Flowers bloom in two places, each representing a branch.
The Belgin forces sought foreign aid from Britannia, and the endless bickering, negotiating, and planning consumed almost an entire day.
On the frontal battlefield, King Albert of Belgin had not completely given up hope. Naturally, he refused to let his troops slack off or halt their offensive.
Diplomatic appeals for aid and independent attempts to break the siege—he could not afford to slacken on either front; they had to grit their teeth and fight to the bitter end.
Thanks to Lelouch and Colonel List's psychological warfare, morale among the Belgin troops had crumbled. With the men restless and wavering, the entire morning of the 26th was wasted, stalling any serious offensive.
The remnants of the 4th Division were pulled back to Ostend to rotate defenses and cover the rear. The 6th Division merely went through the motions, their half-hearted charges easily repelled by the German Army.
With the pressure on the eastern flank vastly reduced, Colonel List could spare more men to shore up the western defenses against the Franks' supporting offensive.
This sparked a chain reaction. The Franks' attacks lost their bite, and the German Army beat them back time and time again.
The Franks fielded an ever-growing number of 75mm artillery pieces, but they couldn't fundamentally tip the scales in this urban battlefield.
The town was already a sea of rubble, and indiscriminately shelling the ruins with 75mm guns accomplished little. Defenders hiding on the reverse slope of the debris piles easily survived, letting the increasingly packed layers of collapsed stone absorb the shockwaves and shrapnel.The only real solution was to pull the 75mm guns up for direct fire, meticulously eliminating strongpoints one by one, or to indiscriminately flatten the area with massive heavy artillery. Unfortunately for the Franks, they moved too slowly to drag super-heavy artillery to the front within a day or two. All they could do was sigh in frustration.
On the eastern front of Nieuwpoort, the stalemate dragged on until about one or two in the afternoon. The situation finally shifted when the 1st Belgin Division arrived—a unit entirely composed of diehard royalists boasting the highest morale in the army.
Lieutenant General Albert Berghem, commander of the 1st Division, was fiercely loyal to the King. Before deploying, His Majesty had grasped his hand, shaking it vigorously while imparting repeated words of encouragement.
"The kingdom's very survival rests on this battle. If you cannot break through, Belgin ends here."
His Majesty's words struck Lieutenant General Berghem like a sledgehammer, forging his resolve to fight to the death and save his homeland.
Barely half an hour after arriving at the front, the 1st Division ate a quick lunch and shook off the worst of their forced-march fatigue. Without a moment's delay, Lieutenant General Berghem ordered a relentless assault at all costs!
To bolster morale, the troops were treated to a lavish midday meal. Every soldier received a ration of canned meat.
King Albert even donated his royal cellar's reserve wines, cured hams, and other prized ingredients to reward the 1st Division.
The King also issued a full six months of advance pay to every officer and enlisted man. The royal family emptied their foreign reserves of Britannia pounds, distributing glittering gold and silver coins directly into the soldiers' hands.
With preparations complete, Lieutenant General Berghem requested fire support from their allies. He hoped the Britannia light cruiser that had prowled the nearby coast the day before would sweep the enemy positions once more with its 150mm guns.
Following the naval bombardment, the Belgins would concentrate their own handful of 75mm artillery for covering fire. He even contacted the Franks situated west of the town, requesting they push their 75mm guns forward by a few kilometers. By firing at maximum elevation, the shells could clear the town and rain down on the German Army's eastern defenses.
It was a brilliant plan in theory, but as Berghem moved to execute it, he quickly realized his grand strategy was falling apart at the seams.
"General, the Franks replied that they are willing to push their 75mm guns to within three kilometers of the western front line, ensuring their shells can clear the town and strike the east.
"But Britannia won't be able to support us. They sent a Secret Telegram stating that the cruiser Daring has been temporarily reassigned to prepare for a more critical mission."
"Motherfucking Britannia bastards! Flaking out at the worst possible moment! How many times in history have they sold out their allies? What mission could possibly be more important than supporting my breakout?" Lieutenant General Berghem snarled, grinding his teeth in fury.
But the arrow on the bowstring had to be released. Unable to wait for the Royal Navy, he immediately ordered a thirty-minute artillery barrage, followed by a full-scale charge!
...
Inside Nieuwpoort, the artillery barrage from the Allied Forces reached an unprecedented level of ferocity.
Lelouch and a group of officers huddled in the cellar serving as Colonel List's regimental command post. Their expressions were grim; no one dared lower their guard.
"The Belgins have lost their minds! We already broke their morale! How do they suddenly have so much fight left in them?" A staff officer gripped his head, cursing the enemy in furious bewilderment.
"Calm down! This is the enemy's final, desperate frenzy!" Colonel List snapped. His face was pale, his expression severe yet resolute.
"The Colonel is right," Lelouch chimed in, seizing the moment. "We must have struck them where it hurts the most, driving them to desperation. If we can just weather this wave, their collapse is guaranteed."
Lelouch wasn't trying to suck up to the Colonel, nor was he looking to step on any toes; he genuinely just wanted to help stabilize the command room's morale.
Colonel List shot him a brief, approving glance before calmly issuing his orders. "Commander of the 1st Battalion, pull all our 77mm guns to the western defensive line. Try to spot the Franks' artillery positions. If you can counter-battery them, do it.
"The enemy's shells are flying right over our heads. That tells us the Franks have pushed their artillery as far forward as possible to get the range. This is the perfect opportunity to hit them with counter-battery fire."
The major commanding the 1st Battalion hesitated. Before carrying out the order, he cautiously voiced a concern.
"But sir, if we reassign all our artillery to the western line to counter their guns, we won't have enough long-range firepower to repel the Belgins when they charge from the east.
"Are we going to rely on an elastic defense again? We'd have to let their infantry into the town for close-quarters combat, and our casualties are already piling up. We won't last."
Many of the other officers nodded in quiet agreement, looking deeply troubled.
It was a grim but valid point.
Fortunately, just as the men began to exchange uneasy glances, Colonel List put their fears to rest. "I have the confidence to make this decision because our forces still have a trump card. Lelouch, read the telegram we received from Division Headquarters just after noon!"
"Yes, sir!" Lelouch stood, pulled out a telegraph transcript, and began to read.
"Division Command replies: After receiving the flood warning yesterday, our division's artillery regiment doubled back. They have now relocated to the hills north of Dixmude, where they are actively deploying and establishing new firing positions.
"Furthermore, last night, our division petitioned Army Command to urgently dispatch long-range heavy artillery capable of firing over 15 kilometers to this same sector. Command approved the request, transporting the guns overnight by train to Tielt. By late morning, trucks had urgently towed the heavy artillery to Dixmude."
The telegram had arrived shortly after lunch, so most of the officers were entirely unaware of it. With a major battle imminent, Colonel List had saved the announcement for this exact moment to maximize morale.
It took a moment for the news to sink in for some, but those with a sharp grasp of geography caught on.
The major commanding the 1st Battalion—the same man who had just questioned his orders—only needed a few seconds of thought before he excitedly began tracing lines on the military map across the table.
"Is it that patch of hills just north of Dixmude? Division Headquarters was cut off by the floods down in Dixmude, south of the Yser River!" he exclaimed. "Look at the map. The center of Dixmude is 18 kilometers from us, and those hills are 16 kilometers out. But if you draw a perpendicular line straight down to the coastline, the closest point between those hills and the coastal highway is only 14 kilometers!
"So what Headquarters is saying is that even though their main infantry can't reach us, they spent all night and morning redeploying their artillery. Their artillery regiment is still in the fight and can support us!"
Once the major laid it out, even the slowest officers in the room understood the implications.
Exactly! The massive floods yesterday had isolated the 12th Division's main force, but the widest section of the Yser River's flood zone only spanned roughly ten kilometers on either bank—twenty kilometers in total.
But it wasn't that wide everywhere. In areas with higher elevation, the floodwaters narrowed the gap to roughly 15 kilometers.
At that distance, infantry reinforcements couldn't cross, but the artillery sure could fire over the flood zone and bombard the coastal highway!
Division Headquarters had scrambled relentlessly, finally securing viable firing positions.
More importantly, it showed the men of the 16th Regiment that their Division Commander and the Army Command had not abandoned them. The top brass were pouring every ounce of their resources into fighting this battle alongside them!
It might have looked like the 16th Regiment was holding the frontline trenches all alone, but they were absolutely not fighting by themselves!
"With the division's artillery regiment backing us, we've got this!" Several officers audibly sighed in relief, their crushing despair turning into eager confidence.
Colonel List frowned slightly at this and shot Lelouch another meaningful glance. Catching his cue, Lelouch pointed back to the telegram and raised his voice.
"Don't underestimate the situation, everyone. Things aren't as dire as we feared, but it's not a walk in the park either. Fifteen kilometers is no short distance. Our division's standard howitzers don't have anywhere near the range to hit the coastal highway across the flood zone.
"Only the four long-barreled 105mm cannons assigned to each division for counter-battery fire can make that shot. Fortunately, Division Command was busy last night. They borrowed eight more of these cannons from neighboring units, concentrating three entire divisions' worth of long-range guns. Furthermore, Army Command acquired four prototype 150mm cannons currently in development at the Krupp testing grounds in Aachen. They were rushed here via train overnight.
"That means we have twelve long-barreled 105mm cannons and four unknown prototype 150mm cannons. The best part? Not a single 150mm or smaller artillery piece in the Belgin or Frankish arsenals can match that range. Our artillery is going to pound the Belgins into the dirt with absolute impunity! They won't even be able to fire back at our artillery positions!
"The Empire has poured massive resources into long-range counter-battery cannons, but previous battles haven't given us the chance to truly put them to use. By unleashing the floods to isolate the north from the south, the Belgins have handed us the perfect opportunity on a silver platter. The Empire finally gets to test this doctrine in a live-fire scenario!"
Hearing this, the men's spirits surged.
Since ancient times, there had been no better way to break an enemy's morale than raining unilateral destruction down upon them while their own weapons fell miserably short.
Regardless of the actual damage inflicted, forcing an army to endure a beating without any hope of retaliation meant it was only a matter of time before their fighting spirit completely shattered.