Chapter 179: Echoes of the Forthcoming War Part I

Chapter 179: Echoes of the Forthcoming War Part I



Whether it was the war in Libya or the upcoming American election, Bruno had kept a close watch on world affairs. War was coming, and much quicker than he had previously thought it would. And it was perhaps because of this that he was now in close communication with allied generals who he could trust had a level of competency.

Russia was not particularly well known for its brilliant military commanders. Even Marshal Zhukov, who was praised for the victory over the Wehrmacht in the Second World War of Bruno's past life, had about as much subtlety and nuance as a blacksmith's hammer.

But in the Great War, there was one General who stood above the rest among the Stavka, which was the name for the Russian Empire's military high command. General Mikhail Alekseyev was also a man Bruno had some friendly ties to.

Having served beneath his command during the Russian Civil War, which in this life had occurred much earlier than in the previous timeline, Bruno often found himself one-upping the man in a game of chess when they were not on the battlefield.

Mikhail also had a great degree of respect for Bruno, so much so that he had described Bruno as being "A rare quality among military officers, insofar as he was one of the few generals in human history who preferred standing on the front lines of war with the soldiers beneath his authority rather than safely commanding his troops from afar."

Because of this, he was one of Bruno's confidants, especially after the formal alliance known in this timeline as the Union of Imperial Powers was forged through Bruno's hard-fought and painstakingly manipulated efforts on the global stage.

Currently, Mikhail was sitting in Bruno's home, along with another familiar face, a man who Bruno considered to be the only intelligent and competent general that Austro-Hungary could muster in its defense.

Svetozar Boroević was a Croatian general in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces and was one of the finest defensive military leaders of the war. He was also invited to Bruno's home, and the two men had kept in touch ever since Bruno's first foray into the lands of the Habsburg Dynasty.

While Bruno had foresight given to him by experience from a life set one hundred years from now, he did not make the mistake of believing his knowledge was both infallible and without peer. Instead, he very much liked to hear the opinions of history's greatest tactical minds, of which he did not consider himself among the prestigious ranks.

Instead, Bruno sat with a cigarette in one hand and a stein of beer in the other as he and the two Generals spoke together at his personal table. They had come a long way at his request, and if Bruno were to personally extend an invitation to anybody, it meant something big was happening.

know.

"So, what exactly is this plan of yours, and what role do we play in it?"

The conversation was a lengthy one, and that was just the first part. To put it simply, Bruno's plan was more detailed than the official one adopted by the Kaiser and his General Staff. After all, they did not necessarily know exactly who they would be fighting and under what

circumstances.

But Bruno more or less had an idea. He started by discussing the fortifications built in the west to halt any French invasion of Germany. Britain's potential joining of the war would be counteracted by sinking their ships in the Atlantic with the U-boats Germany was already producing, and would have hundreds of by the outbreak of the war.

Leaving the French to effectively send wave after wave of men to their deaths against German border fortifications, and in doing so, buy the bulk of the German Army time-time to push into Serbia and Italy with their allies in the Russian Army.

Hence, why Bruno had spent half a decade investing in an infrastructure project that substantially updated the railways between the three neighboring empires. Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian troops could be effectively mobilized and deployed to the borders of Italy and Serbia at record speeds.

In addition to this, Bruno had marked Romania as a potential adversary. The King of Romania had yet to take an official stance and would die within the first year of the war, leaving a relative as a potential wild card.

Bruno had tried to intimidate the young man into not entering the war, and instead working to supply oil to the Imperial Powers, but this had yet to bear fruit, and such a small encounter years prior may not have held the same level of dread today as it had then.

Nevertheless, after hearing all the lengths Bruno had gone to on his own to prepare for the march south, both Mikhail and Svetozar looked at Bruno as if they were incredibly lucky to be on his side, before beginning to speak of the extensive preparations their respective nations

had made.