Chapter 40 They are doomed

In the early morning, the sun just rose from the mist.

Major General Gard, who had just gotten up after a long sleep, didn't have time to wash up, so he stared at the map in the tent, frowning, and sighing from time to time.

At this moment, a burst of fierce gunfire suddenly came from the front. Major General Gard suddenly raised his head in surprise, and then turned his gaze outside the tent.

Soon a communications soldier rushed in and reported: "General, the reconnaissance unit was blocked by the enemy, with more than 70 casualties!"

The staff officer followed the communications soldier into the tent, and the expression on his face seemed to have expected this outcome.

"Order the troops to organize an attack!" Major General Gard ordered without any hesitation: "Kill them at all costs!"

"Yes!" The communications soldier responded and went to convey the order.

Major General Garde sighed feebly. Although the 5th Army had won the battle and was pursuing the enemy, it felt like it was being led by the enemy.

Every highland, every hill, and even a small patch of jungle they passed through might be a German ambush point.

The Germans' tactics were very flexible, and their ambushes were sometimes small and sometimes large.

When the French sent a small force to fight, they let the battle go and annihilated the small force.

When France organized a large force to surround them, they found that the enemy had already disappeared and left messages of greetings in broken French.

This allowed the 5th Army to advance only 8 kilometers per day, and there would be hundreds or thousands of casualties per kilometer.

Major General Gard gritted his teeth bitterly:

"Tanks, we need tanks! If the tanks were ahead, this wouldn't be the case!"

"Aren't they up yet? What happened to Brownie?"

"General!" the staff officer replied cautiously: "The old tank cannot be repaired, and the new tank has never been delivered to Major Browne's hands, so..."

It was the first time that Major General Gard hated capitalists so much.

When Charles invented the tank, it only took half a day to produce 12 of them. It was simply a matter of welding a few steel plates to a tractor.

But now, the capitalists are playing the trick of "hunger marketing" again. They deliberately delay time so as to create the illusion of a "severe shortage" of tanks in the army, so that the soldiers wait eagerly until they strongly demand it. The result is that the military has to Purchase at a markup.

Major General Gard may not care about the casualties of soldiers, but if this continues, his 5th Army will be exhausted, and he, the commander of the Army, will become a mere commander.

More importantly, Major General Gad felt that the Germans seemed unwilling to fail, and they were likely to gather troops during the retreat to counterattack.

Major General Gard was not sure whether he could withstand the German counterattack without tanks!

Just when Major General Gard was facing a dilemma, a burst of cheers came from outside the tent, and there was a faint roar of a motor.

"What happened?" Major General Gard asked, "Have reinforcements arrived?"

The sound of the motor was not as dull as the tank. Major General Gard thought it was a car carrying reinforcements.

Just as the staff officer was about to walk out of the tent to inspect the situation, a communications soldier hurriedly ran in and reported: "General, it's Major Browne. He's here with the 3rd Infantry Battalion!"

"Major Browne?" Major General Gard's eyes lit up: "So, their tanks have been repaired?"

"No, General!" the signal soldier replied: "They are riding... uh... maybe motorcycles, three-wheeled motorcycles!"

"A three-wheel motorcycle?"

Driven by curiosity, Major General Gard and his staff bent down and got out of the tent, grabbed the binoculars around their necks and looked at the road half a kilometer away. Sure enough, they saw motorcycles lining up and speeding along the road.

It is indeed a three-wheeled motorcycle, and each motorcycle is equipped with a Maxim machine gun.

This made Major General Gard's eyes light up. Is this a new type of tank? Was it invented by that young man named Charles?

Then Major General Gade felt something was wrong again, the motorcycle had no intention of stopping at all.

"Where are they going?" Major General Gard exclaimed.

The staff officer looked at the direction of the motorcycle and said, "General, their target is the mountain road!"

"No, no, let them stop!" Major General Gard was furious: "They should stay and fight with us instead of fleeing into the mountains... This is a shameful deserter!"

The staff officer immediately ordered the signal soldier: "Let them stop!"

"Yes!" The communications soldier responded, skillfully pulling a war horse and flying up, then pulled the horse's head and chased in the direction of the motorcycle.

However, when the staff saw the horses hanging with motorcycle exhaust and dust smoke in the distance, they knew that this order would not be conveyed to Major Browne.

This was Major Browne's intention. He didn't want Major General Gard's signalmen to follow up and tell them what to do.

This is also what Ciel means.

"It's very important that you break away from the command of the troops!" Charles squatted on the ground, staring at the map thoughtfully.

"Why?" The fear in Major Browne's eyes deepened.

What can a force of more than 200 people do if it is separated from the main force? They have lost support and are not enough to crush the enemy's teeth!

"Your commanders don't know how to use tricycles in combat!" Charles explained: "They will treat tricycles as tanks and let them drive in front to block bullets. Then you will really be finished!"

Major Browne was a little embarrassed. He had originally thought so, so he drove the Tricycle in front and used Maxim to shoot at the enemy position.

"Then..." Major Browne asked hesitantly, "We can't fight like this, can we?"

Major Brownie doesn't care about losing face. If he doesn't ask clearly now, he will lose his life on the battlefield instead of losing face.

Besides, Charles can't be considered as losing face, he is a genius!

"Of course not!" Charles replied: "The armor in front of the motorcycle is only 5MM thick, and the enemy's rifle can easily penetrate it from 200 meters away. The sides and rear are completely exposed to fire without any cover!"

Then Charles added: "We can't install thicker armor, otherwise it will affect driving!"

This puzzled Major Brownie: "If the sidecar can't stop bullets and can't attack the enemy, what's the use of it?"

"Speed, Major!" Charles emphasized: "Its advantage is speed!"

"Speed?" Major Brownie was confused. Can speed be an advantage on the battlefield? Isn't it faster to die?

Charles pointed at the map and analyzed:

"The Germans were able to fight and retreat at the same time because they left a troop behind to provide cover."

"Their covering troops were prepared for battle. They dug trenches or hid in favorable terrain and set up their guns, waiting for us to walk under their crosshairs!"

"Of course we can't run into their guns!"

Major Brownie objected: "But we can only catch up with them from behind..."

Charles didn't say anything, but turned his head and looked at Major Brownie coldly with a questioning look.

Major Brownie suddenly understood that infantry could only chase the enemy from behind, but motorcycles had several or even dozens of times the speed advantage.

Major Browne hesitated and said, "You mean, we can bypass the German cover forces and attack their main force!"

"Yes!" Charles said, "Their main force has no defenses. They think that there are cover forces in the rear to prevent the enemy from coming. So, they will march with rifles on their shoulders, and the cannons will be dragged by horses without being deployed. The whole team will march in a straight line along the road, or gather in a group on a flat open ground to camp and rest. At this time, if hundreds of Maxim machine guns suddenly appear on their flanks..."

Major Browne excitedly said, "They are finished. They may not even have a chance to fight back!"