The sun never sets.

Chapter 668: The Emperor's Battle

The Allied Supreme Command soon received news that the German army had put up a resolute resistance near the Liege fortress, and the British, French and American allied forces suffered heavy casualties, with more than 60,000 casualties in three days, and more than 70 tanks and more than 200 aircraft lost.

It was reported that more than a dozen new German infantry divisions had appeared on the front line, and spies reported that the German General Staff was preparing to transfer the last reserve troops to the right wing (the left wing of the Allies). In this case, the Supreme Command also strengthened the left wing and sent a large number of technical weapons to Belgium.

The Americans like to use artillery shells to solve problems that can be solved with artillery shells. The Americans, who produce 4000 million tons of steel a year, are so arrogant. The commander of the US Army, Pershing, claimed that he could launch another 7-day artillery bombardment to melt the German resistance in the steel storm.

Pershing had previously led the U.S. Army in the battles on the southern front and knew the difference in combat effectiveness between the U.S. Army and the German Army. So he did not fight the Germans head-on, but called for artillery support when he encountered resistance.

This style of play is shameless, but it works as long as it works.

The German army and the British, American and French allied forces poured into Belgium in large numbers, and the density of troops and firepower on the front line was greater than ever before. The firepower of the Allied forces was unprecedentedly strengthened, and the $100 billion loan played an unparalleled role. The American fleet escorted transport ships and brought a large amount of supplies, including food and artillery shells.

The Germans had a similar number of long-range heavy artillery as the Allies, but they could not match the enemy in the number of heavy artillery shells they had available. The General Staff sent 40 shells to the Belgian battlefield, including 280mm and 305mm grenades, while the Allies had more than 100 million heavy artillery shells. This was just the beginning, and the Allied General Headquarters planned to send more heavy artillery shells to Belgium.

Berlin, General Staff.

"........There were 30 British divisions, 30 French divisions, and 12 Belgian divisions on the Belgian battlefield......."

After the Allied forces returned to Belgium, they quickly armed the Belgians, who fought very hard on the battlefield and were much more powerful than the troops transferred from India and Africa.

“.......敌军在比利时投入了至少3000架飞机和400辆坦克，而我军右翼只剩下1200架飞机，40辆坦克，大炮数量对比约为5000:4000，迫击炮数量比为2000:3200,.........”

"........Our army's artillery reserves are far less than the enemy's, and the number of aircraft and tanks is less than half of the enemy's. If more reinforcements are not sent, the Liege fortress area is expected to be lost in two days......"

The staff reported the battle situation on the right wing to the huge sand table. Then, Ludendorff said to the marshals and generals: "Through the previous maneuvers, the most favorable situation for our army has emerged on the left wing of the front. This opportunity has never existed before and will never exist again in the future."

He was silent for a while, then said, "You all know the situation at home, and you also know the situation in Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. This is our last chance. Send all the troops out. If

Can’t succeed….”

Ludendorff did not say what would happen if he failed, but everyone present knew what he meant.

On the Western Front, the Allied firepower exceeded that of the German army, and the number of aircraft and tanks also exceeded that of the German army. However, after nearly three months of fighting, the British, American and French forces lost too many troops and technical weapons, and the battle line was stretched into a diagonal line.

The number of German reserve forces far exceeded the Allied estimates. When the Allies invested too much manpower and technical weapons in the Belgian battlefield, the German army got the opportunity to turn defeat into victory.

For this last-ditch effort, Germany emptied the banks of gold and silver in exchange for more than 500 tanks, thousands of trucks, 2200 aircraft, and a large amount of supplies, including heavy artillery shells, flour, rice, and a variety of canned foods.

After the war broke out, the Chinese government developed instant food products and canned food products. When the army was fighting on the front line, they often encountered situations where they could not make fire to cook, and canned food and various instant food products were prepared for this purpose.

Instant food products include compressed biscuits, candied fruits, milk powder, etc. There are a wide variety of them. There are three main types of canned food: beef, mutton, pork, fish and fruit. Many of the canned fish are purchased from Japan. Those canned fish were previously sold to the Allied Powers, but are now shipped to countries such as Germany and Türkiye.

Whether it was flour, soybeans, instant food or canned food, it would cost a lot of freight to transport it from China to Turkey and Germany by rail. In addition, it was wartime, so the price was more than five times the usual price.

But even with such expensive food, the German government had to pay real money to buy it. Because the Germans gave too much, China turned over all its strategic grain reserves.

The total German force on the Western Front exceeded three million, with 20 reserve divisions. Together with the recovered wounded and newly recruited soldiers, the total German force exceeded 1100 million, and the number of troops available for front-line combat exceeded 400 million, 80 more than the highest number estimated by the Allies.

So many troops needed a lot of food to feed them, and the large amount of supplies shipped from China did not flow to the civilian population, but were all distributed to the combat troops. After receiving sufficient supplies, the morale of the German army recovered a lot.

The opportunity for a counterattack had just arrived, and the German army launched its largest offensive since the beginning of the war. The German General Staff named this offensive the "Emperor's Battle", also known as the "Ludendorff Offensive" and the "1915 German General Offensive".

For this counterattack, the German army concentrated 125 million troops, 2400 aircraft, 600 tanks, 10000 artillery pieces, 15000 mortars and 42000 light and heavy machine guns on the left wing.

The 15000 light machine guns urgently transported from China were all assigned to the William (Crown Prince) Corps, as were the tanks and aircraft. In Belgium, the German Air Force could only be deployed at the most critical moments, and it dared not stay in the air for too long to avoid being surrounded by the superior Allied Air Force.

Even so, the German General Staff seized 2000 new aircraft for use on the left wing.

All of this was done to strengthen the offensive on the left wing. Ludendorff did not want to repeat the mistake he made at the beginning of the war. Evenly distributing troops meant being attacked everywhere. He did not regard Paris as his first target. Paris was important, but annihilating the Allied forces was more important.

The "Emperor's Battle" plan was a replica of the "Schlieffen Plan", but it was done in reverse. The Schlieffen Plan was to attack from the right wing and then defeat the enemy by flanking. The "Emperor's Battle" plan was to break through from the left wing and then head straight to the sea, making a big dumpling of the Allied forces in Belgium and northern France.

The French and American forces, mainly the American forces, stood in front of the German army on the left wing. The Americans were well-equipped and well-supplied, but their will to fight was not as strong as that of the British and French.

This is also one of the reasons why the German army chose to launch an attack on the left wing.

Chapter 669 Panic

In the battles with the Russian army on the Eastern Front, the German army had repeatedly experienced the strength of the famous Russian general Alexei Alexeevich Brusilov, especially in the "Brusilov Offensive" in 1913. Brusilov's tactics of dispersing troops on the front line but concentrating artillery played many different roles in the war. Ludendorff had fought against the Russian army for a long time and naturally knew the advantages and disadvantages of the Russian army's approach. For a general like him who was good at mobile warfare and outflanking tactics, it was a very valuable reference for fighting methods.

But the Western Front was different from the Eastern Front. The battlefield on the Western Front was relatively narrow and had a complex tunnel system. This has always been a nightmare for the attacker, because the attacker can only launch a strong attack from the front and send their troops under the enemy's guns.

Night Raid Group: Lu Jiusi 18, ③ Liu ① Sanwu In order to break the Allied trench system, the German General Staff headed by Ludendorff formulated new tactics for the army based on [Infantry Infiltration]. The German army formed several "commandos" equipped with MP98 submachine guns, Kar03b short rifles, WHL-14 flamethrowers and grenades. Because the commandos themselves also require speed, the commandos do not have any heavy weapons. In addition to the above light weapons, there are only 37-type light machine guns and a small number of mm artillery assault artillery.

The Commandos' light firepower is designed to allow them to make rapid assaults and gain an advantage in close combat.

Under the cover of the enemy's position, launch a surprise attack on the enemy's position, eliminate the enemy in the trenches as much as possible in close-range fire, and break through the enemy's trench system.

At this time, the commandos had either occupied the trenches or inflicted heavy damage on the enemy defenders, and then quickly launched an assault on the trenches deep in the British positions, which would gain a huge advantage for the subsequent tank attack.

In order to cover the commandos' actions, the German artillery will use infantry-artillery coordination tactics to clear obstacles for the commandos' attack.

This tactic aims to concentrate heavy artillery fire on enemy observation posts, firing points and front-line command posts in short bursts, using planned bombardment to turn the British front-line positions into ruins, paralyze most of their functions, and kill as many enemy troops as possible. When the mission objectives are achieved, the German artillery will extend the artillery fire in the form of a slow-moving barrage to cut off the enemy's reinforcement channels. This move will ensure that the Stormtroopers can rush into the enemy positions in one go without interference, opening a breakthrough for the subsequent attack of the troops.

The German General Staff made careful arrangements for the "Emperor's Battle" and formulated a very complex combat plan. This was not just "infantry and artillery coordination" and "infantry and tank coordination", but coordinated operations of the four major arms: infantry, tanks, artillery, and air force.

In early 1915, the Germans had already planned a new offensive, which was planned by the Chief of the German Army General Staff, General Erich von Ludendorff. The purpose was simple, which was to defeat the Allies in one fell swoop, or at least to annihilate the main forces of the British and French coalition forces. To this end, the German army stockpiled a large amount of troops and supplies in the first half of 1915 for this battle after the winter. The armistice with Russia allowed their troops on the Eastern Front to be recalled to the Western Front, and they had already occupied an advantageous position in terms of actual strength.

After nearly three months of combat deployment, the German army's advantage on the left wing was further magnified. Before the counterattack, the German army's left wing strength surged to 125 million, in addition to 15 divisions of reserves, while the Allies had only 95 on the right wing of the Western Front. The superior strength was enough for the German army to launch a superior offensive.

On the other hand, the Allies were completely clueless about the German plan, and the Supreme Command's attention was focused on Belgium. Because of the victory in Belgium, the Allies were still discussing whether to land in Wilhelmshaven. In the eyes of the Allied leaders, the threat of the German army was no longer a big deal. Although Russia's withdrawal from the war was a blow, the United States joining the Allies was an advantage, enough for them to defeat the Germans.

In fact, most of the Allies now believed that after the American expeditionary force arrived in Europe, the Allies' disadvantage in military strength no longer existed. The German army was no longer a threat, it was just a sick tiger that could be defeated at any time.

But in fact, Germany completed strategic deception through a series of dazzling deployments, transferring all the field troops in Poland and Romania to the Western Front, which enabled the German army to gain a dual advantage in manpower and technical weapons on the local battlefield.

On October 1915, 10, the German army launched an attack on a wide front of 29 miles, and the German artillery was everywhere. The German artillery force has always been stronger than the British and French forces. Even now, the German artillery can suppress the Allied artillery in a short time, but the number of German artillery shells is not as large as that of the Allies, so it is impossible to suppress it for a long time.

But for the German commandos, only a short-term suppression was needed. The Germans fired high-explosive shells and poison gas bombs from the artillery positions they had already figured out, and the American and French soldiers suffered heavy losses. Five hours later, the Stormtroopers began to attack with grenades and MP5 submachine guns, and quickly penetrated the defense line of the US and French coalition forces.

The US military deployed 2/3 of its troops on the front-line defense positions, so the main force was in chaos under the fierce bombardment of the German assault troops. This deployment also caused the US Second Army to collapse within a day, and the fortifications and rear transportation lines became a ruin.

The commandos eliminated the enemy's first line of defense and cleared the anti-tank guns, which opened the way for the tank group to attack. Under the cover of aircraft and with the support of infantry, the German tank group advanced 12 miles in one day, captured more than enemy troops, captured a large supply center of the US Army, and seized mountains of food and ammunition.

The right wing of the Allies on the Western Front was mainly composed of American troops, while the French troops were very small in number. After the American troops on the front line were defeated, the French army failed to form an effective resistance and was defeated by the German tank troops.

When the news came out that the German army had broken through the US defense line, the Allied Supreme Command initially thought that this was a German strategy of "encircling Wei to save Zhao" and that the attack on the right wing was a diversionary attack made by the Germans to save the Battle of Belgium.

By the evening, the Allied General Headquarters had figured out the situation, and Paris and London were thrown into chaos and panic. The French once again called for the protection of Paris, but this time the German army did not take Paris as its primary target, but instead set its sights on the main force of the British and French coalition forces in Belgium.

If the main forces of the British and French coalition forces cannot be annihilated, it will be useless even if Paris is captured. On the other hand, if the main forces of the Allied Powers are annihilated, it will not matter even if Paris is not captured.

Chapter 670: Packing

After the German army broke through the defense line of the US and French coalition forces, it decisively sent all the follow-up troops and reserves. Its main force attacked the right wing, and all the tank troops rushed towards the seaside.

, planning to occupy Reims, Laon and Saint-Quentin, and then rush to the sea. At the same time, the German army also sent a detachment towards Paris, chasing the defeated American army.

When Ludendorff woke up from his sleep, he quickly got down to work.

"Order the armored division to keep moving forward and not stop until the fuel runs out!"

"All paratroopers are dropping into Arras!"

"Army Group C will continue the pursuit until they reach the Marne River, and then defend the river!"

Ludendorff issued several orders in succession, most of which were planned before the war, and few were adjusted according to the war situation. Because Germany had no manpower left, the General Staff did not care about the loss of the tank troops on the road, but let the armored troops move forward.

Now it was a race against time. The Allied forces were still in chaos, and with every passing hour, the Germans' hard-earned advantage would be reduced by one point.

Although the German army had many new fighter planes, it still could not gain absolute air superiority. On the one hand, the number of aircraft was not as large as that of the Allies, and the number of pilots and aviation fuel in Germany were also not as large as those of the Allies, which meant that the German army could only gain partial air superiority.

If the Allied forces were not encircled while they were in chaos, the armored forces that penetrated deep behind enemy lines would be surrounded by the enemy in return.

"Quick! It has to be quick! Don't give the enemy time to react!"

The French army now has a total of 112 divisions, 93 of which are in Belgium. 60 of the 40 British divisions are also in Belgium. With such a large enemy, as long as they can be annihilated, the rest will be easy.

Army Group A resolutely carried out the order of the General Staff. Even though there was a risk of being cut off by the British and French tanks, it only sent one-third of its armored forces back to rescue Arras. The main force of Army Group A still rushed towards Calais.

Calais is the most important port in France near Belgium. Supplies from Britain and the United States are piled up in the port. As long as Calais is occupied, the British and French forces in Belgium will be like rats in a cage, unable to jump up again.

After the German army achieved a breakthrough, Ludendorff urgently met with representatives of the People's Revolutionary League Military Observer Group and asked the League to provide more tanks and planes, as well as food and fuel, anything at all, because Germany was short of everything at that time.

Xu Wuji said with embarrassment that the Alliance's production capacity was limited and that it could not provide too many weapons and equipment for a while, but it could provide Germany with a lot of food. The area east of Moscow had restored 100% of its production capacity. Because of land reform and the government's unified purchase of agricultural products, food production was 15% higher than before the war.

However, Ukraine's agricultural production has been greatly damaged and is still in the process of recovery. But even so, Russia can provide Germany with more than one million tons of food, which is not enough to feed all the hungry Germans, but it is not a problem to meet the food supply of the front-line troops in a short period of time.

The question is, what will Germany use to pay the bill?

In the last arms deal, the Alliance sold all its current equipment, and the Allies took out all their real money. The Alliance will not accept marks, and now even pounds and dollars are rarely accepted. Private transactions are not counted, and large-scale government purchases must be settled in RMB or hard currency.

"We pay in gold!"

"Didn't they say there was no more gold in the bank?"

"We seized some from the people. In addition, Austria-Hungary, Türkiye and Bulgaria are also willing to use gold to buy food."

"How much gold?"

"570 tons."

570 tons of gold is a huge fortune. If it belongs to an individual, he or she would not be able to spend it all in a lifetime of luxury. But for a world war, this amount of money is not much.

Xu Wuji smiled and said, "The Alliance's Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be happy to transport the food over."

"One million tons of food is not enough. I know China has another bumper harvest this year, and the German government hopes to provide three million tons of food."

Xu Wuji quickly calculated in his mind, then shook his head and said, "570 tons of gold can't buy so many things."

Because of the war, the price of gold is low. Also because of the war, the price of food has risen sharply. 570 tons of gold is worth about $5 million in today's dollars. And 300 million tons of food, even the cheapest flour and soybeans, are worth more than $25 billion.

"We need food. What form of payment will China accept?"

"It's not China, it's the Human Innovation Alliance."

Xu Wuji refuted first, then thought for a moment and said, "Russia's reconstruction requires machine tools and engineers, as well as highly qualified technical workers. Teacher, instead of sending those high school and college students to the battlefield, it is better to let them do constructive work."

What is the most important thing in the 20th century? Talent! Well, that's what Chairman Lin said.

After the People's Party gained a piece of territory, it began to invest heavily in education. After seizing national power, it launched a nine-year compulsory education plan. Before the outbreak of the war, the People's Government spent more than 25% of its fiscal budget on education every year, which was higher than the annual military expenditure.

However, China still has a long time to carry out comprehensive modern education. Fifteen years is only enough to train a college student from scratch.

China has a large number of skilled workers, but there is still some shortage of scientists and senior engineers.

Lin Yongchang plans to start many new projects, which require a large number of talents. It is too late to rely on the alliance to train them. Many things must be taught by someone. If you rely on yourself to explore, you need to invest a lot of money and manpower.

"I can sell some idle machine tools to the alliance, but the German government will not agree to let scientists and engineers go to Russia."

Technology is the primary driving force, but it can only be put to good use if there is a market. The German government has long recognized this problem. Even if the whole country is starving, it will not agree to let go of the most cutting-edge talents. As for ordinary technical workers, the union also welcomes them, but they are not so urgently needed, so the price they offer will not be high.

Ludendorff was unwilling to give it to others, not only out of consideration for national interests, but also for the impact on him personally. Therefore, he could only exchange machine tools for food.

Germany has the largest number of machine tools in the world, more than the United States. In terms of high-precision machine tools, Germany is much better than the United States. Of course, Germany cannot sell the best things to the Alliance, but it can use the inferior ones. In addition, Germany also plundered a large number of machines and equipment from France, which were also sold together.

Xu Wuji really wanted to give Germany more support, but the Alliance could not provide free support to the German Empire unless Germany turned left and joined the [Human Innovation Alliance].

But that is impossible, the Junckers will not allow the country to turn to the left.

Chapter 671: Fall

Xu Wuji respected Ludendorff very much, but this did not prevent him from having a deep hostility towards Germany. Most of his classmates in the NCO Accelerated Training Class died in the battle with the Eight-Nation Alliance, and even those who did not die retired from the army due to disability. Among the first batch of students in the NCO Accelerated Training Class, only Xu Wuji remained in the army.

Those commanders and fighters who had fought against the Eight-Nation Alliance had no good feelings towards the foreign devils. After receiving patriotic education, most of them had hatred for the imperialist colonizers.

The same goes for Xu Wuji. Too many people died in the European war, and the whole of Europe fell into hunger. He just felt sorry for it, that's all.

The reason why they wanted to give Germany more aid was that the longer Germany held out, the more damage it would cause to Europe. The more Europe declined, the less pressure the alliance would face in the future. These were all self-evident truths.

Even so, if Germany cannot come up with hard currency or other valuables, the Alliance will not provide aid to Germany unconditionally.

Ludendorff had no other options but to get the 100 million tons of food promised by the Alliance. The Alliance had already sent a huge amount of food to the Allies, and with the 100 million tons this time, it would be enough to sustain the German army on the front for a long time.

The German tanks were still charging towards Calais, their advance was unstoppable, and most of the French troops they encountered on the road collapsed at the first blow. It cannot be said that the French soldiers were not brave. In Verdun, on the Somme River, on the Marne River, and under the city of Paris, the French army performed very well in both offense and defense, and was more than two levels stronger than the colonial troops in the Far East.

Especially in the first three months after the outbreak of the war, the French army, with the belief of "revenge", was in high spirits and attacked so fiercely that the German supreme commander was shocked. Moltke the Younger had to transfer a large number of troops from the right wing of the Western Front to strengthen the left wing, otherwise the German defense line would be pierced by the violent French.

But that was in 1911. Half a year after the war began, the morale of the French army was so low that they were passive and unwilling to fight. A year later, a mutiny broke out in the French army. When Pétain rushed to the Verdun fortress to put out the fire, he killed more than officers and soldiers and promised to improve the soldiers' situation and ensure that they would have enough food and rest. Only then did he suppress the mutiny.

But the story was not over yet. In order to prevent the old soldiers from causing trouble, or to be suspicious of the troops who had participated in the mutiny, the French high-ranking officers carried out a series of outrageous operations. The most outrageous one was to set up machine guns and force the old soldiers to charge towards the German positions.

Then, the supervision team, together with the German army, turned hundreds of thousands of French troops into corpses.

Since the French military leaders have done such a thing, it is conceivable how low the morale of the French army will be. At the beginning of the war, left-wing anti-government activists enthusiastically joined the army and were willing to die for their country. This situation is no longer seen.

Moreover, the French troops in the rear did not have many technical weapons. They lacked artillery, and the light machine guns they had were very poor. They had no anti-tank guns to deal with tanks, and even had few cluster grenades. If they had trenches or cities for defense, it would be fine, but if they waited for the German tanks in the field, they would be defeated. Therefore, when facing the German tanks, the French could only lay down their weapons and raise their hands.

Some French soldiers even thought that surrender might not be a bad thing. On the Belgian battlefield, tens of thousands of people were killed or wounded every day. It was simply a sea of blood and corpses. Although surrender was shameful, it was useful...at least it saved them from the fate of being torn to pieces.