Standing in the headquarters of the Suville Battery, Xiang Xinyuan lit a cigarette with a lighter, and then took a deep breath. Originally, Xiang Xinyuan was still a little displeased with the distrust of those French, after all, no one would like others to doubt him, especially when he thought that these French were still outsiders, but he was soon glad to have these French.

Because the expeditionary force only entered the line of defense, they were directed by those French. For example, how to dodge the Germans when they were shelling, how to arrange weapons such as machine guns so that they would not be destroyed in the shelling, etc.

Although the Third Division had participated in the Shandong Campaign, the artillery level of the Japanese was obviously not comparable with that of the Germans. Especially in terms of the caliber of artillery, most of the Germans' artillery caliber during the Shandong Campaign was about 75mm, and there were very few heavy guns that exceeded this caliber, and even fewer more than 150mm.

Small-caliber artillery will not have any problems as long as it does not hit directly, even if the shell falls next to the trench. However, a direct hit of a large-caliber artillery will inevitably result in no bones, but even if it just falls on the side, it may shock the defenders in the trenches and other fortifications to death.

Although the Third Division participated in the Shandong Campaign, it was a higher-level battlefield after all. As for the 34th Division and the 35th Division, not to mention, they were all reserves, and some of them were even soldiers during the Xinhai period, but they were only discharged because of the reorganization of the troops of the Nationalist Government.

Over here. They're complete recruit eggs...

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Xiang Xinyuan is not an open-minded learner, but he is a responsible soldier.

After understanding that the experience he learned on the battlefield was likely of little use here. Xiang Xinyuan quickly changed his position, and even sent someone to Cai Yi to inform him, and at the same time sent someone to contact the French, hoping that they could send some officers with more experience on the front line to teach some experience to the soldiers of the expeditionary force in the defense line.

Cai Ye attached great importance to this suggestion, and the French did not shirk it.

After all, the most important thing in the current situation is to hold Verdun, not watch the excitement from the sidelines—————— if Verdun is lost. The expeditionary force is certainly troublesome, but their trouble will only be greater.

Even if it can't hold on, the expeditionary force can withdraw to the country. No matter how strong the Germans were, they could not threaten China proper. But France was different, as long as Verdun was taken, the Germans could threaten Paris, and whether Paris fell or the Germans attacked the city again. This was a great blow to the morale of the entire Entente.

So Leonard sent 3,000 French soldiers to coordinate the defense. More than 100 junior officers were sent to impart to the expeditionary force some of the experiences they had learned over the past two years.

For example, how to arrange so that machine guns and other equipment have a better chance of surviving the shelling. Or how can you survive the shelling—————— although if a large-caliber shell hits directly or explodes next to it, the probability of death will be 100% no matter how you arrange it

The experience of the French on the battlefield was indeed useful, after all, it was what they had gained in two years of war. But there's also a problem, the problem of communication. After all, it's two countries, two different languages. It will definitely be difficult to communicate.

Moreover, in the huge France, it is normal for a few French people who love Chinese culture to learn Chinese, but if you want to make all these more than 100 officers understand Chinese, this seems to be a little too difficult.

Even if all the troops of France were to be found, I am afraid that they might not be able to find so many.

Fortunately, the Wehrmacht received a French-style military training and education, and many of the senior officers in the army had studied and served in France. Even if an officer in the army is not fluent in French and French, he has no problem communicating with a few simple words.

In fact, it was not only the expeditionary forces that benefited greatly from this exchange, but also the French.

Unlike Division C, which has been severely weakened and can only be used as cannon fodder, Division B only reduces units such as artillery and cavalry, and is equipped exactly the same as Division A in other aspects, especially machine guns.

Each infantry division had nearly 700 light and heavy machine guns, the largest number of any great power even in this period. If Britain, France and other countries want to exceed this number, I'm afraid they will have to wait until after the Battle of the Somme...

In other words, the Wehrmacht's use of machine guns is definitely the top in this era, after all, after the Shandong Campaign, the role of machine guns has been recognized by the Wehrmacht, and how to effectively use these killing weapons has even become one of the most important topics that the Wehrmacht has been studying.

However, it is clear that the usefulness of the results of these studies has been greatly reduced. After all, the researchers of the Ministry of Defense did not consider that the enemy would have a powerful artillery group that could cripple their own side with artillery fire alone...

However, even so, the experience of the expeditionary force in the use of machine guns still benefited the French a lot.

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Just as the expeditionary force was exchanging experiences with the French, artillery fire suddenly came.

The Germans also seemed to have noticed the arrival of the expeditionary force, so they did not directly send troops to attack the fourth line of defense as they had just done, but first used artillery fire to dismount the expeditionary force, and by the way, the fourth line of defense, which was already a little riddled with holes, once again had many more craters.

The officers and men of the expedition hiding in the fortifications finally experienced the feelings of the French not long ago. The endless artillery fire made the officers and men of the expeditionary force almost feel that they were in hell, and the surrounding air waves and explosions brought great pressure to the officers and soldiers in the trenches.

Fortunately, the fortifications built by the French were strong, unless they were directly hit. Or maybe there were large-caliber shells falling on the side, otherwise the expeditionary officers and soldiers in the fortifications were still very safe.

But even so, within the command of the Dumon Battery. Liu Guangyuan can still see that many fortifications are often directly hit by artillery shells, and then the officers and soldiers in the entire fortifications are flying into the sky along with the dust pillars lifted by the cannonballs...

At the moment when the pillar of dust was lifted, Liu Guangyuan seemed to see the fragmented appearance of his subordinates.

At this moment, even Liu Guangyuan gritted his teeth at Xia Fei, after all, if he hadn't gotten all the artillery away. With the strong fortifications of the fortress of Verdun and the original heavy artillery, they could have had an evenly matched artillery battle with the Germans, but at this moment. They could only watch as their men were beaten there...

And looking at the shelling of the Germans, Liu Guangyuan didn't know how many of his subordinates could survive this round of shelling...

"These damn Germans..."

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"These damn Germans..."

At this time, it was not only Liu Guangyuan who was cursing the Germans opposite. The same was true of the soldiers hiding in the fortifications.

Holding down his steel helmet tightly, Gao Yi only felt as if his body was about to be torn apart. Under the vibration of the explosion, the roof in the fortification was also shaken off a lot of dust, which made Gao Yi and others in the fortification even more disgraced.

If it is said before the war. Gao Yi also has some good feelings for the Germans. Then at this moment, that bit of goodwill is gone. After all, it is difficult for anyone who has received so many shells to have a good impression of the other party.

Gao Yi is not the only one, there are many people in the expeditionary force who have the same idea as him.

As mentioned earlier, the relationship between China and Germany was complicated at this time. Although they are already enemy countries that have declared war, the relationship between them is very delicate...

There were many factors for this, such as the kindness of the Nationalist government to the Germans in China after the declaration of war, and the long distance between China and Germany. It is particularly important that the Germans did not feel threatened by the Chinese at all. China has never infringed on Germany's interests.

Of course, usually the good feeling is mutual, not to mention that most of the above things are the Germans who benefit, and even if they have a good feeling, they are also Germans.

In fact, the main reason why the Chinese had a good impression of the Germans was the peaceful recovery of the Qingdao fortress. Although the Germans would return the Qingdao fortress solely because the arrival of the European war made it impossible for them to continue to guarantee the safety of the Qingdao fortress. But even so, the general public at home still had a lot of good feelings about Germany, and this even affected the officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force.

When they learned that they were about to fight the Germans, some of the officers and men of the expedition even felt a little awkward in their hearts.

But now this goodwill has disappeared without a trace.

Although I wanted to jump out of the fortifications and fight with the Germans, under the heavy fire of the Germans, both the Wehrmacht and the 3,000 French officers and soldiers sent by the French to support could only cover the steel helmets above their heads with their hands, and then prayed to the gods they believed in, praying that no shell would fall on their heads for a long time...

Of course, the same is true of Gao Yi, as a Buddhist, the deity that Gao Yi prayed to at this time was naturally the 'Guanyin Bodhisattva' that was most mentioned in Chinese mythology.

By the way, Gao Yi only became a Buddhist more than half an hour ago, and about an hour ago, Gao Yi was still an atheist...

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Seeing that the shells kept falling on the coalition lines, Falkingham, who was holding the binoculars, nodded slightly.

With the experience of the first line of defense, Falkingham no longer said that it was impossible for anyone on the other side to survive, but even so, he still did not think that there would be many people on the other side who would survive under such heavy fire.

Similarly, although he had served in China, he would never have mercy on the Chinese soldiers in the defensive line. Because to Falkingham, they were just enemies.

So after witnessing a large-caliber shell hit the fortifications and blew up the entire fortifications, Falkingham turned his head and instructed the staff officer beside him. "Order the artillery, stop the shelling in another hour, and then let the ground troops go up and take the defensive line..." Even Verdun, if possible! ”

"Yes!"

After all, the ammunition of the Germans was not unlimited, not to mention the problem of the artillery itself.

The shelling lasted more than an hour. After inflicting heavy casualties on the defenders and consuming a large amount of ammunition, under the prayers of the defenders. The damn shelling has finally stopped.

Inside the fortifications, when the shelling stopped, Gao Yi and his comrades couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Just a second before the shelling stopped, Gao Yi even thought that the German shelling would never stop, and that he would definitely be buried in the soil under the shelling. But just when Gao Yi breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed this feeling of being out of the sea of suffering, he was next to him. Several French soldiers were already jumping up with shouts, and then his squad leader also shook several of his subordinates, including Gao Yi, with his hands one by one.

"Quick, all ready. The Germans are coming! ”

Gao Yi once participated in the Shandong Campaign, and he is not a young man who has not even been on the battlefield.

After being touched twice by the squad leader, he quickly jumped up from the spot. Followed by a few comrades-in-arms next to him, under the command of the squad leader, the group ran to the exit. Its movements are swift and decisive. On the contrary, it stunned the Frenchman next to him.

These French were still worried about what to do if these Chinese were stupid by the shelling. Who thought that they had just made some reminders, and those Chinese jumped up, grabbed their guns and ran outside. By the time they reacted, they had already run outside.

"Hell, these Chinese are really fast enough..." cursed, and a Frenchman led by him said to his teammates next to him. Quick, we're going to get out of the way..."

By the time they got out of the fortifications. Gao Yi and others were already lying on the edge of the trench, aiming their guns at the Germans who were coming to the defensive line...

Meanwhile. Liu Guangyuan, who was standing in the Dumeng Fort, looked at the subordinates who were ready in the trench, and suddenly felt a pain in his heart.

Because at this moment, the soldiers of the expeditionary force in the line of defense are one or two thousand fewer than at the beginning. And the voices of the medics and the screams of the wounded were also heard one after another in the defensive line...

However, the Germans on the other side did not understand Chinese, and even if they heard it, they did not react ...

Even if the line of defense is full of "ready to fight." The German soldiers who were advancing didn't hear the sound of "Put the Germans close and fight again...", as if they hadn't heard it—————— even if they did, they couldn't understand it...

Inside the Verdun fortress, looking at the situation on the defensive line with a telescope, the muscles on Cai Ye's face couldn't help but twitch. Just like Liu Guangyuan, in the face of such a huge loss, Cai Ye also had a feeling of pain.

"Pass my order, wait until the Germans have entered a distance of 300 meters before firing..."After a slight mutter, after putting down the binoculars, Cai Ye said to the staff officer on the side.

"Understood," the staff officer nodded, and then repeated Cai's order. After the Germans were at a distance of 300 meters, they opened fire ...

After the staff officer went down to convey Cai Jie's order, looking at the approaching German troops, Cai Yi muttered. "How many people have been lost just now, this time I want you to pay them back..."

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With binoculars in hand, Falkingham watched the pace of his troops' advance, and in his opinion the defenders on the defensive line could not withstand the level of artillery fire just now.

"It may only take one attack to easily take that line of defense...", Fakingham muttered as he watched his troops advance.

And in the headquarters, there are obviously many people who think the same way as him.

Under the watchful eye of Falkingham, the attacking forces of the German army gradually approached the defensive line.

700 meters.

500 meters.

300 meters.

Seeing that the attacking troops were not far from the defensive line, Falkingham held the telescope tightly. At the same time, many German officers whispered beside him. Some people even wondered if the defenders on the defense line had already fled, after all, at this time they were only two hundred and seventy or eighty meters away from the defense line, and if they were closer, they could even rush up directly...

But the next moment, when countless tongues of fire flashed on the defensive line, all the officers closed their mouths tightly, and the attacking troops in front of the defensive line were cut down like wheat...

"Hell, how can they have so many machine guns!"

Looking at the tongue of fire flashing from the defensive line, Fakinghan let go of the hand holding the telescope and couldn't help but curse loudly.

On the other hand, the advancing German troops did not seem to have expected the defenders to have such strong firepower, and suffered heavy losses in a moment. In Falkingham's sight, a large number of German soldiers were being slaughtered, especially at the beginning, like wheat in a field meeting a sickle.

Even if the Germans reacted and fell to the ground one after another, they had already paid a terrible price, especially the troops who took the lead, except for a few who reacted quickly and immediately lay down, almost all of the rest fell in a pool of blood...

The Germans in front of the line were not satisfied with this situation, and some officers, having reacted, gave the order to continue the attack. After all, at this moment, they were only less than 300 meters away from the defenders' position, and they only needed one charge to rush forward, and this was exactly what Cai Yi wanted them to think...

Perhaps the Germans had an advantage in artillery fire and an advantage in troops, but when thousands of light and heavy machine guns opened fire at the same time, an insurmountable net of fire suddenly appeared in front of the Germans...

The Germans in front of the line launched several successive charges under orders, but even the most recent one was still more than 150 meters away from the position, and this distance, like an impassable abyss, devoured the lives of the hostile...

By the time the Germans retreated from their positions, thousands of corpses had been permanently left on the battlefield... (To be continued......)