Transmigrated as the Crown Prince

Leopold III, who was about to give up resistance, summoned the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary to make his decision clear. This decision was not only for the safety of the Belgians, but the most important thing was that he had already foreseen that it was impossible for Britain and France to defeat the powerful Germany, and since the British and French coalition forces were about to withdraw, there was no need for the Belgians to bleed and sacrifice for Britain and France.

However, Prime Minister Herbert Pielot firmly opposed this decision. "Your Majesty, you must not do it. Although Belgium is in danger now, we can retreat to France to establish a government-in-exile, and we will definitely be able to counterattack in the future."

It's a pity that Leopold III was a very stubborn person, and he remained indifferent no matter how others tried to persuade him. "Counterattack? How many countries has Germany annexed so far? The Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands; and Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands persuaded them to surrender in just one day. Even Europe's largest army power, The largest naval power has been beaten and retreated, so there is no need to talk about counterattack."

"Prime Minister Reno said that the British Royal Navy is preparing to rescue them, but do you think the Germans will let them get their wish? Once these British expeditionary forces are wiped out, the British Empire will be in danger."

"Now we can go to France to establish a government-in-exile, but what about after France is defeated? To the UK? When the UK is defeated again, where will we go? The United States? Are we going to show the world the tragedy of a bereaved dog?"

But Herbert Pielot still had full confidence in Britain and France. The two argued for a long time but neither could convince the other. In the end, they had no choice but to take a step back and decided that Herbert Pielot would lead a group of government officials to Paris, France to form a government-in-exile, while Leopold III would stay and surrender to the Germans.

When the coalition forces received the order to withdraw, not only the Belgian army, but also the British and French soldiers were greatly shocked and shocked. After all, in the past few days of fighting, they felt that they had fought well and withstood several "violent" attacks by the German army.

Just when they thought the situation would turn into a long tug-of-war like the last war, they were suddenly told that they had to retreat. If they didn't retreat, the Germans would make dumplings for them. If they continued to hold on, it would be tantamount to sitting back and waiting for death.

However, obeying orders is the bounden duty of soldiers. They can retreat as soon as they are told. This is Belgium and not their motherland anyway, so it doesn't matter if they give up.

Therefore, the mood of the British and French coalition forces is relatively stable.

But the Belgian soldiers were in trouble. Did they agree to advance and retreat together? !Stick to the end as promised?!

This is simply betrayal by Chi Guoguo!

Unfortunately, no matter how indignant they were, the coalition forces began to retreat.

As Gan Molin expected, the coalition's retreat did not go smoothly. When the people saw the coalition soldiers who were defending their homes retreating like a tide, they suddenly fell into a huge panic. Rumors such as "hundreds of thousands of coalition troops have been wiped out" and "hundreds of German tank divisions are advancing crazily" spread like a plague. A large number of Belgian people packed their luggage and livestock and embarked on a journey to escape. and troops crowding the retreat roads.

The British and French allied forces secretly evacuated on the night of July 9. At 7 o'clock the next morning, Leopold III issued a broadcast ordering the entire army to surrender. In his opinion, he has done his best, after all, he fought for the coalition forces for 12 hours, right?

People's hearts were dark. The Belgian defenders, who hated the British and French allied forces for abandoning their allies and retreating without a fight, immediately put down their weapons. Some even moved the obstacles on the road so that the German troops could pass quickly. Chase those treacherous ones.

Hearing the news on the radio that Leopold III had announced his surrender, Prime Minister Reno almost fainted from anger. What was his promise to delay the German army as much as possible?

Furious, he immediately issued a fierce broadcast, angrily condemning Leopold's surrender; Britain's Churchill also hysterically criticized Leopold's inappropriateness.

Belgian Prime Minister Herbert Pielot, who had already arrived in Paris by plane, also made a broadcast, but in a more appropriate tone. He told the Belgian people that the king's actions were against the unanimous opinions of the government. In doing so, he was cutting himself off from the people. It was impossible for him to continue to be in power. The Belgian government in exile would continue to struggle.

Such debates raged long after the war ended. However, there were many people who defended Leopold at home and abroad in Belgium. They believed that he did a right and honorable thing in sharing weal and woe with the Belgian military and civilians. They repeatedly claimed that he surrendered not as head of state but as commander-in-chief of the Belgian army.

Regardless of the Belgian king's nonsense, General Bock ordered the entire army to attack and pursue the retreating British and French forces.

The British and French forces originally wanted to use the nearest port of Antwerp or Zeebrugge.

Zeebrugge is Belgium's second largest port, located next to the North Sea and closer to the UK than Antwerp. Compared to Dunkirk, which is 60 kilometers away, Zeebrugge is also closer to the British and French allied forces' front lines, making it easier to escape.

But at this time, the Eighteenth Army commanded by Georg von Küchler, who had been waiting in the Netherlands, began to move south.

Since then, the only port that the British and French coalition forces can go to is Dunkirk; the straight-line distance from Brussels to Dunkirk is no more than 140 kilometers, but this road has become the road of death to hell.

There was a blockage of refugees in the front, and the German army was chasing after them; the coalition forces had to reluctantly abandon all kinds of baggage and equipment that could not be taken away: first the 155mm heavy cannon, then the Charles B1 tank, and even the transport trucks that had run out of fuel were randomly thrown away. Thrown in the wilderness. At first, the British and French allied forces would destroy abandoned tanks with grenades and explosives. Later, there were too many to destroy, and grenades became a resource that they did not dare to waste. So those tanks and armored vehicles were left intact, and at most they were just Just remove some parts.

The German army followed closely the retreat of the British and French forces, so many equipment had no time to be destroyed by the coalition forces and had to be handed over to the pursuing German forces. Many tanks were parked neatly on the roadside. Their engine compartments were opened, but the engines and other equipment were still inside.

Faced with an extremely severe situation, Gamelin had no choice but to resort to a heroic move to cut off his wrist, leaving some personnel to block the pursuit of the German Army Group B. Unfortunately, with no supplies and low morale, how could they be the opponents of the German army with high morale and well-equipped weapons? Sometimes they could not even withstand a German assault; they would either be defeated or surrender on the spot.

In London, Churchill, who had blasted Leopold III fiercely on the radio, returned to his office and saw First Sea Lord Sir Charles Forbes and Vice Admiral Ramsay, commander of the Dover naval port, waiting.

"What happened?" A faint uneasiness flashed through Churchill's heart. The visit of the two naval leaders responsible for formulating "Operation Dynamo" must have brought him some problems.

Vice Admiral Ramsay spoke. "Your Excellency Prime Minister, we need to requisition civilian ships, I mean all civilian ships; including fishing boats and private yachts, the more the better."

Churchill frowned slightly. "Why?"

Vice Admiral Ramsey sighed. "Just now, German bombers bombed the ports of Calais and Dunkirk. Although the losses were not heavy, we believe that the Germans will continue to bomb until all the docks are destroyed. By then, large ships will not be able to dock, and they will have to Withdrawing troops from the beach requires small-tonnage civilian ships to participate in the operation." Large ships with thousands of tons or tens of thousands of tons cannot get too close to the beach, and can only be transferred with small boats of dozens of tons or hundreds of tons, or simply with small boats. Transport people back to England.