The moon and stars are scarce, and the night birds fly high. The command post of the German Fifth Army in Tionville was already a scene of jubilation at the moment. The German staff officers who came in and out were all smiling and talking about the smooth offensive that had been launched this afternoon, and even Sickert was infected by the atmosphere, and his thin face showed a slightly relaxed expression.

An hour earlier, a battle had been brought from the front line from the north of Lorraine. The German 6th officers and men, commanded by Lieutenant General Russell, advanced a full six kilometers in the afternoon and evening battles; Not only did they completely capture the first line of French trench defense, but they also knocked a breach in their core defense. During the battle, the Germans killed or captured nearly 5,000 French officers and soldiers, destroyed more than 30 French artillery pieces of various types, and their own losses were only more than 2,000. If it weren't for the desperate resistance of the French troops in the trenches, the German casualties would have been reduced by more than half!

Although the strange situation of the French counteroffensive in Lorraine in the north took the German command by surprise; But Russell's hard-enough thunderous punch in the front still smashed the obstacle that stood in the way of the German offensive without any suspense. The crappy defensive positions of the two French divisions, which had been hastily constructed, were vulnerable to the attack of the main German army, equipped with airboats, aircraft, heavy artillery and tanks. The huge power generated by the concentrated use of technical forces made Qingying, the initiator, a little unexpected; At this rate, his southern flank assault army will be able to completely crush the two French divisions in front of him before sunset tomorrow, and then advance quickly!

"According to the information sent back by the last reconnaissance post of the airship unit today, the main force of the French army, which is stationed in Montmedy, two divisions of Moyo, has begun to move towards the southern front. Presently. Except for the troops still stationed in Longwei. The entire strength of the French Third Army was concentrated in the southern theater of operations north of the province of Lorraine. Sickert looked at the small red, white and blue flags on the sand table that represented the French troops. "Although it is not clear whether this French army will resist our advance head-on or launch a counterattack on our flank, for us, none of this will prevent our army from completely outflanking and annihilating the main French army near the city of Visolange. ”

Qingying said with a smile on the corner of her mouth: "I have to say that the reaction of the French is quite fast. Soon after Russell's attack, they immediately sensed that something was going on and began to make immediate arrangements in an attempt to use this force to block our advance. But their efforts were doomed to be in vain. At the speed at which we are advancing. This French legion did not have time to build trenches to hold on, and it would directly face the front of our troops; And in a frontal field battle, it will be impossible for the French to stop the advance of our southern army group! ”

For Qingying's confident performance, although the strict and silent Sickert was a little uncomfortable, but in his heart, he also quite agreed with Qingying's words. In order to ensure that the main force of the French army could be successfully annihilated at the foot of the Ardennes, the German Fifth Army gathered two-thirds of its terrorist forces on the southern flank; Coupled with the full-map reconnaissance and thunderous bombardment of a large number of air forces, its combat power is by no means matched by any single French regiment. Therefore, this time, even the French army sent nearly a corps of troops to reinforce their Lorraine line. But judging by the might of the German offensive today, the French could only hold off their advance for a day in the field. And for the German army, which was already far ahead of expectations. That's a perfectly bearable delay deadline!

Qing Ying looked at Sickert beside him and said, "Hans, how is the situation of the 135th Division, which is tasked with luring the enemy?" With more than 90,000 French troops in front of them, the pressure was not insignificant. ”

"Your Highness, General Ollie has halted his assault on the city of Visorang and retreated his main forces to the field and turned to the defense. At present, their casualties are around 3,000, and there is still room to hold on. Sictor groaned for a moment, and then replied, "But what is surprising is that, according to the battle report sent back from the front, the main force of the 80,000 French troops that arrived from Longwei the day before yesterday did not seem to attack with all their strength. After a massive assault on our out-of-town defenses was repulsed, they did not come again, choosing instead to place the breach in the city, and engage in a slow-advancing house-to-house battle with our small forces. ”

Qingying's eyes froze, and the inexplicable feeling of uneasiness in her heart suddenly surged up again; He frowned, and said in a deep voice: "What about the reconnaissance report of the airship unit, what kind of trick are the French playing?" Sickert said: "There was a thunderstorm in the area of Visoland today, and the airship did not carry out normal reconnaissance and patrol operations as usual. What is certain, however, is that the main force of the French army was not fully exhausted in today's attack; The clearest evidence of this is that they launched only one attack on our positions for less than three hours. ”

Qingying nodded silently when she heard this, and her mind began to calculate rapidly.

From a purely military point of view, the failure of the French offensive could have been due to a number of reasons: poor logistics, hesitation on the part of the commanding officers, fear of a repeat of the bloody massacre of Salbul, or attempts to make a detour to create a large encirclement...... And so on and so forth. However, after some analysis, Qingying rejected that it was the cause of the problems within the French army. The French were about to launch an offensive in the Ardennes area, and Luff, the veteran, must have been fully prepared for this; The French army could not have lacked material preparation and the will to attack, let alone so easily withdraw its sharp sword, which had been unsheathed. And if the French army wants to make a detour to encircle the 135th Division, then the lookout post set up by the German army on the Arden Mountain can also be quickly detected!

Qingying silently stared at the wide sand table in front of him, on which every road near Visoland was clearly outlined in the foothills of Mount Arden. One action after another that might be taken by the French came to his mind, and after a short time he shook his head and vetoed them one by one. There was a faint point of light in his mind, as if it could be reached, but it was as merciless as the cold water and melons and fruits in front of Tantalus's eyes; Whenever Qingying's mind gradually approached and wanted to see it clearly, it would flicker and flee with light.

"Hans, how many mobile forces do we have left?" Qingying froze and asked.

"Returning to Your Highness, our army has spilled almost all of its strength at present, and the only troops still stationed in Tionville are two reserve infantry regiments and your faithful guard battalion." Sickert replied softly, with a hint of exhortation in his words, "Your Highness, allow me to say that the mobile forces in our hands are really too weak. In the current situation where the Left Wing Assault Corps has demonstrated its great power and is capable of exceeding the set tasks of our army, I hope that Your Highness, you will be able to gather some of your troops back. Whether it is to reinforce the 135th Division in the foothills of the Arden Mountain as a decoy mission, or to deal with other unknown contingencies, it is better than what we can do now. ”

Qingying's eyes had a complicated expression, as if he was hesitating in Schlieffen's bold reinforcement to flank the troops, and Moltke's style of being too bold. In the present situation, the weakening of the assault force was undoubtedly a rather untimely option, after all, the French army had another corps to go to the defensive front; However, that uneasy feeling always hovered in Qingying's heart, lingering, and made him want to choose Sickert's proposal in Moltke's hesitation. After a while, he finally let out a slow breath and said, "Then let the 27th Infantry Regiment come back first." There are still a large number of enemy forces in front of the assault force, and their ability to achieve the predetermined goal is the key to this battle. ”

Sickert's brow twitched slightly. The 27th Infantry Regiment was the first unit to arrive at the front by train only last week, and more than seventy percent of the regiment's soldiers were newly mobilized from the reserves, and their combat effectiveness was not much higher than that of the two reserve infantry regiments left behind at the headquarters. Qing Ying's consideration of reassigning this unit to reduce the logistical pressure on the assault force was obviously higher than increasing the strength of the reserve mobile force. Sickert's lips twitched, and at last he fell silent, not admonishing him again. At present, the battle situation in the middle has just begun, and hundreds of thousands of German and French troops are fighting each other, and the blood is beginning to appear; When the situation becomes clearer, it is not too late to make changes.

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The rugged, misty peaks, and towering Ardennes mountains are immersed in the vast night, jagged and staggered, and the black shadows are longing, like sleeping beasts and ghosts.

In the deep and dark deserted valley where giant trees stand and foliage are dense, countless dark figures are struggling to move forward one foot at a time. They clasped the palms of their robes with one hand, and grabbed the reins of their horses with the other, and from time to time people and horses were tripped by the vines and stones that suddenly sprouted, causing a slight commotion.

At the back of the line, the wheels were sparkling and crowded. Countless black shadows surrounded the steel objects dragged by horses, struggling to maintain their balance between the left and right. These guys, whom the soldiers were usually proud of, have now become the biggest obstacle to their progress; Occasionally, there are narrow and rugged road sections, which make the soldiers have a headache for these iron lumps weighing more than a ton. The snorts of the horses with their lips tied, and the heavy gasps of the soldiers echoed faintly over the entire valley. (To be continued......)

PS: Recently, the number of subscriptions has decreased by almost half compared with last month, and the author's heart is like falling into an ice cellar (╯_╰)