Chapter 16: Catch A Rabbit While Cutting Grass—snipe The Royal Navy
“Missed one point? Speak quickly! You don’t want to keep us in suspense, do you!”
Major General Karl saw Lieutenant Lelouch speaking while out of breath and hurriedly urged him to get to the point.
Lieutenant Lelouch then supplemented his analysis: “As far as I know, the Empire at the outset of the war never expected that Britannians would join the war. At that time, many people still thought that passing through Belgium quickly enough to intimidate the Belgians would force Britannia to accept this fait accompli.
But what happened? The Britannians very decisively took the opportunity to join the war. This shows that the Empire’s high command had greatly underestimated the threat posed by the Britannians beforehand! The Empire never believed that Britannia had long viewed the Empire as its greatest rival and was determined to destroy the Empire at all costs.
And now, the Belgian Army has been almost completely annihilated by us, yet the Britannia Naval Minister had already promised ‘naval support for the Belgian Army’s retreat’ before this—how will other countries view this when it spreads internationally?
They will think that Britannia is not only incompetent with its army, but its Royal Navy is incompetent too! The friendly forces that the Royal Navy publicly vowed to protect were completely annihilated by the Empire before they could arrive!
Given Minister Walton’s vindictive and petty nature, and considering his consistent bold, adventurous, and aggressive style, do you think the Royal Navy might go all out to retaliate just to save face?”
From Dunkirk to Ostend, this 40-kilometer coastal corridor, if looking only at the land battlefield, is indeed impossible to bypass, allowing the defenders to bleed the attackers dry.
But if the enemy deploys the navy to intercept and bombard the Imperial Army from the flank, can the Empire’s brave warriors hold out in the ruins of two towns against the bombardment of battleship 12-inch main guns?”
Hearing this, Major General Karl finally felt a trace of fear.
Without a doubt, the houses and ruins in Nieuwpoort town could at most withstand a few flat-trajectory 6-inch light cruiser bombardments while holding out to the death.
If battleships come, even old pre-dreadnoughts, the German Army wouldn’t know how it died.
This reasoning isn’t hard to think of; it’s just that these are all army generals who previously didn’t understand the navy and didn’t have that string in their minds.
Moreover, the earlier discussion was just a hasty preliminary talk, and everyone didn’t have time to think deeply.
The problem is, Lieutenant Lelouch was also asked on the spot, with equally little thinking time.
Yet he could respond instantly and pinpoint the crux of the issue right away.
Lieutenant Lelouch’s IQ, reaction speed, and understanding of military strategy immediately left a profound impression on Major General Karl.
“Indeed… if the British people lose face this time and retaliate regardless of cost, the Empire really can’t hold out. It’s right to have the troops in Nieuwpoort withdraw quickly. Sigh, what a pity, such a great scenario for delaying and wearing down the enemy, yet we have to abandon it…”
Major General Karl sighed in frustration a few times.
However, just when they thought this matter was unsolvable, Lieutenant Lelouch pointed out some operable space:
“This matter actually still has a chance, but it requires changing methods and more careful design.”
Major General Karl’s eyes lit up, his spirits instantly lifted, and he immediately found an excuse to dismiss everyone else, leaving only Lieutenant Lelouch and Colonel Lister, then found a conference room to continue the secret discussion.
“Quick! Tell us the details!” Major General Karl had completely lost the reserve of a general; now he only wanted to seize more merit.
Especially since Major General Karl and these 6th Army Group people all hailed from the Baria Kingdom, one of the Four Southern German States. They were a minority faction within the German Army, suppressed by the North German Junker Officer Corps.
In this situation, if they were jealous of talent, they would never break the deadlock.
The weaker they were, the more they needed to stick together and select talent based on ability.
Sensing the general’s full authorization and humble attitude toward talent, Lieutenant Lelouch didn’t hesitate to elaborate his strategy:
“To break this situation, I think we need to solve at least two issues. First, ensure that ‘the troops staying in Nieuwpoort and elsewhere to delay time can safely withdraw when faced with enemy heavy cannons blockading the Coastal Highway.’
Therefore, they cannot rely on the Coastal Highway as the only escape route. The Coastal Highway can be completely sealed off by warship heavy cannons at any time. Only by switching to the flooded area south of the Coastal Highway can they avoid naval gun attacks, and to achieve this, we need to locally gather enough small boats on the spot.
These flooded areas normally have no boat traffic; those places were originally farmland. But since these flooded areas were formed by the Yser Canal breaching, we can completely pull inland river boats from the Yser Canal over…”
Hearing this, Major General Karl immediately waved his hand: “No problem with this! Gathering some canal boats enough to transport several battalions of infantry is completely doable; I’ll personally assign someone to handle it.”
With this point resolved, at least the bait rearguard troops could be ensured to safely withdraw after completing their mission.
Battleships are fierce, but they can’t enter the canal flooded areas. Lacking observation and aiming angles across the Coastal Highway, they can’t accurately shell small boats on the water on the other side of the land.
Then Lieutenant Lelouch continued to discuss the next point of attention: “The second point is that the Imperial Navy must also dispatch a high-speed fleet as quickly and discreetly as possible, strong enough to deal with the bombardment fleet that the British Royal Navy might send. This will definitely require some intelligence deception tactics.
Ultimately, the Imperial Navy can outnumber and overwhelm the enemy’s outdated warships—as far as I know, the main modern fleet of the British Royal Navy is in Scapa Flow in northern Scotland, usually far from here.
What can timely support the Belgian coast is mainly the ‘Channel Fleet’ normally stationed in Dover and Portsmouth, and according to open intelligence, the Channel Fleet’s main ships are just three pre-dreadnoughts, right? These old ships may not all be in striking condition.
However, the biggest problem here is coordinating with navy generals; someone has to be willing to trust our judgment and take responsibility and risk to dispatch warships…”
Colonel Lister beside him heard Lieutenant Lelouch talking so grandly, his expression already somewhat troubled.
This demand was simply too massive, far exceeding what the 6th Army Group could coordinate.
Afraid the general would get angry, he hurriedly hit the brakes: “Lieutenant Lelouch… don’t you think you’re overstepping? What kind of cross-branch coordination requirement is this; how can we intervene!
In the navy, the Junker Officer Corps’ seniority system and conservative style are even worse than in the army! Such a wild idea, and so hastily, is absolutely impossible! Don’t get the general in trouble; let’s just abandon Nieuwpoort directly.”
However, while Colonel Lister was pouring cold water, Major General Karl’s expression grew increasingly grave and serious.
He pondered deeply for a long time, then suddenly waved his hand: “Lister! Don’t casually dismiss others’ ideas. It’s great that Lieutenant Lelouch has such thinking; whether it can be realized is another matter. We must allow free discussion.
Moreover, what he said isn’t completely impossible to pursue independently… In the navy, most high-ranking generals have no ties with us. But there are some from our Baria Faction, like Major General Hipper commanding the 1st Assault Detachment; he’s from our Baria Kingdom, and in his youth, he was even adjutant to His Grace Duke Rupprecht, the 6th Army Group Commander and my king’s brother（）…
Moreover, Major General Hipper is famous in the navy for being daring; in the three months since the war began, he’s bombarded several British ports with three battlecruisers! Each time, he fires a few quick salvos and then immediately flees at high speed, never losing a capital ship.
With his boldness, if there’s truly a chance to annihilate the enemy’s pre-dreadnoughts, he’ll definitely be tempted! But we must first ensure our intelligence estimates are correct and that we can absolutely win if it comes to battle… If we can really do it, I’ll dare to telegram my king’s brother and have him telegram Major General Hipper…”
Major General Karl analyzed to himself, but just as he said this, Lieutenant Lelouch interrupted regardless of etiquette:
“General! Your other decisions are all very wise and cautious, but discussing this matter via telegram… I think it might introduce more risks. The Empire’s current communication system cannot be called secure.”
Lieutenant Lelouch spoke this somewhat urgently, but it was unavoidable.
As a transmigrator, he naturally knew how badly the Empire’s radio ciphers were broken by the enemy in the Great War—practically one-way transparency.
So even without ironclad proof now, he could only make a firm assertion based on a few clues to draw the general’s attention, then gradually circle back the topic.
Moreover, in Lieutenant Lelouch’s mind, before raising this topic today, he had already settled on one point: for this plan to succeed, the radio deception segment was essential.
It could even be said that if reverse radio deception against the Britannians couldn’t be achieved, it was better to pretend today’s words were never spoken and forgo the so-called opportunity!
Major General Karl’s expression indeed changed; even though he had great trust in Lieutenant Lelouch before, now with such words, Karl had to reprimand him: “Lieutenant Lelouch! I accept your earlier points, but you can’t speak recklessly! You, a mere lieutenant, what gives you the right to say the Empire’s communication system has major vulnerabilities?”
Lieutenant Lelouch’s brain was also racing; he knew he absolutely couldn’t say now, “The Empire’s radio cipher book has long been cracked by the enemy”—it was baseless.
Although he had read history books knowing that as early as August, when Britannians sank an Imperial submarine, they salvaged the cipher book from the wreckage, he had no reason to know this now; saying it out would make no one believe him and he’d be seen as a charlatan.
But fortunately, Lieutenant Lelouch had another excuse; he recalled the submarine cable laid pre-war by the Siemens Company along the Belgian-Dutch coast, which was damaged by a Britannian cruiser three days ago.
And the high command previously didn’t know the exact reason that cable failed.
Lieutenant Lelouch had personally overseen that repair work, so on this entry point, he had absolute professional authority.
Lieutenant Lelouch immediately made a big deal of it, analyzing cogently: “Some days ago, our platoon was temporarily dispatched by Army Group Headquarters to Nieuwpoort to repair a certain submarine cable. And afterward, based on my recheck, I can precisely confirm that the cable’s break was located more than three kilometers out at sea.
If the enemy hadn’t scouted the precise route coordinates of the submarine cable blueprint in advance, they couldn’t have pinpointed and cut it. And after checking repeatedly, among all possible blueprint leak sources, the Siemens Company wouldn’t betray the country without reason, the Belgians didn’t have time to sell this intel then, so ninety-nine percent it’s Britannian spies inside the Netherlands state-owned Telegraph Company!
I don’t know now how much influence the British communication spies in the Netherlands Telegraph Company have or how much of our communication secrets they can access. But I think caution prevents great mistakes; for this matter, we absolutely cannot discuss via telecommunications, and we can even use this opportunity to turn the tables, test if there’s really cipher leakage or physical eavesdropping on the wired telegraph cables…”
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