At night, even at a distance of more than ten kilometers, people could still see the huge artillery group in the German artillery position opposite. The brilliance of a salvo of thousands of artillery pieces is something that no one can ignore.

What should not be overlooked is the violent explosion and thunderous sound of the shells as they fall to the ground with a sharp whizz.

On this battlefield, dozens of shells fell almost every second, pillars of dust were lifted, the earth trembled, everything was like the end of the world, and the only thing the French soldiers hiding in the fortifications could do was to pray to the god of Lu...

Praying for God's blessing...

However, perhaps because the Germans on the other side also believe in God, or maybe God is lazy today, from time to time a shell will fall into the trench, or even hit the fortifications directly, sending all the French hiding inside to the western sky...

By the time this hellish shelling was over, the French troops on the defensive line had suffered heavy casualties, and the entire defensive line was riddled with holes...

And after surviving the shelling of the Germans, the next thing they had to face was the charge launched by the Germans...

When Cai Ye arrived at Verdun with the expeditionary force, he saw such a scene.

In the face of the strong strength of the Germans, the French had completely lost the courage to fight back, and the only thing they could do was to organize the strength of the third line of defense to resist. However, the Germans' advantage in firepower was too great, and under the heavy shelling, the French had already suffered heavy casualties, not to mention that the Germans still had an advantage in troops, and Cai Ye had just arrived. News of the loss of the line of defense has already come from the front ...

Glancing through the binoculars at the third line of defense, which had fallen into the hands of the Germans, and the French soldiers who were withdrawing from the line, Cai glanced at Leonard, who was standing beside him.

"So what we have in our hands now. Only the last line of defense remains? ”

"That's pretty much it," Leonard said with a wry smile on his face. At this moment, he could not put on the arrogant appearance of a French general in front of Cai Gong, after all, the situation here still needs to be saved by these Chinese in front of him, and the other party is not a colonial army that he reprimands, but a friendly army in the same position as them in name. "The Germans are so firepowered, and the heavy artillery we're going to have champagne all the time we're going to have, plus they're inferior in numbers. Ordinary fortifications alone could not stop the Germans from attacking at all..."

As long as he thought of the heavy artillery that was taken away under Xia Fei's orders, Leonard couldn't help but grit his teeth. If it weren't for the redeployment of all the heavy artillery and troops in the fortress, the defenses here would not have been so weak. It is even less likely that the front line will fall into a situation of being passively beaten, nor will it be possible to stage a situation in which three lines of defense are lost in a single day.

After witnessing the firepower of the Germans, Cai Yi bowed slightly.

If you can block it, you can't stop it, not to mention it for the time being, such a strong firepower. The casualties are certainly not small. So he can't say much about the French. Fortunately, although the French lost three lines of defense in a row in one day, at least the last and most critical one was not lost, otherwise even Cai Ye couldn't do anything, after all, it was difficult for a Qiao woman to cook without rice, but now...

At least some certainty...

Hold on here...

Bowing his head and groaning, Cai Ye said to Leonard. "General Leonard, I have an idea of the general situation. Please send some officers to familiarize ourselves with the situation of the defensive line, and we will take care of the rest. Your men will withdraw and rest first, and then talk about it when needed..."Judging from what I have just seen, it is clear that the troops of the fortress are no longer suitable for continuing the battle, and if they want to use it, they must first withdraw and rest.

However, although the expeditionary force had been training in Saint-Menud for some time, it was the first time he had come to Verdun, and he was not familiar with the situation here, and he did not know how to use the facilities in the Dumont and Suvel batteries, and someone had to lead the way, so he hoped that Leonard would send some people out.

Cai's request was reasonable, and Leonard had no reason to refuse. And at this moment, what Leonard wants to hear most is probably that Cai Ye asked him to lead people to withdraw.

So Leonard nodded directly almost without hesitation. "No problem, I'll arrange for someone...", Leonard saluted Cai Ye before turning around and leaving the headquarters.

Although there are many people in the French army who look down on these expeditionary forces from China, in any case, Cai Ye is a general after all, and Leonard is only a lieutenant general and the commander of the entire Verdun area, so Leonard naturally cannot be rude.

At the same time, Cai Ye, who was left in the command headquarters, also raised his head to Liu Guangyuan and the others after groaning for a while.

"Now I'm going to announce the battle plan......... In fact, there is nothing to announce, at the moment we only have the last line of defense available..."Cai Ye said for a moment before continuing. "We have already understood the situation of the Verdun fortress before coming, the fourth line of defense is actually two Verdun fortress battery belts and the middle permanent fortification belt, which are 2~3 kilometers apart, a total of 12 batteries and 30 intermediate permanent fortifications covered by ditches, cliffs and barbed wire, which are the main defensive positions in the entire fortification area, among which the Dumont battery in the outer defense belt and the Suvel battery in the second line are the most important, and our task is to hold here..."

"The problem now is that the 34th and 35th Divisions are newly formed units, which have not yet experienced actual combat, and even the training has not been completed, so they are directly thrown to the front line......... We have all seen the artillery fire of the Germans just now, and they may not be able to hold it, and if the third division is deployed on the defense line alone, in case of an emergency, we will have no reliable reserves in our hands, so I decided that each of the three divisions will send a brigade to deploy on the defense line, and then the two brigades of the 34th Division and the 35th Division will take turns to replace them, accumulate actual combat experience, and grow up in actual combat as soon as possible, while the third division exists as a reserve..." "How's that, no comment?"

"No..."Xiang Xinyuan and the others shook their heads.

If you change it to the usual situation. Xiang Xinyuan and they must argue with Cai Yi, after all, they are the commanders of the troops, and Cai Yi's words just now clearly show that they do not trust the combat effectiveness of the 34th and 35th Divisions. The problem is that the offensive of the Germans, they have also seen. It was very violent, especially in terms of artillery fire, as Cai said, their troops had not yet experienced actual combat, and even the training was still somewhat incomplete.

With an offensive of the magnitude just now, it's hard to say whether they can hold out.

It's best to survive, but what if you don't...

It's not just embarrassing. And it is likely to affect the whole situation of the battle ...

What's more, all the people present are their own people, and they are very clear about the combat effectiveness of each other's troops, and there are no outsiders at the moment. There is simply no need to argue. And arguing in such a situation can easily give the impression of being indiscriminate.

Seeing that everyone agreed, Cai Yi nodded with satisfaction.

"In that case, let's get started..."

Just like Cai Yi said. There really is nothing to announce. After all, all the current heavy equipment has been left behind. In other words, the only thing to do was to throw everyone into the trenches and wait for the Germans to attack.

It's just that the situation of the expeditionary force is somewhat special, two of the three divisions are newly formed, and if they are blindly thrown into it......... Considering the firepower shown by the Germans just now, Cai was a little worried about whether they would be able to withstand it, and if they were used as reserves, it was difficult to say whether they would be able to deal with them in time in case of an emergency.

So there is only one choice for Cai Yi. That is, the two newly formed divisions were put into only one brigade, leaving one brigade for rotation and accumulation of combat experience—————— which Pétain had also done. And the purpose is almost the same, except that Petain has much more troops in his hands than in Cai Yi's hands now, so there is no need to play the rotation of two brigades at all.

However, it is precisely because of this that by the middle of the Battle of Verdun, almost 70% of the French troops in Verdun had been on the battlefield, while only 20% of the Germans on the opposite side had been on the battlefield, and because of the psychological impact of the cruelty of the war (all of which were named meat grinders), it almost led to the French army mutiny. Later, the French soldiers refused to engage in offensive battles, but only defended themselves in the trenches.

Fortunately, this kind of thing is too strange in the eyes of the Chinese, so Cai Gong doesn't have to worry...

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While the French were in the trenches thanking God for saving themselves from being killed by shells, the French, who had withdrawn to the fourth line of defense, also received the news of the arrival of reinforcements.

This news naturally made the French very excited, but what excited them the most was that the Chinese replaced them with this order.

The French in the fortifications were almost handing over the line of defense with the expeditionary force as fast as they could in their lives, and at the time of the handover, the French looked at the expeditionary force with a hint of gratitude and a hint of suspicion...

The French are naturally very grateful to be able to get out of hell.

But in the same way, they were a little skeptical about the combat effectiveness of the expeditionary force, after all, in the impression of the French, the Chinese army always seemed to be very ......... Reliable? And they've just gone through a hellish baptism of cannonballs.

Many French people have the idea in their hearts that the German offensive will be difficult for even them to withstand, let alone these Chinese...

For this reason, some French officers even suggested that some troops should be left on the front line, so that even if the Chinese on the line were scared away, they could continue to climb up.

This is probably not long after the Germans launched the offensive, and the morale of the French has not completely collapsed, and if it is replaced by more than two months, I am afraid that things will have to change for a different time.

Naturally, many people in the expeditionary force did not like the distrust of the French. But in the end, Cai Ye agreed, not because he was also worried about the ability of the expeditionary force, but...

"Just let these French people see how we fight, and let us use the facts to shut up these French people..."

Just one sentence made everyone agree to this matter...

Not long after the French withdrew from the line, a French force of more than 3,000 men was soon re-engaged in the line. As mentioned earlier, the morale of the French had not completely collapsed at this time, so there was no opposition from the French soldiers, and of course, it was inevitable to greet the person who gave the order...

As a result, on the fourth line of defense, that is, the last line of defense, there was a scene of Chinese and French troops fighting together.

However, when fighting together, the French were surprised to find that the Chinese next to them seemed to be better equipped than them, especially in the number of light and heavy machine guns, almost every squad had a light machine gun, and the number of heavy machine guns was also very large...

Moreover, these soldiers are completely different from the opium ghosts they imagined, not only have strong bodies, but also have a clean appearance and high morale. If it weren't for the slight nervousness in their expressions, any general would have rated these soldiers at least ten points.

Even though the expeditionary force lost some points because of their nervous looks, looking at these colleagues from all the way from Asia, the French in the trenches had more confidence in holding Verdun.

————————————————————

Just when Cai Ye and the expeditionary force were preparing to fight the Germans in Verdun, the eyes of the whole world were also diverted because of what happened here.

For the Entente, if Verdun was captured by the Germans, the situation on the entire Western Front could be reversed.

As for the Allies, if they were able to capture Verdun, whether they would consume 'the last drop of French blood' there, or drive straight in, it would no longer be a problem to attack Paris again, and perhaps even end the damned war that had been going on for two years ahead of schedule.

Even the United States, which has a neutral attitude, has shifted its attention, not to mention China, which has already intervened in this war and even become the protagonist of the war.

Not long after Cai Ye took command of the area around Verdun, the military attachés of Britain, France, and other countries in China had already come to the door to brief Jiang Baili, Yan Shao, and others on the specific situation of Verdun at the Ministry of National Defense.

Paris and London also sent a telegram to Yan Shao, hoping that Yan Shao would cheer up the expeditionary force, ensure that the expeditionary force could hold out in Verdun for at least three days, and ensure the safety of Verdun before the arrival of subsequent reinforcements...

Needless to say, Yan Shao had already done this.

After all, if the expeditionary force can hold Verdun, not to mention the political bonus points for the time being, with this battle, China's position in the Entente camp will also be greatly improved, and may even surpass Japan.

And with these merits, Yan Shao could also ask for more things from the Entente.

Say...

Drive all the hellish foreign warships out of the Yangtze River...

In any case, after a whole day, almost the entire world was muttering three words.

Verdun...

At this moment, it almost became the center of the world...

And Cai Ye and the expeditionary force have become the protagonists on this stage... (To be continued......)