Anyone with a little military knowledge knows that in an area where the opponent is determined to stick to, and after the defender's position is occupied by the attacker, the next problem that the attacker needs to face is the opponent's counterattack.

literally, it can be understood that this is also a military offensive, and any military offensive will be difficult to work without full preparation in all aspects. When counterattacking and regaining lost positions, what you need to face is an enemy who has been prepared for a massacre. Because of its miserable nature, the counterattack is often Jedi and extremely sacrificed.

In the long marching ranks, in the cabin of a bumpy lightning command vehicle, the heating brought from the engine made the temperature in the cabin reach ten degrees, as pleasant as spring, but for the people in the cabin, there was no trace of pleasantness and anxiety that filled everyone's heart.

Although it is still hundreds of kilometers away from the front line, the fully enclosed carriage of this lightning truck is the mobile headquarters of the Expeditionary Force. As the brain of the Expeditionary Force, it is naturally worried about the First Division, which has arrived at the battlefield and has begun to prepare for a counterattack.

The problem facing Cai E at this time was: the First Division was preparing to counterattack, and the German army was also preparing to defend. The other party was prepared for a long time, and there were still too many problems.

"... Therefore, the extension of our preparation time means giving the enemy more time to prepare for defense. It seems that the key to the problem now is that we should strive for time to make full preparations for the attack, and to start as soon as possible, and not give the enemy more time to prepare for the attack."

When Xu Shuzheng proposed an immediate counterattack plan, Cai E's brow was still tightened. In fact, he still thought that fighting this battle would be relatively reluctant. Of course, he knew that the military was in full swing now, and he should take advantage of the increasingly eagerness of the officers and soldiers to launch a counterattack against the Germans and recover the French positions occupied by the Germans in the morning.

But...now, what they are facing is the world's largest army power, the German army!

Originally, at the beginning, for Cai E, he had placed his hopes on the nine divisions of the Expeditionary Army betting on a certain front at the same time, and forced his breakthrough to break through the German position with a certain point of absolute manpower and firepower advantage. He also attacked the German army in depth. Once the breakthrough was achieved, the expeditionary army's sharp knife became dull and naturally he could withdraw from the battlefield.

At that time, what the whole world saw was the outstanding performance of the expeditionary force's sharp knife in the battle. The world's perception of the Chinese expeditionary generals would greatly change, and they could also show the majesty of the Chinese team in one battle. Even in his opinion, taking the initiative to attack was better than staying in the trenches and enduring the bombardment of the German super cannons.

Therefore, compared to defense, he tended to attack, but now, the First Division, the advance unit of the Expeditionary Force, was suddenly put into the battlefield, which disrupted his plan. In the Expeditionary Force, the strongest combat power was not the First Division. Instead, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Divisions, these three divisions were the main forces of the Jiangsu Army. They had excellent battlefield performances during the Jiaoao Battle. Compared with the First Division, their officers were younger, more offensive, and had strong battlefield initiative. The existence of a large number of outstanding non-commissioned officers made their grassroots combat coordination ability. Because of this, in Cai E's initial plan, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infantry Divisions would serve as the sharp knife for assault, but now the plan was completely disrupted.

Although the First Division is the elite of the CSKA, can they break through the German positions and recover the lost territory of the French army? While worrying inside, he knew clearly that now, even as the commander of the Expeditionary Force, he could not change the French plan. This battle is of great significance to the Expeditionary Force. It can be said that the First Division can directly determine the future of the Expeditionary Force.

"Send a telegram to He Sui and tell him that he must launch a night attack tonight and order him to seize the German defense line at all costs! Let him go to the front line in person. If... he cannot achieve the task, he does not have to come to see him. Please be sure to share the life and death with the front line officers and soldiers!"

After the extremely cold and extremely oriental order was spit out of Cai E's mouth, Cai E looked at Xu Shuzheng.

"Yu Zheng, is there anything else to repeat?"

After thinking for a while, Xu Shuzheng said in a low voice.

"Call all the officers and soldiers of the First Division! Tell them the significance of this battle!"

As night fell, in the trench nearly two meters deep, teams of soldiers with helmets on their heads walked forward along the jagged traffic trench. In the night, tracer bombs kept dragging out red and green ballistics in the night sky, and in the distance, dull explosions kept coming, and every explosion, the night was shining.

The sound of gunfire and cannons seemed to be the only sounds in the world.

From ancient times to the present, night has always been a friend of sneak attackers and attackers. When the battlefield started in Europe, the best time for both the attackers and the defense to adjust their deployment was at night. Once the night came, the two sides of the battle were busy adjusting their personnel and weapons and replenishing their ammunition and medicines. While listening nervously to the ominous sound of the opponent's front line, speculating in my heart what kind of terrible scenes they would encounter tomorrow or the rumbling sound of artillery fire.

However, as we all know, such shooting at night is just a harassment effect.

Although the flares that were just put into use did not have the best lighting effect, they at least changed the course of the night encounter in some way. For the defense side, the flares are friends, while for the attackers, the flares are enemies. When the rumbling sound of cannons echoed in the night sky, the dazzling white light emitted by the flares constantly shines on the earth, fully showing this war zone that was blown to the surface of the moon to the world.

"It's Chinese!"

In the trench, the French soldiers covered in smoke and soil, with the light of the flares, clearly saw that the troops taking over their positions were the legendary Chinese team.

Compared to the frustrated French soldiers, the officers and soldiers of this army that entered the battlefield seemed a little excited, but for these middle-aged people who came to France from thousands of miles away, this night was destined to be tense and excited, and various complex emotions were mixed in the minds of the officers and soldiers.

After a long wait, they finally had to officially enter the battlefield! Although this was a long-awaited battle, people's fear of death still mixed with excitement and fear in the hearts of these soldiers. With the efforts of the division commander, Li Guohui's plan finally agreed to by Betan. The attack plan was completely arranged by them themselves, but the position to attack was a position mixed with the French. To be precise, the French were not at ease with them. On the surface, the French troops in the same trench with them seemed to be a follow-up force, but in fact, it was to avoid the Chinese team being unable to hold their positions and thus give up the position to cause a devastating blow to the entire line.

Even in the face of the distrust of the French Army Command, the First Division was devoted to the pre-war preparations. In the end, the First Regiment of the First Division of the Expeditionary Force was selected as the assault unit of the entire division. An infantry regiment of infantry was scattered on a battlefield of only one kilometer.

Unlike the people-season charges that the French army was used to, they adopted a focus on infiltration and strong attacks through many drills in China. In the mainland, in order to deal with the European battlefield, various departments of the Expeditionary Force conducted targeted training for them to break through barbed wire and fortification areas. If they did not believe this, they also cooperated with special weapons to adapt to strong attack breakthroughs. Grenades, short rifles, submachine guns, and light machine guns widely used in the "Jiaoao Incident" were naturally indispensable weapons. In order to break through the barbed wire area, each infantry detachment was equipped with a blasting cylinder, and at the same time it was equipped with light flamethrowers, a series of weapons far ahead of other countries, plus the attack spirit of the officers and soldiers trained in various combat groups to maintain the attack spirit of the ground at all costs. In this era of 1916, there was no doubt that they were one of the most powerful infantry clusters in the world with the strongest attack capabilities.

As for the infantry tactics of the powerful British, French and European powers, in the eyes of the officers and soldiers of the Expeditionary Force, they were too backward. In the past, when fighting on the scattered lines, they required the maximum number of rifles to overwhelm the firepower of the opponent while shooting each other. But now is not the time to compete for the number of rifles! Machine guns and other automatic weapons have completely suppressed the rifles. Like the tactics of implementing multiple assaults in a narrow front area in the past to break through the position defense are not very effective. And it is very likely to consume huge amounts of troops.

Of course, at this time, no one would understand these Chinese officials, nor would anyone notice what these Chinese officials were about to use. Compared with their tactics, those French officials were more concerned about the various new weapons used by this Chinese expeditionary force.

The short rifle imitating Mauser is naturally nothing new. What really attracted the attention of the French was the submachine gun that fired 9mm bullets carried by the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Although the officers with a keen sense of smell were still aware of the impact of this weapon on trench warfare, and then there was the light machine gun supplied with the left magazine. It was much stronger than the Shaosha light machine gun. After a series of comparison tests, compared with the much rougher, reliable and fired accuracy, the Shaosha light machine gun, which had a high center of gravity and a large weight, the second light machine gun was reliable, with high shooting accuracy and stable center of gravity of the gun. However, the French still did not accept this "exotic" weapon. After all, for the French, their equipment and logistics system must be uniform - even if one or two high-quality equipment was sacrificed.

However, for the French people on the battlefield, they can now look at the novel equipment with greed eyes, but now they are more gloating in their hearts. Now someone is finally going to die for them.

In the trench more than two meters deep, Liu Zishan was taking his own row through the winding and twisty serrated trenches to enter their position. At this moment, the more than 40 soldiers under his command, wearing steel helmets, were covered in sweat on the foreheads under the steel helmets. On this front where a snow had just fallen, this sweat was obviously caused by tension.

At this time, the sky and the earth were covered with white light, and the white light scattered by the flares launched by the German army illuminated the trenches. At this moment, Liu Zishan clearly saw that the trench they were attacking was ahead! At this time, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the First Division had entered the forward trenches through more than ten contact trenches. They sat on both sides of the trenches, and each was making final preparations.

The First Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was a new force in the organization of the Chinese Army. In fact, it was not formed until the Expeditionary Force was formed. Its predecessor was the unit of the First Army. During the Lanshan battlefield and the establishment of the Expeditionary Force, Xu Shuzheng drew backbones from the Officer Education Corps to enrich the force. Both experience and fighting will were first-class in the Central Army. At this time, they were all leaning against the trench walls and drinking water in a restrained manner. Except for the low breathing sound, it was rare to hear anything else.

"If you do not fill in the list of beneficiaries with the correct list of beneficiaries, you will not be able to get 800 yuan in insurance premiums!"

After entering the trenches, Liu Zishan once again confirmed the insurance policy of the soldiers of the Paili soldiers. This was the guarantee provided by the State Council for the Expeditionary Force. He coordinated with the Huaihai Insurance Company to provide soldiers with a battlefield insurance. Although the insurance premium was borne by the soldiers personally, compared with the 400 yuan sacrifice pension provided by France, the 800 yuan was enough for an ordinary family to live for more than ten years. In addition, the French pension could prevent a family from worrying about life for 17 or 8 years. It is precisely because of this that the officers and soldiers of the Expeditionary Force were able to fight on the front line without worries. Even for some soldiers, sacrifice was not only their act of serving the country, but also a act of filial piety.

After Liu Zishan distributed the insurance policy to the soldiers, the soldiers filled it out and helped them to check it out again, and handed the insurance policy to the chief in the company. Then, like the soldiers, Liu Zishan also entered an anxious wait. However, compared to ordinary soldiers who could only stay in the trenches and wait for the next battle, he could stay in a bunker with only two or three square meters that could accommodate several people. As soon as he entered the bunker, he began to write a diary.

"Today, March 11, 2018, the battle will begin in three hours. Maybe, I will never see tomorrow's sunrise again, but who can deny that this battle will be a battle that determines the fate of China and the reputation of the Chinese people..."

After writing a brief diary with passion, Liu Zishan did not stuff the diary into the pocket of the military top as usual, but put it in a bag of personal belongings on the side. The company will finally collect it, and then hand it over to the battalion, regiment, soldiers' letters and suicide notes. If they unfortunately died, then these will be mailed to their families as their relics.

After stuffing the diary into a bag of personal items with his military number, he took out the photo of his fiancée and looked at the pretty face with a smile on the photo. Liu Zishan couldn't help but stroke the girl in the photo with his hands. He always wrote a letter to Lin Xi every day after he came to France.

"...The responsibility for the country has made me do my duty on the battlefield. I have promised my soldiers that I will not force them to do things that I cannot do. Once the offensive order is issued, I will be the first to jump out of the trench and rush towards the enemy. Perhaps, this is the last letter..."

While writing the letter, Liu Zishan kept looking at the girl in the photo, as if he wanted to imprint the girl in his mind. At this moment, the correspondent in the company came over.

"Sir, the order from the company!"

"This is a tiger baby..."

In the trench, Song Qingyun showed off his comrades around him with a photo. In the photo, a woman wearing a flowery cotton jacket in front of the adobe house was holding a one-year-old doll wearing a tiger-head hat, with a smile on her face.

"This is my wife, how about it? Are you beautiful?"

While showing off to the surroundings, Song Qingyun touched the photo and said to the people around him.

"I have calculated that as long as I fight for a year, my military pay will be enough to buy five acres of land. The retirement money can buy another three acres of land and build three shiny large tiled houses. At that time, I will be in the end of my life. I have more than ten acres of land at home and will provide tiger kids with foreign schools in the future..."

When he was looking forward to the future, Song Qingyun's face was full of leisure, and there was no tension before the war. It seemed that for him, all he could think of was a beautiful future. As for death, he had long forgotten.

"The platoon leader is here!"

Listening to the sound coming from beside him, Song Qingyun quickly stuffed the photo into his shirt pocket, and stood at the "platoon leader Xiao Liu" walking over. The young man was only nineteen years old.

"Brothers!"

When he entered the trench, Liu Ziyun looked at the brothers who were greeting him. His voice seemed a little low. He looked at everyone seriously and wrote down his characteristics. This was the first group of subordinates he had led, and the first group of brothers who were about to live and die with him. Unfortunately, before entering the trench, the photos he took were not washed out. According to the rules, each squad took a group photo of each squad, and then took a single photo of each soldier. However, it has not been washed out yet. It is estimated that it will take a long time to wait. Many of them may never have the chance to see those photos again. Tomorrow, how many people will not see the sunrise?

However, as an officer, he could not show any emotion. Looking at everyone, Liu Ziyun smiled slightly and raised the paper in his hand.

"This is the headquarters' telegram!"

The voice rose slightly, and when Liu Zishan unfolded the telegram, he looked at the subordinates in the platoon and signaled them to come closer.

"This is a telegram sent to us by the commander himself to every officer and soldier of the First Division!"

When he said this, a voice came not far away.

"All officers and soldiers of the First Division of the Expeditionary Force of the Republic of China:

Wen Yi Division will launch a counterattack tonight..." To be continued...

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Chapter completed!