Verdun was the salient of the Allied defense line, a great threat to the German army deep into France and Belgium, and it was a strong stronghold to Paris and a hub of the French front. At the beginning of 1916, the German Imperial High Command decided to shift its strategic focus westward, and the German Chief of the General Staff Falkingham targeted the attack on Verdun, a famous fortress in France. Verdun was the salient of the British and French fronts, and it was like a sharp tooth sticking out, posing a serious threat to the German flank deep into northern France, where Germany and France fought many times, but the Germans failed to capture the fortress. If the Germans can capture Verdun in one fell swoop, it will definitely deal a heavy blow to the morale of the French army. At the same time, the capture of Verdun also opened the passage for the German army to Paris, and when Paris was occupied, France would be left to fend for itself, and the remaining British and Russian armies would not have anything to fear.

Beginning in January 1916, Falkingham quietly gathered troops to prepare for the attack on Verdun, and at the same time, Germany brazenly increased its troops to Cimbéni and made a gesture of launching an offensive in Chambény. The commander-in-chief of the French army, Xia Fei, was really fooled. After the Germans were unable to capture Verdun in 1914 and shifted the direction of their attack, the French considered the fortress of Verdun to be obsolete, and Xia Fei stopped strengthening the fortress in 1915. At this time, the movement of the German army towards Cimbène made Xia Fei extremely vigilant, and he believed that the German army would attack Chambéni and march to Paris from here. The Germans were continuing to quietly gather forces in the direction of Verdun. As the signs of the assembly became apparent and exposed, the Anglo-French forces finally figured out the true intentions of the German army. Xia Fei panicked and quickly ordered more troops to Verdun. But by February 21, only two divisions had reached Verdun. And on this day, the Germans began to attack Verdun. The German artillery regiment bombarded the fortress of Verdun with heavy artillery fire, and then launched a charge. The prelude to the Battle of Verdun began. The 1,000 cannons of the German army bombarded like thunder, and the charges were higher than the other. The commander of the fortress of Verdun, Pétain, commanded the defenders and the troops that came in to put up a desperate resistance. However, since only two divisions of reinforcements arrived, plus his own two divisions, there were only four divisions in total, and the Germans advanced 6 kilometers on the first day. But he finally stabilized his position.

The battle was hard for the French. The Germans had 27 divisions and 1,000 artillery pieces, while the French had only 110,000 men and 270 artillery pieces. But it managed to withstand the German attack. When French reinforcements arrived, a tug-of-war began. The Germans did not take Verdun in one fell swoop the day before, they had already lost their fighters, and both sides were increasing their troops to Verdun and set up a decisive battle formation. By April, the French were on par with the Germans. The Germans were in a hurry, and the crown prince himself enlisted and used poison gas bombs for the first time. However, the French still stopped the German offensive in front of the fortress again and again. In July, the Germans launched a climax of an offensive in Zuihou, but they were still resisted by the French, and by the autumn the French army began a counteroffensive.

In the Battle of Verdun, Germany and France invested nearly 2 million troops, and the total number of casualties reached more than 1 million. The Germans were exhausted in this campaign. After the French counteroffensive began, they gradually regained large areas of land east of Verdun, and the German army was defeated one after another. By November, the fronts on both sides had returned to the state they were in before the start of the war.

This was the famous Battle of Verdun, and as the information that the Chinese European Expeditionary Force was about to be stationed here was sent to the desk of Field Marshal Hindenburg, the chief of the German General Staff, a bold idea appeared in Hindenburg's mind.

Another Battle of Verdun?

Due to the successive battles of Verdun and the Lyme in 1916, both the German and French armies were now in a very tired state, and in fact throughout 1917 both sides stopped large-scale military operations, and they all chose to lie down in their nests and try to recover a little bit of vitality.

But now it is clear that the French cannot hold on, and they actually left such an important place in Verdun to the Chinese to guard, which is not what death is.

What level of the Chinese army is Hindenburg is not clear? Just a dozen years ago, the Eight-Nation Alliance, with less than 50,000 men under the command of Wadsey, easily captured the capital of the Eastern Empire, stayed there for more than a year, and received a huge amount of reparations. Hindenburg and Wadsey were acquaintances, and he could not understand how the hundreds of thousands of Boxers that Wadsey described were pouring towards him like a tidal wave, and then crumbling in the face of the powerful firepower of the coalition forces. He couldn't understand how there could be such a terrifying organization as the Boxers, so keen on killing and killing their own compatriots, as if they could defeat the foreigners by killing and robbing all their compatriots who believed in Christianity and used Western products! But Hindenburg figured out one thing, and that was that China's rulers generally did not have high IQs, and their armies were even more vulnerable. The appearance of 240,000 Chinese troops in Europe is probably the result of the brains of an equally ignorant Chinese ruler, and would a powerful German army be afraid of a group of armies similar to those of the African natives? The answer is obvious.

Hindenburg began to lobby the Kaiser to organize another Battle of Verdun, in an effort to take advantage of this loophole at this most critical moment and break through the French defenses on all fronts. Germany in 1917 had entered a very difficult period, as the railway lines from Berlin through Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire to Basra in present-day Iraq were almost paralyzed by the great Arab uprisings of 1916. And the situation is getting worse, and the Allies have already organized troops to fight on the bus. The Germans could do nothing about this, and their navy had already been transformed into a fleet of existence in the Battle of Jutland.

"Field Marshal Hindenburg, are you sure we can get a breakthrough at Verdun and win this damn war?" In the Imperial Palace in Berlin, Wilhelm II asked hesitantly.

Hindenburg nodded without hesitation: "Venerable Emperor Bixia, as the war progresses, the losses of Britain and France are far greater than those of the German Empire, and they even have to spend money to hire military liliang like Canada, India and even China to fight us." As long as we grit our teeth and hold on to Zuihou, we will definitely be able to defeat the French and win this war. ”

Wilhelm II had long since lost the confidence he had at the beginning of the war, and the nearly three years of war had left him feeling physically and mentally exhausted. But because of the fact that the people were drowning in general, the Kaiser decided to grab the life-saving straw handed by Hindenburg: "Well, my Excellency Field Marshal, tell me, how many troops and supplies do you need?" ”

Although our Field Marshal Hindenburg looked down on the Chinese army, the rigor of the Germans still made him not make the decision to underestimate the enemy: "Dear Emperor Bixia, according to the information we have, in the Verdun area, the French also left about 8 divisions of an army group, with a total number of about 200,000, plus about 500,000 Chinese and Anglo-Indian troops. We analyze that they have at least 20 divisions with a strength of almost 2000 artillery pieces, as well as 200 aircraft. To defeat them, we need to concentrate at least 450,000 troops, 3,000 artillery pieces and 400 aircraft. At the same time, we had to instigate some offensive at the western end of the Western Front to cover our strategic intentions, and we also had to organize an army of about 150,000 men after the campaign began as a follow-up after a successful breakthrough. ”

As soon as Wilhelm II heard this data, his face became extremely ugly: "So much, can the empire still raise so many troops and supplies now?" You know, in the Somme, we lost half a million precious young people. ”

Hindenburg gritted his teeth and said: "We can draw troops from the Eastern Front, the Russians have been defeated, we can transfer Ludendorff and his army from the Eastern Front to the Western Front." Now it was the turn of Britain and France to enjoy the maximum might of our German army. ”

When Wilhelm II heard Hindenburg say this, he could only nod his head and say, "Haode, my marshal, I hope that within this year we can end this damned war." ”

The time for the Verdun operation was set for the end of May, as it would take time to bring back Ludendorff's 300,000 troops from the Eastern Front alone.

Bai Chongxi, on the other hand, had the consciousness of being pinched as a soft persimmon, and after receiving the order of the coalition forces, he unceremoniously drove the officers and soldiers of the Chinese European Expeditionary Force into the position on the front line of Verdun for defense.

Due to the lack of sufficient intelligence support, all Bai Chongxi could do was to order his soldiers to work hard to build various fortifications. In fact, Bai Chongxi's heart was also hesitating, if it was a positional battle with the Germans in Verdun, and the repeated battle of one meter at a time, would such a battle be what he wanted? Bai Chongxi looked at the map and fell into a thought......

The transfer of the German army is still very good in terms of secrecy, but it does not mean that the French army does not know any news, at least Fuxi, who is the chief of the general staff of the French army, knows it, because in the Verdun direction, the French are the most important in the area of German activity. But I don't know what kind of psychology, Fuxi did not choose to inform the Chinese, the only change he made was to adjust the military deployment in the Verdun area, move the French army to the fourth line of defense, move the Indian army and the Australian army to the third line of defense, and unceremoniously put the Chinese on the first line of defense and the second line of defense, which is naturally obvious to the Chinese as cannon fodder.

This selfish order actually meant nothing to an unruly general like Bai Chongxi, on the contrary, it prompted Bai Chongxi to make up his mind that a military operation that shocked Europe was about to begin in this era, and Bai Chongxi became a famous general in World War I because of this action......