"The central front has collapsed, and we don't have much time." Napoleon looked at the Don River in front of him and shook his head helplessly.

"The rain came just in time, so we still have time to prepare.

After every battle, the Ming army would take a long rest. This time, they deployed their reserves to the central battlefield and even sent troops to Crimea.

Their rest time will only be longer. As long as we repel the enemy in front of us, we can retreat to Kiev calmly without worrying about being pursued by the Ming army.

This is the only plan that can guarantee the retreat of the army!" Leclerc pointed at the map and said to Napoleon.

"Although the central front is finished, the Poles have blocked the hole.

Your Majesty the Emperor, we can penetrate northward and penetrate directly behind the Kursk Ming army.

At this time, they had just finished fighting and were exhausted.

Leclerc just said that the Ming army usually rested for one to two months after a large-scale battle.

This is because his tanks cannot actually sustain long-term operations. If they continue to fight, the failure of the tanks alone will be too much for them.

According to the information obtained from interrogating prisoners, Ming army tank commanders will obey a restriction called motorization hours.

In other words, after a tank has been used for a certain period of time, it must be stopped for maintenance.

Similarly, this is also the case with Ming Dynasty's aircraft. After every few hours of flight, a lot of time is required for maintenance to ensure the integrity of the equipment.

We just want to take advantage of this gap to catch them off guard. With superior strength, we will annihilate the Ming army in Kursk."

"Ney, don't talk nonsense. God knows whether the main force of the Ming army is still in Kursk. If they are not in Kursk, we will miss the point.

When the time comes, what do you think we should do?"

Marshal Bernadotte, commander of the Third Army, said with a sneer.

"Then we shouldn't retreat like cowards!" Ney roared loudly.

Leclerc stood helplessly in front of the map without speaking, even though he was nominally the commander of the Second Army.

But these people here are all marshals who have followed His Majesty the Emperor for a long time, and his military rank is still only a lieutenant general.

"Nei, your voice is louder than His Majesty the Emperor!"

"Soulte, what did you say...!" Ney shouted angrily, but he did not dare to refute, and could only look at Napoleon.

Napoleon frowned and waved his hand helplessly.

"The purpose of a meeting is to let everyone express what is on their mind. If there are differences, that's okay.

Everyone go back and prepare the troops to fight. Whether we are attacking or retreating, we will continue to fight."

Napoleon knew that talking about things with these rough guys would lead to no results.

"Leclerc, please stay for a moment." Napoleon said to Leclerc.

"Yes, His Majesty the Emperor!"

Seeing the unkind looks in the marshals' eyes, Leclerc had no choice but to bite the bullet and stay.

Originally, he was about to leave for South America, but he just returned to the Second Army to hand over command.

But he didn't expect that Marshal Bessière who was sent over was killed by a Ming army plane.

Therefore, there was a delay. As a result, this delay caught up with the Ming army's attack.

The Ming army's offensive never existed alone. When it mainly attacked the Kursk salient, it also launched feint attacks on the southern and northern fronts.

Let the coalition forces have no power to support the Kursk battlefield!

Leclerc is directing the attack and of course cannot leave.

Now the Ming army's attack had stopped, and when they were about to leave, Napoleon came again.

"Leclerc, I really want you to go to South America. But..., but I have to bring more troops back to France.

This time, we have to attack. Only by defeating the Ming army in front of us will we have more time and space to retreat to Romania.

Kiev will be abandoned, all of Ukraine will be abandoned.

We will pass through Romania, Hungary, Austria, and finally return to France.

If we want to defend, we can only build a defense line in the Alps from now on.

Perhaps the mountains of Switzerland can stop the Ming Dynasty's tank troops."

Napoleon seemed a little lacking in confidence when he spoke, and it seemed that he was sufficiently pessimistic about the prospect of war.

"Your Majesty, your idea is right. Only fighting in the mountains can delay and block the Ming Dynasty.

The only ones in trouble now are the Germans. If we retreat like this, Ming Dynasty will definitely pursue us.

Within months, Romania, Hungary and Austria would fall.

The Ming army would probably stab the Germans in the stomach, and the Germans would probably surrender at that time.

You know, Ribbentrop is now in Athens flirting with the Ming people."

"So, I need to bring the troops back to France. That way, we will not be constrained by the long supply line, and we can also stretch out Ming's supply line.

Maybe this can buy us a year or two.

When we take root in South America, we can only gradually abandon France.

Leclerc, your Second Army will be responsible for this attack."

"Yes, my Majesty the Emperor!"

Leclerc knows that this is the only way to go under the current circumstances.

There have been continuous heavy rains along the Don River these days. The violent storm lasted for four days and four nights.

The heavy rain caused the river to swell, leaving it just over a foot above the bridge.

As long as there is a swell, the wave can hit the bridge.

The next day after it rained, the Ming army left its position on the bank of the Don River.

Tanks and armored vehicles are all heavy equipment.

Once trapped in Zeguo, there will be iron coffins one after another.

No one needs to hit him, he will just lie down on his own.

Seeing that the situation was not good and killing a large number of French troops, the Ming army retreated decisively.

It's standard to take advantage and run away!

Except for more than 10,000 French troops who were surrounded on the east bank of the Don River, all the rest were buried on the east bank of the Don River.

Only 30% of them were killed by the Ming army, and most of the remaining people died in the low temperature caused by heavy rains.

Those French troops who did not receive the order were luckier than them.

Because they had not received an order to retreat, they still stood firm. Although it was very cold inside the underground bunker, it would definitely not freeze to death.

When the Ming army retreated, they naturally had no time to clean up these leftovers.

These people have now become heroes who stand firm.

"It's not good for us to blatantly deceive His Majesty the Emperor...!" Aibok's hands were trembling when he saw the battle report sent by Leclerc to Napoleon.

Our army defeated the Ming army that invaded the Don River Bridge and successfully recaptured the Don River Bridge.

And overcame heavy rain and muddy conditions, continued to attack the Ming army on the east coast, and finally restored their pre-war position a few days ago.

Due to heavy rain, the number of annihilated Ming troops is being counted and will be reported later!

"General Aibok, if you don't put it nicely, how can you get rid of the guilt of losing the first battle?"

"...!" Leclerc's words made Abock lose his temper and signed his name obediently.

"In fact, we did not say anything wrong, the battle line has returned to the state before the war.

And we also regained control of the Don Bridge. We didn't lie about any of this.

Even if His Majesty the Emperor comes to inspect in person now, we can still lead him to the position and the bridge.

No one can deny this."

Leclerc looked at Aibok and smiled!

Albock's face looked ugly. In theory, Leclerc was right.

But...how to explain the more than 100,000 corpses on the east coast?

Those people died miserably and were trapped in the muddy water layer upon layer. Those propped up hands and feet looked like reeds that had just emerged.

Most of them were frozen to death. If they were not ordered to leave their positions and advance with all their strength towards the Don River Bridge, they would not have died.

This is a major mistake in command!

Seeing Aibok's state, Leclerc felt the need to explain to him more clearly.

"General Abbock!

Since the beginning of the war, we have fought so many battles but have not won any of them.
To be continued...