Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 241 "Midway Island Lacks Fresh Water"

"What? Lelouch successfully captured Batumi Port on the very first day of his landing operation?"

On the morning of April 11, Marshal Rupprecht, who still had two or three days left of his honeymoon, had just gotten out of bed in his bedroom at Neuschwanstein Castle when he was stunned by the unexpected yet reasonable good news.

Even surprises can make you dizzy.

"Yes, Your Highness, we won last night, but we were afraid of disturbing you and your wife's rest, so we didn't dare to report it immediately," the attendant explained cautiously.

"This kid really surprised me! He succeeded so quickly. No, I can't stay in the rear any longer. Arrange a special train to send me back to the front lines immediately today!"

Marshal Rupprecht had no time to think about how he had been married for less than half a month and had a young wife who was not even 20 years old and needed his attention.

"Is it that urgent?" Mrs. Charlotte Wilhelmina, who knew nothing about military affairs, asked with a hint of disappointment.

"Darling, of course I am! It would be a real shame if I didn't get to the front lines soon. Lelouch might just break into Tbilisi and then into Baku on his own!"

Marshal Rupprecht, having reassured his wife, was about to give instructions regarding preparations for departure when he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked his aide-de-camp, "The news of the successful landing in Batumi hasn't been reported in the newspapers yet, has it? The General Staff should know, right? Does His Majesty know?"

After a series of questions, the attendant was somewhat at a loss. It took him a while to confirm the situation, and he hurriedly came back to report:

The General Staff should have found out late last night, but His Majesty doesn't. We'll have to see if anyone from the General Staff disturbed His Majesty's rest overnight.

Rupprecht thought about it for a moment, realizing that his subordinates couldn't confirm the matter, so he personally made a long-distance call to Berlin to inquire with Chief of Staff Falkenhayn.

Falkinhan was quite straightforward, telling him directly over the phone: "I only reported to His Majesty this morning after confirming he was awake. His Majesty praised him greatly and even mentioned that the people of the Caucasus should respond to the royal army."

By the way, His Majesty also urgently summoned Minister Baden of the Prisoners of War Affairs. When Minister Baden was speaking with His Majesty, he was suddenly inspired and came up with an idea: to form a Caucasian army and reorganize the non-Rusa prisoners of war in the Caucasus region who were willing to cooperate with our army into a new force to return to the Caucasus region and wage a war of attrition against the Rusa people.

We can also draw several Caucasian POW divisions from the Champagne region on the western front to immediately deploy them into combat readiness. You should contact Minister Baden about this; if things go smoothly, those well-prepared troops can be transported within two or three days.”

Duke Rupprecht listened intently on the phone, his eyes wide with disbelief. He exclaimed, "Why didn't you say so sooner! If we had known we had these resources available, our 6th Army wouldn't be in such dire straits now!"

Fortunately, things are only just beginning to improve on the front lines. This isn't your fault, nor is it Baden's; it's Lelouch's fault for making such a rapid advance.

In fact, it's not too late to think about this now, because if it had happened earlier, they wouldn't have had enough naval and ship resources to transport troops.

Lelouch's two armies couldn't be transported by the Black Sea fleet in one trip. On the second trip, it would be good if they could also take Lieutenant General Sylvanade's 6th Army.

Therefore, if the fleet is expected to return to Odessa to pick up the "Caucasian army," it will have to make at least a third trip. If the fleet needs to resupply supplies by sea in between, then it will have to wait until a fourth trip.

The journey from Odessa to Batumi is at least a thousand kilometers. Ordinary transport ships can only travel at a maximum speed of 12 knots, which is about 20 kilometers per hour. It would be good if they could make a one-way trip in two days and two nights. Including loading, unloading, maintenance, and crew rest, a round trip would take at least 5 to 7 days.

所以4月10日第一批部队抵达巴统、第二批从塔曼半岛去巴统至少要13日（这一趟路程近）、第三批物资得18~20日、第四批至少4月25日以后。

It is now April 11th. The army only needs to ensure that the "Caucasian Army" going to the eastern front is transported to Odessa by train before April 20th, so there is still plenty of time.

Duke Rupprecht himself didn't dare linger. He only waited until April 12th before boarding a train east to Odessa. After a two-day journey, he rested for a day in Odessa and on April 15th, he planned to follow a few warships to Batumi to check on the situation.

However, due to the schedule and some other unforeseen circumstances, he ultimately had to heed his subordinates' advice and not rush.

……

Meanwhile, the emperor, king, and chief ministers in the rear were overjoyed at the rapid breakthrough in Batumi.

On the Caucasus front, Lelouch and the two corps commanders, von Holloway and Lister, were also making very rapid progress.

On April 11, General von Holloway led the German 6th Army 3rd Corps upstream along the Chowruch River valley, advancing towards Tbilisi.

Starting from Batumi, the first 60 kilometers of mountain road have a steep gradient, which is not suitable for tank assaults, so the main force is mountain infantry to advance along the valley.

The terrain was quite treacherous, and if the Lusa army were lying in ambush on the high ground on both sides, it would pose a considerable threat. Therefore, Lieutenant General von Holloway advanced rather cautiously, sending light infantry up the mountain to search for ambushes and thus slowing down his advance.

On April 11, the army advanced only a dozen kilometers, defeating several resisting Lusa forces along the way. However, von Hollo quickly discovered that the enemy had no harassing guerrilla forces; the Lusa forces' resistance was straightforward, consisting of blocking valleys and defending the terrain. The attacking Demanian army only needed to win by force, without any fancy tactics.

Starting April 12, the pace of progress accelerated significantly, reaching nearly 30 kilometers per hour.

By the 13th, von Hollo quickly discovered a new situation: many local Georgians, upon hearing that foreign troops fighting against Lusa had entered the country, came to join them and help guide the way.

Local railway workers who had fled due to the war, especially those from Batumi Port in the rear, came to serve the Demanian army, offering to help with maintenance and repairs of the railways damaged during the retreat of the Lusa army, and also willing to organize patrols to protect the railways for the Demanian army.

Lieutenant General von Holloe had fought the Lussa people for so long, but he had never fought a battle so warmly welcomed by the people. He was a little stunned for a moment.

In any case, on the afternoon of April 13, he successfully entered Kulo, a small town 65 kilometers northeast of Batumi Port.

It is also a small city with a population of less than 10, located along the Cholruch River valley and the Batumi-Tbilisi-Baku railway.

Although they only advanced a little over 60 kilometers in two and a half days, this section of the road was at least the steepest part of the valley climb. The remaining 200 kilometers from Kulo to Tbilisi would be relatively easier, allowing tanks to serve as the vanguard and greatly enhancing the offensive capability.

After three days of fierce fighting, Lieutenant General von Holloway's 3rd Army was also slightly exhausted. According to Lelouch's plan, the next step was to hand over the baton to Lister's Independent Army and the "Greater Demania" Panzer Training Division. The Independent Army, which had rested for three days, would take over the next round of attacks, while the 3rd Army would switch to on-site defense, maintain the rear, and fill in the gaps.

Lelouch, Lister, and von Holloway briefly exchanged combat missions within the castle of Kuro.

Von Hollow also shared some observations from the final stages, hoping to help the Chief of Staff and his colleagues:
“Starting last night, some Georgian locals who had received the news came to join us. I didn’t expect that Georgians also had some hatred towards the Rusa. I originally thought that only those locals who shared the same faith as the Ottomans would be so determined to oppose the Rusa.”

It is well-known that many locals in the Caucasus region are deeply dissatisfied with Russo, and there have even been years of armed conflict between them. These include people from Dagestan, Circassians, Abkhazia, and the Adjara.

But those were people who once shared the same faith as the Ottoman Empire, and whose homes were taken away by the Russa and who were forced to relocate, hence the deep hatred between them.

General von Hollo originally thought the Georgians were relatively neutral, but he was surprised to find that so many of them had long suffered under Lusha.

"That's normal. I estimate that only the Azerbaijanis are relatively neutral, or rather, they are closer to the Persians. The Armenians are absolutely pro-Western, while the Georgians are anti-Western. We can make limited use of the Georgians, especially their railway workers, which will greatly help us maintain the logistics for our subsequent offensive."

However, you don't need to worry about the specifics of how to win them over. You don't have that authorization, and I won't make any promises of benefits. Otherwise, if we break our word and fail to deliver, what difference is there between us and that bastard Lawrence?

The two lieutenant generals agreed, so they stopped worrying about winning over the locals and focused solely on fighting.

Lelouch then devoted the entire night to meeting with some of the most influential figures in the local community.

They appeased a Georgian railway company official and several tribal leaders from the Caucasus region, persuading them to cooperate with the Demanian army.

Some of the bolder tribal leaders and railway company officials even asked Lelouch what kind of treatment they would receive in the future, and some even asked if they could allow their own people to establish a rule.

Lelouch was, of course, very cautious: "A certain degree of autonomy is possible, but establishing your own country on the spot is impossible. However, apart from the Georgians, I believe that many of the other ethnic groups here were driven here by the Russa people over the past few decades or even the last hundred years. You originally had your own homeland in the North Caucasus."

If it's north of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, I believe the Empire may grant you autonomy or even more in the future. In short, the further north you are willing to live, the greater your freedom will be. This is the Empire's guiding principle on the Caucasus issue. But I am just an army group chief of staff, plus I have some personal acquaintance with Baden, the minister of the Department of Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs, that's all.

If I were to promise anything more, I would be overstepping my bounds, and I hope you understand. We Demanians are people of our word, so we don't boast lightly. I also know that you envy those tribes in the southern Middle East; they listen to the boasts of those Britannian dogs like McHon and Lawrence and think they can act with impunity. But the history of those Britannian dogs has long proven that they have absolutely no credibility. Those southern tribes that believe boasts will ultimately pay the price!

(Note: McHon's full name is sensitive, so the third character of his name has been removed. The same applies below. Lawrence, who stirred up trouble in the Middle East in 1916, was actually of very low rank. His superior was Major General McHon, the commander of the Indian colonial army. McHon's superior was Field Marshal Kitchener, the Governor-General of Egypt and former Minister of War.)
The Georgians and Circassians didn't dare ask for too much. Seeing that Lelouch seemed sincere enough, and that he could at least have autonomy, they accepted the outcome for now.

Starting the following day, the locals cooperated more and more with the Demacian army, which made the attacking forces even more successful.

Rommel replaced Lelouch and led 150 Panzer I tanks and two half-track mechanized regiments of the "Greater Demania" Panzer Training Division as the vanguard of the entire army, accelerating and advancing rapidly from Kuro towards Tbilisi.

In a single day, they achieved a breakthrough speed of nearly 100 kilometers. The troops didn't even need to carry rations, as the mountain people along the way squeezed out some of their scarce food supplies to give to the attacking troops. Rommel also temporarily gave IOUs to the local tribes, indicating that it was just a loan and that he would repay them with an equal amount of food once the railway was completed and supply trains from the rear arrived in a few days.

Of course, the types of food would be different; the local mountain people might offer livestock products, and what they would receive in return would be flour, corn, or potatoes. On April 15th, Rommel actually reached Tbilisi, the capital of the Georgian region.

Tbilisi has a population of 80, making it the second largest city in the South Caucasus region (the largest is Baku, with 150 million people).
There is still a half-corps of Lusa people stationed in the area, consisting of about two full-strength armies and several scattered divisions, totaling 160,000 troops.

Rommel's armored divisions, having penetrated to the outskirts of Tbilisi, were naturally unable to attack the city and could only wait for the main forces of the 1st and 3rd Armies to arrive and launch an assault.

Fortunately, Lieutenant General Sylander's 6th Army, originally deployed in the Novorossiysk region on the southern coast of the Taman Peninsula, arrived at Batumi Port on the 13th and then took a train to the Tbilisi front on the 16th.

Therefore, the Demacian army had two main forces dedicated to the siege of Tbilisi, and one army on rotation to fill in the gaps in the rear and protect the flanks.

……

Siege warfare doesn't require much skill; it's all about hard-fought battles. Even if Lelouch is incredibly clever, he has no strategies to employ.

Tbilisi, in particular, is a disgusting place. It is a valley city sandwiched between the Greater Caucasus Mountains to the north and the Lesser Caucasus Mountains to the south. The two mountain ridges of the North and South Caucasus are closest here, and there is no way to bypass them. The only option is to launch a frontal assault and fight a war of attrition by throwing lives at the enemy.

Moreover, the city of Tbilisi is located at the highest point of an east-west valley, which is the watershed between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

West of Tbilisi, the valley slopes down, and mountain rainfall forms the Cholukh River, which flows westward and empties into the Black Sea at Batumi.

East of Tbilisi, the valley slopes down, and mountain rainfall forms the Kura River, which flows eastward and eventually empties into the Caspian Sea near Baku.

Since the siege of Tbilisi could only result in casualties, Lelouch stopped worrying about it and let the two veteran lieutenant generals organize it themselves. All he could do was ensure that the locals supported the Demacian army as much as possible, and ideally, guide the siege troops to see if there were any trails in the Caucasus Mountains that could provide a surprise attack.

……

On April 15th, just as Lelouch had finished deploying the Tbilisi siege plan and was taking a short break, he suddenly received a message from the rear, transmitted via radio.

After all, even if Lelouch wanted to make a phone call to the rear, the telephone lines were down. Batumi was isolated from the rear, let alone Tbilisi, which was closer to the front lines. Lelouch's communication with the rear, besides relying on aircraft to carry messages, was limited to radio.

But the contents of this latest telegram made Lelouch frown.

"I plan to travel to Batumi soon aboard the cruiser 'Trabzon' to personally oversee the battle."

This was sent by his future father-in-law, Duke Rupprecht. As the commander of an army group, he had to cut short his wedding leave due to the rapid advance of the front-line troops and was heading east from the rear of Bali.

But Lelouch felt all of this was highly unreliable; he couldn't guarantee that the army's radio codes hadn't been cracked by the enemy. As for the navy's codes, they were completely transparent.

Although the Duke used the army's code this time instead of the navy's, such radio communication was still too dangerous if it were intercepted or deciphered by the enemy.

During the previous year and a half of war, Lelouch had done several major things by taking advantage of the "transparent naval codes" and had also tricked the Britannians, but he had covered it up very well. Each victory was conveniently covered up by reasons such as "Hipper disobeying orders and running away alone".

More importantly, since last winter, he had allowed the Navy's transparent codes to leak real intelligence to the enemy, and had personally hinted to his old friend Admiral Hipper to do so.

Anyway, at that time the navy was fighting dogs at the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, and did not need to fight in the North Sea or other open seas.

Therefore, even if you leak the intelligence to the enemy and reveal your hand, the enemy will not be able to counter it, because the Lusa Navy in the Baltic and Black Seas has been almost annihilated, so it won't matter if you know it.

Every time Hipper and Spee's fleet said they would attack or bombard a certain area, they truly kept their word and carried it out. If they said they would kill the entire Rusa Navy, they killed the entire Rusa Navy; in this world, keeping one's word is essential.

If this happens repeatedly, it should reaffirm the Britannians' confidence in their ability to decipher the Demanian naval code.

Upon seeing this telegram, Lelouch had a sudden inspiration:
"After capturing Tbilisi, Baku should be able to be dealt with quickly. At that point, the Caucasus campaign will be over, and it will be time to plan for the next phase."

When our army arrives in the Middle East, we must immediately try to lure a portion of the Burkina Faso navy to the Middle East as well. At that point, we need to find a way to convince the highest levels of the empire that the navy's codes have been leaked, and then get the intelligence department to fully cooperate with our scheme.

Previously, the knowledge of the leaked naval codes was only between myself and a few other generals like Hipper and Spee; we used this tacit understanding to inflate our battle records. But Emperor Wilhelm and Field Marshal Tirpitz were unaware of it.

The Battle of New Jutland should be the time to finally reveal the truth. Before that, we need a catalyst to let the Emperor and the Minister of the Navy know that their intelligence agency has made a huge mistake. Only then will the Emperor be determined to learn from this and send our newcomers to take charge of naval intelligence...

"Why not use the Duke's upcoming visit to Batumi as bait to test the waters, something like an intelligence deception such as 'a malfunction at the Midway desalination plant'... First, use naval codes to persuade the Duke to change his mode of transport, and see if the Burkina Faso or Russo fighter jets will desperately intercept and bomb him. Then, actually have the Duke find a plausible excuse to travel to Batumi using another method..."

After considering this in his mind, Lelouch quickly came up with a good idea by referring to historical records from later generations on Earth.

Let the Duke pretend to follow Yamamoto Isoroku's example and go to the front lines by plane, but in reality, instead of taking a plane, he should take the next trip to Batumi on the battlecruiser "Goben".

After figuring it out, Lelouch wrote two identical secret letters and gave them to two of his most reliable fighter pilots, instructing them to fly them back to Odessa port in the middle of the night. They could stop in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula to refuel en route (taking off at night and landing after dawn, a slight deviation from the course was fine, as there would be enough fuel to adjust the course after dawn). He then personally delivered the letters to His Highness the Duke.

The straight-line distance from Batumi to Odessa is 1000 kilometers. In 1916, airplanes didn't have that much range, so a refueling stop in Sevastopol was enough.

The reason for sending two planes was to ensure that everything would go smoothly, even if there were any flight malfunctions, the message would still be delivered.

After receiving their orders, the two elite pilots pledged to complete the mission and returned with the letter.

The following morning, Lelouch sent a reply to Odessa using naval codes, stating that the old-fashioned protected cruiser "Trabzon" was returning slower than expected due to a minor problem with its propulsion system.

If they insist on coming by warship, they can wait two more days until April 18th, when the next large fleet of transport troops will be able to return to Odessa—but without a doubt, this telegram of the navy's complaints is meant for the enemy, and the Duke will not believe it at all.

Because Lelouch had already given the Duke the handwritten letter from the pilot, clearly telling him that the telegram was fake and a decoy.

……

On the morning of April 16, at the headquarters of the 6th Army in Odessa,
Duke Rupprecht held the fake telegram he had just received in one hand and the secret letter written and stamped by Lelouch in the other, a slight smile appearing on his lips.

"This kid really knows how to pull off some fancy tricks. He actually came up with the idea of ​​using this kind of bait to lure the enemy and prove whether they have cracked the navy's codes. Well, since there's no danger, let's play along."

The Duke put down the telegram and summoned an aide, instructing him: "Send a telegram to Batumi immediately, saying that waiting for the transport fleet to return to Odessa on the 18th before picking me up is too slow! By the time I arrive in Batumi, Tbilisi may have already fallen!"

As the army group commander, how could I not be on the front lines at such a crucial moment as the capture of Tbilisi? Therefore, I will not be traveling by ship; I will instead take an airship to Batumi! However, I request that fighter jets be scrambled from the Batumi direction between 7 and 9 a.m. tomorrow to escort the airship during its landing phase.

"Yes, Commander!" The aide-de-camp went to arrange the airship and send out the telegram without hesitation, without doubting the authenticity of the order.

Because Duke Rupprecht even deceived his own valet.
Only Lelouch and Duke Rupprecht knew the full plan, and they knew that the Duke would not be on the airship bound for Batumi.

In reality, the Duke would wait for the battlecruiser "Goben," which wouldn't arrive in Odessa port until April 18th, and then board that warship to sail at full speed to Batumi. Although it would take more than three days for a cargo ship to travel from Odessa to Batumi, the "Goben," if it maintained high speed, could actually make it in just over a day.

That evening, two airships took off from Odessa port, carrying two staff officers and eight crew members on each airship, all of whom were parachutists, for a total of 18 people.

Since there's no need to perform bombing missions, there's no need for bombardiers or gunners; just getting the airship moving is enough for eight people.

Meanwhile, in order to give the enemy an excuse, a number of cargo ships were left to stay overnight at the docks of Batumi Port that night, and many goods unloaded from the cargo ships were also pretended to be placed in the cargo yard warehouses at the docks, but in fact they were just some worthless miscellaneous goods.

……

Meanwhile, in Tbilisi, Lelouch received a reply from the Duke.

A Bretonnia intelligence exchange office in Lusa, Armenia, also intercepted the message and quickly deciphered it.

"Sir! Big news! Field Marshal Rupprecht, commander of the German 6th Army, has cut short his honeymoon to come to the front lines because the progress is too good. He wants to personally oversee the capture of Tbilisi!"
He had originally requested that a cruiser be sent to pick him up and take him to the Batumi front, but the Demanians couldn't dispatch enough warships in time, and he wasn't willing to wait; he wanted to come by airship instead!

"What? Demacia's most capable marshal is coming to the front lines by airship? Immediately inform the Russa people of this news!"

(End of this chapter)