Chapter 130 I Just Commanded That Battle
The rain was still falling in Ypres, but the war had come to an end.
The German army suffered heavy losses, with more than 10,000 casualties in the two-day attack, while the Belgian army suffered very little casualties.
More importantly, the German army, including General Cross, seemed to have reached a consensus: they could not defeat the enemy, even though they still had superior manpower.
Therefore, General Cross repeatedly refused to organize an attack despite pressure from Chief of the General Staff Falkenhayn.
In a telegram he sent to Falkenhayn, he said: "If the enemy always maintains air superiority, our so-called attack is just pushing soldiers to the front line for the enemy to use as targets. I refuse to do this!"
Soon French reinforcements arrived, which further strengthened General Cross's determination to abandon the attack.
General Foch took over command at Ypres.
Everyone thought that Foch would launch an attack immediately after his arrival, as the military and civilians were already accustomed to his fighting style.
However, surprisingly, Foch did not do so.
He sent French troops in batches to replace the Belgian troops and established a system of rotating troops to guard the front line.
And then nothing happened. All the troop deployments were the same as before, and the artillery was still five kilometers behind the defense line, without moving at all.
Many people, including Albert I, speculated that Charles's deployment was so perfect that it would be a mistake for Foch to make any changes to it.
General Charles' analysis may explain Foch's mentality at this time:
"General Foch was very smart. Based on Charles's great victory by taking a defensive approach, if he launched an offensive and suffered heavy losses without making any progress, he would make a fool of himself in front of everyone, and his military theory might even be abandoned."
"So, he would rather let others guess, even though this guess is also disadvantageous to him!"
…
Charles didn't think too much about it, as he had another two-day holiday.
Sometimes Charles wondered what would happen if his vacation came when the war was not over? Would he abandon the battlefield and the First Flying Squadron and go home for vacation?
I wonder if Gallieni will let it go!
Fortunately, I haven’t encountered this situation yet, including the time when I was deceived into going to Antwerp, I happened to “get” back in time the next night.
Charles had breakfast at home. He preferred Camille's apple crisp to the food in the officers' mess. More importantly, if he ate it in the officers' mess, Camille would force him to eat more when he got home.
While Charles was biting into the crispy, fragrant and steaming apple crisp with milk, the "Little Daily" was "thoughtfully" delivered to his door by his neighbors.
"It's Ypres this time, Madame Bernard!" the neighbor exclaimed. "Charles has fought a good battle again!"
Camille glanced at Charles with a sullen look, and quickly rushed out to get the newspaper. After glancing at it, he waved it at Charles, his eyes filled with disbelief and anger: "They sent you to the front again?"
"No, mother!" Charles explained, "I was in Paris the whole time. I just conducted the campaign by telephone and telegram!"
Camille was relieved after hearing this. She only cared about whether Charles went to the front line. She didn't understand or need to understand other things.
"Command?" Djokovic took the newspaper from Camille in shock, and read it while eating, but he stopped after a while.
Deyoka looked up at Charles, seemingly unable to believe it: "You mean, you commanded the Battle of Ypres?"
"Part of it!" Charles corrected.
"Which part?" Djokovic asked.
"The part about the planes!" Charles was not sure whether he should say the number. "In addition, there were also some artillery members involved, but not many!"
Charles made all the decisions regarding the direction of the artillery.
For example, where the artillery should be positioned and when to fire, and other aspects such as logistics supplies were organized by General Gallieni.
Djokovic swallowed hard.
He did hear some rumors in the past few days that the French army put machine guns on planes and won a great victory in Ypres. Although the German army had assembled several times more troops in Ypres, it did not dare to attack rashly.
At that time, Djokovic suspected that this was related to Charles, but he didn't expect it to be the case.
"I hope you're not doing this to sell tractors!" Djokovic laughed.
Charles nodded: "It does have something to do with selling tractors!"
The two looked at each other and smiled.
Everyone else's attention was on the planes and positions, or on the artillery's powerful bombing that killed and injured more than 10,000 enemies.
Almost no one noticed that the four artillery regiments, with a total of 152 guns, were all towed into the muddy fields of Ypres by tractors.
In addition, there were more than 300 tractors running back and forth between the battlefield and the railway station, constantly transporting artillery shells and supplies and bringing back the wounded from the front line.
Gallieni purchased 500 "Holt 60" from Charles in the first batch, and soon purchased another 500 at a unit price of 2,500 francs.
Just these two batches allowed Charles to raise 2.5 million francs in funds.
You should know that Charles bought this batch of "Holt 60" from Francis at a low price of 900 francs, and made a profit of 1,600 francs by reselling it, which is simply a huge profit.
And that’s not all. Charles still has 800 “Holt 60s” in his hands. With the arrival of the rainy season, it is almost certain that the military will increase its purchasing power, and then they can make a fortune again.
Without taking anything else into account, Charles doubled his wealth with this transaction alone.
Camille didn't know anything about tractors, so she asked in confusion, "What tractor?"
"Nothing!" Deyoka replied, "We are talking about the tractor factory business!"
Djoka winked at Charles, intending to make Camille misunderstand that he thought Camille didn't need to know anything about Francis.
…
Francis was sitting alone on the sofa in his villa, puffing on his pipe. His face was darker than the burning tobacco in the pipe.
He realized that he might have been cheated. He heard that the military had purchased a large number of "Holt 60" for use in the battlefield, but he had not received any orders from the military.
The only reasonable explanation is that the batch of "Holt 60" obtained by the military was the batch he sold to Vartan not long ago, which was his inventory!
Algerian nobles?
Shipped to Algeria for planting?
They were all lies, he clearly sold them to the military and made a fortune!
Why didn't people like Grevi and Armand in parliament get any news or give any warning?
Could it be... that they were the ones behind this?
Francis suddenly felt isolated. He felt that everyone was betraying him and he was the only one who was kept in the dark!
(End of this chapter)
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