On May 16, 1917, the sixth year of the Republic of China, when the 3rd Division of the Chinese European Expeditionary Force and the 5th Division Ye Kaixin under the command of Bai Chongxi planted the Tiger Flag representing the Youth Army on the roof of the tallest building in Metz, the historical trend of the entire First Shijie War underwent a subversive change.

When Bai Chongxi and de Gaulle inspected the German warehouses together, he immediately realized that he had stabbed a hornet's nest. Mace not only has an important geographical location, but also has various materials and equipment in reserve, which makes Bai Chongxi stunned, and it is estimated that the whole of China will not be as good as the other people's arms piled together.

And even more laughable was when a German lieutenant colonel named Friedrich Wilhelm Victor August Ernst and his unit were unceremoniously captured by Chawei's troops. And a local man was very brave enough to tell the Chinese soldier that the German officer with a long name was the crown prince of Wilhelm II of Germany, and by Chinese standards, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. At that time, Wang Tianpei, the head of Xia Wei's regiment, was stunned, and the emaciated German in front of him was the future emperor of Germany, haha, this time he made a great contribution......

When he heard the good news, Bai Chongxi smiled at de Gaulle in a slightly mocking tone: "Charles, I don't think we need to march towards Germany to attract the Germans back to our division now, because we have already caused a big enough trouble that they will come to us if we stay where we are." Tell the damn good news to Paris, now we need them to come to the rescue. ”

De Gaulle almost jumped to the world when he heard the news, knowing that the most humiliating thing for the French in the Franco-Prussian War was not the cession of Lorraine and Alsace, but the capture of Napoleon III. And this time the Chinese's bold action not only allowed themselves to appear in Lorraine, but even more amazing was to capture the German crown prince, such a good thing is almost equivalent to buying a lottery ticket and winning a five-million jackpot.

After being happy for a while, De Gaulle told Bai Chongxi very calmly: "In any case, we should give His Royal Highness the crown prince the corresponding prisoner of war treatment." ”

Bai Chongxi nodded and said, "Yes, then please ask you to bring someone to take this person named Friedrich Wilhelm Victor Ot...... It's too long, bring it to the headquarters. ”

De Gaulle happily took Bai Chongxi's guard company over to pick up people, and Bai Chongxi frowned and thought for a while: "Record!" ”

The three staff officers immediately got up and prepared to take notes.

Bai Chongxi walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back and said: "The first order is to order General Jiang Baili to launch Jihua in advance, and our expeditionary force will regain the abandoned defense line as soon as possible, and strike and consume the retreating German army, especially the consumption of ammunition; The second order ordered Liao Lei's first division and He Yingqin's fifth division to move closer to Lao Tzu immediately, not to go to Nancy, to give up heavy equipment, and to come over in a hurry; The third order, to report the war situation to the chief of staff Zhu Zhixin of the General Staff, said that we had captured Metz, captured the German crown prince, and told him to go to Petain, and now it was the turn of the French to help. ”

Bai Chongxi's idea is very straight, in this situation, even if there is no German crown prince, the Germans must retreat. The reason is very simple, after two days of fighting, the material loss of the Germans must be not small, and looking at the warehouse situation in Metz, it is estimated that these Germans are now going to jump. If he was to be the supreme commander of the German army, the most correct thing to do at this time should be to take advantage of the fact that the troops still have some supplies in their hands and quickly retract to block the possibility of their own army entering the German hinterland through Luxembourg. But now that the crown prince has also fallen with Metz, it is estimated that what the Germans who admit to death can do is to attack Metz at all costs, unless Wilhelm II, who likes to have a feverish brain, suddenly feels that he has a lot of sons, and this crown prince can be dispensed with.

Bai Chongxi looked at the map captured from the Germans, which was much clearer and clearer than the map drawn by the surveyors of the expeditionary force.

The Germans will definitely retreat in a hurry, and those who are good at leading troops know that in military operations, it is much more difficult to organize a retreat than to organize an offensive, which means that this time is the most vulnerable time for nearly half a million German troops on the front. If they can inflict heavy losses on this German army, then how many troops does Germany have? According to the estimates of the coalition forces, the current German armed forces are roughly 1.5 million, and once they lose a third of their troops at once, it is estimated that the war will be over. So a very bold Jihua slowly emerged from Bai Chongxi's mind......

At 11 o'clock in the evening of May 17, East Eighth District time, the news of Bai Chongxi's command of the expeditionary force to capture Metz finally reached the core of the Youth Army, Wenlu, through the relay of dozens of radio stations.

Wang Zhenyu went to inspect the Tianyuan local building of the Central Military Commission, which is about to be completed, and the layout of the southwestern and northwestern border areas has recently been relatively smooth. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that Duan Qirui seems to have been a lot more courageous after obtaining a loan from Japan to train 150,000 troops to participate in the war, and has decided to take advantage of the extreme weakness of the southern national government to completely solve the increasingly fierce Zhiwan problem in Beiyang. According to the intelligence personnel embedded in Beiyang, Duan Qirui has decided to kill Lu Jianzhang, the number two person in the direct line and the number one think tank, and at the same time Jihua removed the number one person Cao Kun from the post of Henan overseer, if Cao Kun obediently handed over power after Lu Jianzhang's death, it would be good, if not, then it would be unbearable, our Cao Dashuai is likely to become the first target of the 150,000 border guards who have been trained into an army.

Wang Yaqiao's brother Fang Zhenwu, who is currently in charge of the intelligence network in the northern region, is now hiding in the Tianjin Concession to control the overall situation, and he has received an order from Zhou Huan, director of the Party Affairs Investigation Department, to closely control Lu Jianzhang's whereabouts and be ready to save people at any time. In short, it is not necessary to rescue Lu Jianzhang, but it is not necessary to let Ang Duan Qirui get his wish......

When Wang Zhenyu got the telegram, he suddenly felt relaxed for no reason, and he found that the pressure of these days was indeed too great.

On the one hand, sending troops to Europe will inevitably weaken its own military liliang, while Duan Qirui in the north is sharpening his knives under the guise of participating in the war, waiting to come and destroy himself. On the other hand, it is not only the anti-war voices of Wang Jingwei and others, but also Wang Zhenyu's deep heart has doubts about the performance of his army. Will the expeditionary force disappear like a meteor in Europe as soon as it shows its face? Whether he can fight, whether he can win or not is troubled by Wang Zhenyu. Now, Bai Chongxi and the 240,000 officers and men of the expedition have told everyone with their actual results that we can not only fight, but also win.

Li Zongren, who has become Wang Zhenyu's brother-in-law, Wan Yaohuang, chief of the General Staff, Zhao Hengti, secretary general of the Central Military Commission, and others have already gone to bed to hug their wives, but I'm sorry, Wang Zhenyu's secretary Chen Bui called out these military heroes in a round of phone calls, and they are now waiting for Wang Zhenyu in the living room with sleepy eyes.

"Brothers, I have good news for you, Jiansheng and the expeditionary force have captured the German town of Metz," Wang Zhenyu's voice echoed in the living room.

A large sand table made by the staff was placed in the living room by several adjutants, and everyone stepped forward to see where the so-called Mace was.

Wan Yaohuang, who was the first to react, sighed in great surprise: "The location of this city is too critical, if I am not mistaken, this city will be taken by our army, and the blow to the Germans will be very heavy." ”

Everyone looked at it, it was true, everyone nodded one after another, and the Minister of Armaments, Ma Xicheng, pondered for a while and said: "If I were the commander of the German army, the war materials would be placed in this city, because from the point of view of transportation, there is no more suitable and safe than this city." ”

Just as everyone was talking, Colonel Wang Huaishi, the communications supervisor, suddenly trotted in, looking very excited, saying a good word and then handing the telegram to Wang Zhenyu. Wang Zhenyu took it and took a look: "Everyone, I have bad news here. ”

Everyone looked at Wang Zhenyu in amazement, but saw Wang Zhenyu smile and said: "Jiansheng they stabbed the hornet's nest, when they attacked Metz, the crown prince of the German Emperor Wilhelm II served here, but was captured by our army." ”

The crowd burst into laughter and applause......

And in Verdun, Field Marshal Hindenburg was very excited and roared at his adjutant: "What did you say? Isn't His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in Luxembourg? How could he be in Mace, it was the bastard who gave the order to let him go to Metz, bastard! ”

At this moment, the Germans were really panicked, almost in one day, Britain and France almost all knew that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Germany had been captured by the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which was extremely frustrating news for the Germans, and there was nothing more demoralizing than this news.

And Marshal Hindenburg also panicked after getting the news, he no longer knew what he should do, although he didn't like this peace-advocating His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but after all, this was the next German emperor, and now it was okay, because of his own incompetence, he lost the future emperor of the German Empire. Hindenburg suddenly had a strange thought: "Is there a future for the German Empire?" ”

Ludendorff also seemed to feel the risk of defeat, and he thought for a long time and said: "Your Excellency Marshal, I now suggest that we abandon Metz and shrink the whole army towards the Luxembourg region, otherwise our 500,000 troops are likely to be wiped out due to lack of material support, once we are eliminated, there will be no glorious peace, and what awaits us is the destruction of the whole country." ”

After hearing this, Marshal Hindenburg took a deep breath and asked, "What about His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" Shall we be thrown to His Highness? ”

Ludendorff took a deep breath and said, "After peace, we still have a chance to exchange him back, and if Germany is gone, he won't come back, right?" ”

Field Marshal Hindenburg couldn't help but hesitate when he heard this, how should he choose?