I Became a Genius Commander at the Academy

EP.311

I, Peter Yeager, had two main thoughts as I finished this training.

‘Anxiety and its own satisfaction.’

The reason I was somewhat satisfied was that after the battle, the officers of the 18th Division, including the 18th Division Commander, gave the best instructions they could in an unfavorable situation, except for the final assault of archers and knights.

No matter how long their military experience was and how many battles they had fought in, the division’s condition must have been truly the worst as they had only eaten enough to not die over the three days before arriving at the Manfell Plain.

When people are put in a bad situation and think that they have to somehow escape the crisis, they end up thinking about the trouble that has fallen on their feet, making it difficult to make decisions from a macroscopic perspective.

It is as if a person who has a large amount of debt jumps into gambling or engages in a multi-step scheme to pay off the money in a short period of time.

However, the 18th Division commander realized that his unit was already out of luck for victory when it was depleted of supplies, and after assessing the unit’s capabilities, the goal of the battle was to reduce the number of 7th Division soldiers as much as possible.

The officers who were given operational orders did not do anything unreasonable and fought as best they could under the given circumstances, meaning that they also clearly possessed the most important ability as an officer: on-site judgment.

“If I didn’t have this ability, I would have asked for all officers above lieutenant colonel to be given the same position during the next personnel evaluation. My father-in-law is my enemy and I am the leader, so there is nothing I cannot do. however.”

The reason for the anxiety is that although they made the best judgment on the battlefield, the problem was that scouts were sent around at night during the march, making it easy to estimate the location of the supply unit and the division’s main unit.

As soon as the march began with the motivation of an officer, he did unnecessary things such as sending the soldiers on night reconnaissance to lower their physical strength.

This is because they are training, but even in real life, they are so motivated that they can do unimaginable and crazy things.

My head hurt so I held my head for a moment.

“If those bastards are put into actual combat, I think they’ll follow in the footsteps of Captain Patton. “It’s scary to even think about it.”

Captain Patton knew the soldiers’ limitations very well, so he was able to push them just to that limit so the soldiers could endure.

If those guys follow Captain Patton, they will most likely lose 20% of their troops during the march due to desertion or exhaustion and desertion.

When I was wondering what to do with these guys.

“Captain Jaeger, the 18th Division Commander, Major General Müller von Hausen, and six others request a meeting.”

“I ask you to come in, Lieutenant, so you can have some beer and some meat and rest. “I won’t be looking for you today, so rest easy and come back tomorrow.”

I haven’t tried it, but according to Laura, there’s nothing more difficult than being an exclusive adjutant, so I guess we should be considerate of this.

Looking at the dark circles under the eyes of the major, who is two years younger than me, I think I should at least give him a two-week long vacation next week.

When the adjutant went out with an expression that said he was done, six people, including Major General Hauzen, came in and saluted while maintaining a fixed posture at right angles.

“Loyalty! 18th Division Commander Major General Müller von Hausen!”

“…Loyalty.”

As soon as I saw their faces, I decided to show them something more instead of getting angry and spoke seriously.

“Commander Bon is very disappointed with this training. No, honestly, as the commander of the Faroesia area army, I cannot help but feel despair.”

The four-star general’s single word ‘disappointment’ has the power to make the military life of thousands of people very difficult, so why did he use the word ‘despair’ even more than that?

The sentence is to inflict an unimaginable level of tragedy on the officers belonging to the 18th Division.

The faces of the 18th Division Commander, Deputy Division Commander, Chief of Staff, and Operational Staff who heard me turned white as if they had seen a ghost.

“18th Division Commander, what are your grades at the Staff College?”

In normal times, asking these questions among officers is the same level of provocation as asking for a fight, but it is an exception in a state of death like now.

So, Director Hausen’s pupils began to tremble as he imagined what would happen in the future.

“I graduated at the top of the class from the 125th class of the General Staff College.”

“Does a person who graduated at the top of his class do reconnaissance like that? Deployment of escort troops and establishment of strict nighttime vigilance and discipline. Even though these things are done properly, why on earth do they send out reconnaissance teams at night and openly reveal the location of the unit? Because of this, the secret code was leaked to the sergeant of our 7th Division. Even when I read the reports sent by the controllers, there was no meaningful information gained from night reconnaissance.”

I rested my chin on one hand and looked at the division commander, who finally began to break out in a cold sweat like a waterfall.

“According to the battalion commander who succeeded in the surprise attack, he said that if the personnel assigned to the night reconnaissance had been used as guards, he would have just returned. But you ordered the damn night reconnaissance, which the textbook says was meaningless, and lost the supply. Thanks to this, the soldiers had to experience hell for three days. If I hadn’t made the controllers drink salt water, many of them would have died from exhaustion. “Do you have any excuse for this?”

Through the mock battle, it was revealed that the 18th Division had both good and bad points, and the role His Majesty has given me now is to rewrite the Faroesia area army.

And objectively speaking, it would be more beneficial for the entire military to give Major General Hausen another chance.

If that guy saves his life from the danger of losing his position and fights his way to death, other guys will be motivated by that sight.

No matter which unit commander you are assigned to, being as lenient as possible in the beginning will help you take control of the unit.

Ah, but in this situation, if you are a person who tries to make excuses and even blame others, there is no reason to change it, so I will tell your Majesty or the Chief of Staff and have you discharged.

After hearing what I said, Hausen lowered his head and said.

“No, no.” As the captain said, there was virtually no meaningful information gained from reconnaissance at night, and it only made the subordinates suffer for no reason. And if it had been a real battle and not a mock battle, there is a possibility that my soldiers would have been wiped out while marching, so what excuse can I make?”

All humans make mistakes or mistakes.

And from there, it is divided into those who improve and those who are incompetent who continue to stay in the same position, and the criteria are ‘whether they reflect on their mistakes’ and ‘whether they make excuses.’

People who thoroughly reflect and give up making excuses admit that everything is their fault, take responsibility, and try to get better, but people who make excuses keep repeating the same thing even if they are given another chance.

So, I asked the man to give him another chance, as I had already thought of.

“Apart from failing to protect supplies, they only chose the best option when engaging the 7th Division. Not only did they recognize the reality that it would be difficult to win the battle, but they also tried to reduce the number of troops of the 7th Guards Division. “Why did you do that?”

“Although it was just a training exercise, the orders given to me and the 18th Division were to engage the 7th Division. As a division commander, when I looked at the situation of my unit, I decided that it would already be difficult to win against the enemy. “The soldiers were exhausted due to my mistakes and their physical strength was low, so looking at it coldly, I thought it was impossible to achieve victory.”

I smiled, finding that interesting.

“However, since it was impossible to avoid combat according to military law, the conclusion we reached when we searched for the optimal goal was to reduce the strength of the 7th Division by at least one more person.”

“I made a mistake that resulted in a loss of supply, but instead of being discouraged by that mistake, I tried to respond with the best instructions available. This is great. So let’s do it this way.”

I showed Major General Hausen and his staff the completely anonymous training evaluations of the controllers and the enemy force evaluations I had written on the desk.

When they started reading it, everyone’s hands were shaking, and later on, men in their 50s even said in despair, ‘My military service is over…’

And I asked after receiving the evaluation document back.

“If this is submitted like this, your personnel evaluation will be from high to low, and I believe you are well aware that a rank-ranking officer will lose his position or become very difficult to get promoted once he is lowered.”

The reason why promotion above lieutenant general is so tight is because all nobles in the empire tend to prefer soldiers instead of administrators, there are virtually no people who want to be discharged in the middle, and there are only a few positions, so competition is very intense.

If there are roughly 100 captains, only about 10 will advance to colonel, so that’s all.

However, unlike in Korea, if you don’t have any stars, you become a neighborhood guy once you get into society, here, even if you become a major, you can become a figure of influence in a small local town.

When you reach the rank of colonel, unless you are in Reichburg or a major city, you will be greeted not only by commoners but also by lower-ranking nobles when you walk down the street.

Since the treatment you receive in society is completely different every time you advance one level, you have no choice but to risk your life to get promoted.

I tore up the evaluation I had written and put the evaluations written by other controllers in a wooden box and locked it.

“But I believe. “You made a mistake this time and you can do really well next time.”

Those who had escaped the risk of being discharged from the military without being promoted responded loudly to my last words.

“Yes that’s right! “You can do it!”

“I will do really well!”

“This will never happen again!”

Seeing their reaction, I waved my hand at them and said,

“After clearing the battlefield and returning to the main unit, the soldiers will spend a week of vacation in four shifts. The officers must thoroughly analyze the reasons for their defeat and write a thesis-level report. Additionally, for units above battalion level, an additional analysis report must be prepared at the battalion level and sent to the Staff College. “As soon as that is completed, the 7th Division troops will be dispatched and there will be training to improve combat power, so anyone under the age of 50 must participate.”

I feel sorry for the 18th Division, which will now write reports and undergo hellish guerrilla training.

However, there is nothing you can do because it is better than having yourself and your soldiers die when an actual battle occurs.

And for a month, I thought hard about how to turn these guys into 7th Division-level elites.

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