Chapter 13: Spread One Rumor, Destroy One Nation
Just now during the fierce battle, Lelouch was busy directing the soldiers of the Communications Platoon to send telegrams with bombardment calibration information, with no time to observe the battlefield situation, so many details were temporarily overlooked by him.
Now that the battle had finally ended, after calming down and carefully reviewing and analyzing, he quickly discovered some unusual clues:
“Right, earlier our army used heavy firepower at the 150 caliber level to bombard the enemy, but why was there no counteraction at all from the enemy? Didn’t they have a cruiser providing fire support? I remember that ship was there all day yesterday and this morning too, so why did it disappear at the critical moment? There must be a conspiracy!”
Lelouch wasn’t certain yet, so he hurriedly asked the officer responsible for reconnaissance and observation:
“Lieutenant Barrack, do you remember during our bombardment of the Belgian Army earlier, did the enemy use heavy cannons at the 150 caliber level to counterattack? Was that cruiser on the sea surface still there?”
Lieutenant Barrack recalled for a moment: “Yes! The observation post I set up on the Church Bell Tower indeed didn’t see any trace of the warship!”
“So what do you think this indicates? Could it be that they ran out of artillery shells?” Colonel Lister asked very seriously.
Lelouch shook his head decisively: “I don’t think that’s likely; their cumulative ammunition expenditure shouldn’t be that high—I suspect it was dispatched for a more important mission.”
Colonel: “A more important mission?”
Lelouch: “I wouldn’t dare to say for sure, but could it be that they got scared from being hit, felt that annihilating our breakout was hopeless, and switched to trying to evacuate the Belgian Army by sea?”
Lelouch’s words immediately caused an uproar in the Regimental Headquarters Operations Room, clearly few people believed it:
“How many people can one cruiser carry? And Ostend doesn’t even have a proper port.”
Lelouch knew his statement lacked basis, so he humbly accepted everyone’s doubts for now, while his mind continued to calculate rapidly.
The reason such a strange suspicion suddenly popped into his head was entirely because for a moment, he felt the current situation was too similar to the Dunkirk evacuation in Earth’s history, and the navy opposite was also Britannia’s… wait!
At this thought, a piece of information suddenly flashed through Lelouch’s mind:
“It’s now 1914, and the Britannia Naval Minister isn’t that Walton Spencer? I remember he was later forced to resign due to the defeat in the Battle of the Dardanelles Strait. And twenty-seven years later, in the next world war, it was he who organized the real Dunkirk…”
Who would have thought! Twenty-seven years early, and the opponent is still that fat guy!
Is this destiny!
If it’s him, then everything makes sense!
Seeing him not responding for a long time, the colonel couldn’t help but pat his shoulder: “If you’ve thought of something, just say it, no pressure—this is just discussion.”
Lelouch took a deep breath, then organized his words: “Indeed, one cruiser can’t evacuate three divisions, but I think it can at least take away the Royal Family and the cabinet leadership. Currently, I have no ironclad proof, but before the war I read a lot of Britannia’s public information and consider myself to have some understanding of that Britannia Naval Minister Walton.
He is a man who will use any means to achieve his ends, and he’s very daring in taking risks. The disappearance of that Lin Xian Class cruiser can also indirectly support my guess—right now in this nearby sea area, what naval mission could have higher priority than bombarding Nieuwpoort on the spot to provide fire support for the Belgian Army? Most likely, it’s only rescuing the King!”
At these words, everyone was shocked.
From a rational perspective, the colonel also felt this theory was too far-fetched.
But considering Lelouch had already had two miraculous and accurate insights before, and had saved his regiment with such keen insight.
After weighing it, the colonel was still willing to give him another chance to explain: “Personally, I’m willing to believe your judgment, but unfortunately we can’t convince superiors with such speculation. And even if it’s all true, we’re too late to intercept, right?”
Lelouch nodded in acknowledgment: “Indeed! We can’t intercept the King. If that Lin Xian Class has already acted, within three to five hours it will surely pick up the people and depart from the coastline outside Imperial Army control. And the Imperial Navy couldn’t make it from Wilhelmshaven in time…
But we can fully exploit this possibility to gain some other benefits. For example, we can request the Division Headquarters or Army Group Headquarters, just like this morning, to organize a batch of reconnaissance aircraft, and print a new batch of leaflets with the content: ‘Britannians have taken Albert I away, you Belgian Army officers and soldiers left guarding Ostend have been abandoned! Why still fight to the death for those despicable kings!’
Right now the Belgian Army’s morale is already down to the level of ‘refusing to attack, just unwilling to surrender immediately’; if we give it another push, maybe they’ll surrender directly! That would be a great achievement!”
The Belgians’ morale was already on the verge of total collapse. At this point, a little spark could completely set it off!
“If successful, it means we might directly annihilate the Belgian Army?” After figuring out the possible benefits of this move, the colonel finally got excited and decided to fully support Lelouch’s plan.
He was now only worried about how to convince his superior.
But Lelouch’s next words quickly dispelled his last doubts: “Sir! You’re still worried about insufficient evidence to convince the Division Commander? I don’t think we need to worry at all! We’re doing this to strike the enemy’s morale; even making up rumors is fine! Does spreading rumors require evidence?
If I’m wrong, King Albert will surely show his face to reassure the Belgian Army, so at least we’ll know the King hasn’t run. And we won’t suffer any loss ourselves; at worst, the rumor forces out the truth.
But if he can’t show his face to refute the rumor, it proves we didn’t make it up, and then the Belgian Army’s morale will completely collapse!”
“Hiss—” Colonel Lister and all the officers in the Regimental Headquarters office were left gasping by Lelouch’s words.
How exactly is this young man’s brain wired?
Why can he say something like “I’m making up rumors anyway, what evidence do I need” with such righteous indignation?
For a moment, the colonel even had a thought flash through his mind: With your credibility, you have the nerve to call the opposite Walton Minister “using any means”?
Little did they know, when it comes to playing dirty… heh, Lelouch in his previous life had been tempered in a world of high-intensity rumor-mongering and debunking battles.
“Alright, you’ve convinced me. I’ll send a telegram to the Division Headquarters right now requesting cooperation from above. But it’s already past 3 p.m., so we definitely can’t act today; no need to rush. Wait until night to prepare the reconnaissance aircraft and mimeograph leaflets, and move out at dawn tomorrow.
Fortunately, the Belgian Army is completely demoralized and refusing to launch any more attacks. Tonight should be relatively easy to get through; as long as we hold off the French Army’s attacks from the west. Lelouch, you focus on communicating with Division Headquarters about the psychological warfare, and the other units handle position defense.”
The colonel finally made the decision and assigned tasks to the officers.
He was also thinking “hit first and see”—no loss if the rumor is debunked, huge gains if it works, so why not spread it!
In war, all is fair.
……
At the same time as Colonel Lister accepted Lelouch’s judgment and approved his plan.
In Ostend, inside Albert I’s temporary palace, Lieutenant General Felix was also holding a telegram from Britannia Naval Minister Walton, persuading the King to prioritize the Royal Family’s safety and the nation’s welfare.
“No! I absolutely will not abandon my army and people! Nor will I leave Belgian soil! I will stand or fall with the land! And don’t you know, at this critical juncture, if word gets out that I ran first, morale will collapse completely! You’re confused! This will ruin important matters!”
After reading the telegram, Albert I threw it away and loudly scolded his Chief of Staff.
Lieutenant General Felix didn’t dare wipe the spittle from his face, just quietly listening until His Majesty finished venting.
But fortunately, before delivering this telegram, he had already privately discussed with the friendly nation’s Walton Minister, mentioned the King’s temperament, and told Walton Minister not to hold too much hope.
And the cunning old Walton Minister had already rehearsed countermeasures with him for persuasion.
So at this moment, after His Majesty calmed down a bit, Felix confidently advised euphemistically: “Your Majesty need not worry about leaks; during the withdrawal, the palace guard won’t move at all, nothing unusual on the surface, everything kept strictly secret.
Additionally, Walton Minister is very sincere; he said as long as our army holds out a few more days, he will assemble a fleet to evacuate our entire army as much as possible—the great Britannia Royal Navy has the capability. So Your Majesty won’t be abandoning the officers and soldiers.
It’s just because Ostend has shallow and small ports, unable to accommodate too many ships at once; large ships must anchor offshore and use small boats for transfer, so it has to be in batches. Your Majesty is just leaving one or two days earlier than the other officers and soldiers, that’s all.
Finally, Walton Minister also said he won’t require Your Majesty to leave Belgian soil; this trip west, the escort ships will sail entirely within Belgian territorial waters 12 nautical miles off the coast, and after reaching the border river at the Franco-Belgian border, they will turn inland, switch to small boats to Ypres—
Ypres now has the Britannia Expeditionary Force stationed, with strong forces, and it’s our Belgian soil. Your Majesty is just passing from one piece of national territory through national territorial waters to another piece of national territory—how could that be considered fleeing?”
The Ypres Salient area is located directly south of the currently fiercely contested Nieuwpoort, Ostend, and De Panne, south of the Yser River Flooded Area.
In Earth’s history, the Ypres Salient was continuously defended by the Britannia Expeditionary Force until the end of the war in 1918, never fully lost. Britannia and Germania fought four major battles there, nearly one per year, with both sides suffering nearly a million meat-grinder casualties. Even that “little mustache corporal” incident of gas poisoning his eyes happened during the Third Battle of Ypres.
This land is about 5% of Belgium’s total area; historically, Belgians relied on this small piece not being lost to insist they hadn’t perished as a nation, not a government in exile.
So at this moment, when Albert I heard that the friendly nation’s Walton Minister had thought so thoroughly for him, just a strategic transfer to Ypres, which is also national soil, rather than directly fleeing abroad, Albert I’s resolve finally wavered.
“Very well, since it’s not fleeing but changing places to continue resisting, then I’ll listen to you—strategic transfer! If I don’t go, how dare other officers and soldiers go first?” His Majesty the King finally made the decision.
Lieutenant General Felix: “Your Majesty is wise; the great Britannia Royal Navy’s Bold light cruiser is about to arrive. I will prepare the ferry boats now, and then under cover of night when the officers and soldiers are asleep, we can board unnoticed.”
Albert I waved his hand irritably: “You arrange these details yourself.”
Lieutenant General Felix thought for a moment, then added a question: “Then, for the list of accompanying personnel, shall Your Majesty draft it personally?”
Albert I: “Just take all Royal Family members and a small core guard detail; if there’s remaining capacity, you decide which officers go first—prioritize wounded officers!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Lieutenant General Felix gained the authority to draft the evacuation list, perfect for slipping in his own people.
Two hours later, before midnight, Albert I and the other priority leaders to evacuate were all ferried over by small boats and safely boarded the Bold cruiser.
The cruiser quietly accelerated, keeping the boiler and smokestack noise low, never sounding the whistle, and slipped away stealthily toward Dunkirk, then switching to small boats to Ypres.
……
At the same time as Albert I’s strategic transfer.
The request telegram issued by Lelouch in Colonel Lister’s name also reached Major General Karl Lutepod of the 12th Division.
When Major General Karl saw Lelouch’s scheme, his shock was no less than Colonel Lister’s.
“Hiss—without paying any cost, just spread a rumor to test the enemy’s situation? If lucky, if the rumor hits true, it might even cause the Belgian Army to collapse entirely? When did Lister come up with so many brilliant strategies and clever ideas?
His regiment definitely has a genius! No! It’s not him; it’s the genius in the Reconnaissance Company and Communications Platoon that arrived first as vanguard! Otherwise, it can’t be explained how they were already full of brilliant strategies before Lister arrived!”
For a moment, Major General Karl felt this sensitivity to conspiracies had exceeded the limits of honor-bound Germanian people.
But it had to be said, having such people as teammates was truly a blessing.
“After the campaign ends and we rescue Lister’s regiment, I must personally meet that miraculous junior officer! Promote him to the maximum! If his plan really forces the Belgian main force to surrender!”
Major General Karl got more excited thinking about it, even rubbing his hands like a fly at high frequency.
He didn’t know how many minutes he rubbed until his palms felt hot and sore, then he snapped back.
He then hurriedly had the signalman connect him to his eldest brother, the 6th Army Group Commander, Crown Prince of Baria Kingdom, General, Duke Rupprecht.
Yesterday he contacted his brother by telegram, but today it was telephone. Mainly because after another day of emergency construction, the signalmen had laid the emergency telephone branch line.
But during work, titles must be used, so after the call connected, Major General Karl just said: “Commander, the 16th Infantry Regiment inside the encirclement has discovered some new situation; enemy leadership may have fled, perhaps we can turn this to our advantage for possible countermeasures, specifically like this…”
“Hiss… Approved! Execute immediately!”
Duke Rupprecht on the other end of the phone gasped similarly after hearing, then immediately approved.
The reconnaissance aircraft just seconded yesterday didn’t need to be returned. The mimeograph machines could change content and keep printing.
Busy through the night, these preparations were finally ready.
At dawn, the freshly printed new leaflets were dropped again on the Belgian garrison’s heads, blanketing all of Ostend.
The moment the Belgian Army officers and soldiers received the leaflets, they instantly exploded.
Countless soldiers surged toward the temporary palace, wanting to confirm if His Majesty the King really ran, if they really were abandoned.
——
PS: Four thousand five hundred words; Friday need to take the kid to the doctor, tomorrow handle some follow-up for kid’s school enrollment, so combined into one big chapter.
Also, announcing two divine calculator readers, “Silently（Cloud Love）（Cloud Catch）” and “Lower Limb Slightly Luo”（ forgive my cultural level, don’t recognize the two characters in parentheses, it’s cloud radical plus the side radical）.
They both thought of the strategy for subsequent psychological warfare to break the enemy; I comprehensively drew from their book reviews to write such exciting conspiracies and stratagems.
Everyone applaud.
New book seeking comments, follows, collections, monthly tickets, thanks.
