Imperial Elite

Chapter 66 What is the best job for a nobleman?

With the end of the Battle of Paris, the Paris battle group began returning to its homeland for rest and reorganization.

Because they were in the rear from the beginning, and because as nobles they naturally knew some "tricks," Baron Edmond and other nobles became members of the second group of Paris combatants to return to the homeland.

Joe not only gave them two-fifths of the medals as previously agreed, ensuring that each of them received a medal, but also praised their logistical work during several public appearances.

This made the nobles, including Baron Edmund, very satisfied with Joe, thinking that Joe was a truly sensible and insightful person.

After all, if they had only had one medal, they would have been just one of many ordinary nobles who participated in the war.

There's nothing they can do. As nobles, even if they join the army, they'll still get priority for good things like medals, so it's just some medals and nothing to brag about.

But when Joe repeatedly praised them publicly, things changed.

Now they can confidently boast to others in bars or after social gatherings, "You know the Battle of Paris, right? The Teutons almost took Paris. Ah… if it weren't for Old Joe's valiant fighting, I don't know what would have happened. But do you know why Old Joe was able to hold out in Paris? It's all thanks to my brothers constantly supplying him…"

So upon returning to London, they decided to have Baron Edmund visit Joe on their behalf and convey their gratitude.

As nobles, they naturally had to be particular about the gifts they gave. Considering that Joe already had the Marshal's Sword given to him by His Majesty, it was obviously inappropriate for him to be carrying only an ordinary revolver.

So they commissioned one: an ebony handle inlaid with ivory, a silver-plated and gilded barrel, with the Eiffel Tower and the word "Paris" engraved on the ivory plaques on the left and "Victory of Paris, thanks to your leadership" on the right. It looked like a pistol worth at least one or two years' wages for an average worker.

Of course, giving only one handgun to so many people is obviously not enough.

So they got another one, with the word 'The Profit Maker' spelled out on the cover in rubies, and a gold watch with a diamond bracelet, which they gave to Joe as a gift.

Then when Baron Edmund arrived at Joe's hospital room with a case containing a pistol and a pocket watch, he was surprised to see Joe, even while recuperating in his hospital room, looking as if he were about to be overwhelmed by documents.

In the past, nobles, including Baron Edmund, believed that Joe's crazy work was because it was his hobby. After all, as a role model who had worked his way up from the bottom, it was very normal and common for him to enjoy working and trying to gain more.

However, working so frantically while recuperating from illness shows a lack of concern for one's health.

So Baron Edmund was only politely advising Joe to focus on his recovery and to postpone work until after he was discharged from the hospital.

Then Baron Edmund heard Joe say, in a somewhat exasperated tone, “Who likes to work? Who wants to work? If it weren’t for the fact that these things have to be done and nobody else is doing them, do you think I would want to write these reports and go through these procedures? I’d rather go to the Somme than deal with all this stuff.”

Hearing Joe say this, Baron Edmund was somewhat puzzled. "If that's the case, why don't you hire some secretaries to help you handle these matters?"

Joe seemed somewhat helpless about not having a secretary to handle these matters.

"I would love to have a capable secretary to help me with these documents, but there's no such position in the military."

Upon hearing Joe's remark, Baron Edmund laughed.

Baron Edmund then explained the hidden rules of Bunitania to Joe.

First of all, Joe is neither the prime minister nor a minister, so he certainly can't expect to be assigned a secretary by his superiors. However, the fact that Joe isn't assigned a secretary doesn't mean that he can't find one himself.

Just as they could bring their own servants to war, Joe was also able to set up his own secretariat.

Although theoretically, this unstaffed secretariat has no power to handle official business for Joe, there are unique circumstances in Bonitania. As long as the secretariat is established, the document flow is set up, and the process becomes smooth and the higher-ups get used to it, then the secretariat will be able to handle official business.

Next, the higher-ups will begin to consider establishing this secretariat and incorporating it into the imperial bureaucracy.

Joe was shocked by this obvious practice of boarding first and buying a ticket later.

"Is this okay?"

"Why won't this work?"

Baron Edmund patted Joe on the shoulder.

"Where do you think the prime minister and his secretaries come from? Given the way those gentlemen in Parliament are, who would rather charge a penny just to use the restroom, do you think they would be willing to provide the prime minister with a secretary?"

After telling Joe this, Baron Edmund told him another little secret.

"Joe, given the current situation, you'll definitely be knighted after the war ends. Have you ever thought about what the best job is for a nobleman?"

Joe, driven nearly mad by the paperwork, scratched his head.

"Member?"

Baron Edmund shook his head.

"No."

"Well, it can't be a military officer, can it?"

Baron Edmund continued to shake his head.

"I couldn't have thought of that."

Baron Edmund smiled at Joe and said.

"For an aristocrat, the best job is not to work."

"what?"

Upon hearing Baron Edmund's words, Joe's eyes widened, completely failing to understand what Baron Edmund meant.

After all, Baron Edmund was Joe's investor, and Joe had been to Baron Edmund's office before.

Seeing Joe's shocked expression, Baron Edmund explained to him.

As nobles with a little bit of assets and power, they were perfectly capable of outsourcing some of their power and assets to others to work for them, just like he had done with Joe in the past.

Joe used his money to open a factory, made money, and became rich. It seemed like Joe was the big winner, but Baron Edmund did nothing and still received a stable dividend every year, which was enough for a nobleman like Baron Edmund.

This is why the best job for a nobleman is not to work. If a nobleman is working hard, it basically only proves two things: either he has a problem with asset management, or he has gone bankrupt.

Joe felt he couldn't understand this fascinating semi-feudal, semi-capitalist society of Bonitania, but he was deeply impressed by it.

Seeing Joe's shocked expression, Baron Edmund chuckled, patted Joe on the shoulder, and said, "You don't seem to have the energy to go find a secretary right now, so leave this to your brother."

Then, Baron Edmund, amidst Joe's thanks, left behind his pistol and pocket watch and drifted away.

Anticipating having a secretary to handle his documents and streamline the process, Joe began waiting for his secretary in the hospital room. However, a day passed, then two days, then a whole week, and Baron Edmund still hadn't come to see Joe with his secretary.

As the process progressed, the number of documents in the ward increased, and Joe's eyesight recovered almost completely.

Looking at his hospital room, which was turning into an archive room, Joe decided he might as well get discharged and take these documents back to his old office at the armored training company to process them. At least there, Joe could work on Cecil's typewriter.

Compared to the typewriter the nurses had gotten for him, Cecil's typewriter was obviously much better, at least increasing his work efficiency by 30%.

Then Joe discovered that even just taking those documents away was a difficult task.

Fortunately, Joe now has a certain status, and when he makes a phone call, someone's phone will ring.

After summoning a group of military police, Mr. Joe finally managed to deliver his pile of documents to the office at the base.

Then, as Joe was stuffing those countless documents into the filing cabinet in his office—a cabinet that seemed so small, pitiful, and utterly unfit for sorting and filling compared to the other documents—he was...

Baron Edmund finally brought his secretary to Joe.

This woman, named Catherine Hill, was a woman with a unique temperament. She had beautiful high cheekbones, jewel-like blue eyes, and golden, shimmering hair. Even her khaki WAAC (Women's Support Corps) uniform could not conceal her beautiful figure. She was an obvious beauty.

Baron Edmund stated that Ms. Catherine graduated from the Department of Literature at Oxford University, had worked at the General Post Office, and after the outbreak of war, joined the WAAC. She was later transferred to the Quartermaster General's Office to handle clerical work due to her outstanding performance, and was an expert in document processing.

Upon hearing that Ms. Catherine was skilled at handling documents, Joe was so excited that he almost burst into tears.

Before Ms. Catherine could salute Joe and say something like "It's a pleasure to meet you" or "It's a pleasure to work under you," Joe grabbed Ms. Catherine's hand.

"You've finally arrived! Come on in! Let me introduce you to the job."

As he spoke, Joe pulled Ms. Catherine toward the boxes of documents that the military police had just brought back for him.

"This pile contains documents from the Armored Training Regiment requesting equipment and personnel expansion and transfers. They need to be submitted to the Quartermaster Department and the Army Department. They are important but not urgent."

"This pile contains a compilation of reports from the Paris Battle Group's operations in Paris. It needs to be submitted to the Army Ministry. It's urgent but not important."

"This pile contains the relevant procedural documents for the establishment of the Mechanized Warfare Committee. It needs to be submitted to the Ministry of War, the Quartermaster Department, the Wartime Cabinet, and the Imperial Household Agency. It is important and urgent."

"That pile contains combat reports for the Hound tanks. Just help me organize them in chronological order."

After showing Ms. Catherine the boxes piled up in his office, Joe pointed to his desk.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you would be coming today, so I didn't prepare a desk for you. You can use my desk to work. I'll leave these documents to you."

After saying this, Joe picked up his hat from his desk, turned around and left, leaving Baron Edmund and Lady Catherine looking at each other in Joe's office.

Having been driven mad by documents, Joe finally found a scapegoat and naturally wouldn't stay in the office to be tormented by those documents any longer.

And finally freed from the hell of documents, Joe finally had time to do some things he had always wanted to do but never had the time for.

Go and see the orphans of your fallen soldiers.

Although the first time they adopted the orphan of a subordinate, they encountered a pair of scumbags, perhaps scumbags are always a minority, or perhaps the method of distributing compensation has been adjusted.

Besides the child entrusted to him by the lieutenant, the lawyer only found three other orphans who required Joe's intervention. Faced with these orphans of his subordinates, Joe naturally used the same old method: he sent them directly to their homes and arranged for them to continue their studies at the school where his younger siblings were attending.

However, perhaps it was because Joe's reputation was too great, or perhaps for some other reason.

When Joe met the four orphans—three men and one woman—he announced that he would be their guardian from that day forward. They would continue to attend private school, and Joe would help them as much as he could, taking care of them like a father.

One of the orphans asked Joe, "The newspapers say you're a hero, but why did my father die while you survived?"

Faced with this question, Joe paused for a moment, then said, "That's war. People will always die. If I hadn't been lucky, I probably would be dead by now."

As he spoke, Joe rolled up his sleeve to show them the scars on his arm.

"See this? If the bullet had been just a little off, you wouldn't be seeing me now."

Joe lowered his sleeves and reached out to rub the head of the child who had asked the question.

"That's how war is; nobody knows if they'll die in the next second."

Despite saying that, Joe still felt somewhat emotional after having his lawyer help send the children back to York.

War is indeed terrifying; the thought of losing is unbearable. Thinking about this, Joe realized that while armor-on-tank combat in the 21st century might seem outdated, it was certainly a sign of advanced civilization in the present day.

Only by penetrating the defenses can casualties be reduced. Therefore, the Hound tank needs further modifications. Now that the artillery is almost sufficient, we need to find ways to increase its protection and speed.

Furthermore, we cannot allow the Land Battleship Committee to waste production capacity by continuing to produce those Royal Fist tanks.

If his troops were equipped with Hound tanks during the raid on Bourges, he would likely be able to quickly destroy those Teutonic tanks and capture the armored train.

Joe felt he needed to talk to Winston now, since the Paris campaign was over and the main force of the expeditionary force needed to rest after two large-scale battles. Perhaps this was an opportunity to replace the main tanks of the tank division with Hound tanks instead of Royal Fist MK-3/5s.

Just as Joe was preparing to talk to Winston, a bloody battle broke out in the eastern part of the Old World.

Although the Battle of Paris had ended by then, the Bunitas and Gauls on the western front had paid a heavy price during the battle.

To prevent the Teutons from launching a major offensive against Paris, the Bunitas had to launch another Battle of the Somme to tie down the main Teutonic forces.

Meanwhile, although they had already made a breakthrough in the Champagne region, the Teutons still launched a small-scale offensive in Verdun, breaking through many of the Gauls' defenses and capturing many Gauls who had lost their will to fight.

General Henry, who had reorganized the defenses in the Paris region, was horrified to discover that if he could not find a way to conjure at least 500,000 more men to fill the gap, the Gauls' defenses would likely be breached again once the Teutons recovered and launched another attack.

Therefore, General Henry had no choice but to negotiate with the Bunitania expeditionary force to further shorten the defensive line area under the responsibility of the Gauls and allow the Bunitanias to take over more of the defensive line.

Even though the United States had passed legislation to begin sending troops to the Old World, the situation on the entire Western Front was extremely dire.

Therefore, in order to prevent the Teutons from having the ability to launch another offensive on the western front of the scale of 1916 in a short period of time.

Buntania and Gaul pressured the Provisional Government of Lucia to launch an offensive on the Eastern Front as soon as possible, even if it was just a division-level attack, which would greatly improve the situation on the Western Front.

Meanwhile, the situation of the Provisional Government of Lucia was not very good either.

Although there had been constant uprisings in Lucia before the war that aimed to overthrow the Tsar, it was only after the Tsar was actually deposed that those who had united to do so were able to realize the truth.

Their only common ground was that the Tsar had to get out of the house. They couldn't agree on anything else. It was like you were talking about the front gate tower, and he was saying the Tsar had a wart on his butt. It was like talking to a brick wall.

The left and right wings directly formed two governments, but most institutions and troops are still relying on inertia and following the command of the right-wing provisional government.

As time went on, this level of compliance decreased, and the country's dire economic situation forced the right-wing government to do something in exchange for the support of either Bonitania or the United States.

The people may not know what a provisional government is, but they definitely know which government is keeping them from eating.

Therefore, after forming assault battalions and women's death battalions, the Provisional Government of Lucia was prepared to take a gamble. Even if they only managed to reclaim a little land from the Teutons, it would boost the morale of the soldiers and enable them to hold their ground in the trenches until the end of the war.

Once the war is over, even considering the horrific casualty figures, shouldn't Bonitania and Gaul give us something in return?
And if, in any case, the Teutons' situation is indeed as the Bunitania and Gauls described—a dilapidated house with no soldiers left to fight, which he could simply kick and it would collapse—then what would happen?

Not only would they be able to reclaim the territories lost in the war, but all the problems they were facing now would be swept away by victory. Even the problem of severe food shortages would be alleviated as the troops reclaimed the rich western fields.

The legitimacy of the government will also be established, and the left-wing government that has been inciting soldiers and workers will lose its support and legitimacy in the victory.

As long as there is one successful attack, everything will be fine.

With this mindset in mind, the Provisional Government of Lucia issued an order to launch a large-scale offensive.

The attack proceeded very smoothly at the beginning. Due to the stalled front on the Eastern Front and the victory achieved in 1916, many Teutonic troops on the front were not prepared for battle.

Furthermore, the assault battalion was composed largely of Lucia's noble officers and elite veterans. These men, who used skull decorations to signify their unwavering resolve to either retreat or die, launched a ferocious attack that stunned many of the Teutonic troops stationed at the front lines, resulting in considerable success.

In particular, the women's death camp, composed of women with shaved heads, gave the Teutons a hard time on the front lines. Some Teutonic officers, when captured, couldn't believe they had been captured by women.

However, that was all they could do. Due to the war-weariness of most of the frontline troops, even when the assault battalions and death battalions made breakthroughs, the surrounding friendly forces, due to their extremely low morale, failed to keep up with these troops.

Instead, some units in these assault battalions were surrounded or even annihilated by the Teutons who had reacted.

The women's death camp also failed to achieve its intended effect of reigniting the soldiers' courage out of shame after discovering that women were braver than them.

Worse still, after the Teutonic General Staff determined the scale of the Luscan counterattack on the eastern front and that the Bunitania and Gauls on the western front were not capable of launching another large-scale offensive in the short term.

The Teutons transferred the main force of their Fifth Army, one of their core forces and commanded by the Crown Prince, from the western front to fight on the eastern front.

There were some reservations about the Russian troops that had been withdrawn from the Fifth Army. As troops previously deployed at Verdun, the Fifth Army was the closest unit to Paris during the Battle of Paris, except for the Paris Battle Group.

After the defeat in the Battle of Paris, many junior and mid-level officers and even soldiers of the Fifth Army did not understand why they were not allowed to support the Paris battle group. If they had been allowed to support the Paris battle group, the situation would certainly have been different.

Even if we don't completely occupy Paris, at least we won't be driven out of the city.

The Teutonic General Staff explained the defeat in Paris by saying that they could not spare more troops to go to Paris because they had to defend against the Lucia on the eastern front.

Because those despicable Lucias had not learned their lesson in 1914, and they were still preparing to launch a surprise attack on them from the Eastern Front.

The large-scale offensive launched by the Lucias now confirms the General Staff's claim that these Lucias, who were preparing to ambush them, caused them to miss the opportunity to end the war and led to Prince Joachim's death in Paris.

As a result, many junior and mid-ranking officers, who originally had no particular opinion about the Lucias, now have personal grudges against them.

Therefore, when these troops with rich combat experience were transferred from the Fifth Army to the Eastern Front, they immediately became the last steel coil that broke the camel's back.

While Joe was overwhelmed by documents, the Lucia on the eastern front were also overwhelmed by the ferocious Teutons.

The Luscan offensive lasted less than three days before the front lines collapsed under the Teutonic counterattack. All troops began to retreat in large numbers, even the assault battalions and women's death battalions that were supposed to never retreat joined the retreat.

There was no other way; those troops who truly refused to retreat were already surrounded by the Teutons, and their only options were to be killed in battle or captured.

Even when abandoning their heavy equipment and retreating, many Lucia troops could not keep up with the advance of the Teutonic troops who were settling personal scores.

"Take St. Petersburg! Let the Russians taste the bitterness of defeat!" became the battle cry of these troops.

These troops were so ferocious that the Crown Prince had to personally order them to slow their advance to avoid being surrounded by the Lucias if they became separated from their units.

The Provisional Government of Lucia had not anticipated that the situation would develop in such an avalanche-like manner at the front. It was not that the Teutons were now out of troops; they did not even have enough troops to capture Paris.
What are these crazed Teutons I'm facing now? Are they the spirits of their archbishops, risen from the grave?!
Although the Provisional Government of Lucia wanted to criticize the intelligence from Buntania and Gaul as completely inaccurate, the Teutons were not just lacking in fighting ability, they were capable of fighting ten battles.

However, the Lucia interim government lowered its stance and offered to help its brothers in the name of the alliance by appealing to the governments of Bunitania and Gaul.
However, at this time, Buntania and Gaul, which had just finished a major battle, were unable to launch an offensive on the western front. In fact, many senior officers believed that it was not Buntanians and Gauls who were dying now, so what was the big deal about a few Luscans dying?

As long as the Lucia can continue to wear down the Teutons and buy them time until the United States forces arrive on the Western Front, everything will be fine.

Therefore, launching a large-scale offensive on the western front was naturally impossible. Only the Bonitania wartime cabinet, with the attitude of "deceiving others into touching the tiger's tail while giving themselves a band-aid," provided some support to Lucia.

Meanwhile, as the most professional officer corps in the Old World, the Teutonic Army also began to prepare to try and absorb the lessons they learned in the Battle of Paris in the counterattack against Lucia.

Although the industrial sector is still copying the captured Bunitania tanks, this does not prevent the Teutonic officers from beginning to experiment with new tactical ideas on the Lucia.

The first was the infiltration tactic that repeatedly and successfully broke through the Gallic defenses during the Battle of Paris.

This offensive strategy, centered on small, well-trained assault troops, aims to break through enemy lines quickly and flexibly, bypassing strong defensive points and penetrating deep into the rear to disrupt command and supply systems, thereby causing chaos and collapse of the enemy's defenses. It has successfully breached many fortified areas that had previously failed to be breached.

At the same time, although there were no tanks yet, under the instruction of the Teutonic Emperor and with the special approval of the General Staff, Erich, the Chief of the General Staff of the Paris Battle Group, was authorized to form a rapid armored assault battalion composed of armored vehicles and storm assault teams to be deployed in the battle.

Although the road conditions on the eastern front were almost a disaster for armored vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles temporarily converted from trucks, even outside of the frost season, the poor road conditions and long distances on the eastern front caused these vehicles to frequently break down or get stuck in the mud.

However, the armored assault tactics still allowed this armored assault battalion to make rapid progress on the Russian defenses.

According to Ehrlich, the only obstacle between the armored assault battalion and St. Petersburg is the absurd failure rate of the vehicles and the troops' fuel shortage.

The Teutonic victory on the eastern front naturally aroused the vigilance of the Bunitas and Gauls.

In particular, the report of Ehrlich's armored assault battalion chasing the Lucias seemed familiar to them, as if they had seen this scenario somewhere before.

Then they started pressuring domestic manufacturers to produce more tanks for the military.

Especially the Gauls who had just experienced the Battle of Paris.

Having witnessed the power of tanks, the Gauls prepared to develop new tanks based on the lessons learned from the Battle of Paris, and at the same time, they purchased tank production licenses from Bonitania.

With the tank production license secured, they naturally planned to purchase the Hound tank, after all, it was designed by Joe, and who would dare doubt Joe's expertise?

However, the Gauls had some new ideas when it came to their self-developed tanks.

Perhaps it was because the impression of tanks as mobile fortresses in urban warfare during the Battle of Paris was too profound, coupled with the ferocity of the battles at Les Invalides and the Pont Alexandre III.

So the Gauls thought that big was good, and even bigger was better!
Add lots of armor, install huge caliber artillery, and put machine guns aside. Bring up the rapid-fire cannons!

Anyway, we can use FT tanks and Hounds for rapid advances and support. What we need now is the mainstay of the army's firepower, so we need to develop a heavy... no, a super-heavy tank to crush everything!
Unlike the Gauls, the Bunitas did not turn to extremes after the fierce battles, but they were equally worried about the Teutonic armored threat.

After all, it's certainly fun to watch Old Joe lead his armored forces to crush others, but it's not so fun if the Teutons are driving tanks and crushing you.

Therefore, given the consensus that the military should have enough tanks, Joe's suggestion to halt production of the Royal Fist tank and allow armored forces to fully replace it with the Hound tank and its improved versions was rejected.

Of course, if it were anyone else, the proposal would have been rejected without question, but Winston still had some respect for Joe.

While rejecting Joe's suggestion to completely switch production and refit the tanks, Winston sent Joe a calculation sheet. According to that calculation sheet, if they switched to producing the Hound tank entirely, they would produce two hundred fewer tanks next year than if they produced all three models of tanks simultaneously.

This is due to the inevitable losses caused by production line adjustments and worker skill levels, so it is better to produce all three types of tanks together.

Seeing the difference of two hundred tanks, Joe knew he couldn't convince Winston, after all, two hundred tanks was no small number.

Especially after the United States entered the war and the first batch of American soldiers arrived in Brittany, Joe discovered that while some people would simply show up empty-handed for a meal, it was unbelievable that some soldiers were going to war without any equipment...

These American soldiers brought nothing but clothes; they had to buy weapons, bullets, and even heavy equipment like tanks, which they had to buy and train for on the spot.

At this time, production can only be limited. As for the problems that may arise from the mixed use of two types of tanks on the front lines, then logistics will have to suffer even more.

Although his suggestion was rejected, Joe wasn't in too bad a mood, because Ms. Catherine had indeed rescued him from a hell of documents.

Although this secretary, who had ample experience with paperwork and processes, was also exhausted by the paperwork hell, she was able to organize the documents and processes that Joe needed to handle in a very orderly manner.

Joe felt that this semi-feudal, semi-capitalist society of Bonitania wasn't without its merits.

Then, while Joe was arguing with the War Department officials about whether or not there should be infantry units in the armored regiments, and how these infantry units should be organized, Sir Cumming, the head of the Overseas Intelligence Office, approached Joe.

Sir Cumming immediately gave Joe some bad news: the Foreign Intelligence Service's agents in Teutons reported that the Teutons were forming a dedicated armored force and that new tanks were being manufactured.

At first, Joe didn't think there was anything wrong with the news.

It's just armored forces. I've seen them at the train station in Bourget. I've also seen new tanks before. The Teutons aren't stupid; they'll definitely copy them. It's nothing special at this point, nothing to be surprised about.

It wasn't until Cumming showed Joe the photos developed from the film the spy had sent back that Joe exclaimed in surprise, "Holy crap?!"

(End of this chapter)