CH 254

“I’ll be back in a month,” Flora said.

“”””-!?”””””

Those participating in the meeting were surprised by Flora’s words. She declared that she would end this war in a month. If you think about it normally, you don’t think it will end in 6 months to a year. What kind of strategy are you thinking of, such as ending a great war that will take several years in a month?

Certainly, if it ends in a short-term decisive battle, there is nothing better than that. They’re worried about their territory if they deploy troops for too long. The fact that it takes so long means that the cost of war also increases, and there are many advantages to finishing early. But that doesn’t mean you can win easily. Even the opponent should buy time and try to survive for as long as they can. 1

“How can you hope to capture all of these territories in a month, Lord Caan?” Albert asked.

“Huh!?” Flora cried.

She paused for a moment, but immediately after whispered,

“Blitzkrieg…………”

“………… What?”

Those who heard the unfamiliar words looked at each other. They’d never heard of it before. What on earth does that mean? But Flora herself continued with a calm face. You can see her absolute confidence in her plan.

“We will use infiltration tactics to disrupt the enemy’s rear and destroy their headquarters and supply lines. After that, we will encircle and destroy the remaining enemy with the rear and advance forces flanking them.”

“””””…”””””

Even after listening to Flora’s explanation, they still don’t understand. The participants of the meeting desperately worked their heads to make sense of it. There, Flora opened her strategy chart and began to explain. Those who heard it received a shock as if they had been hit in the head with a hammer.

Until now, sieges and siege battles have been waged in this world, centered around encircling and exhausting the enemy behind the castle walls to force them to surrender. Unless there was a huge difference in military strength or the castle walls were weak, it was common sense to surround and tighten the noose on their escape and supply lines because the damage to the attacking side would be enormous if they attacked with force. 2

But Flora’s idea is different. Ignoring fortresses and cities protected by solid ramparts, they infiltrated the enemy’s rear at once, cutting off messengers and supplies and blocking the arrival of reinforcements.

No matter what force you besiege them with, they have no chance of repelling them. Without reinforcements coming from outside or the besieging enemy having no choice but to turn back, a siege battle from the defensive side wouldn’t end in success. The enemy will lose a considerable amount of fighting spirit even if they lose the winning avenue of reinforcements breaking the siege from outside.

In the first place, when you suffer an invasion, you focus on defeating the enemy in front of you. So until the towns on the front lines of battle are taken down, the towns on the back lines are relatively carefree. Of course, if it’s a town right behind the front, there’s a danger that the enemy will bypass and attack them, but if it’s a town or fortress deep within their friendly territory, they’re not that vigilant to attack.

If the enemy invades deeply beyond their awareness and both the frontmost and backmost lines are captured, everything between those will be surrounded from all sides and annihilated. Therefore, even if the enemy bypasses and detours to one or two targets that aren’t immediately on the front, most people won’t be expecting them to suddenly be coming up from behind them in the direction of friendly territory.

This strategy also goes against common sense. Transport soldiers to the rear where the invasion limit is, and suddenly capture the rear. Enemies who don’t expect to be suddenly attacked so far inside the battle line will be slow to respond. If you use what is called field artillery to make a surprise attack there, the individual battles will be decided at once.

Units that capture the rear will disturb the enemy’s back line one after another and block roads and control important bases. The rest of the encircled enemy will surrender, surrounded on all sides and with no hope of reinforcements arriving.

Flora’s explanation is over, and the strategy is actually planned. It is the job of those involved with the boots on the ground to work out the details so that it can actually be implemented based on the grand strategy Flora has shown.

“So this is what I blitzkrieg is…”

“What a terrifying person to have come up with something like this…”

The more they worked out the details, the more they realized that this strategy worked very well. You don’t need to do much. Just think about the actual tactics on the ground, transportation, supplies, and troop assignments.

“Then… what is the name of the operation?”

“””””…”””””

Everyone looks at each other.

“Of course……”

“”””It’s Blitzkrieg.”””””

Koenigsvelg was busier than ever. Based on the draft that Flora put out, the grunt-work soldiers completed the plan and once again sought Flora’s approval.

“Is this really Baron Floto’s first war?” a soldier asked.

“This isn’t her first war. She was already in the Goslant Island campaign in direct command,” a sailor replied.

“That would be a naval war in naval battles. Land battles are something completely different. And yet, what is with this dexterity?” the soldier asked.

“Indeed…” another soldier said, “there are many veteran generals who only care about their frontal combat strength and can hardly operate on a grand scale. And yet, how can this young lady so new to large-scale combat pay so much careful detail to transportation and supply lines…?”

The Flower of War is, of course, a head-on decisive battle. Occasionally, large units will engage in large-scale clashes on plains. Most of them are facing off against each other through simple siege battles, but the braver the generals are, the more they just charge without any plan and don’t even think about overall strategy or replenishment.

Under such circumstances, the first thing a 15-year-old girl who had never experienced a large-scale land battle thought about and thoroughly planned for was transportation and supplies. She uses ships for troop transportation and replenishment and carries out large-scale stockpiling. She also predetermines where to build a small depot from there and arranges all transportation lines to flow to it. They’ve never seen a frontline general who thinks about transportation and supplies so thoroughly.

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While most people thought that it would be fine to requisition locally, this thoroughness could even be said to be abnormal.

The order also bans all looting and violence in the local area. Those who break it will be sentenced to death, and it is thoroughly mentioned first and foremost. Since there are almost no mercenaries in this army, such things would not have happened much in the first place, but even so, looting was also carried out for reasons such as saving on or replenishing the supplies they brought.

House Caan was already thorough, but even House Carruthers thought that requisitioning and looting was a matter of course if they were in enemy territory, so it was a shocking notice in its own way.

Most of the volunteers from the Caanza Alliance were close to ordinary citizens, so the announcement was met with a lot of surprises, but was generally received favorably. The mercenaries resent the fact that looting is usually included in their salary and entitlements, but the Lord who prohibits looting favors the citizens who will be the ones ransacked if they lose, so they agree with it.

“Tomorrow we’ll set sail! Hurry up and make it in time!”

“Aye, aye!”

At Koenigsvelg, many ships were busy preparing to leave.

A main fleet of 2 galleons and 4 carracks had set sail from Koenigsvelg. These 6 ships are a fleet carrying troops to attack Glaudens up the Wakesell River. Besides this, there are many cogs and caravels heading to Danzij in advance. Galleons and carracks are mainly used for troop transport and combat, leaving supplies to other ships.

“Lord Floto, we will soon enter the Wakesell River.”

“Ramor… please be careful. The narrow river is dangerous,” I said.

“Aye. Please leave it to me,” Ramor said.

Ramor, the commander of this fleet, responds with exaggerated flair. In terms of number, this one can be called the main fleet, but the flagship of the House Caan Merchant Fleet, the Santa Maria, and its captain Admiral Schwartz remain in Koenigsvelg. It is not possible to throw all the ships into the Wakesell River because they have to carry out transportation and secure sea superiority.

Originally, the Santa Maria and Schwartz were planned to be deployed in this attack strategy, but due to the wishes of Flora’s mother, Maria, the Santa Maria remained in Koenigsvelg and was assigned to patrol duties.

Maria von Carruthers was chosen to command the forces that would ascend the Plegora River and capture Instelburg. Galleons cannot enter the Plegora River, so Maria’s favorite ship was not used.

From Flora’s point of view, it doesn’t matter which ship Maria leaves on, so she decided to leave Santa Maria in the back in line with her mother’s wishes. Instead, Ramor was dispatched as Commander of the Main Fleet, having recently arrived with the reinforcements.

From those who knew Ramor’s history, some were worried about leaving such an important role as Fleet Commander to someone who was an enemy until recently. But Flora left it to Ramor regardless. And Ramor, sensing Flora’s trust in him, vowed to make sure the operation was a success.

Sailors who were recently recruited into the House Caan Merchant Fleet along with Ramor are also deployed in this fleet. Those people were also burning with a fighting spirit to live up to Flora’s trust in them. After going up the river for a while being wary of the surroundings… the first bridge came into view.

“Lord Floto, the bridge is now in sight,” Ramor said. “We’re in the right place.”

“Aye, aye,” Flora said.

Danzij ships sail up the Wakesell River. Therefore, with the cooperation of Danzij’s sailors, they were able to grasp the topography and the situation around here. Even now, Danzij sailors are on board each ship as guides.

“Earth… Wind…”

Flora uses 2 spells to clear the bridge. If she were to take it out flashily, she would probably be able to destroy it by using the ship’s guns. Alternatively, there is also a means to land and set only gunpowder barrels to blow it up. However, there is a high possibility that it will make a loud noise and be found by the enemy.

There is also the possibility that the collapsed wreckage will fill up the waterway, making it an unsuitable method for the current operation, which relies so centrally on large ships. Cleaning up the riverbed after naval gunfire or blasting would take extra time and effort. So Flora was supposed to use her magic to move it away, but the spell in question was another surprise.

“The bridge is shaking…”

“I feel sick…”

The joints of the bricks were moved with Earth magic, and the bridge itself seemed to move as if it were alive. Furthermore, the part that was about to fall is lifted with Wind magic and carried to the river bank. In no time, the brick bridge was dismantled and lined up on the left and right highways. They had heard that it could be removed with magic, but looking at it now, the crew and the landing party had no choice but to be dumbfounded.

“Is there supposed to be a spell like that?”

“No, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Well, I think a magician can do it.”

Those who memorize chants from textbooks won’t be able to create such an application, but it’s certainly possible for those who can weave spells on their own. However, such an idea cannot be possessed by ordinary people. Who would think of dismantling a bridge by moving only the joints of bricks with Earth magic?

If someone can create magic on their own after seeing the current spell, they should be able to do something similar eventually through trial and error, but it is impossible to come up with such an idea, to begin with.

“Then let’s keep going,” Flora said.

The dismantled bricks are left at the end of the road, but if they are left as they are, they may be used by the enemy army and thrown into the river to act as a temporary bridge. So all the placed bricks are glued together. It is difficult to move as it is because it is one big lump now than separate pieces.

Even if it’s a lump, if you break it up, you can throw it into the river, but if it’s too much hassle, you’ll have no choice but to take it far away. If this area is occupied one day, the bricks may be used again, so they really want to keep them in a reusable form as much as possible.

Several bridges along the way were dismantled in the same way, and the House Caan Merchant Fleet steadily moved up the Wakesell River. And finally…

“That’s Glaudens.”

“Is that so…? I feel a little sorry for them from here on out……”

As with any port city, the port is inevitably outside the city walls. Naturally, Glaudens’ perimeter is surrounded by walls, but the port side has no walls and only faces the river. In other words, an attack on the Port of Glaudens is an attack on the city. It was decided that it would be an urban battle from the beginning without bypassing the castle walls.

Of course, this is an era in which there are no international laws, no treaties of war, and no laws of war. In the first place, the sacrifice of the residents is taken for granted. Still, Flora hopes that the general public will not suffer as much as possible. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to cut corners or intentionally try not to hit them. This time, it’s to show a siege battle using naval guns instead of artillery units.

“Then… let’s begin the war,” Flora said.

“”””Aye, aye!”””””

So began the Kingdom of Polsky Recapture Operation, “Blitzkrieg.”