"Boom!" There was a loud roar of thunder, a burst of red light, a vigorous wave of air carrying shrapnel from the gravel, and a storm whistling over a section of trench. There was a loud bang, poking dozens of holes in the breastwork.

In the shallow trenches, Second Lieutenant Horner was prostrate at the bottom of the trench, motionless; From time to time, rubble and gravel slid down, making a mess of his gray uniform. He covered his ears tightly, his mouth wide open, and his mouth was full of dry dust, and his heart had already greeted all the evil French direct ancestors.

Two hours ago, before the light of the morning sun had fully illuminated the earth, a large number of red and gorgeous shadows suddenly flew into the blue sky in the west. Just as Horner was still wondering if it was a meteor shower, a terrible scream rang out in his ears; And he, who already had considerable actual combat experience, instantly reacted, this is the sound produced by the violent friction between the cannonball and the air!

Moments later, an earth-shattering explosion drowned out his cries. Countless clouds of fire rose one after another on the outer position where they were, accompanied by faint screams and flying blood-colored limbs. To Horner's shock, the French artillery preparations were unprecedentedly protracted and intense: in addition to the roar of a large number of 75-mm shells, there were even 105-mm howitzers, which had never been seen in the French army before. And this kind of heavy artillery, before the war, the French army had even more than the Russians, who had a weak industrial base!

Under normal circumstances, the Germans would have been completely unafraid of these shelling by the French. Since the French army was almost entirely composed of Schneider 1897 75mm cannons, its range and power were far from those of the heavy guns that the German army was heavily equipped with; The Germans only had to put their 105-mm and 150-mm guns in place. Then the reconnaissance school firing machine was released. It can be in a place that the French can't reach at all. The most painful lesson was given to the French artillery that dared to fire at the German positions. In the previous three weeks of fighting, the Germans had used this method to beat the French artillery to the ground, making it very ineffective in supporting the battlefield.

At present, however, the situation has changed almost in a reversal, as Crook's First Army has long since left the heavy artillery units in the rear far behind due to the rapid advance of Crook's First Army in France; Although they had followed Moltke's orders and began to stop on the night of 2 June, it was clear that the heavy artillery could not keep up with the advance of the infantry in such a short time. Currently, there are only a few 75-mm guns and mortars in the German front-line infantry. Its ability to suppress French artillery was greatly reduced; Even with the reconnaissance and calibration of the aircraft, the German artillery counterattack did not weaken the French firepower much!

"Damn the French, are they going to launch a massive counteroffensive?" Feeling the violent shaking beneath him and the continuous loud explosions overhead, Horner couldn't help but be angry as he lay in the trenches, and his heart was filled with unbelievable nightmarish feelings. For the first ten days, they had been playing the role of victors, chasing the French troops in front of them to the point where there was no way to go down the ground, and they were about to win a great victory as they did in 1870. However, who would have thought that after they only rested for one day on June 3, the offensive and defensive momentum of the two sides would be directly adjusted? This was prepared for such heavy artillery fire. It is impossible for a terrified army to have!

The loud roar of the shell explosion echoed like thunder. like a giant mallet beating a drum; Several shells landed on the ground just a few meters away from the trench, and the huge shock made Horner break out in a cold sweat. The trenches, which took only one day to build, were obviously completely incompatible with the words "deep" and "solid"; Now he only hoped that the trench would not collapse under the fire of the French, otherwise he would most likely be buried alive by the collapsed earth and rocks!

Thankfully, despite the occasional cascade of sand and gravel pouring down on him, and the sound of hellish explosions in his ears, the worst of Horner's fears did not materialize. As the sand and gravel continued to fall, Hornana's mouth, which had been opened to prevent being injured by the sound of artillery, was now completely covered in sand, and he gave up cleaning it as if he had resigned himself to it.

I don't know how long it took, but the thunderous sound of the continuous explosions in my ears finally showed signs of gradually subsided, and with the last few sporadic roars, the terrifying shelling of the German soldiers finally fell silent. With the sound of sand slipping, Horner slowly rose from his trench; The cold and solid touch of the 98K rifle in his hand made him regain some confidence. The bullets were loaded, the bolts were pulled, everything went smoothly without surprisingly, and there were no cases where the machinery was jammed by small particles - because the Germans had begun to pay attention to trench defense before the war, the standard of 98K for the troops had taken into account all the unusual situations that could arise in the trenches. After a while, a shout came from the adjacent trench, followed by the running footsteps of a large number of soldiers. Hearing this sound, Horner couldn't help but feel happy in his heart, the own company that was deployed at the front, there should be quite a lot of people who have preserved their combat effectiveness after the shelling of the French army!

"Shhh...... Phew! Well, lads, it is time for you to return to the French twice as much as the pain you have just suffered! Horner spewed out the debris in his mouth, then shouted at his soldiers in the trenches. Hearing his call, one German soldier after another stretched out his arms and crawled out of the thick gravel and dirt, like a group of zombies reborn from a cemetery. However, after too many orders, the platoon began to move quickly, and they ran quickly to the various firing points, and then skillfully set up their rifles.

"Come, Frenchman, I'll send you to Heaven right away." Behind a thick breastwork, Horner stretched out the rifle in his hand, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he muttered as he looked at the shaking shadows in the distance.

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Ten kilometers away, at the headquarters of the army group, when Crook received the news that the Fourth Reserve Army deployed on the right flank had been hit by heavy French artillery fire, his rugged face was full of anger and horror.

The night before, when he had been persuaded by Colonel Hench, who had been parachuted in from the headquarters, to give the order to halt his advance, he was still reluctant. After all, the First Army had two days to cut off the escape route of the French Fifth Army, and Moltke Jr.'s telegram order undoubtedly made all his previous efforts go to waste. Although he had learned by Colonel Hench's statement that the Anglo-French army still had a large number of troops near Paris, and put away his contempt for the enemy; But he did not think that the French might be able to launch a counterattack of great power.

However, when this news reached Crook's hands, all the regrets in his heart for not being able to continue the pursuit of the French "rout" had all turned into shock and joy. At present, in addition to the weakest Fourth Reserve, Crook had a 21st Corps, which was almost entirely full except for heavy artillery, to protect his right flank, which he had strengthened on 3 June by transferring a main force from the front line to Paris to the front of Paris, following Moltke's order to halt his advance. At present, his troops did not need to be adjusted, and the ideal array was already set up: two corps on the right flank to defend against attacks from the direction of Paris, two corps on the banks of the Little Moran River to defend against the counterattack of the French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force, and the remaining two corps were to stand by in the center of a strip about ten kilometers deep.

It is conceivable that if Crook had ignored Moltke's orders and continued to advance deeper into the French on 3 June, his main force would have to turn around farther away from the Grand Moran and turn back 25 kilometres back to the vicinity of Fort Thierry to resist the French attack. After this kind of long-distance march back and forth, the physical strength of the soldiers has long been exhausted, and their combat effectiveness in resisting the French attack can be imagined. In the end, even if he defeated the opponent by virtue of his numerical superiority, his losses would be extremely huge!

"Unexpectedly, the French actually launched a counterattack from the direction of Paris. I really don't understand, how did these city defense troops, which are mostly composed of reservists, have the confidence to step out of the fortifications and come to engage in a head-to-head confrontation with the field army? Under the huge map of the war zone, Crook looked at the offensive line that had just been drawn by the staff officer, and said in a tone full of shock and hatred. However, although Crook still despised and hated anger in his mouth, he had to begin to admire the wisdom and courage of the French. At present, his heavy artillery unit is still struggling to trek on the banks of the Aisne River, more than 100 kilometers away, and it will take at least a week to reach the front line; The 21st Army had only been transferred to the right flank yesterday, and preparations for a counterattack from the direction of Paris were far from ready. The attack of the French at this time was undoubtedly the weakest time in this section of his First Army!

"Order, keep the two vanguard armies on the Little Moran on alert, and report to the command as soon as they are attacked by the French Fifth Army and the British Expeditionary Force! The counterattack of the defenders of Paris could never have acted alone, and these two British and French armies would have had something to do! Crook turned his head and said loudly to the adjutant next to him. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the eternal F4U and zhouyu1976 tips from book friends ~~~~ Tonight's author's unit dinner, the update is a little late, and I hope you understand