Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 65 Evolution in War
Out of absolute trust in Lelouch's judgment, Duke Rupprecht immediately approved all the resources Lelouch wished to coordinate.

When it came to asking the Emperor and the General Staff about requesting the airship, the Duke personally went to great lengths to plead and pull strings, while also having to be mindful of the secrecy level to avoid being overheard by too many unrelated people.

For matters requiring coordination with the Navy, send Lelouch another secret letter, instructing him to personally travel to Antwerp to discuss the matter with Vice Admiral Hipper.

On a side note, last November, when Hipper led the Demanian Navy's battlecruiser fleet in a surprise attack on Ostend and sank four former dreadnoughts of the Royal Navy of Burkina Faso, he was only a rear admiral. At the time, because of Hipper's "disobedience and going his own way," although he had made great contributions, it was not appropriate to promote him immediately; the Admiralty still needed to give him a warning.

So Hipper only received a blue mark medal last year, but did not get a promotion.

Until recently, the year has passed, the Navy has held a lot of year-end summary meetings, the storm of disobeying orders and going it alone has passed, and it's time to turn the page.

Ultimately, Hipper was promoted to lieutenant general at the end of January. However, the reason for the promotion was rather vague, only stating that it was due to his various performances and accumulated merits over the years, downplaying the fact that he had disobeyed orders and performed meritorious service.

The Navy Ministry also knew that it wouldn't be acceptable not to promote someone after such a great victory; it would be impossible to convince the public. Being able to get promoted without disgracing the Navy Ministry would be a win-win situation.

So, in the past few days, Lieutenant General Hipper has been riding high on his recent promotion. If Lelouch, the benefactor who once brought him credit, were to visit again, Hipper would likely be more than happy to receive him. And whatever outrageous suggestions he might have, Hipper would certainly consider them carefully.

The tasks that Duke Rupprecht entrusted to Lelouch were roughly these two aspects: military preparation and liaison with the navy.

As for the direct assault on Dunkirk and Ypres Heights, Lelouch doesn't need to worry about that for the time being.

For those conventional battles, the Demacian army has plenty of meticulous and disciplined generals who can fight them, while talents like Lelouch should be responsible for devising ingenious strategies.

The Duke estimated that even a normal siege of the outer defenses of Dunkirk could take at least ten days to two weeks.

This pace was perfectly reasonable at the time. For example, at the beginning of the war when the German army was at its strongest, the siege of Antwerp took more than half a month, and the Liege fortress took 11 days to be besieged. That was against the weak Belkin army.

Moreover, Dunkirk has now become the Achilles' heel of the Burkina Faso expeditionary force, and the Burkina Faso army will defend it at all costs.

……

Lelouch knew he should have about two weeks to operate, and everything was very urgent.

He must plan carefully; there's no time for him to waste.

So on the evening of the 26th, right after receiving the authorization, he roughly arranged his schedule.

The most urgent task right now is to place an order with a textile manufacturer that has the qualifications to manufacture safety parachutes, and to order at least three thousand parachutes with coated canvas tops.

This is the highest priority. After placing the order, he can do other things while waiting for the manufacturer to produce it.

That very evening, he took a suitcase containing his identification, documents, and pens and boarded a train back at the Armandière train station.

There are no passenger trains to the front-line cities now, only military trains carrying supplies, but they usually have two passenger cars attached to them for emergency transfer of important personnel and the wounded.

The same was true of the train Lelouch was on. The first passenger car smelled terrible and had no furnishings whatsoever. It was packed with people like sardines in a can.

The second passenger carriage was much better; the front half had benches, and the back half had three rows of soft sleeper berths.

Fortunately, he had a letter of introduction personally approved by the army group commander, so he naturally secured a soft sleeper berth.

Because he was wearing civilian clothes and looked too young and handsome, many officers and soldiers waiting to "squeeze in like sardines" on the platform cast resentful glances at him, and some even made sarcastic remarks.

"He must be another young master from some noble family, here to gain experience and military merit at the front! So young, without any injuries or illnesses, and he's taking up a sleeper berth!"

Lelouch had no time to pay attention to these complaints, and even when he happened to overhear one, he didn't take it to heart.

Once on the train, he went straight to his berth, put down the table, spread out paper and pen, and began sketching out his ideal parachute design.

Parachutes aren't anything new. Even without Lelouch's modifications, specialized factories could produce them.

Although there were no paratroopers in this era, pilots still needed to parachute to safety when their aircraft malfunctioned. Therefore, as early as 1911, humans invented a parachute that could be folded and stored into a pack.

Even earlier, in the era before airplanes, there were primitive parachutes that couldn't be folded and needed to be manually opened before use, which were used by hot air balloon observers.

After the war broke out in August 1914, all countries took the safety of their pilots into consideration and began to further develop and optimize parachutes. Now, more than five months into the war, pilots from all countries are equipped with parachutes that can be opened by pulling a rope in windy conditions.

In fact, even in the early stages of World War II, when paratroopers emerged, they used this type of parachute, and they could fight without any modifications.

But Lelouch knew that old-fashioned parachutes couldn't control the direction of gliding, and where they would land was entirely up to fate. A slightly stronger wind would cause them to drift away from the landing area; until World War II, the landing range of paratroopers was very difficult to control.

The areas he intended to airdrop and seize were merely two coastal fortresses in the northeast and east of Dunkirk, a relatively small area. If they drifted everywhere, they could easily stray from the landing zone, causing unnecessary losses.

So he thought of changing the parachute into a curved, elongated "wing parachute" instead of the traditional perfect circle.

This improvement doesn't involve much technical difficulty. It simply requires a clear description of the shape, trial production by relevant factories, and passing air resistance tests—it's quite easy to do. Moreover, converting it into a winged parachute offers only advantages over traditional circular parachutes, with no drawbacks. Even without any operation, the winged parachute descends in a straight line or with the wind, just like a regular parachute, without any side effects. And with a little knowledge of operation, and by following the instructions, one can easily adjust the direction of descent.

Before Lelouch transmigrated, he had played thousands of hours of PUBG, and because he was bad at shooting, he had more opportunities to practice parachuting in PUBG than normal players.

He was so familiar with the shape of the parachute that he planned to take advantage of the dim light on the train before he fell asleep and finish drawing the three-view diagram of the parachute's basic structure in one go.

That way, when I wake up tomorrow and arrive in Frankfurt, I can just hand the blueprints to the processing plant and save a day.

He focused intently on his drawing, and no one knows how long he worked on it.

A soldier in a magnificent military uniform in the same carriage suddenly got up and turned off the carriage lights, plunging Lelouch into darkness.

He was a little confused and instinctively cursed, "Who turned off the lights? I have urgent military business to attend to!"

The electrical wiring on trains in this era was very rudimentary. Other carriages didn't even have lights; only the most VIP carriages had lights. Even then, there were no separate circuits, so to turn on or off the lights, you had to turn all the lights in the carriage on or off at once.

The guard officer who was turning off the lights couldn't help but retort after being yelled at: "It's already eleven o'clock! If you don't sleep, others do! You're disturbing the VIP in the next bunk!"

Lelouch then realized that there were three rows of sleeper berths in the carriage, and that his light was disturbing many people, so he should obey the majority.

But just then, a steady middle-aged or elderly voice came from the next sleeping compartment: "Joachim, don't do this, I'm not tired, don't delay urgent military affairs."

Upon hearing this, the officer in fine clothes quickly turned the carriage lights back on.

Lelouch didn't even have time to react before he saw the lights come back on. He had no choice but to thank them profusely, saying, "I'm so sorry, I was just dealing with some documents and didn't notice the time. I'll turn off the lights when I'm done drawing."

A few clicks of a cane came from the next berth, and then an elderly man who looked to be about fifty years old turned around. The old man was not wearing a general's uniform, but rather the attire of a civil official, which was relatively rare on the front lines.

Out of respect for his elders, Lelouch quickly stood up, saluted, and introduced himself:
"Major Lelouch Hunt, Battalion Commander of the 3rd Assault Battalion, 6th Army Group."

The old man nodded almost imperceptibly, then subconsciously looked to see what Lelouch was writing or drawing.

However, Lelouch did not know the other party's identity, so he could only cover it up with great secrecy.

The old man then smiled wryly: "You even have to be wary of me? Young man, you're quite secretive. Don't worry, we're not interested in those fighting and killing matters. We're here to inspect the front lines for the affairs of the wounded and prisoners of war."

You're so young, yet you're not arrogant. When you got on the bus just now, so many people questioned you, but you didn't seem bothered at all. It's good that a young person can remain calm.

Seeing this, the elegantly dressed guard standing nearby also reminded Lelouch with considerable indignation, "Don't be rude! Don't you even recognize Archduke Mark von Baden? His Highness is also the Minister of the Imperial Prisoner of War Affairs!"

Since the other party had already introduced himself, Lelouch quickly remembered that this Grand Duke was none other than the "last prime minister" of World War I.

Of the four southern German states, the Hesse lineage has now declined and has no prominent figures in the imperial political arena.

Of the other three heads of state, Crown Prince Baria and Grand Duke of Württemberg served as commanders of the 6th and 4th Armies respectively, both holding military positions. The Grand Duke of Baden, however, was a purely civilian official who disliked military affairs.

This man was known for his left-wing stance during the war, initially handling matters concerning prisoners of war and humanitarian affairs. Later, he also served as the Emperor's secret diplomatic envoy, attempting to help the Emperor secretly mediate the possibility of a separate ceasefire and peace with the Bretons, but he failed.

The emperor used him in this way because he had a good reputation among the people and was relatively easy for enemy countries to accept. Later, towards the end of the war, the emperor also felt that the country was unstable and wanted to make a last-ditch effort, so he appointed Mark von Baden as the imperial prime minister and had this prime minister handle the procedures for "abolishing the monarchy" in the hope of saving the country.

Unfortunately, due to the deep-seated grudges between the Grand Duke of Baden and extreme warmongers like Hindenburg and Rodendorff, the empire eventually collapsed, and the Grand Duke only served as prime minister for a little over a month.

Now that Lelouch knew the other party's identity, he naturally stopped being presumptuous and politely asked the other party a few questions.

Fortunately, Lelouch's plans upon returning home included more than just the "parachute"; he also intended to spend a few days making arrangements regarding the medical care of the wounded.

Now that I've met officials from the department that specializes in handling prisoners of war and wounded soldiers, I might as well chat with them about my thoughts, do them a favor, and build some connections.

After all, Lelouch was a good young man who was enthusiastic about saving the country and its people, not some demon who only knew how to kill.

He also has things to talk about with those humanitarians who are a bit more left-leaning.

-

P.S.: Don't worry about the water (referring to the amount of water used in the game), it's just a matter of getting in touch with someone, and this opportunity will come in handy soon.

The next chapter will return to the storyline of gathering paratroopers and healing supplies in Frankfurt.

Thank you all for your patience. That's all for today, a total of 22,000 words.

(End of this chapter)