CH 251

Regardless of whether it is feasible or not, it has already been decided that Windou will be retaken along the coast of the Hulk Sea. In the first place, I received a royal order, so I have no choice but to do as much as I can. I don’t think I’ll be punished even if we don’t make much progress, even if we’re criticized for being incompetent… for some reason, everyone is so motivated, so I can’t help it.

“How can you hope to capture all of these territories in a month, Lord Caan?”

“Huh!?” I cried.

Do they think I’m going to do all this in a month? No matter how you cut it, it’s going to be absolutely impossible?!

I have exams so I have to go back in a month. If I talk to the King, he will probably take special measures, and in the first place, I can graduate even if I get all 0 marks in the exams, but my pride won’t allow it.

That’s why I said that I would return after about a month to take the exam, but I didn’t expect that everyone would take it as ending the war in that month… how overconfident are you…?

Well, it’s not as if I can’t understand why they feel that way. The Carruthers and Caan territories are now mobilizing large-scale forces. In the unlikely event that the Kingdom of Frasia attacks now, it will be difficult to defend Carruthers and Caan territories. I can understand the feeling of wanting to finish it as soon as possible and return to our territories.

It’ll be over a month, though… No matter how much we can do, it’s really unreasonable…. if you hit the enemy head-on and annihilate them one by one, you won’t have enough time. What do you do then?

…… The armies of this era had low morale and training. Many mercenaries are also used, and there are not many professional soldiers with high loyalty. That’s because nobles were originally professional soldiers. Originally, the nobility and those who served there should have been the professional soldiers of the country, but gradually the nobility became more like a ruler, and it became a feeling that it would be fine to hire mercenaries with money to maintain the territory.

That’s why there shouldn’t be such a thing as the enemy betting their lives to fight to the death. Personal safety, security of life, security of territory, there is a possibility that such things can easily be overwhelmed.

Of course, they can’t be trusted. Such a man is proof that he will betray you as soon as it becomes inconvenient for him, and even if you take him into your power, it will only increase the trouble. That’s why the Tokugawa family gradually crushed the Toyotomi daimyo, who sided with their army after the war by giving them various incentives to betray.

Even if they betrayed and sided with the enemy, such a person would not be trusted even if they changed sides, and if the battle was over, they would only be crushed after. Not only did he betray Tokugawa, but there were also many people who did not realize that it was not just Tokugawa vs. Toyotomi, it was to destroy Toyotomi because they thought there was an internal struggle and they wanted the power to change the leadership.

Well, let’s leave it at that. Our goal this time is to regain the Kingdom of Ploiss’s eastern colonies that were stolen in the past. No need to kill all your enemies. Therefore, there is no need to have a decisive battle on the a plain, facing each other head-on. Even in times like this, there’s no such thing as a head-on decisive battle on the plains…

Most wars around this time were siege warfare with the defending side staying in the fortress. Taking down a fortress was very labor intensive until artillery was improved and spread about. It’s not just for fortresses, but also cities surrounded by strong walls. That is why many walled cities were built in Europe and China.

But these defensive methods are rendered useless by the development and spread of artillery. No matter how much you hide in the shadow of the castle walls constructed by stacking stone, they will be destroyed by artillery. Until then, it would take months and years to confront the enemy and attack the fortress in a siege battle, but with the use of artillery, it became possible to take it down in the blink of an eye.

By the way, during the siege warfare of fortresses, they used siege equipment like catapults or trebuchets to throw corpses and feces into their besieged opponents. Why? The reason is simple. The disposal of corpses and manure cannot keep up with the confined space of a narrow fortress. And they bring something with them: disease and epidemics.

The corpses that died in the siege battle and their own excreta are thrown into the fortress to cause a plague. In modern terms, it would be like a biological weapon or a chemical weapon. Since time immemorial, humans have had the capacity to be extremely frightening.

I’ve been off track for a while, so let’s get back on that track. It’s not a bad idea to use cannons to quickly disperse the enemies in the fortress, but ships can’t go deep inland. It’s not unreasonable to bring only cannons, but transporting them by land takes too much time. If so…

“Blitzkrieg…………”

“………… What?”

The few people sitting nearby, including my father, were looking at me as if they heard my muttering. We should run through the enemy formation early and hit their key points. There is only this tactic.

“We will use infiltration tactics to disrupt the enemy’s rear and destroy their headquarters and supply lines,” I said. “After that, we will encircle and destroy the remaining enemy with the rear and advance forces flanking them.”

“””””…”””””

The people in the meeting were looking at each other after hearing my words. I don’t know if I can be more specific than that.

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“Look at this strategy map. This is the situation south of Danzij.”

I spread out the markers on one of the many strategy charts on the table. After confirming that everyone was looking into it, I continued,

“There is a large river called the Wakesell River near Danzij. If you go up this great river, you will come out to Glaudens, which is set as the final line of the invasion point right now.”

Glaudens is a town on the Wakesell River. As I’ve said before, human life springs up and expands around watersides such as rivers. Therefore, there is always a big town along a big river.

In this invasion operation, it can be said that this Glaudens is the southernmost point. It means that even if you invade further south, it will be difficult to maintain. If you go east from here on the highway, it will lead to Ostelode and Alrenstein. This line is supposed to be captured is as far as the invasion can go.

“In addition to the frontal troops moving south from the coast of the Hulk Sea in the north, including Danzij, we will send troops up the Wakesell River by ship to the enemy rear. The ships and troops that went up the river will capture Glaudens, we will send further reinforcements and aim to rendezvous with the troops moving southward and encircle the enemy. In addition, some troops will advance eastward from Glaudens and head for Ostelode and Alrenstein.”

“Hey, please hold a moment. Then what are we going to do with the towns and enemy forts until we get to Glaudens?”

“Ignore everything,” I said. “The target of the troops going up the river is only the enemy’s rear base, Glaudens. We will capture Glaudens in the shortest and fastest way.”

This is a blitzkrieg, an infiltration tactic that uses ships in place of the nonexistent armored divisions. The risks are pretty high. If you fail, you will suffer great losses. But if everyone really wants to lighten our losses and end the war in a month, this is the only way.

From the Hulk Sea shores in the north, the front forces will move southward to attract the enemy. At the same time, transport and assault by ship to Glaudens, which is a large important base in the enemy’s rear. Once Glaudens falls, we will transport more troops and tear through the enemy’s defensive lines, dividing them into the eastward and northward forces.

I explained this by cutting out only the part of Glaudens, but of course, this is not the only target. We will infiltrate enemy territory as a whole. Since the already small number of units here are divided into even smaller units, there is a high risk that the infiltration units will be surrounded and destroyed.

“I have only mentioned the capture of Glaudens, but this is not the only one. We will set up infiltration tactics in various places at the same time. First, we will send out troops to attack Alrenstein from Koenigsvelg as well. We’re heading up the river to capture Instelburg.”

The river that flows through Koenigsvelg, the same river that a few galleons entered during the last battle, is called the Plegora River. The estuary of this river has been widened to become the port of Koenigsvelg, but the river itself is shallow and has little flow rate. Large ships can’t pass through here, but the small ships that Koenigsvelg used to trade can pass through.

If you go up the Plegora River to the east, there is a town called Instelburg. This is also a town that was an eastern colony of the Kingdom of Ploiss. Since it is supposed to be captured so far, we will infiltrate only this town first and drop it in the same way as Glaudens.

“From Instelburg, we will proceed along the road again and invade in the direction of Alrenstein and the north.”

Roughly speaking, the coastline is curved like a fan or the edge of a circle. Naturally, there are limits to the invasion of the inland area, so we plan to invade the inland area around here in a fan shape. Instelburg is the eastern limit point, and if you go southwest from here you will find Alrenstein.

If you connect Glaudens, Ostelode, Alrenstein, and Instelburg along the road, it goes from west to east, but the road gradually turns northeast and then north, forming a fan shape. And from Instelburg, the coastline is almost north-south, so all you have to do is go straight north.

“We don’t have enough troops for such a large-scale operation…”

“No, this is a strategy to break through and destroy huge swathes of the enemy with a small number of soldiers. In addition, we will allocate troops sent from the Caanza Alliance to the frontal assault force from the coast.”

Infiltration tactics and deep assaults require elites with high proficiency and morale. Even if you infiltrate using those with low proficiency and morale, the subsequent strategy will not go well. If that happens, the soldiers will be sent deep into the enemy’s rear in vain and will only be defeated one by one. This operation will not succeed unless the on-site commander understands a clear target and acts flexibly with strong authority and discretion on the spot.

These are difficult to do with non-mechanized units without armored divisions. Therefore, in order to secure mobility, and then catch the enemy off guard, we will carry out large-scale transportation by boat up the river at once. This is no different than a blitzkrieg, but it’s no different than an assault landing on the enemy’s rear, but it doesn’t matter which one it is. You can call it an assault landing operation.

However, there is a limit to where ships can attack important enemy bases. After that, we have no choice but to move overland and the occupied bases to the enemy encirclement on the land routes. Careful planning, understanding of each commander’s capabilities and objectives, and flexibility. It might be difficult if you don’t have all of them… but when I think about capturing this much territory in a month, this is the only one that comes to mind.

“Is this possible?”

“No, if it’s this…”

“Then this one as well…”

It seems that everyone is starting to consider my opinion. As for me, I think it would be fine if I took several months to recapture and maintain only the inland areas around Danzij and Koenigsvelg, but…

“Memburg wasn’t included in the explanation of the current strategy, but… are you going to tackle it later?”

“Yes. No matter how small this operation is to defeat a large army, we don’t have enough troops to invade all of the target areas of this operation at once. We will recapture Memburg and Windou, and we plan to use the Memer River, which flows in from Memburg, to attack Tirsit in the same way.”

From Memburg, you can enter the inner sea, which is surrounded by a lake similar to Koenigsvelg. I don’t know if it’s a lake or the sea… in any case, the Memer River flows into the lake or the inland sea, and if you go up the Memer River, you will enter the town of Tirsit, which is the final point of the invasion, as before.

In the same way, you can call it a blitzkrieg, or you can call it an assault landing. From there, head north and secure the inland area to Windou.

The same goes for other locations, but the enemy probably thinks that we will attack from the coastal side, but they shouldn’t have expected that our army will suddenly appear from behind or from the flanks. If you march as blatantly as possible from the front, the effect as a diversion will increase further.

This will direct the enemy’s attention to the coastal direction and encircle and annihilate the enemy at once from the rear and sides. Since the attacks came from the rear first, the enemy will not receive supplies or orders, and the local troops will be confused. In particular, mercenary units with low morale, training, and loyalty will quickly withdraw and run away if they think they are losing the battle.

Originally there were only a small number of soldiers, and we were at a numerical disadvantage to attack so widely. This is the only thing that comes to my mind if I want to overturn the numerical disadvantage and take down the enemy quickly. To be honest, if possible, I’d like to stay calm and not be so reckless, but…

“… Alright. We will adopt Lord Caan’s strategy. I will work out the details of this strategy from now on. Does anyone have any objections?” Father said.

“No,” Stefan said.

“None,” Schwartz replied.

“…………” I went.

Huh…….? Let’s stop this… I’m sure I said it, but I don’t really want to do it…