The sun was shining, the breeze was gentle, but Schlieffen, who was standing not far away and commanding the battle, had constricted his pupils, and for the first time his thin face showed an unbelievable look of surprise.

In this simulated offensive and defensive exercise, although his opponent would be the future monarch of the empire, out of respect for the martial spirit that the Prussian army had accumulated over the centuries, and the consequences that the results of the exercise might cause the feasibility of Schlieffen's plan to be shaken, Schlieffen did not spare the slightest in this battle. In order to ensure that he could break through the position built by the defender in one fell swoop, he gathered all the large-caliber artillery in the attacking force and launched a fierce bombardment of the defensive position for more than 3 hours, and the number of suppressed artillery pieces on each kilometer-long front exceeded 20! According to the experience handed down from the Austro-Prussian and Prussian Wars, which had not yet ended, the defenders should have been beaten out long ago with such a dense large-caliber artillery for a long time to cover the fire for a long time!

Could it be that there is a mistake on the part of the person in charge of the trial? This idea arose in Shi Lifen's mind, and he immediately vetoed it. In the countless military exercises conducted by the German army before, their performance was very competent, and there were almost no misjudgments; Even if there was a mistake in this link, the German officers and soldiers participating in the exercise would judge for themselves the extent of their own "damage" according to the situation, and choose whether to stay or leave. The fact that such a large number of enemy officers and soldiers were able to surge in the opponent's trenches this time must be because they did not receive any blows in the preparation of the artillery fire just now!

In contrast to Schlieffen's state of mind, the soldiers involved in the attack did not notice the unusual movement in the opposing line because they did not have the broad vision of the commander. The long period of dense artillery cover gave them great confidence. Prepare to end this travel-like military exercise in one go. The only thing that bothers them is. The two tall barbed wires, several feet wide, blocked their advance; Only a few narrow gaps were blown open by the artillery fire just now, and there were still many sharp barbed wires that still stretched out and curled like barbs, which was shocking. As they trotted over to the barbed wire, about to study how this thing could get over, there was a sudden sharp pain in their bodies after being hit by a series of rubber bullets!

"Da da da ......" A sound like fried beans suddenly sounded rapidly on the battlefield. Compared to the previous preparations for the massive artillery fire, this sound was almost negligible; However, the attacking soldiers who lined up in a dense phalanx in front of the barbed wire were like slices of oats under a scythe. In just ten minutes, most of the first attacking soldiers, who were advancing in a dense queue, fell to the battlefield; Its uniforms are stained with various colorful spots. All of them showed that they had been hit by more than one bullet. Although the soldiers have not yet figured out what is happening, the paint on their uniforms and the pain on their bodies clearly indicate that they have been declared incapacitated. In this case, they could only hold the weapons in their hands and leave the battlefield in the center from the flank by creeping forward. And in the process of retreating, there was always a lingering question in the minds of the attacking soldiers, how did they get directly hit by a large number of bullets like a torrential rain in such a short period of time?

When the attacking troops were lying down, Schlieffen sensed that something was wrong with the situation on the battlefield, which was not at all a tactic that should be shown in the attack, but an evacuation move made because of being judged out! And when the subsequent casualty figures were sent to him, the veteran general was even more stunned. More than 1,000 officers and men who took part in the offensive were "killed" or "seriously wounded." And now it's only a quarter of an hour before the offensive order is given! Thinking of a battle that broke out on the battlefield of Mukden in the Russo-Japanese War, his mind flashed. Instant enlightenment. In a defensive battle, the Japanese army used machine guns on a large scale and withstood the repeated charges of 100,000 Russian troops with 8,000 troops; And this time the crown prince must have used the same strategy, hitting the machine gun and using it on a large scale, so that it caused a jaw-dropping killing effect on the army that used the dense array charge. However, the defensive battle was due to the lack of preparation of the Russian artillery and the fact that the terrain was easy to defend and difficult to attack, which allowed the Japanese army to calmly set up machine guns and slaughter; However, this time he made full preparations for artillery fire, and it should be difficult for the opponent's personnel and machine gun positions to survive such a powerful artillery bombardment!

At the other end of the front, the morale of the defending officers and soldiers was high. So far, they have suffered minimal damage, the shelters deep underground have helped them withstand the massive artillery threat they should have withstand, and the pre-set machine-gun emplacements have been carefully reinforced and camouflaged as a top priority in the previous two months of construction. The fixed concrete fortress, half-hidden underground, was even more impregnable, and the muzzles of the guns protruding from the narrow crevices were almost completely unassuming any fear. In the face of the attacking soldiers who were delayed by barbed wire, this was an excellent time for the defending officers and soldiers to hit a target. The defending side had not yet used artillery, but with only 40 Maxim machine guns, the first wave of Schlieffen's massive attack quickly disintegrated like frost and snow under the scorching sun. In less than half an hour of fighting, the attackers lost 1,500 men, while the defenders suffered less than a platoon of casualties.

This result made Schlieffen lose face. Although he is good at strategic planning and strategizing, and has not directly participated in the direct command of head-on battles, he is also a veteran who has been in the army for 50 years, and if he can't kill a young man in his 20s with 6 times the strength and artillery advantage, what is it called? After some careful analysis, Schlieffen finally understood that the key to the heavy casualties just now was that the dense formation formed during the attack was completely killed under machine gun fire, and the barbed wire fence in front of it hindered the advance of the troops, making the exposure to enemy guns even longer. Thinking of this, Schlieffen quickly adjusted the attack, and the infantry attack was no longer in a dense queue, but launched an offensive using a skirmisher line. At the same time, the artillery in the rear began to reload with live ammunition and aim at the annoying barbed wire, with which the infantry could not continue to advance and could only be the best target for the defenders. Looking at the circle of thorny thorns, Schlieffen had mixed feelings in his heart, this thing can indeed play an excellent role in the defense of the infantry.

A new round of shelling began, and the two stretches of barbed wire were taken care of by live fire, and the intense high-temperature shock wave from the explosion of the shells at close range was enough to tear the fragile wires apart. The thunderous shelling continued for more than an hour, and the barbed wire fence was blown out in many places with gaps for one or even several people to enter and exit; And when the attackers attacked again, the dense phalanx queues had been replaced by loose skirmishers. Seeing this scene, Qingying couldn't help but secretly praise that Schlieffen could change his tactics immediately after suffering a setback, which was already a very good adaptability.

However, the Qingying defense line was dug for two months according to the trench defense system of historical facts, although its comprehensive project was not as good as the four years of hard work on the western front, and the defense strength was also much worse, but all the fortifications were also beginning to take shape, and the core factors of the defense system were not less. With such a simple tactical shift, how could it be so easy to break through this carefully constructed defensive line? Historically, almost all sides of World War I used stragglers to storm trench positions, but almost none of them did not return!

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In the next three days, the two sides launched an offensive and defensive battle on the front day and night. During this period, although the attackers eliminated some of the defenders' machine-gun points through extensive artillery fire, the remaining firepower still made it difficult for the attacking soldiers to move an inch. Machine guns, rifles, rapid-fire guns, and heavy artillery in the rear formed an impenetrable fire blockade, each time knocking the attacking soldiers into pieces and exiting the exercise. What annoyed Schlieffen most was that no matter how much his artillery bombarded, the defenders were able to stand still as if they had opened their shields. As soon as the artillery fire is ready to end, when the attacking soldiers appear in front of the barbed wire, the opponent will always be able to unleash extremely fierce and dense firepower, knocking down the attacking soldiers like rabbits. The effect of the infiltration attack at night was also very limited, although the defender's vision was limited, but in the trench they still had an advantage over the attacking soldiers in the field, and several infiltration attacks were beaten back by the opponent, and the whole process suffered heavy casualties and was fruitless.

Schlieffen decided to take a gamble. On the fourth day, he spent a whole day preparing for artillery fire, even stealthily using five 210mm heavy howitzers that should not have appeared in the attacking array, and then pressed all his remaining forces down. However, in the face of the barrage of bullets and artillery fire, the attack was still pushed back by the defenders. With the launch of a signal flare at the end of the exercise, Schlieffen, who was full of confusion and doubts, thought hard in the command post that he had done everything that the attacker could do, and even called in heavy artillery to help in violation of regulations, but in the end, he wondered what would be such a result? (To be continued......)