The war continued on the third day.

The British front continued to deteriorate, and not only was Goff's front untenable, but after Bing abandoned Flequilles, Bing's troops began to flee.

The Third Army held out for two days at Flequilles, and finally could no longer hold on.

The Third Army inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans, as well as their own casualties. By the time both the left and right flanks of Flequilles began to retreat, Flequilles had effectively become a huge salient, and although it looked impregnable, the British actually used trains to transport the wounded and corpses to the rear every day.

For the Germans, the biggest progress came from Hurtier.

During these two days of fighting, Hurtier's forces advanced 15 miles, and would have advanced even more if it had not been for the looting of supplies by German soldiers.

Compared to the well-supplied British, the Germans were a bit shabby.

The German soldiers plundered almost everything they could see, cows, chickens, candlesticks, curtains, etc., as long as they could be used, the German soldiers would have snatched them all, and if it were not for the French residents who saw it with their own eyes, it was hard to imagine that the usually polite Germans would do this.

The impact of war on human nature is so great that the German soldiers destroy all the things that cannot be taken away, such as the unfinished wine, they break all the bottles, or simply burn them all in one fire.

The days of such unscrupulous brazenness were short-lived, and after crossing the Somme, Huttier's troops entered the site of the Battle of the Somme the previous year, where everything had been completely destroyed the year before, and the entire area of hundreds of square kilometers was reduced to rubble.

Perhaps because the war was not over, the French did not spare their hands to restore the former prosperity here, which objectively formed a kind of "scorched earth policy".

Hurtier was faced with a big choice as to whether he should move on or turn in another direction.

Before the offensive began, both Bilo and Demawitz had clear operational goals, but Hurtier did not.

Ludendorff's order to Huthier was to move forward, but the exact position to which was not clearly marked.

In yesterday's battle, Ludendorff sent six additional divisions of reinforcements to Hutier's troops because Hutier's troops were going well, not because Hurtier was in trouble, but because Hurtier was going well.

In Ludendorff's plan, the principle of reinforcement was to favor the offensive, and only those that were going well would be supported, and those that encountered obstacles could only overcome them by their own efforts.

When the offensive began on the third day, Ludendorff gave Hurtier the order to continue the offensive, again without giving a specific tactical objective.

Perhaps in Ludendorff's consciousness, as long as he attacked, unexpected benefits awaited him, so what the troops had to do was to move forward.

If Ludendorff had looked at the map at this time, he would have found that Ya Lang was not far from the front of the German army, and if the German army had made a force, it would have arrived there within two days. Adam was the transportation center of northwestern France, where all the railways and roads passed, and if Adamon was occupied, the Germans would take the initiative, and it would be convenient and quick to attack in any direction around it.

It's a pity that Ludendorff is not in the mood to look at the map, and his energy is also involved in the complicated political situation at home, although he is in France, Ludendorff is always concerned about the domestic political situation in Germany.

So Hurtier ordered the troops to continue the attack, and the German soldiers happily vacated all their backpacks and prepared to continue their adventure.

In order to grab as much as possible, the German soldiers did not even carry food and water.

The experience of the first two days taught the German soldiers that there were delicious veal steaks and champagne waiting for them at the front.

No one could have imagined what kind of plight the Germans who entered the old theater of operations on the Somme would face.

Like Hutier, Qin Zhiyuan also faced a difficult choice.

On the evening of the next day, Pétain telegraphed Qin Zhiyuan, asking him to transfer troops to the Laon area to fill the void caused by the transfer of the Fifth Army.

When Qin Zhiyuan sent troops to reinforce Yaluo, Bastian's troops were also partially transferred to the Arras region to reinforce the retreating British.

Bastian and Qin Zhiyuan won the battles of Ferontadenoy and Reims together, and now have a wealth of combat experience. Therefore, Bastian did not go directly to Arras, but built a defensive line about ten miles behind Arras in preparation for the German attack.

It's like dominoes, if a card falls, it's bound to set off a chain reaction.

Because the British front collapsed, Bastian was going to fill the hole.

And after Bastian went to fill the pit, his defense line also appeared vacant, and Qin Zhiyuan's troops were needed to fill the pit.

Qin Zhiyuan wanted to ignore Petain's orders, but he couldn't let Bastian's defense line gap, so he could only send troops again.

So two infantry divisions of Annamites led by Nguyen Thuan and Pham Van Hung were sent.

The reason why Annan troops were sent was because Qin Zhiyuan had already sensed the crisis, and now in the defensive line that Qin Zhiyuan was in charge of, there seemed to be no problem with the first-line position, but the level of reserves had reached a dangerous value, and if the Germans launched an attack now, then Qin Zhiyuan's position would be at great risk.

Fortunately, the focus of the German attack is still on the northern front, and Ludendorff's eyes have not yet turned to Qin Zhiyuan.

But Qin Zhiyuan did not dare to be careless, on the one hand, he ordered the Corsican reserve troops to speed up, and on the other hand, he also stated to Petain the current situation of his own troops.

By the next day, the French had provided the British with 20 divisions of support, far more than Foch had promised, for which the British should be grateful.

In fact, the British did not, and even Haig thought that Foch could have provided more support but did not act on it, and resented it.

Fortunately, Wilson, the new chief of the Royal Staff, said a lot of good things for Foch.

Wilson knew French and was an admirer of France. Before the World War, Wilson had traveled to France to coordinate before the war, and he had crossed paths with Foch in his work, so he developed a cult of Foch, and was called "Foch's pet dog".

On April 2, Foch, Pétain, and Clemenceau convened a meeting in the train at Foch in the Compiègne forest to discuss how to better coordinate their operations with the British. On the same day, Haig and his generals also held a meeting in Duran, not far from Compiègne, to discuss how to deal with the German attack.

For some reason, Goff did not attend this meeting, which may have been a signal, because someone must be responsible for the defeat of the British army.

When Clemenceau learned that the British were also at the meeting, Clemenceau expressed his desire to attend, and Haig readily agreed, so even Raymond Poengaré went, and the French president, the French prime minister, the commander-in-chief of the French army, and the chief of the French general staff gathered at the British General Headquarters for the first joint meeting in the practical sense.

The British did not expect the French leaders to come so together, and Lloyd George did not have time to attend the meeting, which was attended by the British high-ranking officials, in addition to Haig, as well as the war secretaries Milner and Wilson.

Because of the difference in status, this made the meeting look a little unequal, and when the French spoke, the British always seemed a little unprepared.

At the meeting, Haig expressed his willingness to cooperate for the first time, and in response to Clemenceau's question, Haig vowed to stick to Yamenceau and never take a step back.

Milner made a new proposal to suggest Foch as military coordinator for the Yamyang region.

Wilson disagreed, arguing that Foch should have been given a higher position, such as "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces."

All the French responded enthusiastically to Wilson's proposal, much to Haig's disappointment.

Haig understands the advantages of setting up a "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces", which will make the logistics more unified and orderly, and at the same time the allocation of troops is more reasonable, especially under the premise that the British army is in a difficult situation, Haig needs more reinforcements, but if Haig is allowed to serve as the "Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces", the French generals will not necessarily obey Haig's dispatch, especially some of the "Commanding Generals" who have won successive battles, and Haig has no advantage in terms of combat results alone.

Soldiers, after all, still have to rely on their achievements to speak.

Foch became commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, and Petain became the commander-in-chief of the French army, but unexpectedly, the first meeting between Petain and Haig was very unpleasant.

Haig finally learned of the Cabinet's order to the French Army that if the Germans continued their offensive, the French would retreat in the direction of Paris to ensure that Paris was not lost.

This order had actually been given to Foch a long time ago, but Foch worked hard to maintain the British and French armies, gave Haig enough help, and did not really carry out the orders of the cabinet.

Petain had just taken office when he detonated this powder keg.

Haig expressed his indignation at the order of the French Cabinet, and then ordered Goff's troops to move north.

This led to serious consequences, and when the fourth day began, a gap of 30 kilometers wide appeared between the British and French armies, and if the Germans could seize this opportunity, they could successfully cut the British and French armies and defeat them individually.

Don't doubt that if the Germans were to face either Britain or France alone, the Germans would have the ability to win the battle.

After four years of fighting the world war, even the French, who claim to be the "No. 1 army in the world", have to recognize the combat effectiveness of the German troops, and in terms of the army, Germany is indeed a world power.

The northward withdrawal of British troops gave Foch a blow to the newly appointed Foch, and how to fill the gap between them has become the focus of Foch's current work, and it is a key point that needs to be solved urgently.

At present, the French army has more than 100 divisions in France, and there are many troops stationed abroad, including French troops in North Africa, Italy, and even Egypt.

Almost all the troops are in a state of exhaustion, some of them have just changed their defenses and have not yet recovered enough combat effectiveness. Some have just been replenished with a large number of new troops, and these units are in even worse condition.

Foch doesn't have enough power in his hands right now.

But it's not impossible.

In Orleans, behind Paris, there is another unit with great strength, which is not inferior in terms of numbers, equipment level, training, and will to fight.

On the night of April 4, Foch called Pershing and asked the American army to enter the war.

(To be continued.) )