Chapter 472 Everything was arranged by Charles
Early in the morning, Charles was awakened as usual by the noise of the Camel fighter taking off.
Every day at dawn, six planes would be divided into three groups and fly in three different directions for patrol. This was one of the means to prevent the German army from spying on our troop deployment.
Charles put on his military uniform, washed up quickly, and walked towards the headquarters while yawning.
As soon as I sat down in the chair, the orderly brought me breakfast: mashed potatoes, a slice of bread and some jam, and a small piece of chocolate.
This was the credit of Albert I. He believed that the hero who liberated Belgium should not be treated unfairly, so he mobilized the Belgians to improve the food for the French army, but only for Charles' troops!
"The Battle of Verdun has begun." Tijani, who had been hunched over the map and writing on it, said without looking up: "You win again, Brigadier General."
Charles, who was chewing bread, suddenly looked up at Tijani. He was shocked. Did this guy know that all this was a trap he had set intentionally?
Tijani's next words made Charles breathe a sigh of relief. He threw a document on Charles' desk and said, "The Germans used your tactics, almost exactly the same as you used to fight Antwerp."
Charles said "Oh", so that's what happened.
He smiled softly and continued eating his food while flipping through the documents with his other hand.
Just as Tijani said, the German army first prepared with artillery fire, and then the infantry charged behind the tanks. They even used Molotov cocktails to guide the direction of the tanks' attack.
If anything, the German artillery preparation lasted five hours, from nine o'clock to two o'clock in the morning of the next day.
"They should pay some royalties," Charles complained.
"Oh, yes." Tijani was amused. He turned his head and looked at Charles with an incredible look in his eyes: "It would be best if I could hire you as an instructor, right?"
"Forget it!" replied Charles. "I shall be drowned in the saliva of the French."
Tijani smiled bitterly and shook his head, walked forward, pushed Charles' plate away a little, and spread out the map on the empty table.
"The first line of defense at Verdun was easily breached. They are now attacking Fort Douaumont."
"Fort Douaumont is very important. If it is lost, Verdun will be in danger!"
(The above picture is a map of Verdun. Most of the places with place names are fortresses, large and small, dozens of them. The red arrow is the direction of the German attack. Its main force passed between the two circular fortresses and went straight to the Douaumont Fort in the center.)
Ciel nodded in agreement.
Fort Douaumont is the center of the Verdun fortress group. Many trenches are connected to it and it is an important support point.
Once it was captured by the German army, the French defense line would be divided into two sections, and the other fortresses would be unable to communicate with each other and would be in a state of fighting on their own.
"What's Joffre's reaction?" Charles asked casually.
"He insisted that this was a feint by the Germans." Tijani spread his hands helplessly: "Although everyone believes that this is not the case."
This is common sense. It is impossible to launch a feint attack by bombing continuously for 5 hours and then sending out tanks and a large number of troops. Otherwise, the cost of the feint attack would be too high.
Charles just smiled and said nothing.
He knew that Xiafei was holding on, and it seemed that he had no choice but to hold on.
In fact, it was Charles who blocked Joffre's retreat. Charles arranged for Armand to bet with Joffre in parliament.
On the surface, this seems to be just a way of showing off one's power.
The reality is: once Joffre admitted that the German army was mainly attacking in the direction of Verdun and transferred troops back, it meant that Armand had won, and the parliament had legitimate reasons to discuss the issue of whether Joffre, the commander-in-chief, should stay or go.
This was a great humiliation for Joffre, especially since the person he was betting against was Armand, who knew nothing about military affairs and was on the right.
…
In the Paris Chamber of Deputies shrouded in fog, members of parliament walked hurriedly into the meeting room in groups of three or five and took their seats.
This was a special meeting called in response to the outbreak of the Battle of Verdun, and they also called Gallieni, who had just returned from the hospital, to participate in the questioning.
Because Gallieni was one of the few authoritative military experts in Paris.
As soon as the meeting began, someone asked the question that everyone wanted to know: "General Gallieni, based on your military experience, do you think the German attack on Verdun was a feint?"
General Gallieni's face was still pale, but his voice was loud and powerful: "I don't think so, because no feint attack could reach such a scale. If it weren't for the heroic fighting of the officers and soldiers on the front line, Verdun might have fallen into the hands of the Germans!"
The MPs were in an uproar.
Then someone asked curiously, "Who is stopping the Germans at the front?"
"Colonel Deleon," Gallieni replied. "As far as I know, he has only about 750 soldiers, and so far they have suffered more than 300 casualties."
There was another exclamation in the conference room.
"We should send reinforcements immediately."
"No," Gallieni replied, "the German artillery fire was too fierce, and most of our reinforcements were killed on the way."
The artillery in the fortress was moved away, which directly led to the German artillery having an absolute advantage. Any suspicious troops appearing in the open ground outside the fortress would be blown to the sky.
"So what should we do? Just wait like this?"
Gallieni replied: "We can wait until night, when there will be a chance for reinforcements, and darkness will provide the best cover."
"But Colonel De Leon is the commander of the infantry regiment. Why does he only have more than 700 people under his command?" Some congressmen expressed their confusion.
"You know," Gallieni answered truthfully, "Joffre has withdrawn artillery and artillery."
The fortress troops were a mixture of infantry and artillery based on fortresses. After all the artillery were transferred away, only a pitiful 700 people were left.
So, everyone naturally thought of Joffre. All this was caused by him. Colonel De Leon had repeatedly issued warnings, but he was stubborn!
But the congressmen didn't say it out loud, and some of them turned their eyes to Armand.
Perhaps sensing this, Armand stood up leisurely:
"No, I will not say anything unfavorable to the war, gentlemen."
"Now is not the time to assign blame, the battle has already begun."
"Although I don't understand military affairs, I know that changing generals in the middle of a battle is a taboo. Now we should consider how to resolve the crisis in front of us!"
His words surprised everyone. The congressmen did not expect that Armand, who had always been unreasonable, would say something so far-sighted and considerate of the overall situation.
Only Gallieni sighed inwardly:
Everything was arranged by Charles and Armand as well.
Armand was not speaking well of Joffre, but was trying to expose Joffre's greater weaknesses and make him make more mistakes, until all the parliamentarians could no longer tolerate this commander-in-chief.
But the price paid was the defeat of Verdun and the lives of the soldiers!
Armand looked at Gallieni on the stage and smiled slightly.
He never expected that one day he would become Gallieni's "comrade-in-arms".
(End of this chapter)
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