Chapter 1421: The Battle of the Marne River (Second update, please subscribe)
In order to transport as many troops as possible to the Marne River and block the attacking German-British Allied Forces, all the cars in Paris, including buses, taxis and even private cars, were requisitioned. In the following days, the road to the Marne River was crowded with cars transporting troops.
In just two days, more than 300,000 troops were sent to the Marne River.
At the end of April 1995, the fate of France will be decided here!
Sometimes, what is the moment that determines fate?
It is this moment that can determine personal glory or shame for soldiers.
Whether it is glory or shame, it is just a matter of a moment.
As for the expeditionary force from the Ming Empire, when they arrived at the Marne River, they all knew that this would be their place of glory.
As soon as they arrived at the Marne River, the 150,000 expeditionary forces began to build fortifications. While they were digging fortifications and cutting down trees, the French nearby would always look at these short yellow people with curiosity and always give them friendly smiles.
How could they not be friendly? They came all the way here to fight for them.
While cutting trees in the woods, Honjo Shigeru was stunned by a figure suddenly appearing in the distance.
"Honjo, what's wrong with you!"
"Then, then..."
Honjo Shigeru pointed to the distance and said.
"Shiro... Shin, Shinshiro..."
"What's really white?"
Odamatsu looked in the direction he was looking, his eyes widened instantly, and like Honjo, he was also stunned.
“It’s really white!”
It was indeed very white. In the distance, I saw two French girls carrying baskets walking by the woods. Their golden hair was shining in the sun, and what was even more heart-warming was their skin, which was white... as white as paper.
Whether in the African colonies or in the empire, white is considered beautiful. Although this applies to women, for an East African mixed-race like Honjo, his skin color is a little darker than that of ordinary Japanese people and slightly lighter than brown. That is why he was a little distracted when he saw the white girl by the woods.
Perhaps the girls felt their stares, so they turned their heads to look at the woods, and saw hundreds of guys in khaki military uniforms looking at them. The girls were shy, but they also smiled.
“Haha, they are smiling at me!”
"It's to me,"
"To me..."
For a moment, the excited shouts in the woods merged into one, and some people boldly whistled at them. In the past, when they were in Africa, they only dared to whistle at the same coffee as them.
Listening to the whistles in the woods, the girls giggled and quickened their pace, then left. Despite this, looking at the girls going away and their slim figures, Honjo Shigeru said solemnly.
"I've made up my mind!"
"What?"
"I must marry a French girl!"
"What? Are you dreaming? Will white people marry you? If they do, they will marry a Ming man like Commander Wang!"
“You don’t understand!”
Rolling his eyes at Oda, Honjo said carelessly.
"To French girls, I am also a Ming Dynasty person, haha. Besides, I am here to help them fight. After we defeat the Germans and the British on the battlefield, we will be heroes in their eyes! Didn't you read what was written in the novel? When the Emperor led the expeditionary force to France, after they defeated the Prussians, the streets of Paris were full of French girls kissing them. When they returned home, tens of thousands of French girls married imperial soldiers..."
Listening to Honjo mentioning the old stories of the expeditionary army, Odamatsu couldn't help but feel longing and murmured to himself.
"Mashiro..."
"What?"
"I mean, we must fight bravely and kill the enemy!"
Sometimes, people's dreams are very simple. For young people, they imagine their personal glory, the glory of victory, and of course, they also fantasize about love. They fantasize that a story like the love stories of the expeditionary forces in the novels can happen here.
But after the fantasy, they still have to face reality, and the reality is that the enemies in front of them are twice as many as them.
"The trenches must be deepened to 1.5 meters! Remember, it's two meters! Only trenches two meters deep can withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery. The enemy we are facing has twice as many troops as us. If we want to stop them, we must use the most solid trenches and field fortifications to stop them..."
Wang Youyu, standing on top of the trench wall, like other officers, constantly urged the soldiers to dig trenches. After they arrived at the preset positions, the soldiers were like ground rats, building defensive positions with a depth of more than one kilometer on the dozens of kilometers of the front line. In front of their positions, there were a large number of obstacles consisting of barbed wire and mines.
While the soldiers were building trenches, the expeditionary force commander Zhou Ze arrived at the front line and made a special inspection of the trenches.
"The trench is 1.5 meters deep, plus a 60-centimeter-high breastwork, so the actual depth is 2.1 meters. There are anti-artillery bunkers on the trench surface, each of which can accommodate a squad. There are double-layer wooden beams with a diameter of more than 20 centimeters on the top of the bunker, and the wooden beams are covered with a 1-meter-thick layer of soil. There is a drainage ditch at the bottom. If the pump can be delivered on time, there will be no water accumulation in the trench even in the summer rain..."
These are all standard defensive fortification systems of the Imperial Army. A one-meter-thick anti-gun hole can withstand the bombardment of a 100mm field gun. If it is a little larger, it will definitely not work. However, in most cases, the field troops will not have many heavy artillery larger than 100mm.
When it comes to building defensive fortification systems, the Empire ranks among the best in the world. Back when the whole world was still in the era of line arrays, the Empire began to study field fortifications and turned it into a science.
Nodding slightly, Zhou Ze muttered to himself.
“What a pity…”
"What?"
"We have too few heavy artillery. Both defense and offense require a large number of heavy artillery, at least heavy mortars. However, we don't have any heavy artillery in the colony, and we don't even have many heavy mortars..."
Because the war broke out so suddenly, the troops that set out from Africa did not have many heavy weapons, many of which were French. But they simply looked down on the French junk.
Shaking his head helplessly, Zhou Ze glanced at the nearby soldiers. Many of them were using the Webster 100 rifle, which was the best hunting rifle and was proven to be the best sniper rifle in southern Africa. Countless British people had died at its hands.
But no matter how good the rifle is, it can never replace a cannon!
cannon……
"Have the heavy artillery promised by the French arrived?"
When the chief of staff shook his head, Zhou Ze frowned and then talked to himself.
"Then there's nothing we can do. We have to find a way..."
While talking to himself, Zhou Ze asked again.
"Has the aerial reconnaissance determined the German position from us?"
"Sir, it's probably a day's journey."
"one day……"
Zhou Ze nodded and pondered.
"Then let's get ready!"
(End of this chapter)
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