Chapter 170: Plant Another Time Bomb For The Enemy
Considering Hipper’s understanding, Lelouch could only start with the most basic literacy:
“Are you really ignorant or pretending to be? If our forces cannot penetrate deep into the Gulf of Bothnia and only patrol and intercept at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, we can only catch those ships heading to Helsinki or Saint Petersburg.
But I suspect that the import ports currently used by the Lushans go far beyond Helsinki and those ports even further southeast, and may even include some small ports west and north of Helsinki near the Gulf of Bothnia. As long as those small ports meet one condition: having a railway connection to Helsinki, they can serve as import hubs for Lusha.”
Lelouch’s remarks did not involve too many elements.
But one word among them quickly captured the full attention of the listening Grand Duke of Baden and General Hipper: import!
Hipper originally hadn’t thought much about it, only viewing the Gulf of Bothnia route as “a channel for the Lushans to transport supplies from their northern territories to the south,” precisely because he hadn’t considered the import issue.
He thought that at most, northern Finland had abundant forest resources or certain mineral resources, but the Finland region is bitterly cold, with no railways in the north, so produced goods couldn’t be transported out and needed to go by sea to Helsinki or Saint Petersburg.
If it was just that little cargo, whether intercepted or not wouldn’t have much impact. Because Lusha is inherently vast and resource-rich, blocking its mining and forestry resources wouldn’t be valuable; even if Finland’s mining, forestry, and fishery resources were crippled, the Lusha Empire could make up for it from other production areas.
But after Lelouch reminded them to pay attention to the word “import,” the nature of everything changed.
Hipper didn’t understand the economic structures of other Nordic countries and hadn’t paid attention to these issues, so he was momentarily bewildered and couldn’t yet grasp the extent of this new threat’s impact.
But the Grand Duke of Baden was very familiar with the economic structures of countries like Sweden; he was originally responsible for part of foreign affairs, and moreover, the Swedish King Gustav V was his brother-in-law—the Grand Duke of Baden had two elder sisters, the eldest married the Swedish King, and the second married the Duke of Anhalt.
So the Grand Duke of Baden almost blurted out in response: “You mean… Sweden is violating the neutrality law by exporting iron ore to the Lushans? That’s impossible. Although there are many in Sweden who are pro-Britain and willing to help the Lushans because they are pro-Britain.
But Sweden is a neutral country after all; they have oversight, and their king is absolutely on our side! Their king is my brother-in-law and would never tolerate such a thing! Besides, the Lushans don’t lack those mineral resources; with their vast territory, how could they fear having no mines?”
Facing the Grand Duke of Baden’s eager defense, Lelouch calmly extended three fingers and responded to each point leisurely:
“No, no, no, Your Excellency Minister Baden, you misunderstood; I never said Sweden is exporting iron ore to Lusha. And as you said, Lusha doesn’t lack iron ore; what they lack is industrial strength, not raw materials.
Additionally, there’s a problem with what you just said—Sweden is indeed a neutral country, but exporting iron ore doesn’t violate international law. Relevant international treaties stipulate that neutral countries during wartime shall not sell weapons or other equipment directly usable for military purposes to belligerents. But this does not include resources usable for civilian purposes, nor grain.
The Britannians have been intercepting our merchant ships for over a year, blocking our shipping, not on grounds of international law but under belligerent rights. When encountering ships flying neutral flags transporting iron ore or grain to us, they dare not sink them; they only intercept and then forcibly purchase the goods at a lower internationally recognized price, taking them for themselves.”
Many later audiences misunderstood the Britannians’ maritime interception actions during the World War, thinking that “as long as Britain warships intercepted merchant ships carrying supplies to Germania, they sank them all.” But in reality, it wasn’t like that; they didn’t dare.
They could only sink ships flying the Germania flag or other belligerent flags. But if it was a neutral country’s ship heading to Germania to sell goods, they could only demand to board for inspection; if weapons, ammunition, or other contraband were found, they could sink it on the grounds that “this merchant ship violated international law.”
But if it turned out not to be weapons, just iron ore, grain, and other raw materials that couldn’t be defined as “direct military use” under international law, then the neutral country wasn’t breaking the law. Britain could only pay some money to forcibly buy the cargo and require the merchant ship to redirect to a Britannia mainland port.
Earlier, the Grand Duke of Baden had spoken too hastily, mistakenly saying “Sweden violating international law by exporting iron ore,” but of course he understood the treaties and knew that strictly speaking, there was no issue.
So seeing Lelouch deny it so easily and precisely, the Grand Duke of Baden became serious and solemn: “Then I’m curious—what else do you think the ‘import’ route in the Gulf of Bothnia could be importing?”
Seeing the other’s sincere question, Lelouch no longer beat around the bush and directly stated the core view: “I suspect that those pro-Britain dogs in Norway are helping the Britannians transport arms and other materials violating the neutrality law to the Lushans!
Of course, although Norway and Lusha’s Finland region are directly adjacent on land, the bordering areas are ice-sealed fjords within the Arctic Circle; the coastal areas there are ice-bound and unnavigable, and there are no inland roads.
However, Narvik port in Norway is one of the rare ice-free ports in the north during winter. It was originally an important export port for Swedish iron ore; from Sweden’s main iron ore production area Kiruna, a railway was built as early as 1903 leading to Narvik port to enable year-round free export of Swedish iron ore.
At the same time, the Swedes built another branch railway on their own territory, opened in 1906, from the main iron ore production area Kiruna to Luleå port at the northernmost end of the Baltic Sea coast and Gulf of Bothnia.
Luleå port is also an important Swedish iron ore export port, but compared to Norway’s Narvik port, it has three disadvantages:
First, Luleå’s port scale is smaller, with lower cargo throughput.
Second, the Gulf of Bothnia’s waterways have shallower draft than the North Sea’s waterways, so ships exporting Swedish iron ore via Luleå are also smaller in tonnage. It’s hard to use large ships over 20,000 tons to transport ore.
Finally, Luleå is not an all-year ice-free port; every year from late November to April, the northern Gulf of Bothnia freezes, so the Luleå route can only be used for the warmer 7 months—although Luleå’s latitude is lower than Narvik port, the Baltic Sea has much lower salinity than the North Sea, so its winter freezing point is higher. Moreover, the North Sea is influenced by the North Atlantic warm current, while the Baltic Sea has no warm current…”
Lelouch thus gradually provided some necessary basic geographical knowledge. General Hipper was still a bit confused listening on the side, but the Grand Duke of Baden had gradually pieced together this information puzzle and finally knew how to respond:
“So… you mean the Norwegians might be using this route in reverse! Originally Narvik port helped Sweden export iron ore, but if a Britannia fleet on the outbound trip to Narvik to load iron ore also carries some contraband, like guns and cannons, ammunition, trucks, machine tools for the Lushans, and unloads in Narvik…
These goods could then be reloaded onto ‘Swedish trains that unloaded in Narvik’ and pulled back to the Kiruna mining area! Then using Kiruna’s railway hub, transferred to Luleå port, and then via Luleå to Gulf of Bothnia coastal ports with railways leading to Lusha’s hinterland in Finland—thus the weapons, ammunition, cannons, and machine tools smuggled by the Britannians to the Lushans could continuously supply them!”
Lelouch firmly nodded: “Exactly, that’s my speculation.”
The Grand Duke of Baden and Hipper couldn’t help but draw in a slight breath of cold air.
The Grand Duke of Baden immediately asked unwillingly: “How did you think of this? Is it your guess, or is there evidence?”
Lelouch resolutely endorsed himself: “I have no evidence, so I need the navy to help find evidence—but by common sense, with Lusha’s industry so weak, they have raw materials but lack industrial finished products, weapons, and industrial equipment; the Britannians can’t just watch Lusha fall.
Don’t you trust my judgment? Are you unwilling to carefully verify this bold guess of mine?”
Lelouch said on his lips that it was random guessing, but in reality, of course it wasn’t.
Because a history book he read before transmigrating clearly stated how the Brit dogs secretly violated international law and undermined neutral countries’ neutrality during various wars.
The key is that breaking it is breaking it; all is fair in war. But the Brit dogs always want to have their cake and eat it too; while doing such things themselves, they hypocritically whitewash it.
So Lelouch, this person, most likes to copy answers and counter slyness with slyness, specifically countering such enemies.
Historically, whoever dared to play slyness and was caught by him, he would be even more sly. Killing the world’s second-most sly enemy with slyness—that’s the most satisfying thing in the world.
Lelouch could also be said to have the way of slyness. Although he is sly, he won’t use his slyness on harmless fools; that has no challenge or sense of achievement—he only yins other sly people.
After hearing his analysis, General Hipper and the Grand Duke of Baden mostly believed this matter indeed existed.
After all, Lelouch had divined so many times already; those in the navy who followed him could earn great merit—who would go against merit?
General Hipper quickly decided: “In the next few days, I’ll figure out a way as soon as possible to send cruisers deep into the Gulf of Bothnia for mine sweeping and try patrolling to catch any contraband fleets…
However, if we really catch them, how do you plan to handle it? Make a big fuss? Moreover, this contraband transit of first sea transport to Narvik and then land transport to Luleå should involve both Norway and Sweden, right?”
After General Hipper voiced his concerns, the Grand Duke of Baden immediately chimed in:
“Yes, yes, I think this matter must be handled cautiously. Those Norwegian dogs are easy to deal with; they are originally the Brit dogs’ dogs. As long as the Empire catches evidence, punish them to death! They only split from Sweden a few years before the war with Brit dog support.
My brother-in-law’s father was also driven to desperation by the Norwegians’ fussing back then, announced abandoning rule over Norway, and was later disgusted by the Norwegians, dying of depression a year later. My brother-in-law and the Norwegian dogs have an indirect father-killing enmity. When the war broke out in 1914, he went to Parliament to rally, wanting to mobilize army and navy to stand with us.
So I think we really can’t act rashly. Even if we find Swedes cooperating with Norway to undermine neutrality, we should see which faction the specific culprits belong to. If they are my brother-in-law’s confidants, handle it low-key; I’ll privately send him a secret report to manage his subordinates and clean house, so as not to be seized by the prime minister and Parliament.
But if we can confirm it’s pro-Britain faction officials in Sweden doing this neutrality-undermining deed… then we can make a big fuss and help my brother-in-law clean out some pro-Britain elements domestically!”
After hearing the Grand Duke of Baden’s plan, Lelouch couldn’t help laughing: “That’s exactly like minds thinking alike. Actually, I think the same. Moreover, even if this is confirmed immediately, it’s really not advisable to alert the enemy right away.
Because the Luleå port route is only usable from April to November each year, and now it’s mid-September; if we ‘accidentally’ take out a fleet batch, the enemy’s next batch will definitely not come until October—they’ll first assess the failure reason and won’t dare send immediately. So before the mid-to-late November shipping halt, they can’t send many batches.
We might as well use this time to slowly gather evidence, solidify the case, and after November shipping stops, Your Excellency can visit your Swedish King brother-in-law, then scheme for a few months to make it an ironclad case.
If His Majesty Gustav V wants to seize the opportunity to reclaim power and declare that ‘the pro-Britain cabinet violated the permanent neutrality since the Napoleon era, betrayed the constitution, betrayed the nation and people, so he must suppress the rebellion,’ then we can take advantage of these winter months to first provide him some mercenaries.
When it thaws in early April next year and those guys resume smuggling, His Majesty Gustav V might even declare ‘constitutional protection and rebellion suppression,’ and then he can use the excuse that Norway undermined Sweden’s permanent neutrality and betrayed the 1905 bilateral separation promise.
When his predecessor allowed Norwegian separation, there was a clause requiring Norway to maintain permanent neutrality like Sweden, not to introduce external war into Scandinavia. Since the Norwegians violated the covenant, reclaiming the territory ceded by his predecessor would be perfectly logical, right?
Anyway, after success, the Empire doesn’t need to pursue Sweden joining us; they can continue true permanent neutrality, as long as they eliminate that Britannian dog Norway, preventing the North from becoming a loophole in our Lusha blockade.
And according to international law, selling timber, iron ore, fishery products to belligerents during wartime doesn’t violate international law or neutrality. The Empire’s needs from the North are just these legal raw materials, so North neutrality is enough for us.”
North neutrality is not enough for Lusha, because its industrial structure dictates it must import things violating the neutrality law.
But for Germania, North neutrality is absolutely sufficient, because Germania’s industrial structure has overly strong industry. Germania doesn’t need to import any weapons, ammunition, or industrial finished products; it only needs raw materials.
And importing raw materials doesn’t violate neutrality law.
So, Germans don’t need any deception on this issue; they can let the Swedes remain truly neutral forever, doing only legal business.
