"The 117th Division captured the Ebola city in Paris, found more than 1,300 French corpses, killed nearly 200 enemies, and is currently following the direction of the wind and advancing towards the Char area behind the poison gas!" In the German headquarters located outside the city, a staff officer hurriedly walked in and reported loudly to Qingying in an irrepressible excited tone.

"The 45th Division occupied the Kreyy district and the entire Craigle Street, cleaned up 1,100 corpses of French soldiers, killed more than 300 enemies, destroyed 3 large defensive buildings, and captured 6 artillery pieces!"

"The 73rd Division buried more than 2,000 French corpses and completely captured the Place de l'Etoile; The Arc de Triomphe in Paris fell almost intact into the hands of our troops, and the Iron Cross flag was already flying high above it! ”

As the morning sun began to set westward in the sky, the good news poured into the headquarters of the German Fifth Army like a tidal wave. Qingying, who knew the power of mustard seed gas, was still able to hold on to it after learning of the victory, but Sickert next to him was shocked in his heart, and his pupils were full of excitement and ecstasy. In this more than seven hours of attack, the German army has achieved a great success in destroying nearly 20,000 French troops, and is marching all the way, sweeping large areas of the city that were once firmly entrenched by the French. In this way, in just another 12 hours, the whole city of Paris will be occupied by the Germans, and the pinnacle victory of 1871 will be repeated today!

"Congratulations to His Highness, congratulations to the Emperor, congratulations to Germany!" Sickert saluted Qingying respectfully, and the joy on his face was unmistakable. The officers in the headquarters also saluted Qingying in unison, and their hearts were stirred with mixed feelings. Most of the officers were not optimistic or even skeptical about the commander of the group army, who suddenly landed on the eve of the outbreak of war. thought that the crown prince, who grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth, would not fight at all; And yet under his rule. This army group won the most brilliant victory of any German army unit on the Western Front. Directly changed the pattern of the entire French battlefield. Even though the General Staff deliberately took care of it during this period, and the weapons and equipment were given priority, his achievements in the Border Campaign and the Battle of the Marne were enough to make people express heartfelt praise. Now, the crown prince's 5th Army has become the conqueror of Paris, and their subordinate officers have also been able to enjoy the immortal honor of storming the enemy's capital!

A smile appeared on the corner of Qingying's mouth and said, "It's not yet time for us to celebrate." The French had nearly 150,000 troops in the city of Paris. It is impossible to stay where we are and wait to die under our gass; After discovering that the mustard gas is irresistible, they will definitely choose to temporarily withdraw from their positions and wait until the poison gas has dissipated before launching a counter-assault. Therefore, all we need to do now is to consolidate the gains made in the gas attack and prepare for the French counteroffensive. Only after we have completely repelled the attack of the French will the real moment of victory come. ”

Sickert's eyes flashed, and then he joined everyone in awe. After a short period of celebration, the entire command headquarters threw itself into troop scheduling and battlefield command with even more fiery enthusiasm. In this field, Qingying has always chosen to follow Hindenburg's practice with great interest, that is, to delegate all specific affairs to his young and powerful chief of staff. The solid military skills of Sickert and a group of German staff officers came into play. In the face of vague, confusing, erroneous, and even contradictory reports coming from the front lines of the battlefield, it is still possible to accurately judge the real battle situation. And make the right response. Ever since Scharnhorst reformed the Prussian General Staff, the professionalism of the staff officers of this army can only be described as perverted, and even the French counterpart, who has been an old rival for many years, has had the upper hand.

By the time the sun was setting, all German units had made a staggering breakthrough. The French defenders, who originally occupied more than 40% of the city, were suddenly reduced to less than a tenth of the city's area in a few blocks in one day, and all the iconic buildings including the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower were lost. Accompanied by the heavy neighing of German mules and horses, hundreds of large-caliber howitzers were dragged to the wide and flat star-shaped square in the center of the city, and then erected on the spot, and began to thunder and bombard the city where the French army was still entrenched. Previously, due to the large number of buildings in the city of Paris, these heavy guns did not have the ideal ballistics to speak of, but now in the spacious open space, they finally have the opportunity to show their strength. For a time, the German heavy artillery roared like thunder, a large number of heavy shells burst through the air and danced angrily, and then swooped down from the sky, and the buildings and houses controlled by the French army were blown up by bricks and stones, and fragments burst into flames; The flames rose brightly, illuminating the brilliant sunset in the west.

By nightfall, the mustard gas that the Germans had released in the early morning had almost dissipated. The French army, which had retreated in advance, immediately launched a large-scale attack, and rushed towards the German soldiers in front of them like spring water that opened the floodgates. Cornered, Gallieni could no longer take care of the two huge uncontrollable risks of being unable to judge the situation in the night street fighting and being difficult to distinguish friend from foe, and played all the cards in his hand; If you don't take advantage of this time to retake your position, wait until the Germans do another gas attack during the day, and then everything will be over!

For a time, the gunfire in the night sky of Paris was as dense as a torrential rain, accompanied by a huge explosion from time to time, and the brilliance of the instant bloom reflected a messy and bloody battlefield. Bullets flew by lightning, and figures flashed longingly; In the ruins, the German and French officers and soldiers were mixed with each other and attacked each other. If someone could pass through the entire field of Paris from beginning to end with a pass at this time, he would have passed through the German and French armies more than 20 times in succession on this journey of less than five kilometers. The battle has lost all its discipline to speak of, and some are just the most primitive and bloody life-and-death killings. The two sides infiltrated each other, poured each other out, and the troops were scattered, withdrawn, or ran headlong into the enemy and were eliminated, or merged into friendly groups to continue the battle with the enemy forces.

In this chaotic nighttime melee, the Germans gradually gained the upper hand. In terms of morale, the expectation of the imminent capture of the enemy's capital, unprecedented honor, and victory in the war was enough to make the German soldiers fight with all their might, and their courage was no less than that of the French army, which was deeply hated. In terms of equipment, the German army had a certain number of submachine guns in all divisions, and the widespread use of hand grenades allowed them to take the lead in such close-range encounters. In terms of combat will and quality, the soldiers trained and nurtured by the cradle of Prussia were the first-class combat weapons of this era, and their calmness, perseverance, rigor, and well-trained were all unmatched by the French soldiers who had been tossed by the Romantic reform for a long time. The reason why the French army was able to play a lower battle loss in street battles was due to the ubiquitous combination of black gun holes and cleverly laid mine traps in defensive battles; Now it's time to fight hard power, and its innate deficiencies are unreservedly reflected.

The German officers and soldiers who were on the front line, having lost contact with their superiors, spontaneously made the most correct decision to hold on and wait for help; In the rear of the German army, Sickert deployed troops after a tense analysis of the situation, forming a new force of reinforcements, like an anvil through the chaotic battlefield of constant firefighting. After a night of fierce fighting, the Germans, who had long been prepared for a French counterattack, stabilized the situation almost everywhere, and the French not only did not make any substantial progress, but suffered extremely heavy casualties, and their ability to defend the remaining areas was sharply reduced. When the waning moon was hidden, the morning light appeared, and after receiving the battle reports from the various armies in the early morning, the heart of the French city defense commander Gallieni was already bitter, frustrated, grief, and lost; This most crucial counterattack was declared a failure, and the fall of Paris was almost irreversible!

In the early morning of the same day, the Germans launched a general assault on the last entrenched city of the French army. Since the wind direction suitable for poison gas attacks has changed, Qingying has saved these weapons of mass destruction and turned to conventional weapons to attack the city. German artillery roared day and night, and giant airships bombed back and forth, raining countless explosives into the city.

Former apartments, shopping malls, cinemas and other buildings collapsed in the huge red flames that burst out on them; The dust was rolling and the debris was scattered, and its momentum was like a huge wave crashing and the mountains crumbling. The French officers and soldiers were either hit by the collapsed cement beams and slabs, and their bones were broken and tendons broken, becoming a miserable pile of blurred flesh and blood; or in all kinds of fragments that were scattered throughout the body, bleeding all over the ground, and dying on the spot; Or make a hasty retreat from the defensive building and flee to the rear. At present, there are not many buildings left in the city where the French army is entrenched, so the Germans decided to use artillery fire to open the way, and directly use the most primitive force to eliminate a qiē qiaojin.

The deafening explosions roared and thundered. After three days of fire preparation, the area where the French troops were located had almost become a scorched earth. All the buildings were either completely shattered and collapsed in ruins, or they were destroyed to the point that the walls were broken and destroyed, and only half of the ruins were left like the ancient Roman beast arena. Under the bombardment and ploughing of 100,000 shells and thousands of tons of bombs, the Germans almost forcibly turned the street battles lined with buildings into vertical and horizontal field battles; They stepped on countless fragments of buildings, large and small, and launched a final charge against the French army defending Paris.

At this time, Gallieri still had more than 100,000 troops in his hands, but the French officers and soldiers who had experienced a series of bloody battles were already exhausted, and the German gas warfare caused widespread fear and pessimism. With almost no danger to defend, Gallieni was forced to withdraw from Paris to preserve a spark of strength for the French army. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you to the book friend Longcheng Xiaoyi, the monthly ticket of the breath of the soul, the update ticket support of the pigeon model, and the reward of zhouyu1976~~~ But the 18 chapter update ticket can only be seen and not eaten