Chapter 316 Tank

The land offensive between May and June was launched. Except for the stalemate in West Myanmar, most of the wars in the south were coming to an end. Except for a small number of indigenous guerrillas who were still resisting under the leadership of some British volunteer soldiers, important strategic strongholds and transportation lines have been completely controlled by the coalition forces of the Second Front Army of the Chinese Empire and the Siam Kingdom.

The narrow land from Singapore to the south of the Siam Kingdom is currently temporarily controlled by China and Thailand. In the direction of Nanzhang and Cambodia, the two kingdoms have also achieved corresponding growth. It can be said that in the eastern half of the Indochina Peninsula, they are completely firmly in the hands of the Chinese Empire and its vassal states.

On the issue of the ownership of land on the Indochina Peninsula, the generals and staff members of the imperial military, and even the cabinet ministers were divided into two factions. Some middle and lower-level officers of the young and strong sects valued this land that was exchanged for blood from soldiers. They believed that the empire should include these places in the territory, rather than control the strategic points of the empire as established plans, and the remaining large tracts of land were handed over to vassal states such as Siam to obtain according to the degree of contributions to the empire in the past. They believed that if this was the case, the empire should not fight this war at all.

Some of the well-established and polite ministers in the court, as well as relatives and nobles who were closer to me, insisted on their past claims. They believed that war was not about obtaining a large amount of land, but about establishing a barrier for the empire itself. In addition, if no benefits were given to the vassal states, then who would be your vassal state?

I also took this issue to the public media for debate. In the process of the country's transformation from an ancient agricultural country to a major modern country, this kind of ideological conflict is inevitable. It is better to let them debate publicly than to be bored in their hearts and fight in the future.

The newly formed 22nd Army consists of four armies, commanded by Zhejiang Admiral Lu Yongxiang. It is expected to board the ship from Guangzhou to Saigon. After several days of voyage, it passes through Singapore and the Strait of Malacca and enters the Indian Ocean, and directly enters the coast of Myanmar, the hinterland of the British and Indian army.

The Navy also invested a lot of preparations for it, and more than 100,000 troops were transported in two batches. The construction of the transit station Singapore was also in full swing. The navy's vanguard also invested in appeasement and security work in the Indian Ocean. The friendly German Empire Pacific Fleet also sent additional ships to cooperate in reconnaissance and tentative attacks on several strongholds along the eastern coast of India.

Since Germany does not have a large number of army forces in the Far East, they have to occupy the supply points on the Indian coastline and to achieve long-term opening of the lifeline from Berlin, Vienna, Constantinople to Baghdad, and Kuwait, they must rely on the help of Chinese army troops to establish appropriate supply points and control in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, they have also shown extraordinary enthusiasm for the large-scale land war between China and Britain in Myanmar, and their fleets are busy.

In addition to blocking Australia and New Zealand and cutting off the maritime blood transfusion line, it also contributed the support of naval fleets and transport ships to this war between China and Britain. Although in terms of strength, the British fleet operating in the Indian Ocean no longer has any ability to cause damage to any fully armed navies of China and Germany, the British East India fleet, which still retains more than a dozen light cruisers, is not completely incapable of causing fatal damage to China's landing fleet.

Therefore, the first strategic assault target of the Chinese and German navies was set at the port of the Yanan Port at the west entrance of the Bay of Bengal, which was originally leased to the French Far East Fleet as a supply point. The Chinese and German navies sent an expeditionary fleet set sail from Singapore. China and Germany each sent two battleships and more than ten cruisers to try to wipe out the old British fleet - if they were there.

The combat date is set on June 17. If everything is not so smooth, the assault fleet will be stranded in the waters near the East Coast of India. With the help of airship reconnaissance, it will block possible dangerous places on the East Coast of India to ensure the landing war in the Bay of Bengal on July 1.

At present, two important strongholds in the middle reaches of the Irrawaddy River, which is the hinterland of Myanmar, Mandalay and Yangon downstream, are still occupied by the British and Indian troops. The main points of engagement between the two sides are these two areas. Artillery and machine gunners have become the masters of these two battlefields. China's aviation teams are currently in the north, and in the south, there are only some Guangdong's civil volunteer air teams in the south that help the military to contribute and engage in some reconnaissance and artillery aiming tasks. With the equal force of the two sides, China has a slight advantage in intelligence, but the terrain advantage lies with the Indian army, so it is difficult for both sides to make a big breakthrough for a while.

The strategic task of the 22nd Army was set to cut off the resource supply line from India and Bangladesh to the hinterland of Myanmar. After completing the transmission, the Navy will also invest in a restraining attack on Kolkata. If everything goes well, the war on the Indochina Peninsula should all end before the end of the year.

In the past two months, the war that had been entangled on the French-German border for two years finally came to a final victory. The newly formed Fifth Army demonstrated his most important position as a group of troops with 50 divisions. Crown Prince William personally commanded the 50 divisions and finally made a decisive breakthrough after more than half a year of offensives. One of his troops traveled around the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and launched an attack on the French defense line from the flank with the main force. When June just entered, the entire front made breakthroughs one after another, successively capturing Saint-Mierre and Nancy, who were heavily guarding the French army. After one after another, the whole situation came alive.

After leading the German-Austrian coalition forces to completely defeat the Italian army, Von Zeket divided part of the Austro-Hungarian army into the attack on the Italian land. The Austrian army was responsible for the war in Italian territory. He led part of the German army to the base camp of Saarbrücken and took on the attack mission on the southern line. After capturing Nancy and Saint Miere in the north, his army also contributed three days later to the important town of Epinal, a French town near Switzerland's Moselle River.

Facing the entire Fifth Army was the Champagne region of France and their hinterland that was not ready for war. After crossing the strongholds ahead Verdun and Xialong, the Fifth Army was able to form an encirclement of Paris from the southeast and meet with the four armies confronting the enemy on the defense line of the Marne and Seine. The total German army's strength will also increase to more than 1.5 million.

This is an attractive prospect. After the meeting, Hindenburg and Rudendolf could almost smell the question from Paris, and Prince William will also lead his army into Paris, which will be the eternal glory of the German Empire. Although at the last stronghold of the French army, Verdun, the French army had successively hoarded and added nearly forty divisions to retreat on the front line, and this number still showed signs of increasing one after another, Prince William decided to launch the Verdun attack war around the summer after contacting the Supreme Command of Berlin. This is an imperative battle. If Verdun cannot conquer it, it will be meaningless to pose a new threat to the direction of Paris, then everything he did before will be meaningless, and the entanglement on the Western Front will continue.

After calculating the French army's strength, Berlin also believed that this battle had a greater chance of winning. The French army had hoarded about 70 divisions on the Western Front, plus the twenty divisions that the British army had already been in. There were 90 divisions in that direction. The total size of the French army was between 100 and 120 divisions. Then the French army's strength in Verdun could not exceed that of the German army in the early stage. If the French army on the Western Front was to be drawn to reinforce Verdun, it would in turn create opportunities for the four armies on the Western Front.

Of course, the variables considered include the French reserve forces and the British dispatch of an expeditionary force. However, on a battlefield of this scale, there is no difference between recruits and workers who have not seen the war. There is already a shortage of rifles in the UK. These intelligences are very conducive to the General Staff making decisions to support Verdun’s breakthrough war.

A group of tank troops of two tank divisions under General Markens were in charge of the company, and if everything goes well, there will be strategic breakthroughs this year for Verdun or Paris.

When the German Supreme Command began to implement this top-secret plan, they were confident that this strange weapon that showed superbly in the experiment overcoming the existing defense mode would be able to solve the current stalemate between the two sides of the Western Front to achieve a decisive breakthrough, especially in cooperating with the offensive of Prince William in Verdun. When this weapon was pushed to the front line, the French defense on the Western Front would also take into account both the east and west directions, which greatly improved the success rate of this plan.

Given the experimental data and data obtained from China, Germany's first tanks have been quite modified to adapt to the terrain and climate of Europe. In comparison, China's tanks are somewhat lighter and have a slight firepower shortage. They were designed for soft land in southern China, and to meet the needs of ship loading, the Chinese tanks were built relatively short. In Europe, in order to cross trenches and resist more powerful firearms, the tonnage of German tanks is three times heavier than that of China's one-ton light tanks. In addition to a machine gun, the firepower is also a 37mm gun used to deal with more difficult targets.

Like all other military industrial enterprises, Klaus Mafi's production workshops in the rear were producing various weapons and equipment that could kill the enemy. The German Empire's soldiers were lucky. In any case, when they rushed to the battlefield with their heads high, they would have at least a rifle in their hands. The gun ownership rate of the British and French coalition forces on the opposite side was only more than half of theirs. The unlucky Russians could not even half of the French. This reason also supported the decision of the Berlin Supreme Command. In their opinion, this summer would be an important turning point in the war that had lasted for almost two years.

Of course, they could not think that Mr. Churchill's previous proposal to use tanks on the French battlefield was approved by conservative British policymakers. The British General Staff and the Army were recruiting more volunteers, and a considerable number of tanks were continuously driving from the factory. Later, this novel weapon would plow on the land of France.

Wu Haitao, a former retired officer of the General Staff, who is now an official-business joint venture in Jiangning Heavy Machinery Industry Company, is also paying attention to this war. Since the war between China and Russia started, he has been suggesting to the military to use tanks and improve tanks so that they can be useful in the Sino-Russian War. However, the Sino-Russian War has been over, and the tank troops have not been put into actual combat. Moreover, the southern war of the Second Front Army has basically reached the middle point, and the tank troops have not been used. The two major industrial enterprises in China that produce tanks in his home have not received even one military order. This makes him wonder whether the decision makers cherish the lives of the imperial army and the lives of the soldiers who have walked on the battlefield for the glory of the empire.

After day after day of painful waiting and suffering, he contacted some old friends from the First Bureau of the Military Intelligence Department of the General Staff at the beginning of June, and expressed his pain again and again. But what he obtained was still disappointment.

Finally, his secret letter has been handed to my imperial case countless times. This time, unlike in the past, his memorials lacked a lot of respectful tone, only disappointment and anger. He seemed to be using this way of deliberately irritating me to vent his pain and try to end it.

So I replied to him for the first time. After obtaining relevant information from Europe, the construction force configuration of the 22nd Army of the Second Front Army was added to the combat sequence of the 22nd Army from Zhejiang.

The battle situation in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres will soon reach a decisive moment.

The Arab War of Unity is coming to an end. The Saudi family's Arab Kingdom has achieved a large territory covering later Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria and parts of Iraq. In terms of international recognition, the hero Saudi Arabia has also achieved strategic breakthroughs. After being recognized by China first and Germany followed up, they have contacted the newly-entered President Taft after a series of diplomatic contacts. There have been reports that the United States has the political will to recognize the status of an independent state in the Arab Kingdom.

After President Taft came to power, the United States' international policy has not undergone a fundamental strategic change. It is just that the tough President Taft has strengthened the pressure on these countries in control of some restless countries in South America, and expressed serious concerns about the situation in Europe and the war that has begun in Asia. News from the United States shows that a military staff team with officers of the Admiralty as the main members have begun to be formed and asked China whether this delegation can be allowed to play an observer role in the Asian battlefield. I believe that several major European countries have also received such inquiries from the United States.

China's attitude was politely declined. The new Army Secretary Wang Shizhen formally replied to the United States in mid-June, expressing his hope that the United States will abide by the respectful agreement between China and the United States on the mutual status of Asia and the United States, and prevent military personnel from appearing in sensitive areas of the other continent. The Americans did not say anything, but the intelligence reported by Germany showed that a US delegation had obtained approval from most countries in the two camps of Germany and Britain and would officially go to the war zone between France to study the state of war between the two sides.

The Americans' purpose is not yet visible, but this trend has attracted my attention. The General Staff Department, an American research institution, has strengthened its research work and regularly provides research reports to me, the General Staff Department, military departments, the Cabinet and the Bide Institute for reference.

And their European itinerary will also begin, but in time they have no time to catch up with the upcoming Battle of Verdun.

Verdun is located in the northeast of France and is a famous fortress in Europe. In 843 AD, three grandsons of Charles the Great signed the "Verdun Agreement" to divide the Charlemagne Empire, and established three Frankish kingdoms in the east, middle and west, which also formed the prototype of the three major countries of Germany, France and Italy in the future. Verdun is more than 220 kilometers away from Paris and is only 58 palaces from the lost Messi. It is surrounded by hills and is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Since the Franco-Prussian War, the Alsace and Lorraine areas in the east were ceded to the Germans, the French have greatly strengthened this historic fortress. A large number of fixed fortresses and circular fortifications were built, machine guns and barbed wire, combined with the hilly terrain, this fortress was almost impossible to conquer in this era. Now here is at a turning point in history.

If Verdun is lost, the next battle will be garbage time. As long as the Germans complete the meeting, the loss of Paris is almost inevitable. There is no strategic center worth mentioning in the vast land in southern France. The industrial foundation will be greatly lost, and France will lose the opportunity to turn around. This country, which was among the world's two most powerful countries back then, will be completely reduced to Poland in Western Europe, even if it can escape from the Germans' butcher knife.

The British Expeditionary Force was firmly restrained on the line between the Marne and the Seine. In Verdun, only the French could save France.

When Prince William was mobilizing his army to slowly complete the encirclement of Verdun, the French's army increased to an end. By late June, the French army gathered defenses on the Verdun line had increased to 71 divisions, and the additional troops were mobilized directly from the battlefield two or three hundred kilometers away. The seats they left would be replaced by a new batch of British expeditionary forces that arrived on the battlefield in July. Although the British did not have a compulsory military service system, the people of Britain could also realize that this was a key war that determined the future fate of the British Empire. Therefore, in a short period of time, the British army volunteers increased significantly. Therefore, in late June, the British naval forces had begun to transport 38 divisions of troops to the opposite strait in batches after the joint operations of the local fleet and the French Republic fleet in the North Sea.

"Go forward, the children of the motherland, rise up quickly, a glorious day is waiting for you! Look at the tyrants are holding up the blood-stained flag at us, and raising the blood-stained flag at us! Did you hear that? The cruel soldiers shouted on our land, and they rushed to you and killed your wife and son... Who are you going to wear these damn shackles? Who are you going to wear? French people are going to wear them! Great humiliation makes people feel indignant! It is unbearable, and you want to push humanity back to the age of slaves! What! These foreign devils dominate our hometown! What! Our noble soldiers were beaten by mercenaries! They were beaten by mercenaries! Do we have to tie our hands and surrender to their feet! Should our destiny be governed by despicable tyrants?"

The ill-fated French soldiers hummed the ill-fated Marseille, heading towards the east in a row, defending Verdun, defending Paris, and defending France!

"As long as the soldiers are not lacking in courage, as long as God has not closed his eyes, France will not die, and the descendants of Gaul can continue to pass on their legacy!" The soldiers' ears were still echoing General Foch's passionate words. In front of them, Verdun's fortifications were already in sight.

Further away, the young Germans were equally excited. The rise of Prussia and the rise of Germany were always filled with the blood of the French. Prussia dared to fight against Napoleon III's France and finally defeated it. Why can't the powerful Germans step on the fertile field of Verdun and drive towards Paris!

This night was the night of June 30, 1913, and the veil was already removed in the summer. Although it was already night, the hot atmosphere could still be smelled in the air. The sound of sporadic cannons from time to time reminded the young Amida that this is the battlefield and this is Verdun.

Private Amida took out his treasure outside the fortification and began to vent his fatigue for a day in the grass. He had just arrived here after three consecutive marches. He had just been assigned to this cannon position facing the east. This huge fortress cannon has great power. Amida heard from the instructor that this cannon can easily send a platoon of soldiers to heaven.

Amida looked towards heaven, the moon in the starry sky was not so conspicuous, but a sudden appearance of meteor attracted his attention. He closed his eyes and wanted to make a good wish for his mother and sister in the small town of Decaswell in the south before the meteor disappeared.

Amida, who had just closed his eyes, suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound coming through the sky. If the meteors also had a sound, then this should be the case. Before Amida could think of this, a huge wave of air pushed him into the sky, making him a little closer to heaven. Then he fell heavily back to the ground, and before closing his eyes, he smelled a hot and humid smell.
Chapter completed!