I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 121 General Fuxu

The news of victory reached Paris, and the City Defense Headquarters erupted in cheers. The staff eagerly embraced Shire, and people from the rear rushed forward to shake his hand.

Shire’s gaze searched the crowd for Gallieni, but he couldn’t find him.

Major Fernan answered, "The General is being questioned in the House of Representatives. I’ll go tell him the good news!"

...

When Gallieni returned from the House of Representatives, he had a smile on his face.

This was rare for the usually stoic Gallieni.

His familiar staff knew that even when the German Army was repelled, Gallieni merely commented, "They realized Paris is just a place filled with exhaust fumes, dirty water, and garbage."!

However, today he wore a smile, lightening the usually oppressive atmosphere of the headquarters, like opening the windows of a long-sealed room and letting in fresh air with the scent of flowers.

Everyone thought that Gallieni’s smile was due to Shire’s command of the flight squad winning the first air battle in human history.

But only Gallieni knew that he was still reveling in his confrontation in the House of Representatives, where he called out those hypocritical lawmakers, exposing their shame!

Nothing could be more satisfying than that!

Compared to defeating the enemy, Gallieni hated these leeches of the nation more. They devour the country’s resources, enslave the French people, and continually act to destroy the country, yet claim they do it all for France!

Gallieni sat in his seat, flipping through the battle records, his mind revisiting the triumphant scenes in Parliament.

"General!" Major Fernan reminded, "We shot down thirteen enemy planes, three balloons, killed over a hundred infantrymen, and destroyed at least two cannons!"

The latter two points were uncertain; the pilots conducting dive attacks didn’t have time to count how many they killed, but that wasn’t important!

Gallieni simply responded, "Hmm, very good!"

"General!" Major Fernan added, "Our army sustained no casualties!"

Gallieni looked puzzled; he raised his head to look at Fernan and asked, "What do you think would have caused casualties? That their planes would crash into ours?"

"But General..." Major Fernan pointed his head behind him and said, "Shouldn’t you say something?"

Gallieni glanced at the staff in the command room, seeing each of them looking at him expectantly, he understood. As a commander, he should offer a summary at this moment.

Or rather, they hoped to give Shire some recognition.

Gallieni responded with a "hmm," closed the battle record in his hand, aimed his gaze at Shire, who was checking the supply list, and called out, "Lieutenant Shire!" ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

"Yes, General!" Shire quickly put down his work and ran over to Gallieni.

Gallieni, expressionless, tossed the battle record in front of Shire, his tone slightly dissatisfied, "You mentioned ’asymmetrical warfare’? I didn’t see any trace of it!"

The staff was taken aback. Not only did they not receive praise after their major victory, but they were also questioned?

They didn’t understand that this was precisely Gallieni’s way of managing his men.

For an ordinary person, this victory absolutely deserved praise, maybe even a medal.

But for Shire, this victory was just so-so. Excessive praise would make him think he did well and be content with the status quo.

Shire wasn’t thinking too much; he felt Gallieni’s questions made sense. This battle was essentially just using air battle to scare off the Germans’ charge, nothing more.

"General!" Shire replied, "I believe to conduct an ’asymmetrical warfare’, infantry cooperation might be necessary!"

"No problem!" Gallieni responded without hesitation, "I’ll contact the infantry, urge them to get to Ypres as soon as possible. How do you want them to cooperate with you?"

"No, General!" Shire’s words were shocking, "I hope they won’t arrive in time at Ypres!"

"What?" Gallieni looked at Shire in shock, thinking he misheard, "You want cooperation that means they won’t come?"

The staff collectively turned their puzzled eyes to Shire.

Everyone hoped reinforcements would arrive soon, Ypres’ defenders were even more anxious, yet Shire wished they wouldn’t come?

Shire nodded firmly, "I learned that General Fuxu is leading the reinforcement to Ypres..."

"You have issues with General Fuxu?" Gallieni asked, inwardly astonished.

General Fuxu was a notable figure in the French Army; he established and guided the whole French Army’s combat doctrine. Yet, in Shire’s view, he was unpleasant.

Shire didn’t dislike Fuxu. He wanted to distance himself from Fuxu. If this battle were under Fuxu’s command, although it wouldn’t fail, it would suffer heavy casualties like in history.

Fuxu’s combat philosophy could be summarized as "the spirit of victory" and "offensive supremacy". He believed that as long as soldiers demonstrated the spirit of not fearing death and launched attacks against the enemy, they would definitely win.

"As long as you don’t admit defeat, you won’t lose the battle!"

"The will to conquer is the primary condition for winning the war!"

"Any defense is unnecessary; the extreme of offensive is victory!"

...

These combat philosophies were clearly wrong, and gravely so, but during the era of line infantry and before the invention of machine guns, they were true. They were repeatedly proven right on the battlefield.

Thus, Fuxu became renowned, some even called him "the terminator of World War I and the prophet of World War II."

Shire didn’t evaluate Fuxu excessively, knowing it would attract resentment and unnecessary trouble because it was denying the entire French Army, except for Petain.

(Note: Petain advocated for defense, so he was ostracized during World War I until defensive tactics proved mainstream in practical combat. That’s why Petain quickly rose to prominence. Unfortunately, he led the French Army towards defense, only to encounter a war that required offense during World War II.)

Shire chose a relatively conservative answer:

"General, General Fuxu always directs the troops to launch offensives!"

"In this campaign, I need defense, I need the enemy to attack our defense line!"

"Only then can our artillery be effective, only then can there be ’asymmetrical warfare’!"

Gallieni hesitated, considering this point too. If the French Army and German Army clashed on the battlefield, there might be no targets for artillery bombardment.

With this thought, Gallieni nodded, indicating he understood, saying, "Only this battle, right?"

He then turned his gaze to the map, speaking as he scrutinized it, "That’s easy, we just need to... cause a mountain flood to break the bridges, yes, that’s it!"

(The above picture is Marshal Fuxu)