Trench Bolts and Magic

Chapter 151 A Tough Nut to Crack (Bonus Chapter 110 for the Silver Alliance)

The name Ludendorff is familiar to anyone with even a slight understanding of the history of World War I.

Morin was no exception.

As he held that slightly chubby but strong hand and looked at the man before him who, in another world, would eventually become the Quartermaster General of the Saxon Empire and even participate in a famous 'beer hall offline event' after the war, an extremely unreal feeling welled up in his heart.

Master Lu is alive!
It's such a wonderful feeling, like you're looking at a famous painting in a museum, and suddenly someone in the painting comes out and shakes your hand.
Ludendorff seemed to notice Morin's surprise, a hint of curiosity flashing in his eyes hidden beneath his slightly plump eyelids: "Captain Morin, have we met before? Your reaction is as if you know me."

"Ah, no, no, Your Excellency General."

Morin quickly replied that he couldn't very well say he had seen you in a history book in his past life.

"I've been to the General Staff Headquarters a few times before and have heard of your great name, but I never expected to meet you here."

This explanation isn't entirely unreasonable.

Ludendorff forced a kind smile, a smile that made him look like a kind old neighbor rather than the general who would later be known for his iron fist and ruthlessness.

"I see. I didn't realize I was quite famous among you young people."

He released his grip, and the conversation quickly returned to the current battle.

Ludendorff frowned again as he glanced at the dejected soldiers of the 14th Infantry Brigade who were being regrouped not far away.

"I just heard you say that General Wu Suo of the 14th Brigade was killed in action?"

"Yes, Your Excellency General." Morin nodded, his mood becoming heavier. "He was killed in action while leading his troops in the night raid just now."

Ludendorff was silent for a moment, then sighed heavily.

"Wuso is a brave officer, but he is too impulsive."

He looked around at the battlefield that had just witnessed a massacre, and finally gave the order: "From now on, I will temporarily take command of the 14th Infantry Brigade."

The surrounding officers immediately stood at attention, and no one raised any objections.

As a senior observer sent by the General Staff and also the deputy chief of staff of the Second Army, Ludendorff's rank and authority were sufficient for him to make this decision.

"Captain Morin."

Ludendorff turned to look at Morin.

"Tell me the specifics of the Liege fortress, especially the daytime attack. Why did it turn out this way?"

"Reporting to the general, I have just arrived at the front line with my troops and do not know much about the daytime battle situation."

Morin answered truthfully:
"All I know is that the 'Meuse River Combat Group' suffered heavy casualties today. When our battalion arrived at the rear, the field hospital was almost full of wounded soldiers."

"So what do you think of the night raid just now?" Ludendorff pressed.

"A complete disaster," Morin replied bluntly. "Sending soldiers into open areas illuminated by searchlights without effective fire suppression or understanding the enemy's defensive deployment is no different from sending them to commit suicide."

Hearing Morin's blunt assessment, the expressions of several of Ludendorff's staff officers turned somewhat grim, but Ludendorff himself nodded, seemingly agreeing with Morin's view.

After a moment of silence, Ludendorff then turned his gaze to Morin.

“I’m a little surprised, Captain Morin. I always thought that elite units like the Training Assault Battalion would be at the forefront of the attack. Why did you only join the battle tonight?”

His tone was calm, but Morin detected a hint of questioning in it.

Morin gave a wry smile to himself. He couldn't very well say that General Bilo treated them like precious treasures and was afraid they would get hurt, could he?
He could only bite the bullet and reply, "Reporting to the general, our battalion only arrived at the front this afternoon, and our first order was to protect the supply trains in the rear."

"Protect the supply train?"

Ludendorff's eyebrows twitched involuntarily, and the officers behind him exchanged strange glances.

Sending an elite assault battalion directly under the General Staff to guard a warehouse is indeed a rather puzzling move.

Ludendorff gave Morin a deep look, as if trying to read something from his face.

But he quickly looked away and didn't ask any further questions.

He knew that there must be some complicated interpersonal relationships involved behind this, which was not something he, a temporary 'observer', should be concerned with.

"Alright, let's not talk about these things anymore." Ludendorff waved his hand. "Now, I want to go up and check the situation."

"General!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a colonel staff officer next to him immediately spoke up to dissuade him.

"It's dark now, the situation at the front is unclear, and there has just been a battle. It's too dangerous!"

Morin quickly added, "General, now is indeed not the right time to go to the front lines; the enemy's searchlights are still flashing everywhere."

Ludendorff remained unmoved. He glanced at Morin and said in an unquestionable tone, "With the General Staff's direct training assault battalion here, what is there to be afraid of?"

Upon hearing this, Morin immediately felt immense pressure.

Damn, that's some high praise. If I were to make you lose even a hair, the General Staff would skin me alive.
Although he had confidence in the abilities of the veterans in the 1st Company, this was, after all, a battlefield where bullets and shells had no eyes.

If Ludendorff were to die here, who would he turn to for justice?

"General, it's not a question of whether we're here or not; it's just too dangerous," Morin said, forcing himself to speak.

"What, Captain Morin, do you have no confidence in your troops?" Ludendorff retorted.

“Of course not!” Maureen immediately straightened her back. “I’m just worried about your safety.”

"My safety is in your hands." Ludendorff patted Morin on the shoulder, then walked ahead first, giving Morin no chance to object.

Well, now we're being forced into this situation.

Helpless, Morin could only turn to Kleist and Manstein and order: "Kleist, you lead the main force of the battalion to deploy in the rear and be ready to provide support at any time! Manstein, you come with me!"

Then he shouted to Klaus, the acting company commander of the 1st Company, "Klaus, take the 1st Platoon of the 1st Company and escort the General with me!"

"Yes, sir!"

And so, Morin, with a platoon of elite soldiers surrounding Ludendorff and his staff, cautiously made his way toward the area where the battle had just taken place.

The night was deep, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and blood. The ground beneath our feet was littered with craters and scattered equipment.

In the distance, the massive outline of Baxiong Fortress resembled a lurking monster, and the searchlight beams on the fortress swept across the area from time to time, putting immense pressure on the small team that was stealthily moving in the night.

They finally reached the flank of the grove of trees, the place where the 1st Company had previously ambushed the enemy's counter-attack force.

From here, you can clearly see the entirety of Baxion Fortress.

Ludendorff and his staff immediately raised their binoculars and carefully observed the distant fortress.

As Morin watched their actions, his heart pounded with anxiety.

Guys, take it easy! This isn't some tourist spot! "The searchlights are too much trouble."

Ludendorff lowered his binoculars and pointed to the beams of light sweeping back and forth across the night sky in the distance:

"With these things around, any of our nighttime operations will be detected in advance. We suffered a great loss because of this during the night raid just now."

His staff members nodded in agreement; in the face of these blinding beams of light, the cover of darkness was almost meaningless.

Ludendorff raised his binoculars again, observed carefully for a while, and then sighed: "Captain Morin is right, this place is tough to crack from the inside out."

After the failed night raid and the successful counterattack, the defenders of Baxion Fortress were clearly more vigilant.

The searchlights were scanning much faster than before, and figures could be vaguely seen moving around the machine gun emplacements and artillery positions above the fortress.

In this situation, let alone large-scale night raids, even small-scale infiltration becomes extremely difficult.

Ludendorff seemed to realize this as well, and he looked at Morin with some regret: "What a pity. If the 14th Brigade hadn't been so impulsive in launching the night attack, you and your training assault battalion might have actually had a chance to sneak past."

Morin was startled; he hadn't expected Ludendorff to know so much about him and the training commando battalion.

"General, you..."

"I've heard about your battles in the Kingdom of Aragon, and I'm not the only one."

Ludendorff seemed to read Maureen's mind, smiled, and said:
"Many people in the General Staff are very interested in the 'assault tactics' you proposed."

We even organized a special team to conduct a detailed analysis and wargame simulation of your battles in Aragorn. The results were quite interesting.

Ludendorff continued:

"Under certain conditions, your tactics, which are centered on elite infantry and emphasize firepower, mobility and surprise attacks, can indeed achieve combat effectiveness far exceeding that of conventional troops. That is why the General Staff approved the establishment of the Training Assault Battalion and appointed you as its commander."

At this point, Ludendorff's gaze returned to the distant fortress, a hint of anticipation in his eyes: "So, Captain Morin, now facing this fortress, do you still have a way to recreate the miracle of Aragorn? Even if it's just a small-scale infiltration?"

Faced with Ludendorff's expectations, Morin remained silent.

He knew that Ludendorff wanted him to do what he had done in Aragon: to sneak into the fortress undetected with a small, elite squad, create chaos from within, and create an opportunity for the main force outside.

All eyes were now focused on Morin.

They all hoped that this young officer, who had repeatedly achieved miracles, could bring them another surprise.

However, Morin slowly shook her head.

"General, I'm afraid it will be difficult. The soldiers of the assault battalion are essentially ordinary people. They just receive different training and are equipped with different weapons. They are not invincible superheroes."

Morin pointed to the fortress in the distance and calmly analyzed the situation.

"After the daytime assault and the night raid, the defenders of Baxiong Fortress are now fully prepared with searchlights and flares, and together with the outer barbed wire and trenches, they form a defensive system with almost no blind spots."

"Under these circumstances, even if I were to force my way in with the training assault battalion, I would only be torn to shreds by their machine guns and magic crystal cannons, resulting in unnecessary casualties."

“This is not cowardice, General.”

Morin met Ludendorff's gaze earnestly; at this moment, he would not try to be stubborn.

"In fact, this fortress complex is an extremely difficult-to-break-through stronghold from the ground."

The staff officers behind Ludendorff showed expressions of disappointment, but Ludendorff himself remained calm and simply gestured for Morin to continue.

“Actually, before the battle just now, I took some men to the front line to observe. I was thinking about whether we could use earthwork to dig trenches or tunnels to get close to the foot of the fortress.” Morin continued, “I wanted to see if we could use earthwork to dig trenches or tunnels to get closer to the foot of the fortress.”

"For this reason, I even checked the soil quality in the vicinity."

"Based on my observations, there is a large amount of limestone distributed underground in the Liege region."

“If we dig from the ground, we will first encounter a relatively soft layer of loess or alluvial layer, which may only be about one meter deep. But soon, we will encounter the extremely hard limestone bedrock below.”

"Moreover, this limestone bedrock is not a single, flat layer of rock. Its distribution is completely irregular. We might be digging forward when we suddenly encounter a huge limestone block blocking our way. It would be absolutely impossible for us infantrymen to dig it out with just our entrenching tools and shovels."

Morin's analysis surprised the staff members present.

They were all experienced professional soldiers, but none of them actually studied the geological structure of the war zone in detail before the battle.

“Even more deadly,” Morin emphasized, “is that, according to the intelligence I’ve gathered from the wounded and the officers who have been evacuated, the fortress is equipped with a large number of magic crystal cannons.”

"I have encountered this weapon in the Kingdom of Aragon. The shells it fires are similar to those of a mortar, which can explode in the air and cause widespread damage through shrapnel. It poses a great threat to infantry that are digging in open areas."

"It is very likely that the enemy will only need a few salvos to wipe out our troops responsible for digging in the open trenches."

After listening to Morin's analysis, Ludendorff's brows finally furrowed tightly.

He raised his binoculars again, glanced at the sturdy fortress, and then sighed heavily.

“You’re right, this is indeed a tricky problem.”

He put down his binoculars, his face filled with regret and helplessness.

"The large magical artifacts in the fortress pose a serious threat to our armored airships and greatly limit the strength of our air support. We can only consider long-range artillery bombardment, but as you have seen, the effect is not ideal."

"If even your assault battalion, which excels at infiltration, can't handle it, then relying solely on infantry to fill in the gaps is simply not going to allow you to take this fortress complex."

Ludendorff's tone carried a hint of resentment:
"It seems we have no choice but to execute the backup plan and bring in heavy artillery from the country. But this will delay us by at least a week, or even longer. The entire operational timetable set by the General Staff will be disrupted."

Morin knew that the siege artillery Ludendorff was referring to was the 420mm 'Big Berta' heavy howitzer produced by the Knuber Arms Factory.

In the history he knew, the Liege fortress was indeed eventually breached by such heavy artillery.

However, the Liège Fortress in this world, enhanced by magical technology, has clearly become an 'enhanced version'.

Molin wasn't sure if the 'Great Berta' could still deliver a decisive blow like it did in another timeline.

"actually."

Looking at the searchlight sweeping back and forth in the distance, Morin pondered for a moment before continuing:
"If there's a way to get our people across those last few hundred meters of death zone and directly inside the fortress, we're confident we can unleash the full potential of the training assault battalion."

Ludendorff: "But the problem is that those last few hundred meters now seem like an insurmountable chasm."

One fat, one thin; one old, one young.

Two soldiers, souls from different worlds, both troubled by the impregnable fortress before them, stood side by side and simultaneously let out a long sigh.

Ludendorff sighed because he felt that the General Staff's operational plan, which was accurate to the minute, was about to collapse completely because of the small Liege fortress, and all subsequent military operations would be severely affected.

Morin sighed because he was worried that the course of history had not changed much in this modified world.

He could almost see his newly acquired 20 million Imperial Marks turning into loaves of bread worth 500,000 Marks each at a visible speed—and that was the price in the morning!

(End of this chapter)