"Dad, such a calm analysis of the interests and stakes is unacceptable to those Prussians, but it is not impossible to let the German navy go to war." Gladstone replied.

"What do you think?" Scrooge asked.

"Dad, it's not a big secret that I know the German Army might be preparing for a massive offensive. You know that if the war drags on, it will be extremely bad for Germany, so the Germans will risk attacking anyway. Donald told me that in today's environment, the defending side has a very clear advantage over the attacking side, as long as the artillery firepower is not too far apart. So, if the French and the British themselves don't get dizzy, I think the chances of the Germans winning are slim. Once the German Army is frustrated, we can use our connections to ask in the German press: 'What is our expensive Navy doing?' Thus creating public opinion and forcing the German Navy to make a massive sortie. ”

"As far as I know, Germans watch the media very closely." Scrooge said.

"I know, Dad, but there are still a lot of unpleasant media in Germany. Moreover, the former is able to solve a lot of problems. Greystone smiled confidently and said, "Besides, the German Army is probably very eager to see the Navy go out to fight at that time." ”

Basically, as long as there are countries in the world that have navies and armies, the relationship between the navy and the army does not seem to be particularly good. Not to mention that even the rifling of weapons (including cannons and firearms) had to rotate in opposite directions, as in later Japan, the Japanese Navy and the Japanese Army have always been not quite right in other countries, including the United States. This can be seen from the caliber of the weapon, the navy's artillery is in the caliber of standard imperial units, and the army's is in metric units.

In fact, this contradiction is very easy to understand, and the root cause of this contradiction is naturally the struggle for military spending. Any country's military spending is limited, and if the army uses more, the navy will naturally decrease, and vice versa. Taking Japan as an example, when the Japanese Navy learned from the British Navy, learned all the afternoon tea of the British Navy, and lived the life on the battleship like a luxury hotel, how could the Army, which was still gritting its teeth and tightening its belts to live a hard life, not hold a grudge when it saw it? The same is true in Germany today. Because of the massive construction of the navy, the expansion plan of the army could not be completed, and when the attack was not effective, even if it was instinctive to shirk responsibility, the army would have said: "If we had given us the money to build the navy, we would have knocked France down long ago." "And they must not tolerate themselves fighting hard in the front and the navy watching the drama in the back. Therefore, they must also hope that the navy will go out to train with the British. As for victory or defeat, could it be said that because it can't be defeated, the navy won't fight? So what else do you need the Navy for?

"The German Army has a much higher position of power than the Navy." "They'd love to see someone come out and force the Navy to go to war," Greystone continued. Therefore, it is not too difficult to create such a voice in the German media. ”

"Well, you have a point." Scrooge nodded and said, "By the way, how many cars did the French order from us during this time?" ”

"Ever since the First Battle of the Marne, when the French relied on a large number of taxis to transport troops to the battlefield to save the emergency, the French began to buy a large number of cars from us. Especially after the war went on for so long, their own production capacity was greatly affected, and coupled with the deterioration of road conditions, the French are now more and more dependent on our pickup trucks. In the last six months, we have exported more than 5,000 Raptors pickup trucks to them and more than 1,000 to the British. It is said that because our pickup trucks are reliable, easy to repair if they are broken, and have good cross-country ability, they can run on even bad roads, whether it is loaded with people or used to tow the French to copy our 75mm guns or to rack our .50 caliber heavy machine guns on them, so the French General Petain even proposed that a rapid reaction division should be established entirely on the Raptor pickup to provide support to weak points at any time, or to expand the results of the battle after a breakthrough is formed. It is said that this proposal was also supported by many French soldiers. In addition, in the last six months, we have exported various trucks to them, with a total of more than 5,000 units. Gladstone said.

"Pickup Rapid Reaction Force?" The phrase "pickup wars" immediately popped into Scrooge's head. A group of black uncles, sitting on top of a Toyota pickup, waving AK-47s...... No, it should be a group of French soldiers in red pants, standing in the body of a pickup truck, brandishing rifles and shouting "For France". This style of painting,Why is it so ......

Scrooge shook his head and shook the boring stuff out of his head. He was pleased to have bought so many cars, and at the same time, the success rate of his strategy based on Germany's judgment of defeat was even higher.

Scrooge probably remembered that the Germans nearly killed the French on two offensives in World War I, one on the Marne and the other at Verdun. Now the Marne has passed, and the process has been quite different from the original history, for example, the French did not rely on taxis to transport troops to stop the Germans on the Marne, but also relied on full-body chemical protective clothing and throwing mustard gas at each other to block the Germans. And in which direction the next attack of the Germans will be, whether it will still be Verdun, Scrooge's mind is really unclear.

"However, no matter where it is, even if the French have misjudged, with a few thousand taels of pickups, they should at least make up for their mistakes much faster." Scrooge thought.

……

Major General Pétain had just left the front and went to the rear to receive the formation of a completely new force. This army is a fast force based on the Yankees' "Raptor Pickup" that it was proposed. The French planned to form such three divisions first, form a rapid army, and try to see if it would work. Volkswagen, as well as the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company, helped to form the force.

Volkswagen's Raptor pickup was originally designed to meet the needs of farmers in the Midwest. Of course, the name Raptor comes from the Ford F-150 many years after a certain time and space, but there is still a big gap between the American Volkswagen's pickup truck and the Ford F-150 in this time and space. For example, although Volkswagen fitted the pickup truck with an oversized V8 engine with a displacement of up to 12 liters, the horsepower of this car is completely unmatched that of the F-150, so its top speed is only 60 kilometers per hour. And this speed is still a so-called "theoretical speed", in fact, no one has ever really driven this speed. However, if you want to talk about the concept of insufficient horsepower and displacement, it is in the same vein as the American pickup trucks of later generations.

In addition, the road conditions in the Midwest of the United States, especially the road conditions in the countryside, are basically a mess in this era, plus the farmer uncle will not take care of it or anything, plus the farmer uncle buys it to do rough work, and sometimes, the farmer uncle has to use it as a tractor. Therefore, when this "Raptor" pickup was designed, the most valued performance was reliability first, reliability second, and reliability third. Many other performance compromises to enhance reliability. This makes this car particularly capable of running bad roads and is super leathery. The towing ability is also first-class, not to mention dragging a 75 mm caliber gun, even if you drag a 105 caliber gun, you can also run very happily.

After the war began, Volkswagen bought it in France. The French army was a big man at a glance, and this car could easily fit a squad of soldiers and all their weapons and ammunition, and it could also run on a trailer full of ammunition or something else in tow, and it could run on all kinds of roads, including roads that had been blown up by the cannons of both sides. It's much better than a taxi.

Today, the main equipment of the army in Petain's hands is nearly 1,000 Raptor pickups, and the MacDonald Infantry Weapons Company also provides the so-called "deep modification" of these pickups. For example, these vehicles can be equipped with quick-detachable large-caliber machine guns, or vehicle-mounted mortars, as well as towed artillery. In addition, at the request of the French, they also tried to equip this car with bulletproof steel plates, making it look like a self-detonating truck of an organization in a certain time and space. Of course, the windows are blocked by steel plates, and the drivers can only rely on periscopes to drive them, and the McDonalds guys also installed a barbed wire cutter in front of the front of the car, and as a result, after all these messes are loaded on this goods, the weight has increased a lot, the center of gravity is also a lot higher, and the driving vision is also a mess, but, surprisingly, this cargo can barely be opened. Therefore, the French were still very satisfied with the change of dozens of vehicles, planning to take them to the battlefield to attack the German machine gun positions. However, the engineers of the McDonald Infantry Weapons Company were not too optimistic about this magic model. According to him:

"This thing, the driving performance is already too poor, and if you are not careful, it will overturn. In addition, if you hit a mine or something, it is also a dead end, and there is artillery fire from the front line, and I am sure that as long as a shell explodes next to him, it can be overturned directly. But since the French have such a request, of course we must satisfy him. ”

After Pétain took over the army, it took several more months to finally get the force to look more or less. However, he didn't expect that the first battle of this army would come so quickly.