In the blue sky, a light gray biplane soars at the height of clouds and vultures, and below the wings is a vast sea of buildings, and roads draw the pattern of a chessboard, churches, palaces, houses, green spaces, and vegetation are the chess pieces of different styles and colors on this chessboard. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoThis is Paris, the pearl of France, recognized as the romantic capital, the fashion city, the flower capital of the world, the art paradise, and the charming city that countless people dream of visiting. Today, the relentless fighting has reached the banks of the Seine, and most of the inhabitants of Paris have fled with their families, leaving the city in ruins without its former prosperity and firepower.

After the Battle of Paris began, as long as it was not a stormy weather, German airships visited Paris every day, like industrious farmers tending to their farmland, and the French soldiers and civilians had long been accustomed to this, and they tried to drive the enemy away with fighter planes and anti-aircraft guns, but the effect was not obvious. The replenishment of aircraft and shells could not keep up with the depletion, and there were fewer and fewer surviving French pilots, so the French had to defend selectively. They no longer even sent fighter planes into the air to intercept those German reconnaissance planes that did not pose much of a threat, and ground artillery fire ignored them, and all important military movements were adjusted to the night.

Against this particular background, the Albarrot C-C biplane reconnaissance plane, carrying a shortwave radio, was able to hover over Paris without any worries, circle after circle, as if waiting for something to happen. Soon, a flock of black dots appeared in the eastern sky, which at first glance looked like flying birds, but no animal in the world could fly at twice the speed of sound. In the blink of an eye, these black dots flew down rapidly, causing an extremely sharp and piercing whistling sound. Large clusters of flames began to appear on the ground, with these flames as the center, the shock wave of the ring was like the ripples of stones falling on the water, one after another, without disturbing each other, and the huge explosion sound was like the war drum of the gods, and the earth shook the mountains, shocking people's hearts.

In the back seat of the German reconnaissance plane, the pilot, wearing windproof glasses, while observing the explosion on the ground, reported to the rear through the radio: "Most of the impact points are too close and need to be increased by 500 meters." ”

After about ten minutes, the same situation was repeated, except that the location of the explosion extended a little west, but it was still seven or eight kilometers from the center of the city on the banks of the Seine.

On the reconnaissance plane, the pilot shouted into the telephone-type microphone: "Very good, very good, please adjust another 300 meters to the north." Repeat, adjust 300 meters to the north. ”

Looking down from the air, there were already two areas of smoke and fire in the eastern part of the city, and not far from them there were multiple pairs of railroad tracks, and that cobweb-like place was obviously a large railway station.

Before more shells could fall, the French finally realized that the German plane hovering in the air was directing the artillery group in the rear to adjust the impact point. The anti-aircraft guns on the ground suddenly began to shoot poorly, but almost no shells could reach it, and by the time the French planes flew in and climbed to that altitude with difficulty, the German artillery group had already found its target -- in the next five hours or so, more than 100 heavy shells turned the railway station in the eastern suburbs of Paris, which had undergone more than ten air raids, into ruins, the railway transportation function was completely lost, and thousands of soldiers and civilians in Paris were killed and wounded. The first shells that landed in the city caused panic throughout Paris, and the news of the imminent German invasion spread like a plague, but in fact the nearest German advance force was still 15 kilometers away from the city.

After three days and nights of fierce fighting between the German and French armies in Villeparisi, the French will could not defeat the heavy artillery of the German army, and the troops of Crown Prince Wilhelm gained a foothold in Villeparisi, and six 283-mm heavy train guns made by Krupp arrived at the front. These cannons are the same type of guns as the old battleships of the Braunschweig-class and German-class, and they are capable of firing 240 kg shells up to 18 kilometers away, which is twice the range of the German Army's 280 mm heavy howitzers, and is deployed in Villeparisi to bombard the eastern part of Paris.

On the other hand, as Natsuki had predicted, seeing that the German defenders in Amiens did not take the initiative to pursue, the British Expeditionary Force that landed at Abbeville turned south, quickly cut off the railway line from Amiens to Paris, and advanced along the railway to the line of the Oise. By this time, the German army and navy had already won the Second Battle of the Oise, and they drove the French army to the far outskirts of Paris, only 25 kilometers from the city. Knowing that the British Expeditionary Force wanted to stab him in the back, Huttier led the main force of the 1st Marine Division to lay a defensive line at the Oise River, with General von Matska's 9th Cavalry Division lying in ambush, and the Army artillery supporting the front line all turned their guns, waiting for the guys in khaki uniforms to show up, and then hit them in the head.

From the landing in Abbeville to the capture of Pikini, the British Expeditionary Force's rapid offensive had a remarkable effect, and their commanders tried to continue this tactic, but the German planes were like abominable locusts, and they did not give up until they sucked their blood. From Amiens to the banks of the Oise, the British officers and soldiers were overwhelmed, suffering from the loss of men and equipment from the German air raids, and the sudden capture of Abwehr by the Germans, the hundreds of tons of military supplies that the British expeditionary force had hoarded there became trophies for the Germans. Although the British were able to receive supplies from the French allies and could transport supplies through ports such as Le Havre, the deteriorating situation gradually caused them to lose confidence in crushing the German army along the Oise River. As a result, at Persanne, the exhausted British expeditionary force was defeated by the German army, which was in high spirits, and the remnants withdrew in the direction of Rouen and Le Havre. The German cavalry immediately went into pursuit and engaged in a skirmish with the British cavalry acting as the rearguard, with more than 3,000 lancers of the German 9th Cavalry Division attacking about 1,800 British cavalry troops. In order to cover the retreat of their own infantry, the British cavalry adopted the method of fighting under the horse, the cold weapon collision of spears and knives rarely appeared, and the cavalry on both sides fought more with rifles, and the German cavalry with Mauser G98A short cavalry guns did not take advantage of the British cavalry equipped with Enfield rifles.

On 13 and 14 October, the Germans captured Livry-Gargaon and Scherer, and the glittering blades were one step closer to the heart of France, and Hausen's army advanced from the left flank to the banks of the Seine, southeast of Paris, where rumors of German poisoning caused panic in Paris to a debilitating degree, which in turn led to another wave of refugees, and Paris was completely empty, providing an ideal venue for a showdown between the Allies and the Central Powers.

On 15 October, the once-interrupted railway line from Amiens to Paris was restored, and the train guns, which had played a major role in the battlefields of Amiens and the Oise, were returned to the front. Instead of returning to the 1st Marine Division, Natsuki returned to Germany on a transport plane and attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the first torpedo destroyer in Hamburg. Prior to this, the largest torpedo boat of the German Navy, with a displacement of just over a thousand tons, was often at a disadvantage in the confrontation with British destroyers, and was not conducive to ocean navigation. Aware of this gap and inadequacy, Kaiser Wilhelm II ordered the construction of German torpedo boat destroyers, with a design standard of 2,000 tons, equipped with at least four 5-inch naval guns or six 4-inch naval guns, four to six 21-inch torpedo tubes, a speed of not less than 34 knots, a cruising range of not less than 3,500 nautical miles, strong seaworthiness, and can carry 40 mines or a light water reconnaissance aircraft to carry out operations.

Despite the difficulty of the task, the major German shipyards were quick to come up with their own designs. The Blom-Foss and Volkeng shipyards in Hamburg had designed and built the 1,000-ton Novik-class destroyers for Russia, and their excellent performance caused a lot of trouble for the German Navy in the war.

While ordering torpedo boat destroyers, the German Navy put forward new requirements for the two Wiesbaden and four Wiesbaden Improved Light Cruisers, which had been finalized, in view of the fundamental changes that were taking place in Germany's maritime strategic situation, including increased endurance, improved wave resistance, and strengthened anti-aircraft weapons. Since the construction of these six warships had already begun, a major change to the design structure would inevitably delay the construction period, which was difficult for the German Navy to accept, so a more conservative improvement scheme was adopted, and the performance improvement was relatively limited. It is worth looking forward to the construction of 10 "wartime light cruisers" on an additional budget due to the outbreak of war, and after repeated discussions and revisions, the Naval Technical Committee submitted a formal proposal of 6,000 tons, which would be started by the end of 1914 if approved by the top brass of the Navy and the Kaiser himself. All things went well, by the summer of 1916, the Bavaria-class battleships and Adalbert-class aircraft carriers were in service, the new light cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers were already in combat capacity, and the German Navy would have a powerful fleet suitable for ocean-going operations.

In Hamburg, Natsuki soon witnessed another historic event: the formation of the German 4th Naval Infantry Brigade. In accordance with the German army's recruitment and formation conventions, this marine unit was to be based in Hamburg. At this time, Hamburg was one of the three largest seaports in the world, with a population of more than one million, and most of the young people who grew up by the sea were strong-willed, strong-willed, and familiar with the nature of the water, making them ideal for marines.

A few days later, in the German military port of Wilhelm, the newly built "Frontier Governor" was put into active service, and it was the third battleship of the King class. The "King" and "Elector" had been damaged in naval battles and would not be repaired until the end of October, so the German Navy planned to launch a new military operation in early November, with the goal of breaking the British blockade in the north and returning to the mainland with Maximilian von Spee's detachment.

(End of chapter)