"Boom...... Rumble...... Boom..."

Outside the city of Baghdad, the heavy artillery group of the expeditionary force was violently bombarding the positions of the Turkish army outside the city of Baghdad.

At this time, it was January 1917, and after all preparations had been made, Jiang Baili sent Zhang Shaozeng to lead four infantry divisions and one artillery division, with a total of more than 50,000 troops, to go south and attack Baghdad, the largest city in Mesopotamia, together with the British.

In the process of moving south, the four infantry divisions, with the cooperation of an artillery division, were overwhelmed, and the cities of Arbera, Tikrit and Samarra were captured one after another, and the Turks were simply unable to deploy enough troops to defend northern Baghdad when the south of Baghdad was already under heavy attack by the British.

In the end, there was no way, the commander of the Turkish Sixth Army, Khalil. Pasha had no choice but to shrink part of his forces to the perimeter of Baghdad for a defensive point.

And the expeditionary force? The 355-kilometre distance from Mosul to Baghdad seemed nothing to the expeditionary force during its journey south. As for the logistics that were the most concerned before the war, it also became irrelevant because of the Tigris ... Now, Zhang Shaozeng's only question is, how can he break through Baghdad?

"Let's shell first..."

Looking at Baghdad, which had been partially reduced to ruins in the first round of artillery bombardment, Zhang Shao once said to the artillery division commander beside him.

And at this time in the city of Baghdad, the commander of the Sixth Army, Khalil. The Pasha also stood by the telegraph.

"Has there been a reply from His Excellency Enver?"

"Not yet..."

Hearing the words of the telegraph operator, Khalil. Pasha sat on the ground in a somewhat "decadent" manner.

Although the Turks had an entire army in Mesopotamia, the strength of this army had been depleted during the two-year war. Although the Turks had recruited, replenished, and mobilized many men afterwards, so that the Turks' strength in Mesopotamia remained at more than 100,000, their combat effectiveness had decreased considerably.

This amount of strength is not much the same against the British who do not have much, after all, the British have a good number of troops, at most no more than 50,000, and two-thirds of them are Indians, and these Indians cannot pose any threat to Khalil's Sixth Army at all.

But now the Chinese and the British, attacking from the north and south, this is really not something that Khalil, a Turk, can handle. In fact, not to mention Khalil, even his predecessor, the veteran German player K. von der Goerz, had a hard time coping with such an offensive.

As for the remaining Germans, although Von der Gorz also left behind almost a division of German troops in Baghdad after his death, and Khalil also had a number of German staff officers by his side, it was obvious that he could not cope with such a situation.

So naturally, Khalil thought of Enver. Pasha, after all, Enver still has at least 300,000 troops on the Western Front, and in the heart of Turkey, Enver. The Pasha was able to mobilize more troops. At least throughout the war in Europe, the Turks mobilized more than two million troops.

As the saying goes, it is better to act than to move, after thinking of this, Khalil has already sent a telegram to Enver, but for some reason, Enver has never returned a telegram, which also makes Khalil, who has been guarding the telegraph, anxious.

"Strange, no, it shouldn't be, why hasn't Lord Enver sent the telegram back? We use wireless telegraphy, so there's no problem at all..."

Just as Khalil was still "slumped" in mourning and muttering there, the telegraph next to him finally rang. And after half a ring, Khalil finally took the telegram from his men.

“………”

The more Khalil looked at this telegram, the more his brow furrowed. But at the end, Khalil's brow finally relaxed.

At this time, like Khalil, the other Turkish officials who had been guarding the side also came over and asked with interest.

"Your Excellency, what do you mean?"

“……… His Excellency Enver believes that it may be too late to send troops to Baghdad at this time, because the distance in the middle is too far, coupled with the possible obstruction of the Chinese, it is very difficult to reach Baghdad in time..."

Several officials frowned, because from Khalil's words, these are not good news, and since they are not good news, then why does Khalil still look like there are good things?

For a moment, several officials were confused.

Fortunately, Khalil didn't sell it either, and he didn't stay silent for long before explaining.

"Although His Excellency Enver did not send troops to Baghdad, he proposed another plan, that is, to attack Erzurum while the Chinese sent troops to attack Baghdad..."

Hearing Khalil say this, the other officials were shocked..."But Your Excellency, the Chinese don't have a lot of machine guns..."

But before one of the officials could finish speaking, Khalil had already interrupted.

"It's because they have machine guns that we're attacking at this time..."

As he spoke, Khalil looked at the vibrating wall, and his gaze was a little deep.

"We are all well aware of the power of the machine guns, no, not only us, but probably our German friends know better, but it is for this reason that we are taking advantage of this opportunity to attack Erzurum..." Our German friends believe that if China's more than 200,000 troops have been gathered together, then with a large number of machine guns, we will not be able to attack the occupied areas of the Chinese at all, and we can only be beaten passively. But now the Chinese have taken the initiative to divide their troops, because of the advantages brought to them by machine guns. If this is the time when we can take the initiative and attack their vital points directly, and succeed in capturing Erzurum and other cities......... You know, the opportunity for the Chinese to divide the troops may only wait until this time, and the next time I am afraid that I don't know what year and month, and with the Chinese sending more and more troops, even if the troops are divided, I am afraid it will not be a chance..."

Hearing Khalil say this, the Turkish officials present were a little silent.

In fact, they also know that the situation is not very good not only in Turkey, but also in the entire Central Powers. And now, the Chinese are also constantly transporting troops to the Caucasus through the newly built Dilan Railway, and so far the Chinese have reached more than 200,000 troops in the Caucasus, and if they wait for a while, even if they reach 350,000, it is not impossible.

The fighting power of the Turks is already weaker than that of the Chinese, and it is really going to come to that time, not to mention a region like Mesopotamia, I am afraid that the entire Turkish core will also ..."

Although the situation in Baghdad was also dangerous, for a while, the Turkish officials present almost agreed with Enver's strategy. Although it is not very safe to attack the Chinese machine gun wall with 300,000 troops, it is much better than slowly sitting back and waiting for the advantage to be lost.

After all, if you shoot now, there are at least two or three points of certainty, but you really have to wait a few more months, and when the number of Chinese in the Caucasus reaches 300,000, then they can only wait for the mighty army of Chinese to take the initiative to come to the door ... Moreover, now the Turks are not without advantages, at least they have twice as many troops as the Chinese. And their German allies were also very good at machine guns, and it was they who went on a killing spree in the Somme, although —————— the Germans had the necessary conditions for anti-machine guns, the Turks did not have any ... Anyway..."Let's fight!" ”

"Hmm..."

In the following days, the expeditionary force outside Baghdad suddenly found that the defenders of Baghdad seemed to be braver, and after capturing several positions, the general of the expeditionary force asked the Turkish prisoners and received only one message, that is, the front line is now full of high-ranking Turkish officers and generals to supervise the battle and boost morale, which was not done in the past, and it is for this reason that the Turkish officers and soldiers in the positions will fight so hard..."Strange, when did the Turks be so brave? ”

With this question in his heart, Zhang Shaozeng and others continued to storm Baghdad, after all, the current expeditionary force has the advantage, and the British army in the south is also trying its best to go north, and taking Baghdad is already just around the corner... And at the same time that Zhang Shao had stormed Baghdad, Enver on the Western Front. Pasha, after a series of preparations, also with the help of his German friends, organized two legions of nearly 200,000 troops to march on Erzurum.

This time he didn't play any two ways and went straight all the way, if it went well, then there was a legion reserve behind him, if it didn't go well, then the reserve of this legion was his last magic weapon to hold Turkey..."In any case, Erzurum must be taken, and only in this way can we have a glimmer of life in Turkey..."

At the meeting of the headquarters, Enver said this to the humanity of the seats.

Soon after, both corps led by Enver launched a fierce assault on the positions of the expeditionary force in Erzurum. Although the Turks did not have much artillery during the storm, based on the experience of the past and the Germans themselves, the Turks still learned a lot of lessons, and reduced many casualties in the storming of Erzurum.

It's just that no matter how you sum up your experience and how you reduce casualties, the disadvantage of the Turks is still quite obvious, so in just a few days, Turkey has already suffered more than 20,000 casualties... Of course, it doesn't matter what the casualties are, after all, when Enver first came, he was ready to fill it with human lives. For Enver, as long as Erzurum can be taken, it doesn't matter how many troops are lost.

It's just that... Instead of taking Erzurum, the Turks gradually fell into trench warfare over time. And at this point, Enver's original plan is tantamount to bankrupt..."Damn, are you going to retreat..."

Looking at the positions of his own troops covered in artillery fire, Enver pounded the sandbags of the headquarters with his fists... The other officers in the headquarters were also looking at each other, and they didn't know what to say at this time, after all, it was better to withdraw to Turkey at this time, so that they could preserve some more strength. But this time they came to seek a breakthrough, and now they are going to retreat if the breakthrough is not successful, and to be honest, they are also very unwilling. What's more, to go back now is to wait for death... It was when Enver and they were deep in thought that there was a shout of killing outside.

But Enver didn't pay much attention to it, because such voices had been heard many times in the past few days. It's just that Enver also equipped his troops with a lot of German-made Maxims this time, plus machine gunners who are also German-made, so he repelled many attacks by the Wehrmacht... It's just that when Enville didn't take the shouting and killing outside seriously, the shouting and killing outside suddenly turned into an exclamation, and then into a cry..."Strange, what's going on!" ”

When they found out that the crying guys were crying in Turkish, the people in the headquarters were shocked, and before they could figure out what was going on, a German had already broken in outside.

"Enver, leave !! with me"

Saying that, the German came to pull Enver's sleeve, and the German's behavior made Enver stunned, so after stopping the German, Enver asked with confusion.

"Drenz, what's going on?"

Delenz's answer was simple.

"Tanks..."

This sentence again made Enver brainless, of course he knew what a tank was, the problem was that he didn't understand why Delenz would mention a tank at this time.

However, Delenz ignored him, just took him out of the headquarters, and behind the two of them, he also eradicated a large list of Turkish generals... When I got out of the headquarters, it was clear at a glance..."This is the !! ”

Looking at the scene in front of him, a Turkish general could barely speak.

"Tanks..."

That's right, tanks ... At least 300 tanks were on a rampage at the Turkish positions, and behind them were more than 30,000 infantry in concert. After the tank forces tore a hole in the Turkish defense, it was the responsibility of these infantry to keep expanding the gap..."Damn, how can these Chinese have tanks!! ”

Looking at the tanks in front of him, Enver was both frightened and angry.

Delenz also asked the same question as Enville, but his question was "Yes, where did the Chinese get it, the surname can be stronger than the British, and there are more tanks than the British..."

This question is indeed very interesting and valuable to explore, but the most important thing at the moment is to prevent the attack of the Chinese tank forces, there is no doubt about it.

However, although the Turkish generals soon went down to supervise and command the battle, because the tank units appeared in the Battle of the Somme, it was only a few months now, and although all countries, including the Germans, were studying anti-tank technology in these months, they have not achieved any results.

What's more, China's Type 15 tank is not comparable to a Mark tank.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Germans never thought that tanks would appear on the battlefield in Turkey, so they did not provide any more effective weapons support to Turkey... So, the Turkish cup was set..."Mom!! ”

"Allah Ah!!hh

The morale of the Turks is indeed good when there are people supervising the battle, but that means that when facing people, in the face of a steel monster like a tank, the Turks behave like the Germans who saw a tank for the first time.

Or, the Turks behaved even worse, after all, the Chinese Type 15 tank is not comparable to the Mark tank... As the morale of the Turkish army collapsed, the infantry trailing the tank units were also seizing more positions and tearing bigger holes. And behind them, more than 20,000 people of the second wave were also sent out again ... As for the more than 30,000 infantry in the first wave? Their task was to follow the tanks all the way to the end of hell...—————————— although the Turks had nearly 200,000 troops, but these 200,000 troops were constantly collapsing, and the Turks did not try to resist, but those meager resistance seemed so vulnerable in the face of the expeditionary force's more than 300 tanks.

On January 9, 1917, the world will remember this day, because on this day, the Chinese Expeditionary Force completely defeated the city of Erzurum with a tank of an armored division and more than 50,000 infantry. The two legions under the command of the Pasha were nearly 200,000 men, and in the ensuing battle, nearly 100,000 were captured... As for casualties? It's not impossible, but compared to the battle results gained in the battle, the casualties are infinitely close to zero... And the commander of the armored division, Feng Nan, has also become a name that has attracted the attention of the world... The Battle of Erzurum is remembered for being the world's first large-scale tank battle... Of course, while remembering, the Battle of Erzurum is also known as the Battle of Miracles. Because although the Type 15 medium tank used by the expeditionary force uses a new type of engine, and its reliability has been greatly improved compared with the past, according to the frankly admitted by the engineers who accompanied the army to the Caucasus, it is already thankful that more than 330 tanks of this division can be driven on the battlefield.

However, after going to the battlefield, among the more than 330 tanks, only more than 30 were lying on their stomachs, and only 100 of the remaining 300 were lying on their stomachs at the end of the battle.

At the same time, because of this campaign, no one in the country opposed the formation of tank units, but more people began to approve of the formation of this new type of troops. Especially Cai Yi, chief of the General Staff, and Jiang Baili, who is the chief of staff of the army, are even more demanding... Of course, there is not only one good news at the same time, not long after the end of the Battle of Erzurum, Zhang Shaozeng, who was far away in Baghdad, directly captured Baghdad because of the collapse of the morale of the Baghdad defenders, which was also a rare feat, but because of the Battle of Erzurum, this battle became bleak

(To be continued)