The airship is coming!
The Sixth Army assembly area in the south was the first German unit to be attacked by air attacks and licked by machine guns. When tens of thousands of Prussian soldiers fell into the hell of machine guns licking the ground, the Prussian artillery in the southeastern highlands was still there.
Continuously fired artillery shells towards Sedan City.
"Fire!"
Following the officers' orders, the artillerymen pulled the fuse again and again, and in the thick smoke, artillery shells roared out one after another, flying towards the inside and outside of Sedan City.
In the past two days, Prussian artillery fired more than 300,000 artillery shells at the city. The nearly devastating artillery fire was enough to destroy everything.
What could the French artillery do in the face of such fierce French artillery?
They can only be beaten passively, and at most they can only strengthen the fortifications, hoping to use the fortifications to protect their own safety.
As a professional artillery officer, Major Jean Pierre was on the verge of collapse. When the Prussian artillery shells roared in and exploded the moment they hit the ground, he shouted and cursed excitedly.
"Damn, damn marshal, damn general, don't you know that the world has changed? Where are our breech-loading cannons, and where are our fuses?"
The reason why Jean Pierre was so excited was that their cannons were bronze muzzle-loading cannons that still used old-fashioned time fuses.
Well, Emperor Napoleon is still using Emperor Napoleon's weapons.
Facing the fierce bombardment of the Prussians, they were not only unable to fight back, but even the cannons could not reach the enemy, so they could only passively take the beating!
"Look, what is that?"
Suddenly, an officer pointed to the Prussian artillery position on the high ground and shouted loudly.
"Look, they are being bombarded!"
As if to prove his words, suddenly a huge smoke ball exploded on the high ground. Looking at the huge black smoke ball, Jean Pierre said excitedly.
"This, this is at least a 500-pound artillery shell..."
500 pounds... do we have a cannon that big?
As soon as he finished speaking, more than a dozen huge plumes of smoke exploded from the high ground. The deafening explosions were like fireworks on National Day, and they continued to sound on the Prussian artillery positions.
bomb!
Hundreds of 10kg, 50kg and 100kg bombs fell like raindrops on the Prussian artillery positions. In order to improve bombing accuracy, under the command of Ma Guangming, the airship troops even descended to an altitude of 1,000 meters.
"Observer, find their ammo pile!"
While observing the bombing effect, Ma Guangming yelled at the observer.
Although bombs are very powerful, it is not realistic to destroy those cannons. Rather than destroying all cannons, it is undoubtedly more appropriate to destroy ammunition dumps or military depots.
As the airship troops descended slowly, the people on the ground finally saw their existence!
"It's an airship, it's our airship!"
The French, who had been struggling under intensive artillery fire just a few minutes ago, all jumped out of the trenches and fortifications in excitement. They pointed desperately at the airship in the sky and shouted excitedly.
"Yes, that's right, that's it, blow up those damn old Germans!"
"Hey, blast some to the north, blast to the north..."
Although everyone knew that their shouts would not be heard clearly by the airship in the sky, what is certain is that at this moment, the courage that the French soldiers had lost returned.
In the past two days, in the face of fierce artillery fire, their will almost collapsed. Even Marshal McMahon doubted whether the troops could persist. With his right arm injured, he stood on the ruins with a bandage and watched.
Looking at the plumes of smoke rising from the Prussian army's position and the battlefield shrouded in gunpowder smoke, he said to the emperor with some excitement.
"Your Majesty, look, Nanhua's airships are here, and they are bombing the Prussian positions. Now, we must seize the opportunity to break out of the town of Monsale while the Prussian army is in chaos!"
Facing the Marshal's request, Napoleon III said.
"God bless, they finally came. My respectable niece-in-law finally sent his invincible airship troops in a hurry. My God! He saved France. But, Marshal, now...
The town of Monsale has been controlled by the Prussian army. If we break out rashly, will we suffer greater losses? And..."
Napoleon III looked at the soldiers in the distance. In the past two days, in the unprecedented bombardment, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers lost their lives and tens of thousands of soldiers were injured. Are they ready to break out?
"Our soldiers need to rest and recuperate. After all, in the past few days, they..."
"Your Majesty, if we don't hurry up, we may miss this opportunity!"
McMahon said somewhat eagerly.
"Your Majesty, we must break through now, no matter what the cost. The airship bombing has brought unprecedented trouble to the Germans. Their cannons have been destroyed. Now is the time for us to give full play to our advantages!"
Facing the Marshal's request, Napoleon III turned his attention to Felix Douai who was standing aside, and he also agreed.
"Your Majesty, just as the marshal said, we must seize the last opportunity. Once we miss this opportunity, maybe there will be no chance again! Even then..."
Staring at His Majesty, Felix Douai did not continue speaking. Napoleon III himself knew what he wanted to say - when the time came, he would be captured or die in Sedan.
This was obviously not what Napoleon III wanted. Facing the generals' request, he thought for a while and said.
"If we are to retreat, our wounded..."
At this time he seemed to have become a good emperor. He cared more about the wounded than victory. What would happen to the wounded if they retreated?
McMahon, who knew the emperor was looking for excuses, said directly.
"Prussia is a civilized country after all. I believe they will treat them well. Also, we throw away all unnecessary supplies and use all our strength to break through in the direction of Paris before the Prussian army reacts."
Just as McMahon's voice fell, suddenly, a huge smoke column rose from the forest outside the city. The black smoke column rose for thousands of meters, and at the same time, violent explosions were heard.
For a moment, people seemed to be able to feel the tremors of the earth.
"It's their arsenal! God bless, Your Majesty, they must have blown up the Prussian arsenal. Now those damn four must have been in chaos. We must escape now...
"
This chapter has been completed!