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

Chapter 76 National Fortress
Charles had always thought that the plane was flying in the clouds, although he had noticed that the clouds smelled a little strange.

Soon, the pilot lowered the altitude to penetrate the heavy fog. Suddenly, the fire from the exploding shells seemed to be right below him. The sound even shook the wings a few times. Charles then realized that those "clouds" were actually smoke, smoke from the exploding shells.

"Look!" the pilot shouted excitedly, "We're here, Antwerp is ahead!"

Charles wanted to see what Antwerp looked like from the air, but he was disappointed. He could see nothing below except a few pinpoint lights. The smoke in the sky even obscured the little remaining light. It was clearly morning but it felt more like night.

The plane continued to descend, which made Charles worry that the shells whizzing past below would hit him. There were even streaks of bullets nearby.

A few minutes later, the sound of artillery fire gradually faded away, the sky became brighter, and only a few sporadic shells exploded ahead.

Looking back, the rear was obviously wrapped in smoke, and several huge spherical balloons could be vaguely seen.

It seemed as if we had just passed through a war zone and now we were entering the center of the Antwerp fortress, Charles thought.

The plane flew over Antwerp Airport and circled the airport twice until a soldier below waved a signal flag allowing landing. The pilot then lowered the altitude and parked the plane steadily on the runway.

"How is it?" After jumping off the plane, the pilot boasted to Charles: "I told you, we will reach our destination safely!"

As he said this, he pulled out the wine jug from his arms, tilted his neck back and drank a few gulps, as if rewarding himself.

"Hey!" A Belgian officer walked towards this side. He was wearing a flat-top felt hat, a dark blue lapel coat with two rows of brass buttons, a pistol on his waist, and the star on his collar showed that he was a major.

When they were still more than ten meters away, the major shouted to Charles without hesitation: "French, are you here to reinforce us?"

There was laughter all around, which made Ciel realize that the words were a mockery, so he didn't respond.

Charles gave the pilot instructions, stepped forward and saluted, took out his officer ID from his pocket and handed it over, saying, "Major! I'm here to investigate the situation!"

The major glanced at the officer's certificate and returned it to Charles. He spat to the side with a look of disdain and said in a sarcastic tone: "Very good, you finally remembered us!"

There was laughter all around again.

This made Charles a little confused. As far as he knew, Belgium had always maintained good relations with France, but now it seemed that this was not the case.

……

The Antwerp Fortress is not a traditional European fortress or fortress. It is a circular fortress group consisting of 29 extremely strong fortresses in two lines of defense. There are 21 fortresses in the first line of defense and 8 fortresses in the second line of defense. They are spaced 2 to 4 kilometers apart from each other, and together with rivers and mountains, they protect the city of Antwerp in the center.

Although the Antwerp Fortress is not as famous as the Liege Fortress, its strategic position is the highest. The role of the Liege Fortress is to block the invasion of the German army, but the Antwerp Fortress is the last "fortress" used by Belgium to defend itself, so it is also called the "national fortress."

The fortress command was in chaos at this time. Calls from the front line for emergencies and requests for reinforcements came in one after another, each more urgent than the other, but the fortress commander, General Gis, was helpless.

In the end, General Giss simply ordered the signalmen not to send the intelligence to him and let the staff handle it on their own.

"It's of no use anyway!" General Gis said weakly. He would rather sit in the chair and be in a daze for a while.

Before the battle, General Giss made a fatal mistake. He ordered the garrison to clear and burn all the weeds and trees around the fortress. The war scene in General Giss' mind was that German soldiers charged towards the fortress in dense formations with bayoneted rifles.

In order for the fortress's machine guns and cannons to better eliminate these enemies, of course the trees and weeds that could provide hiding places had to be cleared away.

However, actual combat is...

The Germans leisurely released balloons into the air, and the observers on the balloons guided the heavy artillery to calmly bombard the fortress from more than ten kilometers away.

As the trees and weeds had been cleared away, the fort was clearly visible under the observation of the balloon.

More importantly, the German heavy artillery had a range of up to 14 kilometers, which was much longer than the 200 kilometers of the Fortress's 10MM artillery.

Therefore, General Giss and all the fortress garrisons could only watch helplessly as the Germans blew up the fortresses one by one, one every day, without any countermeasures.

General Gis felt a little guilty, as all this was indeed caused by himself.

However, if someone else were to become the commander, he would probably make the same mistake. Who could have predicted such a situation? General Gis could only comfort himself in this way!
Just as he closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands in distress, a signalman stepped forward cautiously and reported: "General, we received a staff officer from France. He came to investigate the situation of the fortress. Do you need to meet him..."

General Guise raised his head as if pricked by a needle, and hope rekindled in his eyes: "From France? Bring him here, quickly!"

Normally, a French staff officer would be unlikely to meet General Guise.

But now it was wartime, and General Guise had pinned his hopes for Antwerp on reinforcements from France and Britain, and he was eager to know France's attitude.

However, General Guise was disappointed when he saw the French staff officer, who was only a second lieutenant and looked like a child.

"You, don't you have anyone else?" General Gis looked at the staff officer with an incredible look.

It's been less than a month since the war started, and the French have been wiped out? They actually sent a child to the fortress to investigate and negotiate?
Charles didn't quite understand what General Guise meant. He could only take it literally and answered: "Of course, General! But they are busy chasing the Germans. They are winning!"

General Guise's expression eased a little. This was good news. France was winning, which meant that they could potentially get here and help Belgium drive out the Germans.

Thinking of this, General Giss politely stood up and shook hands with Charles: "Welcome, Lieutenant!"

After sitting down, General Giss asked directly: "So, after you confirm the details of the fortress, will you send reinforcements?"

Charles replied in embarrassment: "I can't answer this question, General! This is beyond my duties!"

General Gis glanced at the rank insignia on Charles' cuffs and nodded: "Oh, of course!"

There was a glimmer of helplessness in his eyes, as if he had given up hope.

(End of this chapter)