Whether Fuxi is a butcher or not remains to be verified, but the relationship between Foch and Xia Fei is undoubted, it is precisely because of the close relationship with Xia Fei that after the fall of Xia Fei, Fu Xu was also implicated, relieved of his duties and returned to the rear to be responsible for coordinating with the British Expeditionary Force.

It was because of this work that Foch gained the trust of the British Expeditionary Force, which qualified him to serve as the future commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.

Therefore, the saying that blessings and misfortunes lurk and misfortunes depend is also applicable in France.

Although Roque did not like Xia Fei, Roque and Foch had a good relationship, and in Ypres, Roque and Foch worked together very happily.

Relatively speaking, Joseph Gallieni's funeral was very unpleasant, and as Minister of War, it was really difficult to accept that few people came to Joseph Gallieni's funeral.

The French still don't know how much Joseph Gallieni has contributed to France, they only see Joseph Gallerini recommending Xiafei and protecting Xiafei many times, and they think that Joseph Gallieni and Xiafei are wearing the same pants.

In fact, when the world war broke out, there was no one in France who was suitable to be the commander-in-chief except Xia Fei, Joseph Gallieni was originally one of the candidates, but Joseph Galliene was old, his health was not good, and he was worried that he would not be able to lead France to victory, so Joseph Gallerini recommended the younger and more energetic Xia Fei.

Roque doesn't want to comment on the personnel of France, this is France's internal affairs, Roque has no right to interfere, Roque cares about the British Expeditionary Force, the Battle of the Somme is imminent, now, if it is still the same as the situation in another time and space, the British Expeditionary Force will be greatly damaged after the Battle of the Somme, and even if Haig steps down, he will not be able to make up for the mistakes he has made.

If he could, Roque would have liked to organize the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme, but it was useless, no matter what Roque did, the Western Front was still dominated by French troops, Britain could not afford the losses brought by the loss of France, Hague was not willing to be lonely, and urgently needed victory to prove himself, the British cabinet had not yet despaired of Haig, although there were more and more people who did not trust Haig.

In March, the situation took a turn for the worse, and after the defeat at the Battle of Lake Nalachi, Nicholas II unjustifiably dismissed Minister of War Alexei Polivanov from his post, which was the idea of Empress Alexandra, who had always disliked Alexei Polivanov, although Polivanov had performed well as Minister of War, and his drastic reforms somewhat restored the losses suffered by the Russian Empire after the start of the war.

Another reason for Polivanov's dismissal was Rasputin, which is also related to southern Africa, and the cause is ridiculous.

Last year the Russian Empire and Britain reached a loan agreement, and Britain decided to provide the Russian Empire with 20 million pounds a month to help the Russian Empire continue to fight.

This money is a lifesaver for the current Russian Empire and can play a huge role if used wisely.

Unfortunately, Nicholas II appointed himself commander-in-chief of the army, and St. Petersburg was in the hands of Rasputin, who privately purchased many luxury goods for Empress Alexandra to squander, including high-end cars made in southern Africa.

Last month, ten Lord cars were delivered to St. Petersburg, four of which belonged to Rasputin, who was rumored to be hoping to escape the police in a safe and fast Lord's car.

Having learned about this, Polivanov tried to interfere in this matter, but did not expect to be dismissed by Nicholas II.

Because the four cars relieved the Minister of War, this kind of thing happened only in the Russian Empire.

The new Minister of War of the Russian Empire was Alexei Brusinov, one of Russia's finest soldiers, but with a group of pig teammates, and after Brusinov took over as Minister of War, Nicholas II ordered Brusinov to continue the offensive against the Germans at Lake Naracchi.

Brusinov carried out campaign mobilization, but his generals Eft and Kulopatkin did not think so, they did not want to launch an offensive against the Germans, and the Chief of the General Staff, General Alekseev, resolutely supported Brusinov, who was Brusinov's old superior and had extensive experience in real combat.

Under the impetus of General Alekseev, the preparations for the campaign were carried out with great difficulty, the Russian Imperial forces had not yet completed their operational preparations, and the German army launched a counterattack under the command of Hindenburg and Ludendorff, and in only one day, the German army regained the positions that the Russian Imperial forces had taken a week to capture in the previous Battle of Lake Narakhy, and the Russian Imperial counterattack was forced to stop, and in the two battles of Lake Narach, the Russian Empire lost 100,000 people, This does not include the 12,000 who froze to death, in contrast to the German losses of only 20,000.

Roque returned to Cyprus after attending the funeral of Joseph Gallieni, and throughout March and April, the British Expeditionary Force was preparing for the Battle of the Somme, a large number of troops were transferred to the Western Front, artillery shells and other military supplies were piled up, and the importance of artillery has become more and more evident since the world war has progressed, and all the participating countries have used artillery as the most important means of attacking the enemy.

Compared with artillery, Haig paid significantly less attention to machine guns, and even now Haig still insisted that cavalry could play a decisive role in the battle, and machine guns were dispensable, "extremely limited in help for combat".

To add insult to injury, on May 10, there was a problem with a batch of shells sent to the Somme front, the quality of the shells was substandard, Haig believed that this batch of shells was produced by the arsenal in Nyasaland, and Kitchener thought that it was not, because the weapons and ammunition produced in Nyasaland had never had large-scale quality problems, and Winston had an ambiguous attitude on this issue, these shells were not produced by the arsenal in Nyasaland, then they were produced by the arsenal in the United Kingdom, and Winston was now the Minister of Munitions, If there is a quality problem with the locally produced shells, Winston is to blame.

"Eighty percent of these shells are produced by the British local arsenals, and when Lloyd George was the Minister of Munitions, he asked the local arsenals to increase production and increase efficiency, but the local arsenals did not have enough qualified workers, and the newly recruited workers had no experience, so there was a high probability of problems." Sidney Milner is the king of the new generation of Britain, and the quality of the shells is not Winston's responsibility, and the former Quartermaster Lloyd George is to blame.

"That's right, it's all because of Lloyd George!" Roque pushed the boat along, as long as it was not the responsibility of the Nyasaland Arsenal, and of course Winston could not be blamed, Lloyd George was the best scapegoat.

"The Prime Minister asked Haig to inspect all the shells to ensure that they were of acceptable quality, which will take a long time and will probably affect the preparations for the Battle of the Somme." Sidney Milner gloated, he didn't care if France lived or died.

Roque couldn't help but care, the German offensive in Verdun has not stopped, the Dead Man's Mountain was finally captured by the Germans, the French threw down 10,000 corpses on the position, the Dead Man's Mountain finally lived up to its name, and the Germans occupying the Dead Man's Mountain each got double portions of tobacco for the smell of rotting corpses.

After Fort Duvomont, Fort Vaux fell one after another, Charles Manking commanded the troops to counterattack, the French and German troops engaged in brutal hand-to-hand combat between the fortress complexes, the wounded refused to leave the battlefield, there was not enough anesthetic at the front, the soldiers whose arms and thighs were sawed off seemed to have lost their sense of pain, they did not care about their injuries at all, they did not cry out of pain or cry when their arms or thighs were sawed off, but went to the doctor to ask for cigarettes, and then asked about the situation at the front.

After nearly three days of white-knuckle fighting, the French army was driven out of Fort Vaux, 5,500 French troops were killed, including 130 officers, 12,000 French troops were wounded, 1,000 were captured, Charles Manking was dismissed, but did not leave the front line and went to the headquarters of Xia Fei as a staff officer.

In mid-May, in order to delay the preparations of the British Expeditionary Force, the Germans launched an attack on Vimy Ridge.

Haig was defenseless and Vimy Ridge was occupied by the Germans.

Vimy Ridge has a very high strategic value, control Vimy Ridge, you can control the plain west of Artois, in the second Artois Campaign, the French army paid a huge price to conquer Vimy Ridge, in March Xia Fei in order to reinforce Verdun, the Vimy Ridge position was transferred to the British Expeditionary Force to be responsible, but the British Expeditionary Force lost Vimy Ridge in May.

On May 26, the situation in Verdun became increasingly tense, and Chauffeur had to negotiate with Haig in the hope of bringing forward the start of the Battle of the Somme.

Previously, Chauffeur and Haig were preparing to launch the Battle of the Somme in August.

Haig did not agree to launch the Battle of the Somme in advance, the British Expeditionary Force was not ready, and Haig did not know how many of the existing artillery shells were problematic, and if this hidden danger was not ruled out, it would definitely affect the offensive of the British Expeditionary Force.

On May 28, French Prime Minister Aristide Briand personally approached Haig, hoping that Haig would launch the Battle of the Somme in advance.

Haig still disagreed, insisting that it would take two months to complete preparations for the campaign.

Aristide Briand pleaded with Haig in an almost pleading tone that in the present situation in France, if Verdun could not be relieved of the pressure, in two months' time France might not exist.

Haig was helpless and ordered an artillery bombardment of German positions that afternoon.

Verdun's nightmare is not over, a new one is here.

Just as Haig finally launched the Battle of the Somme, the Fifth Battle of Isonzo broke out in the Italian direction.

In the first four battles of the Isonzo River, the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire won and lost each other, and the battle line was still magically maintained in the place where the first Battle of the Isonzo River broke out, and Roque really felt sorry for the hundreds of thousands of casualties of the Kingdom of Italy and Austria-Hungary in the first four battles.

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