In a village in Flanders, two wounded soldiers who had not yet had time to move to the rear depended on each other, one of them was wounded in both arms, and his jaw was blown up, and when he wanted to smoke, he had to ask another wounded soldier with a wounded leg to help, so the wounded soldier with a wounded leg smoked a pipe, and the wounded soldier with a wounded jaw and arms smelled it, becoming the most pitiful person in the whole of Flanders.

The Southern African Expeditionary Force retreated to Calais to recuperate after the Battle of Ypres, and the end of the war was far away, and the front-line soldiers had limited capacity, and every three weeks, the front-line troops had to withdraw to the rear positions to rest for a week, and then return to the front.

Both the stubborn Xiafei and Frenzi wanted the Southern African Expeditionary Force to take on a more important task and break through the German defenses.

However, the Anglo-French forces were seriously short of reinforcements, and Roque feared that even if the Southern African Expeditionary Force captured the German positions, it would not be able to hold on because of the lack of reinforcements.

Unlike the Anglo-French alliance that admits "offensive supremacy", Southern Africa has always emphasized the importance of first defending solidly, and then gradually depleting the enemy with sufficient mobilization capabilities, and finally winning the victory, striving for the maximum gain at the lowest cost.

Compared with the superior German army, the biggest advantage of the Anglo-French army was the vast colonies that could provide continuous support, so Roque resolutely opposed taking the initiative to attack the German army under the premise that the German army had an advantage.

In November, Xia Fei began to use his "small bites and slow eating" tactics, but it did not work well, and by mid-November, the French army had lost another 20,000 men and failed to make any progress.

"The 2nd Cavalry Division has the largest number of machine guns in the entire Anglo-French army, and now with the help of large-caliber artillery, it has the ability to attack the Germans, and we need to recapture South Persian Chen, otherwise we will not be able to stabilize the defensive line." Xia Fei always thinks about attacking, and will do whatever it takes to do so.

Roque was unmoved, it was the most elite German 1st Guards Regiment guarding South Persian Chen, and the commander was Prince Ettel Friedrich, who had performed well in the Battle of the Marne, and in the Battle of the Marne, it was precisely because Ettel Friedrich led the 1st Guards Regiment to hold the position that the German 1st Army and the 2nd Army were able to retreat in their entirety.

There are also problems on the side of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, although the artillery unit has arrived in France, but because of the heavy rain in Flanders some time ago, and Albert I opened the floodgates, Flanders has become an ocean, the car cannot drive at all, and it takes 16 horses to send a 120mm howitzer to Ypres, Roque hopes to wait for winter to come, the ground will freeze before attacking, and now the Anglo-French army does not have enough cotton clothes, this is the problem that the Anglo-French army urgently needs to solve.

"Our troops need more cotton clothing, the soldiers are fighting in trenches full of rats and silt, our worst enemy is not the Germans, but damn the weather, if there is not enough cotton clothing before the snow, you all know what the consequences will be." Roque repeatedly stressed the problem of cotton clothing, and the logistics of the Anglo-French forces were terrible.

In fact, Germany is not much better, although the weather in November has not snowed, but the weather is already very cold, more north of the eastern front has many soldiers frostbite, the weather has become the biggest help for Russia, the German-Austrian offensive is slowing down, the Russian Empire is gradually stabilizing the defensive line.

Compared with the Anglo-French forces, the weather was a greater threat to the Southern African Expeditionary Force, in Southern Africa, only the southernmost Cape Town occasionally snowed, Rhodesia, Nyasaland and other places almost never snowed, and the troops did not prepare cotton clothes, when they came to France, the soldiers of the Southern African Expeditionary Force only had a blanket, and many front-line soldiers had to put on all their clothes, still unable to resist the increasingly cold weather.

"The main task now is to drive the Germans out of Belgium and win the battle, and we need a great victory to unite the people." This was the consensus of Xia Fei and Frenzi, and for this reason they did not hesitate to drive the soldiers on the front line to launch a group charge against the German positions.

It's like letting the soldiers die.

"Lord Nyasaland, before you asked for the command of the troops, you had it, then you asked for more artillery, now you have it, and now you ask for enough cotton clothing, when will your troops be able to attack the German positions?" Frenzi's dissatisfaction with Roque was also growing, and the British Expeditionary Force was full of internal contradictions, and troops from the colonies did not obey Frenzi's orders very much.

Originally, the Canadian Legion and the Indian Legion were quite obedient, although the combat effectiveness of the Canadian Legion and the Indian Legion was not very good, but the Canadian Legion and the Indian Legion did not lose their courage, they fought bravely after arriving in France, were not afraid of sacrifice, and then suffered heavy losses, and now they have withdrawn to Calais to recuperate.

Unlike the rotational rest of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the Canadian Legion and the Indian Legion were directly disabled, so they had to retreat, just like the Southern African Expeditionary Force some time ago.

"Your Excellency, my troops will go into battle only when they are well prepared." Roque insisted that after the Battle of the Marne, the Southern African Expeditionary Force never lost its position, and the South Persian Chen, where the German First Guard Regiment was stationed, was defended by the Second Cavalry Division, and after the Second Cavalry Division took over, the French Ninth Army took over.

As a result, the Ninth Army not only failed to hold South Persian Chen, but also abandoned a large amount of supplies, many of which were urgently needed by the German army.

Before the World War, all the participating countries were grossly underestimating the consumption of the World War, and since the Battle of the Marne, the Anglo-French forces began to have difficulties in supplying supplies, and Germany was no different.

The good thing is that although Britain blocked the German coastline and made it impossible for Germany to obtain supplies from the outside world, Germany had strong industrial capacity and excellent scientists, who solved the problem of industrial raw material shortage in a very short time.

For example, camphor, one of the raw materials necessary for making gunpowder, was imported from Japan before the World War, and after the outbreak of the war, Japan soon declared war with Germany and launched an attack on Germany's colonies in Asia, and all trade related to Germany was suspended, and Germany could not get enough camphor, so it could not produce enough gunpowder.

Scientists in Germany solved this problem in a very short time and began to extract camphor from turpentine.

Before the outbreak of the world war, Germany had to import Chilean sea bird droppings to extract nitrogen, but scientists soon discovered that enough nitrogen could be extracted from the air.

Later, German scientists also used wood instead of American cotton to extract acetone, which was used to make nitroglycerin, in short, German scientists through their own efforts, found a lot of materials in Germany that needed to be imported before the outbreak of the world war, which strongly supported the front-line fighting.

To be honest, if there is anything else in Germany that Roque envies now, it is the scientists in Germany, after the end of the world war in another time and space, the United States has become the biggest winner, and this time Roque will definitely cut off his beard.

"Then there will never be a time to be fully prepared." Haig mercilessly ridiculed that the better the performance of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, the more incompetent the generals of the British Expeditionary Force became.

Roque did not respond to the remarks of the second force, and said that he could not help, and three days later, London sent 50,000 cotton clothes to Dover, which was only the first batch, and more cotton clothes will be sent in the future.

These padded garments were ordered from the United States by the British War Department.

In mid-November, the British government underwent a reshuffle, with Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith and Minister of War Kitchener, Secretary of the Navy Winston, and Treasury Secretary Lloyd George forming the War Council, the highest body of the British Expeditionary Force.

Later, in a survey by Morley Research, Lloyd George's evaluation as prime minister ranked third among British prime ministers, and the first was Winston.

When Lloyd George was Minister of Finance, he was Winston's nemesis, or rather the entire British aristocracy.

On August 10, 1911, the British Parliament passed the Parliament Act, which for the first time specified the legal relationship between the two houses of the British Parliament.

The Act of Parliament establishes that the Finance Act is "a public relations bill", and that every Finance Act may not be amended or vetoed by the House of Lords after it has been certified by the Speaker of the House of Commons, and becomes law as soon as it is approved by the King of England.

Ostensibly, the law simplified the approval process for fiscal laws, increased government revenues, and made it easier for Britain to deal with the arms race.

In fact, the Act of Parliament fundamentally deprived the House of Lords of the power to discuss the Finance Act, the British House of Lords is composed of the aristocracy, and the House of Commons is composed of the emerging bourgeoisie, this bill caused the House of Lords to lose the right to approve the Finance Law, and then the British government used the Act of Parliament to start the tax of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, and the assets of the nobility became the hardest hit again.

Regardless of the relationship between Lloyd George and Winston, in the face of a powerful Germany, Lloyd George and Winston can only put aside the dispute for the time being, both of them are smart people, they know what to do and when.

Roque is also a smart man, since the War Council once again met Roque's request, then Roque also had to repay the trust of the War Committee, so on November 25, the 101st and 102nd Divisions, which had been replenished and restored, launched an attack on South Persian Chen.

At this time, the defenders of South Persichen were no longer the 1st Guards Regiment, but the newly established 92nd Infantry Division, and the Germans were also to take turns resting.

At half past seven in the morning, the 1st Artillery Division, which had finally arrived at its intended combat position, began to shell South Persian Chen, which was the first large-scale concentrated use of large-caliber artillery by the British and French forces.

The effect of large-caliber artillery was amazing, and after half an hour, the entire South Persian Chen disappeared from the ground, and when the 101st Division rushed to the German positions, the German positions fell silent.