Chapter 98: Forging Bonds Everywhere, Returning Fully Loaded
Seeing Lelouch’s face so “mercantile,” even support for his own homeland came with conditions.
Undersecretary Stephen Briand was also helpless, but he could only patiently confirm with unease:
“So what exactly do you want? My authority probably can’t promise too much. And it also depends on how much support you can persuade the Duke to give.”
Lelouch did not answer this question immediately, but thought about it seriously.
Although he was a military enthusiast in his previous life, his memory wasn’t strong enough to precisely recall details like “historically the Italians formally declared war on Austria on March 28, 1915.”
But he at least vaguely remembered that the Italians reacted very slowly and were very procrastinating, and this big conclusion wouldn’t be wrong.
In fact, after the Italians declared war on March 28, they dragged on until late May before launching a substantial offensive— from diplomatically breaking faces to actually swinging fists, wasting nearly two full months!
It had to be said that, from any angle, this approach was extremely foolish.
It could only be said that Italy’s entire state apparatus from top to bottom was a hodgepodge mess. It was a makeshift outfit where the brain couldn’t command the hands, and the hands and legs couldn’t coordinate.
Diplomacy, military, and economic logistics were all in chaotic mutual bickering, unable to operate efficiently even during wartime.
Since Lelouch knew this, when making promises, he naturally wanted to exploit it as much as possible to maximize his own interests.
After pondering, he sincerely said: “If… I can persuade Duke Rupprecht, before Italy declares war on Austria, to first support your country with observation troops from two mountain battalions, as well as weapons and equipment for two mountain regiments.
Once the Italian Army really launches a large-scale offensive, my Baria Faction will allocate 2 divisions to your army for joint defense. This level of support is sincere enough, right?”
When Undersecretary Briand first heard the first half, his whole face immediately fell bitterly: support troops from two battalions? What use is that!
But the second half was quite substantial. Two divisions, 36,000 men, even if only one-tenth the Italian Army’s strength, but the Germania Army’s combat quality obviously crushed the Italian Army’s, plus the Austrian Army’s own defensive forces, they could hold out for a long time.
After thinking, Undersecretary Briand quickly understood Lelouch’s scheme and couldn’t help asking back: “You’re betting on the Italians acting slowly, and even after declaring war, they won’t attack immediately? Then isn’t this war declared for nothing? They wouldn’t be that stupid.”
Lelouch: “Don’t worry about whether they would or not. Anyway, if I can’t persuade the Duke, my subsequent requests can also be voided.”
Briand nodded: “Then tell me your requests.”
Lelouch: “If I make this happen, I hope your country allows me to second Mr. Porsche as a technical advisor for one of our upcoming vehicle companies.
Of course, in the future, if the Daimler Vienna subsidiary or Skoda Company has projects needing Mr. Porsche, our new vehicle company can also jointly develop with Skoda and share some results.
Additionally, we also want to share Skoda Company’s existing high-power vehicle design experience and data.”
Briand wasn’t very familiar with Mr. Porsche’s technical strength, but he thought that trading one technical expert for 2 observation battalions, equipment for 2 regiments, and 2 rapid-reaction divisions was definitely a profit.
The only thing needing weighing here was Skoda’s existing technology sharing— from the other’s meaning, this was one-sided sharing, meaning Skoda sharing with BMW or some other Baria Faction enterprise, while the other side wouldn’t share with Skoda.
But he thought again: Skoda was most famous for making various cannons, and as for heavy high-power vehicles, they didn’t seem to have much technical accumulation. Currently, Skoda just did some truck manufacturing for others, without their own vehicle brand. Sharing Skoda’s accumulated technology in that field along with Mr. Porsche himself seemed feasible.
Undersecretary Briand: “I’ll apply for this matter, and I also hope you clearly explain it to Duke Rupprecht. If there’s no issue on your side, there’s no problem on mine. But for the specific cooperation model, you’d better discuss it directly with Mr. Porsche himself; we also need to consider his opinion.”
Lelouch: “I was originally going to visit Mr. Porsche today. Since Your Excellency the Undersecretary is willing to facilitate, why not come with me to Daimler Vienna Company in a bit?”
Undersecretary Briand: “Sure, consider it a display of our country’s sincerity.”
Both were very straightforward and no longer wasted words. Lelouch immediately led Briand downstairs to the parking lot, and Lelouch floored the accelerator toward Mr. Porsche’s office location.
Along the way, Lelouch thought of another detail and demanded in a notifying tone: “I have one more point: I hope the weapons and equipment our army provides to your country can be equipped to troops cooperating with our relief forces, and they will accept unified command from our relief forces…”
Undersecretary Briand was very straightforward about this: “That’s standard procedure; no need to specify, it’s definitely fine.”
This detail they mentioned was indeed the standard for Germania Army aid to allies at the time. Because other countries in the alliance all knew that the Germania Army’s combat effectiveness was in a league of its own in the entire camp, so as long as a Germania general led troops to reinforce, he could often coordinate and command several times the friendly forces.
A Germania battalion commander going abroad could not only command his own direct battalion but also additionally command a friendly regiment.
A Germania regimental commander arriving abroad could at least coordinate and command an additional friendly division.
This was still the treatment of Germania relief forces in Ollie. If going to the even weaker Ottoman, a single Germania regimental commander could even serve as Ottoman Army Group Chief of Staff and in fact control an Ottoman Army Group’s combat operations.
Lelouch specially reiterated this requirement to ensure that the relief forces he persuaded the Duke to deploy to the Italian front in the future would have sufficient independent authority and not be dragged down by pig teammates.
Lelouch had already planned in his mind: the Isonzo River battlefield near the Alps had complex terrain, so for the early stage, he would persuade to send two observation battalions, letting Model and Dieter lead them.
Model had already shown certain defensive battle talent; previously in the Dunkirk Fortress defense battle, he held Fort Rohan against two British Army divisions’ all-day pincer attack, even when his side only had submachine guns, letting enemies into the tunnels for close combat and daring to have friendly forces bombard the surface layer of his held positions.
All these exquisite tactics were enough to show that Model had many “awakened” defensive techniques, and putting him on the Isonzo River to hold the line might even allow him to “evolve” further.
As for Dieter, his previous performance wasn’t very standout, but he was good at flexibly using machine guns, and historically later became a mountain warfare master, famous for leading the Alpine Mountain Division. Letting him go early to the weak enemy’s place for tempering, to farm some kills and experience, was also good.
Dieter’s military rank was still just captain, which normally couldn’t command a battalion, but Lelouch could find ways to give him special treatment and put in a word.
With Model and Dieter leading two battalions to observe the Alps-Isonzo River defense line, plus two Germania-equipped regiments under their command— best if they were elite regiments composed of Ollie Alpine mountain troops— they could absolutely make a big noise on the anti-Italian defense line.
……
After both sides agreed on conditions, Lelouch came again to Daimler Vienna Company.
This time, he didn’t need to present a business card; he directly had the staff notify Mr. Porsche to come greet them.
Seeing that their own country’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Briand, had come, the people at Daimler Vienna Company immediately served tea and water, and soon the person in charge personally came down to receive them.
Mr. Porsche was also very surprised: yesterday the other was just buying a car at the Daimler showroom, today how was he chatting amiably with the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and discussing such high-level cooperation.
Briand was just there to help make introductions and endorse, and after roughly explaining the purpose, he handed the conversation initiative to Lelouch and Porsche.
Mr. Porsche said somewhat troubled: “But, my current high-power heavy artillery tractor project under commission is only halfway done. If I’m seconded away, the project progress will suffer, and others taking over much work would have to start over.”
Lelouch immediately reassured: “Don’t worry, the specific Germania-Austria cooperation negotiations will still take a few days, and I don’t require you to be seconded immediately. You can finish this current project at hand before going.”
“Then it can be considered.” Only then was Porsche not so resistant.
After waiting for his mood to calm and accept the status quo, Lelouch chatted with him about specific technical issues, also showing his own sincerity and vision:
“Mr. Porsche, I heard you’ve been worrying about the heavy artillery tractor for months. I’m very curious, what exactly are you stuck on?”
Porsche glanced at Briand, and seeing Undersecretary Briand didn’t object, he simply answered in detail: “The Empire’s heavy cannons often weigh over ten tons. To tow such heavy cannons, currently available engines are generally inadequate. I’ve considered electric motor drive; electric motors have a very wide torque output adjustment range, which can save complex gearbox reductions…
But the Empire’s requirements are also particularly complex; the military also wants tractors with certain mountain climbing ability.
Yet the Empire’s infrastructure is relatively poor, whether the Alpine border area with Italy, the southern Serbian front, or the eastern Carpathian border defense line between Hungary and Lusha. Roads in these three areas are extremely poor, with loose soil. If the slope is even slightly steep, even high-power vehicles can’t climb.”
Lelouch nodded: “For the power insufficiency problem, why are you only choosing between gasoline engines and electric motors? I know you started with electric vehicles; seven years ago you won the Prince Henry Cup race with your electric car, which seemed to hit 140 km/h top speed?
But one can’t keep lying on past glories; draw from the best, why not consider diesel engines? Doesn’t the Empire have suitable diesel engines available? Moreover, Austria is different from Germania; Germania at least has to consider converting gasoline vehicles to gas vehicles when import oil is short.
But Austria fundamentally lacks the industrial strength and plans for large-scale gas vehicle conversion. As long as natural petroleum supply is lacking, for Austria, both gasoline and diesel vehicles will be grounded.
Then why not make a diesel engine artillery tractor for special periods and special environments? Not expecting to use it normally to tow heavy cannons everywhere, but at least ensure it can climb slopes with heavy cannons, deploying heavy cannons to positions they couldn’t reach before— that’s the qualitative change.
Limiting production scale and usage mileage like this shouldn’t consume much diesel. Relying on that bit imported from Romania would support quite a period of use.
Moreover, if not considering long-distance cannon transport with this vehicle, just short-distance towing for climbing and mountain deployment, you can also consider imitating tractors, changing the rear drive wheels to tracked style. With traditional tire-type front guide wheels cooperating with steering wheel for turning and providing some power, main power from tracks, climbing ability would also be much stronger…”
Lelouch combined post-war tractor development experience and casually depicted several application scenarios,
thus outlining the prospects of half-track high-power diesel tractors.
Ferdinand Porsche had originally been somewhat limited by experience in his thinking; after hearing this, he finally felt somewhat enlightened.
He hadn’t considered diesel engines before, indeed due to the concern that “diesel engines can’t be converted to gas vehicles when oil is short.”
Because diesel engines are compression-ignition, with no spark plugs in the combustion chamber, while gasoline engines have spark plugs.
To convert internal combustion locomotives to gas vehicles, spark plugs are also necessary for ignition, because gas can’t be compression-ignited.
Both Germania and Austria are oil-poor countries relying on imported natural petroleum; in wartime if natural oil can’t be bought, diesel vehicles have no conversion value and directly ground, while gasoline vehicles can at least be modified.
But since Austria making this vehicle doesn’t expect frequent or long-distance use, nor mass production, this concern is irrelevant.
“I didn’t expect Colonel Lelouch to have such profound understanding of armaments, able to analyze so much useful information from usage scenarios, frequency, fuel consumption scale, and other angles. Previously, my thinking was too rigid. I’ll go back now and change my approach to see if there’s a breakthrough.”
After fully understanding, Porsche very straightforwardly admitted his shortcomings.
Undersecretary Stephen Briand, who had been watching and understood nothing of technology, saw Lelouch convince this technical big shot with one deep talk, and increasingly looked at him with new eyes.
He could tell that Lelouch didn’t deeply understand technical R&D, but his vision for strategy and armament development was absolutely farsighted.
Undersecretary Briand sincerely sighed: “Colonel Lelouch is truly a rare all-rounder. No wonder His Highness Rupprecht and the Grand Duke of Baden both trust your vision so much.”
“You’re too kind; I just look at problems more comprehensively.” Lelouch modestly responded just right.
In fact, he had other ideas in his heart, but it wasn’t convenient to lay them out with Porsche now.
Wanting to develop tanks, having Porsche first base on tracked tractor experience to make a half-track diesel tractor was also accumulating R&D experience for tanks.
On the other hand, Germania and Austria now lacked petroleum imports, but this problem could be solved in the future— this time Britannia was going all out supporting Lusha on the Eastern Front against Austria, and even pulling in the Italians to declare war together.
So, was it possible they would also go all out to pull Romania into the Entente early?
If the British really succeeded in painting the pie, he would have to find ways to quickly take out Romania then, seizing Romania’s oil fields—
In Earth’s history, Romania entered the war seemingly later, and after overconfidently joining, was quickly counter-pushed by Germania and Austria. But unfortunately, there was a British advisory group in Romania controlling the oil fields; after confirming Romania couldn’t hold, they destroyed the oil fields, and Germania and Austria couldn’t effectively recover them until the war’s end.
This time, if Romania was really pulled into the Entente, even early, Lelouch must find ways to remotely precision eliminate the British advisory group in Romanian territory! Not giving them a chance for systematic destruction!
Moreover, in the future Lelouch would also find new petroleum sources for alliance countries on the Eastern Front, so let Porsche boldly design diesel armored vehicles! The diesel problem, Lelouch would solve!
