Chapter 460: The Inevitability of War
While Bruno was forging a future with diplomacy, De Gaulle was rebuilding the very war-torn foundations of a nation with steel in hand, and blood slaked across his bayonet. And I don’t mean that last part figuratively.
The Parisian commune may have been obliterated down to its last member, so thoroughly that even their own family members couldn’t help but be caught up in the process. But the warlords of the other major cities and provinces of France had continued to fight on.
De Gaulle had soon realized that his Gallian Militia was outnumbered, surrounded, and outgunned by enemies all backed by some foreign power wanting their own puppet installed on the vacant throne of France.
France had in many ways entered a warlord era of its own, a land that once prided itself on being the beacon of republican virtue had sunk into the mud, ruled by bayonets and breadlines.
One where a handful of powerful leaders gained control over administrative regions, and the means of production, acting as petty dictators, doing what they could to restore order to the lands their troops occupied, but having no desire to work together in a way that functionally unified the country.
Among which were other notable names from the history of the world Bruno had previously lived in during his past life. Such as Henri Giraud, Philippe Pétain, Georges Catroux, Maxime Weygand, and a few other less than honorable mentions.
These men had each staked their claim to territory, each representing a different banner and a different loose collection of ideals. Whatever rallied the people beneath their flag in practice was generally espoused in some way that could be used for recruitment.
Nearly the entirety of the young generation, aged 16-24 was obliterated during the great war, at least from the French perspective. Those fighting now were either the few survivors, their older cousins, or their younger brothers.
Led by the previous generation of men, who had largely acted as NCOs and junior officers during the war. After all, there was little love and loyalty for any man in the general staff, as most were seen as the architects of the lost generation and their meaningless sacrifice on the altar of French revanchism.
Philippe Pétain was one of the few of this old guard with enough stock to organize an armed force to such a capacity which he was able to seize stable ground. Banditry, brigandry, highwaymen, petty gang warfare, and all other means of violence were still commonplace, especially in the rural areas.
Only the fortress cities were under lock and key, guarded by heavily armed, and likely substance abusing militiamen, who needed but one excuse to make an agitator, a dissident, or simply a voice of reason disappear entirely.
But unlike the Gallian Militia, which maintained a stockpile of largely looted, surplus, and mismatched arms. Pétain’s own armed force was far more organized, far better equipped. No doubt because they controlled the coastal and border regions of Hauts de France and Grand Est, which allowed the international procurement of arms and armament for his forces.