At night, Weiss was prostrate in a trench 18,000 feet from the Belakaser Pass, flanked by Captain João Hartbauer, an intelligence staff officer from the divisional headquarters, and the officers and men of the 931st Regiment. After deliberation, the division's chief of staff, Colonel Butich, accompanied the 931st Regiment to participate in the first battle after the formation of the 11th Defense Division, and the division commander, Major General De Luka, sat in command at the headquarters, and at Weiss's suggestion, De Luca talked to the old commander of the Western Front Command for half an hour, not only won fixed-point and regular fire support, but also drew a demolition detachment from the 1st Defense Division Task Force to temporarily join the 931st Regiment in the combat ranks.

At 9 o'clock, the red flares rose into the air, and the Union positions fired thousands of cannons, and the dense artillery fire rained down on the Belakaser Pass, where there was the ruined fortress of Belakaser and the Norman battleships that were parked near the fortress as batteries. The heavy shelling continued until 9:30 a.m., when the sound of explosions from the pass gradually became sparse, and the gray smoke and dust had not yet dissipated, and white smoke was rising again.

"1 Battalion...... Fast forward! ”

Hearing this steady and powerful order, the officers and men of the 1st Battalion of the 931st Regiment marched in a company unit to the front pass less than 6,000 feet wide, followed by the demolition detachment transferred from the 1st National Defense Division.

The smoke grenades fired by the artillery filled the Belakaser Pass with smoke and obscured the Normans' field of fire, but this did not mean that they would sit idly by, and the indiscriminate bullets still posed a mortal threat to the officers and soldiers who charged into battle. Captain Weiss and Captain Hartbauer volunteered to follow the 1st Battalion into the first wave of attacks in order to reconnoiter the enemy and transmit first-hand information, while Colonel Butage stayed at the relative safety of the regimental headquarters to make a decision.

It is only a little more than 5,000 meters from the forward position to the Belakaser Pass, but the slope is close to 45 degrees, and it is full of craters, mud and ruggedness, and it takes a lot of effort and time to cross this distance. Weiss carried a marching bag with six throwing smoke bombs, two semi-automatic pistols, a base of ammunition, and two spinax rounds. Before the Norman gunfire could pour down, Weiss, like the Union officers and soldiers around him, did his best to keep the pace of his advance. The first half was fine, but the further back we went, there were more potholes in the ground, and there were all kinds of uncleaned objects and even the limbs of the fallen were scattered. Weiss stumbled over garlic under his feet, but even if he used his hands and feet together, he never slowed down.

Before the Union offensive forces reached the pass, the shelling ceased completely. The warlike Normans, who were accustomed to war, quickly opened fire on the area where the Union army had to attack, despite being obstructed by their line of sight. Small-caliber shells whizzed down, bullets whizzed past the neighborhood, and the Grim Reaper began to reap the lives of the ranks, but no one slowed down or took the initiative to lie down except for those who were shot.

After a few moments, Weiss followed the officers and men of the 1st Battalion to a relatively open pass, where there were more and larger craters, providing valuable temporary shelter for the Allied officers and men. The officers and soldiers who rushed to the front line jumped into the crater one after another, and continued to run on the uphill terrain, and even the strongest people needed to take a breath and calmly observe the battlefield situation in the rain of bullets.

Coming to a large crater, Weiss jumped without hesitation, and because of his poor vision, he crashed into his companion with his head.

The man stared at Weiss's face and exclaimed, "Hey, Acting Captain Clumber-Haysen, our operations staff officer, it's good to see you!" ”

Weiss knew that this man was a captain company commander of the 1st Battalion, but he couldn't remember his name, so he said, "Hey, Captain, I'm glad to see you too!" Where are the Norman battleships? Uh, I think I know, the direction of the most fire! ”

The thick-eyed captain and company commander said: "The casualties of this hard charge will be very large, why don't you wait for a while and wait until it is reloading ammunition before going up?" ”

Weiss looked at it and said categorically: "The smoke screen created by the smoke bomb will not last long, we must get up as soon as possible, enter the fire corner of the Norman battleship, and then blow up a passage to enter." ”

"But can we do it?" The captain said, "I mean, with our ability to blow a big hole in the outer wall of the battleship, it has a very thick armor plate!" ”

Weiss replied, "Don't worry, it looks flawless, but it actually has weaknesses!" ”

As the two were talking, several commandos with explosive equipment entered the crater, and when they saw them, Weiss's confidence suddenly increased a little. He looked at it again, and then shouted, "Brothers, for the victory of the Federation, for the sake of our freedom, we must move forward!" Follow me! ”

With that, he was the first to crawl out of the crater, and the cat ran forward with his waist bent, but before he could run a few steps, he was smashed to the ground by the air wave set off by the explosion of the shell. In a dizzy state, he felt that someone had dragged him, and subconsciously ran forward with this person, about twenty or thirty meters, and both of them slipped into another crater.

Weiss was still a little confused, and could only watch as the man crawled to the edge of the crater with his hands and feet, cautiously poking his head out to observe the enemy's fire. After a while, five or six more people entered this "battlefield springboard".

"How many rapid-fire guns are on that damn Norman battleship!" The person who complained was the captain company commander just now, and he was also the one who pulled Weiss at a critical time.

"A lot!" The voice sounded familiar, and Weiss followed the sound to see the delicate and handsome face of Captain Hartbauer, the division's intelligence staff officer.

Seeing Weiss staring at him, Hartbauer grinned, "What's wrong?" Buddy! Knocked out by a Norman shell? ”

"Well, I almost went deaf, but this little setback can't stop me at all!" Weiss replied.

The battlefield is not a place for small talk, Hartbauer observed while popularizing science to his army colleagues: "The Norman Wallenger-class battleships are basically at the same level as our Liberty class, with dozens of secondary guns in the conventional configuration, and if they are determined to act as ground fortresses, they can also temporarily add a large number of rapid-fire weapons. Objectively speaking, our only chance is now, and we must rush through the enemy's fire net before they see us clearly! ”

Hartbauer, who had served at the headquarters of the 11th Defense Division since its formation, was clearly more convincing than Weiss had said. The captain did not hesitate, turned his head to the soldiers in the crater and shouted: "Everyone has heard, our only chance is now, although the Normans have fierce gun fire, they can't see us, they shoot completely by feeling. Everyone, pay attention, I'll count one, two, three, and follow me forward! Follow me! Keep the direction! One...... 2. ......"

Just waiting for him to shout "three", the soldiers in the crater climbed out one by one. Although some of them were immediately knocked down by the oncoming bullets, the rest did not flinch and rushed forward with their heads buried in the captain.

On this smoky battlefield, as long as you are separated by seven or eight steps, the figure will become blurred, and it will be even more difficult to distinguish things ten steps away.

Although people have the fear of an uncertain future, they also omit the fear of witnessing a tragic situation.

Weiss followed Captain Hartbauer step by step, and at this moment, with only one shell and one bullet, he was able to kill two Union captains, and these two men, in terms of ability and talent, could be regarded as the best of their peers. Of course, they knew that it was foolish to go on a rampage with flesh and blood on this battlefield where bullets and shrapnel were flying, and they were enthusiastic but kept their minds calm, sometimes jumping into the crater, sometimes jumping up and running, and constantly advancing to the unique beat of the battlefield.

Finally, a large black shadow appeared behind the smoke, like an erupting volcano, with tongues of flame and fire scurrying everywhere, like a mad monster, roaring and roaring.

About a few hundred feet away from the Norman battleship, Weiss and Hartbauer prostrate on the ground, observed for a minute or two, and saw that the smoke screen gradually dissipated, Weiss took the cigarette bombs from his backpack, opened them and threw out two, and then said "up" to his temporary partner, and immediately got up and ran forward, ran thirty or forty meters and fell down, and opened two more smoke bombs. Their range and duration are comparable to those of smoke grenades fired by small-caliber guns, and they are capable of replenishing smoke within a certain range.

Hartbauer followed Weiss to his stomach, he observed for a moment, and said quickly: "Our soldiers have already entered the trenches in front, let's hurry up!" ”

Weiss didn't think much of it, and followed Hartbauer to get up and move forward, and after the last few tens of meters of sprint, they jumped into a broken trench. When I looked up, I almost didn't scream.

Huge Norman warships are just around the corner!

Hartbauer tilted his head and stared at the bow of the Norman battleship for a long time.

Weiss looked around and found the remains of Norman soldiers scattered across the trenches, some half-buried in the dirt, some clean, some mutilated, and some bleeding from their wounds.

"Divacayo?" Hartbauer muttered, "The Norman Empire has a total of three Wallegg-class ships, but none of them are of this name!" ”

Weiss looked at him in surprise: "Are you sure?" ”

"Of course!"

What does this mean? The Normans actually built more warships than we know? Weiss asked.

Hartbauer replied: "No, I think this is a Norman reserve ship, you understand the meaning of the reserve ship, right! ”

Reserve ships are usually ships built in the same batch as the ships in service, the difference is that the reserve ships are not equipped with Star Source Stones, and they play the role of secret spare tires in strategy. Once an active battleship crashes in battle, as long as the star source stone that provides the battleship with floating power is recovered from the battlefield, and the crew is sufficient, the reserve ship can quickly gain combat effectiveness.

The Bathton Military Academy is a pure army officer school, and most of the majors at the Dellefig Senior Staff Academy are also oriented to the army. Throughout history, it has been not only the Norman Empire that has secretly built and retained reserves, but also the Free Commonwealth and the Kingdom of Wessex. If the two belligerents are equal in strength and the battle is fierce, the reserve ship is likely to be the decisive force at a critical moment, but if one side waives its flag and advances with great triumph, the other side's reserve ship may be completely useless......

Affected by the proficiency and tacit understanding of the crew, the combat effectiveness of the reserve ship with complete floating power will be inferior to that of the in-service ship of the same type, but the gap is generally not too large. According to common sense, the Normans were willing to put such a battleship at the Belakaser Pass as a steel fortress, which was quite arrogant, but in this war, the Norman army was invincible, and one of the killer features was the artificial star source stone technology they mastered, and the appearance of this reserve ship may be directly related to the use of this technology.