“Your Majesty! Bad news! We just received word this morning: on the Nieuwpoort front, the 4th and 6th Divisions have fallen into disorder. Many soldiers—even two regiment commanders—have disobeyed orders and refused to attack again!”
“At present, the troops at the front are suffering a massive collapse of morale. Part of it is because they believed the Germanian propaganda, and part of it is because yesterday’s assault was simply too bloody.
“One colonel was killed in action; his regiment was almost entirely wiped out during the attack on the fortified positions. Two other regiments also suffered extremely heavy casualties. It is precisely these two worst-hit regiments that are now finding excuses to refuse the offensive, demanding at the very least to be rotated down for rest and reorganization.”
A little after seven o’clock that morning, inside King Albert I of Belgica’s temporary palace in Ostend, a group of civil officials and General Staff officers finally descended into complete panic and had no choice but to report this string of terrible news to him.
Albert I was still eating breakfast at the time. The whole affair left him so gloomy he could not even drink his coffee.
“De Broque! Explain this to me clearly. How exactly did all this happen? Why has the army fallen out of control again? Why is it that news unfavorable to us can never be kept sealed off!”
Albert I was utterly agitated, and seized upon Minister of War De Broque to demand accountability.
De Broque could only explain the problem in detail once more, adding in his own analysis as well. He was also quite helpless. “…So, Your Majesty, that is the whole situation. The 16th Regiment of the 12th Division, Germanian 6th Army, inside the encirclement has pulled so many vile and shameless little tricks again—leaflets, photographs, telegrams, releasing refugees. With this continuous series of blows, we truly have been overwhelmed and unable to block them.”
“They are devils!” Albert felt as though even his lips were dry and cracked, while the lingering taste of coffee in his mouth grew more and more bitter. “Didn’t you say you had already investigated? That the commander of the 16th Regiment, Colonel List, was merely an ordinary old-school officer? How could such a man come up with so many vicious schemes! This is hardly the first time!”
Minister De Broque said in embarrassment, “I am sorry, Your Majesty. We are incompetent! I have already done my utmost to investigate, but that is not the most important matter right now. We can only prioritize our energy on the more immediate crisis.
“And besides, I believe the problem may not lie with List’s 16th Regiment—this unit only hurried to Nieuwpoort after the flood. Before that, the enemy had already been producing clever move after clever move. There must be some capable figure among the first wave of enemy vanguard troops that originally arrived at Nieuwpoort.”
“Enough. We can review all this after the battle is over.” Albert waved his hand in disgust, his whole spirit seeming drained. Then he changed the subject and turned to Lieutenant General Felix.
“My Chief of the General Staff! You tell me, then—how should we respond to the military predicament before us?”
Lieutenant General Felix had already thought up an emergency plan before coming. He immediately snapped to attention, saluted, and said:
“I believe we need to withdraw the badly battered 4th Division and have them take over Ostend’s city defenses. Then we should draw several regiments from the main force of the 1st Division protecting Your Majesty and send them up for one final, desperate breakthrough! The enemy’s schemes to strike at our army’s morale are indeed powerful, but that power should still not be enough to directly collapse the army.
“The 4th Division is so weary of battle because, after repeated fierce attacks and bloody fighting, they still could not break through, and their casualties were too heavy. The enemy’s antiwar propaganda merely gave them a way to step down and avoid battle. If the 1st Division goes in, there should still be a slim chance of turning the situation around.”
Albert closed his eyes in sorrow. He knew that, according to the Chief of the General Staff, this was the final deathbed struggle, the last mad gamble of a cornered dog.
He could not help but worry. “And what if, after the 1st Division is sent up, they still cannot break through Nieuwpoort? Moreover, once the 1st Division leaves and the remnants of the 4th Division come over to defend Ostend, is there any possibility that our eastern defense line will fail first? The Baria 2nd Division of the Germanian 6th Army has been attacking our 1st Division east of Ostend all along!”
Lieutenant General Felix said, “That is why we can only transfer two regiments of the 1st Division for the relief. At least two other regiments must remain—one as Your Majesty’s guard regiment, and the other to hold the eastern defense line during the relief operation.
“It is less than twenty kilometers from here to Nieuwpoort. The relief can be completed within a morning. Relying on one relatively elite regiment to hold the eastern line against a morning’s assault by the Germanians should still be possible. The 1st Division is made up of Your Majesty’s most loyal direct troops. They will surely fight to the death and not retreat!”
Albert snorted coldly. “But you still have not said what we should do if they cannot.”
The king kept clinging to the question of the “worst possibility,” and Felix could not avoid it. He could only bite the bullet and say:
“If it truly comes to that… then we can only count on the Britannians to support us. It is not very realistic to expect the Frankian army to break through the Germanian defenses west of Nieuwpoort. The Frankian army is moving too slowly. As of midnight today, they may not even be able to gather two full-strength divisions in the directions of Dunkirk and De Panne.
“And even if they do fight, they will not fight as desperately as we do. We are breaking out for our very survival, while they are making a long-distance rush all the way here from Arras. Those Frankian soldiers must already be sick of fighting.
“The kingdom’s final hope should be the Britannian warships. We should have requested long ago that they dispatch the Channel Fleet, especially heavy-gun ships, to provide us with fire support.”
After hearing this, Albert could not help but curse Felix out again, calling him incompetent and demanding why he had not thought earlier of contacting their allies.
But Felix was also helpless. He was merely the Chief of the General Staff; he could not directly coordinate diplomatic aid.
The decision-making procedures of this era were cumbersome to begin with, and all countries handled affairs and mobilized forces very slowly. Yesterday, he had not yet realized the battle situation would deteriorate so quickly, so naturally he had not thought to immediately swallow his pride and seek foreign help.
Only after being harshly rebuked by the king did he rush off in a panic to contact foreign support.
……
That morning, the Belgicans’ secret cable requesting aid went round and round before first being delivered to the relevant diplomatic departments across the Channel,
and was then forwarded to 10 Downing Street. After the Prime Minister read it, it ultimately landed in the hands of the First Lord of the Admiralty he trusted, Wotton Leonard Spencer.
By the time this whole string of procedures was complete, it was actually already noon. Minister Wotton was eating lunch at the time, and only after the meal did he see the secret cable and the Prime Minister’s instructions.
“The Belgic army inside the encirclement has actually suffered such a serious wavering of morale? Surely the Belgicans won’t collapse across the board? How did the Germanians suddenly become stronger again? A single regiment actually held off a pincer attack from three Belgic divisions and one Frankian division?”
“What? The Germanians can actually resort to such vile, shameless, unscrupulous schemes as air-dropping photographs of the Belgic army blowing the dikes and releasing flooded Belgic refugees back to us? Are these still the Germanians I know? The enemy must have some expert advising them! Could some traitorous Britannian think tank have gone over to the enemy?”
As the minister with the deepest understanding of the Britannian Empire’s utterly immoral shit-stirring nature, Wotton’s first reaction upon seeing the Belgicans’ telegram of grievances was that he could not believe the one-track-minded Germanians had developed such brains.
His second reaction was to wonder whether some Britannian traitor had been giving the enemy advice.
It was just like two thousand years ago, when the Han people first began falling for Xiongnu schemes—their first reaction had been to wonder whether some vile traitor like Zhonghang Yue had appeared and was offering stratagems to the Xiongnu chanyu.
Diplomatic provocation and political fraud were the exclusive patents of those “glorious and great offshore balancers,” who had schemed to death generation after generation of continental hegemons. How could such things be allowed to spread to barbarian nations that only understood force?
However, right now was the time to focus on solving the problem. These questions could only be left for gradual handling in the future.
Minister Wotton suppressed all the displeasure in his heart and forced himself to calm down. After repeatedly reviewing the matter several times, he decided to first place a call to the Channel Squadron headquarters in Dover:
“Connect me to General Cecil! What? He’s gone to a meeting? I’ll give him ten minutes. Have him call me back within ten minutes! This is Wotton!”
Wotton angrily hung up the phone, lit a Havana cigar in a foul mood, and smoked it fiercely. By the time he had finished, the telephone rang as well.
“Your Excellency! I’m sorry, I really was in a meeting just now.” From the other end of the line, Vice Admiral Cecil Burney’s humble voice immediately came through.
Wotton said, “Which warship is currently closest to the Ostend front?”
Cecil replied, “Your Excellency, it is the Arethusa-class Daring. She is less than twenty nautical miles from Ostend and can arrive in an hour. That ship was dispatched the day before yesterday to destroy the enemy’s undersea cables near Nieuwpoort.”
Wotton said, “Arethusa-class? With a speed of twenty-eight knots? That is not bad. At least she is fast enough and steady enough. She’ll do. First have her go to Dunkirk to replenish and prepare, then await my orders at any time.
“I now need to communicate with the Belgic royal family. If their king is willing, or if the situation truly deteriorates to that point, we will need the Daring to rescue the king from the encirclement. Also, what is the condition of the other main warships in your Channel Squadron? Can they sortie at any time?”
“Er… They require some preparation time. As you know, my capital ships are all coal-burning pre-dreadnoughts. Before battle, replenishing fuel and ammunition and raising steam are all rather slow. And one capital ship is currently under maintenance,” Cecil complained helplessly.
Wotton was also an old navy man, so he naturally knew these basics perfectly well and did not make things difficult for his subordinate. “Then I will give you forty-eight hours at most. Preferably within twenty-four hours, have the entire squadron ready to sail.
“In addition, gather some civilian ships with large carrying capacity. If worst comes to worst, we may have to rely on the sea route from Ostend to rescue a portion of the surrounded allied troops.”
Vice Admiral Cecil was shocked. “Minister! That is completely useless. Ostend is not a major port. Even if we have large ships, they cannot berth there and will still need small boats to ferry people out. There is simply no possibility of rapidly withdrawing a large force by sea from that place!”
Wotton said, “That is not your concern! You just requisition the civilian ships and have the squadron ready to sortie!”
Vice Admiral Cecil said, “Yes, Minister!”
——
PS: Ah, fuck, my hand slipped.
This update was originally supposed to be before five in the afternoon, but just now I meant to hit save and ended up publishing it directly.
Let’s just count both of today’s updates as finished this morning.
Still, please keep commenting, following the updates, adding to favorites, and voting. Many thanks.