In a hazy fantasy, Xia Shu's fingertips finally touched the handsome face. The elegant and pleasant fragrance was still lingering on the tip of his nose. The sweet smile of the past was far away. How could his stubborn eyes be so sad? The beautiful woman was haggard and sad. The beautiful pictures in her memory floated into her heart, but the sorrow was even stronger. Before she woke up from her dream, a line of tears quietly slid across the corners of her eyes...

It was dawn, and Xia Shu frowned deeply and opened her eyes. The gray single camp tent, the hard camp bed, the loud sound of motors, the aroma of brewing coffee, and occasionally the rough and cheerful voices came. Such a hard military career has made countless people obsessed.

While gently rubbing his temples and sorting out his thoughts in his mind, Xia Shu quickly returned to his military role. This is Amiens, a place that neither belongs to the Germans nor the British, but the soldiers on both sides fought to the death here. The strangeness of the war is this.

France in 1914 was still a country dominated by agriculture. Amiens was a relatively representative medium-sized urban area in this country. The scale of the city was small. Factory, schools, churches, and houses were concentrated on both sides of the river. The cities from east to west, from south to north were only four or five kilometers. The suburbs were large areas of farmland, and small pieces of woods and groves were like raisins sprinkled on cakes. Before machine guns appeared, such terrain was easy to attack and difficult to defend, and was especially suitable for cavalry combat.

When Xia Shu walked out of the tent, a Hubert-D type reconnaissance plane flew over the top of his head, and on the grass not far away, more than 30 gray-painted fighter jets were spreading their wings to fly. This place was originally the garrison of French aviation troops. If we traced back to the outbreak of the war, it was a stadium for hosting football matches. It had no walls around it, and the audience seats were stepped seats built of wood. After demolishing, only a large piece of flat grass was left. It was a distance from the densely populated residential area of ​​citizens, with only some scattered buildings and bushes next to it. During the First Battle of Amiens, the 6th French Infantry Division, which retreated step by step, dug trenches nearby and deployed artillery positions in the woods. Now these battlefield remains have been reused by the Germans.

The 20 train cannons brought back from the Oise River front are divided into four armies, all of which are parked on rails less than 500 meters from the airport. The railway trunk extends south to Paris, north to Lille in the border area, and northwest through Abveur to Calais and Dunkirk. Because of this, Amiens is regarded as an important transportation hub in northeastern France.

After washing up, Xia Shu sat down at the open-air dining table. In just a short while, half of the planes on the airport were missing. Biplane and double-seater reconnaissance planes and attack planes took off in groups, and their primary target was still the British gunboats on the Somme.

"Good morning, your highness!"

"Oh, Colonel von Lipseye, good morning!"

Xia Shu made a gesture of asking for a seat. The naval colonel in front of him is the commander of the German Navy Aviation Force stationed in Amiens and is also a veteran pilot. He has won the championship in the international flight racing competition. He was also from a powerful family in Prussian. When he was young, he often followed his father to the palace. He was quite appreciated by William II. He has known Xia Shu for many years and joined the German Navy. Naturally, he has a sense of intimacy that is better than ordinary people.

"You were used to sleeping last night, weren't you?" the colonel greeted with a pleasant expression.

"Very good." Natsuki replied slightly against his will. He stuffed a white napkin into the collar and waited for the orderly to serve the warm fried eggs and bread to the table, and then he took the initiative to invite the colonel to have breakfast.

"I am very honored to be invited by Your Highness. I just filled my stomach an hour and a half ago... Please give me a cup of coffee! Thank you!" The colonel said politely to Xia Shu's orderly.

Over the years, Xia Shu developed the habit of getting up on time at half past five, and the colonel had breakfast more than an hour before that. For the next day's air operations, he must have done a lot of preparations.

In his usual way, Xia Shu encouraged: "We have worked very hard all the time for aircraft missions these days. Now we are getting closer and closer to victory. If we persist for a few more days, the great achievements of history will be forged in our hands. If we can successfully repel the attack of the British team, you and your eagles should be wearing medals."

The colonel responded: "In fact, after these days of fighting, the young men have made great progress and growth. It's a pity that the two of our best-skilled pilots disappeared on the battlefield. It may be that the plane had malfunctioned or that they were hit by the enemy's guns and their lives are still unknown."

"There are inevitable surprises on the battlefield." Xia Shu comforted, "As long as they are still alive, when we win this battle, they will still be commended and praised as heroes."

The Colonel nodded: "May God bless them and all of us."

Xia Shu quickly swept out the food from the plate and then picked up the coffee: "How many people are there in your flying force now?"

Colonel von Lipseye reported a series of numbers without hesitation: "Not counting the alert guards dispatched by the Marine Division, there are currently 42 pilots, 60 machine gunners and bombers, 73 maintenance technicians, and 209 service personnel."

Xia Shu nodded. Compared with the army troops that cost hundreds of thousands, the number of these aviation personnel is insignificant in the West Coast. However, including the carrier-based aircraft troops, the German naval aviation company is currently the largest in the world. It is far ahead of its opponents at the starting line. As long as it maintains the right direction and sufficient investment in the future, it will definitely become the core pillar of the German Empire's dominance of the ocean.

"When the war is over, I will invite all of you to visit my manor." Xia Shu said casually.

Colonel von Lipseye said half-jokingly: "Who, if you can get the signed photo of Your Highness, the young men will immediately throw all the complaints behind you."

But Xia Shu took it seriously: "No problem, I guarantee everyone can get one."

After all the planes took off, there were deafening guns sounded in the direction of the railway line. According to Xia Shu's arrangement, 20 train guns were divided into two groups, and 12 40-distance 150mm cannons were launched in succession at firing intervals every five to ten minutes on the British gathering areas in the northwest of Amiens. Eight 40-distance 240-million cannons were bombarded at the British activity areas in the northeast of Amiens at firing intervals every twenty minutes on firing intervals.

Fighters flying in the western suburbs of Amiens, roaring heavy artillery, and it was very lively. The British commanders eager to conquer Amiens could not turn a blind eye to this. Soon, two Allied aircraft appeared in the western suburbs of Amiens, but they were immediately obstructed and expelled by German fighters and failed to conduct detailed reconnaissance of the German airport and heavy artillery positions. At nine o'clock in the morning, scattered British cavalry frequently broke into the German-controlled areas in the western suburbs of Amiens. They were attacked by German rifles deployed in nearby civilian houses, woods and other hidden locations. They also failed to approach the German airport and artillery positions. However, through air and ground reconnaissance, the British were enough to determine the location of the German artillery positions and the airport.

As eleven o'clock approached, the British were normal tea time. German reconnaissance planes discovered the marching British cavalry units west of Amiens. Judging from the pilot's visual observation, the British cavalry had at least two thousand people, which was equivalent to the strength of most of the cavalry brigade.

The cavalry moved so fast that the infantry could not meet. After almost a morning tea, the German police post arranged north of the train gun position had already seen the traces of large British cavalry, and the defensive forces immediately entered a state of combat.

In a two-story house near the airport, Xia Shu quietly observed the British cavalry appearing in sight through a telescope. These well-equipped professional soldiers were energetic and majestic. They rode tall and vigorous war horses, dressed in neat and straight military uniforms, held their heads and chests, and walked forward with their swords. The first thing they saw was a well-trained and powerful force. However, in Xia Shu's view, the war had been fought for almost two months, and both sides had paid a heavy price for hundreds of thousands of people in the process of exploring the war mode. This group of British cavalry was still arranged in a compact wall array, either to blame the commander's dullness, or to show that they despise the German heavy artillery troops' own defense and felt that a simple attack could defeat the opponent.

On the battlefield, stupidity is as fatal as underestimating the enemy. Xia Shu brought back from the front line of the Oates River, a total of more than 1,900 naval infantrymen. They were well-equipped and had high fighting spirit. More than half of the officers and soldiers had been baptized by the war and knew how to play the role of weapons in their hands. The troops guarding the airport were originally drawn by the 1st Marine Brigade. Although they were mainly newly added reserve troops, the number of light and heavy machine guns was not enough. With the guidance of veterans, it was not a problem to fight position defense.

At first glance, the German defense line for defending the airport and train guns was not complete. The barbed wire only blocked the intersection and the low-lying open areas. The British cavalry could easily find gaps in the woods and slightly raised fields. They hadtily divided their troops into two groups, trying to forcibly break through the German interception, enter the airport and train gun positions and quickly destroy the weapons and equipment there, thereby weakening the defense of the Amiens defenders. When the British cavalry discovered that the gaps were simply baits that the opponent deliberately left, the bullets that hit like rain had already made them.

I couldn't regret it. The German infantry used machine guns skillfully deployed in key locations everywhere to weave a terrible crossfire network. In less than a quarter of an hour, half of the 2,000 British cavalry who were involved in the attack became the dead souls of the Germans, and the corpses were everywhere on the battlefield and blood flowed into a river. The remaining British cavalry did not give up on the attack, but adjusted their strategies and attacked multiple routes, but the German defense was almost unscathed. Even though a small number of machine gun positions were captured by British cavalry, the German train cannons had prepared ship-use shrapnel for the fish that had escaped.

The battle ended soon, and in the end, only dozens of unowned war horses were able to rush into the airport. The expensive professional cavalry was completely defeated by ugly water-cooled machine guns and even more ugly air-guided light machine guns. They were cruel and ruthless, and they were full of regrets, but this was the war, and Shunchang was defeated.
Chapter completed!