Chapter 221 This Doesn't Seem Right

It's late again. I'll post the third chapter later. Sorry!

...

The lights are on and the moonlight is soft.

Tijani held a dance party on the top floor of the Ritz Hotel in the 1st district of Paris. Most of the guests invited were officers rescued by Charles in the Battle of Cape Town, and of course there were many nobles and celebrities.

Charles, who walked into the banquet hall, seemed quite unfamiliar with all this. The officers talked loudly and excitedly, and the women were charming and ambiguous. The neatly dressed waiters flexibly interspersed among the crowd and served drinks to those in need.

The men and women hugging each other in the dance floor danced to the music, a harmonious and cheerful scene.

Tijani was discussing something with several gorgeously dressed women. When he saw Charles coming in, he took a wine glass from the waiter and knocked it with a spoon, raised the glass and shouted in Charles' direction: "Gentlemen, let's toast to Charles!"

"Cheers!" The officers in the meeting room cheered, and their eyes gathered on Charles.

Along the way, officers and women greeted Charles. Charles smiled and nodded in response as he walked, although he didn't know anyone.

Tijani came up to shake Charles' hand warmly. He glanced at the gold thread on Charles' cuffs and said with a smile: "Congratulations, Colonel!"

Charles looked unhappy: "I seem to have told you that you don't need to compliment me for the breakout!"

"I know." Tijani put on an innocent expression: "But this is not my idea. They think they should meet you, at least to express their gratitude to you in person."

Sure enough, several officers came forward to introduce themselves, and some even said their own numbers.

Charles was speechless. There were so many people and so many names. He would forget them all as soon as he turned around.

"You can ignore me next time in such an occasion!" Charles said. He thought this was a meeting arranged by Wells, but he didn't expect it to be a dance.

"Understood!" Tijani agreed.

But the faint smile on his face didn't look like that. Instead, it seemed to say: You should go out for a walk, Colonel, this is life!

Tijani took a glass of wine from the waiter and handed it to Charles, walking casually while lowering his voice: "He is very satisfied with your plan, Colonel, he has already started to develop destroyers and torpedoes."

Charles said "hmm", which was Wells's reply, and it was the first step of their formal cooperation.

After that, there was a kind of tacit understanding: Wells provided support to Charles in the parliament and other possible directions, and Charles made some suggestions for the development or invention of the shipyard from time to time.

As he was talking, a few bold laughs came from the front. It was a ruddy woman in her twenties. She was chatting and laughing in the crowd of officers. She seemed to be able to cope with the crowd and said a few words from time to time.

Perhaps noticing Charles's gaze, the woman boldly waved to Charles and said hello, with spring on her face: "Hi, Colonel, my little hero!"

Charles did not respond, and turned his head to look at Tijani.

Tijani looked puzzled: "Please, you don't know her?"

Charles did not answer, looked around and walked towards the food area. In this banquet hall, the only thing that interested him was perhaps the big red lobster.

"Her name is Hari!" Tijani followed from behind: "She is a stripper, and she was famous in Paris. Many people hope to get in touch with her!"

Charles pulled off a lobster leg and said sarcastically: "You may be one of them?"

"No, Colonel!" Tijani shook his head: "But you can never guess who she can get in touch with?"

"Who?" Charles asked casually, chewing shrimp meat in his mouth.

Tijani came up and whispered: "The Minister of the Navy."

Charles was stunned and looked at Tijani in confusion.

Charles had read some information about the Minister of the Navy when he was in the headquarters. He knew that he was over 60 years old. Is he still interested in this?

Tijani pursed his lips and nodded slightly, then leaned forward and added mysteriously: "She is the lover of the Minister of the Navy!"

Charles' chewing of the lobster gradually slowed down.

Speaking of the Minister of the Navy, he remembered that there seemed to be such a woman who wandered among the officers and dressed herself up as a little girl who was afraid of war and talked to the officers.

Then, the drunken officers were full of protective desire and rushed forward to tell the woman:

"Don't worry, we have five divisions of troops there!"

"Yes, there are also two artillery regiments, they will destroy all the enemies approaching."

"They will win, and there will be an offensive soon!"

...

The intelligence revealed to her by the Minister of the Navy is not few. According to statistics, at least three divisions and 40,000 to 50,000 French troops died because of her.

In the end, Kitchener, the commander-in-chief of the British Army, was intercepted and killed by a German submarine because of the intelligence leak.

Thinking of this, Charles couldn't help but glance at Harry. At this time, she was flirting with the officers in a charming way, and didn't care about the eyes around her at all.

This is the French intelligence system at this time.

The Third Republic advocated that each department should check and balance each other and not monopolize power, which resulted in many military secrets being left unprotected.

For example, Gallieni's city defense headquarters should be considered the second-level headquarters of the French Army, but there are still many capitalists' spies inside.

If capitalists can easily obtain intelligence from the headquarters, then spies can also obtain intelligence from capitalists, so "military secrets" are no longer "military secrets."

This is also the reason why Gallieni always discusses things with Charles in the lounge.

Tijani noticed that Charles looked wrong and asked in confusion: "What's wrong?"

"No, nothing." Charles replied, and focused his attention on the lobster again.

...

It was past ten o'clock in the evening when Charles returned to the headquarters. He saw that the lights were still on in Gallieni's lounge.

This was unusual. He should have gone to bed by then.

When he went upstairs, he faintly heard Gallieni talking to someone. Before he approached, Gallieni heard the footsteps and shouted: "He must be here!"

Before he finished speaking, a familiar figure walked out of the light quickly. When he saw Charles, he hugged Charles excitedly: "Long time no see, my friend!"

Charles looked closely and found that it was Albert I.

"Your Majesty!" Charles asked, "Why are you here?"

Albert I patted Charles' shoulder enthusiastically: "I came to Paris to deal with some things, and I came to see you on the way. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Charles replied.

"I asked a nonsense question!" Albert I laughed: "I can see your story in the newspaper almost every day. It's no longer a secret."

Galieni, who followed him out, interrupted: "Colonel, we have something to talk about!"

Charles said in his heart, "Huh", this seems not right.