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The atmosphere at the headquarters of the German First Army in Artigny was tense, the sound of leather boots under the high radio antennas was more dense than raindrops, the staff officers shouted loudly to withdraw troops, and the telephone rang unceasingly since morning.

Standing in front of the map, Admiral Carl von Bello looked gloomy, the 63-year-old bearded infantry general who had lived through the Franco-Prussian War and the Battle of Lake Matsu, and although he was not as illustrious as his brother, the famous German general, General Otto von Bello, anyone who despised him had already paid the price. However, in his nearly forty years of military career, he has not felt as tricky as he does today.

Although everyone knew that there were 400,000 squadrons on the other side, even after a small fight, everyone still thought that they were just colonial troops hired by the Entente, which was equivalent to the British Indian division at best. It was because of this negligence that I was accidentally attacked today! Abandoning the entire defensive line, attacking with all its might with dense firepower, using superior forces to break two front-line infantry divisions to pieces, losing unified command, and breaking through to the depth, the troops are interspersed in multiple ways, how similar to the Brusilov offensive that shocked the world last year! In that super offensive launched by the Russian army, Austria-Hungary lost 1.5 million people and the Germans lost 350,000! And the previously weak and weak Russian army only paid the price of 500,000, and the super offensive of more than 3:1 almost ended the war completely! If it weren't for the poor logistics of the Russian army, perhaps Germany would have been forced to sign an armistice.

There is no doubt that Germany made a big mistake! The Chinese Expeditionary Force, which was considered to be equivalent to the colonial army, had a master tactician comparable to Brusilov! And this is exactly what he can't figure out, a country that was full of concessions before the war. How could China, which was beaten by little Japan more than ten years ago and almost lost the country, have such clever generals?

The hard work of the reconnaissance planes allowed the staff to keep abreast of their movements, and the three arrows on the map, stretching towards Bazáncur-Moronvilière, Sedang-Renivel, and Atini, told everyone unmistakably that the Chinese expeditionary force had been divided into three routes after breaking through the Avila Valley. As the commander of an elite army group, Lieutenant General Karl, who participated in the brutal Battle of Verdun, needs to make a judgment about what the enemy's intentions are!

Is it truncated Lorraine? Naok Sedang and Ilsund pushed the front to the Belgian border, still. If it had been the French who had been tasked with the attack, there would have been no doubt that the second strategy would have been chosen. Because they have long wanted to end the war in their territory, but now that they are in the squadron, what will they choose?

"General! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will tell you. The troops of Ilsun and Sedan had already set out and would arrive at the Aisne the morning after tomorrow at the latest. In addition, the squadron has already occupied Bazangkur. We have lost the news of Major Bam and his regiment that the 5 divisions of the 2nd and 3rd armies will cross there in the evening to meet us. The reconnaissance planes also returned, and the French army group in Moronvillier did not show any signs of action yet. ”

After learning that 5 divisions were dealing with Bazangkul to protect his right flank, Admiral Karl's gloomy cheeks finally slowed down a lot, and there were 2 divisions coming behind him, so his two beards shook vigorously: "Very good, go and teach them a lesson, let them leave Europe with their tails between their legs, this is not Qingdao!" ”

The staff officer quickly recorded Admiral Karl's order, and after the war he told reporters: "The admiral immediately made a choice when he heard the news of reinforcements. The five infantry divisions that had arrived from Bazangkul gave us confidence, because since the beginning of the war we had always had the upper hand in numbers and won in the end, so I conveyed the order. Four infantry and cavalry divisions from Württemberg and Bavaria began to rush towards the enemy as fast as they could, and the general himself led three Hessian infantry divisions behind, and everyone thought that when the five divisions of the Second and Third Armies crossed Bazangkul, the Chinese would retreat. But we still haven't heard from them until 72 hours later. It was a frustrating three days and three nights. We paid the price for the three days we disappeared, and if it weren't for Manran's stupidity, the war might have ended a year earlier. ”

Admiral Karl was confident that he had come to the aid of five infantry divisions, but he had forgotten one thing, which was only 32 kilometers from the Ávila Valley. As soon as he broke through the valley, Yue Peng ordered all the vehicles that could be used to assemble, and even the convoy transporting ammunition to the French Fourth Army through Pulong was forcibly seized, and finally 571 vehicles of various kinds were cobbled together to send troops to the area, and by the time the sun was overset, three of the five light infantry divisions tasked with the task of blocking had already arrived, and the next two also arrived at 8 o'clock in the evening at the urging of the officers.

Before the war, Bazangkul, which had 30,000 inhabitants, had become a sea of sandy yellow, with the city as the center, and the north and south flanks were separated by the Chinese expeditionary force with a narrow defensive line, and tens of thousands of soldiers sweated like rain, using the sapper shovels provided by Britain and France to quickly dig out short trenches about 30 meters long. When there was too much time, Su Xiaohu (the previous chapter was mistaken as a stone building in Russia, sorry) decisively abandoned the traditional method of building long trenches and replaced them with this kind of cascading irregular short trenches.

Colonel Granmeson was immediately attracted by this construction method after arriving, but after pondering for a long time, he never understood what this seemingly chaotic short trench was, and finally had to put down his pride and humbly ask for advice, but Su Xiaohu had a lot of resentment against this guy who picked his nose and raised his eyes from the beginning of the arrival of the expeditionary force, and dealt with it with a simple sentence of "lack of time", but Xie Ruyi smiled and pointed out: "Colonel, if you have fished, you will understand." ”

Catch fish? At first, Colonel Granmaison thought that the language difference was the result of the translation error, and it was not until the French ensign who came with him drew the fishing nets that everyone gradually understood that the layers of short trenches were sieve holes, and in the case of lack of time to build a fortification that would take days or even dozens of days to perfect, the Soviet general chose simpler short trenches, unless the German infantry could be turned into flowing water, otherwise these short trenches would become "roadblocks" that they had to cross in their advance. Colonel Granmesson complimented the second lieutenant, and many years later Xie Ruyi learned that the second lieutenant's name was Alphonse Juan.

Su Xiaohu really didn't have time to explain what a sieve eye trench was, and it was impossible to tell them how to use this kind of trench tactic. In fact, in addition to the trained Wehrmacht Divisions 5 and 8 Divisions, the other three reserve divisions did not know how to use them, and in the end the 5 Divisions could only be scattered in platoons and assigned to the remaining three divisions to garrison the trenches, with the 8 Divisions acting as the general reserve.

The complete disorganization of the formation caused a lot of confusion, and before the fusion reconnaissance company could report the appearance of German troops 15 kilometers away. "Colonel Gran Meson, I don't care what you do! Within 1 hour, all residents of Bazangkur must be evacuated! In the face of Su Xiaohu's strict order, this time Colonel Granmesson carried out the order without any nonsense. Thanks to the efforts of him and the judicial officer, the women who had just been liberated and had not yet thanked the Chinese soldiers with enthusiasm and body were the first to evacuate, when the first convoy left. Violent explosions were already coming from the west.

"Juan, is this the sound of 155 heavy artillery? They have already repaired the railway? ”

Colonel Granmesson was surprised that the railway from Mount Avila to here had long been blown up by the Germans. Therefore, the troops carried light artillery such as 70, 75 and mortars, and as for those heavy artillery that could easily exceed more than ten tons, it was absolutely impossible to deploy them in a few hours without a railway. But the violent explosion in front of it was clearly the power of the 155 shells after they fell, what the hell was going on?

"Colonel, look!"

Amid Alphonse-Juan's shouts, four T2 fire support vehicles spewed black smoke and struggled up a ramp, then reversed their nose and tail to the west. Before they could understand that dozens of Chinese artillerymen ran down from the truck parked in the distance, and under their operation, four thick barrels were quickly erected at the tail of the armored vehicle. The four black dots in the thump sunset drew a huge arc and threw themselves into the vortex of explosions 6,000 meters away.

"I need to make a phone call." Colonel Granmeson's heartbeat had already surpassed the truck engine. Oh, God. A heavy mortar vehicle that can maneuver quickly!

The artillerymen didn't know that a big business would bring tens of millions of patent fees to China through their actual combat propaganda, but even if they knew that they would only scold their mothers now. 16 towed and 4 mobile 160-mm heavy mortars kicked off the sniper battle in Bazangkul. The power comparable to the 155 mm grenade was also unexpected by the Germans, and the 28th Infantry Division of the German Third Army, which lacked heavy artillery, was instantly blinded and could only return fire with the 75 guns and mortars it carried.

The dull sound of explosions came and went, though not as dense and terrifying as in the Ávila Valley. However, the hope of the German army to quickly pass through Bazangkul was extinguished, and the German 28th Division waited for reinforcements from behind while scattering troops to launch a tentative attack on Bazangkul when the firepower was inferior to the opponent. Unlike the British and French, who were still stuck in group charge tactics, the skirmish lines in the German offensive were very spread, and the company was used as a unit to break through and penetrate.

At the beginning of the battle, the battle was concentrated on the Zabal Mountain, which was less than 50 meters above sea level in the north of Bazangkul, and the German artillery with high quality quickly organized 8 75 mountain guns to bombard the mountain. The infantry, covering a regiment, tried to seize it. The Germans were confident, believing that it would be impossible for the Chinese expeditionary force to build a well-developed fortification in such a short time. Colonel Granmeson, who was hiding in his bunker and watching the battle, was also worried, because he knew that the fortifications in the direction of Zabal were not actually completely repaired, but when the German infantry charged in the sunset, he knew exactly what a sieve trench was.

After the light machine guns in the first short trench fired a series of benchmark firing points, the seven staggered sieve trenches burst into fire at the same time. Although the Wehrmacht did not have the luxury of having one heavy machine gun per company like the Germans, with three light machine guns and three grenadiers per platoon in each trench, seven trenches had 21 light machine guns and one Han II heavy machine gun modeled on the MG8/15, which could also block a sector front up to 550 meters wide. Due to the clever deployment of the trenches, the advantages of oblique machine gun fire can be fully exploited.

No matter how powerful the German tactics were, it was also the First World War period when the squad tactics were in embryonic form, although their bodies were also very low when they charged, they were still pressed to the ground and could not raise their heads after paying more than 100 people under the left, center, and right strafing fire. And the most surprising thing is that when the battle started, dusty work scenes could still be seen in many short trenches. After three successive unsuccessful attacks, the German 28th Division had to temporarily abandon the hill and organize mortars and mountain artillery to bombard the short trenches blocking the way. As night fell, two other German infantry divisions arrived in the west, and Bazangkul was locked in a tug-of-war between hand-to-hand combat.

When the tug-of-war began, the 88th Panzer Brigade on the detour was also intercepted by the Germans head-on for the first time.

The battle broke out on the road 10 kilometers northwest of Moronvilier, where two German A7V tanks and an entire infantry battalion blocked the 88th Brigade's advance using the villages next to the road. "Up, up, up." Du Zishan quickly jumped out of the car and followed the squad leader to the town. Their task this time was not to storm the fortifications, but to provide the coordinates of fire to the armored vehicles. Because there was no radio, the command of armored night battles was basically indistinguishable, and infantry had to be used to organize the attack, which was a method that was explored in the course of six months of actual combat training.

Guided by machine guns, as long as the position of your machine guns can be determined, the heavy machine guns and machine guns on the armored vehicle will pour fire on the target to cover the infantry occupation. Tried and tested tactics worked during the exercise, with 14 T2 infantry support vehicles of the lead armoured company fanning across the field, and 57-mm shells fired by the A7V fell on them from time to time. But compared to bulky opponents, infantry support vehicles are much more agile. You must know that after walking more than 60 kilometers all the way, the remaining 88 T1 tanks allocated to the 31 armored brigade are all lying on their stomachs! Only the T2 armored car, which imitated the World War II Cardenloyd transporter, was known for its simple structure and high stability, even if it ran so far, it only lost 3 vehicles due to mechanical failure, and if it were not for the infantry of the 7 divisions behind it, the 88th Brigade would have run to the Aisne River 200 kilometers away to drink horses and take a bath.

The sharp-eyed Du Zishan quickly found the German tank hiding behind the woods, and the machine gunner immediately pressed into a full tracer magazine. This allows the bullets to form a continuous line of fire, which is easy to expose but the armored vehicle is not far away, and they can complete the task after firing a series of bursts. Sure enough, shortly after the tracer bullets were brought out of the line of fire, two 25mm Wild Bee rapid-fire machine guns caught the target, and within a few moments, the A7V tank hidden behind the woods was hit and the fuel tank burned.

After the second vehicle was also destroyed in this way, Xue Yue did not love the battle and directly ordered to bombard the town with heavy mortars to block the infantry, and the occupation was cleaned up by the infantry behind, because he knew that there would be a lot of people rushing for time tonight! …… (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )