Silent earth, cold earth.

A bloodied soldier moved his fingers, then slowly and struggled to open his eyes.

His name was Riffel, a second lieutenant in the Spanish Army, attached to the 2nd Battalion of the Corvado Regiment, and was a young infantry platoon leader.

He couldn't hear anything in his ears, and all he could see was dead bodies, stumps, and lonely horses, as well as guns and weapons all over the ground. The blood has not yet flowed into a river, but the soil here is dark because of the blood.

Not far away, paramedics with small white flags are looking for and rescuing the wounded.

Through the smoke that had not yet cleared, Riefe could see the British lines and the mountains of Gibraltar farther afield. Smoke was still rising from some of the shelled areas, and the St. George's Cross flag was still flying in the wind.

Riffel felt a pang of heartache.

He tried to stand up, he wanted to pick up his saber and move on, but he could only barely move his body. The strong body didn't have any strength at this time, and there were still several places on the body that hurt badly.

He opened his mouth and let out a faint, painful moan.

Although the sun was already directly above his head at this time, the sunlight was so strong that the appearance of Riffel's military uniform was a little hot, but Riffel was so cold that his lips turned purple, and the strong smell of blood around him made him sick.

After a bout of vertigo, Riffel's vision became more and more blurred, and finally his world fell back into darkness.

When Riffel opened his eyes again, he thought he had come to heaven, because he saw the candles and saw the angels.

"Ensign, you're finally awake!" A white "angel" looked at Riffel with a smile, holding a small plate containing a pile of gauze and cotton.

"Uh......" Riffel tried to say something, but there was a sharp pain in his head. He tried to touch his head with his right hand, but then found that his right arm could not be bent due to the thick bandage.

"Don't worry, this is a field hospital in the rear of Lalinea!" The "angel" put Riffel's hand back under the covers.

The nights in March were cold. The lieutenant's hands were also cold, even though he was covered with a soft and thick quilt.

"I'm not dead yet...... Riffel muttered, and after a few seconds he suddenly asked nervously, "What about my platoon?" What about my soldiers? ”

"Sorry, I don't know about this! Maybe they're somewhere waiting for you to recover! The nurse said as she examined the bandages on Riffel's head and body.

"Oh...... Then my hands and feet are still there! ”

For every soldier, a complete body is the foundation of the fight. Riffel had seen veterans who had been disabled in war, and he didn't want to be like them, who had to move slowly with a cane.

"Don't worry! Your hands and feet are still there! It's just been in a coma for three days and two nights! ”

The second lieutenant frowned when the nurse touched Riffel's wound. But there was no cry of pain.

"Your wound is no longer bleeding, but you can't get out of bed and walk around for a week! Call me if you need anything! With that, the nurse put away the plate and turned to the bed to the left of Riffel, where the fellow seemed to be more wounded, and his head was almost wrapped in a large ball.

Uninterested in how many stitches he had received, Riffel began to look at the place.

It appeared to have been a church, and his location was a long hallway, with many hospital beds placed on the inner side of the corridor. Doctors and nurses dressed in white walked back and forth between the beds, with a wounded person lying in almost every bed.

In this camp full of wounded soldiers, Riffel did not feel much sadness and pessimism. The wounded were largely quiet. Only a few of the Seriously Injured were moaning lowly.

For Riffel and these Spanish soldiers. The war came so quickly that most people were still immersed in the excitement and longing of going to war, and the impassioned words of the pre-war officers still echoed in their ears.

"We have the best soldiers. We have the best weapons, and if we go forward, we will win everything! ”

But as soon as you close your eyes, the brutal battle scene chills Riffel and most people.

Riefell and his platoon were part of the first wave of the first attack, and they lined up frontally on the British defensive line north of Gibraltar, and the one-hour artillery bombardment of their own artillery was like a war drum.

"Bayonet ready...... Horizontal march! ”

Riffel still remembers his first order, and the 28 soldiers in the platoon drew their bayonets in unison, and in five seconds they were trained to load their bayonets.

"Gun on the shoulder...... Advance! ”

Richel held a saber in his hand, and his soldiers carried their rifles diagonally over their shoulders. More than 20,000 Spanish soldiers lined up in a horizontal line. Then, in a formidable momentum, they marched at a neat pace towards the British line.

Dense formations can give soldiers courage and confidence, and can also make the opponent's artillery much more lethal.

The Spaniards maintained this ancient formation until they began to run and charge the British lines.

More than 200 cannons on the British line became the most powerful weapons of the Grim Reaper on this day, thousands of Spanish soldiers fell under the guns of the British, and the road to the mountains of Gibraltar was almost full of Spanish infantry.

Although the dense formation changed to a skirmisher attack formation as the charge began, the British machine guns unceremoniously began to reap the lives of the Spanish soldiers. This sharp weapon, which had killed countless people in Poland, France, and England, once again became a terrible "killing machine", and more than half of the casualties of the Spanish attacking troops came from the more than 100 Vickers heavy machine guns on the British lines.

A Spanish cavalry force of nearly 1,000 men tried to break through the flank of the British line, but suffered casualties in front of the positions of two British machine-gun companies.

The generals of Spain believed that their soldiers were the best, and their soldiers proved this in battle. Before the order to retreat was given. None of the 10 infantry regiments retreated.

The Spanish army rushed to the British line like a wave, only to be mercilessly shattered as if it had hit a strong seawall.

Unbeknownst to Riffel, after his fall, the Spanish army launched three more onslaughts, all of which were in vain.

"Hey, man, do you have any cigarettes?" Rifel's thoughts were interrupted by a voice from the right, and he slowly turned his head to see an equally young officer sitting on the bed. However, his uniform was a little different.

Riffel quickly recognized that it was the uniform of the Spanish Army Air Corps.

"I'll look at ......," Riffel struggled to reach out his left hand, which was also bandaged, but fortunately not as pitiful as his right hand. He fumbled around for a while, and finally pulled out a pack of cigarettes, which were still stained with blood.

"Give ......"

Fortunately, the two beds were close together, and the pilot sergeant took the cigarette without much effort, and both of his arms appeared to be intact. A narrow bandage was wrapped around his head.

Riffel remembered seeing his planes and airships in the air before the battle began, and their main mission seemed to be reconnaissance and firing for his artillery, and the British did not send planes to meet them, and he did not see any of their planes or airships shot down.

"Sergeant, how did you get hurt?" Riffel himself took a cigarette in his mouth and borrowed a lighter from the pilot.

"Knocked down by a British machine gun, just yesterday morning!" The young pilot had a helpless expression on his face, and it looked like he was very unwilling.

"Yesterday morning?" Riffel was a little helpless, yesterday was a blank for him all day. He didn't know, yesterday and today. That is, the second and third days after the campaign was launched. The Spanish army did not attack again, but used most of its ammunition to shell the British lines, and even the 280-mm heavy guns aided by the Germans rushed into battle. And the Spanish aviation unit is duty-bound to undertake the task of school shooting.

"I found a very hidden artillery position of the British, which was located where our artillery could not reach the ground, so I came back and reported to my superiors, and then went with two other planes to attack with grenades! As a result, as soon as the grenade was thrown, our plane was hit, and then it was forced to land on the battlefield in front of the British line. The landing was not very successful, not only did the plane break, but my leg was also ......" said this, the sergeant's expression was very gloomy.

Only then did Riefell realize that there were two wooden crutches on his other side.

"It's going to be fine, isn't it? At least you also bombed one of the artillery positions of the British. I didn't even hit an Englishman! ”

"It's no better!" The pilot sergeant lifted his quilt and lost a section of his left leg.

Rifel was silent.

The sergeant quickly covered the quilt back, "Don't mention that artillery position!" I heard from my companions today that after I was wounded, our airships and planes attacked there one after another, and we lost another plane, but the power of the bombs was limited, and we only blew up a few cannons! ”

"Alas...... Damn the British! Riffel was only angry and helpless, even though Gibraltar was not the world's or Europe's stronghold. But after all, the British have been operating there for more than two centuries, with field fortifications, stone forts, and steel batteries.

The sergeant said no more, but smoked one puff after another.

It was not only the poor wounded soldiers who were depressed, but also the generals and staff officers of the Spaniards' front-line headquarters turned pale. Although the king did not repeatedly urge them to attack, they could not find a breakthrough, and everyone found it ugly, especially Admiral Chaparro, who was entrusted with him.

In this headquarters, there was only a group of people whose expressions were not so solemn, who only watched silently from the sidelines during the battle, never interfering in the military operations of the Spanish army, and who could only show a little sympathy for the casualties of the Spanish soldiers.

General Chaparo, with a pile of medals on his chest, stood in front of the battle map for half an hour before he asked the chief of staff of his place: "The navy still does not agree with our plan?" ”

"I'm afraid so, General!"

Another helpless sigh.

General Chaparo felt that if Alfonso XII had not been sunk, perhaps the battle would not have progressed as it has now. In fact, it was not only that torpedo attack that hindered the Spanish fleet's attack from the sea, but also the British artillery and mines were a huge obstacle. With the strength of the Spanish fleet, the blockade of the Strait of Gibraltar was acceptable, and assisting the army in attacking from the sea would be powerless.

"A bunch of incompetent and cowardly guys!" The general said dissatisfied, but this dissatisfaction was almost useless.

"In addition, we have another shortage of shells!" The chief of staff's tone was apprehensive.

But General Chaparo did not lash out as much as he did yesterday.

"Let the logistics department step up the transportation! There weren't enough shells, so I had to use the soldier's body to make a passage! In any case, we must take the British perimeter by tomorrow morning, or morale will begin to falter! ”

The chief of staff reluctantly conveyed this order. Transportation is not the main problem, the problem is that when the war suddenly came, the Spanish Army's ammunition stock of large-caliber artillery was seriously insufficient, and what was even worse was that those artillery were basically purchased from other countries, and Spain's domestic military factories did not have the capacity to produce related shells on a large scale. You know, 75-mm guns alone could not break through a solid line of defense.

After thinking about it, Admiral Chaparro took the plunge and invited Brigadier General Gasova, the commander of the German delegation.

"General, I wonder how many planes and airships it will take to blow up a medium-sized fortress!"

Gasova glanced at the Spanish admiral, in short, the Spanish army's pitiful few airships and planes could not do it. He thought for a moment, then said lukewarmly, "Honorable Admiral, it depends on what kind of structure your so-called fortress is!" In the case of the British line in front of us, 10 large zeppelins could blow up any of these fortresses! Bombing with 50 zeppelins for three or four days in a row was enough to blow up the British fortifications, and it could also greatly reduce the morale of the British army! With airplanes, 5 specialized bombers are equivalent to a zeppelin! ”

"Oh...... Led Zeppelin ...... Specialized bomber ......" Chaparro sullenly turned back to the map, he had heard from a French general about the power of these weapons, but Spain's current national strength was simply not enough to build such an air force.

At this time, Chaparo began to complain that the representatives in charge of negotiating with the German government were unable to receive the most direct fire support from the Germans because of the clause in the treaty that the Spanish government would attack Gibraltar independently within one month. Previously, Admiral Sheppel of Germany said that due to the restrictions of the terms, his planes and warships could only conduct reconnaissance of the British troops in Gibraltar at present, and the air battle on the 3rd was only for self-defense actions.

Thus, the mighty German fleet, like their delegations, became the most loyal spectators, and in Tunisia, not far from Gibraltar, the airship factory established by the German Admiralty was already beginning to take shape, and the construction of the first zeppelins had already begun.

March 8, 1915, overcast.

Under the desperate shelling of the Spanish army, the British perimeter defense line was in tatters, and the positions were surrounded by large and small craters, while the bodies of the dead on both sides were still everywhere.

At 6 a.m., the Spaniards began to smash the last shells on the British, cannons, howitzers, or heavy siege guns, almost every piece of artillery that could be used was firing until they ran out of shells.

At 7:03 a.m., the attacking force, consisting of 23,000 Spanish soldiers, began to line up.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the horn of the attack sounded again.

Blood and death shrouded the land again, and as Admiral Chaparro said, the Spanish soldiers carved a passage with flesh and blood. The soldiers fearlessly advanced, fearlessly fell, and the next wave of soldiers went on the offensive.

After more than 3 hours, the flag of the Spanish army was finally planted on the British line.

By 2 p.m., the Spanish Army, at the cost of nearly 7,000 men, had captured all positions on the British perimeter line. After blowing up part of the artillery, the British troops all retreated to the fortress of Gibraltar.