At least seven weeks earlier, Falkingham had begun to mobilize his forces, laying five railways in his controlled area, using 13,000 wagons, and sending 2.5 million shells and 300,000 soldiers, as well as wintering supplies needed by the soldiers, to the Verdun front.

In order to better organize the offensive, the Germans also mobilized engineering machinery, including excavators, and about 150 aircraft participated in the Battle of Verdun, which was unprecedented in the battle, and in previous battles, aircraft were never the protagonists of the battlefield.

In 1914, both sides suffered heavy casualties, with the Russian Empire having lost 4 million men so far, with 150,000 killed, 680,000 wounded, and 900,000 captured in Gorlice and Tarnov alone.

In the last two months of 1914, 335,000 French casualties were killed and missing in Shambany and Artois alone, and the total number of French casualties since the outbreak of the World War had reached 2 million.

British casualties were slightly smaller, but since the outbreak of the world war, there have been more than one million casualties, of which nearly 400,000 have been killed, most of them from the Southern African Expeditionary Force.

At the beginning of 1915, the German army had a total of 120 divisions on the Western Front, and the Anglo-French army had 91 divisions on the front, but at the same time there were 90 reserve divisions.

After the brutal battles of Shambany and Artois, Chauffy and Haig were not deterred by the huge casualty figures, and a new offensive was planned just after the end of the campaign, at the point of initiation of the campaign, Chauffeur and Haig were arguing, Xiafei was inclined to break through the German lines on the Somme River north of Paris, and Haig still focused on Belgium, which was closer to the English Channel, trying to seize the strategically valuable Belgian coastal port cities.

Falkingham knew that the Anglo-French forces would launch a series of attacks in 1915, but he did not know where the Anglo-French forces would choose to break through.

In December last year, in order to plan a new offensive, Xia Fei transferred the troops stationed in Verdun to other areas, and Verdun's defenses gradually emptied, so Falkingham chose Verdun as a breakthrough on the entire front.

Verdun was a salient along the entire line of the Anglo-French army, a small town in the midst of many fortresses, which had been the scene of many important battles in its history and was now the focus of everyone's attention.

France around the New Year was cold and damp, and the roads were muddy due to a week of rain, and the Germans were hiding in well-equipped bunkers, each of which could house 500 German officers and soldiers.

The Anglo-French army is hiding in the woods, the defense facilities on the front line of Verdun are not perfect, the previous military commander thought that the defense of the Verdun area was weak and needed to be strengthened, but he did not wait for reinforcements, but waited for the dispatch of Xia Fei, and now the person in charge of defending Verdun is the elderly General Haile, General Haile also noticed this problem, and reported to Xia Fei and the Minister of War Gallieni respectively, which was hated by Xia Fei, but General Haile has the support of Gallien, Xia Fei could not dismiss General Haile this time, but General Hale also did not get the support he wanted.

The New Year was followed by three consecutive days of sunny weather, the muddy ground began to harden, and the cold conditions improved, and on January 5, the Germans mobilized 1,200 artillery pieces and launched a fierce attack on the positions of the troops on a 40-kilometer-wide front, including 30 heavy guns that captured the fortress of Liège in Belgium at the beginning of the world war.

In eight hours, the Germans fired about 100,000 shells, and the French sent reconnaissance planes, but they could not find the German artillery positions, because the German lines were full of smoke and skyrocketing fire, and the artillery density was surprising.

German bombers were also involved in the bombing of Verdun, the French made a big mistake, they did not pay enough attention to aircraft before the war, there were not enough pilots, the French did not have the same sacrifice as the Germans, it took time to form a powerful flying force.

The German shelling was so intense that the German commanders believed that no one could survive on the French positions.

However, the German commanders were still very cautious, and after the shelling stopped, they did not immediately commit the ground troops, but waited for the French troops to enter the position and carried out artillery shelling for two hours before committing the ground combat troops.

The German ground forces began to attack, and the troops involved in the first wave of the offensive consisted of three corps and nine divisions, all from the Fifth Army led by Crown Prince Wilhelm, the main task of these units was to find the remaining French troops on the French positions, and then call for fire strikes, the attacking troops used flamethrowers, and cleared the trenches with flamethrowers,

The battle was fierce, and the French army experienced a brutal battle in 1914, but did not lose their courage, and the French troops who held their positions relied on the broken fortifications to shoot at the Germans, and suffered heavy casualties.

However, the defenders of Verdun were weak, before the Battle of Verdun began, General Haile had only two divisions left, and later on the day of the Battle of Verdun, two new infantry divisions arrived in Verdun, and the four divisions were still unable to stop the German advance, and on the first day of the battle, the Germans captured the first line of defense of the French army.

After hearing the news of the all-out German offensive, the topic of the joint meeting immediately became whether to cooperate with the French troops and launch an offensive in the Belgian direction to relieve the pressure on the French troops at Verdun.

Haig insisted on the offensive, but his aim was not to relieve the pressure on the French troops, but to regain the honor of losing ground.

Everyone else was against the attack, but Roque was particularly vehement.

"Why attack, during the Third Battle of Artois, we were still fighting with the Germans in Mons, but Xia Fei secretly stopped the attack on Artois, this is already a betrayal of the alliance, and now the Germans have chosen the line of defense garrisoned by French troops to attack, not the line of defense garrisoned by our expeditionary force, if the Germans choose us, will the French attack to contain the Germans?" Roque firmly believed that a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye, and that the French were at fault first, and that the British expeditionary force should not be blamed for being unkind.

"So are we going to sit back and sneak away? Now that the Germans are putting all their energy on Verdun, it is a good opportunity for us. Haig was also resolute, carried away by Roque's conquest of the Ottoman Empire, and was eager to show that he was more suitable for the position of commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force than Roque.

"How can you guarantee the emptiness of German power in Belgium? Do you think that Falkingham, when he organized the attack, did not have the slightest defense against our possible containment? I can assure you that as long as we, the British Expeditionary Force, attack now, we will be met head-on by the Germans. "Roque didn't give an inch, and in the past, anyway, the attacking force was not the Southern African Expeditionary Force, and Roque didn't care who he loved.

It's different now, now Roque is a strong contender for commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and if Haig makes a mistake, Roque has a good chance of taking his place.

If you think about it this way, it seems that you should support Haig's attack, so that when Haig's head breaks through the bloodstream, Roque can jump out and clean up the mess.

"How many troops do we have on the front that we can use to attack, how many shells do we have in stock, and what can you do to defeat the Germans if they resist strongly, or if the Germans launch a counteroffensive, do you have any way to withstand them?" Kitchener's barrage of questions made it clear that Haig was unprepared for them, unable to answer a word.

At this time, even Arthur Balfour and John Jerico were frowning, and Haig, as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, did not even know how many troops on the front line could be used to attack, it would be outrageous.

"We have 1.5 million shells in Dover, which were supposed to be sent to Asia Minor, and if there is a demand on the Western Front, they can be loaded now." Winston clearly figured out this joint, and since Hagrid's desire to attack was so strong, then try to create conditions for Hagrid.

Immediately after the surrender of the Ottoman Empire, the consumption of Asia Minor decreased, and these shells were no longer necessary, but they were very much needed on the Western Front.

"If there are 1.5 million shells, then I am confident that I will defeat the Germans." Haig issued a military order, since the outbreak of the world war, at least half of the casualties on both sides of the war were caused by artillery, and he really deserves to be the king of war.

"Your faith is unfounded!" Roque and Winston sang and harmonized, and they had already cornered Haig.

"It's nonsense, you are not the only one who can lead the expeditionary force to victory, I will use the victory to prove that I am worthy of any level of trust." Haig was fooled again, this guy has a brain problem, and he can't control his emotions with a little stimulation.

At the end of the meeting, Kitchener and William Robertson still trusted Haig and gave him the authority to take the initiative to attack.

Roque doesn't matter, whether Haig can win or not will not affect Roque's honor.

And Roque's performance of putting British interests first has won the trust of almost everyone.

George V quickly learned what had happened during the meeting, and although George V did not say anything, Roque knew that if Haig did not perform well this time, then it was estimated that Haig would soon be unlucky.

On January 12, Roque returned to Cyprus, by this time the French troops had stabilized the line after paying heavy casualties, and the German Fifth Army had advanced the front five kilometers, and now Verdun was commanded by the French commander Petain during the Battle of Champigny, and in order to motivate the French troops to fight, Petain promised the French troops that they would not involve the French army in such a brutal battle in the future.

This promise did motivate the troops, but it also brought serious hidden dangers, and the Free France was no joke, and the promise could not be given casually.

(I'm here, the punctual update at seven o'clock will be delivered, isn't such a diligent fish head worthy of a reward?)