Chapter 578 Christmas Attack
Charles truly felt the gap.
From being the center of attention and power, he suddenly became isolated and insignificant.
The officers still respected Charles, including Gamelin himself.
After all, Charles was the man who had repeatedly defeated the German army and saved countless lives. He also possessed assets that rivaled any capitalist in France, as well as countless inventions and industrial property rights.
Ordinary people can reach the pinnacle of life as long as they have any one of these, but Charles has everything. His genius is so enviable that it makes people crazy.
However, those in the command center were just being accommodating towards Charles.
“Give me a copy of the review list!”
"I'm sorry, General," the staff officer replied, "We've been busy with training and have only been here a few days, so we haven't had time to compile a review list."
"Where's the detention list?"
"That was all improvisation," the staff officer replied. "Most of them were released after a few days, and there is no list either."
"Then let's go to the detention room."
"General." The staff officer looked embarrassed. "We suspect there are spies among them, so no one can contact them during the interrogation, otherwise..."
Otherwise there will be suspicion of collusion with spies.
The staff officer's answer was flawless and without any hesitation, and it was obvious that he had thought of the excuse long ago.
But Charles was not worried, he was confident that he could break the deadlock.
The parliament is too naive. They stay in the office all day and have no idea how cruel war is. They naively think that they can fully control the army, especially the army at war, by relying solely on political tactics.
…
The next afternoon, Charles sat alone in the conference room drinking coffee.
Since everyone wanted to isolate him, he might as well just keep quiet. Since coming to this world, Charles seemed to have never been so free.
But that's not true.
Charles was giving Weigang a chance, a chance to approach him alone.
Sure enough, after a while Wei Gang came in with a document. It was a roster of officers, which Charles, the army group commander, should know.
Wei Gand pretended to flip through the roster and introduce it to Charles, but whispered, "Prime Minister Briand gave the order himself. The commander-in-chief also has spies in Parliament!"
Briand?
He usually hides behind the parliament, but now he gives the order himself.
Charles was not unfamiliar with this name. Joffre's backer was Briand, which was one of the reasons why Joffre was able to stay in the position of commander-in-chief for so long despite having made no achievements in the army.
In the end, Joffre stepped down because he could no longer suppress the situation or the cost of suppressing it was too high. He thought it was not worth making such a big sacrifice for Joffre alone, so he was abandoned.
"What should we do?" Weygand asked, which was also the question Foch wanted to ask.
Charles answered calmly:
"Christmas is coming soon. To avoid a repeat of the previous 'truce incident', I think we should launch an attack."
"But since the mutiny just ended, we should reduce the intensity of the attack."
"Therefore, the combat goal should be mainly 'training troops' rather than capturing enemy positions or killing the enemy."
Wei Gang frowned for a long time and couldn't figure out what Charles meant. Does this have anything to do with the current situation?
Charles said to himself, "Send what I said to the commander-in-chief. He will understand what I said."
Charles was not suitable to send electricity directly to Foch. Although Charles had his own communications team and radio station, they were likely to have been monitored.
Wei Gang is just the right person to be a mouthpiece.
"Yes, General." Wei Gang responded.
At this moment, he saw someone coming in from the corner of his eye, and his tone immediately changed: "There are more than 130 officers above the rank of major. If you have anything to add, we will fully consider your opinion."
Ciel said with disdain: "My opinion? My opinion is important?"
As he said this, he pushed the roster in front of Wei Gang, his face full of disgust: "I don't need this, get out of my sight!"
"Yes, General." Wei Gang went with the flow, took the roster and walked out of the meeting room.
…
There was a drizzle on the Somme River front, but dense gunfire and artillery fire could still be heard from the north bank.
Since Charles led the 6th Army to push the defense line forward 5 kilometers, the situation on the south bank of the Somme has gradually stabilized.
This was not only because of Charles' victory, but also because the French army occupied several carefully built defense lines of the German army.
Although these lines of defense are not as good as those in the rear, they are far superior to the trenches of the British and French armies.
Foch set up his headquarters here because the Battle of the Somme had not yet ended completely. The British troops on the north bank were still attacking the German army, and casualties continued to increase.
The British attack was even more fierce than before.
Because Charles was able to push the defense line forward 5 kilometers at the cost of more than a thousand casualties, while the British army suffered thousands or even tens of thousands of casualties every day but could hardly make any progress, this made Haig and even Kitchener feel ashamed.
This made Haig eager to see the results of the battle.
However, all he could do was continue to increase the number of troops and urge the soldiers to launch an attack.
Foch was not worried about these things.
He sat at his desk, signing documents unconsciously, thinking about the 6th Army and Charles far away in Belgium.
Previously, the Parliament had been secretive about its "differential treatment" of Charles, but now it has been brought directly from behind the scenes to the table without even a fig leaf.
How can Charles break the impasse?
If Charles was sidelined by Parliament, he would certainly not be able to continue conducting anti-submarine warfare and it would be difficult for him to remove the restrictions on supplies.
This means that Foch, the commander-in-chief, can only be a puppet of Britain.
Just as Foch was frowning and thinking hard about countermeasures, a staff officer handed a telegram to Foch and whispered, "Commander-in-Chief, this is a telegram from Weygand."
Foch was stunned and looked around vigilantly. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he took the telegram as if nothing had happened and nodded slightly.
He didn't even rush to read the telegram, but continued to sign the document, even though he was eager to know the contents.
After the staff officer left, Foch threw away the documents in his hand, pretended to take a break, and picked up a few telegrams to read through them casually.
He saw the message from Wei Gang: "Attack on Christmas Day, the mutiny is initially settled, and a limited attack is launched for the purpose of training troops for combat purposes."
Foch pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly with a look of joy on his face. This guy finally has a way. The parliament has met its match!
Foch glanced at the calendar on the table and saw that there were still three days until Christmas. He immediately shouted to the staff officer a few meters away: "Colonel Enes, draft a telegram to Paris. I plan to launch an attack on Christmas Eve, which will last for five days."
"But, General." The staff officer's face changed, and the others also stopped what they were doing: "We have just recovered our morale. Launching a large-scale attack right away may cause a backlash..."
"I will explain to Paris," Foch interrupted the staff officer.
(End of this chapter)
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