Chapter 344 The perfect first stop for the armored forces

"Boom...boom...boom..."

Outside the city of Baghdad, the expeditionary force's heavy artillery group was violently bombarding the Turkish military positions outside the city of Baghdad.

It was January 1917. After making complete preparations, Jiang Baili sent Zhang Shaozeng to lead four infantry divisions and one artillery division, with a total of more than 50,000 troops heading south with the British to conquer Baghdad, the largest city in Mesopotamia.

During the process of moving south, four infantry divisions, with the cooperation of an artillery division, attacked Albera, Tikrit and Samarra all the way. When southern Baghdad was already under fierce attack by British troops, the Turks were unable to deploy enough troops in northern Baghdad to defend.

In the end, there was no way. Khalil Pasha, the commander of the 6th Turkish Army, had to shrink some of his troops around Baghdad and carry out key defenses.

And the Expeditionary Force? During the journey south, the 355-kilometer distance from Mosul to Baghdad did not seem to be anything. As for the logistics issues that were most concerned before the war, it became irrelevant because of the Tigris River...

Nowadays, Zhang Shaozeng’s only question is how to break through Baghdad?

"Just bombard me first..."

Looking at Baghdad, which had been destroyed by the head-roll artillery, a small part of it had turned into ruins, Zhang Shaozeng said to the artillery division commander beside him.

At this time in Baghdad, Khalil Pasha, the commander of the Sixth Legion, was also guarding the telegraph.

"Have you replied there?"

"not yet…"

Hearing the telegrapher's words, Khalil Pasha sat on the ground with a little "depressed" look.

Although Turkey has the strength of a whole army in Mesopotamia, the strength of this army has been lost in the two-year war. Although the Turks have recruited, replenished and mobilized many people afterwards, keeping the strength of the Turks in Mesopotamia at more than 100,000, but their combat effectiveness has decreased a lot.

This little force is almost the same to deal with the few British people. After all, the British have good military strength, and at most it does not exceed 50,000. Two-thirds of them are Indians. These Indians cannot pose any threat to Khalil's Sixth Legion at all.

But now the Chinese and British attack from both north and south are not something that Khalil, the Turk, can deal with. In fact, let alone Khalil, it will be difficult for his former German veteran K. von der Goldz to deal with such an offensive.

As for the remaining Germans, although after von der Goldz's death, there were almost one division of German troops in Baghdad, and there were many German staff members beside Khalil, but it was obviously impossible to deal with this situation.

So naturally, Khalil thought of Envier Pasha. After all, Envier still had at least 300,000 troops on the Western Front, and in Turkey's hinterland, Envier Pasha could mobilize more troops. At least during the entire European war, the Turks had mobilized more troops.

As the saying goes, it is better to act than to move. After thinking about this, Khalil sent a telegram to Enville. But for some reason, Enville never returned the telegram, which also made Khalil, who had been waiting by the telegraph.

"Strange, no, it shouldn't be. Why has the Excellency Enville not returned the telegram yet? We used wireless telegrams, and there would be no problem at all..."

Just as Khalil was still "sitting" there and muttering, the telegraph next to him finally rang out. After a while, Khalil finally received the telegram from his subordinates.

“………”

The telegram made Khalil look at it, the tighter his brows became. However, when he saw the last one, Khalil's brow finally stretched out.

At this time, like Khalil, other Turkish officials who had been guarding the side also came over to ask with tactful thought.

"Your Excellency, what does Your Excellency Enville mean?"

"………His Excellency Enville believes that it is probably too late to send troops to Baghdad at this time, because the distance between the two is too far, and the possible obstacles from the Chinese, it is very difficult to arrive in Baghdad in time..."

Several officials frowned because, judging from Khalil's words, these are not good news. Since none of them are good news, why should Khalil look like he has good things?

For a moment, several officials became confused.

Fortunately, Khalil didn't keep it in silence and explained it after not long after he was silent.

"Although His Excellency Enver did not send troops to Baghdad, he proposed another plan, which is to attack Erzurum while the Chinese sent troops to attack Baghdad..."

Hearing Khalil say this, the other officials were shocked...

"But you, the Chinese don't have many machine guns..."

But before one of the officials finished speaking, Khalil had already interrupted.

"It is precisely because they have machine guns that we have to launch an attack at this time..."

As he said that, Khalil looked at the constantly shaking wall, his eyes actually a little deep.

"We all know the power of machine guns. No, it's not just us. I'm afraid our German friends should be more clear. But it's precisely because of this reason that we have to take advantage of this opportunity to attack Erzurum..." Khalil continued. "Our German friends believe that if China's more than 200,000 troops have been gathered together, then with a large number of machine guns, we will not be able to attack the Chinese occupied areas at all, and can only be passively beaten. But now the Chinese have taken the initiative to divide their troops because of the advantages given by machine guns. If we can take the initiative to attack, directly attack their vitals, and successfully seize cities such as Erzurum... You know, the Chinese may only have the opportunity to divide troops this time, and I'm afraid we won't know when the next time. Moreover, with more and more troops sent by the Chinese, even if we divide troops, it may not be a chance..."

Hearing Khalil say this, the Turkish officials present were a little silent.

In fact, they also know that not only Turkey, but the entire allied countries are not in good shape. Now, the Chinese are also constantly transporting troops to the Caucasus region through the newly built Dilan Railway. So far, the Chinese have reached more than 200,000 troops in the Caucasus. If you wait for a while, it is not impossible to reach 300,000 or 500,000.

The combat effectiveness of the Turks is already weaker than that of the Chinese. It is really time to reach that time. Not to mention areas like Mesopotamia, I am afraid that even the entire core area of ​​Türkiye will be...

"well…"

Although the situation in Baghdad is also very dangerous, for a moment, the Turkish officials present almost agreed to Envil's strategy in their hearts. Although it is not very safe to use 300,000 troops to attack the city wall made of machine guns by the Chinese, it is much better than slowly waiting for all their advantages to lose.

After all, if you take action now, you will be at least two or three points tall. But if you really have to wait a few more months, when the number of Chinese people in the Caucasus reaches 300,000, they will have to wait for the huge army of Chinese people to come to the door...

Moreover, the Turks are not without advantages now, at least their strength is twice as powerful as the Chinese. Moreover, their German allies are very knowledgeable about machine guns, and they are the ones who started killing the Somme River. Although———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

No matter what...

"Fight!"

"Um…"

In the following days, the expeditionary forces outside Baghdad suddenly discovered that the defenders of Baghdad seemed to be braver. After capturing several positions, the generals of the expeditionary forces asked the Turks' captives, and they received only one message, that is, the front line is full of senior Turkish officers, who are in charge of the war and motivate morale. This was not the case in the past. It was also because of this reason that the Turkish officers and soldiers in the position fought so hard...

"Strange, when did the Turks get so brave?"

With this question in his heart, Zhang Shaozeng and others continued to attack Baghdad. After all, the expeditionary forces now have the advantage, and the British troops in the south are also trying their best to go north. It is just around the corner to take Baghdad...

Just as Zhang Shaozeng attacked Baghdad, Enver Pasha on the western front, after a series of preparations, and with the help of his German friends, organized two legions of nearly 200,000 troops to march towards Erzurum.

This time he didn't play two ways and went in one go. If it went well, then there would be a reserve for the legion. If it didn't go well, then the reserve for this legion is his last magic weapon to defend Turkey...

"No matter what, we must take down Erzurum. Only in this way can we Türkiye have a glimmer of hope..."

At the headquarters meeting, Enville was so humane.

Not long after, the two legions led by Envilla launched a fierce attack on Erzurum's expeditionary force positions. Although the Turks did not have many artillery during the fierce attack, the Turks still summed up many lessons based on the past and the experience of the Germans themselves, and reduced a lot of casualties during the fierce attack on Erzurum.

But no matter how we summarize the experience and reduce casualties, the Turks' disadvantages are still quite obvious, so in just a few days, Türkiye has suffered more than 20,000 casualties...

Of course, casualties and other things are not important. After all, when Enville came, he was planning to fill it with his life. For Enville, as long as he could take down Erzurum, it didn't matter how much troops he lost.

only…

Not only did the Turks not take Erzurum, but as time went on, they gradually fell into the situation of trench warfare. At this point, Envil's original plan was equivalent to bankruptcy...

"Damn it, are you going to retreat..."

Looking at the his army's positions covered by artillery fire, Enville punched the command's sandbag with his fists...

The other officers in the headquarters also looked at each other, and they didn't know what to say at this time. After all, it would be better to withdraw to Turkey at this time, so that they could preserve more strength. But this time they came to seek a breakthrough. Now that the breakthrough has not been successful, they have to retreat. To be honest, they are also very unwilling to accept it. Moreover, if you retreat now, it is equivalent to waiting for death...

That is, when Enville and the others were in deep thought, there was a shout of killing outside.

However, Enville and the others didn't care too much, because such a voice had sounded many times a few days ago. It was just that Enville also equipped his troops with a lot of DeZao Maxim, and he was also a DeZao machine gunner, so he repelled the many attacks of the National Defense Force...

But just when Enville and the others didn't take the shouts outside seriously, the shouts outside suddenly turned into screams, and then turned into crying...

"Strange, what's going on!"

When they found that those crying guys were crying in Turkish, the people in the headquarters were shocked. Before they could figure out what was going on, a German had already broken into the outside.

"Enville, leave with me!!!"

As he said that, the German came to pull Envelle's sleeve. The German's actions made Envelle stunned, so after stopping the Germans, Envelle asked in confusion.

"Drenz, what's going on?"

Drenz's answer is simple.

"tank…"

This sentence made Enville stupid again. Of course he knew what the tank was. The problem was that he had no idea why Drenz brought up the tank at this time.

But Drenz ignored him and just took him out of the headquarters. Behind the two, a large number of Turkish generals were eradicated...

After leaving the headquarters, it was clear at a glance...

"This is!!!"

Looking at the scene in front of him, a Turkish general could hardly speak.

"tank…"

That's right, tank...

On the Turkish position, at least 300 tanks were rushing around, and behind them were more than 30,000 infantry fighting in concert. After the tank troops tore a hole in the Turkish defense line, the responsibility of these infantry was to expand the hole continuously...

"Damn it, how could these Chinese people have tanks!!!"

Looking at the tanks in front of him, Enville was both afraid and angry.

Drenz also asked the same question as Enville, but his question...

"Yes, where did the Chinese get it? They have better performance than the British and more tanks than the British..."

This question is indeed very interesting and has the value of exploration. However, the most important thing at the moment is to defend against the attack of Chinese tank troops, which is beyond doubt.

However, although the Turkish generals quickly went down to supervise and command the battle, the tank troops have been unveiled in the Somme Battle, so far, and although countries, including the Germans, have been studying anti-tank technology in the past few months, they have never achieved any results.

What's more, China's Type 15 tanks are not comparable to any Mark tanks.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Germans never thought that tanks would appear on the Turkish battlefield, so they did not provide any more effective weapons in supporting Turkey's weapons...
To be continued...