On September 20, the sixth year of Shenmu, the attack on Balua in Lignão, France, was the first to be dispatched by the air force, when the tank battalion was on standby in the bushes two kilometers behind their own trenches, in the early dawn of the sky, the flight teams in a neat queue rumbled through their own trenches and began to carry out the task of suppressing the German artillery.

As if the charge, as soon as he heard the rumbling sound of the aircraft engine, the chariot battalion all started up, and the puffs of green smoke and the white fog in the morning were mixed together, and in an instant, the division commander Li Yinpei could not see the scenery in the distance, he could only hear the engine sound of the chariot engine 'bang bang bang ......', and Zhang Liuji's 'forward!' ’； Then the entire armoured force pressed through the camouflage nets and through the morning mist shrouded bushes to their own trenches.

The bulldozer at the beginning did not go fast, but the road from the bush to the trench was specially built, so the two kilometers were there in the blink of an eye. Because of secrecy, the infantry of the 33rd Division didn't know why so many terrifying machines appeared behind them, and some people were even a little flustered when they saw it at the beginning, but the military emblem on the chariot immediately calmed them down, and then, curiosity replaced panic, and many soldiers climbed to the top of the trench and waved at these big guys. Major Zhang Liuji had never encountered such a scene in his usual training, and he didn't know what to do about it for a while, his eyes swept over the faces of the waving soldiers, and then looked at the misty ridge.

Out of the bush is a mountain range, along the mountain, the moving chariot sinks sharply, then jumps, then sinks again, and then jumps, this is the chariot is driving through its own two trenches. Drive through the defensive belt behind this ridge. The troops could see the German trenches after crossing the ridge. As the chariot drove through the two trenches that could be filled in, Major Zhang Liuji could feel the suspension springs at the wheels, which were used to repel large artillery, struggling to keep the hull balanced. It's a lot more powerful than those little springs of the one-style.

"it hard!" A man who was clearly an officer walked from the artillery position to the front of the chariot, shook the pack of cigarettes in his hand, threw it on the chest of the major, and probably shouted something like this. At this time, it was going up the mountain, and the chariot was not driving too fast, and this person should have crossed the battalion flag and recognized the command vehicle of the chariot battalion.

Zhang Liuji couldn't help but smile as he touched the pack of cigarettes, and when he wanted to talk back to this person, the chariot had already driven past the officer. Rushed up the ridge. Here you can see your first trench defense zone under the mountain, and the no-man's land that your own defense zone has been covered with snow in the past, and if you look farther away. Across the mist, above the mist, you can see the barbed wire fence in front of the German trenches on the opposite side. Now that they were under the blow of the Air Force of the Baxing Army, Major Zhang Liuji could see that there were many planes in the sky on the high ground, and some fires faintly flashed in the telescope. This is a bomb dropped by a bomber.

"That's good." Zhang Liuji put down the binoculars and praised the Air Force. While the German artillery was busy dodging the air attack, he happened to take sixty-four jackals to cut through the German trenches.

"Tell the ministries, speed up." The major gave the first order. At this time, the first trenches on both sides were on the same flat ground, and if you stood on the ridge, you could see the German positions on the opposite side, so the German troops on the opposite side could also see you. In order to reduce unnecessary losses, he hoped that the troops would be able to pass through this dangerous area quickly.

The Major's order caused the speed of the cars to increase sharply, the engines began to roar slightly, and the bulldozers in front of them passed through the three trenches of their own side with a few heaves. The barbed wire that the infantry had not cleared hung like spider silk from them, and the spider silk was dragged with them. It was scattered until the middle of the snow-covered no man's land.

Just as Zhang Liuji thought, the German observation post on the opposite side obviously saw the steel convoy, and the trench mortar guns rang out when they could not notify the artillery behind them - of course, even if the rear artillery could not open fire. These 60 and 80 mortars for infantry, which were purchased from China and produced by the Germans themselves, have become the standard weapons of the German infantry, and it is precisely because of the firing range of more than 3 kilometers that the first trenches of the two warring sides are generally four kilometers apart. This was just outside the range of the 80 mortars, and it was only at this distance that the infantrymen felt safe.

Mortars, which are small, trench artillery guns are difficult targets for the Air Force to suppress, but the Germans do not have many mortars on the three-kilometer defense line broken through by the tank battalion, and the mortar crews are not very good at aiming when there are planes overhead, and most of the shells they shoot are just luck, after all, according to the previous anti-tank experience, it takes a long time for these iron turtles to cross the middle no man's land, and when they drive to a distance of six or seven hundred meters, it is the real time to destroy.

However, to the disappointment of the Germans, the Chinese tanks drove several times faster than the British tanks, and in less than ten minutes, these killing gods who seemed to be far away appeared in front of the trenches, and they were anxious to risk being strafed by the aircraft overhead, and frequently used mortars to fire at armored monsters not far away, but they always missed, the shells always exploded behind the target, and even if some luck could hit, it was not as 'a dozen' against the British and French tanks, Even if the cannon is hit, it will either stop, or nothing will continue to charge forward after a shock.

As for the K-type tungsten core armor-piercing projectiles for anti-tanks, there are also experienced tactics for striking at tank observation holes and cracks, which are not effective against these armored monsters at all. The former can only splash a little spark on the front armor and guns of the chariot; In the latter, snipers and machine gunners simply couldn't find the car's observation openings and cracks, and the bullets, like the K-shaped tungsten core armor-piercing bullets, were only tickling the monsters.

At this time, the enemy's trenches, which were already within the range of the main cannon of the Wolf fighter, would be hit by the 57mm main gun as long as the machine gun position was located, and every time the cannon hit, the machine gun, the machine gunner, and the cement or logs that built the bunker would be blown away by the 57m high-explosive shell.

Faced with a completely unstoppable steel monster, the only option for the German soldiers was to retreat, and they were busy holding the surviving Maxim machine guns, mortars, and everything else they could carry. I want to retreat back down a traffic trench or climb a trench. But these people, without exception, were all hit by the front-mounted machine guns on the combat vehicles. At this time, the first row of chariots that rushed through the barbed wire fence and over the trenches of the German front line turned into harvesters, and as they advanced, the German soldiers on the ground pounced on the ground like wheat.

"Don't take prisoners! Don't take prisoners! Wear it through! Wear it through! "Successfully broke through the trenches of the German front. Looking at the German soldiers with their hands raised, Major Zhang Liuji was worried that his subordinates had forgotten their previous plans, so he reminded them again precautionarily. But his worries were apparently unfounded, and except for the two bulldozers who remained here to bulldoze the trenches and clear the way, the rest of the tracked vehicles continued to move forward rapidly; The soldiers of the motorized infantry battalion climbed into the chariot again and moved forward with the chariot.

Based on the principle of elastic defense, when the main trench of the first line of defense of the front line encounters a strong attack by the enemy. It was necessary to retreat to the rear immediately after delaying the advance of the enemy's infantry and disrupting the enemy's infantry and artillery, relying on the second defense belt two kilometers away, as well as the communication trenches and bunkers between the first and second defense belts. Under the coordinated attack of artillery, the enemy will be annihilated as much as possible.

This tactic is effective against the enemy's elite infantry who rush into their own position with infantry and artillery coordination, but in the face of the new tactics of infantry and air coordination, the result can only be a tragedy. The infantry in the main trenches of the first defensive zone not only failed to effectively delay the enemy's attack. Gain valuable time for rear resistance. None of them themselves were able to withdraw from the first line of defense, and they were all captured by the enemy. Therefore, the bunkers and communication trench defense nodes between the second defense belt and the first and second defense belts are all empty, and without the soldiers and weapons of the main trenches, the second defense belt cannot organize an effective defense at all, of course, even if the defense is organized, it will not help, and the Chinese chariots are not as slow as the iron turtles of Britain and France. Every time the German soldiers, who were buried in the trenches like ostriches, heard the rumbling of engines, the armored killer had already rushed in front of them.

More than 60 'harvesters,' 16 self-propelled guns, 20 accompanying ammunition trucks, 30 four-wheel drive off-road trucks and several off-road command vehicles of the motorized infantry battalion. Like a red-hot steel drill, it effortlessly poked a hole in the German army's frozen oil defense line, and the 1st Brigade of the 33rd Division, which followed the armored forces, received the German defense line and German prisoners almost without losses. Wu Peifu, who watched this scene, suddenly felt that he had really made the wrong choice twelve years ago, and if he had joined the Renaissance Army at that time, he was afraid that he should be the one who commanded the chariot assault at this time.

Wu Peifu's resentment was only muttered in his heart, which did not seem to affect his command of the troops. According to the battle plan previously formulated, the 1st Brigade would send a regiment of troops, a small number of men on the trucks of the motorized infantry battalion, and most of the rest of the troops marched west to follow the armored troops; Another regiment strengthened its fortifications and held its position here. The brigade headquarters radio station is also being deployed urgently, and he must accurately receive the information of Major Zhang Liuji and the rear command at the forefront that whether the 1st Brigade is advancing or retreating depends on the battle situation at the front and the determination of the rear command.

The Chinese army launched an offensive west of the eastern line of defense, Lignão Balua and broke through, and the telegram soon reached Leo Brown, who had just taken over the Seventh Army. In the headquarters of General William of Infantry. East of Saint-Dizier, the Lorraine Line at Metz, which had been defended by the Sixth Army at the beginning of the war; Alsace from Metz to the Swiss border was defended by the Seventh Army, but before the Battle of the Meat Grinder in Paris, the Sixth Army was transferred to the central line of defense with its commander, Marshal Ruprecht, the Crown Prince of Bavaria, and only one army of the Seventh Army remained in the entire eastern defense line, which was actually composed of the recovered officers and soldiers of the Second Army, with the 17th, 3rd, 8th reserves, 65th, and 7th, a total of six armies.

Based on the calculation of three divisions of each German army and 15,000 men per division, the group army should have at least more than 270,000 men, but after the war went on, the German troops fighting on two fronts were already tightened, and the defense line east of Saint-Dizier was not the focus of the war, so this group army not only had to defend the gap left by the transfer of the original Sixth Army, but its Seventh Army was also transferred to the front line of Paris.

Leo. After the arrival of General William's infantry, although he strongly asked the Supreme Command to fill the vacancies, and at the same time asked for at least three more corps to be transferred to strengthen the Seventh Army and strengthen the eastern defense line, these telegrams did not receive a positive response from the Supreme Command, at this time the war on the Eastern Front was not over, and the intelligence department also believed that the Chinese Expeditionary Force had not even arrived with weapons, and even if they arrived, it would be impossible to launch an attack immediately, so all they did was to transfer the 7th Army back to the Seventh Army, and the other three armies promised to assemble the Chinese troops on the opposite side once they arrived, then the troops of the other lines of defense will quickly support the Eastern Front.

In the face of the explosive material needs of the army and the huge scale of national mobilization, the mule and horse teams could not meet the huge daily needs of the army, and the only thing that could support the supply of materials for the army was the railway, and the horses were downgraded to be used as a means of transporting artillery and supplies to assist the army rather than a means of transporting supplies. The reason why the German army was able to fight on two fronts also relied on the rapid maneuvering of the railway - the preparation time for any large-scale battle was very long, not to mention, the time for artillery preparation took several days, but this time, the Chinese did not assemble at all, or were assembled and were not detected by the Germans; At the same time, they did not prepare for artillery fire before the attack, they seemed to wake up and got up, picked up their guns and fired silently.

The Chief of Staff of the Seventh Army, Max. Major General Hoffman took the urgent telegram from the 24th Reserve Division stationed in this section of the defense line, looked at Leo with a shocked face and said: "General, the Chinese used armored forces, and the defense line of the 24th Reserve Division was cut through by them!" ”

Finally about to fight his own students, Leo twisted his eyebrows and took a deep breath before asking, "Where did they break through, and where are they advancing now?" How many troops are there? ”

"From the south side of the Ornan River in Balua, Lignão." Major General Hoffman handed the telegram in his hand to Leo, "They are said to be advancing very fast, so it is not clear where they have advanced; The number of people telegram said that the strength was probably several infantry divisions. ”

"They're going to take Mount Baledik!" Leo's eyes suddenly fell on the hill of Baledique behind Lignon Barois, which was the supply ground for the Saint-Dizier salient and the railway junction, and if it was lost, not only would Linion-Barois be lost, but Saint-Dizier would also be surrounded. "We must transfer all the mobile forces that can be mobilized in the vicinity to Baledik Mountain, and immediately order the local defenders, and we must not retreat a single step!"

"General, we think we still need the Air Force!" Major General Hoffman reminded: "The planes of the Baath Army occupied the sky, they constantly strafed our artillery positions, and the artillery was completely suppressed. If we can't regain air superiority, then the artillery will not play any role, and even the military columns that have been drawn to Baledik Hill will be attacked by their planes! ”

"That's right!" Leo remembered the world's first air force, if it couldn't stop these air vultures, let alone reinforcements, even the existing defenders would not be able to give full play to their firepower advantage. "You immediately draw up telegrams, one to the High Command, one to Mount Baledique, and two to Saint-Dizière and Lignon Barois. Remember to be quick! (To be continued......)