On the afternoon of June 8, Germany launched the "Sunset Offensive" that shocked the whole of Europe, and the German Ironclad Corps suddenly appeared on the crucial Marne-Seine front, 100 CK01 tanks and 50 Earhart armored personnel carriers almost swept through the British Corps' defensive lines, and the British command was destroyed less than 30 minutes after the engagement.

The commander Lord French was wounded and unconscious, and the British Army, which had broken through the headquarters, was completely stunned by the overwhelming tank convoy on the plain, and the British Army, which was squeezed by the First Army and the Fourth Army of Lukru, only held out for less than an hour, and the whole line collapsed, and a large number of British troops jumped into the Seine in panic, trying to get rid of the tanks and armored fighting vehicles that were slowly following behind them.

In the end, the 110,000 troops of the British Legion, after less than one and a half hours of fighting, were captured more than 38,000 people, with nearly 10,000 casualties, and the rest of the troops collapsed and lost their formation...... Originally, these scattered British troops could have entered Paris to regroup, but while the sun was still setting, Colonel Müller commanded the tank troops to pounce on the German line of the Old Maurie Army, which had been blocking the German army, and quickly broke through the French Sixth Army, which had not yet figured out the situation.

Subsequently, when the First Army began to assemble and attack in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, Lucreo dispatched the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Armies of the First Army to cooperate with the tank divisions, and launched the final blow before night against the three French armies that were engaged in the battle with the German Second Army and the Third Army...... The shocking offensive brought by the armored forces completely turned the situation of the entire Marne campaign.

Before nightfall, the four armies of the German Western Front had swept away the French Sixth, Third, and Fifth Armies and the reinforced British Corps. The First Army, under the command of the forward Lucrea, broke through into the city of Paris. The entire line of defense in Paris has fallen apart. The French Army, which was guarding the Place de la Concorde, hurriedly built a defensive line in an attempt to stop the Germans from attacking more violently.

Marshal Xia Fei, under the great efforts of his subordinates, passed through the Marne River controlled by the remnants of the army overnight, and retreated south to the city of Ellefu, and before leaving, he reported the bad situation of the battle to the Prime Minister Bailian, who had fled to Chartres, and took the initiative to take the responsibility for the defeat, and at the same time proposed. The new army being trained in the south must be quickly replenished to the remaining forces that could be gathered, and positions must be established on the Le Mans-Tours line to continue against the German offensive.

General Gallieni, who succeeded Marshal Chauffy in organizing the defense of Paris, made an astonishing military deployment under great pressure, and in the continuous exchange of fire at night, this French soldier with outstanding organizational skills succeeded in organizing the remnants of the French army retreating to the city before dawn, and the two army groups that were put together were immediately thrown into the defense of Paris, and he obviously realized that the only way now was to engage in an all-round street battle with Germany!

But the commander-in-chief of the German Western Front, Admiral Falkingham, was clearly not at all an advocate of regular advances. In the early morning of the 9th, four German armies launched an attack on the besieged Paris. By 10 a.m., they broke through the French lines in both the east and north directions, but in the center of the city there was a fierce exchange of fire with the French army and civilian troops who were hurrying in.

Due to the new reorganized troops of France and Britain that continued to join the war group, the rapid breakthrough planned by the German side was contained, but at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the German-made giant cannon Grand Berta, which had begun to be laid at the railway station early in the morning, completed the assembly and commissioning.

At 4:21, after a brief observation, the 420mm terrifying muzzle emitted a fierce cannon sound that shocked the entire city of Paris, and a burst of black smoke rose into the air, and a super bomb weighing 1020 kg rose into the air and flew towards the defense line of the Sails Hotel, which was fully defended by the French army 900 meters away.

60 seconds later, the super bomb flying in an ultra-high parabola of 1200 meters directly hit the main building of the hotel heavily defended by the French army, and the huge impact force directly smashed through the horizontal cement floor of the fourth floor of the hotel, and the powerful kinetic energy continued to smash the three-story and two-story floor slabs downward, and then in a terrifying dull blasting sound, the hotel that was still standing a minute ago suddenly trembled a few times like a small tree in the wind, and then, the black cloud that exploded rose into the sky, And the inn that guarded the avenue was directly shaken down by the violent explosion of air.

In the face of this terrifying weapon of industrial civilization, any so-called courage and faith were undoubtedly shattered in a huge shock wave, and even the German troops who were preparing to charge in the bunkers were stunned by this shocking explosion scene, and no one could look directly at this devastating blow!

10 minutes later, the reloaded Grand Berta cannon slowly turned its muzzle, and once again sent out a fierce artillery fire that made the earth tremble, and the whistling sound was accompanied by a violent explosion, turning another French position on the side of the first target into powder, and the violent shock wave even completely stunned the French troops in the bunker dozens of meters away...... This immediately leads to a devastating deterrent effect!

The French command system was completely shattered in the bright fireworks of industrial civilization for a long time, officers and soldiers began to ignore the orders of defense, and swarmed out of the rudimentary bunkers, and the French defense line, which was relatively solid 20 minutes ago, collapsed into a huge gap in an instant, and in a cheer, the German soldiers jumped out of the bunkers and threw themselves at the French positions in front.

"Jamie, has this been confirmed?" In Buckingham Palace, Prime Minister Asquith's expression was a little distorted, but he maintained his last composure, and he asked Jamie, the secretary of state, who had been sending him junk news all these days, and in his hand, a top-secret telegram with this top-secret had just been opened, and it brought him no more terrible, but desperate news.

"Sir, these news have been confirmed with the French side, and the French minister is discussing with Sir Churchill the possibility of assistance in the next step!" Jamie cautiously stood in the doorway, very sure that he had broken the Prime Minister's fragile heart once again.

After waving his hand to let the damn Jamie get out of the office, Prime Minister Asquith picked up his cigar and stood at the window and took a few puffs, which calmed his irritated mood, damn Gallic chicken, it turned out to be so incompetent, according to earlier intelligence, the total strength of the Anglo-French alliance was not inferior to the Germans at all, and the Germans were still coming from a long distance, plus the British army was constantly gathering, and only needed to withstand the Germans, the British Empire, which had absolute superiority in sea power, and the Russians could again occupy an absolute ground advantage,""

However, the bad situation has been seen at a glance, and the loss of the French to Paris will mean the complete collapse of the entire economic center and industrial center of France, and what is more, a rapid defeat will make the cabinet be fiercely attacked by the opposition parties, after all, the national policy of uniting France and Russia is, at least for the time being, a clear failure plan...... The Franco-German war is likely to quickly turn into a Franco-Prussian war.

After thinking about it for half an hour, Prime Minister Asquith finally made a decision, he pressed the electric bell on the table irritably, and the annoying Jamie appeared at the door again, "Sir, what do you command?" ”

"Jamie, I would like a cabinet meeting in half an hour, and at the same time, you will immediately inform the United States, France...... By the way, and the Chinese Embassy, I would like to arrange a private meeting with the Minister before 4 p.m.! ”

At 11 o'clock, the British cabinet meeting was going on intensively, and the new Admiral Churchill very firmly expressed the strategic attitude of the navy to comprehensively suppress Germany, and he put forward a tough plan, which must be demanded to France, and once the ground war is lost, the French navy must immediately transfer to the royal navy to ensure that the French navy falls into the hands of the already very powerful German navy.

This plan was approved by the majority of the cabinet members, the development of the French Navy in the past ten years, although somewhat inexplicable, a large number of torpedo boats, destroyers have become the priority development of the French Navy, the Royal Navy has been built into the era of dreadnoughts, but the first dreadnought of the French lone class, only at the beginning of the year was hurriedly launched, and now the hull is still installed in the Brest shipyard, if the land war fails, there is no possibility of launching at all, when the time comes, it is cheaper than the Germans.

However, the French still have 9 former dreadnoughts on hand, including 3 of the latest models of Danton-class battleships, which were just launched last year, although the design concept is not advanced, but it is also a heavy armor iron turtle in any case, and more importantly, the survival of the French Navy is of great significance to the British Empire's control of the Mediterranean.

When the British gentlemen of the party were thinking about how to beat Germany and rob the French, an attendant hurriedly pushed the door in and sent a telegram to Prime Minister Asquith, who looked at the telegram with a strange expression, and finally threw the telegram on the table without holding back, and scolded angrily: "Damn Jamie! (To be continued......)