Chapter 378 Night Battle

When Charles received the telegram, he was stunned at first, and then he realized that it was Christine asking him for help.

Charles could understand Christine's situation at the moment. The capitalist (Schneider) and the politician (Joffre) hoped that Christine could lead the "Saint-Samond" tank to fight a good battle to bring them benefits.

But the "Saint Samon" was not very useful, especially the "Saint Samon M21", which was not good at anything and was the laggard of the team.

So a contradiction arose. Christian and his 1st Special Artillery Division were caught in the middle between the German army and Joffre. It seemed that only the annihilation of the entire army could prove that Joffre was wrong.

However, what was the point of proving Joffre wrong at that time?

…

If it were in the past, Charles would have rescued them without hesitation. After all, it was a division with 20,000 lives at stake.

But now he hesitated, he was used to thinking and weighing things from the perspective of interests.

From the perspective of reputation and equipment, it should not be saved. The more miserably the 1st Special Artillery Division loses and the more casualties it suffers, the more it will highlight Charles' command ability and equipment advantages. In this way, the "Charle A1" can sell better and the blow to Schneider and Joffre can be as great as possible.

But if we consider the influence of the military, we should save them.

Christine is a combat hero, and the officers and soldiers of the 1st Special Artillery Division are also the elite of the army. They have considerable influence in the military. If Charles could put aside his fight with Joffre and rescue them, he would surely be welcomed and supported by the grassroots officers and soldiers.

After thinking for a while, Charles decided that the latter was more important.

Although the army is a gun suppressed by politics and capital in France, it is still a gun, and they can often save your life at critical moments.

Charles no longer hesitated. He sent a telegram back to Christine with only two words in it: "Night battle."

Christine was stunned when she received the telegram: "Night battle? What kind of solution is this?"

The German tanks have no night combat capability, and our tanks have no night combat capability either. Charles must know this, right?

A feeling of disappointment arose in her heart. Christine felt humiliated and desolate, and she was even being teased before she died.

But after thinking about it carefully, Christine's face suddenly showed a hint of joy, and her frown gradually relaxed.

If neither side's tanks have the ability to fight at night, it doesn't matter whether they are advanced or backward, whether they have a rotating turret or how powerful their firepower is, everything is unimportant because both cannot move or fire.

(Note: Tanks have poor external perception capabilities. They cannot distinguish between friend and foe in the dark and cannot see the route clearly. Tanks did not have the ability to fight at night until they were equipped with night vision goggles in modern times. Before that, they could only use tracer bullets to indicate targets for tanks, which played a limited role in night battles.)

Looking at the darkening sky, Christine came to a conclusion.

He first ordered everyone to rest, and then found Lieutenant Colonel Gaston, commander of the 2nd Artillery Regiment, who was Christine's old subordinate and good friend.

However, because of his dissatisfaction with the "Saint-Samond M21" tank, Gaston had many conflicts with Christine.

Gaston often complained to Christine: "I don't think it can be called a tank. Apart from tracks and machine guns, what else does it have? A tank should be like the 'Charter A1'!"

At this time, Christine could only answer helplessly: "I know, Gaston, but they only give us this. Unless you can build one, there is no other choice!"

When Christine found Gaston, he was organizing ground crew to repair the "Saint-Chamond M21".

Seeing Christine coming over, Gaston didn't give a good look. He wiped the oil stains on his hands with a rag and raised his head towards the "M21" parked on the street: "Look, they are not only slow, but also have a lot of problems. I even want to remove the four wheels."

"If you want, do it!" Christine replied calmly.

Gaston felt that Christine's tone was a little off, so he turned his head to look at Christine and asked, "What happened?"

Kristen shook her head slightly: "We are going to attack."

Gaston was stunned and asked expressionlessly: "When?"

This is almost a death sentence.

Christine looked up at the sky and replied, "It will be dark in about an hour!"

Gaston gritted his teeth and said in a low voice: "This is murder, General, tanks cannot fight at night!"

"I know." Christine replied, glancing around: "But this is not the commander-in-chief's order, it's Charles's. This may be our only way to survive."

Christine spoke softly, but Gaston still heard it clearly.

When he heard "It's Charles' order", he felt like being pricked by a needle. He trembled all over and turned to look at Christine in shock.

"You are crazy, General!" Gaston said. "I admit that Charles is a military genius, but he, he is our opponent. It is in his interest to annihilate our army! He will kill us!"

"He's not that kind of person, Gaston." Christine replied calmly: "Think about it, our tanks can't fight at night, so how can the enemy?"

Gaston was stunned.

Christine continued: "At the same time, the Germans knew that we were a tank unit, so they would not expect us to drive tanks up to fight at night, which might be our only way to survive."

"That being said, however..." Gaston was still thinking about his night combat capabilities.

"Open the top hatch." Christine interrupted Gaston.

"What?" Gaston stared at Christine in a daze: "But that means the enemy can throw grenades into the cabin."

Christine looked at Gaston quietly without saying anything.

Gaston understood Christine's idea. Between two evils, he had to choose the lesser of two evils. If he wanted to have the ability to fight at night, he had to take a risk.

(The picture above shows the top hatch of the "Saint-Samond M21" opened. This is usually done when the vehicle is in road maneuvering mode, so that it has stronger external perception capabilities to adapt to faster maneuvering speeds. If the top hatch is opened in the track mode, the enemy can easily stuff grenades into the cabin)

Finally, Christine asked again: "I choose to believe Charles, what about you?"

Gaston thought about it for a while and nodded silently.

If Charles wanted to kill them, there was no need to give any advice, just wait for the result quietly.

Besides, Xiafei can never be trusted, ever!

Christine patted Gaston on the shoulder and said, "Don't stop after the battle begins. Go at full speed and kill everything you see."

It is impossible to distinguish friend from foe in the dark, but as long as the tanks maintain their full speed of 6 kilometers, no friendly forces will get ahead of them!

This actually became the advantage of the "Saint-Samond M21". Its slow speed just matched the attack speed of the infantry, allowing a certain degree of coordination between the two.

After giving instructions to the tank regiment, Christine went to inspect the infantry.

After walking around for a while, the only thing he didn't do was to go back to the headquarters to report to Xiafei.

Christine didn't want any more trouble, and she didn't want to face his true face at the critical moment of life and death!

(End of this chapter)