Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 51 Black Pants and Black Hat

Damon almost escaped from the army headquarters with his colleagues.

But there are some differences.

To Damon and the generals, they were just escaping from a fool.

But for those who are just colonels or even lieutenants, it is different.

Many of them are new officers who have just passed the officer course. Not to mention going to the battlefield, they don’t even know what their jobs are in the headquarters.

Back to Damon.

He had participated in four wars and had seen the Farlan soldiers of the Kingdom period line up in standard dense lines, holding long spears and fighting against the Imperial Army.

There are victories and there are failures.

He had also seen with his own eyes the red glory of the Imperial Army stretching one after another along the border, from Paliu all the way to Belgreen, from a hot air balloon.

It wasn't a pretty sight, and Damon was well aware of it.

Therefore, when Commander Bono yelled at him to capture Mulhouse before noon tomorrow, the first thing Damon thought of was not the battle plan, but how Bono would be scolded by Commander-in-Chief Joffre.

But before that, what needs to be done must be done.

In a war command post closer to the front line than the army headquarters.

This is the headquarters of the 7th and 8th Armies under the First Farland Army.

The previous one was the headquarters shared by all senior generals of the army.

Of course, the headquarters of the 14th and 21st Armies had now been transferred to Lorraine, so there was no place for them.

Within the headquarters.

Damon ignored the people from the 7th Army and just checked the backup sand table and battlefield map with his own 8th Army.

Unfortunately, the aerial photographs have not been sent back since yesterday. Since the Imperial Army experienced the joy of strafing flying vehicles with multiple machine guns more than a week ago, it has become much more difficult for the Farlans to enter the battlefield freely and take military photos as before.

Using thousands of bullets to shoot down a flying, oversized mosquito is a great deal no matter how you look at it.

It is worth mentioning that Damon had applied for air support from the airship fleet since last week, but as soon as the news was delivered to the headquarters in Palu yesterday, General Joffre heard that a captain named Ryan Flig had arrived in Alsace.

Then the airship troops that had already set out were withdrawn.

The reason was that they did not want any airship troops to be shot down in Alsace.

Dimon hasn't heard the news yet, but he will soon.

The huge sand table was carried to the center of the command post by five or six soldiers. Damon and his men stood together and looked at the sand table that was made three days ago.

"Scouts confirmed widespread flames on both sides of the battlefield last night. We currently infer that the Imperial Army had already constructed concealed fortifications weeks, if not decades, in advance. Yesterday's attack went so smoothly that it was likely an adjustment they made in response."

A colonel stepped forward first. Based on what he and his subordinates had confirmed at the front line yesterday, he drew a long line at the location that was probably Ryan's position.

"This is going to be tricky," the brigadier general serving as a staff officer stood aside, looking thoughtfully at the sand table in front of him. "Our legion is entirely infantry, with only a small amount of cavalry. Breaking through the front line is already difficult, and now the enemy has set up an encirclement. It's clear they're trying to lure us in."

"Isn't that how Patrick and the others died?"

Damon muttered, "The question now is whether we can destroy the enemy's firepower points on both sides of the battlefield."

What he said actually makes sense.

In reality, the trenches of the Farlans and the Empire weren't very far apart. Judging from the sand table, the frontline trenches of the two countries were only a few fingers' width apart—at most, half a mile, according to actual proportions.

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Infantry Regiments under the Eighth Army took an hour to cross their own four-kilometer buffer zone because they did not want to destroy the barbed wire and fortifications on their positions.

But once they entered the empire, they rushed through the 500-meter-wide barbed wire area built by the empire in one breath, and then began the fierce offensive designed by the empire.

Very clever tactic.

Damon thought.

This was a tactic that had never been used by either the Empire or Farlan. Until the day before yesterday, the offensive and defensive tactics they and the Empire had envisioned on the battlefield were simply to line up the soldiers in dense formations, using the lines of the Kingdom Revolution period to engage in a fair and unadulterated fight.

But not anymore.

The empire has adopted a new tactic, which is a set of combat plans that can completely destroy past strategic and tactical ideas.

They must change their thinking immediately, otherwise even if they can capture Mulhouse, they will still die in the subsequent battles.

Everyone in the Eighth Army was silent.

Some of their commanders still believed that traditional flooding operations would work, just as they still believed that their military uniforms with black and gold stripes represented absolute glory.

Damon saw what these soldiers were thinking. He turned and walked to his desk, took out a pen and wanted to write a letter to his friend at the General Staff Headquarters in Palu, hoping to at least get rid of these stupid guys.

But at this moment, a group of soldiers from the 7th Army happened to march past the door of the headquarters.

Damon instinctively raised his head and looked at the group of brightly dressed soldiers.

The red flat cap and big pants look brighter than the blooming wild flowers. If there is a layer of soil behind them, I am afraid they can be seen clearly from several kilometers away.

"Dominic."

He watched the soldiers walk away and called his adjutant.

A little boy who looked only about seventeen or eighteen years old ran up to him. He was a warrant officer and said, "Here I am, uncle."

"Call me Major General, Warrant Officer."

"Yes, Your Excellency Major General," the boy straightened his back and put his hands behind his back.

Damon then rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a wad of crumpled francs. He stuffed it into Dominic's hand and turned to look at everyone: "You, you, and you, yes, all the officers, everyone! Take out all the money you have!"

The officers were puzzled at first, then obeyed the order.

In a few minutes, a large stack of wrinkled francs was stuffed into a hat and handed to Dominic.

Damon took a look at the francs in the hat, thought for a moment, and immediately took off his gold pocket watch and gold wedding ring and put them in the hat.

"Dominic."

he said.

"Now, take a company of men and rush to the nearest tailor shop and clothing store and buy me all the black trousers and black cloth you can find!"

"If the money is not enough, write a note and ask them to come to me for it!"

"Before tonight, I want to see everyone in the Sixth and Seventh Regiments wearing black pants and black hats!"

"Do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)