The German Eighth Army in East Prussia, taking advantage of the lack of Russian follow-up, immediately launched an attack to the south, and at the same time, Ivan Grodero's Hindenburg headquarters also began a new round of offensive, the German army's goal is very clear, even if Warsaw is sandwiched in the middle, once Warsaw is captured, it means that the Vistula River defense line is completely broken, and the German army can drive straight into Belarus.

However, this round of attack has caused the Germans to suffer heavy losses, the reason is very simple, the war defense artillery purchased from China has been equipped with the Russian army on a large scale at this time, and the armored vehicles that the Germans are most accustomed to have opened the way and suffered a heavy blow.

Tungsten alloy 25-mm armor-piercing shells could even punch a German tank from the front and then drill out from the back within 500 meters, and for a time the entire battlefield was full of destroyed tanks, and the Germans, lacking effective assault forces, soon had to retreat into the trenches again.

However, the German General Staff did not pay much attention to this, because the new bulldozer undercarriage system purchased from China had already been shipped to Germany, and the German industrial giants such as Krupp, Daimler, and Mann were desperately producing, adding heavy armor, machines, and even artillery to these bulldozers, and soon a real heavy tank would go off the production line and then crush the Russian defense.

However, during the stalemate between the two sides, the German air fleet was expanding at a frightening speed, although the large-scale bombing of London, because of the weather problems had actually stopped temporarily, but these air monsters loaded with ZHA shells did not stop wreaking, but their targets were replaced by Allied soldiers on various fronts. Vistula River, Marne, Saint-Quentin ... Almost all the soldiers of the Entente on top of their heads. They can be seen, especially the material warehouses, railway stations, and bridges behind the battle line, which are the key targets of German airships.

Especially on the Western Front, where the climate is relatively more suitable for airship activities, these terrifying aerial monsters have become a lingering nightmare over the heads of the French, and even under the protection of airplanes, they dare to go out in broad daylight and show off their majesty to the French unscrupulously.

In order to protect their own skies, the most effective means to deal with these air monsters at present, aircraft began to be put into the battlefield on a large scale. Also in order to protect the airship, the Germans also increased the number of aircraft, the war in the sky intensified, of course, the problem of over-propeller shooting was still not solved, but this did not affect the enthusiasm of the aircraft designers of this classical era, they racked their brains to work out various solutions, and soon the technical content of air combat began to soar.

One morning in the early winter of 1905, four huge airships were slowly heading south, beneath them. More than 20 small biplane planes marked with the Iron Cross were closely following, and this small aircraft produced by the Otto aircraft factory, which was currently the most important aircraft capable of air combat in the German army, had a Bofors air-cooled machine gun mounted above the wing. This arrangement avoids the propellers, but the disadvantage is that it is almost impossible to aim effectively, and the pilot has to be quite unlucky to hit the target. Of course, this is still an important improvement over the side shot of the rear seat pilot.

The goal of their trip was to bomb a French supply depot on the south bank of the Marne.

"French planes!" While he was flying, suddenly a pilot exclaimed. More than two dozen small black dots in the sky in the distance were rapidly growing larger, and Major Herman, who was in charge of escorting the convoy, immediately ordered to meet them, while the airships overhead continued to rise, but because they carried too many ZHA shells, it was difficult for these airships to rise to an absolutely safe distance.

The group led by Major Hermann soon encountered the oncoming French, and when he saw the appearance of his enemy, his eyes almost stared, this is a new type of aircraft that has never been seen before, unlike the current aircraft, these planes have propellers behind the buttocks, so that there is no need to think about the problem of nose shooting, as soon as the two sides entered the combat distance, the French immediately killed a German plane with accurate shooting, which made the hearts of those Germans can't help but cast a shadow.

But when it really started, Major Hermann was not so nervous, this kind of aircraft solved the problem of nose shooting, but the maneuverability seemed to have dropped significantly, although the German aircraft had good maneuverability, the shooting accuracy was extremely poor, the two sides went back and forth, but it was a tie in the sky, and the fierce air battle almost turned into a battle between the two sides. The French fighters pushing back the propellers writhed awkwardly and tried to aim their machine guns at the German planes, but the dexterous German planes were often able to shake off the French planes with a nice flip, and then quickly circled the rear and opened heavy fire. The machine guns mounted on the top of the head could not be aimed at all, and they could only follow the feeling, and the result was that most of the cases were in vain, and the two sides fought a funny battle for more than ten minutes, and they did not achieve anything, but on the airship overhead, those large-caliber machine guns also killed two French planes.

Just when the French were about to lose, suddenly a small plane flew from a distance, this is also a French plane, and it is also a common reconnaissance plane before, no one on either side cares too much, this kind of two-seater aircraft needs the rear seat pilot to attack the side and rear with a machine gun, everyone is on the same level. However, the next jaw-dropping scene happened, as soon as the small plane entered the battlefield, bullets immediately erupted from the nose position, and then a German plane in front of it was hit and fell headlong in flames.

Before Major Hermann came to his senses, the small plane immediately aimed at another German plane, still shooting from the nose, and obviously firing behind the propeller, but the bullet not only did not break the propeller, but easily broke the wings of the German plane again, and then the remaining German planes all panicked, and one by one they left their opponents behind, and all aimed at this uninvited guest, but unfortunately this cheapened the small plane, and then two more were beaten down.

At the same time, the French fighters pushing back the propellers pounced on the airships overhead, and the four airships immediately had to drop all their shells and climb to a higher altitude while blocking them with large-caliber machine guns, and the bombing mission was actually a failure.

Major Hermann, who was entangled with the small French plane, saw this situation, and was not in the mood to continue fighting, so he hurriedly beckoned the rest of his men to retreat, and at this moment he lost another plane, and the German pilots who suffered a heavy defeat had to turn around and flee one by one in despair, but the French behind were obviously not ready to let go of these invaders, and even those pushback propeller fighters, all of them were chasing after them, especially the strange plane that could shoot from the nose, and it was even more imposing, So far it had taken out five German planes, and two more in the pursuit.

Major Herman was a little desperate at this time, it was obvious that as long as this guy continued to chase, he might not be able to escape from its clutches, and wanted to stop and besiege it, but the surrounding pushback propeller planes would not let them have this opportunity, just when he was at a loss, suddenly the backseat pilot of a plane next to him let out an exclamation, he quickly turned around, but saw that the small plane was smoking and rushing to a river beach on the ground.

"What's going on?" He yelled at the pilot.

"I don't know, all of a sudden, it's smoking." The pilot also shouted.

Major Hermann was not interested in caring either, such a pie-in-the-sky good thing completely saved him and the remaining German planes, and when he glanced at the French plane that was making a forced landing on the ground, he was somewhat sorry to run for his life.

The appearance of the new aircraft of the French immediately alarmed the German high-level, and soon their spies in France sent back the news that the French pilot did not die after the forced landing, but only suffered a slight injury, and that France is currently fully promoting his new invention, which means that soon the Germans will have to face a large number of fighters that can shoot from the nose.

In order to avoid the loss of the airship, the German General Staff had to stop the bombing of France by the airship, and it was obvious that if the problem of nose shooting could not be solved, the German plane would be sent to death on the battlefield.

This news not only alarmed the top of the German army, but also the top generals of the Chinese military, and even Emperor Yang himself.

"They're not going to make a shot regulator too, are they?" Li Yuncong said suspiciously: The firing regulator is already the standard configuration of China's combat aircraft, of course, it is just a secret, and in the aviation training center in Shaanxi, those Chinese pilots who are playing with Yang Feng's version of the Hawker fighter are making fun of the air combat in Europe, and in their opinion, these ghosts are like a group of kindergarten children.

"Unlikely, if I'm not mistaken, the French method is very simple, just put a few armor plates on the propeller, so that if the bullet fired from the nose does not pass through the gap between the propellers, it will hit the armor steel plate and be directly bounced away, so that it not only protects the propeller but also allows the machine gun to shoot forward through the propeller, of course, the danger is that when the bullet bounces off, it may hit the plane itself, and even kill the pilot himself." Yang Feng said with a smile.

The French plane, which had somehow fallen on its own, had already provided good evidence, and Emperor Yang was immediately sure that they were not using a high-end product such as a firing regulator, but the simplest of armor plates on the propellers. (To be continued......)