Holy Roman Empire-Chapter 1132 - 146, Crossroads

Chapter 1132: Chapter 146, Crossroads

Cape of Good Hope, the spark of this World War, was now nearing the end of its battle.

General Stad watched helplessly line after line get breached by the enemy, his entire being worn down by torment.

Unlike the previous war in South Africa, where the British had naval firepower for support, Cape of Good Hope was now an island unto itself.

Each time the Royal Navy arrived, the enemy’s air force would promptly follow, leaving no room for the Navy to act.

In a desperate attempt to reinforce Cape of Good Hope, within just two months, Britain had already lost 3 battleships and 18 merchant ships—a heavy price.

It was not that the enemy’s air force was too formidable; rather, it was their support that was lethal. None of the numerous British ships that sank were directly destroyed by the enemy.

...

Including the three sunk battleships, all succumbed to the waves after being damaged by the enemy.

There was nothing they could do; Cape of Desperation was known for its storms, with usual waves over two meters, and six to seven-meter waves being common, not to mention the occasional typhoons exceeding level eleven.

Navigating ships in undamaged condition was perilous enough, let alone with a compromised hull—survival depended solely on divine intervention.

To avoid attacks from Shinra’s Air Force, logistics had to be switched to nighttime operations; if daytime waves were dangerous, the nights were even worse.

Fortunately, it was currently summer in the southern hemisphere; one could only imagine the suffocating scenario during winter, with frequent monsoons and the notorious killer waves.

Rubbing his temple, the weary General Stad instructed the guard, “Send another telegram to the homeland, asking when the reinforcements will arrive?”

Up until now, Cape of Good Hope had already received three waves of reinforcements, with total forces once exceeding two hundred thousand.

Unfortunately, most of these reinforcements were from the Indian Colonial Army, adequate for cannon fodder, but their combat power was better left unmentioned.

The only units with some combat ability were two Australian divisions, yet their capacity was also extremely limited.

Straightforwardly oppressed by the Aristocratic Private Army, General Stad had lost all hope in the colonial troops, now placing his sole hope on native reinforcements.

Numerous pleas for help had been sent via telegram, but previously all were declined by the homeland under the pretext of “ongoing military expansion.”

General Stad fully understood the domestic difficulties. The army had such limited initial numbers; following expansion, the size had swelled by more than tenfold, with a severe lack of lower-ranking officers—nearly every veteran was an officer now.

All the troops were newly assembled; without proper integration and training, they couldn’t possibly be deployed to the battlefield.

Understanding was one thing, but on the battlefield, time waits for no one. Relying solely on a motley crew of colonial troops against the enemy meant no capacity to fight back.

Although the fighting capability of newly assembled native troops was similarly concerning, at least the officers were veterans, which by any means were better than the hastily gathered colonial cannon fodder.

There was nothing General Stad could do; the colonial forces of Britain mainly came from India, which was then also a frontline.

Any colonial troop with slight combat capability had been retained locally by the Governor of India; only the hastily assembled were sent as reinforcements to other areas.

These troops, barely fit for miscellaneous tasks, required supervision; deploying them into battle only served to hand lives to the enemy.

General Stad was not morally squeamish; if sacrificing cannon fodder could secure Cape of Good Hope, he wouldn’t mind using the troops to fill the gaps.

It cannot be said that there were no effects, the cannon fodder army still slowed down the enemy’s pace of attack, but it was a pity that it could not stop their advance.

Looking at the shrinking front lines, General Stad was “seeing it in his eyes, anxious in his heart,” fearing that he would lose this strategic position under his watch and become a criminal in Britain.

The only consolation was that there were more than one unlucky ones, and there were worse ones to cushion the blow.

The Far Eastern Fleet had lost Malacca, Cam Ranh Bay was also in jeopardy; next door, British-East Africa was trapped in a lonely city, the reinforcements could not enter, and it was estimated that collapse was a matter of days.

Everyone was losing battles, the public’s capacity to endure had been trained, as long as he performed better than his colleagues, his chances of escaping this calamity were very high.

Especially since London was trembling under enemy bombardment, it had drawn the attention of the public, and all firepower was attracted by the bigwigs in the country.

Without the cooperation of his colleagues, according to usual practice, General Stad, who had suffered a series of defeats, would now either be in a military court or on the way to one.

Now things were different, unless the Cape of Good Hope fell, the London Government simply would not consider a change.

On one hand, there was a shortage of military officers in Britain, and on the other hand, no one was willing to jump into this huge pit.

An absolute gap in strength could not be changed by individual power. Even if Geoffrey Amherst were to take over, the result could not be altered.

Quiet moments were always fleeting. Accompanied by the sound of alarms, the Cape of Good Hope once again entered a state of “planes in the air, cannons roaring.”

As the war reignited, not waiting for a response from the domestic authorities, General Stad turned and walked towards the Command Center.

After a series of defeats, the morale of the garrison had hit rock bottom. As for the origin of the Indian Colonial Army, they never had morale to begin with, naturally not subject to any fall.

Panic, hostility, hatred, pessimism… all sorts of negative emotions were spreading among the garrison.

At this moment, the Cape of Good Hope was like a keg of gunpowder, just needing a spark to explosively detonate.

The higher-ups were having a difficult time, the frontline soldiers were faring even worse. Days of fighting had already left them physically and mentally exhausted.

War was filled with danger, but it also contained opportunities. For instance, Captain Berandt, who had been promoted from a regular soldier to a Company Captain since the war broke out.

Although he had not been formally invested, his appointment had already been announced. Rules were meant to be broken, special measures for special times, everything simplified during the war.

Berandt was not an isolated case in the British Army, there were many similar battlefield promotions. It was not that the British Army’s promotion system had changed, but mainly because of the high casualty rate among the company and platoon level officers.

Due to the urgent need for expansion, there was a severe shortage of junior officers, thus “talents” had to be promoted from among the veterans.

However, Berandt didn’t want this promotion at all. There was no choice, being an officer meant leading charges into the line of fire, with the Supervisory Team watching from behind, there was nowhere to hide.

In just two months, Berandt’s company had already changed five commanders, being the sixth was inevitably stressful.

Maybe it was a curse, among the five predecessors, one was promoted during the expansion, two were still lying in the hospital behind the lines, and the other two had met God.

Such a terrifying casualty rate, literally a “death company commander.” Unfortunately, the appointment was mandatory, leaving no room for Berandt to refuse.

Under a hail of bullets and shells, continuing to defend the position, Captain Berandt no longer felt fear, just numbness.

To the east, there were fierce explosions; to the south, bullets flew everywhere; overhead, there were rows of bursting shells, like a volcano without a base.

Captain Berandt lay low in a makeshift trench, burying his head deep without any intention of peeking out.

The ground had already begun to tremble; from his experience, Captain Berandt knew that the enemy’s tank division was approaching.

“The enemy is coming, prepare for battle!”

Regardless, duty had to be performed. Although he did not believe that the ragtag group he led could do much against the enemy tanks, resistance was still essential.

…

Compared to the tense defenders, the attackers were much more relaxed. Shinra had implemented a universal reserve system, and the aristocratic private army had already regrouped according to the reserve structure.

The battle had progressed to this point, with not only the aristocratic private army participating but also the regular army stationed in Africa appearing on the battlefield.

The advancing tank division in front of them was among the elite; since their involvement in battle, they had been “invincible, annihilating gods and slaughtering Buddhas,” dominating the battlefield without equal.

Their advantage was that the British Army lacked anti-tank weapons and didn’t have enough armored troops. With tanks supporting the infantry in attacking the enemy, success was hardly a challenge.

After all, it was a colony – regardless of its strategic importance, the British wouldn’t likely position two tank divisions at the Cape of Good Hope, but the Holy Roman Empire could.

On the vast African Continent, to say placing two tank divisions was nothing, even several more wouldn’t meet any opposition.

It was different for the British Army; a miniature army meant naturally there weren’t many armored divisions to speak of.

Although both were tank divisions, each country’s configuration varied significantly; one Shinra tank division could almost match two British Army tank divisions.

Yet, even these downsized tank divisions, the British Army had only a few. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to, but military spending was limited, and they couldn’t afford such expensive “toys.”

Although armored troops also belonged to the army, in terms of expenditure, they were in line with the navy and air force.

A battleship’s expenditure could support an infantry division; however, for the armored division, even the most advanced battleship’s daily expenditure couldn’t keep up with a tank battalion. (Calculated based on a 3-3-4 system, a battalion consisting of 108 tanks)

It was reality that forced this decision; if the British Army didn’t save, how could the Royal Navy dominate the world?

If they were to engage in an arms race across army, navy, and air force, no matter how wealthy the Great Britain Empire was, it couldn’t sustain it.

This was determined by economic scale; the limit of the British Isles was there, and they couldn’t exceed their capacity.

With command not keeping up, equipment not keeping up, training not keeping up, morale similarly not keeping up, it was already an asymmetric war – it would be problematic if it wasn’t one-sided on the battlefield.

At the enemy’s forward command post, Baron von Lott, the supreme commander at the frontline, wasn’t focused on the battlefield at the moment.

British-South Africa was simply too small; although the Cape of Good Hope was very well-known, for the Holy Roman Empire, owning the Suez Canal, it was just so-so.

Its economic value was mediocre, and its strategic value was also just average. “Important” was only relative to the British; controlling it meant Shinra couldn’t strangle their neck.

Perhaps with continuous development in economics and technology, merchant ships would gradually increase in size, highlighting the importance of the Cape of Good Hope in the future.

But that was just a possibility; at present, the Suez Canal route was sufficient to meet the needs of commercial trade.

Even in the Holy Roman Empire, when calculating military merits, one couldn’t avoid being influenced by economic and strategic values.

Typically, the greater the economic and strategic value of a conquered territory, the greater the merit of its conquest, and vice versa.

Cape of Good Hope was not of high importance to the Holy Roman Empire, but that did not mean the efforts invested were insignificant. For this war, the nobility of Africa had indeed contributed generously, both financially and physically.

Even now, much of the strategic resources on the South Africa battlefield were being fronted by private commitments.

Although the government would eventually cover these expenses, they also needed to be accounted for in military merits. Who would be so earnest without seeing any benefits?

According to the custom of the Holy Roman Empire, if everyone jointly exerted their efforts and captured British-South Africa, then after the war, dividing the land and property of British-South Africa would naturally follow.

The problem now was that too many were eligible for a share of the spoils, yet British-South Africa was not a big enough “cake.”

Uneven distribution of spoils has always been a taboo. If significant effort did not lead to corresponding rewards, then in the future, everyone would weigh the pros and cons before participating in war.

The eventual result would be: everyone rushes for the meat and ignores the bones. Then, the Military Merit Ennoblement System would collapse.

There have been similar cases in history. The most typical one was the agricultural and military system of the Qin Empire, which collapsed due to latecomers having no land to divide.

At this moment, the Holy Roman Empire is also at such a crossroads. The only difference is that we have now entered the Industrial Age and still have the opportunity to make new choices.

Of course, this issue needs to be considered by the upper echelons of the government. As the supreme commander at the front, Baron von Lott had not thought deeply about it yet.

Currently, his problem was: how to allocate the spoils, which were insufficient to satisfy most people.

Although titles and lands are ultimately determined by the Emperor; Baron von Lott was responsible for verifying the military merits and also included providing detailed handling plans.

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Generally speaking, as long as the frontline military merits were accurately confirmed, the division of lands and the granting of titles would consider the opinions of the frontline commanders.

Of course, that’s only part of it; in actual operation, there are many more considerations, such as taking into account the personal wishes of those being awarded as much as possible.

Relatively, the nobility had less leeway in choosing their fiefdoms, and the larger the fiefdom, the less choice there was.

Conversely, ordinary soldiers, who gained ten or dozens of acres of land, usually had their personal wishes respected.

Even if they could not be accommodated, they would be placed in surrounding areas, not too far away.

Baron von Lott had carefully calculated that all the armed forces participating in this war totaled up to a staggering 230,000.

According to the military merits calculated on the battlefield, it would be an achievement to settle the ordinary soldiers who earned merits in the small area of British-South Africa.

There was no way around it; there were only about twenty or thirty thousand square kilometers, excluding cities, forests, and land unsuitable for farming or grazing—indeed, the land available for establishing farms was limited.

For soldiers, the solution was relatively easy: if the land in British-South Africa was insufficient, another region could be chosen for settlement. Given the scale of this war, the Vienna Government would surely not lack land after the war.

The real trouble was with the nobility, according to past traditions, those who conquered the land had the priority in its distribution, and those who did not participate in the war naturally had no right to claim a share.

Before this, in the anti-French war, the entire African Continent was considered a single battlefield, and this issue did not arise.

But the battle at Cape of Good Hope this time was independent, unconnected to any other battlefield. Assigning the heroes to other areas would violate the unspoken rules of the game and could potentially face resistance.