Chapter 252: Spring

The caliber of the French newspapers is quite uniform, and the report on this battle is positioned that General Gallerien led his troops to defend Epernay, and took the initiative to retreat after consuming the living strength of the German army, and the squadron Jinháng counterattacked on a large scale at night, cutting off the German army and forming a force to surround its assault front, forcing the German wolf to flee across the river.

Well, this is another great victory for the Great Army, with the help of its allies. France's allies, the Chinese, stepped forward at the most dangerous moment in Paris, braved the heavy German artillery fire, and launched a tidal counterattack" The novel chapter is the fastest updated. Although it was a planned battle, the bravery and tenacity of the Chinese were far beyond the imagination of the French and Germans. méiyou their sacrifice, on méiyou in the fight back of Epernay, on the victory of méiyou in defense of Paris.

Well, the loss of Verdun, yijing no one noticed. Anyway, the war had always been fought in France, and most French people did not understand the importance of Verdun. As long as the ordinary people are zhidào, France will win again. Well, this time it was won with the help of the Chinese, it's as simple as that.

This is the purpose of French Prime Minister Viviani's private negotiations, and it is common for politicians to deceive the public in order to recover from the negative impact of the government. In order to buy off the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Viviani appeared on behalf of the French government and invested enough money. The war is still going on, and it is necessary to give confidence to the population, which is something that money cannot buy.

The Chinese Expeditionary Force is very on the road, and the price offered is not high, 48 tanks, 12 240 howitzers, 120 latest 155 howitzers. You don't even have to sign a contract for this kind of thing. Viviani simply agreed.

After the agreement was reached, Feng Guozhang faced reporters' questions with a stern expression on behalf of the Chinese Expeditionary Force at the press conference. He replied without blushing and without a beating heart: "Yes, this battle was completed under the command of General Neville. The counterattack was a predetermined plan, and in order to achieve the effect of the counterattack, General Nevelle deployed all 400 caliber cannons to our army. Sacrifice is inevitable, aren't the soldiers of the French army also making sacrifices for the sake of Ziji's country? This is war, for the good of the country. Military personnel have an unshirkable responsibility. "General Galieni is excellent, yes, excellent. Under his command. The French army did an excellent job of attributing the German army. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a daunting task. At the moment of crisis, our army sent reinforcements of five divisions to fight side by side with the French. This is the glory of our army. ”

The benefits are in hand. Feng Guozhang, a Chinese bureaucrat, really has a mouth that can speak, and French Prime Minister Viviani's mouth is crooked.

National confidence was boosted, and the French reinforcements and the newly formed guochéng were also smooth, thanks to the help of the Chinese. The next thing to look at is the outcome of the Battle of the Somme, Ruguo cannot achieve strategic goals, there is always someone to be responsible for the loss of Verdun, and there is always someone to be responsible for the wrong strategy.

As the line of defense in New Paris gradually stabilized, the center of gravity of the French army once again shifted to the Battle of the Somme.

The Battle of the Somme in this plane. It is almost a replica of parallel time and space, with the change being that the tanks of the Anglo-French army are more advanced. Invest more troops. Others, totally méiyou novelty. Seven days of artillery preparation, leaving the turán nature and tactical variations of the campaign behind. Then the infantry went into the attack, and the British and French generals continued their dull tactics and charged in groups.

The whole battle lasted five months, and the two sides continued to increase their forces, and the British and French casualties were 300,000 more than those of parallel time and space, reaching a staggering 1.1 million, and the German casualties were similar to history, reaching 550,000. The number of direct casualties on both sides was as high as 350,000, 50,000 more than in parallel time and space.

As a result, he voluntarily resigned as commander-in-chief of the French army, and Nivelle, who had distinguished himself in the Battle of Epernay, became Xiafei's successor. These are all later words, so I won't mention them for the time being.

The commander of the Wehrmacht, Fang Jianxiong, because of the excellent performance of the expeditionary force in France, his personal prestige once again climbed to a height. The newspapers reported on the brilliant results of the expeditionary force one after another, as if they had once again dealt a fierce boost to the people's morale, which had fallen to the extreme since the end of the Qing Dynasty. On 15 April, with the support of France, the British side reluctantly signed a new agreement, which determined that from 1 May, customs affairs in various localities would be gradually exchanged to China, and all customs affairs would be handed over to China by the end of the year at the latest. As soon as the news came out, the whole country boiled again. After the news of the victory of the expeditionary force was returned, the students once again set off a wave of parades and celebrations. Since participating in the European war, all kinds of different voices in the country have completely disappeared because of the recovery of customs.

During the march, the students shouted: Long live the Chinese nation, long live the national defense forces, long live the commander! slogans like that. It caused some people to be uneasy, and laid the groundwork for some incidents in the future.

The people cheered for the expeditionary force in the European battlefield and cheered for the return of the customs, Fang Jianxiong quietly returned to Wuhu. In early April, on both sides of the Yangtze River

As a newly rising town in the Yangtze River Basin, Wuhu has become the engine of the industrial development of the Republic of China in the past 16 years.

From Wuhu to Ma'anshan to Nanjing, the road is full of factories. After the opening of the Bengwu Railway at the beginning of the year, Fang Dashuai's special train crossed the Yangtze River by ferry, and this railway, which was built by the Americans, was not completed for the time being. There is still a lack of Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge, because it is a key project, the bridge is still in the process of demonstration and design. Construction was expected to start at the end of 1918, and the bridge was built as a dual-purpose bridge for railways and highways. Of course, this was requested by Fang Jianxiong, who, according to the Americans, "had harsh requirements for the height of the bridge." ”

Fang Jianxiong asked for a century-old bridge, and the Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge was the first bridge on the Yangtze River, which was a model. Once completed, the Yangtze River Bridge will be built in Wuhan and Nanjing in the future. With these projects, Fang Dashuai is full of confidence, don't look at the fact that it is easy to make money in the war in Europe now, and the Americans who are quite far-sighted still have to pinch their noses and respond to their needs.

The shihou of the ferry docked, and the Wuhu pier was boiling. The firecrackers rang out in the mountains, and the gongs and drums beat crazy. As the greatest pride of Wuhu people, Fang Jianxiong's return does not need to be Zhang Luo of the Wuhu Municipal Government, and the people and folk elites of the entire city consciously and voluntarily come out to greet him. Welcome to the de facto head of this young country who has made a good life for the people of his homeland.

Zhang Weifan, Wu Xingzhou and other leaders of the Wuhu Chamber of Commerce led a group of Wuhu gentry to wait on the dock.

Since 1907, Fang's return to China, which opened the prelude to the industrial development of Wuhu, has been a vigorous development of private enterprises. It involves more than a dozen fields and more than 500 large and small enterprises. Initially covering an area of 200 acres, the small can no longer be small "Wuhu Industrial Zone", now Yijing has developed into a behemoth, spreading more than 30 kilometers along both sides of the Yangtze River, affecting the surrounding Nanling and Wuwei counties in depth. And this growth rate is still in the rapid development, Wu Xingzhou's power plant, now Yijing can do two million kilowatts of electricity, so it is not enough, but also in Ma'anshan to build another one million kilowatts of power plant, for the third phase of the Ma'anshan project. Ruguo said that Wu Xingzhou was specialized, and Zhang Weifan was miscellaneous. Over the years, he has been involved in more than a dozen industries, from food, textiles, leather, construction, wood processing, etc., and the Wu family has more than 50 large and small factories.

Fang Jianxiong walked off the ferry, and the local elderly in Wuhu were elected out, holding a big bowl for Fang Dashuai to vacuum. After a ceremony, Fang Jianxiong's face turned red. Accompanied by the new mayor of Wuhu, Li Xinbai, he waited for the bus to go to the city government in the new city. The old town has been preserved as it is, according to Fang Dashuai's construction, the entire old town is now a commercial district pedestrian street, preserving the city's traditions to the greatest extent.

The planning of the new urban area was still under the leadership of Fang, and it began to invite American professionals to plan and design, and it has been built intermittently until now. Today's Wuhu, with a population of one million, has become an important industrial town in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The new mayor Li Xinbai took over Zhu Xiufeng's class, studied in Waseda, Japan in 1905, was the first batch of members of the League, he was also a member of the Yuewang Society, and Chen Moumou, the early leader of a certain party, and Bai Wenwei of the People's Party, was one of the initiators of the Yuewang Association.

Because of Fang Dashuai, Li Xinbai, who was not a person, was the chief of civil affairs of the Wuhu Military Government. However, he also ran a newspaper in Wuhu, "Republic Daily", which was very influential in the local area. After Zhu Xiufeng went to the Wuhan Special Economic Zone, Li Xinbai was elected by the Wuhu Council to take over the post of mayor.

In fact, being the mayor of Wuhu is still a very easy job. There is not much for him to worry about, Li Xinbai often publishes articles in newspapers, and has the style of governing Wuhu's government affairs, and is known as a literati mayor.

In a sense, this mayor is not tèbié competent. But in this day and age, a mayor who does not cause chaos among the people and can ensure the normal operation of government departments is a good mayor. At least that's what the people of Wuhu see, Mayor Li likes to write articles and write them well, and he doesn't scrape the ground.

Li Xinbai still has quite good political achievements, this person is keen on education, where he is in power, the city finance has invested a huge amount of money in education. In recent years, Wuhu's education industry has developed rapidly, and there are more than 5,000 teachers and students in Wannan Medical College and Wuhu Normal University. At the same time, Wuhu Vocational and Technical School, Wuhu Steamship School, Wuhu Polytechnic College and so on were established.

Accompanied by Li Xinbai, Fang Jianxiong's first stop was not to go to the Army University or the Wuhu garrison, but to a newly established enterprise, the "Wannan Motor Vehicle Factory".

Don't underestimate this company, which was jointly built by more than 20 local gentry in Wuhu and hired American Steve Jobs as a professional manager. Of course, this Jobs is not that Jobs.

Because of this enterprise, there are more than 20 supporting enterprises derived from it, such as casting plants, mechanical processing plants, asbestos brake pad factories, rear axle factories and so on. Also because of this factory, the six-horsepower diesel engine produced by Wuhu Diesel Engine Factory became one of the best-selling products in Wuhu in the first quarter. (To be continued.) )