Expedition to Europe

In the first half of 1918, the war did seem to be ending, but the balance of victory was leaning towards the German side.

Almost all battlefields were requesting reinforcements, and the newly appointed Allied Commander-in-Chief Foch was overwhelmed.

France had mobilized men over 40 to join the war, and Britain had plans to mobilize men over 50. As for Germany, they had already begun to mobilize women for logistics work.

Although Qin Zhiyuan's situation was dangerous, it was not at the end of his rope. The Chinese troops were not seriously injured, which was Qin Zhiyuan's greatest support.

Foch was not unaware of Qin Zhiyuan's predicament, but Foch was powerless. Foch had few reserves and would use them at the most critical moment.

When the request for reinforcements failed, Qin Zhiyuan requested that Liu Zizheng and Jin Taihe's two divisions be transferred to Soissons to ensure the safety of this railway hub.

This request was also rejected by Pétain, who said that Yamin was more important.

Qin Zhiyuan was so angry at Pétain's reason that he smashed the cup. Yamin was indeed more important than Soissons, but Yamin already had seven divisions defending it. What did Soissons have?

Two newly formed infantry regiments.

Qin Zhiyuan had no choice but to withdraw a regiment from Zhang Tianshou's troops and led it to Soissons to strengthen the defense.

At the same time, the last two Annan divisions were sent out, one to Corbeny and the other to Champagne-Chalons.

In this way, Reims only had less than six divisions of infantry and two divisions of artillery, and the air force's headquarters was in Paris.

The next morning, the battle continued, and it was even larger than yesterday. The Bavarian prince invested 17 divisions, ready to win the battle in one fell swoop.

The battle first started in Corbeny. The Germans attacked Corbeny with five divisions. On the narrow front battlefield of Corbeny, there was almost one division every thousand yards.

The Bavarian prince's tactics are still Hutier's "Storm Force" tactics. Unlike Hutier, the Bavarian prince has enough "Storm Force" in his hands, and there are a large number of A7Vs in the follow-up troops, which will pose a great threat to Qin Haoge's position.

Qin Haoge has become more mature after returning from Borneo. Perhaps he is used to seeing death in Borneo, and Qin Haoge is a little indifferent to life, which can be seen from his attitude towards the US military yesterday.

Even when the US military was about to be annihilated, Qin Haoge did not send a single soldier. It was Qin Zhiyuan who directly issued an order, and Qin Haoge sent out the armored troops.

Zhang Tianshou also has this problem, but it is not as obvious as Qin Haoge's performance, at least it has not been shown yet.

Fortunately, although Qin Haoge has become more ruthless, he has not forgotten the tactics arranged by Qin Zhiyuan. When the Germans began to bombard, Qin Haoge ordered the troops to retreat, temporarily avoid their sharp edge, and wait for the German troops to consume part of their sharpness before counterattacking.

What Qin Haoge didn't expect was that the German army sent out three regiments in the first attack, and another three regiments half an hour later, and another three regiments half an hour later...

Qin Haoge immediately realized that something was wrong. The number of German troops was too large, far exceeding the strength of the defenders. If the previous tactics were used at this time, it would be impossible to retake the position.

So Qin Haoge took a desperate defense posture on the second line of defense and refused to retreat.

There are mountains and forests near Corbeny, which is relatively easy to defend. Although the German storm troops are fast, the terrain limits their speed. The German army's progress is far less than when the battle just started. From the fierce battle in the morning to noon, the German army only advanced two thousand yards, and all of them were gained at the beginning of the battle. After Qin Haoge strictly defended, the German army's attack speed began to slow down.

When the remnants of the 84th Brigade withdrew yesterday, Qin Haoge's troops witnessed the tragic situation of the US troops.

Although the soldiers did not go to the battlefield in person, they could imagine how tragic it was. So, as if they were trying to compete with the US military to see who was braver, the Chinese soldiers were extremely tenacious in their fighting will. Like the US military yesterday, they fought and fought with the Germans inch by inch, and never retreated.

The weapons of the Chinese troops were obviously better than those of the US troops who only had rifles and bayonets. Often, only a Lewis machine gun was needed to block a mountain pass or a ridge. Although the Germans were very bold in their penetration, their progress was limited because there were fire points hidden behind almost every tree or every stone. These fire points were difficult to clear and became a roadblock on the German army's way forward.

The Germans tried to use artillery to open the passage, but because there were reverse slopes everywhere, the artillery did not play the role it should have.

At the same time, because the mountain road was rugged, the huge body of the A7V was difficult to drive, and it was far inferior to the small and flexible FT-17.

Before dusk, the Germans stopped the attack because the heavy casualties made it impossible for the Germans to continue.

In order to open up a channel to attack Soissons, the Germans have replaced seven divisions from yesterday to now. Almost every withdrawn division was judged to be unsuitable for continuing the attack.

The battle was equally fierce near Châlons-en-Champagne.

After all the British and Senegalese crossed the Marne River, Xiang Ankang’s first order was to blow up all the bridges on the Marne River. If the Germans wanted to cross the river, they could only make rafts by themselves, because all the boats were burned and the Germans could not find any boats to use.

It was already afternoon when the Germans completed their attack preparations.

Xiang Ankang had no intention of retreating, so he set up a defense line along the Marne River to resist the German attack. He attacked the enemy halfway across the river, which had a good effect in both the cold weapon era and the hot weapon era.

After all, the Germans had superior artillery. Since the morning, the German artillery bombardment had never stopped. Xiang Ankang's troops suffered heavy casualties, most of which were caused by the German artillery.

But Xiang Ankang did not dare to retreat. He had felt the Germans' determination from their continuous attacks. If he retreated now, it would probably turn into an avalanche-like defeat, and the situation would be irreversible.

In order to ensure that he would not be helpless in the most critical moment, even if the Germans had rushed to the shore, Xiang Ankang kept a regiment of troops and did not send them to the front line. But except for a regiment of reserves, all the soldiers who could still move were rushed to the front line by Xiang Ankang, even if they bleed to death, they would bleed to death at the sentry post.

The battle was extremely brutal. The river and the riverbank were stained with blood. The bodies of the Germans covered the water surface, and the bodies of the defenders filled the trenches. There was no time to clean up. The dead companions were used as sandbags. Whether they were Germans, British, Chinese or Senegalese, there was no distinction between the noble and the humble at this moment. They just fought hard to survive.

In the afternoon battle, in order to drive the British and Senegalese to the battlefield, Xiang Ankang sent out a law enforcement team. All soldiers who refused to execute orders would be shot on the spot.

A company of Senegalese troops tried to resist, but were crushed to pieces by tanks. The British commander immediately said that he would execute the order, but at the same time reserved the right to complain.

Xiang Ankang did not waver. Even if he complained, he would have to wait until after the war. At least if those complaints were a threat to Xiang Ankang, it meant that Xiang Ankang was still alive.

And being alive is now the biggest luxury.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

Because Xiang Ankang knew very well that Qin Zhiyuan also had no reinforcements.

Qin Zhiyuan received Xiang Ankang's call for help, but did not send ground troops to support Xiang Ankang. Instead, he sent bomber troops to attack the German artillery positions.

The effect of the attack was very obvious. After two batches of bomber troops were dispatched, the German artillery fire was significantly weakened, and they were never able to organize large-scale artillery bombardments in the morning.

Compared with the battle on the first day, the battle on the second day was more brutal. On this day, the Chinese troops alone suffered nearly 10,000 combat casualties, most of which occurred in Xiang Ankang's division.

Combat casualties do not include lightly wounded soldiers, because whether it is Xiang Ankang's troops or Qin Haoge's troops, lightly wounded never leave the front line, and only seriously injured and unable to continue fighting can be considered combat casualties.

Qin Zhiyuan's eyes were red after reading the battle report at night. This was certainly due to staying up late, but more of it was heartache.

Nearly 10,000 combat casualties only occurred in the spring offensive launched by Nivelle last year, and that was not the troops commanded by Qin Zhiyuan.

That night, Qin Zhiyuan called Pétain and said that if no reinforcements were given, Qin Zhiyuan would order the troops in Champagne-Chalons to withdraw from their positions, because even when Qin Zhiyuan was on the phone with Pétain, the Germans had not stopped their attack.

Xiang Ankang and his troops were already in a desperate situation. Even if the reserve troops were deployed at night, the current position could collapse at any time.

The Germans were even crazier at night. They used all the tools they could to cross the river from any waters. Although the soldiers shot desperately, they had limited manpower after all, and they could not defend the increasingly wide positions.

Even as a division commander, Xiang Ankang personally went into battle. During the battle, Xiang Ankang was wounded all over his body, the most serious of which was on his cheek. A shrapnel cut a deep wound on Xiang Ankang's face that could be seen to the bone.

Pétain rejected Qin Zhiyuan's request and ordered the troops to hold their positions.

Pétain may have respected Qin Zhiyuan because of his record, but this does not mean that Pétain would value all Chinese people.

In fact, in the minds of quite a number of French people, Qin Zhiyuan is already a pure Frenchman. When many people talk about Qin Zhiyuan, they don't realize that Qin Zhiyuan is actually a Chinese.

After hanging up the phone, Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered Xiang Ankang to withdraw from the position.

Qin Zhiyuan didn't want to bargain with Pétain.

No matter who it is, as long as they know how much sacrifice Xiang Ankang's troops have made and what results they have achieved, they will not ask for more, because no matter what they ask for, it is too much.

At midnight, Xiang Ankang's division withdrew from the position and retreated to the Boulogne base camp by truck. The number of trucks was enough because there were half fewer passengers than when they came.

Those soldiers who died in the battle had no time to clean up, and their bodies were left in place. I believe that the Germans would not let them be exposed in the wilderness, because these soldiers who died in the battle deserve respect in terms of courage and ability.

In the early morning, the convoy arrived at Verti, 25 kilometers away from Champagne-Chalons, and the troops took a simple rest.

When Xiang Ankang saw the final statistics, he knelt down and cried. Out of the entire army of 16,000 people, only 370 people were left intact.