"How so? Voluntarily evacuated 50,000 dead people? What the hell are the French doing? Didn't Gallieni command well before? Could it be that he was removed? ”

In front of the big sand table in the command center of the General Staff, looking at the small red flags south of the Seine River that represented the British and French forces but were scattered, and the neat blue arrows representing the German army, Duan Qirui scratched his head vigorously. 【 I want: super fast update 】

Although there will be a delay in the news sent back from Europe, and the sand table represents the battle situation yesterday or the day before yesterday, it has remained largely unchanged, and it can provide a good opportunity for the General Staff to deduce and observe Europe's military capabilities.

But the problem is that even people who don't know much can see through the situation shown in the sand table in front of them at this moment that the Anglo-French alliance is scattered, disorganized, and is rapidly routing, while the Germans are strictly pursuing and breaking through.

Seeing that Long Guozhang beside him was also confused, his eyes had to turn to Zhang Zuolin and Jiang Tianxiu, but in the face of these questions thrown by the Minister of Defense, the two senior staff officers didn't know how to answer, because the previous intelligence also said that Gallieni would personally command the coalition forces to retreat in an orderly manner, but now if it weren't for the British commander-in-chief French French, who was in danger and personally led his troops to snipe the German First Army desperately, maybe hundreds of thousands of people would have been lost there.

"I know why." Just when a few people were wondering, Chen Ping had already walked in, smiled and waved the thick stack of information in his hand, and said with a smile: "Why don't you guess first." ”

"Come on, don't sell Yuanshou, what's going on?" Duan Qirui asked with a smile.

Chen Ping smiled and said with a smile: "The reason for such a big loss is actually simple, because Gallieni unfortunately died the night before. ”

"Gallieni is dead?!"

This news made Long Guozhang and Duan Qirui stare at each other, how could this be possible? The commander of the million-strong army, who said he would die? Not to mention how tightly his headquarters is defended, I'm afraid there are thousands of guards around him alone, right?

"He wasn't going to die, but he was so excited that he ran to Notre Dame." Chen Ping winked at the two of them and said with a smile: "Judging from the battle report sent back by the Nighthawk before, it is very likely that Wen Xiu's shot killed Gallieni!" ”

"Hiss"

As soon as the words fell, everyone gasped, not only was they not happy, but they all frowned, killing the French commander-in-chief is not a trivial matter, not many people know about Nighthawk's trip to Paris, but there is no impermeable wall under the sky, so this matter will leak out sooner or later.

If some soldiers and junior officers die, it will be nothing more than a rip-off in the future, but if the commander-in-chief dies, it will be a big deal!

"The emperor is also jumping for this." Chen Ping also raised his eyebrows, took out a cigarette and handed it out to a few people, and continued: "This time our basket is bigger. ※※※※※I ※ I ※ ※

"So what to do? Is it time to start a war in advance? Duan Qirui rubbed his hands, although his face was urgent, but the corners of his eyes were full of excitement, after all, as a soldier, no one wanted to miss a war of this scale.

"It's a moment to be able to hide it." Chen Ping smiled bitterly: "The advantage now is that whoever is in the hands of those things is more suspicious, so the emperor just sent a telegram to Wang Shizhen, asking him to leave the three treasures to Wilhelm II, hoping that this can be remedied." ”

"Is that Venus and the Mona Lisa or something? It's all given to Germany, isn't it a loss! Long Guozhang looked like a miser, and didn't seem to care if he would offend France.

"This method is good, Wilhelm II will definitely show off when he gets the three treasures, so that even if it is a lump of yellow mud, it will become a crotch, at least it can drag us for a few months." Duan Qirui nodded approvingly, and then said with a smile: "It's a pity that the emperor just repaired the fountain, and he was originally going to take the Venus statue in the middle." ”

"Hehe" for Emperor Li's bad taste, everyone can only shake their heads and smile bitterly, but if the Venus statue is really used as a pool scene, it really adds a bit of fun to the garden.

"Even if we give all the three treasures to Germany, there are so many things, how can we bring them back?" Zhang Zuolin is concerned about the follow-up work, Paris has been occupied by Germany, but the French coastline is still in the hands of Britain and France, and their battleships are not vegetarians.

Zhang Zuolin's words immediately resonated with everyone, Nighthawk completed the mission extremely well, only at the cost of sacrificing two people and three people to get back the priceless treasure, but it was a trouble to transport it back, Britain has *** the North Sea and the Mediterranean, if you want to withdraw safely under people's noses, you really have to work hard.

However, Chen Ping waved his hand and said with a smile: "Don't worry about this, although Britain and France have *** the North Sea, there is also the Netherlands, and one of our grain convoys to the UK yesterday broke down and has now entered Rotterdam for maintenance." ”

"Hehe, what a glitch." Hearing this, Long Guozhang slapped the edge of the sand table fiercely, and couldn't help but admire Duan Fei and the intelligence department's ingenious design, the cargo ship must be unloaded and transferred when it is repaired, so that it will not look weird to go in and out.

After talking about the retreat plan for the trip to Paris, Chen Ping strode past everyone and walked to the big map hanging on the wall. ”

"Yes, and it's messed up!"

Chen Ping said, his right index finger immediately pointed at the Caucasus, and said: "First of all, after the Ottomans received the news of the capture of Paris, Enver immediately led three armies with a total of 200,000 people to set out from Ankara. ”

"Baku?" Duan Qirui took a step forward.

"Hmm."

"In addition to Enver's army, the British in Persia are also gathering troops, and the original Indian brigade has rapidly increased to two divisions and a cavalry division, at least one of which is a Gurkha division, and the number continues to increase, and the Ministry of Intelligence estimates that it may eventually reach about 200,000 to 300,000 men."

After Chen Ping took out his pen and drew a circle in the Strait of Hormuz, he continued: "After the Battle of Paris, Germany, Britain and France both need time to rest, and Wang Shizhen's telegram yesterday also said that the German General Staff is intending to send more troops to the Eastern Front, and he analyzed that this is to help Austria-Hungary focus on attacking Russia. ”

"For Britain and France, there are no conditions for a counteroffensive on the Western Front for the time being, so the emperor also thinks that they will solve Austria-Hungary and Ottomans first, although we do not yet have the specific details of the operation, but if Russia loses in the Caucasus this time, Nicholas II will definitely ask Britain and France for help, I suspect that Britain may take the risk of landing from Manama and attacking Mesopotamia."

Looking at the circled area, Duan Qirui and Long Guozhang both nodded, if it is difficult to fight Germany, then it will be much easier to concentrate hundreds of thousands of troops to cooperate with Russia to attack the Ottomans, whether it is combat ability or the will of the soldiers, the Ottomans and Germany are not the same, not to mention that the British also recruited so many famous Gurkha soldiers this time, which means that the Ottomans will face a huge crisis.

The Ottomans are so important, this is an important passage into the Caucasus and the Suez Canal, and it is an area that cannot be lost for China, but the British are sharpening their knives at the moment, and even do not hesitate to recruit so many Gurkha elite soldiers, a big war seems inevitable!

From this point of view, Greater Kuwait is extremely crucial, and China currently has only a few Defense-class destroyers and 3,000 marines of the Seventh Fleet, and it is not equipped with many heavy weapons, and if Britain does not declare war at that time, I am afraid it will be very dangerous.

"I have just gone to see the Emperor, and he wants us to consider increasing the number of troops in Greater Kuwait on security grounds as soon as the Ottomans and Russia go to war, and in any case to ensure that Britain does not go to extremes at least until May next year!"

"Hehe, this is not a small difficulty, the British were very dissatisfied with our garrison last time, if it increases, I am afraid that I will really be dizzy." Long Guozhang squinted his eyes, although the Seventh Fleet is only a small fleet, as long as there is something in the navy that can move, it is his treasure, so it is urgent to strengthen the strength of the Seventh Fleet.

"Didn't the seals take action against Ibn Saud? How dare he support the British? Jiang Tianxiu interjected and asked.

"It's not that simple." Zhang Zuolin replied: "If I were Ibn Saud, since I couldn't hide from it, then it would be better to simply declare neutrality, let go of the territory and let the two sides fight, and wait until the winner is to be decided before considering taking refuge on that side." ”

"That's a good point." Chen Ping nodded: "It is very likely that Ibn Saud will take this move, he can't let the Ottomans grow, but he can't intervene, so he will definitely turn a blind eye and find an opportunity to help Britain secretly behind his back, so the emperor has already sent someone to visit Riyadh, and he doesn't dare to hope to pull him over, and at least force him to remain neutral." ”

"Plus!"

Chen Ping turned the tip of his pen, moved to the Pacific Ocean again, and took a breath: "Although the U.S. Congress vetoed the bill to continue to increase the number of troops last month, yesterday the Wilson government and the military bypassed the parliament and began to recruit soldiers to Australia and Panama in the name of volunteers. ”

"A week ago, their four Pennsylvania-class battleships have also placed orders, and it is estimated that construction will start in November, it is said that this kind of battleship was originally equipped with 16-inch naval guns, but the development progress like ours cannot keep up, so the intelligence department speculated that British 15-inch naval guns may be installed after the project, and their second batch of Brooklyn-class light cruisers has also begun to be built, except for a little slower, basically referring to our Jinghai-class, and the number is expected to reach ten."

"The British side also increased the construction speed of six Tiger-class battlecruisers and eight Monarch-class battleships, and they learned from Germany's method of ordering armor steel from us to shorten the time, and handed over all the armor steel and some parts to the United States for production, so the speed of construction is very high, the first Tiger battleship cruiser can be launched in March next year, and the others will be delivered before 16 years!"

"France's five Normandy-class battleships were originally considered to be dismantled due to too much pressure from the army, but last week Britain took the initiative to help continue the construction of the plan, and also used American steel, and we estimate that these five will also be in service with the monarch class."

"The important thing is that Greece and this morning's announcement of its accession to the Entente, his neighbor Italy seems to have changed its attitude, and the Ministry of Intelligence has monitored that there is a lot of movement between the Italian government and the United Kingdom, and it is speculated that Italy is very likely to abandon the alliance and join the Entente, if so, Austria-Hungary will be pinned down a large part of its forces!"

One news after another, not only did not make the post-war situation clear for the defense of Paris, but it became more and more fascinating like a smoke bomb, making the situation more and more complicated.

The United States has taken an ambiguous attitude, constantly releasing news that it will not intervene, but it has been slow to say that it is neutral, but on the contrary, it has gone all out to fulfill the Pacific security condominium agreement signed with Britain, and has also provided a large amount of weapons and ammunition to Europe, thus making a lot of money and strengthening the strength of the Entente countries.

Germany and Austria-Hungary wanted to take the opportunity of the Entente tanks not yet to appear to speed up the settlement of Russia on the Eastern Front, and Britain and France wanted to defeat Germany's minions first.

The chaotic situation makes everyone a little irritable in their hearts, when will it be clear?

Just as a few people were looking at the map in a daze, the confidential staff officer had already run in.

"Report, I just received news that the three battle cruisers of the British Navy, HMS Indomitable, HMS Indomitable and HMS Invincible left port yesterday morning and their whereabouts are unknown!"

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