Expedition to Europe

The so-called "famous general" is not the kind who "can do everything with one trick".

Only those who know how to formulate different countermeasures according to different battlefield forms and can always achieve tactical goals no matter what are qualified to be called "famous generals".

Simply put, it is to adapt to circumstances.

It sounds not difficult, but only when it is really implemented, you will know how many difficulties are waiting for you.

The vision is high but the skills are low, the heart is high than the sky and the life is thin than paper, what is learned from paper is always shallow, and you must be in person to know this matter...

There are many similar sayings.

Even if Hu Tier is not a "famous general" now, he has the potential to become a famous general.

Night battles have always been a big problem. Although there are many advantages, such as: the suddenness of the battle, reducing the enemy's weapon advantage, and the party that is more familiar with the terrain, etc., there are not many people who actively choose night battles. If it comes to the point of having to fight a night battle, in most cases, it is a forced and helpless choice.

Hu Tier was also forced and helpless.

The Foreign Legion had too many tanks, but the German army had no weapons to counter them. A fair fight would definitely not be advantageous. Hutier had to do everything he could to reduce the advantage of the Foreign Legion in order to keep the position near Reims.

In order to make the night battle more advantageous, Hutier sent all the "Storm Troops" in his hands to infiltrate the Foreign Legion's position, which triggered a fierce battle between the "Storm Troops" and the Foreign Legion's scouts. Although the scale was not as large as the frontal battlefield, the degree of cruelty was even greater.

In order to regain the lost position, the German army was fearless and continued to attack the Foreign Legion's position, almost stepping on the explosion point of the shells, wave after wave, almost without interruption.

The Foreign Legion was defeated again.

The German army not only used high-explosive bombs, but also used poison gas bombs, and mustard gas.

Since the first use of poison gas bombs in the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, it has made great progress, starting from the earliest chlorine gas and quickly evolving to mustard gas.

Mustard gas is a corrosive poison that invades the body through the skin or respiratory tract, directly damages tissue cells, and has an erosive and irritating effect on the skin and mucous membranes, causing skin burns, redness, swelling, blisters, and ulcers; inflammation and necrosis of the respiratory mucosa, severe coughing and thick sputum, and even obstruction of breathing; conjunctivitis in the eyes, causing redness, swelling, and even blindness, etc.

The most important thing is that there is almost no special medicine for mustard gas treatment, and the victims will suffer lifelong pain.

Although mustard gas is called the "king of poison gas", there are still ways to defend it. The Foreign Legion did not suffer heavy casualties. The greater difficulty came from flares.

Before the war, Qin Zhiyuan prepared a batch of flares, but the number was not large enough to support the entire night's battle. So after 4 hours of night fighting, Qin Zhiyuan ordered the troops to withdraw from the battlefield.

In this day's battle, more than 3,000 people in the Foreign Legion were injured and more than 1,000 were killed, and the casualties of the French troops were even greater.

In contrast, the German army suffered nearly 20,000 casualties.

The only good news for Hutier was that he drove away the foreign legion occupying the position again and restored confidence for the troops.

Not much. The 18th Army led by Hutier had nearly 70,000 casualties so far. Hutier was forced to replace 11 divisions with heavy casualties, two of which were directly cancelled, which was almost the treatment of a complete annihilation.

Although the casualties were heavy, Hutier was not reprimanded by the German General Staff. It was probably because Ludendorff read the battle report and found that if Hutier was replaced by himself, he would have no way to deal with Qin Zhiyuan, so he couldn't bear to criticize him.

Hutier had done well enough.

Qin Zhiyuan, who did better, was reprimanded by the Army Department. Leotai was simply crazy. He sent three telegrams in just one morning to ask Qin Zhiyuan about his progress at the time.

This made Qin Zhiyuan quite impatient, so Qin Zhiyuan rarely complained to Maxim.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry... all they know is urging! These gentlemen in Paris are going crazy. They don't even think about it. If we can drive the Germans out of Reims in one fell swoop, would I deliberately delay? I also want to go back to the castle in Paris to sleep, and the soldiers also want to take a vacation, but if we can't gain an advantage in manpower, how can we drive the Germans out of Reims? The Germans are not pigs..." Qin Zhiyuan was full of complaints, like an old soldier who was about to reach a critical point.

In fact, Qin Zhiyuan's meaning was very simple. What he wanted to say was: If you can do it, you go ahead!

"That's right, Mr. Qin, you are so right!" Only Chen Kangjian could flatter so shamelessly.

"My troops suffered heavy casualties, and I need reinforcements." Liu Zizheng was also complaining. Last night, it was his troops who were defending the position. Losing thousands of troops in one night was really unacceptable to Liu Zizheng.

Most of the thousands of casualties in the Foreign Legion were Annanites who were inexperienced in dealing with poison gas bombs. Although the Chinese fought on the front line, they did not suffer much poison gas attack because they might come into direct contact with the Germans.

Of course, this is only relatively speaking.

Another batch of new recruits from Corsica have completed training and are on their way here. Although Chen Kangjian, Liu Zizheng, Ge Lifu, and even Zheng Dali did not say it, they were actually calculating how much they could get.

The number of soldiers in hand is directly related to the right to speak and status within the system, so Liu Zizheng and others cannot help but fight for it.

Even if Liu Zizheng and his men didn't want to fight for the sake of face, their subordinates would not agree. This is the reason for "wearing the yellow robe".

Everyone hopes that their status will rise with the tide.

Maxim and Bastien were speechless. They could understand Qin Zhiyuan's dissatisfaction. It was the same for anyone. There were always a few days every month when he felt uncomfortable. In fact, in the eyes of Maxim and Bastien, Qin Zhiyuan had done well enough. No matter who came, it would not be possible to fight like this.

At the beginning of the war, the 17th Army led by Qin Zhiyuan was less in number than the 18th Army led by Hutier.

After only half a month of fighting, the manpower gap between the two sides had been reversed by Qin Zhiyuan.

Although Maxim and Bastien did not know the specific number of casualties of the Germans, it was certain that the number of casualties of the German 18th Army must be far greater than that of the 17th Army led by Qin Zhiyuan.

Wu Yuanting and Ruan Juncai looked at Qin Zhiyuan with admiration. There were not many generals who dared to complain openly about their superiors in the Ministry of the Army, even in the French army.

There were really not many. The French army was currently "severely cracking down". Those who dared to complain publicly had been sent to the military court in secret.

This work was compiled and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

The Japanese, represented by Akashi Motojiro, looked at Qin Zhiyuan with inquiry. "Jiro" and others no longer thought that Qin Zhiyuan was Chinese. They studied Qin Zhiyuan as a "famous general" of the Allied Powers like Foch and Haig.

In fact, whether the "two boys" admitted it or not, after this battle, Qin Zhiyuan was a famous general of the time, and his reputation in some fields would even surpass Foch and Haig.

After all, at this time in Flanders, General Plummer of the British Second Army adopted Qin Zhiyuan's tactics, which made the British excited.

It is almost a sign that one's own tactics are studied and imitated by others.

Become a symbol of a "famous general".

Pierre and Micha rolled their eyes at Qin Zhiyuan who was complaining. These two knew Qin Zhiyuan best. They could guess what Qin Zhiyuan wanted to do.

Of course, Pierre and Micha would not expose Qin Zhiyuan. They had already boarded Qin Zhiyuan's "pirate ship" and there was no turning back.

This temper was still useful. Although it seemed unrelated, Leotai never sent a telegram to urge Qin Zhiyuan again. Instead, he asked about Qin Zhiyuan's well-being and sent a batch of mooncakes from the Republic of China.

This made Qin Zhiyuan laugh and cry. It was indeed August now, but it was only July in the Chinese lunar calendar. What mooncakes were sent? It was really irrelevant.

In fact, the French attach great importance to Chinese folk customs. Unlike the British, the French usually give a few days of vacation on major Chinese festivals, and also distribute some benefits. These mooncakes are prepared to be distributed to the Chinese one month later. Considering that most Chinese are from the north, there are more five-nut fillings.

Along with the mooncakes, there were also enough flares and a large number of poison gas bombs.

Because Germany was always at a disadvantage in manpower during the confrontation with the Allies, the Germans started researching poison gas earlier and had a greater advantage over the Allies in this regard. For example, now, although Germany has used mustard gas on the battlefield, the poison gas bombs sent to Qin Zhiyuan by Paris are still chlorine.

Chlorine is chlorine, it is better than nothing.

In fact, mustard gas also has a fatal weakness, that is, the incubation period of mustard gas. If someone is poisoned, the incubation period is as short as a few hours and as long as a day, and they will not lose their combat effectiveness immediately.

For the ever-changing battlefield, there are too many things that can happen in a few hours, and perhaps the whole battle is over, so mustard gas that is not mixed with Lewis gas can hardly be called the "king of poison gas".

In late August, the battle resumed. This time, Qin Zhiyuan showed his determination to fight to the death. On the first day of the bombing, he ordered the bomber troops to enter the field and bombed the railway line from Reims to Arlon, which was the main channel for the Germans to obtain supplies.

Facing the aggressive foreign legion, Hutier did not fight hard. According to the practice of "elastic defense", he withdrew the front-line troops to the rear position and prepared to fight Qin Zhiyuan after dark.

Hutier did not know that because Qin Zhiyuan obtained a large number of flares, his troops had lost their only advantage - familiarity with the terrain.

Yes, although it was on French land, the Germans had occupied it for three years, and they were indeed more familiar with the terrain.

This advantage alone was not enough to change the situation of the war, and the end waiting for Hutier would be tragic.

Now we can make an assertion.