Chapter 173: Return To The Southern Front, Curtain Rises
September 17, 1915.
While Lelouch was continuing southward by train after handling a series of military industry technology cooperation projects with Skoda and Krupp in Prague,
Admiral Hipper in the Bay of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea, thousands of miles away in the North, finally had some gains these past two days.
Since the 12th, Hipper had Vice Admiral Burdick of the reconnaissance cruiser fleet send ships to the southern entrance of the Bay of Bothnia to thoroughly clear the moored mines at that sea area entrance using the new bottom-scraping minesweeping chain.
And he instructed Vice Admiral Burdick that once a channel into the Bay of Bothnia was swept out, to quickly slip in and sweep around to see if they could catch the enemy’s smuggling fleet.
Vice Admiral Burdick had originally estimated that this minesweeping operation would take at least ten or eight days to fully sweep out the channel,
because the entrance to the Bay of Bothnia is very narrow, and the enemy could theoretically continue laying mines over a very long depth distance.
If they went straight through, with dense mines along dozens of sea miles, wouldn’t it take a long time to sweep?
But in the end, Vice Admiral Burdick unexpectedly discovered that the enemy had only densely laid mines in the narrowest section at the entrance to the Bay of Bothnia, a mere less than 20 sea miles in depth.
After passing through the narrowest 20 sea miles, the mine density in the subsequent channel dropped sharply, making it very easy to sweep, which led to the result of sweeping through in just three short days.
However, during the minesweeping operation, Vice Admiral Burdick also discovered a small characteristic of the enemy’s mine-laying operation—
The Lushans’ mine-laying this time was not like their previous mine-laying at the entrance straits of Riga Bay and Gulf of Finland, where they left a safe channel for their own people.
This time’s mine-laying completely blocked the entire bay entrance!
While sweeping, Vice Admiral Burdick found that at the narrowest point of the entire strait, there was a moored mine every less than 100 meters, sealing off all possibilities of entering or exiting the Bay of Bothnia with iron chains stretched across like a river blockade.
In other words, this mine-laying was not only to block Germania warships from entering the Bay of Bothnia, but even the Lushans themselves had completely given up the possibility of entering or exiting the Bay of Bothnia.
The mine-laying had reached the point of mutual destruction, where no one could play anymore.
But precisely because the Lushans laid mines so decisively and insanely, they reduced the depth of the minefield. Because they weren’t afraid of the enemy using intelligence for trial-and-error mine traversal anyway. No matter how they tried, they would hit mines, and after a few hits, the Germanians should know better and retreat.
Little did they know that the Germanians had a new divine artifact for sweeping moored mines.
The new minesweeping divine artifact wasn’t afraid of dense minefields, but of large-area minefields scattered here and there. The Lushans’ decisive new laying method played right into the enemy’s hands.
On the morning of September 16, Vice Admiral Burdick’s fleet swept out the first channel leading deep into the Bay of Bothnia without any interference,
then dispatched the light cruisers Baden and Frankfurt, along with several high-speed destroyers, to search deep into the Bay of Bothnia.
Their luck was good; after just a day and a half of cruising, in the afternoon of September 17, the search fleet netted and intercepted several transport ships flying the Swedish flag on the sea surface about 200 sea miles north of the Bay of Bothnia entrance—
At that time, Vice Admiral Burdick ordered his two light cruisers and three destroyers to form a dragnet northward at 15-sea-mile intervals from each other, so no ship could escape this search.
Vice Admiral Burdick’s own flagship Frankfurt had particularly good luck and directly encountered the suspicious fleet,
so the vice admiral immediately followed the method previously taught by Lelouch and Hipper, not even bothering to send a radio message. He directly ordered the signalman to issue a warning with light signals, forcing the other side to slow down, stop, and accept inspection.
The cargo ships flying the Swedish flag pretended not to see and tried to play innocent by accelerating to escape.
Vice Admiral Burdick wasn’t polite and directly ordered a warning shot from the 150 mm main gun.
The other side immediately cowered and obediently complied.
Vice Admiral Burdick sent several small boats carrying soldiers with MP15 submachine guns to board and inspect. Twenty minutes later, they achieved results:
“Sir! Upon inspection, 1500 radio sets were found in the lower hold of suspicious ship No. 1! In suspicious ships No. 2 and 3, 300 electric lathes and 300 milling machines were found respectively!
The upper deck had salted fish, timber, and other goods for cover. They also quibbled that their navigation destination was Stockholm…”
Vice Admiral Burdick was stunned, then somewhat relieved: “No weapons found?”
Radio sets and lathes were strictly speaking also wartime restricted materials for neutral countries transporting to belligerents, but not as ironclad as finding weapons.
But on the other hand, when wanting to play a long game to catch big fish, not finding ironclad evidence was instead more convenient for a “private settlement.”
Vice Admiral Burdick recalled the adaptability tricks Brigadier General Lelouch had taught Admiral Hipper a few days ago and immediately picked one that wouldn’t alert the enemy while also allowing him to pocket some gains.
Vice Admiral Burdick then instructed the subordinate officer in charge of the boarding inspection: “You step forward, scare those guys hard, and tell them these goods also violate international law, and handling them officially on shore is enough to get them shot! The Empire has seized both ships and goods! Give them a speedboat and let the crew members row back themselves!”
Of course, during the inspection, they still had to secretly take photos where appropriate, especially the other side’s customs documents and other related evidence, saving all evidence that could be secretly preserved.
After this operation, the three cargo ships were all seized, and the crew were sent back to the Swedish west coast on a small boat.
The seizure location was still 60 sea miles from the Swedish coastline, and the small boat could make it back.
And all this, as expected later, would first be interpreted as “some Germania Navy officers engaging in black-on-black.”
Such things occasionally happened during the World War. In theory, all countries’ military law strictly prohibited this behavior, which was tantamount to piracy.
But in practice, navies temporarily turning pirate upon encountering enemy merchant ships had always been impossible to completely eradicate throughout history.
Especially when the seized goods were easy to fence, and the involved officers usually had good control and unity over the soldiers, ensuring even distribution of spoils to convince everyone without selling out the officer and comrades. Then the officers were more likely to dare to take the risk as pirates.
When the Germanians seized the cargo ships and left, the Swedish crew left on the small boat, along with the few Norwegian and Lushan escorts and receivers disguised as Swedish crew, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
A Lushan intelligence officer who spoke Swedish glared venomously at the Germania ships: “Luckily, we encountered a greedy black-on-black bastard this time, only losing the goods.
This route is temporarily unusable; we need to report upward and thoroughly investigate how the Germania warships got into the Bay of Bothnia!
This can’t be explained by a leak of the mine deployment map—the Bay of Bothnia entrance had no safe passage reserved at all! Even our own ships can’t get in, we can only unload at Turku and transport by train to Helsinki and Saint Petersburg. How did they get in?!”
Nearby, a Norwegian manager from some foreign trade company responsible for escorting the goods asked the Lushan intelligence officer uneasily: “Major Vasily, will this batch of goods implicate our line? Will the heat pass?”
The Lushan officer said hatefully: “This line can’t be used temporarily; there will definitely be warships frequently appearing in this area waiting to ambush.
But fortunately, the Germania Navy high command may not know so quickly. Because radio sets and machine tools can be fenced on the civilian market.
That guy’s style suggests he might not report the merit truthfully, since our ships were flying the Swedish flag, and without ironclad proof he’s afraid of diplomatic trouble. He’s just after the money, a guy wanting to pocket the goods—would he dare report his embezzlement to his superiors?”
The crowd finally breathed a sigh of relief, slowly rowing the small boat back to the Swedish coast to report the bad news and return to duty.
……
However, they didn’t expect that just when this group thought the black-on-black Germania ship commander wouldn’t report upward,
merely two days later on the morning of the 19th, when Vice Admiral Burdick’s ships returned to Memel Harbor, he immediately reported the relevant situation in detail to Hipper upon landing.
“You bastard, blacked 1500 radio sets and 600 machine tools? Here’s the deal: you keep one-third, go sell them on the black market for cash.
The remaining two-thirds I’ll handle with Lelouch and the Grand Duke of Baden; these are ‘evidence’ and also the handling fee for washing you clean.”
Vice Admiral Burdick could only sigh like Li Yunlong who received a call from the brigade commander: an official one rank higher crushes to death.
There was no way around it; he was originally “ordered to be a pirate,” and after handing over two-thirds, the remaining one-third being washed clean and officially endorsed later was acceptable.
And the related photo evidence materials were all developed one by one, analyzed and vetted, then handed over to the Grand Duke of Baden for judgment.
Many of these were secretly taken without the subjects knowing they were photographed. This could foster their fluke mentality, and they might resume old trades after the heat passed.
Little did they know that the Germanians had already begun a full investigation. In the future, they could even use internal channels with the Swedish royal family high-level pro-Germans for inside-out cooperation to thoroughly investigate those pro-Britannia Swedish traitors.
Finally, after Admiral Hipper simply handled the response procedures, he didn’t forget to call Lelouch a few times to privately report the latest situation and investigation progress.
He successively called Porsche Company in Prague and the 6th Army Group Headquarters in Odessa.
The first call informed him that Lelouch had already left Prague heading south to Odessa, and the second that he hadn’t arrived yet, probably still on the train.
Admiral Hipper could only leave a message for Lelouch to call back to Memel after arriving in Odessa.
That evening, Hipper finally received Lelouch’s callback.
Lelouch exchanged pleasantries on the phone, saying he had only just arrived in Odessa that afternoon and had many urgent matters to handle, so he was only now calling back.
Admiral Hipper reported the matter of capturing the enemy smuggling fleet transporting machine tools and radio sets, obtaining some evidence, and the current handling method, asking Lelouch to fill in any gaps.
Lelouch: “Such good luck? Intercepted a fleet so quickly. Your handling is very appropriate; don’t alert the enemy for now. The Bay of Bothnia navigation season won’t last much longer this year; intercept what you can, occasional leaks are fine.
If you intercept completely every time, they won’t dare use it later, and this route will be completely scrapped. In short, be moderate; have the captains in charge of this task all act like black-on-black pirates to lull and steady the enemy. Wait for the Grand Duke of Baden to slowly contact Swedish high-level pro-Germans to collect evidence, just do it this way…”
A large net was slowly opening, currently appearing harmless, but when next year’s Baltic Sea freezing season ended, its fangs would fully reveal themselves.
……
“You’re really busy enough, back in Odessa and still handling so many Baltic Sea War Zone matters!”
Inside Odessa city, at the 6th Army Group Headquarters.
After Lelouch hung up the call with Admiral Hipper in front of Duke Rupprecht, the marshal seemingly dissatisfiedly grumbled.
The campaign in the Southern Front Kievan Rus’ Great Plain region was about to begin its offensive curtain. Lelouch had only now returned but still had to divert energy to other matters, no wonder the marshal was dissatisfied.
Lelouch: “Mainly, a while ago, Hindenburg and Ludendorff had their little brother Mark Hoffmann jump out to point fingers at the results and strategic significance of the Baltic Sea naval battle.
I didn’t want Ludendorff to ruin our strategic big picture of ‘advancing with both wings along the coastline’; I had to help with some advice.
As you know, on the issue of suppressing Hindenburg and Ludendorff these ‘central breakthrough faction,’ our interests align with Marshal Mackensen and the Grand Duke of Baden; we must unite all uniteable forces.
Moreover, my guidance to General Hipper this time to dig deeper into the enemy sea transport in the Bay of Bothnia yielded some other gains—General Hipper’s men accidentally discovered during minesweeping that after the enemy navy main force was destroyed, they chose to ‘completely seal the Bay of Bothnia entrance’ with indiscriminate dense mine-laying!
What does this mean? It means that our fleet entering the Bay of Bothnia under such circumstances absolutely isn’t due to an enemy navy high-level leak of the mine deployment map, but only possible because our army has a completely new, extremely efficient moored mine sweeping weapon.
This way, the enemy won’t take long to figure it out: the Tsar’s previous forced purges of the navy were wrongly killing the good! This will make the Tsar’s stupidity and self-harm of loyal talents even more notoriously stinking.
We’re just about to launch a full-scale attack on the Lusha Southern Front at this time. Imagine if the Tsar’s infamous reputation ferments at this critical juncture—won’t it make the defending enemy even more panicked and lose their will to fight?”
The duke’s eyes lit up at this expected potential benefit, fully satisfied. He said no more, just sighed unwillingly at the end:
“Fine, all for the nation. I even prepared a welcome banquet for you, having Army Group Headquarters people celebrate your promotion to brigadier general. But looks like you’ve eaten enough victory banquets on the Northern Front lately.”
“…” Lelouch could fully hear the deep resentment in these words of “worrying his think tank subordinate would be poached by colleagues.”
To appease the marshal, Lelouch quickly said: “No way, Minister Mark von Baden even wanted me to do more things, but I refused them all, rushing back to the Southern Front afraid to delay proper business.”
The duke then put away his resentment and turned curious: “What did that old Baden boy want you to do?”
Lelouch: “He hopes to dig deep into the pro-Britannia faction issue among the Swedes, then use international pressure to sweep those vermin clean.
To secretly contact His Majesty Gustav V himself without anyone knowing, Minister Baden suggested I pretend to be the fiancé of Miss Loretta from the Anhalt family, using the pretext of visiting big aunt and uncle to secretly seek an audience with His Majesty Gustav V…”
“That old boy is too bullying!” The duke immediately felt a crisis, though he didn’t say it out loud, just inwardly cursed Minister Mark von Baden fiercely.
Poaching to this extent?
No, must speed up progress… The duke was already fantasizing in his mind: after this Kievan Rus’ Great Plain campaign, by year’s end find a way to give Lelouch advanced training for gilding.
Then if this boy could rack up some other merits and excuses, he could promote him to nobility title, making him the hereditary baron of Baria Kingdom.
Then discussing his matter with Cecilia would have far fewer obstacles.
Moreover, as long as they turn the page past New Year, Cecilia would theoretically be 18 sui, and when Cecilia first met this Lelouch boy, she was only 16 sui.
In just two short years, Cecilia’s age would be sufficient, Lelouch from captain to general—everything would seem very reasonable…
Mark von Baden you old boy, don’t dream of poaching! A mere prisoner of war and Occupied Area Affairs Department minister, with what resources to poach!
……
Because of Minister Baden’s attempted poaching episode, the duke’s slight dissatisfaction with Lelouch multitasking was completely swept away, and he said no more.
That evening’s welcome banquet proceeded as usual, and everyone was very pleased.
The next morning, the duke had Lelouch hurry back to the troops for final break-in.
As for the entire Army Group’s campaign plan, it had long been formulated and didn’t need last-minute adjustments—or rather, this Army Group level campaign plan was originally collaboratively made by Lelouch with other staff officers before he left. It was just that he hadn’t been promoted to brigadier general then and couldn’t be named Army Group chief of staff.
The division directly under Lelouch still had the original old soldiers, so no issue of “generals not knowing soldiers, soldiers not knowing generals.”
The core backbone soldiers came from the earliest elite assault battalion and the later parachute regiment.
Anyway, there weren’t many airborne missions in this era anymore, and airship vehicles were countered by recently appeared white phosphorus shells and such weapons, making airship airdrops hard to use in the future.
So having soldiers who received simple parachute training switch back to frontline battlefield ground combat wasn’t wasteful.
And besides the assault battalion and parachute regiment, the subsequent supplemental forces were mainly Germanic tribesmen from the Austrian prisoners of war rescued from Przemysl Fortress during the previous Lviv campaign.
These Germanic tribesmen were completely consistent with the main ethnic group of the Germania Army, with no issues of cohesion or loyalty.
They had also endured the six-month brutal siege of Przemysl Fortress, and Lelouch had the grace of saving their lives. Plus Lelouch himself was an Austrian who joined the Germania army.
With so many morale buffs stacked, this unit’s morale was already that of an absolute iron army, and after half a year of combat break-in, it was disciplined, fearless of death.
The only thing needing Lelouch’s temporary break-in was the new weapons just issued to the troops.
He still needed to let the officers and soldiers familiarize with the coordinated use of armored cars and half-track tractors, and know how to use these new weapons to fight new tactics.
He didn’t need much time; two or three days to handle all this, and they could enter battle.
——
PS: Train back to Hangzhou tomorrow noon, might update in the afternoon.
Back to morning updates on the 5th.
