Expedition to Europe

At the end of June, after a period of silence, the battle on the Western Front first broke out in Asia.

The troops jointly sent by Australia and New Zealand to Europe to participate in the European War were called the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. During the war, John Monash gradually became the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

The Allied counterattack in Asia began with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps led by John Monash.

John Monash was a very smart general. If it weren't for Qin Zhiyuan, he might have been the smartest commander of the warring parties.

John Monash was born in Australia. Both of his parents were Jews from Germany, so many people didn't like John Monash.

Just like many people did not accept Qin Zhiyuan from the Far East at first, everyone who had worked with John Monash was full of admiration for John Monash, and then ignored the label on John Monash, even including King George V of the United Kingdom.

Before John Monash launched the offensive known as the "Battle of Hamel", John Monash had just been awarded the title of knight by George V and promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

Conservative forces in Britain questioned George V's decision, but John Monash quickly proved with his actions that he deserved these honors.

John Monash carefully studied Qin Zhiyuan's tactics in the battle against the German army and highly respected Qin Zhiyuan. In the "Battle of Hamel", John Monash made a comprehensive plan by using all weapons and equipment, including machine guns, cannons, tanks, and airplanes.

The plan was implemented very smoothly. The troops commanded by John Monash ended the battle within 93 minutes, annihilated a German division, captured thousands of Germans, and suffered minimal casualties.

The "Battle of Hamel" was not large in scale, but it ensured the safety of Yamin and opened a channel for the Allied attack.

When John Monash won, the British immediately became arrogant. They promoted John Monash as the best soldier of the Allied Powers, and printed John Monash's tactics into pamphlets and distributed them to every officer of the British Army for reference.

The French were very dissatisfied with this and looked down on John Monash.

The tactics used by John Monash had been used by Qin Zhiyuan several times, and each time he won a more glorious victory than the "Battle of Hamel". The British admired John Monash so much, just because John Monash came from the Commonwealth.

When John Monash launched the "Battle of Hamel", the Franco-American coalition forces commanded by Mangin and George Patton also began to attack the German army.

Foch activated Mangin from the reserve list and ordered Mangin to serve as the commander of the Ninth Army, together with George Patton and Bastien, to drive the Germans back to Amifontein.

Denis Duchene, the former commander of the Ninth Army, was responsible for the defeat in the Champagne-Chalons area. An investigation team has been set up to investigate Denis Duchene's dereliction of duty during the battle. Before the results come out, Denis Duchene can't go anywhere for the time being.

In early July, the counterattack began from Crépion. The U.S. Army advanced head-on, with Mangin's Ninth Army on the left and Bastien's Fifth Army on the right, attacking the German troops that had entered the Soissons area.

The attacking troops included 23 French divisions and four American divisions, with a total strength of about 450,000 people. They were equipped with 500 tanks and 1,300 artillery pieces, ready to encircle all German troops including the Soissons area, just like tying sacks, encircling the Germans in this salient.

The battlefield was extremely stalemate at this time.

The Germans surrounded Reims, and the Reims area became the rope to tighten the mouth of the sack.

The French surrounded Soissons, and Soissons became a big pie in the eyes of the French and Americans.

Qin Zhiyuan certainly took action. He ordered the troops led by Liu Zizheng, Zhang Tianshou and others who had bypassed the Laon area to attack Amifontein from the Laon area to completely cut off the German army's retreat.

Liu Zizheng and Zhang Tianshou had four divisions of infantry and one regiment of armored forces, with a total of more than 200 tanks. There was no problem in carrying out this combat mission. If the garrison arranged by Ruprecht had less than ten divisions, it would definitely not be able to stop Liu Zizheng and his men.

At the same time, Pierre had already formulated an offensive plan, and Chen Kangjian and Griffin's troops would be responsible for its implementation.

Different from the attack plan Qin Zhiyuan wanted, Chen Kangjian and Griffin's troops would attack from the southwest defense line and attack directly in the direction of Amifontein to join Liu Zizheng and his men.

The French and Americans began to counterattack, which immediately put Ruprecht under pressure. Just one day before Chen Kangjian and Griffin were ready to attack, Ruprecht organized his troops to attack Reims again.

From the map, Soissons is surrounded by hills. The Americans and French chose to attack in this terrain, and the advancement speed would definitely not be fast.

But at the same time, if the Germans wanted to retreat, their speed would not be fast either.

Therefore, the mouth of the sack, that is, the location of Amifontein, became a very critical point.

If a troop occupied Amifontein at this time, it would be a disaster for the Germans in the sack.

Ruprecht realized this problem and dispatched more troops to besiege Reims.

Even if Reims could not be captured, Ruprecht would trap the Foreign Legion in Reims. In that case, at least Qin Zhiyuan would not pose a threat to the German troops in the sack.

Since the purpose was to encircle the enemy, the German attack was noisy. Rupprecht only used one division of troops, and was only willing to put one regiment into each attack. He only launched three attacks in one day.

This is too perfunctory.

Qin Zhiyuan felt despised and had the idea of ​​"I want to make you look good".

That night, a telegram from Paris was sent to Qin Zhiyuan's headquarters. The telegram was written in secret language. It seemed like an ordinary greeting, but in fact it revealed a very urgent problem: Crown Prince William wants to see Qin Zhiyuan, right away!

Qin Zhiyuan immediately arranged a batch of transport planes to fly directly from Paris to Reims.

Before dark, the planes landed at a makeshift airfield in Reims, and about a company of infantry moved into the barracks in Reims.

At nine o'clock in the evening, Qin Zhiyuan met Crown Prince William in an inconspicuous military camp.

According to the request of the telegram, Qin Zhiyuan sent away all the French people, including Pierre. Now all the Chinese around him, including this camp, are all Chinese troops, and they are also the reconnaissance force led by Hu Tingfeng.

The reconnaissance force led by Hu Tingfeng currently has more than a thousand people. It is no longer appropriate to call it a reconnaissance company. This is an armed force directly under the control of Qin Zhiyuan, an army that can already be called a "special forces".

Crown Prince William wore a Foreign Legion uniform. In order to cover up his iconic hair color, he also wore a certain Foreign Legion helmet and put on makeup. If you don't look carefully, you won't know that this is Crown Prince William himself.

"The Ministry of Internal Affairs didn't notice that you had left Paris? This is too ridiculous." After confirming that it was Crown Prince William himself, Qin Zhiyuan expressed his dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Crown Prince William does have a high degree of freedom, but at the same time, every move of Crown Prince William is under the surveillance of the French Ministry of the Interior. Even if he is sleeping, officials from the Ministry of the Interior will stay outside Crown Prince William's bedroom door. , of course, there are also people outside the window.

Therefore, Qin Zhiyuan was very curious about how Crown Prince William escaped from the surveillance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

"I have my own way, that's not the purpose of my trip." Crown Prince William's face didn't look good, and he didn't know what had stimulated him.

"Then what are you doing here?" Qin Zhiyuan was curious.

Qin Zhiyuan and Crown Prince William have a certain tacit understanding, but the two have never had any communication similar to an agreement. This is why the French government does not impose restrictions on the contact between Qin Zhiyuan and Crown Prince William.

Crown Prince William was silent for a long time, the expression on his face was constantly changing, and sweat was dripping from his forehead.

It's clear that Crown Prince William is struggling.

"Can you do something for me?" Crown Prince William said with difficulty.

"What?" Qin Zhiyuan's heart rang with alarm bells.

"I want to kill Erich, otherwise he will lead Germany into the abyss. I can't watch Germany go to destruction. Although I can't do anything now, I beg you, help me this time, and I will definitely repay you... ..." Crown Prince William said something shocking.

"How to kill him? I also want to..." Qin Zhiyuan interrupted Crown Prince William.

"Erich", full name: Erich von Ludendorff. The current German general, the second-in-command in the German military system, and the actual person in power.

"Send someone to kill him!" Crown Prince William said with murderous intent.

"William, don't be ridiculous. If Ludendorff was really so easy to kill, he would have died countless times. Do you think the French and British governments don't want to kill him? As far as I know, there are at least 20 plans, nearly a thousand People are working hard for this." Qin Zhiyuan shook his head and laughed.

For the Allied Powers, it would be a surprise if they could kill Ludendorff by sending just one or two people. Even if the British and French governments were to invest 100 million pounds for this, they would be willing to do so.

This kind of thing is not uncommon. Qin Zhiyuan just experienced a danger some time ago.

"If I had people as internal agents, I would be confident enough to kill Erich. This is fundamentally different from the actions organized by the British and French governments." Crown Prince William was confident.

"If you have people as internal countermeasures... we are indeed more confident." Qin Zhiyuan was tempted, but immediately asked another question: "But I don't quite understand, why would you do this?"

In the current Germany, Ludendorff still has a large number of supporters, and the German army has not yet reached the end of its rope under the leadership of Ludendorff.

A few months later, the situation may be completely different.

"If it were possible, I wouldn't do it, but I don't see hope now." Crown Prince William said, taking out a map and throwing it on the table: "Let's take a look. This is the current situation. I don't need to explain it. If your troops deployed in Laon launch an attack, how many of the 400,000 German soldiers in the encirclement do you think can escape?"

"What the hell, where did you get these?" Qin Zhiyuan was angry.

What Qin Zhiyuan put in front of him was a map of the current situation on the Western Front, which was detailed down to the regiment level number. In the Laon area, the logo representing the tank unit was very conspicuous.

This is a serious leak.

"Don't worry about where I got it, it has nothing to do with your people. What I want to say is, if it was before, when I was the commander-in-chief of the group army, I wouldn't notice it, but it's different now. I don't have any position. On the contrary, it made me see more clearly." Crown Prince William's calm appearance hides deep sadness.

This may be the bystander's knowledge.