The Fishhook

Since the attempt to persuade them to surrender has been rejected, the only option left is to launch an attack.

In theory, the safest attack method is to besiege and wear down the enemy. This high ground has a treacherous terrain, and a direct assault would certainly result in significant losses. However, the high ground is not very large, so it won't have many supplies stored inside. If it's besieged, it definitely won't be able to hold out for long.

However, there was one problem that everyone had to consider: how much time they had left. Napoleon's Italian Legion was on its way, and who knew when he would arrive? Therefore, the Britain and Prussia could not afford to wait.

However, the attack could not be launched immediately, because the French Army also understood the significance of the high ground. Nearby French Army were constantly launching counterattacks, trying to re-establish contact with the high ground. Therefore, the most urgent task for the Allied forces was not to launch an immediate attack on the high ground, but to consolidate their own positions.

However, consolidating their positions was no easy task. The areas occupied by the Allied forces were all within range of artillery on the high ground, making them vulnerable to artillery fire during their earthworks. Furthermore, the French Army on the high ground had a commanding view of the Allied forces' movements below. Although radios didn't exist in this era, messages could still be transmitted using flag signals. This made the Allied defenses extremely cautious.

So the allied forces spent another full day consolidating their siege of the high ground. As for the attack, that would have to wait until the next day.

"Napoleon has arrived?" the unharmed Joseph asked the liaison sent by Napoleon. "Um... where is your general now?"

"We've arrived in Sainte-Menehould," the liaison officer replied.

"It's very close," Joseph said. "I estimate that the Allied forces will launch their general offensive on Hill One tomorrow morning. Hill One should be able to hold out for three days. Hmm, take this letter back to Napoleon and let him decide what to do."

Joseph was referring to a letter, but it was actually a large package—a heavy box of documents. The messenger, escorted by a troop of cavalry, returned to Sainte-Menehould and delivered the box to Napoleon.

Napoleon opened the file box, which contained numerous maps of the Verdun fortress and intelligence on the various deployments of the Allied forces that Joseph had gathered.

"What did Joseph say?" Napoleon asked.

"General Joseph Bonaparte says that the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces have now taken the bait and are besieging Hill One. Hill One can hold out for at least three days. As for how to counterattack, he leaves that to you."

Napoleon carefully examined the defense maps, then summoned his generals to a meeting to discuss the next steps in the battle plan.

The generals arrived one after another. Napoleon, who had arrived first, let them look at Joseph's defense map on their own. After a while, everyone arrived. Napoleon was not in a hurry, but let them continue looking at the map. Only after everyone had finished looking at it did Napoleon ask, "What are your thoughts?"

"I think we might have arrived a bit too early," Davout said first.

"Exactly, looking at this defensive diagram gives me the creeps," Augereau said. "I don't know about others, but if it were me, I don't think I'd even have the courage to attack. It's basically a spiky steel turtle shell, and..."

"And inside this steel tortoise shell, there are more than one layer of steel tortoise shells," Berthier said. "Now, General Joseph Bonaparte is using Hill One as bait to lure the enemy into a siege. According to his intelligence, I think Hill One can hold out for at least a week. If possible, I would like to get them to hold out for a few more days."

"However, news of our suppression of the Paris rebellion cannot be kept secret," Napoleon said. "Otherwise, this fellow would never have shown us these maps. Considering the speed of news transmission in Paris, we can wait at most two more days. We will rest here for a day, and then, at dawn the day after tomorrow, we will march under the moonlight in the latter half of the night. That way, we should reach the vicinity of Verdun by noon. At that time, the enemy's siege of Hill One should be at its most intense. Our sudden appearance will surely crush the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces completely... As for the specific arrangements, Berthier, you handle them..."

Just as Napoleon was preparing to deliver a heavy blow to the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces, the Anglo-Prussian Allied Forces also mustered all their strength, ready to seize Hill No. 1 in one fell swoop.

After spending a day consolidating the siege of Hill One, the Duke of Brunswick once again sent envoys to Hill One to persuade them to surrender. This time, he added to the previous conditions by offering Commander Fermat and the other officers a substantial pension.

However, the attempt to persuade them to surrender failed. Commander Fermat declared, "We can hold out until you all die of old age."

So, ten minutes after the allied envoys left the high ground, the allied forces launched an attack on it.

During their previous offensive operations, the Allied soldiers and junior officers had already come to believe in the existence of Hell. After launching their attack on Hill One, they became even more certain that Hell was indeed, as Dante described, divided into many layers.

On Hill One, there were no new things they hadn't seen before. It was nothing more than landmines, barbed wire, Minié Rifle, Little Melon, cannons, flamethrowers, and Claymore Mine. But what was deadly was the increased density of these things. Clearly, although the French Army had been slow to react, they were aware that Hill One had become a key target of the Allied attack and had made considerable efforts in response.

The terrain of Hill One also posed significant challenges to the attack. While Hill One wasn't particularly high, its terrain had been deliberately altered. All trees that might obstruct the view had been cut down, and all protrusions that could provide cover for the attackers had been leveled. The entire hill was now bare and unobstructed on all sides.

The barbed wire on the high ground was also much denser, with a section every twenty meters or so. The denser barbed wire naturally meant that the soldiers would have to be exposed to enemy fire for a longer period of time. On Hill 1, the French Army had deployed a large number of artillery pieces.

These artillery pieces included heavy artillery ranging from 12 to 24 pounds, as well as medium artillery pieces of 8 pounds and 6 pounds. The French Army built special bunkers for them, and with the protection of these bunkers, the artillery could effectively kill Allied soldiers who were blocked by barbed wire by using grapeshot.

As usual, the barbed wire was riddled with landmines. Judging from the losses of the Prussia conscripts who launched the assault, the density of landmines here was at least twice that of the minefields they had encountered before.

Furthermore, being on higher ground, the defending soldiers could easily throw the Little Melon fifty meters away, while the attackers would have to climb dozens of meters higher to throw their Little Melon. As for the "Little Melon Launcher," it could throw the Little Melon nearly a hundred meters away—reaching the range of cannon shot.

Even if, by God's grace, someone manages to survive these terrifying things and keep moving forward, he will immediately encounter even more frightening Claymore Mine and flamethrowers.

Compared to these things, the supervisory team behind them immediately seemed very gentle and endearing. After all, the supervisory team used rifles, and they had to reload after firing one shot, and it would take a long time before they could fire the second shot.

So the first batch of soldiers quickly retreated, and some even clashed with the supervising officers. The two sides fired at each other, and the situation became extremely chaotic.

The attack lasted all day, resulting in thousands of casualties, but aside from destroying some minefields and damaging some barbed wire, there was no progress.

That night, the Allied forces sent out another night raid with explosives, attempting to destroy the enemy's barbed wire under cover of darkness. However, they were spotted by military dogs on the high ground as soon as they got close, then stepped on landmines, leading to another chaotic firefight. The French Army on the outer perimeter then launched their own night raid, and the fighting continued haphazardly until dawn.

As dawn broke, the Allied forces could finally see the results of their night raid: some of the barbed wire on the hill had been damaged, but the brave France engineers were taking advantage of the lull in the Allied attack to begin repairing it.

The Allied artillery first opened fire on the engineers with solid shot. But the engineers remained unmoved and continued to repair the barbed wire. Although some engineers were occasionally killed by artillery fire, the hit rate of solid shot against such targets was simply too low. As for pushing the artillery forward to fire grapeshot, it would be better to just send the infantry in.

The Allied soldiers were forced to leave their trenches and rush towards the France engineers, but they were immediately met with France shrapnel fire, and many were shot down. By the time they reached a position where they could fire back at the France, the despicable France had already packed up and fled.

The offensive continued without much change, and the France resistance remained as fierce as the day before. It seemed that yesterday's attack hadn't depleted the ammunition on the hill. However, the Allied forces, pressed for time, had few other options—the sunk costs were too high; could they really expect to relieve the siege and retreat? Besides, perhaps another day of intense attack would exhaust the enemy's ammunition—after all, conscripts were cheap.

And so, one after another, John and Fritz fell in front of the barbed wire fence on Hill One, and it gradually came to noon.