Chapter 15: Bro Doesn’t Want Any Lieutenant Rank, Bro Just Wants To Hit The Dock For Some Fries
October 27, 1914, at night.
It had been over 50 hours since Lelouch transmigrated to this world.
Inside Ostend City, the temporary palace of the former Belgian King Albert I had been hastily dismantled and divided into several areas, converted into division headquarters for several divisions of the Germania 6th Army Group.
Traces of the former Belgian Army’s existence had also been hastily erased.
Shortly after nightfall, 12th Division Commander Major General Karl arrived, covered in dust.
This era had no mobile phones, so Colonel Lister could not track the officer’s itinerary until Major General Karl’s car stopped downstairs, when he hurriedly went out to greet him: “Division Commander! The 16th Regiment has fulfilled its mission, held Nieuwpoort, and assisted the main force in annihilating the Belgian Army! We captured over 20,000 prisoners in total!”
Karl nodded appreciatively and patted Lister’s shoulder: “You are the great hero. With such a glorious victory, you will soon become a general and even a division commander. You held off five divisions with just one regiment—why couldn’t you be a division commander!”
However, promotion to general required nomination by the General Staff Headquarters and approval by the Emperor, so Karl just mentioned it casually for now.
After brief pleasantries, Karl quickly turned the topic to others: “I’m very curious—what kind of person could keenly predict that the Belgians would blow up the dikes to block our army, foresee that the Britannians would try to take away Albert I, and even think of the poisonous scheme to ‘let the persistent resisters ruin their reputations,’ completely disintegrating the Belgian Army.”
Colonel Lister immediately glanced around and realized Lelouch hadn’t arrived yet, so he hurriedly asked those nearby: “Where is Lelouch?”
“Report, sir, someone has already gone to call him. He might be groggy from sleep and should be on his way.” A regimental headquarters officer nearby quietly smoothed things over.
Fearing the division commander would blame him, Lister quickly spoke up: “He must be exhausted from overthinking these past two days. But don’t worry, Division Commander—he’ll be here right away. Would you like a cup of coffee to perk up first?”
Major General Karl was in an unusually good mood and didn’t mind: “No problem, just lead the way. I’ll go see for myself what kind of genius this is.”
Lister was also surprised by the division commander’s humility in seeking talent. He knew the division commander was of royal blood, the second son of King Ludwig III of the Baria Kingdom.
Though not the eldest son and thus not inheriting the throne, for a prince major general to proactively meet a newly graduated sergeant major showed extraordinary regard.
Soon, the group turned several corridors and arrived in front of a row of rooms temporarily serving as officers’ dormitories.
They then saw the door of one room suddenly open, and a disheveled young man rushed out while fixing his military cap—it was Lelouch.
Lelouch sleepily rubbed his eyes and, seeing Colonel Lister approaching with a general beside him, immediately stood at attention and saluted.
“You are Lelouch… Sergeant Major? So young. Lister just told me all about your deeds.”
Major General Karl’s first reaction upon seeing Lelouch was to check his collar, then lift his arm to inspect the rank insignia on his sleeve, sighing inwardly at the confirmation.
“Sorry, sir, I must have slept too soundly.” Lelouch politely explained without saying anything extra, appearing neither humble nor arrogant.
“That’s understandable—coming up with so many brilliant strategies must have taken tremendous brainpower.” Major General Karl nodded, smiling with a hint of amusement. “You’ve done such great service for the Empire. Have you thought about what reward you want?”
Lelouch scratched his head: “I just woke up and haven’t thought about it yet…”
Major General Karl: “Even during the battle before, you hadn’t considered this?”
Lelouch bluntly told the truth without hiding: “Please don’t laugh, sir—at the time, I was only fighting for survival. I knew if we didn’t annihilate the Belgians, it would be the annihilation of the Nieuwpoort garrison.
Back then, I had only one thought: to survive by any means. After the battle, I didn’t have time to think of anything else—I just wanted to sleep well. I only slept on the evening of the 25th; starting on the 26th, I couldn’t sleep at all.
These two days, I’ve seen too many horrific scenes of wounded and fallen comrades. Whenever I close my eyes, I feel: while my brain was dormant and unable to strategize, countless comrades were using their lives to buy cooling time for it.”
Lelouch’s tone and expression were utterly sincere, like a seagull wanting no reward, just heading to the dock for some fries once everything ended.
Major General Karl looked into his eyes, growing increasingly astonished. He could tell this young man wasn’t lying.
This was the detachment of a true doer, driven by the most primal will to survive in battle.
“Very good—the Empire needs focused people like you. Lister said you were acting as platoon leader for stringing lines in the signal battalion with sergeant major rank, right? Then I now formally promote you to lieutenant.
This isn’t the final promotion decision—just to match your position for now; the paperwork will follow soon. As long as you perform well, there will be more opportunities for rapid promotion later.”
Lelouch: “Yes! General, I will keep working hard!”
With Major General Karl’s division-level authority, he could theoretically promote someone up to captain at most.
But Major General Karl couldn’t directly adjust Lelouch’s assignment, as he belonged to the Army Group Signal Battalion, not the 12th Division. So promoting to lieutenant already matched Lelouch’s role well enough.
With that in mind, Major General Karl decided to hold back the captain slot as leverage for now. Perhaps after chatting face-to-face today, this young man would bring even more surprises.
Moreover, Lelouch’s promotions had come too fast.
Just three hours after transmigrating to this world, he had jumped from corporal to sergeant major.
Three days after transmigrating, he jumped from sergeant major to lieutenant—at this frequency, wouldn’t he reach field officer in three months and general within three years? That would be too exaggerated; non-noble officers didn’t become generals that young.
Seniority issues within the Germania Army were severe, and promoting too fast easily drew hatred, especially since Lelouch was a foreigner. These were obstacles requiring extra effort to overcome in the future.
……
After handling the promotion, Major General Karl was still eager and wanted to discuss Lelouch’s outlook on the subsequent battle situation.
Lelouch knew he had just received a benefit and should now prove his value by spending some gold coins, so he answered every question forthrightly.
He thought for a moment, then offered some supplementary suggestions based on his understanding of the enemy:
“Division Commander, in my view, though the Belgian Army in Ostend has been annihilated, this campaign isn’t fully over. Even seemingly minor cleanup work must be taken seriously.
For example, I believe our army should quickly and proactively withdraw from Nieuwpoort Town, allowing the remaining local garrison to fall back to Ostend to avoid greater losses.”
Hearing this suggestion, Major General Karl immediately turned to Colonel Lister beside him: “How many men did you leave in Nieuwpoort?”
Lister promptly reported: “When we learned at noon that the Belgians intended to surrender, I pulled two relatively intact and mobile battalions to come here to Ostend for the handover. The other two more exhausted battalions, which had suffered heavier prior losses, were left in Nieuwpoort to hold off the French Army from the west a bit longer.
However… sir, I believe that if we want to hold, even with just those two battalions and sufficient rear supplies, we can hold off the French Army for days more! Even if the French Army commits two divisions, or even three in the future, so what?
That area is now very confined terrain-wise: flooded area to the south, North Sea to the north, with an extremely narrow attack front. Our army has now opened the rear route, and 150mm-plus long-range heavy cannons will soon flow in continuously.
If the French Army dares launch an assault in that mere few hundred meters wide flat coastal highway zone, it’s suicide! I guarantee that on this twenty-kilometer stretch from Nieuwpoort to Ostend, every kilometer will cost the enemy thousands upon thousands of lives!”
Major General Karl nodded noncommittally; he too felt Lister’s view was principledly correct.
After over three months of bloody battle in this world war, both sides had vaguely realized a truth: in trench warfare, the attacker suffers extra heavy losses, while the defender holds all the advantages.
For the attacker to avoid losses, it required war of maneuver, envelopment, finding the defender’s weak points, then encircling and cutting off the defender’s strong nodes from supplies.
But in situations with no room for envelopment and only frontal assaults possible, the attacker was bound to suffer massive losses.
The current Dunkirk-De Panne-Nieuwpoort-Ostend line was the classic “whoever attacks suffers huge losses” scenario, blocked by floods and the North Sea, leaving just one road over forty kilometers with no maneuver space.
On such a favorable battlefield, even an orderly withdrawal should cost the Franks another 100,000 lives, right?
“Lieutenant Lelouch, what do you think of this? Do you still insist our army should directly abandon Nieuwpoort?”
Major General Karl saw this as a perfect chance to test Lelouch’s mettle, so he didn’t rush to refute the suggestion, giving him room to elaborate.
Lelouch had anticipated this—his previous brilliant strategizing had all unfolded before Colonel Lister. Since General Karl hadn’t witnessed it, some skepticism was natural.
Of course, he needed to showcase some top-tier insights now to impress the general.
This would secure a more stable development environment going forward.
So Lelouch calmly gathered his thoughts and spoke eloquently: “Using impassable terrain for envelopment to inflict heavy casualties on enemies forced into assaults is of course orthodox military strategy. But this thinking might overlook one point…”
