"You have seen those chariots running on tracks! When was the last time?"

Xia Shu came down from the hill and asked Lieutenant Colonel Otziger, the infantry commander here, about the situation.

The Lieutenant Colonel was a little surprised by Xia Shu's condescending tone. He obviously had not recognized the other party as an imperial prince with a prominent background, but thought that the other party was just a staff officer in the Legion Command.

"About an hour ago, four cars passed by here and headed towards Verdun."

"So do you have a telephone or radio here to contact Verdun's frontline command?"

"The telephone line is broken. I have sent a telecommunications soldier to check, but I am not sure when it will be restored. The regiment headquarters has a transmitter, and they are now somewhere in front of us."

After understanding these situations, Natsuki turned to Carson and said, "Can we go east and go around this section?"

Carson held up his telescope and glanced at the opposite direction of the French army: "There seems to be a small path there, but it is very unsafe that cars can easily attract enemy artillery fire, and they may also be attacked by French troops when passing through the woods and villages."

Xia Shusui turned around and asked the Lieutenant Colonel: "Can you send your correspondents to catch up with the chariots and let them turn around to support the battle?"

The Lieutenant Colonel looked at Carson and saw that the chief staff officer of the Legion Command had no objection. Then he said to Natsuki: "Our communication soldiers only have ordinary horses, and judging from the speed of the chariots, they are now estimated to have arrived at Verdun. This is only 14 kilometers away from Verdun."

"It's already so close?" Xia Shu said to himself. He looked into the distance. At the end of his sight, a yellow-brown building was vaguely seen on the hills. It should be the famous Verdun Fortress.

Carson was worried that Xia Shu would go straight to Verdun despite the danger, so he suggested to him: "Your Highness, maybe we can wait here for an hour or two. As long as the main force of the 22nd Infantry Division comes up, we should be able to repel this French team soon."

"It's good to have a rest here." Natsuki replied, and when Carson called him "Your Highness", the Lt. Col. Ottziger's eyes suddenly widened and his words suddenly became less refined:

"Ah...you are... His Highness Prince Joachim, my God, it's really you!"

Xia Shu raised her index finger and made a booing gesture, saying to the panicked lieutenant colonel: "Don't let the enemy know my identity."

The lieutenant colonel quickly stood attentively and saluted: "Abide by the order, Your Highness... absolutely keep the secret!"

"Then, if it does not hinder the established combat operations of your battalion, send the correspondents to chase our chariot troops! If they have arrived in Verdun, then find a Lieutenant Eckerle and ask him to send three chariots in the best condition. You can tell him that this is my order." Xia Shuyan glanced at Carson afterwards.

"Execute the order!" Carson confirmed the order to the Major in a peaceful but serious tone.

The lieutenant colonel no longer had any hesitation or doubt. In order to ensure that the communication order was delivered, he sent three communication soldiers to ride horses in groups, and bypassed the road attacked by the French army and rushed towards Verdun.

Shortly after the communications troops set off, the French troops in the northwest attacked the German roads again. Xia Shu and Carson returned to the hills and watched the battle without saying a word. The blue tops, red pants and dome-brimmed hats of the French infantry (similar to the military cap style of the Northern Army during the American Civil War, like a flattened cylinder cap) were very conspicuous in the fields. They were lined up in many rows of horizontal lines, and the officers were in a conspicuous position, with the field artillery in the rear, taking small steps and holding bayonets. Except for the changes in military uniform style and weapons and equipment, all of this was surprisingly similar to the battlefield a hundred years ago.

After entering the range of German guns and bullets, French soldiers began to fall down in groups like gun targets in amusement parks, falling beside their companions who died in the previous attack. The remaining French soldiers mustered up the courage to continue to advance, and most of them were still on the frontal attack, and about one-third of the troops were put on the flanks. At this time, the German soldiers crawling in the scattered bunker only needed to repeat the shooting movements. There were not many people injured by French artillery fire and gun bullets during the battle.

Soon, with the slogan of charge sounded, the French infantry attacking head-on shouted and ran forward. Although the distance between this sprint was only a few hundred meters, no one could reach his destination alive in the face of the suppression of five or six hundred Mauser rifles and two mg-08 water-cooled heavy machine guns.

The French army that was on the flank side also failed to complete the offensive mission, but instead fell into the firepower of two German troops. In less than two minutes, the gunshots of the German army subsided, and the roar of cannons still echoed on the battlefield, but it gave people a feeling of death. Only dozens of wounded soldiers who were involved in the attack were rescued by medical staff, and the others all fell into this green field.

A unit was wiped out under the voluntary attack. Who can still scold the French soldiers for lacking courage?

Carson said coldly and sarcastically: "The French who are unaware of their thoughts that they are still in the Napoleonian era!"

Seeing this battle scene with his own eyes like a moth to a fire, Xia Shu couldn't calm down for a long time. What he felt was not accidents and confusion, but a shock that was hard to let go. There was a homophonic saying that "one general was incompetent to exhaust the three armies" and the French people were "conservative and dull kill the three armies". What is difficult to understand is that the two world wars that have been more than 20 years ago, the stereotyped conservative and conservative expressed by the top French military leaders did not meet the romantic and unrestrained emotional world of this country. Even if the men in the commando made them fancy to please the ladies and create a mood, they would not cause these black tragedies that became jokes.

The two attacks ended in failure. The French temporarily gave up this futile effort. The soldiers rested and stood by between the hills and the open land, and the field artillery also stopped the artillery attack. However, this did not mean that the road ahead could be restored. As long as the German marching troops and vehicles moved, the French could block the road with artillery fire at any time. In fact, even if the German support troops were waiting for the German support troops, Xia Shu knew that the counterattack would not work in just a few strokes. Without sufficient artillery support, the frontal attack of the German infantry was not much better than the enemy. In the end, it would be necessary to lose troops and lose generals and corpses everywhere.

The one side of ignoring death is courage and fearlessness, and the other side is ignorance. Since my current identity is the little prince of the German Empire, my personal destiny is closely linked to this emerging industrial power that advocates force, and this war to re-adjust the world pattern is a historical necessity, then I have the obligation to guide it to win in the best of my ability and let these best and ideal soldiers return home in triumphantly.

With this idea, Xia Shu asked someone to find Lieutenant Colonel Ottziger, the commander of the German army, and the two most powerful company commanders under him. As well as Colonel Carson, five people sat around. Xia Shu picked up a branch and drew it on the ground and said:

"A very important factor in the German fleet's weak defeat in Jutland is that after we successfully reformed the tactical innovation, the emergence of the full-heavy artillery warship, we realized that the previous naval combat mode was outdated and we spent a lot of energy on studying new tactics. At the beginning of the war, our ship technology was slightly better than the British Navy, and the number and tonnage were only three-fifths of the opponent's. The role of the new tactics made up for this significant gap. I think the emergence of field rapid-fire guns and machine guns also had a huge impact on land wars."

"Just now, everyone saw that the French team launched an attack on us in a dense infantry storm formation that had been used for hundreds of years, but we defeated it effortlessly, and without the support of artillery. Thinking of the new naval tactics, I think such an infantry attack formation may be more suitable for the current battlefield: the distance between soldiers and soldiers is stretched to about five steps, and the distance between each combat unit should also be set in an orderly manner and staggered position. Each soldier and each combat unit need to adapt to the situation, pause forward in time, look for hidden objects or crawl on the spot. When battalion-level units enter the attack, each company will be stretched out an obvious interval of about two hundred meters, and the distance of each platoon will be increased to one hundred meters. Each company is not the same section. The platoon on the left is to advance 200 meters, stop and shoot to cover, restrain the enemy's attention, and prevent the enemy's firepower from being kept in one direction. The platoon in the middle takes the opportunity to advance 200 meters to approach the enemy's position, launch a charge or shoot on the spot. The platoon on the right moves closer to the middle or flanks according to the battlefield situation, and find the weakest position of the enemy's firepower to launch a charge. It is especially important to note that the damage caused by enemy guns and artillery fire should be minimized under the premise of winning. When approaching the enemy, rely on hidden objects to leaps forward one after another. It is best to throw machine guns into the attack, thereby forming a more powerful fire suppression."

Such a tactical model is not complicated at all. It is easy for professional officers trained by the regular military system to understand. The key is how to prove that this tactic is effective and not to make the troops' offense loose and weak.

Obviously, the battlefield with real guns and real ammunition is the best occasion to test the tactical effect. Xia Shu strikes while the iron is hot: "After the support troops arrive, we can try this tactic in the counterattack. If there is a bad result, I will bear all the responsibility and will never let you be punished."

The ones hesitated for the longest were not Lieutenant Colonel Ultraziger and his company commanders, but Colonel Von Carson, who was authorized by Crown William to dispatch various frontline departments. Although there was a "disclaimer" from Xia Shu, he knew in his heart that the superiors would not let a prominent imperial prince with outstanding status and outstanding achievements take the blame. However, if he chose to veto, he might have to bear more responsibilities for more losses in the future, and it would be difficult for the crown prince to deal with it. In a dilemma, Von Carson seemed calm but was very entangled to make a decision: to make a new tactical attempt with Major Ultraziger's battalion!

After recording the tactical mode that Xia Shu mentioned, Lieutenant Colonel took his men back to deploy. More than half an hour passed, the battlefield telephone line still had not been restored, and the communication soldiers sent were not heard of, and the number of French corpses in the fields did not increase or decrease. Two battalions of German infantry, who were also part of the 22nd Infantry Division, came to reinforce, and the forces gathered here gradually remained equal to the French army opposite. A 77mm field artillery company directly under the division's artillery battalion also arrived quickly, and the counterattack of the German troops finally entered the countdown.
Chapter completed!