Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 114 The final offensive!
half a minute ago.

Verdun.

Lerouville.

Headquarters of the Third Farland Army.

Sarai is actually a top student who graduated from the Imperial War College.

When the Farlan Republic was still that kingdom, he had the opportunity to visit and study at the Imperial War College because of his good performance in the army.

It was precisely because of this that when the First and Second Armies of the Empire stopped their offensive and the Third and Fourth Armies advanced further, he was able to immediately discover the problems in the actions of the Imperial forces.

He knew the personalities of Crook and Bilo well, and was also familiar with the commanders of the Third and Fourth Armies.

And the development of things was just as this outstanding general, who could add the letter VON to the middle of his name as long as he crossed the border between Verdun and the Empire, thought - the Empire was preparing to swallow Verdun.

But now, his nerves were tense because of an open voice communication from the Imperial Army.

Everyone in the Third Army Headquarters held their breath, their faces flushed, as they looked at the small receiver in front of them.

For nothing else.

It was because of the Florence sound that just sounded inside.

The call signs of the commanders of the various Imperial Army groups were public.

And Florence is the code name of Constantine, commander of the Fifth Army.

As for Blue Star...

No one knows who he is, but the fact that Florence did not hang up the call from Blue Star is enough to prove how important he is to Florence.

Sarai had his back to the wall, one side of his buttocks hanging over the edge of the table, his hand on the communicator's shoulder, a serious expression on his freckled face.

He looked at the pocket watch on his other hand, constantly calculating the time, tiny beads of sweat oozing out of his forehead.

The Empire's communications would not exceed 30 seconds at most. If even a little bit of the Empire's communications could be eavesdropped on, it would be of great help to the Third Army stationed in Verdun.

Beside him, the communicator was sweating profusely as he adjusted the eavesdropping radio in front of him. Finally, at the sixteenth second, accompanied by a short noise, he finally caught the fleeting communication wave.

Sarai was so overjoyed that he grabbed his pocket watch and even squeezed the gold cover until it was deformed.

The other staff officers and troop commanders pricked up their ears, fearing that they would miss even a single word.

Then they heard Ryan's voice.

[Blue Star announces to the entire Fifth and Sixth Army Groups.]

【Final Offensive!】

[Our behemoth has been deployed! ]

【All troops attack! 】

Immediately afterwards, the connection was disconnected.

"The call is over!" The operator turned to look at Sarai. "Do you want to send a copy to the General Staff?"

"Not yet."

Sarai frowned and clenched his teeth.

He didn't understand the conversation just now.

Final offensive?
The Empire had just completed the construction of the Verdun encirclement. They had not even officially launched an offensive against the fortress group. How could they talk about the end?
In fact, this communication was sent to the Sixth Army.

Sarai looked at his adjutant and staff in confusion.

But obviously, no one understood the meaning of this conversation.

"Could this be a signal to launch a feint attack?" A lieutenant colonel held his chin with his hand, his eyes fixed on the sand table in front of him, constantly moving over the dozens of fortresses on the front line.

"Impossible! The Empire's feint attack has already begun. They wouldn't command a feint in this way. It's too stupid!"

Sarai immediately rejected the idea and also looked at the sand table.

According to the sand table built based on the intelligence obtained by the reconnaissance aircraft at the front line this afternoon, the imperial troops were basically all under control within the fire coverage of the fortress defense line.

It can be said that as long as the current situation is maintained, Verdun will become a place where the empire will bleed to its last drop of blood.

If Sarai could understand this, the Empire naturally could not fail to understand it.

The question is, will the empire really launch a general offensive under such circumstances?
Sarai couldn't understand.

At this time, the commander of one of Sarai's armies cursed: "Constantine is no idiot. He will never launch a general offensive before the battle line is even stabilized!"

"That's it!" Sarai immediately raised his head and looked at the other party. "The Empire will not be able to stabilize its front until tomorrow at the earliest. Which means they..."

Sarai's voice suddenly stopped, and he widened his eyes and looked behind the commander.

"They what?"

The commander looked at Sarai with confusion in his heart.

But Sarai had no intention of talking to the other party at all.

The next moment, red light lit up the dark night sky.

The drizzle, the dark clouds, and the ground, almost everything that could be seen was dyed red by the beam of light.

The red light penetrated the glass and the door, shining into the headquarters of the Third Army.

The decoder who had been waiting on the side hurriedly took out his decoding tools and began to decode the beam of light of the honor communication in a panic.

"Are they really going to launch a general attack?"

A trace of fear flashed in Sarai's eyes.

Honor communications are not something that anyone can send; they are a means of communication that is only used as a last resort and in the most urgent situations.

However, this beam of light appeared behind the enemy camp.

That is a position that will definitely not be threatened.

But before Sarai could figure this out.

Behind that beam of light, two more beams of light for honor communications appeared on the left and right.

They formed a huge arrow on the vast land. Even though they were more than ten kilometers away, Sarai could clearly see three red beams of light piercing into the dark clouds in the sky.

"That's an arrow!"

"The Empire is pointing a beam of honor at Saint-Mihiel!"

Sarai's adjutant was the first to notice this. He shouted in the headquarters: "Communicator, send a message to Saint-Mihiel immediately! Have them organize their defense immediately. The Empire is using the beam of honor communication to provide the troops with precise attack directions!"

just.

Before the adjutant could finish his words, the guards on the side shouted, "Another honorary signal! Due north by east! Two o'clock! The second one! The third one!"

Sarai strode out of the headquarters and looked up at the defense that the guard had just reported.

Sure enough, three more beams of light from Honor Communications appeared in the sky.

only……

Those were not the three paths the guards had mentioned.

What Sarai saw was at one o'clock.

There, right next to the three beams of light the guards mentioned.

Three blood-red beams of light rose from the ground, pierced through the dark clouds and rushed straight into the sky!

A total of nine beams of light from honor communications transformed into three blood-stained arrows on this battle line that stretched a full 100 kilometers from north to south, pointing directly at the three most important fortresses in Verdun!
The Empire is for real!

Sarai instantly understood why the sound just now was intercepted by his subordinates.

That was intentional by the Empire.

The guy named Blue Star deliberately waited for a while after connecting with the Fifth Army Headquarters.

The purpose is to let the Farlan army know that the Empire is preparing for a general offensive!

"All troops on alert!"

"All troops at alert!!!!!!!!!"

Veins popped up on Sarai's face.

He roared with all his might, "Inform all troops to immediately establish a defensive line. All troops must maintain spacing in platoons. All troops at Fort Douaumont, Fort Vau, and Saint-Mihiel must retreat to the fortified complex! The Imperial Army is charging!"

"Radio! There's no time to encrypt. Directly request all front-line command posts to enter the bunkers and prepare the infantry units to deal with the Empire's attack!" The headquarters was instantly busy.

One after another, the messengers took the intelligence, rode their horses, bicycles, and motorcycles, and rushed to their destinations.

Those who didn't have any simply dropped all their equipment, holding only a pistol and orders, and ran away into the night.

Dozens of seconds later, the troops who received the radio message immediately fired countless flares into the sky without any hesitation.

The more than 60-kilometer-long battle line was suddenly illuminated by red and white light, making it as bright as day.

Even Verdun, which was more than ten kilometers away from the front line, was awakened from its sleep by the dazzling lights.

Countless civilians and soldiers walked out of the building. They looked at the nine beams of light in the distant sky, their hearts and faces filled with fear and anxiety.

After a few seconds, a small number of people who had recovered their shock began to point at the beam of light, while some old men and women began to criticize the soldiers around them for standing there in a daze and not going to fight.

But they, as well as those Farlan soldiers, never imagined that the danger above their heads was obviously more dangerous than those imperial soldiers who were sharpening their swords more than ten or twenty kilometers away!
in the sky.

The four Wave-class airships, Z331 to Z334, had completed their combat preparations almost the moment the beam of light appeared. The rear cargo holds were immediately opened, and the time and height for the detonation of the prefabricated fragmentation air-blast bombs hanging from the ceiling were set.

Around them.

Those Zeppelin-class airships were also ready for battle.

Light bulbs lit up green, and they either opened the hatches or pushed the brackets that were originally used to mount airborne communication boats into the air, exposing the prefabricated fragmentation bombs and bombs for bombers inside to the outside of the cabin.

And in the sky more than ten kilometers west of Leruville.

Following Ryan's gesture, the young bombardier checked the timing and altitude fuses of all the bombs for the last time, and took out the aiming device recommended for high-altitude bombing to confirm the target below.

He completed all these operations in just a few seconds, and at the moment when the guide lights on both sides of the airship's hull turned from red to green, he smashed the fixing bolts of the hatch.

The two bombs, weighing a total of 300 kilograms, were instantly captured by gravity, whirring and falling to the ground, which was dyed red. The airborne communication boat Ryan was aboard suddenly rose sharply upwards, and under the pilot's control, it rushed into the sky in an almost violent manner.

Ryan, Brinkman, and the platoon leader even felt that they were falling towards the stern of the cabin. Then, six almost connected explosions were heard from below.

Through the open tail hatch, Ryan could see six red balls of light flashing by a few kilometers below.

And the location on the ground.

The Farlan Infantry Regiment camp, which had been brightly lit, became dark almost immediately. It was unclear whether the light bulbs were shattered by the shock wave of the explosion or the power supply equipment was destroyed.

He looked at the map floating in front of his eyes and saw that in the camp where there were originally several thousand people, almost one-third of the red dots had been killed.

Among the remaining people, most of them had injuries of varying degrees, which meant that almost all of them had lost their combat capability.

He turned his attention back from the map and heard Brinkman's voice again.

"Lieutenant Colonel, the Zeppelin is starting to descend!"

The aerial liaison boat has now returned to level flight and started to dive at a large angle towards the headquarters of the Third Army.

Ryan walked to the porthole with unsteady steps, grabbed the handle beside him, and looked in the direction of Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux.

The dark clouds, completely dyed red by the beam of light, floated at an altitude of more than two thousand meters above the ground, emitting a hazy red light all over.

Then, accompanied by rumbling thunder, thirteen huge black shadows immediately appeared from the dark clouds that had originally blocked the sky.

The Zeppelins, which were more than 300 meters long, crushed the thick clouds with their huge size. Bathed in blood-like light, they crashed to the ground at a descent rate of 100 meters per second.

Ryan could see the ballast water continuously released by these behemoths during their landing process turning into clouds in the air, and he could also see the spiral trails left in the sky by the propeller thrusters at the bow and stern of the ships.

at the same time.

The deafening sound even came from the city of Verdun.

"It's the Zeppelin fleet. They've locked onto the Farlans' ammunition depot!"

The platoon leader shouted excitedly: "Lieutenant Colonel! We blew up the Farlane ammunition depot!"

Ryan wanted to turn and look at the city of Verdun, but an entire red and black forest blocked his view.

"Never mind Verdun!"

Ryan immediately drew his service pistol and took a signal gun loaded with attack flares from his belt. He rushed out of the airship at the fastest speed and pulled the trigger towards the sky.

The red flare with a special whistle flew to a height of 100 meters in the blink of an eye, and the shrill whistle immediately alarmed everyone within a one-kilometer radius.

The soldiers of the assault company who had been lying in ambush were ready for battle the moment they saw the signal flares. The first and second rows of soldiers who were farthest from the target directly launched an attack from the northwest of Leruville in the fan formation that had been arranged earlier.

The sound of gunfire from MP-14 and P-08 filled the sky.

The Z331, which had been lurking in the sky, also arrived randomly.

The gunner kept adjusting the direction of the 40mm howitzer and locked onto the simple airport and airship warehouse in Leruville at the fastest speed.

on the ground.

The soldiers in the third row immediately discovered Ryan's position.

The third platoon leader came up to Ryan, stood at attention, and said, "Lieutenant Colonel."

He did not launch an attack immediately, and his troops remained in place, waiting for Ryan.

Ryan didn't hesitate. With a wave of his hand, he interrupted the third platoon leader and pointed to a building in the distance, just a short distance from the train station, that served as the headquarters. "The Farlan headquarters is over there. The senior officers will stay. Anyone else who resists will be killed!"

"Yes!"

The third platoon leader didn't waste any words. He turned around, held his gun, and led his troops along the sides of the path that had been marked out early, taking advantage of the cover of gullies, farmland, and bushes, and rushed towards the building of the headquarters of the Farlan Third Army.

------------------

Five minutes ago, inside the headquarters of the Third Army.

The order given by Sarai was executed without any delay, but Sarai was still not happy.

What made it even more difficult for him was that the Empire did not launch an artillery attack.

Since the Empire sent out the mobilization signal for the final offensive a minute ago, no news has been sent back from the battlefield except for the nine honorary signals.

The other staff officers had the same idea as Sarai.

"Quiet, too quiet..."

Some senior generals were anxiously pacing around in the staff headquarters, their eyes fixed on the telephones and radios, without any slackness.

The communicator's actions stopped after he finished sending the letter, and there was no further operation, as if no news had been sent back from the front line.

Logically speaking, such a quiet environment is obviously good news for the people of Farlan.

But no matter who it was, after seeing the Empire use honor communications, they all knew that the current calm was just the prelude to the storm.

Sarai and his men would rather hear the sounds of telephones, radios, sirens, and even artillery fire than spend such a quiet period.

He looked at his adjutant, at the battlefield in the distance, and then at the sand table in front of him. His heart was beating like a steam engine with a red-hot boiler, clanging non-stop.

suddenly!

A rapid phone ring occurred.

The adjutant immediately took it over and then looked at Sarai with a pale face: "The Empire launched an attack from the west! The 32nd and 37th Infantry Regiments suffered heavy casualties! They are unable to organize a counterattack!"

Another phone call.

"Report! Urgent message from Verdun! The Empire is bombarding our ammunition depot! The source and direction of the bombardment are unknown!"

"What!!??"

Sarai knew immediately that something was wrong.

But before he could think of the order he was going to give, there was a rumbling thunder in the northern sky.

The thunder directly disrupted Sarai's thoughts. He irritably swept away all the documents on his desk, picked up the phone, and prepared to send out a reconnaissance aircraft squadron to carry out a reconnaissance mission.

Although it is late at night, the Empire's Honor News provides valuable light.

He wanted to use the reconnaissance aircraft force to confirm what the Empire was up to.

just.

Just as he answered the phone to the airship warehouse, a series of dull explosions were heard from the other end of the line.

The sound swept towards the airship warehouse from a distance at an extremely fast speed. Four or five seconds later, it was accompanied by a long hang-up sound and a series of explosions that were a beat slower but still connected to the ear.

Sarai finally understood.

His own airport was taken down by the Empire right under his nose!

(End of this chapter)