Chapter 976 Release of Recording
The meeting room fell silent instantly, and everyone turned their eyes to the secretary, including General Winter and the British representative.
Clemenceau didn't quite believe it. He looked at his secretary doubtfully, "Are you telling the truth? But now, it's only four hours before Charles takes down the Fortress of Tomorrow!"
The Liege Fortress is about 190 kilometers away from the Ruhr Industrial Zone, and the marching time for mechanized troops is more than four hours.
This means that Charles' troops occupied the Ruhr as soon as they arrived, which is hard to believe.
At this time, the phone rang. Clemenceau answered the phone and identified himself. Soon, his mouth opened wide, and then he turned to face the representatives of various countries, his voice trembling with excitement:
"General Gallieni on the line."
"The news is true. The troops of the Charles have occupied Ruhr."
"We have won, gentlemen, we have captured the Ruhr!"
With the last sentence, Clemenceau had forgotten to maintain his composure. He waved his fists at the delegates like a madman and roared like a wild beast.
The representatives immediately cheered and shook hands and hugged each other to celebrate.
The Belgian representative shed tears of excitement.
Recapturing the fortress of Liege would not be in their best interest. As long as Germany existed and remained strong, Belgium would be under the German attack.
But if the French army captured the Ruhr, it would mean that Belgium would no longer have to worry about the threat from the German army on the border.
The Dutch representative also breathed a sigh of relief, with joy and relief showing on his face.
They had been worried that Germany would attack the Netherlands at the last minute and plunder its wealth and resources to supply the battlefield.
Fortunately, Charles' attack was fast enough that no one could react, including the Germans.
General Winter sat back in his chair weakly. This was not good news for Britain.
At this moment, Clemenceau mentioned General Winter's name and said jokingly: "Our British representatives and generals don't seem very happy. Don't you think you haven't fought enough?"
Representatives from various countries laughed.
The Greek representative, with the confidence of the "League of Nations" garrison, added: "Or maybe they are celebrating that Charles won the victory so quickly. Now, they just need to wait to share the fruits of victory!"
The laughter in the conference room got louder.
General Winter stood up awkwardly. He ignored others, as if France was the only country that caught his eye.
"No, Prime Minister." General Winter tried to keep smiling, but his praise was insincere:
"Of course I'm happy for Ciel's victory."
"It was a miracle that he was able to capture the German industrial base in such a short time."
"I just can't believe this is real..."
Clemenceau interrupted General Winter's performance.
"Really?" he asked back, "But I feel that Britain does not want France, or Britain does not want the League of Nations to win."
General Winter's face changed: "I don't understand what you are saying, Prime Minister."
Clemenceau raised his hand to signal the representatives of various countries to be quiet. His sharp eyes swept across the audience and finally fell on General Winter. He said sarcastically: "Don't be impatient, General, let's listen to a recording."
As he spoke, he nodded to the side, and the assistant immediately brought out the phonograph and started playing.
The sound was not clear, and was even severely distorted due to the double barriers of the recording tool and the telephone, but the ambassadors and representatives of various countries knew that it was a conversation between the US Secretary of War and the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Haig:
"Good news, General. We have reached a consensus that they will launch a counterattack in five days."
"Excellent, Your Excellency. Now, it's time to tell Pershing about the plan."
General Winter's face changed drastically after hearing these two short sentences. He knew what they were, but the other representatives were confused and didn't understand what they meant.
Clemenceau raised the needle, held his head high and faced the representatives of various countries:
"Gentlemen, let me explain."
"This is a call between Secretary of War Baker and General Haig. There is nothing strange about it."
"The strange thing is that this recording was made five days before the Germans launched a counterattack against British and American troops."
"Let's listen to it again..."
As he spoke, Clemenceau played the recording again.
This time all the representatives understood.
"God, Beck and Haig knew when the Germans would counterattack."
"Not only do they know, they say 'we have reached a consensus', does that mean they have reached a consensus with the Germans?"
"So, the British and American troops' retreat in the Hindenburg direction was intentional. Their purpose was to allow the German army to encircle the First Panzer Army stationed in Saarbrücken!"
…
General Winter quickly retorted: "No, this is slander. This recording cannot prove anything. It may just be another military operation..."
But before he could finish, he was interrupted by angry representatives:
"Shut up, you traitors."
"You are colluding with the enemy to try to deal with your own allies. This is a shameless betrayal."
"You should be hanged, along with Baker and Haig, they are spies!"
…
Britain has always been hated, but other countries dare not speak out due to its hegemony.
Now that this has happened and they have the powerful France to back them up, they take this opportunity to vent their dissatisfaction.
More and more people joined in, and the criticism became more intense. Soon it developed into spitting and throwing paper balls. Some representatives even found a few eggs from somewhere and threw them at the British representatives.
General Winter was hit. His head was covered with yellow and white egg liquid. He felt embarrassed and angry, but there was nothing he could do.
In the end, the British representative fled the venue in disgrace amid the booing.
Not only did they escape from the venue, they hurriedly packed their luggage and took a train to Dunkirk as soon as possible.
(Note: At this time, apart from Charles' transport plane, there was no other aircraft that could carry so many people.)
They fled so quickly that the French soldiers and civilians had no time to react.
But the parties involved, Baker and Haig, were not so lucky.
At that time, Baker and Haig were discussing the Charles' capture of Ruhr in the office of the Fremen Joint Command.
"It's incredible how vulnerable the Germans were," Beck said. "Even the fortress of Liege was taken by Charles, and it only took a few hours."
Haig said nothing.
As a general, he knew that it was not that the Germans were "vulnerable", but that Charles' equipment and tactics were too horrible.
He actually developed a bomber that could penetrate a 3-meter concrete fortress!
From now on, is there anything that Ciel can't blow up?
I'm afraid even London is not safe anymore!
Just as I was thinking about it, there was a noise coming from outside the door. The headquarters was crowded with people, both soldiers and civilians.
While they were puzzled, the guards ran in panic and reported to Haig: "General, you should evacuate here immediately. They are targeting you."
Then he added: "And the Minister!"
(End of this chapter)
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