Early morning of September 22, Western Front, Paris City.

The ruins are everywhere, the broken walls are craggy, and the twisted steel bars protrude out of the shattered and charred cement slabs, rolling arbitrarily in the air, looking desolate and hideous. The streets are deserted and deserted, and as far as the eye can see, there are traces of destruction left by fierce street fighting. On the forward battlefield, German and French soldiers were in their respective hideouts, ready to deliver lethal shots to the enemy in sight.

"Buzzing ......" A buzzing motor sound came from the sky, the sound was steady and long; After a while, there were several more beige airships in the air that looked like cigars. Seeing this situation, the city still under the control of the French army was alarmed; The French officers and soldiers, who had also built barricades and traps in the streets, fled into buildings and sewers, praying in a trembling voice that the Grim Reaper who had come to choose sacrifices would let them go like a fart. Although the French army already has anti-aircraft guns converted from Miss 75, so that these aerial demons can no longer stay in the air below 4 kilometers, the powerful explosives they carry have not been weakened in any way. In a way, the German airships bombing at high altitude deepened the fear in the hearts of the French city defense soldiers: although the accuracy of the high-altitude bombs was greatly reduced, in the densely populated city of Paris, this kind of range attack without fixed targets made every French officer and soldier tremble at the unpredictable and ruinous future!

The motor hummed, like the sound of a soul seduction to hell, and the French officers and soldiers crouched tightly in their bunkers, their hearts beating wildly for the curse to come. However, it took more than half an hour to practice. The familiar and terrifying deafening explosion never rang out. Some French soldiers had the audacity to poke their heads out of the bunkers. But he was stunned to find that the streets were full of flyer pages flying in the air. It was like a white frost and snow; Curious, they took one from the air, only to see an announcement written on it in French:

"Two days later, the Great Army of the German Empire will launch a final general assault on Paris. Citizens who still live in the southwest of Paris are advised to leave the city immediately, or the poison will lead you directly to God. The French officers and soldiers should not resist any more uselessly, and either surrender immediately or be crushed with the city. ”

Located on the top of a church spire on the eastern outskirts of Paris, Qingying holds a telescope and stares into the air. Flying white clouds. Several beige fat figures loomed. The breeze was blowing, his clothes were dancing, even if it was the most ordinary set of wild gray military uniforms, he looked radiant and indescribably handsome and graceful when he wore it. After years and the accumulation of military career, Qingying's physical youth and immaturity have been completely replaced by sharpness and condensation.

"Your Highness, are you too merciful in doing this?" Sickert, with a thin face, spoke slowly, with a hint of helplessness and disgust in his words. "These Frenchmen, who insisted on staying in the city of Paris, were no longer strictly civilians: they not only helped the French city defense units to transport ammunition and supplies, but also to transport the wounded. Even helping the army to build fortified positions and plant lead explosives is no different from that of the regular armed forces of France. It seems to me that we in Germany need no mercy or mercy on these people: since they have made up their minds to help the army against our Germany, they should bear the consequences and risks of war on the soldiers. ”

Qingying's eyes turned, and a pair of dark and clear eyes stared at the magnificent city that was crumbling and dilapidated, but still in rhyme, and said lightly in that magnetic voice as before: "Hans, it is normal for the French people to provide convenience for their own army. If our army were to kill these citizens as a hostile armed force, it would not only cause a great blow to the international reputation of the Empire, but would also cause more than 2 million French people currently under the rule of the Empire to rise up and revolt, thus causing violent turmoil in the occupied territories. You know, these French people also gave everything they had in the previous battles to help their army! Would you like to see the destruction of the transport routes and communication lines in the rear of our army and force the Reich to throw large numbers of troops into the occupied territories to deal with the endless guerrillas? ”

Sickert's lips twitched, as if he wanted to defend himself further, but after a moment of thought, he finally fell silent and did not say anything more. As a pure soldier, he was fully confident that he would use the current German violence to wipe out all the land enemies, but Qingying's concerns were also true, and they would affect the current battlefield on the Western Front for a considerable extent. Combined with the effects of the passive resistance of the Belgians after the defeat of the army, Sickert gradually felt the need for another means to solve the problem.

Qingying paused, and then said, "In addition, the slaughter of French civilians is also contrary to our core purpose. The intention of the empire was not to exterminate the Gauls, but to make them accept the absolute dominance of Germany over Europe and to fulfill Caesar's long-cherished wish for a world empire. And to achieve this goal, we will ultimately have to solve the problem at the negotiating table, and military means are only a spur bargaining chip to force them to cut their flesh and bleed as much as possible. If we had opened a knife on the French civilians, it would only have completely detonated the national hatred between Gaul and Germania; This, in turn, will make it impossible for the French government to step down on the issue of negotiations, and can only continue to fight against us under the impetus of surging public opinion. Although Qingying's current position is only one of the commanders of the 11 armies of the German Army, his special status allows him to still obtain all the core information from the decision-making level in Berlin in the military war. Compared with Sickert, who is outstanding in military affairs but only a major general in his current position, Qingying's thinking height is no longer at the same level as him.

"But Your Highness, in this way, we have lost the suddenness of the battle. The French will inevitably intensify their vigilance against poison gas after receiving this warning, and the success of our last gas war was almost entirely based on the unpreparedness of the other side. According to the information sent back by the front-line soldiers, they have found items suspected of being gas masks on the bodies of French soldiers killed in battle. Sickert was silent for a long time, and finally spoke with some apprehension, "Can we guarantee that this attack will advance smoothly?" ”

Qingying put down the binoculars and turned around slowly, the golden morning glow was stained on his delicate side face, and his bright smile suddenly bloomed so that Sickert couldn't help but be stunned: "Hans, you don't need to worry about this." Dr. Harbour (Earl William?) How can the mustard poison gas that is highly recommended be as powerful as the last chlorine gas? The moist alkaline masks of the French can barely cope with the attack of chlorine at best, but they cannot withstand the attack of mustard gas at all. Taking a step back, even if the French gas masks filter out almost all mustard gas, like ours, this gas can also act on the human body through the skin and cause fatal injuries just as much. Without knowing the properties of this gas, they would not be able to resist its terrifying power, so just wait for the moment of victory when the German flag is hoisted at the top of the Eiffel Tower! ”

"Able to invade the human body through the skin?" Sickert's eyes widened, and his face was full of shock and disbelief. Previously, for the sake of secrecy, Qingying had been keeping the performance of the new poison gas secret, and Sickert thought that it was limited in strength compared to chlorine gas, but he didn't expect it to be terrifying to such a situation! If this is the case, there is no doubt about the effect of the next round of gas warfare!

For more than a day after that, the French army in Paris was intensifying preparations for war and at the same time carrying out intense evacuation work for the citizens. Whether the contents of these leaflets distributed by the Germans are true or not, it is a sure fact that they have opened the door to gas warfare; If the other side had carried out another poison gas attack on the west side of Paris, as they had done a dozen days earlier, the French officers and soldiers might be able to barely carry it with their gas masks, but the people without any military training would almost certainly be wiped out.

In this situation, the commander of the Paris garrison, Gallieni, unsurprisingly, issued an announcement to the population to evacuate. The French people, who felt that their lives were about to be lost, could only choose to drag their families out of the capital and retreat to the rear in the southwest. When the crowd looked back at the ruined city soaked in the afterglow of the setting sun, countless French nationals who felt that it was easy to see and difficult to see at other times left tears of grief and sorrow, and wept on the road.

Once the world's second largest city, the city of art, the city of romance, and the center of extravagance that the entire human civilization has fascinated and longed for, has completely ceased to exist, and has become a dead ruin after being devastated by the war.

By the evening of September 23, all the remaining citizens of Paris had been evacuated. French officers and soldiers took over these evacuated houses and began to overturn them, destroy doors and windows, and completely militarize the houses into street warfare. The last vestiges of the former splendid dreams of Paris are gone, and nothing but pure war, carnage, barbarism and blood flow. As the sun sets, the night falls, and the great city of Paris is as silent as a cemetery; If aliens look down on Europe in the orbit of a satellite at this moment, they will find that the star point that used to shine the brightest in the past has now fallen into eternal darkness, and there is no light left.

The fortune of the French nation is like that of their capital. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the tips of book friend zhouyu1976 and Reverse Dou Xinchen~~~