Chapter 130 I Just Commanded that Battle

The rain was still falling in Ypres, and the war had come to an end.

The German army suffered heavy losses, with more than 10,000 casualties in the two-day attack, while the Belgian army suffered very few casualties.

More importantly, the German army, including General Cross, seemed to have reached a consensus: they could not defeat the enemy on the opposite side, even though the German army still had superior forces at this time.

Therefore, General Cross refused to organize an attack again and again despite the pressure from Chief of Staff Falkenhayn.

In a telegram to Falkenhayn, he said: "If the enemy always maintains air superiority, our so-called attack is just pushing soldiers to the front line for the enemy to be targets. I refuse to do this!"

Soon, French reinforcements arrived, which further strengthened General Cross's determination to give up the attack.

General Foch took over the command of Ypres.

Everyone thought that Foch would launch an attack immediately after he came, and the military and civilians were accustomed to his fighting style.

However, surprisingly, Foch did not do so.

He sent the French army in batches to replace the Belgian army, and established a system of rotating guards on the front line.

Then there was nothing else. All the troops were deployed the same as before. The artillery was still five kilometers behind the defense line, without moving at all.

Many people, including Albert I, speculated that Charles' deployment was so perfect that any change made by Foch was wrong.

General Charles' analysis may explain Foch's mentality at this time:

"General Foch is very smart. On the basis of Charles's great victory by taking a defensive position, if he launches an offensive and suffers heavy losses without any progress, he will be embarrassed in front of everyone, and his military theory may even be abandoned."

"So, he would rather let others guess, even though this guess is also not good for him!"

...

Charles didn't think so much, he welcomed another two-day and one-day holiday.

Sometimes Charles wondered, what if his vacation suddenly came when the war was not over? Would he leave the battlefield and the First Flying Brigade to go home for vacation?

I don't know if Gallieni would let it go!

Fortunately, I haven't encountered this situation yet, including the time when I was deceived to go to Antwerp and happened to "rush" back in time on the second night.

Charles had breakfast at home. Compared with the food in the officers' mess, he preferred Camille's apple crisp. More importantly, if he ate in the officers' mess, Camille would force him to eat more when he got home.

While Charles was biting the crispy, fragrant and steaming apple crisp with milk, the "Little Journal" was "thoughtfully" delivered to his door by his neighbors.

"This time it's Ypres, Madame Bernard!" The neighbor exclaimed: "Charles has fought a good battle again!"

Camille glanced at Charles with a sullen face, and quickly rushed out to get the newspaper. After a glance, she waved at Charles with disbelief and anger in her eyes: "They sent you to the front again?"

"No, mother!" Charles explained: "I have been in Paris, I just commanded that battle by phone and telegram!"

Camille was relieved after hearing this. She only cared whether Charles went to the front. She didn't understand or need to understand other things.

"Command?" Deyoka took the newspaper from Camille in shock, eating and reading at the same time, but stopped after reading for a while.

Deyoka looked up at Charles, seemingly unable to believe: "You mean, you commanded the Battle of Ypres?"

"Part of it!" Charles corrected.

"Which part?" Deyoka asked.

"The part about the planes!" Charles was not sure whether he should say the number: "In addition, there were also some artillery involved, but not many!"

Charles made all the decisions on the direction of the artillery.

For example, where and when the artillery should fire, and other aspects such as logistics and supplies were organized by General Gallieni.

Deyoka swallowed hard.

He did hear some rumors these days, saying that the French army moved machine guns onto planes and won a great victory in Ypres. Although the German army assembled several times the army in Ypres, they did not dare to attack rashly.

At that time, Deyoka suspected whether this was related to Charles, but he did not expect it to be true.

"I hope you're not doing this to sell tractors!" Deyoka laughed.

Charles nodded: "It does have something to do with selling tractors!"

The two smiled at each other.

Others' attention was on the planes and positions, or the artillery's great power killing and injuring more than 10,000 enemies.

Almost no one noticed that the four artillery regiments had a total of 152 artillery pieces, all of which were towed into the muddy ground of Ypres by tractors.

In addition, more than 300 tractors were running back and forth between the battlefield and the railway station, constantly transporting shells and supplies and bringing back the wounded from the front line.

Gallieni bought 500 "Holt 60" from Charles in the first batch, and soon purchased another 500, at a unit price of 2,500 francs.

Just these two batches allowed Charles to collect 2.5 million francs in funds.

You should know that Charles bought this batch of "Holt 60" from Francis at a low price of 900 francs, and made a profit of 1,600 francs after reselling it, which is simply a huge profit.

And this is not the end. Charles still has 800 "Holt 60" in his hands. With the arrival of the rainy season, it is almost certain that the military will increase its purchases, and then they can make a lot of money again.

Not counting other things, Charles doubled his wealth with this transaction alone.

Camille didn't know about the tractor, so she asked in confusion: "What tractor?"

"Nothing!" Deyoka replied: "We are talking about the tractor factory business!"

Deyoka winked at Charles, deliberately making Camille misunderstand that he didn't need to let Camille know anything about Francis.

...

Francis sat alone on the sofa in his villa, smoking his pipe "pa pa pa", his face was darker than the tobacco burning in the pipe.

He realized that he might have been deceived. He heard that the military bought a large number of "Holt 60" and put it into the battlefield, but he didn't receive any orders from the military.

The only reasonable explanation: the batch of "Holt 60" that the military got was the batch he sold to Vartan not long ago, which was his inventory!

Algerian nobles?

Shipped to Algeria for planting?

All lies, he clearly sold it to the military and made a fortune!

Why didn't Grevi and Armand, who were in the parliament, get any wind or give any warning?

Could it be... that they were the ones who did it?

Francis suddenly felt isolated. He felt that everyone was betraying him, and he was the only one who was kept in the dark!