On May 2, when the British and German soldiers arrived near the north bank of the Marne River, many people fell to the ground. The exhausted British and German soldiers just 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 surpassed his supply convoy and heavy artillery team. In the eyes of almost everyone, the French army was retreating steadily.
Absolutely no bugle call to turn around and implement counterattack morale and ability.
On this day, the leading troops of the Anglo-German Allied Forces had advanced to a place only 15 miles away from Paris. The efforts of the main French army to block the German right wing had almost failed. People in Paris were panicking, and there were also people in the Second Reich government.
Officials agitated to move to Bordeaux, and even in Paris, there were republicans plotting to overthrow the empire and establish a republic.
In short, Paris in May 1995 was... chaos.
In the chaos of this march, only the Louvre still persisted, facing the German army only 15 miles away from Paris, Napoleon V said.
"I will live and die with Paris!"
If the emperor refuses to retreat, naturally the officials cannot retreat.
Just what to do now?
As in the past, Ding Lei once again flew a 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 29, they hunted down turkeys like turkeys.
After capturing nine airships, both the British and the Germans withdrew their airships to the rear.
Without him, the airship would be a target in front of the fighter jets.
After gaining control of the air, the Ming army did not ask the French airship force to carry out bombing, but carried out aerial reconnaissance to accurately grasp the movements of the British and 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, it launched a counterattack and successfully repelled the British vanguard. After relying on victory in the first battle, Zhou Ze continued
Waiting for new opportunities.
On this day, as usual, Ding Lei's plane was cruising at an altitude of 2,000 meters, while machine gunner Xu Fei stood on the shooter's seat and observed the ground.
"The Germans have a lot of troops!"
Even from the air, you can see the vast number of German troops on the ground. The blue-gray troops are very conspicuous on the green land. The roads are full of marching troops, and hundreds of heavy artillery are on war horses.
, the car was pulling down and moving.
"There are a lot of them, but they go too fast!"
"What?"
"Have you noticed what we are seeing now?"
"Cannon!"
"What about the infantry?"
Ding Lei smiled.
"In front of dozens of kilometers, their troops and artillery are out of touch. I dare say that it is not just the infantry and artillery that are out of touch. I think we can continue to search in depth to the rear!"
Facts have proved that Ding Lei's judgment was correct - the rapidly advancing German Fifth Army and three divisions of the British Expeditionary Force, in order to seize Paris, left the First Army far behind. This not only caused their lone army to penetrate deeper into the
, and even more fatally, in order to save Paris, the French General Staff withdrew the Fifth Army from the Lorraine area to reinforce Paris. Faced with this situation, the German Fifth Army, which had been traveling alone all the way, came outside Paris.
Right hook, trying to cooperate with the German 2nd Army to encircle and annihilate the French 5th Army. In this way, the flanks of the German rotating front will pass close to Paris, and will also cross the front of the Ming and French coalition forces.
However, the French army, which was hastily organizing defenses, simply failed to seize this opportunity. They ordered the troops to continue to retreat, assemble, dig trenches, fortifications, and organize defenses. This seemed to be the only option to defend Paris.
But the commander of the expeditionary force, General Zhou Ze, immediately saw this clearly, and he shouted excitedly:
"They brought the flanks to the door! How could the Germans be so stupid! I can't believe this, it's great."
"Sir Zhou, is there any conspiracy here?"
Liang Chengkun, chief of staff of the expeditionary force, asked calmly.
"Logically speaking, the Germans would not make such a low-level mistake. Could it be a decoy?"
"Bait? Chief of Staff, tell me what you think?"
"If it's a bait..."
While speaking, he walked to the map, pointed at the movements of the German troops on the map and said.
"Could their battle plan be to deliberately expose a weak flank, lure us to attack, and then surround and annihilate us with a strong other flank?"
After staring at the map and thinking deeply for a while, Zhou Ze's brows knitted together and he nodded without speaking.
It took him a long time before he said.
"Indeed, if this is the case, it will be difficult..."
Just as Zhou Ze was staring at the map and considering various possibilities, an intelligence staff officer over there sent information.
"Reporting to sir, the aerial reconnaissance photos and enemy situation analysis just obtained."
After receiving the report from the staff officer, Zhou Ze simply glanced at it, his face showed joy, and he said happily.
"Haha, we win now!"
"What?"
"The Kraut is moving too fast!"
After handing the information to the chief of staff, Zhou Ze walked directly to the map, adjusted the position of the German army, and then said.
"The German Fifth Army is moving too fast. Not only are they out of touch with their artillery units, but they are also out of touch with the rear troops. We have two days! If we attack their flanks, the white-collar workers will have enough time in these two days.
If we have the opportunity to repel the Fifth Army from the flank, the situation on the battlefield will fundamentally change! At least the German threat to Paris can be eliminated!"
On the battlefield, many opportunities are fleeting. As a general, all he needs is to seize those opportunities. In many cases, the easiest way to win a battle is to take advantage of the enemy's negligence.
"Now they've made a 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, and then said.
"Sir Zhou, I think we have five days."
"What? Five days?"
Zhou Ze walked to the map again and calculated there.
"No, the current distance is...the troop's marching speed 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 are now panic-stricken, but the airship troops are still strong. Since the air power is in our hands, I think we should mobilize all airships to bomb the German subsequent troops and fundamentally eliminate them.
They threaten our flanks!"
This is the biggest difference between the Imperial Army and other countries. For the generals of European countries, war is war, and war is artillery bombardment and infantry charge. But for Imperial generals, the battlefield in their eyes is never just land.
It's not just artillery bombardment and infantry charge. As early as the Battle of Brazil, the imperial military used airship bombings to destroy and severely damage the Brazilian reinforcements again and again, thus firmly grasping the initiative on the battlefield. Now, since the air superiority is in hand
, it is definitely necessary to repeat the old tricks.
Zhou Ze nodded heavily and smiled.
"I think it's possible, but we have to seize the opportunity..."
The old group has died and a new book club group has been established: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.
