"The total number of casualties reported by the various units participating in the Battle of the Rhine is 117,400, the total loss of various types of armored vehicles is 922 (including armored vehicles and bridge-building equipment of engineering units, etc.), the total number of artillery pieces of various types is 419, and the consumption of materials includes ......"

Before the staff officer's report was finished, Zhang Cheng, who was sitting on the main seat, had already frowned slightly and interrupted, "Tell me the final results." Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info"

The young staff officer was obviously a little nervous about reporting on military affairs in front of so many generals and Zhang Cheng, and after being interrupted by Zhang Cheng, he hurriedly turned his attention to the deputy chief of staff of the group army group not far away. If there is no accident, these two people are related.

This time, the deputy chief of staff of the group army group was a little nervous about handing over this opportunity to show his face in front of Zhang Cheng to his relatives, and when he saw that stupid guy actually did not follow Zhang Cheng's instructions at this time, but looked at himself, his heart was about to smoke with anger.

Fortunately, the young staff officer was just inexperienced, but he was not stupid, and Zhang Cheng had no intention of pursuing it. After realizing that something was wrong, he hurriedly flipped through the report in his hand and began to read aloud the results reported by the participating units: "In this battle, the participating units reported that a total of 419,300 enemy troops were annihilated and captured, 1,740 armored vehicles of various types were captured and destroyed, and 2,000 ...... of artillery of various types were captured and destroyed."

"These guys." After hearing these figures, Zhang Cheng shook his head slightly helplessly.

No one dares to falsely report the number of their own casualties and battle losses, because these are subject to strict verification. Officers and soldiers who have been killed or injured need to be paid bereavement pensions and replenished with new recruits. The lost weapons and equipment must be replenished and replaced, and who dares to report them indiscriminately? But the outcome was different. No matter which army in this world, there is such a thing as a false report of war results.

It's just that some troops are more restrained, and some are very exaggerated. Just like in the history of modern time and space, the Japanese navy during World War II reported more results in annihilating the enemy fleet in the year after the start of the war than the complete strength of the two American navies. This is a typical case of misreporting.

Rommel only had four or five hundred working tanks in his hands, and this kind of information was not unusual news for Zhang Cheng. I just wanted to laugh when I heard the front-line troops report that they had killed more than 1,700 armored vehicles. The Germans would never have had a thousand armored vehicles at this time. That's at least half of that number.

Not only armored vehicles, but also reports on various aspects have a certain amount of moisture. There may be a lot of local civilians among those personnel, and the artillery should have counted many mortars in general. Not to mention armored vehicles, it is not impossible for half-track vehicles to even report trucks directly as armored vehicles.

You must know that Zhang Cheng is not a nobleman who was born with a golden key in his mouth and does not understand folk affairs. He is a person who has worked hard from the bottom, and he also has a knowledge accumulation far beyond this era. He knew all these military methods very well.

This kind of thing is something that all the armies will do, and Zhang Cheng has no intention of pursuing it. After all, the Ming army is relatively well-behaved, and things like falsely reporting battle results are generally not too obvious.

Listening to the young staff officer report the results of the battle word by word, Zhang Cheng was secretly laughing in his heart. Because compared to the more restrained Ming army, the performance of the Allied army was very clumsy. Not to mention the various results announced by the allies before, all the Ming troops have already been wiped out several times. In this Rhine battle alone, the results announced by the Allies were as high as nearly 800,000.

The Allies actually said that they annihilated 800,000 Ming troops and destroyed more than 3,500 tanks and 2,000 planes during the Battle of the Rhine. The Allies said they had made a strategic shift from the Rhine region because of their choice of strategic posture after their brilliant victory.

Listen to how nice this is. It's a pity that to run away is to run away.

From the perspective of a person living in the era of the information explosion, this kind of thing is really very funny, and this kind of obvious lie basically cannot deceive those who live in the era of information explosion. Unfortunately, this is an era of very little information exchange.

The only way ordinary people can get information is through the radio and newspapers, which are basically in the hands of the government. Whatever they say is what they say. Ordinary people don't have any ability to verify, and there is no free Google and Baidu here that allows people to look up information and information.

Therefore, although it seems very incredible in the eyes of discerning people, there are still many ordinary people who choose to believe it. This is why the world can be ruled by a small elite in this era. There is a complete imbalance in access to information between elites and ordinary people.

This is the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, the headquarters of the Ming Army's Central Army Group, where Zhang Cheng is carrying out a new campaign deployment. After the opening events on the Rhine were over, Zhang Cheng began to deploy a new plan for breaking through Allied defenses from the vicinity of the Ardennes Forest and the Low Countries to eventually occupy all of France.

Because the Toulon Army Group deployed by the Ming Army in the south of mainland France had begun to attack north after occupying the southern part of France, the resistance of the Allied forces in the Low Countries and the Franco-German border area began to weaken and lost its main significance, while the strength of the Ming army was very strong. Under these circumstances, Zhang Cheng was determined to launch an all-out attack on France in order to end the war on the main continent of Asia and Europe in a short time.

According to the battle plan drawn up by the Supreme High Command, Army Group South, which was deployed in the Rhine region, was to attack from the line between Strasbourg and Basel towards central France. They were expected to converge with Army Group Toulon, which was attacking north from southern France, in the vicinity of Lyon and Vichy, and then advance towards the Atlantic coast.

The Low Countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, would be left to the hands of a powerful Army Group Center. After conquering the Low Countries, they would attack mainland France directly, with Paris as their main target. And to sweep the entire northern coast of France. Advance the front to the English Channel side.

After the regrouping, Army Group Center was extremely powerful. It not only has a large number of infantry and armored units, but also has been strengthened with artillery, combat engineers, airborne troops and other special operations units. The total strength has exceeded 3.5 million people. Army Group Center has more than 12,000 tanks and armored vehicles of various types, and nearly 20,000 artillery pieces.

In order to provide sufficient support for this attack, the Daming Army Aviation mobilized more than 14,000 aircraft of various types for support operations against ground forces. When their dense formations of warplanes fill the sky, the Allies will be powerless to resist. The Allies still had a large number of warplanes, but their new jets were unlikely to catch up with the French campaign. The sky here will still be in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

"The main direction of attack this time is near the Ardennes Forest." Zhang Cheng, who was sitting on the main seat, looked around at the many generals around him, and said in a deep voice: "Don't think about it, the Allies will definitely blow up the embankment to stop us when we attack the Netherlands." The Dutch side doesn't work. As for the Belgian side of the fortress of Liège, it is very strong, and even if it can be taken, it will take a long time. ”

After a pause, Zhang Cheng continued: "According to the latest intelligence, the French and the American Expeditionary Force are preparing to cross the sea to Britain and continue to fight. They have shipped many important supplies, including gold from French banks, to England. Because we are chasing too closely, they have not yet been able to deploy all their strength to escape. However, we do not have much time, and we must block all the coasts of France as soon as possible. ”

The allies were not fools, and they knew that their armies on European land would not be able to resist the Ming army. Especially after the Ming army had already captured the southern regions of France. France, with its flat terrain, simply could no longer resist the siege of the Ming army.

In order to give the Americans the most time to buy, the Allies were determined to reinforce Britain's defenses by withdrawing all forces from the main European continent to British areas. After all, compared to France, which has an empty terrain, Britain with its maritime protection will inevitably hold out for longer than France.

"According to intelligence, the French and the American Expeditionary Force planned to send more than two million regular troops to Britain to strengthen Britain's defenses." As the intelligence chief, Xiao Hongbao began to introduce the intelligence work after receiving Zhang Cheng's signal: "During this period of time, some troops stationed in northern France have crossed the strait to Britain. The Allies planned to complete the plan to send more than two million regular troops to Britain within two months. If their plan succeeds, it will have a very negative effect on our battle plan to cross the sea to attack Britain. ”

Britain has the English Channel as a moat, although it is an island country, but their geographical environment is good. Although the strength of the British army was very bad, if a large number of elite Allied troops joined the defense, it would still have a very negative impact on the Ming army's planned landing in Britain.

"You have to know what our purpose is." Zhang Cheng took over the topic and then spoke: "Our goal is to end the battle on the Europa continent in the shortest possible time, and then gather all our forces to deal with the Americans, and end this glorious war that will surely go down in history forever." (To be continued.) )