Expedition to Europe

Fuxi planned well, but until the French army mobilized enough troops to surround the German army, the pressure was on Qin Zhiyuan's shoulders.

It is true that Soissons and Chalon de Champagne are huge protrusions for the French; but Reims, which Qin Zhiyuan defends, is also a huge protrusion for the Germans.

With the foreign legion led by Qin Zhiyuan firmly anchored in Reims, the Bavarian prince would not dare to drive in unscrupulously, because Reims would threaten the German army's retreat at any time. If the German army continued to advance without hesitation, they would have grabbed enough. It cannot be shipped back to Germany.

Yes, the German troops entering Soissons had become a group of robbers.

Just on the morning of the 16th, a German army failed to advance as planned when it marched into Soissons. It was four hours behind schedule. The reason was that the army grabbed too many things and was seriously hampered. the propulsion speed.

A German captain recorded what he saw: As we approached a town, we noticed something strange. Some strangers, who did not look like soldiers, were running back. They were driving herds of cattle, with chickens under their arms. Some were holding letters snatched from the stationery store, holding wine in their hands, and Some people were drinking while walking... Entering the town, alcohol was flowing on the streets, and no one knew where to start. What happened? A lieutenant of the Second Marine Division walked out of a wine cellar. I asked him, "What happened? Why did you stop advancing?" The lieutenant looked desperate and sad. "If we don't use bloodshed, I will Couldn't get the soldiers out of the wine cellar..."

In terms of material shortages, Germany has reached the end of its rope, so the Germans must seize the last opportunity to give it a try.

This is the situation where a trapped beast still fights.

In late June, the German army finally transported their A7V from Etregeville through the Ypres Canal. Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered Gu Lifu and Xu Sheng to shrink the defense line from the Ypres Canal to Bethany to Champflery. On the front line, in this way, the area that the Foreign Legion needs to defend is greatly reduced, leaving only about 50 square kilometers.

In this narrow area, 100,000 foreign legionnaires and 400,000 German soldiers have gathered, and they are about to start a life-and-death fight.

One advantageous factor is that even in such a narrow area, there are still two rivers to use. The lines of defense that the Foreign Legion needs to defend are two straight lines about four kilometers wide. The remaining area is covered by rivers. The German army It's not that easy to take advantage of.

These two lines of defense have been deployed for three months. The construction work began after Qin Zhiyuan entered the Reims area. Although it is not indestructible now, at least if the German army does not bring siege artillery, it will probably take a long time to capture it. A lot of effort.

While the German army was besieging Reims, Qin Zhiyuan ordered Liu Zizheng to take a detour in the direction of Laon, ready to harass the German logistics at any time to reduce the pressure in the direction of Reims.

While the German army was besieging Reims, the German army did not stop its efforts to attack Paris. The German troops of 11 divisions attacked Pershing's two reorganized divisions day and night. George Patton was the commander of these two divisions. , he did not fight head-on with the Germans, but fought and retreated, gradually consuming the Germans' strength.

Patton's plan was successful. He retreated from Pierrefonds to Crepi-en-Valois, which was only fifty kilometers away from Paris. Patton finally withstood the Germans.

In fact, when the German army occupied Soissons, the German army already had the ability to threaten Paris.

The Germans brought a super train gun with a firing range of more than 70 kilometers, which could carry out direct strikes on Paris from Soissons.

Of course, at this distance, this kind of artillery has no accuracy at all, and it can only guarantee that the cannonball will reach the range of Paris. As for whether it can hit something, it all depends on luck.

Since mid-June, the shelling has not stopped, maintaining an intensity of about forty or fifty rounds every day.

This caused a certain degree of panic in Paris, and many Parisians fled. The French government had already gone to Bordeaux three years ago, and they gave up on Paris earlier than the people.

In late June, the German army completed preparations for the attack and launched the first siege of Reims.

There was no probing, no strategy, no making noises. The Bavarian prince came up and attacked with real swords and guns, and he did it cleanly and neatly.

The Germans were very particular about strategy. They only attacked the southwest line of defense and abandoned the east line of defense, leaving a retreat path for the Foreign Legion.

This is a trap. If the Foreign Legion abandons its strong position and evacuates from the east, then the Bavarian prince can mobilize his troops and surround the Foreign Legion in the wilderness.

Of course Qin Zhiyuan would not be fooled. From the moment the German army surrounded Reims, Qin Zhiyuan was ready to have a real fight with the Bavarian prince in Reims to see how much combat effectiveness the German elite troops had.

The German attack started with the tank troops as the forerunner. In this regard, the Germans are indeed very good at learning. They have learned a lot of experience from Qin Zhiyuan through the limited number of battles with Qin Zhiyuan, at least for now. The synergy between infantry and tanks is quite skillful, and combined with the original synergy between infantry and artillery, the power is simply doubled.

The body of the A7V is too huge. When an A7V charges forward, it can hide almost a company of German troops behind it, which causes trouble for the defenders.

The defense line of the Foreign Legion is a three-dimensional defense line based on the hillside. The first line is at the foot of the mountain, where there are all solid bunkers with reinforced concrete structures. Each one is not high above the ground, and the shooting holes are not facing the direction of the enemy directly, but through various dislocations to form crossfire.

Behind the bunker group is a platform with a ramp, where tanks are parked. Tanks can directly provide fire support to the bunker group, or they can quickly attack and repel the German troops approaching the bunker group.

Further back is the artillery position. All the artillery at this position are "Miss 75" assigned to the battalion level. These artillery have been modified to a certain extent and can shoot at a nearly direct angle.

This is the anti-tank position arranged by Qin Zhiyuan. When there is no battle, these artillery and tanks are hidden in the tunnel. Only when the German army starts to attack, the tanks and artillery will be quickly deployed.

The Germans were mentally prepared for the defensive strength of the Foreign Legion, but they did not expect that the Foreign Legion was already armed to the teeth.

Therefore, the attacking Germans were unlucky.

In the first attack, the Germans dispatched about one division, and there were nearly 100 A7Vs. They advanced towards the Foreign Legion position in a nearly flat-push posture.

In order to take into account the speed of the infantry, the tanks did not advance very fast.

This gave the artillery of the Foreign Legion time to aim calmly.

The person in charge of commanding these artillery was Cheng Feiming. His artillery division suffered heavy losses in the artillery battle with the Germans. Now all the fixed artillery of the Foreign Legion is under the command of Cheng Feiming, and the self-propelled artillery unit is still under the command of Zheng Dali, which is the only mobile force now.

Cheng Feiming is the chief officer of the artillery, and half of his staff are French. Now the staff are waiting for Cheng Feiming's order to prepare to fire the first shot in the ground battle.

"Order, once the German tanks enter the range, there is no need to coordinate, and start shelling immediately, and try to destroy them on the way to the charge." Cheng Feiming's order was unexpected.

"Should we put some in, so that there will be more results." Chief of Staff Greenton Augustine disagreed.

From the perspective of probability, the closer to the enemy, the more certain it is. Greenton wants to pursue the maximum killing effect. Besides, the Foreign Legion has no experience in fighting with the A7V, and it is not clear whether the 75mm caliber artillery can penetrate the front armor of the A7V at the maximum distance.

The German A7V has just been put into service, and all the data is still a mystery to the Allies. Greenton and his team don’t even know the thickness of the front armor of the A7V.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

"No, we can't let them get too close to our positions, otherwise even if we destroy them, they will provide cover for the subsequent German troops, and they will become obstacles in the group shooting range of the bunkers." Cheng Feiming has a clear understanding.

"Okay, as you wish." Greenton agreed with Cheng Feiming's opinion.

Let the Europeans say "as you wish" unwillingly and helplessly, which was once one of Qin Zhiyuan's goals.

Now this sentence does not only belong to Qin Zhiyuan. More and more Chinese officers have achieved convincing results and have successfully won the respect of French officers.

Cheng Feiming's order was immediately delivered to different artillery positions through electrified lines. Almost instantly, the sound of artillery began to roar.

The Ninth Division led by Xu Sheng was responsible for defending the southwest defense line. Some soldiers of this division belonged to the original Second Division, and its combat effectiveness was in the first group in the Foreign Legion.

Xu Sheng's chief of staff was Gary Ulysses, an officer with more old-fashioned behavior, but he did not resist new tactics and new weapons.

Gary used to be a member of Foch's staff. When Qin Zhiyuan asked Foch to transfer some officers to join the Foreign Legion, Gary came to the Ninth Division.

Gary and Xu Sheng cooperated very well. Xu Sheng's personality was a bit feminine. Influenced by Griff, he didn't like to talk much. Gary was a chatterbox, and he wouldn't be lonely where he was.

"Xu, how sure are you?" Gary was uneasy.

"Why do you ask that? We only need to defend for one day. Can't we even hold on for one day?" Xu Sheng was drinking coffee without sugar. He liked the slightly burnt taste.

Qin Zhiyuan's troops are now divided into three parts, with Ge Lifu, Xu Sheng, and Wang Dingshan each leading a part, and Ge Lifu has two divisions under his command. In view of the fact that no Germans were found on the eastern defense line, the battles were concentrated in the southwest area, so Qin Zhiyuan ordered the troops to rotate, both to maintain a certain state and not to use a unit to death.

According to the plan, if there is no fighting in the east, then the first day will be Xu Sheng, the second day will be Wang Dingshan, the third and fourth days will be Ge Lifu, and so on.

"It depends on how determined the Germans are. If the Bavarian prince really wants to avenge the 'Red Baron', then we will be in big trouble." Gary suddenly went off topic.

After the Red Baron died in the battle, his car broke into pieces on the ground, and many Allied pilots took a part of it and prepared to keep it as a memorial.

Pierre suggested that the Red Baron be buried with honor, and Qin Zhiyuan agreed to this request and gave the Red Baron treatment that matched his status. In order to correspond to the Red Baron's military rank, six Allied captains carried the Red Baron's coffin and buried him in Reims, and some soldiers fired salutes.

The Germans were obviously not satisfied with the Red Baron's body being buried in Reims. In Germany, some people proposed to use 20 divisions of troops and 5,000 artillery pieces to retrieve his body.

This is obviously unrealistic. Although there are more than 20 German divisions besieging Reims, they are not here for the Red Baron.

Gary also knew that the Germans were not here for the Red Baron. He was just telling a joke to ease the atmosphere.

Gary successfully won Xu Sheng's eye roll, and Xu Sheng felt that this was not funny at all.