On the morning of August 7, Kuster woke up to see that the village had been taken, and nodded casually in affirmation.

He didn't ask how many casualties there were, sat up and dialed the phone, and made some representations with the friendly army group to the south to discuss the next move.

Orleans, a military stronghold, must be taken first, and if you close this opening, the perimeter of Paris will be completely surrounded.

The French are not idiots either, they will certainly not give up in vain, it is destined to be a bitter battle, and the armies in both the north and south directions must negotiate their plans in advance.

Intelligence-wisely, most of the French defenders were defending against the army group in the south, deploying nearly two corps, while in the north they were relatively less defensive, with only three divisions, equivalent to about 50,000 men.

The two generals consulted on the basis of this information.

Orleans is located in the central region, about 20 degrees 100 kilometers west-south-west of Paris.

The Kuster Army, which was still in the Normandy region, was nearly 200 kilometers long, which still required a straight advance, and various hard-to-eradicate fortresses along the way were one of the variables that interfered with the route.

To the south, the Franche-Comté army was relatively close, 120 kilometres away.

So, unsurprisingly, the farther Kooster has more autonomy and doesn't need to devote all its attention to Orleans.

However, he still had to put on a show, and he sent four divisions, starting from Messe, to attack Alençon in the southeast.

The remaining divisions marched westward, giving priority to gathering large forces and rushing to the English Channel, occupying all of Normandy, and by the way, sending small forces to advance to the coast of Brittany to form a defensive line before the large forces arrived.

Alençon was very close to Messer, about 50 kilometers, and four divisions walked for a day and a half.

There was no resistance all the way, there was no resistance, and the commander had long planned to make a detour immediately when he encountered resistance, so as not to waste time. Now it seems like a lot of worry.

It was not at all difficult to take the city, and the French army had only four battalions here, which was not enough.

Couste sent them south to attack Le Mans, continuing deep into France to obtain more accurate information.

The road is also not too far, about 45 kilometers.

This time they went straight on the road, and the German troops were faster, and they arrived in only half a day with small carts, and there was still no resistance.

It took half an hour to conquer the town, and after the war, the French army counted a total of 2 battalions.

The Germans only fired one round of artillery fire, which took twenty minutes, and the infantry took Le Mans with a casual charge.

In two battles, a total of 6 battalions of the French army were defeated, equivalent to about 5,000 men.

They still have more than 40,000 men, but they don't know exactly where they are deployed, which makes Kuster a little nervous.

Out of a rigorous fighting style, Kuster kept the four divisions close together, always engaging the enemy with superior forces.

For the sake of safety, he abandoned the idea of rapid maneuvering and ordered his troops to immediately disembark from the road and let them go directly through the wilderness to Orleans to join the friendly forces.

With a total distance of more than 130 kilometers, it is believed that they will be able to reach Orleans in about five days, or even only three days.

At the same time, the French deployment was relatively strange, but from a defensive point of view, it was not a big problem.

Because Kuster's army group was advancing too quickly and all the way west, many French troops mistakenly believed that they were going to attack Brittany.

So many troops were deployed south of the Loire and carved positions along the riverbank.

At the same time, they withdrew all the garrisons of Normandy with the army to the periphery of Brittany, and took all the military supplies with them before leaving.

Normandy was the main place of exchange between Britain and France, and it was obviously unreasonable for the French to abandon it, but it was actually very reasonable.

The previous incessant bombardment by the German army had turned Normandy into dogs, and the infrastructure was almost completely dilapidated.

Although the bombardment was mainly aimed at Brittany, due to the long distance, the crosshairs were too high, and many shells were blown up in front of the Loire.

Seeing that it was difficult for the shells to get in, the Germans naturally turned their fire to the Normandy Peninsula, which was closer to them.

As a result, the Normandy Peninsula has become as devastated as it is now.

There is no longer any interest to speak of here, and there is no need to defend here, especially when the front-line defense may collapse at any time and the retreat route is blocked, it is even more necessary to withdraw troops to useful places.

So the attack on Normandy went very well, and the only enemy there was the surface that had been blown into a hornet's nest.

In just two days, the Germans from Messer traveled 130 kilometers to capture Cherbourg on the peninsula.

With them came more German troops, who built fortifications north of the Loire, pulled artillery to the front line, spread steel, and let the machines press down at will, and the fortress complex was formed.

It won't be long before they are ready to attack and take all of Brittany.

This is what most of the French think, although they have four divisions, they have long lost their fighting spirit, and they try to avoid fighting, but they do not know when the German army will come.

They only lamented, but they did not see that the Germans on the other side were gradually decreasing, and the number of decreases was so large that it was clearly visible to the naked eye.

But even so, the cannon on the shore can deter them.

In fact, it was Kuster's withdrawal of troops to the area around Orleans, leaving the German army along the Loire with less than two divisions, much lower than the French army in the south.

This was made possible by their allies, the French army of Orleans.

The French army in Orleans, apparently well-trained, had successfully held off the attack of Franche-Comté's army group in the south, leaving them unsuccessful for four days in the Couste offensive and remaining blocked east of the Loire.

A small fortunate force of German troops infiltrated from the flank across the river and approached Orleans to the north in order to fulfill the promise as much as possible.

But it was still blocked by the reserves of the French army in Orleans, and at first the French army could only delay these Germans who had gone on land, but when more French troops arrived, it was impossible for the Germans to break through.

If this is the case, it will not be enough for Kuster to mobilize troops to return to reinforcements, and most importantly the fighting in the north.

I believe that Kuster will definitely scold the street when he goes back, and even grab the clothes of the intelligence chief and scold. Because the French simply had more than those divisions, at least there had to be an army group.

His troops were ambushed, which was not the deadliest, and the retreat was also buried, Le Mans was reoccupied by the French, and the Germans returned from defeat to find that the city was not their own, so they could only desperately build a defensive line on the plain.

The magnanimity of sweeping Normandy before was all gone, and now I can only frugal food and clothing, and I can last one day at a time.

When Kuster learned about it, he led the army to the street while scolding.

If these troops can't be saved, tomorrow the head of the intelligence chief may fall to the ground.

However, the intelligence services cannot be blamed, because this is not the original line of defense at all, but the Paris came back to help, and it just happened to run into them.