Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Walking into the building where the Mesd Army Garrison Command is located, although the corpses here have been removed by the soldiers, the thick blood in the air and the blood in the room cannot be cleaned up.Bai Chongxi with a serious face looked at the excited De Gaulle and said in surprise: "Dear Charles, my friend, why do you look so happy?"

De Gaulle could no longer restrain his happiness, and laughed heartily: "Bai, my friend, it is difficult for you to understand the happiness of a Frenchman, you know? We are making history. For 45 years, we are the first batch to set foot on the The French people in the Lorraine area, this is a shame that we have always kept in our hearts, and we have never dared to forget it. Can you understand? When the news reaches Paris, it is estimated that the entire Champs Elysees will be boiling."

It is not difficult for Bai Chongxi to understand the feelings of the French, but he still feels that De Gaulle is a little too excited. If this is calculated according to the logic of the French, the Chinese people will die of depression. Counting from the first Opium War in 1840, this There is no day of peace of mind in China, and you, the French, have contributed to it.If I had known earlier, I would have persuaded the commander-in-chief to join the Allied war, so that when the Louvre was taken down, I could rob it first and then order it to be set on fire. At that time, I would also leave a ruin for you French people to mourn once a year.Thinking far away, what De Gaulle said reminded Bai Chongxi.

"Staff, send electricity to the Allied Forces Command. The main force of the Chinese European Expeditionary Force and Captain Charles de Gaulle, the French Advisory Group, captured the important German town of Metz, killed countless captured German soldiers, and seized some supplies. We request the Allied Forces to launch a counterattack in front of Verdun to expand the results of the war. "

At this moment, a court judge ran over and chattered to de Gaulle for a while, and de Gaulle said to Bai Chongxi even more excitedly: "Bai, a great harvest, we found 100 210mm caliber naval heavy guns, the German munitions in Metz Curry."

Bai Chongxi had never seen such a big cannon, and immediately rushed over to see it with Charles de Gaulle and the others excitedly, so the next disaster for the German army began. . .

Admiral Nivelle is now suicidal. After watching the horror scene of the 10,000+ French troops retreating from the fourth line of defense, he asked his staff to report to the Paris War Department that Verdun fell. soon.

When the telegram was sent to Paris, Prime Minister Clemenceau, who was presiding over the military affairs conference at the Ministry of War, slapped the table in great grief and shouted loudly: "Gentlemen, the French Third Republic has reached the most critical moment, and now it is time for us to show our courage. Time to defend Paris."

Marshal Pétain, commander-in-chief of the French army, and Marshal Fuchs, chief of staff, who were at the meeting, looked at each other dumbfounded. They deployed 50 troops in the Verdun area, and they were penetrated by the German army in just two days. God, what the hell happened?

Marshal Foch roared extremely angrily: "We should now hold those cowardly Chinese leaders accountable. We handed over the most important position in France to them, but they unceremoniously threw it to the Germans. We must not let them go!" pass them."

Hearing this, Marshal Petain shook his head and said, "I'm afraid we don't have the time and energy to do this now. Your Excellency Marshal Fuchs, we may have to think a little bit about it. The army that has already left for Verdun is now Should I be transferred back to defend Paris, or should I continue to retake Verdun?"

Then, in front of Prime Minister Clemenceau, everyone started a new round of quarrels, and the captain's staff, who was holding the Chinese Expeditionary Army's victory telegram, stood at the door of the conference room and dared not go in for a while.It was about 70 o'clock in the evening. After all, all the people here are in their [-]s and [-]s, so everyone was tired from the noise and decided to stop to eat something.The staff officer who sent the telegram boldly walked in. Clemenceau felt his heart hurt a little, so he didn't get up in a hurry. He took the telegram from the staff officer and saw that his mind was filled with a wonderful feeling. Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, he immediately handed the telegram to Marshal Petain who was standing beside him.

Marshal Pétain looked at the telegram with a knowing smile, and then said to the confused Marshal Foch and others: "It's all right now, gentlemen, I think our quarrel just now was all in vain, if this damn telegram Had it been brought in at the beginning, we should be popping champagne by now."

So that poor staff officer became the object of reprimand by these bosses. This guy actually failed to capture the French army (De Gaulle and his five hundred brothers were upgraded to representatives of the French army at this moment) and the Chinese expeditionary force to capture Metz in time. Such an important message to tell yourself these people.And everyone was starving to death. If it wasn't for lack of strength, these stubborn old men would have liked to beat up the poor little staff officer themselves.

But this unpleasant point was soon forgotten by everyone, Metz, our army actually conquered Metz, this is the first time that the French army entered the Lorraine area in 45 years, what a shame!

Prime Minister Clemenceau, who has always been a strong character, experienced the loss of Verdun and the recovery of Lorraine (the French are really good at expanding their achievements. Is the recovery of Metz equal to the recovery of Lorraine?) This news alternates between sadness and joy. Under the shock, he couldn't help but burst into tears, and started to cry happily. This damn war has been going on for too long, and the pressure he bears is indeed too great.

I don't know who was the first to sing the impassioned Marseillaise, and everyone responded one after another.

And Marshal Foch's mind was spinning fast. Regardless of his age, he jumped onto the table and shouted loudly: "Gentlemen, this is an offensive victory, a victory for France, and we need to take this victory now." News to all France, let all citizens celebrate with us, Long live France!"

"Long live France" Marshal Petain didn't agree with what kind of offensive victory this was, but he didn't like to argue about anything at this time, so he shouted long live.

Then Pétain also shouted loudly: "I propose to promote our Captain de Gaulle to be the colonel of the French Legion of Honor in Lorraine. He and his comrades are the pride of the French Third Republic." One can disagree with that.

The news of the Allied capture of Metz spread like wings throughout Paris and France, and now everyone knew that the Germans were in big trouble.

And the name of de Gaulle was also spread throughout France at this moment. The young colonel (just promoted) captured Metz with his honorary regiment and the Chinese Expeditionary Force.The Chinese laborers, who had been looked down upon by the French for a few hours, turned into old friends of the French people at this moment. The owner of the bar announced that he would serve drinks for free tonight to celebrate the victory of the French army. The happy Parisian man saw every look Asians like Chinese will hug and kiss very enthusiastically, and then say in French: "Thank you, our friends."

Even the Japanese were touched. When Nagata Tieshan and the others went shopping, they were kissed several times in a row. The French regarded them as Chinese.

Hirota Koki shook his head in dissatisfaction. These Frenchmen really don’t care about hygiene, but Nagata Tieshan sighed: “This time the empire’s mainland policy is in trouble. The victory of the Chinese expeditionary force in Metz is equivalent to the empire’s victory in Japan and Russia. The victory in the war is mediocre. This ancient empire may be about to rise, which is probably not good news for the Great Japanese Empire."

On May 5, in London, Paris, and Rome, the news that the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the French army captured the German city of Metz spread like wings.

Chinese Minister Hu Weide was summoned by French Prime Minister Clemenceau last night. Clemenceau sincerely expressed his gratitude to our Minister Hu Weide and apologized for his behavior at the reception the night before: "Mr. Hu, We didn't know at the time that your country's army was actually carrying out such a great plan. Now it seems that they have succeeded, they are all the best soldiers, and you Chinese are also old friends of our French people forever (the one who burned the Old Summer Palace An old friend? An old friend who seized Vietnam? An old friend who went to Shanghai and Guangzhou to open the concessions?)."

This is the first time that Hu Weide has won the respect of the big powers since he entered politics in the former Qing Dynasty, and the root of all this comes from the performance of the Chinese Expeditionary Force of the Nationalist Government.

Hu Weide sent a report to the country without hesitation: "The Chinese European Expeditionary Force has won a great victory and conquered the German town of Metz. The coalition forces are full of joy."

This 25-character victory report immediately caused a sensation when it was sent back to China. At the beginning of the dispatch, both the north and the south felt that it was sending cannon fodder to Europe.

Even Wang Zhenyu himself was a bit uncertain about whether the expeditionary army could fight or not.It now appears that the Chinese European Expeditionary Force can not only fight, but also win.To quote a commentator’s article from the National Daily: “Wash away the centuries-old humiliation of the Chinese nation, and regain national confidence in the world.”

The author of this commentator’s article is Liang Qichao, who is relied on by the Senate. The concept of the Chinese nation was also put forward for the first time in this article. According to Liang Qichao’s explanation, there are no Han and minority nationalities in China, because the Han itself is also a multi-ethnic group Mixed existence, so China is a single nation state, that is the Chinese nation.This interpretation also had a huge impact on later ethnic policy in China. . .

The whole world was shocked, even the Germans were no exception. The real Germans said that they would mobilize the army as soon as possible to recover the Lorraine region and destroy the Chinese army, just like they easily eliminated the Boxers who would only kill their own compatriots. Same.This is undoubtedly telling the world that the results released by the French are true.

Now it's the turn of Marshal Hindenburg and Ludendorff to have a headache, because Marshal Pétain, who always advocates defense, has just issued an order that Nivelle must defend Fort Verdun, and it doesn't matter if all the troops are wiped out.Pétain even sent a separate telegram to Nivelles that he would not mind being court-martialed if he backed down, and that his name was used instead of the French word for coward.At the same time, Pétain also ordered the various departments of the French army who were carrying out reinforcements to Verdun to change their combat plans. The current plan is to attack. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so it is almost impossible for Petain to be the marshal.attack!This time it hurt the German. . .