At the end of March, from Flanders to Reims, from north to south, there were the British First Army led by Henry Horn, the British Third Army led by Julian Bean, the British Fifth Army led by Hubert Gough, and the French Fifth Army led by Bastian and the Foreign Army led by Qin Zhiyuan.

Hague made a mistake in judging the direction of Ludendorff's attack, believing that the Germans would attack Flanders and therefore concentrating more forces on the Belgian coast.

Goff's Fifth Army was a weak point in the entire defensive line, Goff did not have enough troops to defend an excessively long front, and he did not have a strong position, and by the end of March only 3,500 laborers were helping Goff build the line.

The British were extremely harsh on the laborers, and the laborers were unwilling to work for the British, and many of them would tear up and run to the French labor camps even if they signed contracts with the British.

Relatively speaking, Qin Zhiyuan had too many favorable conditions, and the number of laborers near Reims was as high as fifty or sixty thousand, which helped the Foreign Legion to reduce its workload to the greatest extent.

At the end of March, the German units were finally fully in motion.

Before the offensive was launched, the First and Third Armies were opposite Otto von Billow's 14 divisions and 2,200 artillery pieces.

Billo commanded his troops to win the Battle of Caporetto, and Billo's mission in this attack was to tear through the defenses of the British First Army, advance to Arras, and then turn back to the right to encircle the British forces north of Arras, forcing Haig to send reserves and weaken the British forces in Flanders.

This plan of attack is called: Plan Saint-Michelle.

On his left flank was Georg von der Marwitz's Second Army, who commanded last year's Cambrai counterattack, in which he was tasked with advancing with Bilaud.

On the left flank of the Second Army were 21 divisions and 2,600 artillery pieces led by Hurtier, whose mission was to block French troops from supporting the British.

The combined forces of Billow, Demarwitz, and Huttier amounted to 1 million men, the main force of the German offensive and were more than enough to crush the little-prepared British lines.

At the beginning of April, the long-planned German offensive finally began.

At two o'clock in the morning of the first day, the fog was thick and the visibility was only a few meters, which is often the case in Picardy in March and April.

By five o'clock in the morning, the fog had not lifted, and the Germans were hesitant to drop gas bombs because they could not determine which direction the wind was blowing.

When the commander of the artillery unit, Bruchmiller, learned of the situation, he immediately ordered the artillery to start bombarding, regardless of the direction of the wind, just shoot the shells.

And so the shelling of an unprecedented scale immediately began.

On the 40-mile front between Sens and Ayers, the Germans concentrated 6,473 guns, including heavy cannons, light cannons, howitzers, scoop guns, train guns, and more.

When more than 6,000 guns opened fire at the same time, the momentum was really earth-shattering, and both the Germans who fired the guns and the British in hell were stunned by this unprecedented density.

Bruchmiller has a nickname called "Breakthrough Miller".

This fully describes Bruchmiller's style of fighting.

Under Bruchmiller's command, all the artillery was responsible for different areas according to the length of the range, and they alternated firing high-explosive shells, grenade bombs, and poison gas bombs, tirelessly clearing the British positions, even if the dense fog could not detect the effect of the shelling, the artillerymen still did their best to shoot the shells out.

The shelling continued until eight o'clock in the morning, when the shelling reached its climax, and all the artillerymen opened fire with all their might, risking the destruction of the artillery, and the explosions were almost continuous without the slightest stop.

The shelling of this intensity lasted an hour, followed by five minutes of silence, after which barrage shelling began.

The barrage shelling was also planned, the Germans had already set the firing parameters, and even down to the point of firing several shells at a certain angle.

Five minutes later, the shelling continued.

In these five minutes, the German soldiers launched a ground attack.

Ludendorff was relieved that the British positions were deserted, and they had long since abandoned the first line of defense and retreated towards the second line of defense, as well as the third.

In the course of this retreat, there was confusion in the command of the British troops.

Goff's troops were the first to be unable to hold on, his troops were the least numerous, and because the fog could not see the attacking Germans clearly, they abandoned their positions and fled backwards. Bing's troops persisted in fighting at Flequells, the result of the Battle of Cambrai last year, which the British had paid for hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and Bean did not want to let that go to naught.

The forward forces of the Germans did not care about the resistance of the Third Army, and they bypassed Flequels to continue the pursuit of Goff's troops, as required by the tactical booklet.

So far, the tactical maneuvers of the Germans have strictly followed the requirements of the tactical booklet.

In this tactical booklet, the combat mission of the Germans on the first day was to "destroy the artillery positions of the British", and the combat duty on the second day was adjusted according to the progress of the first day. When confronted by the resistance, the tactics pamphlet instructed the German soldiers to "not rigidly carry out their previous battle plans, but to use the correct tactics to break through the British defenses." ”

At the same time, along this line of thinking, the reserve forces will not be thrown into the areas where they are in a stalemate, but in the areas where they are progressing well.

After overcoming the first line of defense of the British army, the German troops participating in the offensive had a rare full meal.

The time to attack was eight o'clock in the morning, which was the time for breakfast, and the British made breakfast, but the Germans had already attacked, so the British retreated in a hurry, and all the breakfast was returned to the Germans.

This boosted the morale of many German troops, because these German soldiers had not eaten steak for a long time, and at the same time did not have enough wine and tobacco. So when the German soldiers crossed the first line of defense of the British army, many Germans had an extra backpack issued by the British army, which was filled with cans, cigarettes, and all kinds of alcohol.

In the propaganda of the German General Staff, the Entente was in the same dilemma as Germany, but now it seems that the British are very well stocked, which also makes many German soldiers have a trace of suspicion about the General Staff, but soon, these suspicions are driven away by the long chase without a trace.

Goff retreated five miles on the first day, which made Goff's line longer and more overstretched, so when night fell, Goff retreated another ten miles to defend behind the Somme and the Corouzai Canal.

Goff's retreat resulted in Bin being besieged by the Germans at Flequers, and Ludendorff wanted to capture it on the first day of the attack, so he ordered Demarvitz to attack Flequers.

The battle was fought unusually fiercely, both sides were fighting for honor, the British were equipped with a large number of tanks, and the Germans were finally equipped with troops, and the two sides were inseparable.

Of the three German army groups, Huttier's troops advanced the most.

Finally, without having to face the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan, Huttier fought extremely unrestrainedly, and Hurtier's troops almost tore apart the British defense line in a state of devastation, and the speed at which the troops advanced depended on how fast the German soldiers could run.

By noon, Haig was finally able to determine the direction of the German attack, but by this time Haig had no reserves in his hands, so Haig asked Foch for reinforcements as previously agreed.

If, according to the orders of the military headquarters, Foch should shrink his position and guarantee the safety of Paris.

But Foch did not do this, and he drew seven divisions to reinforce Haig, one more than the promised six.

On the first day of the attack, the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan was also attacked by the Germans, but the scale of the attack was much smaller than that near Arras.

The Reims area does not fog in the morning in April, has good visibility and is well defended with the support of artillery and tank units. Therefore, Xu Sheng and Griff, who were attacked, made a bold attack, and in just one morning, they routed the two German divisions in front of them in the same devastating way, killing more than 2,000 people and capturing more than 6,000 people.

After that, the Germans did not launch any offensive, and it is estimated that they have fully realized that the situation that happened in Arras is unlikely to be repeated, and even if it is repeated, the roles of the two sides are expected to be reversed.

Foch was also paying attention to Qin Zhiyuan, and at noon, Foch sent a telegram to Qin Zhiyuan, asking Qin Zhiyuan about the situation here.

Qin Zhiyuan reported truthfully, but Foch did not reply.

In the evening, Foch sent a telegram to Qin Zhiyuan again, asking Qin Zhiyuan to send two divisions to reinforce in the direction of Yaluo, and at the same time attached the battle report of this day.

Qin Zhiyuan was surprised to find that the victory won by Xu Sheng and Gerif was actually the only victory won by the Entente on this day, and in the other battlefields, there was either a stalemate or retreat, and Lance became the only bright spot.

In fact, in almost all the areas of attack of the Germans, the British were retreating, except for Flequells.

Flequers had now become a meat grinder, and in just one day, three of Bing's divisions had been crippled, with more than 20,000 casualties, and they had inflicted almost the same number of losses on the Germans.

Qin Zhiyuan could not refuse Foch's order, so he transferred Liu Zizheng's division and Jin Taihe's division on the second line, as well as a regiment of armored troops, to temporarily form a corps and go to Yalang for reinforcements.

This army is currently the largest establishment under Qin Zhiyuan, with Liu Zizheng as the commander.

Ya Luo is about 150 kilometers away from Reims in a straight line, and Qin Zhiyuan gave Liu Zizheng a time limit of 24 hours, that is, Liu Zizheng must exercise in place within one day.

Qin Zhiyuan's troops are now equipped with a considerable number of trucks, which can basically be regarded as semi-mechanized troops, 150 kilometers seems far away, but it is not an impossible task, the only trouble is the tank troops, these tanks must be transferred by train, otherwise even Chen Kangjian cannot guarantee how many tanks will reach Yaluo.

Yaluo, that is, the place where Qin Zhiyuan and the others fought when they first came to France as laborers, and now a year and a half have passed, and the Foreign Legion has finally returned to Yaluo.

Compared to a group of peasants who were uncertain about the future, the Foreign Legion now has a clear goal. (To be continued.) )