Chapter 244: Lelouch: Everything Hipper Said Was My Script

Duke Rupprecht's explanation—nine parts truth and one part lie—completely fooled Emperor Wilhelm in an instant.

But if one closely scrutinized the details, the Duke's script did contain a few flaws; it was just impossible for the Emperor to notice them—

When Lelouch formulated the plan for the Duke that day, he had directed the Duke to dispatch two airships to the Port of Batumi. In reality, the Duke didn't board either of them; he had remained in Odessa the entire time.

In the Duke's wireless telegram replying to Batumi (the fake telegram meant to deceive the Brit Nation), he only stated that he would be taking an airship, but never mentioned how many.

Because of this, the fighter escort squadrons and the reception personnel on the front lines in Batumi had no idea how many airships were ultimately coming. They operated under the assumption that there was only one.

In reality, the Duke had spaced the two airships out by several dozen kilometers, timing them to arrive in Batumi one after the other. If the first was intercepted, the second would immediately turn back. If the first made it through untouched, the second could stall for another hour or so before reaching the skies over Batumi, creating another window of opportunity for the enemy and luring them into exposing more flaws.

It was just that the enemy was far too eager and punctual. They rushed to the battlefield exactly as the first airship arrived and committed entirely to the interception. As a result, the "spare tire"—airship number two—never needed to show itself and simply returned to base.

Lelouch's scheme even went so far as to deceive the captains and crews of both airships. He had the Duke inform the captain of airship one that the Duke's adjutant was aboard their vessel, while the Duke himself was traveling on airship two.

As for the captain and crew of airship two, they were told the exact opposite: that the Duke was flying on airship one.

By doing this, when the Duke finally returned to Berlin and played dumb with the Emperor, he could easily blur the lines: "I really was on an airship, and there really was an assassination attempt against me. However, the airship the enemy attacked wasn't the one I was on, which is why I survived."

Publicly, however... they could temporarily say absolutely nothing, keeping the Duke out of sight and leaving the enemy to guess. Once the enemy concluded that the Duke was dead, he could then "reluctantly, despite his illness," make an appearance to dispel the rumors. Ideally, he would apply a bit of makeup before showing his face to make himself look pale, leading the enemy to deduce, "So he really isn't dead, just heavily wounded." The whole truth would only be revealed much later.

After all, not even the airship captains knew the Duke had never taken flight. This secret was shared only among the Duke's absolute innermost circle—men whose loyalty was so absolute they would willingly deceive the Emperor for his sake.

The history books of the future would simply record that the Duke was too tough to kill and, blessed by God, had miraculously evaded assassination.

A conspiracy penned by Lelouch was always meticulous to this degree. The slightest lapse in the enemy's attention would result in them being utterly played to death by him.

With the Bavarian Faction's preparations being so airtight, the Emperor couldn't help but believe that Duke Rupprecht had truly just barely escaped with his life.

Naturally, the Bavarian Faction wasn't deliberately trying to commit treason by "deceiving the sovereign." It was just that Lelouch had known about Britannia breaking their codes for fifteen months, yet had chosen only now to blow the lid off the secret. If they didn't act the part convincingly, it would look like they had "withheld vital information, deliberately using this loophole to rack up military merits for themselves without ever warning their allies."

Employing this fake self-injury ruse now effectively plugged the suspicion of withholding intel, making it seem as though they had only just confirmed the breach themselves.

Since the Duke had just suffered such an ordeal and a terrible scare, the Emperor naturally had to properly placate the war hero, doing his utmost to be lenient and agreeable to any conditions he proposed.

Thus, even though Wilhelm was initially highly resistant to letting members of other State factions meddle in the naval intelligence system, at this moment, he could no longer afford to care about such sectarian prejudices.

If an investigation ultimately proved the Naval Intelligence Division was indeed incompetent—remaining entirely oblivious to their codes being broken for so long—the head of the cryptography department would undoubtedly be stripped of their position. When that time came, whoever Duke Rupprecht and Lelouch recommended for the job would be appointed. It would serve as a way to appease the assassination victim.

...

If the Emperor wanted to verify this issue, his first reaction was naturally to seek out the current commander of the High Seas Fleet, Admiral Franz von Hipper.

After all, Admiral Hipper was the primary contributor to the two major naval victories secured through intelligence advantages last year. His judgments and analyses were naturally highly authoritative.

Since Hipper was not in Berlin, the Emperor spent an entire day urgently summoning him from Wilhelmshaven. It wasn't until April 20th that this highly classified, closed-door imperial council could finally be held.

At the meeting, the Emperor got straight to the point, ordering Hipper to review the gains and losses of the Battle of Ostend and the Battle of Dunkirk from the previous year.

After a thorough analysis, everything proved to be exactly as Duke Rupprecht had deduced:

Had Hipper not adapted to the circumstances and flexibly executed the Admiralty's orders at the time—had he simply followed the plans rigidly and down to the letter—they might have suffered a disastrous defeat long ago!

Furthermore, as the analytical meeting progressed and everyone's minds opened up, they uncovered even more corroborating and contrasting evidence.

For instance, Hipper brought up the several naval engagements with the Lusha Navy in the Baltic Sea during the latter half of last year, along with the subsequent coastal bombardment missions.

Whenever they strictly adhered to the plan, the results of the bombardments were surprisingly poor. Conversely, when they deviated from the plan, improvising and adapting on the fly, the results were excellent. This wasn't just proven by the Navy themselves; even the Mackensen Army Group, the ground forces supported by the Navy, could testify to it.

Because Field Marshal Mackensen was the direct beneficiary of the Navy's coastal artillery support, he had the clearest sense of whether the bombardments were effective or not.

As the evidence mounted, it ultimately formed a mountain of irrefutable ironclad proof: the cryptography division of the Naval Intelligence Division was utterly useless! Their high-level decision-makers needed to be replaced immediately! The lower-level technical staff would certainly be retained, but the bureaucratic layer had to be purged and temporarily placed under secret detention. They would only be permitted contact with the outside world after enduring several months of investigation.

Until the handover was complete, the Navy was to suspend all new combat operations. The submarine forces already dispatched for commerce raiding would be left to find targets on their own; there wouldn't be any new missions for them for a month or two anyway.

"Starting today, April 20th, and lasting until June 20th—a tentative period of two months—the Navy will not launch any new major plans. However, on the surface, all daily operations must proceed as usual. Do not let the enemy detect any changes! Whether this restriction can be lifted early will depend on future notices!

"Furthermore, the moment the Caucasus campaign concludes—that is, once the city of Tbilisi and the Baku Oil Field are secured—have that boy Lelouch return to report immediately! The mop-up operations in the latter stages, the assault on Tabriz, and the support missions for Baghdad will not require his personal presence in the Middle East!"

The Emperor issued these two edicts during a break in this top-secret, closed-door council on the morning of April 20th.

Reforming the intelligence and cryptography departments required time. Until the overhaul was finished, the guiding principle was that doing less was better than doing more.

However, once the Emperor had set the tone, a new idea quickly sprang to Duke Rupprecht's mind. Seizing the perfect opportunity to offer counsel, he said, "Your Majesty, the fact that the enemy has broken our naval codes—and that they currently do not know we are aware of this breach—is an information gap we can absolutely exploit. Before this secret is eventually exposed, we can use it to viciously deceive the enemy!

"Moreover, this sort of counter-deception can only be used once. As soon as the enemy falls for the trap, they will realize what has happened, and they will know that we know they cracked our codes. Therefore, this critical play must yield maximum returns in a single strike. We must hit the Royal Navy so hard that it shatters their bones!"

Emperor Wilhelm furrowed his brow for a long moment. "You understand naval matters as well? You have never dabbled in the Navy before, have you?"

Knowing full well that different professions required different expertise, Duke Rupprecht hastily and tactfully took a half-step back.

"I certainly do not understand the intricacies of the Navy, but the principles of warfare should be universal. I am simply accustomed to Lelouch frequently employing strategies to beat them at their own game and counter-deceiving the Brit Nation, and I thought we might try it here. As for the specific details, it will undoubtedly require the collective brainstorming of him and the various naval commanders."

Hearing this, the Emperor subconsciously looked toward Hipper on the other side.

When Hipper had hurried back to Berlin the previous night, he had actually already held a secret, private meeting with Duke Rupprecht beforehand. The Duke had shown Hipper some of Lelouch's written ideas, so Hipper knew exactly how to play along.

How could Emperor Wilhelm have known that his most highly decorated Admiral had long since sworn allegiance to Duke Rupprecht, and was so utterly awestruck by Chief of Staff Lelouch's divine calculations that he was willing to cooperate with them unconditionally?

Hipper's cooperation wasn't a betrayal of the Emperor or disloyalty to the Empire. On the contrary, it was precisely because he knew that only by following the brilliant strategic mind of Chief of Staff Lelouch could they save the Empire in this protracted war.

Playing his part once more, Hipper said, "Field Marshal Rupprecht's proposal is highly constructive. The Navy can indeed give it a try. For example, during the early stages of the war, both Commander Ingenohl and later Commander Hugo von Pohl had been brewing a certain operational concept:

"Under the grim objective reality where the absolute strength of the enemy's grand fleet visibly surpasses our High Seas Fleet, could we design a strategy using our vanguard skirmish fleets as bait? They would execute raiding missions, provoking the enemy's rapid-response battlecruiser fleet into an enraged, impatient pursuit of our vanguard, thereby causing their rapid-response fleet to break away from their main fleet...

"If our main fleet could seize this chance to lie in ambush, relying on the vanguard raiding fleet to lure the enemy's rapid-response detachment into a trap, our forces could then concentrate our superior numbers to overwhelm them and aim to annihilate a portion of their forces. If we can fight a few battles of annihilation like this, the gap in strength between our fleets might be leveled or even surpassed.

"It is just a pity that our wireless codes were compromised. As a result, every time we meticulously tried to set a trap, the enemy evaded it. Only in those two instances where we adapted on the fly did we, by some stroke of luck, achieve minor successes.

"Now that we know our codes have been cracked, we must not transmit future genuine operational plans over the radio. We can use other communication methods to issue orders and ensure absolute secrecy, while fabricating fake intel to make the enemy underestimate us. It is entirely possible to lure them onto the hook."

Hearing this, the Emperor finally felt a spark of interest. Stroking his thick beard, he gestured for Hipper to continue. "Elaborate in more detail."

Pretending to rack his brains for a long time, Hipper finally offered a detailed strategy. "Perhaps, after the Caucasus campaign concludes and the Empire's main forces are poised to enter the Middle East, we could mobilize the Black Sea Fleet to resolve the logistical transport difficulties in the Middle Eastern theater, allowing them to operate briefly in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"In the future, Lusha will be left with only two maritime lifelines. One passes through the Persian Gulf in the Middle East and reaches the shores of the Caspian Sea. The other passes through the Norwegian Sea to arrive at Murmansk. The Britannians will have to find a way to protect both of these routes in order to keep Lusha's inexhaustible human resources bleeding for the Brit Nation. Once both of these routes are severed, Lusha's manpower pool of tens of millions will no longer be of any use to them.

"Therefore, whether our Navy assists the Army in striking the Middle East or heads north to sever the Norwegian route, the Britannia Royal Navy will be forced to respond—or at the very least, respond to one of them. It is absolutely impossible for them to play the coward and hide from both.

"If a portion of Britannia's home grand fleet is drawn away and diverted to the Eastern Mediterranean, and we simultaneously manufacture an opportunity in the North Sea—a target important enough that they believe they have the spare capacity to salvage it—then it is entirely possible to lure out the enemy's rapid vanguard fleet and inflict heavy casualties upon them, or even annihilate them completely!

"If we can just sink a few of the enemy's battlecruisers or their cutting-edge fast battleships, the naval strength between them and us might finally be equalized! To achieve this, we can even feign weakness. We can pretend that the SMS Baden, which is on the verge of commissioning and still in its final sea trials, suffered a chamber explosion in its main guns due to its overly radical technical designs and novel materials, requiring a massive overhaul. We can claim its sister ship, the SMS Bayern, also requires modifications. This will paralyze the enemy's judgment even further..."

Admiral Hipper went on to say a great deal more, but any discerning onlooker would know there was no need to delve into those minor details.

Because everything Hipper said was Lelouch's script.

It was just that Lelouch's status and position made it inappropriate for him to explain this portion too thoroughly. Doing so might cause the Emperor to grow suspicious: 'That boy Lelouch is clearly an Army general; why is he meddling so deeply in naval affairs? What has he been plotting all this time?' Therefore, it was better to hand the credit for this preliminary draft over to Hipper for now.

After all, Hipper would owe Lelouch a massive favor. Even if he ascended to the peak of the Navy in the future, he would continue to support Lelouch.

Moreover, what Lelouch had surrendered was merely the credit for a "preliminary draft," not a detailed, actionable combat plan.

As for the subsequent refinements and actual execution, there were still many intricate stratagems and masterstrokes of deception that Lelouch could only bring out once he personally assumed the position of "Director of the Joint Army-Navy Combat Liaison Office."

Yet, even these fragmented crumbs of the plan he had brought out so far were enough to leave Emperor Wilhelm astounded by his sheer genius.

He hadn't expected that there were so many extraordinary talents among his army and navy commanders. He marveled at how adept Field Marshal Rupprecht was at grand strategic vision, and how skilled Hipper was at naval entrapment tactics.

'No wonder these two have repeatedly accomplished such miraculous feats over the past year and a half! They haven't been relying entirely on Lelouch—they have sharp, capable minds of their own!'

The Emperor felt that he had somewhat underestimated these two pillars of the Army and Navy.

"You two are truly pillars of the state. With you leading the Army and Navy, the Empire will definitely achieve ultimate victory! However, wouldn't acting out a chamber explosion on the SMS Baden's main guns so hastily seem a bit too fake?"

Taken slightly aback by the question, Admiral Hipper hurriedly echoed the Emperor's sentiment. "Your Majesty is wise! I was merely throwing out an example. In actual practice, we must certainly slow things down. We cannot have a chamber explosion immediately after the Britannians executed an assassination...

"How about this: it is only late April now, and tensions are running high. We will hold our breath for a dozen more days. Once we stall until early May and the heat dies down, we will pick a day to announce that the SMS Baden's main guns exploded.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the Navy will undoubtedly stage this with absolute realism. I trust that by early May, the battle in the Caucasus will have become clear as well. Once Major General Lelouch returns, he will certainly provide us with a much more meticulous and brilliant follow-up strategy."

The Emperor nodded in deep satisfaction. "In principle, this matter is settled. As for the specifics of how to deceive the Brit Nation, return and report back once you have formulated a detailed plan."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Rupprecht and Hipper acknowledged in unison.

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