Chapter 151 Intelligence from Party Struggles

Operations Department of the Paris Defense Command.

Gallieni had an enlarged La Fux map hung on the north wall next to his desk, with every trench and troop deployment discovered marked in detail on the map.

Gallieni stood in front of the map and said to Charles with a heavy heart: "These are all obtained with the lives and blood of our warriors!"

Charles replied: "In fact, we can get this information by plane!"

Gallieni rolled his eyes at Charles, as if to say that you were being too disrespectful to Joffre by saying that, and that everything he had done was in vain!

However, Gallieni did not say anything. He pointed at the map with his pointer and analyzed: "From the previous battles, the middle section of the defense line is the most difficult to break through. There is a high ground with an altitude of more than 100 meters. The German army on it has an advantage over us. There are also a lot of barbed wires laid in front of the defense line. There may be an artillery regiment behind the high ground!"

At this point, Gallieni put away his pointer and said thoughtfully: "So, I'm thinking about a question, should we attack from the flank..."

"No, I think we should attack from the middle!" Charles rejected this plan: "The German artillery has a range of 12 kilometers. Whether our army attacks from the flank or the front, we will have to face its attack. The front is flat and the flanks are rugged. If the tanks attack from the flank, it means they will be hit by more artillery on the way!"

"That makes sense!" Gallieni nodded, pointed his pointer at the German artillery position, and asked, "You mean, we should quickly break through the enemy's artillery position from the front?"

"Yes, that's what I thought!" Charles nodded. "As long as we destroy the enemy's artillery positions, the follow-up troops' attack will be able to recapture the La Fox area in one fell swoop!"

…

Two hours later, Charles' battle plan was on the table at Khalil's headquarters.

Khalil was a little surprised. He asked Staff Officer Wolfe, "This is France's top secret. Perhaps only Gallieni knows it. How did our intelligence officers learn about it so quickly? Are you sure it's true?"

Khalil suspected that this was "fabricated" intelligence by the intelligence agent in order to win credit.

Staff Officer Wolfe smiled confidently: "Don't doubt it, Colonel, this is indeed true, the source of the information is very reliable!"

Seeing that Khalil still didn't believe it, Wolfe leaned forward and said in a low voice: "This is the information provided by a certain party in France!"

Khalil understood immediately that it was a party struggle within France.

To put it simply, if the group represented by Gallieni and Charles won, it would be detrimental to a certain party, so that party used its own connections to obtain intelligence from within and then secretly passed it on to German intelligence agents.

Khalil laughed and cursed sarcastically: "Stupid French people, they always put internal strife first!"

"Otherwise why are they called France?" Wolfe replied with a smile.

"So!" Khalil asked again, "Do we even know how many tanks and troops Shire has?"

"Of course!" Wolf nodded: "Even including Charles' attack time!"

Although Gallieni built a railway directly to the tractor factory in Charles, a certain French party had spies in the tractor factory, and they could easily know what or how much was loaded on the train every day.

Khalil nodded: "If that's the case, it will be much easier!"

At this time, the signalman came forward excitedly to report: "Colonel, General Waldeck agreed to our application. He decided to transfer the artillery regiments in Andrusi and Tamon areas to our command, and the artillery shells will be given priority!"

Cheers immediately broke out in the command center. Originally there were only two artillery battalions in the Lafox area, but now two artillery regiments have been directly reinforced. Not to mention Charles' tanks, even ten Charles would not be enough to stop them from bombarding!

…

In the Chamber of Deputies of France's Bourbon Palace, Gallieni once again stood on the stage to answer questions from the members of parliament.

Ever since he had ridiculed the members of Congress in the House of Representatives last time, Gallieni had already made plans to ignore these members of Congress. They were nothing but stupidity and greed, and Gallieni didn't want to see their true faces.

However……

Based on this inquiry, MPs will decide whether to send Charles and his tanks to the battlefield to replace Joffre.

Gallieni had to accept it.

"General Gallieni!" A congressman stood up and asked in a high and beautiful falsetto: "Do you really think that a 17-year-old boy, a lieutenant who has never been to a military school and has never experienced war, has enough ability and experience to command the French army to fight the Germans? We even want to use him to replace Joffre, who has 44 years of military experience, has made great achievements in the war, and is the Commander-in-Chief of France!"

Gallieni simply replied: "Sorry, what did you say? I didn't hear you clearly!"

The congressmen were stunned, and then burst into laughter.

Everyone knew that Gallieni was using a clever way to deal a heavy blow to the questioner:

The one who made great military achievements was Charles, a 17-year-old who had never attended military school.

Joffre's commendable military achievements include the Senegal Campaign more than a decade ago, which was to suppress the resistance of the local people. The French army faced natives armed with wooden sticks, bamboo arrows and hunting rifles.

The other is the victory of the Battle of the Marne, which was widely publicized by the media, and the first heroes of this battle were Gallieni and Charles.

The congressman did not ask any more questions. He sat back in his seat with an embarrassed look on his face.

Another deputy stood up. Gallieni recognized him, Steed from the Saint-Etienne Arsenal. Gallieni knew that he had been holding a grudge against him because of the machine gun.

Gallieni snorted in his heart, this guy was probably asking some unfounded suspicions!

Unexpectedly, Steed asked in a gentle voice: "General Gallieni, I just want to know one thing. What Charles said to the media, that the CA-1 and 'Saint-Chamon' have obvious defects, do you think it is true?"

As soon as the words came out, they were booed by the surrounding parliamentarians.

Gallieni was surprised. This question was in his favor. When did Steed change his character? Or was he just getting old and confused?

"It's true!" Gallieni stepped forward and answered, "Facts have proved that Charles is right. The problems of CA-1 and Saint-Chamond are obvious to all. They completely ignored the actual situation on the battlefield and just piled up artillery and machine guns. The result is..."

Before he finished speaking, he was immediately met with opposition:

"That's not the tank's problem. They don't have the experience to use it!"

"It's the soldiers who won't cooperate!"

"This has something to do with the new rifle bullets the Germans are using. Charles' tanks will fail as well!"

…

Schneider owner James Schneider stood up and said:

"Gentlemen, why don't we make a try and let Charles command the 'Saint-Chamond' tank to attack the enemy? Isn't it more likely to win than a tank with only machine guns?"

Gallieni cursed in his heart: Shameless, he will say anything for the sake of profit!

(End of this chapter)