afterglow

Chapter 387 Long is not with Man Buqun; a special farewell gift
It was still dawn in Berlin, but on the other side of the continent, the time had already reached noon.

"Hey, Zhou Daizhao and others are definitely here, right?"

The two officers hurried into the library of the General Staff University and looked around.

Zhou Changfeng was looking carefully for books next to the Xin No. [-] bookshelf. He planned to leave after finding the book he wanted. When he heard the sound, he walked out with the book he just found, "What's wrong?"

The library at Jiangbei Campus of the General Staff University has always been deserted, and few senior military officers are willing to calm down and gain knowledge here.

So the major and captain who came to look for him said bluntly, "It's too sudden. The Germans are launching a massive attack on France. This is serious."

"Ah?" Zhou Changfeng thought it was some other urgent matter, but he was stunned for a second when he heard this. "When was it confirmed?"

"It's [-]:[-] a.m. local time, which is more than half an hour ago."

"So, are you going to the Governor's Mansion or the Imperial City now?"

"Governor's Mansion."

Along the way, Zhou Changfeng frowned, feeling that everything was too dreamlike.

But in history, Poland was dealt with first and then turned around to attack France. Why did it suddenly change its focus now?
Well, in a sense, Poland is now pacified.

After Russian Poland declared independence, it began to reorganize its armed forces. The revolting Polish-Russian soldiers, local self-organized workers' militias, active and brave student armies, etc. all began to accept adaptations from the Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland.

The officers, big and small, who were coming and going between the offices of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion seemed to be in a special hurry, and many of them had thoughtful expressions on their faces.

New news was still coming in one after another. People with telegraphs were running to and from everywhere. Some people simply chose to climb the stairs because they missed the elevator.

Because the incident happened so suddenly, most of the people involved in the emergency meeting didn't have time to have lunch, and at most they only had a few bites before rushing over.

"It seems that the Germans are really good at camouflage. How many times did the dispatch and assembly of millions of troops go unnoticed?"

"Tsk, tsk, this is really a lie."

"Okay, be quiet." Cheng Han, who looked calm, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and knocked on the table, "I think you all know the general situation. Look here, this is an offensive map drawn based on the information gathered at the moment. .”

Zhou Changfeng carefully looked at the map hanging in front of him, with red arrows, rows of black numbers, and blue dotted lines...

The memories before time travel are still there. He remembers several examples of the French campaign that he learned in the war history class, and he also knows the general overview.

Generally speaking, the northern front is contained in Belgium, the middle line penetrates deep through the Ardennes Forest, and the southern front confronts the Maginot Line defenders.

[picture]

The core force was the surprise troops who broke out from the Ardennes Forest. They broke through the Sedan Fortress and launched a fierce attack all the way to the northwest. They penetrated the rear of the main force of the British and French forces on the northern front and almost cut off their retreat.

This is what history was supposed to be like, but I don’t know what the plans of the Deshe People’s Army will be now.

Just looking at the hastily drawn offensive map with incomplete information and unclear reality, it is impossible to judge what Deshe's campaign deployment will be like.

At first glance, it seems that fierce battles are taking place on the front line for hundreds of kilometers from north to south, with no priority.

Even the Maginot Line on the southern front was attacked on a large scale. It is said that the German army carried out "unprecedented and horrific bombardment."

"It's a mess over there. I'm afraid the French themselves haven't figured it out yet, so we have no way of judging. I only know that some people said they saw the defense line being bombarded by heavy artillery, and the smoke and dust from the explosion shot straight into the sky." An intelligence officer said helplessly. .

"The Maginot Line was hit by heavy artillery? Then... it was probably the railway artillery."

"You can't be wrong. Ordinary artillery can't do anything to the French Iron Turtle Fortress."

"Yes, the reinforced cement wall of an ordinary fixed fort is as thick as three meters, and the top cover of the lifting steel fort... is three hundred millimeters thick cast steel."

A well-mannered colonel and senior counselor mused: "Anyway, I think the Germans are not ungrateful. The Schlieffen Strategy during the European War will definitely not work. If we break through from the Netherlands and Belgium, we will hit the main force of Britain and France on the river. , and it becomes a tug-of-war again.”

"Then how can we fight? The Ardennes Forest only has infantry and cavalry at most, and we can't bring cannons. When we leave the forest, we will see the Sedan Fortress in front of us."

"Yes, we can't attack the Maginot Line by force, right?"

"The Germans are really... Well, what a good idea it was to advance eastward and capture Russia? It would be great to be able to compete with peace of mind after absorbing resources. It's too risky to make risky moves like this now..."

The generals and senior advisers in the Governor's Staff Office all complained that Deshe's approach was too radical and bold. They clearly had better options, but they had to take this risky move.

Zhou Changfeng was not interested in everyone's discussions. He was full of curiosity about the development of the next battle.

He had asked Chrissy for the names of some generals before, but the latter was quite wary because of his professional instincts and refused to answer after a few questions.

Anyway, Zhou has now determined that Man Buqun has not taken up a position in the German People's Army and is missing, but Long is not there and Gu Bushuai is still there.

In a battle in the middle of the Civil War, the company commanded by Erwin was surrounded and trapped alone for four days and three nights. After running out of ammunition, he had to surrender. He himself was wounded and captured, and he has been recovering from his injuries since then.

Heinz was dismissed from his post due to the defeat in the early days of the Civil War. He left the cavalry and was transferred to the baggage force. When the Civil War ended, he resigned and went to the Hanover Fire Brigade. He did not come out again until the British and French intervention forces invaded.

In fact, what Zhou Changfeng didn't know was that after the officer training system was re-completed in the 20s, the German Society "dismissed" a group of retained old officers, but there are still many historical generals who are doing well today, such as Kaiser Lin, Lister, Weeks.

The emergency meeting held by the General Staff Office of the Metropolitan Governor's Office failed to come up with a solution. The Ming army generals looked at the war in Europe with a condescending attitude.

Most people feel that this war is far away, and they firmly believe that the stalemate of 20 years ago will be repeated.

However, they also believed that the German Society did not need to allocate too many troops to the Eastern Front and could fully deal with the Western Front. Moreover, the German Society could easily obtain the required resources from the civil strife of Tsarist Russia, so as not to fall into the situation of the European War. Dilemma.

In order to prevent the possibility of "turnip winter", the German Society has continuously provided farming machinery and fertilizers to Hungary for more than ten years free of charge, and assisted the latter in building fertilizer plants, thus greatly increasing Hungary's grain production.

As a result, Hungary, which already has excellent arable land, can now provide enough food and no longer needs to worry about food shortages.

In summary, the Metropolitan Governor's initial judgment is that the war will reach a stalemate, and will turn around about a year later as the British and French suffer too many casualties.

Zhou Changfeng didn't want to talk to them, and he couldn't predict the changes in the war situation, so he only mentioned it to the emperor later.

"...But Your Majesty, there is actually another possibility, that is, the German army deploys armored troops to the Ardennes Forest, successfully completes the breakthrough, and then develops all the way to the North Sea, cutting off the retreat of the British and French forces, which can directly cause the collapse of Britain and France. "

Obviously Zhu Lingjing found it unbelievable, "This is a bit unbelievable... How can so many chariots pass through the forest?" "How do I put this? Chariots have good terrain adaptability. It is completely possible to pass through forest trails, but the traveling speed will be slow. a lot of."

"So this is just a situation you speculated on?"

"Yes." Zhou Changfeng nodded.

"If it really collapses because of this, it will be a good show." Zhu Lingjing said casually, thoughtfully: "There is no danger to defend in the future, and there is not much strategic depth. Paris cannot be protected."

However, whether it is the emperor or the cabinet, decision-making is still based on the judgment of the Governor-General.

"History has finally come full circle. After a year of stalemate, Americans will surely take the opportunity to join the war again just like they did 20 years ago."

With that said, Zhu Lingjing flipped through a memorandum on the imperial case and said easily: "Yes, the export trade volume has shown signs of rising, and the price index is still stable."

Whatever mess Europe is in has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty. The monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty are still happily hoping to make a fortune by being warmongers like before.

Then, Zhu Lingjing raised a question about Siberia.

The vast wasteland of Siberia is easily accessible to the Ming Dynasty, but this easy access is only relative. It will inevitably have to endure a large number of non-combat attrition, and the loss of materials cannot be underestimated.

She stretched out her index finger and clicked three times on the large map behind her. "The east of the Ural Mountains, from Yecheng (Yekaterinburg) to Irkutsk (Irkutsk), is divided by the local garrison generals. According to the cabinet draft , the Foreign Affairs Department has sent people to discuss it.”

The Ming Dynasty plans to support three puppet states from west to east, namely the Kingdom of Kazakhstan, the Kingdom of Abakan, and the Kingdom of Sakha. This circle of puppet states will form an excellent buffer zone and at the same time avoid the cost of actual control.

"According to the existing intelligence, the separatist generals in Yecheng should be easy to take down, but the one in Yicheng is a bit tricky." Zhou Changfeng said.

"Send troops when it's time to send troops." Zhu Lingjing didn't take it seriously and said without saltiness: "Be sharper and show the momentum of Sunchang's rebellion, otherwise those warlords will be easy to despise and difficult to manage in the future."

The Ming Dynasty had penetrated the Far East of Tsarist Russia relatively thoroughly, and its intelligence work had been fruitful for decades. As the commander-in-chief of the Yekaterinburg Military Region, Lieutenant General Ilya had already figured out the details.

It is not difficult to deal with such a power-hungry wallflower.

As for the Commander-in-Chief of the Irkutsk Military District Aldemy, he is both a Great Russianist and a staunch royalist. It is obviously difficult to solve the problem through coercion and inducement.

If the enemy does not surrender, he will only perish.

At about the same time, Chrissy, who was at the embassy, ​​was packing her personal luggage because she had to leave to return to her country tomorrow.

In the past two years since she came to Daming, she felt that she had completed her work tasks qualifiedly, but she also felt that the environment here was a bit too comfortable and could easily sap her fighting spirit.

For example, she gained five kilograms from all kinds of delicious food.

In the dormitory, she stuffed her workbook into her suitcase, and then thought about whether she had missed anything.

At this time, the female typist who lived in the same dormitory with her came over and handed her a letter.

"For me?"

"Yes, a girl just came over and asked to hand the letter directly to you."

Puzzled, Chris looked at the front and back of the envelope and found that they were both blank, so she opened the wax in confusion and unfolded the letter paper.

"Dear Chrissy Richter:
At that time, I really didn't expect to see you again in China. I thought you came to see me specifically, which was very unexpected.Now that you are leaving, I think so. People like you will never settle for being far away from the war. I hope you can complete every mission safely after returning home.Taking various factors into consideration, I left you a special farewell gift enclosed in an envelope, which is probably what can make someone like you happy.

Your friend, the commander of the [-]th International Brigade.

I wish you well in the future and see you soon. "

Chris silently placed the letter on the table, and then unfolded the two stacked papers.

The manuscript drawn on the first piece of paper looked strange. At first glance, she thought it was a coal bucket shoveling coal.

Based on the M56 helmets historically equipped by East Germany, Zhou hand-drawn a similar drawing.

This is a kind of unattractive and weird-looking steel helmet, which can even be said to be ugly, like a coal bucket turned upside down on the head.

[picture]

But it is ugly for a reason. Before the appearance of Kevlar helmets, the M56 helmet was the No. 1 metal protective helmet, and its bulletproof performance exceeded any other helmet in the world.

在15m的近距离射击测试中，M56型钢盔能够轻松挡下枪口动能400多焦耳的9㎜帕拉贝鲁姆手枪弹，而传统的M35钢盔却被击穿。

It can even stop over 800 joules of .357 Magnum pistol rounds with only a slight dent.

At longer distances, even rifle bullets with thousands of joules can easily bounce off as long as the incident angle is smaller.

This kind of helmet actually originated from the late war, but it was refused mass production by a certain person. The main reason was that it was too ugly and tarnished the image of the German army.

The second piece of paper looks like a vest?
Chris glanced at the annotation. According to the text description, this is a special type of personal carrying equipment and protective equipment.

The tactical vest that can be equipped with insert panels was made casually by someone Zhou. There are too many styles, so just provide an inspiration.

Although it is impossible to develop ceramic insert plates these days, surface-hardened armor steel can also be used as insert plates, and its bulletproof capabilities are basically sufficient.

Even in later generations, many armed forces could not afford the luxury of ceramic inserts and instead used steel inserts.

一块25㎝×30㎝标准尺寸的切角钢制插板，2.3㎜厚度为1.3㎏，能够抵挡各种手枪弹；6㎜厚度为3.3㎏，能够抵抗全威力步枪弹。

Contrary to the stereotype, with the same bulletproof capability, steel inserts are actually only 10% heavier than ceramic inserts.

The steel inserts on the front and back that can withstand full-power rifle bullets weigh only fourteen pounds, which is not difficult for the German superman.

The biggest disadvantage of the steel insert plate is that after the bullet hits the steel plate and breaks, it will fly in all directions along the plane, causing secondary damage; while the ceramic insert plate will absorb it.

But in what age is this, what kind of bicycle do we need?

(End of this chapter)