Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 115: Capture Verdun!
"Hold all troops back! The Empire is attacking with airships! Get everyone back into buildings and bunkers!"

Sarai, who was very familiar with the empire, immediately began to give orders to his subordinates around him.

Some guard commanders with direct command authority immediately left the headquarters and began to issue orders to their troops in various ways.

And more people were busy sending previous appointments to various units on the front line.

Sarai ignored the radio incident. After ordering his guards and military police to leave the headquarters to assist in commanding the defense forces around the headquarters, he returned to his desk and began to think.

The Empire sent out an airship force, which meant that Farlan's battle line layout had been completely exposed to the Empire's eyes. Unless the Fourth and Ninth Armies could reach the front line today, the Third Army would definitely not be able to hold out for more than three days.

Before that, the first thing to be lost would be this army headquarters.

Sarai was sulking and his face turned red.

To ensure command of the front, he needed to immediately report the situation on the front to the Fourth Army, 70 kilometers away, and request that the Fourth Army Command take over the Third Army's operations after the Third Army Command was eliminated...

But before handing over the successor command to Ferdinand, he had to inform General Joffre about this first.

"Connect with the General Staff." he said.

The adjutant next to him immediately asked someone to call the General Staff Headquarters and handed the microphone to Sarai.

however.

Before Sarai could hear the voice from the General Staff, a noise came from the phone and finally became completely quiet.

But at the same time, the voices of the military police came from outside the door: "It's an airship! The imperial airship is attacking our railway!"

"They blew up our phone lines!"

The adjutant ran out to take a look, then immediately turned back to Sarai and asked, "Should we retreat?"

But Sarai looked at his adjutant calmly and said, "It's too late."

"The Empire used airships in this battle, but our people knew nothing about it."

Sarai leaned against the window and could hear gunshots in the distance and shrill whistles in the sky.

"The Empire may have taken advantage of the cover of night and used airships to place troops around us, but our soldiers were completely unaware of their presence."

"Judging from the Empire's efficiency, they may have already made plans to capture Verdun during the general mobilization. Now no matter what we do, it will be useless."

Sarai's cloudy eyes closed, lost in thought. Amidst the clamor of gunfire that followed, he gave an order: "Everyone! Destroy the documents immediately! The Imperial Army is about to charge in. Destroy all documents and equipment immediately!"

But his adjutant hesitated at this moment.

The young colonel didn't understand why his superiors would issue such an order when the situation was so unclear. At the moment he hesitated, a series of gunshots, so dense that they were almost connected, rang out directly in the street not far away.

"Whose troops are those!"

He rushed out of the headquarters, but what he saw were groups of Farlan soldiers falling in the night.

The young soldier rolled on the ground and eventually lost consciousness in the blood-soaked land.

The adjutant instinctively put his hand on his pistol, but before he could pull it out, in the distance, in the corner of the street that was dyed red, more than a dozen flames lit up.

"machine gun!"

He quickly lay down, but was still a step too slow.

Dozens of 9mm bullets easily shattered the thin barrier around the colonel, and the remaining bullets hit one of his shoulder blades squarely.

Adrenaline was generated faster than he thought. From the initial cold feeling to the subsequent slight pain, he even had the illusion that the impact of falling was actually more painful than being hit by a gun.

But this illusion did not last.

With the disappearance of the shield, the last protection from the deceased goddess also ended completely.

The intense pain caused him to fall to the ground. His finger on the trigger twitched, and a bullet was fired. The bullet penetrated the muscle from the outside of his thigh, tearing through the skin and arteries, shattering the bones, and finally bursting out from the other side...

And he himself finally lost consciousness completely at this moment.

The same scene was playing out in every corner of Leruville.

The soldiers in the first and second rows did not retreat at all when facing a force four times their size. Having carried out many front-line combat missions, they were now best at rushing into the Farlan positions under the cover of night.

Officers armed with submachine guns rushed to the front of the team. As long as the Farlans showed signs of gathering, they would immediately destroy the Farlans' counterattack with a rain of bullets.

The soldiers following behind them would occasionally fire a flare over the heads of the Farlanes, and under the mixed white and red light, they would eliminate every Farlane who tried to resist, whether they were on the street or on the roof.

the other side.

The three platoons responsible for attacking from the south took less than five minutes to completely wipe out all the Farlan soldiers gathered around the train station. The platoon leader even moved faster than the Farlans and knocked out three machine gun positions used to protect the railway line and the street in front of the headquarters from a distance of 100 meters.

Brinkmann led his soldiers in two waves along the path, entering Lerouville from the left and right sides, and relying on the P-08's advantage in firing rate, he quickly surrounded the headquarters of the Farlan Third Army pointed out by Ryan.

Ryan followed behind a platoon leader and a three-man team. He wanted to take another unit to launch an offensive with Brinkmann in two directions, but was driven back by his subordinates.

But at this moment, after his repatriation, only the headquarters of the Farlan Third Army remained.

The first and second rows of soldiers appeared from the direction of the train station and ran up to Ryan. "Lieutenant Colonel! The enemy forces on the north side have been completely cleared! Over three hundred have been killed and over one hundred and twenty captured!"

"good."

Ryan patted the acting platoon leader on the shoulder and said, "Go gather the prisoners. Send some people to the train station to find a few freight cars and put them under guard!"

"Then find some uninjured and agile men from the first row and have them dismantle the tracks on the southern railway line! We must immediately cut off the Fallanders' railway from the south to the north, otherwise this battle will be in vain!"

"Yes!"

The acting platoon leader of the first platoon did not salute or stand at attention. Instead, he responded briefly as Ryan had requested in the past, looked at his platoon leader again, and then trotted away.

"How about I go?" The platoon leader looked at his deputy with some envy.

"That guy knows Farlan?" Ryan glanced at the platoon leader.

The platoon leader immediately shook his head: "No way, he was a duck farmer before he joined the army."

"Then you still want to run?"

Ryan subconsciously raised his hand to illuminate the back of his head, but the next moment he saw the headquarters of the Farlan Third Army on the side, and he could only suppress the desire in his heart.

There were five people in the assault company who could speak Farsi, including Ryan, Brinkman, Kayneth, and Schneider who was training the new recruits to climb the barbed wire in the rear.

The platoon leader was the only non-commissioned officer who could speak Farsi, and Ryan would let him stay with him alone so that he could act as an interpreter.

At this time, several non-commissioned officers from the second row were already standing outside the wall of the Third Army Headquarters with submachine guns in hand.

Accompanied by several sharp gunshots and a series of bright electric sparks, the building that was originally lit up suddenly went dark - they cut off the power supply to the Farlan Command.

Ryan opened the map and found that there were nearly a hundred people hiding inside.

They advanced so quickly that the commanders and generals of the Third Army Headquarters probably didn't even have time to destroy the documents, and as a result, they were now blocked inside.

The platoon leader looked at Ryan, then at Brinkman, who was at least a hundred meters away from him, and immediately understood why Ryan kept him by his side.

This is to serve as a mouthpiece for him.

But logically this was Brinkman's job, after all, he was only a non-commissioned officer.

However, Ryan is not someone who cares about such things at all.

He nudged the platoon leader's arm with his elbow. "Whatever I say next, you'll say it in Farlane. Got it?"

"What if I say something wrong?" A group of people glared at each other, "How can I, a lousy sergeant, have the qualifications to do this?"

Ryan: "You're studying with that fucking kid McIver, right? I'll promote you to warrant officer when you get back. After you pass the exam, you'll be a second lieutenant next month."

The platoon leader said: "No, I'm fine being a non-commissioned officer, that's what I said."

Ryan immediately nodded in satisfaction, and then shouted in the Imperial language.

"We are the Imperial 102nd Air Force Special Service Fleet!" "Now notify all officers and soldiers of the Farlan Third Army!"

"You have five minutes to decide whether to lay down your weapons and surrender!"

"In five minutes, my troops will launch an aerial bombardment of all buildings in Leruville!"

The platoon leader immediately continued in Farlane.

The result is that because this guy is not a professional, what he says sounds like a hooligan cursing on the street.

Either they call us "bozi" or they say the notice is a warning, and the bombardment becomes "shooting" just one tone away.

This made Brinkman, who was far away, stunned.

But what the platoon leader said was obviously more stimulating than Ryan's.

Because before he could finish, a slightly childish shout came from a window on the second floor of the headquarters.

The Farlan man shouted in Imperial English with a thick Palau accent: "Fuck it! We're giving you five minutes now. If you don't surrender, we'll kill you!"

But he never expected that Ryan could understand Farlane accurately now.

So much so that almost as soon as Ryan heard his first word, he pulled a grenade and threw it in through the window.

Then everyone heard a series of screams and a muffled sound, plus a light from the window.

Ryan immediately checked the number of people and found that only two people were missing. Then he said, "Tell them that they have two minutes left."

The platoon leader immediately did as he was told.

No one said anything this time.

But almost everyone inside grabbed their weapons, either pistols, sticks or rifles.

At the innermost part of the first floor, in a room with only one glass window, Sarai looked at the group of soldiers from the headquarters with terrified expressions on their faces, and his heart sank to the bottom.

He looked at the colonel closest to him and said, "I told you to destroy the data immediately. Why didn't you do it?"

"But... Commander..."

The colonel couldn't say a word when Sarai stared at him, but Sarai suddenly turned his gaze away and took out his pistol.

He looked at the pistol that shone silver even in the dark, checked the magazine, pulled the slide, and was about to point it at his head.

He was the army group commander of the Far Eastern Army.

In this war instigated by Farlan, he is someone who absolutely cannot be captured by the Empire.

But the generals beside him grabbed Sarai's hands and said, "Commander, you absolutely cannot do that!"

However, Sarai broke free and pointed his gun at the major general closest to him.

"I advise you to be prepared as well."

Sarai said coldly, "What you have in your heads is enough for the Empire to completely grasp our entire army's battle plan."

"This isn't the war we fought decades ago. The Empire's target isn't Palu, and they won't withdraw within five years like they did last time."

"Their goal is to completely devour the entire Farlane, because those idiots in the General Staff gave them a legitimate reason to start a war!"

"If you don't want your young motherland to disappear so quickly, then I advise you to be prepared to die for your country."

After saying that, he looked at a young colonel and said, "Colonel Leon, take the other soldiers and junior officers and surrender. The people of the Empire will not make things difficult for you."

"The guy who just spoke to us should be the Imperial Lieutenant who received the Blue Star Max Medal."

Sarai said this to the generals who, like himself, had participated in the last war.

"He will lead an assault, the goal of which is to capture our high-ranking officers. You are not of high value, but they won't execute you all."

Sarai almost gritted his teeth when he said this.

Colonel Leon, who was named, immediately turned his back and walked towards the door after hearing these words.

however.

Before he could reach the door, a series of gunshots rang out from outside the window.

Along with it came the row of leaders shouting “Time’s up!”

At Ryan's instruction, all the non-commissioned officers and officers holding submachine guns immediately fired all the bullets in their magazines at the headquarters.

Although 9mm bullets could not penetrate brick and stone walls, many of them still penetrated through doors or glass windows.

The colonel named Leon was hit in the head by a stray bullet, which splashed all over several soldiers and generals nearby.

More people fell to the ground like crazy, but the gunfire lasted for ten seconds.

By the time the gunfire died down, almost one-third of the people had fallen in a pool of blood from stray bullets.

Sarai was also hit in the arm by a stray bullet, but he was pinned to the ground by one of his own men, so even if he wanted to draw his gun he couldn't do it.

He looked angrily at the crimson light coming in from the window and tried to push away the subordinate who was pressing on him, but found that the other party had stopped breathing.

Outside the building.

After seeing that nearly half of the people in the building were killed or injured, Ryan immediately clenched his fist and signaled everyone to stop shooting.

He looked at the third platoon leader who was clearing the submachine guns and said, "No need to waste time talking to them. Let the third platoon prepare for the breakthrough."

"Yes!" The third platoon leader immediately put down his submachine gun and replaced it with a pistol: "Third Platoon, everyone! Prepare to break through!"

More than forty soldiers immediately divided into two rows. They put on their gas masks and fired flares from their signal guns into every visible window.

Screams and wails were heard from the building again, just like the one in Belfort half a month ago.

Almost the same scene was being played out across the entire Verdun front.

As soon as the soldiers of the 502nd Infantry Regiment who were scheduled to land on the Zeppelin opened the hatch in front of them, they could see the top concrete structure of the Farlan Fortress dozens of meters below their feet.

However, the Farlan soldiers who tried to rely on the solid reinforced concrete and Iron Dome armor to resist the artillery fire from the Empire all retreated into the interior of the fortress due to orders from the headquarters.

The huge fortress was now almost packed with soldiers.

And this happened exactly what Ryan wanted.

As soon as the soldiers of the infantry regiment landed, they poured all the flares, incendiary sticks, and grenades they could get into the machine guns under the Iron Dome.

Those Farlan soldiers who were still wondering why there was suddenly a ball of rope outside were almost immediately beaten to pieces by bullets, while their companions could only watch as countless projectiles were thrown from the openings in the Iron Dome, eventually causing a raging fire inside the fortress.

Not to mention the fortresses with gun batteries.

Although the large-caliber artillery could hit targets twelve kilometers away, it had no resistance to the Imperial Army soldiers who were hit directly in the face.

The worst-off ship, Fort Worth, had a small ammunition transfer platform directly detonated by a grenade that fell into the artillery elevator.

The fireball produced by the secondary explosion was as bright as the sun, and thick smoke spewed out dozens of meters from the opening facing the border of the empire, and the sound could be heard five or six kilometers away.

Saint-Mihiel, which was protected by only a few small fortresses, did not even see the shadow of the imperial soldiers before a series of air-blast bombs destroyed the artillery positions on the west side of the city of Saint-Mihiel.

However, the soldiers stationed in the frontline fortresses were unable to launch a proper counterattack because their artillery could only attack troops coming from the direction of the empire. They were either trapped in their own concrete bunkers or blown up into the sky by grenades and heavy artillery shells thrown by soldiers of the 502nd Regiment.

As for Verdun...

Zeppelin's aerial bombardment, combined with the ground bombardment by the Z332 and Z333 airships, blew their ammunition depots into the sky with just one wave of attack.

And Ryan hadn't even left the airborne communication boat at that time.

At this point, the entire main fortress of Verdun, plus its headquarters, almost completely lost its combat capability.

(End of this chapter)