Chapter 363

EP.363

Small conference room in the Reich Imperial Palace.

“Your Majesty, the Archduke of Warsaw and the rest are now openly boasting that they will attack with 1 million men. Assuming that is true, we will have to use clear field tactics. So, when they enter the empire, we need to make it as difficult as possible for them to secure local drinking water and food. “I think it would be enough to just burn the fields and sprinkle all kinds of filth in the wells so they wouldn’t drink.”

The emperor who heard those words and the prime ministers and ministers present did not hide their discomfort.

“Even though the purpose of clear-field tactics is to cut off the enemy’s supply, isn’t it too extreme? Burning the fields that the serfs worked hard to care for and pouring a lot of excrement into the well...” “

Even if it means providing food, if you pour all kinds of feces into the well... ugh, it will take years just to purify it! This means that the land will become uninhabitable for a while! “I understand Marshal Jaeger’s intention to defeat the enemy by inflicting damage on them, but what is the point if the land becomes uninhabitable after the enemy is defeated?”

“To put it bluntly, wouldn’t this be a policy of the empire forcibly creating wanderers?”

His Majesty seems to think that what the ministers are saying makes sense, but he is not angry or offering a counterargument, and the ministers are taking turns attacking my proposal, saying it is wrong.

It is only natural for such a claim to be made.

War on the continent of Europa is ‘plunder’, but since it is a big deal where the owner of the territory may change at any time, severe destruction is extremely refrained so that only people can take the land and plant it so that the land can be used.

However, the operation to pollute the well I just mentioned would take several years or more to restore, and in that case, the village could turn into a ‘wasteland’ in the meantime.

Moreover, the reason for their opposition is that they took into consideration the public sentiment of the people.

If you think about it with common sense, you would feel annoyed even if the enemy army came in and plundered, but how would you feel if the imperial soldiers who were supposed to be on your side and protect you burned the fields you worked so hard to cultivate and even poured feces into the well? Rebellion will become urgent.

But I am confident that my argument is correct.

“As Marshal of Your Majesty’s Imperial Army, I dare to speak to you. When our imperial army utilizes its reserve forces, it can operate a large army of up to 2 million people in case of emergency. However, it takes at least a year to gather those troops in a specific location.”

“If we were to gather half that amount, 1 million troops, wouldn’t it take a little less time than that?”

The reason why it was possible to conscript 2 million troops and dispatch them to a specific region in just one year is very simple.

This is because over the past three years, the Chief of Staff, the Imperial Army’s Corps Division Headquarters, and local administrative agencies in each region have worked tirelessly together.

With an order from the emperor, he could immediately conscript almost all the young men in the village, no matter how remote, and stored up enough food to feed them for more than four months.

It goes without saying that as the administrative unit grows, the food reserves and supply period for soldiers increase exponentially.

Even if you operate an army of 2 million, unless they stay in one place, in theory, you can feed them for about two years with only biscuits and beef jerky, even if you do not implement a ‘special requisition of materials’ or ‘food rationing system’.

‘However, if the number of troops mobilized is reduced by half, the distance the soldiers must move will be reduced accordingly, so the effort will be reduced by approximately 1/6.’

If the number is set at around 1 million, that number can be reached by conscription only from the eastern part of the empire, near Austria, Czechia, Warsaw, and Stockholm.

“Hello, Your Majesty, Emperor of the Reich Empire. “I’m here today to bring you some rather unfortunate news.”

When His Majesty heard that, he chuckled.

“I think I’m here to declare war. Are you really confident?”

“The will of His Majesty the Grand Duke of Warsaw is firm. So, won’t we face each other directly on the battlefield next time?”

“I hope you don’t regret those words. So, are you planning to read that declaration of war here?”

The Warsaw ambassador smiled and said.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

When he said that and was about to open the document, I quickly asked:

“Are you ready to leave the embassy?”

In response to my question, His Majesty and other ministers said, ‘Why do you ask such an obvious question?’ He gave him a look, but the Warsaw ambassador’s face stiffened slightly as a look of embarrassment flashed across his face.

“We might take the ambassador hostage, so shouldn’t we leave quickly?”

“Haha, thank you for your concern. “We’ve already made preparations for moving out, so you don’t have to worry about that.”

Even though he said that, the Warsaw Ambassador’s face still did not look at ease.

One of the common senses of diplomats on the Europa continent is to leave immediately after reading the declaration of war because they could be taken hostage if war breaks out.

If the Warsaw guys weren’t stupid, they would have given the ambassador enough time to prepare for ‘eviction’, but I could see from the Warsaw ambassador’s reaction that they didn’t do that.

It may have been an expression of his desire to proceed with the operation quickly enough to hide it from even the ambassadors at the top of the pyramid among the nobles under him.

This means that in the worst case scenario, after declaring war, they will immediately cross the border with a million-strong army.

After reading all the words written in the declaration of war, the Warsaw ambassador quietly and quickly left the throne room.

When everyone was angry at the rude declaration of war and trying to say something, I spoke with a serious expression.

“The war has already begun.”

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