Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 91 The United Kingdom is in turmoil

"Are you serious?"

Schmidt, who had been silent since the beginning, looked unhappy. He looked at Ryan and said, "Major, as an Imperial soldier, I don't think you need my reminder."

"Honorary communications are a method of communication permitted only for matters of national importance. While there have been instances of Honorary Communications providing flight guidance for aircraft in peacetime, this is wartime, and Honorary Communications can only be used to secure victory for the Empire!"

Schmidt's righteous words almost convinced Ryan.

But he fell just short because there was a big loophole in Schmidt's speech.

Lieutenant Perris, a woman, almost immediately realized what Ryan and Schmidt meant. She first looked at her most respected teacher and superior with a nervous expression, and then looked at Ryan with an expression that said, "Please stop talking."

But Ryan didn't want to give Perris this face.

As the commander of the troops and the head of a regiment, Ryan must ensure the safety of all his men.

Inside the tent, Ryan cleared his throat and said, "Colonel Schmidt! I use the light of Honor Communications to provide guidance to the troops. Isn't that for the victory of the Empire?"

"?"

His words made Schmidt stare blankly.

"What do you mean?"

Schmidt looked at Ryan, his expression indescribably complicated.

Ryan, on the other hand, looked innocent: "Literally, my colonel."

It was only then that Schmidt finally reacted.

The complicated expressions on his face disappeared almost immediately, replaced by the shock that Ryan had seen on the faces of Hellingen and Schubert.

Schmidt stood there, his expression paused for a moment, and then he rubbed his cheeks hard with his calloused hands.

"You're really a fucking talent."

Schmidt, who understood what Ryan meant, sighed and sat down on a chair beside him. He looked at the map in front of him and Ryan who was marking the starting points of honor communications around the imperial capital. He didn't know what to say for a moment.

"What are you going to do?"

Schmidt waited for a long moment before speaking. "The Honor Communications' visible range in the sky is approximately one thousand kilometers, but the exact distance cannot be determined with only the beam. Understanding the azimuth is not difficult, but calculating the distance is."

Schmidt is an experienced airship captain. He has been commanding airship operations for more than ten years and has his own opinions on many things.

Ryan immediately had the answer.

He first found two red thumbtacks and pressed them in the center of the town on the east and west sides of Belgreen, and used a scale to ensure that the distance between the two thumbtacks would not be less than one hundred kilometers.

Then he inserted a blue thumbtack in the direction of the North Sea and said, "That's it."

"We've pre-installed a range-finding device on the ship. Using the two Honor communication beams as a reference, we can simply measure the distance between the beams and the relative angle between the ship and the two beams to confirm the ship's current position."

In case Schmidt didn't understand, Lane gave another example: "It's like when you're walking in the imperial capital. As long as you see the spire of the palace, you know how many streets away it is. Then you just need to look at the spire of the cathedral to know which street you are on."

"The navy's two-point positioning is right!"

Schmidt looked as if he had suddenly realized something. "If that's the case, then there's no problem."

"But what about the Honor Newsletter?"

Schmidt was still a little worried about this key point.

After all, this thing is a communication device that can only be activated by nobles who have been granted titles. Once used, it will inevitably arouse everyone's vigilance.
But Ryan didn't care. Besides, he now had Marshal Schlieffen as his backing.

Therefore, he said directly: "We can send a warning to the relevant departments by telegram before using it. As long as it is effective after the first use, we will not be criticized again in the future."

Hearing this, Schmidt nodded involuntarily: "That makes sense, then..."

"I'll handle it. Colonel, you can rest assured that this matter will not involve your fleet."

Ryan wisely gave Schmidt a way out.

Seeing this, Schmidt knew that he couldn't say anything more, so he could only pat his butt and walk towards his airship.

--------------

a few days later.

The time came to August 25th.

The battle started two days ago, and almost every few hours, news of victory came from the Empire's central headquarters.

Ryan had been studying these reports every day for the past few days. Whenever he had the chance, he would place flags on his map according to the contents of the reports to confirm the current advance speed and combat status of the Imperial Army.

The system's map is actually not unusable, but because it cannot be observed normally once it exceeds the national border, Ryan can only use the military map distributed by the empire before reaching the front line.

It's too far off topic.

Come back.

There are two reasons why Ryan did this.

One reason is that Ryan was very afraid that the empire's front-line troops would report false military intelligence or exaggerate the military intelligence because of their desire for quick success.

In fact, it is normal to do this, and even if it is not intentional, but the error is caused by statistical problems, it is understandable.

As for the second point, it is about the United Kingdom.

Around the 22nd, when the imperial troops were about to launch an attack on the Namur fortress group of the Perij Kingdom, they were unexpectedly attacked preemptively by the opposite side.

The battle stalemated until the 25th, which is this morning.

According to intelligence, Namur can be considered to have been completely captured, but the enemy has not surrendered yet. There must be a reason for this.

Coincidentally, just last night, on the evening of the 24th, a private letter from the Second Army, the Imperial Army attacking Namur, happened to be delivered to Ryan.

This letter from Ludendorff was sent from Charleroi, west of Namur, just after the Second Army captured Charleroi.

The letter itself doesn't mean much, as it's just an ordinary communication between good friends.

Most of it was filled with complaints about the slow pace of the troops and descriptions of how difficult the enemy's fortresses were to defeat in battle.

However, the letter mentioned something about the prisoners.

"Further east, on the Mons front, we've heard that many United Kingdom soldiers have appeared. Our comrades have captured several and are currently escorting them to the Empire..."

It was this sentence that aroused Ryan's vigilance.

The United Kingdom's troops officially entered the battlefield.

Ryan knew that these might be troops stationed in Perijie before the United Kingdom went to war, but before this, the Empire had no official record of conflict with the United Kingdom troops on any battlefield.

Furthermore, considering the fact that the letter had been successfully delivered to him and had not been intercepted by the censorship department, Ryan could almost immediately be convinced that the United Kingdom had already negotiated with the Empire through some means.

However, the two sides have not yet reached the point of falling out, so neither the General Staff nor the Ministry of National Defense intends to bring this matter to the surface.

Even the victory reports from home did not specifically mention the capture of United Kingdom soldiers.

Ryan could understand that the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense wanted to keep things quiet and did not want to touch the United Kingdom, the notorious troublemaker, too early.

But they only seem to know that the United Kingdom is a troublemaker, but they don't know why they are called troublemakers.

While Ryan was concentrating on organizing intelligence and maps, Brinkman and Perris entered the tent together.

"Major, you called us?"

Brinkman didn't salute, because Ryan had previously issued an order prohibiting saluting within the army. She asked directly, "What's the mission?"

"No, it's not a mission," Ryan said, not looking at them, his eyes fixed on the map. "I just have something to talk to you about."

As he said this, he pushed the letter sent by Ludendorff in front of the two of them.

Brinkman was already used to Ryan's style of talking less and working more, so he didn't have too many questions. He read the letter directly and handed it to Lieutenant Perris.

Lieutenant Perris was puzzled by her actions, but he did not question her.

Then Perris heard Brinkman's voice: "The United Kingdom is preparing to intervene?"

Ryan smoothed down the warped map and said, "They should have intervened long ago." "Men from the Second and Fifth Armies have clearly come into contact with the United Kingdom on the Pei-France border, but the General Staff seems to be still considering how to handle this news."

"Because they fear a declaration of war from the United Kingdom?"

Brinkman recalled the meeting minutes and battle analysis reports that Ryan had asked him to compile some time ago.

Although the document written by Ryan himself contained a ridiculous number of formatting errors and the order of the documents was a mess, all the records were very clear and were at a level that could be printed in a textbook immediately after a simple organization.

It was also in those meeting records that Brinkmann learned about the clampdown on the empire by the three countries of France, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, as well as the war situations that the empire might encounter in the future.

"No, the General Staff may not be worried about the United Kingdom declaring war."

Ryan hesitantly rejected Brinkmann's suggestion: "I have mentioned some of this in a previous conversation with several generals and marshals, but their current views remain the same as before. They insist on focusing on the battle on the Western Front, while the remaining troops will pay attention to the incoming forces on the Eastern Front..."

"Then Major, you asked us to come?"

Perris had just finished reading the letter. She looked at Ryan and said, "We have no right to know about or get involved in transfers of this level."

"That means your skills are not up to par yet."

Ryan pointed at Perris with the hand holding the water glass: "Besides, the purpose of asking you to come here is not to discuss strategic tactics with you."

He turned around and circled several northern ports of the Perijie Empire on the map with a pencil, and then circled several ports in the United Kingdom, such as Southampton and Portsmouth.

Brinkman and Perris immediately looked at the map and roughly guessed what Ryan was going to say.

"Based on my current judgment, the United Kingdom currently has no pretext to declare war on the Empire."

"Even though our troops have engaged in a firefight with theirs, they were only troops they had already deployed to protect the Kingdom of Perijie, so it's not a big deal."

"However, with the Empire's next wave of offensive about to begin, we will soon be able to form a suppression front against the Farlan native core area in Senlis, the area north of Palu."

"By then, the United Kingdom will undoubtedly send a force to the mainland to test the Empire, fearing that it might pose a threat."

As he spoke, Ryan pointed to several important ports in the Kingdom of Perijie.

"If nothing unexpected happens, the United Kingdom will land in Perijie. This will ensure they can cut ties with Farlane at any time, and it will also send a friendly signal to their vassal states."

Ryan said, slapping a black-and-white photo of a fat man in the upper left corner of the map. "Churchill, the United Kingdom's First Lord of the Admiralty and Prime Minister, is a headstrong idiot. Regardless of what the people in the United Kingdom think, I'm currently very happy to see them push a guy who knows nothing about war into command of the troops."

Brinkman and Perris both felt that there was something wrong with Ryan's statement, but before they could speak, Ryan changed the subject: "But this is where the problem lies."

"Although this guy doesn't understand military affairs, he understands politics very well."

"If the current battle between the Empire and Farlan represents a decisive outcome between the two most powerful nations on the continent, then Churchill will definitely not sit idly by."

"But as I said before, he won't send troops into battle first. Instead, he will use false news to test our stance and confirm the empire's current military strength."

Perris was the first to understand what Ryan meant: "You mean, the United Kingdom will send troops to support the Kingdom of Perijie, and decide whether to send troops to Farlan based on the Empire's response?"

"That's it."

Ryan nodded with satisfaction.

"Because the Empire already has the United Kingdom's prisoners, if nothing unexpected happens, they will give an answer in the next two days."

"According to my speculation, they will definitely land at one of the ports in the Kingdom of Perijie, accompanied by a massive propaganda campaign."

Ryan's statement immediately aroused Perris's vigilance.

She began to understand why Ryan had previously described Churchill as someone who understood politics very well.

If it is really as Ryan said, then the United Kingdom's move is undoubtedly insidious.

Because of their presence, the Empire, which was already prepared to continue advancing, would be forced to allocate its forces to confirm whether the United Kingdom's troops had arrived in Perijie, and if so, how many people there were.

Considering the de facto war between Perige and the Empire, at least a week would be wasted trying to confirm the intelligence.

But how could the empire have a week to waste?

Perris' heart tightened, but she immediately heard Ryan's voice.

"Lieutenant Perris." Ryan called out.

"Here!" The female lieutenant straightened her back.

"How many people are ready to attack at any time now?"

"All members of the assault company, except those who are not physically qualified, the remaining 208 personnel are all qualified to carry out Alpha-level missions."

The Alpha level is actually Plan A. For the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment, their Plan A is to advance stealthily by airship and drop infantry by landing or floating in the dark.

The biggest difference from other operations is that in Alpha-level missions, airships are not required to transport troops back and forth, and the total number of troops deployed in a battle will not exceed the limit of a single transportation capacity.

"What about the troops composed of warrant officers?"

Ryan was talking about the group of young people at the Military University.

Because they have not learned on the front line yet, in addition to receiving rope rappelling training, they also have to take time to learn how to command a three-person team.

This was a requirement that Ryan had previously put forward to his troops in the Vosges Mountains, and it is now being promoted on a large scale in the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment.

Therefore, their training efficiency will definitely not be too high.

Perris's answer confirmed Ryan's speculation: "Currently, the fifteen people from the Communications Department have completed all assessments and are ready to go at any time!"

"Communications?"

Ryan hesitated after hearing this number because he felt that these rookies were training too slowly.

No matter what, fifteen people are still too few.

But then he thought about it.

This number of people doesn't seem to be a problem.

After all, the assault company is currently short of people, so we can just use these people to fill the gap.

Besides, Perris just said that these little guys are all from the communications department.

That is, the first-class elite.

As long as they are not scared silly by the battlefield, they will surely become a reliable fighting force quickly.

After a moment's silence, Ryan made a decision.

"Lieutenant Brinkman," he said, looking at Brinkman beside him, "integrate them into the various squads of the assault company so that they can fight with us later."

"They are here to be soldiers. Don't let them be squad leaders."

"Yes!" Brinkmann replied immediately.

Then it was time for Perris.

"second lieutenant."

Perris immediately raised her head and chest and put on a serious look.

Ryan: "Today, discuss with Colonel Schmidt the possibility of using airships to break through the border and conduct landing operations at the ports of the Kingdom of Perijie."

"Yes, Major."

Perris agreed without asking any questions.

"And one more thing."

After Ryan finished speaking, he called out to Brinkman who was about to leave.

He said, "From now on, no one is allowed to enter or leave the military camp until this operation is over. Do you understand?"

Brinkman nodded, then asked, "Do we need to notify the General Staff?"

"Just report to General Draven, and he'll take care of the rest for us."

(End of this chapter)