Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 110 Siege of Verdun!
When Hugo Schmeisser, clutching the check for 102 marks, left the camp of what he thought was the nd Air Force Special Service Fleet in a daze, his father was still complaining.

The famous firearms designer in the empire shook his head and sighed, always believing that his son Hugo should not charge Lieutenant Colonel Ryan for the 20 guns.

He thought the gun had too high a malfunction rate and was too ugly to be a normal firearm.

How to design the appearance of weapons is a very important matter because it determines the morale of soldiers when fighting.

A powerful rifle not only calms the soldiers, but also effectively deters any enemies they encounter: "This gun will absolutely never pass the military's inspection. If you still want the military to place an order with us, then you shouldn't accept this check! Although this is simply impossible..."

He cursed and got into his Ford car with Hugo's help. After taking a last look at the camp of the 102nd Air Force Special Service Fleet, he let the driver drive.

At the same time, a series of crisp but slightly dull gunshots rang out in the tightly surrounded shooting range.

Ryan was pleased with the weapon, but not because of the performance of this submachine gun, which was very similar to the MP-18.

He was pleased that the troops had finally solved the problem of whether or not to have weapons, because this meant that the troops would soon be able to fully transition from using customized P-08s to a state where everyone was truly equipped with automatic weapons.

In this era when all soldiers are still using bolt action, automatic weapons will give every soldier of the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment absolute confidence on the battlefield.

Not to mention anything else, the series of clicking sounds made after pulling the trigger is enough to scare the people of Farlan.

But the most important thing now is to resolve the Verdun issue first.

The time came to September 10th, 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The sun sets later here than in his hometown, so Ryan still hasn't gotten used to the current weather.

He suddenly began to wonder why he hadn't thought of it this way before, until he saw at the Fifth Army headquarters that everyone there relied on handheld kerosene lamps to see the way at night.

He thought to himself that the capital was rich, and the street lights were installed more densely than in his hometown.

The environment on the front line was much worse than that in the rear. The military camp built outside a small village did not occupy too much of the roads in the village, but they did not allow the villagers to move around freely. Instead, they sent military police to ask all the villagers to stay at home and not go out.

The only thing that surprised Ryan was that, although it should have been the busy farming season, there were few potatoes and beets in the surrounding fields. Even in the land that had been harvested, there were few plots that had been completed or were being sown. Most of the land was a bit dry, as if it had not been taken care of for some time.

He could see some military police from the Fifth Army Headquarters working hard to dig the ground with new recruits. After a while, they would use flashlights or kerosene lamps to illuminate the dug soil, shake their heads, and then immediately run to another place to repeat the action.

"Maybe there's something wrong with the soil fertility."

McIver gnawed on a baguette he'd bought in exchange for a piece of candy, making a crunching sound beside Ryan. "My old man told me that my grandfather had this happen once when he was a kid, but not long after that, they went to war with the Farlanders, and a lot of people died."

This made Ryan feel stunned, but the logic was quite reasonable.

It is a common practice that poor soil leads to reduced grain production, and then countries are forced to go to war to divert internal and external conflicts.

But who would start a war just because of a production cut? Are you kidding me?
He subconsciously prepared to hit McIver on the head again, but then he remembered that this idiot had slipped and injured him last time, so he raised his foot and kicked him in the butt: "Don't talk nonsense."

And McIver seemed to have guessed Ryan's thoughts long ago, because he almost immediately hid aside, and then, while patting the dust off his butt, he happily rolled to the door of the army headquarters and went to smoke and chat with the group of guards from the fifth episode.

Ryan patted his clothes to make the loose jacket, which looked nothing like a military uniform, appear less bulky in the eyes of others, and then he went into the headquarters, which looked like a reinforced concrete building but was actually just a layer of cement pasted on the outside of the Esco explosion-proof wall.

"Report! Lieutenant Colonel Ryan Fliger of the 102nd Air Force Special Service Fleet has arrived!"

The guard immediately called out Ryan's name, and Ryan saw more than a dozen staff officers huddled in this headquarters of less than 50 square meters, discussing the layout of the battle line.

He was about to find Admiral Constantine from Episode 5, but was startled by a voice behind him: "Lieutenant Colonel Flig, we've been waiting for you for days."

"commander!"

Ryan immediately turned around to look at the person who came, saluted him, then immediately withdrew and retreated to the headquarters.

The other party obviously knew what Ryan meant, and did not say much, nor did he return the gift to Ryan according to the imperial regulations, but went straight into the headquarters.

Almost all the staff officers who were busy discussing tactics left the headquarters, leaving only a female civilian and a male adjutant.

Constantine first gestured to Ryan to sit down, then sat down immediately himself and said, "That's Lieutenant Colonel Joseph von Franz, my adjutant, and Miss Minna Lawrence, the clerk. They shouldn't need to leave, right?"

"That's not necessary, General."

Ryan said calmly, and immediately got to the point: "We heard that your unit has confirmed the specific division of the enemy's battle lines and combat power..."

"But things are different now."

Commander Constantine shook his head and signaled his adjutant to spread out the map.

Ryan immediately looked at the table. The one-meter-long and one-meter-wide map clearly showed the entire terrain radiating outward for one hundred kilometers with Verdun as the center.

According to the map, the Fifth Army's current position is south of Sedan, about 60 kilometers from Verdun.

According to the pre-planned battle line, the Fifth Army should have launched an attack in a direction further west, not here.

Ryan immediately realized that this was not the current position of the Fifth Army, but the battle line layout drawn up by the Fifth Army Staff and Headquarters for the next battle.

"Are we going to push the front to the right wing of the Sixth Army?"

Ryan looked at the battle line stretching southward along the east bank of the Meuse River and spoke slowly: "Didn't we occupy Mount Baredic before? Logically, we should have..."

"We cut off the transportation line from the Farlan capital of Palu to Verdun, Lieutenant Colonel."

Constantine said, "But their actual supply line isn't there. The intelligence we've received from the front lines indicates that the Farlanes have abandoned the area from Reims to the Argonne Forest and are preparing to withdraw their forces, concentrating their efforts on Verdun."

"Our offensive intentions have been seen through!"

Ryan understood Constantine's meaning almost immediately. He quickly called up the system map and calmly confirmed the layout of the entire battle line.

The First and Second Armies remained on the front line established at the beginning, while the Third and Fourth Armies advanced forward for dozens of kilometers, almost reaching the edge of the Maine River!
The French Ninth and Fourth Armies, which were opposing them on the front line, were currently retreating, but were not being pursued because they were separated by the Maine River.

Ryan thought to himself that this was not good, because the job of these two armies was to keep retreating so as to create the illusion for the Farlans that the Imperial Army was going to completely expose the left wing of the First and Second Armies to them.

This would make it easier for the Farlans to squeeze a large number of troops into the gap between the Second and Third Armies, greatly slowing down their mobilization speed and flexibility of action.

But the current situation is that the Ninth and Fourth Armies of Farlan collided head-on with a total of three armies of the Empire.

The result was that as long as the First and Second Armies retreated as planned, the Third Army would immediately face encirclement from the right wing by the three Farland armies...

"Did the Third and Fourth Armies expose our intentions?!"

Ryan looked at Constantine: "Are they moving forward?"

"how do you know?"

Constantine was shocked. "They advanced some distance fourteen hours ago. I thought you didn't know that."

"How could I not have guessed it when the battle lines had become like this?"

Ryan frowned and focused on the map in front of him.

Constantine said, "The Third and Fourth Armies discovered that the Farlanes were attempting to retreat to the banks of the Seine. To contain the enemy, they advanced 40 kilometers, using a feint attack to force the enemy to leave some troops behind."

Ryan: "But their actions were not reported to the First and Second Armies. Therefore, when the Farlanes discovered that General Kruk and General Bülow's troops had not advanced, they immediately realized that the Empire's main target was actually Verdun, not Palu."

"That's it."

Constantine scratched his head, obviously very dissatisfied with this result, because it would cause the Farlans to directly choose to abandon Palu and set up the defense line in an area further south. There was even a rumor in the intelligence department that Joffre was preparing to move the capital.

This is not an impossible thing to happen. If it really happened, the final result would inevitably be that Farlan would stuff most of his troops into Verdun, causing Verdun to receive a large number of troops as a supplement.

This is not a good thing for the Fifth Army. On the other hand, Ryan.

Ryan could sense what Constantine meant, but to him, although the matter was serious, it was not that serious.

The Farlanders' tactical change was rapid, but in fact, withdrawing the troops to the banks of the Seine was Joffre's main purpose.

He wanted to give up Palu from the very beginning because he didn't think Palu had to be defended.

The question now is how soon their armies can be sent to Verdun.

According to the speed of the Farlans in the past, their infantry marched about 30 to 40 kilometers a day, but now there is a long and dense railway system on the front line.

If nothing unexpected happens, they will be able to send more than 10,000 troops to Verdun tonight...

In other words, the Fifth Army must complete the occupation of Verdun before the Farlanders send a large number of troops to Verdun. The time left for them should not exceed three days at most...

Ryan leaned his hands on the table, looked at the map for a while, then looked at Constantine: "Commander, how much time can the General Staff give us at most?"

"One week."

Constantine said: "But this is not given by the General Staff. This is the maximum time our current supplies can last."

"Part of the railway in the Kingdom of Perijie is still under repair, so the transportation capacity has been somewhat affected. In addition, the navy has been busy negotiating with the United Kingdom recently..."

"That means the Emperor hopes to resolve the battle on the Farlan front as quickly as possible, right?"

Ryan looked at the map again.

According to the new battle plan, the Empire will launch an attack from the east of Verdun, attacking the enemy fortress head-on.

The line would run from Montmedy, north of Verdun, through Etin, and eventually reach Saint-Mihiel in the south.

The Fifth Army would be responsible for the offensive in the direction of Montmedy and Eitan, while operations in the south would be carried out in conjunction with the Sixth Army.

It should be noted that the purpose of the attack in the south was to cut off the connection between Saint-Mihiel and Verdun, while the purpose of the battle in the north was to be able to outflank the Verdun fortress group.

This was a thorough offensive plan, completely different from the feints of the past.

If Constantine had enough troops, such as three army groups, Ryan believed that he would be able to successfully capture Verdun.

But he didn't.

According to the map, the Fifth Army's troops will advance late tonight and be in combat position before midnight tomorrow.

This meant that the Farlans would have a day and a whole night to prepare for the war, while the Imperial soldiers would have to face the Farlan fortresses with exhausted bodies.

The battle plan needs to be overhauled.

Ryan looked unhappy as he tried to confirm the location of his troops on the map, because the distance from the rear to the front line determined the deployment time of the 502nd Regiment.

But he couldn't find the airship's berth: "General, where is our base?"

"Your base is here."

Constantine stamped his foot on the ground twice. "This village is already under Imperial control, and the surrounding area is wide enough to support the landing of the airship fleet. I will advance with the headquarters to Montmedy, which is more suitable for commanding the front line."

"Telephone lines and telegraphs..."

Constantine: "Those are already prepared. Our engineers set out three hours ago. They are very fast, so it won't be a problem."

Ryan nodded and thought that the Fifth Army must have been prepared long ago, otherwise it would not have been possible to send engineers to lay the lines in advance.

This is a blessing in misfortune.

At this moment, Constantine's adjutant stepped forward and handed over another document covered in Farlane: "Lieutenant Colonel Flig."

"What is this?" Ryan took the document. About four or five days ago, he suddenly discovered that he could read and understand, and even speak a little Farlan, so he immediately understood the content of the document: "Confidential documents of the Farlans?"

"It was seized from a Farlan colonel," the adjutant said. "Based on the contents of the document, the General Staff speculated that the Farlan headquarters was deployed in the direction of Saint-Mihiel, and that the Farlan Fourth Army should have received orders to support Saint-Mihiel..."

"Joffre or Saray?" Ryan confirmed the intelligence of all the Farlan corps in advance. Saray was the commander of Farlan's Third Army stationed in Verdun.

In reality, Sarayi is a ruthless man. He knows clearly that Verdun is a position that must not be abandoned. Once lost, the empire can move all the way south and completely gain tactical and strategic advantages.

So he held on to Verdun, but things are different now.

With the Empire no longer attacking Palu, he would have a large number of troops available to protect Verdun instead of having to use only a Third Army to resist the Empire.

But it was different with Joffre. If it was Joffre's order, everything would have changed.

Ryan did not want to hear that it was Joffre who gave the order, as it would make it difficult for his troops to evacuate the battlefield.

The prerequisite for the 502nd Airborne Infantry Regiment to withdraw from the battlefield is to be able to destroy Farlan's Third Army Headquarters in one fell swoop and send false information to Farlan's friendly forces through Farlan's communication network, causing them to fall into chaos.

Only in this way can Ryan lead his troops to withdraw smoothly from the front line.

Then Constantine said: "It's Saray, Joffre disagrees."

"That's no problem."

Ryan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Since it's Sarayi, then things are simple."

"What do you mean?" Constantine was very confused. As an imperial soldier, he didn't understand why Ryan listed Sarai and Joffre separately.

Ryan's mouth corners immediately raised an angle
"Because this means that the Farlans now have two or more senior leaders who can directly make strategic decisions. The frontline command and the rear command are at odds. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

As he spoke, he withdrew his hand, stood up straight, and looked away from the map.

"Your Excellency General."

Ryan looked at Constantine.

"The 102nd Air Force Special Forces Fleet will remain here until a battle line is established on the front lines in episode ."

"The fleet hopes that your unit can immediately confirm the specific positions of each Farlan artillery regiment after the battle begins, and provide visible light guidance to our fleet from our own positions through honor communications."

As he said this, he called out, "McWeir!"

McIver immediately appeared at the door: "Here!"

Ryan introduced him, "This is my guard. He will guide your messengers to complete the marking of enemy positions and key targets in advance."

"Hand it over to a sergeant?" Constantine was obviously very surprised by Ryan's statement, but he immediately remembered that Ryan was not actually a noble, so he was immediately relieved.

At the same time, several cars also stopped at the entrance of the headquarters.

Constantine's adjutant went out for a while, came back soon, and whispered a few words in Constantine's ear.

Ryan knew that the Fifth Army headquarters was about to move, so he didn't say anything. He just gave a few instructions to McIver, then watched some officers pack up all the documents and leave with Constantine and McIver.

(End of this chapter)