Speaking of this, Cai Yi remembered that these people were still standing outside, the sun was bright outside, the weather was hot, and everyone was sweating, so he beckoned everyone: "Let's go, let's go in first, sit down and talk while drinking tea!" ”

"Yes!" The generals stood up and saluted, and then followed Cai Ye into a church in the city of Russe.

The reason for choosing this place to sit as the headquarters is that it is cooler, the space in this church is relatively large, very empty, there are windows on the walls all around, and the windows are equipped with glass, the whole church is long and wide, not only spacious, but also bright, and more importantly, the sunlight cannot shine directly in, it looks very cool.

A long table was placed on one side, and some chairs were placed around the long table, all of which were made of local wood, Cai Ye and the others sat down at the long table, and the orderly quickly brought the cut watermelon and tea.

The generals were eating watermelons regardless of their image, while talking about the current situation.

Cai Ye asked, "General Wu, how is the situation on General Guodong's side?" ”

Wu Shiyou said: "General Songpa, General Guodong is currently organizing troops in Milan to prepare to launch some attacks on the defensive line deployed by the German-Austrian coalition army on the Alps, with the purpose of containing the German-Austrian army and preventing them from sending troops to reinforce the eastern and western fronts!" ”

"Then do you know the situation on the Western Front? How was the tension on the part of Britain and France? ”

Wu Shiyou said: "Generally speaking, the German army is at a disadvantage, due to our large-scale war on the Eastern Front, the German army originally transferred to reinforce the Western Front troops had to stop the front, and now these German-Austrian troops are advancing to various dangerous places, intending to control the military danger to block our army's continued advance."

At present, the Anglo-French forces are organizing forces to attack Tours. According to the information we have received, Britain and France are preparing to mobilize 1.2 million men to launch an attack on the front line of Tours. But the Germans also seemed to have gotten the news, so they prepared a million troops to be deployed around Tours. Moreover, the Germans dug a large number of trenches and built a large number of forts on the east bank of the Loire in order to withstand the offensive of the British and French forces in Tours.

It is said that for this attack, the British and French forces decided to mobilize 500 fighters of the air force to participate in the battle, and the German side has now been completely replenished after the last air force losses, and the number of fighters on both sides is not much different, and the strength of the troops is also about the same, and it is not yet known who will die.

And in the north. The Germans still firmly controlled the area north of the Seine, and the Anglo-French forces were too scattered and concentrated in the southwest of France to pose a threat to the German-controlled area north of the Seine, and this was the general situation! ”

Cai said with a smile: "Before I came, the president called us to a meeting, and he said at the meeting that this war will not end for at least two years, judging from the current situation. If the Anglo-French forces on the Western Front had been advancing at such a pace, and with Germany's current war capability, the President's speculation would have been in line with the actual situation, and it would have been very difficult for our Entente to defeat the Allies in two years! ”

We chatted for a while about the current situation. Zhou Chuandong said another thing: "General Songpo, although we have achieved the strategic goal this time, our three corps have completed the division. And captured most of Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania, but this time our consumption was also very large. In the case of my Fifth Army, for example, each soldier had less than three hundred rounds of ammunition in reserve. If there is another battle, the guys in the hands of my Fifth Legion soldiers will be turned into useless burning sticks, and now we must solve the problem of ammunition supply, and our army is also in great need of food and other necessities, these problems must be solved, otherwise we will not be able to fight! ”

Yang Jie, chief of staff of the Second Army Corps, who is in charge of logistics, said: "At present, we have organized manpower to reopen six arsenals in Romania and Bulgaria, but it will take at least a week to make ammunition. Once these arsenals have made ammunition, replenish the Fifth Legion first, after all, the Fifth Legion is much more combative, and the Fifth Legion will be replenished after the Second Legion. As for food and other daily necessities, we are trying to find a way to buy, we have already purchased part of the grain, I believe that in a few days we will be able to replenish the troops, for the supply of other daily necessities, we have placed orders with many local factory owners, this time we have seized a lot of German-Austrian property and the property of wealthy businessmen, with these properties can solve part of the military expenses, and after a while, the domestic supply will also arrive, I believe that the problem of supply should not be big, Moreover, we do not have many combat missions at this stage for the time being, and there will not be too many battles that can use a lot of ammunition and military supplies! ”

Cai Yi thought for a while and asked, "What is most lacking at present?" ”

"The most lacking is, of course, ammunition, and artillery shells, the reserve of ammunition can be used for a large battle for the time being, and the reserve of artillery shells has been seriously insufficient, and the current priority is to replenish the shells!"

After thinking for a long time, Cai Yi said: "Chief of Staff Yang, then solve the problem of ammunition first, isn't there a three-shift work system in China?" Workers are divided into three shifts, each shift is eight hours long, and people and machines are not stopped, which is said to improve work efficiency! In the past, some landlords in our country had tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, in fact, the situation abroad is similar, and the grain produced by some farmers can feed the people in several counties and cities. What's missing? ”

Yang Jie said: "Okay, commander! After this war, most of the military uniforms and shoes and hats of our soldiers and officers have been destroyed by the war, and they urgently need to be replaced with new uniforms and shoes and hats, but it will take a long time for these to be transported from the country! Commander, is it possible to consider ordering from a local garment factory? ”

Cai Yi thought about it for a while and shook his head and said: "No, our army's uniforms are all carefully designed, and there are regulations on both the style and the use of fabrics, and they can't be easily changed, let alone order them from the local area here." Although this matter seems to be unrelated, if someone with a heart takes advantage of it and uses it as an excuse to attack us. Then things are in trouble, and I'd rather let the soldiers dress in tatters. This matter has to be urged to the domestic quartermaster department, so that they can transport the supplies as soon as possible! ”

Yang Jie was puzzled: "Commander, what can be used for this matter, as the saying goes, the general is outside, the king's order is not affected, and the matter is urgent!" ”

Wu Peifu shook his head when he heard this: "No, no, no, this matter can not be prevaricated by 'the general will not be subject to the orders of the monarch abroad', let alone said that it is a matter of urgency, but the military uniform is a little shabby." It has not yet reached the point where there is no rice to put in the pot, let alone to the point of endangering the entire army in the Eastern European theater, the fabrics and dyes used in our military uniforms have special formulas, and the local garment factories will definitely not be able to make that kind of appearance and effect, once the news of our order for military uniforms here reaches the ears of some people in China, those people will make trouble for us on the charge that we want to set up another mountain, which is not something that anyone can afford! ”

Yang Jie said: "Then I can only let the soldiers gather and find a way to sew and mend the tattered military uniforms, and then wear them for a while." By the way, these are not the main things now, the most important thing is that we are in big trouble! ”

The crowd asked in unison, "What's the trouble?" ”

Yang Jie said: "In this battle, we captured a total of 550,000 prisoners of the German and Austrian army. These captives have to eat at least 500,000 catties of our food every day, and this is still rationing, and if it is open for the captives to eat, I estimate that they will have to consume 1 million catties of grain every day. Now we don't have enough food to eat, but we still have to feed these 500,000 captives, my God. I'm really not a logistical fodder, Commander. You might as well hire someone else to do this logistical work! ”

Cai Yi said: "You also know that you can't find such a talent now, so you can continue to work part-time." When I find the right person, I will naturally reduce your burden, think about it, is there any way to solve this matter? ”

Wu Peifu turned his mind and said, "Commander, can we sell this batch of prisoners to the British and French?" Didn't the British and the French just need prisoners? We sell these captives to them, on the one hand, we don't have to waste food to feed them, and on the other hand, we can get some money for military expenses! ”

Zhou Chuandong, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps, immediately said: "No, absolutely not!" ”

Wu Shiyou, the commander of the First Legion, also shook his head and said, "You must not do this!" ”

Zhang Xiaozhun and Wu Peifu asked at the same time: "Why?" ”

Wu Shiyou said to Zhou Chuandong: "Old Zhou, say it."

Zhou Chuandong nodded, and said to the others: "Now we have to raise military funds to solve the supply problem by ourselves due to the situation, which is agreed by the country, after all, the country cannot see us fall into the danger of annihilation because the supply cannot be in place in time, since the beginning of the nationalization of the army, the supply of all the army is under the control of the general logistics department, and now the country allows us to raise military funds to solve the supply problem by ourselves, and the others such as confiscating the property of the puppet government and confiscating the property of rich businessmen, There is no problem with this, but if the captives are sold in exchange for money, this is a political problem, and the captives can be used as bargaining chips in the future negotiations with Germany and Austria to a certain extent, and this bargaining chip is not an ordinary big bargaining chip, if it is sold to Britain and France like this, God knows how some people in the country will slander us? In order to show our country that we have no intention of supporting our own troops, we must also report to the country every time we have captured or confiscated any wealth, even a dime, to show our hearts, do you know what will happen if the army is able to raise its own funds? Either the country will be suspicious of us, or we have people here with bad intentions who want to support the army and self-respect, and plot to rebel! I am a soldier, fighting for the country, even if I die on the battlefield, I have no regrets, but I don't want to bear a crime of rebellion that can be avoided but because of carelessness, rebellion, this is the biggest ironic crime for soldiers, I don't want to die without turning a blind eye! ”

When the generals heard this, they were all shocked, everyone was afraid for a while, and cold sweat flowed from their vests, Zhou Chuandong didn't say it, they didn't realize the seriousness of the problem, and now they were broken by Zhou Chuandong, and they suddenly felt like walking a tightrope now, and they could fall off the cliff at any time.

Cai Yi slapped the table and said: "Since this is the case, then let those captives go to work, let them feed themselves, and we don't support idlers." In addition, what Chuandong just said cannot but arouse our vigilance, and Chief of Staff Yang will immediately report all the captures we have captured in this campaign, and we must be detailed and detailed! ”

Yang Jie said solemnly: "Understood! (To be continued......)