Chapter 721: Competitiveness

The world is vast and everything is silent.

Late at night in the Peres Palace, only the occasional chirping of insects and birds in the forest remind the world that this is an unpredictable world.

On the third floor of the palace, the lights on one side of the study were on, and figures were swaying under the orange light, as if they were arguing about something.

They were arguing heatedly, and occasionally a noise or two would penetrate the window and wake up the sleeping hounds downstairs, causing them to make uneasy "humming" sounds.

"I don't think our army can defeat the Germans!" Queen Marie placed a stack of documents in front of Ferdinand I.

She knew she couldn't easily convince the king, so she waited in France to get some data before returning.

"Look at this." Queen Mary slapped the document heavily. "This is the recent Battle of the Somme. The Germans defeated the British Expeditionary Force with far fewer troops. That was nearly a million troops, twice the size of our total army."

Ferdinand I objected: "That is meaningless, Marie..."

"Then tell us what is meaningful for reference?" Queen Marie interrupted the king: "Do you have to use Charles's armored corps as a reference?"

Queen Mary angrily flipped through another stack of documents:

"Look at this, look at what kind of troops Charles's army is, and the tactics he uses. Its tactics have been compiled into French textbooks, every battle!"

"Do you really think our troops can compete with Sharl?"

"Do we have tanks, planes, or the wisdom of the charr?"

Fernandi I slapped his head and said with dissatisfaction: "God, you have been fascinated by Charles. In your heart, he is invincible, right?"

"What else?" Queen Marie asked back, "The fact is that no one can defeat him. The whole world is amazed at Charles' military genius. Only we know very little about him because we did not participate in the war. Now we naively think that we can defeat the Germans like him."

"I don't think we can be like him, Marie," Ferdinand I retorted:

"But our situation is different. Our troops are in high spirits."

“The majority of people in Transylvania are Romanians and they will help us.”

"Besides, the Germans are exhausted from being attacked from all sides. This is our perfect opportunity..."

Queen Mary interrupted Fernandi I and said firmly:

"No, you are wrong."

"Our army is more like the British army, which was defeated by the Germans at the Somme with inferior forces."

"We are not even as good as the British Army. The only difference is that the British Army has the Shire to save them, but we don't!"

Ferdinand I was speechless. He stared at Mary blankly. After a while, he slowed down his tone and said, "This cannot be changed, Mary. I don't want to argue with you. What I want to hear is not 'we will fail', but 'we will win'. Do you understand?"

Queen Marie sighed, glanced at the documents on the table, and finally gave Ferdinand I a piece of advice: "I hope you understand what you are doing, Your Majesty. Also, please take a look at these materials, and you will know what the reality is before us!"

After saying this, he turned and walked out of the study, leaving Ferdinand I standing there in a daze.

After a long time, Ferdinand I walked to the desk with a heavy heart and flipped through the documents on the table, but he couldn't concentrate at all.

This is a different battlefield, he thought, what does this mean?

"No!" Ferdinand I murmured to himself: "Romanian warriors are not what you think. We will not lose. This is a just war!"

Ferdinand I did not realize that he was allowing personal feelings to enter into his military decisions.

Queen Mary made a mistake.

She should not show respect for other men in front of her husband, especially when her husband is a very arrogant king.

Not every king was as open-minded as Albert I.

In fact, Albert I was not open-minded. He had just been beaten by war and knew that the title of "king" was not worth mentioning in the face of the cruelty of war.

Ferdinand I didn't know this. In Romania, he was always high above everyone else and admired by everyone.

Even though he was only the king of a small country, even though the kings of this period could no longer be said to hold great power, and even though his status as a king could not be compared with Charles'.

But the king is the king after all, and he must overwhelm everything in terms of psychological momentum.

Therefore, Queen Marie's persuasion not only failed to work, but also aroused Ferdinand I's competitive spirit, or jealousy.

This made him more eager to prove himself with a victory, which in turn strengthened his determination to attack Transylvania.

…

Charles slept in the city defense headquarters that night.

This was because he had talked to Gallieni very late last night, otherwise he would have wanted to return to the town of Darvaz.

The next morning, Charles was awakened by cheers coming from the street.

I got out of bed, opened a corner of the curtain and looked out onto the street. It turned out that citizens were scrambling for newspapers at the newsstand.

People buying newspapers lined up in a long queue on the street, which stretched as far as the eye could see.

Those who didn't buy it were anxiously looking around, while those who bought it exclaimed excitedly:

"My God, what they said is true. Charles did invent the incendiary bomb. He burned the German tank division to ashes!"

"An entire tank division? The German First Tank Division that defeated the British at Dunkirk?"

"Yes, of course. The Germans only have one tank division."

"No, it shouldn't be there now!"

…

People laughed with pride.

They enjoyed the victory over the British, and if they saw a few British people, they would show off to them with newspapers.

They would also emphasize how easily Charles defeated this German tank division and how badly the British army was beaten.

"Boring." Charles muttered and shrank back into the bed.

He stayed up all night during the trip to Verdun, and now he always feels like he didn't get enough sleep.

At this time, there were several knocks on the door, and the signalman reported: "General, Mr. Wells called and said he has something urgent to talk to you about."

"Wells?" Charles wondered.

Wells usually doesn't go directly to Charles. Even if he has something to ask, he will go through Tijani first.

Now they call me directly, there must be something unusual.

Charles jumped up, quickly put on his trousers and military coat, opened the door, and rushed to the telecommunications room to take the phone from the signalman.

"General." Wells's anxious voice came from the other end: "Congress wants us to stop building destroyers so that more resources can be allocated to the army."

"What?" Charles couldn't believe what he heard: "But this is my money, and we also have construction needs..."

"They said we can give this request to Neon." Wells replied: "Neon will build these ten destroyers for us!"

(End of this chapter)