When Prince William, who had led the Legion Command to cross the Maas River, learned that the 19th Infantry Division was bleeding from his head at Verdun Fortress, was furious. He unconcealedly scolded the division commander for being a "reckless man who can't turn", a "stupid fool without IQ", and a "rude man who doesn't understand military affairs at all". Even though he called the veteran a "model soldier" a day ago, he had no room for tolerance now.

Crown Prince William was so angry that even Xia Shu rarely met him, let alone the staff officers of the headquarters. In his opinion, the angry expression, posture and even wording of this crown prince of the empire were deliberately imitating the German Emperor William II, but it was just like a figure and a spirit. His relatively weak personality made it difficult for him to establish a sense of majesty from the inside out in the minds of others.

In any case, the heavy casualties caused by the 19th Infantry Division due to active attacks are indeed inappropriate. According to the combat command of the Legion Command, the task of this division before the subsequent troops arrived in Verdun was to carry out combat reconnaissance against the French fortress. Usually no one would understand "combat reconnaissance" as a heavy blow unless it made a wrong judgment on the battlefield situation, thinking that a punch could knock down the opponent. In contrast, the combat reconnaissance of the 3rd Prussian Lancer Division was more reliable. The battle of forcing the city of Verdun was a bit rash, but the commander did not put his main force at a huge risk after all.

Now that the mistake has been made, the punishment of the parties involved is not helpful to change the reality. Crown William and his staff officers have to find ways to make up for it. The French army sent to attack the west bank of the Maas River to support the two corpses of Bavaria's Crown Prince Ruprecht and Duke of Württemberg Albrecht have basically completed the task. Now the French army's defense line in the middle section of the Maas River has been completely lost. Hundreds of thousands of German troops of the 4th and 6th Legions are using pontoon bridges and boats to speed up the crossing of the Maas River. Crown William is able to concentrate his two wings into combat, but the harassment of the remnants of the French army and the carrying capacity of the road themselves are restricting the marching speed of these German troops. Most German infantry divisions can only move 20 to 30 kilometers a day, and it will take three or four days to wait for them to arrive at Verdun. This period is enough for the French to gather more front-line troops around Verdun, thereby greatly increasing the difficulty of the German army to capture this fortress.

The reinforcements are still far away, and if the existing troops are used to forcibly attack the fortress, the situation will not be optimistic. Two infantry divisions, one is a light infantry division with less heavy equipment, a cavalry division with weakened strength, and a heavy artillery group that takes 24 hours to arrive. In front of the French fortress artillery, the 150mm caliber howitzer is simply ineligible to be called a "heavy artillery". Although the 240mm caliber heavy howitzer can compete with it, its number is limited, and it is difficult to destroy the French defense in a short period of time.

After much calculation, Colonel Von Carson, the chief staff officer of the Legion Command, thought of the group of naval chariots transferred from Danze. In the battle of the Maas River, there were only 6 Hubert-13 chariots that were truly put into the battlefield, but they played a very important role as a surprise. Under the leadership of these chariots, the German infantry broke through the defensive positions of the two French divisions in succession and arrived at the "Iron 17" regiment defense zone in time, thus defending the l18 across the Maas River.

Highway Bridge. After this battle, these chariots continued to be put into the main attack direction of the 5th Legion and once again supported the German infantry to break through the French defense line during the battle on August 24. However, the long-distance continuous march had very much wear on these tracked chariots, and most of the chariots stopped and repaired, so they gradually fell behind the advance troops. The 19th Infantry Division attacked Verdun Fortress that night, the nearest chariot troops were still resting more than 30 kilometers away.

Seeing everyone's eyes turned to him, Xia Shu scratched his nose and said slowly: "According to the equipment test we have done, as long as a 150mm caliber ordinary shell lands within 10 meters, the chariot crew will be seriously injured, faint briefly or even seriously injured and die; within 5 meters, the body of the vehicle will be damaged due to the strong impact of the explosion; within 1 to 2 meters, the chariot may be overturned and completely lose its combat capability; if it is directly hit by the shell, the result needs to be said. So in terms of performance, the 'Hubert 13' is not suitable for strong attack fortresses, with a larger tonnage, thicker armor, and slower movement of the 'Hubert 14' is not suitable. However..."

Xia Shu's "but" dragged it for a while, and the Crown Prince William sucked two puffs of cigarettes, but did not interrupt.

"Verdun Fortress is mainly used to defend attacks in the east, south and north directions. On the west side, that is, the side facing Paris is its back, and there are also turrets on this side. Although the French should not deploy new heavy artillery with long range and powerful range here, strong attacks are still undesirable. I suggest organizing chariot troops and some infantry to intersperse this side, cutting off the railway line in the east and west directions is the preferred route for the French army to send reinforcements to Verdun."

A senior staff officer questioned: "Even if we surround the fortress and use the reserve of ammunition and drug resources in the fortress, it will be difficult to force the defenders to surrender in a short period of time."

"Within today, there are only 5 chariots that can be put into the Verdun battlefield, and tomorrow, this number can be increased to 15. As long as we cut off the support of the fortress defenders, it can not only damage their morale, but also indirectly weaken their strength, making tomorrow's attack easier." Natsuki explained, "Otherwise, how many reinforcements can the French army use this railway line to send to the fortress in one day and one night?"

Obviously, there is no need to know the exact answer to this question.

Crown Prince William held his pointed chin with his hand, thought for a while with a deep expression, and then looked at Colonel Von Carson. At this time, the chief staff officer was also pondering, calculating various possible battle situations and results in his mind. After waiting for five or six minutes, a communications officer came in and reported that the French army launched a counterattack at the southeastern Fort of Verdun and regained the peripheral positions originally occupied by the German army. According to the report of the German officers and soldiers on the front line, many of the French soldiers who were involved in the battle had Asian and African faces, that is, troops from the French colonies.

"Sure enough, a backup unit has arrived." Colonel von Carson said with a frown, "In this way, we simply advance to the west of Verdun with an infantry brigade of the 7th Light Infantry Division to cut off the railway line, build fortifications outside the range of artillery in the French fortress, and another infantry brigade moves to dig trenches south of the fortress and standby. The 16th Infantry Division continues to be deployed south of Verdun, and the 3rd Cavalry Division implements mobile reinforcements to the entire battlefield. As long as the French field troops in Verdun have no more than one army, we should be able to stand until the subsequent troops arrive."

Crown Prince William nodded in agreement, and he then asked Natsuki: "How many troops do you think can you win by attacking Verdun Fortress?"

Xia Shu thought about it. At present, the French army's defense in Verdun is mainly fortress turrets, and the defense system combining fortifications is only in its infringement. It does not require hundreds of thousands of troops and thousands of heavy artillery to launch a strong attack. Then he said: "As long as there are 15 combat vehicles, 50,000 infantry, 40 long-range artillery guns, enough smoke bombs and strong explosives, I think I can give it a try."

"Can you try it?" Obviously because there was an example of the 19th Infantry Division in front of him, Prince William was very resistant to this wording. He said to Natsuki brutally: "No, what I want is the guarantee of victory. Even if it requires 100,000 infantry, 200 cannons and 1,000 tons of explosives, I can get it in the shortest time! I will borrow all the chariots of the navy. When the battle is over, it will be fine to pay twice the price!"

At the end, he turned back and forth in the room like an angry bull, and when he stopped, he faced the Natsuki: "Now the whole of Germany is watching us, we must not suffer failure in Verdun. Even if we use a pile of soldiers and a shell, we must take it down!"

Xia Shuxin was unhappy about the unquestionable tone of Crown William, but thought that he could not repeat the mistakes of history for his own impulse, so he calmed down and thought carefully. Then he looked at Colonel Carson, and then replied to Crown William: "Please allow me to go to Verdun with me if Colonel Von Carson agrees. At most, we will have good news for you."

To this challenging task, Von Carson immediately responded with affirmative response with "the honor of honor".

Natsu and Carson were very happy. Now, Crown Prince William hesitated. He asked the German Emperor's favorite young son, the German Navy's epic hero, to go to the front line where the situation was not stable. After thinking about it, he suggested to Natsu that a telephone line could be established between the Legion Command and the Verdun Front Command for him and Carson to understand the battle situation ahead at any time and adjust the deployment, or take a step back and let them go to a place closer to the front line but safer to command the battle indirectly.

Xia Shu didn't comment, but looked down at his military uniform. On the Western Front battlefield, such a naval uniform was indeed too unique, so he took the initiative to suggest that he could change into the army's uniform to go to the front line. Anyway, with Colonel Carson, his tactical intentions would be fully implemented. At that time, except for the officers of the Legion Command, no one else knew that he had participated in the Battle of Verdun. In addition, the German Navy's combat operations were far from over, and he needed to return to the Fleet Command as soon as possible.

The more calm Xia Shu's attitude was, the more serious Crown Prince William's concerns were. He smoked two cigarettes in a row and talked with Colonel Carson alone for half an hour before he agreed.
Chapter completed!