Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 231 Representatives of the Imperial Council of Sixty

After speaking with Emperor Wilhelm in Berlin and explaining the difficulties of the grand plan to completely blockade Lusa,

The next day, March 23, Lelouch left Berlin and boarded a train heading south. After a day of bumpy travel, he arrived in Munich.

The troops had been fighting bloody battles on the front lines for almost a year, and they also had their rest periods. The intensity of the fighting in the winter offensive was relatively mild, and most of the troops in the 6th Army Group did not have to take turns on combat missions, so many soldiers were given a winter leave of one or even two months.

They could go back to the rear to visit relatives, or stay in non-frontline cities on the eastern front and enjoy good food and drink and recuperation.

Generally, soldiers with families will choose to return to the rear for rest, even if it means wasting about a week of travel time by train.

A high-ranking general like Duke Rupprecht, with a family to support, naturally wanted to return home to reunite with his loved ones. Therefore, before returning to the front lines, Lelouch would also visit Munich and then return to the front lines with the Duke.

Of course, many officers and soldiers also choose not to return home during the winter leave. This is mainly due to the young, single soldiers who are too lazy to spend time traveling and are happy to exchange their train travel allowance for more supplies from the military.

Putting everything else aside, just applying to not take the train home to visit relatives this year, thus saving the country's transportation capacity, could earn an extra 50 kilograms of bread and 10 kilograms of pork sausages. And in today's Kievan Rus' region, these extra foods might just be enough to pick up a few more Russian girls.

The civilians in the Kievan Rus' region had suffered terribly from the previous plundering and bloody battles by the Russa people.

Of the more than ten million tons of grain collected by Nicholas II through his wicked actions, only a very small portion was transported back to the north in time. A staggering 970 million tons remained in warehouses and were directly seized by the Demanian army.

With such land expropriation, many ordinary poor people in Kievan Rus' would go hungry, though they wouldn't starve to death.

The poor ate only a pound of black bread, one or two small potatoes, and some miscellaneous vegetables each day to barely fill their stomachs. There was no meat, no oil, and they only used coarse salt for seasoning.

In this chaotic world, the women of Kievan Rus' could only beg the occupying forces for mercy. They didn't even need to be forced; just a few pork sausages were enough to make them submit.

Moreover, the local men had already been killed in large numbers during the war. In a territory with a population of 20 million, the men and women were originally evenly split, with young and middle-aged people making up one-third, which meant there were 3 million men and 3 million women. Now, more than a million more young and middle-aged men than women have died, which means almost half of the population has perished. Since there were already twice as many women, it was only natural that they would seek help from the occupying forces.

These hardships are something that high-ranking generals like Lelouch, who spend their winter break returning home to further their studies, can never see.

……

After a day of bumpy train travel, Lelouch finally arrived in Munich late on the 23rd.

Not wanting to disturb the Duke, he stayed overnight at the estate in Füssen and only went up the mountain to visit Neuschwanstein Castle early the next morning.

By the way, this manor in Füssen is part of Lelouch's current baronial territory.

Although most barons in those days only received a hereditary stipend, typically 100 marks per household per year as tribute, some particularly favored barons could still obtain actual fiefdoms from the royal family.

Lelouch is currently only a baron, and his actual territory only includes a portion of Fiesen City. If he can be promoted to earl in the future, he will be able to own all the state-owned land in Fiesen City—however, Fiesen City is just a small mountain town with a population of just over ten thousand and three thousand households.

On the morning of the 24th, Lelouch drove up the mountain and, just as he arrived at the entrance of Neuschwanstein Castle, he saw that a grand ceremony was being prepared inside the castle.

Lelouch was already quite familiar with the Duke's family, so he was naturally not surprised. He already knew that the Duke himself was going to remarry and that the wedding would be held tomorrow. Duke Rupprecht's first wife, Marie Gabrielle, had passed away in 1912, leaving behind only a son and a daughter.

The former Duchess was Empress Elisabeth's niece and a cousin of Duke Rupprecht, which explains why their children were relatively frail. Their eldest son died young, their eldest daughter, Princess Ilmingard, was also weak, and their second son, Albrecht, suffered from ADHD. The Duchess passed away in 1912 at the age of 35.

In the history of the Earth plane, after the death of his first wife, Duke Rupprecht originally planned to remarry in a few years, but due to the setbacks of the war, he had no time to worry about such things.

He dragged it out until the war was over and he himself was overthrown, before he remarried Antoinette, the fourth sister of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, a young girl who was just 20 years old. Because the Barea royal family and the Luxembourg royal family had a good relationship, the other party was still willing to arrange a marriage even though he was down on his luck, and the Duke himself was already over 50 years old at the time.

However, his health is quite remarkable. He married a 20-year-old girl when he was over 50 years old, and his wife was able to give birth to 6 more children after the marriage.

In this world, the war is presumably progressing smoothly, and the Duke, in high spirits, took advantage of the winter break to get things done. His dealings with the Luxembourg royal family likely began at the end of the previous year during the Battle of Ypres in the Belighin region with the 6th Army.

At that time, he held the power of life and death over the Low Countries on the Western Front. The Billy Kings were on the verge of being wiped out. Luxembourg, a small country, was originally one of the Greater Demania states, so of course it wanted to be on good terms with him.

And because the Duke's marriage was brought forward by several years, his bride was no longer Antoinette, the fourth sister of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, but Charlotte Wilhelmina, the second sister of the Grand Duchess.

Lelouch was in such a hurry to return from Berlin because the Duke had informed him in advance to attend the ceremony.

Only Lelouch knew that Duchess Charlotte Wilhelmina would be ousted from power a few years later by pro-Bolshevik and pro-French politicians because her elder sister, Archduchess Mary, was ousted on the grounds that "Archduchess Mary compromised with Germany during the war," and then Charlotte Wilhelmina would be installed as a puppet ruler.

But Charlotte is going to become the Queen of the Barea royal family in this world. Who will those pro-British and pro-French Luxembourg parliamentarians support in the future?
"Perhaps Luxembourg will peacefully become an autonomous state under the Greater Demania Scheme in the future..."

As Lelouch gazed at the decorations outside Neuschwanstein Castle, he couldn't help but speculate in this way.

However, he didn't have much time to overthink, because his BMW armored car was the same model as the Duke's cars, making it too easily recognizable. He had only stopped for a few seconds at the castle gate when the guards ushered him inside. The Duke, upon learning of Lelouch's arrival, took time out of his busy schedule to personally receive him, instructing the guards to take Lelouch to his study first.

Entering the study, Lelouch saw Duke Rupprecht chatting with his old friend Archduke Mark von Baden. As soon as Lelouch entered, the Duke personally poured him a glass of gin and clinked glasses with him.
"The General Staff has finally approved your promotion to Major General. Congratulations!"

"Congratulations, Your Highness. You are truly busy with many affairs of state. Tomorrow is an auspicious day, and you are still handling official business." Lelouch took a sip of the wine and then clinked glasses with the Duke of Baden beside him.

Duke Rupprecht smiled broadly and said, "It wasn't about handling official business, just chatting and joking with my brother Baden. He said that Luxembourg is still in crisis, and some members of parliament were dissatisfied with our Demania. Grand Duchess Marie wanted to hold a re-election to suppress the dissatisfaction and avoid trouble, but those members criticized her for overstepping her authority because announcing a re-election was not within the authority of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg."

But now… heh, if those pro-Burund and pro-France lawmakers dare to cause trouble again, we have plenty of ways to deal with them. At worst, if they want the people to choose for themselves, we'll just let them choose directly.”

The Duke didn't spell it out explicitly, but everyone knew what he meant.

Grand Duke Baden, standing to the side, also said with a wry smile, "Although the Empire hopes for a peaceful ceasefire on the western front in the future, the Empire currently holds an absolute advantage on the ground. It is unlikely that we can expect those soldiers who fought bloody battles to end the war without taking an inch of land. I'm afraid we can't suppress public opinion in the country."

After repeated deliberations, the Occupation Affairs Department concluded that the most appropriate solution was to eventually force the enemy to accept the Greater Demania Plan. We do not want the entire territory of Biligin, but we should ensure that the Luxembourg province of Biligin is 'returned' to the Empire.

Then, the border between the provinces of Liège and Luxembourg was adjusted so that the Meuse River became the boundary. That is, the part of Liège province located on the southeast bank of the Meuse River was incorporated into Luxembourg province and 'returned' to the Empire.

Finally, we could "persuade" the future Belighin authorities to demilitarize the provinces of Liège and Namur, and dismantle the Liège fortress on the German-Belgian border and the Namur fortress on the Franco-Belgian border. This way, after a ceasefire on the western front, if the Franks clash with us again, there's no need to detour and invade the core Belighin territory; they can simply pass through the demilitarized zone in a temporary, harmless manner, saving the General Staff from constantly trying to sabotage diplomatic relations. Sigh, although this tactic isn't very sophisticated, it's at least something...

As for Luxembourg, let the nation decide its own future; we will not interfere. Our only responsibility is to eliminate those pro-French and pro-Luxembourg traitors.”

The Grand Duke of Baden had considered and adjusted these future diplomatic strategies many times. In fact, there was not much new to them, and Lelouch could understand them immediately. The only new factor now was the addition of the fact that the Duke of Rupprecht had married the second sister of the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg.

However, he still had to offer his praise. Lelouch sincerely exclaimed, "Your Highness's successive marriages of such great importance are all for the sake of the country. You are truly a model for the Demanian people."

Upon hearing this, the Duke couldn't help but laugh and scold, "Alright, you're resorting to these platitudes. Tell me, did you bring any gifts for this trip?"

Lelouch smiled calmly: "Your Highness is as wealthy as a country. Ordinary wealth is not worthy of Your Highness's attention. However, there is a small gift that Your Highness may find useful during your hunting trip these days."

After saying that, Lelouch gave an order to the guards, and soon someone carried a long, narrow box into the Duke's reception room.

Lelouch opened it himself, and inside was a Mauser 13.2mm rifle, the latest prototype from the Mauser company. It was custom-made, covered in gold, and equipped with a bipod, clearly intended for use by nobles for hunting.

That's right, this gun uses the 13.2 x 95mm ammunition for future anti-tank/anti-materiel operations. Because of Lelouch's early planning, single-shot anti-tank rifles are unlikely to become standard issue for the Demacian army in this world; at most, there will only be a small number of transitional experimental models. For large-scale standard equipment in the future, they will definitely go straight for 13.2mm machine guns.

The biggest drawback of large-caliber rifles is their terrifying recoil. The 13.2mm Mauser anti-tank rifle in Earth's world, to allow soldiers' shoulders to withstand the recoil, has had its bullet length reduced by 3mm, from 95mm to 92mm, and the propellant charge reduced. Even so, firing from the shoulder can still potentially break the collarbone.

Known as the "Shoulder Bone Terminator," he claims that if someone is shot in the left or right shoulder, they should be taken to a field hospital for fracture treatment.

Out of humanitarian considerations, Lelouch insisted on equipping the transitional large-caliber machine gun with a bipod when the military industry in his own world was testing it, even if it was just a temporary rifle version. But since they already had bipods, it would be wasteful to make a rifle; it would be better to go straight to a machine gun.

That's why the Duke now has a gold-plated bipod hunting rifle in front of him, firing large-caliber anti-materiel bullets.

The Duke, a military man by birth, was very fond of hunting. Upon seeing this 16-kilogram behemoth, which, with the bipod, weighed a total of 18 kilograms, he was very satisfied and even picked it up and demonstrated it a few times—of course, at that moment the gun was not loaded with bullets, and the magazine was not even inserted.

"This is a great find. One shot would probably go right through an African elephant. Hunting with this would be really exciting. But forget about small animals like lions. They'd probably be smashed to pieces by one shot. You wouldn't even be able to find a whole lion's head as a trophy."

The Duke played with the gilded shotgun for a while, then put it away.

After receiving the gifts, the group chatted for a while longer. The Duke brought up the matter he had mentioned before, about making Lelouch one of the seven members of the Kingdom of Barea's Federal Council, and this time he was ready to fulfill his promise.

"I've already prepared the nomination documents and completed the procedures. From now on, you'll be the representative of the Imperial Sixty-Person Conference. When you introduce yourself to the attendees tomorrow, be mindful of your new role. Also, prepare a proposal for your first conference in a timely manner. You should be on the front lines during this year's conference. You can take leave, but someone else can deliver it on your behalf. Just make sure the proposal document is written in advance. Do you have any ideas yet?"

Lelouch: "Yes, I have prepared a proposal on the allocation of domestic civilian industrial capacity in advance. For the allocation of certain urgently needed materials for people's livelihood, I have proposed a relatively conservative plan that is conducive to a protracted war."

I recommend reserving at least 30% of the Empire's synthetic ammonia production capacity specifically for fertilizer manufacturing. The military's use of synthetic ammonia production capacity for explosives should not exceed 70%, to avoid impacting people's livelihoods and domestic food production.

At the same time, a necessary share of oil must be reserved for civilian use, primarily for tractors, and this should be regulated. Simultaneously, fuel rationing for private vehicles should be strictly controlled. All the proposed figures have been researched and can be guaranteed to meet the needs of the front lines. As long as the front lines don't engage in reckless waste, and the General Staff tries to formulate reasonable operational plans, it will definitely be sufficient.

As Lelouch spoke, he even produced a prepared agenda document and asked the Duke to review it.

The Duke took it and examined it carefully, seemingly very satisfied.

(End of this chapter)