Imperial Elite

Chapter 94 Target Helsinki
How to clear oneself of suspicion of launching a coup is, theoretically speaking, a matter with almost infinite possibilities.

However, Joe is now facing several technical problems. First of all, the troops that launched this mutiny are all armored divisions. Since they are armored divisions, the officers there are naturally close to Wagner and the embassy in Bonitania.

Of course, things can still be explained up to this point. Even if the person who launched the mutiny was close to Bunitania, it cannot be said that Wagner instigated the rebellion. After all, the current Polish government was still fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front as part of the Habsburg army three years ago. It cannot be said that the current Polish government is still controlled by the Habsburgs.

However, from a common sense perspective, there is another issue: usually, to see if something is related to certain organizations or forces, you only need to see who ultimately benefits.

Although there are bound to be some bad people in this world who wake up and pull the covers off others, tear off others' umbrellas after getting wet in the rain, and dig bigger pits for more people to fall in after they fall, they may not benefit themselves, but they will definitely harm others.

However, the fundamental principle that whoever benefits is the one who made the move remains true.

So who would be the biggest beneficiary of these two coups?

Since both countries' forces have declared temporary martial law after occupying the capital, theoretically, Wagner is the biggest beneficiary.

If explaining this matter at this point is already as difficult as mediating the conflict between the left and right wings in Lucia, then the fact that Wagner is a Britannian company makes it even more difficult for Joe to explain that he didn't orchestrate the coup.

Of course, even with such a dire situation, Joe felt that this matter could not be explained. After all, during the mutiny, firstly, the army did not fire a shot, and secondly, the people not only did not protest against the army taking over the government, but also strongly supported the army.

After all, the nationalist government hadn't been in power for much longer than Wagner had started making large investments. People weren't very clear about what the government had done, but what Wagner brought was something everyone really needed.

Therefore, Joe felt that since it was impossible to completely remove Wagner from the picture, he could completely shift the public opinion to the view that this mutiny was a political movement triggered by a misunderstanding, which was mistakenly launched by radical officers but supported by the people.

Since the military has completely taken control of the government, Joe is now not only unable to carry out the large-scale purge he envisioned, but also has to persuade the armies of both countries to exercise restraint, avoid firing shots and killing people, and resolve the issue as bloodlessly as possible.

Even if any problems are discovered, we can still organize a grand jury and a public trial to make everything public and absolutely prevent anyone from pinning the blame on Wagner for inciting the army to stage a mutiny.

When Joe was managing the East, some colonial governors also approached him, wanting to know if he could take on the task of defending the colonies.

Although the war was over, the governors of these colonies had already noticed that the world had changed somewhat.

That is, in the past, colonization was a sure-fire way to make money, but now some colonies are starting to show signs of losing money.

As a group of colonial governors, their willingness to go to places far from their homeland, with strange climates and strange creatures baring their teeth, was clearly not to support the local people in their development.

However, both hiring regular troops and increasing the local garrison are expensive, so they want to know what price Wagner, as a defense contractor, would offer them.

Especially in Gaul, which lost a large number of people in the war, the colonies are now short of both people and money, and are maintaining their rule over the local area entirely by the inertia of the past. At this time, if any more outstanding people appear in the local area, the Gauls in the colonies will suffer a lot.

If this was the case in Bonitania and Gaul, other countries with overseas colonies were naturally in no better shape.

Even if they don't need Wagner's troops, they wouldn't mind sending Wagner a contract when needed. After all, using mercenaries has always been much cheaper than using regular troops, especially since it's a team led by Joe, the number one villain in Britannia, so there's even less to worry about.

Therefore, Wagner was able to establish a foothold in the chaotic East right from the start, which allowed him to build his own brand in the Old World and attract a lot of cooperation inquiries.

Even for the sake of these potential contracts, Joe cannot allow Wagner to be accused of mutiny.

However, even with so many disadvantages, Joe is not without his advantages.

Among the many disadvantages, Joe had one major advantage: because he had worked well with the journalists, Wagner never refused to let them come to report on his work, whether it was liberating the territories of the two countries and driving out the Teutons, clearing out the Cossack bandits, or building new infrastructure and factories.

Joe, who knew perfectly well that in the East, the fear others had of him was a measure of his fighting strength, even had these reporters cover some of Wagner's exercises. This gave the reporters enough news and made them exaggerate Wagner's fighting power as if these veterans were not ordinary soldiers, but a group of super soldiers with two hearts and three lungs.

So Joe, who had good relations with the media, immediately instructed these reporters to pay attention to their reports. They could use sensational headlines, but the news reports had to emphasize that Wagner had not been deployed and that all actions were internal actions taken by their own army with the support of the people.

These journalists, who had finally established a good working relationship with Wagner, naturally understood the difference between a full stomach and a full stomach every day. Moreover, even the more upright journalists did not see Wagner take any action during this coup.

After all, during the mutiny, the journalists who were invited to observe the exercise, like the troops, were called back to their barracks as soon as they set out. Throughout the entire mutiny, they were able to confirm that no Wagnerian troops were involved.

So these journalists all said, "We are believers in the truth. We know what we should say. Just you wait and see."

Then, as these reporters began reporting on how the local people supported the army and how the army's entry into the city was welcomed by the people, Joe also went to see Bridget, the person who had started this mutiny.

Joe wanted to ask this guy what he was trying to do. Although I had hinted before that the guys above you were a bunch of scoundrels, wasn't it a bit too much for you to do something like this at this time and place?

Because this event was completely unexpected by Joe, he spent most of his time cleaning up the mess after the mutiny, which caused him to forget an important thing.

The troops he sent to support Prag were still awaiting his next orders. Joe had originally thought that even if Wagner intervened, it would take some time to deal with the Teutonic Iron Division and to rearm the Prag right wing to a fighting condition.

Logically speaking, it's not unreasonable for Joe, as a veteran who has fought many battles, to have such thoughts.

But Joe miscalculated two things.

First of all, it wasn't just the right-wing forces of Prag that suffered heavy losses in the previous battles; those Teutonic right-wingers genuinely wanted to help the Teutonic Emperor restore his kingdom here, hoping that His Majesty would lead them in another charge.

Therefore, they fought very bravely in the battle, and naturally suffered very serious losses.

So when the Praggers sent them to the square to collect sausages and beer for the troops, the remaining Teutons were not only few in number but also unprepared.

Wagner, who was stationed around the square, easily captured the Teutons. After disarming them, since there was no bloodshed, the Teutons, though they grumbled, were very cooperative in other respects. So the commander of the task force, Joe's former wagon commander, the noble young Cecil, put the men directly on a ship and sent them back to Teutonia out of humanitarian considerations.

What Joe also didn't expect was that because so much munitions had been produced during the war, and even if these munitions were just stored in warehouses, they would still incur maintenance costs. So when Joe said that Prag had also signed a package deal, he wanted to quickly send some equipment over to arm them.

London, finally seeing a return on its investment, immediately approved it. All approved. Hurry up and send the goods to Joe. Anyone who messes up Joe's plans is going against me and wants to go to the colony to see the camel baring its teeth.

With the London gentlemen expressing their opinions, the subordinates naturally took full initiative, loading the equipment onto ships and transporting it to Prag at lightning speed.

Of course, even if equipment is provided, it will be in stages. Right now, only a contract has been signed, and Wagner has not yet received the first payment, so naturally there are no tanks or anything like that. All that is available are light weapons provided in accordance with the mechanized force model.

Although there are no heavy weapons, this is good news for the right-wing forces of Prag, since there is not much difference between light and heavy machine guns and bolt-action rifles, and they can be used after a little getting used to.

For the Prag right-wing militia, who have now been driven back to their stronghold, even if Bunitania sends them heavy equipment, they have no time to receive training.

Then, while the right wing of Prag received instruction from Wagner on the use of weapons, Cecil, as the detachment commander, discovered a problem: the right wing of Prag signed the agreement so readily because they had just suffered a defeat and their strength was indeed much weaker than before.

On the other hand, it was because at this time, Prag's left wing was heading north, preparing to kill these conservative beasts in their lair.

Therefore, the Praggle right wing had no choice but to sign the agreement. If they did not, when the left-wing army arrived, they would not be signing a comprehensive agreement with Wagner, but rather a death sentence from the left wing.

Given that Joe is currently too busy to handle the matter, Cecil decided to solve this small problem himself.

Although not as distinguished as Joe, he was Joe's former tank commander, repeatedly beaten by Joe during training, and an "old" officer who fought alongside Joe to bring the war to Teutonic territory during the final large-scale offensive on the western front after Amiens was held.

Cecil felt that the situation before him looked somewhat familiar. Wasn't it the same back in Amiens, where the infantry forces were utterly defeated and the only useful units were the armored forces?

Although he only had one company of tanks at his disposal, the left flank of the Prag had almost no weapons that could threaten the tanks.

Therefore, Cecil's plan is quite simple.

The main force cannot leave the road during its march, so I will lead my troops to conduct mobile defense and flexible warfare on that road. I will launch a series of ambushes, defensive counterattacks, and armored raids. How many moves can you left-wing troops withstand?
As it turned out, the Praggle left wing couldn't withstand these same tactics that even the Teutons couldn't resist. After a series of offensive and defensive maneuvers, the Praggle left wing's offensive, if not advancing by leaps and bounds, could only be described as retreating by huge strides.

Cecil also discovered that these Italian mountain infantrymen were far more effective than he had expected. Not only were they accurate shooters, but they were also adept at digging pits and setting ambushes in the woods.

In a forested and mountainous environment like Prag, they are even more effective than armored units.

After all, armored units cannot really charge into woodlands that are not easy to march through. After Cecil began his offensive defense, he found that he could not defeat Prag's left flank from the front, so his troops tried to attack his own flank.

While these attacks did not pose a real threat to Cecil's Wagner troops, they certainly annoyed Cecil greatly.

So while having the Italian mountain infantry provide flank cover for the armored forces, Cecil also sent a telegram to Joe, asking if Joe had any tricks up his sleeve to deal with the situation where someone always tries to sneak up on the flank from the woods.

Now that Joe had finally finished cleaning up the mess, he was somewhat surprised to find that Cecil, whom he had only sent to stabilize the situation, had actually withstood the attack from the main force of the Prags.

After all, if Prag's left wing were to commit its main forces to the north to fight Cecil, wouldn't that be underestimating itself?
As the largest city in Plug and the capital recognized by both sides in the Plug civil war, Helsinki is not far from Tallinn.

You left Helsinki vacant just to get my attention, didn't you?
Given this, Joe decided to accommodate Praggle's left-wing ideas.

Of course, a beach landing is out of the question; it's impossible in this lifetime. There's no tech tree to develop for airborne troops. The only way to survive is to replicate what we did when we captured the bridge in the Low Countries, where the commando team occupied the bridgehead and then called in naval support.

(End of this chapter)