Expedition to Europe

Paris, Grand Weaver Restaurant.

The small hall attached to the back hall has become the fixed residence of Qin Zhiyuan's small group. Almost every few days, similar secret room meetings will be held.

Qin Zhiyuan often travels between Paris and Corsica. He can't attend every meeting, but as long as he is in Paris, Qin Zhiyuan will not be absent.

The few people in this room can almost decide the future of France.

This may be a bit exaggerated, but in many cases, history is driven by powerful people. Perhaps just an inadvertent thought will change the course of human history.

Of course, the people in this small hall now only have this potential, but have not obtained the corresponding rights. This requires an opportunity.

"Qin, your current actions are very surprising." Army Minister Lyautey spoke quickly. He and Qin Zhiyuan have a good relationship. The two can usually talk on the phone or something.

"There is no way. Your troops are all burdened by the state, while my troops have to bear their own burdens." Qin Zhiyuan half-truthfully.

"Can I understand that you are accusing the French Army Department of this?" Lyautey half-jokingly.

The First Brigade is a unit under the Foreign Legion. The French Army Department pays the soldiers' salaries every month. Qin Zhiyuan is actually using the French to win people's hearts. Although Lyautey knew this, there was no need to point it out. For the French, it is important to maintain a good relationship with Qin Zhiyuan, especially for the people in the room now.

"No, no, no, I don't mean that. So far, we have cooperated happily. Except for not selling me warships, I have no other dissatisfaction." Qin Zhiyuan complained appropriately.

Qin Zhiyuan found a French shipyard some time ago and wanted to buy destroyers to equip the troops, but was rejected by the French shipyard on the grounds that they had no spare slipway to accept Qin Zhiyuan's order.

This is a fact. If it weren't for the Knights Templar, Qin Zhiyuan would not even be able to buy a destroyer until now. But there is no way. If it is just to deal with destroyers, the anti-submarine ship converted from merchant ships can also complete the task. Qin Zhiyuan purchased fifteen submarine chasers from a French shipyard. This task was not difficult because of the good relationship between Qin Zhiyuan and the French military. The shipyard in Marseille undertook this transformation task, so Qin Zhiyuan had the strength to carry out the escort work.

With only the four destroyers in Qin Zhiyuan's hands, it was really beyond his ability to escort in the vast Mediterranean. Fortunately, with the addition of submarine chasers, Qin Zhiyuan was able to undertake a large number of escort tasks. As for the four destroyers, well, that was more symbolic, and was used by Qin Zhiyuan to solicit business.

"Your compatriots were transferred to Sherman-Daim, aren't you worried at all?" Leotai said with a sarcasm.

In order to prepare for the spring offensive, Nivelle has begun to mobilize troops on a large scale. The first to be mobilized was the Chinese troops led by Qin Yunpeng. The number of this force is now less than 10,000. On average, they have undergone more than two months of training and have a certain military quality, but it is not enough to compete with the Germans.

Qin Zhiyuan had called Qin Yunpeng to advise him before, but Qin Yunpeng ignored him. Perhaps it was because of the request of the Beiyang government that Qin Yunpeng chose to cooperate with you. After all, on the surface, Nivelle is the current commander of the French army.

"Your compatriots are more concentrated. If you want to worry, you should worry at least a hundred times more than me." Qin Zhiyuan will not admit defeat.

While mobilizing Qin Yunpeng's troops, Nivelle also mobilized more than 1.2 million French soldiers. Judging from the number of people alone, the number of French soldiers ready to participate in the war is indeed more than 100 times that of Chinese soldiers.

"Nivelle, the damn butcher, I curse him to hell." Lyaute gritted his teeth.

It feels bad to have the will to kill the enemy but be powerless to turn the tide. Lyaute feels this way now. Lyaute knew that Nivelle's plan was doomed to fail, but Lyaute was powerless. Nivelle was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the French army through normal procedures. Unless Nivelle made a major mistake, it would be impossible to remove Nivelle from his position, even if Lyautey was the Minister of War. This is the importance of legal procedures.

So Lyautey could only watch Nivelle send 1.2 million French troops to the guns of the Germans and was helpless.

Democracy?

Well, this is democracy!

"We must do something to prepare for the crisis that may arise after the spring offensive." Foch looked worried.

Among all the people present, if we talk about seniority, no one is older than Foch, but unfortunately, it seems that Foch has the least power now.

"It's not possible. If what awaits Nivelle is a disastrous defeat, then there will almost certainly be a crisis, perhaps a crisis that none of us want to see. The war has been going on for three years, far beyond everyone's expectations. Our treasury is empty, our potential is almost exhausted, and our people are exhausted. If they can't see hope again, there may be social events." Clemenceau was pessimistic.

Clemenceau is the editor-in-chief of The Prisoner. He knows the real situation in France better than anyone else, so he can see that the crisis is more serious.

"What can I do? Although I am the Minister of the Army, I don't have a single soldier. All the troops loyal to me are in Morocco. Even my driver was assigned to me by the Ministry of the Army." Lyautey was helpless.

"Although there are no soldiers loyal to you, there are generals loyal to you." Old Renault said leisurely.

"General! That's right, Qin, it's time to transfer your troops back!" Lyaute was excited after being reminded.

"My troops can't be withdrawn. There are still extremists in Corsica that need to be suppressed. Ajaccio and Bastia are threatened by extremists all the time. I have to ensure the safety of those places first." Qin Zhiyuan shirked.

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If it is not necessary, Qin Zhiyuan will never be transferred back to the First Brigade at this time. Nivelle can't wait to push the French women to the front line. Once he finds out that the First Brigade is back, he may immediately transfer Qin Zhiyuan to the front line.

Although Qin Zhiyuan doesn't mind disobeying orders, Qin Zhiyuan doesn't want to carry a reputation of disobeying orders all the time.

In any case, Qin Zhiyuan is a soldier, and once a soldier is labeled as disobeying orders, it will affect Qin Zhiyuan's image no matter how you look at it.

"Don't worry, I will temporarily put your troops in Paris and will not transfer them to the front line." Lyaute promised.

"Okay, but if my troops have to get back quickly, they can't carry heavy weapons." Qin Zhiyuan asked for favors.

"Don't worry about that. I have a full set of heavy weapons here. I'll give you whatever you want." Old Renault acted as a safety rope.

"I want tanks, a lot of tanks." If he doesn't ask for a lot now, when will he?

"I really don't understand why you like those iron lumps so much? Are they more important than artillery?" Foch looked down on Qin Zhiyuan's idea of ​​building an army.

The two have argued about this many times. Foch is also a traditional soldier and doesn't think much of new weapons.

"Okay, how much do you want? I'll approve it for you?" Lyautey said generously.

As the Minister of the Army, Lyautey may not be able to replace the French commander-in-chief through unconventional channels, but Lyautey can definitely decide the order of replenishment of weapons and equipment.