Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 245: Invading the Baku Oil Fields and Annihilating the Caucasus Army Group

Regarding the reform of the naval intelligence department and how to use this code leak incident to turn the tables and achieve a counterattack,
With the conclusion of this meeting, the discussion of these two matters in the imperial court has essentially set the tone.

The remaining work on these two parts can only be further refined and detailed after Lelouch is recalled from the front lines.

However, taking advantage of the end of this imperial council meeting, Duke Rupprecht took the opportunity to propose a brand new motion, which was not directly related to naval affairs and could be considered his own personal agenda—although the wording of this personal agenda was secretly taught to him by Lelouch.

The Duke, seizing the opportunity, advised, "Your Majesty, if we are to carry out the deception tactics we just discussed, I cannot show my face for the time being. I must feign an assassination attempt and remain silent. However, after some thought, I realize that such an event would inevitably affect the morale of the frontline troops."

The Burkina Faso people might seize the opportunity to spread rumors that I'm dead, forcing me to appear and prove it. The soldiers of my 6th Army, fighting bloody battles on the Caucasus front, might also experience temporary unrest and a slight dip in morale. I can also foresee that the Abkhazians, Circassians, Georgians… who have previously served our army wholeheartedly… might waver, doubting our promises of benefits and whether we have the capability to deliver.

Therefore, we hope Your Majesty can devise a more generous appeasement plan to encourage the locals to continue fighting for the Empire. For example, the locals wish for autonomy, or even to establish their own state and break free from the rule of the Lussa people. These are conditions that we, the generals on the front lines, cannot promise.

It requires His Majesty's decree, as well as the coordination of the State Secretary in charge of foreign affairs and the Department of Prisoners of War and Occupied Territories Affairs, to come up with a fully authorized plan so that the generals negotiating with the locals on the front lines can act freely.

Lelouch privately advised His Highness the Duke to seize this opportunity and press for the occupation zone policy, hoping to gain the initiative in diplomacy.

On the other hand, it is also because of Lelouch's subsequent conspiracy that it is necessary to highlight the Demanian faction's trustworthiness, which is different from the Bretonnia's beastly behavior of making empty promises in the Middle East and then discarding them after they have served their purpose.

This would give Lelouch more room to maneuver in his subsequent diplomatic maneuvers in the Middle East, cornering the Britannians and forcing them into making mistakes amidst the chaos.

As for matters concerning diplomacy and allowing liberated nations to govern and establish their own states, only a plan devised by the emperor in conjunction with the departments of diplomacy and the affairs of occupied territories would be strong enough to secure a firm grip on power.

The emperor realized this as well, so he ordered Hipper and Tirpitz to leave that day, and the subsequent meetings had nothing to do with the navy.

Emperor Ruhr Precht hosted a simple lunch at Potsdam Palace, and also notified State Secretary Gottlieb von Jago, who was in charge of foreign affairs, and Deputy Secretary Zimmermann to attend a secret meeting at Potsdam Palace. Archduke Baden, Minister of the Occupation Zones Affairs Department, was also scheduled to attend.

After the lunch break, at 3 p.m., another small meeting with only 5 people was held behind closed doors in the emperor's study.

The five people were the Emperor himself, Duke Rupprecht, Gottlieb, Zimmermann, and Baden. The level of secrecy was extremely high, and no sixth person was qualified to attend.

The emperor first consulted with professionals like Gottlieb and Zimmerman, but since they had only just heard about the matter, they couldn't come up with a systematic plan in time.

After listening for a while, the emperor grew a little impatient and turned to Duke Rupprecht to see if the generals at the front had any ideas.

"Ruprecht, why don't you tell us? Your 6th Army has a lot of dealings with the locals in the Caucasus, so perhaps you can tell us from a military perspective who is more useful."

However, the Empire's bottom line is that the Baku oil fields must be directly controlled by the Empire in the future, and the railway and pipelines from the Baku oil fields to Batumi must also be completely under the Empire's control.

Having finally obtained the Emperor's authorization, Rupprecht then revealed the draft that Lelouch had suggested to him earlier:

"Our thinking is this: we can allow the ethnic groups north of the Greater Caucasus Mountains to establish their own countries or achieve autonomy, because the Empire has no intention of directly ruling the North Caucasus region in the future. In any case, the Baku oil field is located in the South Caucasus, in the area between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains."

Therefore, the initial opinion from the front-line investigation is that the Circassians, Dagestanians, and Ingush peoples north of the mountains can be allowed to remain independent and serve as a buffer zone between the future Empire and Lusha. The Empire can distribute the weapons captured from Lusha's army to them, giving them the ability to defend themselves.

The situation south of the Greater Caucasus is more complicated. The Armenians are definitely the enemy; we can't win them over, so let's just leave them be. The Azerbaijanis are likely neutral, so we won't consider trying to win them over either. After all, if we absolutely control the Baku oil fields, the Azerbaijanis won't be able to establish a state.

Of course, if the Azerbaijanis wanted to take a small piece of southern Azerbaijan's territory, ally with Persia, and form a union with Persia, the Empire wouldn't necessarily stop them. However, in this case, it was essential to ensure that Persia would absolutely stand on the Empire's side in the future and completely expel the puppet rulers of Lu and Bo.

The current ruler of the Qajar dynasty in Persia is actually a puppet of Lusha and the Kingdom of Burkina Faso. Only when a new ruler is appointed can we allow some people and land in the non-oil-producing areas of southern Azerbaijan to unite with Persia.

Finally, the most troublesome are the Georgians. The Georgians' will to resist Rusa should be relatively strong, but the empire needs to control the transportation hubs of Tbilisi and Batumi, and cannot allow the Georgians to establish a state on the spot.

Our idea is to treat Georgians and Abkhazians separately. Georgians, who are concentrated in Tbilisi and Batumi, should be allowed to establish a state in a small area north of the Caucasus, currently inhabited by the Russa people, such as the Stavropol Province between Circassia and Dagestan.

As for the areas directly ruled by the Empire, they could be governed by the Caucasian Demanians in the future, or the Volga Demanians could be relocated south along the Caspian coast to the vicinity of Baku, ensuring that the area around the large oil fields is predominantly inhabited by the Empire's own people.

(Note: None of the above plans include forced migration. All those who wish to migrate to the new country do so voluntarily and will be allocated land upon arrival. Those who do not wish to migrate and wish to remain in their homeland can enjoy normal citizen treatment and be treated as Demanians. In any case, their treatment is much better than during the Lusa Empire era.)
As he spoke, Duke Rupprecht roughly sketched out his plan on a pre-prepared map.

The emperor wasn't very familiar with those remote, desolate places, nor did he care about those mountainous pastoral and agricultural areas. As long as he ensured that the large oil fields were under the direct control of the empire and that key infrastructure such as railways and pipelines connecting the oil fields wouldn't be blocked, he was willing to accept anything else.

The proposal was then given to Gottlieb and Zimmerman, who were in charge of foreign affairs, for discussion, and the Grand Duke of Baden was also asked to give his opinion.

The Grand Duke of Baden also strongly supported the plan. Under his strong encouragement, Gottlieb could not come up with a better option in a hurry. So, in just one afternoon, such an important issue, a matter that might affect the fate of six newly formed small countries, was decided directly.

"Let's spread the word about this plan first! Considering that none of the proposed countries in the North Caucasus region have been directly occupied by the Empire's troops yet, let's expedite preparations for the autonomy of the Abkhazians and Circassians, and promise them that they can fully establish their countries within a 5-year transition period."

However, in return, the Abkhazians and Circassians must immediately and fully assist the Empire's offensive. For example, in siege battles like Tbilisi, the cannon fodder can be sent to launch a direct assault, while the Empire provides artillery support, so that the lives of the Empire's elite warriors are not wasted in such low-skill, hard-fought battles.

You can tell them that the more enemies they kill and the greater their spoils in the Battle of Tbilisi and subsequent battles, the faster they will establish their own country. If they perform poorly, the 5-year transitional observation period could be punitively extended to 10 years! If they perform exceptionally well, fight bravely, and have excellent logistical support, it's not impossible for 5 years to be reduced to 3 years or even less!

The emperor ultimately made this decision.

"Yes, Your Majesty. We will relay this to the frontline troops immediately, and simultaneously issue a message to the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Occupied Territories Affairs."

……

Emperor Wilhelm's stance was immediately communicated globally as a public declaration, a promise made to the world.

It was only late April 1916. On the other side of the ocean in the United States, Wilson had not yet come to power, so there was no so-called Fourteen Points program and the idea that each nation should manage its own affairs.

Although Burkina Faso makes various promises in the Middle East, they are all despicable secret diplomacy, never publicized, in order to facilitate future breach of contract.

As a result, Emperor Wilhelm, driven by practical needs and genuinely looking down on the barren, oil-free mountains of the Caucasus, was able to explicitly raise the banner of liberating the enslaved.

This news naturally caused quite a stir. Although many people in other countries around the world don't know where the Caucasus is, it doesn't stop this move from improving public perception.

The locals in the Caucasus were even more enthusiastic, like they'd been injected with adrenaline.

That very evening, Lelouch summoned the leaders of the Circassians and Abkhazians and showed them the Emperor's telegram.

"The Empire has approved your two sides to govern themselves first, and you can begin preparations immediately. If you perform reasonably well, you will be able to establish your own nation within a five-year transition period. If you perform well, for example, if you are willing to directly attack Tbilisi with guns, this period can be negotiated and shortened. However, if you are passive and uncooperative, and since the Empire helped you conquer this land, then you'll have to deal with it."

Lelouch simply stated his position directly.

Upon seeing that the telegram was issued by the Emperor, the leaders of Abkhazia and Circassia believed he would not break his promise and immediately pledged to send their warriors to attack the city with all their might, provided the Empire provided weapons.

Therefore, Lelouch handed over the tens of thousands of Mosin-Nagant rifles and some M1910 Luftwaffe heavy machine guns he had previously raised to the Abkhazian and Circassian tribal forces, promising them that the Demanian army's artillery would provide fire support during their assault.

The next day, and two days later, on April 22, the intensity of the siege of Tbilisi immediately rose to a new level.

Lelouch originally valued human life and didn't want Demanian soldiers to fight such a low-skill, attrition warfare.

Now, the first batch of tens of thousands of Abkhazian and Circassian recruits charged forward with their Mosin-Nagant rifles. Although the locals lacked systematic military training, they were known for their fierce nature, and many had fought against the Russa people for a long time. Once they were taught how to aim, how to fire, and how to take turns charging, they could basically hold the front line.

As for the remaining recruits who are willing to join the army, Demacian instructors are also willing to provide them with short-term intensive training. After one or two weeks, the other recruits will be able to learn about warfare directly in the war.

In order to better ensure that when they break through Tbilisi and advance on Baku again, they can be more covert, launch a more rapid attack, and prevent the enemy from destroying the oil fields, Lelouch devised another plan.

He instructed Marshal Rupprecht in the rear to send a secret telegram to the front lines, advising Lelouch to be cautious and not to rush.

"Since the Marshal was seriously injured in the assassination, the morale of the army may be unstable. It is not advisable to launch a fierce attack for the time being. After cutting off Tbilisi, we can temporarily divide our forces to clear out the port of Sukhumi in Abkhazia to the north and the Russian army in Sochi, so as to avoid continuing to advance alone and having our logistics cut off."

If this telegram were intercepted by the Burkina Faso and leaked to the Russo army, it would make the Russo army less vigilant and more complacent.

Because they would certainly assume that after capturing Tbilisi, a key transportation hub, the Demacian army's next step would be to turn back and clear out the dumpling filling behind them, lest the dumpling filling cause trouble and cut off their logistics.

In reality, Lelouch wouldn't be so conservative as to eat the dumpling filling first. After Tbilisi was breached, he would immediately surge forward, heading straight for the Baku oil field, giving the enemy no time to react.

Lelouch's plan actually worked.

Through this coded telegram, the Britannians indeed confirmed that "Duke Rupprecht, who had not appeared for many days, was indeed assassinated after his airship was shot down. Unfortunately, he is not dead yet and seems to be receiving treatment for serious injuries."

The Lussa people also felt that Lelouch's current fierce attack was entirely a bluff, a desperate attempt to flex his muscles and prevent anyone from knowing that the commander of the 6th Army had been assassinated. In reality, wasn't the siege of Tbilisi relying on tens of thousands of Abkhazian and Circassian militiamen to feed the enemy with their lives?

This tactic is no different from the fortress assaults of ten years ago; it's pure suicide.

General Yudenich, commander of the Southern Front of Lusa, did not adjust his deployment in time, but instead decided to wait and see. He continued to instruct the army group commander in charge of the defense of Tbilisi to "hold firm and wait for the situation to change, then there will be a way."

That foolish commander of the Tbilisi city defense army group actually listened to General Yudenich's orders, failed to adjust his deployment, and continued to fortify his positions and fight a protracted war. ...

The siege of Tbilisi lasted until April 26, a brutal five-day ordeal in which tens of thousands of Abkhazian and Circassian militiamen swarmed up the city each day, supported by Demanian artillery.

Although the hundreds of thousands of Lusha troops inside the city held their ground and blocked the valley between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains, they could not withstand such relentless, day-and-night attrition warfare.

As the fighting progressed, the morale of the Lusha army collapsed and their strength was exhausted, so much so that they couldn't even get enough rest.

The key was the local attacks, which gradually spread like mercury, with some crossing mountains and valleys to bypass the city and harass the defenders from all directions. After all, the locals were more familiar with the geography than the Lu tribe defenders.

This constant pressure made every Lu soldier personally experience the terror of living in a treacherous environment surrounded by wolves and realize how much the locals hated them. This kind of mental pressure could easily crush someone with a weak will.

This is why many people, even if they are just holding a machine gun and continuously firing at the enemy for several days, may go crazy if the enemy is still attacking.

The relentless attacks finally broke the nerve of the Tbilisi defenders.

On April 26, a massive collapse occurred. On that day, not only did hundreds of thousands of Abkhazian and Circassian militias launch a frontal assault on the city, but even unarmed Georgian civilians inside the city began to launch surprise attacks on the Lusha defenders from behind.

Moreover, not all civilians were unarmed; many still possessed kitchen knives, guillotines, and sabers. The Lusha people were so frightened that they feared the civilians behind them might suddenly stab them.

Seeing that the situation was about to reach a critical point, Lelouch finally ordered the main forces of the German 6th Army's 1st and 3rd Armies, which had been resting for a few days, to join the attack.

This sudden increase in pressure became the final straw that broke the camel's back for the defenders of Tbilisi.

The troops of the 11th Army of Lusa were completely routed and driven out of the city, with the remnants retreating eastward.

"It's time! Send out the 'Grand Demania' armored training division! And have Lister's independent army follow closely behind. Now is the time to race! Don't give the enemy a chance to retreat to Baku and rebuild a solid defensive line! And don't give them time to react and destroy the oil fields!"

After Lelouch had completely taken control of the city late that night, he immediately issued orders.

Before dawn on April 27, Colonel Rommel and Lieutenant General Lister finally launched a new offensive with their well-rested assault troops.

Once the bottleneck of Tbilisi is cleared, everything else will be much easier. There are no longer any impregnable passes or completely blocked valleys between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus Mountains.

Although the Lusa people had set up several additional lines of defense, each of those lines could be breached by targeting a weak point.

Once the key points are breached, the remaining defenses can be left to the troops behind.

Rommel, leading Lelouch's elite armored division, advanced triumphantly.

In a remarkable feat, they advanced more than 200 kilometers eastward within 48 hours, reaching the next railway hub, Yevlakh.

Rommel then continued his rapid march for over 200 kilometers within 48 hours, arriving at the outskirts of Baku.

Baku is an oilfield city in a plain area with a very open terrain, which is not conducive to defense.

Rommel disregarded the fact that armored forces were not suitable for urban warfare and were prone to losses, and strictly followed Lelouch's orders, allowing the tanks to break through the outer defenses and directly advance along the streets into the oilfield area in the east of the city.

The Lussa people also organized a very tenacious defense, constantly attacking the tanks at close range from the buildings on the street with simple anti-tank weapons and various cluster grenades, and indeed many of Rommel's tanks were damaged by the attacks from above.

But Rommel remained unmoved, and Lieutenant General Eugen Lister also committed all of his assault battalions to the siege, helping Rommel relieve the pressure and clear out the enemy infantry attacking Rommel's tanks.

Because the artillery was completely outmatched, there were no heavy artillery pieces available for this siege, only close-range support fire from grenade launchers and mortars. Lelouch also desperately provided Rommel with the greatest support, sending fighter-bombers from the Yevlakh field airfield, which had only been recaptured two days prior, to fly over 200 kilometers to provide close air-ground coordination to the siege forces at the front lines of Baku.

The only problem was that the flight was too long, so the plane had to be as lightly loaded as possible. In reality, it couldn't carry many bombs, at most 10 small 5-kilogram bombs and some machine gun bullets.

In order to carry more bombs and save weight, some fighter jets even removed the synchronized machine guns, saving the weight of the guns and bullets, and carrying an extra 100 kilograms of bombs.

Fortunately, during the previous Batumi air raids, Lelouch had already devised a plan to lure and annihilate the vast majority of the Lusa's air force in the Caucasus region. Therefore, the fact that the German aircraft were not equipped with defensive machine guns when they flew over to carry out ground attacks did not have a significant impact.

With limited firepower, flamethrower soldiers will have to risk their lives to clear out the city's buildings.

Rommel then devised a tactical plan: regardless of the circumstances, each time they attacked a street, the tanks would charge first, followed by the assault battalion infantry. At the same time, they would ensure the assault battalion carried enough explosive charges and flamethrowers for breaching walls.

If anyone resists firing at the tank, the assault battalion infantry will immediately load smoke grenades and use smoke to cover the explosive charges and detonate them at close range.

After the wall was blown open, the flamethrower soldiers immediately followed and sprayed fire into the hole.

Such tactics will certainly result in significant losses of tanks, demolition troops, and flamethrower troops, but they are also very effective in attacking fortified positions.

In just one day of fierce fighting, the Demacian army, despite losing over a hundred tanks, managed to tear Baku's defenses in two and carve out a bloody path leading directly to the oil fields.

Although the armored division was badly damaged and needed to rebuild more than half of its tanks, it was all worth it as long as it could achieve a fast enough offensive speed and prevent the enemy from destroying the oil field!
Tanks can be rebuilt. Although Demacia currently cannot produce 100 tanks per month, today's loss may be equivalent to two months of the country's tank production capacity.

However, if a large oil field is bombed by the enemy, it may take one or two years to fully repair and restore production, and there is no substitute for a large oil field.

The Baku oil field is seven times the size of the Ploiești oil field in Romania at its peak. However, the Ploiești oil field is still not fully developed, with a monthly output of only 200,000 tons of oil. The Baku oil field, on the other hand, was fully developed at the end of the last century, and its output is more than ten times that of the Ploiești oil field today! Its monthly production potential is as high as 2 million tons.

To protect an oil field that produces 200 million tons a month and more than 2000 million tons a year, ranking among the top three in the world, it would be worth sacrificing an entire armored division!

On May 1, at sunset, Rommel finally planted the Demania flag over the Baku oil field.

He had not yet captured the entire city of Baku, but he had broken through a road leading directly to the oil fields and quickly eliminated the resistance there.

To blast an oil field, you must plan well in advance, lay explosives, and have your plans calculated by engineers. It's not something you can destroy by just randomly blasting it.

Therefore, in the rush, the defeated soldiers of Lusha only had time to set fire to a few oil storage tanks, blowing up the already refined and flammable oil reserves.

Many crude oil depot valves were opened by the defeated troops of the Loess Plateau, and crude oil was poured directly onto the land and even flowed into the Caspian Sea, where a thick layer of crude oil accumulated on the sea surface, causing devastating damage to the ecological environment of the western Caspian Sea.

After the Demacian army rushed to the scene and occupied the area, they could only quickly find a place to re-tighten the valves. As for the oil spill that had already been released, they had no way to deal with it for the time being.

The production facilities of oil fields and refineries were basically not damaged, or the proportion of damage was no more than 20% or 30%, and at least the vast majority of the production facilities were preserved.

"Send a telegram to the Chief of Staff immediately! The 'Grandemania Armored Division' has advanced 400 kilometers in 120 hours and has captured the Baku oil field! We are now requesting reinforcements. We need friendly forces to help us hold the oil field, clear the rest of Baku city, and annihilate the enemy's counterattack forces."

For five days and five nights, the offensive continued relentlessly. Soldiers could take turns resting and sleeping, but the overall offensive of the entire force never stopped; it continued to advance. This was the fastest and furthest continuous advance Lelouch's armored division had ever achieved since its formation.

Previously in Kharkiv and Kyiv, the longest I could manage was three days without rest, pushing a distance of over 200 kilometers. This time, however, I conserved my energy and pushed 400 kilometers in one go.

It was also thanks to the fact that the Lusa army was also exhausted, having been depleted of its strength during the siege of Tbilisi, that when Tbilisi collapsed, the subsequent Lusa army did not have time to reorganize a new defensive line before being stunned by Rommel.

After receiving the telegram in Tbilisi, Lelouch ordered Lieutenant General Sylvain, Lieutenant General von Holloway, and Lieutenant General Lister to follow at full speed, race against the enemy, and take control of the entire line from Tbilisi to Baku as soon as possible.

The Demacian soldiers ran day and night, their legs moving with all their might.

Georgian railway workers are also working around the clock to help repair the railway lines that have just been seized, ensuring that the railway can be restored to operation within 48 hours of being taken back.

Tbilisi was captured on April 26, and trains were able to travel directly to Tbilisi station on the 28th.

Yevlakh was captured on April 28, and on the 30th, trains could travel directly to Yevlakh station.

The speed at which the railway was repaired during the war was nothing short of miraculous. The Georgian railway workers were working continuously for 48 hours straight to build the railway, hoping it would support their establishment of their own state in Stavropol Province after the war. The sledgehammers they used to hammer spikes were practically smoking from the effort.

With such unity and determination, on May 3rd, the Demanians' trains entered their controlled territory on the outskirts of Baku, unloading a steady stream of troops.

The fighting in Baku gradually came to an end, and most of the main force of the Russian army south of the Caucasus Mountains was encircled and annihilated. A few die-hard troops chose to cross the gentle slopes of the Caucasus Mountains near the Caspian Sea coast and retreat to the rear of the North Caucasus.

Lelouch himself entered Baku and was about to announce to the world that the Luftwaffe army south of the Caucasus Mountains had been annihilated.

-

P.S.: It's 7,000 words, so I won't break it into chapters.

(End of this chapter)