The black clouds rolled, covering the entire sky in layers, and the sky and earth after the sunset quickly entered an endless dark night, and it was difficult to see any light. The large number of corpses lying in front of the German positions have also been hidden in this darkness, only the strong smell of blood in the air is still reminding people of what kind of brutal massacre took place here just now.

In the dimly lit front-line command post, Lieutenant Colonel Felix, with a thick bandage around his left arm, is being temporarily changed by a paramedic nurse. With the leisurely fall of white gauze, a hideous wound of flesh and blood was revealed, as terrifying as the lips of a demon. Feeling the sharp pain of the ointment applied to the wound, Felix was not only angry with the French, but also a trace of revenge happiness quietly surged in his heart.

In the daytime battle, the German defenders killed and wounded more than 4,000 French officers and men near Tionville; Combined with the previous defense of the two infantry regiments to delay the main French army, the losses of the French troops slaughtered from the Ardennes exceeded seven thousand. Although the total number of German casualties, prisoners, and missing was close to 4,000, the vast majority of these losses were inflicted by his 37th Infantry Regiment and others in their earlier hasty resistance, and the German casualties today were extremely low compared to the losses of the French. As long as there are no accidents, the Germans are fully capable of holding off the French attack under the city of Tionville with the advantage of machine guns and trenches!

"Lieutenant Colonel, did you hear anything?" In the dim light, one of the adjutant abruptly stopped what he was doing and whispered to Felix in an uncertain and hesitant tone.

Felix was slightly stunned. Then he began to listen intently to the movements around him. The night breeze blows. Bring the sound of German soldiers mending trenches and night owls chirping. In a dense slate of shovels piercing into the dirt. There was a faint sound of tuk tuk, the sound was rapid and dense, as if the dense rain was constantly hitting the lotus at the beginning of summer.

The sound of horses' hooves? Felix was surprised that his troops stationed near Tionville were all infantry, and although there were many horses and mules that dragged artillery and transported supplies, they were all scattered among the various armies, and there would never be the dense hoofing sound that was present in the current concentration. And the cavalry units of this side were all sent to the southern flank battlefield for a quick breakthrough, judging from the current situation. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will not summon them back for defense!

Felix listened intently for a moment, then suddenly shouted like a madman, "Flares, fire flares!" ”

"Whew!" With a crisp and sharp sound, a dazzling white light suddenly appeared in the air, shining brightly, illuminating the originally dark night as bright as day. Felix resisted the intense white light that made him extremely uncomfortable and looked ahead, only to see a large number of French infantry suddenly appear in front of the originally empty position; Under the sudden illumination of the blazing light of the flares, the advance of the French troops could not help but slow down for a moment......

"Shhh A German machine gun reacted first, spewing flames from its muzzle and firing fiercely at the French crowd in front. Bullet blasting. The sand and soil were splashed, and more than a dozen French officers and soldiers screamed and fell to the ground. Blood quickly spread beneath him. The roar of this machine gun broke the silence in the battlefield. The German soldiers, who had come to their senses, quickly began to fire at the French in front of them, and for a moment the entire night sky was filled with a whirlwind of bullets and a crisp and dense sound of gunfire.

Seeing that their own actions had been exposed, the French army quickly turned from a quiet infiltration to a fierce attack. A large number of cuirassiers, armed with sabers, roared and galloped, galloping at the front. Seeing such a large target rushing towards them one after another, the German machine gunners showed no mercy to their subordinates; With the trigger pulled, the Maxim machine gun quickly devoured the chain of 250 rounds at a rate of 8 rounds per second, pouring a deadly rain of bullets on the attacking French cavalry. For a while, a large number of war horses neighed and fell to the ground, the sand was rolling, and the knights on horseback were either shot through the chest, or fell heavily to the ground, and their bones were broken. Under this stormy rain of machine-gun bullets, not a single French cavalry was able to form a breakthrough on the battlefield.

Although in the American Civil War half a century ago, General Morgan of the Confederate used a dense rifle salvo fire to teach the Northern cavalry who relied on the advantage of the saber; Although a large number of Russian Cossack cavalry had been beaten to the ground in the face of Japanese rifle volleys in the Russo-Japanese War nine years earlier, up to now, with the exception of the German Army, which was aware of the enormous power of machine guns, all countries still believed that the sab-unsheathed cavalry was the key to the outcome of the battle. A British observer in the Russo-Japanese War, later Ian? General Hamilton's field report to his army declared that if the cavalry encountered machine guns in the trenches, their only role was to dismount and cook for the infantry. Such rhetoric made the British Army top brass wonder if Hamilton, who had spent several months in the Far East, had been devastated by the constant fighting on the front. A War Department officer said in a conversation with the crowd: "...... There was no point in discussing this battlefield report, and poor Mr. Hamilton was delirious. ”

This was true of the British Army, let alone the French Army, which advocated a desperate attack. In order to capture Tionville in one fell swoop, Lüf attached a division of cavalry to this surprise attack force that had suddenly emerged from the Ardennes forest; However, this unit could not play any role in the face of the German trench lines, and could only become the best target for the German machine guns. In the previous battle of the foothills, the French cavalry had been beaten by German machine guns, and the blood flowed like a river; It was only because of their absolute superiority in numbers and the effective coordination of artillery fire that they rushed all the way to the city of Theonville. And when the German army built a perfect defensive line, the disadvantages of cavalry, a service that was behind the times, became unmistakable; After a fierce battle for a long time, the corpses of the French cavalry piled up, and the dying war horses twitched and struggled in a pool of blood, and their painful and poignant eyes seemed so worrying.

Artillery fire roared and exploded over German positions. Compared to the tragedy of the French cavalry, their infantry raids were extremely powerful. With the cover roar of 75-mm cannons, the French infantry, sometimes prostrate on the ground, sometimes rushing forward, braved the rain of German bullets and advanced towards the German positions in cascading ground. Despite the sporadic flares as a supplement, there was a huge difference between night and daytime, and the German officers and men were far less powerful against the French infantry than in the daylight. After a while, the red-blue waves gradually rushed to the German position with the corpses of the robes; Dozens of German soldiers without the cover of the breastwork were slammed out in the dense rifle firing room. After a series of dense grenade explosions, the French officers and soldiers in some sections jumped into the first line of German trenches as if they were in a battle in the foothills under the attraction and hatred of night, artillery fire and their own cavalry, and there were several loopholes and gaps in the originally tight trench defense line of the German army!

Seeing this scene, Felix couldn't help but be angry. His own 37th Infantry Regiment was defeated by the French after breaking through the first line of trench defense with the tactics of sea of men; At this moment, seeing the French army breaking through to their position again, the anger and anxiety in my heart surged up like a tide. Without hesitation, he immediately ordered the reserve troops deployed in the rear to attack immediately.

The gunfire was intense, and the explosions were like thunder; The red-purple and colorful light burst into the sky, mixed with the roars and howls of German and French officers and soldiers. The German fire in the rear turned around and began to fire fiercely at the gap that had been broken by the French; The German reserves were like shields and hammers, quickly gathering and engaging in close-range desperate battles with the French in the dense jagged trenches like cobwebs. The flames soared into the sky, the swords and swords, and the deep trenches became the burial places for countless officers and soldiers on both sides.

Finney stabbed two French soldiers to death in succession, his restless blood boiling in his chest, and his eyes were red. Seeing a red trouser emerge from the corner of the trench, he roared and stabbed the blood-stained bayonet forward with all his might. However, this French soldier was extremely perceptive, and instantly raised his gun to block; There was only a loud "click", and the body of the Lebel rifle was stabbed in half with a bayonet, and sawdust flew wildly. The French soldier's body was deflected, and with the help of this force, he instantly dodged, and he drew the knife dagger that he used to cut objects at his waist, and in a flash of silver light, he smeared straight at Finney's throat.

Due to the previous excessive force, the frightened Finney had no time to dodge, and could only tilt his body slightly. Blood shot out, and there was a sharp pain in his right shoulder that seemed to have been severed, and the pain made him fall out of his tears; The entire right arm seemed to disobey the call, and the rifle in his hand fell to the ground. In the face of the sharp dagger that stabbed again, Finney, who was in severe pain, did not dodge at all, and kicked the French soldier in the chest with all his might.

Blood splattered, Finney was once again impaled through the ribs by a dagger, and the French soldiers were kicked to the ground. Finney roared, picked up his rifle in his left hand and stabbed forward. However, Finney, who was wounded, was not as agile as he had just been; The French soldier dodged the fatal blow by rolling on a lazy donkey, then leaped up and stabbed the dagger into Finney's heart. A mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth, and his entire body slammed forward.

His eyes were red, blurry and invisible; There was an explosive pain in his chest, he couldn't breathe, and the strength around him was rapidly leaving. Dense footsteps could be heard faintly from the lost trench ahead, and as they got closer, Finichi, who still had a glimmer of consciousness, said that this was the sound of the French about to advance here. He trembled and reached out his left hand, felt the grenade on his waist, and then used the last strength of his body to pull open the bottom safety of one of them.

Seconds later, a thunderous explosion engulfed everything. (To be continued......)

PS: Chapter 3 can only be delivered after midnight