The scorching afternoon sun slanted into the sky, sprinkling the blazing heat of early summer everywhere on the battlefield.

Smoke billowed and dust dispersed. The battlefield in front of the fortress, which was still full of life and lush in the early morning, has now become a crater-ridden area on the surface of the moon; Countless discarded debris still burned in the open area, carrying heavy smoke rising from the jumping firelight. On the position in front of the fortress, countless corpses of German officers and soldiers fell everywhere, and blood stained the ground beneath them. The hot wind blew, with a strong smell of blood, which made people nauseous and retching all the way to the bottom of their hearts.

On the rear positions, Erich? Ludendorff stared at the corpse-strewn battlefield in front of him, his eyes heavy and silent. During the onslaught, which lasted more than three hours, the Germans, who had formed a straggler, still suffered heavy losses of nearly 2,000 dead and wounded under the artillery and machine guns of the fortress, but only captured a few insignificant areas between the fortresses. Liege is indeed worthy of the reputation of the first fortress in Europe, these large fortresses on the periphery can not only easily withstand the bombardment of 150 mm heavy guns, but also have no dead ends in their counter-attacking firepower; Although the Germans, who had broken through the gap, forced their way up the slope where the artillery could not shoot, the machine guns in the fort swept them all down like wheat!

In the center of the war zone, the flames burned incessantly, and the German medical personnel waving the white flag and the International Red Cross flag bowed slowly among the corpses scattered all over the place, and from time to time carried some lucky people who were seriously injured and did not die on stretchers to the rear. During the First World War, this humanitarian relief was widely accepted by both warring parties. Seeing that the Germans sent a medical rescue team, there was no sign of attacking for a while. Some Belgian servicemen also crawled out of the fortress. Begin to clean up the nearby mountain of dead German corpses. The large number of corpses piled up has affected the firing range of the fortress's machine gun fire. These successes must be removed from the center of the battlefield. For a while, both sides temporarily put down their weapons.

"Erich, do you have any way to break through these Belgian fortresses in front of you?" The commander of the corps, Emmisi, walked up to Ludendorff and spoke in a slightly anxious voice, "The Belgian fortress of Liège has seriously hindered our advance, and we lack the means to deal with them effectively. As you can see today, these damned Belgian tortoise shells can quite easily withstand a hit from a 150mm howitzer! If you continue to fight like this. Not only will we suffer extremely heavy casualties, but it will be difficult to guarantee that these well-defended forts will be destroyed on time. ”

Ludendorff, with his stout body and a rather uncomfortable and vicious look on his face, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said in a deep voice: "I have figured out the defense of the Belgians in detail. The reason why they were able to inflict so much damage on us was because of the fortifications on the front, and the gap between the fortresses lacked effective defense. The Belgian field regiments stationed between the fortresses were not at the same level as our Germany in terms of combat quality, and it was only by relying on the fire support of the fortresses that they did not collapse. ”

"You mean, you're going to make a breakthrough from the gap between these forts for about two or three miles?" Emmisi's eyes lit up and he couldn't help but blurt out.

Ludendorff snorted, his face still showing a grim and unsmiling expression: "Wait until night falls, and the fire in the Belgian fortress poses the least threat to our side." The general was able to concentrate his main forces and break through the gaps between several Belgian forts, and in one fell swoop to the main city of Liège, five miles away. With the strength of the 8 brigades that we have been reinforced. It will certainly be able to eat the Belgian 3rd Division stationed in Liège without any suspense. Seeing that the expression on Emmisi's face gradually relaxed, Ludendorff poured cold water on him again: "However, this is a helpless choice we have made. Unable to break through these fortresses that held the passage of the Maas River and open the way for the subsequent armies, we had no choice but to take the main city of Liège, the fortress first. Even if we had several times the strength of the defenders of Liège, it would take several days to capture the entire city of Liège. When the 420 mm and 305 mm artillery arrived with the follow-up troops, we turned around and knocked out the nails on the periphery of Liège one by one. ”

Hearing this, the joy on Emmisi's face gradually dissipated. Although this strategy was an exemplary example of preparedness, freeing the current superior German forces from the struggle with the Belgian fortresses, it still did not solve the most fundamental problem of the capture of the Liège fortress group. While Emmisi was pondering whether to capture Liege first or to charge at all costs in order to achieve the objectives of the campaign on time, an adjutant walked up to Ludendorff and handed him a telegram from the black folder: "General, Commander of the Second Army, von? An urgent telegram from General Bilow. ”

Ludendorff nodded slightly. At that time, he was the deputy chief of staff of the Second Army, with the rank of major general, and was currently in charge of the liaison between the Emmisi assault force drawn from this unit and the military headquarters, and it was not uncommon for Billo to send him a direct telegram. He took the message from his adjutant and looked intently; In a moment, a smile crept up his face.

"What's wrong, Erich?" Seeing the smile on Ludendorff's face, Emmisi was shocked and couldn't help but ask. Ludendorff had long been an idol of his former Chief of the Army General Staff Schlieffen and had always deliberately imitated his stern and moody style, which was well understood by the officers who worked with him. This time he was able to smile, it must have been Admiral Bilow who brought him excellent news! Thinking of the current situation of his own army, Emmisi's heart moved, and he was surprised: "Could it be that our heavy artillery unit has arrived ahead of schedule?" But they will not arrive at the departure base of Aachen until May 9, and no matter how fast they are, they will not arrive at the front so early. ”

Ludendorff handed the telegram in his hand to Emmisi and said hesitantly: "It's the artillery in the sky that has arrived." ”

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The white clouds are surging, the blue sky is clear, and the sun is shining brightly. After a while, a slight hum of the engine suddenly appeared in this world. The officers and soldiers of the two countries on the battlefield stopped their work one after another, looked up and looked into the distance, only to see a few small beige dots that had appeared in the sky far away in the east, and were slowly flying towards their side.

The warm wind blows, and the humming sound becomes louder and clearer; As time passed, the true faces of these guys also appeared under the gaze of tens of thousands of troops. They had a majestic size larger than the largest naval battleship in the world, and obscured the white clouds of the sky one after another; The beige character of the solid material wraps around the smooth body like a cigar, and it is elegant and gorgeous, giving it a dreamy atmosphere of cutting-edge technology that does not belong to this era at all. They are like the glorious ark ridden by the gods of Heaven Mountain in mythological stories, exuding an incomparable solemn charm, looking down on all directions and commanding the world.

Gradually, a frenzied exclamation of astonishment and fear erupted on the ground. Their iconic bow livery was exposed to the officers and men below as the distance approached. The behemoth shark has fangs and barbs in its mouth, and it seems that it is about to open its bloody mouth in the next moment, biting and tearing the captured prey into pieces in an instant. The most expressive is the pair of scarlet narrow giant eyes, which contain the cruelty and tyranny of the abyssal demons and the destruction and killing; Either way, you can feel its evil gaze locking onto you. A shivering intent that could not be resisted burst out from the depths of the spinal cord, and it was cold to the bottom of my heart.

Because they had never seen such a weapon of war that perfectly integrated terror and technology, in front of the fierce eyes of the "giant shark," the officers and men on all the positions were staring at the sky with bated breath, and their movements were already stiff. Many of the devout Belgian defenders even took these airships for the evil spirits of hell recorded in the Bible, and they collapsed to the ground with pale faces, their bodies and trembling limbs, and they prayed over and over again that the Holy Angels would appear and purify them all. The German officers and men were in a slightly better situation, and after the initial shock and fear, they were shocked to find that these behemoths were sprayed with obvious iron crosses on their bodies, which obviously belonged to their own people! After a while, sporadic and then wave-like cheers resounded throughout the German offensive positions. Although I don't understand what these big guys are for, just with the huge impact that this incomparable appearance brings to their hearts, it is enough to make the German officers and soldiers cheer!

"Smack." A palm slapped on Emmisi's shoulder. Looking up at the sky, he was startled, and then turned his head to see that Ludendorff had regained his previous calm expression and was looking at him with blazing eyes. Emmisi let out a sigh of relief and said, "It turns out that this is the 'Sky City' in the intelligence. I really didn't expect that the Empire already had such an astonishing advanced weapon. ”

"General, please give the order to let the officers and soldiers on the front line protect their ears. If it were possible, we wouldn't even have to attack Liege alone tonight, but we would be able to step through these damned fortresses before sunset. Ludendorff said softly. (To be continued......)