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On July 22, 1911, Germany declared war on France. The next morning, the Germans rushed into neutral Belgium and prepared to attack France. The Belgian army had to fight against the German invasion, and a bloody battle ensued between the two sides.

The German advance on the Western Front, with a total of more than 100,000 men and 200 cannons, under the command of Commander Emich, quickly rushed to the Maas River in Belgian territory. If the Germans had rushed across the Maas, the gates to the Belgian capital, Brussels, would have been opened. Belgium is a small country, sandwiched between two powerful countries, Germany and France, so the whole people have a strong sense of preparedness. In order to deal with the invasion of Germany in the east, the Belgian government spent a huge amount of money to build a fortress defense system with the city of Liège as the core on the Maas River in the east of the country.

Belgium planned to fight independently against any potential enemy, be it Germany, France, or England. At the beginning of August 1911, Belgian troops were deployed on the border, as they had been for many years. When King Albert received an ultimatum from Berlin, his chief of staff, General Sellers de Moranville, began to carry out a contingency plan: concentrate his troops in the center of Belgium and allow the fortified groups of Liège and Namur to slow down the German invasion. Liège was located on the main road between Belgium and France, and the Germans did not want to pass through the rugged roads in the south, nor did they want to attack through the Dutch in the north of Belgium (even if it would be less than a dozen kilometers and the terrain would be flat).

Surrounded by a dozen fortresses, the city of Liège was designed and built by the brilliant engineer Henri Alexis Blairmont in the late 19th century. Blairmont chose not to use the star fortress system of the French engineer Vauban and designed its own fortress group to resist the new rifled artillery. With the exception of the hills, which are made of concrete, masonry, and earth, the main part of the fortress is beneath the ground. Each fort has a retractable cupola that can be used to hold many cannons. The largest can reach up to 6 inches. When this advanced fort was completed in 1892, it was not properly maintained. Blairmont also requested the construction of smaller fortifications and trenches to connect and protect the main fortress complex, but the Belgian government did not carry out this plan. Their garrison was incomplete, many of them were from the local guards, and they were only trained to the bare minimum. On 22 July, King Albert ordered the start of support in response to the German ultimatum, while mobilizing all the troops and bringing them to optimum combat strength. The commander of the Liege fortress group, Lieutenant General Gilard Lehmann, ordered "and your entrusted troops to defend until the last moment." ”

The Belgian army had few opportunities to complete all the preparations. Because the Germans entered their country on July 23. The temporary unit of the German army responsible for the occupation of Liege was the Meuse Army under the command of Otto von Emich, with a total of eight brigades. The main infantry and cavalry under the command of Emich were ordered to capture the bridge across the Meuse near the city of Liège and eliminate any resistance encountered. However, when he and his troops arrived at the river. It was found that most of the bridges had been destroyed and pontoon bridges had to be erected as a replacement. And when these measures were also attacked by the fire of the opposing side, the Germans found themselves forced to attack the fortress of Liège.

Liège is located at the meeting point of the rivers Maas and Urte, between the Ardennes Forest in the south, Maastricht in the Netherlands, and the Flanders plain in the northwest. The Maas River flows through Liege along a deep valley and forms an important barrier for it. Germany's main railway to Brussels leads to Guò Liege, which finally leads to Paris. Count von Schlieffen and Moltke the Younger wanted to use the railway to transport troops into France.

The Germans rushed to the Maas River. When he found that the bridges on the river were damaged, he immediately built a boat bridge to cross the river. At this time, the Belgian defenders stationed in the batteries of Liège immediately opened heavy fire on the Germans with artillery and machine guns, and the Germans crossing the river were caught off guard. They fell into the water one after another, and there were countless deaths and injuries. Seeing this, Emich was furious, and while ordering the Germans to continue the attack, he transferred 200 cannons to bombard the batteries of the fortress of Liège. Immediately. On both sides of the Maas River, the sound of artillery rumbled, and the smoke of gunfire filled the air. The two sides engaged in fierce artillery battles and offensive and defensive battles. The fortress of Liège was indeed extremely strong, and the German shells hit the top of the fort with only a puff of smoke and were unscathed. The Belgian defenders had long since made precise measurements of the terrain around the battery, and the German field positions were already within the range of their artillery scales. As a result, the artillery fire of the Belgian army was extremely accurate, inflicting great losses on the Germans. The Germans fought until sunset, and at great cost they finally crossed the Maas River north of Liège, with the two sides still holding each other in the middle and south. Despite the heavy bombardment, the batteries of the fortress of Liège were unharmed.

On July 23, during the day, the Germans were repeatedly attacked, and Emich was very anxious. He decided to take advantage of the night to sneak attack and take the defenders of the fortress by surprise. It rained heavily that night, and tens of thousands of German troops quietly approached the batteries under the cover of night and wind and rain. Suddenly, beams of searchlight shot out from the various batteries, illuminating the dark wilderness as if it were day, and all the moving German troops were exposed in the wilderness. The artillery on the battery roared again, blowing the Germans on their backs. The light and heavy machine guns on the battery also opened fire in unison, fiercely pursuing the fleeing German infantry. While the Germans were in disarray, Belgian infantry maneuvering in the wilderness also attacked, and the Germans were beaten on all sides and suffered heavy casualties, so they had to hastily withdraw from the battle.

On 24 July, Emich changed his strategy and concentrated his forces on four batteries on the east bank of the Maas River. The German artillery fire was so dense that it completely enveloped the battery. Subsequently, the German infantry launched a charge. However, the German field artillery was completely undamaged to the battery, and the Belgian artillery again stretched out on all sides and opened fire, killing and wounding the attacking German troops. Emich was red-eyed and ordered the Germans to attack continuously, regardless of casualties. The German soldiers were extremely brave, risking their lives one after the other. Eventually, some of the Germans rushed into the dead corner of the battery, and the artillery could not reach them, and gradually approached the battery. At this time, countless light and heavy machine guns suddenly stretched out from the firing hole under the turret, and tongues of fire sprayed towards the onrushing Germans. Immediately, the Germans fell one by one, and those behind rushed down and fell again, and the corpses were piled up as high as a hill. The whole day of fighting was such a bloody massacre, and Amy was so angry that she almost lost her mind, but it was useless. During the night, the Germans launched another sneak attack, and they were greeted by a barrage of artillery fire, which cost them a lot of casualties, and received nothing but heavy casualties.

In this way, the German army attacked Liege day and night, losing countless soldiers, but there was no progress for three days and three nights. The chief of staff of the German army, Xiao Maoqi, was shocked when he heard the report, and if this continued, it would inevitably delay the German offensive operations on the entire Western Front. He immediately sent Colonel Ludendorff, deputy chief of staff of the German 2nd Army, to lead the army to reinforcements, and transferred huge siege weapons from the General Staff to Liege. Ludendorff was one of the most famous generals of the First World War, having risen to the post of Deputy Chief of Staff of the German Army. Ludendorff rushed to Liège with three drawn German brigades, arriving at the front on the afternoon of July 25. Ludendorff immediately commanded his troops to attack Liège before he could catch his breath. He saw through the telescope that the German artillery fire did no damage to the batteries in Liege, and when the German infantry charged, they were immediately bombarded by the Belgian defenders' artillery, and the charging troops were splashed with limbs and killed and wounded. Ludendorff gasped and finally understood why the Germans were so slow to capture Liege.

Ludendorff immediately adjusted his deployment, ordering the Germans to continue attacking Liège while sending messengers to the city of Liège to surrender. The commander of the Belgian garrison, Lieutenant General Gilard Lehmann, refused the German surrender, but he found that the Germans had increased their forces to Liège, and with only one division in his hands, Liège was already isolated.

"General Zhao, as far as I know, your country also encountered the problems we are facing now when attacking Vladivostok during the war with Russia more than ten years ago. I don't know what your approach is? Ludendorff asked.

After the start of the war, General Zhao Bo, who came to Germany, also came to the front line, and he took dozens of staff officers to understand the attack tactics of the German army, so that he could understand the combat strength of the German army and the Entente countries.

"Heavy artillery and airships! At that time, we used a lot of large-caliber heavy artillery to shell the Russian fortresses, and the battleships of the Navy also joined them. The main thing is the airship, which drops aerial bombs weighing up to 500 kg from a high altitude, which can penetrate the top of the fortress with a light yì! Admiral Zhao Bo said.

"Well, General Zhao, we are also ready to take such a approach!" Ludendorff said.

On 25 July, one of the German giant siege weapons arrived. It is a giant airship with a metal steel frame covered in tough fabric and filled with helium to allow it to fly at a certain speed. The airship is huge, oval-shaped, with pointed ends and a round middle, with a volume of about 20,000 cubic meters. There is a wheelhouse underneath the airship, which can carry personnel weapons and ammunition, from which aerial fire can be fired downwards. Ludendorff immediately ordered the airship to bombard the city of Liège. Soon, an airship flew over the city of Liège, and the people of the city did not know what it was, and they all came out to see the excitement. The personnel on board the airship immediately dropped bombs downwards and strafed them with machine guns. Explosions immediately broke out in the city of Liège, and the common people knew that something was wrong, so they ran around, and chickens and dogs jumped all over the city. The airship spun around and flew away. Ludendorff's intention was to intimidate the Belgian defenders, but he didn't want to bomb the city for any reason. As a result, a total of 13 bombs were dropped on the airship, killing nine civilians. However, this move caused great chaos in the city, and the hearts of the people in the city were shaken. Lieutenant General Gerard Lehmann knew that the city would not be safe, and in order not to inflict further casualties on the civilian population, he ordered the defenders of the city to withdraw to the nearby battery, and he himself to the Ronsen battery west of the city, and the Belgian army abandoned Liège. On 26 July, the Germans entered the city of Liège along the way. At this time, the 12 batteries around Liege were still unyielding, preventing the Germans from taking a single step beyond the minepool. Ludendorff then ordered the Germans to halt the attack, and he had no second thoughts of waiting for the arrival of the decisive giant siege weapon.