absolute shortage of at least ten million tons of the most basic food.

The most frightening thing now is not that the Demacians continue their triumphant advance on Lusa.

If Germany is willing to attack, things will be alright. At least we can sit back and watch the two groups of scoundrels fight it out, depleting Germany's manpower reserves.

What's truly terrifying is that the Demacians completely occupy Lusa's core resource areas, then slowly digest and utilize them for their own purposes. Simultaneously, they will continue to deepen the blockade, completely cutting off Lusa's import channels for steel, weapons, food, and coal.

In less than a year, the Lusha people would be reduced to a state where they couldn't even muster guns and cannons and would have to rely solely on human lives!

Bonner Law waved his hand, shooing away the cigar puffs that Fatty Warburg had exhaled in his excitement, and coldly concluded:
"So you mean, you still want to save Lusa, and the key is to open up shipping routes and continue to supply Lusa with blood, so that you can efficiently utilize Lusa's human resources to continue to exhaust Demand's manpower?"

To be more specific, which sea routes are still potentially salvageable? Your Gallipoli plan has failed, the Black Sea is beyond saving, and the Baltic Sea has long been the stronghold of the Demacian fleet.

The situation faced by the Lusha people in this plane is even worse than that in the Earth plane, because the eastern world of this plane is isolated from the outside world and does not get involved in the division of spoils between the empires.

There is no Sea Cucumber Village in this plane, so there is no Pacific shipping route, and you can't rely on the meager transport capacity of the Xianbei-Lia Grand Railway.

Therefore, even for someone as knowledgeable about naval affairs as Fatty Vogel, who had spent half his life studying the lifeline of maritime trade, he couldn't come up with many alternatives:
"To save Lusa, there are now only two paths: either ensure that weapons, ammunition, and food can be transported to the Lusa people from the north via the Arctic Ocean route—I heard that Nicholas II began working on this route at the end of November last year."

They are working at great expense to build a new port called Murmansk to replace the old, easily frozen port of Arkhangelsk.

Even after the port is built, they still need to simultaneously rush to lay a railway connecting St. Petersburg and Murmansk; otherwise, even if the supplies are shipped to the port of Murmansk, they will only be piled up in the warehouse and will not be transported to St. Petersburg.

Aside from the Northern Route plan, the only other option left for the Russo people was to open up access to the Middle East south of the Caucasus.
From Egypt, which was under our control, to Syria, Iraq, and Persia, which were under Ottoman control. Although the Russo people lost control of the Black Sea, they could still bypass the Caucasus Mountains by transporting goods through the Caspian Sea. We, on the other hand, needed to ensure that India's grain could reach the Transcaucasus via Iraq or Persia.

Prime Minister Bonneau frowned and pondered for a moment, then, seemingly lacking confidence, began to discuss:
"But, regarding the first route you just mentioned, the Murmansk problem, there's nothing we can do to help with, is there?"
Control of the North Sea is certainly not in question; the Dmanian high seas fleet can only cower in its shell in the Baltic Sea and dare not venture out to contest control of the North Sea. However, the construction of the port and railway in Murmansk will have to be left to the Russo people themselves.

As for the Middle East plan on the southern front, I remember that at the beginning of the war, the Empire attempted to attack the Ottoman Iraqi region from the chiefdoms and tribes on the southern coast of the Gulf controlled by the Empire, but was defeated by General Goltz, who was sent by the Demanians to the Ottomans to serve as the commander of the Middle East front.

Do you really expect to send the Empire's elite troops on another risky landing in the Middle East? That would be even more suicidal than the Gallipoli campaign!

Fatty Wo was naturally furious to have his shortcomings exposed to his face. But Qiu De's beliefs made him willing to endure the humiliation.
"Of course I know that the Empire's army is no match for the Demacians. There is no hope for us to resolve this through purely military means."

But if Your Excellency decides to pursue the Middle East route and take another gamble, I know someone here named Thomas Edward Lawrence. He might be able to find you another route: to incite other ethnic groups in the Middle East under Ottoman rule to rise up in rebellion. In that case, the Empire would only need to provide them with weapons and ammunition, and let them fight to the death against the Demagnesians and Ottomans!

This young man has an absolute talent for winning over and understanding the locals; even Foreign Secretary Balfour has high hopes for him. If you don't believe me, you can ask Balfour for his opinion.

With Arthur Balfour endorsing him, Prime Minister Bonneau had to be cautious and temporarily note down the name and the strategy.

I plan to talk to that young man named Lawrence when I have some free time in a few days.

……

Speak of the Tsar, and the Tsar arrives.

While Vaughan and Prime Minister Bonne-Laur discussed how to save the Tsar, Nicholas II himself was indeed eager to save himself.

The food shortage problem in major northern cities had already become apparent at the very beginning of winter.

The reason it was so effective was mainly because Lusha had been short of food for quite some time.

The war had a devastating impact on agricultural production. In addition, the high mobilization rate in Lusa led to the forced conscription of a large number of young and middle-aged laborers, leaving most of the fields in various states to be cultivated by women.

As a poor empire, Luzan lacked agricultural mechanization and practically did not use tractors for farming. As early as the winter of 1915, major cities like St. Petersburg and Mosko had already experienced famine.

Now, at the end of 15 and the beginning of 16, it was actually the second winter famine in Lusha since the outbreak of the war.

In this situation, the added shortage of more than ten million tons of grain makes the severity of the situation readily apparent.

……

"How large is this year's food shortage? What is the situation in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, and Warsaw? How many people have starved to death?"

In the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Nicholas II, with a worried expression, questioned Ivan Loginovich Goremygin, the Minister of General Affairs who had come to see him.

This Minister of General Affairs was appointed after the start of the war. He was originally known for opposing reforms, refusing to make concessions to the bourgeoisie, and exploiting serfs and workers.

He also had a very close relationship with Lasbkin, a favored charlatan in the Tsar's inner circle, and they often colluded in their schemes. At this moment, he had no choice but to lower his head and answer this thorny question in a low voice:
According to municipal statistics, 1,620 civilians starved to death in St. Petersburg.

"Actually?"

"Approximately... more than 80,000 people."

"What? Just St. Petersburg?" Nicholas II's eyes widened so much that the wrinkles around his eyes seemed to flatten out. "If you add them all up, how many would that be..."

Minister Goremygin: "Your Majesty, statistics for other places have not yet been compiled, but the Council of Ministers is doing its best to stabilize the situation. The situation in Warsaw, Lodz, and other places is many times more severe."

Our current strategy is to requisition large quantities of surplus grain from across Poland and western Belarus to ensure supplies for the most important major cities, such as St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Novgorod.

Nicholas II sighed heavily: "Even if we transport grain, what good will it do? Can the empire simply distribute the grain directly to the common people? Who knows how many corrupt officials would embezzle it during the distribution process! If we rely on the common people to buy their own grain, the price of bread outside has already increased dozens of times! And I've heard it's still going up!"

Nicholas II seemed to have some self-awareness, knowing very well how corrupt and filthy Russa's civil service group was.

Minister Goremygin blushed slightly at the remark and quickly explained, "We have another solution. The Council of Ministers has come up with a solution: work relief. This will allow ordinary people who cannot afford to eat to participate in the construction of the new port of Murmansk and the building of the railway connecting Murmansk and St. Petersburg."

地球位面的摩尔曼斯克港，最终是在1916年的10月4日建成的（露历9月21日），那座港口造好后也确实可以正常使用、进出港货船。

但连接港口的铁路情况则差得多，那条铁路名义上是1916年11月3日（露历10月21日）投入试运营，也就是港口建成后的1个月整。

In reality, aside from a few freight trains running on the day the trial operation was announced, problems were immediately announced for repairs. In short, the railway's quality was substandard; track subsidence even occurred when trains were running. It was purely a rushed project to fulfill the Tsar's political ambitions. Ultimately, by March 1917, when the Tsar was overthrown, the railway had never truly reached full speed.

It is said that massive amounts of grain shipped from the colonies of Burkina Faso to Luzan were piled up in the port of Murmansk, unable to be transported out and lacking proper storage conditions. As a result, tens of thousands of people in Luzan starved to death every day, while countless grains rotted and molded in the open-air warehouses of Murmansk.

Now, with the loss of the Kievan Rus' Plain and the entire southern resource region, the port of Murmansk has become far more important to Lusa.

The Tsar of this world obviously can't wait until November of this year to complete the port and open the road; he wants to resolve this issue almost a year ahead of schedule.

Moreover, due to the strength of the Demanian Navy in the Baltic Sea, the route for transporting goods through the Norwegians' underhanded tactics and collusion with some pro-Baltic and pro-Norwegian factions in Sweden was also cut off, and the route from the Gulf of Bothnia to Helsinki was also unusable.

All these changes made Murmansk Lusa's only hope for self-rescue.

Nicholas II finally recognized the situation and decided to make a determination ten times greater than that of Qin Shi Huang building the Great Wall and Emperor Yang of Sui building the Grand Canal, braving the harsh winter to rush the construction of the port of Murmansk and the Murmansk-St. Petersburg railway.

"Alright, there's no other way now, so let's announce a work relief program. Any surplus labor in major cities who can't afford to eat will be sent to repair ports and railways and given a meal."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Minister Goremygin breathed a slight sigh of relief, feeling fortunate to have passed another hurdle.

He actually had something else he didn't say: if there is absolutely not enough food and many people are destined to starve to death, the most ideal situation is to let those who are destined to starve die as soon as possible in a planned way.

Otherwise, if they don't die in winter but die in the spring famine, they will have to eat three more months' worth of food before they die. In the end, they will not only fail to survive but also take away three more months' worth of food from someone else who could have survived. Wouldn't that be a lose-lose situation?

Therefore, it was unavoidable to have people build ports and railways in the harsh winter within the Arctic Circle.

The latitude of the port of Murmansk is 68.5 degrees.

Anyone who has studied a little junior high school geography knows that the Earth's obliquity to the ecliptic is about 23.5 degrees, so places with latitudes higher than 66.5 degrees are the pure frigid zone within the Arctic Circle.

Murmansk is located 2 degrees north of the Arctic Circle, yet today, Lusa is forced to send millions of people to Murmansk to build railways during this extremely harsh winter when food and coal are scarce.

Most of these people were urban residents from the lower class. They might have been hangers-on or industrial workers, but because there was no coal or steel, the factories stopped operating, and the workers had no work to do, losing their livelihoods. Food prices also increased several dozen times, so they had no choice but to be pulled into road construction.

Many more were drawn away: landowners, independent farmers, and Polish landed nobles who resisted the Tsar's grain requisition in Poland—in short, all those who resisted.

From then on, at least tens of thousands of people died of cold and starvation every day at the construction sites along the Murmansk railway.

On January 20th, the worst blizzard of the year occurred, and an astronomical number of people froze and starved to death overnight at the construction site. The countless bones along the Murmansk railway line are so numerous that the number of human thigh bones far exceeds the number of railway sleepers.

Ultimately, the number of people who died during Nicholas II's construction of this railway and port was several times greater than the losses incurred by Emperor Yang of Sui in digging the Grand Canal and launching three campaigns against Goguryeo.

The people of Lusa were finally ignited with resentment towards Nicholas II. Now, all that was needed was a spark.

The reason why people haven't rebelled immediately is simply that they feel they can endure it a little longer. If the railway and the port of Murmansk are repaired and overseas transportation and the economy can recover, then they can tolerate the Tsar's rule a little longer.

However, if the Demacian navy still controls this vital waterway after the railway and port are completed, then there is no doubt that a rebellion to kill the Tsar will erupt instantly.

The Murmansk railway and port were Nicholas II's last card in his gamble on the Romanov family's three-hundred-year rule.

This is a card that requires the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of lives. If this card is blocked, it would not be surprising at all if the rebels launched their uprising more than half a year earlier than those in the Earth plane.

-

P.S.: I'm going out on Sunday, so I won't be splitting the 6,000-word chapter into two parts.

(End of this chapter)