Starting with the smashing of Dunkirk

Chapter 40: Gathering Talent and Returning to the Front Lines

At the Neuschwanstein Castle banquet that day, Lelouch's performance in all aspects amazed Marshal Leopold and made Duke Rupprecht, who already appreciated him, trust him even more.

Everyone's perception of his abilities was refreshed once again. From then on, the core generals of the Barea royal family all believed that Lelouch's future was absolutely limitless.

This young man possesses remarkable talent in strategy, diplomacy, tactics, and adaptability; he is definitely worth nurturing.

Well, if I had to pick a flaw, it would be that he looks a bit weak, and his physical fitness and individual combat ability are not very good, unlike the typical brave Demacian soldier.

He never attended a proper military academy, and even if he had wanted to, with his physical condition, he probably wouldn't have been able to withstand the rigorous military academy training.

But nobody's perfect. Someone's brain is already so sharp, how can you expect them to have great physical strength? Times have changed.

His relatively frail physique only made people think that his sharp mind was justified; he must have put all his talent into intelligence.

This made the Duke and others even more confident in entrusting him with organizational and planning tasks.

When Lelouch learned that he was about to be transferred back to the front lines, he quickly seized the opportunity and offered the Duke some supplementary suggestions regarding the establishment of the assault battalion.

"Your Highness, you instructed me before to keep an eye on the personnel replenishment of the assault battalion. During my free time this past month, I also reviewed the list and resumes of the main second-line staff officers of this army group, as well as the wounded officers waiting to return to their posts."

I hope you can agree to transfer a few of them over, but their ranks are generally equivalent to mine, and some are even one rank higher...

In addition, to broaden the selection pool, I have noted several officers under the 4th Army, which is under the command of the Grand Duke of Baden/Württemberg. I wonder if they could be seconded? If it requires a lot of favors, I don't want to trouble you.

Duke Rupprecht had a very good impression of him, so there was a good chance that his request would be approved at this time.

So the Duke only glanced at it casually and found that the highest rank on the list was only major, and several others were captains. These were minor figures, so there was no point in haggling over them.

But he didn't understand, so he asked, "Does our 6th Army have no one left? Why do we need to borrow manpower from the 4th Army?"

Lelouch couldn't answer that question. He couldn't very well say that in his past life, he had only found these acquaintances among the low-ranking officers in history books. So he could only probe with unfathomable mystery:
"Please don't misunderstand, I never said that our army group is short of talent. It's just that I can't analyze the level of most of my colleagues from their resumes. I just saw that these few people seem to be more open to new things, so I thought I'd give them a try. If it's troublesome, just delete the second half of the list of people who have been seconded."

The Duke frowned: "It's not troublesome, the Grand Duke of Württemberg and I have a good relationship. We usually transfer people from within the southern German states. If we were to transfer people from the Prosenians in episode 1235, it would be a huge favor. Fine, I'll trust you one more time, considering your consistently good judgment."

Considering Lelouch's strategic vision and overall perspective over the past few days, these prophetic pronouncements greatly enhanced the Duke's trust in Lelouch's decisions.

So he gritted his teeth and signed the transfer order with a flourish. The corresponding coordination letter with the 4th Army would, of course, be handled at the same time.

Lelouch was overjoyed to receive the transfer order and coordination letter. He thanked the Duke again and then spent two more days getting the equipment acceptance work done in Munich.

Finally, they found Immelmann, ended their vacation, and flew back to the front lines, while also calling for reinforcements along the way.

The list that Lelouch had was compiled by him over a month of his free time, as he slowly checked the resumes and pondered them.

He originally had two plans: if the Duke's trust in him was not yet at that level, he would only choose his colleagues from the 6th Army. His first list was actually enough, and he also kept a few backups.

But if the Duke is willing to do a favor, then we can also poach the potential candidates from episode 4. Then we can simply remove those backup options ranked lower on the first list.

Now that the mission has been fully accomplished, it seems that the grand strategic vision he discussed with Marshal Leopold that day was indeed worthwhile. Otherwise, the Duke would never have trusted his vision so much that he would have been willing to waste a favor.

……

The Pigeon reconnaissance plane of 1914 had a range of only 400 kilometers, and it was necessary to stop twice for refueling in order to return to the front line.

But Lelouch had to stop twice to gather more people, and that wasn't enough.

Fortunately, he had already learned to fly the plane himself, so he could let Immelmann sit in the back seat. After each landing, the two would switch seats and take turns flying to avoid fatigue.

At the start of takeoff, Lelouch gave Immelmann a copy of the planned flight map and clarified the route:
"When we get back to Karlsruhe, we'll stop and refuel. The Duke has already spoken with the people from episode 4. They have several reserve officers training at the Karlsruhe training camp. I'll personally deliver the transfer order and coordination letter to them and we'll discuss it in person."

Then the second stop was Aachen, where the officers' sanatorium from episode 6 was located; there were several wounded officers to notify. Finally, we landed in Brussels and went directly back to the army group headquarters at the front.

So they traveled in silence, and at 10 a.m. that day, Lelouch flew to the first stop.

The Karlsruhe field airfield was near the recruit training camp. When Lelouch disembarked, several training officers who had been notified in advance were already waiting at the airfield. Among them were officers of higher rank than Lelouch, and he dared not be presumptuous. As soon as the plane came to a stop, he immediately climbed out of the cockpit and went to greet them.
"Captain Lelouch Hunt, it's a pleasure to meet you. Sir, you must be Major Lundstätter?"

When everyone saw that Lelouch, as an army officer, could also fly a plane, they looked at him with new respect, and their opinion of him was unconsciously raised a notch.

The major who was greeted returned the greeting: "Gerd von Lundstätter, Major, Training Staff Officer of the 22nd Reserve Division of Baden."

Lelouch shook hands warmly with the other person, a strange sense of destiny lingering in his heart: a few days ago, when Marshal Leopold tested him, asking why the Empire's hope lay on the Eastern Front rather than the Western Front, Lelouch's answer reminded him of that famous loading screen quote he'd seen in Hearts of Iron before his transmigration: "We should have thought of that back in 1918..."

Unexpectedly, just three days after borrowing the other party's thoughts from more than twenty years in the future, I met the real person three days later.

"I've heard that Major Lundstätter is very strict in his military discipline; I've heard about it all in Munich. This time, we're forming a new assault battalion. Although the soldiers are all elite veterans, there are still some new tactical maneuvers that we need to practice on the spot. That's why we need a training expert like you."

If you don't mind, according to this transfer order, effective immediately you will be the battalion commander of the 2nd Assault Battalion of the 6th Army Group. Although this position will be relatively tough and dangerous, the opportunities for meritorious service and promotion will also be greater..."

"I don't care about promotion!" Major Lundstätter clarified seriously, but still accepted the transfer order.

It would be impossible for him to say he didn't care about promotions; he was much older than the other officers present, already 40, and still only a major. However, he certainly couldn't show any concern for rank when facing a 23-year-old captain.

Lelouch exchanged a few pleasantries with him, then turned to two other officers of lower rank than him.

Since the two men were only second lieutenants, it was difficult to distinguish them by their ranks. Although Lelouch had seen their photos in his later years, they were all from when they were older, so he couldn't recognize them at first and had to let them introduce themselves.

"Walter Model, Second Lieutenant, Infantry Platoon Leader."

"Edward Dieter, Second Lieutenant, Machine Gun Platoon Leader."

(Note: I will not include pictures of these two people. The principle for including pictures from now on is that only people wearing clothing without any insignia or medals issued after 1920 can be included in the picture.)

“Very good. From today onwards, you two will be transferred to my company as platoon leaders. My company is a reinforced company with a total of 8 platoons, and we have expanded our manpower quite a bit. There will definitely be enough room for you.”

Lelouch said this half-jokingly, and the two stern-faced lieutenants couldn't help but laugh along, quickly closing the distance between them.

Furthermore, the group discovered that they were all around the same age. With Lelouch, their superior, extending an olive branch, they introduced themselves and learned that Model was born in 91, making him a year older than their superior, while Dieter and Lelouch were born in the same year, 92.

We're all from the post-90s generation, so we have a lot more in common, unlike the serious and unsmiling major officers from the post-75s generation.

Lelouch's plane couldn't accommodate so many people, so after receiving their transfer orders, these individuals had to take the train to the front lines to assemble and report for duty.

Lelouch had a lot to do and didn't have time to wait until after lunch to leave, so he left each of them a small gift and then took off again in his plane.

The three looked at the gift in their hands. It was a dense garment that was 2 centimeters thick. It was heavier than ordinary clothes, but weighed only two or three kilograms, and it was very soft.

"What is this?" The two lieutenants, both born in the 90s, were unfamiliar with the subject and humbly sought the knowledge of the major, who was born in the 75s.

Major Lundstätter, as expected of someone with extensive knowledge, glanced at it and said, "This is a silk bulletproof vest developed by the Americans, right? It can stop 9mm pistol bullets at close range, but it's very expensive. It requires many layers of silk to be very densely laminated and processed. I heard it sells for seven or eight hundred Ukrainian dollars, which is equivalent to three or four thousand marks."

Lieutenant Dieter had previously commanded a machine gun platoon, so he instinctively exclaimed in professional habit, "Three or four thousand marks? That's enough to buy my entire platoon of heavy machine guns! Four machine guns for only three thousand marks!"

"It seems the higher-ups still value us and think our lives are worth a lot," Lieutenant Model muttered to himself.

……

While the group was reminiscing, packing their belongings, and preparing to take their military officer IDs to catch the train, they were also...

The busy Lelouch has already flown to his next stop, the military hospital in Aachen.

There, he immediately found an officer who was about to be discharged from the hospital:

"Are you Erwin Rommel, who was wounded in the Battle of the Marne and promoted to captain? How is your recovery? Are you ready to be discharged?"
"If you can be discharged, you'll now be the company commander of Company B, 1st Assault Battalion, 6th Army. Let's get acquainted. I'm Captain Lelouch Hunt, the deputy battalion commander and company commander of Company A. We'll be colleagues from now on."

(End of this chapter)