Nearly half a month has passed since the start of the war between Germany and France. The right flank of the mighty German army swept through Belgium like a giant blood sickle of death, leaving only a scorched ruin of dead bodies; In Alsace and Lorraine, the weaker German left flank, with its carefully constructed trench positions, also withstood the revenge attacks of the French army. In the Ardennes Mountains in the center and in the Lorraine region in the north, the Germans were also preparing to launch a new offensive; The Fourth and Fifth Armies, commanded by the Duke of Württemberg and Qing Ying respectively, were the core of the offensive.

After two weeks of mobilization, the Fifth Army now has all its strength in place, and Qing Ying also has a complete understanding of the men and horses under his command while organizing these scattered regimental troops into larger groups. The entire German Fifth Army consisted of four and a half armies, with a total strength of nearly 240,000 men, and more than 1,500 field artillery pieces of various types and more than 1,200 heavy machine guns. Even if you don't count the mortar units that are generally attached to the German army, this number of artillery is one-fifth more than that of its French counterparts; And in terms of artillery caliber, German artillery formed an almost overwhelming absolute superiority over the French army.

At present, in addition to the 75-mm field guns at the regimental level, which only have a standard ration, the German army has its own independent heavy artillery units from the brigade upwards; These heavy artillery companies and battalions are equipped with 105 mm or 150 mm guns, and some of the heavy artillery regiments at the corps level are even equipped with 210 mm heavy guns. The artillery units of the French Army are almost all equipped with Schneider 1897 75mm cannons; These conventional guns, which could only fire more than 7 kg of projectiles, had a huge disparity in power between them and the German heavy artillery. The reason for this phenomenon was, on the one hand, that French industry was weaker than Germany's, and it was difficult to put a large number of heavy guns on the production line. And on the other hand, it is purely the reasons of the French themselves.

Since the beginning of the 20th century. The French are "idealistic." Under the spiritual influence of "the sword is in hand", he is convinced of the ability to attack; Since it is necessary to "attack to the death," then its armament building naturally has to revolve around offensive tactics. The French suddenly discovered that the guns with a caliber greater than 75 mm in the army were completely like scum with a combat effectiveness of only 5; Due to their heavy weight, these heavy guns could not keep up with the pace of the infantry in the "Desperate Attack", and if the French were equipped with these heavy guns, they would inevitably become a burden to slow down their advance. The French have a clear mind, rather than spending a lot of money to create this kind of guy whose actual effect is close to zero. Why not buy more lightweight, easy-to-maneuver 75mm cannons for the army? To the delight of the French, the 1897 75mm cannon developed by Schneider Military Industry can be called the top powerful existence in the entire world!

Under these circumstances, the French army, which pursued an offensive strategy, almost completely abandoned the construction of the army's heavy artillery units and invested all funds and manpower in the construction of 75-mm artillery units. So much so that later, in 1909, when an officer of the French General Staff asked General de Castelno, deputy chief of the French General Staff, for his opinion on the 105-mm heavy field artillery, he replied: "Thank God, fortunately we don't have any of them!" "The power of the French Army depends entirely on the lightness of the 75mm cannon."

In 1911, the Combat Committee recommended that the French Army be equipped with 105-mm guns. However, the personnel of the artillery department were loyal to the famous 75-mm cannon and remained stubbornly opposed. They despise the role of heavy artillery. It was considered that its bulky size could not keep up with the advance of the infantry, and could only be used as a defensive weapon like a shameful machine gun. Only the Minister of War Messimi and General Dibay, who was in the General Staff at the time, were able to negotiate a grant for the creation of several 105-mm heavy artillery batteries for the French army. However, due to the repeated changes of government (France before World War I had an average of one prime minister and one war minister per year) and the continued contempt of heavy artillery units, by the day Germany declared war on France, there were very few heavy artillery companies integrated into the French artillery.

If heavy artillery can still contribute its own strength to the "impulse of life" of the French army in certain circumstances, then the machine gun is a complete defensive weapon in the eyes of the French. Heavy machine guns of more than 60kg have nothing to do with the rapid attack of the storm from any angle, and the French neither understand nor care about lightweight light machine guns (the Shaosha light machine gun developed by France in the Great War in history has a miserable man-machine performance that cannot be seen directly). The reason why the French army still retains a certain number of machine guns is also entirely out of the consideration of "saving troops in certain areas in order to strengthen the offensive force"; Compared with their German counterparts, the machine-gun units of the French army cannot be described in any weak words!

In addition to the absolute superiority of machine guns and artillery, the Fifth Army under the command of Qing Ying also showed a one-sided posture against the French in air supremacy and breakthrough charges. Not to mention the Kirov airship, which is almost comparable to the bombing power of a heavy artillery battalion, and the original German bomber group that can carry small bombs for dropping can also effectively support the land battlefield. Tanks can play a mainstay role in infantry battles and cavalry charges, and assault guns can lay the most solid foundation for infantry attacks with good frontal attack and defense. After several years of accumulation, these techniques and weapons have accumulated a certain scale; If they are used together, they will inevitably form a sharp blade that will go straight to the heart of the enemy!

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Since Qing Ying has such a strong force in his hands, the combat plan formulated must be like a spring river.

Historically, because the French Army's Plan No. 17 was only formally drawn up after Xia Fei became commander-in-chief, and the core content was only a few words, the German General Staff only guessed that the French army would launch an attack on the Franco-German border in Alsace and Lorraine under the command of revanchism, while the rest of the French army's deployment was completely blind. Therefore, the headquarters of the Crown Prince's Fifth Army, which was advancing according to the normal route of advance, came into direct contact with Luff's Third Army. The two sides then engaged in several days of fighting between the jungle and the surrounding cities. Although the French army retreated, the Germans' gains were extremely limited: they did not outflank the French troops on a large scale, nor did they defeat the enemy in front of them in one fell swoop, but only won an ordinary frontal victory. The main forces of the French army groups were preserved in near-intact posture and dealt a decisive blow to the exhausted German right flank in the ensuing Battle of the Marne.

In this plane, however, the situation has changed radically. The vigorous development of the German airship force gave Qing Ying a considerable degree of understanding of the strength and deployment of the French army in front of him; Already knowing himself and his opponent, it was absolutely necessary for him to launch a large-scale war of annihilation and deal the heaviest blow to the French Third Army, which was confronting him head-on. If the Germans could have deployed correctly, they would have broken the backbone of the French army in one fell swoop in the previous border battles; Then the French troops, whose original strength was 1.25 million to 1.6 million, and the French army, which was inferior to the German army, was bound to be unable to perform the miracle of the Marne as in history. At that time, the French army, which had lost its vital strength, would have to be left to the Germans to wreak havoc on their own land; Even the German army conquered Paris in one fell swoop and forced France to surrender, which was not impossible!

In Qing Ying's plan, his Fifth Army would strive to encircle and annihilate the French Third Army in Longwei, Verton, and other places in the western foothills of the Ardennes. In order to achieve this strategic goal, Qing Ying decided to copy Schlieffen's masterpiece, that is, to deploy part of the troops in the middle and wave red cloth like a matador to attract the main French army; After the French army took the bait, they launched an outflanking assault in the flat northern Lorraine region. Since the size of the site and the number of troops required for this operation were much inferior to those of the Schlieffen plan, the German army attacking was not a problem at all, whether it was in terms of logistics supply or personnel physical strength!

Although the commander of the French Third Army, Lüf, was quite strategic, and had historically nearly defeated the invading German army in a border battle, Qing Ying was fully confident that he would step into the minefield he had laid. This is not because Qingying can beat this veteran general who has dealt with the army for most of his life in the command game, but because there is a huge information asymmetry gap between the two sides. As a living general, it was impossible for Lu Fu to realize how powerful the air force and armored forces belonging to later generations would have, and it was on this basis that Qingying formulated a whole set of combat strategies.

In a sense, the German Fifth Army under the command of Qing Ying shouldered a more important mission than the right flank of the German army, which carried out the task of outflanking. Thanks to Plan No. 17 drawn up by Xiafei, the French army did not deploy a single regular army soldier on the Franco-Belgian border, leaving the German right flank with only the Belgian Army and the upcoming British Expeditionary Force, which was as easy as a scoop for a right-wing cluster of more than 800,000 men. In the center, the Germans faced the main force of the French army; How many French troops they can defeat here will directly determine the future situation of the Western Front! Qingying has always believed that Crook's critical turn in front of Paris in history is not wrong, and the victory or defeat of the war is not only limited to the siege of cities and land, but also the destruction of the opponent's vital force. (To be continued......)

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