There are many differences between the general staff of the Wehrmacht and Charlemagne in formulating battle plans, and apart from the well-known things - such as the fact that one side is conservative and the other side is meticulous and far ahead, in fact, few people know that the General Staff of the Defense Forces will leave enough space for front-line units to play flexibly when planning operations, and not everything must be done in the same way as a train schedule. On the one hand, this leaves room for redundancy in the event of possible accidents, so that no accident can trigger an uncontrollable chain reaction, or miss out on valuable fighters due to excessive attachment to the schedule, which will affect the overall progress. On the other hand, leaving redundant space is more conducive to enhancing the subjective initiative of front-line unit commanders, so that they can do a big job without worries.

The strategy for Bouillon is a concrete manifestation of this positive interaction. Originally, according to the timetable established before the war, Bouillon was supposed to be the target to conquer on the morning of the 12th of the month. However, after clearing the Ardennes of the remnants of the enemy, the 1st Panzer Division and the Balk battle group did not stop for coffee and sleep, and they arrived around Buyon at 17 o'clock on the afternoon of the 11th. By this time, the defenders had been warned of the rout that had retreated, and the sappers stationed in the town were about to plant explosives on the two bridges over the Semuwa River. After spotting the Wehrmacht vehicle, the panicked defenders lit the fuse before the sappers had finished planting the explosives, and some of the sappers were still on the bridge. After a loud bang, a whole platoon of sappers and part of the deck of one of the bridges flew into the air. A tank commander of the 101st Experimental Armored Battalion later recalled that he saw more than a dozen Charlemagne sappers on a rope screaming and flying out like a chain ball, and he was so frightened that he quickly sang "You have to fly higher, fly higher" to suppress the shock (Charlemagne: We have a sentence that MMP doesn't know whether to say or not). It is important to know that the demolition of bridges is considered one of the high-risk occupations even in the army, and the sappers must hang on safety ropes and lower to the load-bearing part of the bridge to plant explosives, and in the case of bridges made of stone or cement, carry drilling equipment. At this time, if the rope breaks or the explosives are detonated early, they will either be killed on the spot or fall to their deaths - just like Charlemagne's sappers here.

Seeing this scene, the commander who led the team was also anxious. Although the bridge was not completely blown up just now, the chariots were destined to not be able to pass through the dangerous bridge, and if even the remaining bridge was destroyed, then they would have to make a detour to the shallows downstream to force the crossing, and God knows how much effort would be wasted. In a hurry, the lieutenant did not care about the infantry or panzergrenadiers to keep up, and rushed directly with a platoon of Tiger chariots.

This trick seems reckless, but the effect is quite good, 7 steel monsters weighing dozens of tons scream and rush towards you at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, not to mention that this cargo is a chariot, it is an excavator or bulldozer, and few people in good spirits can still keep calm. Not to mention the steel monsters that are racing and shooting at you, with 7.92mm and 12.7mm tracer bullets all over the sky, and the guy standing on the control tower is not enough to enjoy it, wah-wow-wow screams and pulls out his pistol and fires at you. This group of sappers had nothing but pickaxes and infantry shovels, so how could he stop the group of madmen on the other side? Someone remembered that there were explosives behind him, and were about to make a cameo appearance as a meat bomb warrior, but this fierce man ran three steps and was stopped by a 12.7mm machine gun bullet and was cut in two, and the remaining sappers immediately turned around and ran after witnessing this tragedy, so the defense troops successfully took the remaining bridge and rushed into Bouillon in one go. But these brains are full of adrenaline, and they roll up their sleeves and rush into the town to find that their expectations have been disappointed - the town has become an empty city. When the armored soldiers looked at the various personal belongings that had been lost, it was the most magical scene in the entire Ardennes breakthrough operation. Under the watchful eyes of a whole row of Tiger chariots, a thin old lady Charlemagne came out of the house on the side of the street with her handbag, glanced at the seven pointy-eared strangers and black hole guns standing on the Iron King Eight control tower, and walked straight through the street into another house on the opposite side with trembling steps. According to the lieutenant who led the team, this was the most peculiar thing he had ever seen in his life.

In fact, according to the subsequent report, the lieutenant surnamed Bidianfeldt was himself the most amazing one. You must know that the bridge had already piled up a lot of explosives on the bridge deck at that time, and if it hadn't been for the fuse (each explosive corresponds to a specific length of fuse, which is detonated in a certain order to ensure the destruction effect, and it takes time to calculate the length and connection), those sappers were scared silly, and they would have reported to Valhalla with a bang.

In any case, at about 19:15 that day, the 1st Panzer Regiment and the Balk Battle Group had completed the occupation of Bouillon. By 11 a.m., news had come that had made Army Group B even more exciting. The 2nd Panzergrenadier Battalion on the right flank, with the 3rd Company of the division, successfully attacked the unsuspecting Muzaiv and captured the second bridge over the Semuwa River – a result that went even beyond the fall of Bouillon. Although the bridge itself was a rudimentary and narrow bridge, its location, Muzawo on the northern section of the Semuwa River, was the dividing line between Charlemagne's 9th and 2nd Armies, with the 62nd Infantry Brigade defending the town and the bridge being the rightmost flank of Charlemagne's 9th Army, and the 3rd Genoese Infantry Division on its right flank being the leftmost flank of Charlemagne's 2nd Army. After the defenders took the town and the bridge, the commander of the 62nd Infantry Brigade ordered the troops to retreat to the rear without destroying the roads or setting up roadblocks. The adjacent 3rd Genoese Infantry Division also had to retreat south after learning that friendly troops on its left flank had fled without a fight and that its flank was exposed. As a result, the raid of a battalion and company unit of the Defence Force caused a chain reaction that directly led to the collapse of Charlemagne's defensive deployment along the Semuwa River. The forward of Army Group B was only one step away from the Maas River, and it seemed that with a little more effort it would be able to attack the city, but just as this victory seemed within reach, the forward troops, which had been running at high speed, stopped.

Of course, it is impossible for the Defence Force, which values the concept of time more than life, to be careless at such a critical moment, let alone be so stupid as to give the opponent an opportunity. After continuous marching and fighting, the troops and equipment showed varying degrees of fatigue, and the troops carrying the equipment for building bridges and crossing the river had not yet come up, and more importantly, a series of rolling attacks caused the forward troops and logistics support units to distance themselves. Now turn to rest for the next stage to be able to fight better.

So, when the top brass of Charlemagne's 2nd Army made up the ridiculous report and stretched comfortably, the forward of Army Group B, which had entered the Semuwa River, also completed the replenishment of ammunition and the repair and maintenance of the combat vehicles, and the charioteers who had taken a nap for half a night energetically boarded their steel horses, and in the commander's order and the loud "Song of the Panzers", the rolling iron stream roared again towards the banks of the Maas River.