Imperial Elite

Chapter 53 Persist in resistance, long live Gaul!
If the Teutonic radio communications left the Bunitania Expeditionary Force bewildered, then this news was a nightmare that General Henri, Commander-in-Chief of the Gallic Army and Commander of the Paris Garrison, could not shake off.

Thanks to the advantage of using the Eiffel Tower as a radio communications center, Admiral Henry learned of these messages even earlier than Haig and bore far greater pressure than Haig.

After all, for the Bunitania Expeditionary Force commanding the defense of the region from Ypar to San Quentin, if the war completely collapsed, they could simply retreat back to their homeland, and the invincible home fleet would certainly be able to send them all back.

As for General Henry, he had nowhere to go when he became Commander-in-Chief of the Gallic Army.

The civilian government could retreat to Bordeaux, but he had only one option: to stay in Paris.

If Paris is preserved, then even a thousand years from now, when people mention Paris, some will still remember its name.

If it can't be held... then the rest is simple. One of the reasons why General Henry chose the Invalides as his command post was that if he couldn't hold it, he wouldn't have to cause trouble for others; he could just bury them on the spot.

Of course, General Henry's willingness to defend Paris was actually due to his expectation of how many troops the Teutons would be able to send across the Champagne province to attack Paris.

Because of the three large-scale battles fought simultaneously on the eastern and western fronts last year, even if the Teutons are very capable fighters, they certainly won't be able to mobilize many troops now.

Furthermore, although there was internal strife in Lucia, the new government was still fulfilling its obligations under the alliance, so the Teutons would certainly continue to defend the eastern front.

General Henry believed that at this time and place, the Teutons could only send a maximum of about 100,000 mobile troops, and at most 200,000.

With two colonial divisions under my command and some militia to mobilize, an offensive is out of the question, and defending in trenches shouldn't be a problem.

Although the Teutons may be able to assemble more troops later, this is probably the only force they can deploy for the first wave.

But when the Teutons suddenly broke their radio silence and began rapidly reorganizing their troops, revealing the size of their forces, General Henry thought the Teutons had gone completely mad.

Faced with the terrifying size of the Teutonic army, General Henry felt as if he were being robbed by a bald, bearded man in the middle of the night. He was already prepared to pay, but the man chuckled, loosened his belt, and said, "Today I'm going to rob you of your virtue."

This feeling, worse than misery, made General Henry start thinking about how to write his will.

Of course, even if he wrote a will, he still had to protect Paris.

After the initial shock subsided, Admiral Henry realized that things were not as hopeless as they seemed.

After all, the Teutonic army was only so many, and now that they had committed all their troops to Paris, it meant that they were extremely vulnerable on the Eastern Front.

If the Lucias could seize this opportunity to launch an attack and give the Teutons a good kick in the backside, it's hard to say whether they could invade Germania, but the Lucias wouldn't be without a chance to occupy East Teutonic Castle.

Moreover, as a senior officer, General Henry believed that the Lucias also had an urgent need to launch an offensive on the Eastern Front.

After all, their provisional government had just overthrown the Tsar and was now in dire need of some achievements to prove its legitimacy. At this point in time, it would certainly be difficult to make any significant progress in the economic and political spheres.

Now, all we can do is resort to military force.

If the Lucias were to get close to East Teutoburg, the birthplace of the Teutonic Empire, Admiral Henry did not believe the Teutons would not send troops back to defend East Teutoburg.

When the time comes, we can use offense instead of defense, and the dilemma will be resolved on its own.

Moreover, even if we take a step back and assume that the troops in Verdun have mutinied rather than been wiped out, the Territorial Army, composed of older soldiers and wounded veterans, is on its way to Paris, so we still have cards to play.

Holding firm is victory!
After reaffirming his resolve that if he couldn't hold Paris, he would go downstairs and become neighbors with the emperor and the military heroes of Gaul buried there, he was determined to do so.

General Henry made a phone call to the cabinet, which had moved to Bordeaux. After emphasizing that the Teutonic army of 600,000 was pressing in, making it almost impossible to defend Paris, he said that the only way to save Paris now was to find a way to persuade the Lucia to launch an offensive on the eastern front, a large-scale offensive.

If they can inflict heavy losses on the Teutons on the Eastern Front, then after the Teutons divert their troops to relieve the Eastern Front, General Henry will have the opportunity to save Paris from the Teutons.

Upon hearing that 600,000 Teutons were preparing to besiege Paris, the cabinet was not only shocked, but also utterly terrified.

They repeatedly assured General Henry that they would immediately begin negotiations with Lucia to allow them to launch a large-scale offensive on the Eastern Front as soon as possible.

After receiving the cabinet's assurance, General Henry finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Everything will be alright as long as the Lucia launch an attack!
Before the Lucia launched their attack, Henry faced a small problem: how to hold out until the Teutons, threatened on the eastern front, would move their troops from the front to the east to confront the Lucia.

Holding Paris against the threat of 600,000 troops was indeed a difficult task.

At present, it is clear that relying solely on these poorly trained Paris National Guard troops, or the Territorial Army composed of veterans who are no longer fit for service and retired or disabled personnel, is definitely not enough.

General Henry urgently needed some new equipment to make up for the huge gap between his troops and the Teutons in terms of training, experience, and even numbers.

As the capital of Gaul, Paris happens to have some small advantages that most people might not think of.

For example, Paris has a particularly developed industrial sector.

Besides being recognized as the most romantic city in the entire Old World, it has been able to produce clothes, bags, and perfumes that were highly sought after by royalty and nobility since the Middle Ages.

Paris also boasts a complete automobile manufacturing industry. On the banks of the Seine in the western suburbs of Paris lies the core production plant of Les ...

The new tank that General Henry has high hopes for is now being tested and pre-produced here.

According to normal procedures, this tank, internally codenamed 'Faible Tonnage' (FT), needs to undergo off-road and durability tests before it can be delivered to the troops for use.

In peacetime, according to the lengthy process of the Ministry of Military Supplies, after being delivered to the troops, the tank would undergo one or two more rounds of optimization according to the troops' requirements before it would be officially finalized and put into service.

However, this is clearly not a good time to go through these procedures.

So General Henry made a phone call to the Lion Company.

Tell them to forget about the testing process now and start mass production of those small-tonnage tanks immediately.

What? You're asking me how many to produce? The army will buy as many as you can produce right now, understand?! There's no production cap!
On the other end of the phone, the head of the Lishi Company excitedly said that for Gaul, they would definitely work overtime to produce these tanks and complete the delivery as soon as possible!

Although the head of the Lishi Company promised that they would start mass production immediately, General Henry was still not entirely at ease after hanging up the phone.

After all, the tanks that might be available in the future obviously cannot save the current battle situation, so General Henry still needs to find a way to strengthen the defenses.

So, at this time and in this place, what is the fastest way to enhance the combat power of those weak troops who, in the past, wouldn't even be able to go to Verdun as filler troops?
General Henry once again thought of Joe's Paris task force.

Forty readily available tanks were simply deployed in one direction to counterattack the Teutons. What a waste of resources!

We must find a way to maximize the value of these tanks.

Looking at the map of Paris in front of him, General Henry began to ponder. It was clear that Joe was not going to listen to him. Was there any way to get rid of him?

If the task force is replaced, would I have a chance to persuade the new commander to follow my instructions and distribute the tanks among the infantry units to strengthen the defense?
With that in mind, General Henry began to ask his friends in Bonitania if a guy as arrogant as Joe had offended anyone in Bonitania.

If so, could I impeach this guy and get the Bonitania Expeditionary Force replaced?

Just as General Henry was pondering this question, his adjutant suddenly burst into his office.

"Sir! Just now, three National Guard battalions from the 15th arrondissement mutinied while en route to reinforce the 19th arrondissement. They have now occupied the Élysée Palace! They are demanding higher wages, labor protections, increased rations for workers' families, and..."

The adjutant swallowed hard and said, "They are demanding peace talks and a cessation of the war."

"what?!"

Meanwhile, at Gare du Nord in Paris, Joe was dismantling six MK-1 and MK-2 tanks with the Garage Gang in the train repair shop. Joe was unaware that Admiral Henry was plotting against him again.

If Joe knew General Henry's thoughts, he would probably just shake General Henry's hand and excitedly tell him, "Henry, I was so wrong about you! You're such a good man!"

Joe, who was dismantling tanks in the train repair shop, felt that choosing Gare du Nord as his base was an incredibly wise decision.

After all, the workshop here has plenty of tools and facilities for repairing locomotives.

If they can repair locomotives, repairing tanks is a piece of cake.

Joe quickly disassembled the first tank. While the armor of the MK-1 tank was being mounted on the MK-5 tank for reinforcement, the garage crew, with the help of some enthusiastic Gallic train workers, began to strengthen and adjust the hull of the MK-1 tank in preparation for mounting a heavy artillery piece on it.

Joe, however, noticed the dismantled cannons and machine guns.

Although Joe had many complaints about the Royal Fist series tanks, from the comical observation tower to the lack of a ventilation system, which caused the interior of the vehicle to instantly become a gas chamber.

But there was one thing that Joe couldn't find fault with no matter what.

That was the firepower piled up on the MK-1, which had reached a point of madness. Looking at these dismantled artillery pieces and machine guns, an idea suddenly popped into Joe's mind.

As we all know, on this amazing land of Earth, launching a mechanized attack does not necessarily require tanks, or even armored vehicles or any military vehicles, because there is a magical invention that can perfectly replace these expensive military equipment: the armed pickup truck!
Joe believed that the reason the Hound tank was destroyed earlier was that it was moving too fast and became separated from the infantry.

So if the infantry could be made to rush faster and keep up with the speed of the tanks, wouldn't they be spared from being destroyed?

Moreover, in urban warfare, infantrymen also have to face the fact that even if tanks have suppressed the Teutonic firing points, the infantrymen can still continue to fire, forcing them to cross dangerous fire lines before they can enter buildings occupied by the Teutons and begin their assault.

So, is there a possibility, just a possibility?

That is, he can take the military trucks he has acquired, make some minor modifications, install the machine guns and artillery pieces that have been removed from the tanks, and then find some things to slightly strengthen these military trucks.

Are these trucks to be used as infantry fighting vehicles?
At that time, the garage gang was dismantling and reinforcing tanks and didn't have much time, plus Joe didn't know much about infantry combat.

So Joe summoned the two company commanders of the Guards Grenadier Company. After explaining his ideas, Joe didn't even finish speaking.

The two company commanders then grasped Joe's hands and said, "Don't say anything more. From today onwards, you are our half-brother. Tell me, how can we get this thing called an infantry fighting vehicle?"
Seeing the excited expressions on the faces of these two men, even the company commander, who could be seen from London, scratched his head.

"Should we get some of the smarter guys in your company to come and help us modify the vehicles?"

Upon hearing Joe's words, the two company commanders turned around, recited a list of names to their orderly, and said, "Get these guys here to report immediately!" Then, they took off their coats and put them aside, rolled up their sleeves, and asked Joe, "Where should we begin?"

Just as Joe and his grenadiers began to handcraft armored trucks, or rather, infantry fighting vehicles, Prince Joachim and his hussars finally arrived near the Champ de Mars, where the Eiffel Tower is located, after following Hans through several circuits in Paris, bypassing many poorly guarded barricades and patrols that also seemed rather listless.

Looking at the two giant iron towers that the Gauls built for the Paris Exposition, I was amazed, even though I had seen them in newspapers before. But when I actually got to the vicinity of them...

Both Prince Joachim and the hussars marveled at the two iron towers.

In particular, the Teutonic flag fluttering in the wind atop one of the iron towers made Joachim and his hussars feel that although the tower was quite ugly, the beautiful Teutonic flag made up for it.

This flag and this iron tower really complement each other!

Then, looking at the two iron towers, Prince Joachim realized a problem, so he immediately asked Hans, "You said that one of these towers is a communications tower and the other is a tourist attraction, so how did you know which one we were going to?"

Upon hearing this question, Hans looked at Prince Joachim with a surprised expression, as if Prince Joachim had asked not how he knew which tower they should go to, but rather whether he knew who the current Teutonic Emperor was.
But a prince is a prince after all. Although it was thought that Prince Joachim might be a little out of it because he hadn't slept all night and had been riding for most of the day.

Hans not only couldn't mock Prince Joachim for being confused, but he also had to control his tone, making his words sound simple and peaceful while reminding Prince Joachim of his folly.

"Your Highness, I was the one who planted that flag last night, have you forgotten?"

"Oh, yes, yes."

Prince Joachim rubbed his temples.

"I haven't slept for too long, so my mind is a bit foggy, but as long as you know where to go, that's fine."

As he spoke, Prince Joachim drew his saber.

"Guys! Are you all ready?"

The cavalrymen also drew their sabers.

"We've been prepared for a long time, Your Highness!"

Prince Joachim said nothing more, but squeezed his feet against the horse's belly and led his cavalry in a charge amidst the thunderous sound of hooves.

Although the area where the Eiffel Tower is located is called the Champ de Mars, it was originally built as part of the prestige project for the Paris World's Fair.

So, despite its name suggesting martial prowess, the Gallic troops guarding the Eiffel Tower actually numbered less than a platoon and were not equipped with any heavy weapons, nor were they even prepared with barbed wire or trenches.

After all, this is the absolute center of Paris, right next to Les Invalides. At the same time, Paris's outer defenses have not yet been breached. Therefore, the main task of the guards here is to prevent unauthorized personnel other than staff from entering the Eiffel Tower, rather than to resist cavalry charges.

These guards were neither mentally nor psychologically prepared for this, even when they saw the hussars charging towards Eiffel via Najecho.

The guards assumed it was a cavalry unit passing through on its way to the Invalides.

Because the hussars' black uniforms were unusual, some guards even asked their comrades, "Are these guys the Lucias who came to our aid before? We've never seen them in uniforms like this before."

His companion, after taking a look, remarked, "They don't look like Lucias. Lucias are said to wear pointed hats, but theirs doesn't look pointed... Wait! Why are they pulling out knives?!"

The next second, the guard let out a sharp screech, "No! These are Teutons!"

As the guards fired a sharp blast, he immediately took the rifle off his shoulder, raised it, and began firing at the charging hussars.

However, the guards' dedication to their duty was like a pebble thrown into a river, causing only a small ripple before disappearing.

From the very beginning, they had no chance to withstand the hussars' charge. Their defeat was already inevitable when the hussars bypassed the Gauls' defenses and arrived here.

After cutting down the last guard who was still aiming his gun, Prince Joachim jumped off his horse, drew his pistol, and called out to Hans.

"Hans, where do we get up from?!"

Meanwhile, on the Eiffel Tower, the radio operators who heard the gunshots below had no idea what was happening.

Some thought the guards were conducting live-fire training, while others thought it was some kind of revolution, but whatever their guess, none of them considered that the Teutons had arrived.

It wasn't until Prince Joachim and Hans, with a platoon of hussars, climbed the Eiffel Tower that the Eiffel Tower was reached.

Even when they saw the hussars' black uniforms, the radio operators in the tower did not initially expect that the Teutons would be there.

Until Prince Joachim, speaking in his heavily Teutonic Gaulish, declared that the Eiffel Tower was now occupied by his Teutonic cavalry and that anyone inside should obey his orders if they wished to live.

No sooner had Joachim finished speaking than a male telegraph operator shouted to Prince Joachim without hesitation.

"You black-clad villain! You pig from the Black Forest! We are all free men! We will never obey your orders! Long live Gaul!"

After saying this, he spat in Prince Joachim's direction. Seeing the telegraph operator's behavior, Prince Joachim didn't say anything more and simply nodded in the operator's direction.

Immediately, two burly cavalrymen stepped forward and grabbed the telegraph operator as if he were a chick.

Meanwhile, another hussar went to the window and opened it when the telegraph operator shouted, "What do you Teutonic savages want?!"

Then the two hussars carried the telegraph operator to the window.

By this point, anyone should have been able to guess what the Teutons were planning to do. However, the telegraph operator did not beg for mercy but continued to shout "Long live Gaul!" before being thrown out of the window.

After throwing the telegraph operator out the window, Prince Joachim looked at the remaining telegraph operators.

"Are you going to do as I say, or do you want to be like him?"

Faced with Prince Joachim's aggressive gaze, a bespectacled telegraph operator stepped forward.

"Are you planning to cooperate?"

Prince Joachim asked the telegraph operator.

The telegraph operator adjusted his glasses with a trembling hand and said in an equally trembling voice, "Long live Gaul! Paris will never fall!"

Seeing how bold this telegraph operator was, Prince Joachim nodded to him again, and two more hussars immediately went over.

Just as the two hussars walked toward the telegraph operator, the operator glared at Prince Joachim.

"You don't need to do it, I'll do it myself!"

Upon hearing this, Prince Joachim raised his hand, signaling the hussars to stop.

The telegraph operator walked to the window, his collar flapping loudly in the strong wind. Looking at his remaining colleagues inside the tower, he nodded to them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, whatever he says, don't do what he says. We will win! Long live France!"

After saying that, the telegraph operator jumped out of the window.

After seeing the telegraph operator jump out of the window, Prince Joachim turned his gaze back to the remaining people.

"He made his choice, what about you?"

As they were talking, several more people stepped forward.

"My sons all died in Verdun, what do you expect me to do?! Bah!"

"Just wait, my brothers will come and wipe you out!"

Long live Gaul!

As yet another group of people jumped out of the windows, Prince Joachim realized that this could not continue.

Prince Joachim's gaze swept around the area, and he noticed that among the remaining people, besides the women with tears in their eyes, there was a thin man in the corner who looked as if he wanted to squeeze himself into a crack in the wall.

So Prince Joachim strode toward the man.

"They all jumped, what about you?! Do you want to jump too?!"

Approaching the thin man, Prince Joachim grabbed his shoulder and, while speaking, pulled him toward the open window.

When Prince Joachim grabbed his shoulder, the man let out a violent scream and then struggled violently.

However, this short and thin man was clearly no match for Prince Joachim in terms of strength. He was quickly dragged to the window by Prince Joachim and pushed out of the window by his upper body.

"To be, or not to be, that is the question."

Looking at the small patch of crimson ground below the tower and feeling the oncoming gale, the thin man was so frightened that he stopped struggling.

"I want to live! I want to live!"

Upon hearing the frail man scream that he wanted to live, Prince Joachim dragged him back inside from the window and threw him to the ground.

"I want to live...I want to live..."

As the man curled up on the floor, hugging himself and muttering to himself, Prince Joachim walked up to him and knelt down.

"You can live, as long as you do as I say."

The pale-faced man looked at Prince Joachim, a hint of hesitation flashing in his eyes, before nodding.

"Okay, I'll do as you say."

"Oh! Laurent! You're such a coward!"

Upon hearing the man agree to do as Prince Joachim said, a woman immediately shouted to him.

As Prince Joachim lifted the frail man from the ground, he waved to the hussars.

As Prince Joachim dragged the thin man toward the telegraph machine, he waved to the hussars.

As the frail man was pressed down in front of the telegraph machine by Prince Joachim, another scream rang out from outside the Eiffel Tower, growing louder as it faded into the distance.

As the screams subsided, Prince Joachim placed his hand on the thin man's shoulder.

"Now begin sending messages in plain text, stating that the war cannot continue, that Paris has surrendered, and demanding that all Gallic troops on all fronts immediately lay down their arms, cease resistance, and surrender to the nearest Teutonic army."

Upon hearing Prince Joachim's words, the thin man looked up and glanced at Prince Joachim.

Prince Joachim detected a strange emotion in the thin man's eyes.

"What's wrong? Is there any problem?"

The thin man shook his head.

Then he placed his hand on the transmitter and began pressing the buttons rapidly.

As the telegraph machine began to beep, Prince Joachim smiled with satisfaction.

But the smile on Prince Joachim’s face quickly froze. Although he didn’t understand radio, he had seen radio stations used many times in the past.

Now, this thin man is repeatedly pressing the telegraph machine in a short, high-frequency rhythm, and the content is clearly not what he just said.

At the same time, out of the corner of Prince Joachim's eye, he noticed that the women were looking at the thin man with a strange expression; their eyes were filled with shock.

Realizing something was wrong, Prince Joachim kicked the man away from the radio station. Then, while waving for two hussars to seize the thin man, he strode over to a woman.

He grabbed her amidst her screams, slammed her against the radio transmitter in front of her, and then pressed the general's knife against the woman's face.

“Tell me what he just sent, or you’ll have to say goodbye to your lovely nose.”

As he spoke, Joachim slowly lowered his saber. The woman first screamed, then begged for mercy, but this did not change Joachim's attitude.

However, just as the woman screamed, the thin man who had been kicked away by Joachim coughed a few times and then weakly spoke to Prince Joachim.

"There's no need to pressure her."

The thin man looked at Prince Joachim, his pale face now filled with the pride of a victor.

"What I just sent out was: Continue the resistance! Long live Gauls!"

"asshole!"

The Teutonic command, which had soon arrived outside Paris, also intercepted the message. The Teutonic general, who was in charge of the Paris campaign, read the telegram sent from Paris in plain text.

He casually handed the note to Erich.

“Look at this, Erich, what can you tell from it?”

Erich took the note, looked at the one that read 'Continue the resistance, long live Gaul!', thought for a moment, and then said...

"Sorry, I don't understand the meaning behind this."

The general smiled and took the note from Erich's hand.

"Think about it, if you were the Gallic commander, under what circumstances would you send this telegram? Obviously, there was a problem within Gaul, which is why he used this method to ask the troops to continue resisting."

"understood."

As Ehrlich nodded, the general asked him a question.

"So, did you get anything out of the vanguard that arrived earlier?"

"They said that the Gauls' infantry was poor, seemingly untrained, and their morale was low, but during the attack, they encountered the new Bunitalian tanks, which were numerous and very troublesome."

"Tanks..."

The general raised his hand and rubbed his temples.

"Tanks are really troublesome. Didn't the K-rounds we fired earlier have any effect?"

Erich shook his head.

"The battalion commander said that it would not be of much use. He lost his machine gun company in the defense and was not able to hold off the advance of the Bunitania tanks."

The general sighed.

"It seems that until the railway is fully repaired and those tanks are transported here, the troops will have to rely on 77mm guns to fight these tanks."

The general looked at the map in front of him.

"Then let the troops launch an attack. We don't have much time left. We must take Paris before the Gauls completely quell the mutiny."

"Yes!"

After saluting the general, Erich was about to leave when he suddenly remembered something and turned back to the general.

"General, Prince Joachim led his hussars into Paris earlier today, and then we lost contact with him..."

Before Erich could finish speaking, the general waved his hand.

"Don't worry about this. Let the troops launch the attack as usual. As long as he's alive, we can reduce the pressure on him once we start the attack."

"understand!"

After saluting the general again, Erich began to give orders to the messengers.

Soon, the messengers arrived at the outskirts of Paris, where the troops, who had been there for some time, were making final checks on their equipment and eating canned Gaulish food and biscuits of unknown origin, and relayed the orders.

After stuffing a few last bites of their food, the Teutonic soldiers began their routine preparations for battle.

The infantrymen checked their rifles and adjusted their entrenching tools and grenades to positions that allowed them easy access without hindering their movement.

The combat engineers began to turn on the gas valves on the Molotov cocktails, preparing to ignite everything they could see.

After adjusting the positions, the artillerymen began moving the shells to easily accessible locations.

The entire army began to operate like a sophisticated machine.

As the moment arrived, the cannons roared, and huge fireballs began to rise in the Gauls' positions. The new recruits in the trenches, experiencing artillery for the first time, felt as if a tangible hell had descended upon the earth.

After a brief but intense bombardment, accompanied by signal flares and whistles, the Teutonic infantry surged toward the Gauls' positions like a black tide, shouting "For the Emperor and the Fatherland!"

This horrifying scene left the inexperienced recruits bewildered as they watched the Teutons charging towards their positions, unsure of what to do.

Until those old sergeants or officers slapped them hard across the face and body, amidst their anxious shouts of "Fire! Shoot! Don't stand still!"

Looking at the vast number of Teutons, the bewildered soldiers' voices trembled with a hint of tears.

"Sir! They're everywhere!"

"Then fire everywhere!"

Amidst the shouts of the sergeants and officers, the Gallic defenses began to unleash a dense hail of bullets on the Teutons who were charging forward.

Every now and then, a light machine gunner would cry out in surprise, "Holy crap! It's jammed!" from the Gallic positions.

Meanwhile, at the Gare du Nord station in Paris, Joe, who had ordered his troops to board their vehicles and prepare for battle as the explosions from the shelling outside the city began, had already returned to his Hound tank, painted with the number 101.

Hearing the explosions coming from afar, Joe couldn't help but sigh, "These Teutons really came at the perfect time."

The MK-1/2s had just been dismantled, most of the vehicles hadn't even had their add-on armor attached, and the two experimental infantry fighting vehicles were only just taking shape when the Teutons came back.

However, Joe remembered someone saying that war doesn't wait until you're ready to break out, and the same applies to battles. Now, there's no other way but to go in.

Joe, who was leaning out of the turret, waved.

"Armor, advance!"

(End of this chapter)