Chapter 39 of Part 6

On the front line of northern France, the German army will naturally not be able to completely hide the British and French troops. In the past two years of war, France north of Paris has become a huge battlefield. Millions of troops on both sides have brought the essence of trench warfare to the extreme. It is no exaggeration to say that almost all northern France has been dug by soldiers from both sides. In some local battlefields, the trench distance between the two sides is less than fifteen meters, and soldiers on both sides hide in the trenches and constantly attacking each other with grenades.

With China's joining, the name of this world war was completely confirmed, and it also made the situation of the British and French troops increasingly difficult. The German army's assembly was about to come to an end. Before a new round of war broke out, General Xia Fei, as the supreme commander of the French army, naturally could not make the German army's plan go too smoothly.

Throughout late April, the French army was preparing for a local active counterattack, naturally, to destroy the German plan of the full attack, disrupt the German rhythm, and to launch an attack before the German army took the initiative to attack.

On the front line of Lance, French soldiers wearing pot-bottomed helmets were huddled in the trenches, silently enduring the spring rain and mud. Scattered mortars sounds one after another, markings of light in the night sky. Compared with the Germans, the French army had obvious shortcomings in the importance of howitzers and mortars, which was fully demonstrated in trench warfare.

Xia Fei, who was far away in the command post, was calmly waiting for the time to launch the general attack. This time, the reason why he chose a local counterattack was largely due to his concern that once the counterattack was setback, the German counterattack would endanger the Marne River defense line after Lance. Xia Fei had to engage in caution.

In the darkness, French soldiers quietly took out the trenches and passed through the unmanned land under the cover of night. The night covered the warring sides. During the day, the troops' sports meetings were hit by artillery fire guided by blockers and hot air balloons, so night was the time for both sides to be busy.

The French soldiers quietly sneaked out patiently waited for the start of the general attack. In front of the German trenches more than ten meters away, some German soldiers who quietly climbed out of the trenches were busy setting up barbed wire and burying landmines.

At the darkest time before dawn, the hour hand of the pocket watch pointed at five o'clock, and Xia Fei gave the order to attack.

The cannons and howitzers of the British and French coalition forces sounded at the same time. The cannons were tasked with destroying the barbed wire set up by the German army, and the howitzers were tasked with killing German soldiers in the trenches.

The British and French armies have emerged from the misunderstanding of not paying attention to machine guns in the early days of the war. So far, each company has equipped 4 Lewis light machine guns, which is the lowest equipment of the coalition forces.

After the artillery fire was prepared, the French soldiers began to surge like a tide, and the German machine guns and artillery fire suppression in front of them also began to fight back.

The counterattack against the British and French forces that took place in mid-April continued until mid-May, but ended. The French army suffered 100,000 casualties but found nothing. The fortifications cleverly constructed by the German army became a major obstacle to the French attack. Although this attack did not have much effect, it also disrupted the deployment of the German army. The German army, which was expected to complete the general attack preparation in early May, consumed a large amount of strategic materials under the active attack of the French army. This was fatal to the German army that had lost control of the sea.

The German General Staff had to postpone the general offensive on the Western Front, and repeatedly asked his allies China to open up the passage to eastern Europe as soon as possible, and at the latest, it would reinforce 500,000 elite Chinese soldiers to the western front line within half a year, and supply a large amount of military supplies to Germany through ground railways and road transportation.

The Germans were anxious because their strongest ally, China, seemed to be betting too much enthusiasm on the distant India. In the first half of 1917, I heard that the Chinese army landed in India and started fighting with the British Far East Fleet. In the view of the German General Staff, after actually hitting the British Far East Fleet, the Chinese Navy could block the entire India with only submarines. The focus of the Chinese army's attack should be to force Russia to surrender at the fastest speed, and to transport strategic materials and reinforcements to Germany as soon as possible, rather than fighting against the damn India and only tens of thousands of British soldiers, both submarines, aircraft and landing.

Through the German minister, the German emperor implicitly expressed German anxiety. After all, the main force who can completely turn the situation around the war is the Chinese army, and the Germans can only hold their opinions in their hearts.

……………………………………

According to custom, someone always has to take this responsibility for the mistakes made by the Chinese special fleet in India. As the commander of the Nanyang Fleet and the commander-in-chief of the special fleet, Li Zhun naturally assumes the responsibility without hesitation. If he is blamed for finding someone at this time, according to Shen Congyun's temperament, Li Zhun may never have a chance to make a comeback.

Li Zhun spent a week submitting a 10,000-word combat report, mainly reviewing the pride and complacent attitude he had after defeating the British Far East Fleet, which affected the entire fleet's overly optimistic attitude, and greatly despised the British Fleet's restoration and counterattack ability. This was the main reason for the painful lesson. After finding the reasons, you have to come up with countermeasures. Li Zhun proposed a very targeted plan to use Colombo as the base and submarines and destroyers as the main early warning means, and proposed a plan to build airports in Yangon and Kolkata as the fastest speed, give full play to the advantages of our air force, and completely block out all possibilities for the British Fleet to advance eastward.

This report was approved by Shen Congyun, and Li Zhun was also demoted and retained. This punishment was somewhat arrogant and light for Li Zhun, and it was also a kind of reward for Shen Congyun's usual loyalty. It was also a reflection of Shen Congyun's way of governing the country.

After the successful landing operation in Kolkata, Li Yaozu rushed to Kolkata immediately and formed the headquarters of the China Indian Expeditionary Force, with one division of the Marine Corps, four Vietnamese security divisions, and five Chinese Army divisions, forming the skeleton of the Expeditionary Force.

Li Yaozu ordered the Vietnamese security division to advance to Mumbai direction to Jamshedpur, and four Chinese infantry divisions to advance to Varanasi. After easily occupying these two places, Li Yaozu had to order the troops to stop advancing and take a short rest. At the same time, some problems found were reported and solutions were asked.
Chapter completed!