I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 43 I want to see someone
The afternoons in Paris are grey and hazy, even though the sun may be shining elsewhere.

Gallieni was lying alone on his bed in the headquarters lounge, looking out the window at the smog, and complaining self-deprecatingly: "It's unbelievable, why do the Germans like this city, what's so good about it?"

Before he could finish his words, he frowned as he felt a dull pain in his abdomen.

It was an old wound left over from the Franco-German War. Gallieni vaguely remembered that he was only a second lieutenant at the time, leading a team of more than 200 people and fighting against the Prussians with Chassepeau rifles.

He was so focused on aiming his rifle at a Prussian colonel that he didn't realize he was in the crosshairs of another.

Almost at the same time when Gallieni fired his rifle and knocked down the target, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and then his whole body lost its support and collapsed to the ground, unable to stand up again.

Gallieni became a prisoner of the Prussians, and he thought he would have to spend the rest of his days in the prisoner camp in pain because the Prussians would not waste precious medicine on prisoners.

But fate is so magical. France surrendered soon after, and the Prussians released the prisoners according to the agreement. Gallieni was one of them. He miraculously survived and grew into a French lieutenant general in the following decades.

Gallieni sat up from the bed with his hands on his abdomen, muttering to himself: "I should be thankful that the Germans used paper shell ammunition at that time, otherwise, France would have lost a general!"

There was a soft knock on the door. Gallieni put down his hand and straightened up. He didn't want his men to see his weakness. "Come in!"

The staff officer pushed the door open and Gallieni knew it was good news when he saw his face.

"What? Have we made another step forward?" Gallieni asked with some sarcasm in his tone.

Advancing with blood and life is not something to be proud of. Gallieni even worried that the Germans were retreating to advance and thereby consume the manpower of the French army.

However, all the officers in the command enjoyed it very much, and newspapers continued to report and even exaggerate the news of the victory.

"No, General!" The staff officer excitedly handed the document to Gallieni. "It was the 5rd Infantry Battalion of the th Army. They were the ones who drove the tanks to drive the Germans away. They won another great victory!"

Gallieni said "Oh", he took the document calmly, took the glasses from the bedside and put them on, and asked expressionlessly: "Did they drive the tanks up again? Why did I hear that the purchase price of the tanks was still being negotiated..."

"No, General!" the staff officer replied, "It's not a tank, it's a modified motorcycle!"

"Motorcycle?" Gallieni cast a puzzled look at the document in his hand, which recorded the battle results reported by the 5th Army.

"It is estimated that more than 4,000 enemies were killed or wounded, more than 40 artillery pieces were destroyed, and our army only lost 23 people..."

Gallieni whispered, his voice gradually rising into a questioning tone.

A hint of sneer hung on the corner of his mouth, and he turned his head to look at the staff officer with anger in his eyes: "Do you think I am a fool, Alex?"

The staff officer was stunned: "No, of course not, General..."

"If not, why are you mocking me with this kind of battle report?" Gallieni threw the document onto the table and said coldly, "Have we reached the point where we have to falsify our military achievements to numb ourselves?"

"General..."

"Do you know how much negative impact this will have?" Gallieni became more and more angry. He slowly stood up and glared, "This is a shameful deception. Other troops will follow suit, Alex! Then everyone will be satisfied with this false military achievement and will not have to do anything! This will eventually lead to our collapse. No matter how many troops we have, it will be useless!"

"General..."

"And you, you actually lost the most basic judgment and sent this kind of battle report to me! You have encouraged this trend! This behavior is no different from falsely reporting military achievements! You are sinners and accomplices!"

Gallieni was so angry that his face turned pale. He had made up his mind to dig out all the people on this line and kick them out of the army.

Only in this way can the French army achieve victory, a real victory!
"This is true, General!" The staff officer shouted anxiously, "They used the sidecar invented by Charles, a kind of combat motorcycle, so they could achieve such a result with more than 200 people like tanks!" Gallieni was stunned. After a long while, he asked half-doubtfully, "Combat motorcycle? What is that?"

"I... I'm not sure!" The staff officer was stumped by this question: "They said it was a three-wheeled motorcycle with a Maxim machine gun in the sidecar so it could fight while moving! We couldn't believe such a result, but we confirmed it several times and got the same result!"

Gallieni still couldn't believe it. He was silent for a while and then seemed to remember something: "Are you talking about Charles, the boy who invented the tank?"

"Yes, that's him!" The staff officer suspected that it was Charles who really shocked Gallieni.

If Charles could invent a tank that allowed three hundred men to win a battle that they should have lost, then he might be able to invent another piece of equipment that could cause heavy casualties to two hundred men!

"General!" At this time, another staff officer pushed the door open and reported from the doorway: "The Germans have retreated. Our army has advanced 7 kilometers and found a large number of artillery wreckage and corpses along the way. The Germans didn't even have time to take the bodies away!"

This indirectly confirmed that the 3rd Infantry Battalion's battle results were real, and the artillery wreckage and corpses were ironclad evidence.

Gallieni's eyes lit up instantly, his anger had long since disappeared, replaced by ecstasy, which almost meant that the German attack had completely failed and there would be no counterattack.

He sat down at the table again and picked up the document. His fingers were shaking with excitement, and the document was shaking along with it.

After watching for a while, Gallieni ordered: "Alex, I need to know the whole process, the more detailed the better!"

"Yes, General!"

The staff officer was about to leave when Gallieni added another order: "Call Laurent!"

"Yes, General!"

Laurent was Gallieni's bodyguard.

Perhaps the word "guard" is not appropriate. Laurent is one of the few confidants of Gallieni whom he can trust without reservation. After all, when Gallieni retired, Laurent had always been by his side and voluntarily protected Gallieni's safety.

At that time, no one could have imagined that the Germans would attack and Gallieni would be reused again.

This means Laurent gave up almost everything, including fame, military rank, and high salary...

Not long after, Laurent knocked on the door and came in.

"Sir, what do you want?" Laurent asked softly.

Privately, Gallieni preferred Laurent to call him "Sir".

Gallieni nodded towards the wooden door. Laurent understood and turned around to close the door, then walked closer to Gallieni.

Gallieni lowered his voice and said, "I want to meet someone, but no one else can know about it. Please arrange it!"

"Yes, sir!"

Laurent responded with doubts in his heart. With Gallieni's current status, it would only take a word for him to see someone.

Why are you so secretive?

Can't let others know?

(End of this chapter)