Chapter 87: Epic Victory, Joy For Some, Sorrow For Others
February 23, 1915, morning.
All the prominent newspapers of the Germania Empire rushed to publish blockbuster news early that morning.
Even evening papers or non-daily publications printed extras that morning.
Printing plants everywhere were forced to work overtime the night before, pulling all-nighters without exception. As allies, Ollie and Ottoman also published simultaneously.
Early in the morning, on the streets of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Königsberg… countless newsboys in major cities were loudly hawking the latest news.
“Extra! Epic victory! Sir, would you like to buy a copy of the Berlin Local News《? It has the most detailed victory report!”
A respectable gentleman in formal attire, with a full white beard, was striding quickly down a Berlin street with a cane, when he was stopped by a newsboy.
Facing the pitch, he frowned slightly: “I don’t read that kind of vulgar tabloid! Do you have the Berlin Daily News《 or the Forward》? No? Then forget it!”
The Berlin Local News》 is the traditional, plain newspaper loved by the common people, with the largest circulation, but it’s quite hawkish and not favored by internationally minded intellectuals and liberal middle class.
The Berlin Daily News《 is a bit more liberal, with a large circulation too. As for the Vossische Zeitung《 and Forward》, they’re even more left-leaning, but hard to get.
The newsboy quickly put on a smiling face and handed over a Berlin Daily News《: “Yes, sir, here you go, 5 pfennigs.”
The gentleman in formal attire paid and began reading carefully.
“Epic victory! The Empire’s 6th Army Group and 4th Army Group attacked Ypres at 11 p.m. on the evening of February 22, capturing alive the Britannian Army Commander-in-Chief, Marshal John French. The remaining British Army surrendered at midnight that day.
Thus, the Battle of Ypres ended in victory, with the Empire achieving complete victory! This battle annihilated the British Army and completely occupied all of Belgium. A total of 75,000 British troops were killed, 142,000 captured, and 217,000 British troops cumulatively annihilated. In the two-month battle, nearly 90,000 French troops who came to rescue the British Army were also killed, wounded, or captured.
Our 6th Army Group suffered 40,000 casualties, and the 4th Army Group over 20,000. At the cost of total casualties exceeding 60,000, we achieved battle results of over 300,000 enemies cumulatively annihilated! And thoroughly occupied the Ypres-Dunkirk salient, expanding territory by over 4,000 square kilometers.”
“The Empire also inflicted heavy damage on the British Navy that came to respond. Our Army airborne troops, coastal defense troops, railway gun unit; Navy Spee and Hipper’s two fleets cooperated fully, winning victory after victory, inflicting three heavy blows on the British fleet in the Dunkirk sea area, Nieuwpoort sea area, and Dogger Bank sea area.
The Empire’s airborne troops and railway gun unit sank 6 British battleships（2 Formidable-class pre-dreadnoughts, 4 Grant-class shallow-water heavy cannon ships） inside Dunkirk Port, sank 4 battleships（2 King Edward VII-class pre-dreadnoughts, the French Suffren and Jauréguiberry） offshore from Dunkirk, and sank 5 battleships（3 Majestic-class, the French Bouvet and Masséna）, 2 cruisers in the De Panne sea area
The Empire Navy Spee fleet sank 3 battleships（3 Majestic-class） in the Nieuwpoort sea area, and heavily damaged multiple enemy battlecruisers. Then the Navy Hipper fleet, in the Dogger Bank sea area, sank the enemy’s already damaged 2 battleships（Revenge, Hibernia） 3 battlecruisers（Indefatigable, Invincible, New Zealand）, and sank 2 cruisers, 6 destroyers
Over several days of multiple land and sea battles, a total of 20 enemy battleships were sunk（1 Queen-class, 15 pre-dreadnoughts（11 British 4 French）, 4 shallow-water heavy cannons）, 3 battlecruisers, 4 light cruisers, 11 destroyers, over 40 transport ships of various types. Over 15,000 enemy sailors were killed or drowned（including 2,600 French）, 4,150 captured, thousands wounded.
The Empire lost only 6 pre-dreadnoughts, 1 battlecruiser, 2 armored cruisers, 1 light cruiser, 8 destroyers, dozens of coastal defense guns, 11 railway guns. 3,822 sailors drowned in battle, 755 army artillerymen killed in action.
Such a great victory is unprecedented in four hundred years worldwide. The Spanish Armada three hundred thirty years ago, the Dutch Navy one hundred eighty years ago, Napoleon’s navy one hundred nine years ago—all failed to achieve this feat, now realized by the Empire Navy…”
After finishing the newspaper, the gentleman in formal attire felt a mix of emotions, both excited and uneasy.
“I didn’t expect such a huge victory, but it’s a pity it was against the British, not the Lushans. I hope it won’t lead to the war expanding further and becoming hard to end in the future.”
As a rational senior intellectual, he wasn’t as fanatical as the other common people on the street.
The other passersby nearby, after reading the newspaper, would start cheering and spreading the news within seconds.
The streets were full of people boasting that “Duke Rupprecht, Vice Admiral Hipper, Lieutenant General Spee are the Empire’s great heroes. Such monumental achievements are no less than those of Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and other general officers in last year’s Eastern Front victory.”
But the gentleman in formal attire obviously thought more than the average citizen. After hesitating for a moment, he decided to temporarily adjust his itinerary for the day and turned to visit an old friend.
……
Half an hour later, the gentleman in formal attire arrived at an apartment in the Scheenberg district.
“Kautsky? What brings you to see an old guy like me today?” The old friend was full of surprise when he opened the door, clearly having lived in seclusion for a long time, rarely attending to worldly affairs or receiving visitors.
“Burns, have you seen this morning’s newspaper? The Empire won a great victory on the Western Front!” The gentleman in formal attire, Kautsky, said as he handed over a newspaper.
The reclusive Burns took it casually, went back to the study to pick up his glasses and put them on, then slowly read it through.
（Above image: Kautsky left, Burns right）
It turned out that these two elderly men in their sixties or seventies were both members of parliament with considerable influence, representative figures of the center-left faction within Germania, and opinion leaders of the Social Democrats since the war began.
After the war broke out, the Social Democrats split. Some particularly left-wing ones called for anti-war by any means, believing there should be no qualms about the “fatherland.”
Others, more centrist, pragmatic, and mainstream, believed in “fighting for peace,” preventing the war from expanding, especially not expanding the war’s objectives.
Of course, some particularly right-wing hawks, like Scheidemann, blindly supported expanding the war.
Where there are people, there are left, center, and right.
But no matter what, as long as they are human, it’s hard to escape the influence of emotional closeness. For example, the Burns before them was slightly left-leaning, but after reading, he couldn’t help but feel happy for the nation and blurted out:
“A great victory—that’s good news! Why do you look worried instead?”
Kautsky sighed: “Of course I know it’s good, but don’t you think winning on the Western Front might make the Emperor even more ambitious and expand the war? I was wondering this morning why Parliament is being convened extra this afternoon. Now I realize it’s definitely to approve additional war funding again. Sigh.”
Burns frowned and thought for a while, putting the newspaper on the sofa: “That’s unavoidable, but I hope the nation can still move in the direction we want. Principled territorial expansion isn’t something we internationalists should support, and once such ambitions succeed, it will only make the authoritarians more unrestrained and unable to stop. Just like the ancient Eastern Qin Shi Huang—addicted to expansion, eventually self-destructing.
The war objectives we support can only be fighting for peace, at most adding one to curb the Lushans’ generalized barbaric expansion. This war was supposed to be the Serbs assassinating the Ollie crown prince, Ollie demanding justice, and that’s it. Those tyrants who generalize claims to protect similar ethnic groups and arbitrarily expand the war are what we should curb.”
（Note: This is just relaying the then center-left mainstream view in Germania; it doesn’t represent my endorsement. The next few paragraphs are similarly quotes）
Burns’ words might be hard for foreigners unfamiliar with this history to understand at first.
But at the time in Germania, the center-left mainstream saw it that way. They supported the war but believed the conflict with France, Britain, etc., should stay at the “fighting for peace” objective level, not aiming to “annex French territory after winning.”
They believed the Franks were also a free nation without barbaric expansion; they were dragged into the war by certain treaties.
In the eyes of these Germania center-left mainstream, the most evil was Lusha with the strongest monarchical centralization. Moreover, Lusha had a history of sinfully expanding its homeland and often used the generalized banner of “protecting similar ethnic people” to infiltrate westward, interfering in the Two Austrias, interfering in the Baric Peninsula.
From the World War mobilization order, Lusha was the first non-belligerent country to mobilize. Many apolitical mainstream Germania citizens felt, based on this alone, that Lusha turned a “bilateral war to settle grudges between two disputing nations” into a “group brawl.”
So the support limit from Germania’s centrists and intellectuals for the war was only: “If after winning and forcing peace you insist on annexing territory, then counter the Lushans with violence, but don’t apply this to civilized nations in the west. The civilized nations in the west were pulled in later; just beat them enough to make them stop.”
And from a pragmatic perspective, these people all knew it was impossible to defeat the nations across the sea; Germania didn’t have the capability, so realism was better.
If the Emperor exceeded this objective to expand the war, he would face backlash from center-left figures—historically, Kautsky, Burns, and others, in June this year, saw a leaked, unofficial《war objectives program》 document revealing the high command’s attempt to expand war goals. Then they slid from supporting limited war to opposing war, and from then on voted against increasing war funding in Parliament.
But for now, none of this has happened yet. The main Social Democrat leaders only have some hidden worries about the war becoming prolonged and attritional, not yet to total despair.
Moreover, in original history, a landmark event making these people feel “the war has fallen into meaningless attrition” was the back-and-forth of the first two Battles of Ypres. Both sides lost hundreds of thousands, but the front line just pushed back and forth, ending unchanged; both sides wasted half a year on the Western Front.
But now the Battle of Ypres was fought only once, instantly wiping out the British Expeditionary Force completely. Domestic concerns about “the war falling into meaningless attrition” have greatly reduced.
Based on these butterfly effects, after chatting with Kautsky for a while, Burns reached a conclusion:
“It’s too early to worry now whether the high command will arrogantly expand war goals and try to annex territory offending the entire international community. I think we can first try to understand the main contributors to this campaign and see their inclinations. Because these people’s views will definitely influence the Empire’s future goals.
The main contributor to this victory is the 6th Army Group Commander, Duke Rupprecht, who is the Baria Crown Prince. On the navy side, the top contributor is Vice Admiral Hipper, also a Baria noble. We can completely find an enlightened minister who is acquainted with both to make contact.
For example, Minister Mark von Baden of the Prisoner of War Affairs Department is a representative of the enlightened faction and leader of one of the southern four states. He definitely has good relations with the Baria Crown Prince of the 6th Army Group and the Grand Duke of Württemberg of the 4th. I’ll use my old face to ask him to help inquire, then decide whether we should increase or decrease support for the war.”
Kautsky thought about it and felt it was a good idea: “Then I’ll trouble you; I’m not very familiar with Minister Baden.”
“No problem, I’ll handle it.” Burns took it on confidently.
So later that day, they first attended Parliament.
After the afternoon Parliament session started, sure enough, they discussed increasing war funding.
Although everyone expected the topic, when the minister applying for additional funding stepped onto the podium, Kautsky, Burns, and others were still greatly surprised.
Tonight’s main speaker was actually Naval Minister Marshal Tirpitz!
“How could it be him? Is today’s topic to add shipbuilding funding? Insane! Warships take so long to build; building ships at this time means expanding the war against Britannia?”
All the left-leaning people were panicked and didn’t listen to what Minister Tirpitz said.
The pro-war faction listened very attentively. Minister Tirpitz hoped to advance the next round of shipbuilding funding plan by one year compared to pre-war plans—before the war, the Empire had added 3 rounds of shipbuilding budgets in 1904, 1908, 1912. The 1908 one was the fiercest（because battleships appeared）, reaching 940 million marks, building a large batch of battleships and battlecruisers at once. In 1912, another 275 million marks were added to start 5 “Baria-class” battleships（each budgeted at 55 million marks）.
If the war hadn’t broken out, there would be the next navy funding cycle in 1916. But previously everyone thought, with World War started, navy resources partly diverted to the army, there wouldn’t be 1916 funding.
Unexpectedly, the Naval Ministry wouldn’t let go and proposed funding needs half a year early, clearly to accelerate the shipbuilding plan.
One could only hear Minister Tirpitz saying above: “The Naval Ministry requests an emergency allocation of 40 million marks this year to ensure accelerated construction of the 5 ‘Baria-class’ battleships and counter inflation-induced cost increases during the war. Over the next three years, a cumulative 420 million marks for building 7 ‘Mackensen-class’ battlecruisers…”
“Insane! Totally insane! Even with the navy’s great victory, it’s worth supporting. But pouring so many resources now, how can it be in time? Unless the war lasts another 2-3 years, otherwise this money will be spent without the warships being ready!”
Most left-leaning members of parliament wouldn’t accept this proposal; only firm war supporters backed it. In the end, both sides’ momentum seemed about even—perhaps laymen would think “even” is not bad.
But comparing horizontally, this support level was already much lower than previous war funding supports.
Since the war began, most war budget bills passed with over 70% support, rarely facing 50-50 splits.
While the floor was abuzz, Marshal Tirpitz had finished speaking and stepped down from the podium.
Before the formal vote, ministers from other departments could still go up to supplement speeches, help rally votes, or express opposition.
And just when everyone thought no other ministers would wade into this mess, an unexpected minister went up—Mark von Baden, Grand Duke of Baden, Minister of the Prisoner of War Affairs Department, who had always reserved attitude toward expanding the war.
“Everyone! Please believe that the Empire has sincerity for ‘fighting for peace.’ His Majesty and the cabinet are very clear that completely destroying Lusha, France, and Britain is unrealistic, and not the Empire’s intention.
But peace exists through fighting for it, perishes through compromising for it. The Empire has now annihilated the British Army; to ultimately achieve Western Front peace in the future, we must have a trump card strong enough to scare the British! The Empire’s navy has now achieved partial, brilliant victory over Britain!
The Empire’s navy has won absolute advantage in battle damage exchange ratio and proved itself! So we need to press on, strengthening the Empire fleet’s paper strength. With this great victory as trump card, the British must lower their arrogant heads and admit that the Empire’s warships quality and sailor quality surpass theirs! We just lack quantity!
And once we clearly make up this quantity shortfall, the Britannians will have to weigh whether to exit the war!
Therefore, I support Marshal Tirpitz’s proposal, and I hope members of parliament with similar ideas and hearts set on fighting for peace can consider my thoughts today…”
Minister Mark von Baden still had high prestige among many enlightened faction members of parliament.
Since he said so and analyzed the premises for fighting for peace, people’s attitudes became even more swayed.
Finally, after discussion, enlightened faction members hoped to add some total military spending control clauses—specifically, hoping the navy’s extra spending could be offset by army reductions, or requiring the army to avoid meaningless attritional sawing in the future.
These supplementary topics couldn’t be settled in one or two days, but at least the framework for total control was proposed first, requiring passage together. Also demanding stricter management of fund use, prioritizing speeding up in-construction warships, not diverting steel and materials needed for warships causing delays, not starting new projects before finishing old ships.
Finally, the meeting ran into late evening, but it passed, and the navy finally got the money.
At adjournment, the Social Democrat center-left represented by Kautsky and Burns couldn’t help stopping Minister Mark von Baden.
Burns was more familiar with him and took the initiative: “Your Excellency Baden, we know you’re very tired, but sorry to delay you a bit more. We all voted yes tonight, but we really want to know if your speech just now was from the heart?”
Minister Mark von Baden: “Of course from the heart. I truly hope the Western Front can ultimately achieve fighting for peace, and I believe the current approach is conducive to that goal. The Western Front’s key is no longer the Franks, but the Britannians.”
Burns thought and continued: “One more thing—heard you’re very familiar with the Grand Duke of Württemberg and the Baria Crown Prince. Can you take the opportunity to find out what these newly minted Empire heroes think about the Western Front? Do they think like you, or…”
Burns thought this question would require Minister Baden to inquire and communicate slowly after going back, but unexpectedly the other answered very straightforwardly, while lowering his voice:
“You can rest assured on this point. I can guarantee that His Highness Duke Rupprecht thinks the same as me. He also feels the Empire’s hope is on the Eastern Front, and the Western Front should exhaust all means to force a draw. He has no intention of inciting His Majesty to annex civilized nations’ territory. The Empire is fighting a defensive self-defense war.”
This straightforward, unhesitating answer greatly surprised Burns and Kautsky: “How do you know so clearly?”
Minister Baden’s face turned serious: “Of course I’m serious. Actually, right after yesterday’s campaign ended, I urgently talked with His Highness Duke Rupprecht. I feel they think even farther than me, and have a methodology from actual frontline combat experience, not empty ideas like ours.
I also had a deep talk with one of Duke Rupprecht’s main staff officers, Lieutenant Colonel Lelouch Hunt. Many of his ideas fill in the details of our conceptions.”
“Lelouch Hunt? Just a lieutenant colonel?” Burns, Kautsky, and other theoretical bigwigs and senior members of parliament noted this name for the first time. “Pity, just a lieutenant colonel. Hope this frontline-risen staff officer isn’t as arrogant and hawkish as Ludendorff…”
The few were still worried, but Minister Baden’s next words dispelled some of their doubts:
“Don’t judge by rank high or low. This Lelouch Hunt is a very pragmatic young man; he’s only 25. I’ve discussed many matters deeply with him before; he’s also very compassionate.
Moreover, this time he captured alive the Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief, Marshal John French. Believe it won’t be long before he’s no longer just a lieutenant colonel.”
When Grand Duke Baden introduced earlier, he subconsciously overstated Lelouch’s age. Actually Lelouch was 23 by Western reckoning, 24 by Chinese, but that sounded too unreliable. Grand Duke Baden felt 25 was at least a major milestone, so he slightly padded it, saying 25.
ID cards in this era weren’t networked; faking age was easy to get away with, especially since Lelouch was a naturalized foreigner. The Empire wouldn’t check his birth certificate with ally Austria.
Burns and Kautsky then looked at him with respect: “So young and accomplished. The Empire’s newspapers mainly propagandize the princes and General Hipper, making us overlook the unsung hero behind.
Your Excellency Minister, if possible in the future, can you introduce us? We feel if he’s truly a clear-headed fighting-for-peace person, we should get him a government position to exert greater influence, so the Empire doesn’t go astray or become increasingly radical leading to derailment.”
Minister Baden: “If you want to chat with him, I can arrange, but not these few days. As for giving him a position outside military rank, I’ve already considered. This time, let him first assist me in handling some British Expeditionary Force prisoner affairs; if he performs well, I’ll have grounds to recommend him.”
Lelouch didn’t know that just because after yesterday’s battle, when Minister Baden came to chat with Commander Rupprecht, he listened on the side, offered a few opinions, and wrote a few talking points for Minister Baden’s Parliament speech.
He thereby entered the view of certain factions in Parliament, and gradually, some began seeing him as a representative of the younger generation against Ludendorff and other extreme hawks.
Although the Empire’s newspapers haven’t propagandized his deeds yet, because he’s just a lieutenant colonel, the general public doesn’t know him much.
But among members of parliament, he’s already gained his first bucket of fame.
——
PS: Thanks for everyone’s patience. Had to insert this political scene a bit to lay some foundational background; otherwise, couldn’t unfold the protagonist’s desired path later.
Next chapter back to protagonist’s reward ceremony, aftermath layout. Rest assured political content won’t be much.
