Already in the autumn of 1916, the parties began to talk more and more about peace. Many of Germany's leading figures admitted that total victory was impossible, and carefully listened to how to end the war on acceptable terms. Even General Ludendorff no longer boasted of a decisive result. On the Allies' side, Haig guaranteed a final victory in 1917. If anyone doubted this, General Robertson was angry. Fly assured that the Germans would be exhausted, and he counted on the British to withstand the onslaught of war.

But Xia Fei's reputation is no longer what it used to be. The great mistake he made was too costly for France, and his influence was rapidly declining. In the first ten months of 1916, more than 861,000 French troops were killed, wounded, missing, or captured. In the French National Assembly, Chauffeur has come under fire from lawmakers for the increase in casualties and his lack of concern for them. In early 1916, both the National Assembly and the Senate held secret meetings to discuss military setbacks. Angry lawmakers reflect popular sentiment and are ready to topple the highest echelons of politics and the military if necessary. Prime Minister Aristide 61 Briand's own future was also in jeopardy, and he only received a vote of confidence on the condition of replacing Xia Fei.

The Battle of the Somme seemed to be about to fail, but the local commander, General Robert 61 Nivel, consulted with the Chinese Expeditionary Force to draw up a surprise attack plan and ordered a surprise attack. The Germans were caught off guard and withdrew from all the places they had captured earlier, seeing the possibility of recovering Lille and even directing the war to Belgium. For Nivel, this is a moment of good luck, and more importantly, Xia Fei forcibly stopped the surprise attack that was going well for his own honor, and then mobilized the poorly prepared Sixth Army from the rear, and forced the exhausted soldiers to continue to use the tactics of group charge to fight the German Maxim, to be honest, Zhu Yunjie felt that if there was no mutiny, the French soldiers would obey the law. The results of the battle were of course dismal, the Sixth Army crossed the canal and advanced fifteen kilometers before encountering a German division, without the suppression of the Chinese Air Force, the German Air Force quickly occupied a large area of airspace east of the canal, learned the tactics of the Chinese Air Force, first carried out a surprise attack on the artillery behind, and after eliminating the French artillery, it began to attack the French army on the march, and the Second Army Corps of the German Army took the opportunity to urgently build two trench fortifications west of Lille, although it was not very complete, However, in the face of the tired French army, which was unarmed and unarmed, the Germans fought with ease, and finally the French army had to retreat for a half marathon after dropping 15,000 corpses, and almost did not cause a stampede on several iron bridges on the El Canal.

Of course, the Germans would not miss a good opportunity, so General Bülow sent two national infantry divisions that had not been hit before to pursue them. At the critical moment when the French army was congested on the east bank of the Eyre Canal, the secret weapon of the Chinese Xuanyuan Instructor's 1917 type 6-tube towed rocket launcher was greatly powerful, and a dense artillery shell beat the two German national divisions to a great loss, although the loss was not large due to the loose formation, but this dense artillery fire made the German army dare not make a mistake, and a one-kilometer separation zone was drawn between the French Sixth Army and the German army. By the time the Fourth Wing arrived over the Eyre Canal, the Germans had to shrink their forces when they saw that the situation was not good, and their heavy artillery did not dare to get too close to the front line, and the intensity of the artillery bombardment was much worse, and the Sixth Army could be regarded as picking up a small life. This was the end of the Battle of the Somme.

The French longed for a hero, and although Chauffeur ended up with a great victory, the Eyre Canal assault, led by Nivel, almost turned into a major victory for the recovery of Lille, so the Parisian newspapers called him the author of victory. In Briand's impression, he was a suitable substitute for Xia Fei, so he "promoted" Xia Fei to the rank of Marshal of France, and then released him back to the countryside. Nivel boasted that he held the key to victory, but he refused to reveal his strategy. Briand didn't push him either. With Xia Fei retiring, the task at hand has been accomplished sufficiently.

General Robert 61 Nivel, who was sixty years old when he was appointed commander-in-chief of the French army, was born into a family with a long military tradition. He attended the cavalry school in Saumur, and later switched to artillery, with excellent grades. At the beginning of the war, Nivel was a lieutenant colonel, and after being promoted to colonel, his knowledge of large-caliber cannons was put to good use during the Battle of Marne. Because the French infantry in front of him collapsed, he ordered his artillery to advance through the breached line and fire at close range at the troops of General von 61 Kluke, that is, to play the tactic of bayonets on a cannon.

By the time of the Somme Offensive in April 1916, Chauffeur was already dissatisfied with Pétain's strategy at Verdun. His solution was to elevate Petain to lead Army Group Center and replace him with Nivel. Soon the artillery specialist set out to stop the Germans from advancing. The famous slogan "They shall not pass" that aroused the reverie of all the Entente powers, although it is often thought to have been invented by Pétain, was in fact the work of Nivel. The coming to power of such a victorious general made the French, who were prone to high passion, begin to forget the lessons of the two years of blood, and once again take the comprehensive defeat of Germany or even the destruction of Germany as the purpose of the war, and this does not seem to be something that France, which has already lost a lot of blood, can bear.

When Nivel went to Chantilly on December 12, 1916, to assume the post of Supreme Commander of the French Army, he was full of confidence. Shocked by his "Eyre Canal Tactics", there was no dispute about his grandiose proclamation: "This experience is certain. Our tactics have been tested. I can assure you of victory. ”

Nivel was not as eloquent as Chauffeur and Pétain, which led him to convince many politicians to agree with him. Abel 61 Ferry, a young and talkative member of the Parliamentary Army Committee, wrote to Nivel: "The impression is good, the clear eyes look straight at you, the clear and precise thoughts. Speak without bluff and be reasonable about everything. ”

President Poincarre and Prime Minister Lloyd-George, despite their distrust of the military, were also deluded by Nivel's demeanor. He even deceived the Prime Minister by placing Field Marshal Douglas 61 Haig under his command and approving the cataclysmic offensive he had planned in 1917.

Shortly after New Year's Day 1917, Prime Minister Lloyd-Georges, Prime Minister Aristide 61 Briand, and a group of high-ranking Italian political figures met in Rome to discuss the disappointing developments of the Great War. The absence of the generals at that time reflected their lack of confidence in their military leaders. The only explicit agreement reached was the refusal to approve the generals' endorsement of the willingness to shed a lot of blood even if a small area was captured, apparently as a result of the Battle of the Somme. They also admitted that the renewed German-Austrian offensive would force the Italians out of the war. In order to save their southern allies, another campaign on the Western Front was necessary, but none of the leaders came up with a realistic plan.

General Nivel met with Lloyd-George on 15 January to present his plan for a radical new offensive consisting of a swift and concentrated assault, similar to the plan already demonstrated by the successful Chinese expeditionary force in the Eyre Canal operation. British civilian leaders all had a good impression of the handsome general. The fact that he was a Protestant and that his mother was English constituted another connection. There is no underlying Anglophobia that would damage our relationship.

Niveles's plan has aroused the interest of the Prime Minister and those involved. They understood his strategy for retaking Fort Douaumont and agreed that he wanted to apply the same method on a large scale. However, some members of the British General Staff did not find it attractive. They believed that it would not necessarily be effective to reuse an individual, successful attack on a separate fort such as the one at Douaumont against a line as loose as the main German trench system.

Nivel won. Lloyd-George, convinced of his bold imagination, told his generals that if they had a better plan, he would listen. He warned them that the government would not approve another Battle of Somme, the only plan submitted by Haig and Chauffy a few months earlier. Haig and his troops in France were instructed to "comply with his advice" to the French commander-in-chief in order to "carry out all orders relating to the conduct of the operation." In this way, Haig was subordinate to Nivel.

At the urging of his right-hand man, Colonel Darençon, Nivel quickened the pace of preparations for the offensive. The French army was divided into several army groups: Army Group North, led by General Francher 61 despere, Army Group Center, led by General Petain, and Assault Army, led by General Michelle, that is, Army Group Reserve. The fourth Army Group was Army Group East, led by General Castelno.

Of course, Neville did not forget to invite the Chinese Expeditionary Force to participate in this campaign for which he was fully responsible, but to his disappointment, the Expeditionary Force politely declined his invitation, except for the "Air Lord" French Air Force Foreign Fourth Flying Wing, which had replaced most of the aircraft and pilots, only the independent heavy artillery group of the third group of the expeditionary force's rotational combat unit, which had just arrived in Cherbourg, could provide fire support behind the battle line. The "watchtower" tank cluster that Neville most longed for was not allowed to participate in the war, but as compensation, France could fund the purchase of these tanks, and the Chinese tankers would teach them to participate in the campaign with second-hand Chinese tanks.

The generals of Nivell's army group constantly received his orders about the campaign. His tone was unambiguous: "I insist that the signs of violence, cruelty and swiftness must characterize your offensive, and above all, the first breakthrough must take in one fell swoop the enemy's positions and all the areas occupied by their artillery" (with emphasis on Nivelga's).

Nivel's plan consisted of a two-pronged assault by French and British forces on a massive, uncovered German salient. During the Battle of the Somme, the Allies weakened the German defensive lines that curved from east to west along the Aisne River. The salient was still vulnerable to British forces from the north and French forces from the south.

This comprehensive plan called for the British to lunge forward several days before the French in order to attract the German defenders to move north. At that time the south, the uncovered German flank, would be under the onslaught of the French, and it was expected that they would rush through, open a seventy-mile breach in this system of German trenches that would be flooded by the waters of the Aisne, and then end in a decisive victory.

Nivel's plan was not without merit. The German salient was weakly armed and vulnerable, and in the summer of 1916 at the Battle of Somme, the defending forces suffered heavy casualties. However, if the German military had known first, victory would not have been possible.

In fact, the Germans got Nivelle's battle plan only an hour later than the commanders of the various British and French army groups, or when the division commanders of the British and French armies were still waiting for the attack order from their superiors, the German General Staff had already formulated and issued the corresponding defense plan according to the opponent's battle plan, and the counterattack plan had been handed over to His Majesty Wilhelm for personal review.

Nivelle's coffee table was also full of cups, and the war had no intention of stopping in the spring of 1917.