157 – Tactical Victory & Strategic Defeat (4)
After sending His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and about 2,000 knights through the Ticino Canton, our expeditionary force also gradually retreated over several days. I started doing it.
It was a natural result, but the morale that had been high until now, thinking that the entire war was going smoothly as predicted by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, immediately plummeted to the ground.
“Until yesterday, I thought it was easy and easy, but damn. What’s this. “If this continues, won’t we all die?”
“Sergeant, if it gets into the ears of military police officers, their throats will be blown off. “Don’t you know?”
“That sh*tty military law and all that. “With three months left until my discharge, I came all the way to Switzerland to earn a little extra money… But what is this?”
I think they think that since they are standing guard in a remote area, other people won’t be able to hear their conversation. In a quiet camp where everyone is asleep except for the guards, you can hear it very well even if you are not nearby.
So, when I looked around closely, I could see conscripted military policemen and non-commissioned officers in similar situations listening intently.
Under normal circumstances, they would have been executed either summarily or the next day in front of everyone before the start of the march.
However, in a situation where people are cornered like this and their morale is at its lowest, killing them carelessly will have a huge negative effect unless they are people who are freely spreading false information.
Of course, we can’t allow those guys to continue doing things that will destroy the military’s already low morale and send it all the way underground.
“I don’t need anything, I just wish I could go back alive. Isn’t that right? Then, I have the money I have saved up until now. With that money, I should marry Sylvia, who is waiting for me in her hometown, buy her a house, a field, and have a baby who looks like Sylvia.”
“…….”
“Oh, that’s right, Private Milton. You said that since you were born, you have never held hands and danced with a woman at a village festival, right? Ugh, f*ck. “I had been making a fuss about having s*x with Sylvia, but in the end I couldn’t do it and walked away.”
When I quietly walked up and stood behind the sergeant who was talking about how he didn’t want to die without having s*x with her, Private Milton was so shocked that he froze on the spot with his mouth open.
When the sergeant saw that, he looked around and wondered if something had happened to put the child in this state.
Upon encountering the majesty of the two stars, he must have immediately realized that he had been caught talking, so instead of saluting, he knelt down on both knees and without hesitation pressed his forehead into the ground.
“Please just save Director Jaeger. I will never use my mouth carelessly again. So please, just spare my life, just spare my life. I have a fiancee who I promised to marry when I return. She doesn’t want to die a virgin. “Please save me.”
When I heard that, I was troubled.
Of course, not in a cold and cold way like, ‘How can I kill this guy to maintain the morale of the military?’, But in the direction of, ‘What words should I comfort this guy with so that this becomes a funny story and raises the morale of the military?’
While I was lost in thought, the sergeant kept banging his head and begging me to save him.
The private who was standing guard was trembling because he thought his senior officer was about to fly away.
I immediately moistened the handkerchief I had with water from the canteen and handed it to the sergeant.
“First, stand up and use this handkerchief to properly wipe the wound on your forehead. In fact, if we follow the principles, Sergeant, you are definitely a target for execution under military law, but I will let it pass for this time.”
“Thank you, thank you, Director. “I will never let this damn bastard run his mouth again.”
“That’s the way it should be.”
Normally, it would be a great story if we just pretended not to notice that the soldier made a huge mistake.
Now that he is completely isolated in enemy territory and his morale is at an all-time low, he may be thankful right away that I spared that guy instead of killing him.
If you turn your back and the next day, rumors like this may spread among the soldiers.
‘How dangerous do the higher-ups think this war is, that they will overlook it even after hearing me say that our army will be defeated in this war and that we are all dead?’
So, by showing good will, I should completely move the hearts of the two people here.
From noble mtl dot com
“Instead, can I talk to you over the fire for a while? “For some reason, I can’t sleep.”
The sergeant and private looked puzzled at those words, but they did not dare to go against the instructions of the division commander, who each had two stars.
I spoke first to lead the conversation with them.
“From now on, if you just answer honestly, I won’t hold you responsible in any way. So, sergeant, please answer honestly. “I swear on my honor.”
The honor of a nobleman is, without exaggeration, as important as life, and sometimes even more important than one’s own life.
So, asking that question is a clear promise that no matter what answer you give, you will not be disadvantaged to the sergeant.
So, that guy will answer honestly no matter what questions I ask.
“I heard that you are planning to marry a woman named Sylvia when you are discharged from the military. So, I said it would be very unfair if you died on this horribly unfavorable battlefield. “Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, that’s right. If I die here, Sylvia will marry someone other than me. She doesn’t know how hard she has worked so far to marry him. I endured even when other soldiers went out to play to raise money. “But it drove me crazy to think that it was all in vain.”
“I agree too. If I were like you, I have been steadily saving up money to get married and have a happy family, I have endured all the things I want to do, and I am not far away from being discharged from the military. How unfair would it be to die in a place like this? “I agree with that sentiment.”
In the Reich Empire, nobles do not have human conversations with commoners or serfs except in very exceptional cases.
And 80 to 90% of those exceptional cases are when a male noble like me laid hands on a commoner woman and made her his lover.
Most nobles except me are biologically the same as commoners, but they do not acknowledge this and consider themselves noble beings with a different color of blood. I never say that I sympathize with the position of the common people.
Maybe that’s why the sergeant’s face showed both embarrassment and emotion.
“I’m saying this because I think people like Director Nari will wonder how he can understand my feelings. Now, a few years after getting married, I have my first child in my wife’s belly. But if I die here, I will die without ever holding that child in her arms. “It’s such a terrible thing to even think about.”
In fact, just thinking about that thought makes me feel sick and sad, as if my heart is breaking.
That’s right, after I became a colonel, Laura actively asked for me, saying that she really wanted to have my beloved child as soon as possible.
When I had free time, I asked my nannies and people who had experience raising other children about how they felt and what to watch out for when giving birth or raising a child, and I truly envied them.
She was so happy that when she heard from the doctor that she was pregnant, she was in tears, and since then, as she rubs her belly every day, she is the woman who smiles happier than anyone else in the world.
That’s Laura.
If it were not me who went to visit her, who had just given birth to a child and was happily holding her baby in her arms, as if she had the whole world to herself, but it was her notification that I was killed on the battlefield…
“That’s why I want to return alive by any means necessary. That way, I will be able to see the face and hold my child, whom her wife gave birth to. “You are not married yet, so she may not have any children, but when you return, her fiancé named Sylvia is waiting for you, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“In that sense, you and I are similar. Then I’ll ask again. “What do you think I will do next?”
When the sergeant heard that, he said with a puzzled expression.
“Aren’t you going to safely retreat His Highness the Crown Prince and the other soldiers from here?”
“That’s right. What I have to do is send your Majesty and all of our expeditionary force back home no matter what. “It is my duty to safely return soldiers who have people like you waiting for them in their homes and hometowns.”
In Korea, if a company commander, battalion commander, or sometimes a training center commander says that it is his or her duty to return your son safely, it is not a special story.
For officers of the Reich Empire, the mission was to achieve victory with minimal damage and thus build honor and wealth.
So, the sergeant must have never seen a general speak like this.
“But because of my shortcomings, I ended up putting you in danger. So, in order to send at least one more of you back to your hometown. In this battle, I will be at the forefront and risk my life. “I think that is my duty as a noble and what I should do as a general.”
In fact, the reason why I am trying to stand at the front line is of course to reduce sacrifices, but when I think rationally, if I do not stand at the front and fight at the risk of death, there is a risk that the army will collapse.
That’s because the entire army fell into the enemy’s trap and was completely isolated in the enemy’s territory, so they had to fight a retreat battle in which more than half of the troops would usually die.
Officers will somehow endure with their pride as nobles, but ordinary soldiers will be pushed to their mental limits.
To prevent that, I, as a high being, must risk my life and become an example.
When I heard that I would fight to the death with the soldiers here, the sergeant asked:
“Are you really going to do that? Are you really risking your lives with us for us…?”
I answered that question by quoting the words of a master general who was warmer than anyone else to the soldiers in an army made up of human horses that were useful in this situation.
“If his beloved lover, wife, and child are in danger, a man must go through heavy snow, dark, and dangerous roads to protect them. All the soldiers on this front, including you, are like my children. So, I will risk my life to protect even one more soldier.”
“……”
“So, I hope you don’t give up and believe in me and the generals of the imperial army until the end.”
After saying that, I stood up.
“If you come back alive and marry your fiancé, be sure to contact the Viscount Jaeger family. “You will give me a generous gift for my wedding.”
Then I walked to the barracks without looking back, and I heard the crying sound of the soldier I had just been talking to behind me.
It seems like you were very moved by your conversation with me.
“Ha, now I can finally fight.”