Chapter 216: Potsdam Gilded Academy
At the same time as the endless snowstorm in Murmansk, where tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people froze and starved to death every day.
Lelouch, who had endured a grueling journey by boat and car, arrived in Berlin dusty and weary, about to enroll in the Potsdam Military Academy to complete his three-month gilding career before promotion.
“Hello, Baron Lelouch von Hunter, Brigadier General Chief of Staff of the 6th Army Group, Division Commander of the Greater Germania Armored Training Division, reporting for duty.”
Riding in the latest BMW armored car, Lelouch arrived at the Potsdam Military Academy, 40 kilometers southwest of Berlin, and went straight to the academic affairs office, where he submitted his identification and admission invitation.
At his level, what he received for enrollment was not an admission notice, but an admission invitation.
It was the school inviting him to study, not him applying or taking the exam to get in.
“Ah! You must be Baron Lelouch. I know about your brilliant performance in Kyiv and the Gallipoli Campaign. You’re truly the Great Hero of the Empire. This way, please. Have some coffee first and wait a moment; the enrollment procedures will be ready soon.”
A captain clerical officer responsible for academic affairs reception didn’t dare to slack off at all, following Lelouch throughout the entire process to handle the procedures one-stop, and finally handed the student ID to Lelouch with both hands.
Lelouch was also not arrogant, receiving the student ID with both hands as well, and politely said a few words to the other: “Are you a faculty member here? The Kyiv and Gallipoli Campaigns were mainly won under the wise leadership of Marshal Rupprecht. I dare not take credit for such things.”
The clerical captain immediately clarified: “No, no, no. I’m just a mere captain; how could I qualify as academic affairs staff? I’m only a temporary assistant instructor. Thank you for asking; allow me to introduce myself. My name is Heinz Wilhelm Guderian. I was on the front lines early in the war.
But shortly after being promoted to captain last summer, I was transferred to the cavalry reconnaissance and messenger units, serving as a branch staff assistant. Later, I wrote a few research papers on rapid reconnaissance and communications in the new situation, which caught the eye of my alma mater. They temporarily seconded me back to do some assistant instructor work, helping General Goltz with some projects. After the projects are done, I’ll return to the troops. Hearing you were coming soon, General Goltz attached great importance to it and had me receive you.
Baron Lelouch, I greatly admire your strategic vision. To be honest, military merit isn’t the most important thing in Kyiv and Gallipoli. The key is that your methods showed me the new tactical potential of using tanks and armored vehicles for rapid reconnaissance, rapid liaison, and rapid coordination.
Moreover, these tactics have already been tested in actual combat. As long as they are summarized and perfected, they can be promoted. Just based on these tactical innovations and weapon application innovations, you deserve to be a high-ranking general.”
Captain Guderian was like a fan meeting his idol, seizing the opportunity to speak rapidly and endlessly.
If Lelouch didn’t have some foundational understanding, and could immediately imagine the other’s general persona upon hearing the name Guderian, anyone else really wouldn’t understand this barrage of flattery.
It seemed that Guderian’s life resume had also been influenced by Lelouch’s butterfly effect. Lelouch vaguely remembered that Guderian on the Earth plane never attended military academy for further study or served as an assistant instructor during the entire war, nor researched any armored-related projects, staying as a staff officer in cavalry and reconnaissance communications units.
It was probably because Lelouch had produced tanks ahead of time, causing this type of weapon to be noticed earlier by more insightful people in the Germania Army, leading Guderian to take the initiative to do some research in his spare time, submit a paper to his alma mater, attract high-level attention, and change his life trajectory.
Back when Lelouch was rising, while gathering talent, he had of course thought of Guderian and Manstein. But these people were generally not from the Baria Faction, and not in the 4th or 6th Army Groups at the time; Lelouch’s reach wasn’t that far, so he couldn’t recruit them.
Guderian had always been a staff officer in the cavalry branch headquarters, and now he had finally entered Lelouch’s sphere of influence. But because he came a year late, Rommel had already been promoted to colonel, while Guderian was still just a captain.
This was the cost of following the right boss too late.
As for Manstein, Lelouch couldn’t even reach him now; that guy was too close to Marshal Hindenburg and was part of the Hindenburg Faction.
Unless one day Marshal Hindenburg suffered a setback, Manstein would have a good chance of switching allegiances.
Seeing that after he finished speaking, Baron Lelouch seemed lost in thought with no response for a long time, Guderian realized he had spoken too densely, so he smiled awkwardly: “Sorry, I might have said too much. I’ll ask for your guidance another time if there’s a chance.”
Lelouch finally turned back: “It’s fine, I understand. Are you planning to write some projects on armored application tactics? I think highly of you; write whatever you want. If you have any questions, we can discuss anytime.”
Guderian didn’t expect someone four ranks higher to be so approachable, feeling quite surprised and delighted:
“This… how could I impose? You’re here at Potsdam Military Academy for further study and must be doing related research too. Of course I won’t steal your project.”
Lelouch: “This time back, the General Staff Headquarters should require me to do some strategic studies projects. The higher-ups think I’m good enough on tactics but lack big picture view, wanting me to properly supplement these broad military theories.
So, for new applications like armored tactics, whatever projects or research directions you can think of, go ahead boldly. You can come exchange ideas with me anytime.”
Lelouch was very magnanimous; he truly didn’t care who completed these tactical projects. After all, in his previous life, he wasn’t a professional researcher. For so-called blitzkrieg theory, he only grasped the general idea without delving deep. He couldn’t research it in detail like the academy’s formal students.
Since Guderian was a specialist in this area and was already researching it, let him do it. It was just specialization; let professionals handle professional matters. Lelouch only needed to occasionally provide some broad ideas.
Moreover, unlike ordinary field grade officers, Lelouch didn’t lack a tactical innovation paper project to ensure promotion. Coming to Potsdam Military Academy was just gilding and going through the motions. As long as the final results were barely acceptable, the General Staff Headquarters would promote him to major general.
But throwing out this effortless favor, for a mere captain like Guderian, was enough to make him eternally grateful, intensifying his fanatic loyalty to Lelouch.
Guderian said gratefully: “In that case… I won’t stand on ceremony. But rest assured, I’ll put your name first when the time comes. And the General Staff Headquarters is somewhat underestimating you. A genius like you couldn’t possibly be bad at strategic studies; you just lack a systematic learning and research opportunity.”
Lelouch smiled, neither confirming nor denying the statement.
His strategic vision and big picture view were of course not lacking; it was just that previously, he had only shown his true strategic vision in front of the core generals of the Baria Faction. Both Duke Rupprecht and Old Marshal Leopold were deeply impressed by his vision.
But Lelouch had limited opportunities to perform as a sage before, and during audiences with Emperor Wilhelm, he had always held back on strategic big picture matters, not saying things that weren’t appropriate for the emperor, which led to the emperor’s evaluation of his big picture view being far lower than Duke Rupprecht’s.
General Falkenhayn, the Chief of Staff, and other General Staff Headquarters high-level officials understood Lelouch’s big picture vision even less, as they had never discussed such issues with him.
For this study session, Lelouch had roughly thought on the way: he could choose a strategic studies project that was relatively shocking but wouldn’t offend too many current power holders, while also finding theoretical basis in predecessors, to glorify the faction he represented, and ideally also strike at the views of the Hindenburg and Ludendorff faction.
But how exactly to choose and operate it still needed slow exploration and brewing; after all, there were three months.
There was no need to discuss these matters much with an outsider of low status like Guderian.
……
After completing enrollment procedures, Lelouch didn’t rush into academic research that day; instead, he rested well, then spent a day or two socializing, mixing faces and connections with other concurrent trainees.
But after going around, he found that among all the trainees attending, he actually had the highest rank! So no one was worth his deliberate flattery; he just needed to socialize normally, while other trainees needed to flatter him.
But thinking carefully, this was normal. After all, the Potsdam Military Academy’s senior officer training class was not quite the same as the gilding classes Li Yunlong attended in Bright Sword. This senior training class was generally for field grade officers to study, laying groundwork for potential future generalship, solidifying basics.
Similar to the Earth plane Fusang people’s two-level education system of NCO school and Army University; ordinary people could only go to NCO school first for military academy, and only after graduating and serving to promotion could they possibly go to Army University for advanced study, and only after completing that could they possibly rise to general. Actually, this is a bit backwards; Fusang’s NCO-Army University two-level system was copied from the Prussian military academy system; Prussia’s was the original.
So Lelouch found that among all concurrent trainees, he was the only brigadier general, while others ranged from major to colonel, with few colonels. And most people’s program wasn’t the three-month short class, but a bit longer.
In peacetime, such study could last two or three years, but in wartime, it was often compressed to at most one year.
Only officers wounded and needing long-term rear recovery would get a year. If not wounded, generally six to nine months.
The other trainees’ ages were all over 30, with only Lelouch over 25. And those over 35 who hadn’t reached field grade were generally not allowed to come for further study anymore.
Because it was foreseeable: a guy not even a major at 35 had almost no hope of reaching general before retirement.
After mixing faces, Lelouch rarely saw a few familiar faces among the concurrent trainees, all old-timers from the 80s and early 85s.
Including 35-year-old Georg von Kühler artillery major;
Similarly 35-year-old Maximilian von Wex cavalry major;
32-year-old Walter von Reichenau cavalry major.
Most surprising to him was a 40-year-old lieutenant colonel, seconded back from the 6th Army Group for short-term academic research, named Oswald Lutz. And Lelouch hadn’t known beforehand—Lelouch himself was the 6th Army Group’s chief of staff; normally, if Duke Rupprecht was sending someone for training, he would inform Lelouch, but this time the duke said nothing, and Lelouch only learned after arriving in Potsdam that there was such an officer from the same faction.
He didn’t know what medicine the duke had in his gourd, or what other considerations there were.
As for the rest of the trainees, Lelouch didn’t know them at all; they were probably ordinary people not recorded in history.
Knowing these few had future prospects, Lelouch naturally focused on associating with them graciously.
The few were also flattered and soon explained their situations to Officer Lelouch.
Lelouch thus learned that Kühler artillery major was the longest among these 4 classmates in training time at Potsdam; before Lelouch arrived, he had been there for nearly half a year. He was focusing on an artillery observation training project, on “how to optimize existing artillery spotter training courses during war to make artillery spotter training faster to produce results.”
Before coming to Potsdam Military Academy, he had worked in the Empire’s artillery survey bureau, a rear technical officer, only on the front lines briefly early in the war, that is, on the Eastern Front fighting a defensive battle against the Lusha Army for a while,
At that time, the Lusha Army was actively attacking Germania homeland. Later, after the Russian Army’s disastrous defeats at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, they no longer had the ability to threaten Germania homeland, and Kühler gradually shifted to second-line training research.
From his current resume, Georg Kühler hadn’t shown much command talent; he seemed more like a mobilization and training type of talent.
Among the 4, the second longest at Potsdam was 32-year-old Walter Reichenau cavalry major. He had previously fought with Marshal Mackensen in the Lithuania and Latvia regions. After the Riga Bay Campaign, the Northern Front fighting paused slightly, and he got a rotation rest opportunity, arriving at Potsdam Military Academy in October last year; before Lelouch came, he had already been studying for 3 months.
When the two introduced situations, Reichenau major very politely thanked Officer Lelouch for his stratagem: “Officer Lelouch, if not for you having the navy charge into Riga Bay, cutting off the sea logistics supplies of the Lusha Army around Riga, causing their morale to collapse and army heart to scatter, our offense wouldn’t have been so smooth.
At the time, I alone with my cavalry battalion infiltrated to the Riga Bay shore, piercing through two enemy regiments’ positions! Thinking back now still makes me proud; I really miss that feeling of crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. The enemy’s defensive zone was chaotic like paper back then.
For this study, I originally wanted to research how to use cavalry deep infiltration to expand results after breaking through enemy tight defenses on the front lines, but unexpectedly after just starting, you deployed armored cars in the Kievan Rus’ War Zone, then tanks… I feel my project is almost outdated; I really want to adjust the research direction.”
Hearing this, Lelouch encouraged him: “No problem! I support you changing projects. Of course, you can also do supplementary research. After all, cavalry deep infiltration and splitting is valuable; armored car and tank production isn’t fast enough to equip all main forces yet.
The Empire doesn’t have that much fuel to support armored troops either, especially the Eastern Front battlefield with its bad terrain and vast depth. Cavalry will still have great use before this war ends.”
Reichenau had been somewhat hesitant, but encouraged by Lelouch, he firmed his resolve.
He would continue researching cavalry infiltration to expand results, but armored forces usage could be a supplement to the project.
Among the 4 classmates, the remaining 2 had just arrived recently. 35-year-old Maximilian von Wex cavalry major came in December last year; his combat resume had nothing noteworthy, having been a captain before the war broke out, promoted to major last year.
But because he served on the Western Front, fighting positional defensive battles all last year, his cavalry had few opportunities to shine. Last year, he had always been operating in the Champagne and Artois regions, where the Franks most wanted to retake.
From his description, since the second half of last year, in Champagne and Artois, many frontline line-filling soldiers had been replaced by Lusha prisoners of war captured on the Eastern Front, screened for those willing to fight for Germania in exchange for good living conditions.
These soldiers were only issued Mosin-Nagants, no submachine guns or machine guns; support fire groups were provided by Germania overseers, so they weren’t afraid of desertion in battle.
Over half a year of fighting, there were three or four small-scale accidental desertions, but they were immediately extinguished by Germania submachine gun and machine gun teams. Any deserting soldiers were all machine-gunned on the spot to intimidate the rest.
Overall, using Lusha prisoners of war for static line-filling in Champagne and Artois had far more benefits than drawbacks, saving at least 200,000 Germania soldiers’ lives over half a year, while the casualties from occasional desertions among Germania overseers totaled only a few thousand.
So far, the biggest drawback was just that the opposing Franks had also learned to force captured Germania prisoners to fill lines.
But because Germania Army prisoners were far fewer than the enemy’s, and Germania prisoners forced to the front to fight their own compatriots were extremely few willing to cooperate. Even if some did, desertion rates were much higher, and Germania prisoners often slipped away back to their own lines.
The Franks tried a few times with no effect and gradually gave up.
Wex major’s combat resume had nothing much to say, but his background gave him some common ground with Lelouch—Wex major’s father was early on the carriage driver for the previous Anhalt Duke, then a close attendant, later becoming guard captain.
Of course, now Wex’s father and the previous Anhalt Duke were both deceased. The current Anhalt Duke Joachim was the Grand Duke of Baden’s nephew, because the duchess was the Grand Duke of Baden’s second sister.
Lelouch had a solid relationship with the Grand Duke of Baden, and was also very familiar with Joachim and his sister Miss Loretta. Hearing this connection from Wex, Lelouch generously said that if there was a chance in the future, he’d look out for him; no problem not earning military merit struggling miserably on the Western Front before, there would be plenty of opportunities after finishing this training class.
Maximilian Wex major saw Officer Lelouch so righteous and was also eternally grateful.
The last of the 4, Oswald Lutz, arrived just before Lelouch, only two days earlier.
Out of curiosity, Lelouch asked what project he was researching this time.
Oswald Lutz answered very detailedly:
“I was originally a logistics officer in the 6th Army Group, so since I wasn’t in combat, Officer Lelouch, you might not have much impression of me. This time to Potsdam, His Highness the Marshal has a project he hopes I can organize during the winter combat lull.
It’s about armored car and tank winter combat logistics issues, like what optimizations to make to the existing logistics supply system to avoid various winter accidents, armored cars and tanks not starting, or extra maintenance precautions.
I don’t know why His Highness the Marshal didn’t tell you; he clearly trusts you so much. He must have been too busy and forgot.”
Hearing it was this project, Lelouch immediately understood Duke Rupprecht’s pains.
The duke was laying groundwork for issues like “current tank and armored car engines won’t start when cold, fuel might solidify,” doing related logistics research. Like whether future diesel needs additives, whether tanks need engine antifreeze, ethylene glycol or propylene glycol better.
These were common knowledge for any private car owner in later generations, but in 1916 they were brand new projects; who in this era considered diesel anti-gelling and engine antifreeze.
And the duke not telling him was clearly to avoid Lelouch getting the suspicion of “I knew long ago tanks couldn’t be used in the coldest winter.” That way, if he still watched Marshal Hindenburg and General Ludendorff’s Poland offensive fail, it would be “standing by idly.”
With this arrangement now, even if Hindenburg couldn’t take Warsaw in the future, Lelouch could stay clean, claiming outwardly he hadn’t expected it either.
Since that was the case, Lelouch wouldn’t waste the duke’s efforts; he followed Oswald Lutz’s wording:
“I see… His Highness the Duke is so thoughtful, even considering these issues. It’s my youth making me think incompletely; armored cars and tanks are just newly invented, and I haven’t delved into environmental adaptability myself.
This project is very important; you must research it diligently and strive for quick results. But this winter we definitely won’t make it; fortunately, there are no tank-using offensive tasks recently. By next year when it’s cold again, we’ll surely have solved these issues.”
——
PS: A bit stuck, suddenly changing maps, military theory, military industry, industrial infrastructure, enemy’s reactions, friendly forces’ battles, a thousand things, don’t know where to start.
Back to normal two updates tomorrow.
