Chapter 829 The US Army is Just a Bait
Bizossi training base.
Charles calmly drank his coffee while looking through the information from Paris, nodding slightly from time to time with a satisfied smile on his lips.
After dropping the bombshell of the "Meuse Crisis", capitalists and retail investors could no longer hold on, and asset prices plummeted.
But Charles was not in a hurry to buy, he planned to let the bullet fly for a while.
Tijani's focus was on the battle on the Nancy Line, but he was not in a hurry.
"I just want to know what you are planning." Tijani glanced at Charles not far away.
"What?" Charles asked casually without looking up.
Tijani raised the telegram in his hand and pretended to be horrified:
"God, at the current speed the Germans are going, it will only take two days for them to capture Reims and surround us."
"What should we do? Surrender?"
Then his expression changed: "Or, the great 'France Mars', a great hero in the eyes of the citizens, is taking this opportunity to 'line his own pockets'?"
Charles burst out laughing.
Gallieni didn't see through it, but Tijani exposed it.
But not surprising.
Gallieni was an upright man, and he could never have imagined that the great failure led by Charles was for the purpose of acquiring high-quality assets from capitalists.
Tijani was different. He had always known that Charles regarded the British as his number one enemy, even above Germany.
Therefore, this move can not only strike at the British army but also seize assets back from the capitalists. Why not do it?
But Charles didn't admit it: "You think too much, General. This is beyond my control."
“Please, Lieutenant General.” Tijani chuckled. “You seem to have forgotten that I was originally a businessman. In this regard, I may be able to…”
Tijani stopped talking halfway through.
Damn, I always forget that Charles is a “genius businessman”. It took him less than two years to build the Bernard Group from nothing to its current amazing scale.
So, the businessman Tijani might not even be worthy of giving Charles shoes.
Charles did not answer Tijani directly. Such a thing could never be admitted at any time, even if both of them knew it.
"Think about it, Major General." Charles put down the telegram in his hand and looked at Tijani: "If you want to know what I plan to do, look further ahead."
Tijani was stunned, turned his eyes to the map at hand, and said after a while: "What do you mean, Lance?"
Tijani was guessing.
Everyone knew that the Germans' target was Reims, which could cut off the transportation and supply lines of the Meuse River defense line.
Unexpectedly, Ciel hummed, "And then?"
"Then..." Tijani thought for a moment: "We should send troops to guard there in advance?"
"Is that all you can think of?" Charles looked a little disappointed.
You've been following me for so long, but your mindset is still so simple? Are you still only satisfied with defense?
Tijani was a little overwhelmed: "I know that time is not enough. We only have two days and cannot build a complete defense line, but what can we do?"
Charles reminded, "Reims is roughly surrounded by three mountain ranges, Major General. Ten kilometers to the west is Mont Saint-Thierry, fifteen kilometers to the south is Mont Montberg, and twelve kilometers to the east is Mont Perhan."
Tijani was stunned, then looked at Charles in shock: "You, you plan to surround the Germans in Reims?"
"Why not?" Charles replied, "They thought they were winning, but they were walking into our trap step by step."
The U.S. military was just bait to lure the German army into a trap, but the U.S. military itself did not know it.
Moreover, Charles believed that the U.S. military would play this game well, and the unsuspecting Pershing would do everything he could to keep the Germans out of Reims.
"But..." Tijani looked at it for a while and shook his head: "The Germans will definitely be on guard, especially the Mombech Mountain in the south. That is their supply line. They will send heavy troops to guard it."
Charles didn't say anything, just stared at Tijani quietly while holding his coffee cup.
Tijani suddenly realized that since he knew that the Germans would send heavy troops to guard the place, why didn't they make some arrangements there in advance?
The same is true for the other two mountains.
He took a few breaths and stared at Charles with admiration: "You are creepy, Lieutenant General. I am glad that I am not your enemy."
At this time, Pershing hurried into the office, and his voice came before he arrived: "Lieutenant General, the Germans will soon reach Verdun. Where are our reinforcements?"
"I'm sorry, General," Charles replied, "Reinforcements may take three days to arrive. General Gallieni needs time to organize. In addition, German bombers are bombing our transportation lines."
After the British airport was severely damaged, the air defense in the direction of Nancy was temporarily blank, and even Charles' air force found it difficult to remedy the situation.
The reason is that the "Camel" fighter has short legs and a total range of only 400 kilometers. Calculated based on one-third of the combat radius, its air control range is only more than 100 kilometers near the airport.
(In fact, it is not 100 kilometers, because the German army has Fokker triplanes with comparable performance, and it is almost impossible to win a battle with them at the edge of the combat radius)
So, German bombers took advantage of the night and avoided the Charles airport. They bombed train stations and railways deep into British airspace, paralyzing traffic.
But this is Ciel's hidden strength.
The improved version of the "Snipe" has a combat radius of 200 kilometers, which is enough to fill the air defense gap.
Pershing was anxious when he heard this: "Three days, by then the Germans may have reached Reims!"
Charles did not answer but asked: "What do you mean, General? Retreat or join the battle? Now is the time to give the answer."
Pershing looked embarrassed.
He is not afraid of the enemy, in fact he has always been an advocate of war.
However, the U.S. military is seriously under-trained, and rashly rushing into the battlefield would likely result in heavy casualties and even undermine U.S. military morale and cause panic.
However, retreat is not an option. Not only will it undermine morale, but it will also make the US military looked down upon by other armies and become cowards in the eyes of others.
"No, we will not retreat." After thinking for a while, Pershing made a decision: "We will fight with the French army, Lieutenant General, under your command. Give the order."
"Very good, General," said Charles. He took Pershing to the map and pointed to a point.
"You will take the troops to Le Francois at once."
"You build multiple lines of defense here and retreat all the way to Lance."
"The purpose is to buy time for us to redeploy and for reinforcements to arrive. We don't need to fight the Germans head-on. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Pershing nodded heavily.
He secretly rejoiced that this mission had a great deal of freedom and it was not like the British doing, where they had to just rush forward and fight to the death with the enemy.
(The above picture shows the deployment position and retreat direction of the US military. The tactics they adopted are similar to the "drum tactics" invented by the famous general Liao Yaoxiang. They built multiple lines of defense. After defending the front line for a period of time, they gave up and the troops withdrew to the end to build another line of defense, and so on.)
(End of this chapter)
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