by Carlo Zen
"Still," Rudersdorf said in an irritated manner, "if we leave Ildoa be, it could turn into a bridgehead."
After a moment of silent thought, Zettour found himself nodding.
Following the bloody lessons learned in the trenches, the world powers realized that unless you've grasped your enemy's weakness, the cost of frontal attacks will be too high.
The Imperial Army's southern area could count here as its weak point.
The traditionally delicate relationship between the Empire and Ildoa had resulted in peace for the border area. Frankly, there weren't any encroaching threats.
The defensive line facing Ildoa was fragile.
It was built only with the prewar interior lines strategy in mind---all they had to do down there was hold out until the Great Army could arrive.
It was never expected that they would repel the enemy on their own.
"...Operations thinks foreign reinforcements will surge via sea routes."
I know that.
Zettour didn't need that forecast smugly pointed out to him by someone from Operations---he'd already worried about it enough to be sick.
He stared Rudersdorf in the eye as if to ask, Don't you guys have any better ideas? but was then forced to realize something.
Rudersdorf was looking back at him with the same wishful thinking. This was what it meant to be unable to go on without suppressing your curses by sticking a cigar in your mouth.
"If we do nothing, the Empire will grow weaker as if it had cancer, huh?"
Zettour confronted this cold, hard reality. If he imagined the worst-case scenario, the Empire's south was incredibly frail. The Imperial Army was already stretched to its limits with foreign campaigns it never planned for on multiple fronts.
They had to accept that they wouldn't be able to hold the line very long and that there was a real chance of collapse.
It was no wonder that when faced with such spine-chilling possibilities, he was drawn to preventive measures. The logic of an operations specialist was screaming at him that they should strike without delay.
Zettour couldn't deny that his indecision was lame.
"This is the hard thing about war. When the options you have are limited, as a soldier, you're forced to choose the least awful one even though you know it isn't optimal."
"In other words?"
"I can't refuse an aggressive plan with the purpose of defense."
He saw that Rudersdorf was smiling wryly when he came into his peripheral vision.
"But you don't agree with it. This is you we're talking about, after all. There's probably also the caveat, as long as you know where the reinforcements are coming from, right?"
"That's right." Zettour nodded.
You can do a limited offensive as defense only when it will connect to what happens next. Offensives take a lot of willpower.
"...Withdrawing wholesale from the east or setting up the Council for Self-Government as a buffering state could be options."
"No, they couldn't."
All Zettour could do, getting rejected so bluntly, was wince. "Oh, don't shoot me down like that. Though I do admit that possibilities are scarce. But in all things, until we check whether the cat is dead, the future is uncertain... We can only think as flexibly as the number of alternatives we don't eliminate."
"Then are you saying you have a plan to convince the Communists to allow the separatists their independence?"
"See, you understand the idea of a buffer state."
With a "hmm," Rudersdorf nodded. "...Would the Federation's nationalism allow it?"
It was a sharp point to make.
"It's probably impossible." Zettour could state with confidence that, "The Federation's people probably won't allow it."
When asked about the latest developments with the monster of nationalism, he could answer immediately. Even the people who rebelled against the Communist Party were giving themselves up to the Federation Army and fighting to the death against the invading Empire.
The fusion of propaganda and nationalism boasted enough power to unite even the antiestablishment faction beneath the party.
Love for one's fatherland wasn't logical.
Their own feelings toward their Heimat were fierce. No matter how much blood spilled over their mother earth, they would surely cling to the land.
Rudersdorf was about to counter---"So then"---when Zettour made a further remark.
"But the Communist Party might."
"Huh? Are you insane, Zettour?"
"Oh, I'm quite sane."
"We're talking about the Communist Party that has forsaken ideology in favor of nationalism! You really think they'll be that flexible?"
Rudersdorf's question seemed to come from the bottom of his heart, and it was commonsense doubt. Any sensible person would surely agree.
Although as an idea from a General Staff officer, it was no good. Even if this cessation of thought didn't get you an F in war college, it would definitely get you chewed out by your instructor.
"But have you forgotten the problem of possibilities?"
"Ngh."
Zettour could understand his frowning old friend's displeasure, but he had stated the premise without affectation. Logic was a strange product that could even arise in ordinary, ugly cases.
"As long as a possibility can't be rejected, we should consider it. Things aren't going so well for us that we can afford to be choosy."
Up against an enemy who was capable of weighing their advantages, he wouldn't have been surprised even if some unusual deal materialized---even if it was hard to call them a rational player they could do deals with.
It was dangerous to expect them to be reasonable. But rejecting them as unreasonable was equally dangerous. Clinging to wishful thinking and considering your options were two very different things.
That was why they needed alternative plans and considerations. Having some kind of idea down on paper was much better than a blank page.
"Either way," Zettour continued quietly, sounding tired, "we shouldn't try to grasp politics or war via common sense. The damn Federation Army took all those losses without yielding and is putting together a spring offensive!"
No joke or anything else, as a logistics expert, Zettour was dizzy. Judging from the scale of the personnel they were moving and the amount of matériel, the true power of the Federation was enough to cause real trouble.
The fact that it wouldn't do for him to grumble This is unbearable made it even worse. All he could do was brace himself.
If you know you can't escape the turmoil, at least you know. There shouldn't be any reason you can't move on to the next thing.
"What we need now is determination and resignation. Nothing will surprise us anymore."
APRIL 18, UNIFIED YEAR 1927, IMPERIAL ARMY NORTHERN MILITARY DISTRICT, SALAMANDER KAMPFGRUPPE GARRISON
How much easier would it be if she could laugh off the nonsense coming out of the receiver?
She's wholeheartedly fed up and stifles a sigh; the griping and shrieking of her lungs must be psychogenic due to the stress as she thinks, Again?!
A spring offensive?
Now?
...Honestly, it makes no sense.
No, I understand that the Federation Army is going on the offensive. States take military action in pursuit of some tactical objective or strategic goal. So it's not as if it's impossible to grasp that the Federation must have some sort of purpose in mind.
But even so, a general offensive all along the imperial lines is impossible to understand.
If the Unified States were joining the war, it could be a huge distraction to keep the Imperial Army pinned to the eastern front...but as it stands, all they'll accomplish is probably creating new salients.
"...Does the Federation Army think they can win? I can't figure out what their goal is."
As far as Lieutenant Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff can tell, there's no military rationale or political necessity for it.
"A complete
mystery is definitely the right description for it."
If you order soldiers to charge defensive positions that are holding strong, it's hard to avoid ending up with heaps of corpses. The road will be paved with bleached bones.
That said, nothing is impossible.
Even my beloved market principle doesn't always operate unfailingly.
Conflicts fought by irrational actors---humans---tend to go racing off in unreasonable directions amid the mistakes and misunderstandings born of the fog of war.
Thinking you can predict the future is too arrogant.
...The only thing that is certain is uncertainty.
"Have we reached the realm of wordplay? More like theological debate."
A world so annoying that ordinary people can't even fathom it. The only solution is to prioritize what's happening in the field rather than quibbling about logic.
There are plenty of things that Logos would tell you couldn't be but exist nonetheless. In that case, logic is a mistake.
This is how natural science defines the world.
Observe, measure, and classify. If you can't do that, then your only option is to try again until you find a category that fits.
A picture is worth a thousand words is a saying that's true to life---but only if you can accurately observe the phenomena. Humans are creatures who can't even remember what they've seen with their own eyes.
To suffer from surprise, confusion, and fatigue---that is our fate.
Which is why psychological warfare, behavioral economics, and psychology are researched in such earnest.
There's only one thing that is clear.
Only a numbskull who can't comprehend the things happening right before them would make a judgment call in a flustered state of mind.
In that case...
Tanya turns a tired gaze on the sky and grumbles.
If the world is in constant turmoil, then all I can do is know and accept that and be ready.
"Nothing will surprise me anymore."
(The Saga of Tanya the Evil, Volume 6: Nil Admirari, fin)
Appendixes: Mapped Outline of History
Afterword
Sorry to have kept you waiting for Volume 6. This is Carlo Zen.
To you heroes who didn't wait but bought all the volumes through 6 at once, and to the heroes among heroes at Kadokawa Enterbrain, my eternal gratitude.
The anime project is probably a mass hallucination we're all having!
Here is a story from long ago when I, someone who loves caffeine above all; my editor Fujita, who loves meat above all; and illustrator Shinotsuki, who loves gyoza above all, met at a tasty gyoza joint for a meeting.
"Do you think an anime could be a possibility?" Shinotsuki asked incisively, and Fujita declared, "Unfortunately, no!"
And yet now, an anime project seems like a fait accompli. Before I knew it, Tojo was serializing a wonderful manga.
Perhaps the hero Enterbrain has grown even stronger?
When I dove into this industry, I never imagined this future would be waiting. (Maybe it's a butterfly's dream.)
Well, reality is fiction's greatest rival, and the spirit of not being surprised by anything anymore might be one we need these days.
Anyhow, this is all possible through the combined efforts of a great many people. Allow me to thank them again here. To the designers at Tsubakiya Design, the proofreaders at Tokyo Publishing Service Center, my editor Fujita, and illustrator Shinotsuki, thank you as always.
And above all, my sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who has supported us to the point that we can get an anime!
I hope to see you again next time.
July 2016 Carlo Zen
1 separatists One term for a minority in a nation that opposes mainstream policies and aims to secede.
2 the lageri Places that corrected bad habits and taught the value of hard work. Through the joy of plentiful labor, they allow one to achieve substantial growth. Gossipmongers tend to call them concentration camps, though.
3 Raid on Scarborough Also known as the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby. During World War I, the German Navy fired on the British mainland. This was a feint designed to lure out part of the British fleet, achieve local superiority, and beat them up. (They ended up going home partway through beating them up.)
4 Operation Overlord Not the novels by Kugane Maruyama but the major operation to liberate France, with the landing at Normandy and the liberation of Paris. Well, the enemy was about as powerful as Lord Ainz, so in a way it's kind of the same, but anyhow.
5 the Concorde Effect What do you do when after putting a fortune into a major project, you realize, Crap, this is no good? If you quit now, all the money you invested goes poof! Your only option is to put in all the rest of your money! If you just keep throwing more and more money at it, it's sure to work out... So yeah, this is the process by which, due to that sort of psychology, a project bound to fail eats through an entire budget and---naturally---fails. The name comes from the fact that that's exactly how the Concorde project turned out.
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