1914, the night of October 27.
More than fifty hours had already passed since Lelouch crossed over into this world.
Within the city of Ostend, what had originally been the temporary residence of Biligin’s King Albert I had now been hastily cleared out and divided into several sections, converted into divisional headquarters for several divisions of Dermania’s 6th Army.
The traces once left behind by the Biligin army had also been hastily erased.
Not long after nightfall, Major General Karl Luitpold, commander of the 12th Division, arrived in a cloud of dust from the road.
There were no mobile phones in this era, so Colonel List had no way of keeping track of his superior’s movements. It was not until Major General Karl’s car stopped downstairs that he hurried out to greet him. “Division Commander! The 16th Regiment did not fail its mission. We held Nieuport and assisted the main force in annihilating the Biligin army! We captured more than twenty thousand prisoners in total!”
Karl nodded in great appreciation and patted List on the shoulder. “You are the great hero here. With such a brilliant victory, you will become a general very soon, and when the time comes, you’ll be able to command a division yourself. If you could hold off five divisions with just one regiment, what reason is there that you couldn’t be a division commander?”
Of course, promotion to general still required the General Staff to submit a recommendation for the Emperor’s decision, so Karl was only speaking casually for the moment.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Karl quickly turned the topic to someone else. “I’m very curious. Just what sort of person was it who so keenly predicted that the Biligin forces would blow the dikes to cut off our army, anticipated that the Britannians would try to spirit Albert I away, and even came up with the vicious scheme of ‘bringing ruin upon those who insisted on resisting,’ thereby completely breaking the Biligin army?”
Colonel List immediately swept his gaze left and right, only then realizing that Lelouch had not arrived yet. He quickly asked the people beside him, “Where is Lelouch?”
“Reporting, sir, someone has already gone to call him. He may have been sleeping too deeply. He should already be on his way,” a staff officer from regimental headquarters quietly smoothed things over from the side.
Fearing the division commander would take offense, List hurriedly put in a good word for him. “He must have overworked his mind these past two days and exhausted himself. But rest assured, Division Commander, he will certainly be here right away. Would you like a cup of coffee first to refresh yourself?”
Major General Karl, however, was in unusually good spirits and did not take issue with it. “It’s all right. Just lead the way. I’ll go see for myself what sort of rare talent he is.”
List could not help being startled by the division commander’s willingness to honor talent. He knew that the division commander was also of royal birth—the second son of Ludwig III, the current king of the Kingdom of Baria.
Although he was not the eldest son and would not inherit the throne in the future, for a prince and major general to be willing to personally go meet a sergeant major who had only just graduated from university showed a degree of regard that was already far from ordinary.
A short while later, the group turned through several corridors and arrived before a row of rooms temporarily serving as officers’ quarters.
Then, as it happened, they saw the door of one of the rooms suddenly open. A disheveled young man rushed out, adjusting his military cap as he walked. It was none other than Lelouch.
Lelouch rubbed his eyes, still bleary with sleep. Seeing Colonel List walking toward him, with a general at his side, he hurriedly stood at attention and saluted.
“So you are Lelouch… Sergeant Major? Truly young. List has already told me about your deeds.”
Major General Karl’s first reaction upon seeing Lelouch was also to reach out and turn over his collar, then lift his arm to look at his sleeve insignia and confirm his rank. Inwardly, he was deeply moved.
“I apologize, sir. I may have slept too heavily,” Lelouch explained politely. He said nothing unnecessary, appearing neither servile nor arrogant.
“One can imagine how much mental effort it must have taken to devise so many ingenious schemes.” Major General Karl nodded, then smiled with a faintly intrigued expression. “You rendered such great service to the Empire. Have you thought about what reward you want?”
Lelouch scratched his head. “I only just woke up. I haven’t decided yet…”
Major General Karl asked, “Then when you were fighting earlier, did you not think about this question either?”
Lelouch answered frankly, without the slightest concealment. “Please don’t laugh at me when I say this, sir. At the time, I was only fighting to survive. I knew that if we didn’t wipe out the Biligin forces completely, then it would be our Nieuport garrison’s turn to be wiped out.
“At the time, I had only one thought: to survive by any means necessary. After the battle ended, I didn’t have time to think about anything else either. I just wanted to get a proper sleep—I only managed to fall asleep on the night of the 25th. From the 26th onward, I couldn’t sleep at all.
“These past two days, I saw too many terrible sights of wounded and dead comrades. Whenever I closed my eyes, I would feel that while my brain was resting, unable to devise plans, countless comrades were using their lives to buy my mind time to cool down.”
Lelouch’s tone and expression were both extremely sincere, like a seagull that wanted no reward at all and only wished, once everything was over, to hurry down to the docks and get some fries first.
Major General Karl looked into his eyes and found himself even more astonished. He could tell that this young man was not lying.
This was the detachment of someone who truly did things, driven into battle by the most primal will to survive.
“Very good. The Empire needs focused men like you. List said just now that you were serving as acting platoon commander of the signal battalion’s wire-laying platoon with the rank of sergeant major, correct? Then I now formally promote you to lieutenant.
“This is not the final promotion decision, merely to match your rank with your post. The paperwork will be made up immediately. As long as you perform well, there will be more opportunities for rapid promotion afterward.”
Lelouch said, “Yes, General! I will continue to work hard!”
With Major General Karl’s divisional-level authority, in theory, the highest rank he could promote someone to was captain.
But Major General Karl could not directly adjust Lelouch’s position, because he belonged to the army group’s directly subordinate signal battalion rather than the 12th Division. Therefore, promotion to lieutenant was already sufficient to match Lelouch’s post.
Since that was the case, Major General Karl wanted to keep the chip of captain in reserve for now rather than throw it out in a hurry. Perhaps after speaking with Lelouch face-to-face today, this young man might bring him even more surprises.
Besides, Lelouch had been promoted far too quickly.
Back when he had first crossed over into this world, after only three hours, he had jumped from corporal straight to sergeant major.
Three days after crossing into this world, he had again jumped from sergeant major straight to lieutenant—extrapolating at this rate, wouldn’t he become a field officer in three months and a general within three years? That was far too exaggerated. Among officers not born into the nobility, where could there be such a young general?
Within the Dermanian army, the problem of seniority was very serious. Being promoted too quickly could also easily draw resentment, especially since Lelouch was still a foreigner. These were all obstacles, and in the future they would all require additional resistance to be overcome.
…
After dealing with the matter of promotion, Major General Karl’s interest was running high, and he wanted to pull Lelouch into another discussion about the outlook for the subsequent course of the war.
Lelouch was well aware that he had just received benefits, and now was exactly the time to produce some solid value to prove himself, so he basically answered every question.
He thought for a short while, then, based on his understanding of the enemy, put forward several suggestions to plug any gaps:
“Division Commander, in my view, although the Biligin forces in Ostend have been completely annihilated, this battle cannot be considered entirely finished. There is still some seemingly insignificant follow-up work that must be treated seriously.
“For example, I believe our army should withdraw from the town of Nieuport as soon as possible and on our own initiative, having the remaining local garrison move closer to Ostend in order to avoid greater losses.”
Upon hearing this suggestion, Major General Karl immediately turned to Colonel List beside him. “How many men did you leave in Nieuport?”
List promptly reported, “At noon, when I learned that the Biligin forces intended to surrender, I transferred two battalions with relatively intact organization and stronger mobility here to Ostend to take custody. The remaining two battalions, which were more fatigued and had suffered greater losses earlier, were left in Nieuport to hold off the Frankish army to the west for a while longer.
“However… sir, I believe that as long as we want to hold it, then even with only those two battalions, under conditions of sufficient reinforcements and supplies, holding off the Frankish army for a few more days will be no problem! So what if the Frankish army commits two divisions, or even three divisions in the future, to the attack?
“That area is now extremely constricted terrain. To the south is the flooded zone; to the north is the sea. The attacking frontage is extremely narrow. Our army has now opened up its rear route, and long-range heavy artillery of 150 millimeters and above will soon be able to reinforce us in an unbroken stream.
“If the Frankish army dares launch a frontal assault through a flat coastal road area only a few hundred meters wide, they will simply be seeking death! I can guarantee that along these twenty kilometers from Nieuport to Ostend, every single kilometer will make the enemy spill the blood of thousands upon thousands of men!”
Major General Karl nodded noncommittally. He also felt that, in principle, there was nothing wrong with List’s view.
After more than three months of bloody fighting, both sides in this world war had already vaguely realized one truth: in positional warfare, the attacking side suffered many additional disadvantages, while the defending side held all the advantages.
If the attacking side wanted to avoid suffering losses, it had to rely on mobile warfare, on outflanking and encirclement, finding the defender’s weak points, then surrounding the defender’s fortified nodes and cutting off their rear support.
But in situations where there was no room for outflanking maneuvers and only a head-on charge was possible, the attacker was bound to suffer heavy losses.
The current line from Dunkirk to De Panne to Nieuport to Ostend was the most typical example of “whoever attacks suffers dearly.” Because of the flooding and the barrier of the North Sea, there was only one road across a full forty kilometers, leaving absolutely no room for maneuver.
On such favorable ground, even if they were to retreat in orderly fashion, shouldn’t they at least make the Franks leave behind another hundred thousand lives?
“Lieutenant Lelouch, what is your view on this issue? Do you still insist that our army should directly abandon Nieuport?”
Major General Karl felt this was a good opportunity to test Lelouch’s mettle, so he was in no hurry to directly reject the suggestion and instead gave him a chance to explain his view in detail.
Lelouch had also expected that this would inevitably happen—the almost miraculous process by which he had devised plans before had all been displayed in front of Colonel List. General Karl had not seen it with his own eyes, so there would always be some suspicion.
Naturally, he had to seize this opportunity to show something substantive before the general and awe him.
Only then could he gain a more stable environment for development in the future.
Thus Lelouch calmly organized his words, then spoke with composed assurance. “Using terrain that cannot be outflanked to inflict major casualties on an enemy forced to launch a frontal assault is, of course, the orthodox way of war. But this line of thought may have left out one point…”