Chapter 508: Restoration of France
In the city of Geneva, within its most grand hotel, hosted a meeting of warlords. Men who had, over the course of the last four years, fought with tooth and nail for everything they currently held.
Each was battle hardened, with a cadre of blood-soaked veterans behind them. Whether survivors of the Great War or the next generation raised in its catastrophic aftermath. And all of them were convinced they were the legitimate ruler of France.
There was only one name who had grown infamous over the course of France’s civil war who was not present at this meeting: Charles de Gaulle.
The reason for this was simple: the Gallian militia had been slain by Pétain’s National Restorative Army in a battle for the control of Paris and its surrounding regions. In fact, by now de Gaulle had not been seen in months, rumored to have either fled to the colonies, the new world, or perhaps had even perished without record.
Either way, to the men at this table he was a non-issue. Rather, their most pressing concern was the man sitting at the head of the table. Philippe Pétain was perhaps the only warlord to rise from the Ashes of the Republic who was an actual legitimate extension of the previous regime.
What with being the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army during the final days of the war? But that was not the reason that the other warlords were so wary of him. Their intelligence reported trains, upon trains coming in from across the Rhine, carrying armor, artillery, aircraft, and crates filled with weapons and munitions.
Logistic complexities aside, the National Restoration Army now had the means to steamroll their opposition, and only a fool would not come to this discussion before losing any position they had to negotiate with the advantage.
It was clear that Pétain was willing to make some concessions in order to end the civil war, and unify France beneath his banner, and thus the men gathered, many of which had various ideological sentiments were quick to discuss these matters openly and without restraint.
"I won’t lie to you. With Weygand joining your ranks, and new equipment flooding through from east of the Rhine, you have put me in a very difficult position. With that said, I am hoping that perhaps the unpleasantness of a pyrrhic victory on your part in exchange for my defeat can be avoided entirely."
The man who spoke was Henri Giraud, one of the more prominent warlords. his uniform was clean, but his eyes betrayed exhaustion. And judging by his choice of words, he was making a covert threat. One that was hidden behind just enough words not to provoke an immediate response.