In accordance with Xiao Zhenlei's requirements and instructions, starting with the rectification of old cases, this is a process of boiling frogs in warm water and fighting for a long time, with the principle of not shaking the political situation, so it is destined not to set off too big waves, but it will not be too calm under the surface of the water.

In fact, Xiao Zhenlei also knows that the current situation is not suitable for rectifying the rule of officials at all, because it is now a period of great war, and the country's focus is on foreign warfare, and at this time, the rectification of the rule of officials will disperse the country's strength to a certain extent, and there is a suspicion of affecting unity, but Xiao Zhenlei also knows that it will not work if it is not rectified, and the decadent atmosphere left over from the previous period has begun to corrode the nascent regime.

Among all the provinces and regions in the country, except for the newly added northern and western Xinjiang regions and several provinces in Southeast Asia, only the southern provinces have a better situation of officials, and the southern provinces began to take over when Xiao Zhenlei was the governor of East China, when he carried out a blood exchange operation on the officialdom, and some of the remaining officials and law enforcement personnel of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were removed, but after the overthrow of Yuan Shikai, because the place taken over was too large, too many officials and law enforcement officers were needed, The new government did not have enough officials and law enforcement personnel who had been educated in the new ideology for a while, so in order to take over the power, it had to retain many officials and law enforcement personnel from the Manchu and Yuan Shikai periods, especially in most of the northern areas where Yuan Shikai ruled the Beiyang government, and almost all the officials and law enforcement personnel were taken over, so the number of old bureaucrats was very alarming.

According to Xiao Zhenlei's instructions. The Supreme Court and the Supervisory Yuan decided that this long-term plan would mainly start with the relatively minor provinces and regions in the south, so that it would not cause much movement. It will not cause panic in officialdom, and at the same time, it will also handle some big and important cases in the northern region first. Defeat those relatively large tumors, eradicate those large umbrellas, and wait until the situation in the south is almost resolved, and then concentrate on rectifying the north, without the protection of some large umbrellas, it is much simpler to eradicate those smaller shrimp below.

In order not to attract the attention of all parties and not to make a big noise, Xiao Zhenlei did not make too many inquiries about the work of the Supreme Court and the Supervision Yuan, but only occasionally talked on the phone with Supreme Justice Shen Bingzhen and Fan Zhiyong, President of the Supervision Yuan. Stay up-to-date on their progress.

Recent developments on the Western Front in Europe attracted Xiao Zhenlei's full attention, and the retreat of German forces in southern France to the north gave the Allies a great boost to the morale of the allied forces, albeit at great cost to recapture parts of southern France.

By mid-September, the Germans had retreated to the east of the Rhône and the Dirance River in southern France, abandoning part of the southeast coast of France, and even the port of Marseille had been abandoned by the Germans. Therefore, it is better to abandon these undefended areas, save the limited forces and retreat to the north.

By the end of September, the Allies had received reinforcements in southern France, and a large amount of war materials had been transported to southern France by various means of transport. Even the British, French, and American fleets brought war supplies to the port of Marseille, thus bringing enough ammunition for the front-line troops.

On September 27, the Allied forces, led by the British, French, and American armies, again launched a large-scale attack from southern France to the German army in the north. Max, commander of the German Third Army, resisted for several days and had to abandon most of the land and retreat north on all fronts. Retreat all the way to Valence and Grebnore, south of Lyon.

But by this time, Max's disobedience to the order and his unauthorized retreat had already reached Berlin, and the top brass of the German high command was extremely angry. Soon an order came from Berlin that Max was relieved of his post and the post of commander of the Third Army was replaced by Enem.

In order to restore the decline in southern France, the German High Command ordered Marshal Albrecht, Duke of Vürtten, to take full responsibility for all the fighting in eastern and southern France.

Field Marshal Albrecht immediately ordered the Third Army to defend the lines of Valence and Grebnore, the Eighth Army to defend the lines of Lepi and Briud, and the Eleventh Army to defend the lines of Limoges and Boufra.

The southeast of France is mountainous and the terrain is complicated, Marshal Albrecht has three army groups in his hands, with a total strength of about one million, with a hundred troops to defend the southeast of France, the Duke of Württem feels very relaxed.

At the beginning of October, the British, French and American armies launched an offensive in the southeast of France, but suffered a crushing defeat, the complex and changeable terrain greatly hindered the attack, and the British, French and American forces could no longer bear the loss of about 200,000 men, and had to stop their military operations in the southeast. The Germans were undersupplied in southeastern France and were temporarily unable to launch a counterattack, and the fighting in southeastern France was halted.

Britain, France, and the United States did not give up after the failure of their offensive in southeastern France, and after deliberation among the high-level leaders of the three countries, they ordered an offensive against the Germans from the west.

On October 8, Britain, France and the United States gathered 2.6 million troops, 109 infantry divisions and 32 cavalry divisions to launch a fierce attack on the western region, and the German army of 1.2 million desperately resisted, and both sides fought for more than ten days, both suffered heavy losses, and the allied forces first broke through the German defense line in Evre.

After the German defense line was broken through in Evre, it was like a burst of embankment, unstoppable, and under the chain reaction, the German defense line completely collapsed, and in order to preserve military strength, the German army immediately retreated to Versailles and Paris.

The British, French, and American armies immediately pursued the victory, and the British, French, and American armies lost more than 300,000 men in this attack, while the Germans retreated to Versailles and Paris with 800,000 men left, losing 400,000.

After the Germans retreated to the front line of Versailles and Paris, they began to redeploy their defenses, this time the commander of the 2nd Army, the commander of the German High Command. Feng. Marshal Bello was the commander-in-chief of the Versailles battlefield, commanding the 1st, 2nd, and 4th armies, plus some troops around Paris and Versailles, and Marshal Karl had 900,000 troops at his disposal to mobilize.

On 15 October, the British, French, and American armies advanced to the Versailles and Paris fronts, by which time the Germans, under the command of Marshal Karl, had deployed numerous fortifications on the Versailles and Paris fronts, taking advantage of the surrounding mountains and rivers.

On October 18, the British, French and American armies launched a large-scale attack from the southwest and south, but they were stubbornly resisted by the German army, and after three days of fierce fighting, the British, French and American armies suffered heavy losses, and the German army did not win favor, in just three days, the Allies lost 260,000 men, and the German army also lost 120,000. Loss of this magnitude has never happened before.

The battle did not stop because of excessive losses, Versailles and Paris at this time were like a huge meat grinder, hundreds of people died here every moment, hundreds of shells and tens of thousands of bullets were consumed every second, the whole Versailles and Paris could hear the deafening sound of cannons and gunfire, and the smoke of gunpowder was over Versailles and Paris all the time.

In ten days of fighting, Britain, France and the United States lost 600,000 people, while the German army also lost 400,000, the corpses were almost piled up into a mountain, and the entire Versailles was destroyed.

At this point, the German high command also knew that it was impossible to hold Paris, and the most important thing now was to buy time for the troops to retreat north of the Seine, try to hold Paris for a longer time, let the large forces safely evacuate the area north of the Marne, and then deploy a defensive line north of the Marne, using the Marne River as a natural defensive line to prevent the Allied forces from continuing to move north.

Under the calculation of losses, the Germans had to shrink their defensive lines and gather their forces, and all the German forces in the surrounding area were concentrated around Paris and began to cross the Seine.

Huaguo Jingcheng, Presidential Palace.

On October 29, Jiang Baili came to Xiao Zhenlei's office quickly with the latest battle report on the Western Front, "President, the recent situation, the second Battle of the Marne broke out, a few years ago the Battle of the Marne was the German army from north to south against the British and French forces, and this time the Battle of the Marne River was the British, French and American forces launched an attack on the German army from north to south!" ”

"Oh?" Xiao Zhenlei guessed that the second Battle of the Marne would happen soon, but he didn't expect Britain, France and the United States to start so soon, it seems that Britain, France and the United States are really desperate, otherwise they would not have launched an attack in such a short time this time.

"Oh?" he asked. What is the ratio of forces between the two sides? ”

Jiang Baili introduced: "The German army concentrated all the surrounding forces on the north bank of the Marne, the remnants of the first, second, fourth, and fifth armies added up to 500,000 people, as well as the Sixth Army, a total of about 800,000 people, the Seventh Army was deployed in the northwest of France and could not get out, and the British, French and American armies had about 1.8 million people, which was already the entire strength of Britain, France and the United States in the western region of France, except for 800,000 people in the south, there was no other support, and Britain and the United States were basically empty at present."

Xiao Zhenlei calculated in his heart and said: "During this time, the losses of Britain, France and the United States are not small! ”

Jiang Baili nodded and said: "Yes, I have already calculated, since Britain, France and the United States launched their attacks in August until now, they have lost about two million troops in just three months, which is about 46% of the total strength of their three countries, which can be regarded as more than half of the casualties!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei stood up and said: "Britain, France and the United States have suffered a great loss of vitality this time, and the issue of compensation for the loss of so many troops alone will drag down the finances of Britain, France and the United States!" This is indeed something to be happy about." (To be continued......)