Chapter 403 People's Military Level
Charles and Matthew spent more than three hours discussing the details of "Saint Salmon" and the truck gun, and did not even have time to eat lunch.
Until Djokovic came over, understood the situation and brought a working lunch to the two of them.
It was a potato pizza made in the cafeteria, and it tasted surprisingly good. Perhaps it was because Charles was a little hungry at the moment.
Matthew asked while chewing pizza: "Although this is not what I need to know, is it too dangerous to add a truck and artillery?"
Matthew tapped on the sketch Charles had drawn. "The artillerymen are all on the vehicles, and they have no protection."
Charles nodded in agreement. When the shell exploded, the shrapnel spread radially from bottom to top. The artillerymen on the vehicle were at a high altitude, so the probability of being hit by shrapnel was very high.
However……
"It's what they're used for, Matthew," Charles replied.
"Where?" Matthew cast a puzzled look at Charles: "Isn't it on the battlefield? Everyone must be on the battlefield."
"Of course it's on the battlefield, but on the battlefield there are also front and back." Charles raised his head towards the Saint-Samond parked in the warehouse: "The truck gun is following the Saint-Samond."
Matthew said "Oh" and understood.
"Saint-Samond" charged in the front under enemy fire and forced back the enemy artillery, and then the truck artillery came up.
Ciel was pretty sure this thing would work, even though it looked insecure.
It still exists in modern times because artillery often needs to carry out mass bombing on targets, and self-propelled artillery is often not suitable for mass equipment due to cost issues.
Truck-mounted guns can achieve almost the same firepower output at half the cost of self-propelled artillery. They can be very effective when used in the right situation, so they are favored by many countries.
(The picture above shows the modern "Archer" truck gun. Although it has good performance, its unclear positioning has lost the meaning of a truck gun. It is more expensive than a tracked self-propelled artillery, but it does not have the off-road capability and protection of a tracked self-propelled artillery, and it cannot be mass-produced.)
Charles hurriedly stuffed the remaining pizza in his hand into his mouth and looked at the time. It was almost time to report back to the military camp.
He said goodbye to Matthew while chewing his food, and before leaving, he told Dejoka, "Father, it would be best if the training for steel plant workers could start working in three months."
"No problem." Djokovic nodded: "They have already started."
Matthew was a little surprised to hear this.
Charles required that the Saint-Samond be modified within a month, but the steel plant workers were scheduled to start work in three months, which seemed to be a bit wrong.
After thinking for a while, Matthew smiled slightly, as if he understood Charles' intention.
…
On the car back to the military camp, Charles casually flipped through the document given by Deyoka, which was the operation status of "Bernard Company".
Since Charles was serving in the army most of the time and unable to handle company affairs, Djoka had to report to Charles in this situation.
But this is actually not necessary, because Charles doesn't care about all this data. He can understand the literal meaning, but he can't understand anything.
In short, as long as it can make a profit, it's fine.
"General." Laurent, who was driving, tilted his head back and said, "Italy has launched an attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but the progress does not seem to be smooth."
Charles hummed and continued to flip through the documents. It would be strange if Italy's attack could go smoothly.
The battlefield was not a pure comparison of military strength. The Italian army's tactics were very backward. It was almost a replica of the French "offensive theory", but it was under-equipped.
By this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had more defensive experience. They built several trenches towards the Italians. When the Italians bombarded, the Austrian army temporarily retreated and hid in the second trench. When the bombardment ended, they immediately replenished the first trench to organize defense.
Many times the Italian army was doing useless work, but they were always unaware of it.
"Some people think that Joffre should transfer you to Army Group East," said Laurent.
"What?" Charles looked up at Laurent in surprise.
Who would think so? Didn't they know that Joffre was their mortal enemy?
Laurent saw Charles's reaction in the rearview mirror and quickly explained: "It's because of the recent Schneider incident. People thought you had reconciled with Joffre..."
Charles suddenly realized that it was the aftereffect of buying "Saint Salmon".
Schneider announced that he had reached a consensus with "Bernard Company" to some extent, and that the two companies were united against the enemy, causing people to mistakenly believe that Charles would unite with Schneider.
Since Joffre was from Schneider's faction, it was natural for him to fight alongside Charles.
Charles sighed softly. France is a big country and there are always people who hold unrealistic ideas.
Joffre's contradiction with himself was almost irreconcilable. He desperately needed victory to keep his position as commander-in-chief, but Charles was the one who actually achieved victory and constantly threatened his position.
Laurent added cautiously, "In addition, they believe that you can only cooperate with Italy in the war under the Eastern Army Group."
Charles nodded slightly. Since the beginning of the war, people's military level has indeed improved a lot.
It's just that their expectations of Italy were too high. The war had just begun, and they hadn't even gotten past Austria-Hungary, but they were already thinking of cooperating with Italy to attack the German army.
(The blue part in the above picture is the direction of Italy's attack, which corresponds to the red part in the first picture. If the Italian army breaks through the narrow strip of land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the north and enters Germany, it can attack the Western Front with France)
…
At the French General Headquarters, Joffre also heard similar rumors.
At first, Joffre thought this idea was ridiculous. To transfer Charles here? Wouldn't that mean admitting that Charles was better than himself? How would he, the commander-in-chief, cope with the situation?
If Charles put forward an idea, would Joffre agree or disagree?
Agree, if the battle is won it is Charles's credit.
I disagree. If we lose the war, it will all be Joffre's fault!
Xiafei found it strange that there would be problems whether he agreed or disagreed.
After thinking for a while, Joffre finally realized that the key point was that Charles was always right. If he agreed, he would win the battle, and if he disagreed, he would lose the battle.
However, after staring at the map and thinking about it, Joffre found that the battle plan people were thinking of seemed feasible. Once the Italian army broke through the Austro-Hungarian defense line and entered Germany, the German army would be attacked from both sides, and at least the German supply lines could be attacked.
This is a chance to break the deadlock.
If this opportunity is lost again, the resentful parliament will probably kick him out of the position of commander-in-chief.
Thinking of this, Joffre did not hesitate. He called the Paris Defense Headquarters and said confidently:
"General Gallieni, I think it's time to prepare!"
"I believe that our goal is the same, which is to drive the Germans out of French soil!"
(End of this chapter)
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