Chapter 180 The Boulanger Incident

The next day was the day when Charles had to go to the headquarters to serve, and he originally wanted to stay in bed for a while longer.

After coming to this time and space, he always switched between the roles of adviser and capitalist. Although he had holidays, he was actually never idle, either working for the war or running around for business.

At this moment, he also wanted to be lazy and have a good sleep in the warm bed in this cold autumn.

But Camille knocked on the door gently and reminded: "Charles, Major Laurent has been waiting downstairs for half an hour!"

"I'll come, Mom!" Charles responded helplessly.

The sky was gloomy and the rain seemed to be stopping, which made the scene seem a bit depressing. The cold wind blew in mercilessly from the leaky sides of the T-model car, making Charles shiver and unconsciously tighten his military coat.

Major Laurent said as he steered the car: "Maybe we won't have to hide from the crowds anymore, Lieutenant!"

"Why?" Charles was a little confused. Has he been ruthlessly abandoned by his fans?

Major Laurent explained: "It's because of another hot spot. Everyone is wondering where the Spee fleet will be and where the next naval battle will start, so..."

Ciel said "Oh" and nodded.

This may not just be the case for the citizens of Paris, but for governments around the world as well.

At this time, the land defense line had been temporarily stabilized. Neither the enemy nor us could do anything to the other, and they all turned their attention to the sea.

Germany wanted to see if a new battlefield could be opened up at sea to delay British reinforcements to France.

The Allies wanted to nip the few warships that emerged from the German Navy in the bud, and also wanted to see if they could break the land deadlock by relying on their strong naval advantage.

Then everyone's focus and attention will shift to the sea.

This is good, Charles can worry less.

Sure enough, after the car arrived in Paris, there were only a few sparse groups of people on the street waving and shouting at Charles, which was much quieter than before.

Charles sighed in his heart: Count Spee is such a good man, one can even say he sacrificed his life for a just cause!

To Ciel's surprise, he was startled by the cheers from the staff as soon as he entered the headquarters:

"Welcome Major Charles!"

"Hail to Major Charles!"

"Congratulations, Major Charles!"

…

"Major?" Charles looked at the cheering crowd with a confused look on his face.

Lieutenant Colonel Fernand pushed Charles directly in front of Gallieni and said, "Come on, Charles, your promotion review was approved yesterday!"

Gallieni handed Charles a stack of documents with a smile and said, "The uniform is ready. You will be promoted with some members of the First Flying Squadron. See if there is anything else you want to add!"

"Yes, General!" Charles stepped forward and took the document handed to him by Gallieni.

It turned out that the pilots of the First Flying Squadron were all second lieutenants, which made it very inconvenient to command them during combat.

Gallieni decided to promote Captain Charles to major, and Deputy Captain Carter to captain, and then appointed several lieutenants and squadron leaders, eventually forming a top-down command system.

In fact, the squadron leader of the flying brigade should correspond to a major or a captain, and below him there are lieutenants and squad leaders. However, because the military ranks are generally low when they are just formed, they can only make do with this for now.

Charles returned to the dormitory and changed into his major's uniform. This time he didn't even bother to look in the mirror, as if he had gotten used to it.

When I walked out of the dormitory and came to the office, I was once again greeted with congratulations from my colleagues, and some even joked:

"Should I be promoted to colonel next month?"

"We get promoted one level at a time, year by year, but in Shire, we get promoted two levels at a time, month by month!"

"It won't be long before you become a general, right?"

…

Kobdo also raised his camera and took a few pictures of Charles. Tomorrow morning's "Meritorious Newspaper" will definitely have another headline: Charles was promoted to major.

There might also be a comment: Charles may be the fastest-promoting and youngest officer in France, but most people think he is not promoted fast enough...

After a lot of "blah blah", Charles was a little worried that Kobdo would draw the focus back to himself.

Gallieni nodded to Charles and walked into the lounge in silence.

Charles understood, and following Gallieni he turned around and closed the door.

"Have you heard of Boulanger?" Gallieni asked casually, leaning back in his chair.

"No, General!" replied Charles. "I have never heard of it."

"It happened more than 20 years ago, when you were not even born!" Gallieni briefly recounted the incident: "Blanger was a general. He was wounded several times during his service and made countless contributions. He had a high reputation among the military and civilians. Later, he wanted to go into politics, so he left the military and entered politics. He was even able to win the vast majority of votes in parliament, but the final result was... he chose to commit suicide after some scandals were exposed!"

Gallieni's tone was calm and emotionless, as if he was recalling something insignificant.

Charles thought so at first, but later he learned more and found that Boulanger's early actions were somewhat similar to his own...

After entering politics, Boulanger implemented a series of reforms such as improving soldiers' food, allowing soldiers to grow beards, supporting workers' strikes, and abolishing aristocratic privileges, which won people's support. This support could even be described as "fanatic."

When he was dismissed from his post as Minister of War by capitalists in an ignominious way and had to leave Paris, 150,000 people surrounded the train station and the surrounding area, hugged him excitedly, shook hands with him, and shouted:

"You can't leave!"

"You are our hope!"

"France cannot do without you, Monsieur Boulanger!"

…

But his opponent is the capitalist, and capitalists are good at digging up the opponent's shameful deeds and publicizing them, eventually making you ruin your reputation and lose everything.

Although Charles did not know much about this matter at this time, he could still hear that Gallieni was using this incident to warn Charles to take it as a warning, so that he would not lose himself in the support of the masses and ignore the opponents hidden in the dark.

"I understand, General," said Charles. "I will watch my words and conduct."

This is a society of double standards. Even if big capitalists commit serious crimes, they will eventually be left unresolved, such as the Panama scandal.

For ordinary people, if even just a little bit of their dark secrets are exposed, their bright future may be gone forever or they may even be killed.

Although Charles is a capitalist, he is just an ordinary person in front of Schneider and he cannot afford to lose.

Gallieni nodded in satisfaction and continued, "Another question, Major, have you heard that the Germans are developing tanks?"

"German tanks?" Charles was surprised and immediately thought of the A7V.

"Yes," replied Gallieni, "but the news is not yet confirmed. It comes from the capitalists."

This is normal. Capitalists are more sensitive to this information and sometimes know more than the military or even the country.

"The news says..." Gallieni's eyes flashed with worry, "The Germans are developing a tank targeting your Mark I, and they are planning to equip it with artillery. Are you still not considering equipping it with artillery?"

Charles answered confidently: "No, General, I don't think it's necessary!"

With the Renault tank, there was no need to equip the Mark I with a gun!

(The picture above is an illustration of Boulanger's suicide)

Thanks to Crisis Crocodile for the reward, thank you very much!

(End of this chapter)