"Foxholes are ring-shaped fortifications that protect individual soldiers. Against enemy light weapons fire, artillery shrapnel, and aircraft bombardment, foxholes can provide excellent protection for personnel. Even if only partially completed, foxholes can provide varying degrees of protection depending on the depth at which they are excavated. Wu Chenxuan sat in the conference hall of the German General Staff, happily watching Chen Ziying, who was traveling with him, talking here. The dozen or so officers of the staff department, from major general to major, were listening carefully to the lecture and taking notes, although the Qing native's German was a little strange.

"There are basically two types of foxholes: single and double. Regardless of the type of foxhole, there should be a drainage ditch and grenade* slots to remove stagnant water and kick grenade* grenades* from the slots. If the type of fortification is not specified by the superior commander, the style of the foxhole may be chosen by the squad leader or the leader of the fire team. When constructing foxholes in open ground, it may be necessary not to construct a breastwork. When constructing, the floating soil should be removed and hidden, and a camouflaged roof should be temporarily installed. Saying that, Chen Ziying motioned to the German sergeant next to him to open a wall chart, so that the staff officers below could see the section of the foxhole.

"The top can be covered with at least six inches of logs and six inches of dirt to strengthen the protection of foxholes. In addition, a top cover can be built from a ready-to-use material such as prefabricated armor plates or empty ammunition boxes filled with dirt, but the top should be low and covered with turf or other natural camouflage on the new soil. The whip pointed to the pattern on the top cover, and the German staff officers below were taking detailed notes, and some even set up cameras in the back to shoot. God knows what will happen when this pixel antique is shot.

"Sufficient space should be left inside the combat position for observation and shooting. The position should be partially covered and sandbags should be added to prevent dirt from falling from between the thick logs. Holes can be dug in the walls of foxholes to place ammunition and food. A tunnel about six feet long may also be dug in the side of the foxhole as a sleeping place, but it must be reinforced (covered) to prevent the tunnel from collapsing. The staff officers below all nodded in agreement, in fact, the European army still uses tents as wartime camps, which are simply the favorite of the enemy artillery, as long as they are targeted by the enemy's artillery, it is simply a sheepfold surrounded by wolves. However, the soldiers slept in the tunnels for a long time, and it did not take long for the camp to be full of wounds and illnesses enough for the generals to worry.

After analyzing the various points and functions of this kind of foxhole, Chen Ziying put down his whip and signaled that his explanation was completed, and the staff officers below did not hesitate to applaud, after all, the German army had been in a mobile war in the past, and only studied the trenches, and the defense problem in the encounter was still blank.

In fact, the seven principles of the foxhole have long been summed up in the military academy, and Chen Ziying, a young student of the Liberation Association with an honest face, is now a trainee officer of the Wuyi New Army, and the principle of secrecy must still be observed. Chen Ziying looked at the staff officers of the German army below sorting out their notes one by one, and said in his heart, what Wu Dashan summarized is still good for us to grasp, and the little bit that the Germans have learned is enough to block the French.

The seven principles are:

(1) It should be as small as possible to avoid becoming the target of the enemy's attack as much as possible.

(2) The width should be sufficient for the person to sit on the stampede for both shoulders (approximately two feet).

(3) It shall be deep enough for the person to effectively shoot or operate his weapon while standing on the stampede, but shall not be shallower than four feet.

(4) Dig a drainage ditch with a certain depth at the bottom of the pit, the width of which is limited to accommodate the person to stand (so that the person has enough space to sit comfortably) and can drain the rainwater. At the bottom of the gutter a tubular grenade* slot should be excavated, the position of which is generally at an angle of 30 degrees under the stampede, which extends diagonally into the ground. The bottom of the foxhole should be inclined in the shape of a funnel towards the grenade* magazine. In this way, when the grenade shell is thrown into the foxhole, the personnel can kick the grenade* bullet into the grenade-proof bullet slot, so that the fragments produced after the grenade shell explodes will not kill or injure the personnel in the foxhole.

(5) The earth excavated from the foxhole should be placed around and constructed as a breast wall, but should be set aside enough width for the elbows to be placed when the personnel shoot. The soil should not be too thick and compacted. The breastwork is at least three feet thick to protect personnel from enemy light weapons fire. When a circular breastwall was constructed from earth excavated from a foxhole, the height of the breastpiece was about six inches.

(6) If the breastwall is camouflaged with turf or topsoil, the topsoil of ten square feet shall be removed and stacked on the edge of the fence before the construction of the foxhole begins. After the pit has been dug, the topsoil is covered with the newly excavated soil so that the appearance of the pit is the same as that of the surrounding ground.

(7) In most areas with different soil qualities, properly constructed foxholes can reliably protect personnel from direct rolling by tanks from any direction and injure the personnel in the foxholes. When a tank runs directly over a foxhole, personnel should crouch in the pit with their heads two feet away from the ground.

Chen Ziying watched that the German staff officers had finished recording, and motioned to the sergeant to turn the page, and let me introduce the engineer shovel we developed in order to facilitate the troops to quickly dig foxholes.

"Now we continue to introduce the sapper shovel that our army is equipped with. The birth of the military sapper shovel can be said to be the need for survival, our soldiers found that the ordinary shovel wooden handle is too long, not easy to carry, and easy to expose the target, so the wooden handle sawed short. Later, this method gradually spread, and the logistics department of our army has added some small changes to the shovel according to the suggestions of many veterans and the field observation of many shovels that have been used for many years, first of all, a small hole is opened parallel to the shovel surface at the top of the wooden handle away from the shovel, and secondly, according to the wear and tear of some often used old shovels, the wooden handle is changed to a thick-fine-coarse streamlined shape, and small holes are also added on both sides of the shovel surface. The four small holes are designed to tie the shovel to the marching bag using a rope and are not easy to fall off during armed swimming, strenuous exercise and long marches, and the streamlined wooden handle is more suitable for hand holding, and the traditional iron gray paint is also used. The steel mouth of this sapper shovel is very good, it can be used against all kinds of terrain in digging work, and it is better to deal with the enemy's head than a bayonet in stabbing melee combat..."

Chen Ziying couldn't imagine that his sales pitch not only allowed the German ** team to use the sapper shovel and foxhole in advance, but also made the Krupp steel sapper shovel become the German army's melee weapon, and in the future World War I and World War II has always been the best choice for the German army in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

"Marshal Schlieffen, are you sure we need a guy with a pig's tail to help us revise our plans?" At this moment, in the office of the chief of staff on the third floor, the bearded man of the Duke of Württemberg pouted and pouted with joy, and the veteran general who had participated in the Eight-Nation Alliance expressed serious concern about Schlieffen's sudden convulsive invitation to a Qing official to consult on the great Schlieffen plan.

"Your Royal Highness, I think this General Wu is a great strategist, he can fully understand our strategy and tactics, and his insights are very important for my plan. In fact, I'm worried that if he is on the side of the French, our plan has no chance of winning at all. Field Marshal Schlieffen said with great certainty, the Duke of Württemberg has nothing to say now, the speech of the German army is still very authoritative, not to mention that the prestige of the old marshal is not something that anyone can challenge.

"Hans, go and ask General Wu, don't alarm the others." At the marshal's orders, Wu Chenxuan was soon invited to this room on the third floor.

"With all due respect, Marshal." Wu Chenxuan heard what Schlieffen meant, pondered for a while, and said to him, "Your plan seems to be impeccable at present, even if Britain, France and Russia know your plan, they don't dare to gamble all their bets to conduct a lose-lose battle, but time is the magic that changes everything, and I am worried that your plan will not be able to be carried out because there is no suitable successor." This plan requires that the successor must adhere to principles and keep pace with the times, and adjust his forces according to the actual situation at any time, but he must also adhere to this exaggerated ratio of forces, he must be able to withstand all doubts, and he must have the energy to make necessary and timely adjustments in the course of the plan. Of course, it is more important that he can have the unanimous support of the whole country, otherwise any compromise will lead to the abortion of this plan. ”

Field Marshal Schreffen's thin face was gloomy, and it was this that he was most worried about, and the successor had of course been decided. It was none other than the Deputy Chief of Staff, General Moltke Jr. But it is a pity that Moltke, who lived under the pressure of his great uncle, lacked the necessary courage, although he lacked wisdom. He could not reformulate a strategy based on his own ideals, and he felt helpless about the plans handed over by his predecessor. Schlieffen also noticed that Moltke did not agree with his own thoughts in his heart, and even lacked confidence in it, but he had an inferiority complex for this respected old marshal, and he did not dare to express his opposition clearly on the surface, because it was tantamount to challenging the entire staff headquarters, and the German army staff was full of capable people, and it was difficult for little Moltke with a weak personality to make fundamental changes.

His successor, Moltke Jr., could be said to live in a contradiction for the next 10 years, knowing that the world situation was changing, and that even if the Schlieffen Plan had no shortcomings in strategy (first west and then east), it would not be possible to fully adapt to the situation in 10 years: the extensive use of trench warfare before World War I was enough to greatly slow down the advance of the German army on the Western Front, the infantry and artillery fire were quite weak in front of the strong walls and machine guns, and the war proved to be easy to attack before the advance of mechanized troops represented by tanks. On the other hand, he was incapable of making radical changes, and he had no influence on Wilhelm II's policies. Therefore, he had to get by and prolong the years. On the eve of the war, he was already 66 years old and suffered from a severe neurasthenia, and his strength was long gone. He listened to the doctor's advice and was about to tell the Kaiser to return to his hometown, but he knew that the war broke out at this time, so he decided that he would play this tragic role.

"Maybe you have any suggestions that would be beneficial to Germany, and we would like to listen to them." The gray eyes of the old marshal stared at Wu Chenxuan tightly, he understood that this Eastern General was actually the second soldier in the world who fully understood Schlieffen's plan, and sometimes he couldn't help but think, if this guy was German, I would not hesitate to give him the position of chief of the General Staff, and he would definitely be able to implement Schlieffen's plan perfectly.

"This plan is already the best for Germany." Wu Chenxuan spread his hands helplessly, "I think the selection problem just now is the biggest problem you have to solve, strategically I have nothing to help you with, but our development in weapons and tactics may be able to provide a useful supplement to your plan through cooperation." ”

"Is it grenadiers and infantry guns? Very nice weapon. Schlieffen also understood that nothing could change Germany's awkward strategic position.

"It could be more than that." With a mysterious smile, Wu Chenxuan took out a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Adjutant Hans. "These are the small arms that we are about to equip our troops, and perhaps the Germans will need them as well."

"This is, blasters, grenades, foreheads, and chemical shell projectiles..."As the pages turned, the gray eyes of the old Marshal Schlieffen gradually lit up.