King Albert I of Belgium was confused, he thought that Germany would come to borrow the route, because to go to France, Belgium can bypass the rugged Ardennes Mountains, although it is far away, but the traffic environment is better, as a sovereign country, as a country with an independent army, he can not accept. But what is surprising is that Germany did not play diplomatic rhetoric with you at all, and directly declared war, taking you as a state of war and attacking, whether you agree or not, I will fight first.

There is no ultimatum, no buffer, just so arrogant and unreasonable, Albert may still be at a loss, but Selers's face changed greatly, and after briefly telling Albert about the key points, Elbe understands that at present, many of Belgium's military forces are placed on the border, compared to the border, it is better to put it back to the fortress of Liège, Germany declared war on Belgium, not to occupy Belgium, but to take advantage of the road, as long as the fortress of Liège is occupied, After taking control of the railways from Germany to Brussels and even to Paris, Germany's main purpose and energy will be directed directly at France. Belgium was inferior to Germany, and those under the right to resist might not be able to win, but if the fortress of Liège did not have enough soldiers, it could not withstand the German advance.

Selers is also regarded as a rare outstanding general in Belgian history, he saw the problem very accurately, but unfortunately he woke up too late, from the time Elbe received the letter of war from the German ambassador to Belgium, to the time when Elbe was anxious to discuss with the cabinet members, and then to his awakening and preparing to send a telegram, an hour and a half had passed, and the war had already begun.

The German plan was carefully laid out down to the minute of the moment. Just as the ambassador entered the Belgian palace and met the Belgian king. The radio waves that launched the attack had already passed through a distance of more than 100 kilometers. According to accurate statistics, within 10 minutes after the ambassador handed the letter to the Belgian king, 7 armies and 55 divisions of German troops rushed into Belgian territory like a torrent and carried out an unprecedented attack on the Belgian positions that had already been reconnoitred and mapped.

The powerful superior forces caused the Belgian front to collapse rapidly. Three brigades and a group of infantry companies were divided and surrounded, these were the elite Belgian field troops, a total of 17,000 men, they were interspersed and surrounded by the Germans, they were divided into 10 parts, and after losing all their heavy weapons and a large number of personnel, they were unable to break through.

A part of the German army continued to divide and encircle the 17,000 men, with Germany's ability to prepare and attack. It was almost a matter of time before they were completely annihilated, but because of the casualties, they chose to fight steadily, and anyway, it was impossible for all 7 armies to squeeze into Belgium. There must be a priority, and there are enough troops to attack.

Part of the infantry and artillery remained, the other along the other way. With the help of 4 cavalry divisions and the railway line, they quickly approached the fortress of Liège. Extremely fast, less than half a day. It has broken through to the vicinity of the fortress of Liège, and at this time the fortress of Liège is not fully prepared.

Liège is located at the meeting point of the rivers Maas and Urte, between the Ardennes Forest in the south, Maastricht in the Netherlands, and the Flanders plain in the northwest. The Maas River flows through Liege along a deep valley and forms an important barrier for it.

Germany's main railway to Brussels leads to Guò Liege, which finally leads to Paris. An important part of Schlieffen's plan was to use the railway to transport troops into France. After receiving a point from the northwest, they found that if they were not able to move quickly, the Belgians could easily destroy the railway.

Along the way, most of the troops are lightly armed, some cavalry divisions even unprotected with a part of the light weapons gradually assault, if you encounter the Belgian superior forces ambush, it will be very dangerous, but Belgium does not have such a fast reaction speed, nor so strong organizational ability, 4 cavalry divisions divided into 4 arrows, and gradually penetrate into the territory of Belgium.

It took more than 40 kilometers to run long distances in one afternoon, and along the way it did not care about occupying cities and effective points, but only took over the railway, with the mobilization capacity of Belgium, at this time it had just received a declaration of war for less than 10 minutes, and there was no way to quickly convey the order, except for the defenders on the border, there were almost only a small number of troops along the railway, and in the face of the German cavalry division, there was no resistance at all.

However, when the cavalry division entered the vicinity of the Liege fortress, it was met with strong resistance, 40 kilometers away, the cavalry division attacked while hurrying and spent 3 hours, like a bamboo The German army, breaking through the border of more than 45 kilometers, the group charge of millions of people has been known by the Belgian high-level, they may not have time to notify the small stations along the railway, but they can notify the Liege fortress, some necessary preparations have begun to be made, at least the fortress is operational, All the soldiers who were not in a state of readiness were prepared, those on leave and those who had returned home were also notified to return, and even for some retired soldiers, weapons were issued and concentrated in the fortress.

Any fortress, in the absence of enough soldiers to protect, can not play the role of the fortress at all, the Qingdao fortress of historical time and space is a clear example, in the face of tens of thousands of superior forces surrounded, the Qingdao fortress that lost its support only to support how long, under the care of the Belgian chief of staff, the Liège fortress called up the surrounding soldiers, but unfortunately the time is too little, 3 hours, only about 10% of them entered the fortress, no way, had to call the reserve troops.

The rapid advance of the German army not only frustrated the desire of the Liège fortress to concentrate personnel, but their rapid advance made it too late for the Belgians to blow up the bridge to the Liège fortress, and only had time to disperse their troops to several nearby fortresses, which greatly reduced the difficulty of the Liège fortress that the German army attacked next.

In this era, the fortress of Liège was one of the most powerful fortresses in Europe, and a large number of industrial facilities, factories and other facilities would help the city's defense. The main line of defense is still a ring fortress composed of twelve fortresses, which was completed in 1891 and encircles Liege with a radius of 6~10 kilometers. The inter-fortress network of firepower and the design of the protected area will allow the fort to provide fire assistance from the two surrounding forts in the event of an attack on one of them. The distance between the two forts is about 4 km.

These forts were either triangular or square in shape, surrounded by ditches and barbed wire. The fort is built entirely of concrete and is defended with 210mm howitzers, 150 and 120mm cannons, and 57mm rapid-fire guns. The infantry in the fortress used rifles and machine guns to defend against enemy attacks. The main gun mount is mounted on a turret that can rotate 360 degrees. Only a 57-mm turret can be raised. A fort with a total of 78 cannons, ammunition depots were used to store ammunition, army quarters could accommodate up to 500 people, and generators were used to provide lighting. The fortresses were not connected to each other and could only be communicated by telephone or telegraph on the ground.

The cavalry slowed down, but did not stop, maintained a certain offensive, did not clash with the fortress and artillery, but stared at the bridges, which were the key roads leading to the fortress and could not be destroyed.

The German cavalry overestimated the courage of Belgium, the Belgian army was far away from the fighting, if the German army did not approach, they might dare to blow up the bridge, now that the German army has entered the area of the fortress, the gunfire is non-stop, and some bridges are even directly occupied, they dare not come out.

On the east side of the Liège Fortress, the temporary headquarters of the German Meuse River Corps, General Enmich was on the march, listening to the report from the front, his Meuse River Corps had a total of 6 infantry brigades and a cavalry corps and 4 cavalry divisions, totaling more than 70,000 people, which was one more cavalry division than in history, while the troops of the opponent Belgian Liege Fortress were less than 17,000 well-trained field soldiers who were pulled from the front line, even if they were urgently mobilized, they were only in their early 20,000s.

At this time, the cavalry had already cleared the fortress of the scorching sun, swept some of the outer lines of defense and secured bridges, and the infantry marching quickly, with the help of the brother corps, half got on the train and were rushing over, and the other half, on foot, they not only included half of the heavy machine guns of the corps, but also almost all the artillery, and it was estimated that they would arrive at the fortress of Liège in the evening.

Enmich was full of confidence, about 4 times the force, divided the overall defense of the fortress, as long as the artillery was in place, it was definitely breachable, in his opinion, the fortress of Liège, which claimed to be the most powerful fortress in Europe, I am afraid that he could not stop his attack in one night.

However, the order from the General Staff required him to speed up his march, and to make sure that 40,000 soldiers moved to the vicinity of the Liege Fortress before 3 p.m., and maintained an attack formation, so as to ensure that the attack on the Liege Fortress was launched at any time.

Seeing this order, Enmishi was almost stunned, without artillery support, to storm the fortress of Liège, how many casualties would be needed, he asked the command, questioning such an order, but was reprimanded, the command asked him to carry out the order, be sure to arrive before 3 o'clock, ready to attack, and the real attack time, will be issued at the time of the next order.

Enmisi was a little crying and laughing, but he had to carry out the order, because the reprimand came from the army staff, with the signature of Moltke Jr., if he refused to carry it out, he would be directly removed, and the left and right were only about 20 kilometers away from the scorching sun fortress, and it was only about one and a half o'clock in the afternoon at this time, let the troops advance lightly, plus the help of the railway, it should be possible for the troops to move in place in an hour, and then wait for the next stage of the order, he was very curious, what method would the headquarters use to open this fortress. (To be continued......)