Expedition to Europe

The failure on the first day did not scare Nivelle, who soon launched a second large-scale offensive.

Only half of the time was left for Nivelle.

As early as when trying to persuade Raymond to agree to Nivelle's battle plan, Nivelle proposed that if the French army did not make progress within 48 hours, Nivelle would stop the offensive.

Now a day has passed. So Nivelle must hurry up.

The battle on the second day also started at six in the morning.

Nivelle and his staff discussed overnight and came up with a new tactic.

In Nivelle's new tactic, the French troops responsible for the offensive mission were divided into two routes and launched an attack on the Germans in a pincer state. One of the routes was led by Nivelle's confidant Mangin, and the other was led by Alfred, the former commander of the mobile force.

Since the outbreak of World War I, Alfred has been Nivelle's chief of staff, and they have cooperated very well. But when Nivelle proposed the plan to attack Chemin de Dames, Nivelle's plan aroused Alfred's strong opposition, and for this reason, Alfred even threatened to resign.

Nivelle, who was already the commander-in-chief of the French army, naturally would not accept such a threat, so Alfred was sent to the front by Nivelle to personally lead the army to launch an attack that Alfred said was "impossible to become a reality."

Unlike Alfred, the commander of the other route, Mangin, was a murderer. As early as the Verdun period, Mangin and Nivelle were accused of wasting the lives of French soldiers at will. In order to calm the storm, Nivelle was forced to dismiss Mangin.

But after Nivelle became the commander-in-chief of the French army, Mangin was immediately promoted and climbed to a higher position than before.

The troops commanded by Mangin were not only French, but also the first, second, third, and fourth infantry regiments in the Foreign Legion. These four regiments were mainly composed of Algerians and Moroccans, basically all black people.

Mangin, who did not care about the lives of pure French people, was even more indifferent to the lives of these black people. In yesterday's battle, these four infantry regiments were all sent to the front line, and they all suffered heavy casualties and had not yet been rested.

Black people are also human beings, and they are not fools. Naturally, they can feel Manjing's indifference. The commanders of the four regiments asked for a rest as soon as they heard the order, but were ruthlessly rejected by Manjing. Manjing said some very bad things in the preparatory meeting. He said that if the soldiers of the four regiments did not obey the order, then these commanders would be sent to the military court.

In fact, the commanders of the four regiments are all French, pure French whites. Although they have different skin colors, they have also cultivated certain feelings in the process of getting along with the soldiers day and night, so they want to say a word for those soldiers who are already full of anger.

In the end, the commanders' requests were ruthlessly rejected by Manjing. All the soldiers of the Foreign Legion must participate in the battle on the second day as long as they can still move. Nivelle seemed to want to vent his anger at Qin Zhiyuan on these soldiers of the Foreign Legion, and he was not prepared to leave them a chance to live.

Fortunately, Qin Yunpeng's troops were assigned to Alfred. Although they were also in the battle sequence, they were able to stay in the rear to rest because of the heavy casualties in the first day of the battle.

Like the first day's attack, the second day's attack still made no progress.

After a day of fighting, the Germans have gradually become familiar with the new defense method, while the French have not yet found a countermeasure to break through the German defense.

When the French began to attack, the Germans would retreat and abandon their positions after giving the attacking troops a certain blow. Then when the French were exhausted and stopped attacking, the German reserve would come up and drive the French back to the starting position and recapture the lost position.

The two French armies, the one commanded by Alfred, moved northeast, wanting to join the other French army commanded by Mangin, and then work together to annihilate the Germans in the encirclement, or drive the Germans out of Chemin de Dame.

The plan is beautiful, but the reality is cruel.

Neither of the two French armies completed the task. Relatively speaking, Mangin completed it to a better degree, but at the same time, Mangin's troops paid a greater price.

The four infantry regiments of the Foreign Legion had been basically wiped out in a day's battle. The four regiments now had less than 1,000 people in total, and the rest were ruthlessly squandered by Mangin in front of the German positions.

Not only the blacks in the Foreign Legion, but also the French troops under Mangin suffered heavy casualties. On that day, Mangin's troops suffered more than 110,000 casualties, of which 40,000 were killed.

In just two days, the French army paid the price of 270,000 casualties in Chemin des Dames, of which 100,000 were killed. The total number of casualties of the German army defending Chemin des Dames was 163,000.

Such heavy casualties were unbearable for both Germany and France, especially the French, whose human resources were gradually exhausted.

That night, Prime Minister Paul Painlevi rushed to the front line and personally went to Nivelle to ask Nivelle to stop the attack immediately.

At the same time, Qin Zhiyuan waited for Qin Yunpeng at the Black Swan Castle.

After Qin Zhiyuan's engagement ceremony, it was only a few days since they last saw each other. The high-spirited Qin Yunpeng had disappeared, and the one who came to Qin Zhiyuan was a middle-aged man with gray hair and a decadent face.

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"General Qin, you are right. The French really don't treat us as human beings!" Qin Yunpeng seemed to have drunk a lot of wine before. He was a little drunk. He walked unsteadily and half-lying on the sofa and yelling as soon as he entered the living room.

"I reminded you that Nivelle not only doesn't treat foreigners as human beings, they don't even treat French people as human beings." Qin Zhiyuan's face was gloomy, his tone was cold, and there was no enthusiasm.

Qin Yunpeng was smart enough to wait until Qin Zhiyuan's anger subsided before coming over. If it was when Qin Zhiyuan had just finished reading the battle report last night, Qin Yunpeng would not even be able to enter the door, let alone half-lying on the sofa.

Obviously, not all French people are like what Qin Yunpeng said, at least Foch is not. Otherwise, Foch would not let Julie and Qin Zhiyuan get engaged.

"I was confused, I was confused... I buried eight thousand of my fellow countrymen in the wilderness thousands of miles away from my hometown. How can I explain to my fellow countrymen when I go back..." Qin Yunpeng burst into tears and finally couldn't help crying.

Yesterday and today, the number of Chinese who died on the spot or were seriously injured has exceeded five thousand. Although Qin Zhiyuan sent some military doctors from the First Brigade to the front line to support the Second Brigade last night, many seriously injured soldiers died of their injuries. If we add those who lost their limbs and became permanently disabled, the Second Brigade has lost nearly eight thousand of the nearly ten thousand people before the war, which can be said to be close to being wiped out.

Because of this, not only the families of these eight thousand children, but also Qin Zhiyuan, will never forgive Qin Yunpeng.

Of course, Nivelle will never forgive him at the same time.