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Volume 3 The Road to Rise Chapter 590 The Battle of Loire

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    On the European battlefield, the Allies suffered successive defeats in the three major battles of Lyon, Verdun, and the Marne, and the four defense lines that had been maintained for a long time were declared bankrupt.  The defeat of the three major battles directly led to the retreat of millions of Allied troops. Nearly 10 million French people were forced to leave their homes and continue to retreat toward Bordeaux, the capital of southwest France.  The industrial base in northeastern and southeastern France fell completely into the hands of the Allies, causing heavy damage to France.  However, the Allies' military equipment was completely dependent on imports. At this time, the war losses caused the Allied forces to be in short supply of major penetration equipment such as aircraft and tanks, and had to wait for supplies from the rear.  The German-Austrian Allied Forces relied entirely on Chinese equipment shipped from the Baghdad Railway. However, considering the defeat of the Allied Powers, China deliberately slowed down the supply rate, causing the Allied Powers' offensive pace to slow down.  At the same time, without heavy equipment such as aircraft and tanks, the two sides once again fell into positional warfare in the face of trenches dug again by the Allies.  In mid-March of the new year, the German army captured Paris and finally occupied the French capital, which was only 5 kilometers away from the German position, but failed to allow the German army to advance a step forward.  France occupied by the German army was nothing more than an empty city. The French government had already moved the capital when the German army first arrived in the old year, and the people of Paris also evacuated.  At this time, Paris had been bombarded by German super artillery.  The German army's occupation of an empty city has little practical significance, but its political significance is very great.  During the Franco-Prussian War, after the Prussian army captured Paris, the King of Prussia was crowned King of Germany in the Palace of Versailles, France.  Now when the German forward commander Prince William enters the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, his love for the sword can be imagined.  The German-Austrian Allied Forces drove the Allied forces to Orleans on the Loire River in one breath. After entering autumn, the climate began to deteriorate. Due to continuous rain, muddy roads, and railways were damaged, the fighting gradually subsided.  The month came to a complete halt, and the battle plans of Germany and Austria could not be completed, but it dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Allied Powers.  The Christmas period will soon come again, and the Allied Powers and the Entente Powers will take a strategic rest. The atmosphere on the battlefield begins to relax, but the actions on the rear are speeding up.  At this time, after the Allied Powers were able to take a breather, they stepped up preparations for war.  The Allies can now only rely on the Loire River line for defense, shrinking to the south of France, and two-thirds of their country has been lost.  However, the Allies knew that if the Allies replenished the previously lost aircraft and tanks, the Allied forces would be driven out of the European continent after the next wave of large-scale attacks.  The situation is extremely serious for the Allied Powers.  In order to withstand the Allies' attack next spring, the Allies have to reduce the production of "copycat" Chinese equipment and increase the import of advanced weapons from China.  The Americans also knew that the war was extremely unfavorable to the Allies, so they had to fully devote themselves to the war, otherwise the Allies would really break through, and the Allies would not let go of the Americans participating in the war.  To this end, the U.S. Congress finally began to fully intervene in the war.  Because the United States initially entered the war just to repay its debts, according to American thinking, the United States would not participate in the war if the war situation in Europe was unclear.  However, the situation of the war went beyond the expectations of the Americans. The Allies were in an unusually awkward situation this time. More than four defense fronts were breached by the Allies. The situation was extremely critical.  Americans have to take action.  Last year and month, the U.S. Congress approved up to 400 million U.S. dollars in war funding and issued an emergency mobilization order, requiring the United States to launch a nationwide mobilization and recruit tens of thousands of Americans to join the war.  However, the United States has money and people. Unfortunately, the equipment of the Army is very poor. The cheap "Shansai version" secretly produced in the United States. The Chinese equipment was not only rejected by the British and French military, but also disapproved by the American military. There is no way, the United States  They had no choice but to use money to make large-scale purchases from China. However, the United States also intervened in the war, and the three years of participation in the war also caused the dollar to depreciate to a certain extent. For this reason, China refused to use the U.S. dollar and still asked the United States to use gold.  The equivalent value was exchanged for dragon coins, and then the dragon coins were used to pay. The war was urgent, and the United States had no time to argue with China. A day's delay might cause the Allies to lose the war. Therefore, for the first time in more than ten years of overt and covert fighting with China, the Americans  At this time, China's military industry has developed into the largest and most powerful military industrial system in the world during more than five years of world war.  During this period, the development has become dozens of times that of the past ten years. Today, China supports almost all the steel products of the Allied Powers and two-fifths of the steel products of the Allied Powers. This has led to the explosive development of Chinese steel companies, reaching 10,000 tons in the past year.  It is twice that of the United States, three times that of Germany, and five times that of the United Kingdom. Most of these steels are processed into arms exports, and the United States is originally there.During the war, China robbed the business of major strategic supplies such as arms, food, medicine, cloth, cement, etc., so that the United States did not gain much benefit from World War I. Instead, many ships and goods were destroyed by German submarines.  At the same time, the United States has been involved in the war for three years. The economy has been severely constrained, and a large amount of funds have been consumed on the European battlefield. By the old year, the rapid economic growth of the United States since the Civil War was finally pressed on the brakes, and the economy stopped.  go ahead.  In order to help the Allied Powers, the United States had to use gold as collateral and began to slowly deplete the country, making it into the old year.  The gold and silver controlled by the Cangshijie Fang Group were concentrated in China.  Beijing, China has become the world's financial center.  In order to stabilize the war situation in Europe, the Chinese government requires major domestic arms dealers and ordnance companies to adjust their directions and give priority to supplying the Allied Powers.  In this way, as the United States used its gold to exchange for China's billion dragon coins, and placed orders with major arsenals in China.  China immediately met the Allied powers' wishes.  Since the New Year, the Chinese military has begun to hoard strategic materials, including arms.  Zhang Yunfei knew that a war was about to break out, so he made a big gamble.  China continues to hoard strategic materials on a large scale every year. After ten years of hoarding, by the end of the year, various materials had been hoarded to a considerable amount.  At this time, Zhang Yunfei suddenly issued an order, requiring major arms dealers to clear out the stockpiles of materials in the arsenal, and ensure that the stockpiles of materials are reduced to normal levels.  The major arms dealers naturally strictly implemented the orders of the Emperor of the Chinese Empire. At the same time, they also smelled from the orders that the world war might end in a short time in the future.  Because clearing inventory indirectly tells them not to produce in advance, but to produce according to European and American orders. Otherwise, once the world war is over, the materials they hoard will rot in the warehouse, and the loss will be themselves. For this reason, for the large orders from the Allied Powers  , the major domestic arms dealers did not directly start production, but directly took out the stockpiled materials from the warehouse.  And he confidently informed the allied countries that if they added a little more money, the order would be honored immediately.  The Allies know that Chinese arms dealers are clearing their stocks, but at this time, the Allies really need to cash in on this arms deal immediately, because they cannot be sure that the Germans will not blitz the Allies like the last time they suddenly blitzed the Netherlands.  In the end, the Allies had no choice but to immediately get the arms cashed in based on the original sky-high price.  In this way, the Allies spent 400 million dragon coins and received real-time arms redemption from China.  Moreover, China also transported the arms ordered by the Allied Powers to the European front lines free of charge and assumed the transportation risks along the way.  At the beginning of the same year, the last batch of weapons arrived in Bordeaux, the capital of France, and the embargoed transaction between the Allies and China was completed.  At this time, with the large-scale help of the Americans, the total strength of the Allied Powers increased to 10,000.  Among them, the American army accounted for 10,000 people, the French army had 10,000 people, and the British army had 10,000 people.  It has various aircraft carriers, tanks, armored vehicles, and 80,000 artillery pieces.  Thousands of light and heavy machine guns were dropped, tens of thousands of tons of aviation fuel and fuel for tanks and armored vehicles were stockpiled, and there were millions of spare firearms of various types.  On the contrary, the Allies were in a weak position.  After China gave priority to supplying the goods in its inventory to the Allies, the resources obtained by the Allies were reduced by more than half.  By the end of January 2008, the Allies had only acquired a concave-carrier aircraft and four tanks, with a total strength of only 100,000.  With tens of thousands of people, the weakness of the troops began to be highlighted, and the equipment was also somewhat weak.  However, the Allied forces still had high fighting spirit, and the residual power of the victory did not diminish after several months of truce.  On February 1, 2011, the Allies launched another attack.  This time, the Allies gathered a large army composed entirely of German and Austrian forces, and launched a full-scale attack on Orleans, the stronghold of the Loire River defense line.  The Allied Powers had previously invested tens of thousands of troops for defense, but the German-Austrian Allied Forces attacked very fiercely. On the first day of the battle, the two sides launched a fierce battle. The German-Austrian Allied Forces' air force and tank troops fought with the Allied Powers' air force and tank troops.  The German-Austrian Allied Forces did not choose to fight the Allied Powers, but rushed into Orleans desperately.  The German-Austrian infantry that followed later, under the cover of tens of thousands of cannons, frantically attacked the Allied positions.  Although the Allies had an advantage in the number of aircraft and tanks, the two sides soon fell into a melee.  Nearly ten million troops engaged in a melee on the dense Loire River defense line and the Orleans defense line. Their numbers and equipment could not exert their influence. On the contrary, the German-Austrian Allied Forces were directly under the command of the German Prince William, and their formations became complete.  However, the Allied armies, Britain, France and the United States, fought independently and belonged to different countries.  As a result, although the Allied Air Force repulsed the Allied Air Force, it was unable to support the ground.The troops, because the ground was beaten into a pot of porridge, could not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy.  At the same time, the Allied tank troops were blindly looking for a decisive battle with the Allied tank troops, but were led by the Allied tank troops.  On the contrary, the Allies took advantage of this opportunity and used tanks to quickly break through the Allied defense positions, allowing the Allied infantry and cavalry that followed to break through the Allied defense lines.  The fighting lasted until dawn on March. Under the cover of darkness, the German army unexpectedly broke through the Orleans defense line and invaded the city of Orleans, breaking the Allied defense line and causing holes in the overall Allied defense line.  At the same time, other Allied forces in southeastern France also launched a rapid attack into the southern hinterland of France.  Under the cover of aircraft and tanks, the coalition forces of Italy, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and other countries quickly broke through the defense line of the lower Loire River and broke into the Limoges area, directly threatening Bordeaux, the capital of France.  The Allied Powers acted jointly every time. The armies of each country cooperated very well, and the timing was not unreasonable.  At this time, the Allied Powers were very worried about the Ming Dynasty's superiority in military freedom and armaments. "The Allied Powers High Command was very annoyed by the coordinated command, especially the laziness of the US military. For this reason, the Allied Powers High Command held an emergency meeting.  , discussed the issue of forming a unified command. The war was urgent, and the Allied Powers did not want to waste time. In the end, the United States gave in and continued to hand over the unified command and dispatch to French Marshal Joffre. In this way, under the attack of the Allies, the Allied Powers finally stopped fighting and reached an agreement.  On March 3, the entire Loire defense line was lost, and the Allies were forced to abandon the defense line and retreat to the defense of Odorlie-Montoux. This was the last province in France and the capital of France.  The last barrier on the outside of Bordeaux. For this reason, the coalition commander Joffre sent a telegram to all combat units of the Allied Powers, telling them "We have no way to retreat. If we retreat further, we will have to jump into the sea. The British can retreat because they still have Britain."  Island, the Americans can retreat because they still have the American continent, but we French can no longer retreat because we have no way to retreat!  " Xiafei's words were very targeted. He first mobilized the French army to fight, and then mobilized the British and American troops. He told the Americans and British, "How long will you retreat to?  The current situation in France is an example for Britain and the United States in the future. Will the Allies let you go?  Obviously not!  So what are you still hesitating about?  Are you going to let the beasts from the Allied Powers land on your country's land and ruin your wives and daughters?  " Xiafei is indeed a seasoned guy. His inflammatory speech stimulated the last line of defense in the hearts of the Allied forces. The British, French and American forces finally truly fought side by side. They took up arms and threw themselves into the trenches to prepare for a counterattack. March  On the 5th, the Allied forces once again encountered an ugly problem. Not long after they completely wiped out the British and French remnants in Verdun, they once again started a street battle in Orleans with the British, French and American troops who had no time to withdraw.  The Allied forces had several divisions, including one that directly attacked Orleans, with a population of 10,000 people. Although the Allied forces in Orleans had a strong division, they were seriously short of personnel. The actual defense of Orleans was the 1st Regiment, with a population of more than 10,000 people."  "Qu Yumen Artillery" and one tank. On March 6, the German army began to attack the city. The German 6th Army acted as the main force and launched a fierce assault from the north of the city. The 4th Armored Division advanced from the south of the city to cope with the main German attack in the north of the city. The French 6th Army  The group army and the remnants of the regiment were assigned the task of defending downtown Orleans. On the 8th, the German army broke into the city from the north of the city and launched a fierce street battle with the French 2nd Army. The two sides fought repeatedly, street by house and house by house.  A rubble field, the residential area in the city was destroyed. In the city full of rubble, the French Army resisted tenaciously, and fierce gun battles broke out in every street, every building, and every factory in the city.  The number of German casualties in the city continued to increase. Although the German army conducted frequent bombings on the east bank of the Loire River, the French army still received continuous supplies and support from American speedboats traveling up the Loire River.  The average survival time of the Allied soldiers was less than an hour. The main tactic of the German army was joint operations of various arms, which attached great importance to the coordination of ground bombing by infantry, engineering troops, artillery and air force.  The pressing strategy was to keep our front line as close as possible to the German army. This resulted in the German artillery units being unable to take advantage of long-range attacks. On March 1, the German army launched a focused assault on the high ground in the city of Orleans.  Here you can overlook and control the entire city. The headquarters of the French Army is located here. After a day of the most brutal fighting, the German army occupied the high ground west of the city. But in the old days, the French Army crossed the Loire River and entered Orleans.  TowardsThe Germans counterattacked.  The French army fought for their hometown, launched the most brutal charge regardless of life and death, and recaptured the high ground that night.  The two sides fought repeatedly for many important strongholds, and the battle for Xicheng Railway Station lasted for a week.  The German army desperately approached the city center step by step.  On March 10th, the German army occupied the city center, rushed into the western factory area, and reoccupied the high ground west of the city, but was recaptured by the French army on the 10th.  The fighting became more intense in the future, with the two armies constantly occupying the high ground alternately.  The Orleans industrial area is built on hills, with buildings made of reinforced concrete or stone.  The advancement of the German army was not measured in kilometers, but in meters. A Chinese observer of the German 6th Army wrote in the book "March to Orleans": "The feud between Germany and France was sublimated to the extreme at this moment! Both sides competed for every building.  Fierce battles were fought for houses, workshops, water towers, railway embankments, and even for a wall, a basement, and every pile of rubble. "The intensity of the battle was unprecedented." The train station was fought over three times.  In a large grain warehouse, soldiers from the two armies were so close that they could even hear each other's breathing. After several weeks of hard fighting, the German troops had to withdraw from the warehouse.
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