From the beginning of the war in Europe to the present, although the improvement of firepower and the introduction of conscription armies have greatly changed the form of warfare, most armies are completely unaware of how devastating these changes are, so they have not studied countermeasures.

At the beginning of World War I, most armies believed that it would be a short war and that both sides would use the strategies and tactics of the Napoleonic period. Some of the cavalry units were sent to the front by train, and their commanders did not at all think that the cavalry was helpless in the face of dense fire. Most of these cavalrymen were never sent into battle.

However, after the war began, the German and Allied forces soon realized that they were completely wrong. A frontal attack resulted only in casualties among its own men. After the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the German and Allied armies dug a trench along the Swiss border, which stretched all the way to the Belgian North Sea coast. From September 16, 1914, until the German Spring Offensive on March 21, 1918, the two sides of the Western Front faced each other in the trenches at almost all times.

On the Western Front, the small temporary trenches dug in the first months quickly became deeper and more complex, gradually turning into large areas of defensive fortifications. The open space between the trenches of the opposing sides is called "no man's land", and its width varies from battlefield to battlefield. On the Western Front, no man's land was generally 100 to 300 yards wide, although in the Battle of Vimy Ridge it was only 30 yards. After the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line in March 1917, the width of the no-man's land increased to more than 1 km. On the Anzac battlefield in the Battle of Gallipoli, where the two sides were only 15 meters apart, soldiers continuously threw grenades* at each other's trenches. On the Eastern Front and in the Middle East, the land that both sides needed to occupy was huge, and the factories for the production of ammunition, concrete and barbed wire were far from the front line, so European-style trench warfare did not appear there.

At the very beginning of the war, the British used a trench system consisting of three parallel trenches, which were connected by a number of communication trenches. The point of connection between the communication trenches and the front trenches was crucial, and it was common to have strong fortifications built here. There were only a small number of guarding troops in the front trenches, which entered the trenches only in the early morning and late afternoon. After 70 to 100 yards there are support trenches (or diversion trenches), where troops can withdraw when the front trenches are bombarded or shelled. After 300 yards to 500 yards there is the reserve trench, which contains another force that can counterattack and recapture the front trench after it has been captured. This trench system quickly became obsolete after the artillery fire improved, but in certain areas of the front, the support trenches were left behind, and their function was now to attract fire, so that the forward and reserve trenches would not suffer much damage. To achieve this, support trenches are set on fire so that it looks like someone is there.

Today, dozens of strangely shaped cars are being prepared behind the preparatory trench in Chalon, which was originally garrisoned by the Anglo-Indian Third Division, and the paint on their bodies is painted in small squares of earthy yellow, brown and yellow-green, which makes people feel that everything has become blurry after staring at it for a long time.

"Sir, are they Indian soldiers?" An Australian sergeant asked the British officer next to him, who he thought was clumsy infantry from the colonies, but they were much better equipped.

"As far as I know, sergeant, they are not the army of the Empire." The well-informed captain sighed, and then explained to the young man, who was about the same age as his brother, "They are Chinese, the Chinese National Defense Forces." Half a month ago, China joined us, and now they are part of the Entente. ”

"They're Chinese, hell, aren't they supposed to have big braids?" The Australian sergeant had seen some Chinese who ran restaurants or laundry rooms, who liked to wear braids on their bare heads, with a lewd look, speaking strange language, and their clothes were always crumpled like sacks, and they never seemed to learn to walk with their heads held high like Australians. When did these guys get so good? Iron-gray military uniform, steel helmet with mesh helmet, Y-shaped armor belt like the Germans with bullet boxes, grenades* and bayonets, and several large pockets on his body, bulging with unknown things, a flat round water bottle with a canvas cover diagonally on the left side, and a canvas bag the size of a helmet on the other side. Hell, they also have a revolver * pistol strapped to their lap, and it seems that even the soldiers are no exception. Canvas combat boots with rubber soles on their feet seemed to be inferior to leather boots, and this was the only thing the Australian soldiers could be proud of being compared to them, the damn British actually gave them the queen's people less equipment than the Chinese.

"Don't complain, their equipment is all their country's own equipment, and so are those armored vehicles. God knows how they, the pagans who don't believe in God, could be so well equipped. But thankfully, they're on the same side as us, not the Germans on the other side. Isn't it? ”

"Of course." Watching a Chinese soldier not far away climb onto the top of the armored car and pull the bolt of the scary machine gun with a large caliber, and press a string of yellow bullets into the magazine, although the muzzle of the gun was not aimed at him, and the Chinese soldier seemed to show a mouthful of white teeth at him in a friendly manner, but the hideous-looking six-wheeled armored car and the heavily armed soldier made the sergeant feel a chill down his spine for a while. "You have a point, it's okay, we're on one side. I hope this damn war ends soon, and I don't want to spend next Christmas in this damn grave. ”

Ignoring the sergeant who kept muttering, the British captain looked at the silent inspection equipment in front of him, and nodded to each other, he didn't know if these soldiers knew what they were going to face, but the Germans' machine guns and artillery were not vegetarians, and it was still doubtful whether these majestic iron guys could survive on the battlefield.

"Damn it, shelling, shelling, lying down, all lying down." The roaring sound of artillery behind the British positions in the distance caused the German soldiers in the trenches to quickly lower their bodies or simply burrow into the anti-artillery holes. This level of shelling is the prelude to almost every round of attack, but it doesn't matter, under normal circumstances, a few people can't be killed, except for a few unlucky people who pray for ungodliness, most of the soldiers can stand up in the dust and shoot at the swarming figures on the opposite side, and the machine guns work like harvesters, and will not give the other side a chance to throw the grenades in their hands. After several reincarnations, even recruits who have been in the army for a few months are familiar with this process, which is simple and efficient. Of course, if the staff officers on their side had water in their brains and let them attack like this, they would not have ended much better than the guys with pans on the other side, and the trench barbed wire and mine machine guns were a natural graveyard for infantry.

Skillfully dodging artillery fire, but not having the shocking movement of the shells when they landed, what's going on? Could it be a gas bomb? Just as a German corporal looked up at the sky, he was surprised to find that the shells had exploded in the sky, or rather, cracked to be exact, and there were some things that resembled matchsticks, but they were much larger than matchsticks. These things seem to be slow, but they fall unstoppable. Dark red flames rose from far and near on the ground, not hot, but many flames were spilling out.

"Ahh My God! A flame spilled onto a private's hat, and everyone laughed at him for his funny appearance, but when he poured a jug of water on it, something terrible happened. The flame did not go out, but it was like pouring gasoline into a flame more than a meter high, and it was a flowing flame, which instantly set the entire upper body of the private on fire, he screamed, rolled, but turned himself into a rolling flame, and when he burned into a ball of charcoal, there were already two veterans who could not dodge were ignited, although only the arms were ignited, but in their panicked fluttering, they soon turned into a humanoid torch. Snapping two shots, the rolling and burning veterans stopped moving, letting the flames jump on their uniforms and hair, and their bodies gradually curled, which was the phenomenon of atrophy of the muscles after the skin and flesh were burned, the second lieutenant officer put down the Luger pistol in his hand in a gloomy manner, no one cursed or scolded him, not even a glance, everyone understood that this was an inevitable end, compared to being burned alive, such a dead law is more humane, but the other party's evil cannonball is too weird, The German soldiers, who thought they had become numb, could not help but feel fear and despair. But watching the shells that kept bursting in the air, spilling small round tubes with a metallic sheen, the toughest German soldiers on the ground began to curse in despair.

"Oh God! What kind of demonic weapon is this? ”

"The scientific name of the C-type incendiary bomb is a composite phosphide aerosol incendiary* bomb, nicknamed the devil's egg." A lieutenant officer of the Chinese Expeditionary Force faced a large number of French and British generals with shining stars, and did not have stage fright, and carefully answered the generals' questions in French. "This incendiary * shell can be fired with a minimum of 60 mm caliber mortar, or not less than 90 mm caliber barreled artillery, or it can be dropped by aircraft, generally containing 3-45 incendiary aerosol rods inside, the shell will disintegrate at an altitude of 100 meters above the target area, and then the fuel rods will be scattered in a range of 5-150 meters, this aerosol combined with air will produce volatile low-ignition point phosphide liquid particles, and the combustion sensitivity is about four times that of high-purity white phosphorus, There's no way to extinguish it with water or sand when the air is still not completely isolated, and it's very good at adhesion, oh, basically the equivalent of woodworking glue. By the way, the combustion residue of this aerosol will form suspended particles, which may have the side effect of edema and suffocation for organisms that inhale this tiny particle, but it has good volatility and can be fully volatilized and decomposed within 24 hours without much sequelae. ”

"Can you tell us what is going on with these vehicles on the front line that have already begun to attack?" A French major general was very puzzled by the Chinese armored vehicles that were already rumbling outside the window to launch an attack, didn't he say that they were toxic?

"Oh, it's okay, chemical suits and gas masks are standard in our troops, and since there aren't many survivors of the enemy's position, I think they're probably going to take over this part of the enemy's position." The shrugging lieutenant said lightly, "Our troops plan to start a rapid assault on the German assembly in Amiens in six hours, if your troops can take over, of course." ”

"Of course, we would be even more grateful if you could settle the cost of the incendiary* bombs used this time." The lieutenant said in his heart.