In a safe area 20 kilometers away from the front line, the British and French military observation groups held a dinner. The Japanese troops outside the tent were wallowing in the whirlpool of war, while the British and French officers inside the tent were eating in a relaxed mood. Just a few years ago

, the positions of the British, French and Japanese soldiers were exactly opposite. This huge gap did not make the British and French officers feel guilty. Instead, just like the Japanese officers before them, they took the bloody battlefield in front of them as the object of discussion at the dinner table.

The military marching tables are arranged in a row, but there is no tablecloth. On the left are British officers and on the right are French officers. The captains of both sides sit among their own people, facing each other.

One by one, the cans were opened by the British officers. They were either beef or fruit. Together with cheese and cold bread, although the quantity was large, the corners of the mouth of the empty French officer on the plate in front of him were slightly raised. It can be seen that these

French officers ate British cans in the trenches.

There are countless "milk jokes" in the UK, but the British will not take the initiative to mention their diet in front of the French. The matter of self-knowledge is the same for the upper class of any country.

The French chef has used the solid alcohol produced in the Northeast to ignite the Northeast charcoal in the portable stove, but the French baguette was placed aside and not baked immediately. The French chef opened a large box, which was wrapped in jute cloth, and opened 1

, the beef is exposed.

Seeing the surprised expressions of the British guys, Major General Louis, the leader of the French observation mission, had a confident smile on his face, "Although Mongolian beef is not as good as that of France, at least it is still edible."

These words are really full of French flavor and confident mouth. But the aroma of the steak prevented the British officer from refuting for the time being. British Major General James nodded and asked: "These Indian jutes can indeed be kept fresh very well."

The two of them exchanged smiles, and there was no difference for the time being.

The French chef was not only good at steak, he brought out various dishes one after another. When the fish was put on the table, the British officer Major General James thoughtfully touched the beard on his chin, waiting for him to confirm the content of his memory.

Then he asked: "I remembered the stuffed carp described by Mr. Hugo in "Les Miserables"."

Major General Lewis smiled heartily, "Yes, stuff the carp with minced meat and cook it whole. The meat comes from pigs in the Northeast, not rodents."

p British and French officers are all upper-class people who want to study, and they all smiled when they heard this. In "Les Misérables", Mr. Hugo wrote in humorous words: Some customers came from afar. One morning, Yu Shroud suddenly had an idea.

In order to introduce his "specialty dishes" to passers-by, he picked up a brush and dipped in ink into a black paint bowl, because his spelling method was also different from his cooking method.

His uniqueness was that he scribbled these eye-catching characters on his wall: carpeshogras (same pronunciation as stuffed carp, but misspelled)

One winter, the rain and sleet showers took the initiative and wiped out the s at the end of the first word and the g before the third word, leaving only: carpehoras (pronounced like:

Roast carp with rat meat).

This humble advertisement written to attract diners turned into a far-reaching advice with the help of seasons and rain...

Since everyone had read Hugo's novels, the atmosphere naturally became harmonious. Since the French guy's proud sharing was also a kind of goodwill, the British officers changed the topic to Japan, "If compared with the Japanese army's food,

Roast carp with rat meat is also a delicacy."

Everyone laughed, which was a smile that made me feel sad. Those almost pure vegetarian meals were really torture in the eyes of the British and French officers.

Soldiers who have experienced the war know that the war is tragic, but the battlefield is boring. Facing a table of delicious food, everyone is not in a hurry and talks while eating. Major General James sighed: "I didn't expect the Japanese army to use 900 guns on the battlefield. heavy artillery."

The French officers felt that the British were a bit unreasonable. A lieutenant colonel named Malone swallowed the stuffed carp in his mouth and expressed his confusion, "Compared with Bulgaria and Romania, the Japanese army's mobilization numbers and firepower are nothing special. During the war, Bulgaria Hundreds of thousands of troops were maintained on the front line, and Romania mobilized more than two million troops. The number of heavy artillery in a battle must also be about 200."

Other French officers added their views, "Bulgaria has a population of 4 million, only one tenth of Japan's, and the highest number of people mobilized is 1.2 million. It's amazing. I remember a novel that seemed to describe a city where only women were left. , and a hunchbacked bell-ringer. All the other men died in the battle, and the men who did not die on the battlefield returned to their hometowns and were expelled by the women who stayed in their hometowns."

This novel is a bit unfamiliar. Although a few officers did have an impression, they could not remember it clearly. The French officer Lieutenant Colonel Malone did not take up the challenge. He sighed: "Romania has a population of 7.5 million and mobilized 1.26 million, which is 10,000 fewer than Bulgaria." , but 620,000 people died. Those countries in Eastern Europe are all crazy."

Hearing this number, the British officer couldn't help but sigh: "Think of those regicides in Serbia."

p The British and French officers all smiled bitterly. There were 4.5 million people in Serbia, and 750,000 were mobilized. Because the war was spread throughout Serbia, according to the country’s own war data, 1.1 million people died in Serbia during the war. Although after the war, Serbia retained Independence, but this country is almost equivalent to a state of semi-subjugation.

Major General Louis, head of the French military observation mission, was a little puzzled, "General James, even Serbia can use more than 200 heavy artillery in the battle, why are you surprised by the Japanese heavy artillery group. In my opinion, this kind of The large artillery group just meets the needs of the war. If it were the Germans, I think they would invest 1,100 heavy artillery pieces, or even more, in a battle of this scale."

Rear Admiral James did not answer immediately, but instead picked up his glass and drank. French Lieutenant Colonel Malone thought that Rear Admiral James opposite was a bit confused about heavy artillery, so he put forward his own opinion, "Japan has the third largest navy in the world. The main gun of its battleship Kongo is 356 mm, and there should be no technical problems for Japan in producing 150 field guns."

Seeing that the topic was completely diverted, Major General James had to explain, "Gentlemen, the core number of citizens of Manchuria, Mongolia and Japan is 40 million. By European standards, 6 million troops can be mobilized. Even Italy mobilized 285 Ten thousand troops, Manchuria, Mongolia and Japan mobilized 2 million troops each, which is far from the upper limit. But isn't it strange for us to use European war standards to measure Asian yellow countries?"

The British and French officers were stunned for a moment and remained silent. Some frowned in thought, while others continued to eat in silence.

At this time, the French chef had finished all the dishes, and the baguettes had been heated, cut and served to the table. Major General Louis, the head of the French military observation mission, silently picked up a piece, dipped it in the carp soup, and put the bread on

Put it in your mouth. The crispy exterior and soft and sweet interior taste of the baguette reminded Major General Louis of his hometown in a foreign country.

After swallowing this mouthful of food, Major General Lewis picked up the wine glass and took a sip of brandy before asking: "General James, do you think Japan now has more strength than Italy?"

General James shook his head, "What I really care about is China, Manchuria and Mongolia. They actually have the strength to confront Italy. Although the artillery of the Manchuria and Mongolia army is only 120 caliber, its range is not inferior to the Japanese 150 caliber artillery. In terms of artillery command of the group army

Shitiao also had outstanding performance. 10 years ago..."

At this point, Major General James was a little upset. He picked up the wine glass and took another sip. When the wine got to his head, he shook his head and sighed, "Alas... I don't want to accuse anyone, but France provided China with Manchuria and Mongolia.

The synthetic ammonia technology gave the Chinese Manchuria and Mongolia governments the same ability to produce gunpowder and explosives as the Germans. This made the war completely out of control..."

When the French officers heard British Major General James say "I don't want to accuse anyone," they knew they would be criticized. Unexpectedly, Major General James actually found out the content of the accusation. Lieutenant Colonel Malone immediately spoke in a long voice

Said: "Oh..., I think the arms orders provided by Britain to finance Russia played a greater role!"

The atmosphere, which had been relieved by the delicious food, immediately returned to the usual British-French quarrel. The officers of both sides exposed each other's background with or without a smile. After a quarrel, the two sides barely reached a consensus. The Far East is currently out of control.

The Germans, the Russians, and the ignorant colonial governors on both sides were responsible for the situation.

In order to arm the colonial armies sent to Britain and France as quickly as possible, these governors placed orders related to military equipment to the Northeast. The military supplies gradually expanded into military equipment, and eventually the Northeast had its own military industry.

The sound of artillery fire from the Chinese and Japanese night duty patrols reached the tent, which made the atmosphere among the members of the British and French military observation groups temporarily suspended. A British officer asked: "General Lewis, what do you think of the heavy artillery on both sides?"

How organized is the group?”

As the largest military power in Europe, General Louis listened to the sound of artillery shelling outside and replied slowly: "According to the information currently obtained, the Japanese army does not have a group army, and all heavy artillery is under the command of the Manchuria-Mongolia Expeditionary Army Headquarters. 1

A Japanese heavy artillery regiment has 40 150-meter field howitzers, as well as other heavy artillery. The Manchuria-Mongolia Expedition Army Headquarters can command 23 heavy artillery regiments, proving that they have European-level artillery warfare organization capabilities. The Northeast Army's artillery is very large

Depends to a certain extent on its aircraft superiority... Oh, damn the Krauts!"

British officers also believed this. During the war, the aircraft production of each country was: Germany 4.73 million, Austria-Hungary, 0.54 million, France 5.21 million, Britain 4.78 million, Russia 0.35 million, Italy 120,000, and the United States 1.38 million.

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany was not allowed to have an air force. During World War I, the German manufacturing team, which was a major aircraft country, lost a lot of jobs. According to the information obtained by Britain and France, a German aircraft R&D and manufacturing team came to the Northeast and began to develop and manufacture aircraft for the Northeast government.

At first, no one really took this team seriously. After all, it was just a small team, almost negligible compared with its European and American counterparts. But I didn’t expect that this small team would produce such outstanding results.

During the day today, the British and French military observation groups saw with their own eyes how flexibly the Northeastern Army's monoplanes flew, massacring the slow Japanese biplanes in the air.

To be more precise, Japan's World War I-level biplanes were all shot down by Northeastern Army aircraft that were as good as the latest aircraft from Britain and France. This war in the Far East not only had the intensity of the European battlefield, but its combat intensity was also no less.

Major General Lewis suddenly wanted to ask the British officer about tanks. When the British broke through the trenches, they used poison gas and tanks, and achieved great results. It was just poison gas. The Japanese army did not popularize gas masks. So the rest

One of the options is the tank.

But Major General Lewis did not ask. He felt that even if he asked, the British officers would not answer. As for whether tanks would appear, just wait and see. During the four-year European war, all parties had already considered trench warfare.

To understand clearly, Japan, as a long-term ally of Britain, could not have thought of tanks.

pp

At this time, there was not much food left on the table. The British Major General James drank the last sip of wine and stood up. "General Lewis, thank you for the food. We have talked a lot today. Let's leave some topics to talk about tomorrow."
Chapter completed!