99 – Establishment of Francois Invasion Operation (2)
That’s how I had to voluntarily carry out the hellish schedule of working overtime for 5 days a week, which is the tradition of the General Staff, over a month, or to be precise, a month and a half.
In the meantime, I received this letter from His Highness the Crown Prince.
‘His Majesty the Father also cares for you very much. I have high expectations for this job. I heard about your marriage to Laura. congratulations I want to call them right away, but the workload will be heavy, and I am very busy as I have to look around countries like Czechia and the Grand Duchy of Ostarica soon. Normally, since I became a general and got married, you should come to see me. Especially until things are sorted out, you don’t have to force yourself to come.’
At least, if the process of having an audience with the Crown Prince had been included in the midst of this, things would have been delayed a little longer.
I’m really glad you delayed it.
Still, until now, even when I was a professor at the General Staff College, where everyone else stayed up all night to focus on studying and research to prepare for lectures or write papers, I rarely worked overtime.
All of this is because His Excellency, the Minister of Military Affairs, suddenly asked me to make a draft of an operation on a scale of tens of thousands of people from scratch by myself.
In addition, since the information I deal with is top-secret, Laura, who was assigned to the Operations Department of the General Staff Headquarters and has to help me by my side, was banned from entering the office, so I felt more lonely as I was planning a strategy alone during my honeymoon.
“But thanks to holding out with evil, if only I could use this more.”
So even though I often mumbled to myself during work, over the course of a month and a half, I managed to come up with a draft that could be reviewed and introduced right now by the staff headquarters.
I opened the door to the office of the 3rd Vice-Chief of the Operations Department given to me, and walked to the office of His Excellency, Minister of Military Affairs, to obtain approval for this operation.
For some reason, I received an order from an officer in the General Staff to go directly to the residence of the Minister of Military Affairs, and I ended up going to the residence of the Duke of Moritz.
Ha, but now if this plan goes through, I will be able to live a peaceful life, leaving work at 6pm and going to work at 9am the next day for the time being, right?
“Your Excellency, Minister of Military Affairs, I am Brigadier General Peter Yeager, 3rd Deputy Chief of Operations. May I come in?”
“Come in.”
With those words, the door opened, and there was a very young and beautiful maid standing next to His Excellency, the Minister of Military Affairs.
To be precise, the girl named Marie that the 5th prince tried to give me was also very pretty.
A level that cannot be compared to that of the maid standing next to the Minister of Military Affairs.
So, as I stood in a daze with doubts for a moment, the Minister of Military Affairs looked at me and urged me.
“Come in. If you come, take a seat. Why are your legs hurting?”
“Yes, Your Excellency. Excuse me then.”
Just like that, when I sat down on the chair in front of the Minister’s desk and put down the bag containing the plan.
“An important guest has arrived. Lena, you can leave now.”
At that, the girl moved away from the Minister of Military Affairs and quietly closed the door and left, and the Minister of Military Affairs looked at me with an innocent expression and asked,
“Okay, did you plan your strategy well? Personally, I have very high expectations.”
“A month and a half. For a month and a half, I did the best I could. I think His Excellency, the Minister of Military Affairs, will also be satisfied.”
“Then, announce the strategy you have established. I hope you will like me.”
It is here that decisions are made on whether or not I should continue to work that hellish overtime or not.
“First of all, I will report the damage the Francois Republic has done to our Reich Empire. 156 villages and 8 castles have become virtually unusable, and the total area of land plundered by the enemy amounts to about 3 Baronies.”
The 3 Baronies may seem small, but it is a place where about 200,000 people took root and lived.
If this amount of population lost their livelihood at once and became unemployed, the empire would of course lose a huge amount of tax revenue.
When those who have become wandering beggars flow into the slums of the city to make a living and become petty thieves, or go into the mountains and become criminals such as bandits…
The problem becomes serious, such as additional criminal damage caused by them and the cost of subjugating them.
At least, since we have a newly occupied vast northern land, His Majesty the Emperor will do just fine by taking this opportunity to relocate all 200,000 people to the north.
“Wouldn’t this be something pagans who do not enjoy the benefits of proper civilization would do?”
“Certainly, attacking without declaring war is something only rebellious heretics would do. But what does that mean?”
“War is a continuation of politics, and at the same time, politics sometimes dominates war.”
At those words, the Minister of Military Affairs put on a look of bewilderment, but was it because I was wearing a very evil smile?
He was just staring at my face as if he wanted to keep listening.
“Maybe they didn’t want to be excommunicated, although they plundered all the property and destroyed the villages of the serfs of the Reich Empire who believed in the same Deus religion. They did not sell or kill serfs as slaves. Based on that, they barely escape being excommunicated by the Latina Vatican.”
In the past, in the humiliation of Canossa, when the papacy was at its peak, the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire, Heinrich I, was blown away with one pope’s bar of excommunication.
The Deus religion in the world I live in right now is not to that extent, but it has enough power to turn the politics of other countries including the Empire into a mess with one excommunication.
The Francois Republic probably did not kill the serfs to avoid the terrible excommunication of their government…
“However, in the Deus Church, there is a rule not to plunder recklessly among those who worship Deus as a god. Looting in violation of this and not declaring war is subject to excommunication.”
Even when I was in the academy looking for this principle, I even read the Code of Deus Church, which I rarely read except when necessary.
Now that I know the situation of the Church of Deus, the new pope is quite authoritarian and is trying to revive the Deus Church and make it great again.
It would not be too difficult to solve the problem if Francois informed them of their mistakes and asked for their excommunication.
“So what is it about? Start with the main point.”
“Ask for the Francois Republic to be excommunicated for plundering without a declaration of war. This is a political matter, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should handle it, but if our job is to actually defend and fight the border. Isn’t it Your Excellency’s job to provide diplomatic support?”
At that, His Excellency Otto Moritz, the Minister of Military Affairs, threw his tongue out at my plan to use the excommunication for the sake of war.
Honestly, if there is a crazy bastard who went in to attack without declaring war on a country that is still, wouldn’t it be okay to do this to break both of his wrists?
In the first place, the Francois now only didn’t kill and sell people, they’re arsonists and robbers who robbed other people’s property.
“Finally, the new pope of the Church of Deus is a person who wants to raise the authority of the church by any means, and he will not be very pleased with this behavior of the Francois Republic. If you show a little sincerity and use the authority of the church as a bait to persuade, he will write a letter of excommunication for the Francois Republic in no time. This is because, just as a father shows his authority to his son by punishing his wrong son, the dignity of the Deus Church can be enhanced by punishing the outrageous behavior of the Francois Republic with excommunication.”
Well, it’s because the Latina city owned by the pope of the Deus religion and the military power around it can only maintain its own security.
Of course, the role of the cane to carry out that authority would be played by the Reich Empire.
Dignity in politics means that even if I do not directly step forward, just as His Highness’s status rises according to my activities, even if the crown prince stays still.
The authority of the pope will also rise in a similar system.
“Then, I don’t know about the excommunicated republican politicians or high-ranking nobles, but the soldiers who must die if they follow their orders tend to rely on religion. If you die because you received a letter of excommunication and the country you belong to is excommunicated, your morale will crawl out in fear that you might go to hell.”
Although the concept of heaven and hell does not strongly dominate people’s values in modern Korea.
In particular, the lower classes such as the serfs of this era are very inclined to live by relying on religion.
Needless to say, the fear of going to hell will play a role if you die in a battle where you are likely to die fighting.
“On the contrary, since the army of the Reich Empire is going to punish the excommunicated nation, morale will rise accordingly. With this, we, the Reich Imperial Army, will be able to fight the ‘just war’ that I lectured on before, so even if we use a little radical tactics, there will be no harm. I will continue the explanation.”
When I explained this far, Otto Moritz, the military director, looked at me and had a face close to astonishment.
It starts now, Minister of Military Affairs.