I Became a Genius Commander at the Academy - Chapter 99
EP.99
So, for a month, or more precisely, for a month and a half, I had to voluntarily carry out the hellish schedule of five days of overtime per week, a tradition of the General Staff.
In the meantime, I received this letter from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.
‘His Majesty the Emperor also cares for you very much. I have high expectations for this new job. I heard about your marriage to Laura. Congratulations! I would like to invite you to come right away, but the workload will be heavy and I will soon have to visit countries such as the Grand Duchy of Czechia and Ostarica, so I am very busy. Originally, I became a general and got married, so you should come to see me. You don’t have to force yourself to come, especially until things are sorted out.’
At least, if the process of having an audience with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had been initiated during this time, things would have been delayed a little longer.
I’m really glad that they postponed it.
Still, until now, I rarely worked overtime when I was a professor at a staff college where everyone stayed up all night preparing for lectures or writing papers and focused on studying and research.
This is all because His Excellency, the Minister of Military Affairs, suddenly asked me to create a draft plan for tens of thousands of people from scratch.
Moreover, since the information I was dealing with was top secret, Laura, who was assigned to the Operations Department of the Chief of Staff and was supposed to be by my side to help me, was ordered not to enter the office, so I felt even more lonely as I was planning a strategy alone during my newlywed years.
“But thanks to my stubbornness through evil, I can only use this more.”
So, although I often muttered to myself during work, over the course of a month and a half, I succeeded in coming up with a draft that could be reviewed and introduced by the Chief of Staff right away.
I opened the door to the office of the 3rd Deputy Director of the Operations Department that was given to me and walked to the office of His Excellency the Minister of Military Affairs to get approval for this operation.
For some reason, I received an order from an officer in the General Staff to go directly to the Minister of Military Affairs’ residence, and so I went to the Duke Moritz family’s residence.
Well, if this plan passes, I will be able to live a peaceful life where I leave work at 6 PM for the time being and go to work at 9 AM the next day, right?
“His Excellency the Minister of Military Affairs, this is Brigadier General Peter Yeager, 3rd Deputy Chief of Operations. “Can I come in?”
“Please come in.”
With those words, the door opened, and there was a very young and beautiful maid standing next to the Minister of Military Affairs.
To be precise, the girl named Marie that the 5th Prince tried to give me was also very pretty.
It is incomparable to the maid standing next to the Minister of Military Affairs.
So, as I stood there blankly wondering for a moment, the Minister of Military Affairs looked at me and spoke as if urging me.
“Come on in. If you come, take a seat. “Why are you standing there hurting your legs?”
“Yes sir. “Then please excuse me.”
So, when I sat down on the chair in front of the Minister of Military Affairs’ desk and put down the bag containing the plan.
“An important guest has arrived. Lena, you can just leave now.”
With those words, the girl walked away from the Minister of Military Affairs, closed the door quietly, and left. The Minister of Military Affairs looked at me with an innocent expression and asked.
“So, has the strategy been well established? “Personally, I have very high expectations.”
“A month and a half. I did the best I could for a month and a half. I believe His Excellency the Minister of Military Affairs will be satisfied.”
“Then, announce the strategy you have developed. “I hope you like it.”
At this point, it is decided whether or not I should continue to work that hellish overtime again or not in order to further my future promotion and career.
“First, I will first report the damage the Francois Republic caused to our Reich Empire. 156 villages were destroyed, 8 castles were virtually unusable, and the total area of land plundered by the enemy amounts to about 3 baronies.”
Three baronies may seem small, but they are a place where approximately 200,000 people settled down and lived.
Of course, if this much of the population loses their livelihood and becomes unemployed at once, the empire will lose a huge amount of tax revenue.
When those who have become wandering beggars flow into the city’s slums to make a living and become thieves or into the mountains and become criminals such as bandits… the
problem becomes more serious, as it costs money to suppress the additional crime caused by them.
Fortunately, since we have a large area of newly occupied northern land, His Majesty the Emperor will do well to take this opportunity to move all 200,000 people to the northern region.
“Isn’t this something only pagans who do not enjoy the benefits of proper civilization would do?”
“Surely, 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.”
The Minister of Military Affairs looked dumbfounded at those words, but was it because I was smiling a very evil smile?
He just stared at my face as if he was going to keep listening.
“They didn’t want to be excommunicated, so they plundered all the property and destroyed the villages of the Reich Empire’s serfs who also believed in the Deus religion. The serfs were not sold into slavery or killed. Based on that, they barely avoid being excommunicated by the Latin Vatican.”
In the past, in the humiliation of Canossa, when the papacy was at its peak, the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire named Henry I was blown away with a single excommunication from the Pope.
The Deus Church of the world I live in now is not that bad, but it has enough power to throw the politics of other countries, including the Empire, into disarray with a single excommunication.
The Francois Republic may not have killed its serfs to avoid the terrible situation of its own government being excommunicated…
“But in the Church of Deus, there is a rule against plundering recklessly among those who worship Deus as a god. Any looting that violates this and does not declare war is subject to excommunication.”
In search of this principle, I even read the Deus Church Code of Laws, which I rarely read except when necessary, even when I was attending the academy.
After looking into the current situation of the Deus Church, I found out that the newly inaugurated Pope was quite an authoritarian person and was trying to revive the Deus Church and make it great again.
If you inform Francois of their mistakes and ask for their excommunication, it will be resolved without difficulty.
“So what does that mean? “Get to the point first.”
“Ask to excommunicate the François Republic for plundering even though war has not been declared. This is a political matter and should be handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but if it is our job to actually protect and fight the border. “Isn’t it your job as Minister of Foreign Affairs to provide support at a diplomatic level?”
At those words, His Excellency Otto Moritz, Minister of Military Affairs, held out his tongue at my plan to use excommunication for war.
Honestly, if there was a crazy bastard who went to attack a quiet country without declaring war, wouldn’t it be okay to do this to break both of his wrists?
To begin with, the Francois guys didn’t just kill people and sell them; they were arsonists and robbers who stole other people’s property.
“The new Pope of the Church of Deus is someone who wants to increase the authority of the Church at all costs and will highly disapprove of this behavior of the Francois Republic. If you show just a little sincerity and use the authority of the church as bait to persuade them, they will quickly write an excommunication against the Francois Republic. “This is because, just as a father shows his authority over his children by disciplining his misbehaving sons, the dignity of the Deus religion can be highlighted by punishing the outrageous actions of the Francois Republic with excommunication.”
Well, Latina City, owned by the Pope of Deus, and its surrounding military power are only capable of maintaining its own security.
Of course, the Reich Imperial Army would play the role of the whip carrying out that authority.
Dignity in politics means that even if I don’t step in, just as the status of His Majesty the Crown Prince goes up according to my activities even if he stays still.
The authority of the Pope would also rise to a similar system.
“Then, the excommunicated politicians and high-ranking nobles of the Republic may not know it, but the soldiers of the Eighth Empire who have to die under their orders have a strong tendency to rely on religion. “If you receive a letter of excommunication and the country you belong to has been excommunicated, your morale will be paralyzed by the fear that you may go to hell when you die.”
In modern Korea, the concepts of heaven and hell do not strongly dominate people’s values.
In particular, the lower classes, such as the serfs of this era, have a strong tendency to rely on religion for their lives.
There is no need to tell you how great the fear of going to hell will be if you die in a battle where you are likely to die fighting.
“On the contrary, the morale of the Reich Empire’s army will increase as they go to inflict just punishment on the excommunicated nation. With this, our Reich Imperial Army will be able to wage the ‘just war’ that I lectured about before, so there will be no problem even if we use somewhat extreme tactics. “I will continue the explanation.”
When I explained up to this point, Minister of Military Affairs Otto Moritz looked at me with an expression close to shock.
It starts now, Minister of Military Affairs.
A word from the author (author review)
The Crown Prince’s overseas trip schedule has been added.
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