Chapter 149: Please Get Off The Highway, We Don’t Have Time To Capture You Personally
Lelouch dropped half a piece of bread from his hand due to this pat. His mouth was stuffed full and he couldn’t speak, so he had to chew vigorously a few times first.
The Duke grabbed him and ran to the nearest front-line command post, then picked up the telescope from the observation post and looked. Lelouch only swallowed the dry, choking buttered bread halfway there.
“The front-line enemy guards have indeed withdrawn! Think about how to capture as many prisoners as possible.” The Duke was very anxious, fearing that more enemy troops would escape the encirclement, truly showing some greed after gaining initial success.
Lelouch took a sip of coffee from his stainless steel pot to soothe himself, then said: “If they run, there’s no way around it. At least now we can advance quickly in marching formation and rendezvous with the landing troops as soon as possible, aiming to attack Odessa within three days.”
The Duke: “Is that the only benefit? Of course I know attacking Odessa as soon as possible is the most important. But in terms of annihilating the enemy, is there really no way to capture more prisoners and expand the victory? Stop drinking! As long as you come up with a plan to capture more prisoners, I’ll specially approve you to eat steak, foie gras, and sturgeon every day in the army!”
Lelouch was also puzzled by the Duke’s “wanting it all” attitude, thought carefully for a while, then casually said: “If the enemy wants to run, they’ll definitely head north, avoiding the main roads and detouring upstream along the Dniester River to break out. Most places in the Bessarabia Region have very low infrastructure development, and the road conditions are already poor…
How about trying the half-track vehicles we originally planned to use for towing heavy cannons? Concentrate all the half-track vehicles, then transport troops—one vehicle can carry a squad. In that terrain, we can absolutely catch up with all enemy troops except the cavalry.
But whether the enemy will resist to the death, I can’t guarantee. It’s best to just pursue without blocking them, to avoid cornering them. There’s an ancient saying in the East: do not block a retreating army. After all, we have too few half-track vehicles—how many soldiers can a few hundred carry? If we had over a thousand, I’d definitely advise you to encircle and destroy all three armies today.”
The Duke was stunned, then both pleased and sighing.
Pleased that Lelouch indeed had a solution, sighing that their side had only mastered half-track vehicle manufacturing technology for over four months, and the current stock was still too low.
“Go back and have BMW Company make half-track vehicles for me too! We’ll make them in large numbers! We have Romanian oil fields now—why not make vehicles and let that diesel sit idle! But you kid, you really come up with new ideas when pushed!”
After venting, the Duke immediately knew what to do. Since they needed to concentrate half-track vehicles to transport a small number of troops for pursuit and maximize the victory, they definitely couldn’t transport mediocre units with this capacity. This transport capability had to carry elite troops as much as possible.
The division Lelouch led had executed a landing behind enemy lines, now led by Rommel. So the Duke could only select relatively elite assault battalions from the troops at hand for concentrated use.
At this time, they shouldn’t be limited by gatekeeping between Baria 2nd Army or 3rd Army, but should concentrate and use as many as possible of the six assault battalions from the six divisions under the two armies.
One assault battalion has four companies and sixteen platoons, requiring over 60 half-track vehicles to transport.
He currently had three or four hundred half-track vehicles, so dispatching all six assault battalions for rapid pursuit was feasible in terms of transport capacity.
The Duke immediately thought of a candidate, someone who was used to using assault battalions and was a connections guy from General Staff.
“Go find Colonel Feder von Bock and bring him here immediately! I have a mission to give him personally!”
At the Duke’s order, someone soon brought von Bock before him—currently, von Bock was a regimental commander in a division of Baria 2nd Army, but also in charge of that division’s assault battalion.
Ever since making great merit in the Gorlice Breakthrough Battle three months ago, Colonel von Bock’s subsequent record had been steady but he hadn’t accumulated enough seniority and merit for promotion. After all, breaking from colonel to major general was extremely difficult—not something a few victories could achieve; many factors had to be considered.
（Note: Readers previously reminded me that there were no “brigadier generals” in the Second Empire period, and I knew that too. But considering that many relatively young officers, including the protagonist, have too big a gap to cross from colonel to major general. It takes a lot of battle merit and time to cross. So let’s say this alternate world has “brigadier generals” to make the “progress bar” more straightforward.）
Seeing von Bock brought in, the Duke immediately and straightforwardly described the mission:
“I’ve already heard from my uncle about your performance in the Gorlice Breakthrough Battle. Now, all 350 half-track vehicles of the entire army group are handed to you—this is temporary allocation from the heavy cannon towing regiments of each army.
Your mission is to lead six assault battalions, infiltrate and cut as much as possible, pursuing the enemies trying to flee north lightly equipped! But don’t be greedy or overestimate your strength—force as many surrenders as possible, safety first.”
“Yes! Commander!” Colonel von Bock accepted the order energetically and naturally glanced at Lelouch standing next to the Duke, seemingly wondering if the Duke would require Lelouch to go with him and share some merit.
Lelouch wasn’t greedy for this merit; he knew that leading small units in high-mobility infiltration to capture prisoners was quite dangerous.
He couldn’t do something as risky as Guderian personally riding in the vanguard tank during an assault.
Lelouch then gracefully stated: “Feder, I think when the time comes, you can leave each squad’s fire support team on the vehicles. During combat, have the assault group dismount to fight.
Leave the primary and secondary machine gunners and one grenade launcher operator to provide fire support from the vehicle. The MG15 light machine gun can be directly mounted on the vehicle edge. Um, if there’s no suitable position, just pad it with ammunition boxes underneath.”
With just two simple sentences, Lelouch pointed out two tactical key points for Feder von Bock.
According to the assault battalion organization, each squad originally has 15 men, led by one sergeant major, with 8 in the assault group and 6 in the fire support group.
But in foot combat, machine guns and grenade launchers need to be shared, each requiring at least three men.
In a vehicle-mounted combat environment, the machine gun group only needs two—primary and secondary gunners—since the gun doesn’t need to be moved. The grenade launcher group can be reduced to two or even one, or the squad leader can stay on the vehicle as backup grenade launcher operator.
This way, a squad of 15 plus one driver totals 16 people. During combat, five stay on the vehicle including squad leader and driver. The remaining 11 can flexibly dismount to fight.
And Lelouch explaining the tactical points so meticulously clearly meant he wasn’t going personally.
Von Bock pondered his old comrade’s idea and found it very reliable, giving him a grateful look:
“Oh, God. This plan is really good—you’re too good at tactical innovation; it feels like you were born knowing how infantry should fight alongside half-track vehicles.”
Lelouch: “Also, our vehicle’s open-top compartment has no armor—just a ring of sheet metal around. When machine gunners and grenade launcher operators fight from the vehicle, don’t forget to have other soldiers pile personal military rations and uniforms nearby to build a temporary barricade.”
The first batch of half-track vehicles weren’t designed for front-line combat; they’d previously been used to tow heavy cannons, several kilometers from the front line, so they had no armor at all.
This wasn’t because Lelouch didn’t want armor, but the first-generation half-track vehicles had very limited performance and power was tight; to tow heavier loads, they had to minimize self-weight.
In the future, with 8mm armored steel compartments, they wouldn’t need such cramped setups.
……
Colonel Bock, having received Lelouch’s personal instructions, quickly pulled out the six assault battalions for concentrated use and set off infiltrating and pursuing the masses of enemy stragglers.
The main forces of Baria 2nd Army and 3rd Army certainly weren’t idle either; most troops chose forced marches to catch up quickly and receive the prisoners.
Bock was still very uneasy inside; he knew there were at least remnants of three armies ahead.
A full-strength Lushan army has over 60,000 men; three would be 190,000. Even after repeated losses, considering the enemy had withdrawn in order to defend, there might still be over 150,000.
Leading 6,000 to chase 150,000 stragglers who abandoned heavy cannons—anyone saying they’re not afraid is lying.
But he also knew his advantages: the enemy’s 150,000 were like bereft dogs, fleeing without order or formation. If he could defeat them in detail, he could even have numerical superiority in local battles.
To escape across the Dniester River and fully break out of the encirclement, the enemy had to travel 70 kilometers perpendicular to the river; detours would be even farther. Soldiers with rifles couldn’t cover 70 kilometers on foot in a day, so this pursuit would last at least two days, even three.
The only pity was that in this pursuit environment, the assault battalion’s radio advantage couldn’t be fully utilized. Moving too fast meant artillery couldn’t keep up, so even with radios, they couldn’t call artillery fire support.
On the morning of August 3, prepared Bock set off with over 300 half-track vehicles.
Infrastructure in the Bessarabia Region（now Moldova） was extremely backward, roads pitted, land muddy.
Early August fields grew vast swathes of bean seedlings, planted in June and to be harvested in deep autumn, then rotated with winter wheat.
Bock’s convoy pushed along field paths and soon caught up with large groups of Lushan infantry carrying only rifles, or even none.
“Oh, God! Germanianians are catching up! Scatter quickly and organize defense on the spot!”
Groups of soldiers with sticks and Mosin-Nagant rifles immediately tried to scatter into the fields to resist.
On the lead half-track vehicle, the sergeant major acting as squad leader observed enemy movements with a telescope. Seeing the enemy not surrendering but daring to resist, he immediately ordered preparation to dismount and fight.
The MG15 light machine gun mounted on the front of the half-track vehicle immediately spat long tongues of fire, spraying strings of bullets over the enemies’ heads.
“Da-da-da~” The machine gunner yanked the trigger hard, sweeping left and right, soon discovering how great it felt to fire the machine gun from atop the vehicle.
In normal ground combat, connecting machine gun belts was problematic; the assistant gunner’s load was limited and couldn’t carry many bullets—belts had to be linked on the spot, limiting sustained fire.
In half-track vehicle combat, the vehicle carried the bullets; belts could be fully linked before combat. The only bottleneck was barrel cooling.
He regretted not swapping for MG08 water-cooled heavy machine guns from friendly forces instead of the assault battalion’s own light machine guns. But it was too rushed; no time or organization for swaps.
Amid the “da-da-da” frantic sweeping, gun barrels on several half-track vehicles glowed red-hot, but seeing soldiers filling the fields, the assault battalion machine gunners didn’t dare release the trigger.
Nearby comrades could only ignore barrel lifespan damage, pouring cold water from canteens onto the barrels tonk-tonk-tonk.
Fortunately, the opposing Lushans were caught off guard. Seeing these vehicles cross-country like flat ground, pursuing so fiercely while spraying machine gun barrages, they finally lay down surrendering after brief resistance.
“What now? Capture prisoners? There are several times more prisoners than us, and we need to keep pursuing—diverting men to guard them wastes too much manpower.”
The front-line company and platoon officers were momentarily at a loss, cautiously disarming the surrendered enemies first.
Delayed less than 20 minutes, follow-up battalions caught up. Colonel von Bock, seeing the road blocked and a small victory achieved, slammed the vehicle door and dismounted to check personally.
“What’s going on? Why stop advancing? What’s there to stop for with so few prisoners! You’ve even blocked the road!”
Colonel Bock scolded. A captain company commander hurried over to complain beyond rank:
“Report sir, there are several times more prisoners than our vanguard troops. We’re afraid of trouble and can’t guard them—we’re disarming as fast as possible.”
Colonel Bock quickly scanned the battlefield, noting the fields still slightly muddy with occasional irrigation ditches and even a retention pond.
He pointed decisively with his riding crop: “Have all willing surrendering prisoners line up and run to the pond edge, throw their Mosin-Nagants in, dump all the 7.62 bullets in too, then march south on their own—rear units will take them prisoner.
We’re a half-track motorized battalion—we don’t have time for this!”
The grassroots officers, with clear orders, lost their doubts and saluted: “Yes, sir! Executing immediately!”
Groups of assault battalion soldiers climbed back onto half-track vehicles, shouting at the surrendered enemies:
“All line up, throw your rifles into the irrigation pond yourselves! Dump bullets in too! Then march south under your original officers—our main force will take you prisoner! Rest assured, gentlemen, the war is over for you!”
The Lushan surrendered soldiers numbly obeyed, lining up to toss Mosin-Nagants and stick bayonets into the water with endless plops.
Bullets would lose reliability when wet, and gun barrels might fill with mud and sand. Even if recovered, the rifles wouldn’t work immediately without thorough cleaning and maintenance—no fear of prisoner unrest.
Having discarded weapons, the Lushan soldiers continued south with lifeless eyes and dejected heads.
Colonel Bock surveyed the battlefield order, adding a scolding to maintain it: “Surrendered troops, leave the highway—go south through the fields, don’t block traffic!”
The order was quickly relayed down levels and notified to nearby friendly forces via vehicle radio. Groups of surrendered Lushans obediently cleared the highway, heading south through soybean fields.
Colonel Bock then returned to his half-track vehicle, waved to the driver to go, and raced ahead once more.
……
“Damn! How are those Germanianians chasing so fast? We’ve abandoned cannons and supplies, fleeing with only rifles—how are we still caught?”
“In such rotten terrain trucks can’t outrun cavalry—how do the Germanianians build their vehicles to chase through all these pits? God, have you seen this!”
The scene soon repeated among Lushan stragglers.
Lushan officers at all levels, including top corps commander Denikin, hadn’t expected the enemy to pursue so fast; their prior escape and breakout plans suddenly became obsolete.
“Da-da-da~”
“Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh~”
Each time catching a fleeing unit, German assault battalion troops classically fired grenade launchers at 45-degree elevation randomly first, creating explosions to scare the enemy into thinking pursuers had heavy firepower artillery.
Grenade launchers wouldn’t kill many, but having them versus not made a huge difference.
For two marching/pursued forces, one with artillery that the enemy knows about has massive morale impact.
Follow-up light machine gun sweeps mowed down swathes of marching/fleeing enemy soldiers, basically collapsing the Lushans.
Repeating this operation several times, the assault battalion troops grew more proficient.
“All surrendering personnel, leave the highway, line up and march south on your own to hand over to our main force face-to-face. We don’t have time to capture you!”
This line was repeated every two or three hours, and the leading officers said it more fluently over time,
As fluent as Chen Guilin hearing “Everyone move inside, don’t block the door; to surrender, prepare your ID card and line up over there” when going to turn himself in.
By evening of the pursuit day, the three Lushan armies’ stragglers were, under such bold infiltration and cutting, sliced into pieces with over half forced to surrender.
Finally, corps commander Denikin and a few senior generals, realizing the dire situation, could only lament helplessly, gathering all war horses and cavalry in the army, abandoning the rest to flee north rapidly.
On fields or rugged wilderness, war horse speed could barely exceed half-track vehicles. After all, war horses were very agile, always able to go straight without roads.
This was ultimately an infiltration pursuit battle, not an encirclement; bagging most infantry was already heaven-defying—cavalry inevitably escaped.
The pursuit lasted from the morning of August 3 to the evening of August 5.
Baria 2nd and 3rd Armies under German 6th Army Group, in three days and two nights of forced march pursuit, advanced over 70 kilometers in great strides, finally reaching the Dniester River bank and victoriously rendezvousing with landing troops led by Rommel, Lister, and others.
Then, with landing troops’ support, they smoothly crossed the Dniester River, entering the small North Bank towns of Ovidiopol and Belyaevka—these two small towns had just been captured by Lister and Rommel these days, both Odessa’s outer satellite towns.
Capturing these two places consolidated a firm advance bridgehead on the Dniester North Bank and secured a launch base for attacking Odessa city.
Ultimately, only under 40,000 of Denikin et al.’s three border guard armies escaped the encirclement, about half mounted.
The three armies’ remnants totaled 160,000; during withdrawal, 112,000 were captured alive, about 10,000 casualties.
Plus 20-30,000 losses in the prior border defensive battle. All told, this battle saw 190,000 troops reduced to 40,000 escaping, cumulatively 150,000 eliminated.
When preliminary results were tallied, Duke Rupprecht was still very excited.
This “wanting it all” succeeded again; sure enough, Lelouch needed pushing to unleash his potential.
Thus, they achieved both rapid main force advance to begin sieging Odessa in three days, and maximum enemy annihilation without letting escapees reinforce Black Sea coast defenses.
When Duke Rupprecht got the stats, he enthusiastically went to Lelouch personally to boast.
“Hey, guess how many we captured total using your half-track infiltration pursuit tactic?”
Lelouch, organizing campaign documents, guessed casually: “A hundred thousand?”
The Duke lost much of his boasting enthusiasm, since the guess was too accurate; he muttered: “About that—actually 112,000.”
Lelouch was impeccable at work, full of clever stratagems.
But he didn’t provide emotional value to leaders—no surprise or flattery.
Such a person had zero potential as a sycophant—too honest.
“So 112,000…” Lelouch murmured, noting the number on an account sheet.
The Duke: “You don’t seem surprised at all, or inspired by the merit?”
Lelouch looked up blankly: “But didn’t we just annihilate a million enemies a few months ago?”
The Duke: “……”
Lelouch: “Uh… was it too brief, omitting the fraction? Fine, the exact total back then was 1.7 million annihilated.”
The Duke sighed deeply: “…I get it now—you’re used to winning and arrogant. Capturing 100,000 doesn’t impress you—really infuriating.”
The Duke felt the failed flex powerless and depressed for a bit before recovering:
“Fine, drop that. Talk about the Odessa siege. The 40,000 escapees may not have time to detour back to Odessa—they fled north around upstream Dniester. To head south to Odessa again would take much travel; they might have fled straight north to Kyiv direction.
Now from Odessa to Mykolaiv, mainly remnants of Romanian Front Army 6th Army Group—half strength, one army crippled, only two and a half armies left. Tell me, how to fight these upcoming assault battles.”
