Chapter 88: We’ve Captured The Enemy Commander-in-chief, Promoting To Colonel Isn’t Enough
Two days after Parliament discussed the additional war funding issue on February 25th.
In Dunkirk City, in a hospital that had just been set up a few days ago, more than a thousand infected wounded soldiers were gathered together for care.
Lieutenant Colonel Lelouch, who had only made great merit two days ago, was now fully devoted to the Empire’s wounded soldiers rescue work. As for the wrangling in Parliament and his newfound fame among the members of Parliament, he didn’t know and didn’t care.
Counting on his fingers, it had been almost exactly two months since Lelouch last returned to the rear in Frankfurt to arrange industrial affairs.
Under the wartime guideline of simplicity and speed, and thanks to the approval authorities’ green light all the way, IG Farben’s first batch of sulfonamide capsules had officially gone into mass production and been rushed to the front line more than a week ago.
（Note: Lelouch went to Frankfurt on December 26, 1914, first finding Adidas to make parachutes, then IG Farben to develop sulfonamide. Those who forgot the earlier plot can jump back to Chapter 65 and read it again.）
So, around the day the Battle of Dunkirk ended, wounded soldiers from Army Group 6 and Army Group 4 had already begun using this new drug in batches; that was around the 19th.
The mopping-up operations from the 20th to 22nd were even more straightforward. During the assaults on Nieuwpoort, De Panne, and Ypres, newly wounded soldiers, once pulled back to field hospitals in the rear and confirmed to have severe infections requiring sulfonamide for relief, were directly approved for the drug, though the dosage was very restrained to avoid excessive side effects.
Now, five days had passed since the first batch of regular medication soldiers; the effects that should have appeared were visible.
Many soldiers’ inflammation had clearly subsided, and some who had been in high fever and unconscious had woken up again.
The medical staff in the field hospital were all dumbfounded by this miracle, and full of admiration for the company and scientific experts who developed the new drug.
……
“What day of medication is it? Do you feel better? Any kidney pain? If there’s kidney pain, tell the doctor immediately to stop the drug.”
“Don’t rely on feeling alone! Even if you don’t feel bad, you must have a blood test every other day! These drugs were produced after only two rounds of experiments; they still have some risk, so don’t be careless!”
In an officers’ ward, Lelouch humbly asked each injured captain one by one; most were officers from the assault battalion, trained by him, so he cared a lot.
For officers from other friendly units who were wounded, Lelouch would also visit and inquire about the situation, and if there was spare energy, inspect ordinary wounded soldiers. In two days, everyone in this hospital recognized him.
Passing every bed, Lelouch would pick up the lab report hanging at the bedside for a glance; it recorded blood test results every two days, roughly showing if the wounded soldier had liver or kidney failure.
After checking a whole large open ward, he really encountered another case of kidney failure from the drug, which made Lelouch feel somewhat reluctant.
Fortunately, people have two kidneys; this officer only had one fail, so he wouldn’t die, but the remaining good kidney’s future lifespan would definitely be problematic.
“Sorry, this drug is newly developed with relatively high toxicity; if unlucky, you might die in 5 years, if lucky, you can live another 20 years or so, but you’ll definitely get uremia before 60.
I’ll issue a note to the ‘Wounded Soldiers Mutual Aid Foundation’; your condition qualifies for a monthly nutrition allowance equivalent to half the basic military pay, up to 3 years, 3600 marks.”
After Lelouch finished, the officer gratefully said it was unnecessary: “Officer! Surviving is already lucky; we got through such severe infection—what’s a bit of drug toxicity? Without your introduction of this new drug, we’d probably be dead.”
Lelouch patted his shoulder: “Take it! I keep my word. Rest assured, this money is approved by the Wounded Soldiers Affairs Bureau, funded from the profits of Bayer Pharmaceuticals, IG Farben’s subsidiary new drug factory—not from me. You’ve also provided valuable data for the new drug; your every blood test result will be compiled for the pharmaceutical company to refine it further.
If time allowed and your wounds could wait, I originally wanted to use this batch on captured enemy wounded soldiers first.”
All the wounded soldiers were moved to tears upon hearing this, their loyalty to Officer Lelouch reaching an unparalleled level.
Officer Lelouch was simply an all-knowing, all-capable perfect man.
After checking several wards in a row, Lelouch returned to his temporary office for a break. Upon entering, he saw several nobly dressed aristocrats waiting there.
Without even looking up, Lelouch knew they were from the Imperial Prisoner of War Affairs Department and the Imperial Women’s Medical Association.
“Lieutenant Colonel Lelouch, you’ve worked so hard. You even gave the drug to British prisoners of war—truly compassionate.” A young officer greeted him first; this was Captain Joachim, met on the train to Frankfurt two months ago, also the nephew of Grand Duke of Baden, working in the Prisoner of War Affairs Department.
“Mr. Hunter, the new drug you provided is truly miraculous! Two-thirds of severely infected soldiers have improved! You should have IG Farben speed up production! It can absolutely save countless lives.” Beside him was a twenty-year-old woman in aristocratic nurse uniform, greeting him with an expression and tone full of worship.
Out of courtesy, Lelouch nodded slightly to the girl. This girl was Charlotte Loretta, Joachim’s sister.
Beside her stood a noblewoman nearing fifty, their mother, the Duchess of Anhalt.
The Duchess of Anhalt was the second sister of the Grand Duke of Baden and president of the “Germania Women’s Medical Association,” nominally in charge of wartime nurse management for the Empire.
They had come to check the effects of the first sulfonamide deployment on troops’ wounded soldiers, and by the way, console injured soldiers and inspect enemy prisoners of war treatment.
Upon arrival, they were shocked by Lelouch’s miracle drug; the Joachim siblings had become his fanatic fans.
Lelouch didn’t take credit, frankly explaining the new drug’s flaws: “Overpraised; it’s not as strong as you imagine. The current infection cure rate is indeed about two-thirds, but among every 15 medicated soldiers, at least 1 will have liver or kidney failure.
The resulting secondary deaths fluctuate between 5%~8% of total medicated patients, so the true cure rate drops from two-thirds to 60%. Of 20 infected patients medicated, 12 survive, 1 dies from toxicity, and 7 are ineffective with infection worsening.”
Miss Loretta quickly comforted: “This is already very good! Before this, anti-inflammatory drugs with 20% auxiliary effect were considered good; most wounded soldiers still had to rely on their own immunity.
Mr. Hunter, I’m really curious—how do you know so much at such a young age? I heard you personally captured British Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief Marshal French; I originally thought you were just a pure brave warrior.”
Lelouch had no intention of answering these questions directly; it was pointless.
Sulfonamide’s effectiveness against severe infections is only about two-thirds, and prolonged antibiotic use leads to bacterial mutation and resistance.
Historically, sulfonamide was used in 1932 in the form of Prontosil; initially, the anti-infection rate was indeed 65%, but after about ten years, by the Eastern Front war, it had dropped to 50%. Later, penicillin was needed.
Penicillin, when first introduced, had a 95% anti-infection rate, far superior to sulfonamide’s 65%.
From this perspective, in the next few years, use sulfonamide to make a profit first and save two-thirds of Empire’s infected wounded soldiers, but still save money for further research to develop penicillin.
For now, the most urgent is to further optimize the sulfonamide capsule sustained-release technology; if the 5%~8% post-medication liver-kidney failure rate can be controlled, more lives can be saved.
Lelouch pondered these data to himself, couldn’t help picking up the case statistics table on the desk for detailed calculation.
“Army Group 6 has a total of 13,000 in-hospital severely infected wounded soldiers, Army Group 4 has 5,800 infected wounded soldiers, Navy and Railway Gun Unit has 2,200 infected wounded soldiers—totaling about 20,000.
Currently, infected controlled after medication: 13,800; single kidney failure: 1,100; single liver failure: 600; simultaneous liver-kidney failure: 400; total failure deaths: 1,200; long-term health deterioration after failure: 900. Saved: 12,600……
This number has room for improvement; tweak the drug, and probably save another 1,000 to 2,000. If the war continues with casualties multiplying, these few percentage points aren’t small.”
Lelouch estimated that after his rapid promotion of the new drug, these two army groups had at least an extra 8,000+ wounded soldiers saved recently, even more—that 12,600 saved couldn’t all be credited to him, as without sulfonamide, primitive anti-infection methods would save some anyway. Only about 8,000 were ‘would have died without sulfonamide’.
During the entire Battle of Ypres, Germania Army total casualties were over 70,000, but since the campaign lasted two months, infections from the first month mostly didn’t survive to the new drug’s release. So only about 50,000 casualties produced these 20,000 infected patients.
Saving so many among them was equivalent to two-tenths of total casualties regaining life—very good.
If in the Empire’s next three years of war, every campaign saves 20% more casualties than the enemy, accumulated it would be an astonishing number.
The nearby nobles watched him calculating alone, ignored, but didn’t mind.
After he finished calculating, Captain Joachim threw out a topic he’d prepared for a while:
“Lieutenant Colonel Lelouch, I have another question, about prisoner of war affairs; I must ask today.”
“Go ahead.” Lelouch didn’t look up, furiously writing calculations for compensation, nutrition fees needed this time, and pill production allocation from IG Farben for the next phase.
“I inspected the prisoner of war camp management records; our rear field hospitals started deploying the new drug mid-month. But as early as early this month and late January, you had already temporarily used more primitive pills with only simple thick sugar coating on both enemy and our officers and soldiers, especially more on heavily wounded British prisoners.
The records show those patients had up to 30% liver-kidney failure rate, far exceeding the current 8%; if this data leaks, it might harm international image, earning a reputation for poison drug experiments…”
Lelouch immediately stopped writing, seriously refuting: “How can this be called ‘poison drug experiments’? At most, it’s hasty clinical trials. Those infections weren’t deliberately created by us; they would have died without treatment. We tried every way to cure them; logically, survival rate is higher than leaving them to nature. And why leak this data? We’re clear-conscienced! Don’t create unnecessary trouble.”
Lelouch saw this Joachim was just an aristocratic young master, too idealistic, not realistic. Only ivory tower dwellers ask such questions.
The nearby Duchess of Anhalt and Miss Charlotte Loretta couldn’t bear it, advising him not to make trouble.
“Say less, Mr. Hunter’s attitude is what’s needed for important matters; this was emergency measures with good intentions—what’s there to nitpick? Besides, he also issued nutrition allowances to British wounded with kidney failure, just less than our soldiers’, already exceeding most pharmaceutical capitalists.”
Joachim was just doing routine duty; with an explanation that held legally, he stopped being a buzzkill.
While they discussed these humanitarian affairs, the hospital office door was suddenly pushed open; a marshal in splendid uniform appeared at the door with a cane.
Everyone in the office was startled; all stood straight, Captain Joachim saluting at attention.
“Isn’t this Duke Rupprecht? Ah? He was promoted to marshal?” Joachim recognized the duke; seeing his attire and brand-new cane, he was quite shocked.
Apparently, the great merit of annihilating the British Expeditionary Force finally promoted this general another level! Probably the Empire’s decision today.
What shocked them more was that the newly promoted marshal seemed to value Lelouch greatly, coming personally to the hospital to visit him.
“I heard you’re busy with wounded soldiers and prisoner affairs; just back from Berlin for promotion and medals, I came especially to see.” Duke Rupprecht looked very high-spirited, walking to Lelouch and even straightening his collar.
“Thank you for Marshal Your Highness’s concern; I’ll continue to do my duty and serve the Empire.” Lelouch stood at attention and returned the salute.
The duke was originally promoted to marshal after the 1916 Somme campaign started; he’s the second from Germania royal families（the first was his uncle Marshal Leopold, already marshal pre-war.）
Strictly speaking, historically Duke Rupprecht’s marshal rank was gifted by Douglas Haig’s blunders. He had been in a two-year stalemate with British Army at Ypres, neither side gaining. Then Haig launched Somme, losing 60,000 on day one and more initially, letting Rupprecht reap merits in defense, finally breaking through to marshal realm.
Now, due to Lelouch’s butterfly effect helping him achieve “annihilation of British Army” great merit, promoted to marshal a year and a half early.
The duke knew Lelouch’s contributions well, naturally reciprocating by using him more.
So the duke reached out, and an adjutant immediately opened a file bag and handed it over; the duke took it and passed it to Lelouch.
“This emergency return to Berlin for promotion and medals, I also went to General Staff Headquarters to report main meritorious generals and officers’ situations.
You personally led the assault battalion into Ypres, capturing French—impossible to over-reward.
General Staff Headquarters approved: promotion to colonel. I also reassign you as commander of Army Group 6 directly attached parachute regiment, and operations staff officer for Army Group 6.
Additionally, I met Minister Baden; he said recently you’re helping with some wounded soldiers and prisoner affairs, and if handled well, he’ll consider arranging a departmental director position in a suitable government department.”
When the duke said this, his eyelid twitched; he noticed Minister Baden’s sister, nephew, and niece nearby all very friendly and admiring toward Lelouch.
Duke Rupprecht grew alert: “What’s Baden up to? Poaching our Baria Faction’s talent? His niece isn’t married; planning marriage to pull this genius Lelouch to his side? No wonder promising a director position…”
In Germania, officers holding administrative posts is common, levels roughly matching later Eastern ones: “county-director/county-regiment”, “city-bureau/city-division”.
Colonel regimental commander, if holding admin post, usually department division director. Major general division commander, if admin, usually department bureau chief.
Rupprecht wanted to keep this miracle boy working for him, allowing at most spare-time side gigs for Baden, but priorities straight.
At this thought, Duke Rupprecht’s sense of crisis intensified; he decided to offer Lelouch more incentive to tie him down:
“Campaign over, participating officers and soldiers are tired; I approve up to two months leave for you to handle personal matters; make any requests.
If time, vacation in Munich; Neuschwanstein Castle open anytime, welcome to visit. If Albrecht had two or three tenths your drive, I’d be satisfied.
Additionally, I’ll first grant you knight title, adding ‘von’ to your name. Keep up the good work; when you become general, hereditary knight, changing to ‘Ritter von’.”
Nearby Duchess of Anhalt, Joachim, and Charlotte Loretta were startled by Duke Rupprecht’s generosity.
They knew the duke valued this young man, but not to this extent.
Just promoted to colonel, already knight title, allowed to add von.
Non-hereditary knight is single “von”; hereditary knight is “Ritter von”; highest military merit baron is “Freiherr von”.
Historically, Vice Admiral Hipper got single “von” before Jutland; after Jutland for saving navy merit, promoted to “Ritter von”.
As for baron-level “Freiherr von”, historically during entire World War, Baria Royal Family granted none. Mainly Germania didn’t win World War; no Baria general merited king granting hereditary military baron.
Higher up, theoretically military titles to viscount, count, but beyond Baria king’s authority—needs emperor personally; factually none in World War.
As for “duke/marquis”, in all Western nations, unacquirable by merit, only by royal blood. Count is theoretical military title ceiling.
Lelouch, with a modern soul, didn’t care much about von or not. But Baden royal family’s people, seeing Rupprecht’s lavishness, knew Baria Faction unbeatable.
In future, only maintain good relations with Lelouch, treat as guest advisor for occasional consultation.
