I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France - Chapter 626

Hasselt, Belgium.

After several days of “cleaning up”, the besieged German troops had almost surrendered, and the siege of Antwerp did not help itself.

Albert I and Major General Eden were very busy, gathering prisoners of war from town to town and counting the spoils.

However, they were very thorough in terms of etiquette. Every time they recovered a place, they would report it to Ciel. The list of loot was also sent to the Ciel headquarters without missing any details. They would not dare to use the distribution until Ciel signed it.

From Ciel’s point of view this was unnecessary.

In principle, Albert I, Major General Eden and even the entire Belgian army were not his subordinates and did not need to obey his orders, but Albert I insisted on doing so.

At noon that day, Charles was eating bread while signing documents at the headquarters. He couldn’t help complaining: “Oh my god, doesn’t he know that this will increase my burden? Just signing the order almost made me disabled.” !”

The commander of the 6th Group Army has a lot of things to do. Counting the hundreds of thousands of people in Belgium, the regular army has nearly 500,000, and the militia has more than 800,000.

Tijani, who was eating canned vegetables, laughed: “I think this is a very smart approach.”

“What?” Charles didn’t understand what Tijani meant.

He thought that Albert I, considering Belgium’s independence, should try his best to take military power into his own hands. This was one of the reasons why Charles tried to control the FN arsenal.

However, Tijani did not think so: “He has identified you, general. You are the only person who can guarantee the security of Belgium now and in the future.”

“In the future?” Charles looked at Tijani in confusion.

“Yes.” Tijani nodded.

With a grimace, he used a spoon to stir the indistinguishable paste in the can. The taste and color made it difficult for him to swallow.

He reluctantly took a spoonful and swallowed it with difficulty as if taking medicine. He was so sick that he almost vomited it out. After a while, he looked up with a pale face and replied: “Think about it, General, Belgium is sandwiched between Britain, Germany and France.” , He must have a solid backer, and this backer is you. “

Ciel seemed to understand.

Germany will be a defeated country in the future, and Britain’s strength is its navy. From Belgium’s perspective, the bet must be on France.

And if you want to choose a force from France, it must be the Char.

This may be the main reason why Albert I desperately tried to win over him.

Charles felt that his previous approach was a bit unnecessary. Before, he wanted to control Belgium by controlling the FN arsenal, but now it seems that it is not necessary.

At this time, the staff sent a telegram, which was sent by Foch through Wei Gang: “We have basically got rid of the British control, continue to maintain maritime superiority, and do not let other forces get involved in the ‘echo sounder’, any force.”

Charles casually stuffed the telegram into his pocket. This was a “private telegram” that Tijani did not need to know.

“Business matters?” Tijani didn’t care.

“Yes.” Ciel responded.

Just as Charles was putting away the unfinished bread and preparing to end the meal, the staff sent another telegram: “General, the Secretary of the Navy is talking to Professor Fossenden about the purchase of the industrial property rights of the ‘Echo Sounder’. In addition, the British They also sent people here, and they seemed to be interested in buying it.”

Charles was surprised. He had thought that Britain would do this, but he did not expect that the French Navy also had ideas.

Tijani reminded: “It’s not the French Navy, General, it’s the Parliament.”

Ciel suddenly realized that once the patent fell into the hands of the Navy, the “echo sounder” would be controlled by the parliament instead of Ciel.

Parliament finally knows what the point is.

…

Professor Fossenden has a laboratory of his own in the Brest shipyard.

The laboratory is very large. It has a simulated test platform transformed from an indoor swimming pool. Many experiments can be completed indoors without being affected by the wind, waves and night outside.

Professor Fossenden and his assistants are working intensively on improving the “echo sounder”.

Judging from the data returned from actual combat, although the “Echo Sounder” achieved a major victory, it hunted and killed 12 submarines in the first battle, and sank 5 more in the subsequent battle. This record has exceeded all previous attempts to hunt and kill submarines. sum.

(Note: Germany lost a total of 199 submarines during World War I, most of which were sunk after being equipped with sonar.)

However, Professor Fossenden knew that this was not enough.

“The biggest shortcoming is the detection range.” Professor Fussenden set the next goal for the laboratory: “Insufficient detection range will increase the difficulty of tracking submarines, coupled with unstable signals and errors, our warships can easily lose their targets. ”

“Professor.” Someone objected: “But judging from the actual combat data, the probability of losing the target is low.”

“Idiot.” Professor Fussenden scolded unceremoniously: “That’s because the Germans don’t know about the ‘echo sounder’ yet. Their submarines always escape in a straight line underwater instead of evading. Once they know it, That’s not the data you see.”

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Professor Fossenden has personally been on the ship and discussed with sailors, captains, operators and others about their experience of using the “echo sounder”.

He believes that only in this way can we truly understand actual combat needs and make the “echo sounder” more perfect.

Just as Professor Versenden and his assistant were discussing the improvement plan at their desk, several officers in naval uniforms walked into the laboratory, led by an admiral in gorgeous military uniform.

Professor Versenden, who noticed the movement, looked up. When he saw the scene, he was stunned and hurriedly put down what he was doing and came forward.

The admiral rushed forward to shake hands with Professor Versenden: “Hello, professor, let me introduce myself. I am the French Navy Minister. Thank you very much for the equipment you invented. It played a very important role on the battlefield.”

Professor Versenden sensitively noticed that the admiral’s praise was insincere, and he also knew that this was not the purpose of his visit.

Because it has been more than ten days since the “echo sounder” won a great victory. If it is to be praised and rewarded, the navy should have stood in front of it long ago.

However, Professor Versenden replied politely: “This is what I should do, General.”

The Minister of the Navy glanced around and asked: “Can we talk alone?”

“Of course.” Professor Versenden welcomed the admiral into the conference room.

In the large conference room, besides the professor and the minister, there was also a staff member brought by the minister, who was holding a briefcase in his hand.

The admiral asked directly: “I heard that you have the industrial property rights of the ‘echo sounder’?”

“Yes.” Professor Versenden nodded.

This was one of the conditions for his cooperation with Charles.

But immediately, Professor Versenden shook his head again: “But not completely, General, I only thought of using it to detect icebergs. Detecting submarines was Charles’s idea. I think Charles at least owns part of the property rights!”