The skies of Europe turned blood-red, and the creatures were brutally subjected to the flames of war.

For three months before the start of the war, both the Central and Allied powers were fighting according to the pre-war pre-war wars.

The Chinese Empire declared neutrality on the day of the war, but sent field observation groups to the Entente and the Central Powers respectively to spy on the combat effectiveness of the [***] forces in Europe. At the same time, the International Red Cross Society and the International Commission on Human Rights, initiated by the Chinese Empire, also announced that they would send humanitarian relief missions to defend human rights in the field. Under the banner of angels in white, the Chinese Empire actually used humanitarian relief channels to export military supplies to the Central and Entente countries, and all countries did not want to offend the Chinese Empire, and at the same time, in order to obtain the advanced weapons and equipment and military materials of the Chinese Empire, they all approved the International Red Cross Volunteer Corps and the Human Rights Commission inspectors led by the Chinese Empire to enter the war zones controlled by various countries and enjoy the protection of the armies of both sides from the threat of war.

In this way, from the very beginning, the Chinese Empire used special channels to open the door to the delivery of supplies to the Central and Entente powers. This route for the transportation of goods to the Chinese Empire was very secure, and it enjoyed diplomatic immunity and the protection of international law. Merchants from other countries had to smuggle in secret, which was extremely risky. If it is caught, it is confiscated immediately and even life-threatening.

However, in the first three months of the war, the belligerents did not need to import supplies from abroad, because their national strategic reserves could last for several months. The belligerents swore that the war would end in four to six weeks, so at first the sales of goods in the Chinese Empire were not high, only canned tobacco and alcohol. The arms exports of the Chinese Empire continued to be negotiated with other countries, and the Chinese Emperor [***] deliberately delayed time in order to see the war situation first, and which side was weaker to help first.

On the third day of the war, the first battle since the beginning of the war broke out.

In order to achieve the operational purpose of attacking the French capital Paris and forcing France to surrender quickly, the German army sent troops to the neutral country of Luxembourg as soon as the war began, in order to obtain Luxembourg's railway network.

On January 18, the second day of the war, the Germans declared war on Belgium. At this time, the German forward army on the Western Front, totaling more than 100,000 men and carrying 300 cannons, quickly rushed to the Maas River in Belgium under the command of Commander Emich. If the Germans had rushed across the Maas, the gates to the Belgian capital, Brussels, would have been opened. Belgium is a small country, sandwiched between two powerful countries, Germany and France, so the whole people have a strong sense of preparedness. In order to deal with the invasion of Germany in the east, the Belgian government spent a huge amount of money to build a fortress defense system with the city of Lieyu as the core on the Maas River in the east of the country.

The city is located in the narrow gap between Dutch territory and the Aden Forest, and is the railway hub of Belgium. Unless the Germans borrowed from the Netherlands, they had to pass through the city of Lieyu before they could go south to France. The city was built on a steep slope on the west bank of the Maas River, 100 meters above the riverbank, which served as a natural moat. There are 12 batteries around 30 kilometers along the river bank, each battery is 6 kilometers away from Lieshuo, and the distance between the forts is also 6 kilometers, 6 of these 12 batteries are facing the German direction on the east bank, and 6 are protecting the rear of Lieyue on the west bank, and they are radially surrounding the city of Lieyue, forming a circular fire network across the Maas River. Each fort is made of reinforced concrete cast in one piece, and most of it is built underground, with only the triangular top exposed. All the weapons and personnel of the battery were hidden underground, and a total of 400 cannons and a large number of light and heavy machine guns were deployed. On average, each turret has 8 120mm fortress guns and 8 210mm howitzers, all of which are protected by steel armor, rotate at a 360-degree angle, and can be raised and lowered automatically. The battery was also equipped with searchlights for night fire, which could be raised and lowered like the turret, and rapid-fire guns and machine guns blocked the wilderness around the battery and the nearby dead ends. Under the fort, there are passages and basements of all kinds, which store a large amount of food, drinking water, ammunition, medical supplies and power facilities. There were also deep protective trenches dug around each fort, and a large number of barbed wire and obstacles were laid on the outside of the trenches. The Belgian army guarding each battery generally consisted of 2 artillery companies and 1 infantry company, totaling 400 men, and was defended by mobile infantry companies in the open fields between the batteries, with a total strength of 25,000 men. The entire defense system is considered to be the strongest fortress in Europe, and it can be said that it is a one-man pass.

The Germans rushed to the Maas River, found that the bridges on the river had been damaged, and immediately built a bridge to cross the river. At this time, the Belgian defenders stationed in the forts immediately opened heavy fire on the Germans with cannons and machine guns, and the Germans crossing the river were caught off guard and fell into the water one after another, suffering numerous casualties.

Seeing this, Emich was furious, and on the one hand ordered the Germans to continue the attack, and on the other hand, he brought in 300 cannons to bombard the batteries of the fortress. Immediately, the guns on both sides of the Maas River rumbled and the smoke of gunpowder filled the air, and the two sides engaged in fierce artillery battles and offensive and defensive battles. The fortress was indeed extremely strong, and the German shells hit the top of the fort only emitting a cloud of smoke, leaving a small crater, which did not pose a threat to the overall structure. The Belgian defenders had long since made precise measurements of the terrain around the battery, and the German field positions were already within the range of their artillery scales. As a result, the artillery fire of the Belgian army was extremely accurate, inflicting great losses on the Germans.

The battle lasted until the end of the West Mountain, and after paying heavy casualties, the Germans finally crossed the Maas River north of the city of Lieyue, and the two sides were still holding each other in the middle and south. Despite the heavy bombardment, the forts of the fortress were unharmed.

On January 20, during the day, the German army was repeatedly defeated, and Emich was very anxious, because the German army and the French army were fighting their own battles, and whoever completed the task first would be the winner, so they had to race against time.

He decided to take advantage of the night to sneak attack and take the defenders of the fortress by surprise. When it rained heavily in the sky at night, tens of thousands of German troops quietly approached the batteries under the cover of night and wind and rain. Suddenly, beams of searchlight shot out from the various batteries, illuminating the dark wilderness as if it were day, and all the moving German troops were exposed in the wilderness. The artillery on the battery roared again, blowing the Germans on their backs. The heavy machine guns on the batteries also opened fire, fiercely pursuing the fleeing German infantry. While the Germans were in disarray, Belgian infantry maneuvering in the wilderness also attacked, and the Germans were beaten on all sides and suffered heavy casualties, so they had to hastily withdraw from the battle.

On 21 January, Amy changed his strategy and concentrated his forces to attack four batteries on the east bank of the Maas River. The German artillery fire was so dense that it completely enveloped the battery. Subsequently, the German infantry launched a charge. However, the German field artillery was completely undamaged to the battery, and the Belgian artillery again stretched out on all sides and opened fire, killing and wounding the attacking German troops. Emich was red-eyed and ordered the Germans to attack continuously, regardless of casualties. The German soldiers were extremely brave, risking their lives one after the other. Eventually, some of the Germans rushed into the dead corner of the battery, and the artillery could not reach them, and gradually approached the battery. At this time, countless heavy machine guns suddenly stretched out from the firing holes under the battery, and tongues of fire sprayed at the onrushing German troops. Immediately, the Germans fell one by one, and those behind rushed down and fell again, and the corpses were piled up as high as a hill.

The whole day of fighting was such a bloody massacre, and Amy was so angry that she almost lost her mind, but it was useless. During the night, the Germans launched another sneak attack, and they were greeted by a barrage of artillery fire, which cost them a lot of casualties, and received nothing but heavy casualties.

In this way, the German army attacked Lieyue at night, losing countless soldiers, but there was no progress for three days and three nights. The chief of staff of the German army, Xiao Maoqi, was shocked when he heard the report, and if this continued, it would inevitably delay the German offensive operations on the entire Western Front. He immediately sent Colonel Ludendorff, deputy chief of staff of the German 2nd Army, to lead the army to reinforcements, and to transport huge siege weapons from the General Staff to Lieja. Ludendorff was one of the most famous generals of the German Army in World War I. Ludendorff hurriedly led three drawn German brigades to Liejan, and arrived at the front line on the afternoon of January 23. Ludendorff immediately commanded his troops to launch an attack on Lieyue before he could catch his breath. He saw through the telescope that the German artillery fire did no damage to the various batteries in the columns, and when the German infantry charged, they were immediately bombarded by the Belgian defenders' artillery, and the limbs of the charging troops were splashed, and the dead and wounded were pillowed. Ludendorff gasped, and finally understood why the Germans were so slow to attack the column.

Ludendorff immediately adjusted his deployment, ordering the Germans to continue to attack Lieyue on the one hand, and sending messengers to the city of Lieyue to surrender. The Belgian defender commander Liman refused the German surrender, but he found that the Germans had increased their strength to Lie, and he had only one division in his hands, and Lieshu was already isolated.

Ludendorff's giant siege weapon was the German army's Great Berta railway gun, of which the Germans had five, and Moltke the Younger allocated four to Ludendorff.

The width of the railways in Belgium and Germany is different, and the German army is too slow to transport this behemoth, and it takes half a month. At this time, the main French army was attacking Alsace and Lorraine in Germany, and the German army was struggling to support and buy them time. And if the German people know that they have not taken small Belgium in half a month, the spitting stars will drown them.

After research, Ludendorff and Emmich decided that time was the victory and that a solution had to be found.

At this time, Major Li Lai, a member of the field observation group of the Chinese Empire following the German army, gave them an idea.

"Our Imperial Chinese Air Force has a weapon of mass destruction, called Hellfire (White Phosphorus Bomb), if you can obtain it, you can capture the Lie Yue Fortress in one day."

Ludendorff asked, "Can you elaborate on that?" ”

Li Lai said: "You should know about our war with Russia, right? ”

Ludendorff and Emich both nodded, and the decisive battle between the Chinese and Russian armies of millions of troops, every battle was written into German military textbooks.

Li Lai then said: "We easily captured the Ulsan Fortress, Vladivostok Fortress, Boli Fortress, and Nebuchu Fortress, which were heavily guarded by the Russian army, and the incendiary bombs dropped by our air force conquered the Russian defenders. Today, we have developed even more powerful Hellfire bombs, and each fortress battery opposite only needs five 100 kg Hellfire bombs to force the Belgian army inside to surrender. ”

Ludendorff was immediately overjoyed, and Emily frowned: "Even if you have such a powerful weapon, but if you are far away in China, it will be the Year of the Monkey when the negotiations are over." We can't afford to wait. ”

Li Lai smiled: "There is no need to negotiate, as long as I make a report to Shangfeng, you are willing to pay for it." As for the shipping time, you can rest assured. Our airline can airlift the required bombs within 3 hours of signing the contract. ”

Ludendorff and Emmich glanced at each other, both seeing the surprise in each other's eyes, and at the same time revealing a hint of fear of the Chinese Empire.

Ludendorff immediately said: "Then please report to Your Excellency Major as soon as possible!" I have 3 million marks in my hand, which should be enough to buy your Hellfire bombs, right? ”

Li Lai smiled: "I don't know if it's enough, it depends on your consumption." ”

Looking at Li Lai's smile, Ludendorff suddenly felt bottomless in his heart.

Soon, Li Lai got in touch with the field observation group and reported the supply of white phosphorus bombs to the German army.

In addition to observing the actual combat effectiveness and tactics of each team, the Chinese Emperor [***] side also wanted to test the surname and reliability of the new weapons developed by the Chinese Empire, and only in a real war could the weapon surname be more accurately tested. At the same time, in order to open up the arms market in Europe, making money is also one of the main purposes.

Soon, the War Department of the Imperial Chinese Republic agreed, and ordered the Mediterranean Military District Command to quickly take off a Pegasus transport plane from the Cypriot air base to deliver the first batch of ten Hellfire bombs to the Yassen airfield on the Western Front of Germany.

At the same time, Ludendorff also greeted the German General Staff, and the German Army Air Corps loaded 10 Hellfire bombs from the Chinese Empire at Yasen Airport onto two German zeppelins, and soon arrived over the fortress.

"How do you use this thing?" On a zeppelin, a German soldier asked.

The officer explained: "They said it would be used like a bomb, open the safety and throw it down." ”

So, the Germans quickly opened the bilge of the airship and pushed the two white phosphorus bombs on the slide rails down. At the same time, four other zeppelins began to drop bombs.

"Babble~~~Babble~~~Babble~~~"

With a piercing whistling sound, ten 100-kilogram white phosphorus bombs smashed into the Lieyue Fortress from the air.

"Boom!"

A huge explosion sounded, and ten hundred-meter-high columns of white smoke rose from the fortress, and then quickly turned into a white mushroom cloud, and countless sneering white lines shot towards the surrounding area, like a goddess scattering flowers.

Wherever the fragments of the white phosphorus bomb went, they burned whatever they encountered, and when they encountered human skin, they directly melted the flesh and blood, and burned them all the way to the bones, and the naked personnel on the fortress fort suddenly cried wolf, and none of the naked personnel within a radius of 150 meters were spared.

The German officers and soldiers watching from the air could clearly see the terrifying lethality of the Hellfire bomb, and they couldn't help but gasp, and the thought of using this weapon on their own body suddenly made them feel terrified.

High above the ground, Ludendorff and Emither and Li Lai observed the situation of the fortress opposite from the telescope. Due to the fortifications of the fortress, they did not see the lethal effect of the explosion clearly, but they could estimate the power of the bomb by the smoke that soon began in the sky above the fortress, and the screams of the Belgian defenders.

It's just that Li Lai shook his head and said dissatisfiedly: "How did your soldiers do it? Didn't our technical officers tell them? This weapon is required to be detonated in mid-air, but now it is better to explode when thrown on the ground, and the power is reduced several times. ”

Li Lai's dissatisfaction suddenly surprised Ludendorff and Emmihe, and secretly wondered if this thing had even exerted its true power?

Subsequently, Ludendorff called the German commander who came down from the airship and asked about the situation. The German bombing commander said that it was simply impossible to describe the terrifying power of this weapon, and its powerful corrosive surname could not only burn through the fortress cannons, but also had a strong lethal effect on personnel, and suggested that Ludendorff purchase this kind of bomb in large quantities, so that the defenders of the fortress could be defeated quickly.

Ludendorff was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly negotiated the next purchase contract with Li Lai.

"What? 300,000 marks for a shot? Why don't you go and grab it! ”

Hearing that a Hellfire bomb was asking for 300,000 marks (15,000 dragon coins), Ludendorff and Amy were immediately dissatisfied, believing that the Chinese Empire was sitting on the ground and raising the price.

In fact, the cost of a 100-kilogram white phosphorus bomb is only 1,700 dragon coins, and it will not exceed 2,000 dragon coins if you count the shipping and various surcharges and storage fees. Earning at least 13,000 dragon coins at once is really no different from robbery.

However, Li Lai was confident that Ludendorff would buy it, because the Germans had already seen the great power of white phosphorus bombs, which were unrivalled in their destructive power to the fortress, and even caused mass damage to the Belgian defenders, and had a huge psychological intimidation effect. As a good commander, Ludendorff and Emmich know this very well.

"Power and price are always proportional, we provide you out of friendship with Germany, basically not profitable, we only charge for freight and cost. If it is sold to the Entente side, it will get at least 100,000 dragon coins. ”

Ludendorff and Amy both knew in their hearts that if the Chinese Emperor [***] didn't make money, then they would rather walk upside down and walk with their hands from now on, and they wouldn't believe it. However, Li Lai casually said something to sell to the Entente, which immediately alerted them.

"We believe in your sincerity, after all, we are also allies. Well, we plan to procure 1000 rounds of these Hellfire bombs, but don't you guys have bombs of greater weight? ”

Li Lai smiled: "Of course, we have Hellfire bombs of all weights, as small as 5 kilograms fired by lightning cannons, as large as 1 ton bombs carried by bombers, we can provide them, but the prices are different." ”

Looking at Li Lai's harmless smile, Ludendorff and Emmieh's hearts were dripping blood. They did not expect that the Chinese Empire would still have a 1-ton bomb, which was obviously beyond the scope of their hearts. The great military power of the Chinese Empire made the two of them feel the pressure at this moment, and at the same time, if they wanted to buy heavier bombs, they would definitely be slaughtered.

"Our airship can transport 500 kg of bombs, so if you change 100 kg to 500 kg, 200 should be enough."

Li Lai suddenly said: "The price of 500 kilograms of bombs is 60,000 dragon coins per shot, and you need to pay 240 million marks." ”

"You're so fast!" Ludendorff rolled his eyes suddenly, it was a lot of money, but it was much more cost-effective than using the railway cannon to attack the fortress of Lieyue, and there was plenty of time.

So, Ludendorff agreed, and sent a report to the German General Staff, Moltke Jr. also thought that if he could take the fortress of Lieyue within three days, it would be extremely beneficial for the German army as a whole, so he knew that he would be slaughtered by the Chinese Empire, and he gritted his teeth and agreed.

On January 22, the Chinese Empire delivered 200 rounds of 500-kilogram giant white phosphorus bombs from the warehouse of the base in Cyprus to the German side. On that day, the Germans dispatched 20 airships carrying white phosphorus bombs to bombard the fortress.

This time, the Germans asked the technical officers of the Chinese Empire in detail about the bombing techniques, and the fuse was set to explode at an altitude of about 200 meters above the fortress. In this way, the explosion of a 500-kilogram white phosphorus bomb spread beyond a radius of 800 meters, a bomb almost covered a fortress battery, and suddenly a large area of the fortress artillery was destroyed, and the ammunition boxes stacked next to it were a series of martyrdoms, and the defenders of the Belgian fortress were killed more than 10,000 people that day, basically losing their combat effectiveness.

The next day, Ludendorff intimidated the Belgian defenders, threatening to bomb the city if they did not surrender. Of course, Ludendorff knew that once such a bomb was used against Lieyue City, he would definitely be under strong international public pressure. But this is a psychological tactic, and he bets that Li Man will give in.

Sure enough, after seeing the tremendous lethality of this bomb, Li Man was worried that once the German army used the city, there would be hundreds of thousands of casualties, and he could not accept this price.

He also knew that the city would not be protected after all, and in order to prevent more civilian casualties, he ordered the defenders of the fortress to surrender, and asked the Germans to give the Belgians humanitarian treatment, to which Ludendorff readily agreed.

On January 24, the two sides held a surrender and surrender ceremony, and the German army occupied the city and fortress of Lieyue, which was originally planned to take half a month to take this place 10 days earlier. For this reason, the German General Staff awarded Ludendorff and Emit the Silver Cross, and as a field staff officer, Germany also awarded Li Lai a Silver Cross of Honor in order to win over the Chinese Empire.

After the end of the Battle of Lieshu, by the end of January, the Germans had successfully captured all of Belgium, and in the Battle of Luxembourg, they had routed 20,000 French troops and expelled the French troops in Belgium back to France.

On January 31, the German army divided its troops into five directions to attack northern France, and the main forces of the French army were in the direction of Alsace and Lorraine in Germany, so they lost ground in a day of fierce fighting and were forced to retreat.

(To be continued)