Chapter 28: Mission Accomplished, Promoted To Captain
“Franz, we haven’t seen each other in several years!”
“Your Highness, thank you for providing such important intelligence to the Navy, and allowing the officers and soldiers to achieve such great merit!”
That evening, in a former Belgian royal estate in Antwerp city, the commander of the German 6th Army Group, Crown Prince of Baria Kingdom, Duke Rupprecht, temporarily held a grand welcoming and victory celebration banquet.
The guest of honor was, of course, General Hipper who had just returned in triumph. The two sides greeted each other very warmly upon meeting.
Hipper had once served as adjutant to the duke, so they were already very familiar.
However, for the sake of confidentiality in discussions, Duke Rupprecht specially set the welcoming celebration banquet in the format of a cocktail party today, so everyone could move freely without having to chat around a long table.
The duke had the other staff officers receive the meritorious captains, while he himself only called aside Major General Hipper, and Lieutenant Lelouch who served as the temporary liaison between them,
The three hid in a corner of the room, drinking cocktails, eating roast squab and red wine stewed lamb while chatting. Lelouch, having the lowest rank, also had to pour wine for the generals.
The duke first took out a document and pushed it in front of Hipper.
Hipper glanced at the cover and immediately stood at attention to salute before solemnly opening it.
“In view of the merits of General Franz von Hipper in the Ostend campaign, he is hereby granted the hereditary knight title of Baria Kingdom…”
This meant that from today on, Franz von Hipper would change his name to Franz Ritter von Hipper（Franz Ritter von Hipper, with the added “Ritter” being the infix for the granted hereditary knight title）
Hipper was so moved that tears welled up in his eyes.
Don’t think the hereditary knight title is low; it was already the limit for military merit titles. Higher titles like duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron could only be obtained by bloodline.
Meanwhile, Lelouch thought to himself: Historically, Hipper seemed to receive the hereditary knight title from the crown prince only during the Battle of Jutland, for covering the retreat of the High Seas Fleet main force. Now it seemed because of the early great merit, he was granted it a year and a half ahead…
Hipper wiped his eyes and immediately pledged loyalty privately: “Your Highness! If your Army needs any cooperation from me in the future, I will do my utmost. It’s all for the Empire; this is only to be expected.”
His wording was very cautious, saying “your Army,” meaning he would only serve the duke’s 6th Army Group, or at most the 8th Army Group that would belong to the Baria Faction in the future.
As for the other five Army Groups controlled by the Prussians, Hipper had no intention of giving them special treatment.
Moreover, he knew very well that this was a mutually beneficial arrangement. The duke surely controlled another intelligence system that was very efficient, helping him avoid harm and grasp enemy situations. So working for the duke would definitely also build merit for himself; it was mutually beneficial.
After Lelouch’s matchmaking this time and the win-win Army-Navy cooperation, this secret cross-branch cooperation and communication channel within the Baria Faction was established.
Seeing General Hipper pledge so firmly, Lelouch tactfully refilled champagne for all three glasses.
Then this strange combination of a duke, a major general, and a lieutenant toasted together.
After drinking, the duke patted Hipper’s shoulder again: “But this time you were ‘acting on your own against orders’ after all. I’ve urgently asked someone to probe the mood at the Naval Ministry top levels. Although you sank four enemy pre-dreadnoughts, to avoid losing face, they still need to be clear on rewards and punishments.
I estimate you can be promoted to lieutenant general, but not this year; probably after the year-end summary, when the controversy over your disobedience has passed. The Blue Max Medal is also inevitable, but that will wait until after the new year too.
I’m also afraid you’ll feel aggrieved that the promotion and medal can’t be cashed in immediately, so I cashed in a title for you first. It’s all for intelligence secrecy; the play that needs to be acted must be fully performed. This way, it can also make the Britannians misjudge our internal situation, thinking our Naval Ministry has intense factional struggles and grudges.”
“I can understand all that. It’s almost November anyway; only two months left this year. Promoting to lieutenant general at the beginning of next year is already very good,” Hipper said, indicating he could fully accept it without any resentment.
After appeasing Hipper, the duke immediately turned to Lelouch: “Lieutenant Lelouch, this matter relied entirely on your planning and coordination. But many of these things are inconvenient to bring into the open; for the secrecy of intelligence work, I’ll find another excuse to promote you.
These next few days, I’ll first transfer your affiliation from Army Group Headquarters to the 12th Division, and you’ll return to the front-line troops in Ostend. There, you’ll pretend to participate in some grassroots defense battles, and once there’s an excuse, Karl will immediately promote you to captain first.
After a while, Karl will assign you another task; as long as you perform well, it can go through the formal promotion reporting process to Army Group Headquarters for approval. Before that, don’t publicize outwardly that you know me.”
Many intelligence and conspiracy merits cannot be revealed for the time being.
The duke had only seen Lelouch once before, at the airport when he flew overnight to Wilhelmshaven, but he clearly hoped for a suitable opportunity in the future to “formally” meet Lelouch, preferably after he achieved merit again, publicly recommended by his brother Major General Karl.
This way, Lelouch’s resume would stand up to scrutiny in the future; even if noticed by Britannian spies, it wouldn’t easily reveal useful information.
Lelouch fully understood this concern and immediately said there was no problem:
“Thank you for Your Highness’s recognition; being promoted to captain first is already very good. I just wonder, what arrangements will my unit have next?”
The duke instinctively looked around a few times to confirm no outsiders, and he didn’t stint on privately giving some guidance:
“If the Britannians insist on saving face and launching a desperate offensive, Nieuwpoort and Ostend ultimately won’t hold—although Hipper sank four of their pre-dreadnoughts, as long as the enemy is willing to invest, they can send more ships, even have Betty incidentally block Antwerp Fjord for a few more days.
But these are minor issues; we don’t need to obsess over the gain or loss of one city or one place. That coastal area temporarily has no strategic value now. The high command has noticed that due to the flood released by the Belgian Army before its destruction, many low-lying areas in northwest Belgium will continue to turn into marshlands.
In such terrain, launching a decisive offensive would be very difficult; whoever attacks would suffer. But on this last Belgian territory, there’s one exception: Ypres city, now occupied by the Britannia Expeditionary Force.
Ypres is one of the rare high ground cities in western Belgium; the Britannia Expeditionary Force is continuously strengthening defenses there, investing more troops. In the foreseeable future, it will form an enemy salient wedging into our lines.
So the Empire is preparing an infiltration and cutting campaign, bypassing those low-lying flood areas, to completely cut off the entire Ypres surrounding high ground!
Of course, all this is still in the early preparation stage and not fully finalized. If we can achieve this, we can realize three strategic objectives:
First, completely occupy all remaining Belgian territory—Ypres salient accounts for only 5% of Belgium’s total area, but it’s the last Belgian land. King Albert who escaped before is also there now. In short, capturing it has major political significance.
Second, the French Army on the Western Front is already very fatigued; in the previous phase, their counterattack cost at least 200,000 dead to push back from Paris. So the French Army has begun handing the northernmost segment of the defense line—the part centered on Ypres salient near the Strait—to the recently arrived Britannia Expeditionary Force.
Including the Dunkirk and Calais areas still held by the French Army, they will be handed over to the British Army for defense. So if we can cut off the Ypres salient, it might attract the British Expeditionary Force main force to defend to the death, and finally annihilate the British Army main force here!
Finally, once the salient is taken, the Empire can straighten the Western Front defense line, saving a large number of line-filling troops and turning to mobile reserves.
So General Staff Headquarters plans to redraw defense zones recently; in a few days, our entire 6th Army Group will be fully transferred to the south side of Ypres salient, while Grand Duke of Württemberg’s 4th Army Group will be fully moved to the north of the salient.
When the time comes for the assault, our two Army Groups will be responsible. You boy have plenty of clever ideas; back at the front, think more about any tactical optimizations, maybe they can be used in the general offensive.”
Out of trust, Duke Rupprecht outlined the subsequent general strategic arrangements.
If it were another subordinate, he wouldn’t say so much, but Lelouch always had ingenious ideas that brought him advantages; giving a preview was harmless and beneficial.
Lelouch immediately expressed that upon returning to the troops, he would quickly break in with new comrades and think of ways suited to local conditions.
After finishing the main business, they drank another cup; the duke still had to entertain other generals and left on his own. Only Hipper and Lelouch drank some more.
Hipper was quite reluctant about Lelouch returning to the Army soon, so he pulled him to toast a final few cups:
“It seems your brain works well; it’s already known to His Highness and General Karl, all coming to you to fill gaps. We’ve worked together too; before you go, any optimization suggestions for our Navy?”
Lelouch knew that if he didn’t reveal some solid insights today, Hipper wouldn’t be satisfied.
Fortunately, as a transmigrator, he knew plenty of military common knowledge. Having fought two or three days of naval battles together, he did have some insights.
He generously gave Hipper two points: “Time was too rushed, and I didn’t observe many issues, so just two points.
First, our main warships’ combat speed is slightly slower than the Britannians’ equivalents. I saw the enemy no longer carries anti-torpedo nets during cruising operations, only installing them in port to prevent surprise attacks. But we’re still hanging nets while underway, which greatly affects speed and maneuverability and is useless; hurry and remove them all.
Also, the Empire’s destroyer technology and torpedo technology are really outdated. These designs are from ten years ago, even before the dreadnought era; back then, gunfire didn’t have such a great advantage over torpedo attacks. The French Army was also misled by this ‘torpedo victory theory’ into pursuing a green water navy.
In the future, gunfire accuracy advantage will grow greater; following this trend, torpedoes will gradually shift from core decisive battle weapons to tactical auxiliary weapons—unless a revolutionary new torpedo delivery vehicle appears to reverse it.
And so-called tactical auxiliary weapons mainly intercept enemy pursuits and disrupt enemy formations. Or like last night, remote finishing blows on immobilized main ships.
At that point, torpedo speed isn’t so important; the Empire should change thinking and, under current conditions, develop relatively slow but fuel-saving torpedoes that are hard to detect early, while greatly increasing max range. Such torpedoes don’t aim to hit specific targets, just super-long-range finishing blows and lucky kills. This can squeeze a few more years of use from torpedoes.
Additionally, future main ships under construction should all cancel torpedoes. Even if it only saves a bit of tonnage, optimizes the ship hull curve, or improves system reliability, it’s good—better than installing junk.”
Hipper finished the last of his glass, deep in thought.
He had vaguely realized these truths himself, but hadn’t sorted them into such a macro perspective.
Anti-torpedo nets indeed had poor defensive effect, barely better than nothing, but hanging them generally slowed warships by 2-3 knots, a too-obvious cost. With this combat experience validation, it was indeed time to push the High Seas Fleet to remove nets early（Historically, by 1915, the Navy realized this and gradually removed nets during combat cruising）
And in recent years, progress in artillery and fire control technology outpaced torpedo technology by far.
The era when torpedoes truly dominated was from the late 19th to early 20th century. Back then, main guns were completely inaccurate beyond five kilometers; torpedo boats could easily close to torpedo range under gunfire.
After the dreadnought era arrived, torpedoes’ room to shine indeed shrank.
Once main guns could accurately hit at longer ranges, torpedo boats couldn’t reach firing positions, making precise torpedo strikes meaningless.
Of course, for submarine torpedoes, since subs can stealthily close in for close-range surprise attacks, speed specs are still useful.
But for future surface vessels’ torpedoes, perhaps the effort direction should change.
Main ships should comprehensively drop torpedo installation plans.
“I’ll consider these, but Naval Ministry top levels may not listen to me; to fix this, we still need our own controllable naval weapon factories.
We’re pure soldiers with no money; can only hope the Baria Royal Family sees if His Highness the Duke is interested in finding investment.
Moreover, those main ships under construction—who knows if the Empire will fully invest resources to complete on schedule. The Army staff is grabbing steel and other resources too fiercely; shipyards are often half-idle. But I’ll push your plan to cancel main ship torpedoes.”
Hipper could only express this helpless stance in the end.
Considering it was just a victory celebration party today, Lelouch giving these two suggestions for free was already a great deal; Hipper accepted it graciously, acknowledging the favor.
Historically, the German Army actually had a chance to complete the “Baria-class” battleships by 1916, even the “Mackensen-class” battlecruisers before war’s end. The reason they weren’t finished wasn’t shipyard slacking, but resources and steel being squeezed by Army Staff Headquarters.
Of course, wartime was tight and they had to compete; historically the Navy performed poorly with little merit, so resources being taken was normal.
In this life, if Hipper becomes a naval new star and proves he can win with invested resources, the situation might differ.
In the future, perhaps need to invest in propaganda and lobbying for better resource grabs, but currently the Imperial Navy lacks talent in that area.
……
After the party ended, Lelouch slept soundly in Antwerp that night. Waking again, it was already noon the next day, November 1st—
Shamefully, this was his first full night sleeping soundly on land since transmigrating to this world.
He transmigrated on October 25th; until the 27th, he spent nights in Nieuwpoort’s artillery cellar, often waking startled to handle things.
Then the night of the 28th was on Immelmann’s airplane back seat, dozing a few hours in the cold wind.
The next two nights were on Hipper’s Derfflinger battlecruiser. Though there was ample sleep time those days, the ship’s pitching wasn’t like solid ground.
Now finally back on land. His first full week post-transmigration, only one normal sleep—this life was really tough.
No wonder he overslept so deeply.
Considering he needed to return to unit soon to cash in the captain promotion and adjust duties, he didn’t dare delay further.
After a hasty combined breakfast-lunch feast, he boarded the BFW sedan temporarily assigned by His Highness the Duke, which took him straight back to the Ostend front.
Before leaving, the duke privately gifted him a 1903 Ugly Country imported silk bulletproof vest, encouraging him to work hard at the front.
Upon arriving in Ostend, he was received by 12th Division Commander Major General Karl, and saw Regimental Commander Lister and others again.
The division commander specially arranged his duty handover, having him symbolically join the troops for two days of defense, then use an excuse for formal procedures to promote him to captain.
Major General Karl earnestly told him: “Lieutenant Lelouch, the commander personally discussed your situation with me. You have a bright future ahead, but you can’t start by hiding in the rear staff department planning; the Empire values complete officer resumes.
While your rank is still low, you should supplement some grassroots command officer experience. The recent defense battles and possible future Ypres counterattack are good opportunities. And I won’t assign you particularly dangerous tasks.”
By now, Lelouch no longer rejected the risks of grassroots command. After all, those above appreciated him and provided conveniences; his personal safety was surely much higher than other front-line officers.
He immediately expressed gratitude: “Thank you, Division Commander. I recall an ancient Eastern saying: Prime ministers must rise from the provinces, fierce generals from the ranks. Front-line grassroots combat command experience will be a precious asset; I’ll cherish this opportunity.”
——
PS: New book seeking comments, follows, collections, votes—many thanks.
Transitional chapter recapping merits and rewards post-naval battle, that’s it; back to land battles and troop training layout tomorrow.
