The next day, the Imperial Council.

Seeing that everyone was seated, Isabella stood up and said in a clear and powerful voice: "Gentlemen, we must begin the retreat at once. Although Amsterdam was still in the hands of the Dutch army, it was impossible for us to wait until we took the city. I know that this means a risk, and it means that we will not be able to make full use of the rail network in the Netherlands, but the situation on the front line has reached a point where we must immediately withdraw our conventional forces from Germany. ”

The cabinet members and generals looked at each other, and their expressions were very subtle.

Isabella saw this, so she continued, "I know what you're thinking. Yes, our operation failed, and because of my carelessness, the troops that landed in Germany were in a difficult situation, for which I could not shirk the responsibility for which I decided to land by the majority of votes. ”

As soon as Isabella's words fell, Winston Churchill turned his head to look at her, as if he was quite surprised by her initiative to "take the blame".

Isabella did not look at Churchill.

"In due course, I will take on this responsibility in the right way, and now it is imperative to withdraw our soldiers. Isn't that what we are fighting in the Netherlands? ”

After speaking, Isabella looked back and forth at the members of the wartime cabinet with a stern and serious expression. Finally, the Chief of the Army General Staff Ironside said: "We did draw up a plan for an immediate retreat now, but this plan required a considerable number of troops to be left to snipe the Germans, and the Commander of the Expeditionary Force at the front, Verrick and Miss Shenki Brigitte, both believed that the Germans were superior in mechanization and mobility than ours, and that if no one came to snipe them, all the retreating troops would be caught up by the Germans." ”

Isabella nodded: "I understand, you choose some troops to be responsible for the break, this is a necessary sacrifice, I will not pursue it." ”

"No, no, Your Majesty." Ironside frowned, with a bitter expression, "The problem is not here, but that we can't find a force that can take on this task, the morale of our troops in Germany is very low, and now the only ones who are still fighting may be the Gurkha mercenaries and the Scottish Highland troops who are responsible for guarding the gods." ”

"Then use these troops to break the rear." Isabella's tone was resolute and unquestionable.

Ironside was taken aback, but the look of surprise only lingered on his face for a moment, and then he regained the expression and tone of a calm, standard British soldier: "Understood, leave these troops behind." There is also a problem, which is that at the Magic Armor Repair Center in Bremen, we allocated a lot of tools and a huge amount of maintenance materials to this center in order to fight in Germany for a long time, and now we are retreating from the Netherlands, which means that we have no way to take anything other than craftsmen, you know, if Amsterdam is not taken, the railway network will not work at all, and we will not have enough locomotives and wagons to transport the materials that have been hoarded in Bremen......"

"How did we get these things to Bremen in the first place?" Isabella asked with a frown.

"We used river boats, Your Majesty."

"Now we can also use river boats to transport things out."

"But now the German Navy has moved from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea coast through the Guò Kiel Canal."

"Then let our navy lean over too!" Isabella's voice finally became a little impatient, and she interrupted Ironside's words loudly, and then glared at the Secretary of State for the Sea, "Could it be that the navy has been bombed by the Germans a few times, and it doesn't even dare to get close to the German coastline?" Is it difficult to bring the naval god to even the bombers? ”

"Of course not," Elena adoptive father Andrew? Brown? Lord Cunningham hurriedly said, "We are ready to go out to cover our convoy, and we can not only transport the magic workshop in Bremen, but also some troops by the way." ”

As soon as Cunningham finished speaking, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Winston Churchill answered without waiting for the Queen's statement.

An officer with the rank of major entered the conference room, saluted Isabella and then reported aloud: "Mary? His Excellency Brigitte has already led his team out this morning after discovering the fluctuations of the Shenji on the German side. ”

"Got it." Winston Churchill said with a "You can go" gesture to the Major, then turned to look at Isabella, "It seems to me that there is still a tricky problem to be faced in evacuating the Magic Repair Center in Bremen, Your Majesty." ”

"I know what you're trying to say," Isabella took Churchill's words with a stern expression, "Judging from the damage report sent by Bremen yesterday on the Magic Armor, after every battle, the craftsmen of Bremen have to go all out to maintain the Magic Armor, and there is no time to do anything like loading equipment on ships." ”

"That's it." Churchill snatched the conversation into his hands again, "Once we begin the retreat, it means that the next day the Miss Shenji led by Lord Brigitte will have to meet the German Shenji with only minimal maintenance. With the Germans possessing new weapons, in the event of casualties, it would simply be more than worth the loss. Miss Brigitte has already paid the price of an eye for this new weapon. ”

Everyone in the Imperial Council knew about Brigitte's injury, so Churchill's words did not cause much reaction, and probably everyone was more or less aware of this between Churchill's provocative situation.

"Lin Youde is not stupid," Winston Churchill continued, "no, it should be said, he is disgustingly smart, and he will certainly give his concubines all their strength to constantly put pressure on our Miss Shenji." Once he discovers our intention to remove the Wizard Workshop, he will surely intensify his efforts to spur his concubines. ”

The room fell silent.

Winston Churchill waited for a while, seeing that no one had broken the silence, before he looked at Isabella, and then cleared his throat: "Let's sort out the current situation." First of all, the enemy is advancing towards Bremerhaven, once the enemy occupies Bremerhaven and controls the mouth of the Weser River, it will be exponentially more difficult for us to evacuate the Magic Workshop through the Guò river boats, and the Germans will not only attack our retreating ships with air force, but also block the river with artillery with the troops on the ground.

"Secondly, we need the tools and supplies that should be withdrawn to the UK as much as possible in order to protect future combat operations on British soil.

"Thirdly, we also need the Lady Shenji who are fighting on German soil, and if we can only provide minimal maintenance for their armor, then we must take other measures to keep them safe."

At this moment there was another knock at the door, and Churchill frowned, as if he was very unhappy that his speech had been interrupted, and he almost roared to answer the door: "Come in! ”

So a gentlemanly man entered the room, quickly came to the intelligence director, and whispered a few words.

Churchill exclaimed, "Stop whispering, there are no outsiders here, speak for me clearly." ”

The visitor glanced at the intelligence director, and after obtaining the latter's approval, reported in a loud voice: "We are sure that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has left Potsdam with the new armor provided to her by Germany, and the destination is most likely Hanover." ”

Everyone at the conference table looked at each other, and their expressions were not very good-looking.

Finally, Army Chief of Staff Ironside said: "It seems that we have to abandon the plan to completely withdraw the magic repair center, and we will blow up everything that remains in Germany and let the craftsmen ...... with the troops."

"I disagree!" Isabella slapped the table hard, and her power from the Divine Queen's bloodline directly slapped the table into a hollow, and the precious, historic conference table had an additional palm-shaped depression.

"The Germans' goal is to clear themselves of the threat on the Western Front before Russia actually goes to war with them, after which it is foreseeable that they will attack our homeland. At that time, the German and French gods will attack together, and the intensity of the battle will definitely be higher than it is now, and we need everything that can be used to maintain and protect the magic armor of the goddess!

"And at that time, all our gods had to participate in the defense war, there was no more gods to provide cover for merchant ships, the German air force and the French navy could attack our merchant ships with impunity, and we could not count on getting enough resources from overseas!"

Isabella glared at everyone present and emphasized word by word: "The magicians, tools, and supplies in Bremen must be rescued as much as possible. ”

"At the cost of putting the Lady Goddess in danger?" Ironside asked quizzically.

"Nope. It is true that if Brigitte retreats, they will only be able to deal with the increased number of German gods with very bad armor, but we can solve this problem by throwing new gods into the war! ”

"Well, indeed," Cunningham adjusted his seat, "we can get the two Admirals at sea into battle, but will that really fully offset the disadvantage of the lack of armor maintenance?" Isn't the enemy's armor superior to ours in performance? And they have a new weapon that can kill French President Christine with a single blow - the fight yesterday is so bad, it shows that Miss Brigitte and they have not found a way to restrain the Germans from the new weapon, does it? ”

"You're right," Isabella paused, scanning the room, and then solemnly announced, "so I decided to go out myself, and with the addition of an exiled French goddess, our fighting power will be enough." ”

The participants of the Imperial Council looked at each other, and finally all eyes fell on Winston Churchill.

Churchill crossed his fingers on his big belly, looked at the notebook spread out on the table, and was silent for a while before he said slowly: "I agree with His Majesty's decision." Only in this way can we ensure the defense capability of the mainland to the greatest extent in the future. ”