Piao Tianyi     The German army's huge victory on the Western Front caused the Allies to panic. At the same time, although the Allies' war on the Eastern Front blocked the Austro-Hungarian Empire's offensive, Turkey and Bulgaria prevented the Russian army from restraining the German army, giving the German army spared their strength to assemble more troops on the Western Front.

When it was time to survive and die, France had to fight back, draw troops from the eastern front to return to defense, and prevent the Germans from attacking Paris.

However, the German victory and the French retreat cast a shadow over France, thinking that the end of the French-Prussian War that year would reappear again, and France would be defeated and cede land for compensation. The French's tragedy also affected the mood of British allies who came to reinforce, making them more confident in the future of the war.

On February 4, the German army had advanced to Paris, and the French government was forced to retreat to Bordeaux, and at the same time announced the implementation of the Paris defense war.

The whole world is paying attention to whether the Allies can defend Paris. If Paris falls, it will be a heavy blow to the Allies, and some countries that are watching the trend will also turn to the camp of the Allies.

Because the German Army obtained the white phosphorus bomb provided by the Chinese Empire, such as a large-scale destruction weapon, it was able to quickly seize the Scarlet Sun Fortress, causing Belgium to surrender. The Scarlet Sun Fortress fell so quickly that the French army did not have time to prepare for the defense work of France, giving the German army an opportunity to take advantage of it.

The German General Staff Moltcher Jr. strictly implemented the combat plan against France formulated by former Chief of Staff Schliffen in 1905. Russia was restrained by the millions of troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Turkey and Bulgaria, so Germany only used 9 divisions to monitor Russia, while on the western front, there were 7 armies, a total of 78 divisions. It was divided into the left and right wings with Metz as the axis. Two armies on the left and right wings, with 23 armies on the left and right wings. The positions guarded the Alsace and Lorraine areas south of Metz; five armies on the right wing, a total of 55 divisions. By Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands broke through the northern border of France.

Since the end of the French-Prussian War, in order to avenge the defeat, the French army has formulated one combat plan after another against Germany since 1872, and there were as many as 17 before the war began. The latest plan was formulated by General Xia Fei, the chief of the French General Staff. That is, "Plan 17". The core of the plan is that the German army will gather on the fortified and consolidated French-German border, so the French army must launch an active offensive here and recover the two provinces of Artsas and Lorraine that were lost in the French-Prussian War.

When the right-wing German army invaded Belgium, several main French army armies were launching an attack on the left wing of the German army in accordance with the "Plan 17". However, the initial battles showed that the "Plan 17" was very bad. In Green, the French 1st Army and the 2nd Army were beaten to pieces in the defense line of the German army in Salborough and Morange. After the right-wing German army occupied Belgium, nearly one million troops of its five armies were inserted into France from Belgium like a waving sickle.

Walking on the far right is the 1st Army commanded by Cluke. About 300,000 people are regarded as the main force of the right wing and the main attacking force advancing towards Paris. The army entered the French territory from Belgium on January 30. On February 6, the German army captured Namur. In order to block the advance of this German right wing force, Xiafei mobilized troops from the Green battlefield and formed the 6th French Army, with Mao Laoli as commander.

On February 9, the vanguard of the German Cluke Army had advanced to a distance of only 15 miles from Paris. The efforts made by the main French army commanded by Xia Fei to stop the German right wing had failed. The Parisians were panicked. The last batch of French government agencies were also taken to Bordeaux.

At dawn on February 10, the German army concentrated 500 cannons to bombard Paris and launched an attack on the Correy area in the north of Paris.

The Correy defense line became the main resistance area close to the ground in Paris. The French Sixth Army had a total of about 90,000 people. These troops were not enough to establish a solid defense throughout the area, so it made the French army very hard to fight.

During the many fierce battles in the Korrey defense area, the French army stubbornly resisted the German superior forces and stopped them in Santis, Chandee and other areas.

On February 14, the German army broke into the Santis area and tried to detour and intersect the rear of the French Sixth Army. Although the German army eliminated a large number of French forces in the battle of Chandei, as the weather changed, sleet turned the roads outside Paris into mud, almost paralyzing the German attack. The German army was therefore forced to stop advancing across the line, waiting for the land to freeze after sleet. The German army's temporary cessation of the attack won the French army valuable breathing time.

On February 15, the Supreme Command of the French Army successively drew some troops from the German and French fronts as reserves, so that the French Sixth Army had the necessary rest, and new reserves were also arriving continuously.

Paris became the target of bombing of German airships. More than 2,000 white phosphorus bombs were purchased from the Chinese Empire at a high price. The city of Paris was bombed every day, causing a sea of ​​fire in the city of Paris, with more than tens of thousands of casualties every day.

During the Battle of Paris, the French Air Force and the Luftwaffe fought tenaciously. French reconnaissance planes were equipped with pistols, took off and attacked the Luftwaffe's Zeppelin airships, and shot down one or two. But soon the Luftwaffe also sent aircraft, and also used pistols and rifles to fight with French reconnaissance planes.

Both sides used reconnaissance aircraft as fighter jets, which was inspired by the Chinese Empire's air force exercise last year. At that time, the Chinese Empire dispatched J-1 fighter jets. Their powerful attack power shocked the two major military groups, and then they began to develop fighter jets. However, due to the equipment technology of the Chinese Empire's fighter jets restricting exports and registered patents at the same time, countries did not want to have friction with the Chinese Empire after watching the Chinese Empire's three-military exercises, so they did not dare to imitate directly, but instead took a different approach to seek creativity.

New ideas and new designs take time. In the aviation field, the Chinese Empire is in a position of absolute monopoly and hegemony. There are more than 200 airlines around the world, more than 150 of which are in China, and the top 20 of the world's aviation strength ranks belong to the Chinese Empire.

However, the industrial foundation of European countries is there. After visiting the advanced fighter jets of the Chinese Empire, they soon had research and development projects for their own domestic fighter jets.

Germany developed a pigeon fighter. However, interestingly, this fighter was not invented by the Germans themselves. It was invented by the Austro-Hungarians who had already fallen into the sky.

The pigeon-style aircraft is the stable phenomenon of the maple tree's winged fruit species falling for a long time. It triggered the association of making aircraft and obtained through multiple tests of various wing characteristics. It also refers to the special feature of a cat demon monoplane that was secretly photographed by a Romanian lawyer named Trajan Vuia, a cat demon, near Beijing Nanyuan Airlines, China in 1910.

The Commission asked the remnants of the French 6th Army in the Lohnerauury, Vienna, Austria-Hungarian Empire, and the Rouen garrison troops to attack the German right wing. He called Xiafei again and asked him to approve the attack. However, Xiafei did not make any statement. Galieni drove to the British headquarters again, hoping to win their support, but the British chief of staff was not optimistic about the war and blindly defended, saying that he was "not interested" in the plan to attack the German right flank.

On the evening of April 13, Cluke arrived at the Marne River, and the 5th French Army and the British Expeditionary Forces on the outside of it had crossed the Marne River earlier that day. The two troops retreated hastily and were in fatigue and chaos, although they had repeatedly received electricity to blow up the bridges, but they did not blow up. After Cluke occupied these bridgeheads, he ignored the order from the Supreme Command of Berlin to keep him in line with Biro's 2nd Army. He prepared to cross the river immediately the next morning and continue his pursuit of the Marne Army.

On this day, the officers and soldiers of the Cluke Army marched nearly 30 miles. According to Lieutenant Li Xiaodong, an observer of the Chinese Empire, "When German soldiers arrived near the north bank of the Marne River, many of them fell to the ground, exhausted, and just muttered in a daze: '30 miles! 30 miles!' I was so tired that I couldn't say anything else. Cluke exhausted his soldiers and surpassed his supply and heavy artillery teams farther than his supplies and carriages. In his opinion, the French army could turn their heads to attack his morale and ability without a single call. He did not expect an old guy named Gallieni in the French army, waiting for his negligence."

On April 14, Cluke advanced forward and told the Supreme Command bluntly that he could not execute the order to stay behind as the flank of the German Second Army. If Biro's German Second Army catch up, he would inevitably stop advancing for two days. He believed that this would weaken the entire German offensive and give the French time to revive the momentum and move freely. In fact, Biro's 2nd Army was also exhausted. So Cluke put the orders of the Supreme Command aside and continued to advance southeast, in other words, it was getting further and further for Paris.

In Berlin, from the German Emperor to the ordinary people, they were immersed in the great joy of occupying Paris, believing that the French army was about to be completely eliminated and that Germany's victory was about to come. Only Chief of the General Staff Moltke was full of doubts: "The victors must be captured, but where are our prisoners since the pursuit of the French army? There are 20,000 in Green and Paris, and in total, there are only 10,000 or 20,000 people in other places. Besides, the number of cannons seized is also relatively small. Are the French retreating in a planned manner?"

On the morning of April 15, the French reconnaissance plane report made Gallieni see the opportunity that he "must act immediately". The adventure of Cluke's troops towards the southeast of Rouen had made his rear troops the target of the 6th French Army and the British attack of Maolauli.

At 9 a.m., without obtaining Xia Fei's consent, Gallieni issued a pre-order to Maonuli, asking him to prepare for battle first. Then he called the General Command and asked Xia Fei to issue a formal order for the attack. But Xia Fei did not agree.

In fact, Xia Fei also had a counterattack plan, and the plan also included the plan to use the 6th Army of Maonuli to attack the outside of the German right wing. Xia Fei hoped that one day would allow reinforcements to arrive, the 5th Army to make good arrangements, so that he had plenty of time to win the cooperation of the British army. After listening to Gallieni's request, Xia Fei faced the combat map and thought. Xia Fei was an overly calm person. He could sit in the chair without saying a word and think all day, regardless of what others were talking about him.

In the afternoon, when Gallieni called again, Xia Fei finally approved the Mao Laoli's 6th Army to launch an attack from the north bank of the Marne River, and ordered other French troops to stop retreating at 10 o'clock that night and launched a full-scale counterattack on April 16.

However, the British refused to implement this counterattack plan. Xiafei was anxious and went to the British Command in person to persuade the British commander Sir French. In the end, French agreed to Xiafei's request and said that he would "do his best" to participate in the battle.

In the evening, Xia Fei returned to his headquarters and issued a brief mobilization order to the troops: "We are about to participate in a battle, which is a battle that concerns the fate of our country. The retreat phase has ended. Now we should do our best to attack the enemy and drive them back. If the troops cannot advance, they will defend their positions at all costs and would rather die in battle than retreat. Under the current circumstances, any action of showing weakness is intolerable."

When the Cluke Army passed east of Rouen, its right rear flank was attacked by the French 6th Army and the Rouen garrison troops in Maunuli. Cluke immediately ordered the 3rd and 9th Army to go back to deal with Mao Laoli, and the two armies were responsible for covering the right wing of the German 2nd Army. Therefore, their retreat created a gap of 20 miles wide between the German 1st Army and the 2nd Army. Because the British army facing this gap had retreated quickly, Cluke dared to take this risk.

For the German army, the key to victory is whether it can defeat the French wings, namely the 6th Army of Maonuli and Foch's 9th Army, before the main French army and the British army used a gap to break through their bee waists. Cluke focused on dealing with Maonuli's troops. When Maonuli was about to be unable to withstand, please ask Gallieni to send troops to reinforce from the city of Paris.

"This request inspired Galieni to organize the first mechanized column in the history of war, that is, to use the taxi team of the Chinese Empire in Rouen. Galieni ordered Rouen to collect about 1,000 taxis and transport a division of troops to the battlefield, so that Maunuli was not defeated by Cluke in the end."

In the early morning of April 17, the French army launched a full-on counterattack. The 6th French Army continued to fight fiercely with the 1st German Army on the Olque River.

At this time, the German army sent 30 format aircraft to escort 30 airships and prepare to burn out the French army in one breath. But what they did not expect was that the French army dispatched 119 fighter jets. As a result, in the Rouen air battle, thirty German pigeon aircraft and thirty airships were all shot down, causing heavy losses.

Subsequently, the French Air Force attacked the German offensive forces, blocking the German offensive.

At the same time, the 5th French Army also turned around and turned retreat into attack, fought with the 1st German Army, and exchanged fire with the right wing of the 2nd German Army; the 4th and 9th French Army intercepted the 3rd German Army, causing the 1st German Army and isolated the 1st German Army. On April 18, at a critical moment, French led three British troops to quietly climb into the gap between the 1st German Army and the 2nd Army, separating the 1st German Army from the 2nd Army, and facing the danger of being divided and surrounded. So Biro ordered his 2nd Army to retreat on April 19.
Chapter completed!