While Albert was busy, the French were not idle. France, once known as the Big Three of Western Europe, retained the glory of the so-called Napoleon in words after the end of World War II, but in fact its economic and military strength has fallen to the level of a second-rate power. The frenzied expansion of Soviet power in Eastern Europe, coupled with the fall of the Red Iron Curtain across the continent, caused the French to reconsider their feud with the Germans.

The poor performance of the French army in the Vietnamese colony also made the French government more and more anxious, and the gap between the glory of the past and the reality was intertwined, and people would inevitably be unable to think about it. The hawkish defense minister, Paul Maradier, for example, pondered how to recover the French army from its low morale.

Today's weather is terrible, it was raining when Paul Maradir went to work, and he had to report to President Van Chau Oriol today on the latest developments in the French colony of Vietnam. They had brought in 150,000 French troops this February, but they still couldn't win quickly, and the strength of the Vietnamese monkeys was much more tenacious than expected.

When the car arrived at the Élysée Palace, Paul Maradir got out of the car with an umbrella, the rain was very heavy, the steps were full of water, and he walked cautiously with his document bag. Paul Maradir raised his head and inadvertently glanced at the whole world that was silent in the rain, and muttered to himself, "Are we going to repeat the mistakes of the British in South Africa?" Will the glory of France fall? ”

His Excellency the President in the office was not in a good mood today, and he was equally distressed by the defeat of the French army in the Vietnamese colony, "a group of elite troops with advanced armored vehicles was defeated by a group of monkeys." This was the most embarrassing thing for him, and the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force had changed three commanders-in-chief from Valuy to Saran to Brezzo, but the situation of the war still did not change much.

The secretary pushed the door in and said respectfully to the president, "Your Excellency, the President of the Council of Ministers, Andrei Mari, and the Minister of Defence, Paul Maradir, are already waiting in the conference room. ”

"Okay, I'll do it now." The president closed his papers and got up to head to the conference room. In the conference room, Paul Maadir and André Mari awaited the arrival of the president, one of whom was the representative of the Radical Party and the other was a hawk in the army, and this defeat was unacceptable to anyone.

The president pushed the door in, glanced at the conference room, and then sat down in his place, and said in a serious tone, "Gentlemen, the French Republic has never encountered such a big obstacle since the end of World War II, and can any of you tell me why a group of monkeys with backward equipment have beaten our French army so badly?" ”

Paul Maadir swallowed a mouthful of saliva and plucked up courage to say, "Your Excellency, we have stopped the pace of aggression of the Vietnamese army and succeeded in propping up the South Vietnamese regime to sustain a long war of aggression by fighting and feeding the war. ”

At present, the plan of the commander-in-chief of the French army in Vietnam, Blézzo, is to shrink the front and troops, and abandon Cao Binh and parts of the north in the north. Then it carried out a policy of appeasement of the occupied areas in the south, encroached and swept up the liberated areas in the north, and carried out various blockades and blockades, so as to firmly control the Red River Delta.

Although this is by far the most reliable strategy, consolidate the rear and encroach on the areas controlled by the Northland guerrillas. Even if they could not win, at least the French still owned more than half of Vietnam's territory. But President Van Chapel Oriol doesn't think so, he's more concerned with the economy.

Since ancient times, fighting a war has been the most expensive thing to spend money and time, and the French army, which was supposed to be able to fight a quick battle, is now stuck in the quagmire of Vietnam, and a large amount of military spending has been spent there, and there is no sign of improvement. The Viet Cong, with its mass base, can play turtle tactics with you until the French army is brought down, but the French army cannot afford to spend this time, and a colony without strategic and economic value might as well be abandoned.

"Today I would like to discuss with you how we can extend the fruits of our victory, including even using some ...... Unconventional weapons. Van Chan Auriol hesitated visibly as he spoke of unconventional weapons.

Paul Maradir was quick to capture the president's hesitation, pondering what that meant. André Mari said directly, "We can launch a large-scale air campaign to stabilize the south, and at the same time, use high-legged bombs to bombard NATO's mountainous areas on a large scale, especially those areas where guerrillas are rampant, and carry out indiscriminate killing." ”

Scorched earth policy, Paul Maadir immediately thought of this military strategy, but he shook his head and rejected the approach of the chairman of the Council of Ministers, André Mali, "No, André Mali, this approach will not achieve much effect, the scope of the high-rise bomb washing is not very large, and the Vietnamese army has always been known for its sports warfare. Even if you drop a bomb, he can move supplies quickly. As a result, we have implemented a scorched-earth policy that may not have the desired effect. ”

"Unless your bomb is terrifying and can scorch a large area in an instant." Paul Maradir's voice was a little agitated, and his words fell silent to everyone in the office.

President Van Chan Oriol frowned and looked at Paul Maradier, the Minister of Defense, who was now preoccupied with the nuclear bomb that exploded in the Atlantic, and interrupted Paolo Maradil's crazy thoughts and said, "Wake up, my Minister of Defense, your idea is not realistic at all, baptize Vietnam with a nuclear bomb?" This is our colony, do we want to do it after we beat off the Vietnamese army? ”

"Even if we really don't have a colony in Vietnam in the end, we must not allow ** forces to infiltrate other Southeast Asian colonies, this is one thing that must not be allowed." Paul Maradir was determined to destroy the Vietnamese monkeys if he didn't get it.

"Then tell me, where did we get the atomic bomb?" Van Chaamp Oriol finally threw out the biggest problem, France doesn't even have a fart nuclear weapon, where did the big bomb force the ground to wash the ground.

"Maybe I have a way to inflict mass destruction on the Vietnamese army." André Mari, who had always been silent, raised his hand and said, "Our military intelligence has learned that a cruise ship belonging to the Belgian royal family has departed from Antwerp to Leo Podville, Congo, and is loaded with a set of medical equipment used by the Solvay Group to make medicines. ”

"And then? What's the point? "President Van Chaamp doesn't want to listen to André Mari's nonsense.

André Mari's voice became gloomy, "The point is that their raw materials are not used to make drugs at all, and after analysis, we found that they are probably making a poison gas. ”

"Gas?" Paul Maadir swept away his gloomy mood and said, "Yes, we can use poison gas to carry out mass destruction in the North Vietnamese region. Just like the Germans did during World War II! ”

The French love and hate poison gas, love it for its terrible lethality to the enemy, and hate it naturally because poison gas has caused great damage to the French army in the war.

"Listen to me." André Mari motioned to Paul Maradir to calm down, "But this is an anti-humanitarian act, and once known to the countries, France will be in an awkward position." ”

"I agree to use poison gas this time." Van Chan Oriol said, "That's the best power, and even if we use poison gas, the Americans and the British will pretend not to see it." At most, the Soviets will protest, so the plan works. ”

"Then I would like to go abroad to visit the Belgian government, and by the way, see if they are willing to share the latest poison gas information with us, and even if they don't want to, we can pay for the right to produce poison gas." Andrei Mari said thoughtfully.