Imperial Elite

Chapter 169 Those who play strategy have dirty hearts.

For the Teutons at this time, they were in the best period of strategic advantage in their history.

Although theoretically the Teutons were still fighting on two fronts, the last person to be in this situation was the Gallic Emperor.

Moreover, compared to the Great Emperor, the Teutons at this time had a huge advantage: they had an Eastern ally who would never compromise with them, and their industrial capacity was also superior to that of the Great Emperor.

According to the theory of the mainland island, as long as the People's Revolutionary Alliance can be dealt with, and then a few years of stable development can be achieved, then any other country like Britannia will be nothing more than a roadside inconvenience.

As for Old Joe and his NATO... this guy is indeed quite troublesome, but if the People's Revolutionary Alliance is finished, how long can NATO, which is being besieged, hold out?
If it weren't for those bastards from the People's Revolutionary Alliance launching a sneak attack, Old Joe and his main NATO force would have been trapped and killed in the mountains of Bohemia long ago.

Although they couldn't trap Joe and his NATO forces in the Bohemian mountains, the Führer still held the upper hand.

After all, from west to east, the Teutonic, Lucia military government, and the Rising Sun Empire surrounded the People's Revolutionary Alliance from three directions.

If they coordinate their efforts, they will launch an attack simultaneously.

With three major powers simultaneously serving the People's Revolutionary Alliance, is he really that lucky?
Then, the Rising Sun launched an attack without consulting them, which greatly displeased the Führer.

The fact that these guys actually failed made the Führer even more unhappy.

But now, having lost that best opportunity, and with the Teutonic Navy now in a state of serious decline,

To be precise, it's a surface fleet, a far cry from the once glorious high seas fleet.

Although the High Seas Fleet did not defeat the Bunitania Grand Fleet, it was always ready to fight and dealt a heavy blow to the Bunitas, almost winning the battle.

But for the past two months, the surface fleet has almost watched helplessly as the Free Gauls' navy and the Bunitania's navy escorted those transport ships, delivering large quantities of supplies to Old Joe's territory.

The surface fleet's only two sorties yielded very poor results.

Several destroyers were sunk, and the new battleships and cruisers were also damaged, while the enemy remained unscathed!

Things clearly cannot continue like this.

So after two months of preparation, the leader decided to take action against the northern countries, Dania and Norvinia, two Viking states that had a glorious history.

When the Vikings were raiding the Old World in their longships, the Teutonic system didn't exist yet.

However, with the changing times, these Viking nations are now incredibly weak.

Forget about the food, these two countries also control the shipping lanes to the Baltic Sea. In those two fjords, just setting up a few cannons would be enough to completely block the shipping lanes, and even battleships wouldn't be able to get through.

If we can control this area, we can cut off a vital supply line for NATO.

And the credibility that the head of state had carefully maintained since becoming head of state came in handy at this moment.

Although the West was capable of fighting and could even destroy the Windmill Kingdom within hours, the leader refrained from taking action against it and reiterated the importance of respecting the Windmill Kingdom's neutrality.

In previous battles, some Gauls fled to the land of windmills, and the Teutonic troops did not pursue them.

Even during wartime, the Teutonic Navy still followed tradition by notifying Dania and Norvinia in advance and requiring them to pay tolls when crossing the strait.

In short, although Buntania had always hoped to win them over, seeing the leader's fighting prowess and credibility, Dania and Norvinia naturally didn't want to get involved in this mess.

Now is the time to monetize your credit.

On a dark and stormy night, as the Führer issued the order, the Teutonic troops who had remained in the north under the pretext of rest crossed the border at dawn, and at the same time, the Teutonic paratroopers began their airborne assault.

Then these troops, who had just fought against the People's Revolutionary Alliance and NATO forces in the East, discovered that fighting these Vikings was incredibly easy and exhilarating; these guys were so weak in combat.

As a result, the Teutonic troops encountered almost no resistance along the way, and the Teutonic troops attacking Denya received news of the Denya government's surrender just four hours after the attack began.

Of course, one reason for this was that the Teutonic paratroopers who had learned Old Joe's tactics, though few in number, had begun besieging the Prime Minister's office and the royal palace in Denya, leading the Denya government to believe that the main force of the Teutons had reached the capital.

If they can reach the capital in just two hours, what's the point of fighting? We might as well surrender.

After capturing Dania, which could completely cut off shipping lanes, the Teutons did not stop their attacks.

Despite the navy's poor performance, the Teutonic Navy, enraged by the Führer's actions, launched a full-scale attack on the port of Norwegia, which controlled the northern fjords.

The air force, which has always performed well, mobilized its entire force this time, organizing a large-scale bombing and airborne operation comparable to the blitzkrieg in Gaul.

Although the Norwegian defenders were overwhelmed by the Teutonic forces' combined attacks in the first few hours of the war, and many units were even captured by Teutonic paratroopers, they began to organize resistance by noon.

Unfortunately, compared to the small territory of Dania, the long and narrow shape of Norvegia proved to be a huge advantage at this time.

While the southern troops were stunned by the Teutonic attack, the northern troops, after recovering from the initial shock of the attack, quickly began to organize to move south to support the operation.

However, in Germania at this moment, the Führer was not happy about the current results, but instead looked at the map in front of him with a solemn expression.

This day might be an auspicious day for launching a surprise attack, on the same day, or even at the same time, as the Teutons invaded Dania and Norvegia.

Old Joe also launched an offensive on the southern front, acquiring reinforced NATO forces and launching a large-scale offensive in the Habsburg direction.

NATO paratroopers even airdropped directly into Vienna's airport, not only seizing the airport but also capturing two air force squadrons stationed there.

Subsequently, a large number of lightly armored units began to advance from the airport into the city of Vienna.

At the border, an infantry corps also suffered heavy losses in a surprise attack, and its defenses were breached.

Old Joe's offensive in the South caught the Führer off guard.

The Führer had not anticipated that just two months after the Battle of Warsaw, Old Joe would launch another offensive. Moreover, Old Joe was again targeting the southern front. Unlike the north, which had a host of neutral countries, the south was almost entirely comprised of the Teutonic Kingdom's smaller allies. Even if Old Joe managed to advance all the way to the coastline, it wouldn't change the status quo; after all, the Italians still held some influence in the Mediterranean.

After staring at the map for a while, the Führer suddenly had an unbelievable thought: Could it be that Old Joe is trying to cut off my fuel supply lines?!
Upon thinking of this, the head of state felt a chill run down his spine.

Meanwhile, in Old Joe's command post, Old Joe was rubbing his head and looking at the map in front of him.

Damn it, the Teutons are really wicked!
The plan to move south to cut off or harass the Teutonics' fuel transport lines was a very risky undertaking.

The core of this plan was to exploit the mountainous terrain of the south to drive obstacles into the Teutonic transport routes, and to use the superior equipment and training of NATO-affiliated infantry to play hide-and-seek with the Teutonics in this complex terrain.

At this time, in addition to having troops deployed in the northern dark continent and on the eastern front, the Teutons were also opening a new front in the south. As long as the Teutons could not conjure soldiers from thin air, they would inevitably spread their troops across each front.

At the same time, as long as the Teutonics' fuel supply is threatened and their fuel security is affected, and as long as the Teutonic tanks and aircraft have not yet awakened their machine spirits and can continue fighting without fuel, their combat effectiveness will definitely be affected.

Then the war will be easier to fight.

But what Old Joe didn't expect was that these Teutons were also unscrupulous. While he was causing trouble on the southern front, these Teutons were also causing trouble in the north.

They were actually planning to cut off the northern air route directly.

And from the current perspective, they have already succeeded.

Damn it! Those trash from Dania surrendered after only four hours!

Although the Norwegians were still resisting, and even their diplomats were now requesting an audience outside their command post, Old Joe knew with his toes that there was only one reason this guy was coming to see him at this time: to ask for his help.

From any perspective, I had no way of refusing their request for help.

But Old Joe, who had already begun the Southern campaign, now only had his last strategic reserves at his disposal: an infantry division composed of the so-called Old Wagner, an observation group from the United States, and airborne troops from NATO forces.

These elite troops were Old Joe's last trump card and his battlefield firefighting force.

Unless absolutely necessary, Old Joe did not want to deploy these troops so easily into the battlefield.

However, after the Teutons occupied Denya and cut off the Baltic shipping route, if the Teutons were to occupy Norwegia as well, NATO would be almost completely blocked.

Although backed by the People's Revolutionary Alliance, NATO is not in dire straits.

However, this would certainly put them at a strategic disadvantage.

If he were to send troops himself, Norwegia would have a land link with northern Pragia, and even if he only managed to hold northern Norwegia, Old Joe wouldn't be completely cut off from all external communication channels.

So after hesitating for a moment, Old Joe gritted his teeth and decided that Norvegia had to be saved. If they joined NATO, he would provide them with support. Given the dire situation, he had no choice but to take his own men there.

Things had deteriorated to this point, and when they received news from Old Joe that joining NATO would bring support, the King of Norwegia joined almost without hesitation! Of course we must join!

If NATO weren't by invitation only, we would have wanted to join long ago!

It is an honor for us to have Old Joe command our army!

Faced with Norwegia's smooth-talking offer to join NATO, Old Joe had nothing to say and immediately began organizing a task force to help Norwegia.

In response to the sudden Norwegian campaign, Old Joe's minimum objective was to at least preserve Norwegian territory within the Arctic Circle.

Although navigation conditions within the Arctic Circle are poor, and there is a freezing period every year, given the current situation, as long as we can obtain a port for external communication, we can't be too picky now.

However, before heading to Norwegia to fight, Old Joe, thinking that if he was unhappy, he couldn't let the Führer have an easy time either, launched Operation Paris Express on the same night that he launched Operation Vulture.

Charles took the lead in directing that special prisoner-of-war rescue operation.

Although Joe had driven into their homeland several times, in general, facilities like prisoner-of-war camps were primarily designed to prevent internal invasion but not external invasion.

After all, the Teutons held these prisoners of war not only to extort resources from Gaul, but also to fill the labor shortage that would result from a large number of young men joining the army.

So these prisoners of war either had to go out and repair bridges and roads, or they had to stay in the POW camp and drive screws until they were oblivious to the world around them.

Therefore, even this level of defense, which only protects against internal threats but not external ones, was essentially like a thin sheet of paper to Wagner's paratroopers and special forces.

As the operation began, with a large number of bombers entering Teutonic territory, transport aircraft also began to enter Teutonic territory under the cover of bombers.

Because such large-scale raids on prisoner-of-war camps had been rare in past wars, the guards in these camps, even when they heard the sound of airplane engines, assumed it was just a group of aircraft carrying out an air raid flying overhead.

Then soon, the guards in these prisoner-of-war camps discovered that the situation seemed to be slightly different from what they had imagined.

As gunshots rang out in the darkness, guards on the POW camp watchtower fell from the tower like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

They didn't even see anyone before their defenses began to crumble.

There was no other way. After all, the troops that were assigned to guard the POW camp were usually the lowest of the lowest units in the Teutonic order of battle, while the troops that Old Joe sent to raid the POW camp were undoubtedly elite, even among NATO's elite forces.

Fifteen minutes later, the troops cleared the prisoner-of-war camp of guards, except for those who reacted quickly enough to lay down their weapons and surrender.

While calling for transport aircraft to prepare to land and pick up the prisoners, the evacuation of prisoners of war began.

Because the operation took much less time than expected, Wagner's troops even had time to conduct brief and quick trials of the guards at the prisoner-of-war camp while waiting for the transport planes to land.

They pulled out the surrendered guards and medical personnel and asked the prisoners of war if they were good people. If they were good people, they would be taken away; if they were not, they would be shot on the spot.

(End of this chapter)