I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 124: Revised - Can This Be Called War?

Today’s work was quite busy, I’m afraid I can’t write five Chapters, sorry! Tomorrow I’ll continue with five Chapters!

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"Aphro" fired smoke bombs at the German artillery positions.

The earliest smoke bombs were invented by a British officer named Motley in 1849, using silver nitrate and ferric oxide as the chemical agents. However, this smoke bomb was not effective, as the smoke it produced only made the enemy feel "there’s smoke."

Shire used a formula improved by the Germans two years later, using potassium nitrate and sucrose as the chemical agents. Its smoke intensity was ten times that of the original smoke bomb, and it was cheaper and easier to obtain raw materials.

What Shire had to do was to fill these chemicals into rockets and get the pilots to fire them into the "danger zones."

The German machine gunners stationed in the artillery positions quickly had their vision obscured by the smoke and couldn’t see the planes in the sky, while the pilots could still see the towering gun barrels in the positions below.

Then, the rocket planes swooped down, firing rockets between their wings into the artillery positions.

Although the rockets were not accurate, they were numerous, with each plane carrying ten rockets, meaning over a hundred rockets from a dozen planes.

These rockets bombarded the artillery positions chaotically, instantly throwing the German artillery into disarray.

Suddenly, a fire ignited in the smoke, a blazing mass like a pile of lit firewood.

It was not firewood, but a truck transporting ammunition.

There were only two trucks parked in the entire artillery position, and one of them was hit by a rocket by sheer coincidence. The truck’s rear compartment even contained more than twenty shells that hadn’t been unloaded in time.

The artillery officer blew his whistle, loudly ordering the driver to drive the truck away, but the driver couldn’t do it. The rocket had hit the cab, and fire was everywhere, making it impossible to even pull out the starter crank.

In a hurry, a few soldiers ran over with wet coats and shovels to try to extinguish the fire, but it was futile; the fire only grew larger.

This scared the soldiers, and those attempting to put out the fire abandoned their tools and fled, but it was to no avail.

"Boom!"

After a loud explosion, the shells in the rear compartment detonated, the fire spreading and igniting nearby shells, triggering a series of chain explosions.

Flying in the sky, Carter glanced at the flames below, then refocused on the German planes, which were fleeing in all directions under pursuit from the "Aphro" planes, but those unarmed planes were destined to become targets.

Carter calmly chased down the enemy planes, aimed, and pulled the control stick...

General Kross, watching the chaos in the rear and seeing planes being shot down one after another, felt a sense of helplessness.

This was an unfair war; the German Army had superior numbers and much better quality, yet it was like punching into a cloud, completely ineffective.

Meanwhile, the enemy’s vulnerable infantry hid in the trenches, doing nothing, only occasionally popping their heads up to pull the triggers.

Can this be called a war? This is essentially a one-sided massacre! frёewebηovel.cѳm

After a long while, Kross finally gave the order in a muffled voice: "Retreat!"

The staff had been waiting for this command; anyone could see that the soldiers were suffering pointless casualties. As soon as the order was received, he immediately conveyed it through the phone.

...

Albert I and General Charles were still clueless about the situation until the German Army retreated; everything happened too suddenly.

Seeing the Germans retreat like a tide, Albert I was still puzzled, "Were they scared off by the planes? Or the artillery?"

In his view, the French artillery fire was unsustainable; once they opened fire, it almost meant their demise... The German artillery would soon counter-suppress them.

Next would be the most dangerous time: the French artillery silenced by explosions, the German infantry taking advantage and fiercely attacking, leading to close combat between the enemy and us, and soon the Belgian defenses would collapse completely.

The Germans were winning; they just needed to hold on a little longer!

Albert even thought about opening the water gates, believing it might be the only way to save Ypres.

However...

The Germans miraculously retreated!

A multitude of questions filled Albert I’s mind:

Why did they retreat?

Why didn’t the German artillery open fire?

Why were the French 75 cannons chasing and bombarding the Germans?

General Charles wasn’t clear either, until he raised his binoculars to look in the direction of the German forces and found that all the German balloons had disappeared, not a single one left.

"It’s the planes!" General Charles exclaimed excitedly, "The planes have achieved victory once again by destroying the balloons!"

Albert I followed Charles’s gaze and saw that the only things in the German sky apart from white clouds were the French "Aphros."

He couldn’t help but exclaim, "My God, Shire can win this battle even without us!"

While this statement wasn’t entirely accurate, the Belgian Army was still useful.

They could at least dig a trench there to form a line of defense, occasionally dealing with a few brave enemy soldiers who came through the artillery barrage. This way, they could handle them.

Otherwise, if these "stragglers" made it through to the artillery positions or threatened the King and headquarters, they might still cause some chaos.

Albert I didn’t know that a small contingent of French reinforcements was on their way, their commander riding a tall horse, followed by a cavalry of over two hundred men.

He was Fuxu, honored as a respected figure by the French Army.

Fuxu was extremely dissatisfied, even furious, when he received the order to "stop advancing." Unable to hold back, Fuxu cursed:

"This is absurd!"

"Ypres is waiting for our reinforcement, and there’s no ridiculous ’flash flood’ in front of us; the bridge is right there, it’s right there!"

"We could clearly reach there by tonight, but we are made to wait here until tomorrow!"

"He’s doing this unequivocally to help the Germans capture Ypres!"

Fuxu was even suspicious that Gallieni was bribed by the Germans to make such an unreasonable order.

But that didn’t seem right either, since Gallieni had saved Paris. If he were bribed by the Germans, he should have cooperated with them in Paris instead of driving them out!

So, was Gallieni hoping for the British reinforcements to arrive first?

Or was he considering other aspects?

Baffled, Fuxu decided to personally lead a cavalry team to Ypres to find out!

All the way, Fuxu was anxious, even considering whether to disregard the order and bring up the reinforcements at all costs.

However...

Soon he found his worries were unnecessary!

When he arrived in Ypres in a rush, he saw that France was achieving victory.

The entire sky was filled with planes bearing the French tricolor paint, and the Germans were fleeing in panic under the artillery bombardment, the ground littered with the mangled bodies of German soldiers...

This was an almost perfect victory, with nearly zero casualties for the Allies!