Expedition to Europe

After entering October, the world war entered a difficult situation again.

When Qin Zhiyuan led the Foreign Legion to a brilliant victory in Reims, Haig, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, seemed to be stimulated. He ordered to increase the intensity of the attack, at least to achieve a victory comparable to Qin Zhiyuan.

But this is easier said than done.

Under the leadership of Plummer, the British won the Battle of the Maine Road and the Battle of Polligan Wood in succession. The Bavarian prince could not stand the successive failures of the troops and personally came to the front to supervise the battle.

The German army thus restored some morale. In the following Battle of Brookson, although the German army itself suffered 30,000 casualties, the British also suffered 25,000 casualties.

It seems that the battle has returned to the meat grinder mode before 1917.

Neither the British nor the Germans could bear such heavy casualties.

So the British changed their generals again, from Gough to Plummer, and now it is Arthur Kerry from Canada.

The Canadians performed very well. They won the most glorious victory of the British army this year in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

This should have been written about in great detail, but the former glory has now been overshadowed by Qin Zhiyuan's halo and has become dim.

The troops in Arthur Kerry's hands are all from British colonies, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

The British colonial army is of course far more than these. On the European battlefield, there are also a large number of Indian troops and Gurkha rifle battalions active. This is the last capital of the British. Haig will not assign these troops to Arthur Kerry.

As a colonial power, the British recruited millions of troops from the colonies to fight in Europe, but the French could only form a few regiments. If Qin Zhiyuan had not come out of nowhere, the size of the Foreign Legion would not have exceeded 50,000.

From this point, we can see the gap between the French and the British in terms of operating colonies.

Arthur Kerry carefully studied the current confrontation situation and then took a conservative attitude. Arthur Kerry estimated that if the offensive continued under the current circumstances, the casualties might reach 16,000 to achieve the strategic goal of conquering Passchendaele.

Although he foresaw that there would be heavy casualties, Arthur Kerry did not refuse the mission and still led his troops to launch an attack.

As Arthur Kerry had estimated, the first attack suffered heavy casualties, but also caused the same losses to the Germans.

Three days later, the second attack was restarted, and the losses were still heavy, and there was no improvement. Four days later, the third attack began...

By mid-October, after arduous and arduous battles, the exhausted Germans were driven out of Passchendaele. As Arthur Kerry had expected, the British army suffered 16,000 casualties, most of whom were Canadians.

This result directly led to Arthur Kerry being tried after returning to Canada after the end of the world war.

Of course, for now, Arthur Kerry is a British hero and has not been criticized.

By the time of the victory of the Battle of Passchendaele, the British had lost a total of 250,000 people, and the Germans had similar losses. The Germans lost 118 divisions, many of which were completely killed or wounded. The British seemed to have only 43 divisions, but because of the continuous replenishment of colonial troops, the British had much more manpower than the Germans.

Haig even declared victory before the battle was completely over, because the Allies needed a big victory to boost morale.

In October, the Germans and Austrians jointly launched the Battle of Caporetto, also known as the 12th Battle of Isonzo.

Before the battle, the German-Austrian coalition had 33 divisions and the Italians had 41 divisions.

After the battle was launched, no one expected that this battle would turn into a big defeat.

Because 6 German divisions participated in the battle secretly, the Italians surrendered 200,000 people in three days, lost 1,800 cannons, and the remaining 800,000 people fled. Then in the subsequent battles, the Italians lost a total of 460,000 people, including 265,000 prisoners.

This result was unbearable for everyone. Cardona, the Italian commander-in-chief who liked to shoot one every ten people, was dismissed, the Roman government fell, and the mess was eventually taken over by Britain and France.

So General Fayolle, the commander-in-chief of the French army on the Western Front, and General Plumer, who had just made some progress, immediately received orders to lead five French and five British divisions through the tunnels under the Albis Mountains to the Piave River to establish a defense line and assist the Italians in strengthening their defense.

It seems that the progress made by Qin Zhiyuan and the British army through a series of victories was completely lost by the Italians.

It was not all bad news. In mid-October, good news finally came from Corsica.

In fact, as early as July, the research on penicillin was in a state where it could succeed at any time.

The first batch of finished products was used on experimental mice, then monkeys, gorillas, and then German prisoners of war.

From the beginning of the war to now, France has captured about 400,000 German prisoners of war, nearly half of whom were captured by Qin Zhiyuan this year.

These prisoners of war were widely used in mining and road construction, and they were all engaged in heavy physical work.

After Crown Prince Wilhelm was captured, he visited more than a dozen German POW settlements within half a month, and then submitted a request to the French government to change the living environment of POWs.

As a POW, it was really strange to make such a request.

But what is even more bizarre is that the French government actually accepted the request of Crown Prince William, and the labor intensity of German prisoners of war was reduced, and their lives were also improved.

Crown Prince William's prestige among German prisoners of war rose sharply for a while, which was an unexpected surprise.

Under the joint operation of Qin Zhiyuan and Crown Prince William, some German prisoners of war were transferred to Corsica for resettlement, on the one hand to serve their sentences, and on the other hand to help Corsica with construction.

For this group of "workers" who did not want wages, Mary and Portlem were overjoyed. Not only did they provide the prisoners with a relatively superior living environment, but they also tried to refer to the level of the new barracks for all kinds of supplies. Except for the lack of alcoholic beverages, basically what the new barracks on Corsica have, the prisoners have.

Corsica is now basically full of new immigrants. New immigrants have just arrived in a strange place, and they will instinctively maintain a tolerant and friendly attitude towards the people and things around them.

Especially the Chinese from the Far East, who are used to hard times, although they are frugal, they will never be stingy.

The Chinese, who live in families, are also used to sharing. If they make something good at home, they must call their neighbors to share it together. Their warm and hospitable nature has won universal praise.

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Moreover, the Chinese, who have suffered from discrimination, will not treat anyone, even the German soldiers who have fought with their husbands or sons. The Chinese can maintain basic friendliness, which makes the German prisoners feel warm.

The German prisoners of war were engaged in construction work on Corsica. It is inevitable to move and lift. Since it is all physical work, there is a possibility of injury.

So one day in mid-August, a German prisoner of war was hit while transporting construction materials, and then the wound became infected and pus appeared.

If the normal procedure is followed, such injuries usually require amputation.

But when the injury report was reported to Mao Shiba, Mao Shiba found Sandy and asked to use penicillin, which has not yet been verified, for the wounded.

"Directly use it on humans? No, absolutely not! This drug has not been verified yet, and no one knows what will happen. We have to be responsible for the patients." Sandy refused directly.

"It is precisely because I have to be responsible for the patients that I asked to use this drug on the patients. The wound on the patient's leg has been infected, and it is both lower limbs. If it is not treated in time, the patient's legs will have to be amputated. You should know what this means to the patient." Mao Shiba doesn't care about any medical ethics. As long as this "money-grabbing man" thinks of the beautiful "money" scene described by Qin Zhiyuan, he can't wait to put this drug on the market tomorrow.

"After all, life is still there after amputating both legs, which is much better than rashly trying to lose your life." Sandy is very persistent. She has now confirmed that this is indeed a project that can touch the dynamite award, so there is no room for slackness.

"But life without legs is incomplete. The patient may become a burden to the family, a burden to society, and a heretic in the eyes of others. No one has the power to decide the patient's future life, except the patient himself." Mao Shiba is now using big hats to pressure people.

"But penicillin has not yet reached the stage of clinical application. If something goes wrong, who will be responsible for the patient's life?" Although Sandy also wants to speed up and develop penicillin as soon as possible, Sandy hopes that this "speeding up" process is controllable.

"The patient will be responsible. Why don't we ask the patient himself and see his decision? After all, the patient is awake now." Mao Shiba made a suggestion that Sandy could not refuse.

"Okay!" Sandy nodded in agreement.

At this point, there was really no need to push back, so Sandy and Mao Shiba went to the hospital together and let the patient decide his own fate.

Thunder City has built a hospital with 300 beds to provide medical services for patients in Thunder City and Trident City. Compared with the huge population base and the ongoing war, just one hospital is definitely not enough, so the expansion has never stopped.

It is expected that the hospital, as well as the supporting sanatorium and rehabilitation center, will cover a total area of ​​more than 1.5 square kilometers and have 3,000 beds after completion.

Most of the doctors in the hospital are Chinese, and there are also professors from the medical school who were hired from France at high salaries. This hospital is also the internship center of the medical school. Medical school students usually stay in the hospital most of the time, receiving advice from teachers at any time, and of course they also do some simple work.

There are now more than 200 seriously injured soldiers sent from the field hospital in this hospital. Most of them have limb disabilities and will receive long-term treatment here.

The German prisoner of war who was hit is also here.

After hearing Mao Shiba's explanation, the choice of the German prisoner of war was not surprising. He asked to receive penicillin treatment. No matter whether it was effective or not, whether he would suffer secondary injuries, he would have no regrets.

So Sandy personally did a skin test on the patient and then injected penicillin.

The effect was very obvious. Starting from that night, the redness and swelling of the wound were significantly reduced, and the patient's high fever symptoms began to subside.

On the third day, Mao Shiba personally cleaned the rotten tissue after the wound was infected and re-sutured it for the second time.

That is, from August, penicillin entered the clinical stage.