Xiao Letian's identity at the moment was the secret envoy of the French Emperor. His role in the surrender of Metz was immeasurable. Without his guidance, I am afraid that even if Bazin finally surrendered, it would not be what it is now.
Indeed, Bazin's surrender recorded in history was on October 27th, but Xiao Letian's efforts advanced the time by ten days.
Don't underestimate the important role of these ten days. Once Metz liberates the Prussian regular army in the north, it will be relieved of its biggest burden and can go all out to move south.
The current Franco-Prussian war situation has reached a very delicate stage. The entire war situation is like a dumbbell from south to north!
In the north is the defense of Metz, in the middle is the attack and defense of Paris, and in the south is the Army of the Loire in Orleans!
The three main battlefields reflect each other, are implicated in each other, and affect the whole body. Paris has reached a stalemate. The enemy and we have only had small-scale conflicts for more than a month without any decisive battle. To put it bluntly, both sides want to take a look at the situation in other places and are waiting to see.
The Loire Corps in the south has become the hope for a reversal of the campaign. Backed by the strong manpower and material resources of the south, as long as Gambit is given time, this corps will become bigger and stronger!
In other words, delaying time is very beneficial to the French!
But the key point is that Metz City must be defended. How many Prussian troops are held back in Metz City? On the surface it is 200,000, but in fact, including the supporting and cooperating troops from other places, it is more than 300,000!
If the city of Metz can be captured as soon as possible, the 300,000 held back Prussian troops will immediately be relieved. Prince Karl will get 300,000 new troops and go directly south, which will reverse the decline of Orleans.
Ten days is very short, but ten days is enough for Gambetta to add 150,000 troops to Orleans!
Now the Loire Corps does not have the expected 150,000 troops, but Prince Carl suddenly has 300,000 more troops. It seems that Orleans is going to bleed again.
Xiao Letian did not show up during the entire surrender ceremony, and all the Chinese people were in hiding. Their identities were kept secret. No one wanted the French to know that the surrender was caused by the Chinese, otherwise the national sentiment in France would not explode. ah!
In the secret bunker in the rear area, Xiao Letian listened to the report from the front, and the telescope was always observing the front.
French unit numbers were filled in on the list one after another, and a pair of French troops heading north were already visible in the field of view of the telescope.
The Prussian quartermasters along the road prepared countless amounts of food. The French soldiers who had registered and completed the distribution lined up to receive their bread, potatoes and a bag of salt. These foods were all the supplies they had on the way to the prisoner of war camp.
The 170,000-strong army pulled out ten long dragons as far as the eye could see in the wilderness. The farthest ones could not even be seen clearly with a telescope!
When the number of table-level people behind Xiao Letian exceeded 60,000, he put down the telescope with confidence and said, "Looking at the current situation, the French have sincerely surrendered, and they will not cause trouble again!"
"Where is Bazin? Has he left the city? He is the key. Only by controlling it in our hands can we feel completely at ease with this surrender!"
Military history is not without examples of false surrenders. The Prussian army had been arranging ambushes from various quarters last night. What they were afraid of was that the French would take advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack during the handover!
However, it seems that there is no problem now. Sixty thousand people have been reorganized and returned. If it is a false surrender, the bait is a bit too big.
At this moment, a fast horse suddenly ran over from the front. After entering the bunker, the messenger shouted, "Bazin is out of the city! Bazin officially surrendered to Prince Auguste, and his saber has been donated!"
"Great!" There was applause in the headquarters. Bazin formally surrendered, which meant that the Battle of Metz was completely resolved.
Xiao Letian finally relaxed his nerves and slumped in his chair, "Send a telegram to Bismarck... I've done all the things I need to do, and I don't care about the rest!"
"From today on, I'm waiting to share the war dividends! I'm exhausted..."
The latest telegram from Metz was quickly sent to the entire Prussian army and the country. As a result, Berlin got the news earlier than France.
The surrender of Metz shocked the whole of Germany. The surrender of 170,000 troops without a fight further proved that France was at the end of its strength and Germany could completely crush this old enemy with just a little more effort.
After Bismarck received the telegram, he was so excited that he could not speak for a long time. He smoked two cigars before he finally calmed down: "Send a telegram to His Majesty, send a telegram to the king of all Germany... tell Ludwig II , it’s his turn to speak!”
"In this Palace of Versailles, we are going to prepare for His Majesty's enthronement ceremony! Our Germany... is finally going to be unified, and we are finally going to have an emperor!"
"Give Prince Carl the power. All the Metz garrison will be assigned to him. Orleans must be defended and the Loire Corps must be destroyed!"
"Three hundred thousand troops are going to support him. This is the last reinforcement we can give! Tell him that there are no reserves in the country that can be mobilized!"
At this time, Prince Karl had already received the news, and he was so excited that he immediately issued an order to transfer the headquarters and press his base camp all the way south.
"I personally blocked the bank of the Loire River. I don't believe that the powerful Prussian army can't fight against a group of southern French recruits?"
"Push all the 450,000 people I can command forward, and crucify Gambetta in the south!"
"Want to rescue Paris? Do you want to step on my shoulders to gain merit? Just dream!"
Prince Carl's regiment completely lost the threat from the north. The guerrillas in the Vosges Mountains and some local French garrison troops could no longer make any big waves. The prince quickly ordered the main army to march towards Orleans.
Prince Karl was suffocating to watch along the way. The closer he got to the south, the more intense the destruction by the French was. There were ruins of broken and broken railways everywhere, and the arms train could not move at all.
People could only rely on horse-drawn carriages to carry out primitive material transfers, but all the rural areas and clear fields were battlefields. The Prussian cavalry had nothing else to do all day long, except to wipe out these fly-like guerrillas.
What made him even more angry was that there were countless French hot air balloons flowing back and forth in the sky. These people actually used different winds to start transporting personnel and intelligence to Paris.
"Pop it down! Pop down all these damn balloons!"
Only now did Prince Carl know how powerful France's industrial strength was. Countless factories in the south were producing hot-air balloons day and night, because the news that Gambetta broke through in a hot-air balloon suddenly stimulated countless people.
In order to deliver news and transport people and materials to Paris, countless cities in the south are going all out to produce hot air balloons!
The Loire Corps now has more than a hundred hot air balloons. Whenever the wind direction is right, there are countless warriors flying balloons towards Paris!
Note: During the trip, there is only one update!
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