CHAPTER 399: CHAPTER 399: THE MILITARY LEVEL OF THE PEOPLE

Shire and Matthew spent over three hours discussing the details of the "Saint-Chamond" and truck-mounted artillery, not even having time for lunch.

It wasn’t until Dejoka came over, learned of the situation, and brought them a working meal.

It was potato pizza from the canteen, which actually tasted pretty good, perhaps because Shire was somewhat hungry at the time.

Matthew asked while chewing his pizza, "Although it’s not exactly what I need to know, isn’t the combination of a truck and artillery too dangerous?"

Matthew pointed at the sketch Shire had drawn, "The artillerymen are on the truck and completely unprotected."

Shire grunted in agreement. When a shell explodes, the shrapnel fans out from the bottom upward, making the artillerymen on the truck very likely to be hit by the shrapnel.

However...

"The key is where they are used, Matthew," Shire replied.

"Where?" Matthew gave Shire a puzzled look, "Isn’t it on the battlefield? Everyone has to be on the battlefield."

"Of course, it’s on the battlefield, but there’s a front and back on the battlefield." Shire nodded towards the "Saint-Chamond" parked in the warehouse, "The truck-mounted artillery follows behind the ’Saint-Chamond’."

Matthew let out an "oh" of understanding.

The "Saint-Chamond" leads the charge, enduring enemy artillery fire and forcing the enemy artillery to retreat, then the truck-mounted artillery comes in.

Shire was confident this thing could be effective, despite its apparent lack of safety.

It still exists in modern times because artillery often needs to carry out mass bombings, and due to the cost, self-propelled artillery is often not suitable for mass equipment.

Truck-mounted artillery can achieve nearly the same firepower output at half the cost of self-propelled artillery, as long as it is used in the right context, it can work wonders, which is why it is favored by various countries.

(The picture above shows the modern "Archer" truck-mounted artillery, although its performance is good, its positioning is unclear, losing the meaning of truck-mounted artillery. Its cost is even higher than tracked self-propelled artillery, but it does not have the off-road capability and protection of tracked self-propelled artillery, and cannot be mass-produced)

Hurriedly stuffing the remaining pizza into his mouth, Shire checked the time, it was almost time to return to the camp and report.

While chewing his food, he bid farewell to Matthew, and before leaving, he instructed Dejoka, "Father, the training for the steel mill workers, it’s best if they can be on the job within three months."

"No problem." Dejoka nodded, "They’ve already started."

Matthew was a bit surprised to hear that.

Shire required the "Saint-Chamond" to be modified within a month, but the steel mill workers were scheduled to be on the job in three months, which seemed a bit unusual.

After thinking about it for a while, Matthew smiled slightly, as if he understood Shire’s intention.

...

In the car returning to the camp, Shire casually flipped through the files Dejoka had given him, which detailed the operations of the "Bernard Company".

As Shire spent most of his time serving in the military and unable to manage company affairs, Dejoka could only report to Shire in this form.

However, it was actually not very necessary, as Shire was not very concerned about this pile of data, he could understand the literal meaning, but in essence, grasped nothing.

In short, as long as it was profitable.

"General." Lauren, who was driving, turned his head slightly, "Italy has launched an offensive against Austria-Hungary, but the progress seems to be not going smoothly."

Shire grunted in response and continued flipping through the files, it would be a surprise if Italy’s offensive went smoothly.

The battlefield is not just a pure comparison of forces, the Italian Army’s tactics were very outdated, almost a replica of France’s "offensive theory", but with inadequate equipment.

And Austria-Hungary, by this time, had gained more defensive experience, they had built multiple trenches facing the Italians, when the Italian Army bombarded, the Austrian Army would temporarily retreat to the second trench, quickly replenishing the first trench after the bombardment to organize a defense.

Most of the time, the Italian Army was doing useless work, but they were always unaware of it.

"Some people think Xia Fei should transfer you to the Eastern Army Group," Lauren said.

"What?" Shire looked up at Lauren in astonishment.

Who would think that? Didn’t they know that Xia Fei and he were arch-enemies?

Lauren, seeing Shire’s reaction in the rearview mirror, quickly explained, "It’s because of the recent Schneider matter, people think you have reconciled with Xia Fei..."

Shire suddenly realized, it was the aftermath of purchasing the "Saint-Chamond".

Schneider publicly claimed to have reached some consensus with the "Bernard Company" and had a united front against the enemy, leading people to mistakenly believe that Shire would join forces with Schneider.

And since Xia Fei was part of the Schneider faction, it naturally followed that he would fight alongside Shire.

Shire sighed lightly, France was large, and there were always people with unrealistic ideas.

The conflict between Xia Fei and him was almost irreconcilable, Xia Fei urgently needed victories to keep his position as commander-in-chief, while Shire was continuously threatening his position with real victories.

Lauren cautiously added, "Additionally, they think that only under the Eastern Army Group, you might be able to coordinate with Italy."

Shire nodded slightly, as the war had progressed to this point, people’s military skills had indeed improved, and quite significantly at that.

However, their expectations for Italy were too high, the war had just begun, Austria-Hungary’s obstacles were not overcome, yet they were already thinking about coordinating with Italy to flank the German Army.

(The blue part in the above picture is the direction of the Italian offensive, corresponding to the red highlighted part in the first picture, if the Italian army breaks through the Austro-Hungarian narrow strip to enter Germany from the north, they can flank the Western Front alongside France)

...

In the French High Command, Xia Fei had also heard similar rumors.

At first, Xia Fei found the idea ridiculous. Transferring Shire here? Wouldn’t that be admitting Shire was superior? How would he, as the commander-in-chief, manage?

If Shire proposed an idea, would Xia Fei agree or disagree?

If agreed, the victory would be attributed to Shire.

If disagreed, the defeat would be entirely blamed on Xia Fei!

Xia Fei found it strange that there would be problems whether he agreed or disagreed.

After considering it for a while, Xia Fei realized the crux of the matter was that Shire was always right. Agreeing meant winning battles, disagreeing meant losing battles.

However, as Xia Fei studied the map, he found that the operational plan people were considering seemed feasible. If the Italian army broke through the Austro-Hungarian lines and entered Germany, the German Army would be caught in a pincer movement, or at least their supply lines would be attacked.

This was an opportunity to break the deadlock.

If this opportunity were lost, the disgruntled parliament might kick him out of his commander-in-chief position.

With this in mind, Xia Fei did not hesitate, he called the Paris City Defense Command, confidently saying:

"General Gallieni, I believe it is time to make preparations!"

"I believe our goal is the same, to drive the Germans out of French soil!"