The order to stop the attack had been issued, and the king returned to the capital overnight. In the Army General Command 2 miles south of Lalinay, only Marshal Navarro and his staff were left. The staff members were silently packing up their things at hand, while the Marshal was lonely in the soft chair, looking lost.

Outside the command department, hundreds of army officers and soldiers gathered there and were reluctant to leave for a long time.

"Let my group rush again! I want to avenge my dead companions!"

"Why should we retreat? Everyone's blood cannot be in vain!"

"Occurrence! Attack! We are going to take back the land belonging to Spain!"

"The people are waiting for us to return to triumph, so we can't face them when we go back like this!"

Sorrow, dissatisfaction, anger, and all kinds of voices are mixed together.

On the battlefield in front of Mount Gibraltar, after negotiation, the soldiers on both sides began to clean up the battlefield. The bodies were carried onto carriages one by one and then transported to the collective cemetery that had been dug in advance. Since there were too many dead, the remains of the deceased could only be treated as the simplest.

In a printing factory in the outskirts of Madrid, workers started work overnight to rush to produce tens of thousands of death notices.

For a long time, almost the whole of Spain was shrouded in a low and sad atmosphere, and countless people wore black veils, and women were everywhere in tears.

Countless young lives disappeared like this, but those politicians and the initiators of the war still lived well.

People began to question the king and the army department, but all this was useless.

People hate the British who created this tragedy, hate the war, but completely forget who pushed them into this fire pit.

Due to commanding a failed war, the Secretary of the Army, Marshal Paul Navarro and the Secretary of the Navy, Marshal Jogkabilas, resigned one after another. After a little refusal, Alfonso XIII approved their request.

Starting from March 26, a train full of soldiers and wounded runs far from the coast on the Lalinay railway line to the inland area, a completely opposite to what has happened in the past few weeks.

The soldiers sitting in the carriage were all hanging their heads. Some were even sobbing.

On the afternoon of March 27, the German Marines departed from the port of Cadiz arrived in Lalinai. The more than 1,100 soldiers became the first German troops to arrive on the Gibraltar front, while the Spanish troops did not withdraw completely. They left behind about 7,000 soldiers and nearly 200 cannons to help the German army maintain a land blockade of Gibraltar.

"Oh, God! I can't believe my eyes!"

On the road from Lalinai to Gibraltar, a group of retreating Spanish soldiers were stunned by the big thing beside him.

Those big things were slowly advancing under the guidance of many horses, and even the road was trembling at this time.

The German soldiers responsible for transporting them were all held high and their chests were erect, with a serious expression, as if they were escorting the king to a military parade.

When the Spaniards saw the 280mm heavy howitzer assisted by Germany, they were already impressed by their huge barrels and bodies, and the big guys they saw today were much larger than that kind of howitzer!

It took Klester and his soldiers a day and a half to transport them from Lalinai to 14 kilometers from Mount Gibraltar, which was beyond the range of any of the British fortresses facing land-facing artillery.

Under the guidance of artillery experts, the soldiers first dug out four large pits more than three meters deep, then filled them with cement, and then fixed the big guys one by one in the cement seat. This process took nearly 6 hours.

At dawn on March 29, with the first ray of sunshine, there is also the bad luck of the British.

In the morning light, the four big guys looked like slugs that were too full. The short and chunky gun barrels and the giant tumor-like retreat barrel made them look particularly large. They opened their cave-like muzzles facing the sky.

Soon, two round school shooting balloons rose not far from these cannons. In the hanging baskets under the balloons, a school shooting player with a telescope was sitting. After they got into the air, they contacted the ground via the telephone line.

The gunners used pads to protect their eyes, ears and mouths. They leaned down on the ground and prepared to fire these four electronically controlled cannons 270 meters away from the gun position.

At 7 a.m., the loud bang of the first shell shocked Gibraltar.

Then came the second, third, and fourth sound, and the huge sound echoed in people's ears for a long time.

The nearby Spanish soldiers left their battle positions one after another to see what happened, but the officers tried their best to scold them to stop their attempt to leave their posts without permission.

Four shells with a diameter of 420 mm and weighing nearly one ton were thrown to an altitude of 1,200 meters. One minute later, they all landed on Mount Gibraltar. The dust, debris and smoke from the shells exploded formed a huge cone shape, and then rose to a height of 300 meters.

After the shells exploded, most of the Gibraltar Mountain was shrouded in large straits of smoke and dust. People could not visually measure the effect of the shelling at the first time, but their momentum alone was enough to make people frightened.

Subsequently, the German soldiers began to reload shells and allocated 200 soldiers to each cannon, but this number was still slightly lacking, and the soldiers were still a little unfamiliar with this kind of cannon. The current rate of fire is only 12-15 minutes per round.

When the soldiers finished loading and prepared for the second round of shooting, the smoke and dust on Mount Gibraltar just dissipated.

The school balloon was quickly sent back to the report: "1 shot hits the fortress directly, a fatal blow! Three shots hit the African fortress area, and you can see three large craters!"

"Very good! Very good!" The officers and artillery experts kept praising.

Compared with the leisure and pride of the Germans, the British command was in chaos.

"Calm down! Calm down!" General Rock waved his fat fist. Not long ago, he was still huddled in the warm bed. When huge sounds and shocks came, he almost fell under the bed. But when he wanted to figure out what was going on, his staff didn't know why. Some said it was a shelling from the Spanish army, some thought it was an explosion in the arsenal, and some thought it was super thunder and lightning.

"A bunch of waste! Find out the loss immediately!"

The general walked to the observation room angrily and looked around the front of the fortress with the periscope there, but he did not find any abnormality, which made countless Spanish people die at this time quiet and terrible. He was about to say something, but suddenly, the strange and huge sound came again, like thunder in the rain, and like the main guns of a battleship being fired. The only thing the British could confirm now was that this sound came from the north.

"The battleship cannot shoot from that direction!" General Rock continued to observe and said in an incredible tone. In the end, he only saw a white smoke of gunpowder rising from behind a forest in the north.

After a few dozen seconds, the howling sound of heavy objects falling quickly came from above. The British soldiers hiding in the fortress were all silent. They listened and waited, the sound was getting closer and closer, and everyone was extremely nervous, and the coming seemed to be a verdict of death.

Finally, the earth-shaking burst sounded above the head, and the whole world seemed to be shaking violently, a large amount of dust fell in the vibration, and the things on the shelf fell one after another. Some people couldn't even stand firmly.

General Rock staggered and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, his adjutant supported him, and luckily his command post was located 10 meters underground, otherwise the shell that exploded not far away would be enough to send him back to his hometown. However, such a close explosion caused considerable harm to General Rock and his staff. They spoke loudly, but could not hear anything.

"Berta, great!"

Looking at the smoke rising on Mount Gibraltar, the German officers and soldiers kept praising the four cannons.

In the war plan formulated by Schliffen for Germany, Belgium's Scarlet Fortress and France's Verdun Fortress were both stumbling blocks on the way to march. In order to conquer such a large fortress composed of a large number of fortifications, underground bunkers, heavy artillery and various facilities, the German General Staff needed a super-large caliber heavy siege cannon that could be transported on land. The Krupp, known as the "King of Artillery", took on this task unscrupulously. Under the top secret, Felitz, son of the "King of Cannons" Alfred Krupp, led a group of outstanding designers and engineers to work together to tackle the problem. Finally, a giant mortar was developed in 1909, and named it the "Big Bertha" gun according to Felitz's mother.

The caliber of this artillery reaches an astonishing 420 mm, far exceeding the various types of artillery currently in service in various countries. It is a short-barrel mortar that can be fired at a high angle, causing the shells to land on the top of the fortress, and at the same time it can hit specific targets with considerable accuracy. In addition, it can also fire armor-breaking shells equipped with delayed fuses, allowing the shells to penetrate the inside of the target and explode.

In the following four years, Felitz Krupp continued to develop a cannon that could be divided into several parts and suitable for road transport. In February 1914, the sample cannon was successfully tested and tested at the Cummersdorf test site. The German Emperor, who was invited to visit the site for a special trip, was very satisfied. However, the tests on the road with steam engines, gasoline motors, and even horse tractions proved that improvements still needed.

By the time the war broke out in August 1914, Krupp had produced five 420mm caliber railway cannons and two highway cannons.

However, these cannons did not show their power in Belgium's scorching fortress and France's Verdun Fortress. In addition to the difficulty of transporting the "Big Beltar" cannon, the tactics of using a large number of Zeppelin airships and heavy aviation bombs for high-altitude bombing also had an unexpected effect when conquering these fortresses. Coupled with the concentrated use of tanks and armored vehicles and forcibly assaulted, the German Army was finally able to cross the strongest lines of defense without using the "Big Beltar".

Although the French surrendered, the "Big Belta" gun was not thrown into the trash bin. As the plan to attack the British Gibraltar Fortress was put on the agenda, this heavy siege gun was also re-mentioned. At the joint meeting of the army, navy and air force in late January, the generals discussed how to conquer the British fortress. At this meeting, the German Emperor William III proposed the first idea of ​​conquering this strong fortress with a small number of infantry heavy artillery. Because of the minimum cost and risk of this tactic, and the current major aviation forces in Germany have been invested in the British battlefield, they have received support from many generals. This plan was named "Big Belta", and the Navy's proposal to attack from the sea with the battleships was listed as the second plan.

After the "Deadly Great Belta" plan was formulated, efficient war machines were immediately started to operate. First, the Krupp Arms Company, which quickly provided 4 "Great Belta" cannons that could be used for road transport and 500 ordinary shells, armor-breaking shells, and sent experts and technicians to solve possible technical problems. Secondly, in order to control and protect these cannons, 1,100 soldiers from the Royal 1st Hussar Regiment were selected to form a special Marine Corps. The General Staff also sent a group of artillery experts to observe the use of this artillery throughout the process to evaluate its combat performance and the feasibility of various tactics.

When the Hippel fleet set sail in early February, in addition to carrying a large number of weapons, equipment and ammunition on the accompanying transport ship, four "Great Berta" guns and Marines were included. At that time, the German General Staff considered that the Spanish government agreed to directly attack Gibraltar by the German army, and these cannons would become the vanguard of siege. If they did not agree, Germany would declare war on Spain. The Hippel fleet would bomb the Spanish coastal cities in a mess until the Spanish government compromised, and the "Great Berta" guns would still appear in front of the Gibraltar Fortress.

The final result was still expected. The "Big Belta" cannon caused panic among the British soldiers stationed in Gibraltar. After the shelling of the whole morning, the four giant cannons fired a total of 48 ordinary shells and 40 armor-breaking shells. After the shelling, the British Gibraltar Fortress was in a mess. Nearly one-third of the fortresses and artillery were seriously damaged, and several breakouts appeared in frontier fortifications composed of trenches and ground bases.

After lunch, the British sent seaplanes for the first time since the defeat in the air battle on March 3. They reconnaissed the German artillery positions and attacked the balloons used by the German army for school shooting. The Spanish Army dispatched aircraft to intercept them, and the German soldiers on the ground also fought back with machine guns and machine guns. The entire battle lasted less than 15 minutes. The German army lost all two balloons, but no casualties. The Spanish plane and three British seaplanes then returned.

One hour later, 10 seaplanes taken off from the Hippel fleet carried out retaliatory attacks on the British Gibraltar fortress and military ports. The British aviation troops still adopted the strategy of preserving their strength. All the remaining seaplanes were retreated into the hangar that could withstand bomb attacks. German aircraft only injured one British patrol boat and caused minor damage to several fortresses.
Chapter completed!