Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Barbarians Should Be Beaten with Barbarians (2)
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All eyes, from Chancellor Bismarck onward, turned sharply toward me at my words, but that was only to be expected.
Up until now, those who had answered the chancellor's questions and made proposals were the senior professors from the Staff College—men who held the rank of minister-level officers.
The Staff College was a place where captains to majors enrolled as students, so to become a professor, one needed to be at least a lieutenant colonel.
I was just a single lieutenant colonel, the lowest-ranking one among the professors.
On top of that, lately my lectures had grown so popular that some professors were jealous, feeling like I'd stolen their students' favor.
However, surprisingly, the chancellor's reaction was quite favorable. But if I took that at face value, I'd be a fool.
"Haha... If you have a good strategy, feel free to speak freely. As long as it's not nonsense, I'll listen with open ears."
"Thank you for your kindness, Chancellor."
"No need to be so tense. Isn't it my duty to incorporate the views of young staff officers like you when crafting the best possible plan?"
The chancellor wasn't aligned with the crown prince's faction; if anything, he was loyal solely to the current emperor, making him a man of remarkably weak politics.
That said, plenty of professors here disliked me, so if I showed any weakness, it was obvious they'd tear me apart.
Moreover, many of them supported princes other than His Highness the Crown Prince.
I pointed my baton at the map of the Reich Empire's northern Köpenhaun hanging at the front of the operations room and spoke.
"In my view, striking the Ludwig tribe right now would be rushing ahead too far. Therefore, rather than mobilizing forces to subjugate them, I'd like to propose an alternative stratagem."
"An alternative stratagem? What exactly do you have in mind?"
"Provide minimal food and weapons to tribes hostile to the Ludwig tribe or at risk of being plundered by them. That way, the Empire can weaken those Ludwig bastards at minimal cost."
This was something I'd come up with based on a lecture from Professor Kim Yong-hoon back in my cadet days, when I was prepping for the military academy and devouring books and the internet on military history.
The professor had called it the "neighbor-taming policy."
Barbarian nomads like the Jurchens were split into dozens or hundreds of fractured groups, each with their own interests.
So, you tame the ones who listen by tossing them a bone with meat on it like to a dog, and you beat the disobedient ones to death like clubbing a mutt on a holiday.
Then, you pit the obedient ones against the defiant ones.
"I may not have the brilliant insight of our Empire's Staff College or General Staff, but even the nomadic barbarians clinging to the Köpenhaun Peninsula know that if the Ludwig scum grow stronger, they'll get devoured next."
The nomadic way of life was simple: devour the weak, submit to the strong.
So naturally, if the Ludwig tribe grew powerful, the weaker tribes would be gobbled up—a fact even a four-year-old kid living there would grasp.
"But they can't seek help from our Empire, and attaching themselves to Ludwig would just doom them anyway. Why? Because in a famine, the Ludwig bastards minimize food consumption by killing off men and the elderly even if they surrender, keeping only women and children as slaves."
I must have dragged it out too long, because Chancellor Otto's mouth began to twitch.
If I didn't get to the point soon, I'd catch hell and endure all sorts of abuse...
"So, those tribes have no choice but to fight desperately, right? That's where the Empire steps in. By supplying truly minimal food and weapons, we unite the anti-Ludwig tribes into manageable sizes and set them against Ludwig."
What I really wanted was to rally all the anti-Ludwig factions into one force and provoke a full-scale war with Ludwig's followers.
But in the worst case, their strengths might balance out, leading them to abandon the fight and join hands to plunder the Reich Empire instead.
If all the nomads on the Köpenhaun Peninsula combined forces, conquering the north might be impossible, but they could pull off a massive raid and escape.
"Even so, Ludwig's forces are larger, so the opposition would clearly lose even united. But as in war, where 1,000 infantry suffer no losses against 20 foes, but take serious damage against 300 or 400 at once—just like that, Ludwig will suffer far greater casualties fighting united groups than picking off tiny tribes one by one."
All the professors nodded as they heard my words.
Because no matter how big Ludwig's force was, they'd take heavy losses constantly fighting like that just to survive.
These nomadic tribes would never normally unite, but with famine upon them, defeat meant total annihilation of the tribe and their wives and young daughters turned into playthings.
Unless they were utterly mad, once we nudged them to unite the first time, they'd band together properly to smash Ludwig.
There's a saying: even mortal enemies on the same boat will cooperate to survive a storm.
"And no matter how much Ludwig massacres young men to wipe out those tribes' lines, the enslaved women and children will survive. They'll surely aid us to avenge their parents and husbands by subjugating Ludwig."
At that, one professor wearing the same lieutenant colonel insignia as me stood and pointed out.
"Subjugate, subjugate. The military requested a response plan from us, not a subjugation operation, Lieutenant Colonel."
"My apologies. But subjugation is part of the response, Lieutenant Colonel Pontz. Besides, hasn't Ludwig already amassed enough power? In another 5 to 10 years, he might unify the peninsula and found a kingdom."
"True, but sticking to the response plan framework keeps things on point."
This guy... A lieutenant colonel who entered half a year before me.
Just looking at his antics, I could see his future. Even reaching Staff College professor meant he was supposed to be highly capable.
But nitpicking at academy level was failing-grade material; the chancellor would probably ship him off to the provinces after this semester.
If he straightened up, he might make major general. Otherwise, he'd coast as a colonel in a capital division until retirement.
"Talk of subjugation might sound extreme, but Ludwig already calls himself Khan and aims to be king of the nomads. The Empire already faces potential foes like the Franco Republic—adding a northern kingdom would make him a headache for centuries."
I said "centuries of headache," but if Ludwig founded a state in the north, conquered up to Sweden, and built an empire, he'd be no mere thorn—a terminal cancer.
"Thus, we should formulate our response plan with subjugation as the premise."
The chancellor, evidently impressed, clapped once and asked.
"No flaws there. So, what level of equipment do you deem appropriate for supplying those nomads?"
The northern semi-nomadic, semi-agricultural folk lagged behind us in ironworking and weapon-making.
So, even mediocre gear from us would be ample support.
Non-settled people found mining ore and forging iron weapons or armor incredibly tough.
"Second- or third-line troops' gear, plus expendables like arrows and spears—issue the ones nearing retirement. Most would be expended or ruined fighting Ludwig anyway, right?"
Even if inferior, a sword was a sword, a spear a spear—plenty to skewer Ludwig's men.
Rear-line soldiers in light leather might falter, but Empire troops with at least chainmail shirts wouldn't die easily to such weapons.
The chancellor nodded, convinced by my reasoning.
"Sound logic. Just accelerating their attrition like that secures our northern border. Impressive. Time's up, so other professors, compile your plans separately and submit by next week. Dismissed."
With that, we ended the meeting and returned to our offices. I was certain this expedition would bring me a major opportunity.
So, alongside the operations plan, I submitted a paper-cum-proposal outlining countermeasures for the Empire Army's weaknesses in northern combat—something I'd drafted piecemeal for months.
In the end, my proposed plan was adopted, and a year and a half later, I successfully completed my term as professor.