The town of Villiers is bordered by the Marne to the north, a dense wooded area to the east, Champigny to the west, and the town of Chaenavières to the southwest. The Marne flows in an S-shape, and the town of Champigny is at the first bend of the Marne, with the town of Villiers in front. The land along the Marne is flat and home to many villages and towns, with the exception of the town of Villiers to the east of a dense forest.

The French attacked from Les Plet-Pur-Leves, southeast of Villiers.

In this vast area stretching from Torsi in the east to Nojean in the west, hundreds of thousands of armies were mixed together, intertwined and fragmented.

Xiao Mubai returned to the pit, counted the number of people, and found that the class of thirteen people, counting himself, now there are only nine people. In addition to the dead squad leader, five people have already died. Among these people, Paul, who was familiar with William, was still alive.

Xiao Mubai ordered Paul to dig trenches with four men, and the rest to stay vigilant.

Charge after charge, inflicting heavy casualties on the French. When the French soldiers temporarily retreated, the German soldiers launched a counter-charge.

In Xiao Mubai's view, this kind of counter-charge is no different from sending him to death. Although the dense charge of a large number of troops brings a lot of pressure visually, it is purely cannon fodder when exposed to the enemy's heavy machine gun fire. This tactic was not replaced by the German blitzkrieg until World War II.

But as a temporary squad leader, Xiao Mubai spoke softly, and if he said that it was useless, he would be considered cowardly, and he could only watch the soldiers send them to death en masse.

Although Xiao Mubai couldn't stop the others, he could still maintain a few soldiers under him. Let Paul take the four soldiers to continue digging trenches, and Xiao Mubai personally led the remaining three soldiers to charge.

There was little danger when running after the enemy, and the French soldiers were fleeing to their positions, not idling around to shoot.

The green woolen uniforms of the German army appeared a bit bulky, which was not conducive to field combat. Xiao Mubai felt that it would be better to use camouflage, which made him miss the future generations very much. The Prussian helmet with spikes on its head did not stop bullets from entering, and the spikes on its head inherited the style of the Teutonic knights, but it already had the prototype of the steel helmet of the German army in World War II.

Xiao Mubai slandered in his heart, these soldiers in World War I were really weak in combat effectiveness, they were all students and even farmers half a year ago, and they had only received a short period of military training. Soldiers or volunteers have high combat effectiveness, and compulsory soldiers are just because there are enough cannon fodder in numbers.

These soldiers will only shoot guns, and more will only be learned in battle, after bloody lessons.

Xiao Mubai asked his three soldiers to follow behind him to avoid being scattered by the crowd.

Xiao Mubai shot and shot, the French soldier was shot in the back, and fell to the ground at once, and the people behind him didn't care, just ran forward, and if they ran slowly, they would die.

Xiao Mubai ran two or three steps and stopped, holding his gun and aiming. It appeared to be a French sergeant, wearing a blue shirt and bright red trousers, and was very conspicuous in the crowd.

Shots were fired, gunshots were mixed here, no sound could be heard.

The French sergeant threw himself to the ground, his hands outstretched, trying to grasp something, as if to let the fleeing man carry him. But no one stopped, and then his hands fell weakly, and his body was trampled by his comrades.

Xiao Mubai paid careful attention and stopped when he noticed the French position, at this time Xiao Mubai decisively signaled to stop advancing, and the soldiers all stopped and looked at him in puzzlement.

At this time, the French soldiers ran into the trenches and opened fire one after another. At this time, it was changed again, and the German soldiers fell one after another, constantly retreating.

Xiao Mubai led his soldiers to retreat quickly, marching along a crooked route, with the sound of the wind whistling in his ears and the flying bullets beside him.

Returning to the trenches, as expected, the counter-charge Germans suffered heavy losses. Only Xiao Mubai's squad did not attrition, but only one person was injured in his right arm.

The soldiers were thrilled that they had survived, although that didn't mean they would be lucky next time. Those who were wounded and unable to fight were evacuated and sent to the nearest field hospital for treatment.

Losses were heavy, and the soldiers were silent.

The hungry soldiers finally waited for the belated breakfast, which was not rich, but bread, sausages and jam.

War brings many things, and disease is one of them. Dead corpses, both human and horse, were covered with bacteria. The best treatment for these is to concentrate on incineration and bury them on site. Therefore, the horse meat, which was originally very delicious, could not be eaten, and these foods, including bread and sausages, were purchased by the rear army.

As a native Chinese, Xiao Mubai said that he was very embarrassed. But if you don't eat it, you can't do it, so you have to eat it simply, although I feel that it doesn't taste good, but I feel that it can be eaten, and that's it. However, the barracks, especially during the war, were even rougher, shoddy, and had a fight with the campus meals in China.

Enduring the discomfort, Xiao Mubai finally finished eating and had a little strength.

Derived from Western chivalry, the opposing sides can temporarily truce from dinner, which has been tacitly understood for a long time. Compared to the war in the East, it is really much more civilized, and it will not be used at all for sneak attacks or anything. Xiao Mubai said that the Japanese army in the Songhu War of Resistance was constantly attacking, and they would not give time for meals and recuperation at all. The Nineteenth Route Army also took turns to eat and resist, and in this way to maintain a defensive posture.

While the fighters on both sides were resting and eating, the reinforcements reported.

There were six men in the supplementary army, all of whom were great German lads, in good spirits, with high morale, and they looked like the eggs of new recruits.

Xiao Mubai was silent, although there were many recruits, they were just cannon fodder. In such a battle, half of the ten recruits were able to survive to become veterans, and it was really good.

Germany began to mobilize in full force at the beginning of the war, and now it has recruited more than one million conscripts, which is a huge source of soldiers, and it is precisely this strong mobilization ability that can maintain the German army for four years of war.

War is a comprehensive manifestation of a country's strength, human, material, and financial resources. Not a strong country, a big country, simply cannot hold out for so long. It is like China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which lasted for 14 years, and it can be described as a great war.

Xiao Mubai gave an order to let the recruits dig trenches to work, and the veterans were on guard with guns.

Stemming from the last charge, Xiao Mubai had prestige for the first time, although it was not an order to prohibit it, but no one would explicitly oppose it, at most it would be a violation of the yang and the yin.

For example, these recruits, although they carried out orders and were digging trenches, were complaining and muttering.

Then Xiao Mubai asked the veterans to dig trenches, and the recruits were on guard with guns. Xiao Mubai scolded the recruits with a slashed face: "Look at the trench you dug, your ass can't be hidden, and your ass will bloom when a cannonball comes down."

The soldiers burst into laughter, and the recruits blushed like monkey butts.

"And you, this isn't hide and seek, I want to be wide enough to walk, can yours do it?"

Then there is another: "The role of the trench is to protect you and cover your battle, so that no matter how you shoot, the bullets will hit the sky." ”

Xiao Mubai has trained almost every one, constantly suppressing the arrogance of the recruits.

Xiao Mubai looked at the recruits, some agreed that they were sincere and sincere, and some were unconvinced and unruly, and said: "You recruits, the next brutal battle will tell you what is right and wrong, of course, the price of mistake is death, if you can survive, come and debate with me."

William's memory is like a living dictionary, and the experience and lessons of the past month since the start of the war are not fake, telling Xiao Mubai, who has only one combat experience, how to make the most correct choice. And today. Xiao Mubai also told these recruits about these experiences.

Soon, a new round of shelling began.

Hiding in the trenches, Xiao Mubai squatted quietly, smoking calmly as if nothing had happened. The veteran sat in the corner, smoking a cigarette, praying a prayer, in a daze. And the recruits, trembling and curling up. Trepidation was written all over his face.

That's the difference between a recruit and a veteran.

Xiao Mubai looked at the recruits, these recruits finally knew how to dodge the shelling, and they were not useless.

(To be continued)

PS: Thanks to sdfa1, Yunlongtian, Crazy Fat Elephant, xtmicina for the tips of several children's shoes.