"Ahh If it's anything else, it's fine, but this kind of task is hard to take without the help of something refreshing...

"Smoked again?" A soldier in the distance walked over, and by the way, he stretched his waist, and after taking the cigarette from the previous soldier, the soldier took a beautiful puff, and then patted him on the shoulder. "Okay, it's time for me to be on duty, you go to the back and rest first..."

There was no need to be on duty, so naturally he had to smoke to refresh himself, so although the cigarette was taken, the soldier didn't say anything, just covered his mouth and yawned, waved his hand at him, and then walked in the direction of the rear.

The soldier took a deep breath and turned his gaze outside, although this task was boring, but it was related to life, and he could not be careless.

At about 5 o'clock in the morning, just after dawn, except for a few officers and men in charge of guarding, the vast majority of the soldiers were still resting on their beds. Of course, the officers and soldiers on the front line were not so comfortable, because they usually hid in muddy and damp trenches.

Although in order to ensure combat effectiveness, the Entente has made sufficient preparations for the soldiers, such as blankets, etc., but the environment inside the trench is still very bad, and sometimes the trench is even covered with blood as a combat relationship, of course, this refers to the German army on the opposite side, at least at this time, the Germans have not yet killed the position of the Entente, so the soldiers in the trench do not have to fall asleep while smelling blood. Thankfully, in the last two years or so. The officers and men of the Entente forces were accustomed to this environment, so they did nothing but complain about it on a daily basis...

Early in the morning and at dawn, it was precisely the soldiers who were asleep. When I wake up again...

At this time, it was also the most suitable time for a sneak attack, so the officers and soldiers in charge of the guard did not dare to be careless at all, and officers even stood in many places to be in charge of monitoring.

However, while the officers and soldiers of the other troops were still asleep, in the camp of the expeditionary force, standing next to an iron car, Cai Ye reached out and stroked the cold armor on it. After experiencing the metallic touch, Cai Ye turned back to look at a major general standing on the side after a while.

The major general looked to be in his early 20s and wore the Type 11 everyday uniform that the Wehrmacht often wears. Although because the Wehrmacht originated from the Anhui Army. The Anhui Army relies on the local military academy or young officers who went to France to study, so there are many young generals in the army, but it is still difficult to become a major general in their 20s...

At least within the current Wehrmacht. It's rare to become a general in your 20s. And each one is highly reused...

"Jiansheng, these things can really work..."As he spoke, his fingers lightly tapped twice on the armor, and Cai Yi's tone was somewhat hesitant, as if he was not very convinced...

It is no wonder that he did so, after all, this was the first time that the expeditionary force had officially appeared in the days since the Battle of the Somme began. And although earlier the expeditionary force fought well in Verdun, it was a defensive battle after all, as for the offensive side. The expeditionary force still seems a little unfamiliar...

If it was just an ordinary battle, Cai Ye would not worry about anything, and he still had some confidence in the soldiers under his command. But the battle at hand...

On the first day of the Somme, the British lost more than seventy thousand men in front of the German positions. Although the number of wounded and the number of killed is relatively small, this is still not a small number.

How many people are there in the expeditionary force? Although the expeditionary force has a total of fifteen divisions in Europe at present, which is the side with the largest number of troops on the Allied side of the Somme battlefield, at least nine of them are in the rear to get used to the European environment, and there are only six divisions and 120,000 people on the battlefield, if it is really like the British on the first day of the battle and lose more than 70,000 people in one day, then it will not take long, it will only take less than two days for the expeditionary force to completely lose all combat capability—————— in the Somme battlefield at the beginning of the British army has 13 divisions, The French army had 11 divisions,

However, the strength of the British army has since increased to 54 divisions, compared to 32 divisions of the French army. On the other hand, the German army on the opposite side had only about 10 divisions, and in the later period, it only had 67 divisions, which was far inferior to the Entente in terms of strength...

Naturally, the British and French did not accomplish nothing in the past three days, at least they broke through one of the positions of the Germans. But when you think about the price it took, it's still chilling compared to these results...

No matter how you think about it, it is obvious that the combat capability of the expeditionary force cannot exceed that of the British and French forces by much, at most it is just equal. No way, not to mention the large number of recruits in the army, if the Anglo-French alliance was really so useless, Britain and France would not have the status they have now.

If you don't want to end up like the British, then the only hope is these Tiegada in front of you. However, unlike others, Cai Ye has not seen the situation when these equipment are used, so he naturally has some doubts in his heart...

"Don't worry, Commander..."Seeing Cai Yi's suspicions, Bai Chongxi said with a smile. I can guarantee that when these treasures appear, they will definitely surprise everyone, and later you can just order the other brothers to follow us and not fall behind, and we will open a way out in front of us..."As he spoke, Bai Chongxi's expression was very confident

Obviously, Bai Chongxi is very confident in the weapons in his hands.

After taking a deep look at Bai Chongxi, Cai Yi nodded and didn't say anything more.

In Cai Yi's opinion, he is also one of the best among the young people of Bai Chongxi's generation, and with Cai Yi's understanding of Bai Chongxi, it is obviously impossible for him to boast about such an important matter, so although he is a little hesitant in his heart, Cai Yi is not good at doing anything more. In fact, Cai Yi is still very optimistic about Bai Chongxi, but he never imagined that Bai Chongxi, who was originally the deputy division commander of the Guangxi Army, would be transferred to this armored regiment by Yan Shao...

But that's fine, after all, they are familiar with each other. If you know each other, it's easier to communicate. Especially now, these armored vehicles are all new equipment. Even Cai Ye himself doesn't know much about it, so in this case, it is even more necessary to have full communication. At this time, if an officer with facial paralysis came over, I am afraid that things would become very troublesome, but if it was Bai Chongxi, Cai Ye would still have no problem asking himself...

After all, no matter what, this is the young man he is optimistic about...

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In fact, not only Cai Yi is optimistic about Bai Chongxi, but even Yan Shao himself.

Historically, Bai Chongxi was admitted to the Guangxi Army Primary School in 1907. In it, he studied military-related techniques, and later dropped out of school due to illness. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Bai Chongxi, who was studying at the Guangxi Provincial Junior Normal School, joined the Guangxi Student Army. He went to Hubei to support the revolution, and then entered the Wuchang Army Preparatory School. In 1916, after graduating from the third phase of the Baoding Army Military Academy, Bai Chongxi served as a battalion commander in the First Division of the Guangxi Army.

1921 year. Bai Chongxi, on behalf of Huang Shaohong, went to Guangzhou to meet Sun Wen. Asked to join the revolution. Sun Wen appointed Huang Shaohong as the commander-in-chief of the Guangxi Thief Army, and Bai Chongxi as the chief of staff. Huang and Bai teamed up with Li Zongren to defeat the old Gui warlords Lu Rongting and Shen Hongying respectively in 1924. In the process of unifying Guangxi, Bai Chongxi fully demonstrated strategy and military ability, and was called "half a little Zhuge ".

The above is Bai Chongxi's performance in the original history.

However, in this era, due to Yan Shao's relationship, Bai Chongxi ran to Anhui before the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution—————— Bai Chongxi was studying in the provincial normal school. happened to see the newspaper's praise of Anhui, especially Wuhu, and Bai Chongxi, who was young at that time, was naturally unconvinced. thought that Guangxi might not be much worse than Anhui at that time, so after some preparations, Bai Chongxi and some classmates who were also dissatisfied came to Wuhu, Anhui.

As a result, when they arrived in Anhui, they found that Anhui at that time was indeed far beyond Guangxi, especially the Wuhu New Town established by Yan Shao in Wuhu. After visiting the city, Bai Chongxi was deeply shocked, thinking that if every city in China could be like Wuhu New Town, China would definitely be able to become strong...

In the end, Bai Chongxi and several classmates did not return to Guangxi, but stayed in Anhui, and after the Xinhai Revolution, they directly joined Yan Shao's Anhui Army, followed Yan Shao to fight in the south and the north, and finally forced Yuan Shikai in the north to step down.

However, Anhui at that time was still relatively xenophobic, and Bai Chongxi did not benefit Anhui like Yan Shao, so they could treat Yan Shao as half an Anhui person, and they were naturally excluded in the army. But 'Xiao Zhuge 'is 'Xiao Zhuge 'after all', not to mention whether his 'Little Zhuge 'is in vain', at least among his peers, he is a leader, so although he has been squeezed out by many people, Bai Chongxi has gradually emerged, and has made many military exploits during the Northern Expedition, and after the Northern Expedition is over, he was promoted from a company commander to a regiment commander and became a high-ranking officer...

When he arrived at the Shandong Campaign, he was promoted to the post of deputy division commander because of his combat bravery.

Although it was only a deputy position, considering that there were only more than 30 divisions in the country at that time, and considering that Bai Chongxi was only in his 20s at the time, he was already considered a high authority...

At that time, Cai Ye was in charge of commanding the Shandong Campaign, and Bai Chongxi was also under his command, coupled with his outstanding performance, Cai Ye naturally appreciated him very much...

And in order to facilitate the control of the place, Bai Chongxi, an officer from Guangxi, was also sent to Guangxi, and the original governor of Guangxi, that is, the commander of the infantry division in Guangxi, became the actual leader of this division...

In this way, although he is a deputy, in fact, Bai Chongxi's rights are not much different from the number one, and he can be regarded as a domineering party, at least at his age, there are few people who can compare with him.

And this time, because the armored forces need a suitable general, Yan Shao first chose this 'Xiao Zhuge 'who was also famous in his time—————— anyway, there are no talents in armored command in Chinese history, even if there is, it is difficult to say whether he was born in this era, since this is the case, it is better to simply choose one yourself, and Bai Chongxi, the famous Xiao Zhuge has become the first choice...

In fact, when he learned that Bai Chongxi was under his command, Yan Shao was also taken aback, after all, this person was very famous in his time.

But after thinking about it a little later, Yan Shao was relieved.

'Little Zhuge 'is really powerful. This is true, but these famous people in later generations are now just teenagers in their teens. People like Bai Chongxi are already old, but they are only in their 20s, in other words, they are just some young people who are still very young.

At the same time, after some observation, Yan Shao felt that Bai Chongxi was indeed very talented, so he promoted him. Otherwise, in his 20s, he would have sat in the position of major general ...

That's right, there are indeed many generals and colonels in their 20s in the Wehrmacht now. After all, the times create heroes, and a few years ago we were still in troubled times, and it was the time for heroes to rise. It's not uncommon for people to emerge in their 20s, but there aren't that many of them.

However, in the Anhui and Beiyang-dominated armies, if it were not for Yan Shao's promotion, a person from another province would want to sit in the position of major general in his 20s......... It's not a big job. Even if he has been living in Anhui for many years...

That's exactly what happened. Coupled with Yan Shao's achievements over the years, Bai Chongxi is very grateful to Yan Shao for his kindness, and at the same time, he can also be said to be very loyal to Yan Shao.

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Cai Ye naturally didn't know about the above, seeing that Bai Chongxi was so confident, he could only believe it at this point.

After all, due to a variety of reasons, he has nothing to do at the moment, and now that the time of the 3rd has arrived, he has no excuse to delay. The only hope can only be Bai Chongxi's armored regiment.

So after a deep groan, Cai Ye spoke. "That being the case. I'll leave it to you..."

Seeing that Cai Ye agreed, Bai Chongxi was immediately overjoyed.

Maybe in the eyes of others, he, a major general, came to command an armored regiment to depreciate himself, but in fact, Bai Chongxi knew very well that he definitely earned it. At least in such an era, there was no unit that could match his armored regiment.

If it was fighting on the plains, even a fully equipped infantry division would not be able to stop the panzer regiment. What's more, when Yan Shao saw him later, he also made it very clear that these armored regiments were only temporary, and sooner or later these troops would have to be turned from regiments to divisions. At that time, Bai Chongxi, as the commander of the regiment, will naturally undoubtedly become the commander of the armored division...

At that time, he, a major general, will naturally become justified.

And considering that the cost of an armored unit is much higher than that of an infantry unit, Bai Chongxi, the division commander, may be a high-ranking one even among many major generals and division commanders.

"Since that's the case, then I'll go down first..."Saluting Cai Yi, Bai Chongxi said. Although these iron bumps are easy to use, their reliability is somewhat ......... The big battle is coming, I'll let the people below check it first, so that they don't all lie down just after they set off..."

He knew very well that Cai Yi was the most trusted and valued general by Yan Shao now, so Bai Chongxi had a lot of respect for Cai Ye, and there was a lot of etiquette in the past. Moreover, Bai Chongxi's heart really attaches great importance to this battle.

For the armored forces, this is definitely their first battle, and Bai Chongxi naturally needs to be cautious. Because he knew very well that with the advent of this weapon, as the commander of this unit, he would also leave a heavy mark in the history books.

The key is whether the parts of the history books related to him and his troops are good or bad.

It's all up to him and his men.

If he and his subordinates behave well, then what will be recorded in the history books in the future will naturally be a good side, and it may even be written in a big way. Conversely, if the performance is not satisfactory, then what is written down will inevitably be the bad side, as mentioned earlier, everything depends on their performance.

So from any point of view, he and his subordinates need to be cautious.

Not long after Bai Chongxi left, he saw an officer running in from outside, and then stood in front of Cai Yi and saluted. "Commander, General Fuxi and General Haig just called, I hope you can go to the headquarters as soon as possible..."

"It seems that I'm talking about today's appearance...", shaking his head, Cai said to the officer. Give them a letter back, just say I'll go over now, let them wait a while..."Cai Yi shook his head. "These guys are really anxious..."

"Yes!" After receiving Cai's order, the officer immediately left, while Cai continued to shake his head and sigh.

However, it is not surprising that Fuxi and Haig are in such a hurry, because their losses are indeed very large at the moment.

Let's put it simply. It turned out that the British army had thirteen divisions, the French army had eleven divisions, and the expeditionary force had six divisions. From this point of view, both the British and French armies were far stronger than the expeditionary forces in terms of strength.

But in fact, after three days of fierce fighting, both the British and French troops suffered heavy casualties, especially the bloody battle on the first day, and the British army actually lost more than 70,000 people. Although only casualties, only a part of the soldiers were killed. The rest were wounded.

But even so, after three days, the British and French armies still had the number of troops left to fight. I'm afraid it's not much worse than the expeditionary force.

Even though the British and French follow-up troops were already on the way at this time, Fu Xi and Haig still hoped that Cai Yi's expeditionary force would be put into the battlefield as soon as possible. Otherwise, if they were to do it alone, they would push even the rest of the troops into the fire pit before reinforcements arrived. I'm afraid there is no ability to deal with the Germans on the opposite side.

In fact, after three days of bloody fighting. Deserters had begun to appear in the Entente forces, although not many, only a few sporadically, but this trend still worried Fuxi and Haig.

After all, for any general, the presence of deserters in the army is not a good thing. What's more, the current conflict between the Allied forces and the German army has just passed three days, and such a situation has emerged, which is really...

(There is a figure that seems to be wrong, the British and French casualties in the Battle of the Somme were more than 600,000 to be true.) More than 140,000 fled. As for Germany, there were also more than 600,000 casualties, but the number of escapes was as high as 300,000. The number of missing is more than 130,000. ）

Therefore, for Fuxi and Haige, the tens of thousands of people in Cai Yi's hands are also very important.

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After making some arrangements, Cai immediately set off for Fu Xi and Haig, where he met the two. When Cai arrived at the headquarters, Fu Xi and Haig were writing something in front of a map.

In fact, when Cai Ye did not believe in the armored forces, Fu Xi and Haig were also a little suspicious of the expeditionary force, after all, although the expeditionary force of the Battle of Verdun fought well, it was only a defensive battle, and they did not understand the strength of the offensive expeditionary force...

Because it is quite possible that in terms of attack, the expeditionary force was not as brilliant as it was at Verdun.

If that's the case, then I'm afraid they'll have to lower their expectations for the expeditionary force...

But anyway, let's try it first.

In fact, Fu Xi, Cai Ye and Haig had already determined the main direction of the expeditionary force, that is, a place called Balle.

Balle is a border area between the Netherlands and Belgium, consisting of the Belgian town of Balle-Hertoch and the Dutch town of Balle-Nassau. Amazingly, there are 22 Belgian enclaves in the Balle region, and within these enclaves there are another 7 extraDutch enclaves, in addition to an uninhabited Dutch enclave near the Belgian town of Jomdeehchen, for a total of 8 Dutch enclaves. If you look at the map, you can easily see that the territory of the Netherlands and Belgium in this area is you and me, and I have you, and the whole layout is somewhat similar to rags.

In the last three days of the battle, the Anglo-French army had broken through the first line of defense and had set foot on the land of Balle, but unfortunately the German reserves had just arrived and drove the Anglo-French army down very easily.

And this time, the task of Cai Ye and the expeditionary force is to inherit the mission of the coalition army and completely occupy Balle.

"Cai..."Coughing lightly twice, Fuxi looked at Cai Yi and said. You've seen the last two days, and I just hope your luck is a little better than ours..."

Although Haig had some conflicts with Cai Ye because of the events of the past few days, he also blessed him.

Seriously, in fact, at this time, Fuxi and Haig were somewhat contradictory in their hearts, hoping that the expeditionary force would take Balle, but also hoping that they would not take it.

The former is mainly from the overall consideration, what is the purpose of Xia Fei in launching the Battle of the Somme? Isn't it just to retreat the front to the Franco-German border? As a Frenchman, Fuxi naturally hoped that the number of enemy troops on his national territory would be smaller.

Even Haig, considering that Britain has now invested a lot of resources and endless blood in this war. I also hope that this damned war will end sooner—————— of course, it must be as a warmaker...

The identity of the vanquished is impossible for either Fuxi or Haig to accept. Don't say that it was defeated, even peace talks are impossible, this is also true of Yan Shao, after all, China has paid a lot in this war, since there is a pay, then there must be a return, Yan Shao must see the follow-up return. This is also the reason why Yan Shao had to help the Entente to achieve victory, because he had to be rewarded.

As for Britain and France, one is looking to eliminate a potential threat. The other is the desire to leave the continent with no more countries capable of threatening its position. In addition, the two countries have also invested a lot of resources in this war......... From this point of view, the two naturally hope that Cai Ye and the expeditionary force can be victorious.

But from a personal point of view, if Cai Yi won as soon as he went up, wouldn't it seem that they were very useless? Not to mention the example of Verdun. It was because of Cai Ye and his expeditionary force that saved Verdun. As a result, Cai Ye fell into the name of 'Hero of Verdun'. A name that even the French themselves don't have.

Giving a foreigner such a name is something wrong in the hearts of many French people. What's more, this time it was a yellow man from the Far East who got this name, which is even worse, if Cai Yi gets a name like 'Hero of the Somme', wouldn't he be ashamed to die of them French, after all, this is their country, their territory, what is the matter with letting some foreigners save it? And also a yellow race. Doesn't this mean that excellent whites are not even as good as yellow people? Naturally, this is something that only racists would consider.

But in this day and age. There are not many people who can treat all races equally, and the vast majority of white people still have some discrimination against people of color in their hearts. Xiang Yan Shao ran into two girls very easily, such a thing can be said to be very rare...

Because of this, the two of them are somewhat struggling in their hearts, but after all, the two are professional soldiers, so they are obviously more inclined to the former...

What's more, the two countries have already paid enough blood in this war, and naturally hope to achieve the victory they deserve...

"Please rest assured, two generals..."Seeing the two of them say this, Cai Yi also said with a straight face. Songpa must do everything in his power to take Balle! ”

"Hmm!"

Just as the three of them were talking in the headquarters, Cai Ng's adjutant suddenly walked in from outside, and then whispered in Cai Ng's ear.

"Good!" After listening to the adjutant's words, Cai Ye nodded, and then looked at Fu Xi and Haig, who were guessing what the adjutant had said to Cai Yi. "Two generals, our side is almost ready, and then we just need to let the artillerymen put on a show, and we can be on the stage..."

Although the machine guns of the First World War became famous, and the Allied soldiers even changed color when they heard the name of 'Maxim', in fact, the role of artillery has never been weakened, at least on the battlefield, artillery is still worthy of the name of 'king of war'...

Whether in World War I or World War II, the number of people who died under artillery was not a small number, and this is naturally the case today.

Although the continuous shelling of the Somme for many days before the Battle of the Somme caused the Allied forces to delay the fighters more or less, it also gave the Germans time to prepare. However, Cai Ye did not dare to underestimate the role of artillery at all, and attached great importance to the support of artillery.

After all, as the army with the most machine guns, Cai Ye knows very well how powerful the machine guns are.

Although the number of machine guns of the Germans on the opposite side was not as large as that of the expeditionary force, this number was also the second largest after the Chinese army. If there is no good response, even if there are huge casualties, the goal may not be achieved. Cai Yi himself was somewhat suspicious of the armored troops, and naturally hoped that Fu Xi and Haig could give him some powerful artillery support.

Hearing Cai Yi's words, Fu Xi and Haig glanced at each other, and then smiled. "This nature..."

These days, the coalition forces don't know how many shells they have sprinkled on the battlefield, and now they naturally won't be stingy with these.

"That's good..."Cai Ye also knew that the two of them would not fool themselves about this kind of thing, so he nodded very reassuringly.

After Cai Ye exchanged pleasantries with the two for a while, he left the headquarters, and then he needed to personally command the operation of the expeditionary force. It has been seen from the battles of the previous days that it is on the battlefield of the Somme. It is basically useless to dispatch three or five thousand people at a time, and that number is not even enough for the German machine gunners, so Cai Ye had already discussed it with Liu Guangyuan yesterday. The first time, I had to push up an army, and let this army go up with Bai Chongxi's armored regiment...

Although he was skeptical, Cai Ye did have high hopes for Bai Chongxi's armored regiment, hoping that the new weapons could play their due role, and take the Balle area in one blow—————— just one or two tanks would require more than 100,000, and an armored regiment would need at least more than 10 million, Cai Yi hoped that their abilities would at least be worth the price...

————————————————————

When Cai Ye came to the front command belonging to the expeditionary force. Five army commanders, including Liu Guangyuan, have already gathered.

Although this operation was only a matter of the First and Second Armies, the commanders of the remaining three armies were all people who knew what the 'tank' was, so they naturally wanted to see the power of this new weapon with their own eyes.

In addition, there is no war in the rear for the time being. So I found some time to go to the front.

"How? It's ready..."After stepping into the headquarters, Cai Yi looked at Liu Guangyuan and Xiang Xinyuan.

"It's ready, we've ordered it to go down and wait until the battle begins. Let them rush forward with the armored forces. Wherever the armored forces rushed, they followed..."

"There's no need..."Cai shook his head. As long as we can take down Balle, nothing else has anything to do with us..."Saying that, Cai Ye also calculated in his heart, although he still had some doubts about the power of the armored forces, but in Cai Yi's view, if this war ended prematurely, it might not be beneficial to China.

After all, the real purpose of this war is to make the European powers shed blood, and at the moment Britain, France, Russia, Germany and other countries in Europe are indeed shedding blood. But I'm still a long way from running out...

If the war had ended prematurely, their plans would have been unforeseen. Then wait until after the end of the war. I'm afraid they will have to find a way to deal with the siege of the European powers—————— although it is possible to lick their wounds, but after all, they should be careful.

Therefore, in Cai's view, the expeditionary force only needs to make a name for itself on the Somme River with as few casualties as possible, and nothing else......... If the armored forces are really as useful as they say, then it is quite possible to show some 'subtlety' ...

Hearing Cai Yi's words, those low-level generals looked at each other, only Liu Guangyuan, Wu Peifu and others understood more or less in their hearts.

That is, while they were talking, the artillery group in the rear moved...

For this battle, Britain and France prepared a large number of artillery, not to mention that in addition to the British and French artillery, the artillery of the expeditionary force also came to join in the fun...

The power of heavy artillery is indeed good, but in fact, the mainstream on the battlefield in this period has always been 75mm caliber artillery, especially the French, who have taken the 75mm cannon to the extreme. What's more, in addition to 75mm guns, the main divisions of the expeditionary force were also armed with some 105mm caliber guns.

The artillery of the First Army and the Second Army combined, there were almost more than 300 guns, of which 75mm caliber field artillery and mountain artillery accounted for the vast majority, and the number of 105mm caliber light howitzers was relatively small...

Although the total artillery of the six divisions is only more than 300, it is very inconspicuous compared to the artillery group prepared by the British and French forces, not to mention that there is no heavy artillery among them. But considering that the number of artillery pieces on the German positions on the opposite side was only more than 600 pieces............... These more than 300 guns are still a lot of strength...

The power of more than 2,000 artillery pieces shook the heavens and the earth, and even the command headquarters of Cai Yi and others shook because of the power of the artillery when it fired, and a cup that was not in a very good position on the table even fell to the ground because of the vibration.

Fortunately, the cup was strong, and the field command was also excavated, and the soil on the ground was soft, so the cup was not broken, but a cup of tea was all spilled on the ground...

Although they had already known that the artillery fire prepared by the British and French forces was very fierce, after witnessing it with their own eyes, Liu Guangyuan, Wu Peifu and others still looked very shocked—————— the scene of thousands of artillery guns firing together, such a scene was not an ordinary shock, and the opposite Balle area turned into a sea of fire in an instant...

Also very shocking were the officers and men of the expedition who had already entered the trench fortifications. Looking at Balle, who had turned into a sea of fire, some people even felt that there might be no one on the other side, and they only needed to go up and collect the corpse.

However, those experienced officers knew very well that although the Allied artillery fire was fierce, it would be difficult to deal with the Germans so easily...

For experienced officers and even veterans, it is quite possible to judge the caliber of artillery by its explosion. Although the distance was a bit far, most of the people present could recognize that most of the shells that landed on the opposite position were fired from 75mm caliber field guns...

The field artillery is not very easy to deal with the enemy in the trench, and the caliber is only 75mm, if it does not directly hit the fortifications, even if it only falls one or two meters away from the trench, I am afraid that the people inside will be helpless...

Especially the artillery group of the French, who seemed to be unable to get out of the barrel of the 75mm gun. I tried to get the so-called 75 Miss Cannon, and as a result, most of the guns of the French army were 75mm caliber...

So don't look at the current performance on the field, but in fact, the Germans may not have suffered much...

Cai Yi and others also knew this, after all, if the Germans were really so easy to eliminate, the British and French forces would not have met in front of the German positions, and they had been touching for three days in a row, you must know that before the British launched the offensive, the coalition forces alone had been shelling the German positions for a week, and they could still survive under this level of artillery fire, so you can imagine how solid the Germans' positions were...

However, they did not say anything, after all, now that morale is available, there is really no need to say it to undermine morale and the confidence of the officers and soldiers...

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The artillery bombardment of the coalition forces lasted for more than 3 hours, although this time is much worse than that of the Shandong Campaign, but considering that the coalition forces have concentrated more than 2,000 artillery pieces here alone, not counting other mortars, etc., it can be seen that this level of artillery bombardment in Ludao is by no means comparable to that of the Shandong Campaign...

At the same time, the Germans were struggling under the shelling of the coalition forces.

Although it is difficult for a 75mm caliber shell to cause any damage to the people in the trench if it does not hit directly, with such a large output capacity, it is difficult to say that there is no blind cat running into a dead mouse...

Compared with the difficulties of the Germans, the Allied side was obviously much more relaxed, and after learning that it was not their side responsible for launching the attack today, many of the Allied officers and soldiers even smoked cigarettes leisurely...

After three hours, the artillery fire finally stopped.

And with the order of Cai Ye in the rear headquarters, the armored troops that had already been prepared began to drive in the direction of the German army under the personal leadership of Bai Chongxi...

Standing on the seat of the command car, leaning his upper body out of the body, and looking at the armored vehicles around him, for some reason, Bai Chongxi's heart suddenly had a feeling similar to that of an ancient general, the feeling of charging into battle like an ancient general...

In ancient times, those generals were like Bai Chongxi now, and they rushed to the enemy army with their own soldiers. It's just that the generals of that era rode war horses, but today Bai Chongxi is sitting on an iron horse...

However, when Bai Chongxi was about to indulge in this feeling, he looked at the expeditionary force troops closely following behind him, and Bai Chongxi quickly understood what his duty was...

Bai Chongxi, who knocked on the iron block in front of him and straightened his military hat, said loudly. "Panzer regiment, attack!"

With Bai Chongxi's order, one hundred and fifty armored vehicles drove towards the German position, and looking at the vehicles that had just driven out of the position of the expeditionary force, whether it was the German army on the opposite side or the friendly troops who belonged to the same Entente sequence as the expeditionary force, their faces all showed surprised expressions...

For people of this era, the sight of more than a hundred armored vehicles marching together is not an easy joke ...

However, when he saw this armored vehicle, which was mainly divided into two types, Haig's expression became very ugly. Because after seeing these things, Haig quickly remembered some of the plans that the British government was also implementing... (To be continued......)