A Peaceful Land of the Orcs (3.3)
Around the large desk, other high-ranking military officials were gathered.
Major General Erich Greben, Director of the Operations Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters. An Orc.
Major General Gillim Kite, Director of the Logistics Bureau. A Dwarf.
Major General Helmut Staupitz, Director of the Communications Bureau. A Kobold, Dachshund type.
Major General Karl Rothenberger, Director of the Military Topography Bureau. An Orc.
Their subordinate staff officers and adjutants were either inside this tent or stationed in separate tents. Since Major General Greben also held the dual role of Deputy Director of the General Staff, this tent essentially functioned as a “mobile General Staff Headquarters.”
In the parlance of war stories, it was akin to a "hill of generals."
---So, this is likely to be an elaborate exercise of some kind.
Dineluth surmised.
This whole concept of a General Staff Headquarters seemed exceedingly peculiar to her.
Originally, it was established to oversee and coordinate military logistics. However, it had since evolved into an institution that planned all military operations and provided strategic proposals to Gustav. It also evaluated equipment and weapons systems, issuing requirements to the military administration and technical departments while supervising their implementation in various units.
The headquarters was housed in a colossal marble building, rivaling even the royal palace residence, situated just north of Waldgarten, where the weekly morning market was held. Its sheer size spoke to its significance.
IMAGE HERE
There were no equivalent organizations of such scale in other nations.
While some countries had entities named “General Staff Headquarters,” these often amounted to little more than holding spaces for staff officers during peacetime, serving no greater purpose.
In most nations, during wartime, kings, generals, or commanders at various levels were assigned chiefs of staff and aides to assist them, which was considered sufficient.
An institution directly under the king's authority, existing even during peacetime, and rivaling the central ministries like a Ministry of War—what exactly was this?
It seemed overly excessive.
The very notion of forming a dedicated organization for logistics, its initial purpose, was something she found hard to comprehend.
Logistics could simply be managed by field acquisition officers attached to each unit, with the actual execution delegated to accounting officers in the area. This approach ensured mobility.
Though it might sound crude, this was not an uncommon perspective, as most armies worldwide adhered to similar practices.
The more intricate logistics became, the more it hampered military mobility. For this reason, field acquisition had been the norm since ancient times.
For instance, a commander’s principle was that the emergency rations carried by individual soldiers—field rations—should only be consumed as a last resort. Instead, they were to rely on locally sourced provisions.
This approach wasn’t about consideration for soldiers’ well-being but rather pragmatism. Consuming field rations would necessitate resupplying from the rear after every meal, which would cripple forward progress.
The Elfynd military proverb for such a counterproductive logistics dilemma was "the army entangled in its branches."
Thus, Orcsen’s meticulous focus on logistics appeared bizarre, if not outright irrational, from an external perspective.
However, as someone who had immigrated and become a citizen of this nation, Dineluth could now understand their reasoning.
Mobilizing the large Orcish army required an extraordinary amount of resources, including food.
Adopting the common practice of relying on local acquisition methods, as other nations did, would deplete the regions they passed through in no time.
Therefore, logistical actions such as transporting supplies from rear bases or establishing pre-arranged supply depots near the frontlines became indispensable.
While Dineluth understood the necessity, she also recognized the immense effort involved.
This included procurement of materials, management of supply carts, and oversight of entire supply routes, along with a myriad of other tasks.
Among the essentials to be delivered from the rear to the frontlines were not only various types of ammunition, weapons, and spare equipment but also feed for warhorses and even replacement troops. The mere thought of processing all the related paperwork was enough to give her a headache.
The General Staff was established as an organization for such purposes approximately 60 years ago during the first large-scale war that unified the various races of Orcsen. It occurred when the neighboring human nation of Growal invaded from the west.
For Orcsen, it was purely a homeland defense war. Thus, it was all the more crucial to avoid ravaging its own lands and citizens. The General Staff took charge of planning and directing the logistics to deliver food, weapons, and ammunition from rear bases to the frontlines.
Incidentally, this war was widely known as the "Dutonet War," named after a remarkable human figure from Growal. He had risen from an artillery officer to a king, unifying his nation, forming a powerful army, and launching invasions of surrounding territories.
Even the reclusive Elves in the Sylvan River Basin of the Belleriant Peninsula heard tales of this large-scale conflict, which lasted approximately 25 years in total, with Orcsen directly involved for five of those years.
Dineluth had once pestered Gustav for stories about it and had even skimmed through the official war history compiled by the General Staff.
While Orcsen won many battles and ultimately emerged victorious in the war, it suffered significant failures in maintaining its logistics lines.
Within its own territory, operations were manageable. However, in the latter half of the war, when Orcsen launched a counter-invasion into Growal, the General Staff became overwhelmed.
This was not due to incompetence on the part of Zebek and his colleagues.
In an era before railroads, when even paved roads were rare, inland waterways were the only mode of transport capable of handling large-scale logistics. Despite the General Staff's efforts, supply lines inevitably became overextended, and the expeditionary army could no longer be sustained.
The then-prevailing system, in which designated military merchants managed most logistics and supply line maintenance, was also inadequate. Critical practical functions had effectively been outsourced.
Ultimately, the Orcsen military resorted to local acquisition in Growal’s eastern regions, even harvesting, sowing, and cultivating crops in occupied areas. Despite forming alliances and waging joint campaigns with other Human nations, the Growal’s capital was utterly exhausted when they arrived, compelling Dutonet to surrender and bringing the war to an end.
After the war, Orcsen made painstaking efforts to avoid alarming the human nations by relinquishing occupied territories. Had it not also secured massive reparations through the peace treaty, Gustav had once remarked, Orcsen’s current prosperity would have been significantly delayed.
What do you think about this chapter?
