If Lelouch had simply announced, "The Empire's radio codes have been cracked by the Brit Nation," Major General Karl would never have believed him.
How could a mere lieutenant—especially one who was a corporal just three days prior and had never touched top-level secrets—claim to know such a thing with absolute certainty?
But Lelouch had cleverly approached the issue from his own area of expertise. He used the recent destruction of their submarine cable by an enemy vessel and the presence of a Britannian mole inside the Netherlands telegraph company as his entry point.
By subtly weaving in his own theories and emphasizing the potential scale and catastrophic risk of the leak, he left Major General Karl with no choice but to believe him.
At this point, Major General Karl was certain of two things.
First, a leak in their communications intelligence definitely existed.
Second, the exact scope of the compromised information remained unknown.
In times of war, however, uncertainty demanded caution. They had to assume the enemy knew everything and prepare for the worst-case scenario.
Therefore, any upcoming operations had to be organized without telecommunications whenever possible, regardless of whether it was through wired or wireless channels.
Traditional Demanian officers were generally terrible at intelligence work and deception. Because of this, Major General Karl had no choice but to rely on the same man who had brought the problem to his attention."Then how do you suggest we convince Rear Admiral Hipper?" Karl asked. "What communication method should we use to contact him? And how exactly do you plan to verify this intelligence by beating them at their own game?"
Having an external, auxiliary brain was quite convenient; it never hurt to listen to his ideas first.
It was a massive question. Lelouch couldn't answer immediately. He pondered the problem carefully for a long time before speaking in an exploratory tone.
"As it stands, the safest way to contact Rear Admiral Hipper is to send an airplane directly to Wilhelmshaven and speak with him face-to-face.
"To ensure safety and bypass Netherlands airspace, the flight would be roughly five hundred kilometers. A plane could make the trip in three or four hours. However, to secure a face-to-face meeting, a VIP would either have to go in person, or we would need a handwritten letter carrying sufficient weight, bearing a VIP's seal."
Before Lelouch could even finish, Major General Karl patted his chest. "That won't be a problem. I can write the letter myself. The plane can even make a layover at my royal brother's headquarters to acquire higher-level authorization, provided the contents of the letter are convincing enough."
Major General Karl realized his own word might not carry enough weight, which was why he wanted to involve his older brother, the Crown Prince. As a full general and Rear Admiral Hipper's former superior, his brother's influence would make the letter far more persuasive.
With the communication method finalized, Lelouch continued to explain how they could beat them at their own game.
"Furthermore, if we want to determine whether the enemy is intercepting our wired communications or deciphering our wireless signals, we can send two separate pieces of false intelligence via wired and wireless telegraphs while the real intelligence is delivered in person via plane.
"The first message will serve as cover for Rear Admiral Hipper. As you know, over the three months since the war broke out, Rear Admiral Hipper has led the First Scouting Group to bombard Britannian ports twice. Both times, they blasted port facilities, shipyards, drydocks, and moored merchant ships to pieces before beating a hasty retreat at high speed.
"This time, we can use the wired telegraph to send a message to Wilhelmshaven. The message could read something like, 'Investigations reveal that the Britannian cruiser that extracted the King of Belgin has established a new outpost anchorage near De Panne...' The exact wording isn't important. I'm no expert when it comes to the navy's tactical target selection, so we can let General Hipper decide on the specifics himself.
"In short, we feed the enemy a fake tip: the Empire has flown into a furious rage because a Brit Nation cruiser managed to extract the King of Belgin. Now that we suspect a certain port has become the new anchorage for this Brit Nation light cruiser patrol, we want revenge. We will request warships to bombard the anchorage using their usual hit-and-run tactics.
"If the enemy intercepts this wired telegram and reinforces the naval defenses of this frontline port—or if they temporarily divert the bombardment fleet meant for Nieuwpoort to bolster their defenses—the Empire will know for certain. We will know we can no longer contact the homeland via the submarine cables running through the Netherlands, because there is undeniably a spy leaking secrets from the relay stations within Netherlands territory!
"The second telegram, however, will be sent via wireless radio. It can be formatted as a reply from the rear, stating: 'The above request has been forwarded to General Hipper's command. However, the General has already set sail on another mission and is currently maintaining strict radio silence. His fleet's Radio Set is in a receive-only state and cannot transmit to avoid exposing their position at sea.' At the same time, we can vaguely mention in cipher within the reply that General Hipper's original target was to 'bombard one of several ports on the eastern coast of Britannia at random, depending on the operational circumstances.'
"This way, if the Britannians reinforce the defenses around those eastern ports—or even divert warships south from Scotland to lay an ambush—we will know for a fact that our radio codes have been cracked. Of course, given how crafty Minister Warton is, he might intentionally leave the ports undefended to make us think our codes are perfectly safe, lulling us into a false sense of security so we don't change them."
Hearing all this, Major General Karl and Colonel List felt their heads spinning.
How were there so many twists and turns? Just listening to it was making them dizzy!
"Hold on! You're suggesting we send the initial message via wired telegraph, but have the rear reply via wireless radio. Wouldn't that seem too deliberate?" Major General Karl had thought long and hard to spot this loophole, and he hurriedly pointed it out.
"That's an easy fix," Lelouch replied. "When we send the initial wired telegram, we can add a note stating: 'The frontline situation is rapidly shifting. The location of the 6th Army headquarters is subject to change at any moment. Please do not reply via wired telegraph.' If the headquarters relocates, a wired reply sent back along the same route obviously wouldn't reach us."
Lelouch casually plugged the loophole. To a modern man like him, such an excuse was child's play.
It was exactly like calling someone on a landline but asking them to call back on a cell phone. Wasn't that perfectly logical? All one had to say was, "I'm leaving soon, so you won't be able to reach me on the landline."
Anyone living in the era of mobile communications could effortlessly come up with a similar excuse. However, people in 1914 didn't necessarily live with the constant realization that wireless communications were far more flexible than wired ones. It wasn't surprising that Karl hadn't immediately considered it.
Major General Karl chewed over Lelouch's words for a moment. When he looked back at the young man, his gaze was growing increasingly... reverent.
This young man's mind was simply too brilliant.
Striking while the iron was hot, Lelouch concluded, "Of course, to flawlessly execute this intelligence deception and beat them at their own game, we will need to cover our tracks afterward.
"For example, if General Hipper actually wins this upcoming naval conflict, we can't afford to be openly smug about it. Otherwise, the Britannians will immediately realize that we know they've cracked our codes.
"We could even orchestrate a scenario where the Admiralty's higher-ups publicly reprimand Rear Admiral Hipper. They could hold him accountable for going rogue and failing to bombard the enemy ports according to their original plan. We have to paint General Hipper's victory as a result of his own insubordination and glory-seeking, rather than a calculated trap laid by the Admiralty.
"That way, even if the Britannians suffer a bitter defeat, they'll write it off. They will think, 'Our intelligence branch didn't fail. The intel we intercepted was perfectly accurate; it's just that an insubordinate Demanian general went rogue at the frontlines and refused to follow his orders.'"
Lelouch considered this final point to be extremely crucial.
The fact that the Demanian Navy knew their radio codes were compromised was an enormously valuable piece of leverage in itself.
It simply wouldn't be worth exposing such a massive secret just to verify a leak, bombard a couple of ports, and sink a few Pre-dreadnoughts and cruisers.
In his original history, hadn't the High Seas Fleet been completely bottled up and rendered useless primarily because their radio communications were completely transparent to the enemy? And when they finally mustered the resolve to launch the massive Battle of Jutland, the enemy had essentially been cheating with perfect visibility, seeing their entire campaign troop composition in advance.
But what if the Demanians knew this beforehand? What if they saved this secret until the Battle of Jutland? Couldn't they use it to score a massive victory in one fell swoop?
This secret had to be carefully treasured. For now, this was merely a probe, which made covering their tracks in the aftermath paramount.
They had to solidify the enemy's belief: the operational plans intercepted by Britannian intelligence were absolutely genuine. The only reason they lost was because a hotheaded Demanian commander had privately disobeyed his orders and failed to execute the intended plan.
By the time he heard this, Major General Karl was staring at Lelouch as if he were looking at a god.
This had to be the will of God!
God wanted to punish the evil Britannians, which was why He had sent this prophet to deliver His divine revelation!
With such a profoundly brilliant strategist on their side, how could their great cause possibly fail?
Major General Karl stared deeply into Lelouch's eyes, searching his gaze for any hint of sincerity or deceit.
But Lelouch's gaze remained unyieldingly sincere and resolute. There was not a trace of hesitation.
Seeing Lelouch's blood-red left eye—still discolored from the lingering effects of the toxic tear gas—a profound sense of reverence and trust inexplicably welled up in Major General Karl's heart.
That eye was proof that this young man had braved hell for the Empire. He had no reason whatsoever to doubt the man's loyalty.
The world of 1914 was still deeply steeped in remnants of mysticism. Many national leaders—especially the ignorant royalty and nobility—still fervently believed in miracles.
For a brief moment, Major General Karl even convinced himself that Lelouch's blood-red left eye possessed the divine power to see through any deception. Trusting him was undoubtedly the right choice.