When the train arrived in Nancy, it was greeted by the local mayor and the commander of the French Second Army, Lieutenant General Decastelno, who was stationed there. The city of Nancy was originally a major town on the Lorraine plateau like Metz to the north, but after the Franco-Prussian War, Metz in the north was ceded to Germany, while Nancy was retained.

The Lorraine Plateau has been an important place since ancient times, and whoever masters the Lorraine Plateau will have the initiative in the Central European battlefield. In the past, when the plateau was in the hands of France, the French army could advance north from Metz to occupy the strategic position of Mainz on the left bank of the Rhine, and then attack Berlin; Or cross the Rhine directly from Strasbourg and attack Baden-Württemberg. Once in German hands, the Germans could march south into France along the Moselle valley between Verdun and Tulle, or south through the Chams pass between Tulle and Epinale, or through the Belfort gorge between the Vosges and the Alps. In short, having mastered Metz and Strasbourg, Germany had three passages south to attack France on the northeastern side alone.

Having lost half of the Lorraine plateau, the French had to build four large fortified groups around these three passages, with Verdun in the north, Tulle, Epinale, and finally Belfort. With the construction of these four fortress complexes, the Germans could only attack France from the area north of Verdun and south of Luxembourg, and from the Chams Pass between Tulle and Epinale.

The passage south of Luxembourg is very narrow, and the large corps cannot be used in combat; The Shams Pass was deliberately left as a decoy by the French once the Germans entered. The French could then flank from Tulle and Epinale to the north and south; And if the Germans wanted to bypass the fortress of Verdun from the north and attack from the poorly fortified Flemish plain, there would be only one result. Violation of Belgian neutrality.

Based on the security of the Channel, Britain was extremely sensitive to the Low Countries, and once Belgium's neutrality was violated, Britain would declare war on Germany and send an expeditionary force to protect the security of the eastern shore of the English Channel. It can be said that the fortified group had the same purpose as the Maginot Line, which later became the Maginot Line, to force the Germans to invade undefended Belgium, and thus to prompt the British to declare war on Germany.

The overall strategy of the French was successful. The only misstep was the use of heavy artillery in the German fortresses that kept Belgium from holding out for long, and overly optimistic in formulating and executing the unrealistic Plan of Operation No. 17, but even so. The previous arrangement still dragged Britain into the battle, the only thing I didn't expect was that the Germans' powerful right hook would be so fast and deep, and then the Germans would occupy the northern part of France. Paris narrowly missed. It has also lost more than 70 percent of its iron ore and coal mines, as well as tens of thousands of factories.

A strong country is a weak country, and there is always unspeakable sorrow. Before the Franco-Prussian War, France relied on its great strength to compete with any European power on its own, but since the Franco-Prussian War, France's economic development has been slow, its population has stagnated, and it has lagged behind significantly in modern industrialization and the corresponding military power race. In the face of the rise of a unified German state. France's national security strategy has gradually moved from independence to dependence, and the building of alliances is seen as an indispensable part of the national strategy. In fact, after the Franco-Prussian War, it was the establishment of an offensive and defensive alliance with Russia that allowed France's influence in the international community to increase.

After Lieutenant General Lin Wenqian arrived in Nancy, he inspected the entire defensive line and the remaining three fortress groups of Tulle, Epinale, and Belfort under the leadership of the French; Read about the Franco-German War, which lasted for nearly 100 years, in order to better understand the history of the region where you were stationed. Through the translation and reading of those dusty materials, Lin Wenqian suddenly discovered that the history of the Franco-German war in the past hundred years is actually the history of the national development of the reversal of the Franco-German power.

Lin Wenqian couldn't answer this question, and he didn't have time to answer it. At this time, it was the end of autumn, and according to his plan, the third batch of ocean-going ships transported 200,000 people not according to the previous plan. In other words, after handing over the 200,000 Russian prisoners to the Anglo-French forces, the Baath Army Expeditionary Force actually had 30 divisions, plus the two divisions sent by the DPRK, with more than 12,600 men in each division, plus the Air Force and the Air Force Special Brigade, the entire expeditionary force had more than 410,000 people.

Among the 30 divisions belonging to the Fuxing Army, the regular divisions are: Lin Wenqian's Division, the 5th Army's Yanchen Division, and the 9th Army's Lin Datong Division, which are directly under the East China Theater, He Zhaoxian's Division, which is subordinate to the Central China Theater, Duan Qirui's Division, which is subordinate to the 11th Army of the North China Theater, and Zhang Changguo's Division, which is subordinate to the 14th Army of the South China Theater, and the 18 divisions of these six armies, plus two divisions of the Lu Mengxiong Marine Corps, and the Prime Minister's Baby Pimple: The 1st and 2nd tank divisions of the Armored Army commanded by Wang Shiqian are a total of 22 regular divisions. The others are the 111th, 112th, 113th, 114th, 115th, 116th, 117th, 118th reserve divisions.

Each transportation of 200,000 people required a 100-ton merchant fleet and 22,000 container houses, and since the attack on the Bora military port was planned, the ocean-going fleet transporting the Baath Army sailed out of China's coastal ports 20 days after the first batch of ocean-going fleets left the port. After the planned attack on the military port of Bora was successful, the last ocean-going flotilla of transport troops left the port.

Although containers were creatively used, and the horses needed for artillery were replaced by tractors and self-propelled guns, because each army added a 150mm heavy artillery regiment, it still required 100,000 tons of merchant ships to transport an infantry division with weapons and ammunition, while two armored combat vehicle divisions, as well as three divisions of the 3rd Army directly under the East China Theater, required even more tonnage. It was to transport the entire expeditionary force to France, a total of 3.7 million tons of merchant ships; This is only the expeditionary force, plus the 1 million tons that transported 200,000 Russian troops before, as well as 1 million tons of 200,000 civilian workers who accompanied the army and 500,000 tons of air force and logistics materials, the total transportation volume is 6 million tons.

Containers loaded with people are not a problem, years of technology accumulation and the efforts of various shipyards, the first round trip of 64,000 containers required was quickly produced; It's just that ocean-going merchant ships are already limited, and although only 3 million tons of merchant ships have been transferred, the number of ships on the Atlantic Ocean and other routes has plummeted, and freight rates have skyrocketed several times. made Britain, the United States and France complain. But these 300 tons are only enough to transport 600,000 troops to Europe, and the remaining 200,000 civilian workers and 3 million tons of equipment, ammunition, and logistics can only be transported again after the fleet returns.

Thereupon. The 410,000 expeditionary force seen by Lieutenant General Lin Wenqian in Nancy carried only individual weapons and equipment, and the artillery was all heavy artillery, Lewis machine guns, and related ammunition and other military supplies delivered by Britain and France to buy the Russian army. Only after more than two months, when the merchant fleet carrying the last group of soldiers returned, could all the troops enter the defensive line to fight, but it was already the tenth lunar month.

It is not useless to wait for more than two months, take advantage of this time. The commanders and staff officers of the units were able to get a picture of the situation in the trenches that were still garrisoned by the French army. After years of reporting, the hellish scene on the Western Front, with tens or hundreds of thousands of casualties, had long made the troops cautious, but after penetrating into the defensive line, the generals came up with worse information than they had expected. Over here. Those areas that were convenient for the deployment of troops had been blown into mud pools by numerous shells, and without the construction of temporary roads, tractor-towed field guns were impassable, while tracked combat vehicles and self-propelled guns. Because of the threat of anti-tank trenches, mines, heavy artillery. In this kind of road condition, it is difficult to get through, even if it is passable;

At the same time, the use of mustard gas by the Germans had become the norm, and every soldier of the French and colonial armies wore gas masks and rubber gloves purchased from China - any exposed skin became burned by the gas; The artillery fire is no longer the 75mm field guns commonly used in China, here are all light and heavy howitzers of more than 105mm, and the power of the shells is extremely amazing, so the depth of the trenches is more than two meters, and in some areas it is between two and a half to three meters. Although such a deep trench can effectively slow down the lethality of howitzers, because of the water accumulation in the trench, the prevalence of trench foot makes the non-combat loss of troops seriously ......

In a word. After all the armies went to the field to investigate, their faces looked extremely solemn. This is no longer a pediatric offensive and defensive game in the Sino-Japanese War, the Western Front battlefield is simply a flesh-and-blood battle between steel and steel, and the tonnage of shells used in a battle is almost the sum of the shells used in the entire Sino-Japanese War. In the past, people could not understand the importance of building a large steel industry in China only by reading the briefing, but after being there, everyone thought that the plan to vigorously build the steel industry and the fertilizer industry was extremely correct.

Although the reality is so cruel, the Revival Army, which experienced the Sino-Japanese War, was able to gradually adapt to the war mode of this state: although the artillery was relatively weak, after Britain and France provided 30 heavy artillery battalions, the ratio of howitzers of more than 100mm caliber to 75mm howitzers basically reached 1:1, and the troops themselves increased the number and caliber of mortars, and they did not suffer much in terms of artillery fire compared to the German army on the opposite side.

In terms of light weapons, because of the lessons of the Sino-Japanese war, the rifle length of the rifles of the troops going to Europe this time was shortened to be suitable for trench warfare; Not only has the number of machine guns been increased, but a batch of Lewis light machine guns has been brought from the British and French forces, and the firepower has been strengthened again; And other grenades, blasters, flamethrowers, mines and other weapons are not inferior in technology and quantity to the active equipment of the armies of the Western Front.

As for the tactics of trench warfare, the regular divisions and soldiers of the reserve army who had been baptized by the Sino-Japanese war could well accept similar battles with higher intensity. Before the weapons and ammunition arrived, the first task of the expeditionary force was to strengthen the original trench system, so that the fortifications of the French army's original two trench defense belts were increased to a three-strip defense system with greater depth, and at the same time, the infrastructure required for logistics and transportation such as roads, river transportation docks, and warehouses was also strengthened while the autumn rain stopped. After these orders were given, the entire eastern front of Saint-Dizier seemed to be transformed into a giant construction site, with Baath Army soldiers working everywhere.

In terms of the general arrangement of the expeditionary force, except for the 3rd Army as a reserve, the remaining 11th, 9th, 8th, 5th, and 14th armies, each with a reserve division or Korean division, will distribute the defensive line from west to east, starting from the east of Saint-Dizier; The two Marine Divisions were placed under the command of the 5th Army to strengthen the line between Tulle and Epinale; The remaining five reserve divisions and two armored fighting vehicle divisions are temporarily serving as general reserves, and the headquarters will reasonably deploy them according to the combat situation.

There is nothing wrong with such an arrangement, but among the army commanders, except for Duan Qirui of the 11th Army and Zhang Changguo, a rising star of the 14th Army, the rest of them have been classmates since Nanyang Public School, and the battle plan of the General Staff Department came out. These people have a lot of opinions, and the most excited one is Wang Shiqian. According to the General Staff's plan to replace training with battles, armored divisions are to be split into companies and battalions and thrown into the infantry division front for small-scale battles.

When I heard that Zhou Sixu gave this plan. And explained that this was because the terrain of the Lorraine Plateau was narrow and unsuitable for the armored division to be deployed, and the troops could only be temporarily divided into ......, Wang Shiqian looked at Zhou Sixu with cannibalistic eyes, and then looked at Lin Wenqian, and finally stood up and said bluntly: If you want to dismantle the armored division, you must first dismantle him, and the meeting couldn't go on for a while.

The doctrine of operations of the armored forces of the Baath Army was at least twenty years ahead of this era, after tasting the sweetness of the Russian Siberian Regiment three years ago. Wang Shiqian hoped that the entire army would be reorganized into an armored division. He redesigned combat vehicles, self-propelled guns, and off-road trucks used by infantry based on armored assault tactics, and more importantly, based on the last actual combat experience, Yang Rui provided true and false information. Wang Shiqian has discovered the importance of the establishment of armored forces. Armored divisions cannot only have combat vehicles, combat vehicles need to cooperate with the air force, self-propelled artillery, and motorized infantry in order to achieve the use of the air force and self-propelled artillery to suppress the opponent's combat vehicles and artillery, and the use of motorized infantry to cooperate with combat vehicles. Clear obstacles that are difficult for vehicles to clear. In this way, the charioteer can truly strike quickly.

After many exercises, Wang Shiqian finally touched the golden ratio of 1:1:1 between combat vehicles, self-propelled artillery, and motorized infantry, and readjusted the establishment of armored fighting vehicle divisions and strengthened the off-road trucks required by self-propelled artillery and motorized infantry. When he came to Europe, he wanted to test the correctness of the previous adjustment of the establishment with actual combat, but the General Staff had a plan to split the armored divisions that had been painstakingly organized, so it was no wonder that he was so excited.

The meeting was soon suspended. After the commanders and chiefs of staff of the armies came out of the conference room, Zhou Sixu smiled bitterly at Lin Wenqian and Xu Dachun: "I'll just say it." Wang Mingyu can't get around this level, this guy usually sleeps in the chariot, and he can't eat if he doesn't smell diesel fuel for a day, we dismantle his armored division, that's his lifeline! ”

Before the all-army combat meeting, Zhou Sixu warned Lin Wenqian to pay attention to Wang Shiqian, but on the grounds that the matter was confidential, Lin Wenqian still thought that the fewer people knew, the better. Now the plan is known to him, Zhou Sixu, and political commissar Xu Dachun, and Wang Shiqian knows it again, does that mean that the two division commanders under him will also know? There are so many people who know, what if the news leaks? This was not to give supplies to the German army, but to help the Germans train armored assault tactics, once these armored tactics were used on the British and French lines in the west and caused heavy casualties, then Britain and France and other countries would turn their faces.

"I'm still saying that, if I don't know, I don't know." Wang Shiqian was angry and Lin Wenqian was also very unhappy. Wang Shiqian has no opinion on caring for the armored division, but the armored division is first from the state, and then from the revival army, and he is only the commander of the armored division, not the master of the pretending army. "If Wang Mingyu doesn't obey the order, I will remove him!"

"Zhou Marrow, I think this matter should be decided after thinking twice. In expeditionary operations, unity is very important. Xu Dachun thought about it for a long time, but he didn't think of any good way.

To teach the Germans armored tactics, it was certain to split the use of armored divisions. He read the battle plan submitted by Wang Shiqian, because there were no dive bombers on the Western Front, so the Panzer Corps Staff devised a very clever way to evade the German heavy artillery, that is: near the 11th Army line east of Saint-Dizier, it was intended to launch a heavy offensive to force the Germans to mobilize heavy artillery to this area, and then the two Panzer Divisions would either go north to attack Metz from the Moselle River valley area; Or go east, through the Shams Pass to attack Strasbourg. The direction is only because of the offensive on the Lorraine plateau, the roads must be clear if the armored division wants to attack, and as for the tactics, it is the scythe offensive commonly used in armored assaults.

Encircling Metz and Strasbourg by armoured assault, and then bombarding them with large-caliber heavy artillery through the original railway, as the Germans did with the Scorching Sun Fortress, the occupation of either of these two key fortresses would allow the expeditionary force to enter Germany to fight, and even if Metz was occupied, it would not only penetrate deep into the German border, but also cut off the retreat and supply lines of the German army in France in a roundabout way. In the plan, Wang Shiqian believed that as long as Metz was occupied, then the subsequent offensive would be smooth sailing, and the real concern of the command was whether the infantry division and supplies could keep up with the speed of the armored division's attack, and he thought that the best solution was to collect all the trucks, and then to ask the British and French to transfer their remaining cavalry divisions to the jurisdiction of the expeditionary force, so as to ensure the strength of the left hook attack.

Holding the Heavenly Sword, he naturally wants to compete for the world. Wang Shiqian didn't pay attention to those fortresses and German trenches at all. He took it for granted that the complete defeat of the Germans under armored tracks was a matter of course.

Wang Shiqian's confident attitude when he submitted the battle plan made Lin Wenqian slightly unhappy, and the long-term experience of encirclement and suppression made him oppose all adventurism and heroism. In the opinion of political commissar Xu Dachun, the left hook of two armored divisions alone could only inflict heavy damage on the German army. He couldn't win the victory, not to mention that it was not in China's national interest to end the war quickly, and when he looked at this grand plan, he kept thinking, didn't Wang Shiqian know how much it would cost to equip an armored division? Isn't he supposed to think about where the money is coming from?

"I'd better go talk to him." After Xu Dachun finished speaking, he wanted to unite, and then thought that Lin Wenqian's plan really couldn't skip Wang Shiqian's level, so he decided to talk to him.

"If you don't tell him the reason...... Zhou Si's words stopped at this point, he shook his head and said: "Yi Mingyu's obsession with the armored division." Even if you tell him the reason, he won't agree, those chariots are his brainchild. Just split it up like this, he couldn't stand it at all......" Zhou Sixu finished his judgment, stood up and walked a few steps uneasily, and the thoughts in his heart turned several times during his contemplation. He finally looked at Lin Wenqian and Xu Dachundao. "In the past, I was the most popular in the class, so I'd better go talk to him."

The chief of staff personally stepped out, Xu Dachun had no opinion, and Lin Wenqian also nodded, but when he was about to say something, Zhou Sixu stopped him and said, "I know what to say and what not to say......." With that, he picked up his coat and went out.

The armored division's combat vehicles had not yet arrived, but Wang Shiqian's car had arrived ahead of schedule with the fleet transporting the soldiers. Zhou Sixu, who was familiar with Wang Shiqian, did not go to the army commander's headquarters at all. He only listened to the sound of diesel engines and found people behind the battalion. At this time, Wang Shiqian did not have the anger before, he changed into a set of training clothes, holding a wrench in his hand, lying under a wolf-style chariot with an oily face, Zhou Sixu, the chief of staff, after he saw it, his eyes were stunned for a moment, and the movements in his hands still did not stop, and he had no intention of getting up and saluting at all.

Zhou Sixu was not surprised, after he handed over his coat and hat to the adjutant, he squatted beside Wang Shiqian and talked to him: "Mingyu, what are you tinkering with, it's rare to say that this wild wolf is also unaccustomed to the soil, and it will be bad as soon as he comes to France?" ”

"It's not enough to be unaccustomed to water and soil," as soon as he heard Zhou Sixu speak, Wang Shiqian's anger just now came up again, "It's just that if someone wants to unload it, it's uncomfortable." ”

Wang Shiqian dared to be so unkind because he was familiar with Zhou Sixu, and Li Mengpei, the commander of the 1st Armored Division standing next to him, explained: "Report to the chief of staff, it's not that you are not adapted, the British saw my tank yesterday and kept saying that it is so short, and the cross-country ability must not be good......

Before Li Mengpei finished speaking, Wang Shiqian interrupted: "You are inside! Don't have anything here, the chief of staff is here to dismantle us, see how happy you are! ”

Li Mengpei also heard from Wang Shiqian about the plan to split the armored division, he wanted to say it, but it was not as straightforward as Wang Shiqian, but now that he actually talked about this, he asked along the topic: "Chief of Staff, since the establishment of our armored division, the prime minister has always demanded centralized use and rapid breakthrough, these two are the most basic principles of our division's operations, how can you dismantle it?" ”

"It's not going to be demolished," Zhou Sixu couldn't help but sweat when he heard him take out his husband as a shield, "but to temporarily train the infantry division, so that they can familiarize themselves with the coordination of infantry and tan, and the troops transferred away will eventually return to the original unit after training." ”

"It's easy for you to say, so whose losses of the armored division are counted, and whose sacrifices are counted?" Wang Shiqian had already climbed out from under the car, and the wrench in his hand was handed over to the mechanic, his face became very serious, and his words were as aggressive as a machine gun, "It's okay for the infantry division to practice infantry and tan coordination, but why do you want to practice on the front line?" You don't have to worry about the Germans drawing scoops on the gourd, and they will come out like this. ”

Zhou was stunned for a moment, but there were some things that were really hard to say here, he still insisted: "Training on the battlefield is ten times stronger than on the training ground, and the losses of the armored division are ......."

"Okay, don't talk about it, and don't take me for a fool." Wang Shiqian's words suddenly changed, and there seemed to be some disdain in his eyes, "I'll say it here first, no matter how much the armored division loses, your Guangting will be responsible for supplementing me, the wounded crew should use that kind of good medicine, the disabled who can't be treated well must arrange a place to go, and the sacrifice will be doubled." If you agree to these articles, I don't care about the rest, how can I love it! ”

"Good!" Zhou Sixu didn't care what Wang Shiqian thought in his heart, he said with a smile, "I will definitely do these things, deal!" (To be continued......)