EP.71
At my words, the eyes of all the professors, including President Bismarck, turned to where I was, but that was bound to happen.
Because up until now, the person who answered the president’s questions and made suggestions was a senior professor at the Staff College who was a ministerial-level officer.
The staff college is a place where captains to majors enroll as students, so to become a professor, you have to be at least a lieutenant colonel.
This is because, as a lieutenant colonel, I am the lowest-ranking member of the faculty.
Moreover, my lectures have become so popular these days that I am even becoming jealous of professors who think I have lost popularity with their students.
However, unexpectedly, the president’s reaction was quite favorable, but I would be a fool to believe only based on the appearance.
“Hehe… If you have a good strategy, feel free to tell me. “I’ll listen to anything as long as it’s not nonsense.”
“Thank you for your kindness, President.”
“Why are you so burdened? “In order to plan the best strategy, isn’t it my duty to accept the opinions of young staff members like you?”
The president is not a prince, but if you really want to be specific, he is a person who only follows the current emperor, so he is a person with a very pale political background, so it is okay.
There are quite a few professors here who don’t like me, so it’s obvious how much they’ll bite me if I show a sloppy attitude.
Moreover, many of these people are people who support a prince other than His Highness the Crown Prince.
I pointed with my baton at the map of Köppenhavn in the northern part of the Empire that hung in front of the operations room.
“I think attacking the Ludvik tribe now would be too forward an action. Therefore, rather than mobilizing troops to subdue them, I would like to suggest using a different strategy.”
“It’s a different strategy. What is the specific method?”
“It is to provide a minimum amount of food and weapons to nearby tribes that are hostile to Ludvik’s tribe or that may be plundered by him. That way, the Empire can weaken the power of the Ludviks at minimal cost.”
This is something I came up with based on what I heard in a lecture given by Professor Yong-Hoon Kim when I was interested in military studies and studied through the Internet and books when I was a cadet aspiring to enter the Korean Military Academy.
The professor said this was a policy of teaching people.
The barbarian nomads, such as the Jurchen people, are divided into dozens or hundreds of groups, each with different interests.
Therefore, I tame those who listen to me as if I were throwing a bone with meat to a dog, and kill barbarians who do not listen to me like beating a dog on a lucky day.
It causes those who listen well and those who do not listen to each other to fight.
“They may not have the great insight of our empire’s staff college or military, but the nomadic barbarians on the Köppenhavn Peninsula will also know that if Ludwig grows stronger, he will eat them.”
The way nomads have lived their entire lives is to eat those who are weaker than them and to bow down to those who are stronger than them.
So, of course, even a 4-year-old kid living there would know that if Ludvik becomes stronger, weaker tribes will have no choice but to fall prey to Ludvik’s strength.
“But they can’t ask for help from our empire, and if they stick to Ludvik, they’ll end up dead anyway. Because during times of famine, even if the Ludviks surrender in order to eat as little food as possible, they kill the men and the elderly and enslave the women and children.”
It seemed as if I had stopped talking too much, and President Otto’s mouth started shaking.
If I don’t get to the point quickly, I too will be yelled at and subjected to all kinds of vicious abuse…
“So they have no choice but to fight desperately, right? The Empire is taking advantage of this situation. “The idea is to unite the tribes opposing Ludvik into an appropriate size and fight Ludvik while providing the minimum amount of food and weapons.”
I want to unite the opponents of Ludvik and lead them to an all-out war against those who follow Ludvik.
If that happens, in the worst case, the two forces will boil over and they will give up fighting and join hands to plunder the Reich Empire.
If all the nomads on the Köppenhavn Peninsula join forces, it may be impossible to occupy the north, but they can at least escape.
“Even if we do that, it is clear that Ludvik has greater power, so even if the forces opposing him unite, they will be defeated. However, in war, when 1,000 infantrymen fight against 20 people, no damage occurs. Just as fighting 300 to 400 people at once takes a lot of damage, Ludvik will also suffer much more damage if he fights against a group of guys rather than taking down small tribes one by one.”
All the professors listened to me and nodded.
Because no matter how big of a force Ludvik is, if they continue to fight like that to survive, they will suffer great losses.
They are a nomadic tribe that would never unite and fight under normal circumstances, but now that the harvest is poor, if they are defeated, the entire tribe will be exterminated and their wives and young daughters will become playthings.
Unless the tribe is quite crazy, once we push them to come together, they will join forces to fight against Ludvik.
Isn’t there a saying that if enemies happen to be on the same ferry boat and are at risk of death due to a storm, they cooperate to survive?
“And no matter how much Ludvik slaughters the young men and destroys the seed of their tribe, the enslaved women and children will survive. And they will definitely cooperate with us to subdue Ludvik, the enemy of my parents and husband.”
Then a professor wearing the same lieutenant colonel rank badge as me stood up and pointed out.
“It’s subjugation and subjugation. What the military requested of us was a response operation, not a subjugation operation. lieutenant colonel.”
“sorry. However, subjugation is also part of the response, Lieutenant Colonel Fonts. Also, isn’t Ludvik a person who has already gathered enough power and might unify the peninsula and establish a kingdom in just 5 to 10 years?”
“That said, I don’t think it obscures the point of not going beyond the framework of response operations.”
That guy… He came in about half a year before me, wearing the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Just looking at what you are doing, you can see what will happen in the future. I think he would have been a very capable person if he had become a professor at the Staff College.
The academy also found fault with me for a reason that would have resulted in a failing grade, so the president will probably send me to a regional district after this semester.
Still, if he comes to his senses, he will be promoted to major general, but if not, he will serve as a colonel in the metropolitan division in his later years and then be discharged.
“The talk of subjugation may seem a bit extreme, but Ludvik is already calling himself Khan and trying to become the king of the nomads. “The empire already has many potential enemies, including the Francois Republic, and it is clear that if a country is established in the north, it will be a headache for us for hundreds of years.”
It was said that it would be a problem for hundreds of years, but if Ludwig establishes a country in the north and conquers Sweden to become an empire, it will no longer be a problem.
However, it will become something as terrifying as a lump of terminal cancer.
“So, I think we need to establish a response operation based on the premise of subjugating them.”
The president clapped his hands and asked if what I said was quite impressive.
“I don’t think it’s wrong. Then, what level of equipment do you think is appropriate to provide to nomads?”
Because the people in the north who live a half-farming, half-herding life (half nomadic life + half agricultural life) are somewhat inferior to us in iron-making and weapon manufacturing technology.
You don’t have to give them good weapons or good armor to provide sufficient support.
Because it is really difficult for non-settled people to mine iron ore and make weapons or armor made of iron.
“It is believed that among the equipment used by 2nd and 3rd line troops and consumables such as arrows and spears, we should give them those that are just before retirement. Then wouldn’t most of it be consumed or destroyed while fighting Ludvik and become useless?”
However, even if the quality is poor, a sword is a sword and a spear is a spear, so it will be enough to stab Ludvik to death.
It may be the soldiers in the rear who wear weak leather armor, but the Imperial soldiers who wear at least chain armor on their tops are unlikely to die even if stabbed by such a weapon.
The president nodded as if he was satisfied with my opinion.
“That makes sense. Just by increasing their consumption in this way, the northern part of the empire will become safer. That’s amazing. “Then, since time is running out, the other professors will organize their own operational plans separately and submit them within the next week.”
So we finished the meeting and returned to our respective labs, because I was confident that I would be able to seize a great opportunity in this expedition.
Along with the operation plan, I also submitted a thesis and plan containing secret plans to make up for the weaknesses of the imperial army that would be revealed during the battle in the north, which I had been writing for several months in advance.
In the end, the plan I advocated was adopted, and after a year and a half, I succeeded in successfully completing my term as a professor.
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