After two hours of heavy artillery preparation, the Russian infantry jumped out of the trenches and lined up in a neat and high-spirited phalanx, with heavy machine guns and infantry guns still following the infantry and ready to provide close fire support at all times, just as they had done during the capture of Kimon.

In the forward command post of the Russian army, a group of Russian officers held high-powered binoculars and looked at the German positions that were as calm as death, and they all looked proud. The most conspicuous among them was a Guards general who was as tall as a "bucket", but he wore a dark green Guards general's uniform, and from a distance he looked like a fat frog barely standing on its hind legs. After a burst of unbridled laughter, he spoke in an unpleasant voice that was very befitting of his appearance:

"In Kimon, with just over 300 guns, we bombarded the Germans with barbed wire, trenches, trenches and artillery positions, which, together with the close range of infantry artillery, quickly routed the useless Germans! Today, not only do we have a full 700 guns, but we also have almost twice as many infantry for the attack as last time, and I don't think General Palyukev's cavalry will have a chance to perform today! ”

"Shogun Takami! Defeating the Germans was just as easy as it was! The officers on the side complimented that this Colonel Krapovich was the number three man of the Guards except for the commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Agrini, and Marshal Mirollov, who stayed in Moscow, although his appearance was not assuming and his tone was pompous, the 50-year-old Krapovich was the only senior general in the Guards who had participated in the Russo-Japanese War.

"After studying history in detail, I discovered a secret, a huge secret......" Krapovich pretended to look at everyone mysteriously, and only after receiving a look of reverence and anticipation in anticipation did he continue: "There are no fortresses and defenses in this world that cannot be conquered!" From ancient Jerusalem to Constantinople, from the first fortress of the scorching sun in Europe to the first fortress of Arthur in Asia, none of them escaped the fate of being captured! ”

The surrounding officers let out a sigh of amazement, and then praised the admiral who discovered the "law of the world" in various words, even the most powerful guards could not escape the flattery and pandering of the Russian army.

"Therefore, the so-called fortress of Bialystok in front of us is simply vulnerable! As you can see, there were no large fortresses or batteries there, and the small and dense bunkers of the Germans were like scattering a large number of stones on a piece of dirt, but they could not stop the advance of our great Russian army at all! In the shelling just now, our artillery did not hesitate to drop more than 100,000 shells on the heads of the Germans, and the extended fire covered a large area from the forward trenches to the rear, and the frontal fortifications, machine-gun positions and artillery positions of the Germans should have all been finished! Krapovich continued his reasoning, and although everyone found that after the smoke had cleared, only the trenches and barbed wire had been blown out, and most of the German pillboxes seemed to be very intact, and the infantry trenches were difficult to see with the naked eye, but they did not hesitate to give applause to the general, who loved reasoning.

While the "fat frogs" and the "little frogs" were talking, the dark green infantry ranks began to move slowly, like mountains pressing towards the German positions. People have different opinions about the color of the uniforms of the Russian Guard, but this dark green seems to be more eye-catching than the monotonous colors of the black suits or white shirts and black pants of ordinary Russian troops.

Buzz!

The brows of the "fat frogs" furrowed exaggeratedly, because the industrious German "little bees" appeared again, and the Russian soldiers unanimously decided to rank them as the least popular animals of the century, not only because the sound of their hovering overhead was dizzy, but also because the bombs and bullets they dropped were ten times more hateful than the stool of flies.

Nearly 200 German planes soon began to bomb and strafe the advancing Russian infantry, especially the machine guns and infantry guns behind the infantry platoon, which were taken care of by them.

As brave and fearless soldiers of the Russian Guard, the dark green infantry phalanx did not slow down the advance in the slightest, so a bomb set off a wave of blood in the dense crowd, and a string of bullets drew obvious lines in the phalanx, making everyone present feel cruel and chilling. In the sky above the Russian artillery positions, many planes are also circling to find targets, although as expected, the Russian artillery is scattered in the sparse woods, and the artillery is simply camouflaged, and most of the anti-aircraft fire is concentrated here, but the German pilots still achieved some bombing effect, because the bombs detonated a lot of shells piled up next to the artillery, several Russian artillery positions were caught in a sea of fire.

As a string of white two points rose from the Russian position, the German planes that dropped bombs and strafed at low altitudes also sensed the existence of the threat, and the shrapnel grenades fired from the Russian artillery even smashed the two German planes into a volley, startling some planes to hurriedly raise their altitude to dodge.

Under these circumstances, the morale of the Russian infantry, which had slipped somewhat, suddenly soared, and with a neat cry of "oh oh" resounding throughout the earth, the infantry raised their bright bayonets diagonally and began to charge at a distance of more than a thousand meters from the German position.

"As I expected, the Germans used all their artillery against Letzsky's Ninth Army, and we were only dealing with some infantry, and although they still sent a large number of hateful planes, we were already victorious!" Krapovich took out a handkerchief to wipe the large beads of sweat from his forehead, and his fat face swept away the gloomy clouds just now to reveal a relaxed look, although the German plane did not leave but circled in a higher place, but in his opinion, the charge launched by the Russian guards with momentum and courage was unstoppable. He had lost thousands of infantry and many heavy machine gunners and infantry gunners who were following the infantry in the bombardment, but many of the machine guns were still moving forward, and the infantry guns were hurriedly deploying and preparing for firing.

The admiration and applause of the Russian officers once again surrounded the fat frog, and the fat frog finally guessed correctly, not only did Chen Tian use all the heavy artillery and most of the field artillery for offensive operations in the west, but the reconnaissance planes also focused most of their attention on the battlefield there. However, this did not mean that Bialystok's defensive firepower was very weak, and not only tens of thousands of German infantry were entering the forward positions from the rear concealment, but 52 tanks were also quickly entering the tank trenches.

The so-called tank trench is to dig a large pit that can hide the lower part of the tank in the ground, behind the pit is a long slope, and the tank can freely enter and exit the tank trench, and there is a tank trench about 160 meters, which will be used as a movable turret and temporary plugging of leaks.

After the sound of Russian artillery stopped, Chen Tian and General François came to the observation post on the upper part of the large bunker, from the ground, this command post covering an area of more than 10,000 square meters looks like a small mountain bag, the entire bunker is a concrete structure, the thickest point is up to 3 meters, which can resist the attack of the Russian heavy artillery, but the first shelling of the Russian army did not extend here.

Near the top, there are 8 observation stations in 360 degrees, each of which is not very large, but a small room with a long window, and two high-powered telescopes supported by a stand in front of the window. Seeing Chentian and François coming, the two sentries stood upright with their guns on the ground and their bayonets upward, and Chentian and Xiao Fu saluted and walked straight to the binoculars.

In the telescope, everything on the position 3 kilometers away could be seen clearly, and the German infantry with various weapons had basically entered the position.

The circular pillboxes ranged from 3 to 5 meters in diameter and had walls between 1.5 and 3 meters thick, and they were particularly sturdy at the top, reaching a thickness of more than 3 meters, and most of their structures were below the ground, with a small amount of firing holes exposed above the ground. Hundreds of large and small pillboxes are densely distributed on the position like mushrooms, except for a small number of pillboxes that were directly hit by the top of the Russian army's 152 mm or more caliber howitzers and were damaged, most of the pillboxes are intact, and the soldiers can use the heavy machine guns and machine guns inside to shoot at the Russian army as long as they directly enter the pillboxes.

The three trenches that cross the entire line of defense from east to west are constructed at almost different horizontal heights, so that the three trenches can shoot at the Russian army almost at the same time, the trenches are about 2 meters deep, and there is a circular machine gun position made of concrete every twenty meters, the machine guns and machine gunners are protected from frontal bullets and shrapnel under the protection of the wall-like bunkers, and the other parts of the trenches are reinforced by wooden or bamboo fences, and the infantry can stand on small steps when shooting, and the soldiers hide at the bottom of the trenches when the Russian shelling, Or leave only a handful of observation posts, while others retreat to safety in the rear through criss-crossed traffic trenches.

The mortar position is similar to a tank bunker, the artillery and gunners are all hidden in a 1.5-meter-deep, concrete-walled square pit, and there is a small ammunition unit excavated backwards and backwards in the lower part of the square pit, during the shelling, the gunners leave the bunker, and the mortar remains in the bunker, and the ammunition is stored in the ammunition department, unless the shell hits directly, they can also be well preserved in the shelling.

In front of this position are two barbed wire strips about 50-80 meters wide, between them is a wide trench, the trench is more vertical by the Russian army's primary ditch wall, and the slope is more inclined against the German position, so that the Russian soldiers entering the trench can be easily controlled from the German position, and it is more difficult for the Russians to climb out of the trench and retreat backwards after entering the trench. However, the barbed wire fence and trench area were damaged to varying degrees in the first shelling by the Russian army, and the barbed wire fence was blown open in some places, and many trenches were filled in shallow or blown up to the point of losing their slope.

Tatsuten was not so much observing as watching, as the soldiers were all ready according to his arrangement. Now his position was full of ****** white smoke, some from rifles and some from machine guns, and the sound of small-caliber machine guns in pillboxes was particularly new to the soldiers, except for fortresses and warships, which were rarely seen in ordinary land battles. Nearly 100 rapid-fire guns on several artillery positions behind the fire position looked a little thin, but fortunately, the tanks were also firing non-stop, and the mortars were drawing a high-pitched arc into the crowd of Russian troops. When he saw the Russian infantry rushing to the first barbed wire area, Chen Tian couldn't help but get excited, because from there he had already entered the best firing range of his own infantry and machine gun fire, and the Russians had to stop there to cut the barbed wire by hand, and during this time, their own bullets drilled into the Russians' bodies with impunity. One by one, the Russian soldiers fell backwards, the follow-up soldiers picked up their pincers and continued to fight against the barbed wire, while the other infantry lay on the ground and fired at the Germans in the trenches.

"General François, what do you think of this defensive system?" Chen Tian's smiling expression showed that he was very satisfied, whether it was in the previous world or this world, he did not have Rainey's strong physique and excellent fighting skills, nor did he have Matthew's gorgeous swordsmanship and sensitive reflexes, his research on tactics was not as dedicated and in-depth as Ollie, his sensitivity to details was not as good as Hoffman's, he was not as cold as François's resistance to beautiful women, and his insight into intelligence and politics was not as outstanding as Thomas's. Foresight of the coming decades allowed him to avoid detours in the development of weapons and tactics, his tolerance and fortitude allowed him to control these equally upright German soldiers, and his near-limitless imagination allowed him to take his opponents by surprise at many times.

"Not bad! It doesn't seem to be as strong as the fortress, but in fact, the survivability and lethality are much higher than the fortress, because the fortress target is too big, and it is easy to be bombarded by the opponent's heavy artillery, and most of the defense systems here are below the ground, and the heavy artillery is a little powerless for their attacks, but there is one point, I think the defense depth of this defense line is not enough! François was very straightforward in his opinion.

"Indeed! If we had more time and plenty of concrete, we could have built a line like Maginot would, but the line is always dead, and good soldiers and the right strategy are the best lines! Chen Tian nodded slightly, "If the Russians have some tanks, it will be enough to break through our defense!" This defense system was designed against the fact that the Russians did not have tanks, armored forces, and enough heavy artillery! If the German troops attacking Verdun were to attack this line instead, I don't think it would last half a day! ”

"The Maginot Line? How come I have never heard of this line of defense? Who designed it? François looked at Chentian in amazement.

"Oh! Nothing, it is a perfect line of defense designed by the ancient Chinese, but it has become a decoration because it is bypassed by the enemy! Ha ha! Chen Tian, who accidentally said that he leaked his mouth, had to use his ancestors to justify himself.

"Oh...... The line of defense is dead, good soldiers and the right strategy are the best line of defense! That's a good saying! François said and put his eyes on the binoculars again, the infantry artillery covering the Russian soldiers finally finished preparation, puffs of white smoke rose from the center of the battlefield, and the shells of the infantry artillery hit the German trenches and pillboxes in an almost straight trajectory, and the position was suddenly plunged into an explosion.

Seeing this, the fat frog fell into a good memory again, this is one of the classic tactics of the Guards infantry charge, although this tactic came from the hands of the people led by Aglini, but Krapovich always likes to boast that this is his original work, so many noble women even worship him as a tactician, and the fat frog naturally gets a lot of oil and water from it.

When Krapovich was reminiscing about the mature charm of those noble ladies, a very magnetic voice suddenly came from behind him, "Admiral Krapovich, how is the battle going?" ”

The fat frog turned his head, his eyes met the row of dazzling medals, and he looked up at the broad-chested, handsome-looking man, who was nearly 20 years younger than him and 20 times more powerful, "Oh...... Oh! It's His Royal Highness the Grand Duke! Our army is progressing well! Why did you come to the front line, it's not very safe here after all, you are a pillar of the country, and the third heir to the throne, in case there is a ...... of three long and two short."

"You don't have to worry about this!" Aglini walked up to him with a cold look on his face, raised his binoculars and observed. Krapovich took a step to the side, although he was not short among Russians, but he looked more like a fat frog in front of this guy who was more than 1.9 meters tall. If this person is his subordinate, Krapovich will definitely let him cut off his long legs, but this guy is the heir to the throne after the Russian crown prince Alexei and the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Grand Duke Nicholas, it is said that the crown prince has hemophilia, and Grand Duke Nicholas is older, so theoretically Aglini still has the possibility of becoming the new tsar, but in the eyes of the fat frog, it is difficult for Aglini, who does not know how to win people's hearts and cultivate power, to become the winner of the battle for the throne, Although most of the soldiers and generals in the Guards recognized his military prowess and had a high admiration for him.

On the German positions in the distance, the shells of the Russian infantry artillery are still falling, although the firepower in the German trenches is temporarily weaker, but the bullets from the pillboxes have not decreased, the Russian infantry is still making great efforts and sacrifices to break through the barbed wire area, and the artillery fire from the German tanks has a fatal effect on the Russian infantry artillery on the flat ground, although the number of tanks is not large, but there are constantly Russian artillery falling under their fire.

Aglini's face was ugly, and through the smoke of gunfire, countless tongues of fire could be seen erupting from the German positions, and the area, which was no more than 8 kilometers wide, was like a huge black hole devouring the lives of the Russians.

"Admiral Krapovich! Is that what you say is going well? ”

The fat frog chuckled in his heart, and a bead of sweat the size of a bean slowly slipped down the right side of his face. The guy in front of him is known for his strict management of the army, and it is not fun to be labeled as a dereliction of duty by him.

"Your Royal Highness, I mean that our soldiers were not subjected to massive German shelling before approaching the opposing position, and the casualties were relatively small...... They, they've just had some trouble and I think they'll be able to ...... soon"

"Rice bucket! Rubbish! Are you just letting my soldiers be slaughtered by the machine guns of the Germans? Order them to withdraw! The shelling began in 5 minutes! Aglini turned away angrily.

"What are you doing? Order the soldiers to retreat! Infantry artillery cover! You bunch of shit! After Aglini walked away, Krapovich vented his anger at the officers next to him, and he looked back at the German lines blackened by artillery fire, and he couldn't help but feel dazed.