(The hand trembled in the previous chapter, and it turned out that the British army was going to attack Bremen the next day, which was a pure mistake, and the army of 1938 could not have advanced sixty kilometers in two days with resistance)

On the eighth day of landing, the British finally reached the city of Bremen.

The 60 kilometers of the British army were not easy at all, and the tactics adopted by the Germans with layers of delay and active attack and harassment were quite effective.

During the day, the German troops attached to the battle queen fought and retreated in various places, and when it was nearly midnight when the British war queen had to go back to resupply and rest, the German light infantry would attack the British troops everywhere in jeeps, inflicting considerable damage on the British with automatic weapons.

The British army was too inferior in terms of mobility, on the other hand, the Germans were already fighting in their hometowns, and the road conditions in Germany were now the best in Europe, and jeeps ran fast.

The Germans often rushed directly along the road into the village where the British troops were located, shooting with automatic weapons as they galloped, and then rushed out of the other side of the village after a random fight, and fled as if flying.

After eight days of fighting, the British casualties finally reached the standard of casualties estimated by the British generals on the day of landing, for which the British newspapers boasted that this showed that the Germans were vulnerable.

Britain was in a state of euphoria - in fact, it was mainly upper-middle-class.

But those who really know the situation on the front line are quite worried.

**

Isabella looked at the ministers and generals in front of her, listening patiently to the reports from the front.

The army general in charge of the report finally finished speaking, and Isabella immediately opened her mouth to ask: "Your report is so long, and it sounds to me that most of the content is to excuse you for not taking Bremen in five days as planned, and I don't remember that the British Army is such an army that is so good at making excuses." ”

As soon as Isabella finished speaking, the expressions of the army generals in the room darkened.

Army General John? Verrick said to the queen, "Your Majesty, our original plan was to capture Bremen in five to ten days, and you see, we have suffered fewer casualties than the most optimistic estimate of the plan we have submitted to you......"

"Don't think I'm one of those stupid crowds outside the window," Isabella said angrily, "that casualty is purely the product of the Germans' lack of resistance, and they have already lost tens of thousands of troops!" ”

"We estimate that the Germans also have more than 10,000 casualties......"

"Yes, yes, you may be right, but do you know what I think? I'm thinking, this is Lin Youde's tactic, he is seducing you, trying to make you blindly optimistic, and testing the combat effectiveness of his troops armed with new equipment. Now that he has the bottom in his heart, he is waiting for you to kick him on the iron plate he has erected. The more force you use on this kick, the more it hurts, so Lin Youde is desperately inciting your arrogance! Damn put away your blind arrogance, and think seriously about Lin Youde's intentions! Don't be so wishful thinking, things can't always go the way we want them to. ”

"Majesty," John? Verrick raised his eyebrows slightly, he is the sixth generation of Viscount Gort, his ancestors have outstanding achievements, he himself won a Victoria Cross in the last war, and is now the most respected general in the British Army, if there is only one person at this conference table who can argue with the queen, it is him, "I think, are you overestimating that Chinese?" ”

"I'm not overestimating him, you're underestimating him! He's ......" Isabella snapped to her feet, as she suddenly realized that she was like those silly girls who blindly defended their sweethearts.

"Alright," Isabella forcibly changed the subject, "let's talk about that guy aside, let's talk about something more practical, Bremen is already in sight, and tomorrow I hope the flag of the British Empire will fly over this city, and that won't be a problem, right?" ”

"Bremen is a big city with hundreds of thousands of people." Another bespectacled, staff-like colonel said to Isabella, "To control a city like zhì, one day is definitely not enough." ”

The Colonel stood up, walked over to the blackboard next to him, and showed a magnet on the blackboard a map of the city of Bremen.

"Bremen is on the east bank of the Weser River, which runs north-south, and our plan is to occupy the west bank of the Weser River, which has fewer houses to deploy troops to resist, and then set up artillery positions on the west bank......"

"You don't have to tell me how you're going to take Bremen," Isabella interrupted Colonel Glasses, "I just want the result, and I don't care about the process. ”

At this time, Verrick said: "We will put in an overwhelming superiority of forces, and the Germans will not be able to withstand our attack with fortifications alone......

"How do you know you're superior in forces?" Isabella asked rhetorically, "Our aerial reconnaissance is completely blocked, nothing can be detected, can the scouts alone be sure of absolute superiority?" Could it be that you captured a high-ranking German officer with a map of the German deployment? But I didn't get that kind of report. ”

Verrick was silent for a few seconds, then changed his words: "We judge that the forces we invest will have an absolute advantage, and the Germans may be able to block the first, second, or even third wave of attacks, but they will eventually be overwhelmed by our wave." ”

Isabella stared at Verrick for a few seconds and sighed, "I hope so." ”

**

After the generals and the other cabinet members left, Winston Churchill, who had been left alone, said to Isabella: "Your Majesty, I have a personal opinion, and at such times you should not appear to be as sensitive and irritable as you were just now, for such an attitude will only make your subordinates feel that you lack confidence in victory." ”

Churchill paused, took the cigar from his bosom, and did not put it in his mouth, but put it to his nose and sniffed it gently. While enjoying the tobacco aroma of the cigar, he continued: "The leader should always appear unfazed, and envelop himself with the city, as if no unexpected circumstance could shake him." Only then will you be able to reassure your subordinates. ”

Isabella sighed, strange to say, now she didn't seem to hate what Winston Churchill was saying as much as she used to be.

She said to Churchill in a soothing tone: "Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for your advice. But as soon as I saw the arrogance of the army generals, I was angry. In comparison, the gentlemen of the Royal Navy are much better. ”

"As a former Lord of the Admiralty, I'm glad to hear you say that." Churchill paused, and again stressed to Isabella, "But please bear with me next time, after all, we will rely on them to fight the Germans." Your Majesty, just leave it to me to sing blackfaces, and I'll tell you that I'm good at this. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Churchill." Isabella thanked Churchill again.

Then she stood up, walked over to the blackboard, and looked at the magnet attached to the map of Bremen on the blackboard.

"If we don't take this city soon, I'm afraid the battlefield will be deadlocked, and maybe the situation on the Western Front where the two sides are frantically digging trenches across the demarcation line of the battlefield will reappear." Isabella frowned, "Britain now does not have the confidence to have such a terrible and crazy war of attrition again, even if we defeat Germany in the end, our losses will be too great to outweigh the losses." ”

"Your Majesty, Lin Youde definitely doesn't want the battle to be deadlocked even more than we do." Churchill seemed to want to stand up, but changed his mind halfway through and sat back in his seat, his fat body squeezing the chair, making it emit a strange scream, and one couldn't help but worry about whether the chair would fall apart the next moment.

Isabella put her hands behind her back, looking at the map without speaking.

Churchill continued: "The German troops who have appeared in front of our troops these days are generally equipped with mechanical vehicles, and the kind of cars called jeeps and all kinds of strange tracked vehicles can be found everywhere. Because of this, they are far more mobile than we expected, so they can come and go freely in front of us, often resist for a while, and when we pause the attack, readjust the offensive plan, and prepare to fight them with real weapons, they can run faster than anything else. It was as if our troops were punching an enemy made of air, and the strong wind of the air hurt us badly in the face. This is the current situation on the battlefield now. ”

Isabella remained silent.

Churchill glanced at Isabella's back, put the cigar in his mouth and began to feel in his pocket, but once again remembered that the queen did not like people to smoke in front of her, so he could only give up, put the cigar he had bitten under his nose, and continued to smell it.

At the same time, he did not forget to continue to advance the topic.

"Therefore, a high degree of mechanization is the basis of Lin Youde's troops, and such troops must be mobile to be effective, just like cavalry. Because of this, I am sure that Lin Youde must not want the battlefield to become a trench puzzle like the last war. ”

At this time, Isabella finally spoke: "You have a point, since this is the case, then Lin Youde will definitely not spend too much time with us in Bremen." ”

"Isn't that a bit too extreme for you......

"Not at all." Isabella shook her head, "Mr. Churchill, have you ever read Lin Youde's military writings?" ”

"I never read military theories that have not been tested in actual combat."

"Alright then, let me give you a brief description of some of the contents. In his military thinking, when defending, he emphasized mobile defense, pulling and dispersing the superior enemy forces of the attack, and then finding a gap to quickly concentrate local superior forces to annihilate the attacking side. If he abandons Bremen and continues to retreat back, then the area that our army needs to defend will be greatly increased, which will give him the opportunity to fight a war of annihilation. ”

Churchill leaned his fat body back in his chair, looked at the map and thought about it, nodded and said, "That makes sense, so we should remind our generals." ”

"Needless to say now, wait until tomorrow when we find out that Bremen is an empty city. And if we encounter resolute resistance in Bremen......"

"At that time, I will have the Navy send the river combat ships carrying the war queen into the Weser River, and go up the Weser River to the shore of Bremen to support the army's operations."