Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 89 On Mobile Warfare
It will probably take a while for the situation at the Air Force Headquarters to be resolved.

Ryan was well aware of this, but he was not in a hurry.

After all, if you do things too hastily, it is very likely that you will end up with nothing.

Every step must be done well, and every hole in the mesh that may leak fish must be blocked, and the net can only be closed after everything is done.

For example, Lieutenant Perris is the rope used to collect the entire net.

Two days later.

Imperial capital, the square outside the Imperial Ministry of Defense building.

The rain was still falling, but the sky was no longer the gray and hazy state it had been a few days ago.

Ryan, who had just finished a short meeting, stood on the red brick walkway, looking at the bright sky in the distance and the dark clouds that were about to retreat, and felt much better.

For the past two days, he and Brinkman have been busy recruiting soldiers.

Just as he had speculated before, there were indeed many sons of nobles and descendants of high-ranking officials in the Imperial Army Officers University, and the families of these young people forbade them to go to the troops that might result in their accidental death.

On the day Ryan received the volunteer letters from these little guys, he and Brinkman worked overtime to pick them all out from the reserve personnel.

There is no way. The people above are putting too much pressure on us, and sometimes we have no choice.

But some of them were left behind.

Don't get me wrong, they were actually asked by the General Staff to be kicked off the list.

However, Ryan didn't care about the people from the General Staff at all. He even checked the information of these students with Ms. Catherine. After confirming that no one had the confidence to confront General Hellingen and Prince Schubert, he immediately stamped them with the approval stamp.

Because they are simply too good.

Ryan would not let go of these promising youngsters, and naturally he would not be willing to let those little guys whose grades were only slightly worse but whose family members were extremely unfamiliar join his team.

He still needs to think more about himself.

The benefits that a group of good students, good subordinates, and good colleagues can bring to themselves in the future are not something that a group of people who are willing to give up the opportunity to let their children go to the army to gain experience can understand.

With the briefcase tucked under his arm, Ryan looked at the gradually clearing sky in the distance and took a cigarette from the box.

On the side, several fire trucks converted from trucks were leaving the Ministry of Defense under the command of the guards.

The man in the leading car waved to Ryan after seeing him. Ryan simply saluted and the stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

They are from the Imperial Capital Fire Brigade. Those who can come here are basically excellent firefighters with a military service background.

The reason for coming here is for the subsequent troop training mission.

Ryan hopes that they can use their experience in firefighting operations to quickly complete the training of the officers and soldiers of the assault company.

There are only two contents - how to fall from a rope at a specific speed, and how to land without being killed.

This is because Ryan doesn't know much about special operations, otherwise he could do it himself.

"Now there's only one last thing left."

He threw the cigarette butt, which was only a small bunch left, into the iron basket beside him. In the light rain, Ryan set his sights on an ancient building directly opposite the Ministry of National Defense.

With the completion of the troop reorganization work a few days ago, he will be officially promoted to major today.

But before that, he still has to pass an assessment by the Imperial Army Headquarters.

Ryan naturally didn't know the content of the assessment, but he heard from Brian that in order to be promoted from captain to major, he had to be examined by several generals in the empire.

This is no easy task.

When Brigadier General Brian talked about his experience, his face was almost dark the entire time.

It is obviously not just difficult to make such a great person feel difficult and even afraid.

In the corridor under the headquarters, Ryan looked at the wooden door in front of him, reached out and scratched his hair that was left there naturally without any hair oil, and sighed in front of the military police beside him.

"If I had known earlier, I would have applied for the staff officer course."

"But it shouldn't be a problem for you." The gendarme saluted Ryan politely and then opened the door.

"Captain Ryan Flig, reporting in!"

There was no sound, but the room, decorated like a hotel with reddish-brown wood and leather furniture, immediately piqued Ryan's curiosity.

He first thanked the military police who opened the door, and then strode into this wonderful room.

There were no adjutants or waiters that one would normally see in a general's office.

General Draven was wearing an extremely luxurious white and gold suit with a ruff collar. He was completely sunken in the sofa, holding a glass of wine, chatting and laughing with the man in a suit who was sitting on the back of the sofa with his back to him.

Opposite them, several middle-aged men in imperial general uniforms were standing in front of a map with an old man in a suit, discussing tactics.

Seeing that no one paid any attention to him, Ryan had no choice but to go forward and see what they were doing.

Only then did a colonel look at Ryan and say, "Captain Flig."

Ryan remembered that he had seen him at the last award ceremony, so he immediately saluted and asked, "Colonel Stadler, they said I was here to take a test."

His words made Stadler laugh out loud. The nearly fifty-year-old Army Artillery Colonel patted Ryan on the back vigorously and said, "It was just a simple meeting."

As he spoke, almost everyone present turned their eyes to Ryan.

"In fact, this is a test that shouldn't have happened." General Draven sat casually on the sofa. As he spoke, he looked intentionally or unintentionally at the old man sitting opposite him who was already in his octogenarian state.

This immediately caught Ryan's attention. He glanced at the other person calmly, only to find that the other person was actually Marshal Schlieffen.

He was shocked, thinking, isn't this old man retired? How can he still have the energy to come out and meet people?
On Earth, the well-known Field Marshal Schlieffen died before the outbreak of World War I, but not here.

Draven noticed the change in Ryan's expression, but he didn't point it out. He simply continued, "Captain Flig, the theory of mechanized and motorized troops you proposed in Stuttgart has been circulated within the General Staff."

"Your promotion to major has now been finalized."

"But the main reason I asked you to come here is that His Excellency the Marshal wants to hear your opinion on this war."

Before he could finish his words, those whose ranks were not yet generals, including Stadler, immediately turned around and left the room.

In the originally crowded space, only Ryan, Draven, Schlieffen, and the man in a suit with a big beard and a bald head were left.

Ryan didn't know this person, but he always felt as if he had seen him somewhere, but he didn't look familiar and couldn't remember where.

Besides, Schlieffen was right in front of him, and if he thought too much, it would obviously leave a bad record for himself.

Several people looked at Ryan, and Draven continued, "The headquarters and the General Staff are aware of your previous conversation with Commander Hellingen. However, the Marshal still has some doubts about your statement regarding the duration of the war after the general mobilization, which is measured in years."

"How long does it last...?"

This is not a simple question, Ryan thought.

And he immediately understood why Brian recalled this memory with such a panicked, even horrified expression.

In fact, as Draven said, officers do not need to come here to be promoted from captain to major.

But only those who are particularly favored will be qualified to come here and meet the marshal.

It must have been because Brian had given a response that satisfied Schlieffen that he was able to rocket to the rank of Brigadier General. Realizing this, Ryan couldn't help but glance at Draven, and received a positive response.

"Regarding this issue," Ryan immediately walked towards the map rack, "we need to consider it from many aspects."

Because it was a standard map rack in the army, Ryan immediately found a map of the entire European continent and hung it up.

The wooden stick in his hand immediately pointed at the territory of the empire.

"Currently, the Empire is only engaged in a war against Farlane. For most of the grassroots soldiers and citizens, they do not think that this war will last long."

"This is because they were unable to confirm the changes in the front line, and the front line that had only been broken through to the interior of the country in the southernmost part was obviously not satisfactory to everyone."

"A battle like this, where almost all of the fronts are on the border, will inevitably develop into a seesaw battle because both sides have relatively intact material transportation and supply capabilities."

He used a pencil to draw two large arrows on the map, one from the Empire and the other from Farlane, pointing directly to the dividing line between Alsace and Lorraine.

"At the same time, the battle plan drawn up by His Excellency the Marshal ten years ago, due to its short timeframe, led to the understanding that the war would not last more than three months."

"My opinion is the opposite."

After Ryan finished speaking, he immediately brought the topic back and drew a big circle on the Sun Fortress group in Perijie.

"The problem lies in Perijie's operations."

"What do you mean?" The man in the suit narrowed his eyes slightly, and the corners of his mouth, hidden by his beard, raised slightly: "Why is it the scorching sun?"

Ryan said directly, "Because in the operation to capture the Sun Fortress, the Empire was two full days late in achieving its strategic goal."

"Scorching Sun, which should have been completely captured within twelve days, stubbornly held out for fourteen days relying on its own fortress. This completely deprived the Empire of its speed and intelligence advantage in attacking Farlan through Perije."

"The Farlans must have already deployed a large number of troops in the Ardennes. While they can't stop the Empire's 1.4 million troops, they can buy them valuable time to protect Palu."

"Based on the above situation, the current front should be one where both the Farlans and the Empire need to face two fronts simultaneously."

"Among them, the Farlanders need to establish a battle line to protect the capital and the border towards Nancy (Lorraine)."

"The empire needs to simultaneously protect its own borders and attack the enemy's capital."

"But we have 140 million..." The man was about to speak, but he saw Schlieffen turned his head and glared at him fiercely.

He immediately shut up, allowing Ryan to continue speaking.

"Under such circumstances, for the Empire, which is apparently in a stalemate with Farlan, the biggest crisis is actually not Farlan."

Putting away the stick, Ryan stood beside the map with his hands behind his back: "Our biggest enemy right now is actually ourselves."

"Interesting," Schlieffen said. "Why us, Captain?"

Ryan said bluntly: "Because the speed of our attack determines the life and death of the Farlan people."

"Your Excellency the Marshal's plan is indeed flawless, but this is where the problem lies."

"The Imperial forces are currently advancing according to His Excellency the Marshal's plan. There is no problem."

"The plan is to be completed with hourly accuracy, requiring 39 days. If our forces can complete the occupation of Palu during this time, nothing will change."

"Because neither the United Kingdom nor the Russian Empire had the ability to mobilize the entire country in just 39 days."

"But once our troops are on the front lines, if certain objectives cannot be achieved immediately and on time, all subsequent operations of the troops will be affected."

"Judging from the Battle of the Burning Sun Fortress this time, we wasted two days there. This will directly extend the time it takes to complete His Excellency the Marshal's plan to 41 days."

"During this period, the Farlans also had more than two days to mobilize. Combat operations by army group usually take about a week. Therefore, our troops will need a more aggressive combat plan and advance speed in the later stages of the advance."

"And this gave the United Kingdom and Tsarist Russia the opportunity to mobilize."

Ryan spoke a long string of words like a machine gun.

Marshal Schlieffen remained motionless, staring at the map. A few words drifted out of his mouth: "Very novel judgment."

But he immediately added: "But you haven't explained the most important thing yet. Why is the duration measured in years, not months?"

"Because our combat objectives are different."

Ryan immediately responded.

"I've previously mentioned in documents that the Empire's tactics are to prioritize defeating one enemy group, negotiate peace, and ensure that there aren't two simultaneous battle lines. Then, use massive forces to defeat the remaining enemy."

"The operational plan proposed by His Excellency the Marshal was based on this. However, the current situation is that our army's advance is slowing down, which allows other countries to try to mobilize."

"And once the Empire is completely bogged down in the war against Farlan, the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire will inevitably resort to all means to force the Empire into a two-front war."

"I guess their command hierarchy didn't care about the first few battles."

"Because everyone understands that the Empire's national strength is absolutely not enough to sustain a war on two fronts with three countries at the same time."

"So, when the whole world discovers that Perijie's fortresses have successfully stopped the Imperial Army, they will immediately realize that this may be their only chance to destroy the Empire."

Before he finished speaking, Ryan saw Schlieffen's eyebrows twitch slightly.

Ryan swallowed his saliva. "This is why it will last for years."

He took out the stick again and pointed at the locations of Farland, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Empire.

"Countries like Farlan have the advantage of being able to surround the Empire from both land and sea. This will force the Empire to fight them with only its own resources."

"During the confrontation, the Empire might be able to gain some victory in the initial period by relying on its accumulated resources, but as time drags on, the Empire's remaining strength will become increasingly weak."

"Therefore, for countries like Farlan, all they have to do is let the war continue."

"As long as the war continues, the empire will inevitably be on the path of self-destruction at a certain point in time due to its inability to supply supplies to the front line."

After he finished speaking, Ryan put down the stick, glanced at Draven, and finally fixed his gaze on Schlieffen.

Schlieffen was silent for a long time before he spoke. He lowered his head, and Ryan couldn't read his expression. "In other words, Captain, you believe that victory in this war depends not on troop strength but only on logistics?"

His words made Ryan hesitate for a moment, but under Draven's urging, Ryan still said: "From a long-term perspective, it is true."

Schlieffen: "It's a very novel perspective, without any theoretical or logical errors."

He showed enough respect for Ryan's words: "So, if victory is necessary, what do you think the Empire should do?"

As he spoke, Schlieffen raised his head and cast a weathered gaze at Ryan, but it was not as powerful as Draven's.

Ryan felt that Schlieffen was about to die.

But now wasn't the time to discuss such matters. After a brief thought, he said, "While maintaining the battle line and maintaining the offensive rhythm, we should use small-scale forces to carry out surgically precise strikes, forcing the enemy's logistics and command system to become disconnected from the front lines, thereby causing the enemy to run out of supplies in specific stalemate zones..."

"Its main purpose is to force the enemy to abandon their positions and go on the move in order to survive and obtain supplies."

"Once the goal is achieved, our elite troops can pursue the enemy through short-term and long-distance movements."

"If operated properly, even if our army only has one regiment and the enemy has two, we can deploy decoys and force the enemy to disperse across the battle zone. This creates an environment where, even though the enemy has an overall numerical advantage, our army can, on certain battlefields, quickly annihilate a company of enemy troops with just two battalions."

“I call this plan of expanding small-scale guerrilla warfare to regimental, divisional, or even army-level operations.”

"Mobile warfare."

(End of this chapter)