What Luke was most worried about did not happen. In the early morning of January 22, the British and French forces launched another attack.

However, the scene Luke hoped to see did not appear. There were not many enemies attacking the German First Army. According to the data compiled from various aspects, there would be no more than five divisions.

There are also some British among them. Luke is in a dilemma. Let's continue to retreat eastward. These divisions don't seem worth fighting.

Let's launch an attack. Luke isn't sure if this is a trap. You know, his First Army doesn't have many artillery shells!

In an era when aircraft were still immature, the only thing that could suppress artillery on the battlefield was more and bigger artillery.

What if there are no artillery or the number and performance of the artillery cannot match the enemy? The difficult wars of later generations provide the answer. We can only use the vast land as a buffer and human lives as the wall to resist and consume the enemy with difficulty.

As for blitzkrieg? In the final analysis, blitzkrieg is all about outflanking, dividing, encircling, and concentrating firepower in local areas to form superiority in firepower and troops. The enemy is caught off guard.

One of the important points was the concentration of fast-moving mechanized and motorized troops and a powerful air force to attack from the French's weak points. This was also coupled with the confusion of the French's upper-level command.

At this time, Luke did not have these conditions. He did not even have as many cannons as his opponent, nor did he carry enough heavy artillery.

In World War I, the German army's advantage lay in heavy artillery, while the French army focused on light field artillery. In trench warfare, heavy artillery played a much greater role than light artillery.

However, Luke's army group was tasked with rapid breakthroughs and mobile attacks, and did not carry enough large-caliber heavy artillery.

In addition, the artillery shells carried have been exhausted all the way forward, otherwise the French Ninth Army would not have suffered such huge casualties when they tentatively attacked Paris.

…

Luke's First Army, which was supposed to be a decoy, failed to attract the main force of the French army. What did the French army do?

The offensive and defensive operations in the early stages of the war were gradually changing the French's operational thinking. The battle on the night of January 21st made Foch and other generals thoroughly understand that attacking a well-prepared enemy was already a very cost-effective tactic.

Especially if they continued to attack the German First Army, the French army was not sure that the battle would be ended in a short time, so Foch proposed a new idea.

"Go through the connection and organize the rendezvous between the German First Army and the German Second Army?" After hearing this, Xiafei stood up in fright, and then thought about it carefully, it was not impossible.

"If you can catch the enemy off guard, open up a front, and deploy machine guns and artillery, you can defend it with a small number of troops."

"In this way, the Germans will definitely launch a double attack on Paris and the junction to force us to return reinforcements."

"Defensive operations can easily achieve huge results. This has been confirmed on the battlefield..."

Xiafei touched his chin and murmured to himself.

He had to admit that this was a very bold tactic, and it seemed that it was still feasible.

The connection between the German First Army and the Second Army is about twenty kilometers wide in total, and the current distance between the two sides is more than fifty kilometers.

The First Division of Germany's First Army was entangled with the attacking First Division of the Sixth Army and was unable to concentrate on responding.

"It's too far. The distance is too far. The soldiers may be attacked by the Germans before they can set up their positions." Xiafei looked at the map and finally sighed.

In theory, this tactic can be accomplished, but in practical application, unless the French soldiers are all superhumans with unlimited physical strength, they do not have the physical strength to carry heavy equipment to complete emergency marches, set up positions, and resist German counterattacks.

This does not happen in a few days, but in a day or even a dozen hours. Just marching and setting up positions takes that long.

Once the Germans come faster, the French army will face a double-sided attack by the German army in the field.

If it were the beginning of the war, Xiafei would have used the French army's elite troops to perform this task, but at this time, the French army's elite troops were either disabled or still a little far away.

Fighter opportunities are fleeting and will not wait for you to slowly deploy your troops.

"Marshal Xiafei, I have an idea." Foch took a step forward to highlight his tough attitude.

"Let's talk, General, the Germans are rushing towards Paris with four armies, and any idea is important now." Joffre nodded.

"There are still cars in Paris. According to the report I got from the city hall, there are about 8,000 private cars and 4,000 taxis..." Before Foch could finish, he was interrupted by Joffre.

"General, that is the private property of the citizens. We don't have time to convince them one by one." Xiafei sighed.

Parisians are romantic. As an old revolutionary area, the biggest social activity of Parisians is protest marches.

Once, Charles XIV was guillotined by the Paris citizens for merely trying to raise taxes on the citizens of Paris.

If Joffre really dares to expropriate citizens' property, he will definitely be driven away by the angry Parisians. Maybe they will become interested and vote for the Germans.

"No! We can hire taxis to "volunteer" transport soldiers and equipment, and at the same time we will provide compensation and make a big publicity." Foch's eyes were sharp.

Why is it left untouched? Because Parisians are sensitive and united, so Foch took action to break this unity.

Xiafei obviously understood, and looked at him in surprise, then nodded.

"In that case, go ahead and do it. I will ask the city defense commander to cooperate with you, and the police department will also cooperate with your actions." Xiafei looked at the map and clicked with his hand.

There are no cities here, and the largest administrative unit is just a small town, the town of Wright.

"We have set up a defensive line in the small town of Leyte. If the Germans want to continue to move south, they must move towards Reims. If we attack, we can delay the war process and inflict casualties on the German army."

"This matter is very important. You should ask more people from the National Police Agency to come forward, and then ask the gendarmerie to cooperate. You are still very young, and you should not ruin your future here."

Xiafei said with some sadness.

Foch's proposal was to create an environment of patriotic reinforcements by all the people by leveraging taxi drivers, a united labor group.

Then, in the name of patriotism, the rich are asked to donate their cars. Of course, the government will compensate them at the original price.

It's not that these things can't be done, it just takes time and they can be recruited in a short time, unless violent means are used, but this will arouse the anger of the Paris citizens.

But with the glorious group of taxi drivers and government compensation, everything is different.

Not willing to donate your car? (It is true, especially those who own cars are from better-off families.)

Why are you unwilling? The government is not requisitioning your car, but buying it. Do you want to use the car to escape, or are you unwilling to give the car to the military?

What do you mean? Do you not want to contribute to the resistance against the Germans? Do you want the French army to be defeated and the German army to capture Paris? Are you a German? Or a spy?

Now, Mr. Spy, please raise your hands and follow us until we confirm that you are not a spy.

In this way, even if the citizens of Paris saw this, they would only despise this kind of person, instead of empathizing with him, and then become angry.

Some people say there is no need to go to such trouble and come to the door with a gun. How dare they not give it?

Again, romantic Parisians are never afraid of their own people. Joffre needs Paris to be stable, even if it means sitting back and watching the fighter jets disappear.

In particular, many of the recent recruits are from Paris and nearby areas. Once chaos breaks out, will they still have the heart to fight?

Soldiers are also human beings and cannot shoot at themselves or their comrades' relatives. Maybe at that time, they will point their guns at their superiors.

…

At noon on the 22nd, at Foch's request, Radio Paris began to play the Marseillaise on a loop and constantly praised the patriotism of Paris taxi drivers, calling them heroes.

The army and police carried many radios and loudspeakers and broadcast them throughout the city.

(Radio Paris is a company owned by Nanhua Holdings and is a subsidiary of Radio Europe.)

At the same time, 3,400 taxis drove out of Paris and headed south. An hour later, they picked up the 10,000 soldiers who had been waiting here for a long time.

Ten thousand soldiers sit in 3,400 vehicles, which should be very spacious, but in fact they are very difficult to sit in. Often seven or eight soldiers are squeezed into one vehicle.

Because in addition to 10,000 soldiers, these taxis also transported supplies together with a hundred trucks. In order to transport as much as possible, the French almost utilized the space to the extreme.

There is no car that is not overloaded, and even some shovels and other tools are strapped to the roof.

The Renault made in France has relatively low horsepower and a chassis that is not high enough, so it is mainly used to transport people and supplies. The BMW and Benz made in Nanhua have high horsepower and are even used to tow artillery.

It sounds strange, but it’s not impossible. Two vehicles can pull one cannon, and there are no other problems except that the speed is a bit slow and the driver’s tacit understanding is a bit high.

One afternoon on January 22, these cars made two round trips. On the second trip, the number of cars increased to 5,000. It was completely dark when they returned.

But they were extremely efficient. In a short period of time, they transported two divisions of personnel and most of their equipment, including heavy artillery, which was also pulled over by trucks.

On the morning of January 23, the number of cars increased. When the German Second Army arrived on the afternoon of the 23rd, five French divisions had already deployed on a 28-kilometer-long defense line and were rapidly constructing

fortifications.

These French troops were all drawn from the French Sixth Army, which attacked the German First Army in the south, and one division came from the French Ninth Army.

On the afternoon of the 23rd, a pioneer regiment of the German Second Army tried to attack but failed. When the main force arrived, the French army had completed the construction of the first-line position and was working hard to build the second-line position.

Moreover, three British divisions were also driving towards here in vehicles. When the German Second Army concentrated its forces to launch an attack on the 24th, there were already 130,000 British and French allied troops gathered on the defense line, no more than 180,000

How much smaller is the German Second Army?

At noon on the 24th, Joffre announced that the German First Army had been surrounded by the French army, and ordered the French Fifth, First (detouring to the south) and Sixth Army to attack the Germans.

The attack lasted for two days, and the French advanced very slowly, giving the Germans a chance to react.
Chapter completed!