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In the early morning of September 6, the French army launched a counteroffensive on all fronts. Moltke the Younger, the German Deputy Chief of the General Staff, commanded Crook's First Group and Bülow's Second Army and the French Army to fight a defensive battle near the Marne, but because the supply of troops could not keep up, Crook's troops had to abandon the field kitchen cooking utensils after entering Belgium, resulting in many soldiers only having to eat a slice of bread, a cup of soup, and apples or raw carrots stolen from French farmsteads every day.

The British Expeditionary Force led by Sir French had about five divisions, including four infantry divisions and one cavalry division, which also joined the battle. The French 5th and 6th armies launched an attack on the German defensive line, but the result was not optimistic, and they were burned and bleeding. The battle proved that attacking a defensive position equipped with heavy artillery, barbed wire and machine guns was akin to death.

I don't know how many times the lethality of the German machine guns and heavy artillery was stronger than in the Napoleonic era, but the French army attacked in the same way as in the Napoleonic era, relying entirely on the flesh and blood of the soldiers. The French army usually trained hard in aiming and shooting, and these subjects were useless on the battlefield. Under the blows of German heavy machine guns and heavy artillery, the French suffered heavy casualties, and the two army groups were forced to retreat. At dusk, on both sides of the Marne, the battlefield was strewn with corpses, rows and rows of French soldiers who had died in battle, with their limbs outstretched and their faces facing the ground, stiff like dead animals, and there were some nasty crows foraging for food.

And Schlieffen, the chief of the German General Staff, continued to increase troops to the right flank according to his original plan. Anticipating the use of hammers on the right flank to break through the French lines, he commanded the German Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Armies to launch a fierce assault on the French Fourth, Third, Second, and First Armies on the right flank. And Xia Fei was not to be outdone, and constantly used the railway to send the French army to the right flank of the German army to confront the German army. As a result, the French army confronted the Germans swelled from 17 and a half divisions on August 23 to 41 divisions, about 1.6 million men. However, because the German army adhered to the Schlieffen plan, it did not transfer about 1 million troops from the right flank to the Eastern Front, with a strength of about 1.5 million troops. About 3.5 million troops were invested in the three warring sides, and the general battle was fought!

Because the number of soldiers on the right flank of the German army was about the same as that of the French army, the French offensive became very vulnerable at this time. The combat effectiveness of a German army can actually defeat a French ** regiment.

When the French army drove to the front. What is it? Let's start with the French cavalry, dressed like the veterans of the battlefield in 1830, with officers with white gloves walking at the front of the line on horseback; Soldiers of the cavalry regiment. Dressed in glittering chest armor and a long black ponytail hanging from his helmet, he was still dressed in Napoleonic Wars.

French infantry, blue army jacket with Red Army cap and Red Army trousers. It's exactly the same as it was in 1830. The French War Office had intended to make the French infantry the same as the armies of other countries. The change of uniforms to blue-gray or blue-gray was opposed by the traditional fanatics, who said that the abolition of all bright colors and the abandonment of all clothing that made the soldiers alive was contrary to the French concept of beauty and the function of the army. The former French Minister of War even shouted in Parliament: "Absolutely not, red pants are the French army, and the French army has to wear red pants." "But. The brightly colored military uniforms provided the most significant targets for the German army on the battlefield. And the rifles of the French army. The range of the bullets was only 200 paces, and the troops were all engaged at close range, which was exposed.

The most effective artillery of the French artillery is a 75 mm caliber cannon, but its supply of shells is in serious shortage, and it can only produce 10,000 shells per day, which can only meet one-fifth of the needs of the battlefield.

And the chief of the French General Staff, Xia Fei, nicknamed "General Retardation". In addition to being stable and calm, and not emotional, his biggest characteristic is that he is full of confidence in everything. For Xia Fei, the most important thing in the fierce battle of the army is the determination and passion to carry out the battle order, and victory does not come from the most ideal plan, but from the firmest will and confidence. Therefore, Xia Fei only issued orders, did not explain, the generals only needed to carry them out without thinking, and the commanders of the various army groups should immediately carry out the orders after receiving them, and the officers would be removed from their posts immediately if they did not carry them out. By September 6, Xia Fei had replaced the commanders of two group armies, appointed seven new army commanders, 20 new division commanders, and two new cavalry division commanders, which made many officers have no prestige. However, the bold and calm Ferdinand. Foch was appointed commander of the newly created 9th Army Corps, and the brave "Desperate Frankie" Louis "Desperate" was appointed commander of the newly created 9th Army Corps. Frankie. Despére was appointed commander-in-chief of the 5th Army.

At the beginning of the counteroffensive, the French army was very brave on all fronts, the battlefield was full of cannons, the fire was soaring, the French army was loaded with bayonets on the guns before the attack, the French flag fluttered in the wind, the military band played the impassioned "March of Marseille", and the officers in white gloves marched neatly and quickly in the syllables before the band twenty paces, and the momentum was very huge. When the French infantry advanced, their advance guard marched in a neat pace, in a neat formation, and even when they fell under German guns, they were neat. When they fall, they can't get back up. They are brave, they don't back down, they keep moving forward. The officers of the avant-garde led the soldiers, who were not afraid of the enemy's guns at all, and marched with their heads held high, and their courage and composure made the Germans greatly admire.

However, courage ultimately struggled to overcome artillery fire. The German machine guns, I don't know how many bullets, the sound of clattering and clattering together, sounded like a ghost crying wolf, making people's hair tingle. At night, strings of projectiles, dragging white tails, swept through the air, and almost every bullet was wasted. The French avant-garde fell one squad after another, and one squad after another followed, and kept falling and advancing, but up to now, the position where the follow-up troops fell has never exceeded 45 meters from the position where the first one fell.

In order to extend the right flank of the French army, Xia Fei also formed a new French Ninth Army, which was commanded by Fuxi. On 7 September, at a place called the Saint-Gonde marsh, the Eighth Army under the command of Focy met the Third Army in Hausen, Germany. This piece

Farther to the southeast, Foch's Ninth Army was attacking north in the Marshes of Saint-Kunde. He found the Third Army of Hausen attacking his right flank. Foch judged that the swamp could not be crossed, so he launched an attack on the Germans from both sides of the swamp, but the Germans had an absolute advantage in defensive warfare. Foch's legions suffered heavy losses. To make matters worse, the depths of the Howson staff into the Saint-Gonde marshes were not impenetrable, so on 8 September, four divisions of the Howson Corps, armed only with small arms, quietly crossed the marshes, launching a night attack and engaging in white-knuckle warfare. Defeat a part of Foch's legion. Foch reacted by immediately intensifying his attack, but was quickly repulsed.

The war has reached a critical juncture. Britain's French led the three armies of the LinkedIn Army to quietly burrow into the gap between the German 1st and 2nd armies, separating the two armies. The German 1st and 2nd armies were in danger of being divided and surrounded. But alas, the British expeditionary force marched extremely slowly at this time, at this time. Reinforcements from the German Fifth Army sent by Schlieffen also arrived. The British army was soon routed as well. Retreat to Verdun.

The Verdun area was home to the Third Army under the command of Chauffeur, which, due to its very weak defensive line, authorized the army to retreat according to the actual situation. The Germans launched a fierce general assault on the French Third Army on 9 September, and the French had no reserves and had to rely on some remaining fortifications to fend off the Germans. Fortunately, the French carried out a large-scale reconstruction of the fort in this area before the war, reinforcing the original earth-stone structure with a large amount of sand and rock. With the help of the British Expeditionary Force, they finally held their positions temporarily.

in this battle. The French suffered nearly 500,000 casualties. Among them, the French army lost 400,000 people, the British army lost 13,000 people, and the German army lost 100,000 people. At the Battle of the Marne, the Germans crushed the counteroffensive of the French and British expeditionary forces.

On 10 September, the German Quaster Corps marched through the unguarded open fields of France and conquered Paris! It is not surprising at all that within a month of the outbreak of the war, the German army quickly advanced through Belgian territory towards France. At that time, the whole of Germany, and indeed almost the whole world, was convinced that Paris was about to be occupied and that the German army would soon win the war.

After the Battle of the Marne, the French began digging trenches at Verdun. -for-tat with the German army, the two sides competed to dig longer and longer trenches, stretching towards the sea, the two armies began to confront, the soldiers of the German and French armies were not far apart, and they could hear each other's "greetings" clearly, so they confronted each other.

On September 11, the French government completely withdrew from Paris and moved south to Bordeaux. On the same day, Italy took advantage of the fire and declared war on France. On September 13, after three days of artillery fighting, tens of thousands of French citizens were killed and wounded, and Gallieni was forced to declare Paris an undefended city, which would also save Paris from artillery fire, and the Germans occupied Paris without firing a single shot.

On September 14, 1908, for the French, the night of Paris, which they loved, was no longer the city that never sleeps. When the Germans entered the center of Paris, Paris was enveloped in darkness. Exhausted Germans marched through the Place de la Concorde, chariots rumbling past the leafy trees of the Élysée Palace.

In public, French men and women wept bitterly. The city of Paris is mostly empty. Four days ago, when the government rushed to Bordeaux with some groceries, 2 million Parisians fled the city. Among the refugees on the way to the flight were cabinet ministers. Many civilians are also looking for new shelters, but this is not an easy task. Some of those who took advantage of the country's fortune demanded gold from the French before they were willing to transport them by car.

Under the German occupation, Paris became a "world of flowers", seemingly peaceful, and the people who remained accepted the German occupation without resistance. The movement for women's sexual liberation is at an all-time high. In order to survive the economic difficulties, Parisian women fooled around with German officers. Although they all disdainfully referred to the German ** officer as a "blonde barbarian" - in fact, such a "barbarian" had an inexplicable attraction to French women. Not only the moral ** officials, but anyone who may help them tide over the difficulties, bosses, businessmen, neighbors, they can "dedicate themselves" to it. In the years when food needed to be rationed, their bodies were the only renewable, inexhaustible currency.

Under the German occupation, the women of Paris were still enjoying life. Well-dressed Parisian citizens shopping on boulevards, leisurely walks in parks, packed nightclubs, women in swimsuits swimming in swimming pools. Shady surroundings, cheap prices, and the convenience of anonymous entry. In fact, any location can be a place where pornography is rampant. In times like these, war became an aphrodisiac for ordinary people, and the women of Paris proved that their lives were still alive by giving their lives. In France's high-class brothels, German officials have always been "distinguished guests", one-third of France's brothels are exclusively for the Nazis, and another 100,000 Parisian women have become "temporary prostitutes".

The Germans lowered the French flag from all the buildings of the French government offices and raised the flag of the Second Reich. The Eiffel Tower and the Houses of Parliament were plastered with new slogans that read "The Germans are invincible", and the fall of Paris threw the French economy into chaos. At the same time, the main lines of communication between the various units of the French army were destroyed.

The chief of the General Staff of the German army was still the scheming Schlieffen, and the deputy chief of the General Staff was still Moltke Jr. To the northeast of Paris, the Germans began to storm the French army, capturing the important port city of Le Havre, as well as another 100 miles of French coastline. This victory made Britain look cold.

The loss of Paris, the collapse of the French cabinet government, and Xia Fei, in order to protect his reputation, put the blame on Gallieni, who abandoned Paris.

Gallieni's patience with Xia Fei was at its limit, and when he was interrogated, he told the truth about Xia Fei's return to command of the Sixth Army and his hesitation. Later, Xia Fei was dismissed from his post as Chief of the General Staff of the French Army. The French parliament decided to be replaced by Galieni and lead the French ** team to continue to resist the German attack!

Song Xiaofei was deliberating the Chinese Navy's submarine construction plan that day, Rong Rong hurriedly pushed the door in, reporting the fact that the German army had captured Paris, Song Xiaofei was shocked, sure enough, Schlieffen was there, and the ending was different from history, so will the German army also win on the Eastern Front? After the partition of Tsarist Russia between China and Germany, the Russian Empire had collapsed, Poland no longer existed, and Germany and Austria-Hungary bordered directly on a 1,100-mile border. Most of Poland was annexed to Germany, creating a 250-mile-wide salient that bordered Germany to the west and northwest and Austria-Hungary to the south. That is to say, East Prussia and Austria-Hungary are connected together, and they have enough strength to resist the Russian army, which is also the reason why Schlieffen did not transfer the right flank of the German army to the eastern front, he didn't think much about it, grabbed the telephone line on the table, and called Duan Qirui, Liu Buyun, Jiang Baili, Cai Yi and other senior generals, and asked them to come to the presidential palace within an hour to analyze the future European war together. (To be continued......)