After Roque became commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, the British Expeditionary Force never took the initiative to hold such strange things as a cocktail party.

The world war is underway, the French are poor and have to eat the soil, and the senior officers of France are still in the mood to open the ladder, I have to say that the French are really big-hearted.

This is also the tradition of other people, no matter how busy you are at work, you must remember to relax yourself appropriately, you will live to work, and you can work more efficiently when you rest.

It doesn't sound like a problem, but it always feels like something strange is getting in.

Families can be brought to the banquet, but Roque has no one to take with him, Phyllis and the children are in Nyasaland, Ida is in Pretoria, and the dogs around Roque are all male.

"There have been some twists and turns, but we have finally reached an agreement with our allies to wish us a smooth victory over the Germans and a toast to victory!" Nivile wore a splendid marshal's uniform, but there were only a few medals on his chest, and they didn't weigh much.

But Niviler was in good spirits, and seemed to be very excited, and it turned out that the white man was full of red when he was excited.

"For victory!"

The generals around Nivelle raised their glasses in response.

Roque also raised his glass, but didn't say anything, the battle hadn't been fought yet, and he toasted to the victory.

"We won a brilliant victory last year, winning the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in succession, inflicting great casualties on the German army, and now the Germans are a broken wall full of holes, which will collapse with a bang if we push it lightly, and Sherman Dydam will become the Waterloo of the Germans, and we will definitely win the final victory-" Nivelle was in high spirits and desperately tried to beat the generals around him.

Waterloo seems to be a shame for the French, and it is really not embarrassing to bring Waterloo out on such a cheerful occasion.

There are also the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme, whether the Anglo-French coalition has achieved a real victory remains to be measured, the German army did suffer heavy losses in last year's war, but the French losses were also very large, although Nivelle did not mention it, but the people present were all senior officers, and they all knew the actual situation, and if they did not mention it, it would not exist?

Deceive oneself as well as others.

Nivelle also did not mention the victory of the British Expeditionary Force in Belgium, which is estimated to be shameless, compared with the British Expeditionary Force, the performance of the French generals is really indescribable.

"For victory!"

The French generals raised their glasses again, and the British generals present were a little embarrassed, Roque, the commander-in-chief, was not active enough in shouting slogans, and look at how good the atmosphere was made by the commander-in-chief of the French army.

Among the British generals who attended the banquet were Henry Horn, commander of the First Army of the British Expeditionary Force, Julian Bean, commander of the Third Army, Hubert Gough, commander of the Fourth Army, Brad Nancy, commander of the Anzac Corps, and Max Lloyd, commander of the Canadian Corps.

As Nivelle poured chicken soup on the French generals, the generals of the British Expeditionary Force gathered around Roque to listen to Roque's account of his understanding of the war.

"The scale of the world war is unprecedented, and the weapons are becoming more and more efficient, more powerful, and more varied, which means that the thin red line tactics that we have always adhered to are no longer suitable for the current war, and the thin red line tactics must be improved." Roque is already a recognized master of tactics and is on his way to becoming a master of strategy.

Julian Bean and Hubert Gough were the generals that Roque picked up after he became commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, Max Lloyd was Roque's old friend, Brad Nancy was Roque's subordinate during the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, although the Anzac suffered heavy casualties in the Mediterranean, but that was not Roque's responsibility, after coming to the Western Front, fighting under the command of Hagrid, Brad Nancy realized the gap between Hague and Roque.

"The participation of planes and tanks in the war has completely changed the way of fighting in the past, in the Battle of the Somme last year, we lost 60,000 people in one day, this kind of tragedy must not happen again, we must effectively strike at the enemy on the premise of protecting ourselves, killing the enemy 1,000 and losing 800 is not worth advocating, rational use of every one of our resources, in order to achieve the ultimate victory." Once Roque also hoped to use the world war to consume the power of Europe as much as possible, and after the outbreak of the war, Roque realized the destructive power of the world war, and now Roque only hopes that the generals of the British Expeditionary Force will mature as soon as possible, and the world war will come to an end, the blood has been exhausted, the morale has fallen to the bottom, the human resources have been exhausted, and if the war continues, Britain and France will also undergo drastic changes similar to the Russian Empire.

"Lord, do we still want to take the initiative to attack the Germans?" Hubert Gough had previously served in the Fifth Army, and after Roque relieved Henry Rawlinson of his duties, he appointed Hubert Gough commander of the Fourth Army.

"Of course, if you don't take the initiative to attack, you can't win the victory, but we must pay attention to the way of attack, as close as possible between the infantry and tank troops, artillery units, and even with the air force units, the previous kind of artillery washing the ground, infantry group charge combat mode has been outdated, if the German army has a complete defensive position, there are enough reserves, then it is not easy to attack, this requires all our troops to cooperate closely, pay attention to finding loopholes in the German defense line, once the loopholes are found, we must attack decisively, The Germans could not be given the opportunity to fill the defensive line. "Roque can't go into more detail, the infantry and artillery coordination is fine, the infantry and tank coordination and the air-ground coordination, and the British Expeditionary Force has just begun to try this.

"Wonderful—" Roque said happily when suddenly Neville's voice came from behind him.

Nivelle finally poured enough chicken soup into the French generals, and as soon as he came to Roque's side, he heard Roque's words.

Roque smiled, whether it is wonderful or not has nothing to do with the French troops, the French troops have no tanks and no planes, and they can't play infantry-tank coordination and air-ground coordination if they want to.

"So, Lord Nyasaland, how are you going to break through the German defenses at Reims?" Nivelle sat down on the couch across from Roque, and more generals gathered around, all holding their breath.

"It depends on the situation in Reims, the Air Force is observing the German forces in Reims, and I can't determine the attack until I have enough information." Roque wouldn't be here to talk about it even if he had a plan.

Not long ago, something happened that made Roque laugh.

After the Conference of Rome, the Kingdom of Italy sent a telegram to the Russian Empire, revealing that the Anglo-French forces would launch a new offensive in March.

Unfortunately, the telegram was intercepted by the Germans, and it was only through the intelligence officers in Germany that the British government learned that the German intelligence agents had deciphered the code used by the Kingdom of Italy.

Compared with the cute and cheerful Italians, the French don't have much more secrecy principles, so even if Roque has a plan, he doesn't dare to say it openly at the banquet, unless it is a smoke bomb released.

The telegram intercepted by the Germans gave Ludendorff time to adjust the defensive line, the new German defensive line is called the Hindenburg Line, located behind the current defensive line, originally when the German army retreated, the British and French forces had the opportunity to attack, now the opportunity is fleeting, Ludendorff calmly ordered the troops to retreat to the Hindenburg Line, the British and French front advanced fifteen miles, but faced greater difficulties.

After retreating to the Hindenburg Line, the German line was shortened by 25 miles and the terrain was more effectively used, and the Germans released 13 divisions, all of which were placed behind the Hindenburg Line as reserves.

At the same time, after a winter, another group of recruits came out of the German training camp, and Ludendorff reorganized the field troops, and the reorganized infantry division, which was slightly smaller than the previous one, but equipped with more machine guns and mortars, as well as direct-fire guns against Allied tanks, was bad news for the British Expeditionary Force.

After the reorganization of the troops, Ludendorff had 37 new infantry divisions in his hands, plus the 13 infantry divisions released due to the shortening of the defensive line, Ludendorff's reserve reached 50 divisions, and whether Ludendorff put these 50 divisions on the Western Front or the Eastern Front, they were a force that could change the tide of the war.

The new Hindenburg Line was a huge challenge for the Anglo-French forces.

At the very front of the Hindenburg line were undefended trenches, ten feet deep and 15 feet wide, designed to defend against Anglo-French tanks.

Behind the trenches, there are five rows of barbed wire, each row of barbed wire is about five feet thick and ten feet high, which translates to about three meters, and the interval between the barbed wire is twenty meters, and the total width reaches one hundred meters wide.

But at this time, the challenge was just beginning, and the Hindenburg defense line was different from the previous trenches, it consisted of buried dark chambers and tunnels buried in the ground, and the bunkers were connected by tunnels, and the bunkers were about 6 meters thick above the earth, which was not necessarily destroyed even if it was directly hit by large-caliber artillery.

Think about it, when the Anglo-French soldiers finally passed through the trenches and barbed wire, they would have to face an elaborate German crossfire.

Oh, by the way, there are mines under the barbed wire, after the Hindenburg line built along the ridge, the German artillery positions are located on the reverse slope behind the line, it is difficult to be directly attacked by the artillery of the British and French forces, such a line has almost no weaknesses, and if you want to break through at any point, you must be mentally prepared for heavy casualties.

Previously, the British Expeditionary Force's staff predicted that the capture of Brussels would cost 300,000 casualties.

To Roque's regret, Nivelle didn't know what he was up against, and claimed that the fight would be over in 24 hours, or 48 hours.

What else could Roque say?