Expedition to Europe

In late July, Qin Zhiyuan led his army to the Tadenois area, preparing to launch an attack on Reims.

At this time, Reims could not be called a city, but just a small town at most.

Behind Reims was Brillmont, which was Nivelle's target in the spring offensive.

At that time, Nivelle's plan was to start from Prouvé and attack the Avignicourt and Argicourt areas along the Aisne River, so as to outflank the German troops in the Brillmont area and then annihilate the German troops in this area.

Nivelle was a representative of those who had high aspirations but a thin life. His plan failed because of Ludendorff's new defense system, and he became a precedent for Qin Zhiyuan.

Relatively speaking, Qin Zhiyuan's plan was more realistic.

Qin Zhiyuan just wanted to defeat the German army, recover some of the lost territory, and give an explanation to the Army Department and Paris. He did not expect to swallow up the entire German 18th Army, otherwise he might be eaten to death.

Taizu once taught us that we should despise the enemy strategically and pay attention to the enemy tactically.

So Qin Zhiyuan made as detailed tactical preparations as possible.

At this time, the French artillery division that was reinforced had arrived. One of the two division commanders was Qin Zhiyuan's old acquaintance in the Capi area, Dempsger, and the other was Foch's former staff officer Colvin.

Foch was still a little worried about Qin Zhiyuan. In order to check for deficiencies and make up for them, Foch sent his chief of staff Maxime Weygand to lead the staff of the 17th Army.

The 17th Army is a unified organization of all troops in the Fer-en-Tadnois area. This is only a temporary organization and will be disbanded after this battle. Qin Zhiyuan is currently the commander of the 17th Army.

Starting from July 10, there were convoys coming from Paris almost every day to deliver various supplies to the 17th Army, including artillery shells, bullets, various canned foods, alcoholic beverages, vegetables, meat, etc., and the supply level was almost as much as needed.

Now, the French have finally shown their strengths. Even though the world war has been going on for three years, the French still have sufficient supplies. Maybe the supply for ordinary people is insufficient, but the French have never been stingy with the army.

The weather has been good recently, with sunny days every day. The preparations have been carried out quickly without being disturbed by the weather.

In the Tadnois area, the four divisions on the front line have been prepared, namely the First Division of the Foreign Legion led by Liu Zizheng and the Fourth Division led by Ruan Juncai, as well as the newly formed 21st and 23rd Divisions of the French Army. They are distributed in the starting position of five kilometers from Bles to Kourma.

Behind the infantry position are the artillery positions of the three divisions. When all the artillery was gathered together, Qin Zhiyuan was surprised to find that he also had thousands of artillery available for use.

Including the self-propelled artillery of the tank division and the artillery regiments of each infantry division, Qin Zhiyuan has 1,100 artillery pieces, including 407 artillery pieces with a caliber of 105 mm or more.

The artillery positions were set up in the Bligny area, about six kilometers away from the German defense line in Reims and about 13 kilometers away from Reims. For those large-caliber artillery, from the German frontier positions to Reims, they were all within their attack range.

Two supply centers, Salcy and Shaumichi, behind Bligny, have been built, and there are about 40,000 Indian and Annan laborers ready to deliver ammunition to the front line at any time.

In Romney, about two kilometers behind Tadnoy, a large field hospital is being built. Mao Shiba led 150 military doctors who have been trained in field first aid and are ready to fight. There are about 800 nurses working with the military doctors, more than half of whom are Chinese.

Maxime Weygand has rich combat experience. He graduated from the Saint-Cyr Military Academy in 1887 and began to follow Foch in 1913. From the 20th Army to the 9th Army, and then to the Northern Army Group, Maxime has always been Foch's chief of staff.

After Foch became the commander-in-chief of the French army, Maxime Weygand entered the Supreme Military Council as a member. When the Army Department decided that Qin Zhiyuan would lead the Reims Offensive, Foch asked Maxime to escort Qin Zhiyuan.

As an old friend of Foch, Maxime admired Qin Zhiyuan very much. He also attended the engagement ceremony of Qin Zhiyuan and Julie. He understood that Foch valued Qin Zhiyuan, so he did not interfere with Qin Zhiyuan's arrangements, but only spoke when he needed to speak.

"Shouldn't the tank troops be placed on the front line?"

After reading Qin Zhiyuan's arrangement, Maxime raised his own questions.

"No! They can't be placed on the front line. Tank troops can only play the greatest role during the assault. In the trial stage at the beginning of the battle, it is not suitable to use tank troops. It is not until the offensive stage that the combat effectiveness of tank troops can be maximized." Qin Zhiyuan did not hesitate to give advice.

This description seems a bit arrogant, but in the use of tank troops, Qin Zhiyuan is qualified to instruct everyone in this era.

In the third Battle of Ypres in late July, General Hubert Gough of the British Fifth Army used 52 tanks in the attack, but the result was regrettable. 22 tanks broke down in the mud pits of Flanders and 19 were destroyed by German artillery fire.

Compared with the Battle of the Somme, the British seemed to have made no progress in the use of tanks.

"So when will the bombardment begin?" Maxim's greatest advantage is that he never thinks he is right. In front of Qin Zhiyuan, almost all French generals are not qualified to think they are right.

Or, all the generals of the entire Allied Powers have no right to be self-righteous in front of Qin Zhiyuan!

For soldiers, the record is the hard truth!

This work is compiled and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

"Wait a few more days, maybe tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow." Qin Zhiyuan is not impatient. Instead of rushing to attack before he is ready, Qin Zhiyuan would rather postpone the attack time.

There are so many Chinese soldiers now. Qin Zhiyuan does not want to waste any life. If possible, Qin Zhiyuan does not want anyone to suffer misfortune, although this is not realistic.

"The telegram from the Ministry of the Army." A young staff officer came to report.

"No need to read it, just put it there." Qin Zhiyuan didn't want to listen.

You don't need to listen to know that Leotai must be asking about the time to launch the attack. Leotai was under a lot of pressure during this period, and telegrams urging Qin Zhiyuan to attack came one after another.

"Yes, General." The staff officer looked helpless, put the telegram on Qin Zhiyuan's desk and turned away. There was already a small stack of telegrams there.

Maxim shook his head speechlessly and went over to pick up the telegram to read it.

"Qin, you should see that your hen plan has been completed." Maxim was surprised.

"Completed?" Qin Zhiyuan was even more surprised and quickly stepped forward to take the telegram.

"The hen plan is ready and we can launch an attack." The telegram was clearly written.

"Praise the Lord! Pierre, order the artillery to open fire, and we can kill everyone!" Qin Zhiyuan made up his mind.