1890 King of Southeast Asia

What Luke was most worried about did not happen. In the early morning of January 22, the British and French forces launched another attack.

But the scene Luke hoped to see did not appear. There were not many enemies attacking the German First Army. According to the data collected by various parties, there would be no more than five divisions.

There were some British among them. Luke was in a dilemma. If he continued to retreat eastward, these divisions did not seem to be worth the fuss.

Launch an attack, Luke was not sure if this was a trap. You know, his First Army did not have many shells!

In the era when airplanes were not yet mature, the only thing that could suppress artillery on the battlefield was more and bigger artillery.

What if there was no artillery or the number and performance of artillery could not match the enemy? The difficult wars in later generations gave the answer. We can only use the vast land as a buffer and human lives as a wall to resist and consume the enemy with difficulty.

As for blitzkrieg? Blitzkrieg is, after all, a set of roundabout encirclement and division. It concentrates firepower in local areas to form firepower and manpower advantages, and it is caught off guard.

One important point is to concentrate mechanized and motorized troops that can march quickly and a powerful air force to attack the French from their weaknesses, and the French upper-level command is chaotic.

At this time, Luke did not have these conditions. He did not even have as many artillery as the enemy, and he did not carry enough heavy artillery.

In World War I, the German army's advantage was in heavy artillery, and the French army's focus was on light field artillery. In trench warfare, heavy artillery played a much greater role than light artillery.

However, Luke's army group was responsible for rapid breakthroughs and mobile attacks, and did not carry enough large-caliber heavy artillery.

In addition, the artillery shells carried were exhausted during the offensive, otherwise the French Ninth Army would not have suffered such huge casualties during the tentative attack on Paris.

...

Luke's First Army, which should have been a bait, did not attract the main force of the French army. What did the French army do?

The offensive and defensive operations in the early stages of the war were gradually changing the French combat thinking. The battle on the night of January 21st made Foch and other generals thoroughly realize that attacking a prepared enemy was already a very low cost-effective tactic.

Especially if the attack on the German First Army continued, the French army was not sure to end the battle in a short time, so Foch proposed a new idea.

"Go through the connection and organize the confluence of the German First Army and the German Second Army?" After hearing this, Joffre stood up in fear, and then thought carefully, it was not impossible.

"If we can catch the enemy off guard, open up a front line, arrange machine guns and artillery, and defend it with a small number of troops."

"In this way, the Germans will definitely launch a double attack on Paris and the connection to force us to return to support."

"Defensive operations can easily achieve great results, which has been confirmed on the battlefield..."

Joffre touched his chin and muttered to himself.

He had to admit that this was a very bold tactic, and it seemed to be feasible at present.

The connection between the German First Army and the Second Army is only about 20 kilometers wide, and the two sides are currently more than 50 kilometers apart.

And part of the German First Army is entangled with part of the attacking Sixth Army and cannot concentrate on responding.

"Too far, this distance is a little too far. The soldiers may not have time to set up their positions before they will be attacked by the Germans." Joffre looked at the map and finally sighed.

In theory, this tactic can be completed, but in practical application, unless the French soldiers are all supermen with unlimited physical strength, they do not have so much physical strength to carry heavy equipment to complete the rapid march, set up positions, and resist the German counterattack.

This will not happen in a few days, but will happen in a day or even more than ten hours. It takes so long to march and set up positions.

Once the Germans come faster, the French army will face the German army's two-sided attack in the field.

If it is at the beginning of the war, Joffre will use the elite troops of the French army to perform this task, but at this time, the elite of the French army are either crippled or the distance is still a bit far.

The war opportunity is fleeting, and it won't wait for you to slowly deploy troops.

"Marshal Joffre, I have an idea." Foch stepped forward to highlight his tough attitude.

"Go ahead, General, the Germans are rushing to Paris with four armies, and any idea is important now." Joffre nodded.

"There are still cars in Paris. From the report I got from the City Hall, there are about 8,000 private cars and 4,000 taxis..." Foch was interrupted by Joffre before he finished speaking.

"General, that is the private property of citizens. We don't have time to convince them one by one." Joffre sighed.

Parisians are romantic. As an old revolutionary area, the largest community activity of Parisians is protest marches.

Once, Charles XIV, who just wanted to increase taxes on Parisians, was sent to the guillotine by Parisians.

If Joffre really dared to forcibly confiscate citizens' property, he would definitely be driven away by angry Parisians. Maybe they would vote for the Germans when they were in the mood.

"No! We can hire taxis to "voluntarily" transport soldiers and equipment, and we will provide compensation and publicize it." Foch's eyes were fierce.

Why can't we do anything? Because Parisians are sensitive and united, so Foch will take action to break this unity.

Joffre obviously understood, looked at him in surprise, and then nodded.

"In that case, go ahead and do it. I will let the city defense commander cooperate with you, and the police department will also cooperate with you." Xiafei looked at the map and pointed with his hand.

There is no city here. The largest administrative unit is just a small town called Leit.

"Set up a defense line in the Leit town. If the Germans want to continue to move south, they must move towards Reims. If they attack, we can delay the progress of the war and inflict casualties on the German army."

"This is very important. You should let more people from the police department come forward and let the gendarmerie cooperate. You are still very young and should not ruin your future here."

Xiafei said with some sadness.

Foch's proposal is to create an environment for the whole people to patriotically support the army by leveraging the united labor group of taxi drivers.

Then, in the name of patriotism, ask the rich to contribute their cars. Of course, the government will compensate them at the original price.

These things are not impossible to do, but they take time. Recruiting in a short period of time, unless violent means are used, will arouse the anger of the citizens of Paris.

With the glorious group of taxi drivers and the compensation from the government, everything is different.

Are you unwilling to contribute your car? (There are some, especially those who own cars are from wealthy families.)

Why are you unwilling? The government is not requisitioning your car, but buying it. Do you want to use the car to escape, or do you not want to give it to the army?

What do you mean? Do you not want to contribute to the resistance against the Germans? Do you hope that the French army will be defeated and the German army will capture Paris? Are you a German? Or a spy?

Now, Mr. Spy, please raise your hands and follow us until we confirm that you are not a spy.

In this way, even if the citizens of Paris see it, they will only spit on such people, instead of empathizing and then getting angry.

Some people say that there is no need to go through so much trouble. They dare not give it to you when you come to the door with a gun in hand?

As I said before, romantic Parisians are never afraid of their own people. Joffre needs Paris to be stable, even if he wants to watch the fighter planes disappear.

In particular, many of the new recruits who have been added recently are from Paris and nearby areas. Once chaos breaks out, will they still have the heart to fight?

Soldiers are also human beings. They cannot shoot at their own or their comrades' relatives. Maybe at that time, they will point their guns at their superiors.

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…

At noon on the 22nd, at Foch's request, Paris Radio began to play the Marseillaise in a loop, and constantly praised the patriotism of Paris taxi drivers, calling them heroes.

The army and police took a lot of radios and loudspeakers and broadcast them throughout the city.

(Paris Radio is a company controlled by Nanhua Holdings, a subsidiary of European Radio.)

At the same time, 3,400 taxis drove out of Paris and headed south. An hour later, they picked up 10,000 soldiers who had been waiting here for a long time.

10,000 soldiers sitting in 3,400 cars should be very spacious, but in fact it was very difficult to sit. Often seven or eight soldiers squeezed into one car.

Because in addition to 10,000 soldiers, these taxis also transported supplies with 100 trucks. In order to transport as much as possible, the French almost used the space to the extreme.

There was no car that was not overloaded, and even some shovels and other tools were tied to the roof.

French Renaults were mainly used to transport people and materials because of their low horsepower and low chassis. BMWs and Mercedes-Benzes produced in Nanhua had high horsepower and were even used to tow artillery.

It sounds strange, but it is not impossible. Two cars pulled a cannon. Except for the slow speed and the high tacit understanding of the drivers, there was no other problem.

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On the afternoon of January 22, these cars went back and forth twice. The number of cars increased to 5,000 on the second trip, and it was completely dark when they returned.

But they were extremely efficient. In a short period of time, they transported the personnel and most of the equipment of two divisions, including heavy artillery, which was also pulled over by trucks.

On the morning of January 23, the number of cars increased. When the German Second Army arrived in the afternoon of the 23rd, the five French divisions had already deployed on a 28-kilometer defense line and were quickly building fortifications.

These French troops were drawn from the French Sixth Army, which attacked the German First Army in the south. One of the divisions came from the French Ninth Army.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, a regiment of the vanguard of the German Second Army attempted to attack but failed. When the main force arrived, the French army had completed the construction of the first-line position and was working hard to build the second-line position.

In addition, three British divisions were also riding in cars and rushing here. When the German Second Army concentrated its forces to launch an attack on the 24th, 130,000 British and French troops had gathered on the defense line, not much less than the 180,000 German Second Army.

At noon on the 24th, Joffre announced that the German First Army had been surrounded by the French army and ordered the French Fifth Army, First Army (detour to the south) Army and part of the Sixth Army to attack the Germans.

The attack lasted for two days. The French advanced very slowly, giving the German army a chance to react.

On the 27th, Moltke the Younger ordered the German First Army to stop the attack and retreat to the northeast...