Imperial Elite

Chapter 45 The cruel reality

Anyone who travels frequently knows that packing is an extremely painful process.

If this is true when a person goes out alone, it is even more so when an armored company needs to make an emergency deployment.

Because the time allotted was very tight, with only a few hours to get to the dock, when Joe returned to the camp and announced that they were about to make an emergency deployment.

The entire company went crazy.

The headache for both combat and logistical personnel is that packing things up in such a short time is a very painful task.

After all, an armored company is not like an infantry unit, where everyone just packs their personal belongings and stuffs the company headquarters' things in.

The armored company had too many odds and ends to pack up and take with them, from spare parts for vehicles to repair tools, and even tons of antifreeze.

The campsite was bustling with activity, like an anthill before a rainstorm.

While the general combat and logistical personnel were having headaches, the researchers at the Garage Gang were having the same headaches.

Although the Hound tank had been finalized and put into production, when the Hound MK-1 tank design was frozen, members of the Garage Gang began to study improved versions of the Hound tank with Rolls-Royce designers.

After all, the original design specifications were that the off-road speed should not be less than 20 kilometers per hour, but now it is only 17 kilometers per hour, which is obviously an area that needs improvement.

After reviewing the entire project and conducting an in-depth analysis of the vehicles, GarageBang and Rolls-Royce's engineers concluded that there were two main issues preventing the vehicles from reaching high speeds.

First, the transmission efficiency of the gearbox is poor, and a lot of power is lost in the gearbox. Second, there is also a slight problem with the engine's torque and the speed required for horsepower to be released.

So the garage team has been trying to improve the gearbox problem during this period.

However, given the current situation, the Garage Gang is clearly unable to continue this research. They can only pack up and seal the important data and samples, while calling on Rolls-Royce engineers to come and retrieve the samples.

Of course, the most troublesome people in the entire camp, besides Joe, were the old nobles of Bonitania.

Although they made some money during this period thanks to their collaboration with Joe on the HT-N tank project, what they cared about more than that money was Joe's promise that they wouldn't have to go to the battlefield and would only have to contend with the Britannian quartermaster.

But given the current situation, they obviously can't stay in London for afternoon tea.

Although they knew this was an order from the highest level, they also wanted to know, in the spirit of business, what arrangements Joe had made for them.

Although he was already extremely busy arranging various tasks, Joe remained very patient with these mobile logistics warehouses.

He was a man of his word, a man of his word. He had promised them they wouldn't have to go to the battlefield, and they truly didn't have to.

Joe had already made up his mind on the way back.

Given the current chaotic situation in Gaul, it was clearly impossible to expect them to provide any reliable logistical support when he was leading a special task force to Paris.

Joe, who had spent time on the Somme front, lacked confidence in the somewhat chaotic and haphazard logistics.

Therefore, Joe planned to divide these old nobles into five logistics teams on the way to Paris and leave them at key logistics points to supervise the logistics personnel so that they could transport the supplies they needed to Paris as soon as possible.

After landing in Calais, the first logistics team was left behind, followed by another logistics team each time the military train passed through Abbeville, Amiens, and Beauvais, and finally the last logistics team was left behind after arriving in Paris.

Since the battle was expected to be extremely fierce, Joe said he was keeping his promise that they wouldn't have to go to the battlefield, but he also hoped that the lords would allow him to take their servants with him.

After all, if they stayed behind, they could easily hire new servants, and even finding a Gallic woman to have a few more illegitimate children wouldn't be a problem.

However, it will be difficult for Joe to replenish his troops.

Of course, Joe directly stated that he would not interfere with matters that could easily offend people, such as who should be in a group or who should stay at which station; the noble lords should discuss these matters among themselves.

As long as the noble lords can urge the logistics department to deliver the supplies, Joe has no intention of asking what they do in their spare time, or even where the logistics work is done, nor does he intend to accept any related complaints.

Regardless of the outcome of the battle, as long as there are quotas for awards and medals issued by the higher authorities, the noble lords will be able to receive two-fifths of them.

Upon hearing Joe's arrangement, the noble lords all expressed that Joe was truly a generous person who kept his promises. It was just a matter of supervising the logistics and transportation; they would take care of it without a problem!
When arranging for the noble gentlemen, Joe didn't forget to bring along the Hound Tank that had just been taken offline.

Although theoretically the Hound tanks have not yet been officially delivered to the troops, Joe still called Rolls-Royce to have the three Hound tanks that rolled off the production line today, as well as the two prototypes that had been wrecked during testing, delivered to the dock before noon to await their receipt.

As for anyone who wants to cause trouble for Joe regarding the procedural order, let them go to the Prime Minister and the Chief of the General Staff for the paperwork!

Joe didn't want to drive the Imperial Fist, such a slow crawling machine, to such a dangerous battlefield.

Even if you can't win a fight by driving a Hound Tank, at least you can escape.

Although the entire company was in complete chaos, Joe only discovered after arriving at the port that, in the midst of the confusion, someone had even brought over the Imperial Fist MK-1 and MK-2, junk that Joe thought could only be used to train new recruits.

However, the armored training company still managed to arrive at the port before midnight to begin boarding the ship, and Rolls-Royce also successfully delivered five Hound tanks to the dock.

This swelled the number of tanks in the armored training company to forty, and even included an armored recovery vehicle. By the standards of the Somme era, this was practically an armored regiment.

As the tanks and precious supplies began to be loaded onto the ship amidst the chaos, Joe also met the two company commanders of the Guards Grenadier Regiment.

While thanking Joe for securing a number of trucks for their company, the two company commanders also expressed that they had never fought alongside tank units before, so they were eager to know what they would need to do on the battlefield.

In fact, even if they hadn't come looking for Joe, Joe would have gone looking for them anyway.

Having witnessed firsthand how the Krieg grenadiers cooperated with tanks in combat, Joe had so much to say to them. Although he didn't know how much these Guards grenadiers could learn or remember in the short time before arriving in Paris, he hoped they could remember as much as possible.

With the boarding process completed, the transport ship, escorted by a destroyer squadron generously dispatched by the Navy, headed towards Calais.

Just as Joe was in the cargo hold of the transport ship, which was full of tanks, pointing to the tanks of the Armored Training Regiment, explaining to the officers and sergeants of the Guards Grenadiers how they should cooperate with the tanks, use the tanks' armor to protect themselves, and at the same time, how they should cover the tanks.

Jean-Pierre, who had just finished inspecting the sentry post, was in the barn checking on the horses.

The horses were exhausted after a day of fighting.

As a veteran cavalryman, Jean-Pierre knew that if these pampered comrades were not properly cared for, they would soon die in droves, turning him back into a pitiful infantryman who could only squat in the trenches.

Jean-Pierre, who had been holed up in the trenches for two years, never dreamed that he would one day ride a warhorse again before the war ended.

Jean-Pierre also did not expect that the defensive line, which had been held for three years, would be breached by the Teutons in just two days. Just as Jean-Pierre never imagined that the glorious Gallo army would mutini during a major battle.

This event caused Jean-Pierre great distress. He now clearly realized that the Emperor and his glorious old guard might never return, just like the glory of the Gallo-Army, the strongest army in the Old World, which had vanished forever into the annals of history.

Although he lamented that people today had forgotten the honor of their ancestors, Jean-Pierre had no time to dwell on such matters as the Teutonic cavalry were swarming toward Paris like locusts.

The 7th Cavalry Division, as one of the few units that did not participate in the mutiny and still obeyed the command of Paris, has now received only one order: "Mount up and do everything in your power to keep the Teutons out of Paris. The Teutons must not be allowed to reach Paris!"

Although he knew that the order was basically sending them to their deaths, using their lives to buy time for the following troops to organize a defensive line, Jean-Pierre did not flinch.

His great-grandfather had cowered at Waterloo, and Gaul lost its emperor; his grandfather had cowered at Sedan, and Gaul lost Alsace-Lorraine. Jean-Pierre knew that if he were to cower again now, perhaps Gaul would not even exist, and he would have no face to meet his grandfather, who had spent his entire life regretting not having chosen to be a hero at Sedan.

After checking on the horses, Jean-Pierre was about to go to the guest room that the farm owner had generously prepared for him to sleep in when he seemed to hear the sound of horses' hooves coming from the darkness in the distance.

Then, with a gunshot, Jean-Pierre burst out of the barn as if he had been whipped, and blew his whistle.

"Assemble! The Teutons are attacking!"

Just as Jean-Pierre was organizing the resistance, Holtz, who had been promoted to sergeant, was sitting on a bloodstained millstone, smoking.

The tiny spark from the cigarette illuminated Holtz's breastplate, which was covered in scratches and dents, as well as the bloody wound on his face.

That was the work of the Gallic officer who lay on the ground beside the millstone.

Before being killed by Holz with an entrenching tool, he had already slashed down two of Holz's assault team members with his saber.

Although the officer and his men inflicted considerable losses on Holz's assault platoon, with six assaultmen falling outside the mill and two others unsure if they would survive the night.

However, this time Holz did not allow his men to loot the Gauls' corpses as they had done in the past.

Holtz felt they were warriors, fully deserving of his respect.

Holtz then ordered his men to bury the Gauls like the six fallen commandos.

Since breaking through the Gauls' defenses, Holtz's Stormtroopers no longer operated at the battalion or company level as they had before at Verdun.

Instead, they dispersed into platoons and began to ride in carriages or cars, following behind the cavalry as they advanced toward Paris.

What awaited them was no longer the deep trenches and dense barbed wire of before, but only some hastily dug defensive works or a few rural houses.

There were also some Teutonic cavalrymen who kept watch over the Gauls near these fortifications and strongholds, while also taking a break.

In the past few days, Holtz has seen more cavalry than he had ever seen in his entire life.

After informing Holtz and his men of the condition of the Gauls in these temporary fortifications and strongholds, the cavalrymen would continue south on horseback, leaving Holtz and his men to deal with the fortifications and the Gauls there.

Some of the Gauls in the fortifications offered little resistance, surrendering after Holz and his men approached and threw the first volley of grenades.

Some of the Gauls in the fortifications stubbornly fought Holz and his men to the bitter end, even with their rifles empty of bullets.

Worse still, as Holz and his men advanced further south, they encountered these stubborn Gauls who were determined to fight them to the death more and more frequently.

Just like this time, the Gallic captain, with only five men, guarded the mill and, despite Holtz's overwhelming advantage, still chose to refuse to surrender.

When refusing Holtz's offer to surrender, the Gallic captain repeatedly used a word, which Holtz later asked his subordinate, who knew some Gaulish, what the Gallic captain meant after the battle.

The subordinate told Holz that the word meant 'absolutely not' in Gaulish.

Soon twelve graves appeared outside the rather ancient-looking mill, the soft soil concealing all differences between them; those who had once fought to the death now lay side by side in the same land.

Only the identification tags and the various helmets hanging on the wooden planks stuck in front of the mound seem to be silently telling a story.

As the eastern sky gradually brightened, Holtz threw his cigarette butt outside the barn onto the dew-covered grass.

He raised his hand and looked at his watch, a trophy Holz had acquired during the Battle of Verdun last year.

"Everyone, rest for three hours. If the second platoon hasn't arrived by then, we'll continue advancing south."

Just as Holtz ordered a rest, Joe, who hadn't slept all night on the ship, finally heard the news that the ship had docked.

The reason I didn't sleep all night was not only to provide rapid basic training and explanation of infantry-tank coordination to the Guards grenadiers, but also, at least half of the reason, was the threat from the Teutonic submarines.

The alarms that went off from time to time kept Qiao on edge the whole way.

They were terrified that they had boarded the wrong ship and had been ambushed by the Teutons.

Fortunately, perhaps due to the crew's overreaction, or perhaps due to the effectiveness of the escorting destroyer fleet, after a night of anxiety, Joe finally set foot on the Old World again.

While waiting for the equipment to be unloaded from the transport ship and transferred to the military train at the dock, the intelligence personnel of the Expeditionary Force in Calais also found Joe and delivered the latest intelligence from the Champagne and Paris regions to him.

Upon seeing the intelligence he had received, Joe was somewhat prepared for the deteriorating state of the battle situation, even after receiving orders from above yesterday.

However, after actually seeing this intelligence, Joe gained a new understanding of the extent of the deterioration of the war situation and the rigor of the Expeditionary Force's intelligence department.

The entire report is filled with ambiguous words such as "unknown," "speculation," and "possible."

It's unknown how far the Teutons advanced, but it's speculated that their forwards were about 30 kilometers from Paris at that point.

It is unclear how many troops the Teutons deployed and what kind of equipment they possessed, but they may have deployed tanks. Spy in the rear recently discovered that Daimler had been sending some heavy equipment out by rail at night, but due to the distance and poor visibility at night, the spy could not be certain whether the Teutons possessed and deployed tanks.

It is unknown which areas the Teutons occupied in the Champagne province after breaking through the defenses. Due to the constantly changing battle lines and the fact that the Gauls did not have enough troops to block the breach, they only sent a cavalry division to delay the Teutonic advance.

After breaking through the defenses, the Teutons launched a fierce cavalry attack on the Gauls' rear. So, not only the expeditionary intelligence department and overseas intelligence offices that had sent intelligence personnel, but even the high-ranking Gaulish military officials in Paris did not know which areas the Teutons had occupied.

The only confirmed safe zone is the area within ten kilometers north of Paris, which is considered relatively safe.

Looking at the report, Joe almost wanted to throw it on the ground.

What the hell are those Gauls doing?!

While he was terrified by the Teutonic submarine last night, Joe must have thought about what he should do.

Joe envisioned that he would ideally receive support from the Gallic troops and launch a flanking attack while the Teutons were charging forward, delivering a fatal blow to their midsection.

After such an attack, even if the Teutons were all superhumans, they would have to consider the possibility that their advancing troops would be surrounded after their flank breakthrough, thus slowing down their advance. In this way, the crisis facing Paris would naturally be temporarily resolved.

However, what Joe didn't expect was that the Gauls seemed to have been stunned by a blow, completely unaware of where the Teutons' flanks were.

They didn't even know where the Teutons' flanks were, so they couldn't expect them to organize an army and join them in attacking the Teutons.

Joe despairingly realized that the situation was developing in the direction he least wanted to face: he was likely to have to fight the Teutonic forces head-on.

Given that the Gauls lost all 132 tanks they had deployed within ten days in previous reports, it is clear that the Teutons had acquired some kind of anti-tank weapon or developed some new tactic.

The prospect of engaging in direct combat with the Teutons, something Joe desperately wanted to avoid, seemed to be becoming an unavoidable and brutal reality.

(End of this chapter)