Chapter 76 National Fortress

Charles had always thought that the plane was flying in the clouds, although he had noticed that the smell of the clouds was a bit strange.

Soon, the pilot lowered his altitude and penetrated the heavy fog. Suddenly, the fire of the shell explosion seemed to be directly below, and the sound even shook the wings of the aircraft. Only then did Charles realize that those "clouds" were actually smoke, caused by the explosion of the shell. smoke.

"Look!" the pilot shouted excitedly: "We're here, Antwerp is in front of us!"

Charles wanted to see what Antwerp looked like from the air, but he was disappointed. He could see nothing but dots of firelight below. The smoke in the sky even blocked the remaining light. It was clearly morning. More like night.

The plane continued to lose altitude, which made Charles worry that the shells whizzing below him would hit him, and there were even lines of bullets pulled out by the shells nearby.

After a few minutes, the sound of artillery gradually faded away, and the sky became brighter. Only a few sparse shells exploded in front.

Looking back, the rear was obviously wrapped in smoke, and several huge spherical balloons could be faintly seen.

It seemed like we had passed through a war zone just now, and now we were entering the center of the Antwerp Fortress, Charles thought.

The plane flew over Antwerp Airport and circled the airport twice. It was not until soldiers below waved signal flags to allow landing that the pilot lowered the altitude and steadily parked the plane on the runway.

"How's it going?" After jumping off the plane, the pilot showed off to Charles: "I told you, we will reach our destination smoothly!"

As he spoke, he took out the wine bottle from his arms, raised his neck and drank a few gulps, as if to reward himself.

"Hey!" A Belgian officer came over. He was wearing a flat-topped felt hat and a dark blue lapel coat with two rows of brass buttons. He had a pistol on his waist. The star on the collar showed that he was It's a major.

Still more than ten meters away, the major shouted to Charles unceremoniously: "French, are you here to reinforce us?"

There was a burst of laughter around him, which made Ciel realize that the words were sarcastic, so he did not respond.

Charles told the pilot, stepped forward to salute, took out his military ID card from his pocket and handed it over, saying, "Major! I'm here to investigate the situation!"

The major glanced at the officer's ID card and handed it back to Charles. He spat aside with a look of disdain, and his tone was full of sarcasm: "Very good, you finally remembered us!"

There was laughter again all around.

This made Charles a little confused. As far as he knew, Belgium had always maintained a good relationship with France, but it seemed that this was not the case now.

…

The Antwerp Fortress is not a traditional European fortress or fortress. It is a ring-shaped fortress group consisting of 29 extremely strong fortresses on two lines of defense. The first line of defense has 21 blocks and the second line of defense has 8 blocks. They are spaced 2 kilometers to 4 kilometers apart from each other. Without waiting, the city of Antwerp is protected in the center with the rivers and mountains.

Although the Antwerp Fortress is not as famous as the Liege Fortress, its strategic position is the highest. The Liege Fortress is used to prevent the German invasion, but the Antwerp Fortress is the last "fortress" used by Belgium to defend itself, so it is also called "the country". fortress".

The fortress headquarters was in chaos at this time. Urgent calls from the front line and calls for reinforcements came in one after another, each one more urgent than the other, but the commander of the fortress, General Giese, was helpless.

In the end, General Giese simply ordered the communications troops not to send the information to him and let the staff handle it on their own.

"It won't be of any use anyway!" General Guise said feebly. He would rather sit in a chair and daze for a while.

Before the war began, General Guise made a fatal mistake. He ordered the fortress garrison to clear away or even burn all the weeds and trees around the fortress.

The war scene that General Giese imagined in his mind was that of German soldiers charging towards the fortress in dense formation with rifles with bayonets in hand.

In order for the fortress's machine guns and artillery to better destroy these enemies, of course the trees and weeds for hiding must be cleared away.

However, actual combat is...

The Germans leisurely put the balloon into the air, and the observers on the balloon directed the heavy artillery to shell the fortress calmly from a distance of more than ten kilometers.

Since the trees and weeds had been cleared, the fort was clearly visible to the balloon's observation.

More importantly, the German heavy artillery has a maximum firing range of 14 kilometers, which is much farther than the 10 kilometers range of the Fortress 200MM artillery.

Therefore, General Giese and all the fortress garrison could only watch helplessly as the Germans blew up the fortresses one by one, one every day, without any countermeasures.

General Guise blamed himself a little, as all this was indeed his own fault.

However, another person might make the same mistake as the commander. Who could predict such a situation? General Giese can only protect himself in this way!

Just as he closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands in distress, a communications soldier cautiously came forward to report: "General, we received a staff officer from France who came to investigate the situation in the fortress. Do you need to see him?" See him..."

General Guise raised his head as if being pricked by needles, his eyes rekindled with hope: "Coming from France? Bring him here, quickly!"

In ordinary times, it is unlikely that a French staff officer would meet General Guise.

But it was wartime, and General Guise had pinned Antwerp's hopes on French and British reinforcements, and he was eager to know France's attitude.

However, General Guise was disappointed when he saw the French staff officer. He was just a second lieutenant and looked like a child.

"You, don't you have any other people?" General Guise looked at the staff officer with an incredible look.

It's been less than a month since the war started, and the French have been wiped out? They actually sent a child to the fortress to investigate and negotiate?

Charles didn't quite understand what General Guise meant. He could only understand it literally and answered: "Of course, General! But they are busy chasing the Germans, they are winning!"

General Guise's face eased a little. This is good news. France is winning, which means they may be able to get here and help Belgium drive the Germans out.

Thinking of this, General Gis stood up politely and shook hands with Charles: "Welcome, Lieutenant!"

After sitting down, General Gis asked directly: "So, after you confirm the details of the fortress, will you send reinforcements?"

Charles answered awkwardly: "I can't answer this question, General! This is beyond my duties!"

General Gis glanced at the rank insignia on Charles' cuffs and nodded: "Oh, of course!"

There was a flash of weakness in his eyes, as if he had given up hope.