Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 229 A groundbreaking thesis, successful graduation

Fritz Haber, recognizing Lelouch's remarkably excellent track record, finally agreed to launch another major research project based solely on Lelouch's personal observations and judgments.
A large number of researchers specializing in microbiology and medicinal chemistry have been deployed to study the bactericidal effects and toxicological properties of soil actinomycete secretions. A systematic study is also being conducted on subsequent steps such as strain screening, culture, and secretion extraction.

The research and development team and experimental equipment for this project will naturally need to be provided by Faben Chemicals.

However, Lelouch overruled objections regarding research and development costs, stating that the sulfonamide drug manufacturing plant, previously a joint venture between the two companies, could bear the burden. This meant reinvesting the profits from sulfonamide drug sales over the past year into research and development. The salaries, bonuses, and other research incentives for the special team brought in by Faben Chemical would be paid by this joint venture pharmaceutical plant.

This is also one of Lelouch's principles: profits from one area should be reinvested in expanding production or further research and development within that area. This also prevents partners from worrying that he will divert resources to other areas, resulting in all his hard work going to waste.

Strictly speaking, transferring money across different sectors is theoretically considered unclear accounting, related-party transactions by major shareholders, or capital flight that infringes on the interests of minority shareholders.

In other words, during wartime, everything was for the sake of national development, and many commercial laws were not strictly enforced. But even for the sake of his own business reputation, Lelouch tried his best to be as compliant as possible.

Business and money in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry remain entirely within that industry. Similarly, money in the metallurgical and artillery manufacturing industry remains entirely within that industry. Even if a portion of the funds must be diverted to manufacturing train cars or trucks, the equity in a metallurgical plant must first be sold off, cleanly transferring the money to train car manufacturing.

Over the past year, the pharmaceutical factory jointly owned by Fabon Chemicals and Lelouch produced more than 60 million tablets of sustained-release sulfonamide drugs. Because they were sold to their own countrymen, the retail price was relatively reasonable, and the factory only made a net profit of 30 pfennigs per tablet, totaling a net profit of only 20 million marks.

Considering that this medicine is life-saving and has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, earning only 2000 million marks is already an incredibly reasonable price.

This 2000 million yuan has now been entirely invested in the research and development of streptomycin and oxytetracycline.

……

After laying the groundwork for early antibiotic research, Lelouch did not linger in Frankfurt and quickly set off to return to Berlin.

Oh, before leaving, he did one last insignificant task—assigned by Duke Rupprecht, he went to the Adidas Brothers company, with whom he had previously had a pleasant working relationship, and placed another order for a new batch of camouflage uniforms in new colors.

The so-called Adidas Brothers Company was, of course, the clothing factory that would later be split into Adidas and PUMA by the two brothers, but it had not yet been split in 1916.

Previously, Lelouch had a pleasant collaboration with the Adidas brothers when he was looking for a new type of parachute. He also placed an order for camouflage combat uniforms, which the company produced quite well. And this company happens to be located in Frankfurt.

However, this time, Lelouch made preparations in advance because he was preparing to fight in the Caucasus war zone after the spring.

Moreover, recent indications suggest that after suffering a crushing defeat and annihilation in the Dardanelles Straits region, the Britannians seem to be considering strengthening the anti-Ottoman front between Egypt and Syria, or supporting the Lussars in the Caucasus region in other parts of the Middle East, in order to open up a new artery for Lussar maritime trade.

It's impossible to completely hide something like this, especially since Demania has a transmigrator like Lelouch.

He basically knew what kind of shit the fat man was stirring up behind the scenes as soon as he saw the Bretonnian's anus sticking out.

The name of that bastard, "Lawrence the Deceitful Old Man," almost immediately popped into Lelouch's mind.

Lelouch painstakingly severed all of the Lusa people's life-sustaining arteries; how could he possibly allow the dog to succeed in reconnecting them? Every attempt by the enemy must be countered and completely thwarted.

He recently took some time to tell Duke Rupprecht this deduction over the phone.

The Duke took it very seriously and asked him to help him see if there was any preparation work that could be done in advance for operations in the Caucasus or the Middle Eastern desert regions.

Lelouch took advantage of his trip to Frankfurt to order a bunch of desert camouflage combat uniforms.

Furthermore, these garments were required to have a light khaki desert hue, be as lightweight, breathable, and sweat-wicking as possible, and be made of lightweight linen, but with sufficient strength.

After receiving the order, Adidas Brothers briefly considered how to design and improve the product, and stated that they would not delay the process. They would produce samples in March and supply in large quantities in April, with the entire garment factory's production capacity being prioritized to meet the uniform needs of the 6th Army Group.

……

On March 6, Lelouch finally returned to Berlin.

He spent another week discussing and writing his thesis, and then another week submitting it to the former principal, Marshal Goldz, for review and revision.

During the writing process, several fellow students and teaching assistants with whom he had a good relationship and shared many insights provided him with materials and polishing assistance. These included Lieutenant Colonel Oswald Lutz, Major Reichenau, and Captain Guderian.

March 20th was finally the day of Lelouch's final dissertation defense.

After repeated revisions, Lelouch's thesis was publicly defended in the auditorium of the Potsdam Military Academy, presided over by Marshal Goldz, the former principal who had been temporarily rehired.

All students from the same cohort attended the defense ceremony and listened to the teachings.

The arguments that Lelouch had originally emphasized need not be reiterated. They will be read again during the public defense.

However, there was still a lot of new content that other trainees had never heard of before, and this was the first time it was being read aloud to the public.

The main point is about "how the current world war has been forced to this point due to insufficient preparation and inadequate planning by the General Staff. How should the future Empire end the war?"

Strictly speaking, this topic is not very relevant to Lelouch's thesis topic.

From an academic perspective, this should be broken down into another topic and developed into a separate research project.

However, Lelouch didn't have time to do too many research projects or write too many papers, so he treated this part as a brief overview and prospect of the main project, and no one accused him of academic irregularities.

Instead, everyone was eager to hear what this genius had to say, hoping it would offer some inspiration. "...Given that the war has lasted for nearly two years, and that neither the Empire nor some of the belligerent nations considered how to end the war at its outset, based on previous combat experience, political realities, and historical lessons, the following deductions can be made:"
Hoping to end the war by completely conquering Lusa is objectively almost impossible; even Emperor Napoleon failed to achieve this, and no one in history has ever succeeded. However, the empire has now completely cut off Lusa's overseas trade and supplies, causing immense inconvenience and instability to the people. As long as this blockade continues, resistance against the tyrant within Lusa will inevitably intensify.

In the past few short months, millions of Russo people have died directly from cold and starvation along the construction sites of the Murmansk port and railway, with indirect deaths being countless. The possibility of a prolonged blockade causing the collapse of a vast empire is becoming increasingly clear.

Because the Lusha people have long prioritized resources for the front lines, the livelihoods of the people in the rear have deteriorated, and all industries have collapsed. Therefore, given this characteristic of the Lusha, inducing their people to resent their tyrannical ruler would be a viable strategy for our country.

Similarly, a year earlier, when the Empire won the Battle of Ypres, it annihilated the Bretanian Expeditionary Force and captured nearly 20 enemy soldiers. At that time, the Propaganda Department of the War Ministry, taking advantage of the special circumstances of the Bretanians and their backward economic system that still maintained a purely free market during the war, deliberately incited the prisoners of war to complain that civilians in the rear earned far more than soldiers on the front lines. This caused tens of thousands of Bretanian prisoners of war to defect in indignation and be used by the Empire.

These two contrasting examples are sufficient to prove that, under the premise that a nation-state cannot be destroyed, ending a life-or-death war between nation-states may be achieved by relying on the total collapse of at least one side, either the civilian population in the rear or the military in the front.

Those who prioritize the military over the people will incite the people, and those who prioritize the people over the military will incite the military. Compared to our country, Luza disregards the lives of its people in the rear even more; therefore, when fighting Luza, we should focus on propaganda and inciting discontent among its people in the rear. Compared to our country, Bretania disregards the interests of its frontline soldiers even more; therefore, when fighting Bretania, we should focus on undermining the morale of its frontline troops, making them unwilling to sacrifice themselves in the attack.

However, everything has two sides. While our people are better off than those of the Russians and our army is better off than that of the Burkina Faso, it also means that our people are not as well off as those of the Burkina Faso. Therefore, we must be wary of the Burkina Faso using the same methods to mislead our civilians. If our civilians do indeed live in hunger and cold in the future, we must work hard to improve their lives and eliminate the root cause of their exploitation by the Burkina Faso..."

Lelouch spoke eloquently, giving a generalized deduction of his understanding of "relativity" as the future end of the war.

In plain terms, if we encounter a country that treats its military worse than we do, we should target its military; if we encounter a country that treats its people worse than we do, we should target its people. Conversely, we must also guard against countries that treat their military better than we do targeting our military, and against countries that treat their people better than we do targeting our people.

This "defense" is not just empty talk; it must bring tangible benefits and truly benefit the military and the people.

Whether it's giving them a sense of honor, having their heroic deeds publicized and remembered in history books, or ensuring that merits are rewarded and fame is bestowed;

We must ensure that the people in the rear have food to eat. We cannot exhaust the resources for the sake of short-term military production, depleting all synthetic ammonia production capacity to manufacture explosives and leaving nothing for the fertilizer industry.

Lelouch's idea is excellent, and it represents the ideal situation. As for how much Emperor Wilhelm will heed it and how much he will actually implement it, that depends on himself.

……

"Whoa whoa whoa~"

As Lelouch finished his defense, thunderous applause erupted in the main hall of the Potsdam Military Academy.

Lelouch's paper ultimately won unanimous applause. From Marshal Goldz down, all the leaders and professors of the military academy looked solemn and deeply agreed, feeling that Lelouch was right.

For many years, no one has been able to give such a clear and concise explanation of the nature of war, the principles of ending war, and especially how this mess will end in the future.

Many people are still fighting, fighting mechanically and numbly, but deep down they are confused. Even the generals with outstanding military achievements are confused; the commanders on both sides haven't figured out "how this war will end."

The Demanians never dreamed of destroying the nation of Lusa, nor did they dream of landing on the island of Bu and directly occupying the mainland of Bu.

The Franks never imagined they could actually reverse course and wipe out Demacia's homeland.

People are already confused about how "victory" will come to the world.

Now, Lelouch has at least given everyone one way out: it turns out that as long as you fight seriously, you can expect the people of a country that doesn't care about their own people to collapse. And you can expect the army of a country that doesn't care about its own army to mutiny.

This is a protracted war that may only end when one side collapses internally and a major upheaval occurs.

Now that we have a goal in mind, and our actions have a framework and direction, everyone naturally regains their energy and spirit, and we can strive for this relatively tangible goal.

This new, smaller goal seems much more grounded than the previous vague and unrealistic ones.

With achievable short- to medium-term goals in mind, people's motivation naturally changes.

"Lelouch! Lelouch! Lelouch!"

As officers at the military academy frequently stood and applauded, some couldn't help but spontaneously raise their arms and shout, cheering for their colleague who had helped them find their direction from confusion. This cheer was highly contagious and quickly spread, inspiring more people to join in.

"Lelouch! The Empire will prevail! He is the prophet! He is the Clausewitz of our time!"

Captain Heinz Guderian stared at Commander Lelouch with admiration and adoration, waving his tightly clenched fist.

"After two years of fighting, we finally know how to work hard and how to end the war! When we return to the front lines, we must fight for this goal! Cut off all trade with the Lusa people and force them to choose peace!"

Major Maximilian Wechs, who commanded the cavalry unit, had his previous confusion vanish, replaced by a resolute determination after rediscovering his goal.

"Those conservatives in the General Staff are making a huge mistake. The Empire needs a humble, open-minded General Staff that is good at learning new things and willing to accept advice! The opinions of wise men like Commander Lelouch should be fully heard so that the Empire's situation can be turned from crisis to safety!"

Major Walter Reichenau, also a cavalry officer, had already expressed his dissatisfaction with the incompetent officials in the General Staff. He wished that Commander Lelouch would go to the General Staff immediately to help eliminate some of the long-standing problems and make the soldiers on the front lines understand better why they were fighting.

Amidst such a grand occasion, Marshal Goltz personally intervened several times to maintain order and asked everyone to quiet down. Finally, he officially announced that Baron Lelouch von Hunt's dissertation had passed the defense, was of excellent quality, and he was granted graduation.

The relevant decision will be reported to the General Staff soon, and the General Staff will also adjust Lelouch's rank and position soon.

(End of this chapter)