Chapter 214 This Day Is Finally Coming

After the victory of the battle, Charles received mostly blessings and good news.

The only thing that made him dissatisfied was that he became a hot topic among Paris citizens again.

At about seven o'clock that evening, only half an hour after the successful breakout, Paris citizens who heard the news of victory gathered outside the city defense headquarters and cheered.

At this time, the sky had darkened and it was still snowing outside. The cold weather still could not stop the enthusiasm of the Paris people. They shouted upstairs:

"Thank you, Charles, you saved my son!"

"I received the news that Andre was safe, and he asked me to express my gratitude to you!"

"You are a hero of France!"

...

The loudest shouters were military dependents.

Many soldiers in the 1st and 2nd Special Artillery Divisions came from Paris.

This was not intentional, but when these two divisions were formed, many children of nobles or capitalists squeezed in with their connections.

And these second-generation rich and second-generation officers would bring their familiar group of soldiers to join, so there were many Parisians or people living around Paris among the soldiers.

When the military families knew that the troops were surrounded, they were extremely anxious. They hoped that Charles could do something, but they had no energy or channels to speak out. Now that they knew that Charles had successfully led the troops to break through, they could not help but shed tears of gratitude and gathered here spontaneously to express their gratitude.

Charles secretly glanced at the huge crowd outside the window. There were at least hundreds of thousands of people, and they surrounded the 4th District where the city defense headquarters was located in three layers inside and outside. The police station was urgently dispatched to maintain public order and traffic diversion.

Under the street lights, many people had snowflakes on their shoulders, but they were still unwilling to leave.

"What do they want to do?" Charles was a little confused. Is this the way people in this era chase stars?

Kobdo came up and explained: "Some soldiers did not come back. The families of these soldiers hope that you can think of a way."

Charles was silent.

Only more than 32,000 of the more than 40,000 troops were able to break through, and more than 10,000 died or disappeared.

But Charles was powerless. This was all he could do.

Soon, Charles knew that this was not the only bad news...

"General!" Lieutenant Colonel Fernan looked at Gallieni nervously after receiving a call: "Captain Carter called, five planes are still missing, including a machine gun plane!"

Galieni was stunned and immediately cast his eyes on Charles.

Charles shook his head slightly. This was beyond his ability. Now he could only hope that the machine gun plane crashed or landed in the French-controlled area, otherwise the fierce air battle would officially begin soon.

...

Berlin Wilhelm Street.

The General Staff's phone rang one after another, all asking about the battle situation and even questioning whether there were follow-up plans to turn the tide.

Falkenhayn had completely given up. He refused to respond to the question and left everything to Colonel Moritz. He sat alone on the edge of the bed in the lounge. He half-bent over, drooped his head, and supported his knees with both hands weakly, like a defeated rooster.

Falkenhayn didn't know how to report to William II. He thought of several versions in his mind:

"Your Majesty, this is my command error. We were deceived by Charles!"

"Your Majesty, this is because of the lack of intelligence. We didn't know that Charles had invested in new tanks."

"We don't have air superiority. Although the enemy is surrounded by our army, the intelligence is unequal from beginning to end. The enemy knows everything about us and can command ground forces through aircraft, but we know nothing about the enemy's actions!"

...

However, no matter which version it is, it is unable to cover up the fact of failure.

All along, William II has supported Falkenhayn's Western Front strategy under great pressure. Now, it seems that he can only shift the strategic focus to the Eastern Front.

At this time, Colonel Moritz pushed the door open and shouted, "General, you should listen to this call..."

"I told you!" Falkenhayn raised his head suddenly and interrupted Colonel Moritz rudely: "I won't answer any calls, all of them!"

Colonel Moritz still insisted: "No, General. This call is different. It is about the secret of Charles's plane. We have seized a plane with a machine gun!"

Falkenhayn was shocked beyond words. After a moment of stunned silence, he jumped up as if he was pricked by a needle. While running to the headquarters, he shouted incoherently: "Tell them to protect it... Where is it, which phone..."

The staff officer raised the microphone high, and Falkenhayn rushed forward and grabbed it. Without waiting for the other party to speak, he couldn't wait to ask: "Are you sure it's Charles' machine gun plane?"

"We are not sure, General!" The voice on the phone replied: "But it does have two machine guns in the nose, it looks like it!"

"How did you seize it?" Falkenhayn asked again.

"It made an emergency landing because of a fuel tank leak. The pilot seemed to want to destroy something, but we stopped him in time..."

Falkenhayn was overjoyed when he heard this. This was almost certain. Otherwise, the pilot's desire to destroy it meant that he wanted to cover up a secret.

Falkenhayn almost shouted an order: "Protect it immediately, mobilize all your troops, including the pilot. No one is allowed to get close! No one!"

Then he added: "No one is allowed to know, understand?"

"Understood!"

After hanging up the phone, Falkenhayn looked up and ordered everyone: "Put everything aside, organize troops and vehicles to transport it back immediately!"

The staff immediately got busy, some mobilized troops and some contacted vehicles and personnel.

Falkenhayn could not sit still. He paced two steps and said to Colonel Moritz beside him: "Get ready, we will go there immediately. I want to see it as soon as possible!"

...

Charles followed Gallieni and several staff officers to the headquarters of the First Flying Squadron. Gallieni hoped to use the resources in his hands to find the missing machine gun plane as soon as possible.

When he saw Carter, he shook his head and reported: "There is still no news. It was a plane of the Second Flying Squadron. It was covering the troops to break through. During the battle, it was separated from other team members, and then no one knew about it."

The planes of this period were not equipped with radios. Once the battle started, they basically fought independently.

Moreover, the planes were fast. After a few dives at the target, they found that the team members were missing. The position was completely guessed.

The headquarters could not even get their news. All they could do was wait at the airport.

Only after waiting for a while and finding that the plane did not come back, they knew that something might have happened, and it was still "possible", and it was still uncertain.

Gallieni was unwilling to miss any opportunity, and he ordered his staff to call the areas near where the plane disappeared one by one.

But Charles realized that this day was finally coming.