On September 12, 1914, the belated Battle of the Marne River finally kicked off. This huge battle consisted of countless fierce, short, and chaotic conflicts and battles. On the front line of more than 200 kilometers along the Marne River, the fourteen armies of the Allies and the Allies, more than 100 infantry divisions, and a large number of artillery and cavalry units launched a fierce, bloody and cruel battle...

From Brussels to the Marne River, the German 1st Legion led by von Cluke continued to march continuously. After a long journey, the soldiers' energy and physical fitness had been reduced to the limit. The long supply line not only affected the supply replenishment efficiency, but also increased the risk of logistics vehicles being attacked. On the south bank of the Marne River, the two corpses that Cluke crossed the river in advance encountered strong obstacles from the troops affiliated to the French 5th and 9th armies. The attack was frustrated and had to wait for reinforcements from friendly forces. On the morning of September 12, Cluke ordered his two artillery divisions to cross the Marne River to support the situation.

As soon as the telegram was issued, the Legion Command received a telegram from the German General Staff. Due to the rainy weather for several days, the aerial reconnaissance effect of German aircraft and airships was greatly reduced, but various signs indicate that the French army is about to launch a large-scale counterattack. Considering that the French army suffered consecutive losses in the first month of the war, the combat effectiveness and morale of the front-line troops were greatly hit, and this would be a Jedi counterattack that could only win but not lose. Moltke was worried that Cluke's flank would be broken by the French army, so he ordered him to turn his head to deal with the threat from the flanks.

Despite his reluctance, Cluke followed the combat orders of the General Staff. He quickly canceled the mobilization orders issued to the artillery units, allowing them to re-adjust the deployment, and instead support the flanking corps for defense. As a result, these German artillery divisions had just entered a new position, and the French army sounded the counterattack horn near Paris in the lower reaches of the Marne River. The French 6th Army, who was chased by Cluke and Bilo in the previous stage, took the lead in launching an offensive. They obtained artillery and reserve troops.

As the British Expeditionary Force strengthened, the attack was still dominated by French divisions that gradually retreated from the border front. On September 12 alone, the British and French troops launched three attacks on the positions on the north bank of the Marne River, seizing some of the German frontier positions. In the evening, Cluke commanded the troops to carry out counterattacks, recaptured several positions from the French 6th Army, barely stabilizing the flank front, but the infantry divisions under his command reduced a large number of troops in the battle.

In the afternoon, the French team on the south bank of the Marne River also launched a counterattack against Cluke's crossing forces. Since the Bilo's legion's crossing was slightly slower, there were only two corps on the south bank of the Marne River. They were restrained by the French troops in front of them and could not help Cluke's troops. Later that day, Moltke sent emergency telegrams to the legion of Billow, Hausen, Albresit, William and Ruprecht, forcing them to move downstream along the Marne River in turn to support and alleviate the combat pressure under Cluke.

After a brief respite, the Cluke army ushered in the most fierce counterattack of the Allied Team. In addition to the French soldiers in blue tops and red pants, British soldiers in khaki uniforms appeared on the battlefield. From dawn to noon, the British and French troops attacked one after another under the cover of blazing artillery fire. The French divisions who had fought with the German army many times in more than a month resolutely abandoned the dull and meaningless intensive offensive tactics. They sought and adopted more flexible and effective means to play the role of rifles and machine guns more. In this battle

The British Expeditionary Force, which was the first division-level troops to attack, also showed amazing combat effectiveness. The officers and soldiers obviously tried their best to avenge their naval colleagues and spared no effort to attack. Some battalions suffered greater casualties than French teams. When the German troops launched a tactical counterattack, British soldiers used Enfield rifle to shoot these undefeated German soldiers. By the afternoon of September 13, the right wing position of the Cluke Legion was shaking, and it was possible that they were defeated by the British and French troops at any time...

News of the Cluke army's troubles soon came back to Germany. In the past two days, Navy Chief of Staff von Poll happened to summon the naval generals to Kiel to discuss the next stage of combat affairs. In addition to the combat strategy of the high seas fleet, the actions of overseas fleets, the deployment of the Russian blockade and the subsequent construction of the navy were also within the scope of discussion. Learning that the Battle of Marine River began, Xia Shu, who knew the inside story, took the opportunity to propose the idea of ​​sending Marines to the war.

After wartime mobilization, the three standing land brigades of the German Navy had reached full capacity and were equipped with three regiments of reserve troops accordingly. In addition, the German Navy also had 6 fortress garrison regiments and 42 coastal garrison battalions, and the total land force exceeded that of a standing army regiment.

As usual, whenever Xia Shu made a proposal, he would do his homework in advance. He introduced the preparations for the three naval brigades in concise and clear language to the naval generals. They each had two land infantry regiments and one heavy land regiment, and the scale of the organization was 20% higher than that of the army's infantry brigades. The equipment ratio of light and heavy machine guns and pistols was equal to that of the German Emperor's Guards. According to the original plan, the naval chariot troops would belong to these three land brigades.

Since the Navy's senior management has always listed the establishment and staffing of these three Marine Brigades as secrets, except for the main naval generals and the commanders of the Marine Brigade, the others were completely watching the flowers. Listening to Xia Shu's explanation, many generals were surprised. As far as paper data is concerned, these Marine Brigades have first-class combat power. Under the conditions of the high seas fleet defeating the British Navy and mastering strategic initiative, they should prove their strength and value on the battlefield.

Before the meeting was held, Xia Shu had already communicated with Admiral Hugo von Boer, who was fully responsible for naval combat affairs, to send a marine brigade to the war. At that time, the British and French troops had not yet launched a counterattack on the Marne River, and the German army was still progressing smoothly on the Western Front. As long as there were no major twists and turns, it should be only a matter of time to defeat France. Boer did not want to attract the disgust of the generals of the army, believing that the Marines could only participate in the war on the premise that the army took the initiative to make a request. If the war on the Western Front was not available, then when the German army attacked Russia eastward, the Marines could cooperate with the army to occupy the Baltic coastal areas and even carry out a separate landing operation in Finland.

In the conference room, in front of many naval generals, Admiral Von Boer said: "Our land forces were not formed for a long time, and all officers and soldiers had no experience in participating in the war. In order to form these three land war brigades, the funds and manpower we have invested successively can be used to build a dreadnought. They are expensive and have potential value. They are more competent than the army in the future combat operations to seize British and French colonies."

Expressing a clear objection in a gentle tone, Boer not only took care of Prince Joachim's face, but also protected his authority. Under such circumstances, the general who wanted to express his opinions tactfully chose silence and watched how the "Hohenzollern genius" who was at the peak of his position refuted.

Xia Shu said calmly but vigorously: "In the future, we will inevitably fight with the British and French armies. In the enemy thousands or tens of thousands of kilometers away from Germany, once our marine troops are defeated due to lack of experience and have superior strength, it is not easy to remedy it. From this perspective, we should let the officers and soldiers of the marine troops undergo the tempering of the war in advance."

Boer thought while listening. After Xia Shu finished speaking, he quickly responded: "I fully agree with this. It's just that at this time, our marine troops rushed to the front line, whether our commanders or the army's legion commanders were not familiar with each other's tactical thinking and combat methods. It would be difficult to exert the combat effectiveness of these troops and might cause them to suffer unnecessary losses. What does Your Highness think?"

On the Western Front battlefield where both sides each invested millions of troops, thousands of officers and soldiers were killed every day. If three marine brigades lacked chariot troops were put into the most stalemate front line of the war, they might have fought for more than ten hours. Xia Shu was certainly aware of this. He favored Incheon landing-style enemy attacks, but the current battlefield situation could not find a suitable landing opportunity. The coastlines of France and Belgium were still under the direct control of the Envoy Team. Germany

If the Marine Forces land on the beach in northern Belgium, although they can catch the enemy off guard and shake the Allies' resistance from a strategic and psychological level, it will be difficult to have a direct impact on the front line of the Marne River in a short period of time. If they can successfully land in northern France, it will have an immediate effect. However, the key to the problem is that the landing fleet of the German Navy must pass through the narrow Channel of Dover, and the British and French navies still have enough strength to block German landing ships.

"This is indeed the most critical question." Natsuki replied, his eyes swept over everyone, and then said slowly: "I happen to have a top-secret piece of information about the fortifications of the Paris City."

All eyes, including Boer, focused on Xia Shu with great curiosity.

"According to the order of the French Command, the fortifications in Paris must be completed before the end of August. When they found that our right-wing troops did not take Paris directly, they swept to the Marne River, and the speed of building fortifications was slowed down. According to the intelligence provided by our spies, the French team was slowly clearing out the trees and houses that might hinder artillery shooting and affect the excavation of trenches. The construction of artillery bunkers and infantry posts, the placement of barbed wire, and the construction of wood and arms storage spaces required for the construction of the chest wall have not been completed. As for the supply of necessities such as urban food, it has almost not yet been carried out. Simply put, the solid city defense in Paris is still basically on paper."

If the generals here were army members, they would immediately understand the intention of Xia Shu revealing this information. The navy generals were laymen in land warfare, and they struggled to figure out what Prince Joachim meant.

"During lunch break, the fleet commander and I thought of a wonderful strategy." Xia Shu glanced at Sher. The two were undoubtedly good partners and loyal believers of the naval offensive theory. There was no reason not to work together to deal with a representative figure of the naval existence theory like Boer.

"Let the British think we are going to land in England and take London directly. Let the French think we are going to land in Le Havre and threaten Paris. In fact, we set out from Amiens and advanced one hundred kilometers at the fastest speed to arrive in Paris!"
Chapter completed!