Chapter 196: Driven to Desperation, Britannia Doubles Down

December 1 marked a day of rest after the capture of Poltava and Kharkiv.

After a brief one-day respite in Poltava, the "Greater Demania" Armored Training Division was preparing to plunge back into the final encirclement assault toward Kyiv.

Lelouch's body was utterly exhausted, yet his mind raced with a feverish excitement. A heroic feeling of making history coursed through him; he was desperately tired, but sleep simply would not come.

Field Marshal Rupprecht, commander of the 6th Army, had arrived at the Poltava front lines for a personal inspection and held a brief meeting with Lelouch.

His original intent was just to reassure Lelouch—to tell him not to worry and to get some proper rest—without offering too many rousing words.

However, upon seeing Lelouch's wired yet drained state, he understood. This young man before him, though a brilliant and heaven-sent genius, was still under twenty-five. His psychological resilience was just a bit green.

Field Marshal Rupprecht actually had some bad news from other fronts. He had withheld it for the past few days, fearing it might distract Lelouch and affect his armored assault.

Seeing that the young man couldn't sleep anyway, he decided to just lay it all out, choosing a different approach to ignite his fighting spirit.

So, when the Field Marshal had Lelouch join him for lunch that noon, he calmly revealed the truth.

"They must have been completely shell-shocked by the sudden upheaval in Kharkiv. Now, they are determined to use any means necessary to accelerate their offensive and save the Lusha forces. Therefore, the burden on your shoulders is heavy.

"Uncle Leopold and I must complete the encirclement north of Kyiv as quickly as possible and annihilate the enemies trapped within this expected pocket. Only then can we split our forces, march south, and wipe out the relief forces coming to save the Lusha troops! Push them back into the sea!"

Lelouch was just lifting a forkful of beef pasta to his mouth. At the news, his fork paused. After a moment of thought, realization dawned on him.

"Are you saying the Britannians on the Gallipoli Peninsula have made a new move to rescue their Lusha allies?"

Lelouch vaguely recalled that in this timeline, the Britannians had only launched the Gallipoli campaign in mid-August of this year, carving out a beachhead on that narrow peninsula on the northern shore of the Dardanelles.

This campaign had been delayed by a full four or five months. The obvious reason was that Lelouch had nearly wiped out the British Expeditionary Force in the Ypres-Dunkirk salient, delivering a backbreaking blow to Britannia's land forces. They had no choice but to lick their wounds for nearly half a year to rebuild their army's structure.

From their landing in mid-August until around September 20—right before the Zaporozhye campaign kicked off in the northern Kievan Rus theater—the Britannians had attacked relentlessly, suffering over a hundred thousand casualties.

At that time, the German 6th Army had dispatched a fire support unit—primarily composed of long-range cannons, Railway Guns, and zeppelins—to Gallipoli to assist the Osmans, helping them build a robust defensive network.

They also used the Railway Guns and zeppelins to lay mines, inflicting severe damage on the British Mediterranean Fleet and temporarily shutting down their various tactical shifts.

But then, from September 20 to November 20, nothing new should have happened on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Those two months were nothing but a pure, grinding war of attrition.

During this process, the Osmans had likely been forced into a gradual retreat, engaging in elastic defense to trade space for time. With the slow loss of every inch of ground, they harvested the lives of the Britannian and Allied Forces in massive numbers.

Now, it was certain that the Britannians had seen the Lusha forces facing a new collapse in the Kievan Rus theater. Furthermore, the Demanians had actually deployed "Tanks"—equipment even more advanced than armored cars. Thoroughly terrified, Britannia had decided to further accelerate their rescue of the Lusha forces.

Who knew what that Admiralty Minister, Wharton Spencer, had cooked up this time.

Seeing that Lelouch was indeed highly curious, Field Marshal Rupprecht proceeded to explain the entire sequence of events to him in detail.

It went like this.

...

Back on November 18—one week after the start of the current Kievan Rus campaign, and the day after the German 6th Army had encircled Kharkiv—the breakthrough power of the Demanians' new weapons and novel tactics had once again shocked the world. The level of shock was even greater than the initial deployment of the armored car swarm assault.

"Shattering 150 to 200 kilometers of frontline defensive zones within a week of the campaign's start, successfully enveloping the city of Kharkiv entirely, and trapping the Lusha 9th Army."

What kind of terrifying speed was this?

Thus, when this combat report reached the Francia Ministry of War, the Britannian Prime Minister, and their respective military commands, allies of Lusha like the Franks and Britannians were absolutely astounded.

A few days later, even Chouguo, across the ocean and currently unengaged in the war, was profoundly shocked.

However, even though Francia and Chouguo were shocked, they could do nothing about it. They didn't yet possess the foundation to manufacture Tanks. Chouguo, in particular, hadn't even found the time to conduct basic research.

(Note: Historically, the Franks initiated their own independent Tank research program around February 1916. After seven months of research, when the allied British Army's Tanks entered combat at the Somme, the Franks accelerated their efforts and deployed their own in 1917. In this timeline, the Franks urgently initiated their program upon seeing the Demanian armored cars, meaning they began in October 1915.)

The Britannians, on the other hand, had already initiated their Tank project long before seeing the Demanian armored cars in action in September, and had been drafting blueprints for months.

After witnessing the sheer power of Demanian armored cars in September, the British Admiralty pulled out their blueprints and collaborated with the War Office to rush out a prototype as fast as possible, even if it was flawed.

In October, the Britannians formally began constructing their first prototype, "Little Willie." It was a prototype that currently couldn't mount a cannon and relied purely on machine guns. Furthermore, it was a size smaller than the "Mark I" that would historically see first combat, and its trench-crossing capability was similarly reduced.

By November, "Little Willie" was finally cobbled together, two and a half months earlier than in the Earth timeline—a butterfly effect clearly spurred by the enemy's provocation.

Without the Demanians pushing them, the Britannians wouldn't have been satisfied with "Little Willie's" performance. They surely would have spent another half-year or three months slowly refining it and enhancing its trench-crossing width before throwing it onto the battlefield.

But now, the enemy had already deployed this weapon known as a Tank in real combat. The Britannians no longer needed to keep it secret for the sake of a surprise attack. So, "Little Willie" was put straight into use, with orders to build several more for live combat testing.

And right at this critical juncture, news returned that the Demanian Tanks had reached the gates of Kharkiv in just three days, completing their encirclement in a week.

Stung by the situation in Kharkiv, Prime Minister Asquith once again convened an emergency night meeting at 10 Downing Street, summoning the Ministers of War, Admiralty, and Munitions to discuss countermeasures.

...

"Warton! What is the latest situation on your end? The Gallipoli landing has been dragging on for nearly three months. While losses in the first month were heavy, we at least made some headway. How has it devolved into a meat-grinder war of attrition over these last two months?!

"The Demanians have now launched a fatal new offensive on the Eastern Front. They built Tanks before us and are using them to crush the Kievan Rus region! Kharkiv is already surrounded. If we keep dawdling, we won't be able to save the Lusha forces at all!"

Prime Minister Asquith looked deeply agitated and furious. A ring of stress-induced pimples had broken out around his mouth—hardly a typical affliction for an old man of his stature.

Admiralty Minister Wharton Spencer earnestly admitted fault. "We have been united in our efforts, fighting the enemy relentlessly. In the past two months on the Gallipoli Peninsula, there has been steady progress. From mid-August to late September, in the initial forty days of the campaign, we advanced roughly 30 kilometers and seized the entire highland at the westernmost tip of the peninsula.

"Over the following forty-plus days, we advanced another 40 kilometers, even capturing Bolayir, the most critical railway town on the Gallipoli Peninsula. That location is a full 70 kilometers from our initial landing point at the western tip—

"It is the narrowest point of the entire Gallipoli Peninsula, with a north-to-south width of less than 5 kilometers. The enemy entrenched themselves there well in advance, digging layers of defensive positions to stall us, which is why our advance has been so sluggish. But the empire's landing forces make headway every day. Advancing 70 kilometers in three months comes out to an average of 800 meters a day. You cannot say our soldiers aren't risking their lives."

(Note: The current frontline on the Gallipoli Peninsula and the progress of previous stages are shown in the image below.)

Prime Minister Asquith found his temper thoroughly deflated by this answer.

Indeed, compared to the previous disastrous defeats at Ypres and Dunkirk, the Gallipoli campaign could merely be described as suffering catastrophic casualties—but at least, for now, it was still a victory.

Granted, more than a hundred thousand men had died in each of the two stages, adding up to roughly the same total number of troops wiped out during the Ypres campaign.

But at Ypres, they had lost nearly 300,000 men, gained absolutely nothing, and were driven straight back.

The Gallipoli campaign had also cost them nearly 300,000 casualties so far, but they had at least pushed forward 70 kilometers.

The front lines didn't lie.

Prime Minister Asquith composed himself before pressing further. "I'm not saying the 70 kilometers our men secured aren't valuable. However, even if you have taken Bolayir, how far is it from Istanbul?"

"Another 200 kilometers..." Wharton Spencer couldn't sugarcoat the answer and just stated it outright.

"..." Prime Minister Asquith took a deep breath. "It took you three months to push 70 kilometers. With 200 kilometers left, are you planning to push for another nine months? Do you intend to spend an entire year fighting the Black Sea Straits campaign and capturing the Osman capital?

"Given the current state of the Lusha people, do you think the Tsar will still be sitting on his throne in nine months? They are being ruthlessly mauled and relentlessly hammered by the Demanians. If we don't do something, I can't even fathom whether the Tsar will still be alive in nine months! At the very least, the Great Plain of Kievan Rus, along with Lusha's entire southern agricultural and mining districts, will certainly be utterly lost!"

After venting his frustrations, the Prime Minister quieted down and urged everyone to brainstorm again. He demanded to know if there were any underhanded methods to accelerate their progress. Even if they were overly radical or something they hadn't dared use before, they had to consider them now.

After some scheming, Minister Warton, a man full of devious tricks, genuinely did have an underhanded strategy prepared in advance.

And so, a plan to drag more nations into the mire and escalate the war surfaced.

"Prime Minister, why don't we execute a radical plan and forcefully drag Greece into the war right now?" Warton proposed. "Then we could join forces with the Greek army and launch a direct eastward assault on Istanbul from the mainland Greece-Osman border.

"Furthermore, considering that our landing forces on the Gallipoli Peninsula have already advanced 70 kilometers, heavily draining the Osman forces over these three months, Osman casualties are definitely high. They must be completely exhausted right now.

"If we launch a sudden sneak attack from the Greek-Osman border just north of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the main Osman army currently blocking the base of the peninsula will likely be caught in a pincer and surrounded! We can squeeze them from both sides and wipe out their main force!

"Once we swiftly obliterate the main Osman forces and ride that momentum to seize Istanbul, we will open up the Black Sea Straits. The empire's dominant Royal Navy can then swarm into the Black Sea.

"By then, the two battlecruisers and few outdated Pre-dreadnoughts the Demanians have in the Black Sea will be absolutely no match for us! We will emerge as the undisputed victors, fully controlling the Black Sea.

"The reason the empire and our allies have struggled over the past half-year is because the empire's invincible naval superiority could not be brought to bear! While the empire cut off Demanian maritime shipping on the oceans, we haven't been able to enter the Baltic Sea or the Black Sea.

"This resulted in the total annihilation of the Lusha navy in these two geographically isolated marginal seas at the hands of the Demanians. It also gave the Demanians an invincible coastal shipping logistical advantage in their war against Lusha. As long as they push a dual-wing advance along the coastlines of the Baltic and Black Seas, they can drive relentlessly deep into the interior.

"But if we overturn this situation—if the Royal Navy enters the Black Sea—we will choke off the maritime logistics of the Demanians' thousand-mile expedition and spark fires all along their coastal rear.

"Even if the Demanians can still fall back on railway logistics, the fiery resistance within Lusha will surely be ignited by our coordination. Countless citizens will spontaneously rise up to sabotage the railways behind enemy lines, and the Demanians will inevitably drown in a massive sea of resistance from two hundred million Lusha people!"

Minister Warton poured out all of his considerations in one breath.

Prime Minister Asquith naturally understood the massive gains and benefits involved; one could even say he knew them by heart.

However, as Prime Minister, Asquith had to weigh many other issues.

The most obvious hurdle was diplomacy and righteousness.

In the Earth timeline, the Brit Nation ultimately dragged its heels until 1916 before finally pulling Greece into the war through a mix of bribery and exaggerating the Osman threat. Even then, Greece's entry into the war had severely flawed legal justifications.

Though the Greek Prime Minister, Venizelos, claimed credit for expanding the nation's borders by seizing territories from the Osmans and Bulgarians, his decision to join the war was fiercely rejected at the time by King Constantine I. Under preexisting Greek law, it was explicitly stated that the Prime Minister only managed internal affairs, while the King alone held the power to declare war and serve as the supreme commander of the armed forces.

But it was only 1915 now. Driven by the rapidly deteriorating situation around the Black Sea and the Greater Kievan Rus region, combined with the agonizingly slow progress of breaking through the Black Sea Straits via Gallipoli, the Britannians were forced to shamelessly drag Greece into the fray ahead of schedule. There was simply no time to dress it up nicely for the international stage.

Back in the first half of the year, the Britannians had actually used formal secret diplomatic channels to negotiate with King Constantine I, hoping to persuade him to change his mind, abandon his neutrality, and declare war on the Osmans.

But Constantine I categorically refused, clearly stating his commitment to ensuring his nation's peace and his unwillingness to get tangled in a world war.

All these issues were thorny obstacles standing right in front of Prime Minister Asquith.

"I understand everything you've said, but King Constantine I is immune to both the carrot and the stick. He refuses to join the war and insists on remaining neutral. What can you possibly do about that?" Asquith tossed the crux of the problem right back at Minister Warton.

Warton gritted his teeth. "Then we eliminate him! I propose we instigate the Greek Prime Minister to directly announce that he represents the will of the people, having been elected by the Greek populace. As for Greek law—this nonsense about the power to declare war and military command belonging to the King—let them wipe their asses with it! A Prime Minister elected by the people should have absolute power.

"We can coordinate a date with Prime Minister Venizelos for him to leave Athens and flee to Salonika, a place with strong anti-Osman sentiments, heavy pro-Britannia factions, and where Venizelos himself exerts significant control.

"There, he can raise an army in the name of the Greek people to overthrow the neutral, treasonous tyrant. Then, our reserve forces on Samothrace and other nearby islands can land swiftly at Salonika. Finally, 'at the invitation of the Greek Prime Minister and people,' they can march back to Athens and eliminate the treasonous tyrant!

"Once we seize control of Greece in the shortest possible time, we'll pivot and launch a land invasion across the Greek-Osman border, driving right into the rear of the Osman defenders on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Pincering them with our forces on the peninsula, we'll wipe out the Osman main body, arrive at the gates of Istanbul, and completely shatter our current deadlock!

"Let us hope we move fast enough, and that news of our successful breakthrough of the Black Sea Straits reaches the Lusha Southwestern Front before they succumb to despair. That way, they will have the confidence to keep fighting to the death, knowing that the moment the Royal Navy's invincible Mediterranean Fleet storms into the Black Sea, the Demanian rear is utterly finished!"

Prime Minister Asquith couldn't help but gasp in shock at those words.

"But doing this... isn't that backing a Greek rebellion? That is a blatant trampling of Greek law..."

Minister Warton countered, "How is it trampling? It was their founding laws that were flawed. How could they vest military command and the power to declare war in a King? We are simply responding to the invitation of the Greek people to help them overthrow a traitorous tyrant.

"Moreover, we can take the five 'Little Willie' prototypes we've managed to scrape together, along with the Army's entire stock of Rolls-Royce Armored Cars, and rush them by rail to southern Francia. From there, we ship them day and night straight to the Gallipoli front.

"Once the operation begins, we land the armored cars at Salonika to help the Greek people dispose of their King. Then, we throw all of our Tank prototypes onto the Gallipoli battlefield to secure a breakthrough as quickly as possible."

Prime Minister Asquith dreaded bearing the infamy of inciting rebellion in another nation, but given the circumstances, for the sake of the big picture, it seemed he had no other choice.

So what if his name stank in the history books? If they didn't do this, they could lose the entire world war. To hell with his reputation.

"Fine... I will gamble on this with you. If the Gallipoli campaign had simply failed, it would just be you getting the boot. But if we bet everything on instigating a Greek rebellion and it still fails, then both of us will be completely finished."

Because of the raised stakes, losing this gamble would mean far more than just firing an Admiralty Minister. The Prime Minister himself would be held accountable and sacked right alongside him.

The matter was far too monumental; Asquith had staked his own future on it.

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