In the first half of 1918, it looked like the war was indeed coming to an end, but the scales of victory tipped in favor of the Germans.

Reinforcements were being called for on almost all the battlefields, and Foch, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Entente, was overwhelmed.

France had already mobilized men over the age of 40 to fight in the war, Britain had plans to mobilize men over the age of 50, and Germany had begun to mobilize women for logistical work.

Although Qin Zhiyuan's situation was dangerous, it did not reach the point of exhaustion, and the Chinese troops did not break their muscles and bones, which was Qin Zhiyuan's greatest reliance.

Foch didn't understand Qin Zhiyuan's predicament, but Foch couldn't do anything, Foch didn't have many reserves in his hands, and he had to use it at the most critical time.

When the request for reinforcements failed, Qin Zhiyuan requested that the two divisions of Liu Zizheng and Kim Tae-ho be transferred to Suisson to ensure the safety of this railway junction.

This request was also rejected by Petain, who reasoned that Agnon was more important.

Qin Zhiyuan was so angry by Petain's reason that he slammed the cup, Ya Luo is indeed more important than Su Isson, but Ya Luo already has seven divisions to defend, what does Su Isson have?

Two newly formed infantry regiments.

Qin Zhiyuan had no choice but to draw a regiment from Zhang Tianshou's troops, and Zhang Tianshou personally led it to Suissons to strengthen the defense.

At the same time, the last two Annam divisions were sent, one to Colbeny, all the way to Champagne Chalons.

As a result, Reims was left with less than six divisions of infantry and two divisions of artillery, and the base camp of the air force was in Paris.

Early the next morning, the battle continued, and on a larger scale than yesterday, the Bavarian prince threw 17 divisions into the battle, ready for the battle.

The battle began at Colbeni, where the Germans attacked Colbeny with five divisions, and in Kolbeni's narrow frontal battlefield there was almost one division for every thousand yards.

The tactics of the Bavarian prince are still Hutier's "storm troops" tactics, and unlike Hutier, the Bavarian prince has enough "storm troops" in his hands, and at the same time there are a large number of A7V in the follow-up troops, which will pose a great threat to Qin Haoge's position.

After Qin Haoge returned from Borneo, he became more mature, perhaps because he was used to seeing death in Borneo, Qin Haoge was a little indifferent to life, which can be seen from his attitude towards the US military yesterday.

Even when the U.S. army was about to be wiped out, Qin Haoge did not send a single soldier, it was Qin Zhiyuan who directly gave the order, and Qin Haoge sent armored troops.

Zhang Tianshou also has this problem, but it is not as obvious as Qin Haoge's performance, at least it has not been shown yet.

Fortunately, although Qin Haoge became more ruthless, he did not forget the tactics arranged by Qin Zhiyuan, when the Germans began to shell, Qin Haoge ordered the troops to retreat, temporarily avoid their edge, and wait for the German troops to consume part of their sharpness before counterattacking.

What Qin Haoge didn't expect was that the first attack of the German army sent a full three regiments, half an hour later, three regiments, and another half an hour later......

Qin Haoge immediately realized that something was wrong, the German army was too numerous, it had far exceeded the strength of the defenders, and if the previous tactics were used at this time, it would be impossible to recapture the position.

So Qin Haoge put on a posture of stubborn defense in the second line of defense, and refused to take half a step back.

There are mountains and forests near Kolbeni, it is still relatively easy to defend, although the speed of the German storm troops is faster, but the terrain limits their speed, the progress of the German army is far from as fast as at the beginning of the battle, from the morning to noon, the German army only advanced two thousand yards, and all of them were obtained at the beginning of the battle, from Qin Haoge's strict defense, the German attack speed began to slow down.

When the remnants of the 84th Brigade withdrew yesterday, Qin Haoge's troops witnessed the tragic situation of the American troops.

Although the soldiers did not come to the battlefield in person, they could imagine the extent of the tragedy, so it was as if they were going to compete with the American army who was braver, the Chinese soldiers had an extremely tenacious will to fight, and they were also like yesterday's American army, fighting with the Germans inch by inch, and not retreating an inch.

The Chinese troops were obviously better armed than the American troops with rifles and bayonets, and often only needed a Lewis machine gun to block a mountain pass or a mountain beam, although the Germans were extremely bold in interspersing, but their progress was limited, because almost every tree or every stone was hidden behind the fire points, which were difficult to clear and became an obstacle in the way of the German army's advance.

The Germans tried to open the passage with artillery, but because of the presence of anticlines everywhere, the artillery did not work as well as it should.

At the same time, because of the rugged mountain roads, the A7V's huge body is difficult to drive, but it is far inferior to the compact and agile FT-17.

Before evening, the Germans stopped their offensive, as the heavy casualties made it impossible for the Germans to continue.

In order to open the way for the attack on Soissons, the Germans have changed seven divisions from yesterday to the present, and almost every one of the withdrawn divisions has been judged unsuitable for further offensive.

In the vicinity of Champagne Chalons, the battle was no less fierce.

After all the British and Senegalese had crossed the Marne, the first order to Ankang was to blow up all the bridges over the Marne, and if the Germans wanted to cross the river, they had to make their own rafts, because all the boats were burned and the Germans could not find any boats to use.

By the time the Germans had completed preparations for the attack, it was already afternoon.

Xiang Ankang had no intention of retreating, so he arranged a defensive line along the Marne River to resist the German attack, and attacked half-crossing, which had a good effect in both the era of cold weapons and the era of hot weapons.

After all, the Germans had superior artillery, and the German shelling had not stopped since the morning, and Xiang Ankang's troops suffered heavy casualties, most of which were caused by German artillery.

But Xiang Ankang did not dare to retreat, he had already felt the determination of the Germans from the continuous attacks of the Germans, and if he retreated now, he was afraid that it would turn into an avalanche of fiascos, and the situation would be irreparable at that time.

In order to ensure that they would not be helpless in the most critical situation, even if the Germans had already rushed to the shore, Xiang Ankang kept a regiment of troops that were not sent to the first line. But with the exception of the reserve of one regiment, all the soldiers who could still move were rushed to the front line by Xiang Ankang, even if it was dried blood, and it was shed on the sentry posts.

So the battle was extremely fierce, whether it was the river or the river bank was stained red with blood, the corpses of the Germans were covered with water, the corpses of the defenders filled the trenches, there was no time to clean up, the dead companions were used as sandbags, whether they were Germans, British, Chinese or Senegalese, there was no distinction between high and low at this moment, just to survive and fight hard.

In the afternoon battle, in order to drive the British and Senegalese into battle, law enforcement teams were sent to Ankang, and all soldiers who refused to carry out the order were to be shot on the spot.

A company of Senegalese troops tried to resist, but was crushed to pieces by tanks, and the British commander immediately said that he would carry out the order, but at the same time reserved the right to complain.

Xiang Ankang did not waver, even if it was a complaint, it would have to wait until after the war, at least if those complaints threatened Xiang Ankang, it meant that Xiang Ankang was still alive.

And being alive is now the greatest luxury.

Because Xiang Ankang knew very well that Qin Zhiyuan also had no reinforcements in his hands.

Qin Zhiyuan received a call for help from Ankang, but instead of sending ground troops to support Xiang Ankang, he sent bomber troops to attack German artillery positions.

The effect of the attack was very obvious, and after two batches of bomber troops, the German artillery fire was noticeably reduced, and after that, it was not possible to organize a massive bombardment in the morning.

Compared with the first day of fighting, the second day of the battle was more brutal, and on this day there were nearly 10,000 combat attrition of the Chinese troops alone, most of which appeared in the Xiang Ankang Division.

Combat attrition includes minor casualties, because whether it is Xiang Ankang's troops or Qin Haoge's troops, minor injuries never go out of the line of fire, and only serious injuries that cannot continue to fight can be regarded as combat attrition.

Qin Zhiyuan's eyes were red after reading the battle report at night, although there was a reason for staying up late, but it was more distressing.

The combat attrition of nearly 10,000 men was only seen in the spring offensive launched by Nivelle last year, and it was not the troops commanded by Qin Zhiyuan.

That night, Qin Zhiyuan called Petain, and if he did not send reinforcements, Qin Zhiyuan would order Champagne Chalon's troops to withdraw from their positions, because even when Qin Zhiyuan was talking to Petain on the phone, the Germans still did not stop attacking.

Xiang Ankang and his troops were already in a desperate situation, and even if the reserves were put into position at nightfall, the current position would collapse at any time.

The Germans at night were even more frenzied, and they crossed the river from any body of water, using everything that could cross it. Although the fighters shot desperately, after all, their manpower was limited, and they simply could not defend against wider and wider positions.

Even as a division commander, Xiang Ankang personally went into battle, and in the battle, Xiang Ankang was wounded all over his body, the most serious of which was on his cheek, and a shrapnel cut a deep wound on Xiang Ankang's face.

Petain rejected Qin Zhiyuan's request and ordered the troops to hold their positions.

Petain may have maintained respect for Qin Zhiyuan because of Qin Zhiyuan's achievements, but this does not mean that Petain will pay attention to all Chinese.

In fact, in the hearts of a considerable number of French people, Qin Zhiyuan is already a pure Frenchman, and many people don't realize that Qin Zhiyuan is actually a Chinese when they talk about Qin Zhiyuan.

Qin Zhiyuan, who hung up the phone, immediately ordered Xiang Ankang to withdraw from his position.

Qin Zhiyuan didn't want to bargain with Petain.

No matter who knows how much sacrifice has been made to Ankang's troops and what results they have obtained, they will not ask for more, because no matter what they ask for, it will be demanding.

At midnight, the Ankang Division withdrew its position and retreated to the Boulogne base camp by truck, the number of trucks was sufficient, because there were half fewer passengers than when they came.

The soldiers who died in the battle did not have time to clean up, their bodies were left in place, and the Germans would not let them be exposed to the wilderness, because these soldiers who died in battle deserve respect in terms of courage and ability.

In the early hours of the morning, the convoy arrived at Verti, 25 kilometres from Champagne Salons, where the troops took a brief rest.

Xiang Ankang, who saw the final statistics, knelt on the ground and cried, out of a total of 16,000 troops, only 370 were intact.

(To be continued.) )