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Text Chapter 413 Hundred Days of Fighting (Part 2)

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    There was an endless stream of artillery shells, and there were exploding fireballs and shrapnel everywhere around the third German trench.  The unique thick yellow choking smoke of the bitter and sour ** quickly filled the air, but no one dared to even blink!  The only good thing is that because the two sides quickly got together, the German heavy artillery regiment further away was concerned about its own soldiers and temporarily put aside the poison gas shells attached to it, while the Chinese Expeditionary Force also placed the poison gas shells sent by the French army aside.  , both sides seem to be planning to engage in an upright tug-of-war in the trenches.

    However, the elite heavy machine gunners of the German army, who were accustomed to cutting down British and French soldiers like wheat, were particularly depressed this time, not only because the smoke was too heavy and blocked their sight, but also because the Chinese soldiers on the opposite side did not continue to use the method after seizing the second trench.  Instead of skirmishing line assault tactics, they all lie down and use the more extreme long-distance crawling tactics!  The German soldiers in the trench tried to keep their eyes open and gritted their teeth as they watched the Chinese Expeditionary Force soldiers crawling out of the second trench like a tide.  Several German officers couldn't sit still and tried to lead the counterattack personally, but the opponent's artillery fire was too fierce, completely beyond the intensity that an infantry division should have!  What's even more surprising is that they didn't make necessary artillery preparations at all and started the charge directly with barrage Xu Jin. Therefore, when the Chinese infantry appeared, many of them had not even entered the fighting position.

    "The machine gun has not been launched, the artillery is still in the bunker, and the soldiers are nervously hiding in the bunker as cold as a cellar waiting to attack While everything is waiting according to inertia, the enemy's infantry has already appeared on the horizon  This is a damn war!" A staff officer of the German Crown Prince's Army and the Third Army on the Western Front later described the first battle of the Chinese Expeditionary Force that took place northwest of Reims on the edge of a small town called Montigny.

    The German army, accustomed to artillery fire first, really did not expect that the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which was making its debut, would bypass the preparation stage that was regarded as a "must" by the officers, lead an infantry brigade, and then directly launch a barrage to attack the defense line.  As for the three reserve divisions of the German Third Army more than 20 kilometers away, they were still eating breakfast slowly after learning the news, because the division commanders felt that the enemy would prepare for at least one or two hours of artillery fire, and they could fully feed the soldiers.  Start again when you have more strength.

    But they miscalculated this time!

    The French liaison officers¡¯ eyes widened, and they never put down their binoculars after they raised them. They didn¡¯t even bother to taste the instant coffee prepared by the Chinese staff.  Infantry and artillerya perfect infantry and artillery assault!  When the war went on for two years.  When the French army just used the barrage tactic in Verdun, these Chinese soldiers were already very skilled!  They were all officers who fought through life and death. Their previous arrogance and prejudice were instantly driven away by this smooth infantry and artillery tactics in front of the real picture.

    However, the fierce battle is not over yet. The first two barriers were defeated so quickly that they compressed the main force of the German army into the third line of trenches, giving them more time to prepare and fully unleash their world-famous firepower superiority and tenacity!  The long-range artillery support from the small town of Montigny in the rear also began to pour dense shells in the middle of the second and third lines of defense. Even if they were crawling forward, hundreds of soldiers of the expeditionary force were still blown to pieces.  The artillery fire from both sides was entangled at this moment. On one side, the two corps-level heavy artillery brigades were throwing wildly at the No. 3 trench, while the other side was trying to use the barrage to block the middle joint.

    "Peterhow will they break through the third trench?" Amidst the fierce artillery fire, the French liaison officer was also a little nervous.

    "Ican't guess."

    During their conversation, Du Zishan pulled off his gas mask as quickly as possible and stuffed two dark things into his mouth. These were the cans of luncheon meat he got from several French exchange soldiers. They were said to be able to replenish physical strength and were called chocolate.  of "sugar".  He liked the taste.  I secretly thought that after the war, I must learn to make this thing, and then return to my country to open a chocolate shop. The business will be very good  Du Zishan smiled naively and quickly stuffed five rounds of shotshells into the magazine, and found 4 more grenades to fill the magazine. Finally, he found a Mauser pistol from the German corpse. After being fully armed, his comrades looked at the company commander together.

    "Wehrmachtattack!"

    The long-lost shouts of attack instantly ignited these soldiers who had not been on the battlefield since 1911!  Although they are in a foreign country, the soldiers still hold on to their guns and pursue their dream of a strong country!

    "This battle is an opportunity for the world to re-recognize our China. This battle is the cornerstone for Chinese men to stand in the world!" These two lines of a public message sent by the commander-in-chief to the entire army before the expedition lingered in my ears, bringing with it  With dreams in mind, we break out of the trenches again.  Then quickly crossed the second trench and continued to move forward along the mud tracks crawled out by the brothers in front!  Two soldiers covered the barbed wire fence with thick, wet cotton quilts. The flying engineer shovels compacted the soil onto the quilts within a few strokes, and a simple passage was quickly opened.  When the passage had just been completed, a first-class soldier from Sichuan jumped up like a sharp sword and broke through the barbed wire first, but before he could go any furtherA heavy rain of machine gun bullets hit him in the chest.

    "Machine gun"

    As the company commander shouted, five light machine guns were aimed at the hidden Maxim machine gun bunker at the same time. The dense fire point was suppressed in an instant. At this moment, more than a dozen soldiers had crossed the passage and spread out to continue to maintain complete dispersion.  The line of troops crawled forward.

    Du Zishan was also crawling in the mud. From time to time, explosions shot up from beside him, lifting up the dirt and gravel and then slamming them down with his head covered.  The helmet was banging all the way.  The body, which was only wearing thick cotton-padded clothes, was in severe pain from being hit.  But no one dared to stand up.  He crawled past two German corpses, one of which was covered in mud with only its two feet still outside.  Another head had half of its head cut off, and yellow and white fluids were flowing everywhere!  He didn't stop, didn't even flinch, and only stopped when the body of a comrade who had been blown into two pieces appeared.

    The lower body of the body was missing, and the intestines were dragged out several meters The eyes were bulging as if unwilling to do so, and the rifle was twisted into a twist and the grenade bag was missing.  Just by looking at Du Zishan, he understood that it was probably an artillery shell that exploded at close range, causing shrapnel to hit the grenade, causing a secondary explosion, completely slicing his comrade from the waist!  Ordinary soldiers might not dare to move forward, but those responsible for the first battle were all veterans who had participated in the Qingdao Campaign, so Du Zishan pulled off the nameplate from his partner's neck and stuffed it into his pocket, then closed his eyes with his hands and gritted his teeth to continue.  Climb forward.

    A Fokker C fighter jet circled back and forth. The scene on the ground made the pilot's scalp numb. He could only see yellow figures wriggling like maggots everywhere on the brown soil in front of the third trench.  They were nibbling away at the defense line like locusts, which reminded him of a word spoken by His Majesty Emperor William.

    ¡°Yellow Peril¡­.¡±

    "The artillery fire is too fierce! Can't go up Casualties, what! Still unclear? Both wings 253rd Regiment, 421st Regiment go up from both wings to disperse the enemy's artillery fire." Rear  The phone calls in the headquarters were in a mess, and the constant news made Xie Ruyi, a general who came out of the Yunnan Lecture Hall and participated in the Northern Expedition and the Qingdao Campaign, sweating.  Although everyone knew that they would win the first battle as long as they survived this crazy wave of artillery fire, the closer they got to victory, the more nervous everyone became.

    "Try to dispersethe enemy's artillery fire. Tank company, go up!"

    The two tank companies specially strengthened for the first battle set off!  The Renault FT17 tank begins to show its hideous appearance.  These tanks were all manufactured by the French Renault company after Yang Qiu sold the drawings.  Exactly like the original, it weighs 7 tons and can be operated by two people.  A Hotchkiss 8mm heavy machine gun is installed with 4,600 rounds of ammunition. The 22mm frontal armor can ensure protection against the Maxim heavy machine gun fire.  Originally, the Expeditionary Force version should be equipped with a 12.7 Venom Fang heavy machine gun, but since this heavy machine gun has not yet been sold to Britain and France, it needs to be shipped from China and has not yet arrived, so it can only be supported by a French machine gun.

    The Germans had already seen tanks, so they were not panicking.  In fact, in their eyes, tanks were not very effective and could be blocked by simply widening the trenches. This view later affected the generals on the Western Front.  But the appearance of Renault FT17 still surprised the German police!  Because this means that there is already a pontoon bridge with a capacity of 7 tons on the river 10 kilometers away!  Although the soldiers still gritted their teeth and persisted, the officers realized that something was wrong!  As the expeditionary force's artillery fire began to extend, the thin "long dragons" on both wings began to encircle the third trench under the cover of tanks.

    Lying on the ground, Du Zishan couldn't see the brothers' troops outflanking him on both sides, nor could he see the tanks spraying bullets wildly. He only felt that there seemed to be fewer explosions around him. Just when he was wondering, the barbed wire fence finally appeared!  Seeing these dense defense networks covering the entire Western Front, he immediately followed the pre-war training method to find the nearest breakthrough.  Then he suddenly jumped up and jumped across the earth-covered quilt.

    Bullets like a rainstorm chirped under the feet. Breaking through the barbed wire was the most difficult step. These small things were not expensive but really hindered the troops' progress. The machine guns could easily block the gap they were trying to cross, so they just fell down.  There are hundreds of soldiers and soldiers of the expeditionary force on both sides of the gap!  He struggled to throw two grenades in succession and then used the barrage to rush dozens of meters again. When the smoke dispersed, the trench with dense gun barrels poking out like an irritated hedgehog finally appeared in sight!

    The moment the artillery fire suddenly stopped, thousands of soldiers of the expeditionary force who had crawled within fifty meters all jumped up. Dozens of Han III heavy machine guns, hundreds of light machine guns, and the specially strengthened 12.7mm Venom Fang heavy machine gun opened fire at the same time.  mercilessly fired fiercely at the German third trench.  Thousands of shotguns followed Du Zishan's footsteps like a tiger descending the mountain.  Once again wreak havoc on the trenches to clear everything.

    The fighting is still going on!

    *********

    Paris.

    The Champs Elys¨¦es is dotted with bunkers and sandbags.  With the bustle of military vehicles coming and going, the Elys¨¦e Palace, the symbol of France, has become a cold fortress.  Luxuriously decoratedAnti-aircraft guns were poked out of the buildings, and the roofs were covered with heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft surveillance posts.

    In the office, the well-dressed new commander-in-chief of the French army, General Nivelle, was chatting and laughing with the officers. After Joffre, who had been rising and falling secretly, became marshal, he finally ascended the throne of the highest commander-in-chief of the French army!  Of course this position is not very secure, especially with P¨¦tain and Foch still eyeing him, so the situation must be opened up as soon as possible.  He picked up his pointer and pointed at the map, his voice loud and full of confidence: "Generals, the Germans have no strength! Hindenburg is shrinking its troops and retreating to the Siegfried Line he established (Note: Hindenburg Line during World War I)  Also called the Siegfried Line), but he was wrong! Verdun had exhausted Germany's strength, any resistance was futile, our artillery could easily tear it apart  "

    "General Telegraph from Reims, the Chinese broke through the defense line of the Hessian Reserve Division of the German Third Army, and they are preparing to continue the attack on Montigny in the afternoon"

    "So fast?"

    "Didn't you say that the attack started this morning?"

    ¡°God, it¡¯s only been five hours!¡±

    "Is it an effective breakthrough or is it only the first line of defense?"

    The staff officer interrupted the new commander-in-chief¡¯s enthusiastic speech and caused a commotion in the office.  Nivele's face turned a little dark. He didn't care about the Chinese Expeditionary Force!  In his opinion, it was just a cannon fodder found by politicians cannon fodder!  The only use is to consume the Germans from the front!  So I coughed a few times immediately.  Recalling everyone's attention: "Everyone there is nothing worth celebrating about using a reinforced division to break through the defense line of the Hessian reserve division of about 10,000 people! Our goal is the Siegfried Line, we must  Break through it! Then drive the Germans back to Belgium and into Berlin!"

    Although the generals still wanted to know more about the inside story, Nivele's words also made them feel very reasonable.  You must know that Hindenburg is organizing a comprehensive withdrawal of troops, so there is only one German reserve division stationed in Montigny northwest of Reims, but the Chinese have used a full division plus 2 ** artillery brigades, as well as tanks and machine guns for this purpose  Waitis a battle where hammering against iron is worth writing about?

    General Nivele naturally placed the detailed battle report at the bottom of the document.  Upon seeing this, the staff officer wanted to remind him of the frontline liaison officer's suggestion on learning the tactics of the Chinese Army, but in the end he suppressed it The new commander-in-chief seemed not to like the Chinese. In the future,  It¡¯s better not to mention it!  The staff officer turned away after thinking about it, and it was not until many years later that he wrote this in his autobiography: "At that time, General Niweiler, who had just taken office, was using his enthusiasm and generals to outline the great battle that was later named after him, but he  Because of my carelessness, France missed the opportunity to end the war early."

    The staff officer walked to the door.  Suddenly he remembered something and turned around and asked: "General, do they want to get more supplies?"

    "Okay! Give them enough ammunition and supplies, let them die together with those damn German pigs, and make greater contributions to France." Nivelle waved his hand impatiently to drive away the staff, and the door was closed for a moment.  The staff officer heard bursts of laughter coming from inside.

    The war is still going on. The 8th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which was on the battlefield, finally took 6 hours to capture the German position in Montigny, killing 1,300 people, capturing 2,700 people, and also capturing 77 artillery pieces of various types, including 8 K16 long-range cannons.  .  After receiving 45 heavy machine guns and countless supplies and ammunition, the two reserve divisions of the German Third Army appeared behind the small town of Montigny.

    The 8th Division retreated to the top of the 3rd Division.

    A few days later, the 3rd Division retreatedThe 103rd Division was on top, followed by the 221st Division, the 201st Division  In the snowy winter, several German infantry divisions that also took turns began to use poison gas after being unable to attack for a long time. The expeditionary force also silently counterattacked with poison gas shells.  On the 115-kilometer defense line from Montigny to Suwatai, the Chinese National Defense Forces began their own 100-day plan.  For 116 days, in the repeated tug-of-war between the smallest regiment and the largest two divisions, all 20 divisions that arrived one after another were pulled up.

    After paying the price of 12,000 casualties, a total of more than 30,000 German troops were killed and captured.  More importantly, these small-scale battles gave the expeditionary force an intuitive and clear concept of the war on the Western Front, and also provided all troops with training.  However, this series of small battles did not attract the attention of the top brass of the British and French armies.  The battle briefing was eventually reduced to lines of inconspicuous fine print and was buried in the generals' files.  The only changes that can be seen by the soldiers of the expeditionary force are smoother logistics and faster ammunition replenishment.  The equipment delivery has been sped up a bitthat's all!  Similarly, neither Yue Peng nor the expeditionary force headquarters raised any dissatisfaction, because everyone understood Compared with the more than ten major battles that have occurred on the Western Front since the war began, this kind of small battles that are going on every day are indeed nothing.  Worth bragging about.  And everyone knew that a new great battle was brewing as winter passed day by day.

    The Lunar New Year at the end of February?Nivelle, who had just taken over as commander-in-chief of the French army, formally proposed the 1917 spring counterattack plan.

    The Nivel Massacre that shocked the world gradually emerged from under the ice and snow.

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