In Wangping Street in Shanghai, the newsboy is waving a newspaper and selling, almost every minute, one or two people will come forward to buy two copies, and next to them is a group of people who are looking down at the newspaper, and from time to time there will be excited shouts and discussions in the crowd...

Standing in front of the window of the newspaper office, looking at the lively scene outside, Shi Liang couldn't help but chuckle.

This includes both the sales of newspapers and newspapers, as well as good news from the front.

For Shi Liangcai, perhaps the latter is more important, and as a journalist, and probably the most capable journalist in China in this era, Shi Liangcai has a lot of connections in the outside world, and he also knows very well what this good news means...

Although it was only a day after the expeditionary force arrived in Verdun, this victory was still written about and vigorously publicized.

In the past, although under the full promotion of Yan Shao, the expeditionary force was sent out smoothly, but the people still did not agree with the fact that the expeditionary force was sent to Europe to participate in the war, and the reason was also described thousands ——————of times, which was the reason for the 'white man's war'.

So if you can exchange some support, it will also be a very good thing for Yan Shao.

Although the Kuomintang government has just entered the stage of political training in the 'three steps', and Yan Shao does not need to think about the issue of votes, he still hopes to get the support and understanding of the people, which is also of great benefit to the stability of the regime.

On the other hand. Just as Yan Shao expected, after learning the news of the victory in the first battle, the people's attention to the expeditionary force really increased a lot. At the same time, after reading the newspaper reports. Many people also have a deeper sense of pride...

Because this not only means that their army has won the battle, but this victory is also won against the first-rate power in the world, which ......... Does this mean that China can already keep up with such powers? And does it mean that you can wave goodbye to the humiliating history of the past?

The rest of the Entente countries naturally looked at this propaganda of the national government. Although they were a little disdainful that the Chinese had just won a victory, they did not say some cool words on the side to pour cold water, but cooperated with the propaganda of the national government from the side, and exaggerated this bookworthy victory into a huge victory. It even affected the victory of the entire campaign—————— which seems to be the case.

Britain and France and other parliaments cooperated for no other reason than because they needed more support from China. Whether the victory of the expeditionary force at Verdun was accidental or for other reasons, the Entente needed more troops from China. At this time, it was naturally impossible for them to drag Yan Shao's hind legs.

And after receiving the cooperation of the Entente, some people who were still skeptical also became excited. Even the Congress, which was originally more resistant to the expeditionary force, gave greater support to the expeditionary force—————— most of the members of the parliament were well-known people in society, except for some professors and the like. Most of them have their own local industries. The expeditionary force needed a huge amount of supplies. Except for a part of these materials for which the Entente was responsible, the rest had to be dealt with by the Commune government itself, and although the Commune government already had a relatively large-scale industrial base because of the Seventh Five-Year Plan, there were still some things that could not be produced, and this required dependence on the local industries of these congressmen.

Although the expeditionary force now has only three infantry divisions, it has already purchased high-priced supplies from them. If the size of the expeditionary force reaches thirty divisions, then won't they have to make a profit?

These congressional people are also relatively smart, since things are in their favor. Naturally, they changed their stance, from the original resistance and opposition to support. The speed of the change in stance was simply jaw-dropping, and even Yan Shao was surprised by their cheekiness, but it was not surprising, after all, they were not the ones who went to Europe to 'send to death'.

Even in order to increase the size of the expeditionary force, some capitalists who were not parliamentarians came to the door and privately gave some benefits, hoping that those parliamentarians could help expand the size of the expeditionary force...

As mentioned above, the larger the size of the expeditionary force, the more they earn.

It should be noted that while 'political donations' abroad are legal, in China they are absolutely illegal. After all, in this regard, the concept of Chinese is very different from that of foreign countries.

And all of this is under the supervision of the Special Affairs Bureau.

Originally, Caterina meant to use these as evidence and send them to Song Jiaoren, so that Song Jiaoren could find a way to clean up these guys. These guys have always been against Yan Shao in the past, and they also promoted the republican movement at the beginning, and now that they have a reasonable excuse, there is naturally no need to be soft...

However, Yan Shao stopped her, because with these handles in his hands, he may be able to play some unexpected roles in the future, and now Yan Shao also needs someone to stand up and support the 'Expeditionary Force', wouldn't it be dragging himself back to do it now...

As for Song Jiaoren?

The Ministry of Integrity has its own intelligence system, but the reason why they can kill all sides is entirely because they have a special service bureau on the side to provide information. Of course, this does not mean that the Ministry of Integrity will follow whatever the Special Affairs Bureau says, but every time the information provided by the Special Affairs Bureau is conclusive, even if there is some suspicion of personal vendetta in the communiqué, Song Jiaoren can't just deal with those corrupt officials for this reason...

On the other hand, without the support of the Special Affairs Bureau, relying solely on the investigation department of the Ministry of Integrity itself, those people would be very careful, and if no one provided clues, I am afraid they would not be able to find them out in this life...

So Yan Shao is very relieved, really relieved...

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While the Nationalist government was promoting the victory of the expeditionary force at home, in Europe, Britain and France were also publicizing. But this time, the protagonist in it is not just the expeditionary force.

Although it is true that this victorious expeditionary force will account for the vast majority of the credit, there were still a certain number of French troops at that time. So what was supposed to be the exclusive glory of the expeditionary force soon turned into a victory accomplished by the joint Chinese and French armies.

Of course. Most of the credit is definitely due to the expeditionary force, but the French army also played a role that cannot be ignored. It can be said that without the French army, the expeditionary force would never have achieved such a huge victory so easily...

That's what it was anyway...

The Germans did not want to talk about the defeat of Verdun, but in the face of the Entente's propaganda offensive, the Germans could not help but fight back.

However, the Germans did not deny the defeat at Verdun, but only admitted the defeat at the same time. Claiming that the army casualties were not as great as the Entente had claimed, and saying that they would never be so careless next time, when the next offensive began. It will definitely make the Chinese expeditionary force on the defensive line pay for their involvement in this war of the great powers...

That's what the Germans said and did ...

Both Falkingham and Crown Prince William knew very well that if it was just a simple skirmish attack, even if they could take the opposite position. Their casualties would be unimaginably large.

So when the casualties are counted. Falkingham and Crown Prince William are also preparing for a more aggressive attack. As the beginning of the whole offensive, Falkingham said that the first thing to do was to have a long shelling that lasted seven or eight hours.

It is necessary to use artillery fire to completely eradicate the resistance on the defensive line.

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When the Entente and the Central Powers were fighting a war of words over Verdun, the countries responsible for the onlookers couldn't help but get involved, and the biggest of them was the United States. Other countries, like Chile and Argentina, don't care even if they get involved.

The United States is the only country that has not yet been involved in this war, and the most powerful is probably the United States. Again, it is enough to rank with countries such as Britain and France. And only the United States.

During this period, the United States still maintained its neutral position, but in this war of public opinion, the Americans obviously favored the Entente. Many newspapers, including the Washington Post, put on a posture of support for the Entente, which made the Germans grit their teeth and secretly wary of it.

After all, with such an attitude of the Americans, no one knows whether the United States, which is still neutral, will join the Entente camp. Although, like the Entente, the Germans were trying to win over the United States, in fact even the Germans knew that this hope was too slim.

As for what the Americans supported the Entente ...

On the one hand, the United States has already aided the Entente in this war, and if the Entente fails, the United States, which cannot be repaid, will probably go bankrupt —————— more than a billion pounds, which is already equivalent to the financial revenue of the United States for seven or eight years.

On the other hand, although the Zimmer telegram incident had not yet occurred at this time, the unrestricted submarine warfare that the Germans had begun had seriously damaged the interests of the United States, and the Lusitania incident made the Americans full of bad feelings towards Germany, so in this war of public opinion, the position of the United States was inclined to the Entente...

So in this war of public opinion, the Allies gradually fell into disadvantage...

Of course, none of this matters, after all, you can't always spray your opponent to death with saliva, and what really determines the situation of a war is always a war with real guns. So while there was a war of words, the Germans were trying to take Verdun, and the British and French were doing everything they could to support Cai.

However, for this public opinion war, some people feel that it is a little unpleasant in their hearts.

For example, the Japanese...

As a member of the Entente, Japan's position in the Entente camp has always been somewhat awkward.

Especially after China officially decided to enter the war and sent an expeditionary force to Europe...

It should be known that Japan was much older than China in the Entente country, and it had declared war on the Allied powers, including Germany, not long after the outbreak of the First World War, and in the Battle of Shandong, Britain and France and other Entente powers also gave Japan considerable support.

Even after the defeat at the Battle of Shandong, Japan was reluctant to respond to the Entente's request for Japanese troops. He was not interested in getting involved in the war that was taking place in Europe, even if he wanted to send some troops symbolically. At the same time, he also rejected Britain's request for him to lease some capital ships, which was almost equivalent to a complete refusal to contribute to the cause of the Allies, and only wanted to reap his own benefits in this war...

Naturally, this made Britain, France, and other countries full of bad feelings towards Japan. Especially after China sent an expeditionary force.

On one side was an expeditionary force of 50,000 or 60,000 men, and promised to send more troops to Europe to fight for the interests of the Allies.

On the other hand, they are always pushing back, and their contributions are not even as good as those of new members.

At least in Britain and France, among the people, ordinary people clearly prefer China to Japan in the past. Especially on the day when the expeditionary force arrived at the fortress of Verdun and repelled the German offensive. Thousands of Parisians even came to the Chinese Legation in France with flowers in their hands to express their gratitude, even the house where Yan Shao once lived in Marseille. Of course, most of the people who come here to visit —————— are Chinese, such as Chinese diplomats in France, or expeditionary forces that arrived later. For them, it's definitely a place to behold. Although Yan Shao is still alive and well...

And within the French government, there are also many people who believe that relations with China should be improved, and at the same time, the diplomatic rank should be raised to the level of ambassador, rather than the original minister.

Even the United Kingdom, which was once most balanced, began to lean more towards China.

It is not surprising that if it had been two years ago, perhaps Britain would have paid attention to the issue of regional balance in the course of the war in order to ensure the security of its colonies around the world.

But now...

In the war has been going on for more than two years. And with no hope of victory in sight, Britain has turned all its attention to Europe. Diplomats who were more concerned about regional balance saw the brutality of the European battlefield. They have also switched sides, and now there are only a handful of diplomats who still cling to the same old ways, and they usually have no say...

For example, Zhu Erdian, who is far away in Beijing, no matter how vigilant Zhu Erdian is in his heart, there is nothing he can do in the face of this big situation.

In general, everything is developing in the direction that Yan Shao expects...

Although it was only a day before the expeditionary force repelled the German attack at Verdun...

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In contrast to the lively atmosphere of the outside world, there is only a dead silence in Verdun.

Deathly silence...

For the soldiers who were on the ground, the noise of the outside world had nothing to do with them. All they could think about now was how to survive the next German attack.

A lot of Germans were killed in the previous battle? Perhaps, they only know that their casualties are not small.

Especially during the bombardment by the Germans, many soldiers were even buried alive by the collapsed fortifications. When the German offensive was over and they began to rescue the wounded, many times all that came out of the rubble was only corpses, corpses with distorted expressions...

"Bodhisattva bless, Bodhisattva bless..."

Many officers and soldiers on the battlefield prayed silently there.

The gods in heaven may have heard their prayers, or they may not. After a long period of preparation, they waited until about eight o'clock the next morning, and they were greeted only by more intense artillery fire.

According to the previous plan, the German shelling continued for seven or eight hours, and did not stop until Falkingham and Crown Prince Wilhelm felt that it was enough.

Not long after the shelling stopped, groups of German soldiers also approached the direction of the position step by step, holding the same Mauser rifles as the Wehrmacht.

With yesterday's experience, at this time the Germans no longer dared to despise the Chinese on the opposite side, so every German soldier advanced carefully. Having said that, after seven or eight hours of shelling, these Germans did not feel that the expeditionary force on the opposite side could still have much counterattack power.

However, what happened next disappointed them, although the shelling just now did cause heavy casualties to the expeditionary force, but when they entered the position only more than 200 meters away, the dense fire still caused the Germans to pay a huge number of casualties.

Only this time it was different from the last time, if last time the Germans did not even manage to get in a hundred meters from the position, then this time at least they took the position.

Under the shelling of the Germans, the expeditionary force suffered heavy casualties. In particular, the machine guns, which were extremely important for the expeditionary force, lost a lot of money in the shelling. In addition, this time the Germans also wanted to avenge the last time, and for this attack, Falkingham not only prepared seven or eight hours of artillery bombardment, but also had an offensive force of more than 50,000 people...

And on the position. Even counting the reinforcements from the French, it was only 20,000 and a little bit...

Naturally, there are still a considerable number of reserves in Cai Yi's hands, such as the remaining three infantry brigades, and then the French army in Leonard's hands. But these are not to be used unless absolutely necessary, because if they do, it means that they have no reserves in their hands. It's absolutely fatal...

So in the rear, Cai Ye could only watch, and the Germans in gray military uniforms poured into the line of defense like a tide...

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From the moment the Germans took the position, the battle had turned from a stormy battle to a fierce white-knuckle battle.

As countless Germans rushed into the trenches. The officers and soldiers of the expedition on the position and the French army also took up bayonets and sapper shovels and fought against the Germans.

Although the officers and men of the expedition were shorter than the Germans (the early whites were not very tall, and the gap between them was only widened later, just as the Japanese were short in World War I and World War II, but they are taller in modern times). But with rigorous physical training and adequate nutrition. The white-knuckle battle with the Germans did not suffer much.

However, even so, the Germans were much more numerous than the expeditionary force after all...

"..."

After splitting the skull of a German soldier with a sapper shovel, Gao Yi leaned his back against the trench and touched the position of the lower waist with his hand, and then looked at his hand. His calloused hands were already stained with a large pool of blood...

When he was fighting with that soldier just now, although Gao Yi ended his life at once, Gao Yi's waist hit this guy for a moment.

"It's good that the wound isn't deep," he said. Gao Yi shook the brains on the sapper's shovel.

Although it is somewhat disadvantageous to play white-knuckle combat after being injured, Gao Yi can't care so much at this moment.

In the shelling just now. Gao Yi's squad suffered heavy casualties, the squad leader and two comrades were killed in the first round of shelling, and the remaining few also died with the Germans in the white-knuckle battle just now.

"I have to find someone else...", thinking so, picking up the sapper shovel, Gao Yi walked slowly towards the place around where there were gunshots.

But he had only taken a few steps when he shifted his gaze to the corner of the trench as if he had been drawn attention by something.

There, a soldier was buried in a collapsed fortification, looking hopeless no matter how he looked. However, Gao Yi did not pay attention to these, but the equipment in the soldier's hand.

'Type 15 Pump-Action Shotgun'

15 years is a very special year, since the establishment of the national government in 1913, the government has funded a large number of projects for the development of new weapons, such as the tanks and other weapons that Yan Shao is trying his best to increase production.

And 15 years is the year in which these projects bear fruit.

In fact, not only these weapons, but at the end of 15 years, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau also laid a keel.

In the history of the Harbour Bureau, there have been countless keels, but only this one is the most special, because this keel is owned by a 10,000-ton cruiser.

After a long period of design, the 10,000-ton cruiser was finally successfully designed and built. The shipyards responsible for the construction work are the Yushi Shipyard in Shanghai owned by Yushi Group and the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau owned by the State Council.

The reason why it is no longer the Wuhu shipyard in Anhui is because of the problem of water depth.

The water depth of the Yangtze River is not fixed, if the Yangtze River estuary generation can still be navigable ships with large displacement, then when it comes to Anhui, this displacement will be reduced a lot. And now is not the future generations, in the later generations, the Celestial Empire will often make some moves to ensure the smooth flow of the Yangtze River, even if the national government does something in this era, it will not be able to show results in a short period of time...

Therefore, at present, the Wuhu shipyard can only build ships of the 'Tiehuo' class cruiser, and the 10,000-ton class is not even thought of in a short period of time...

Incidentally, during this period, due to the rights support of the Yushi Group, the Yushi Shipyard in Shanghai was not only the largest shipyard in the country. At the same time, it is also the largest shipyard in the entire Far East—————— after its completion...

Moreover, due to the unrestricted submarine warfare of Germany, a large number of merchant ships of the Allies and the United States were sunk, and there was also the demand for surface ships by the national navy. Therefore, while the Yushi Shipyard undertook the task of building a 10,000-ton cruiser, a large number of orders have been received in the shipyard ...

There was an attempt by the Entente to compensate for the losses. There are also the national and naval ones.

In addition, Yan Shao is still considering whether to build another branch factory in Tianjin or Dalian. After all, the shipbuilding industry was really prosperous during this period.

————————————————————

Seeing the shotgun, Gao Yi hurriedly picked up the gun, and at the same time breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

There were also several soldiers in their squad who had such weapons, and he had seen the power of these weapons with his own eyes. Although these shotguns are definitely not as effective as Mausers in medium and long-range combat, even at close ranges of twenty or thirty meters.

But in close warfare, especially trench warfare. These weapons can be called artifacts.

However, his comrades either died in the shelling, or fell to the guns of the Germans in the ensuing battle, and one of them was even blown to pieces by a German grenade. The corpse was broken and could no longer be put together, and the shotgun in his hand was damaged...

As for the owner of this shotgun, if it weren't for the fortifications where he was hiding, he and his comrades were buried by a cannonball. Even if he would die. It's definitely not that simple...

"It looks like I shouldn't have died...", wiping the barrel of the gun, Gao Yi exhaled, and then turned some bullets out of the corpse. In such a complicated situation, he knew very well the difference between having a sapper shovel in his hand and a shotgun in his hand.

However, he had barely turned over a few bullets when he saw several Germans suddenly emerge from the front of the trench.

Seeing that a Chinese was crouching there and didn't know what Lu Dao was doing, the Germans hurriedly picked up their rifles and pointed their guns at Gao Yi.

There was no time to continue to draw bullets, so Gao Yi had to hide to the side first. Fortunately, at least the gun was full, even if it didn't get much ammo out just now. There is also no need to worry about running out of ammunition in battle.

He muttered something like 'Bodhisattva blessed' again and took a deep breath. Gao Yi didn't do it directly, but first took out a grenade from the equipment. After pulling it apart with his hand and counting silently for two seconds, Gao Yi threw the grenade out of the air.

Seeing a grenade suddenly thrown out, the Germans were shocked and hurriedly hid to the side.

And taking advantage of the opportunity for the Germans to dodge, Gao Yi escaped from the hiding place. Although the Germans had already fired at the moment Gao Yi came out, fortunately, only one shot grazed Gao Yi's inner thigh in a hurry, and Gao Yi didn't even aim, and the bullets that kept squirting from the muzzle had turned those Germans into a hornet's nest...

For Gao Yi, he doesn't need to aim at all....

Because there is no need to...

"Sure enough, it's a good gun..."

Exhaled, Gao Yi muttered, and then hurriedly pointed the muzzle of the gun outside. There, several Germans were jumping in with rifles.

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In terms of numbers, the Germans had a clear advantage. So when the white-knuckle battle began, the expeditionary force on the ground suddenly paid a great price.

Of course, there were also soldiers like Gao Yi, with the 'Type 15 pump-action shotgun' or the Madsen light machine gun, which caused great damage to the Germans who rushed into the position—————— Madsen had a small wooden handle under the barrel, so it could be used even if it was upright.

But the superiority of the Germans in numbers is real after all, not to mention that these Germans are not comparable to the domestic motley army, shotguns and light machine guns are not invincible weapons, and sometimes even if your firepower is fierce, a grenade is enough ...

In the end, however, the expeditionary force was able to repel the German attack, but by that time they had already paid a terrible price. The number of casualties of more than 8,000 people was almost half of the defenders of the front-line positions, and almost all the French who were responsible for assisting them were also dead, and only more than 500 survived at the end. After this battle, the number of casualties of the defenders was almost as high as nearly 10,000.

Although Cai Yi's purpose was to use rotation to allow the recruits in the army to grow up quickly in actual combat. It's just a pity that there are too many recruits in the expeditionary force, for them. This level of war is a bit too exciting...

A considerable number of recruits fail to grow, especially in the white-knuckle phase, when the casualties of recruits are the greatest. In comparison, the casualties of the veterans of the Third Division were much smaller, and it was almost impossible to continue to hold the position with the two brigades that had been disabled.

So there is no other way, Cai Ye can only rotate in advance. Replace all but three divisions, and replace the remaining two brigades. In addition, Leonard also increased the number of French troops who fought together to more than 6,000 people, but after looking at the casualty report, Cai Ye and Leonard still felt a sense of distress.

Cai Ye and Leonard feel distressed? Falkingham and Crown Prince William on the other side will only be more distressed than them.

As an attacker, you are inherently at a loss over the defender. This is especially true in battles of this magnitude. Although the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on the defenders of Verdun by means of artillery bombardment and hand-to-hand warfare, as the attacking side, the Germans' casualties will only be greater...

In particular, the expeditionary force was armed with a large number of machine guns. Even if some of them are damaged, some of them are lost to the machine gunner. However, after the whole battle, the Germans still paid more than 23,000 casualties, which was more than twice as many as Cai Yi...

If you continue to follow this routine. I am afraid that the Germans will shed the last drop of blood before the French.

And in the command. There are also officers who have raised their own doubts in this regard.

"Don't worry," he shook his head, and after Crown Prince William glanced at Fa Jinhan, he defended him. The casualties will be so large entirely because the Chinese on the opposite side are equipped with a large number of machine guns, but in France, the Chinese only have three divisions, and as long as the battle is finished, naturally there will be no problems. After all, if the French were really so difficult, we would have encountered something similar to today..."

Hear the words of Crown Prince William. Several officers in the command nodded in agreement.

Indeed, if the French had been so mighty in the past, they would not have been able to reach the city of Paris. So there is only one reason why it will become like this, and that is those 'damn Chinese'...

"It seems that these Chinese are more powerful than the guns you described, general..." After the officers retreated, Crown Prince William smiled at Falkingham, but his smile was somewhat ugly when he thought of his previous losses...

"It seems that more than ten years can indeed change a lot..."At this point, Falkingham has to admit that he did make some mistakes. But Your Highness, what will you do..."Looking at Crown Prince William, Falkingham's eyes were somewhat puzzled, after all, the two had a lot of differences on the issue of treating Verdun.

Hearing Falkingham's words, Crown Prince William smiled. "It's all about taking Verdun..."

That's right, everything is about taking Verdun ...

Leaving aside the more relaxed Germans who lived in the Far East, the native Germans have always despised the fighting power of the Chinese, treating them as opium smokers, and when China first entered the war, some Germans even openly declared that they wanted to teach these 'ignorant' Chinese a lesson...

But now, they have been taught a lesson by these rumored 'opium ghosts'.

If the opposite side is the French, after all, the war has been fought for more than two years, and it can be regarded as a fool's victory, but twice in a row like this, doesn't this mean that the Germans are not even as good as the Chinese?

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Hearing Crown Prince William's words, Falkingham nodded and didn't say anything more.

Now he and Crown Prince William have similar ideas, they are both difficult to ride a tiger.

Fearing that Allied reinforcements would soon arrive, the next day Falkingham and Crown Prince Wilhelm prepared an offensive on a much larger scale than the previous one, despite the heavy casualties they had suffered before...

The heavy artillery fire covered the entire position for at least five hours, and by the time the artillery fire was over, a large number of German troops rushed up overwhelmingly. And after paying an extremely heavy price, he again rushed to the position of the expeditionary force.

The mortars belonging to the expeditionary force opened fire constantly, blowing up the German troops in the charging path one by one, but there were too many German troops rushing up. By the time Cai sent at least one brigade of reinforcements to reinforce him, the defenders on the position had already suffered one-third of the casualties.

Of course, the Germans certainly didn't have a good time, but considering the superiority of the Germans in numbers, the impact of this casualty was obviously greater for Cai.

In order to capture Verdun as soon as possible, the Germans launched an offensive day after day, and even made a surprise attack in the middle of the night twice, but they were successfully repelled by the expeditionary force and the French army on the position, but every time they read the casualty statistics report, Cai Ye and Liu Guangyuan and others were dripping blood in their hearts, because at this time the expeditionary force had nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers killed, and countless wounded.

By the time the French reinforcements came up on the 25th, the defenders of the fortress had already suffered one-third of the casualties, and Cai Ye and Leonard and others were even more haggard, especially Cai Ye, who was already in poor health, and his nerves were highly tense for many days, which made Cai Ye's body weak. However, they also gave the Germans at least one and a half times the casualty figure.

The reinforcements that arrived on the 25th were Pétain's Second Army, and since Cai was the commander of the entire Verdun area, Petain's Second Army was also under Cai Yi's jurisdiction. However, only the 20th Army of the Second Army arrived in advance, almost two divisions...

Having said that, Cai was still overjoyed, and immediately replaced the troops on the front line with these two divisions. After many days of continuous fighting, the front-line troops suffered heavy casualties, and although their morale did not collapse, they also reached the point where they had to rest.

For Cai's order, Petain did not refuse, because the Germans failed to capture Verdun for many days, Petain even had some contempt for the German troops outside Verdun, after all, in his opinion, some Germans who even the Chinese could not fight, there is really nothing to worry about, and Verdun can hold to this day, it is also likely that Leonard and their credit. It was only when he and his 20th Army were on the ground that he realized what had happened to the expeditionary force and Leonard the other day.

And crucially, after many days of shelling, the fortifications on the front line were so damaged and dilapidated that they could not adequately protect the defenders. As a result, by the end of the German bombardment, Pétain's 20th Army had already paid thousands of casualties, and in the final white-knuckle battle, it was only with the reserves mobilized by Cai Ye that it was able to hold the position.

At this point, Petain no longer dared to despise the German army on the opposite side, let alone the expeditionary force and Cai Ye, who had been defending for so many days.

As time went on, more and more French reinforcements came in, but German reinforcements gradually arrived.

In the end, the Germans' delusional attempt to directly capture Verdun was completely shattered, and the situation in Verdun gradually turned into a decisive battle.

Due to the shelling in the first few days, the equipment of the expeditionary force was greatly damaged, especially the extremely important light and heavy machine guns, which also made the role of the expeditionary force in Verdun gradually diminished. In fact, by the 25th, Cai Ye only made the Germans pay a price of 1.5 times, which also has something to do with this.

In the final analysis, the quality of the officers and men of the expedition was inferior to that of the Germans after all, especially when it was full of a large number of recruits, and the fact that they could give the Germans such a large number of casualties was purely because of the large number of light and heavy machine guns they were equipped with.

After the equipment was almost destroyed, the two divisions except the third division were naturally beaten back to their original shape.

By this time, however, the French had already been heavily reinforced, so it was not a big deal. However, at this moment, the Germans were bound to win Verdun, and they launched an extremely frantic offensive almost every day, and for more than a month, both the Allied and German forces suffered heavy casualties. The casualties on both sides combined, close to 200,000, and the expeditionary force under Cai Ye also suffered more than half of the casualties, and the original expeditionary force of 60,000 people arrived more than a month later, but there were only more than 30,000 people left...

In Verdun, there are countless soldiers who have a nervous breakdown every day due to the fierce fighting, and the determined and gradually growing expeditionary force, although more than half of its equipment is destroyed, has become the mainstay of Verdun again because of its strong will, although there are also many officers and soldiers who have collapsed in the expeditionary force...

The almost flesh-and-mill-like battles have earned it the nickname 'Meat Grinder'.

Of course, along with the 'meat grinder', there is also Cai Yi, the 'hero of Verdun', and the prestige of the expeditionary force... (To be continued......)