The morning sun shines through the floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining room, His Majesty King Joachim of Ireland sits on the throne, and several guests at the table are all in military uniforms, they are roughly divided into two groups, one is over fifty years old and has rich life experience, and the other is in their forties and is in the stage of being energetic. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Today, Ireland's economic situation and people's standard of living have changed dramatically from 20 years ago, and even though the people at the helm of the Hohenzollern royal family have embraced simple and natural living, the menu on the royal table is still impeccably rich, and the ingredients and condiments are basically home-grown products that are easy to collect.

The "Forest Palace" is full of birds and flowers, and it is different from heaven and hell on the Cohen Peninsula hundreds of kilometers away, so the atmosphere of breakfast is a little "low-pressure", but the generals are not silenced by this, and they still say what they should say, but the tone is more flat.

"Your Majesty, the 1st Panzer Brigade is our most prized combat unit, and as you have said, it is characterized by its speed of maneuver, and it may not be wise to throw it into that terrible human flesh mill at this time, even if the German Crown Prince himself makes this request to you, I still advise you to explicitly refuse."

The current commander of the Irish Army, Admiral Brandt, was born in the small German city of Wiesbaden, and his ancestors are Germanic for three generations, but since he became an Irish citizen, he has spared no effort to devote himself to the modernization and development of the Irish Army, and has won the high recognition of his superiors, colleagues, and subordinates with his diligent efforts for more than ten years.

Swallowing a mouthful of delicious fruit cheese, Natsuki put down the spoon for the time being, wiped his lips with a napkin, and turned his gaze from the Army Commander-in-Chief to Army Chief of Staff Major General Ian Coleman: "Ian, what do you think?" ”

The native Irish general quickly wiped his mouth: "I completely agree with Admiral Brandt's point of view, the 1st Armored Brigade is our carefully built trump card unit, even if it is sent to Britain to fight, it must wait until the landing ground is completely consolidated, at least after the Cohen Peninsula is fully occupied." ”

In just one paragraph, three "complete" words are used, which shows that Coleman is a relatively cautious soldier.

Natsuki nodded noncommittally: "Then tell me what I think!" It would be too risky to force a landing on the Coen Peninsula on the first day of the war, but at this point, we can only find a way to win this landing campaign, otherwise we will lose most of our inherent strategic advantage, so you should have no objection? ”

The commander of the army, navy, and air force, as well as the three chiefs of staff, saluted in unison, and although they did not speak, their eyes of approval were already answering.

Natsuki continued: "Now the coalition forces have two landing sites on the Cohen Peninsula - Abersoch and Portkran. Needless to say, Abbotoch was in an extremely tragic situation, and it would be appropriate to describe it as a 'human flesh mill', and the troops that had landed in Portkren had just come ashore and had not yet been attacked by the British on a large scale, but if they waited until dark to do nothing, they would probably have a disastrous outcome tonight, so my idea was to send the 1st Panzer Brigade to Portkren as soon as possible. ”

As the words fell, the dining room fell silent, and the eyes focused on the king almost showed a look of surprise.

"It is undeniable that the Cohen Peninsula is a perilous battlefield, and the 1st Armored Brigade is likely to suffer heavy losses when it goes there. You must be thinking, is it worth it? Is it worth it? Natsuki scanned the crowd, "I don't think this way because I'm from Germany, or because someone put pressure on me, but because I believe in one truth: a hundred battles produce good soldiers!" The current 1st Armoured Brigade is as much a trump card as our Royal 1st Parachute Battalion, but if you think about it, the experience in France really made our troops outstanding? Had it not been for the German tank units that launched a counterattack at a critical moment last night, would our troops have been able to drag out the battle until dawn? ”

There was a moment of silence before Admiral Brant spoke first: "You are right, Your Majesty, a hundred battles can forge elite soldiers. I vividly remember that at the beginning of August 1914 on the French border, the 1st Army had fought badly in the first few battles, and on August 10 my regiment was held back by a French company on the road for five hours, and suffered more casualties than the total number of the enemy. In the months that followed, the number of veterans in the army was dwindling and the number of new recruits was added, but the strength of the troops increased rather than decreased, and by the time we crossed the Loire and entered the south of France, the French army needed at least twice as many forces to hold us back. The blood and fire on the battlefield tempered our will to fight, and also taught us truly useful combat skills. ”

Brandt's change of attitude made a 180-degree turn in the subject, because during the war, the choice between the king and the army commander was enough to determine the course of a campaign, but the question was whether the battle of the Cohen Peninsula was placed under the direct command of the German generals, and they could fully understand and carry out the intentions of the king of Ireland.

Although the Chief of Staff of the Army, Coleman, was cautious, but he was not the kind of person who was conservative and self-proclaimed, his mind turned quickly, and his arithmetic ability was astonishing, and after a while, he figured out the key point: "Now the armored forces are like the cavalry of ancient times, and no one will reuse cavalry in defensive battles, so it seems that Your Majesty intends to turn defense into offense and launch a decisive assault operation on the Cohen Peninsula?" ”

Natsuki did not answer directly, but revealed, "About forty minutes ago, I spoke to General Glenner, and he said that he and Bergman didn't meet all night. ”

The German General Staff was the mastermind of the battle on the Coen Peninsula, and Germany sent the commander of the corps, General Wilhelm Greiner, and the chief of staff, Admiral ****** von Bergmann, to be the actual executors of this landing campaign.

The only non-active personnel present, Marshal Perev, a former war minister and royal adviser, half-jokingly said: "If they are interesting enough, they should hand over the command to His Majesty and sit back and enjoy it." With His Majesty's military talents, this victory should be counted as more than ninety percent. ”

Natsuki didn't answer, because it was clearly not the time to make a comeback.

"General Glenner's desire for us to send the 1st Armored Brigade to the Cohen Peninsula is to enhance the landing force's battlefield assault capabilities." Natsuki brings the conversation back to the beginning. After some discussion and deliberation, everyone's thinking has changed radically.

In other words, Greiner and Bergman decided to give it a go. Xia Shu said, "My initial reaction was surprise, because I didn't expect these two German generals who are more than 100 years old together to be so decisive. ”

Of his former colleagues, Perev commented sharply: "Two men who are only one victory away from the rank of marshal are more afraid of defeat than anyone else." ”

The German-Irishman Brandt said mercilessly: "If the Task Force had eight tanker regiments instead of four, they would not have thought of our 1st Panzer Brigade." You know, most of the German generals were not optimistic about our 'Celtic warriors', they only favored the invincible 'Teutonic knights'. ”

"Glenner says he's sending all of the Task Force's chariot troops, and if nothing else, the last of his chariots will land on the Cohen Peninsula before dark tonight." Natsuki's words confirmed Brant's point from the side. As the number one winner of the last war, Germany's industrial economy ushered in another take-off after the second industrial revolution, and their strong national strength gave them enough ability to maintain a large and advanced standing army, and expand their sphere of influence to all corners of the world, but Germany's military investment is not endless after all, and the annual cost of naval competition is almost astronomical, which correspondingly compresses the military budget of the army and air force, so the size of the German armored forces at the outbreak of the war only reached 16 tank regiments, Barely organized into four armoured divisions, with a quarter of the task force stationed in Ireland, the number cannot be said to be small, and the problem is that the British army has put no less than 300 tanks on the Cohen Peninsula in one go. According to the estimates of German intelligence, the British Army has about 800 combat vehicles in active service, which is two-fifths of the total number of German combat vehicles, and this estimate is obviously on the small side. The four German tank regiments were equipped with more than 500 tanks of various types, and even if they were all thrown into the Cohen Peninsula, once the British army took advantage of its home advantage to quickly mobilize the main tank troops, the war could still develop in a direction unfavorable to the coalition forces, until they were pushed into the abyss from which they could never recover.

The 1st Armoured Brigade of the Irish Army had 200 combat vehicles and 200 armoured personnel carriers, which was slightly larger than half of the German Panzer Division. In terms of the tactical level displayed in the training exercises, the quality of the Irish armored troops is not inferior to the first-class tank units of the German army, and although the "Celtic Warrior" has been criticized as a mediocre combat vehicle, its balance and ease of control are very suitable for personnel training and tactical running-in, and the performance of the debut on the Coen Peninsula has exceeded many people's expectations.

Army Chief of Staff Coleman said: "Since the situation is as Your Majesty has said, we can indeed consider sending the 1st Panzer Brigade to the front, but the Germans must obtain our consent in advance for the next battle plan, and if we have strong ideas for revision, they must adopt it." ”

"Is that good?" Brandt questioned, "Battlefield decisions should not be delayed, and getting the Task Force Command to follow our advice is tantamount to tying their hands and feet with ropes, so it is better for them to hand over the command to us." ”

"Admiral Brandt can have such an awareness, which proves that my vision is not wrong." Retired veteran commander Perevzan also boasted, I saw him happily drink the milk in the cup, wipe his lips with a napkin, and then analyzed: "Glenner, I dare not assert, but Bergman's combat strategy is absolutely first-class, since they are determined to turn passive into active, they must have begun to formulate a feasible combat plan." By nightfall, it will be in our favor that coalition fighters will be able to maintain relative superiority on the Cohen Peninsula and that the sea supremacy in the theater will remain firmly in our hands. The question is...... How long will it take us to get the 1st Armored Brigade to the Cohen Peninsula? ”

No one in this room had a better say than Rear Admiral Eric Baker, Chief of Staff of the Navy, who seemed to have thought and calculated in advance. After Perev threw out the question, the young admiral whispered a few words to Admiral Sean Purcell, the commander of the navy beside him, and then replied: "Considering that transporting chariots to land across the sea is very different from transporting ordinary soldiers, if we land at Portkran, and now it is ordered that the first batch of chariots will be able to go ashore in four hours, we can be sure that we will be able to land two armored battalions with personnel and supplies before dark." If all goes well, the 1st Panzer Brigade will be able to assemble its main forces for combat tomorrow afternoon, and if the weather or the situation on the front line changes, I am afraid that it will have to be postponed for a day or two. ”

After consulting the Army Commander, the Army Chief of Staff, and the Royal Advisors for the last time, Natsuki said: "Order all units of the 1st Armored Brigade to immediately depart from the standby assembly area to the three ports of Dublin, Bray, and Wicklow, and all medium and large landing ships will immediately assemble at the above ports; Immediately activate the B-class plan and requisition civilian vessels to join the operation. ”

(End of chapter)