Since the persuasion to surrender was refused, the only way left was to attack.

Theoretically, the safest method of attack is siege and attrition. The terrain of this highland is dangerous, and the loss of a hard attack will definitely be not small, but this highland is not very large, so there will not be too many materials in the highland, if it is surrounded, after a long time, the highland will definitely not be able to support.

But there is one question that everyone cannot afford not to consider, and that is how much time they have left. Napoleon's Italian regiment was on its way, and who knows when he would arrive. So, the British and Prussians could not afford to wait.

But the attack could not be carried out immediately, because the French army also understood the significance of the heights. The nearby French army was constantly launching counterattacks, trying to open up communication with the high ground. Therefore, the most urgent task of the coalition forces now is not to immediately attack the high ground, but to consolidate their positions.

But it will not be easy to consolidate your position. The lots occupied by the coalition forces were all within the range of artillery on the high ground, and they carried out earthwork and were vulnerable to artillery fire on the high ground. Coupled with the condescending position of the French troops on the high ground, it was possible to see the various movements of the coalition forces that were on the defensiveness below. Although there were no walkie-talkies in this era, it was possible to use means such as flags to deliver messages. This also made the defense of the coalition forces have to be extremely careful.

So it took the coalition forces another day to consolidate the encirclement of the heights. Put it on the offensive, and that will have to wait until the next day.

"Napoleon has already come?" Unscathed, Joseph said to Napoleon's liaison, "That...... Well, where are your generals now? ”

"It's time to Saint-Meneude." The liaison replied.

"It's close." Joseph said, "I estimate that tomorrow morning the coalition side will launch a general attack on Heights No. 1." Three days of support from No. 1 Heights should still be fine. Well, you take this letter back to Napoleon and let him take care of it himself. ”

Joseph was talking about a letter, but it was actually a big gift bag—a heavy box of documents. The messenger, escorted by a troop of cavalry, returned to Saint-Meneude and handed over the file box to Napoleon.

Napoleon opened the file box, which contained one after another map of the fortifications of the fortress of Verdun, as well as information that Joseph had so far learned about the various deployments of the coalition forces.

"What did Joseph say?" Napoleon asked.

General Joseph Bonaparte said that now the Anglo-Prussian forces had caught the hook and were besieging Heights No. 1. Highland No. 1 can hold for at least three days. As for how to fight back, he lets you decide for yourself. ”

Napoleon carefully read these defense plans, and then had his generals summoned to a meeting to discuss the next battle plan.

The generals came one after another. Napoleon, who came first, let them see Joseph's defense map for themselves. After a while, the crowd arrived. Napoleon was also not in a hurry, but let them continue to look at the map. It wasn't until everyone had finished reading it that Napoleon said, "What do you guys think?" ”

"I think, are we still a little early?" Davout said first.

"That's it, looking at this defense map, I can see that my scalp is numb." "I don't know what happens to others, but if I were replaced, I don't think I would have the courage to attack." It's exactly a barbed steel tortoise shell, and it's ......"

"And inside this steel turtle shell, there is more than one layer of steel turtle shell." "Today, General Joseph Bonaparte uses Heights No. 1 as a decoy to attract enemy sieges. According to the information he gave, I think No. 1 Heights can hold on for at least a week. If possible, I would like to keep them going for a few more days. ”

"But we can't hide the news of the rebellion in Paris." Napoleon said, "Otherwise, this fellow would never have taken out these maps to show off to us." Given the speed with which the news from Paris is delivered, we can wait up to two days at most. We'll rest here for the rest of the day, and then we'll wait until the early hours of the day after tomorrow when we'll march on the moon in the second half of the night, so that by noon we should be able to reach the vicinity of Verdun. At this time, it should also be the time when the enemy army besieged Heights No. 1 and fought the most fiercely. If we suddenly appear, we will definitely be able to completely defeat the Anglo-Prussian army...... Arrange the details, Bertier, you can take care of it......"

Just when Napoleon was about to give the Anglo-Prussian army a hard blow, the Anglo-Prussian army also riveted its strength and prepared to take the No. 1 high ground in one fell swoop.

After spending a day consolidating the siege of Heights No. 1, the Duke of Braunschweig again sent emissaries to Heights No. 1 to persuade him to surrender. This time, on the basis of the last condition, he even added the condition that he could give a large pension to the commander of the regiment Filla and other officers.

However, the persuasion failed. Captain Filla said, "We can hold out until you all die of old age. ”

Ten minutes after the Allied envoys left the heights, the Allied forces launched an attack on the heights.

In previous offensive operations, the soldiers and junior officers of the coalition forces had already believed that there was hell in the world, and after they launched the attack on Heights 1, they were sure that hell was really divided into many layers, as Dante described.

On the No. 1 Heights, there was nothing new that they hadn't seen before. It's nothing more than mines, barbed wire, Minnie rifles, melons, cannons, flamethrowers, broadsword mines. But what's worse is that the density of these things has increased dramatically. Obviously, some time ago, although the French army was slow to react, they still knew that Heights No. 1 had become the key target of the coalition attack, and they had made a lot of efforts to achieve this.

And the terrain of the No. 1 high ground also brought great trouble to the attack activities. Highland No. 1 is not particularly high, but the topography of the highlands has been deliberately renovated. All trees that would obscure the view were cut down. All the protrusions that provide cover for the attacking side have also been bulldozed. The whole highland is smooth and unobstructed on all sides.

And the barbed wire fence on the high ground is also more dense, but more than 20 meters, it is a barbed wire. The denser barbed wire fence naturally meant that the soldiers needed to be exposed to enemy fire for a longer period of time. And on the No. 1 heights, the French army deployed a large number of artillery.

Among these guns were 12-pounder and even 24-pounder heavy guns, as well as 8-pounder and 6-pounder medium guns. The French built special pillboxes for them, and these guns relied on the protection of the pillboxes, and the use of shotguns was very effective in killing and injuring Allied soldiers who were blocked by barbed wire.

Naturally, between the barbed wire fences were densely packed with mines. Judging by the consumption of the Prussian conscripts who launched the attack, the density of mines here was at least twice as large as the minefields they had encountered before.

In addition, the defenders can easily throw the melon fifty meters away, while the attacker has to climb dozens of meters more if they want to throw the melon over. As for the "Little Melon Launcher", it can throw the Little Melon out of nearly 100 meters here - this is up to the range of a cannon's shotgun.

Even if God's blessing allows someone to move forward without being killed in the face of these terrible things, he will immediately encounter even more terrifying broadsword mines and flamethrowers.

Compared to these things, the Warlord behind them immediately looked very gentle and cute. After all, the Warlords use rifles, and they need to reload for one shot, and they can only shoot a second shot after half a day.

As a result, the first soldiers were quickly defeated, and some even clashed with the Warlords. The two sides shot at each other, and they got into a fight.

A whole day of attacks cost thousands of casualties, but there was no progress except for the destruction of some minefields and the destruction of some barbed wire.

That night, the coalition forces sent men carrying explosives to attack at night in an attempt to destroy the enemy's barbed wire, but as soon as they approached, they were spotted by military dogs raised on the high ground, followed by a mine, and then a chaotic exchange of fire. Then the French troops on the periphery also launched a night attack, and everyone fought indiscriminately for a while until dawn.

After daybreak, the Coalition forces were finally able to see the results of their night attack, and the barbed wire fences on the heights had been somewhat damaged, but the brave French sappers were also rushing to repair the barbed wire in the gaps in the Coalition attack.

The coalition artillery first opened fire on these sappers with solid shells. But these sappers remained unmoved and continued to busily mend the barbed wire, although occasionally sappers were killed by artillery hits, but the hit rate of solid shells against such targets was too low. As for pushing the cannon forward and using shotguns, it is better to let the infantry rush directly.

The Allied soldiers were forced to leave their trenches and pounce on the French sappers, but they were immediately shot down by the French shrapnel and crackled. And by the time they had rushed to a position where they could fire at the French sappers, the despicable Frenchmen had already called it a day and fled.

After that, the offense remained unchanged. And the resistance of the French is as fierce as yesterday. It seems that yesterday's one-day attack did not deplete the ammunition on the high ground. However, the coalition forces that are pressed for time have no other choice - they have already reached this point, and the sunk cost is already too high, can they still break the siege and go back by themselves? Besides, maybe one more day of high-intensity attacks will be able to exhaust the enemy's ammunition - the mobilization is not worth much anyway.

In this way, batch after batch of Johann and Fritz fell in front of the barbed wire fence on the No. 1 Heights, and the time gradually came to noon.