Imperial Elite

Chapter 145 What exactly are we doing on the battlefield?

"We will fight in the fields and in the streets, we will fight in the mountains, we will never surrender!"

As Winston waved his arms on the podium in the House of Commons, a burst of enthusiastic applause erupted in Parliament.

This applause signified that the councilors agreed to Winston's plan to continue the war to the end, and if the fall of the empire was inevitable, then Winston would at least allow the empire to step down from the throne with dignity.

However, Winston did not believe that the decline of the empire was inevitable.

Although the Empire has been defeated on the battlefield, this is only one defeat. When the Emperor dominated the Old World, the Empire organized seven anti-Gallic alliances before finally burying the Emperor and his Empire.

At that time, they were facing the Great Emperor, who, even the most discerning historians, had to admit, was the most outstanding military strategist of his time.

But now, the best military strategist of this generation is in Bunitania, or rather, he once was in Bunitania.

"In order to win the war, I have decided to lift all restrictions and charges against Wagner and Joe Harrison and bring Joe back."

When Winston said those words, it was like throwing a bomb into Parliament.

Instantly, the entire council hall became as lively and noisy as a poultry farm.

Meanwhile, in the map room of the America train, the Führer was staring at the map in front of him with a dark expression.

Just two days earlier, the Teutonic army had completed the largest encirclement in history, with the entire Bunitania Expeditionary Force and the main force of the Gallic mobile forces, plus the surrendered Cambrai troops, crammed into the encirclement, totaling a million men.

That night, the leader was so excited that he couldn't sleep a wink.

However, only two days have passed, and things have changed a little.

The Führer originally thought that Leipzig could hold off that bastard Joe.

However, Joe clearly also realized that he would never move troops from the western front just because the eastern front had been attacked.

So after vandalizing Leipzig's public facilities, that guy started heading north, clearly heading towards Germania.

Although Joe was making a big fuss, the Führer saw it as nothing more than a death throes.

The reason is simple: Joe had very few troops at his disposal.

With such a small force, they can only cause minor disruptions in the east. Once they free up their forces on the western front, not only Wagner, but even Bohemia will disappear from the world.

Even if Joe were to conquer the home turf now, it wouldn't affect his prestige.

After all, Joe is just too famous. If someone is defeated by Joe, no one will think that the person is not good enough, but that Joe is too strong. This is normal, since this was originally an impossible task.

But if someone can cause trouble for Joe, then the situation is different.

If someone can get away with offending the most dangerous man in the Old World, that's something people can brag about for a lifetime.

It was as if those guerrillas in the areas occupied by Joe, composed of scattered Wehrmacht stragglers, guards and youth group members, were very keen to ambush Wagner's logistics units or military facilities.

Although the success rate is not high, as long as they succeed even once, they can obtain a perfect piece of promotional material.

As the forces of Gaul and Buntania were surrounded, the two small countries in the east that had always had reservations about the Versailles system began to gravitate towards them.

If he can eliminate these surrounded troops, they will join him.

The Sudetenland fortresses were impenetrable to the IDF, but there were no mountainous areas like the Sudetenland in the East, and beyond the Sudetenland lay a vast plain of Bohemia.

The destruction of Bohemia will be imminent.

If they could eliminate the Gauls' mobile forces and the Bunitania expeditionary force, they would almost certainly win the war.

But now that the Gauls have begun to counterattack, attempting to break through their encirclement, and have even breached one line of defense in half a day of attack, there is a risk of failure.

The Führer could not tolerate this, so when he learned that, according to air force reconnaissance, the Gallic armored forces in the encirclement were advancing toward the breakthrough point like madmen.

The leader tapped the table in front of him and gave the order.

"Send all the air force aircraft that can fly there. We absolutely cannot let the Gauls break through the encirclement!"

The order was personally issued by the head of state, so its power was naturally extraordinary.

Although Erich had requested nearby air force units to increase ground attack capabilities before the Führer gave the order.

But now that the Führer has spoken, the air force under the command of the Red Knights has naturally responded.

The Red Knights mobilized all available aircraft from the entire Gallic campaign group to support the Gauls' breakthrough point.

As a professional pilot, Red Knight did not send all his fighter jets to support the battlefield, as that would only make the already chaotic airspace even more chaotic.

Under the command of the Red Knight, in addition to a large number of fighters and dive bombers entering the battlefield for close support, more level bombers began carpet bombing the Gallic troops attempting to break through.

This bombing successfully slowed down the arrival of subsequent Gallic troops at the front.

At this moment, Andrei, who was panting in the trench, was unaware that, under the orders of the Teutonic leader, the Teutonic Air Force had sent almost every flying machine to attack the area.

Andrei, carrying the Teutonic light machine gun that roars like a chainsaw when the trigger is pulled, was panting heavily in the trench.

Now that Andrei has entered the trenches and is no longer a target on the plains, he can finally begin to put some of the things he has heard and learned in the past into practice.

After suppressing the Teutonic garrison in the trenches with machine guns, use grenades to clear them out, and finish off any corpses you see to prevent anyone from feigning death.

As for hand-to-hand combat, that doesn't exist...

Old Joe had told them a long time ago the story of how he carried three revolvers while fighting in trench warfare.

So, although Andrei didn't carry three revolvers like Old Joe, he did have a Citizen 1911 pistol given to him by his uncle, and due to his fear of insufficient firepower, he also carried two magazines.

Those who frequently use handguns know that .45 caliber handgun bullets, although not very penetrating, have a limited magazine capacity due to their large caliber.

However, the stopping power brought by the large caliber is such that it can hit a target and leave it completely silent.

So, in the trenches, relying on his corporal skills, Andrei managed to gather some of the personnel who had been scattered during the battle and rebuild a force that was almost a reinforced platoon.

But raising the troops didn't make Andrei happy; instead, it gave him a sense of foreboding. According to the experience of those old Wagners, although it was inevitable that some troops and soldiers would be scattered and separated from their units during frontline battles—for example, Old Joe's famous battle was fought after he got lost on the battlefield all the way to the Teutonic headquarters—it was a story of how he fought his way to the Teutonic headquarters.

However, these are extremely rare cases.

If a large number of scattered soldiers appear on the battlefield, it can only prove one thing: the unit's organization has been broken up.

The reason why the troop organization was broken up is also very easy to understand: after noon, the Teutonic air raids intensified.

The sky is always filled with densely packed formations of aircraft engaged in combat, and the bombers that dive down from the sky like vultures are like flies next to a trash can, never decreasing in number.

Even under such terrifying bombing by the Teutonic Air Force, the Gallic armored forces continued to attempt to enter the battlefield.

But even Andrei, a new recruit, realized that they were very likely to lose this battle to break through the encirclement.

Since there was a possibility of losing, Andrei had no choice but to start thinking about what they should do next.

Retreating was definitely not an option. So far, not a single dive bomber had been able to take them away with bombs. The only reason they were currently in the trenches of the Teutonic second line of defense was that they were not in the trenches.

Mixing with the Teutons made the Teutonic air force unsure whether the people in the trench were their own or the enemy.

Since we can't retreat, we can only push forward.

But pushing forward is not easy either. The last time Andrei saw Gallic tanks in action on the battlefield was just an hour and a half ago.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Andrei felt as if he were stuck here.

Looking at the corpse of the Teutonic lieutenant, whom he had just riddled with bullets, in the trench, Andrei realized for the first time how close death was to him…

Wait a minute, looking at the Teutonic corpse, Andrei suddenly had an idea. Perhaps he had a way to leave this place.

Just as Andrei had a flash of inspiration, Joe was huddled in the woods, cursing as he watched the Teutonic fighters swaggering overhead.

And the self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, converted from old Hound tanks, were shooting a dazzling barrage of bullets into the sky.

Due to the activity of the guerrillas, coupled with the losses in the previous phase of the operation, although the Bohemian pilots were brave and skilled in combat, and even dared to attack Teutonic air force formations that were escorted by fighters and outnumbered several times over in the previous Sudetenland campaign.

However, the loss of skilled pilots greatly weakened the Bohemian Air Force's combat effectiveness, especially after penetrating deep into Teutonic territory.

Joe was even less willing to allow the already heavily damaged air force to move the base forward into Teutonic territory to cover the operation.

After all, those guerrillas, composed of fanatics from the Guard and the Youth Group, not only dared to crawl under Joe's tanks with bombs, but they could even drive cars loaded with explosives into Joe's supply convoy just to blow up one of Joe's tankers or supply trucks.

Joe couldn't imagine what those crazy Teutons would do if the Air Force moved the base to Teutons.

Thinking of this, Joe couldn't help but sigh; there were still too few troops.

If I had three armored divisions, along with an army group composed of mechanized infantry and infantry divisions, would I be facing such difficulties now?
Whenever Joe thought about this, he always wanted to curse the London gentlemen as a bunch of vermin. If they hadn't been dragging him down all this time, would things have turned out like this?!

Just as Joe was habitually cursing the London bastards in his mind, a loud bang came from the sky, and a bomber that was attempting a dive bombing was shot down in mid-air by self-defense anti-aircraft guns.

Joe's adjutant rushed to Joe's side with a telegram in hand.

"Sir! A telegram from London!"

"London?"

Joe glared at his adjutant.

"I've said it so many times, don't even bother reading telegrams from London, they're all rubbish! Those parasites in London can't do anything right except hold me back! Don't pay them any attention!"

"But sir, this situation is a little different. Take a look!"

As he spoke, the adjutant handed the telegram to Joe.

Seeing that even after being yelled at, the adjutant still dared to hand over the telegram, even though he felt as if he were holding something dirty when he took the telegram.

But Joe still took the telegram and started reading it.

After seeing that the telegram started with James and Winston, Joe finally became a little interested.

In the telegram, Winston and James stated that the war faction had now completely overwhelmed the appeasers, and that the army, the cabinet, and the parliament all welcomed Joe's return, since, given the current situation, no one but Joe could save the Empire.

Therefore, James and Winston hoped that Joe could return to London and serve as the commander-in-chief of the Bonitania army.

After reading the telegram, Joe crumpled it up and threw it aside, then reached out and smacked his adjutant on the head.

"This is what you call different from before? What's different?! They only remember us when they need us, and then throw us away like trash when they're done with us!"

The adjutant who was hit on the head by Joe dared not block or dodge. Fortunately, although Joe was angry, he did not use any force at all. Although he looked disheveled, his head did not hurt at all.

“But sir, if we don’t cooperate with London now, we certainly can’t handle the Teutons on our own.”

Upon hearing this, Joe lowered his hand and looked at his adjutant.

“You still don’t understand Bonitania. I only started to see things from Bonitania’s perspective because of the late emperor’s trust and promotion of me. But now I understand why we have fallen to this state.”

Joe reached out and placed his hand on the adjutant's shoulder, looking at him as he spoke.

"Why do you think we went to war?"

The adjutant looked at Joe with some confusion, seemingly not understanding what Joe meant.

Seeing the adjutant's puzzled look, Qiao smiled and shook his head.

"This may seem a bit too early for you, but I think you should understand that on the battlefield, neither London nor the Empire will help you survive; only your comrades will help you survive, so..."

Joe patted his adjutant's shoulder.

“We are now fighting for ourselves. When London sends the third telegram, tell me that I want them to give me a good price. This time it’s my turn to sit at the table.”

(End of this chapter)