Chapter 776: The End of Falkenhayn
The Second Bureau led by Lieutenant Colonel Dura is not dispensable to Charles.
Although the "Ladies in White" are secretive and have many soldiers and generals, their weakness is that the vast majority of their members are from the civilian population, and are from the middle and lower classes.
It is very difficult for them to obtain secrets from the government, official or upper-level fields.
But these things are easy for the "Second Bureau".
Therefore, the two can complement each other: one in the open and the other in secret, one at the top and the other among the people.
On the other hand, Charles did this in order to sideline Clemenceau.
One day Clemenceau became Prime Minister and he was the direct superior of the "Second Bureau".
If the "Second Game" was under his control, he would have the bargaining chips to bargain with or even challenge Charles.
But if the "Second Bureau" accepted Charles' command, Clemenceau would lose his last support and could only follow Charles' lead.
Charles was very generous: "From now on, I will be responsible for the funding and equipment of the Second Bureau. You will report directly to me. Do you understand?"
"Yes, General." Lieutenant Colonel Dura responded happily.
Charles is a wealthy man, and he will definitely be more well-off in the second game than before, not just a little.
"You know what to do with Briand?" Charles asked.
"Of course, General." Lieutenant Colonel Dura answered and stood up. "I'll do it right away."
…
More than half an hour later, Lieutenant Colonel Dura appeared in the Prime Minister's office at the Paris City Hall.
Briand, who was still frightened by the constant "harassment" of the citizens, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Lieutenant Colonel Dura and the two guards behind him: "Thank you for coming, Lieutenant Colonel, I really need manpower."
"Really?" Lieutenant Colonel Dura glanced at the messy office expressionlessly, and felt more and more that his choice was right.
He fixed his eyes on Briand and said in a cold voice: "You are under arrest, Prime Minister. I think you know why."
Briand was startled, and suddenly shouted angrily:
"No, you can't do that. You don't have the right to do that."
"I'm still the Prime Minister, understand?"
"As long as I am the Prime Minister, you must obey my orders and not arrest me..."
Lieutenant Colonel Duras interrupted Briand: "You are right, except for treason, Prime Minister."
The Prime Minister has committed treason, so the Second Bureau can no longer accept his orders.
As he spoke, Lieutenant Colonel Dura waved his hand, and two guards stepped forward and restrained Briand without any explanation.
…
Two days later the matter was settled.
Considering that the country must have a prime minister, the parliament accepted Briand's "resignation" as quickly as possible and elected the next prime minister.
Amid cheers, Clemenceau walked up to the podium of the Bourbon Palace and delivered his speech.
Charles did not attend.
As the "boss" behind the scenes, he has to draw a clear line between himself and these things. On the surface, he is just a general who obeys the orders of parliament and the government and only considers how to defeat the enemy.
He made an appointment with Lucia to meet at Os Park.
Lucia actually wanted to go shopping or watch a movie with Charles.
"This is what normal couples would do," Lucia said.
"Are you sure?" Charles asked.
Then Lucia realized that Charles couldn't go shopping or watch movies like a normal person.
Once he took to the streets without guards to maintain order, he would immediately be surrounded by thousands of citizens.
Watching a movie is an unrealistic fantasy. It may even cause a stampede and result in loss of life. After all, a movie theater is a closed space with a large population.
So Lucia no longer made similar requests and could only choose the sparsely populated Os Park.
"One good news and one bad news." Lucia sat leisurely on the green lawn, gazing at the Seine River below.
With the arrival of summer, there are many small boats transporting seasonal fruits on the river. From this time of year until the arrival of winter, it is the busiest time for fruit farmers.
"Is there any good news that I don't know about?" Charles sat next to Lucia. The grass was a little prickly due to lack of trimming.
"Your old rival has been fired," Lucia said.
"An old rival?" said Charles. "You mean Briand?"
Do you need to tell me this?
Lucia laughed, turned her head and looked at Charles, saying sarcastically: "It's not your fault, General. It's my fault. You have too many opponents."
Then she gave the answer: "It was Falkenhayn, the German Chief of the General Staff. To be exact, he was not dismissed, but was transferred to the commander of the Ninth Army to command the war against Romania."
Charles said, "Oh," and asked, "Why was he fired?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Ciel realized that they were stupid.
Falkenhayn had been failing on the Western Front, and it was not easy for him to survive until now without being dismissed.
However, Lucia gave another answer: "It was not because of the war, but because he changed the original strategic direction of 'West first, East later' and supported 'East first, West later'."
William II always insisted on "West first, East later", and he had a debate with Falkenhayn in the General Staff.
"We cannot win on the Western Front, Your Majesty," Falkenhayn said, "because of the presence of Charles on the Western Front. We can only consider winning on the Eastern Front first, and then we can focus on dealing with Charles."
"I know," William II replied, "but do you know what this means? Charles has already reached Metz, and he only needs to take one more step forward to enter Germany. If we transfer troops to the Eastern Front, do you know what will happen?"
Falkenhayn spread out the map and analyzed to William II: "We can shrink the defense line and deploy troops on the border. For some reason, I believe Charles will postpone the attack."
"Some reason?" William II looked at Falkenhayn in confusion.
"Charles wouldn't want this war to end so quickly," Falkenhayn said. "He has just won politically, his position is not yet solid, and the capitalists are still targeting him. If there is no external threat, his opponents may come back again."
"This is ridiculous!" William II rejected Falkenhayn's idea without even thinking: "Unbelievable, you are pinning your hopes on the enemy, hoping that Charles will not launch an attack, this is impossible!"
"As long as we don't take action." Falkenhayn answered confidently: "I don't think Charles will be willing to put too much pressure on us now."
…
The two men disagreed on this point. William II believed that he might be able to reach a consensus with Charles on the navy, but there was a fundamental conflict of interest in the army.
The German army invaded France, why should we believe that the French army would not invade Germany?
The result of the dispute was that Falkenhayn was dismissed and Hindenburg took over as Chief of the General Staff.
William II did not realize one thing: Falkenhayn was his most steadfast "ally" and Falkenhayn's loss of power almost meant the loss of power for him as the German Emperor.
In the near future, Germany will lose power and be under the control of the military dictatorship of Hindenburg and Ludendorff.
Both the enemy and us are ruled by the military, what kind of clash will this entail?
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
