Expedition to Europe

Plans cannot keep up with changes.

It is true that no matter how good the words are, they are useless. The mule and the horse must be pulled out for a walk.

Two days later, when the British had already begun the attack and the French began to prepare for the war, the exercise officially began.

The location of the play was in the Errani area northwest of Paris. There were hills and rivers here. Although there were no mountains, Liu Zizheng's group built one to simulate the terrain of the Chemin de Dame area to the greatest extent.

The entire military exercise site covers an area of ​​about five square kilometers, with a total of three observation points.

Qin Zhiyuan invited Clemenceau, Foch and Lyautey to visit the exercise, but he did not expect that the number of people who came during the exercise exceeded expectations, including Noel Edward Castelau, commander of the 11th Army Group, Louis Franche d'Espere, commander of the Western Front who was on vacation in Paris, and even Julian Bean, commander of the British Third Army Group, and John Pershing, commander of the US Army who had just arrived in Paris, all came upon hearing the news.

The fact that so many people came to watch the battle shows that Qin Zhiyuan's reputation is growing, and that Clemenceau and his team are deliberately building momentum for Qin Zhiyuan.

Qin Zhiyuan is now Clemenceau's man. The greater his reputation, the more conducive it is for Clemenceau to make his voice heard in France. In fact, after the recent French prime ministers came to power, they all invited Clemenceau to participate in the cabinet formation, but Clemenceau refused all of them. Clemenceau did not want to be a minister who would be abandoned at any time. He wanted to be a chess player, not a chess piece on the board.

President Raymond Poincaré was also very clear about this. Raymond once said at the beginning of the World War: "As long as there is hope of victory in the war, he will mess around with everything until one day, I will say to him: Now, all efforts have failed, please come and be the savior."

The "he" here refers to Clemenceau. Now it seems that the time for Raymond to say this is getting closer and closer.

Clemenceau needs to make his own voice heard in the military, and Qin Zhiyuan needs a big backer in the political world. They complement each other.

At the beginning of the exercise, Clemenceau called Qin Zhiyuan aside: "Dude, now is your time to perform, you can't mess it up."

"Don't worry, tens of thousands of people have been busy for several months for today. I can guarantee that Nivelle's firepower preparation is not so detailed." Qin Zhiyuan vowed.

"Very good!" Clemenceau was satisfied.

After serving Clemenceau, Foch came over again: "Boy, are you going to use tanks as the main force to attack the position?"

The old man looked at Qin Zhiyuan very unpleasantly these two days. There is no doubt that he saw the bracelet on Julie's wrist.

"Yes, it is clearly written in the exercise manual." Qin Zhiyuan answered honestly.

In order to enable the guests to better understand the war in Qin Zhiyuan's concept, Qin Zhiyuan printed a batch of "Exercise Manuals", which detailed the power comparison between the attacking and defending sides, the weapons and equipment used, and the entire process of the exercise.

"Do you want us to appreciate how your tanks were defeated?" Foch was not polite.

"Not really." Qin Zhiyuan blinked.

"You are such a fool. I don't understand why Lily likes you..." Foch kept talking.

Well, Foch was not questioning Qin Zhiyuan's tactics. He just wanted to find a reason to scold Qin Zhiyuan.

It must be said that Qin Zhiyuan is a mean guy. After being scolded by Foch, Qin Zhiyuan felt relaxed and even a little warm.

Being scolded is also happiness. At least it shows that someone cares about you.

"Don't mind. His baby was just stolen." Pierre comforted Qin Zhiyuan.

"I understand. I am the thief who stole the things." Qin Zhiyuan smiled bitterly with pride.

At the No. 1 observation point, Qin Zhiyuan introduced to the guests.

"... As we all know, there are all kinds of accidents on the battlefield at any time, such as tanks breaking down, tracks being blown off by mines, engines catching fire, etc. This is a test for the tank crew. An experienced tank crew can repair the tank in the shortest time and then continue to fight. This is very important for mechanized troops..." Qin Zhiyuan emphasized.

"Excuse me, Qin, what is a mechanized force?" Pershing raised his hand to ask.

It is important to be able to excel in a certain field and maintain a humble and progressive spirit, unless you are a fool like Nivelle. It is precisely because of Nivelle's arrogance that his path to promotion has been blocked by him.

"Mechanized troops, I understand it as a rapid response force. That is, all people or materials are transported by machines, that is, cars. Simply put, people and materials are loaded onto cars, and then artillery is dragged behind the cars. I think you can understand the benefits of this." Qin Zhiyuan tried to make it easy to understand.

Hearing Qin Zhiyuan's explanation, all the generals were surprised. In this era when tanks had just appeared and cars had not yet been widely popularized, it was indeed ahead of its time to propose such a theory. The benefits of a rapid reaction force were obvious. Those present were all senior professional soldiers, and they immediately understood the advantages of a rapid reaction force.

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The only person who was more depressed was Clemenceau. It was not that he did not understand the benefits of the rapid reaction force, but that he was worried about logistics. As a politician, Clemenceau and the generals considered things from different angles. The generals considered whether the command was effective for the war situation, while the politicians would calculate the cost.

"But there is not gasoline everywhere at any time." Julian Bing had doubts.

"Then put the gasoline in the car!" Qin Zhiyuan was firm.

Pershing and Julian Bing stopped talking. Both of them looked thoughtful. Perhaps this concept alone was worth the ticket price for the two of them.

On the road outside the observation point, a mixed force of tanks and infantry was marching forward. The tanks were equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks. Because the road conditions were poor, the rubber blocks on the tank tracks had been removed, and the entire force was moving at a speed of five kilometers per hour.

For a force of more than a hundred tanks, it was normal for individual tanks to malfunction, so these tankers had mastered the unique skill of quickly troubleshooting. Whenever a tank breaks down, the tank driver will climb out of the car and start repairing it with a toolbox. Most of the time, it will take less than ten minutes for the tank to return to normal. There are also serious failures, and they can only wait for tow truck rescue.

This observation point mainly observes the performance of tank troops in complex terrain. Two-meter-wide trenches can be seen everywhere, and small puddles are everywhere. The key is that there is a small river that lies across the way for the troops to the exercise area.

There was originally a bridge on the river, and the carrying capacity was still good. It was not a problem for a four-ton light tank to pass through.

But in order to increase the difficulty, Qin Zhiyuan asked the troops not to pass through the bridge, but to build a floating bridge from the side of the bridge to cross the small river.

The pontoon bridge vehicle produced by Renault was very popular. A 10-meter-long and 5-meter-wide iron bridge was laid in just ten minutes, and all tanks passed smoothly.