Expedition to Europe

Leading the French army to support was Qin Zhiyuan's old acquaintance, Bastian Benjamin Garcia.

During this time, Bastian was really feeling proud.

Thanks to Qin Zhiyuan, Bastian's military rank was not only promoted to lieutenant general, but also received a Grand Knight Medal like Qin Zhiyuan.

Bastian's current position is the commander of the French 35th Army.

It seems that everyone is really happy about capturing Crown Prince William, and many people have achieved great success as a result.

Unlike Qin Zhiyuan's low profile, Bastian enjoys people's admiration. After receiving the Order of Grand Knight, Bastian hung the medal on himself all the time, for fear that people would not know that he was a recipient of the Order of Grand Knight.

Perhaps such a flamboyant style is more suitable for Westerners, but Qin Zhiyuan cannot imitate it.

The education Qin Zhiyuan received freely was "not to be happy with things, not to be sad with oneself." Compared with traditional Confucian education, Qin Zhiyuan was already public enough, but in Bastian's view, this was obviously not enough.

"Qin, you already have two Grand Knight Medals, but you almost never wear them. What do you mean? Don't you despise the honor of the Grand Knight Medal?" Bastian didn't think his behavior was inappropriate, but thought that Qin Zhiyuan doesn't respect honor enough.

"On the contrary, I think honor only represents the past, and what we want is the future. As long as we forget everything we have obtained now, we can guarantee our desire for honor." Qin Zhiyuan's reason sounds very sufficient.

"God, do you still want to get a third one?" Bastian felt that two coins were enough.

"Why not? I'm afraid someone before me will ask: Do you still want to get the second one? In fact, I have already got it." Qin Zhiyuan was calm and had a natural demeanor of being unfazed.

While they were talking, the two of them sat down in the office with Bastian's chief of staff Armstrong and Qin Zhiyuan's chief of staff Pierre. They needed to have a brief communication to reach some consensus for the next battle.

"...The basic situation is this. Opposite us is the newly formed 18th Army commanded by General Oskar von Hutier. It has about seventeen divisions, and I now have six divisions here, plus yours. There are six divisions, and we have a total of twelve divisions, so we are at a disadvantage in terms of strength." Qin Zhiyuan briefly informed the situation.

"What's going on with the Russians? Why can the Germans continue to draw troops away from their Eastern Front? Don't the Germans have no pressure on the Eastern Front?" Bastian was very dissatisfied with the Russians.

"Don't count on the Russians. In this war, we can only rely on ourselves." Qin Zhiyuan clearly knew the direction of the war and had no expectations for the Russians.

In the previous June, Russian soldiers had been in chaos, with soldiers supporting the Bolsheviks and soldiers supporting the Kolensky government openly confronting each other, and even exchanges of fire in some local areas.

In early July, in order to fulfill his commitment to Britain and France, Kolensky ordered the Russian commander-in-chief Breshilov to launch an attack on the Germans on a 30-mile front with 200,000 men and 1,300 artillery pieces, regardless of the chaos of the Russian army. attack.

The Germans were commanded by Max Hoffmann, Ludendorff's strategist at the Battle of Tannenberg and now Chief of Staff on the Eastern Front. He was determined to use Ludendorff's new defense system to deal with the Russian attack. .

If we talk about the Western Front, the Germans, the British, and the French were generally on par with each other. So on the Eastern Front, it was devastating to the Russians.

In just one week, the Russian offensive failed miserably and Breshilov was relieved of his duties. But it was too late to change generals at this time. The German attack was very sharp. The Russians seemed to have lost their will to fight. They were not only defeated by the Germans, but also by the Austrians. No matter who they faced off against, the Russians always It's a rout.

When the fighting stopped, the Russians had lost 17,000 people. This number was nothing compared to the spring offensives launched by Britain and France, but it had become Russia's "Achilles' heel."

"What a bunch of idiots. Even if my grandma was allowed to go, there would be no way she would be beaten so badly." Bastian looked down upon them with extreme contempt.

"It's not the soldiers' fault, it's the government's problem. Internal strife has aggravated Russia's burden, and they are irreversible." Qin Zhiyuan has complicated feelings about Russia.

Whether from the perspective of France or the Republic of China, Qin Zhiyuan did not want Lenin to come to power. Only dead enemies are the best enemies. But from a rational perspective, Qin Zhiyuan hopes that Russia will rise again, because only in this way can Europe's attention be focused on the increasingly powerful Russian giant, and Qin Zhiyuan can fish in troubled waters.

"How are you going to fight?" Bastian didn't know Russia's future trajectory. He focused his energy on the German 18th Army opposite.

"To be honest, I don't want to fight at all." None of the people present were outsiders. Qin Zhiyuan seemed a little unpretentious: "Think about it, the British have been preparing for two years in Ypres, and Haig used 500,000 people to fight against Germany's 30 It took tens of thousands of people to achieve such a feat. And what about us, you? My subordinates are a group of soldiers who have just recovered from the chaos. My subordinates are a unit that has just completed its expansion. New recruits even account for more than half. The most important thing is that our military strength is still at a disadvantage overall. To be honest, Louis's request is a bit overwhelming. ”

Qin Zhiyuan did not shy away from talking about the problems he was currently encountering, and he was not worried that saying these would affect the morale of the military. The people here were all the most popular generals, and they would not be shaken by a few words.

"Okay..." Seeing that everyone was looking at him expressionlessly, Qin Zhiyuan stopped complaining and picked up the baton and came to the military map hanging in the office.

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"Our goal is to capture any place in Reims, Aguirre, and Avignicourt, and then threaten the Brillmont area, or even recapture the Brillmont area." Qin Zhiyuan announced the battle target.

The Brillmont area is the target of Nivelle's spring offensive.

"Brillmont... Please forgive me for being blunt, General, do you think we can recapture the Brillmont area? You know, two months ago, General Nivelle used a full 1.2 million people but failed to capture Brillmont. Now we have less than 200,000 people." Bastien's chief of staff Armstrong expressed his position cautiously.

"This looks very difficult, but if we can do it, it must be great." Bastien held the elbow of the other hand with one hand, and touched the sparse beard on his chin with one hand, thinking about it.

If he could really do it, maybe Bastian would also receive two Grand Knight Medals like Qin Zhiyuan.

"It does look very difficult, but this is the goal set for us by the Army Department." Qin Zhiyuan's expression was calm, showing his firm and unyielding determination.

In the face of difficulties, if there are conditions, we must move forward, and if there are no conditions, we must create conditions and move forward!