They defeated 5,000 with 300 men.
And that, without a single casualty.
Never in the history of the Empire—no, in all the wars of the past—had such an overwhelming exchange ratio and victory ever occurred.
The South was turned upside down by the result of this overwhelming encirclement and annihilation.
Winning is possible, sure.
Cases of overcoming a more than tenfold difference in troop numbers and winning a battle occasionally pop up thanks to great generals in history.
But succeeding in encirclement and even carrying it through to annihilation was close to impossible in the Empire's science of war.
Because encirclement and annihilation were completely different concepts.
Paradoxically, encirclement is completed by not perfectly encircling the enemy.
There is a saying about burning one's bridges.
Soldiers placed in a situation where they die no matter where they go make a final desperate struggle to survive.
Therefore, encirclement by a numerically inferior army proceeds by letting some unimportant enemies go.
So originally, perfectly encircling the desperate struggle of 5,000 with 300 infantry is madness.
But the Southern Army did it.
It was the moment when the theories of war that had developed over the past thousand years collapsed before overwhelming technological power.
Everyone in the South knew who to thank for it.
The pioneer of the South. Kyle Leopold.
Thanks to that, flashy propaganda itself was unnecessary.
Because it was the most perfect victory that could exist, with no need for propaganda.
While the citizens were ecstatic over the victory, the entrepreneurs were ecstatic over the 'spoils' Kyle Leopold brought.
3,500 prisoners of the Western Army.
"These are prisoners who most actively participated in the West's native extermination operation and invaded Sarsen to massacre our citizens."
"That means...?"
"It means that since these people are not citizens of our South, South's laws, including the Labor Standards Act, do not apply to them."
To factory owners who were already suffering from a recent labor shortage, prisoners who did not need Labor Standards Act protections were attractive labor resources.
Loyalty toward Kyle Leopold, who brought such spoils for their sake, rose another level.
Naturally, support for the war also increased.
More young people volunteered for the military, and opposition to the increased taxes under the pretext of a Defense Budget increase also disappeared.
It was because the illusion of victory in war blinded people's eyes.
Just as the people of the 20th century, when imperialism was running wild, did, people were ecstatic over the nation's victory.
The people of the South were those who had spent their whole lives being despised and ignored by people from other regions, only ever being beaten one-sidedly.
Now that their grudge was resolved, no one could carelessly bring up talk of opposing taxes or the war.
"Those are the results of the opinion poll."
"...I see."
In such a South, there was one person who could not smile.
It was the Grand Duke of the South, Kyle Leopold himself.
"Do you have some worry, Your Grace?"
"Was it that obvious?"
"Your Grace has a habit of becoming rather calm when anxious. You speak less and do not listen well to those around you."
Only then did it occur to me that I had not said a single word while Lucilla gave her long explanation.
How did she notice a habit of mine that even I was not fully aware of?
Is this how it is with childhood friends who have been together since childhood? I did not have a childhood friend in my past life, so I do not really know.
Wanting to lighten the unnecessarily heavy atmosphere, I threw out a light joke.
"At this rate, your future husband will be jealous? He will say you are more interested in the Grand Duke of the South than in him."
"Ah, you do not need to worry about that."
But unexpectedly, a heavy answer came back.
"Just as Your Grace married the South, I am already married to the South as well. We are Revolutionary Comrades, after all."
Taking advantage of the moment I was dazed by the sudden answer, Lucilla asked with a small smile on her characteristic expressionless face.
"So if you have worries, it is all right to tell me. As your Adjutant, as a Revolutionary Comrade. If that does not work... perhaps I will listen even as a childhood friend."
"Haha, if you say it like that, it is a bit awkward to hold back."
With a slight laugh, I let out the worry I had been holding.
"Actually, I am afraid."
Even while overhauling the South, building up technology, and producing weapons of murder, I was still afraid.
I was not talking about the West. The West did not frighten me at all.
The same went for the East, which ruled the Empire's seas, the North, the
Empire's elite army, and perhaps the Empire itself.
The Republic that sought to devour the Empire, or the Monster Wave that would someday sweep the world once, were not objects of fear either.
The 'Heroine' of this novel?
She was on my mind, but not enough to call it 'fear'.
There was only one thing I truly feared.
"I am afraid I might be swept up by this atmosphere."
I had brought in enormous spoils twice in a row. Because of that, the
South's war support rate rose sharply, and the South clearly wanted war.
In the short term, it is a truly ideal phenomenon.
Thinking of the enemies we will have to fight in the future, citizens approving of war will be a really big help.
But...
"Because if I slip up, the end will be catastrophe."
How long will the South want war?
The machine gun was originally a weapon meant to end all wars.
It was a judgment that if one person could obtain enough firepower to sweep away hundreds, war would not break out out of fear.
It was a grand misjudgment.
Soldiers marched onto the battlefield carrying 'the weapon to end all wars'.
The name of that battlefield was World War I.
Ridiculously, it was a battlefield called 'the war to end all wars'.
And... 'the war to end all wars' became the cause of the worst war in history.
World War II.
Only after creating 80 million victims did humanity realize that imperialism and nationalism were wrong.
It was the moment when the runaway locomotive called the great powers, racing without brakes, hit a cliff and stopped.
"The South right now has no brakes."
The South had overwhelming technological power.
There was the resentment of having lived for the past thousand years being discriminated against by the Empire's people.
That resentment soon became overwhelming support for war.
And the Grand Duke of the South, Kyle Leopold, rode that support and paid it back with interest.
It is quite similar to the situation of a certain mustachioed art student.
Moreover, there was no force to stop the runaway.
Because this was a city run under the one-man dictatorship of the Grand Duke of the South.
Brakes?
There is no such thing.
"Because I broke those brakes."
From the moment I built the Dreadnought, the symbol of the great powers, the brakes were as good as broken by my own hands.
Because that was the only way to survive in this Romance Fantasy World where the Empire's fall and the invasion of the Republic and monsters were scheduled.
What a funny world.
A world where nationalism and imperialism are the lesser evil.
"I feel like an engineer driving a train without brakes."
In order to bring down the corrupt corpse called the Empire, it is necessary to maintain overwhelming production.
To do that, workers must be exploited.
But the more workers are exploited, the redder they become.
Then it is the revolutionary gallows ending, just like the original work.
In order to make workers work willingly even while being exploited, there was no other way but to use nationalist sentiment.
In the end, for the South to survive, it cannot abandon the methods of the great powers.
But the more the methods of the great powers are used, the more the nation runs wild. The end is a catastrophe like that of the 20th-century great powers.
"So I must not be swept up by this atmosphere."
There was only one thing I could do.
Stick to the methods so far, but do not be swept up by those methods, by that power.
Not being intoxicated by imperialism, suppressing strange ideologies like eugenics and racial discrimination, and holding the reins of the South. Do not carry out strange acts like mass slaughter.
Do not forget that imperialism is madness.
"So I was only being wary of myself. I have no intention of turning this land I love into a cruel empire of blood and iron."
Wield imperialism, but do not become an imperialist.
It is an extreme balancing game.
"...Just having such worries makes you a good enough person, Your Grace. So I am sure you can do it, Your Grace."
"You think so?"
"Yes, I will help from your side as well."
Lucilla said with a faint smile.
"If we are both married to the South, then the South is like our child, isn't it?"
It was quite an amusing joke.
***
Unfortunately, I did not have that much time to be lost in thought.
Because I had never even considered that the Western Grand Duke Charles Raymonds would back down like this.
The existence of the Anti-Air gun greatly reduces the value of the Wyvern Knight Order.
That means it is something that should not happen for the West, which had held a great position within the Empire with just one Wyvern Knight.
Probably even if I were the Western Grand Duke, I would have considered bombing the Southern Factory district.
"How many Anti-Air guns have been additionally produced so far in total?"
"Approximately 120."
Fortunately, we succeeded in securing the minimum number of Anti-Air guns needed for airspace defense.
With this number, we cannot defend everywhere, but if we place them in the right places with the help of radar, it is enough to properly conduct air defense battles.
So the Anti-Air gun side was no longer my concern.
No matter how good a shield one has, without a spear, one will just remain a perpetual punching bag.
And right now, our territory had only one spear.
Dreadnought.
In order to make that spear sharper, there was something I had been developing for the past month.
"So, how is the destroyer construction project going?"
Destroyer.
Literally, it refers to a small ship class that hunts down targets that threaten battleships.
Is there anything that threatens even an invincible battleship?
Of course there was. The West's Wyvern Knight Order and the East's undersea monster corps.
A battleship is a ship class that went all-in on a single decisive blow against the enemy.
Because of its insufficient Anti-Air and anti-submarine capabilities, it cannot carelessly go out to sea alone.
Therefore, an escort ship was needed to serve as an anti-submarine warfare and Anti-Air battery at sea.
"Since a month ago, the shipyard stopped additional construction of
Dreadnoughts and has been building five 1,000-ton-class destroyers first. It is estimated that about two more weeks will be needed until launch."
Compared to battleship construction, destroyer construction is really easy.
Defense? Size? Those are not particularly important. They were just meant to serve as floating Anti-Air batteries next to battleships.
Thanks to that, we were able to complete five ships quickly.
"Good."
With this, a proper 'fleet' was completed.
Honestly, I cannot yet be sure whether the West will really launch a large-scale attack.
But if... the West really crosses the line.
Then I intended not to hold back either.
When I opened the drawer, the operation plan the staff had drawn up over the past two weeks revealed itself.
[ Western Invasion Plan ]
To briefly summarize the dozens of pages of the operation plan, it was like this.
1. Send a total of 10,000 troops from the 1st Order and 2nd Order through the western coastline to the capital.
2. The naval fleet blows away all obstacles such as forts, defense lines, and enemy corps along the coast.
3. The distance between the western port city Aquitaine and the western capital Forbin is 5 km. After occupying the port, anchor battleships in the port and crush Forbin's defense facilities.
4. Quickly occupy Forbin and force a surrender.
Joint operations where the fleet annihilates and the infantry occupies. One-sided bombardment using the technological gap. Blitzkrieg. It is an intuitive and effective operation.
Hoping the West would not choose a last resort, I quietly put the documents back into the drawer.