Plus Ultra

by Carlo Zen

  …Of all things, the rear is cut off? The supply lines?

  “Yes, Major von Degurechaff. It’s a partisan uprising.”

  “Now?!”

  What occurs to me is Republican leadership. The rear cut off. The collapse of logistics. If that happens, our entire army could be sent fleeing in a disorderly panic.

  Even a child could imagine that much. The partisan movement intensifies at a strategic point in the rear while the Imperial Army’s main forces are pinned down? There’s no way the Republicans won’t pour oil on that little fire. And after such libation, there’s no way the partisans won’t go a little pyromaniac. The logic is self-evident.

  No doubt, a huge fire is about to start raging. Detrimental situations tend to go downhill fast. There is only a handful of exceptions.

  “Yes, now, ma’am.”

  I want to tell this situation to eat shit.

  Tanya’s natural reaction to the news is for her facial muscles to tense. The command personnel are all wearing expressions of pensive distress. I probably have the same look on my face, too, Tanya observes in a somehow calm way, with a tinge of self-derision. Maybe I shouldn’t look this way in front of my subordinates, but all I can do is wish. All the officers who heard the news got the same look on their faces, and they’re probably just as self-conscious.

  “What’s the situation?”

  “The military police and some of the troops garrisoned there are doing their best to bring the area under control, but it seems things are getting worse fast.”

  “That’s no good. Can they put it down?”

  In a way, it’s as bad as I expected. The inept Feldgendarmerie screwed up, so they got caught when the fat hit the fire. If we leave them alone, the rear will get burned. But if we put out the fire, our front lines will get trampled. One wrong move, and it’ll be trench warfare without ammunition or food.

  No matter how optimistically you look at this, it’s bound to be an utter disaster with piles of corpses. We should even be prepared for the lines to break.

  “I don’t know, but I think we need to be ready to respond.”

  “Right. Give standby orders. Make sure we can move as soon as we get the word.”

  What I’m hoping, what I’d like, is for this situation to settle down on its own. It could happen. But my optimistic speculation that the fire might just fizzle out misses the mark.

  In reality, my wish means nothing, and the situation rapidly deteriorates. Signs of a Republican offensive are confirmed, and Command is forced to make a decision.

  As a result, we end up in the pursuit of pure military logic and nothing else.

  The deciding factor is a report that Republican Army reinforcements have joined the partisans. At this point, the army reaches a conclusion that is quite straightforward. As long as there is a line that can’t be crossed, holding it has to be made priority.

  “An airdrop?! Crud! They’re mages. The Republican Army is conducting an airborne operation! Looks like they’re meeting up with the rebels!”

  Shrieks from Control.

  If they were just armed insurrectionists with no mages, it would be hard to put them down, but there was the possibility that police power would be enough. Or maybe it could be resolved with a division of infantry.

  But in urban combat up against mages, even heavy infantry will have to prepare for insane losses. After all, a city is a three-dimensional battlefield full of cover and obstacles. It doesn’t get shouted from the rooftops, but it is said that mages actually do their best work in urban battles. So this will have to be a serious fight.

  “Is someone intercepting them?”

  And that’s why mages helping to defend the city is so hugely significant. Just one infantry division plucked from the mustered reserves would probably be enough to suppress an armed mob, even if it took a little time. With the manpower of the police and Ministry of the Interior, they might have been able to suppress them, even if they had to shed some blood to do it.

  But once mages are the defenders of the city, it’s different from intercepting on flat ground or from defensive positions, and military intervention is required. But even then, just throwing a ton of matériel at them won’t be very effective. You need to literally disregard any damage and capture the city district by district.

  For that reason, mages should be stopped with their weak point, air-to-air combat, and there should have been an air defense network covering 360 degrees. That was how it was supposed to be.

  “They didn’t make it in time and got diverted.”

  But there is a glaring chasm between the plan and our present situation. There should have been some leeway in the rotation of the aerial forces, but it has been broken down for a while now. The Imperial Air Fleet was basically out in full force every day and having trouble making up for losses in the Rhine Air Battle.

  The air units have more types of missions than expected—not just securing supremacy in the sky. As a result, the plan created before the war started meant absolutely nothing when it met the reality of borderline overworked air units being mobilized for missions they weren’t expecting. It was only once the air units had been sent in that the military began to understand the necessity of the types of missions they could perform; the army is much more aware of how important controlling the sky is than they were before the start of the war.

  Dacia, where the ones who soared through the sky ruled everything, has been taken as a model case. For that reason alone, perhaps you can say? Or precisely because of that?—the Imperial Air Fleet put all their forces into securing command of the air near the front lines.

  As a result, they’ve succeeded in stabilizing the battlefront and managed to establish a degree of supremacy in the sky. It’s somewhat ironic that they should be lacking the forces to prevent a sneak attack in the rear… This is practically like Norden with offense and defense reversed.

  “This is bad. We can’t let them secure a bridgehead.”

  “So it’ll be a counter-mage battle? Against mages who are ready and waiting for us?”

  Yes, that. The longer it takes to suppress them, the worse things will get.

  We don’t know how many mages they sent in, but if we consider how many it would take to organize a resistance, we can get an idea. After all, the Imperial Army pioneered this tactic. We understand it even if we don’t want to.

  “…Major von Degurechaff. Report to the commander’s office immediately.”

  And so.

  Things happen without anyone making a definite decision.

  History, to a surprising extent, is a series of miscalculations.

  APRIL 13, UNIFIED YEAR 1924, RESEARCH ROOM 17 (JOINT STRATEGY RESEARCH MEETING HELD AT THE IMPERIAL WAR COLLEGE)

  “As you can see, as the war situation changes, the chances of combat in a city will become extremely high.”

  The instructor finishes his explanation in front of a war map spread on the desk. It was a review of the war situation touching on how the Imperial Army has been making a comeback bit by bit on the Rhine front.

  The two armies are still competing for a scrap of barren land, but the Imperial Army has been gradually advancing. Progress is progress, even in baby steps. It’s huge that we’ve gone from being invaded to being able to plan a counterattack.

  And that’s why at this new stage, all variety of combat in Republican territory is starting to sound more realistic, thinks Tanya.

  It’ll come down to urban warfare.

  It’s difficult to imagine the Republic simply neglecting key strategic cities that function as transport terminals. And unfortunately, a lot of civilians must live in urban areas. Some of them will certainly have taken shelter or been evacuated, but we have to assume that enough people will stay behind to keep the city functioning.

  “So the General Staff has tasked us with coming up with ways to handle urban warfare.”

  As Tanya expected, the task the instructor has for them is planning countermeasures for just such a
battle.

  The law of war is extremely critical of involving noncombatants in urban battles. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but supposedly there is a trigger clause that allows unlimited economic sanctions against countries that purposely attack in a way that involves noncombatants.

  Actually invoking the clause would be up to each individual country, but…it’s still a troublesome provision from the Empire’s point of view. That’s why this request was made—it’s necessary to capture a city without giving the major powers a rallying cause.

  Of course, even if we did that, it would only buy us time. After all, geopolitically the other powers have plenty of reason to intervene.

  Well, that’s why we should try to keep them from intervening for a bit longer.

  “To be frank, the only option we’ll have if we don’t involve noncombatants is to surround and starve them into submission.”

  Everyone present knows how unrealistic the request is.

  But despite knowing the extent of the problem, they understand well enough to curse to hell how critical it is strategically. That’s why she uses an indirect expression shrouded in rhetoric to say, Don’t order us to do the impossible! Crying like that is all that is ever possible under political pressure.

  She said to surround and starve them into submission, but it would be incredibly difficult to keep them surrounded until the city finally fell. Even sending in three times the force of the enemy would put an unimaginable burden on Logistics.

  “I think we can free ourselves from this type of issue by leaving the front lines where they are and devoting ourselves to defense until the enemy can’t take it anymore.”

  Purely in terms of the principle of concentration of force, it’s better to defend than invade. Even though that is only one of the assumptions made internally, more than a few officers think that way. Even they want to win, thinks Tanya. Still, she thinks again. The officers of the Imperial Army aren’t excitable enough to think they can fight a war with their arms and legs tied up.

  “But we were able to do it in the Entente Alliance.”

  “Consider how much stronger we were, please. Besides, doing it that way is why we now have so many troops stuck up there.”

  Though she is listening to the debate going on before her, Tanya has already accepted the fact that it’s impossible to be considerate of civilians in urban warfare. Even the American Army tried to conduct urban warfare with kindness to civilians and is now stuck writhing around in agony.

  In this age of total war, Tanya has no choice but to give up on kindness to civilians.

  What’s worse, most of the surplus forces are tied up in the north and west. The burden on the supply lines has far surpassed prewar estimates. We’re up against small powers that we beat in terms of both muscle and population, and this is where we’re at. A huge war between the major players will require full power not to get eaten alive. At this rate, it’ll be impossible. Tanya regrets it, but they are no longer in a position to observe international laws and fight with concern for civilians.

  Even with an industrial base that can manufacture a vast amount of matériel, the supply lines are shrieking, and the people in charge of logistics in the rear are flailing around, trying to prevent a shortage of food and other consumables.

  “…I don’t mean to be rude, but is this discussion really necessary?”

  That’s why she interrupts. Aware that she’s not being very cute, she speaks calmly in a deliberately flat tone.

  Normally you would be rebuked for such a comment. But Tanya didn’t think she would have any problems.

  “That’s a bold remark from a student, Degurechaff. Tell us what you mean.”

  “Yes, sir. Encircling and starving the enemy is a leisurely tactic from medieval times or, at best, a previous era.”

  Specifically, the Ottoman’s siege of Vienna or Napoleon’s campaign in Italy. An army fighting a modern war can’t use tactics from an earlier period when there weren’t even railroads.

  If you’re going to end up using that strategy, you’re better off not fighting.

  “So…”

  True, there aren’t many realistic options besides starving them into submission. She understands that. But that’s a problem that everyone is aware of.

  We aren’t gathered here to debate something so well understood.

  If you can’t brainstorm, it’s better to look for a legal loophole.

  Setting aside feasibility, failing to consider every possibility would be a big mistake.

  As an individual with what passes for an intellectual education, it would be an inexcusable error.

  Therefore, Tanya is simply convinced that even if it’s just debate for the sake of debate, they should try approaching the issue in a different way.

  As someone who, in a way, is familiar with urban warfare as historical truth, the question is how to fight an urban battle.

  “…shouldn’t we try to think of a way to make fighting in a city legal?”

  Urban warfare is restricted by international laws? Groping for a way to defeat them besides urban warfare is like playing by their rules. It’s like negotiating an important deal at the other party’s office.

  You’ll never win that way. What you need to do is flip the situation so they’re coming to negotiate with you.

  In other words, isn’t it possible to shift our point of view and ask how to make urban warfare legal? Of course, having seen Iraq and Afghanistan, I seriously refuse to actually do it. Having thought that, Tanya realizes, But if we could lay waste to whole blocks like they did in Warsaw, this urban warfare thing would be a cinch. She even begins to calculate. It would be a pain to go into all-out war, but it’s definitely a possibility.

  “…Degurechaff. Haven’t you learned about the war of law in your classes?”

  “Yes, I completed the subject. It’s terribly interesting.”

  I hadn’t studied laws since I was a student taking Jurisprudence (including constitutional theory) and Civil Law A and B. I did learn a little about international relations theory, international administration, and international law. In that sense, getting the chance to study law, the ruler of civilization, was genuinely fun.

  And that’s why she can make her declaration with confidence even in terms of the legal basis. There’s nothing wrong with her idea, and it doesn’t come into conflict with any legal principles.

  “…So you’re saying this with that experience in mind?”

  “Yes, Instructor.”

  After all, any law has room for interpretation as a matter of course. That’s why there are so many opportunities for jerks to twist them to fit their aims and annoy the rational marketplace. Legal opportunists can even profit from something as time consuming as patent litigation… That’s why in litigation societies like the United States, there are a ton of lawyers waging great legal battles. Basically, what you can and can’t do under a law changes any number of times depending on how it’s interpreted and enforced—to the point where some peaceful island nation can be a weird country that says it doesn’t have an army while equipping it with all kinds of fantastic weapons. Well, that’s a better idea than abandoning the notion of an army completely, but it just goes to show how broadly laws can be interpreted.

  What’s wrong with the ever-serious Empire doing a serious reinterpretation of the law? To Tanya, it’s nothing but an utterly natural course of events.

  Of course, domestic laws are ultimately interpreted by the one with the sovereign rights, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, and impinging on his authority is prohibited…but the military studies international laws; they’re totally safe. Tanya believes, without question, that gray is white.

  “It’s a problem of interpretation. Anything the international laws do not expressly forbid is only restricted depending on one’s interpretation.”

  “Specifically?”

  “This is only one example, but there is a clause that says, ‘Armies are prohibited from indiscriminately
attacking areas where there are noncombatants.’”

  If you just look at that, it seems like you couldn’t possibly fight in a city. Tons of noncombatants live there. But think of it flipped around. The enemy is limited in the same way. After all, armies have the duty to protect.

  “At a glance, it appears to be a clause that restricts the attacking side, but naturally, it also limits the defending side. It’s possible to demand that they protect those in the shelters according to law. In other words, if they don’t take the evacuees and withdraw…it’s possible to interpret that as meaning there are no civilians.”

  “…I see. And then?”

  If I have permission to continue, then I’ll do so.

  Well, legal debate is half-sophistry, half-finger-pointing. A court might make the final decision, but the way each country interprets the law has a major influence on international legal cases.

  “According to the law of war, we both have the duty to protect noncombatants. So we’ll be expected to do everything in our power to fulfill it. It depends on how you work it, but I think we can use it.”

  For example, what would happen if we had a small unit infiltrate an area where civilians lived, and we got attacked? If there was even one stray shot fired our way, we could turn it into a justification. Well, that’s an extreme method. There’s a more legitimate way to go about it.

  “Or if we make them tell us there are no noncombatants, the restriction will be instantly lifted.”

  “What?”

  “If they say that every person down to the last civilian will resist us. If we interpret that as meaning that every last civilian is militia, then we don’t have to recognize any prisoners’ rights.”

  …The former Yugoslavia said all their citizens were soldiers. Then if everyone’s a soldier, we can blow them up and it won’t be a war crime would be the logical end to that interpretation. That said, if you pursue this sort of interpretation to extremes, it’s possible to twist reason itself.

  So of course, justice and fairness are warped as well.

  Yep. And? What about it? Concepts are concepts, and bad laws are still laws. In the first place, this is a world where a god or a devil—this Being X guy—is getting his way. If you want to think seriously about the question of what justice is, maybe the guy who stipulates the world should be at war is the evil one.