Two flowers bloom, each on its own branch.
The Biligin people sought outside aid from the Britannians, and all the wrangling, negotiating, and planning took up almost an entire day.
On the frontal battlefield, King Albert of Biligin, who had not yet fallen into complete despair, naturally would not allow his troops to simply give up and stop attacking.
Diplomatic appeals for help and breaking out by their own strength—neither hand could be relaxed. Both had to be held on to, teeth gritted, until the very end.
Because of Lelouch and Colonel Lister’s psychological warfare, Biligin morale was scattered and men’s hearts were wavering. The entire morning’s attack time on the 26th was almost entirely wasted.
The remnants of the Biligin 4th Division were transferred back to Ostend to change defense and cover the rear, while the 6th Division merely went through the motions. Every charge was easily repelled by the German army.
The pressure on Colonel Lister’s eastern side was greatly reduced; he could even spare more manpower to hold off the Frankish relief offensive to the west.
As a result, in a chain reaction, the Frankish attack also appeared relatively weak and was driven back by the Germans again and again.
The Franks did have more and more 75mm guns, but they still could not bring about a qualitative change in the situation of urban warfare.
In an urban area that had already been bombed broadly into ruins, 75mm shells, no matter how wildly they blasted the rubble, could not cause much damage. The defenders hiding on the reverse-slope side of piles of ruins could easily rely on the increasingly compacted wreckage to absorb the force of the shells and their fragments.
Unless the 75mm guns were pushed forward for direct fire, picking off firing points one by one, or much larger-caliber heavy artillery was used for indiscriminate coverage. Unfortunately, the Franks moved slowly and simply could not bring super-heavy artillery units to the front within a day or two. All they could do was sigh helplessly.
On the eastern front of the town of Nieuwpoort, the situation did not improve until around one or two in the afternoon, when the Biligin 1st Division—the unit with the highest morale and composed entirely of the king’s direct royalist loyalists—arrived at the front.
The commander of the Biligin 1st Division, Lieutenant General Albert Beckham, was absolutely loyal to His Majesty the King. Before he came, His Majesty had personally grasped his hand, shaking it hard and encouraging him again and again.
“The survival of the kingdom rests upon this battle. If even you, General, cannot break out, then Biligin will end here.”
His Majesty’s words struck Lieutenant General Beckham’s heart like a heavy hammer, making him resolve to serve to the death and save the motherland.
After the Biligin 1st Division arrived at the front, the troops rested for only a little over half an hour, ate lunch, and slightly recovered from the fatigue of the forced march before Lieutenant General Beckham ordered the whole army to launch a fierce attack regardless of cost!
To raise morale, the lunch for the officers and men of the Biligin 1st Division at noon today was extremely generous. Everyone received canned meat.
His Majesty the King also donated all the wine, ham, and other precious ingredients reserved for the royal family’s own use to reward the 1st Division.
The king even issued a full half-year’s military pay to all officers and men of the division in advance. All the royal family’s foreign currency in Britannian pounds was taken out and distributed among the soldiers, all of it gleaming gold and silver coins, yellow and white.
After making all preparations, Beckham first requested fire support from friendly forces. He hoped that the Britannian light cruiser that had been cruising the nearby waters yesterday would first plow the ground hard again with its 150mm guns.
Then the Biligin people themselves would concentrate the firepower of their few 75mm guns to provide cover. He even notified the Franks to the west, across the town, hoping that the Frankish army could also deploy their 75mm guns a few kilometers forward, use maximum elevation to fire over the entire town, and lob shells at the German defenses on the eastern side of the town, providing fire support for the Biligin army.
Unfortunately, Beckham’s idea was good, but when it came time to carry it out, he quickly discovered that his plan was missing a plank here and had a broken link there.
“General, the Franks say they are willing to push their 75mm guns forward to positions only about three kilometers from the western front, in order to fire over the town and hit the east.
“However, the Britannians cannot cooperate with us—their encrypted reply says that the cruiser Daring has suddenly been temporarily redeployed to prepare for a more important mission.”
“Motherfucking Britannian bastards! Dropping the ball at the critical moment! How many times in history have they sold out their allies already? What mission could be more important than helping me break out?” When Lieutenant General Beckham heard this, he hated them so much his teeth itched.
But the arrow was already on the bowstring and had to be loosed. He could not wait for the Royal Navy’s cooperation either. He immediately ordered half an hour of fire preparation, then a general charge!
……
Inside the town of Nieuwpoort, the artillery fire of the Franco-Biligin allied forces had never been as fierce as it was at this moment.
A group of officers and Lelouch were all holed up in the cellar of Colonel Lister’s regimental headquarters, each of them grave-faced, not daring the slightest slackening.
“The Biligin people must be insane! Their morale had already been shaken so badly by us, so how did they suddenly regain their spirit?” A staff officer clutched his head, cursing the enemy in extreme irritation, utterly unable to understand how such a situation could arise.
“Calm down! This is the enemy’s final madness!” The colonel’s face was ashen, his expression grave yet resolute.
“The colonel is right. The enemy must have been struck where it hurts most, which is why they’re cornered and lashing out. As long as we get through this wave, the enemy will undoubtedly collapse!” Seeing that the colonel had spoken first, Lelouch did not begrudge adding a few words in agreement.
Lelouch was not trying to flatter the colonel, nor did he want to offend anyone. He simply sincerely wanted to help stabilize morale.
The colonel cast him a brief, approving glance, then calmly made his deployments. “1st Battalion Commander, take all our 77mm guns to the western defensive line. Try to find an opportunity to observe the positions of the Frankish artillery. If you can counter-battery them, then do so.
“The enemy’s shells are already flying over our heads, which means the Frankish army must have pushed its artillery to the absolute forward limit. Otherwise, their range would not be enough. We can take this chance to carry out a round of counter-battery fire.”
The major in charge of the 1st Battalion hesitated for a moment, but in the end decided to give a reminder before carrying out the order.
“But if we move all the artillery to the western defensive line for counter-battery fire, then when the Biligin people charge up from the east later, we won’t have enough long-range firepower for anti-infantry work.
“Are we going to carry out elastic defense again and let the enemy infantry into the town for close-range fighting? Our casualties are almost more than we can bear.”
As soon as these words came out, quite a few other officers nodded inwardly as well, appearing deeply worried.
This issue could not be underestimated.
Fortunately, just as everyone was looking at one another, Colonel Lister gave them reassurance. “Since I dare make this decision, of course I have something to rely on. Our army still has a card in reserve—Lelouch, read out the reply from division headquarters that just arrived this afternoon!”
“Yes!” Lelouch immediately stood and pulled out a telegram to read.
“Division headquarters replies: After this division’s artillery regiment received the flood warning yesterday, it immediately turned back. It has now moved to the hills north of Diksmuide and has redeployed, established, and rebuilt its positions.
“In addition, last night this division requested instructions from army group headquarters, asking for urgent dispatch of long-range heavy artillery with a range of over fifteen kilometers to the same area. Last night, headquarters arranged the emergency dispatch, transported them overnight by train to Tielt, and before noon today urgently transferred them to Diksmuide by motor traction.”
This telegram had only just arrived after lunch, so most of the other officers still did not know about it. It was also because the great battle was imminent that the colonel had specially announced it now to mobilize and encourage morale in advance.
Some officers still had not reacted when they first heard the news. But a few with particularly good geography immediately understood.
For example, the major commanding the 1st Battalion, who had just been assigned the task. After thinking for only a few seconds, he immediately began gesturing over the military map on the table.
“Is it that small hilly area north of the town of Diksmuide? Division headquarters was cut off by the flood in the town of Diksmuide south of the Yser River, right? Looking at the map, the center of Diksmuide is eighteen kilometers from us, and that hilly area is sixteen kilometers from us. But if you draw a perpendicular line at a ninety-degree angle to the coastline, then the closest point from those hills to the coastal highway is only fourteen kilometers!
“So what division headquarters means is that although their main infantry force can’t come, through a night plus a morning of movement and redeployment, at least their artillery regiment can still join the battle and support us!”
After the 1st Battalion commander voiced this analysis, even the slowest and least professional officers in the room understood.
That was right! Although yesterday’s great flood had cut off the main force of the 12th Division, the widest part of the Yser River flood zone was only about ten kilometers on each bank, twenty kilometers in total.
But not every place was that wide. In some areas, the terrain was relatively higher, and the flood zone narrowed to only about fifteen kilometers.
At that distance, although infantry could not come to support them, part of the artillery could bombard the coastal highway across the flood zone!
After spending so much time moving and shifting, division headquarters had finally found artillery positions from which they could attack.
More importantly, the officers and men of the 16th Regiment all felt it: the division commander had not abandoned them, and the army group commander had not abandoned them either. The division and the army were using every method they could think of to participate in this battle with all their strength!
On the surface, it looked as if the frontal battlefield only had the infantry of the 16th Regiment holding the line, but in reality, they were not a single regiment fighting alone!
“With the divisional artillery regiment assisting, we’re secure now!” Several officers immediately relaxed, suddenly transforming from the “despair faction” into the “swift victory faction.”
Seeing this, the colonel frowned slightly and gave Lelouch another look. Lelouch hurriedly pointed at the telegram and reminded everyone:
“Everyone, don’t underestimate the enemy because of this either. Things aren’t as difficult as we imagined before, but they’re also not as easy as you now think. A distance of nearly fifteen kilometers is not short. The divisional artillery regiment’s howitzers cannot shell the coastal highway across the flood zone; their range is far from enough.
“Only the four long-barreled 105mm cannons in each division assigned to counter-battery missions can do it. Fortunately, division headquarters wasn’t idle last night either. They borrowed another eight guns from neighboring units and concentrated the cannons of three divisions for deployment together. In addition, the army group borrowed four prototype 150mm long-barreled cannons under development from Krupp’s proving ground in Aachen, and had them transported by train through the entire night.
“So we have twelve long-barreled 105mm cannons, and four long-barreled 150mm cannons of unknown model—best of all, among the Biligin and Frankish guns of 150mm and below, not a single type can reach this range. So shortly, our artillery can bombard the Biligin people unilaterally and at no cost! And the Biligin people cannot return fire against our artillery positions!
“The Empire has invested so much into long-range counter-battery cannons, but in previous campaigns there were few chances for them to show their worth. Now the Biligin people have released floodwaters to isolate north and south, but in doing so, they’ve handed the Empire precisely such an opportunity, allowing us to test the relevant tactics!”
When everyone heard this, their spirits were lifted.
Since ancient times, “I can hit you one-sidedly, while your range falls short and you can only watch helplessly as you take the beating, unable to fight back” had always been an extremely devastating situation for enemy morale.
No matter how much actual damage such an attack could cause, once such a situation appeared, the one being beaten was not far from completely giving up and sinking into despair.