On May 24, a military vehicle from the rear drove into the Longwei Fortress occupied by the German army, bringing Qingying a first- and second-level Iron Cross awarded to him by the German General Staff.

In order to more effectively command the more than 1.5 million troops on the Western Front, since May 14, Moltz had moved his command base from the General Staff Building in Berlin to Kobrentz on the Rhine, which was less than 170 kilometers away from Longwei. Emperor William wanted to witness the second battle of Seandang with his own eyes, and followed Moltz to the front-line barracks. When the Qingying Fifth Army won a great victory in the border battle and the annihilation of 160,000 French troops were sent back to Kobrentz, William was even more ecstatic and released his excitement in his villa palace.

In 1870, William I and Marshal Moltke defeated the French army under the city of Sedang, and the battle laid the foundation for German unification; and forty-three years later, the German army also annihilated its main force in France, while the emperor's holy name was William, and the name of the Chief of Staff was still Moltke! Everything reappeared like a cycle of history and destiny. How could such auspicious situation not make William excited and happy? William, who felt that the heroic spirit of the Emperor Cao and Frederick the Great, was already full of ambition and infinite confidence at this moment; at this moment, a magnificent and vast battle map was already unfolding in front of him.

On the left wing of the Western Front, the sixth and seventh armies of Germany, with a total strength of only a few more than 200,000, were like a strong and solid steel gate under the unified command of Bavarian Crown Prince Rupresit, firmly blocking the French army's march path. Faced with the continuous attacks of more than 550,000 troops of the French First and Second Army, the German army's defense lines on all main roads were as solid as a decent place, but the invading French troops were beaten all over the field and bleeding. From the 19th, the German army even launched an offensive in some areas; for a moment, the roar of heavy artillery roared and roared. With the support of heavy firepower, the German troops, who were unwilling to suppress, launched a fierce and desperate battle with the French invaders with absolute advantage in numbers.

In Belgium, the right-wing cluster of German troops, which had gathered three large armies, was not even a single enemy that could slightly stop them from moving forward. Since the Germans occupied Brussels, the Belgian army that was scattered like birds and beasts. The Belgian officers and soldiers who marched on the waves of passion and clouds of fantasy have long been scared in the face of the real cruel wars these days, and only knew to escape backwards and unable to carry out any effective resistance.

In contrast, the German army's destruction of various domestic infrastructure was even more uncomfortable: every time they evacuated from a place, they would destroy all the highways, bridges, rails, tunnels, telephone lines, communication stations and other facilities. This put a lot of pressure and difficulties in the German army's logistics and communications. The German army had to spend a lot of effort to repair the roads damaged by the Belgians and re-establish telephone lines to maintain smooth contact with the Koblenz command in the rear.

As of May 19, there were only more than 10,000 remaining soldiers in Belgium, and they were hiding in the northwest of Belgium near the English Channel. After leaving two infantry brigades to clear the remaining Belgian troops, Crook, Bilo and Hausen were once again lined up into three mysterious blades on the blood scythe of the Death God of Death, sweeping towards France. At this moment, the troops they were facing were the French Fifth Army that advanced into the triangle between the Sambur and the Maas River, and the British Expeditionary Force that was deployed on the Mons Canal on the French border.

According to the original plan of the French Army Command, the Fifth Army was to join the Third and Fourth Army to break out of the Arden Mountains and destroy the "revolving door shaft" in the middle of the German army with a thunderous force. However, due to the rapid advance of the German army in Belgium, the French flanks were under great pressure far beyond expectations. The French commander-in-chief Xia Fei had to force the Fifth Army to withdraw from the attack sequence in the A and other mountains and instead unfolded northward to face the sweeping from Belgium.

German army. However, Xia Fei was still obsessed with his plan for breakthrough in the middle and always wanted to achieve a breakthrough in the middle; and the Fifth Army, which violated the original combat purpose, moved northward to the north, became his best object to weaken his troops and strengthen the middle. Under Xia Fei's dispatch, the strength of the Fifth Army, which originally had nearly 300,000 troops, was sharply reduced; on May 15, General Longlezac, the commander of the Fifth Army, found that the army under his command had only 12 divisions and 215,000 people.

Lancezac was anxious about this situation. As another commander of Mingrui among the French army, Lancezac clearly understood what a difficult situation he would face: since the German army entered Belgium, the number of German troops clearly identified by the French army has 30 divisions, which is more than twice the current Fifth Army; and the British Expeditionary Force fortified on the Mons Canal in Belgium, with only 5 divisions and 80,000 troops, which cannot be escaped by the French army at all.

The unfavorable situation of the enemy being strong and we being weak. Langlezac sent telegrams to Xiafei more than once, and finally drove directly to Vitrile François, more than 140 kilometers away, explaining to Xiafei in person the absolute necessity of strengthening the Fifth Army. In Langlezac's plan, the Fifth Army should be strengthened by two and a half armies on the basis of the current situation; even if this condition cannot be achieved, at least his troops should be restored to the lineup situation ten days ago.

Although Longlezac has always been famous in the French army for his "sharp intelligence" and has gained Xia Fei's trust, his behavior made Xia Fei very angry. Xia Fei's ideal commander of the army is "like a brave lion and obedient like a loyal dog". He should implement the command of the command without hesitation, rather than just pointing fingers at the command's orders based on his own situation, or even revising and revising them. In addition, Xia Fei himself is an emperor-like commander-in-chief, which is harmful to himself.

He was extremely disgusted with his majesty, and what Longlezach did was undoubtedly a great refutation of the authority and face of the commander-in-chief, which further deepened Xia Fei's resistance and disgust towards Longlezach's request to strengthen the troops of the Fifth Army. In the last meeting with Longlezach, Xia Fei, who finally couldn't bear it, directly confronted the subordinate: the French army's plan to break through the Arden Mountain Forest from the middle has been planned for a long time and must not be changed. Longlezach either obeys the order or resigns and gets out.

Under the pressure of Xiafei, Longlezac finally chose to surrender. When the French army launched an attack in the Arden Mountains, Longlezac led his army, which had already lost strength, and launched along Charleroi, Mete and Give. At this time, the third army of Hausen was coming from the east, approaching Give and Mete; Bilo's second army swept from the north, pointing to Charleroi; and Crook's first army advanced from the north, running towards British troops with only one and a half armies on his left wing. Although Longlezac could not see the panoramic view of more than 800,000 German troops rushing from Belgium like a tide, he knew that his troops were at a great disadvantage than the upcoming German army. The dogmatism of "attacking wherever the enemy was encountered" had already died in his heart.

In order to avoid the fate of destruction in the upcoming battle, Longlezac made a decisive decision in the French army, but at the moment it was the only right choice - digging trenches to defend. "The French Army has now returned to its tradition; it does not know any laws except attack." The French officers and soldiers who advocated desperate attacks not only had a subjective emotional difficulty accepting this cowardly behavior that was contrary to "imperfection", but also had no way to dig trenches in objective skills. The French army has indeed learned the essence of their "Field Ordinances", and did not know any laws except attack, and had no skills and experience in how to defend. In the end, they only dug some straight and narrow trenches, whose height could barely bury themselves in it; and their crucial artillery did not conduct effective concealment, because they had not conducted any training in this area at all.

In the early morning of May 19, the Second German Army led by Bilo crashed into the position built by the French army in Charleroi like a tsunami wave. Due to the smooth advancement before, the German army was inevitably underestimated by the enemy. After the sporadic artillery preparations, they rushed towards the French position as usual, but they were greeted with dense rifle shooting. Although the number of machine guns equipped by the French army was only a fraction of the German army, the lethality of the trench and wire mesh on the infantry was still reflected; for one day of fierce fighting, the German army was beaten to the corpse, and the results they achieved were quite limited.

Seeing this situation, Bilo was extremely surprised. The French actually learned to dig trenches and defend, which was beyond his expectations. Due to low maneuvers and frequent failures, his armoured troops of the army had long been left behind by infantry and could not participate in this breakthrough battle as soon as possible. After careful reconnaissance with airships, Bilo found that the trenches dug by these Frenchmen were quite crude, which also dispelled his concerns and chose to directly crush them with strong firepower.

On the afternoon of the 19th, the German Second Army immediately launched a three-hour thunder bombardment on Charleroi. The huge waves of air produced by the explosion were thundering, like a tsunami and a mountain collapse. At the same time, some Gotha bombers also flew slowly from the horizon and dropped four aviation bombs carrying their own power that were even more powerful than 283mm high-explosion bombs on the ground. At dusk, the Third Army of Hausen also launched an attack on the east side. The explosion of the heavy artillery shells was as majestic as thunder in a storm, shocking his heart.
Chapter completed!