How to Start a War (2.5)
Driven by his fascination with this new way of thinking, he constantly sought to arrive at answers through methods other than those taught by his teachers. How could he beat them? Outsmart them? That’s all he thought about.
Because he blatantly ignored the standard approach emphasized—sometimes excessively so—by school education, like "students at this level should only use formulas up to here" and "anything beyond this must wait until later," his parents were frequently called in by the teachers and harshly reprimanded.
Even so, his parents continued to respect Greben’s way of doing things, his way of thinking, and his growth. They supported and loved him unconditionally.
Eventually, the teachers gave up.
Even if his method differed from theirs, the answers were still correct, so they had no choice but to award him points. Furthermore, the formulas he memorized on his own were often enough to make even upperclassmen groan, so there was nothing left to criticize.
After graduating from the national compulsory education system, Greben entered the military officer academy.
There too, his grades were excellent, but he was arrogant, haughty, and intellectually overbearing. He would openly look down on anyone—be it instructors or upperclassmen—if they failed to match his thinking. Had it not been for the Orcsen army’s culture of listening even to subordinates if their opinions were correct, he likely would’ve been expelled from the military in no time, regardless of his top-ranking performance.
After graduation, he was assigned to a unit, then passed through the Army War College to become a staff officer. Even then, he continued to act in unorthodox ways.
Still, in most cases, Greben’s methods consistently produced better “answers” than anyone else’s—
As of Star Calendar 876, he is the youngest major general in the Orcsen Army, serving simultaneously as Deputy Director of the General Staff and Director of the Operations Bureau.
He is particularly trusted by his superior officer, High General Karl Helmut Zebek, the Chief of the General Staff.
“That man is a genius.”
Zebek often said so.
—A lot of geniuses are a little strange.
In that sense, Zebek doted on him.
Though Zebek himself had long held the position of Chief of the General Staff under King Gustav’s trust, he was self-aware enough to know that he was ill-suited for strategic planning. Rather, he saw himself as more of a military administrator, skilled in coordination and logistics. So he entrusted all operations planning to Greben.
“As long as we have him, we can win any war.”
He declared this without hesitation, promoted him to Deputy Director, and gave him strong backing.
He treated the typical flaws of geniuses as endearing quirks, and where Greben’s abrasiveness caused friction with others, he tried to smooth things over. He even introduced Greben to the youngest daughter of his close friend, High General Schwerin, and arranged for them to marry. Zebek often invited him for drinks, taught him to enjoy red wine from the west and cigars, so that in an exceedingly rare show of affection for someone of his temperament, Greben came to say:
“I’d die for Zebek, that old man.”
He declared it openly, admiring his superior officer.
That same “genius” Greben—
Lately, he’s been spending all his time staring at maps of Elfynd.
He had converted the room next to the Deputy Director of Staff’s office—which was originally intended for an adjutant—into his own private war room, bringing in a massive desk. There, he would spread out giant maps of Elfynd, made with unerring precision thanks to the Military Topography Bureau and Isabella Farlens, arrange wargame pieces, and spend his days fixated on them, ignoring other duties.
He also honed the image in his mind.
What proved most useful was a travelogue written by a female adventurer from Camelot who had infiltrated Elfynd and journeyed across its lands.
Published about ten years earlier, this explorer—so fearless she could be described as arrogant or impudent—had traveled alone with only a local interpreter. She visited not only the major cities but also obscure rural villages, forests, rivers, and lakes, and recorded everything in painstaking detail, down to the temperament and customs of the residents. It was immensely useful as material for expanding Greben’s strategic thinking.
The room where Greben studied his maps was always filled with thick purple smoke.
He had learned to smoke cigars from Zebek and grown to love them, consuming them in substantial quantities. The more he was immersed in thought, the more often he lit up.
He also drank strong coffee regularly.
People often joked that he could probably get all the nutrients he needed from cigars and coffee instead of food. His dedicated orderly, who constantly swapped out ashtrays and coffee pots, could only sigh inwardly.
Just recently—
Since the time of that division war game, which was used for a strategic map exercise by the General Staff, Greben had begun harboring doubts about the current invasion plan of Elfynd.
The current operation plan is roughly as follows:
Deploy approximately 500,000 Orcsen troops in full force along the southern bank of the Sylvan River, at the base of the Belleriant Peninsula, where Elfynd lies. The troops are to be split into three armies, aligned from west to east.
The central formation—let’s call it the Central Army—has the thickest presence.
Directly in front of the Central Army lies Elfynd’s southern coastal settlements and a series of bridges that unusually span the Sylvan River from south to north. The plan calls for an immediate invasion and seizure of these locations at the start of hostilities.
Then, they would cross the river and lure Elfynd’s forces into battle on the rare central plain of the peninsula’s southern region, forcing a decisive engagement.
Next, they would capture and break through the fortress city that straddles the main road to the north of this plain.
After that, the army would push through the mountain roads at the foot of two mountain ranges behind the fortress, reaching the second-largest plain in Elfynd’s territory, which lies in the eastern region near the capital, Tyrion.
The final objective: defeat Elfynd’s remaining field forces there, advance on Tyrion, and force a surrender at its gates.
The Eastern and Western Armies would each keep pressure on their respective fronts and play the role of protecting the Central Army’s flanks during the initial invasion phase—
This is the General Staff’s Plan No. 6, Fifth Revised Draft: the Invasion Operation Plan of Elfynd.
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