Chapter 407: Can this fool the Germans?

On the road from Arras to Cambrai, Foch sat in a speeding car and looked at the documents in his hand with great interest. They were the equipment information of Charles' troops.

Cambrai belonged to Foch's Northern Army Group's war zone. The coordination and most of the supplies Charles needed for the battle in Cambrai were provided by the Northern Army Group, and Foch needed to know the equipment situation.

"Interesting." Foch flipped through the documents. "He has equipped all his troops with vehicles, either tanks, armored vehicles, or cars, even artillery."

Then Foch turned to look at Wei Gang, who was sitting next to him: "What do you think?"

Weygand was Foch's chief of staff and the most loyal supporter of Foch's "offensive theory". He was appreciated by Foch two years ago and has since been promoted like a rocket to serve as Chief of Staff of the 20th Army, Chief of Staff of the 9th Army Group, and now Chief of Staff of the Northern Army Group.

(The picture above shows Maxime Weygand, who was Foch's chief of staff during World War I, and served as the commander-in-chief of the French army and the Minister of Defense of Vichy France during World War II)

"Excuse me, General," Wei Gang replied expressionlessly, "I don't think this is the right approach. It is very likely to be destroyed by enemy artillery fire."

Foch nodded slightly in agreement. He had looked at the data on the armored vehicles and artillery, and they seemed very fragile.

Especially the thing called truck gun, which is just a simple combination of truck and artillery. If anything is done, it is to strengthen the chassis.

Foch could not help but recall the tragic scene of these vehicles being blown over one by one by enemy artillery fire.

"Besides," Wei Gand added, "I doubt the role these vehicles can play on the battlefield. The other troops are all on foot. They can't keep up with Charles' troops. Does Charles want to defeat the Germans alone with these two troops totaling more than 10,000 people?"

Foch did not refute, he did not know how to refute.

If there is no cooperation from other troops, another meaning of fast speed is to rush headfirst into the enemy's encirclement and die faster!

"And yet," said Foch thoughtfully, "the fact is that he has always won, Colonel, and never lost."

"That may be because of our tactics," Wei Gand replied.

"Our tactics?" Foch looked at Weygand in surprise. Could it be that he also had doubts about the "offensive theory"?

But Foch soon realized that he was wrong.

Weygand explained: "Our tactics are no longer a secret to the Germans. The Germans are also using the same tactics to fight us. We are familiar with each other because they know what we are going to do next."

Foch continued, "You mean, when the Germans had already adapted to our tactics, Charles suddenly adopted different tactics, which made the Germans at a loss?"

"Yes." Wei Gang nodded affirmatively: "The same is true of Pétain's defensive tactics. It is also a tactic different from 'offensive warfare'."

After a pause, Weygand asserted: "Once the Germans get used to their tactics, that is when they will fail. The battle will eventually return to the starting point, and it can only be 'offensive'."

Foch was silent.

Although he was the one who summarized and proposed the "offensive theory" and had believed in it before, after several conversations with Charles, he began to waver in his heart and now no longer easily says which one is correct.

At this time, the car turned into a valley, and several fully armed guards came forward. The car slowly stopped for inspection.

…

It is the custom of the charr not to camp in towns, although that is more comfortable and convenient, but it also creates opportunities for decapitation for the enemy and brings danger to civilians.

Therefore, unless there were special circumstances, he always set up his headquarters in the forest.

At this time, Charles had just received the news that Greve and Armand had been arrested.

He sighed in his heart that Grevy's intelligence and caution far exceeded Charles's imagination.

Who would have thought that the book hidden in the safe was insignificant, it was a copy of "The Peasants" written by Balzac, which was in line with Grevy's right-wing identity and his ideals.

But that was only to induce others to steal and to serve as a warning to Grevey.

Every time Grevy put it in the safe, he would carefully clip a few hairs in it so that he would know immediately if someone had touched it. Then he would pretend that "The Peasant" was a code book and send some insignificant telegrams.

The real code book is actually the diary he carried with him.

He would use old diary pages to publish new diaries, and have his confidants in Germany update the diaries simultaneously, so the passwords were changed almost every day and were never the same.

But Grevi was careless and forgot about Armand's loophole.

Everything fell into place naturally if this loophole was seized: Harry got information from Armand, and the "servant" who infiltrated Greve's house took pictures of the diary pages, and Greve had no secrets at all.

This is a major victory for Charles and the right-wing forces will suffer a severe blow.

The party leader is actually collaborating with the enemy?

And the target of the attack was actually Charles?

This is going to drag the whole of France into the fire pit!

People may even reasonably imagine:

The right-wing forces hope that external forces will intervene, or collude with external forces to achieve their goal of restoring the monarchy.

And it is very likely that not only Grevi, but the entire right-wing force is suspected.

…

As a result, right-wing lawmakers will keep their tails between their legs, and even if they don't know what Grevey has done, Schneider will cut ties with him for fear of being tainted by his influence.

Then, it was time for Ciel to show up...

Just as he was thinking about it, the signalman pushed the door open and reported: "Brigadier General, General Foch is here."

Before he had finished speaking, Foch came in, bending over with a smile: "Is everything all right, Brigadier General? Long time no see!"

(Note: In 1910, the average height of French people was 166.8 cm, and Foch was 175 cm tall, which was considered tall at the time)

"Everything is fine, General." Charles stepped forward and shook his hand.

Foch looked at the bunker curiously and said with appreciation: "You can share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, which is better than most French generals."

"That's not the case, General." Charles said self-deprecatingly, "I'm just a coward. I don't dare to live in the town and risk being assassinated."

Foch laughed, of course he didn't believe that Charles really did that for this reason.

Then Foch turned the subject to the point: "You intended to let everyone think that you and your troops would appear at the National Day parade, right?"

"Yes." Charles nodded.

"Can this fool the Germans?" Foch was a little skeptical.

"If it's just this, maybe not," Charles replied.

Foch heard Charles's hidden meaning: "Anything else?"

Ciel smiled and said, "Not only that, there are quite a few more."

Charles made a lot of preparations for today's attack.

(End of this chapter)