@@@@

In the conference hall of the French Provisional Government in Bordeaux, Wang Zhengting did not say a word with a calm face, and the French Prime Minister Briand and military representative Foch sitting opposite each other squinted their eyes, and they naturally did not look at Wang Zhengting, but the commander-in-chief Nivelle who had specially rushed back from the French army headquarters in Chantilly to attack.

This old guy has completely lost his former demeanor because of the unfavorable front, and he has nagged all the things that happened after the arrival of the expeditionary force with his nose and eyes, and also took the "huge price" paid by Britain and France to supply military supplies as the center of trouble, and finally did not forget to spit and shouted arrogantly and rudely: "Your Excellency, Ambassador! You must understand that if your army causes the defeat of this battle, then all the responsibility will be borne by your government! Britain and France are doing everything they can, and our soldiers are bleeding at the front! We don't need an army that drags our feet! If we can't immediately remove that Commander Yue from his position, then we will stop all supplies to your ** team! I need to remind you that if we fail, then your country will not be forgiven by the enemy either! ”

The splash of spit almost sprayed on Wang Zhengting's face, Rao is a natural good-tempered person, and he can't stand it anymore! Got up and said, "Your Excellency the Commander-in-Chief!" According to the provisions of the "Plum Blossom Agreement", China's expeditionary force has an independent command of the group army, and it can choose the time and place to invest it at its own! What's more, you also gave orders before the war, and our army has the right to be arbitrary! He slammed a battle plan sent back from the front on the table, and continued to say coldly: "The task of our army is to assume reserves and protect the Fourth Army, and now that the Fourth Army has stopped all military operations, then their mission is over, why suddenly transfer our army to Suissons?" Is it our fault that Lieutenant General Mangran and the three armies were unable to open the situation? Is it our fault that more than 100,000 soldiers died in vain? General Yue Peng had already reminded your army that such an offensive must be stopped immediately, why was your army reluctant to accept it?!

As for your statement that our army is not making any effort, I would like to ask you, why have we not yet received a detailed battle report from our army during the 100-day offensive? In that operation, the number of casualties of our troops and enemy troops was 1:2. On the Western Front, how can any army reach this casualty ratio? But why is there no recognition and explanation! Again, you said that you provided all the military supplies, but as far as I know, 48 tanks and 72 heavy artillery pieces that were supposed to be provided to our army were misappropriated for no reason. Only half of the 1,500 trucks and gasoline were distributed! How do you explain the fact that the ammunition shortage is as high as 50 percent? His Excellency Prime Minister Brian, General Foch. We have no regrets about joining the Entente, and in order to win the war, our vice president went to St. Petersburg at the risk of his life to persuade the Russian Provisional Government to continue the war! We have done our best, and as for the military issues mentioned by General Nivelle, I am sorry that although the equipment and ammunition are not in place, our expeditionary force has not flinched, and I hope that you two will find out what is really going on with Reims and Soissons before making a choice! ”

This last sentence clearly hit Nivelle's tail. By this day, he understood that the hope of breaking through Siegfried's line was getting slimmer. But the problem is that it must not be stopped now, and to do so would be to declare the end of his political and military career, and he may even become a sinner in France! That's why he and Mang Ran gritted their teeth regardless of casualties and ordered the front line to continue the offensive, and as for the Chinese Expeditionary Force, it was his scheduled scapegoat. But now Wang Zhengting lifted the lid at once, which immediately made him angry: "Your Excellency, Ambassador! Be careful with your words, you have no right to interfere with my command and battle plans! ”

Brian and Foch didn't look good, and although Nivelle still didn't hand in the detailed battle report of the April offensive on the grounds that the battle was still not over, it didn't mean that they didn't know the situation! More than 100,000 died. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were wounded! Compared with the terrible Verdun, it is not much more than that! But this is after all an internal matter of the French army, not to mention that it is not the turn of the Chinese to call the shots here, so Foch also said seriously after thinking about it: "Your Excellency, Ambassador." Although you have no right to interfere with General Yue's actions, as an ally, it is still necessary for me to remind you that although your ** team has gained command, since you are fighting in France, then you must abide by our guidelines! This is not a war of France, it is a war of the whole Entente, and any attempt to be opportunistic will not be forgiven! ”

Although his attitude was better than that of Niveler, the meaning in his words was very heavy. Wang Zhengting actually understands that after all, everyone is an ally, and it is definitely not okay to watch others fight to death and hide next to themselves. What's more, the vice president also explained that he needed a big victory to completely establish China's position in the entente. Let Britain and France understand the importance of Chinese power. Therefore, he couldn't rush to Lance immediately and ask Yue Peng and Cai Yi what they were thinking. In the face of the aggressive Nivelle and Brian, Wang Zhengting felt the pressure, and he understood that if he couldn't give an answer, if he couldn't win a victory, he was afraid that Yang Qiu's desired status would not only not be recognized. On the contrary, it will seriously damage Sino-French and even Sino-British relations!

Just when he was about to collapse, the military secretary of the French Prime Minister's Office, who walked in, relieved him of the siege: "Prime Minister, General! Colonel Granmeson's telegram, he said that the ** was scheduled to launch an offensive from Prong tomorrow morning! This is the preliminary battle plan sent by him, and they put forward a request for the full cooperation of the artillery of the Fourth Army! ”

The Chinese Expeditionary Force is going to attack?! The 60-year-old Neville and Foch and other generals immediately jumped up, and the former rushed to the front of the military map by grabbing the battle plan, and when he carefully compared the battle plan with the map, the whole person was stunned! Foch also hurriedly took a closer look, but the more he looked at it, the tighter his brows became.

Brian didn't understand military affairs, but the generals' expressions couldn't hide from him, a professional politician, and he was nervous and asked, "What's wrong?" But the strange thing is that the officers didn't seem to hear the Prime Minister's inquiry at all, and Foch turned his head to look at Wang Zhengting, with a strange gaze: "Your Excellency, Ambassador, he, is he crazy?!" With 5 light infantry divisions, you want to cut off two groups of German troops? And you want to encircle and annihilate another one?! He couldn't wait for any answer, he had already rushed out of the conference room: "Contact Lieutenant General Feliman and order his Fourth Army to fully cooperate with the squadron!" Prepare the car, call the train station, I need to rush to Reims immediately. ”

*******

Colonel Gran Mercyson, the French liaison officer of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, did not know how much uproar his telegram had caused, but even if he did, he could not think about it at all. In front of him, 76 Renault FT17 tanks began to be refueled, and French mechanics and their apprentices of Chinese soldiers put the finishing touches on the steel monsters. Behind them are even larger steel clusters, and a full 218 armored vehicles called the T2 type, which were brought from China, are also being prepared. If it was just a tank, he wouldn't have been surprised if it was more. What really surprised him was the infantry who had just arrived across the sea with the tanks!

7.62mm version of Enfister short rifle, light machine gun, submachine gun, M1912 shotgun made in the United States, 9mm automatic pistol cowhide boots made in China, standard steel helmet. There is also a vest that has never been seen before, and the sound of steel can still be heard between the collisions!

"Remember! Get off as soon as you enter the war zone! In squads, the two columns should not leave the rear bomb shelter area of the tank, and immediately erect a barrier bridge after arriving at the trench, and look for cover to avoid explosions and flames after the tank is damaged. Hundreds of non-commissioned officers from the armored training class shouted in unison to explain the essentials of the battle again. Du Zishan also sat in the armored car with his beloved shotgun, and because the number of armored infantry who came this time was insufficient, he and hundreds of veterans were enriched to the 88th Armored Brigade of the 101st Division after 12 days of training.

"Hurry up and hang one over here."

When Du Zishan and the others were admonished by the non-commissioned officers, the Chinese workers in the army also rushed over with a cart of special small sandbags. These small sandbags can only hold 2 kilograms of yellow sand each, and they are as ugly as the cloth bags of the beggars hanging on the front of the tank, but Xue Yue and the tank soldiers attach great importance to this step. Since the last time he learned that the Germans were equipped with rifles designed to fight tanks, he and everyone had been thinking of ways to deal with it, and finally found that as long as this kind of sandbag was hung in front of the tank that was most likely to be shot, it could effectively prevent the bullet from penetrating the steel plate, at least it was impossible to penetrate the 25mm homogeneous steel plate on the front of the T2 armored car.

Colonel Granmeson was completely incomprehensible to these strange preparations, and was about to pull in an interpreter to ask him. The air exploded all around!

"Attacked!"

"It's our artillery."

"Hit, hit!"

Boom Boom Boom! On April 21, 1917, ten kilometers east of Reims, there was a sudden burst of fire over Pron. The 5 heavy artillery brigades of the expeditionary force (one pieced together by Yan Youbing), the 5 heavy artillery brigades of the French Fourth Army, 26 field artillery and mountain artillery regiments, a total of 2,000 cannons, roared in unison without warning. With so many cannons roaring at the same time, not to mention the tiny Pron, the entire ten kilometers of the Hindenburg line from Reims to here were quickly mobilized. A group of German soldiers rushed into the trenches and hid in bunkers under the shouts of the officers, and one cannon after another quickly pulled away the camouflage and shook the handles to point forward, and in the face of the sudden attack, the well-trained German troops still quickly responded, but this time they miscalculated again! Because all the shells fell on the west side of the Alawi Mountains to the east of Pulong, a short two-kilometer line of defense. Based on an average of 3 shells per minute, 2,000 cannons can fire 360,000 shells of various types in an hour!

This intensity is far stronger than Mangran dropping 11 million shells on a nearly 100-kilometer defensive line! And because the density is more concentrated. It was enough to press the German soldiers in trenches and bunkers without showing their heads! Machine-gun forts, mountain artillery positions, bunkers, railways, and buildings were almost all subjected to devastating shelling. Boom, the German long-range artillery positions in the distance began to counterattack, and one after another German fighters appeared from the horizon, and before they could get close, 37 Hai Dongqing, 36 French Newport, and 17 British camel fighters also rushed forward like sharp swords to carry out counter-reconnaissance and cover for the artillery.

"Cannonballs."

In the front-line bunkers, each 15-ton 254-millimeter low-pressure heavy gun converted from naval guns lifted the camouflage of hay and branches, and the short barrels were slowly raised. 180-kilogram shells require the cooperation of five people at the same time to fit into the chamber. After a thickened propellant was stuffed in, the cannon suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar, and before the infantry in the nearby sortie position shouted, a mushroom cloud nearly 100 meters high suddenly rose over the German trench 4,000 meters away, and the dust and gunpowder smoke under the mushroom cloud spread outward like a hurricane.

Low-pressure trench breaking guns!

A 45-kilogram 155-mm grenade can kill all exposed organisms within a radius of 30 meters from the point of explosion, and even hiding in a trench will be injured or even killed by the shock wave, so how powerful is a 180-kilogram shell? There is no possibility of survival within a radius of 100 meters! Trenches within 50 meters of the landing site will be completely buried and destroyed, and even if you are a cockroach, you will be instantly crushed by the displaced earth and stones due to the compression of the shock wave.

4 low-pressure trench breakers and 2 captured German 240mm howitzers form the most powerful trench "can opener"! Facing the German defense line full of "mushrooms", Xue Yue excitedly jumped on the tank, raised his right index finger high and rotated it vigorously, and later this action and his words became the eternal offensive slogan of the Chinese armored forces.

"Let's go, we're on our way!" …… (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )