Chapter 250: The Savior

As soon as the artillery preparations on this side began, the 120 heavy mortars of the special operations division over there opened fire in full swing, and all the shells were fired at once. That is, twenty minutes, the officers and soldiers who were lurking and approaching began to rush forward. After the last sneak attack, the command of the Fifth Army was on a much higher alert level, and for the next few days it was fine, but the Germans did not relax in the slightest.

But this time the attack was so fierce that a battalion of commandos lay in ambush three hundred meters from the outlying positions of the German troops. As soon as the shelling was over, the lurking soldiers rushed out, and under the cover of the night, the stragglers rushed forward in formation. Dozens of light machine guns stared at a point to suppress, and 60 mortars approached the design, specifically to the points of German fire.

The elite is the elite, the gunners of the special operations division hit accurately and very well, and the German firing points were pulled out one after another, and they rushed into the German trenches from the launching assault road, that is, three to five minutes. Casualties were inevitable, but the fastest way to break through the German positions was to minimize casualties.

After storming the trenches, it is the world of special operations divisions. Fierce close-quarters encounters began, the power of the submachine guns was amplified in the trenches, and the Germans simply could not resist. But the German artillery reacted quickly, and the blocking fire of the 75 mountain guns soon came. The dense artillery shells blocked the follow-up reinforcements of the special operations division, but fortunately, the special operations division was familiar with the tactics of the German army, and the reconnaissance was done very well in the recent period, and there was no rush up.

The German artillery could not save the fate of the first line of defense on the perimeter, and the contact battle in the trenches soon showed a one-sided trend, and the Germans were driven and chased and fled to the second line of defense. At the critical moment, the German artillery once again exerted its might, suppressing the special operations division that tried to take advantage of the victory to pursue.

Wei Yue, fearing that the casualties would be too great, ordered the troops to stop the attack and fought for more than an hour. After advancing about 500 meters, seeing that it was difficult to continue to expand the results of the battle, Wei Yue ordered the special operations division to retreat on its own initiative. If you want to talk about the strength of troops, the German army has two infantry divisions in this vicinity, and the special operations division will definitely be able to penetrate if it has to fight hard. The problem is that there is not enough ammunition, and the casualties will be large. It is not impossible for special operations divisions to fight such a hard-fought battle, but they will try to avoid it. Besides. The headquarters of the German Fifth Army was just a point in tonight's attack. The targets of the special operations division's attack tonight are also the heavy artillery positions of the German army in the direction of Shuy, as well as the ammunition depots of the German army.

Although the special operations division stopped the offensive and retreated on its own initiative, the Germans did not know about it. After all, this is the command of the Fifth Army. Crown Prince William August is staying here, and the German commander-in-chief, Ludendorff, is here. The special operations division fought quickly and fiercely, and took the first line of defense in half an hour, and the Germans were not lightly frightened. The shells continued to rain like no money, and the flares were like rain.

At this time, Ludendorff and Auguste were not having a good time, and the heavy French artillery at the far end was bombarding the German positions in Schuy, and they did not know what was going on. The French never attacked at night. If the squadron is attacking, then it will be a big trouble. Ludendorff knows that the squadron attaches great importance to night training and is also a master in this area.

Artillery preparation was carried out an hour later. On the flickering battlefield, the Chinese Expeditionary Force began a silent charge. German artillery fire aimlessly covered several hundred meters of the front of the position, and for the Chinese expeditionary force, it was a battle that was doomed to heavy casualties. When charging. Unusually resolute, even in the face of German fire. There is no room for backing down.

Hesitate Bob's false shot, and only two corps of the expeditionary force can reach the battlefield in time. In fact, the Germans defending Shuy, which looked like three infantry divisions, were still tired divisions that had been fighting fiercely for several days.

The suppression of German artillery fire brought great trouble to the attack of the expeditionary force. The Third Army, which was responsible for the frontal attack, rushed forward regardless of casualties. When the army commander Li Yifeng answered the phone call from the front, he resolutely told the front-line commander: "I don't want casualty figures, I only want the positions of the German army." ”

The great sacrifice was finally rewarded, and after two hours of onslaught, the German perimeter line was breached. As the victors of the daytime battle, the Germans simply laid out two lines of defense. It can be said that the Germans did not expect such a fierce attack at all, and they were still attacking the French army during the day, chasing the French army like ducks, and even Epernay was taken.

Now the German army was facing a huge problem, and the point of Shuy must not be lost, otherwise the three corps of Epernay would have no way to retreat, and could only retreat across the Marne in the direction of Ravov. The problem was that the German troops in Epernay were also attacked. Completely unaware of how many opponents there were, the Germans did not dare to act rashly and could only hold on.

Bob was also in the same predicament, and the 1st and 5th Armies of the Expeditionary Force in the direction of Aviz also launched a powerful counterattack in the middle of the night. The situation of the Germans on this side was even worse, they only had one defensive line, and they were ready to continue the offensive tomorrow. But there is Bob's assault cluster in the Aviz direction, and there are two hundred tanks,

Kankan waited to block the counterattack of the squadron.

The Fourth Army, commanded by Gao Sheng, stormed Epernay with less and more with less, and the Germans did not know how many enemy troops came, so they could only defend passively. In fact, Cai Yi just wants to fight this time difference, if Gao Sheng can hold out until dawn, the other three armies will be able to fight on the battlefield.

The key point where the tide of battle changed was around the early hours of the morning. Several detachments of the special operations division, after approaching covertly, suddenly launched an attack on the German heavy artillery positions. Because at night, the German artillery positions were far behind, and the garrison did not have many troops, and after being attacked by the special operations division, the losses were huge. Fierce fighting lasted until five o'clock in the morning, and more than a hundred German heavy artillery pieces were destroyed. The worse thing is still to come, the German heavy artillery, which was already difficult to supply shells, bombarded indiscriminately as if they didn't want money, and they were quickly exhausted. Without the suppression of heavy artillery, the attack of the Third Army of the expeditionary force was even more fierce. At six o'clock in the morning, when the sky was slightly white, Cai Ye played the last trump card in his hand, the chariot brigade.

Xia Xiang's command vehicle is an armored vehicle converted from a truck, and it is no problem to block the machine gun bullets, and the shells will be finished if they are fired casually. But at this time, Xia Xiang can't take care of so much. Standing on the armored car, he said loudly to the signalmen on the side: "Tell all the officers and men of the tank brigade, what we need most now is speed, rush to the German position as fast as possible, tear the hole and do not stop, continue to rush inside." ”

The French man-made tank is still quite sturdy, but there is a damn problem, it is bulky and slow. The speed of the car is as fast as it can be, which is 20 kilometers per hour. Xia Xiang put the chariot brigade in a zigzag shape and rushed in regardless of it.

At the critical moment, the German heavy artillery was silent, and the exhausted German army was finally crushed by the last straw that broke the camel's back. The chariot brigade raced all the way to the German headquarters in Shuy. After directly punching the town, he turned his head and made another one. The German command was choked by the 50-mm artillery on the tanks, and the command system was shattered, which accelerated the collapse of the German army.

At half past six in the morning, the first expeditionary force assault team rushed into the small town of Shuyi after the tank, the commando leader was Zhang Jingyao, followed by the main force of the regiment commander Yang Zui.

While the battle was raging, Nivelle met with his counterpart, Lieutenant General Gallieni, in Saint-Martin and Dablois.

Gallieni, who withdrew from Epernay, had completely lost the grace he had saved the defeat at the Marne. Like a defeated Gallic attack, Gallieni's face was filled with frustration.

"Is the Chinese's counterattack going smoothly?" At this time, Gallieni could only count on the Chinese. The loss of Epernay was a heavy stain on his military career.

Neville, who hadn't slept much for several days, his eyes were red, looking at this failed colleague, and he told him with uncertainty: "I don't know, the Germans are under fierce artillery fire, and the Chinese are attacking at any cost." They had only four corps in force, but they had to divide their forces into three lines and attack the Germans with at least five corps. ”

"Aren't the Chinese seven armies? How come there are only four armies? Galiani asked puzzled, Nivelle briefly introduced the previous situation, and Galieni understood that if he hadn't failed too quickly in the Epernay defensive line, China would have deployed the defense very calmly and could reinforce in time.

The two Frenchmen could only be relatively silent, silently waiting for the result. From the point of view of dignity, once the squadron fails in the attack, they must be held responsible for the failure of this campaign. The waiting process was torturous, and the sound of gunfire was constant outside the window. Neville, who had never dared to go to the war room, stood up, looked at the time at half past six, and said with a gloomy expression: "It's been six and a half hours, and the Germans will react as soon as dawn, and it will be time to announce the failure of the counterattack later, right?" ”

Galieni stood up and straightened his collar: "Let me bear the responsibility for failure, the Chinese have done their best." ”

As soon as the words fell, Cai Yi rushed in like a whirlwind, with a smile on his face, and waved his fist vigorously: "Take it, Shu Yi take it." The German Fifth Army was cut off by us. The Sixth Army has already rushed back, and I have ordered the Sixth Army to reinforce the Fourth Army, and the two Corps will stop the offensive and move to the defense, waiting for the Second and Seventh Corps to arrive. With a little luck, we might be able to crush the enemy's Fifth Army. ”

The news was so shocking that Nivelle couldn't believe his ears at first, and hesitated for a moment before carefully asking, "Take down Shue?" Truncated the German army? ”

Cai Yi nodded, after Nivelle got a positive answer, his body shook a little, and when Galieni reached out to help, Nivelle raised his hand to block it and said, "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm just too excited." General Cai, you and your troops, saved France. ”

Cai Yi smiled slightly and said: "It's serious, now it's just a little bit of an opportunity, the German counterattack will be very fierce, the sky is already bright, and our good days are over." ”