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

Chapter 78 Who is Ciel?

In the evening in Antwerp, the originally dim sky became brighter because of the sunset glow shining through the clouds.

Twenty-five kilometers east of the fortress, in a basin formed by hills, the commander of the Third Reserve Army of the German First Army, von Bessler, was standing on a high place, holding a telescope and looking quietly ahead.

"Boom!" There was a loud noise.

In a storm of smoke, the whole earth trembled as if there was an earthquake.

The shell almost sucked out all the air on the ground when it was fired, causing a gust of wind, and everyone bent down and covered their ears out of habit.

That was the roar of the 420MM heavy artillery "Big Belsa". Its range could reach 14 kilometers. The shells alone weighed 1000 kilograms. It required 200 people to operate it, and it could only fire two shells per hour.

General Bessler did not move. He held the telescope in the fluctuating air and stood steadily like a sculpture. A minute later, a cloud of radiating smoke suddenly rose in the gray-black air in the distance, and a ball of bright light appeared in it. The shell exploded.

General Bessler frowned and shouted to the staff officer beside him in dissatisfaction: "Tell Frakes that he wasted another shell. This time he missed the target by at least one kilometer!"

"Yes, General!" The staff officer responded and went to pass on the order.

"These bastards!" General Bessler turned around, walked a few steps to the shell box, stared at the map pressed with a bayonet on it and complained: "As an artilleryman, shouldn't they be ashamed of such waste? We should have stood on the city wall of Antwerp to accept Guise's surrender long ago!"

General Bessler was an acquaintance of General Giss. Before the war, Germany and Belgium maintained good relations. Most of Belgium's weapons and equipment were purchased from Germany, including rifles for the Belgian army and artillery in the fortress.

It was an irony that Belgium was fighting Germany using German weapons.

Bessler and Gis were the kind of people who would get together to drink and play chess after discussing serious matters. They were not close friends, but they were friends.

But now they had to face each other on the battlefield, and Bessler didn't know whether he should hope to meet him sooner or never.

"General!" A staff officer came forward and reported, "We heard that Charles is in Antwerp!"

Bessler said "hmm", his eyes still fixed on the target on the map - Wavre Castle. He thought in his mind that as long as the fortress was blown up, the water supply system to Antwerp could be cut off, and Antwerp would then lose its source of fresh water.

"General!" the staff officer reminded again: "Charles may be in Antwerp!"

Bessler, whose train of thought was interrupted, raised his head angrily: "Does it matter who is in Antwerp? Are you going to read out the names of everyone in Antwerp in front of me..."

Before he could finish his words, Bessler suddenly realized something: "Who are you talking about? Charles?"

"Yes, General!"

"Charles from France? The guy who invented the tank and the sidecar?" Bessler asked again.

At this time, the terms "tank" and "sidecar" had spread throughout the German army, including Charles' story, which Bessler had also heard of.

"Yes, General!" the staff officer nodded.

Besler narrowed his eyes: "Are you sure? Where did you get the information?"

The staff officer became cautious. Having followed Besler for many years, he knew that squinting was Besler's habit, and he would only do so when faced with something big that could not afford to make mistakes.

"I'm not sure, General!" The staff officer was a little nervous: "We got the news from a Belgian businessman. He just returned to Belgium from France. He heard something about Charles flying to Antwerp this morning!"

Bessler was stunned for a moment, then immediately issued a series of orders: "Send someone to verify whether there were any planes entering Antwerp this morning. If there were, I want to know what model it was!"

The model is very important, as it can tell whether it is a single-seater or a two-seater. If it is a single-seater, it proves that the news is false, because it is unlikely that little Charles can fly a plane.

"Send one division... No, send two divisions here immediately. We may have to completely surround Antwerp!"

He couldn't wait for verification before mobilizing troops. What if it was true?
"Send another ten planes. We are going to surround Antwerp from the air!"

The staff officer wrote down the information in his notebook and asked in confusion, "But General, even if we send in planes, we can't stop the enemy's planes..."

"Knock them down even if you hit them!" Bessler roared, "Go now and do as I say!"

"Yes, General!" The staff officer ran over and gave the order.

"These guys!" Basler cursed, "They will never know how important this matter is!"

Then he cast his gaze towards Antwerp, muttering to himself: "That guy, is he really there? Who sent him here? What a bunch of idiots!"

After thinking for a while, Bessler still felt uneasy, so he turned around and shouted to the side: "Luca!"

A guard responded with a rifle slung over his shoulder.

"You are responsible for delivering a letter!" Bessler raised his head towards Antwerp: "Send it to the Belgians and ask them to give it to General Gies!"

"Yes, General!"

……

In the Antwerp operations office, the red lights made the room as bright as day. General Gies and General Winter were discussing the deployment of troops in front of a map.

General Winter said thoughtfully: "I think it is a good idea to deploy troops to the front line at night. We can dig a trench before the enemy finds us. Otherwise, we may be bombarded by the enemy while digging the trench!"

General Gies agreed: "What we need to strengthen most is the Wavre Fortress. Once it is breached, the Germans will follow the gap into the Vandeminde area, where we have our fresh water supply system, and then the whole city will lose its fresh water supply!"

General Winter's expression turned serious; he knew what it meant for a coastal city to lose its fresh water supply.

"Don't worry, General!" General Winter said, "We will organize defense there. Even if Fort Wavre is captured, the Germans will face our steel defense line!"

General Winter was confident in his army. The British troops were equipped with Enfield rifles, which were the fastest-firing rifles and even more useful than the French machine guns. With them guarding the trenches, it was impossible for the Germans to break through their defenses.

As the two men were further discussing the direction of the trench, a staff officer knocked on the door and handed General Gies a letter: "General, it was sent by the Germans. They said it was a letter from General Bessler to you!"

General Gies glanced at the envelope and recognized Bessler's handwriting.

"It must be to persuade them to surrender!" General Gis smiled, opened the wax seal and took out the letter. After looking at it for a while, he asked in confusion, "Who is Charles? They said that as long as you hand Charles over to them, they will promise not to attack Antwerp again, and the same will be true in the future!"

"Charles?" General Winter was confused. "Is he here?"

(End of this chapter)