Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 68 Flare Attack
While Ryan was on his way with McIver and his forty or so men, the Farlanes were busy suppressing the fire at all the intersections they could see with their mounted machine guns.

The 8mm Hotchkiss light machine gun bullet first flew over a distance of more than ten or even dozens of meters, and then crashed into the stone road surface or stone wall, making a whooshing sound.

Several bodies of Farlanes lay in the middle of the street, their rifles scattered on the ground. Judging from the way they fell, it was obvious that they were shot to death from behind.

But the situation here in the Imperial Army is not good either.

The Hotchkiss's firepower was very strong. Even though it took time to reload, it still managed to pin them all down at the street entrance, preventing them from raising their heads at all.

One of the soldiers from the assault company leaned out far enough while observing that he was hit by a machine gun bullet and fell to the ground helplessly.

The colleagues behind him immediately grabbed his belt and dragged him behind a nearby house to provide first aid.

But the ricochet bullet directly penetrated the unlucky guy's lung, making a small hole in the front and a bowl-sized wound in the back.

So before the old man could start first aid, the unlucky guy who was hit was already dead.

What’s even worse is that they were hit by stray bullets while saving people. Although their injuries were not serious, they still lost their combat effectiveness.

The team across the road acted decisively and threw two grenades, using the explosion's fire and smoke to obscure the Farlans' vision, giving them a chance to pull the wounded to the safety of the bunker.

And it was during this period of time that frequent footsteps were heard in the building used as the headquarters.

The staff and officers who were previously in charge of military affairs fetched spare rifles, and their adjutants and the remaining guards immediately turned off all the lights that could be extinguished and pulled up the thin gauze curtains.

Now the imperial soldiers could not see what was happening inside the building.

But it's not over yet.

Not long after they finished these things, a flare made a humming sound and rushed into the sky from the roof of the headquarters - probably from the attic balcony used for roof repairs.

A few seconds later, the bright red flare light exploded in the sky.

Ryan saw the light of the flare at first sight. He stopped immediately and went into the alley with a few of his men.

At the same time, the troops that arrived first had already begun the battle to seize the building.

The gunfire from the Gw.98s was continuous and sounded even more shocking than the machine gun fire from a distance.

The red flare light had not yet gone out, and Ryan took advantage of this time to quickly confirm the information on the map.

It was not until then that Ryan discovered that the Farlanes had actually built a modern train station in Belfort that could accommodate two trains at the same time.

He had never known this information before, and even the information about this train station did not appear on the map drawn by the empire.

"No wonder they use this place as their army base."

Ryan sighed in his heart, but he was more shocked by the courage of the Farlans to transfer half of the army from this important transportation center.

This is not the courage and determination that ordinary people can have.

You know, in this era when the army can only move forward on foot except for railways, any railway hub on the front line is worthy of being protected by an army group or even more troops.

After all, losing an inconspicuous city may be just a tactical failure, but losing a railway hub is a strategic failure.

The reason why the Empire's Schlieffen Plan was to capture the Liège Fortress was to seize the railway hub of Liège.

But now look at the arrangements of the Farlans...

If the troops who had spent sixteen days and lost tens of thousands of lives to capture the Fortress of the Sun knew this, they would probably be so angry that they would crawl out of the ground, and relying on their resentment, they would force their way through the Verdun line of the Farlanders and break through the seven and a half armies under Joffre.

But the most important thing now is to get the message out, not to lament.

Ryan immediately looked at the soldiers beside him and asked, "Who among you is the best long-distance runner?" "Me!" A corporal raised his hand. "Five kilometers in half an hour."

Ryan: "What if we run back to Mulhouse from here?"

"Maybe it will take more than an hour?" The corporal hesitated.

"That's enough." Ryan nodded.

He immediately took out a pencil only as long as his thumb from his pocket and tore a page from the small notebook he carried with him.

Then he wrote a line of tiny words as small as ants crawling, and handed it to the corporal: "Get this note to Brigadier General Brian as quickly as possible!"

"Yes!"

The soldier did not hesitate. He took the note, put it in his arms, turned around with his rifle and ran in the direction he came from.

Ryan watched him disappear at the end of the street, then turned to look in the direction of the Farlan Army Headquarters.

The troops that arrived first were still fighting with the Farlans inside the building.

It can be said that it was more of a one-sided outpouring of firepower than a battle.

The hotel's exterior walls had been completely destroyed, and the exterior walls on the third and fourth floors, which were made of wooden boards and hollow bricks, had large cracks, and flashes of fire could be seen from time to time.

And in the direction of the hillside in the distance.

The Second Battalion, which had previously pretended to be driven up the mountain, had now regained the middle of the mountain. Relying on their advantage of being high above, they continued to roam the mountain, forcing the Farlan infantry below the mountain to be unable to raise their heads.

But it was precisely because of the existence of the Second Battalion that the speed of the Farlan front-line troops in sending rescue troops was delayed.

Ryan looked at the map and felt as if he was back in the 502nd Battalion camp.

The distance between the enemy and their own troops is usually five or six hundred meters, and the number is still at least ten times.

The only difference is that this time Ryan doesn't have to worry about a shortage of firepower.

He immediately led his men forward and joined the vanguard.

Unexpectedly, McIver arrived at the vanguard almost at the same time as him.

"You came just in time."

Ryan glanced at the twenty or so men behind McIver and pointed at several three- and four-story buildings nearby. "You, take your troops to the rooftops of those houses and aim at the Farlan headquarters."

McIver nodded immediately, gestured to his men behind him to proceed, and then asked, "What about you?"

"I will lead my men to guard their gate and intercept the reinforcements."

As he spoke, Ryan produced a mirror with a pole in his hand, reflecting the front of the hotel. "Do you see this building?"

"They chose a leaky house as their headquarters."

"Once you are in position, have someone use a flare gun to fire flares into their headquarters."

"Fire them all in, don't leave any one behind."

"Today I must capture all the guys in the headquarters of this First Army!"

(End of this chapter)