Chapter 35: Tenno Heika Banzai!
The rest of the journey to Manchuria was rather smooth. Albeit a boring one. Still, by the time Bruno stepped foot at the naval base which the Japanese were using as a foothold in the region, Captain Hermann von Humboldt had grown quite fond of Bruno.
His initial goal of establishing relations with a promising naval officer had succeeded. And Bruno promised to keep in touch with Erich's older brother as he and his attaché stepped foot off the SMS Hansa, and entered the Japanese naval base.
There were both members of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Imperial Japanese Army stationed within it. Seeing as how they were dressed in foreign uniforms, they were quickly approached after stepping foot onto the docks by representatives of the Japanese General Chief of Staff.
Naturally such an important figure would not be present in the theater of war himself, but would rather be back in Tokyo commanding the war effort from The Japanese homeland. Instead, Bruno found himself in coordination with a bunch of lower ranked generals, some of which were of a similar status to himself.
The Japanese Generals were professional, as they greeted Bruno with the utmost courtesy. Making use of a German translator to properly communicate with Bruno and the men who had joined him as part of his attaché.
"It is a great honor to personally receive the Generalmajor himself. I have heard many stories about the Wolf of Prussia and his time spent in China during the Boxer Rebellion."
Bruno surprised the Japanese Generals by speaking in perfectly fluent Japanese. While he did possess an accent at the moment. Within two weeks, he would be speaking as if he were a Tokyo native.
"The honor is mine. The Kaiser has entrusted me with aiding our allies in Japan with a swift victory over the Russians. And it is my hope that with my expertise I can assist you in reducing your casualties. Now, if you don't mind, I would very much like to see the current condition of the front lines."
The Japanese generals were quick to get Bruno up to speed on the situation at hand. Port Arthur was currently under siege, and had been so since the beginning of August 1904, which it was currently nearing the end of. Despite this, all frontal assaults to attack the Port had resulted in thousands of casualties for the Japanese.
Bruno, having fully studied this war in the past, was aware of what needed to be done to secure a major tactical victory. Without his intervention, it would not be until December where the Japanese forces eventually broke through and seized a strategic hilltop, where they could line up their land artillery and bombard the Russian Fleet. In doing so, sinking all of its major capital ships.