A steady stream of material resources came from Germany, including the most urgently needed sleepers, rails and rivets.

The railway near Kimon was repaired and Augustus. Feng. Mackensen's 2nd East Prussian Infantry Corps and tanks also arrived. A group of neatly groomed soldiers got off the train, their confident expressions making everyone feel much more reassured. Seeing the tanks covered with canvas, Chen Tian even had the urge to go up and kiss those iron bumps, after experiencing a bloody battle of machine guns and bayonets, how he regretted not bringing these steel behemoths in the first place. Despite all their problems and concerns, they are so strong and fearless compared to the flesh and blood of the soldiers.

After the arrival of General Mackensen and his troops, Matthew boarded the train back to East Prussia with his wounded men and several divisions with the heaviest losses, and Russian prisoners of war were escorted back to Germany after reinforcing and expanding the temporary airfield, and a large number of planes were transferred from East Prussia to Bialystok. The area around Bialystok was built as a fortress group, as a means and pedal for the German army to break into Russian Poland, and while the corps was resting and preparing for battle, Chentian and his generals were also actively planning new combat operations.

********************

After the battle of the frontier on the Western Front, the German right flank and the 5 armies in the center wanted to "cut" from Belgium to France with a wielding sickle.

From the Vosges Mountains to Lille, with the red trousers of 70 French divisions forming a red edge on the French border, and a small yellow pit of four British divisions near their left end, Chauffeur's intention was to keep the British expeditionary force in line with the retreating unity and hold on to the Somme after reaching Saint-Quentin. However, this was not in the interests of the British. At this time, 4 German corps were running towards them. After the first encounter with the Germans, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force, Sir Ronch, lost confidence and believed that defeat was assured. His only thought was to save the expeditionary force, which consisted almost entirely of British-trained soldiers, and to get his troops out of danger. In this way, the British withdrew to Le Cato and prepared to retreat to Saint-Quentin and Noyon the next day.

In order to outflank the British, he ordered his two right flank corps to force a march to the southwest and engaged the British and French troops in a fierce battle at Le Cato, where the British lost nearly 10,000 men and dozens of cannons in one day. At the same time, the French troops on this line were forced to retreat.

The official communiqué of the German High Command declared: "The German army has entered France from Cambrai to the Vosges Mountains after successive victories. "The enemy has been completely defeated, and there is no way to put up any strong resistance to the German advance."

The elite German army of one million men made its way into France. They marched along the long white highways of northern France, left and right, a 120-kilometre-wide strip to Paris. At the forefront was Kluk's Army Group, which was tasked with encircling the Entente's front.

The French are retreating in full force!

With every step back, the hearts of the French soldiers were filled with the great pain of giving up their French land to others. In some places, French soldiers walked through their homes, knowing that in another day the Germans would break into their homes. Those troops who had fought hard were scattered and no longer had the heart to sing the impassioned Marseillaise. They walked silently, and the soldiers were haggard, thirsty and hungry. The cavalrymen, whose boots were bright and their uniforms were shining, were now muddy and bloodstained, swaying in the saddle and dizzy with exhaustion. The soldiers were so sleepy that they couldn't even lift their heads, and where they went, they seemed to be puzzled, and their hearts were innumerable, and they were dazed as if in a dream.

The chief of the French General Staff, Xia Fei, did his best to stop all French units from retreating, and at the same time shifted forces to the left flank in order to stop the outflanking of Army Group Kluk and prepare for a counteroffensive from there. He sent a group of troops to Amiens, where he joined the British Expeditionary Force and the French 4th and 5th Armies to form a large army, the 6th Army, which would later resume the offensive. At the same time, he ordered the three retreating French armies to do their best to maintain a continuous front and make short but fierce counterattacks, blocking or delaying the German advance until the counterattacking forces launched a counteroffensive. Under the guidance of Xia Fei's strategic thinking, the ears of the French regiments were full of orders to "fight while retreating", and they must block the enemy's pursuit and buy time to regroup their ranks and rebuild a strong front. This requires a rearguard war, although such a rearguard war is almost a moth to a fire.

On the left flank, the French 5th Army, which had escaped from the crushing defeats at Charleroi and the Sambre, on the way of the advance of the main German forces, struggled to regroup the defeated forces in the retreat. In the center, the French 3rd and 4th armies were defeated and retreated, and they were able to follow the rules, and if they could, they could delay, and they were fighting and retreating.

The German soldiers and generals were surprised to find that the retreating French soldiers were getting braver and braver. The French soldiers were no longer engaged in a vast and vague offensive war in the mysterious jungles of foreign land, they had returned to their own land to fight for the defense of their homeland, they passed through the land they knew, they saw their fathers and villagers, the fields, the barns, the village paths, all of which were their own.

Having learned from the bitter experience and refining their tactics, the French began to dig trenches, which slowed down the German advance into Paris, but the situation in France continued to turn against the Allies, and the French capital was already in danger of being besieged.

In Paris, the main roads are empty, the doors and windows of shops are closed, and buses, trams, cars, and horse-drawn taxis are all gone.

Will the capital fall? Should the government evacuate? These questions, which have been hidden in the minds of ministers since the border battles, are now openly and intensively discussed.

Chauffeur felt that the situation was not good, that the French resistance had not met his expectations, that the British were "motionless" and could not hold back the German advance, and that Paris was under serious threat. He advised the government to evacuate so as not to attract enemy troops to attack the capital because it remained in Paris.

The Cabinet convened a meeting to engage in a heated debate on the issue. Many advocated staying in Paris, believing that if the government was to evacuate, it would have the spiritual consequences of despair and even revolution; Others advocated evacuation, arguing that the government could not take the risk of being besieged in the capital, as it had been in 1870.

After a gossip, everyone agreed that Paris must be fortified, and that Xia Fei must comply with it. As to whether the government should go or stay, the Cabinet is still divided and contentious.

On a fine morning, more than a dozen German planes bombed Paris for the first time, dropping leaflets telling the Parisians that the Germans were approaching the city, as they had done in 1870, "You have no choice but to surrender!" ”

Since then, one or more planes have come to harass them every day, and the Parisians have been overshadowed by failure.

*************

In northern France, on a meadow not far behind the front of Army Group Clut, several planes landed slowly, their wings looking blood-red in the setting sun.

After the plane came to a standstill, several young pilots jumped out of the cockpit.

"Fryer! How's the result today? A ground crew member greeted the German eagles with a smile on his face.

The man called Fryer replied with a relaxed face: "I only saw one French plane all day today, and that pilot must have been a coward, and when he saw me, he ran away without looking back, and I chased him all the way to knock him down!" ”

"Hahaha!" The other pilots laughed, and they were all in a very relaxed mood now. At the beginning of the war, the Allied countries had a total of 500 aircraft, of which Britain and France accounted for the vast majority, but basically they were reconnaissance planes and school firing planes, and very few were equipped with weapons. On the Allied side, Germany alone far outnumbered the total number of Allied aircraft, and most of Thomas Post Office's planes around the world were recalled before the outbreak of the war, and the German army on the Western Front alone invested more than 600 aircraft, including nearly 200 reconnaissance/calibration aircraft equipped with light weapons, more than 170 combat attack aircraft in 5 squadrons, and more than 200 bombers in 6 squadrons. In the first half month, British and French planes dared to make frequent sorties, but the German planes quickly caused them heavy losses, and after the British Navy was attacked by the German army, most of the British planes were transferred back to the mainland, and in early September, there were only a few dozen French planes left in the French battlefield of the Allied countries. For these German pilots, who carried out reconnaissance and ground attack missions every day, it was very rare to be able to run into a French plane, and even if they did, the French plane, which had almost no defense, could only flee.

A young pilot who looked to be in his early 20s followed the group, his head bowed as if thinking about something.

"Manfred, why is he so sullen alone!" An older ground crew member shouted at him, but the young pilot remained silent and continued to walk silently.

His full name was Manfred Alberrich Frich von Richthofen and was the son of Prussian nobleman Major Alberrich von Richthofen and his wife Kuninggood, "Richthofen" meaning "just and honest", a surname that had earlier been given to his family by the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The eldest of the Major's three sons, Manfred was preceded by an older sister named Ilse, who inherited the barony from his elders and entered the Junior Military Academy in Holstedt at the age of 11 for military training before being recommended for further study at the Royal Army College. Manfred was an excellent athlete with a clear mind and excellent cultural achievements, even winning a scholarship. Due to his outstanding equestrian talent, Manfred had planned to serve in the cavalry after graduation, but found himself assigned to a strange unit - the aviation unit attached to the East Prussian Legion.

At first, the young Manfred had little interest in the new weapon other than its novelty, and he had always longed for the feeling of galloping on a war horse, and he was even bored with the day-to-day flying lessons, and the cramped, oil-stained cabin of an airplane seemed to him to be no match for the horseback of a horse. He didn't understand why he was here, and he didn't understand why he was here. In the eyes of the instructors, Manfred was a very ordinary flying student, with no innate flying talent, no concern for the performance of the aircraft, full of cavalry tactics rather than flight maneuvers and aircraft formations, and they really wondered why the Prince of East Prussia had asked them to train this strange fellow well, but they did not dispute this, let alone tell Manfred.

It was two months before Manfred completed his pilot's course and boarded the plane for the first time in the co-pilot's seat, and it was only six months later that he flew solo for the first time due to his unskilled piloting skills, at the end of 1911, when Manfred was not yet 20 years old.

After a few nights of tossing and turning, Manfred submitted a request to be transferred to the cavalry unit.

His instructor was noncommittal, but the application was quickly sent to Chentian.

Two days later, the young pilot, who dreamed of becoming a cavalryman, was received by the Prince of East Prussia.

Manfred looked with trepidation at the prince, who was only a few years older than him, and legend has it that he was even richer than the royal family in Berlin, and who had single-handedly established a regime in Turkey that was entirely on the side of Germany, and almost half of the rumors surrounding him in East Prussia. Of course, he was also the creator of that aviation unit.

"Sergeant Manfred, can you tell me why you want to be transferred to the cavalry?"

Manfred looked at the legendary prince in front of him, his expression was very calm, and he held a small spoon and stirred it gently in the delicate coffee cup.

"Dear Royal Highness, I don't think I'm fit to be a pilot, becoming a knight has been my dream since I was a child!" Manfred replied respectfully.

"Knights? It's not heroes on horseback who are knights! Can you tell us about the role and tactics of cavalry in your eyes? The prince glanced at him, then turned his gaze back to the coffee cup, and perhaps one should have given the prince the nickname of the coffee prince.

"The cavalry moves quickly and violently, and can be used for frontal assault and flanking of the enemy, as well as for raiding long distances!" Speaking of cavalry, Manfred seemed very excited, as if the scene of the cavalry charging was right in front of him.

"Excellent! This is indeed a characteristic of cavalry! Have you ever studied a heavy machine gun, like a Maxim? ”

"Yes, Your Highness! I operated this heavy machine gun when I was in military school, and some planes have similar weapons! Manfred thought that the prince would ask him what he thought of the heavy machine gun, which he thought was a good defensive weapon, but it was too bulky, inaccurate, and expensive, but the prince did not continue to ask, but took him to a proving ground near the castle.

A strange truck drove out of the warehouse, the body was wrapped in steel, the cab was tightly wrapped, the carriage had no roof, the compartment wall was surrounded by steel plates 1 and a half meters high, and there were two square holes in each of the three compartment walls, and the machine gun muzzles of black holes protruded from the holes.

Manfred climbed into the carriage with the Prince, which contained six Maxim heavy machine guns and several boxes of ammunition.

The car took a turn around the test site and then slowly stopped.

"The cost of manufacturing and maintaining 1 of these armored vehicles is comparable to recruiting and training 15 cavalrymen, if you were a commander, would you choose 1 armored vehicle or 15 cavalrymen?"

Manfred pondered as he stroked the steel walls, he had to admit that this armored vehicle was not much slower than the cavalry, but the protection and firepower far exceeded the cavalry, and before he could answer, the prince asked: "If the enemy has 100 heavy machine guns on the position, how many cavalry do you think will be needed to occupy the opponent's position, and how many of these armored vehicles will be needed?" ”

Manfred's eyes were filled with frustration at this point.

"Your Royal Highness, don't you need knights in this era?"

"No, Sergeant Manfred, a knight is not a simple man and a horse, as long as you have the spirit of a knight, it doesn't matter what you sit underneath! Isn't it more like a fearless knight to fly an airplane to fight at 10 times the speed of a horse, to shoot down enemy planes one by one, and to strafe enemy infantry on the ground? ”

Manfred suddenly realized that after bidding farewell to the Prince, he devoted himself to the study of aircraft performance and flying technology.

Before and after the start of the war, because the Russian air power was far weaker than that of Britain and France, several flying squadrons of the East Prussian Army Air Force were successively transferred to the Western Front to strengthen the air power there.

Manfred had been promoted to the rank of second lieutenant by this time, and he and his squadron had been transferred from East Prussia to the Western Front, and by the time they began to fly in the skies of France, it was difficult to see the Entente planes. For half a month, Manfred and his "Hummingbird" had almost zero records, and he was tired of the French soldiers and artillery positions on the ground with machine guns every day, and what he expected was to fight like a knight, not to bully some little sheep who were powerless to fight back.

After the news of the naval attack on the British port of Pascalflo, everyone was very proud of the Navy's victory, and these pilots also envied the pilots on the aircraft carriers, who threw bombs on the bows of the British battleships with great pleasure, while they themselves strafed the French infantry in the trenches every day. Many pilots began to write applications for transfer to the Naval Air Corps, and although Manfred had the same idea, he still remembered what the Prince of East Prussia had left him two years earlier:

"I'm sure that one day, your blood-red knight's cloak will make the pilots of any plane on the continent scareless!"