"Pass! Pass!"

On relatively flat grass or mud, many big men wearing gray pants and big leather boots were chasing small balls, and many people stood or sat around the venue and admired and commented on the agile figures with relish.

The ball drew a beautiful arc in the air. The blonde guy with a flexible body just now ran towards the ball. A beautiful chest stopped the ball and stopped the ball from the sideline, causing a burst of hearty laughter around him.

"Oh! I'm old, no more!" The man stood near the sideline with his waist and lowered his head, muttering, and another man who looked about the same age as him ran past him with a brilliant face.

"Your Highness Prince! It seems like you are out of shape today!"

It turned out that the guy who stopped the ball and went out of bounds just now was our Chen Tian. Faced with such professional evaluation from the passer, he shouted with an unhappy look: "Org, it's not the good ball you pass!"

As Chen Tian’s classmates and friends for many years, Orge did not care about his boss’s dissatisfaction at all, but continued to run towards the opponent’s goal.

On this grassland, many people were like strolling in the garden, but it was no wonder that these were middle and senior officers of the legion. It almost cost their lives to participate in this movement, and it made them run all over the field sweating profusely, which was extremely inconsistent with the aristocratic demeanor they cared about.

When Chen Tian was depressed, the opponent threw the ball directly under his feet, and the thrower was standing on the sideline with a gentleman smile on his face.

"Col. Bruns, thank you!" Chen Tian began to drive the ball forward. The ball was very big, and the players on both sides had to twist their bodies to dodge to both sides. Chen Tian felt very depressed at first for their gentlemanly playing style. He could almost dribble from the backcourt and head straight to the frontcourt. Unless the opponent really couldn't avoid blocking the ball, no one would stop him. Fortunately, after Chen Tian spent countless saliva and strength, these old-fashioned Germans finally understood what kind of team sport football is. Everyone began to cooperate and pass the ball, but the atmosphere of friendly and exaggerated friendship and mutual assistance was still retained on the sports field.

After Chen Tian brought football into the boring barracks, the soldiers of the East Prussian Legion gradually accepted and fell in love with this new movement. Even during the intervals of fierce war, the officers and soldiers did not forget to find a space to learn how they tried.

After gently rubbing the ball into the simple goal, Chen Tian raised his index finger with his right hand high, but when the opponent's player also came up to celebrate with high fives, he still felt very awkward.

After scoring the 11th goal today, Chen Tian slowly walked out of the sideline and took the wet towel handed over the adjutant and covered it on his face. He felt so comfortable!

"Your Highness, the Western Front War Report!"

Chen Tian took off the towel and a familiar face came into his eyes.

"Oh! It's Colonel Hoffman, you're such a rare guest here!" Chen Tian smiled and took the telegram from Hoffman. Although most of the officers and soldiers of the army had accepted this movement, a group of middle and senior officers who were extremely concerned about their image, including François and Prit, who were extremely obsessed with Hoffman, refused to take off their coats and go to the court no matter what.

"What? Verdun's victory!"

Chen Tian widened his eyes and looked at the text on the telegram. Verdun, a place that would have become synonymous with "meat grinder", was captured in just one day by the 5th Army and the armored guards led by the German Crown Prince.

Verdun is a French town with only more than 10,000 inhabitants. It is a military town and the largest fortress in northeastern France. It is protected by five large-scale fortress groups. It is mostly hills and forest areas with an altitude of 400 meters. The terrain is high in the south and low in the north. The Mass Mountains run from northwest to northeast, half-circling the north, northeast and east of Verdun. The Mass River originates from the Alps on the border between France and France and Switzerland, flows from south to north through Verdun, dividing Verdun and hilly mountains into two parts. The Mass River, which goes north, passes through Belgium, flows into the Rhine in the Netherlands, and flows into the North Sea from Rotterdam. In Verdun, along the valley

There is a north-south railway that passes through the city, and to the north, Saint-Mierres can reach the important town of France, and to Saint-Mierres in the south, and to the east, to Metz in Germany, and to Confranc in the west. For Germany, Verdun is very close to Germany's main railway. Once the French army advances through this point, it will pose a serious threat to Germany. It has important political and strategic significance to France, and it is also the northeast entrance of Paris and is known as the "key of Paris". If Verdun is conquered, it will not only destroy France's defense system and open the door to Paris and the main vital force groups of the French army, but will also bring a heavy blow to the morale of the French military and civilians.

Since mid-September, Prince's 5th Army began to prepare for the attack of Verdun. Since Verdun Fortress was built along the mountain, overlooking the upper reaches of the Maas River, the fortifications were circulated, and the fortifications were complex and strong, condescending, easy to defend and difficult to attack. There were more than 4,000 artillery pieces in the fortress, of which nearly 2,000 were large-caliber fixed artillery pieces, with about 100,000 garrison troops. The French army also built a simple field defense position around the fortress.

The German troops attacking Verdun included more than 200,000 soldiers from the 5th Army and 70,000 armored troops. Before the battle began, Prince also wanted a large number of heavy siege howitzers from Moltke, which resulted in more than 1,500 cannons transported to Verdun's front, of which more than 600 were heavy artillery. In addition, half of the aviation forces on the western front were also drawn to prepare for the attack.

Before the ground troops of both sides contacted, German planes were already busy, and more than 300 aircraft of various types were dispatched to take turns to conduct attacks. They first threw a large number of leaflets on the French positions, and then began to bomb and strafuse all day long. Even the huge airship troops began to attack. The damage caused by the bombs to the French fortresses and fortresses was limited, but the tense and panic atmosphere was like a gust of wind swept through Verdun, skipping the hearts of every French officer and soldier.

Prince's soldiers began to secretly enter the offensive starting position from the assembly area on September 23. All tanks and armored troops also arrived at the scheduled location on September 24. The total attack began at 5 a.m. on September 25, 1914. The silent Verdun area suddenly shook the earth, and the Germans deployed a group of artillery deployed on the front of the 15-kilometer front to fire together. Thousands of cannons smashed various shells at the French fortress group at a speed of 2,000 rounds per minute. The explosion sounded like rolling thunder. The field defense fortifications built by the French army in the fortress area and the tens of thousands of soldiers inside were gone in the first wave of violent artillery bombardment. The bunkers of civil structures even flew into the sky, and the explosion smoke and fire enveloped the entire Verdun area.

Prince's tactics were very simple. Before the infantry launched an attack, they used the most violent artillery fire to destroy all obstacles in advance and overwhelmed the French in terms of their spirit of fighting. The German artillery fire was very well prepared, and the powerful artillery group carried out intensive artillery fire on individual targets, cluster targets, trenches, turrets, and all suspicious objects regarded as fortifications or targets. They did not miss the important targets in the depth of the French defense. All roads, villages, command posts and city of Verdun were launched on a large scale.

The German artillery group fired for a whole morning. During this period, German planes and airships also flew over Verdun several times to bomb. The French fortress area became beyond recognition, many of the artillery batteries were destroyed, the defense system was devastatingly damaged, commands at all levels were basically paralyzed, and communications between up and down and left and right were almost completely interrupted.

At 12 noon, a shocking shout erupted from the German positions in an instant, and countless German soldiers jumped out of the trenches and began to charge.

The observers rode on the balloon to overlook the battlefield below. Countless gray dots surged out of the position like ants, forming many assault teams, and penetrated directly into the French fortress area. These dots jumped and continued to move forward. In front of these advances, the barrage formed by German artillery fire continued to extend deeper. The assault level of infantry was very clear. The division's assault was two regiments in front and the 3rd regiment was the reserve team behind. The two regiments on the front line used two battalions as the first echelon, one battalion as the second echelon, and the infantry battalion formed three waves of attacks on the front 400-500 meters.

The infantry and engineer squads in the front formed a strong attack team. They were fully equipped with small mortars and powerful bombs, responsible for breaking barriers, observing the shelling effect, and creating favorable offensive conditions for subsequent troops; the infantry company and machine gun squad followed behind the powerful attack team.

Although the French fortress was severely damaged, the solid structure still allowed many French soldiers to survive the fierce artillery attack. In addition to the fortress's cannons firing at the German charge troops, French machine guns were also stubbornly firing. They even organized some suicide squads to fight to the German attack and force the German advance to slow down.

At 2:30 pm, with Prince's order, countless engine roaring sounds sounded on the German starting position. Black steel chariots rushed to the French fortress area with light smoke. The German soldiers who were attacking the second wave of attack also jumped out of the trenches and followed closely behind the tanks and armored vehicles painted with iron crosses.

Although the remaining artillery of the French turrets still controlled the open area in front of the fortress area, they found that their artillery fire could not stop the advancement of the black spots, and only a few shells could hit and explode them directly. If the shells exploded next to them, the black spots might shaking and stop, but some would be activated again soon.

Soon, German tanks and armored vehicles led a large number of infantry through the open area covered with gray corpses and came to the first wave of attacks where the German army was blocked. French soldiers who were still firing wildly with machine guns were frightened by these steel monsters they had never seen before. The monsters did not care about the oncoming machine guns and rifle bullets. They roared roaring and clanging tracks. They drove past the muddy craters like flat ground, overwhelming the barbed wire that had blocked countless infantry, and rushed to the French fortress and fortress. Then, the German infantry following behind the steel monster rushed into French fortresses and fortresses, and gradually drove the French garrison troops out of the fortress with chaotic and fierce battles inside.

The Floating Battery is covered by the turret... As the turrets fell, the morale of the French army became lower and lower, while the German soldiers were crazy, and everyone was attacking desperately. In many places, infantry could not even wait for the armored troops to open the way and launched a charge alone. Verdun's steep terrain restricted the advancement speed of German tanks and armored vehicles. Fortunately, the "Stone I" and "Stone II" light tanks put their driving ability first in design. Although many tanks lost their combat effectiveness because of weak armor being penetrated by French shrapnel, their figures still appeared on various country roads and hilly areas in the Verdun area. In the evening, German engineers braved artillery fire to build two pontoon bridges on the Maas River. The first batch of armored troops quickly passed the last barrier, and the city of Verdun was also occupied by the German army later that day.

The battle went on late at night, and the French commander helplessly announced that he would give up Verdun. After blowing up the remaining fortress cannons, more than 30,000 French officers and soldiers left in disgrace toward Paris.

Verdun did not become the legendary super meat grinder, but in just one day of battle, more than 60,000 French soldiers and 70,000 German soldiers were still killed here. The armored forces of the German Royal Guards also suffered heavy losses. 49 of the 400 tanks were damaged in the battle, 122 were damaged due to oscillations and shrapnel caused by shell explosions and their own mechanical failures. Another 9 were trapped in the mud, 5 fell into the Maas River, 3 were stuck in the woods, and nearly half of the armored vehicles were damaged by French artillery fire during the attack on various fortresses.

"Col. Hoffman, let me announce this news to the entire legion! The prince's performance this time is really impressive! Unfortunately, he lost 1/3 of his infantry and half of his armored troops in this battle, and he may have to rest in Verdun for a while! I really hope that the battle on the Eastern Front will end soon. Compared to the barbaric Russians, I prefer to deal with romantic French and gentlemen British. Now we have the conditions to land on the British Isles, and we should carry out landing operations as soon as possible, otherwise the British will gather stronger and stronger forces in the local area, and they will recall a large number of colonial legions and recruit new recruits. I think if they are given half a year, they can even gather more and more army troops!" Chen Tian handed the telegram back to Hoffman, looking at the west with anticipation.

"Million troops! Indeed, we have always believed that the British were just strong in the navy. In fact, if they were given enough time, they might really train an army that could not be underestimated in terms of quantity! If Britain continues to implement the current volunteer system, it will take them a year to recruit about 1 million British men to fight, but if they temporarily change to a conscription system, plus colonial legions such as Australia, New Zealand, India, etc., their troops can reach this number before the end of the year, and then take another 4 months to initially form combat power, that is, we must land before April next year?" Hoffman quickly calculated that the joy on his face just now was also replaced by a serious expression.

"That's right! It's just that our troops are too nervous now! It's very difficult to draw an army on the Western Front, let alone the Eastern Front. If our Austrian allies continue to be suppressed by the Russian army, the situation on the Eastern Front will be even worse! As for Turkey, they have to fight against Russia and Egypt on two fronts, and they can stay unbeaten!" Chen Tian put down his towel and started walking towards the legion command. "Tans have been put into the Western Front battlefield. The enemy will soon be familiar with them and develop weapons to deal with them. We must also act as soon as possible! Last time in East Prussia, the power of machine guns overshadowed the limelight of tanks, and the Russians did not seem to pay attention to them. This time, we also caught the Russians off guard with tanks!"
Chapter completed!