Chapter 378 Night Battle

Charles was stunned when he received the telegram, and then realized that it was Christine asking for help.

Charles could understand Christine's situation at the moment. The capitalist (Schneider) and the politician (Chaffee) hoped that Christine could lead the "Saint-Samond" tank to fight a good battle to bring them benefits.

But the "Saint-Samond" was not very useful, especially the "Saint-Samond M21", which was not good at anything and was the first to drag down the team.

So the contradiction arose. Christine and his First Special Artillery Division were caught in the middle by the German army and Chaffee. It seemed that only the annihilation of the army could prove that Chaffee was wrong.

However, what was the point of proving that Chaffee was wrong at that time?

...

If it was before, Charles would not hesitate to help, after all, it was a division and 20,000 lives.

But now he hesitated, he was used to thinking and weighing from the perspective of interests.

From the perspective of reputation and equipment, they should not be rescued. The more the First Special Artillery Division loses and the more people die, the more Charles' command ability and equipment advantages can be highlighted, so that the "Charle A1" can sell better and the blow to Schneider and Joffre can be as great as possible.

But if the influence of the army is taken into consideration, they should be rescued.

Christine is a combat hero, and the officers and soldiers of the First Special Artillery Division are also elite soldiers of the army. They have considerable influence in the army. If Charles can put aside the fight with Joffre and rescue them, he will definitely be welcomed and supported by grassroots officers and soldiers.

After thinking for a while, Charles thought the latter was more important.

Although the army is a gun suppressed by politics and capital in France, it is still a gun, and they can often save your life at critical moments.

Charles no longer hesitated, he sent a telegram back to Christine, and the telegram only had two words: "Night battle".

Christine was stunned when she received the telegram: "Night battle? What kind of method is this?"

The German tanks have no night combat capability, and our tanks also have no night combat capability. Charles would not know this, right?

Disappointment welled up in his heart. Christine felt humiliated and miserable. He was being played with by others before he died.

But after thinking carefully, Christine suddenly had a hint of joy on his face, and his frown gradually relaxed.

If both sides' tanks have no night combat capability, it doesn't matter whether they are advanced or backward, whether they have rotating turrets or how powerful they are, everything is unimportant, because both can't move and can't fire.

(Note: Tanks have poor external perception ability. They can't distinguish between enemies and friends in the dark and can't see the route clearly. Tanks didn't have night combat capability until they were equipped with night vision goggles in modern times. Before that, they could only use tracer bullets to indicate targets for tanks, which played a limited role in night combat.)

Looking at the darkening sky, Christine made a conclusion in his heart.

He first ordered everyone to rest, and then found Lieutenant Colonel Gaston, the commander of the 2nd Artillery Regiment, who was Christine's old subordinate and good friend.

However, because of his dissatisfaction with the "Saint-Samon M21" tank, Gaston had conflicts with Christine.

Gaston often complained to Christine: "I don't think it can be called a tank. Apart from tracks and machine guns, what else does it have? A tank should be like the 'Charles A1'!"

At this time, Christine could only helplessly answer: "I know, Gaston, but they only give us this. Unless you can build one, there is no other choice!"

When Christine found Gaston, the latter was organizing ground crews to repair the "Saint-Chamond M21".

Seeing Christine coming over, Gaston didn't give a good look. While wiping the oil stains on his hands with a rag, he raised his head to the "M21" parked on the street: "Look, they are not only slow, but also have a lot of problems. I even want to remove the four wheels."

"If you want, then do it!" Christine replied calmly.

Gaston felt that Christine's tone was a little wrong, turned his head and looked at Christine and asked: "What happened?"

Christine shook her head gently: "We are going to attack."

Gaston was stunned and asked expressionlessly: "When?"

This is almost a death sentence.

Christine looked up at the sky and answered, "It will be dark in about an hour!"

Gaston gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "This is murder, General. Tanks cannot fight at night!"

"I know." Christine answered, and he glanced around: "But this is not the commander-in-chief's order, it's Charles's. This may be our only way to survive."

Christine spoke softly, but Gaston still heard it clearly.

When he heard "It's Charles' order", he felt like he was pricked by a needle, trembled all over, turned his head and looked at Christine in shock.

"You are crazy, General!" Gaston said, "I admit that Charles is a military genius, but he, he is our opponent, and it is in his interest for us to be annihilated! He will kill us!"

"He is not that kind of person, Gaston." Christine replied calmly: "Think about it, our tanks can't fight at night, can the enemy?"

Gaston was stunned on the spot.

Christine continued, "At the same time, the Germans know that we are a tank unit, so they don't think we will drive tanks up to fight at night. This may be our only way to survive."

"That being said, but..." Gaston was still thinking about the night combat capability.

"Open the top hatch." Christine interrupted Gaston.

"What?" Gaston stared at Christine blankly: "But that means the enemy can throw grenades into the cabin."

Christine stared at Gaston quietly without saying anything.

Gaston understood Christine's idea. He chose the lesser of two evils. If he wanted to have night combat capability, he had to take risks.

(The picture above shows the top hatch of the "Saint-Samond M21" opened. This is usually done when it is in road maneuvering state, so that it has stronger external perception ability to adapt to faster maneuvering speed. If the top hatch is opened in the track state, the enemy can easily stuff grenades into the cabin)

Finally, Christine asked again: "I choose to believe Charles, what about you?"

Gaston thought for a while and nodded silently.

If Charles wanted to kill them, he didn't need to give any advice at all, he just needed to wait for the result quietly.

What's more, Xiafei can't be trusted at any time, at any time!

Christine patted Gaston on the shoulder: "Don't stop after the battle begins, go full speed and kill everything you can see."

It is impossible to distinguish between friend and foe in the dark, but as long as the tanks maintain a full speed of 6 kilometers, no friendly troops will run ahead of them!

This is actually the advantage of the "Saint-Samond M21". Its slow speed just matches the attack speed of the infantry, allowing a certain degree of coordination between the two.

After giving instructions to the tank regiment, Christine went to inspect the infantry again.

Walking around, the only thing he didn't do was to report back to the headquarters to Xiafei.

Christian didn't want to cause any more trouble, and even more didn't want to face his face at the critical moment of life and death!