On the evening of September 25, the road from Canciwassan to Grand Novasi was crowded with retreating French troops. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 InfoCancivasan is located south of Meaux, and is the eastern outskirts of the Greater Paris Line. With the fall of Meaux, the Allied troops stationed in Canciwasan lost their flank cover, and could not stand alone, and could be outflanked by the Germans at any time, so they had to retreat to the defensive line on the outskirts of Paris. The repeated retreats had depressed the soldiers, the Parisian taxis that had taken them to the Marne front were nowhere to be found, and the wounded were even limping due to a severe lack of transport vehicles.

Civilians were scarcely visible in the villages and towns along the way, and with the defeat of the British and French troops at the Battle of the Marne, people feared that the Germans would soon burn all the way to death, so they fled in a hurry with their families, and many shops and houses seemed to have been looted, but if one stopped to look closely, they would find that their glass was basically intact, and valuable objects such as porcelain, table clocks, and pianos were also restored there, and as for the houses that were burned to ruins and still emitting light smoke, I'm afraid it's a fool who forgot the tragedy caused by putting out the fire before leaving.

In order to cover the smooth retreat of the large force, the French army not only selected the most combative infantry units to act as the rearguard, but also placed all the cavalry near the rear line to prevent the attack of the German cavalry, but the Germans seemed to pay most of their attention to the line of Meaux, and did not follow the pace of the French retreat to occupy Cancivasan. On this bleak twilight, on the road from Meaux to Villeparissy and Schelle, the disgraced French officers and soldiers were subjected to the devastating shelling of the Meaux line, and on the way back they were pursued by German chariots and lancers, and those terrible German chariots ravaged the French army with artillery and machine guns, mercilessly running over the poor worms who could not escape, and the remnants of the French troops had to leave the road and flee in all directions......

German Lieutenant Eckerle was awarded the Iron Cross of the First Class by the Army for his service on the Maas and Marne Battles, and he still served in Crown Prince Wilhelm's 5th Army with his chariot company. After the capture of Meaux, the Corps Command ordered some of the vehicles of the 1st Royal Steel Cavalry Battalion to pursue the French with the cavalry of the German 4th Lancer Division, and this elite rapid assault force lived up to expectations and quickly crushed the weak French rearguard. However, as night was about to fall, the French retreating troops withdrew from the road and scattered into the surrounding fields and woods, and the chariot units advancing along the road stopped at a position about 6 kilometers from Meuse, and several officers gathered together to discuss, feeling that the French army had lost their fighting spirit, and had abandoned heavy equipment such as machine guns and artillery when they were defeated, and the chariot troops did not need to withdraw to the line of control of their infantry before dark, as long as they did not advance too much or even left their chariots alone, the safety of these chariots could be guaranteed.

With the consent of the accompanying cavalry, the 28 Hubert-13s engaged in the pursuit were divided into three teams, the strongest team continued to advance along the road, approaching the French town of Clysuy, about 10 kilometers from Montene, for fire reconnaissance, and the other two teams coordinated with the cavalry to sweep the nearby fields and woodlands to prevent a large number of French troops from gathering and launching actions against the Germans during the night.

Eckerle led his seven chariots to the south, and after leaving the road, the trembling of the body of the chariot became noticeable, and the speed slowed down a lot, and after rumbling through the field for several kilometers, he saw from the observation port that there was a faint smoke from rifle fire in the woods in front of him, and the interior of the chariot was even more noisy when driving off-road, and the sound of sporadic bullets hitting the chariot shell could hardly be heard, but it was conceivable that the cavalry who had been ordered to follow the chariot was under threat of death at any time.

These French who don't know how to live or die! Eckerle muttered in his heart, like most Germans, he was sincerely proud of the strong rise of the German Empire, while France's population was only two-thirds of Germany's, and its economy, industry, and military were completely backward, but in recent years, it had repeatedly clashed and disputed with Germany in Morocco and other political and diplomatic fields, and then united with Britain and Russia to create a sinister encirclement for Germany, and defeating France was no longer necessary to release national pride and pursue military honor. It was a necessity for the survival of Germany, so Eckerle saw the embarrassment of the French and felt that it was their own fault - although the decision-making was made by the politicians in high positions, in a parliamentary democracy like France, the will of the people determined who stood on the stage and gave orders.

Amid the roar of Daimler's engines, the chariots got closer and closer to the woods, and Eckerle saw the caps of the French soldiers, followed by their trademark blue shirts, these guys crouched behind the trees, repeating the action of reloading bullets and aiming and firing, and the continuous fire seemed to make them regain a little courage, and when they saw the German chariots and cavalry rushing forward, they actually ran without pulling their legs.

The three-man crew of the Hubert-13 was one for the driver and one for the machine gun, and the commander was also the gunner. Eckerle opened the bolt, filled the chamber with a shell, shouted "steady", and when the speed of the car dropped sharply, he took a slight aim and slammed the first shot. The crew of the surrounding chariots had already been holding back their strength to beat the French, slowing down or pausing their advances to prevent the cannonballs from flying off due to the bumps. Accompanied by the roar of small-caliber artillery, the shells exploded into fireworks in the woods.

The more than 10-ton Hubert-13 could easily break arm-thick tree trunks and ordinary brick walls, and Eckerle could have rushed into the woods with his chariots if he wanted to, but this would have slowed down the movement of the chariots, restrained their firepower, and given French soldiers the opportunity to destroy the chariots with grenades or incendiary materials - according to the combat regulations of the naval chariot units, the commander should try to avoid this unless the situation so requires. Therefore, Ekerle took his chariot unit to the right and went around the woods and constantly fired into the woods with chariot guns as he went.

The woods are L-shaped, two kilometers long and two kilometers wide, with a hill of low shrubs behind the woods and open fields on all sides. With the idea that once the German chariots and cavalry had surrounded the woods, there was little chance of escape, and some French soldiers fled the woods in panic and crossed a small patch of grass into the bushes, trying to escape their captives before the Germans could completely control the area. However, it was clear that not everyone was running in the right direction, and Ekelle's chariot was driving behind the woods when a stocky French soldier suddenly ran out of the woods next to him. Eccel was taken aback, but when he saw the crunching of the French soldier's back, he could only find it funny. The machine gun on the chariot rattled a round of bullets, and the short and fat guy actually fell to the ground first, the bullet grazed twenty centimeters higher than his buttocks, and all his brains hit the ground in front of him.

Instead of turning to run over the poor creature, Ekelle's chariot left him and drove straight on. A few hundred meters ahead, the gentle slopes and large thickets came into view, and at least fifty or sixty French soldiers were running towards the back of the hill with their heads against their heads and stoops. The seven German chariots were like seven anteaters, and the humble ants were a delicacy in their eyes, and under the guidance of the command vehicle, they once again reduced their speed and fired a short burst of heavy fire on the French soldiers who tried to escape.

The low bushes could hide the prostrate figures, but they could not stop the bullets and shrapnel, the explosions sounded so close that the bullets seemed to fly overhead, and the wails of the wounded companions were unbearable - under such pressure, the French soldiers with white handkerchiefs appeared, one after another, and before the Germans could persuade them to surrender in awkward French, the surviving French officers and soldiers on the opposite side joined the ranks, and the French soldiers who remained in the woods had a chance to stay up until nightfall and then wait for the opportunity to withdraw, But seeing that their surrendered companions were at least safe for the moment, their determination to continue the fight was greatly shaken, and people began to lay down their arms and walk out of the woods. As more and more French soldiers gave up their resistance, the German cavalry took advantage of the situation and entered the woods, passing by the French soldiers who had discarded their weapons as if they were reviewing their troops, and this strange scene completely shattered the faith of the French. The French soldiers who were hiding in place did not open fire, and under the fierce pressure of the German cavalry, they all finally dropped their guns, and thus ended the embarrassing journey of the war.

After the capture of Me, Crown Prince William's 5th Army continued to advance westward, and the 6th Army Corps commanded by Bavarian Crown Prince Ruprecht was located on his left flank.

The situation on the Western Front was precarious, the French General Command racked its brains to search for troops and personnel available for combat, the southern and southeastern border defenses bordering Spain and Italy were in vain, and after the third emergency mobilization, more than 500,000 men between the ages of 16 and 50 entered the barracks for military training, while on the other side of the Channel, the British top brass debated the question of sending reinforcements to France or withdrawing the expeditionary force.

On the evening of the fall of Meaux, Prime Minister Asquith convened a cabinet meeting at the British War Office, and Field Marshal French, the commander of the expeditionary force, who had just returned to London from France, described to the cabinet members the heroic fighting of the French officers and men - they defended their homeland with admirable courage, and if the British army chose to withdraw from France at this time, the French soldiers would have to die in solitude and tragedy, and wait until the defeat of France. The German Emperor, with a strong Marine force, would inevitably make a very demanding armistice to the British, and if Britain refused to compromise, the German Marines would cross the English Channel under the escort of the German Navy, and the weakened British army might repeat the tragedy of the French as it was. Rather than that, it is better to give it a go before the Western Front has completely lost hope of a comeback.

Among the British army generals, Field Marshal Kitchener, who became Secretary of State after the outbreak of the war, was quite "unusual" for his bravery and arbitrariness, and when the war broke out irretrievably, he was also the only British cabinet minister who believed that the war would last for three years. Out of the need for long-term warfare, he ignored British naval tradition and recruited a large number of volunteers to train as professional soldiers without the approval of the Cabinet, and in a month or two, the size of the British Home Army would be expanded to 300,000, more than four times that of the first day of war.

In peacetime, Asquith was a good prime minister who could stabilize the situation, but in wartime he did not have enough zeal, determination, or vision and wisdom to deal with war, and he finally made an ambiguous comment: In view of the growing threat of the German fleet and submarines on Britain's overseas shipping lines, Britain's military power could only maintain a relatively rapid expansion rate for a short time, and he could only choose one way to the end at the moment. or send to France all the troops and supplies that have been assembled in England in a desperate way, and tie the fate of Britain to the French allies; Either all the best soldiers of the army should be transferred back to England as a bargaining weight for future negotiations with the Germans.

(End of chapter)