General Bessler of the Third German Reserve Army rode his war horse, trotting around the slowly advancing "Big Bertha."
The scene of towing "Big Bertha" was extremely spectacular; it was designed to be quickly disassembled into five parts for transportation, but Bessler only broke it down into three parts to save deployment time.
The main body of "Big Bertha" required hundreds of horses to drag it. For this purpose, Bessler almost assembled all the pack horses, draft horses, and even some war horses from the military logistics transport team and harnessed them.
Horses pulled from the front, humans pushed from behind, with the sounds of horse neighs, shouts, and commands filling the air, while "Big Bertha" continued to move forward at a tortoise pace of 4 to 5 kilometers per hour. (A human walking speed is approximately 3 to 6 kilometers per hour)
Fortunately, "Big Bertha" was not far from the next layer of fortifications; advancing about 4 kilometers would bring it within firing range.
Of course, to improve accuracy, Bessler decided to continue a bit further.
Bessler thought: If it’s closer but still outside the enemy’s artillery range, yet achieves higher accuracy, why not?
However, Bessler quickly sensed something unusual; several balloons were rising in the direction of Antwerp.
Antwerp had always had balloons, as it was a fortress city, and the 29 forts surrounding it relied on balloon guidance.
But after several battles, Antwerp had abandoned balloon deployments. They were useless to them since the enemy’s artillery was out of range; the observers in the balloons could do nothing but "watch the artillery in despair."
Now, Antwerp was suddenly launching three balloons.
Could it be that "Big Bertha" had entered the enemy’s artillery range?
Impossible; the Belgian artillery was imported from Germany, and Germany had detailed data on these cannons. German engineers even secretly downgraded these cannons so they posed no significant threat to Germany.
With doubts, General Bessler picked up the binoculars hanging around his neck and looked toward the second fortification.
It was too far to see anything clearly, and the enemy was using smoke tactics again.
General Bessler suddenly remembered something and quickly shifted the binoculars to the "destroyed" Wavre Fortress, where smoke was still lingering, barely visible.
General Bessler put down his binoculars and thought for a moment, then quickly picked them up again to observe through the lens.
Something’s wrong, Bessler thought to himself, why hasn’t the smoke from Wavre Fortress dissipated at all?
If Wavre Fortress had been destroyed, there would be no need for smoke; even if Wavre Fortress was destroyed by a detonation, the smoke couldn’t last this long.
Moreover, a substantial part of the fortress was underground; the smoke from a detonation couldn’t spread this wide.
Suddenly, Bessler put down the binoculars, his face full of shock. He seemed to understand why the enemy was deploying balloons.
"Frex!" Bessler shouted anxiously into the crowd, "How far are we from Wavre Fortress?"
Major Frex was Bessler’s best artillery officer. He had a unique skill unmatched by others: he could accurately gauge the distance just by closing one eye and aiming his thumb at the target. This was one of the reasons he controlled a "Big Bertha" heavy artillery.
Upon hearing the order, Major Frex stood up straight and performed his trademark move, though he was puzzled why they needed the distance to Wavre Fortress.
"About 8 kilometers, sir!" Frex provided an answer.
"Damn it!" General Bessler cursed. Without hesitation, he spurred his horse and galloped off, shouting loudly on the bumpy horse: "Turn around, turn around..."
The grooms and soldiers were all stunned, seeing such a massive scene and the destination right ahead, and suddenly ordered to turn around?
Major Frex glanced at General Bessler and then at Wavre Fortress, suddenly realizing a possibility... His mind seemed to stop in that instant, standing stunned with half-open mouth, as if time had frozen.
After a while, Major Frex finally reacted, joining General Bessler in shouting, "Turn around, turn around..."
He shouted while waving the small flag in his hand to direct the action.
Turning around hundreds of horses towing "Big Bertha" wasn’t easy; if force was applied only from one side, the other side would slacken, resulting in no movement.
Major Frex was experienced in this; he directed the horse team to continue moving forward and then slowly change direction by utilizing forward inertia...
At this point, General Bessler suddenly remembered there was another "Big Bertha" and hurriedly shouted to the adjutant beside him: "Order Major Jason, turn around! Turn around!!!"
The adjutant answered and galloped off, horse and rider swiftly charging in the opposite direction, signaling with a small flag as he ran, trying to relay the command in the shortest time.
In a balloon right in the middle of Antwerp, Albert I and Shire had been sitting in it for more than half an hour.
They were very patient, as was Shire.
Watching the enemy step by step moving into their artillery range was a delightful sight; closer, and closer, and closer...
Albert I smiled and asked Shire, "When you thought of this strategy, did you consider that with each step, the Germans were getting closer to death?"
"No, Your Majesty!" Shire replied, "I only thought that with each step, our artillery’s accuracy would increase!"
Albert I laughed loudly.
This situation was advantageous to the Belgian Army, so they chose to wait, chatting idly in the balloon.
Albert I even introduced Antwerp to Shire:
"The forts you see were designed by Gabriel Mont, who had profound knowledge in military engineering and was highly regarded among engineers!"
"But now it seems he wasn’t excellent enough; reports from the front line indicate problems with the ventilation system, easily clogged by soil stirred up by artillery shells."
"If possible, I hope you design a fort for us, Lieutenant!"
"I am looking forward to your work!"
Shire just smiled without speaking; he knew that forts and strongholds were outdated, merely targets for heavy artillery.
The cheapest and most effective defense was trenches, layers of trenches. Heavy artillery couldn’t impact them since it couldn’t kill many, whereas soldiers in trenches could easily fend off enemy attacks many times their number with machine guns.
Suddenly, Shire thought, what if industries were involved?
And what if Shire could secure the design and construction of the Maginot Line?
Or, was the Maginot Line historically just a business deal?
At this moment, the German Army had a new development; their horse teams towing the heavy artillery suddenly went into disorder, obviously trying to turn around.
Albert I smiled slightly, "They finally realized they’ve been deceived!"
He didn’t hesitate, waving his signal flag to issue orders below.