I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France

Major General Lacos stared blankly at the map, his gaze somewhat complicated.

He even suspected that the Shire in front of him was an impostor, a spy for the Germans, aiming to make them lose this war!

Otherwise, who would voluntarily request their troops to give up a geographical advantage and let the enemy occupy the high ground?!

Shire seemed to see through Major General Lacos's thoughts, he smiled faintly, "General, if you are already certain you cannot stop the Germans' attack, why not try my method?"

Major General Lacos suddenly woke up.

If Shire were an impostor or a German spy, he wouldn't need to do anything; he would just wait, and the 2nd Army would be annihilated tonight!

Thinking of this, Major General Lacos sighed lightly, "But Brigadier, doing this will put us in a completely passive position."

He pointed at the location of the defense line Shire had drawn:

"If we build the defense line here, the Germans standing on the top of the hill can easily throw grenades into our trenches, and we will find it difficult to counterattack from below."

"In other words, the enemy could easily wipe us out just with grenades."

Shire calmly replied:

"I don't think so, General."

"There is indeed the problem you mentioned with ordinary trenches."

"But it's different if the trenches are at different heights."

Major General Lacos looked confused, "Different heights?"

Shire nodded, casually taking paper and a pen, drawing a diagram while explaining:

"This is the slope of the mountain, we roughly build the trenches at this position."

"All the soil dug out during trench construction is piled on the upper side, causing the upper side to be much higher than the lower side."

Major General Lacos suddenly understood, exclaiming:

"The Germans' grenades would be blocked by the high upper side."

"Or they would be thrown over the upper side and the top of the trenches to the other side?"

Shire nodded.

In reality, this creates a "dead zone" where grenades cannot enter, even if the Germans are close and on high ground.

Conversely, French soldiers in the trenches could easily throw grenades to the top of the hill as soon as they stood up.

Major General Lacos's eyes instantly lit up, realizing that the French troops would gain the initiative, despite seemingly giving up geographical advantage.

Colonel Klein seemed to grasp something and added, "Also, the Germans' artillery, none of their artillery can hit this area."

Major General Lacos was taken aback, then his face lit up with joy, "That's right, the enemy's howitzers would be blocked by the mountain top; this area would be in their dead zone. My God, we could even ignore the enemy's artillery, which numbers in the thousands."

"Not only that," Shire pointed down at the lower side, "we can place our artillery at the foot of the mountain."

Major General Lacos nodded repeatedly, becoming excited, "Yes, Brigadier, that's brilliant."

"The foot of the mountain is still the enemy artillery's dead zone. Artillery placed here would be safe but could hit the Germans charging up the hilltop positions."

"It's hard to imagine that just moving the defense line back a few dozen meters could bring so many benefits."

"And no one thought of this before. Only you, Brigadier!"

Major General Lacos's gaze towards Shire changed from initial suspicion to admiration.

No wonder he's called the Mars of France, this is practically turning decay into magic!

The Germans would be caught off guard, disoriented in the darkness, not even knowing where the grenades came from!

Major Jules, who had come with Shire, also looked at Shire with surprise and a touch of sorrow in his heart.

If the French Army had used this tactic from the beginning, the first line of defense might not have been lost, and such heavy casualties wouldn't have been sustained, including Colonel Delion and those comrades...

Shire remained calm, as if discussing something trivial.

This wasn't Shire's own idea; it was a tactic used by modern volunteer troops when facing an enemy with an absolute advantage in artillery: the reverse slope tactic.

Voluntarily giving up the mountaintop positions and building trenches on the reverse slope could instantly render direct fire weapons, including tanks, ineffective.

Curve fire weapons could hit, but without knowing the exact target location, they could only shoot blindly.

Once the enemy entered the hilltop positions, the volunteer troops would leap out of the trenches and launch a counter-charge, quickly leading to close-quarters combat.

At this point, all the enemy's advanced equipment would become useless, and it would come down to bayonet to bayonet.

The reason European and American countries don't have such tactics is that their battles always involve aircraft against aircraft, tanks against tanks, never considering bayonet combat when the enemy has an absolute equipment advantage.

Gradually, the smile on Major General Lacos's face faded, as he seemed to think of this point.

"Brigadier," Major General Lacos said worriedly, "our trenches are too close to the hilltop positions and still at the lower ground; once the enemy launches a desperate charge…"

The elite of the German Army are gathered in Verdun, commanded personally by the German Crown Prince, and it's said they even drew 17 of the strongest divisions from the General Reserve to strengthen their forces.

These troops dared to fight and charge, easily using hand-to-hand combat with tens of thousands of men to wipe out the remaining seven thousand plus of the 2nd Army, like crushing an ant.

"That's why we need this," Shire nodded towards Major Jules.

Major Jules understood, carefully taking out a square object from his bag and placing it on the table.

Major General Lacos leaned in to see, and saw the front marked with the words "This side towards the enemy" in French.

(The image above shows a directional mine, simple to make and inexpensive, but with incredible power, especially for group casualties)

(The image above shows the interior steel balls of the directional mine)

"This is a directional mine," Shire approached and patted the mine body, introducing, "Each of these directional mines contains about 800 steel balls, and once detonated, the balls will scatter like bullets towards the enemy, with a range of around 100 meters."

Hearing this, Major General Lacos instinctively retracted his hand from the mine body as if scalded, looking at Shire with fear in his eyes, "800 steel balls? Range of 100 meters?"

Shire nodded confidently, "It will instantly turn all approaching enemies into sieves."

"We do not need to see the enemy or aim; we just need to know there are enemies there, and then detonate it."

This is almost tailor-made for this battle.

Major General Lacos swallowed hard, "How many of these directional mines do you have, Brigadier? How much do they cost?"

"Free," Shire spread his hands generously, "The first batch of ten thousand is on the way. They are free, my gift to you, for Verdun, for France, for the lives of the soldiers!"

Now was the time to gain the army's favor, and Shire wouldn't miss this golden opportunity.

Major General Lacos was instantly moved, firmly shaking Shire's hand, saying excitedly:

"Thank you, Brigadier. Thank you very much!"

"You are the savior of France, the true savior!"

"No one is like you, no one cares about our lives, only you!"

Those around also looked at Shire with admiration and gratitude, as minutes ago they were thinking of how to escape, but now they knew not only could they save their lives, but possibly turn the tide!

"This is what I'm supposed to do," Shire scanned the room, "You are the bravest people, heroes, the elite of France, you deserve this. Long live France!"

"Long live France!"

"Long live France!"

...

The people around echoed Shire's shout, some even moved to tears.