"Release the Belgin civilians we rescued from the flood zone this afternoon?"
Colonel List was genuinely stunned by the suggestion. It took him a moment to react. "But division headquarters sent a telegram this afternoon, ordering us to rescue some Belgin civilians while we were at it. They said it was to secure witnesses in case there's endless bickering in international public opinion later. It would prove that the Belgins blew the dikes and released the water, preventing the empire from being framed. If we release them now, won't we lose our witnesses? They'll definitely be locked up and coerced into changing their stories."
Lelouch wiped his mouth, inwardly gaining a rough understanding of the Demanians' level of propaganda and strategy.
You could say they were fine when it came to dabbling in technology and engineering, but when it came to schemes and psychological warfare, they were completely lacking in the face of Eastern wisdom.
Since that was the case, he would open their eyes today.
Lelouch took another sip of wine, cleared his throat, and said solemnly, "Even if we need witnesses, we don't need hundreds of them. Picking a few representative ones will be enough. We can release more than half of them.
"We can screen them. For example, we can keep those who no longer have family in the enemy-occupied zones and have nowhere else to go. They don't have any weaknesses to exploit, so they will speak relatively objectively and won't be easily blackmailed into lying.
"We can release those who still have family in the Belgin-controlled areas. Since they would worry about retaliation and bringing disaster upon their families if they spoke out of turn anyway, we might as well do them a favor.
"And once we let them go, they might privately spread tales of our army's righteous and humane image, as well as our frantic, life-or-death scramble to escape the flood zone. This will indirectly prove that we absolutely weren't the ones who blew the dike—if we had blown it, our troops wouldn't have been in the low-lying areas at the time.
"We've just repelled Degizel. If we ride this momentum to launch a psychological propaganda campaign to disrupt the Belgin army's morale, the enemy might crumble even faster!"Using military and propaganda tactics in tandem to strike the enemy by any means necessary—Lelouch had harbored this line of thinking for a long time. He had mentioned it previously when he persuaded Captain Andri to broadcast a warning to the towns on both banks of the Yser River.
It was just that the frontal combat missions had been more urgent earlier. He had to consider priorities, leaving him no time to dig deeper into specific implementation methods.
If they didn't beat the enemy into submission on the battlefield first, relying solely on moral condemnation to shake their morale would be impossible. Condemnation mostly just gave the enemy a way to step down after they had already suffered military setbacks.
Now that the enemy had just suffered a crushing defeat, the timing was perfect.
With just a few words from Lelouch, the upright Colonel List, who only understood military affairs, gasped in shock.
'Is he really a Demanian? How is he even more cunning than a Britannian? To actually be able to think through this kind of issue so thoroughly... only those London financial dogs who spend every day figuring out how to backstab people could do this...' List couldn't help but let his imagination run wild.
"Then when do you think is the best time to release them? Should we let them go in the middle of the night?" The colonel and the other proper military officers were completely clueless about these underhanded tricks, so they weren't ashamed to ask, seizing upon Lelouch alone to pick his brain.
Fortunately, the German Army had strict discipline and clear rewards and punishments, so he didn't have to worry about someone stealing credit for his schemes.
Lelouch decided to see his plan through, immediately providing an in-depth analysis. "I think we can start preparing tonight. We can slowly screen who needs to be released, treat them to a good meal before sending them off, and bestow some minor favors.
"Just before dawn tomorrow, we can negotiate with the Belgin army. At that time, we'll supplement this with two other maneuvers. First, we'll use our Radio Sets to broadcast divisive telegrams to the enemy's high-ranking officers, telling them that their king and cabinet have betrayed the people, and that their war decisions are only for the benefit of London's bankers.
"However, this trick won't work on enemies below the regimental level, because ordinary soldiers can't access Radio Sets at all. Therefore, we need to coordinate this with another move—
"For instance, we can request permission from our superiors to gather a sufficient number of reconnaissance planes in the rear tonight. We'll work through the night to mimeograph a batch of leaflets, along with the photos of the enemy bombing the dam taken by our reconnaissance planes yesterday.
"Tomorrow morning, we'll have the planes fly in close to airdrop them, ensuring that a large number of grassroots soldiers can pick up the leaflets and learn the truth. I refuse to believe their morale won't waver!"
Releasing the humanely rescued refugees, making radio broadcasts, and scattering leaflets from airplanes.
A three-pronged propaganda war—let's see how the enemy blocks that!
These moves might not force the enemy to surrender directly, but making their will to fight plummet was absolutely doable!
The colonel had never thought about these issues before. Seeing how thoroughly Lelouch had considered everything, he completely trusted the young man.
He immediately stated that he would arrange for his adjutant to handle screening the refugees, while also having the regimental telegraph operator send a telegram to request instructions from division headquarters.
As he said this, the colonel specifically made a show of sympathizing with his subordinate.
"You've already been transmitting for so long today, and you just inspected and deployed the defenses with us. You must be exhausted. Go get some rest early. I'll just have the regimental telegraph operator handle the message to the division headquarters."
Lelouch himself felt very tired, especially since he hadn't eaten anything all day and had just wolfed down his dinner, causing blood to rush to his stomach. He was growing sleepier by the minute.
However, upon hearing the colonel's arrangement, his heart gave a jolt as he quickly realized a problem.
Before he transmigrated, he had read extensive military history regarding World War I and World War II. He knew very well that Demania's ciphers were as flimsy as paper against the Britannians.
Every time a world war broke out, their codes were cracked by the enemy shortly after it began.
For this scheme to achieve its optimal effect, the element of surprise was crucial. That was why he had just suggested waiting for the right moment and launching a three-pronged attack simultaneously, making it impossible for the enemy to defend against.
But now, if they were to first use the radio to request instructions from the division headquarters in the rear, and then have that forwarded to the army group headquarters, a huge chunk of the night would be wasted on the back-and-forth.
And since the enemy could decipher their codes, the plan would have been leaked long before then.
For all he knew, by tomorrow morning, the Belgin army might have already tightly locked down their information controls and preemptively forbidden their soldiers from picking up any leaflets. If that happened, the propaganda effect would be vastly diminished.
The element of surprise in propaganda was of the utmost importance.
'Can we do it like today's flood warning, only asking for permission an hour or two before it happens?' Lelouch naturally thought of his successful experience that afternoon. He ran through the scenario in his mind, feeling somewhat reliant on his previous success.
If they transmitted the message at the last minute, the enemy wouldn't have time to react. Intercepting, analyzing, and decrypting all took time.
But Lelouch quickly realized that the two situations were completely different.
With that afternoon's request, once the division headquarters finalized the decision, they could immediately begin implementing it without needing to set aside time for preparation.
But mimeographing leaflets, printing aerial photos, and dispatching enough planes to scatter them all required time. It would take nearly an entire night.
If he waited until the latter half of the night to send the message to prevent the enemy from decrypting it early, the higher-ups definitely wouldn't have time to get everything ready.
Therefore, this telegram absolutely had to be sent out as soon as possible during the first half of the night. It would be best if it could be sent securely. If there really was no way to keep it a secret, they would just have to abandon their pursuit of surprise.
Thinking of this, Lelouch couldn't help but give the colonel one last tactful reminder. "Sir, the element of surprise in propaganda is crucial. If we use the radio to send the message a night in advance, the enemy might be alerted ahead of time..."
List furrowed his brow. "Do you think our encrypted telegrams will be intercepted and deciphered by the enemy?"
Lelouch really wanted to just say yes, but he couldn't. He had absolutely no proof, nor did he want to expose his foresight. After a moment of hesitation, he could only speak vaguely.
"Regardless of whether they can be deciphered or not, in a life-or-death moment like tonight, if our telegrams to the rear are too frequent, it'll still make the enemy alert."
Colonel List stroked the stubble on his chin. He thought for a moment before remembering something. "Right, didn't you mention earlier that your platoon was sent here this morning specifically to repair the town's wired telegraph cables? Can they be fixed?
"If we communicate with the rear by transmitting via a wired connection, won't we avoid being intercepted by the enemy? Then the enemy won't even know these telegrams exist, much less spy on us or get suspicious!"
Lelouch's eyes lit up.
That was right. How could he have forgotten the task the original owner of his body had accepted before he transmigrated and took over?
Telegrams sent via wired cables were much more difficult to intercept than radio transmissions.
When transmitting via radio, the radio waves spread indiscriminately in all directions through the atmosphere. For example, if they wanted to transmit to the rear headquarters a hundred kilometers away, anyone within a hundred-kilometer radius of the transmission point could potentially intercept it, as long as they tuned to the right frequency.
But wired telegrams were different. The electric current only traveled along the cable, leaving the air largely unaffected.
It wasn't impossible to eavesdrop on wired communications, but you either had to wiretap or plant spies at signal relay and receiving stations, or hope to physically touch the cables halfway—slicing the cable open to splice a section of line in parallel and then listening in on it.
In other words, eavesdropping on wired communications required direct physical contact.
By the late stages of World War I, the Britannians would invent a semi-contact wiretapping method. Instead of slicing open the target cable and splicing it, they only needed to wrap a coil around the outside of the cable they wanted to tap and then eavesdrop using the principle of electromagnetic induction.
But it was only 1914 right now. That kind of technology didn't exist yet.
"Since it's dark now and we won't be easily disturbed by the enemy, I'll take some men to see if we can repair that telegraph cable right away. Please give me two hours, Colonel. If I assess that it can't be done, you can then use the Radio Set to request instructions from the rear."
Having figured it out, Lelouch decisively volunteered for the task.
It was currently around eight o'clock at night. If it wasn't fixed by ten o'clock, they would have to forsake the element of surprise for the propaganda request.
The colonel checked his watch and gave a decisive nod of approval. "Alright, we'll start preparing the other things first and wait for you until ten o'clock. Just focus on your own task; you boys don't need to worry about the combat."