Chapter 40: Recruiting Talent, Returning To The Front Line
At the Neuschwanstein Castle banquet that day, Lelouch’s performance in all aspects amazed Old Marshal Leopold and made Duke Rupprecht, who already appreciated him, trust him even more.
Everyone’s understanding of his ability level was refreshed once again. From then on, all the core generals among the Baria Royal Family’s top brass believed that Lelouch would absolutely have a limitless future.
This young man has remarkable talent in everything from strategy and diplomacy to tactics and adaptability, and he is absolutely worth cultivating.
Well, if one had to pick a flaw, it’s that he looks a bit scholarly and weak, with poor physical fitness and individual combat effectiveness, not as brave and martial as a typical Germania soldier.
He has never attended a proper military academy, and even if he wanted to back then, with this physical fitness, he probably couldn’t have endured the harsh military academy training.
But no one is perfect; his brain is already so sharp, so how can one demand physical combat prowess as well? The era has changed.
His relatively scholarly weak body instead makes people feel that his sharp mind is reasonable; he must have invested all his talent points in intelligence.
This made the duke and others even more reassured to entrust him with organizational planning work.
When Lelouch learned he was about to be transferred back to the front line, he quickly struck while the iron was hot and proposed some supplementary suggestions to the duke regarding the preparation and construction of the assault battalion.
“Your Highness, you previously instructed me to keep an eye on personnel supplements for the assault battalion. During this month when I had free time, I also reviewed the list and resumes of the main second-line staff officers in this army group, as well as the officers wounded and awaiting return to duty.
I hope you can agree to transfer a few of them over, though these people’s military ranks are generally equivalent to mine, and some are even one rank higher than me…
Additionally, to expand the selection pool, I have also noted a few alternate officers affiliated with the 4th Army Group, that is, under the Grand Duke of Baden/Württemberg. I wonder if they can be seconded? If it requires expending a lot of favors, then don’t trouble you.”
Duke Rupprecht had a very good impression of him right now, so raising requests at this time had a high chance of approval.
So the duke just glanced casually and saw that the highest military rank on the list was only major, with several captains. These minor figures were not really worth haggling over.
But he was very puzzled, so he still asked: “Has our 6th Army Group run out of usable people? Why borrow personnel from the 4th Army Group?”
Lelouch couldn’t answer this question; he couldn’t say that in his previous life reading history books, he only found these familiar people among the grassroots officers. So he could only probe mysteriously:
“Please don’t misunderstand; I never said our army group lacks talent. It’s just that from their resumes, I can’t analyze the level of most colleagues. I only saw that these few seem more receptive to new things, so I thought to give it a try. If it’s too much trouble, just delete the latter half of the seconded personnel.”
The duke frowned: “It’s not really trouble; I have a good relationship with the Grand Duke of Württemberg. It’s all internal transfers among the South German States. If it were borrowing from the Prussians in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 5th Army Groups, that would cost a lot of favors. Fine, given your consistently good vision, I’ll trust you once more.”
The duke considered Lelouch’s demonstrated strategic vision and big picture view these past few days, along with his repeated divine prophecies, which had greatly accumulated credit endorsement for Lelouch’s decision making in the duke’s mind.
So he gritted his teeth in the end, signed the transfer order with a flourish. As for the corresponding coordination letter with the 4th Army Group, it would of course be handled together.
After receiving the transfer order and coordination letter, Lelouch was overjoyed in his heart. He thanked the duke again and spent the last two days completing the equipment acceptance work in Munich.
Finally, he found Immelmann, ended the vacation, flew back to the front line, and picked up people along the way.
The list in Lelouch’s hands had also taken him about a month’s free time to slowly check resumes and deliberate over.
He originally had two plans: if the duke’s trust in him wasn’t at this level yet, he would only select colleagues from the 6th Army Group. His first list actually had enough people and included several alternates.
But if the duke was willing to expend favors, then dig up the potential stocks from the 4th Army Group as well. Then delete those lower-ranked alternates from the first list.
Now the task was fully completed. It seemed that the grand strategic outlook chatted about with Old Marshal Leopold that day was not in vain; otherwise, the duke would never have trusted his vision so much as to waste a favor.
……
The 1914 pigeon reconnaissance aircraft had an endurance of only 400 kilometers; to return to the front line, two intermediate stops for refueling were necessary.
But this time, for picking up people, Lelouch needed even more than two stops.
Fortunately, he had already learned to fly the airplane himself, so he could let Immelmann sit in the rear seat, and after each landing, the two would switch positions to alternate flying and avoid fatigue driving.
At takeoff, Lelouch gave Immelmann a copy of the planned flight map and clearly communicated the route:
“When we return to Karlsruhe in a bit, stop once for refueling. The duke has already coordinated with the 4th Army Group people; they have several officers training reserves, currently all at the Karlsruhe training camp. I’ll personally hand them the transfer order and coordination letter and communicate face-to-face.
Then the second stop at Aachen; there is an officers’ sanatorium from our 6th Army Group, with several wounded officers to notify. Finally, land in Brussels and head straight back to the army group headquarters at the front line.”
So they proceeded without incident, and that morning at ten o’clock, Lelouch arrived at the first stop.
The field airport in Karlsruhe was near the recruit training camp. When Lelouch landed, several training officers who had been notified in advance were already waiting at the field airport.
Among those who came, some had higher military ranks than Lelouch, so he didn’t dare to act superior. As soon as the airplane stopped steadily, he immediately climbed out of the cockpit and went to greet them:
“Captain Lelouch Hunter, pleased to meet you. Sir, you must be Major Rundstedt?”
Seeing that Lelouch, as an army officer, could also fly an airplane, everyone looked at him with newfound respect, and unconsciously raised their evaluation of him by another level.
The major who was addressed also returned the salute: “Gerd von Rundstedt, major, Baden 22nd Reserve Division training staff officer.”
Lelouch shook hands warmly with him, feeling a strange sense of destiny in his heart: a few days ago, when Marshal Leopold tested him by asking why the empire’s hope lay in the Eastern Front rather than the Western Front, Lelouch in his response thought of that famous interface quote from playing Hearts of Iron in his previous life: “We should have thought of this in 1918…”
Unexpectedly, three days ago he had just borrowed the other’s thoughts from twenty years later, and three days later he met the real person.
“I’ve heard even in Munich that Major Rundstedt is rigorous in training troops. This time we are forming a new assault battalion; although the soldiers are all elite veterans, there are still some new tactics to practice on the fly, so we need a training expert like you.
If you don’t mind, according to this transfer order, effective immediately, you are the battalion commander of the 6th Army Group’s 2nd Assault Battalion. Although this position will be relatively arduous and dangerous, there will also be more opportunities for merit and promotion…”
“I’m not concerned about promotion!” Major Rundstedt seriously clarified, but still took the transfer order.
Saying he didn’t care about promotion was of course impossible; he was much older than the other officers present, already 40, and still only a major. But facing a 23-year-old captain, he certainly couldn’t show that he cared about military rank.
Lelouch chatted with him a few words, then turned to the other two officers of lower rank.
Since those two were merely second lieutenants, it was hard to distinguish them by military rank. Although Lelouch had seen their photos in his previous life, they were all of them in old age, so he couldn’t recognize them at the moment and had to let them introduce themselves.
“Walter Model, second lieutenant, infantry platoon leader.”
“Eduard Dieter, second lieutenant, machine gun platoon leader.”
（Note: These two won’t have images; the principle for future images is that only people not wearing any post-1920 badges or medals can have images）
“Very good, then starting today, both of you are transferred to my company as platoon leaders. My company is a reinforced company with a full 8 platoons and expanded manpower; it can absolutely accommodate you.”
Lelouch said half-jokingly, and the two serious-faced second lieutenant officers couldn’t help but laugh along, quickly closing the distance between them.
Moreover, they discovered they were about the same age. With their commanding officer Lelouch extending the olive branch, they introduced themselves to each other and learned that Model was born in 1891, a year older than the commanding officer, while Dieter was the same year as Lelouch, both 1892.
Everyone was post-1890s, so they had plenty of common topics, unlike the 1870s-born major who was so serious.
Lelouch’s airplane couldn’t fit so many people; after these few received their transfer orders, they still had to take the train themselves to assemble and report at the front line.
Lelouch had a lot of things to do and no time to wait until lunch before leaving, so he left each of them a small gift and took off in the airplane again.
The three looked at the gift in their hands: it was a dense garment fully 2 centimeters thick. It was heavier than ordinary clothes when worn, but only between two and three kilograms, and very soft.
“What is this thing?” The two post-1890s second lieutenants had no experience and humbly asked the 1870s-born major.
Major Rundstedt was indeed knowledgeable and said at a glance: “This is the silk bulletproof vest developed by the Ugly Country people, which can stop 9mm pistol rounds at close range, but it’s very expensive. It requires many layers of silk densely layered and processed; I hear it sells for seven or eight hundred ugly dollars, equivalent to three or four thousand marks.”
Second Lieutenant Dieter, who originally managed a machine gun platoon, instinctively exclaimed out of professional habit: “Three or four thousand marks? Enough to buy heavy machine guns for my entire platoon! Four machine guns only cost three thousand marks!”
“Looks like the higher-ups really value us and think our lives are worth a lot.” Second Lieutenant Model couldn’t help but mutter a few words.
……
Meanwhile, as the few were sighing and packing their luggage, preparing to take their officer IDs to board the train.
The ever-busy Lelouch had already flown to the next stop, arriving at the military hospital in Aachen.
There, he promptly found an officer about to complete discharge procedures:
“You are Erwin Rommel, who was wounded and promoted to captain in the Marne River campaign, right? How is your recovery? Can you be discharged?
If you can be discharged, you are now the company commander of B Company, 1st Assault Battalion, 6th Army Group. Nice to meet you; I am the deputy battalion commander and A Company company commander, Captain Lelouch Hunter. We’ll be colleagues from now on.”
