On June 13, the situation continued to deteriorate.

In order to prevent Qin Haoge's division from fighting like Xiang Ankang's division, Qin Zhiyuan ordered Qin Haoge to retreat to Soissons, and at the same time gave an order to Zhang Tianshou of Soissons that if the Germans attacked Suissons and the reinforcements still did not arrive, then Zhang Tianshou and Qin Haoge would withdraw their troops to Compiègne, west of Soissons, and make way for the passage to Paris.

If the French themselves don't care about the safety of Paris, then there is no need for the Chinese to fight for Paris.

At the same time that Qin Haoge was fighting and retreating, the fighting in the Champagne Chalons area resumed, and after withdrawing to Ankang, the French Second Army took Xiang Ankang's place.

The Germans did not stop, they kept attacking, and tried to make a detour to the rear of Reims, preparing to encircle the Foreign Legion still stationed in Reims.

This time, even French President Raymond Poengaré sent a telegram directly to Qin Zhiyuan, demanding that Qin Zhiyuan must defend Reims at all costs.

The Germans have already captured Champagne and are pressing on Soissons step by step, if Qin Zhiyuan retreats again, then the two German armies that launched a pincer offensive will converge, and Paris will be in no danger to defend.

Qin Zhiyuan agreed to Raymond Poncarlet's request, Qin Zhiyuan could refuse Petain alone, that would not affect Qin Zhiyuan's reputation in France, but Qin Zhiyuan could not refuse everyone, in that case, Qin Zhiyuan would also be rejected by everyone.

In fact, just after Petain returned to Paris, Qin Zhiyuan successively received calls from Foch, Ponengalé, Clemenceau, and Pershing, all of which were without exception to appease Qin Zhiyuan.

The current battle situation seems to be becoming more and more difficult, and everyone does not dare to be careless, lest there be a situation that will lead to a corrosive situation due to poor coordination, and Qin Zhiyuan's Foreign Legion is now an important force in the Entente camp.

The Foreign Legion may not be able to change the pattern of warfare, but it can already influence the direction of local theaters.

At this point, Qin Zhiyuan will definitely not withdraw from the war, but even if he is slack, this will seriously affect the direction of the war.

There were no secrets between the Entente powers, just as Haig knew that Petain would give up on rescuing the British army in a moment of crisis, so Paris knew that the British army would activate the "Channel Plan" in a critical moment.

It is not surprising at all that the outbreak of a world war was originally due to a conflict of interests.

On June 14, the Germans continued to advance on Soissons, but the promised support from Petain still did not arrive, so Zhang Tianshou and Qin Haoge retreated to Compiègne according to the predetermined plan, and joined Liu Zizheng and Jin Taihe, who were about to arrive in Compiène.

The Germans advanced until Pierrephon was stopped by two divisions of Pershing.

Pierphons, less than 70 km from Paris.

On June 15, the Germans began their attack on Pierrefon, and on the same day, the Germans began their attack on Reims.

On the opposite side of Reims, the Bavarian prince put nearly 20 divisions, which made Qin Zhiyuan dare not act rashly, even if Champagne Chalons and Soissons were lost one after another, Qin Zhiyuan did not dare to divide troops to reinforce.

This is also the reason why Qin Zhiyuan was not harshly criticized despite the fall of the above two places, and the Entente could not bear the consequences of the capture of Reims.

The Bavarian prince was decisive in his attack, and if he did not attack, he did not spare any hands once he began to attack, and directly invested 15 divisions.

And Qin Zhiyuan now has six divisions and two regiments of Chinese troops left, as well as one division of Annan troops, and two regiments of tank troops.

Qin Zhiyuan's total strength is more than 100,000 people, and there are more than 300,000 Germans on the front alone, and if you add the two wings of Reims, Qin Zhiyuan may face more than 700,000 Germans at most.

The disparity in strength is dizzying.

In order to make up for the gap as much as possible, the War Office once again gave the Foreign Legion the right to supply supplies uncontrollably, as much as the Foreign Legion needed.

So in a very short period of time, Qin Zhiyuan formed the second armored division in Paris, the backbone of this division was the 11th Division that had withdrawn to Paris, and the division commander was Xiang Ankang, who had not yet recovered from his injuries.

With the issuance of the second battle report, the 11th Division became the first divisional unit of the Foreign Legion to be commended, and this division was also named the "Champagne Division", also known as the "Victory Division".

In recognition of his bravery and tenacity, the War Department awarded him the title of Knight of the Grand Cross.

This is also the second Chinese officer of the Foreign Legion to receive the rank of Grand Cross Knight after Qin Zhiyuan.

As with unlimited tanks, the armament of aircraft was no longer restricted, and the air division, based in Paris, soon had nearly 300 fighters, as well as more than 200 bombers. According to the standard establishment, these aircraft are enough to form six air divisions or flight formations, and four bomber divisions or bomber formations.

Because of the expansion of the scale again, Qin Zhiyuan had to split the air force and divide it into fighter units and bomber units, led by Bao Deshui and Zhou Hongguang respectively.

On the morning of the 15th, before the start of the German offensive, more than ten German artillery divisions set up artillery positions around Reims, and at the same time bombarded Reims indiscriminately.

This time, he didn't leave his hands behind, and Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered the artillery to counteract.

Thus the two sides engaged in the largest and fiercest artillery battle since the beginning of the war.

In fact, the scale of this time was not as large as the scale of the German army's attack on Amifontein and Champagne Chalons some time ago, but at that time, because of the asymmetry of forces between the two sides, it could not be called an artillery battle, but could only be said to be a one-sided fire catharsis.

This time it was different, the artillery of the Foreign Legion, supported by bombers, was not silent, and they bravely engaged in an artillery battle with the superior artillery of the Germans.

The artillery battle began at three o'clock in the morning, because it was still early, and the bombers could not be dispatched, so the artillery division could only be carried to the death.

Self-propelled artillery is better, they can change places after fighting for a while, and fixed artillery is more miserable, even if they expose the position of the position, they can't change it, they can only carry it hard.

The absolute gap in numbers cannot be bridged by courage or technology, especially if the technology gap is not large.

In just two hours of artillery fighting, nearly half of the casualties of the Second Artillery Division were lost, and the damage to the artillery was even more, but fortunately, the location of the ammunition depot was relatively hidden, otherwise once the spare ammunition was ignited and exploded, the casualties would be even heavier.

At five o'clock in the morning, the first wave of bombers, escorted by fighters, came to support.

Since the Red Baron was shot down, German planes have rarely been seen in the sky of Reims, and a small number of them are only reconnaissance planes, and the Germans have not dared to make large-scale sorties, fearing that they will collide with a new generation of "hunting brigades".

Since the annihilation of the "Hunting Brigade" led by the Red Baron, the Chinese pilots have regarded themselves as a new generation of "Hunting Brigade", and changed their clothing from military uniforms to "hunter" clothing specially produced for them.

Well, it looks handsome!

When the bomber unit appeared over Reims, the tide of the battle changed for the better, and the bombers of the Foreign Legion were divided into four formations, each time dozens of them were dispatched together, and almost every time they knocked out a German artillery position.

Although the German positions were equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft machine guns, they could not stop the enthusiasm of the bomber units to move forward.

Those anti-aircraft machine guns were also beaten into a pile of scrap metal by the dive fighters.

The absence of German fighters in the sky does not mean that the "hunting brigade" has nothing to do, even if there are no bombs on the fighters, they can use aviation machine guns to dive and pose a serious threat to the enemy on the ground.

By 8 a.m., the Germans, seeing that the artillery battle was no longer progressing, sent ground troops to attack the positions of the Foreign Legion.

In charge of the front line of defense are the two divisions of Griff and Xu Sheng, which can also be said to be the two most combat-ready divisions in the Foreign Legion, and they have been waiting for three months to wait for business to come to their door.

However, this door-to-door business was not easy to do, and when the Germans attacked, they had a large number of A7V tanks in their troops, which was a serious threat to the defenders.

Greif and Xu Sheng's troops are equipped with FT-17s, which are more agile than the huge A7V, because they are equipped with 75mm guns, and their firepower is not weak at all, and they are opponents of the A7V.

In fact, in front of Greif and Xu Sheng's positions, there was also an Ypres Canal that acted as a natural barrier, and as long as the defenders did not make major mistakes, it was not easy for the Germans to break through the Ypres Canal.

Of course, this must be on the premise that the difference in forces is not large.

On the south bank of the Ypres Canal, the density of machine guns is astonishing, almost every five meters or so, there is a machine gun emplacement, in which either one MG08 or two Lewis stays.

In the face of such a density of firepower, it was unlikely that the Germans would want to cross the Ypres Canal.

The day's fighting ended with the Foreign Legion's effortless response.

That night, the Bavarian prince urgently dispatched troops from both flanks of Reims to the rear of Reims.

So suddenly, the status of Tessie and Mi Yizong came to the fore, where was the key point behind Lance.

Qin Zhiyuan has received the relevant early warning information and immediately mobilized his troops to prepare for the response.

In addition to the infantry, there were all two regiments of tank units.

While passively defending, Qin Zhiyuan was also thinking about attacking.

Offense is the best defense.

However, the Ypres Canal was between the Foreign Legion and the German troops, which prevented both the German A7Vs and the FT-17s from launching a counterattack.

I don't know how to evaluate this.

That night, Foch called Qin Zhiyuan to inform him of the next phase of the battle plan.

In view of the steady flow of German troops from Soissons and Champagne into the heart of France, the War Office had mobilized four army groups to prepare for a counteroffensive.

Some of these units are now deployed in Italy, some have just been reorganized, and more training is needed to get into combat condition.

Foch's order to Qin Zhiyuan was to hold out in Reims for at least half a month, waiting for the War Department to mobilize troops and wipe out all the German troops in the two huge salients.

In that case, the war may end within the current year.

Of course, this is just maybe, maybe this is the beginning of the end, and more likely this is just the end of the beginning.

(To be continued.) )