Chapter 1429: The Marne River (Third update, please subscribe)
The Marne!
The Marne!
The whole world is watching the Marne,
On May 2, when the British and German soldiers arrived near the north bank of the Marne River, many of them fell to the ground. The exhausted British and German soldiers only muttered in a daze:
"30 miles! 30 miles!"
I’m too tired to say anything else.”
In order to reach Paris as quickly as possible, the commander of the German Fifth Army exhausted his soldiers and far exceeded his supply convoys and heavy artillery. In the eyes of almost everyone, the French army, in the face of continuous retreat, absolutely did not have the morale and ability to turn around and launch a counterattack at the sound of a bugle call.
On that day, the vanguard of the British-German Allied Forces had advanced to only 15 miles from Paris. The efforts of the main French army to stop the German right wing had almost failed. People in Paris were in panic, and officials within the Second Empire government also encouraged moving to Bordeaux. Even in Paris, some republicans were plotting to overthrow the empire and establish a republic.
In short, Paris in May 1995 was... chaos.
In the chaos of this campaign, only the Louvre still held on, facing the German army only 15 miles away from Paris, Napoleon V said.
"I will live and die with Paris!"
Since the emperor would not retreat, the officials naturally could not retreat either.
But what to do now?
As in the past, Ding Lei once again flew his plane to conduct aerial reconnaissance over the Marne River. Now, the twelve planes of the expeditionary force were the kings of the sky. On April 29th, after they shot down nine airships like hunting turkeys, both the British and the Germans withdrew their airships to the rear.
There is no other reason. In front of fighter jets, airships are just targets.
After gaining air superiority, the Ming army did not ask the French airship force to carry out bombing, but instead carried out aerial reconnaissance to accurately grasp the movements of the Anglo-German coalition forces.
In fact, on the 29th, the Ming army launched a local counterattack - taking advantage of the time when the airship was shot down, they launched a counterattack and successfully repelled the British vanguard. After the initial victory, Zhou Ze had been waiting for a new opportunity.
On this day, as usual, Ding Lei's plane was cruising at an altitude of 2,000 meters, and machine gunner Xu Fei was standing in the shooter's seat observing the ground.
"The Germans have a lot of troops!"
Even when looking from the air, one could see the massive German army on the ground. The blue-gray troops stood out against the green earth. The roads were full of marching troops, and hundreds of heavy artillery were being pulled by horses and cars.
“It’s a lot, but they’re going so fast!”
"What?"
"Have you noticed what we are seeing now?"
"Cannon!"
"And the infantry?"
Ding Lei smiled.
"Dozens of kilometers ahead, their troops and artillery are out of touch. I dare say that it's not just the infantry and artillery that are out of touch. I think we can continue to search deeper into the rear!"
Facts have proved that Ding Lei's judgment was correct - the rapidly advancing German Fifth Army and the three divisions of the British Expeditionary Force left the First Army far behind in order to seize Paris. This not only caused them to advance alone, but even more fatally, in order to save Paris, the French General Staff withdrew the Fifth Army from Lorraine to reinforce Paris. Faced with this situation, the German Fifth Army, which had advanced alone all the way, threw a right hook outside the city of Paris, trying to cooperate with the German Second Army to encircle and annihilate the French Fifth Army. In this way, the flank of the German rotating front had to pass near Paris and cross the front of the Ming-French coalition.
However, the French army, which was hastily organizing a defense, failed to seize this opportunity. They still ordered their troops to continue retreating, assembling, digging trenches and fortifications, and organizing defenses. This seemed to be the only option to defend Paris.
But General Zhou Ze, the commander of the expeditionary force, immediately saw this clearly and shouted excitedly:
"They've got the flank delivered to us! How could the Germans be so stupid! I can't believe this is happening, this is great."
"Commander Zhou, is there any conspiracy here?"
The expeditionary force's chief of staff, Liang Chengkun, asked calmly.
"Logically speaking, the Germans would not make such a low-level mistake. Could it be a bait?"
"Bait? Chief of Staff, what do you think?"
"If it's bait..."
As he spoke, he walked to the map and pointed at the movements of the German troops on the map.
"Is their battle plan to deliberately expose their weak flank to lure us out and then surround and annihilate us with their other powerful flank?"
Staring at the map and thinking deeply for a while, Zhou Ze frowned. He nodded but didn't say anything.
After a long while he spoke.
"Indeed, if that's the case, then it will be difficult to deal with..."
Just as Zhou Ze was staring at the map and considering various possibilities, an intelligence officer delivered information.
"Report to the commander, we have just received aerial reconnaissance photos and enemy situation analysis."
Taking the report from the staff officer, Zhou Ze simply glanced at it, a look of joy appeared on his face, and he said happily.
"Haha, we win this time!"
"What?"
"The Krauts are moving too fast!"
After handing the intelligence to the chief of staff, Zhou Ze walked directly to the map, adjusted the position of the German army, and then spoke.
"The German Fifth Army is moving too fast. Not only is it out of touch with its own artillery units, but it is also out of touch with the rear troops. We have two days! If we attack their flanks, we will have a chance to repel the Fifth Army from the flank in these two days. In this way, the situation on the battlefield will change fundamentally! At least we can eliminate the German threat to Paris!"
On the battlefield, many opportunities are fleeting. For a general, what he needs is to seize those opportunities. Many times, the easiest way to win a battle is to take advantage of the enemy's carelessness.
"Now that they've made their mistake, all we have to do is seize the opportunity."
After closing the information he had just obtained, Liang Chengkun walked to the map. He stared at the map and thought carefully for a while, then said.
"Commander Zhou, I think we have five days."
"What? Five days?"
Zhou Ze walked to the map again and thought about it.
"No, the current distance is... the marching speed of the troops is..."
While he was thinking about it, he saw the chief of staff take out a photo and put it on the map.
"Airships, the French infantry is now in a panic, but the airship troops are still strong. Since the air supremacy is in our hands, I think we should mobilize all the airships to bomb the German follow-up troops and fundamentally eliminate their flank threat to us!"
This is exactly the biggest difference between the Imperial Army and that of other countries. For the generals of European countries, war is war, and war means artillery bombardment and infantry charge. But for the generals of the Empire, the battlefield in their eyes has never been just land, and it is not just artillery bombardment and infantry charge. As early as during the Battle of Brazil, the Imperial military had repeatedly used airship bombing to destroy and severely damage the Brazilian reinforcements, thereby firmly grasping the initiative on the battlefield. Now, since they have air supremacy, they will definitely use the same trick again.
Zhou Ze nodded heavily and smiled.
"I think it's possible, but we have to seize the opportunity..."
The old group is down, so I created a new book club group: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
(End of this chapter)
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