Militarily, Tsarist Russia has always relied on its huge size, and it is easy to use an army of millions of people to bully European countries, especially in the era of flintlock pistols and queuing up to shoot, and the continuous army strength has always been a nightmare in the hearts of European countries.

Perhaps the people who lived in this era at the end of the nineteenth century were still blinded by the fog of history, and could not have foreseen that in the face of a trench warfare system composed of automatic weapons, rapid-fire artillery, trenches, permanent fortifications, mines and barbed wire, without the armored assault force under the doctrine of air-ground integration, no amount of soldiers would be the raw material of this flesh mill.

In front of Joey, who came through the crossing, there was naturally no fog of war, and Joey knew the evolution of the war pattern from the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.

The development of the Lee-Enfield rifle, the fastest rate of fire in the history of bolt-action rifles for Germany, was the first step in dealing with the evolution of the war model, the acquisition of Chile's copper resources was the second step in stockpiling, and the third step, if the Russians dared to cause problems for Germany on the Eastern Front, Joey did not mind speeding up his third step, lighting up the king of automatic weapons - heavy machine guns, and the nemesis of crowd tactics - circle of fire and trench warfare.

Joey can pat his chest and pack tickets, and he can definitely let the Russian army, who likes crowd tactics, and the French army that charges the French army really see the efficiency of the so-called death sickle slaughter.

Joey's idea was still only at the level of weapons, but Crown Prince Frederick thought from a strategic level, if his son's automatic weapons existed, as long as he could get the support of the British at sea, then he could completely follow Frederick the Great's example in the Seven Years' War and fight a war of attrition with the vast territory of Russia, rather than a war of annihilation.

The idea of a war of attrition was pioneered by Joey's teacher, or rather Mr. Hans Delbrück, a governess until 1879, who was born into a Junker aristocratic family and served as Joey's governess from 1874 until last year, in order to succeed his father in the Prussian Bergen-Stralsund district of Deputy, leaving the palace to participate in the Prussian district councillor elections.

As a tutor hand-picked by Crown Prince Frederick and his wife for Joey, Dr. Delbrück was also a close friend of Crown Prince Frederick.

Dr. Delbrück's academic focus is history, with a particular interest in the contemporary history of the 19th century, including the study of German economic and military history, and this year he wrote to Crown Prince Frederick with a short academic essay on Frederick the Great's performance in the Seven Years' War.

In this article, Dr. Delbrück creatively proposed that the fundamental reason for Frederick the Great's victory in the Seven Years' War was not the several wars of annihilation advocated by the Prussian General Staff, but the implementation of a method called the strategy of attrition.

In the Seven Years' War with the three ladies, the small Prussia had unusually limited resources compared to the three most powerful land states on the surface, the French Bourbons, the Russian Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire, and Frederick the Great, who had limited resources, would always wisely alternate between diplomacy and war, whether it was diplomatic compromise or forceful pursuit of war, as long as that method was most suitable for Frederick the Great's own strategic purposes, Frederick the Great chose whichever was the best.

When to fight, when to take a detour, when to retreat, when to take risks, when to conserve troops, when to recruit quickly .... In Frederick the Great's mind, the only thing that could determine the operation and strategic direction of war was politics.

In short, Frederick the Great became a great commander not only because of the battles he won, but also because of his political acumen and strategic intentions, which corresponded to the realities of Prussian politics at the time.

Frederick the Great can be said to be the spiritual totem of all the men of the Hohenzollern family, and a source of pride for the Prussian military Junker aristocracy.

As the land of the four wars in Europe, Germany was always neighbors with all kinds of powerful people, and learning and studying the ruling art of Frederick the Great was a compulsory course for every Hohenzollern ruler.

Prior to Dr. Delbrück's idea of a strategy of attrition, the Hohenzollerns had been strategically oriented to Europe on two points: politically close to the British and friendly with Russia, and militarily with a rapid war of annihilation against France.

At the beginning of this summer, after the visit of the Russian General Shuvalov to Berlin, in order to deal with the possible double-faced attacks of the Russians, Crown Prince Frederick specially discussed with Chancellor Bismarck the political and military response to Russia, during which he carefully discussed the research results of Dr. Delbrück.

Chancellor Bismarck, who was an honorary colonel of the cuirassiers, had lackluster military achievements, but from a political point of view, he praised the idea that the decisive factor in war and military strategy could only be politics.

War is only an extension of politics, and cannot be solved by military affairs, and it is always diplomacy that solves complex international problems, and the political elite of the German Empire has the sharpest sword in their hands, which is the political view that Chancellor Bismarck has always adhered to.

The old chancellor believed that the Germans would be invincible in conflicts on the European continent as long as they could obtain the guarantee of friendship with the British, so both diplomatics and military affairs should be subordinate to this strategy.

Whether it is the "five-ball balance" that has been engaged in diplomacy before, or the promotion of the German-Austrian alliance this year, or even the planning of the new Three Emperors Alliance, in the final analysis, it is all to promote the fundamental strategy of the German-British alliance, but no matter how hard the old prime minister tries, the British always put on a cold and arrogant face, that is, they are unwilling to step into the European continent.

Perhaps, we can listen to Joy's thoughts a little, Germany also tried to change the pattern of the European continent appropriately, acquiesced in or even connived at the Franco-Russian flow, challenged the hegemony of the British, and forced the British to express their attitude to Germany, if the British agreed to an alliance with Germany, then everyone would be happy.

If the British are still unwilling to form an alliance, then they will continue to exchange interests with the Russians in private, such as secretly signing the Three Emperors Alliance, silently encouraging the Russians to continue to do things with Britain around the world, and by the way, play with the feelings of the French.

For Crown Prince Frederick, the marshal who had fought in all dynastic wars, out of trust in the tactics of future trench warfare as described by Joey, and out of the Hohenzollerns' long-standing military self-confidence in fighting more with less, Prussia was never afraid of anyone in land warfare on the European continent as long as it had the support of the British.

This moment when Franco-Russian joint challenge to British hegemony was the perfect opportunity for Germany to make overtures to Britain.

The self-confidence of his son and the old prime minister also infected the old emperor Wilhelm I, so a diplomatic statement with equally strong wording, not hesitating to threaten war, and even forcing Britain to hurry up and make a statement, was released.

Christmas in 1879, which was originally peaceful, no European politician would have imagined that it would be so chaotic and thrilling.

During the day of Christmas on December 25, the French shouted that France and Russia had been allied, and it was clear that Germany was the enemy of France, but France wanted to challenge the hegemony of Britain and say anything about establishing a new world order, and at night, the Germans shouted that they would not waver in defending the hegemony of the British, but they began to wield their swords against Denmark, a small country.

And the two most important parties, the British, were silent, and the Russians, were dancing happily.

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St. Petersburg, in the most luxurious crystal hall of the Winter Palace, one of the most popular masquerade balls of the late 19th century, is taking place on the theme of ancient Greek mythology.

According to the Russian court rules, balls in the Winter Palace had to be convened by Empress Maria-Alexandrovna, and in fact since the beginning of 1879, when Empress Alexandrovna became seriously ill, the Hermitage had not held a large ball for almost seven months.

Of course, there has never been a shortage of small balls of twenty or thirty people in the Winter Palace, for example, three days ago, a group of Russian noblewomen held the 20th ball in the Winter Palace since October for Mrs. Catherine Mikhaillovna Dolgorukova.

These concealments were only deliberately aimed at Empress Alexandrovna, and for the Russian aristocracy, there was really no secret at all, and almost all the nobles were waiting for Empress Alexandrovna to shout long live to the new empress after her death.

Almost all, fortunately, is not equal to all, at least the noblewomen who married into Russia from the German countries were angry, "The Romanovs in history are but the lowliest side of the great Rurik family, and among the thirty greatest families in the history of European families, there is no place so far, and if it were not for the marriage with the heirs of the Holy Roman Empire, you are a bunch of mud legs who have picked up the crown from the mire." ”

It was Ivan III of the Rurik family who married the princess of the Eastern Roman Empire, so in the eyes of European nobles, it was the Rurik family who inherited the blood of the Eastern Roman Empire, not the Romanov family.

Where there is a court, there are rivers and lakes, and since it is a river and lake, it is inevitable to fight, and the princesses from Germany in the Russian court always clash with the Russian nobles.

Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, who married into Russia in 1824, was the leader of the German princess group, and of course after converting to Orthodoxy, Princess Charlotte had a more formal Russian name, Grand Duchess Elena Palovna, and her husband was Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the youngest son of Tsar Paul I.

According to her seniority, she was a figure of the rank of the aunt of Tsar Alexander II, not only was she of high rank, but her five daughters were also married, and her son-in-law was either the king of the German state or the Grand Duke of Russia.

The most important thing is the Crimean War of 1853, the Anglo-French alliance made Nightingale nurses with a large number of wounded, and it was the Grand Duchess Palovna who went to the front to treat the wounded of the Russian army, and she naturally became the founder of the Russian Red Cross and the founder of the Moscow Girls' School.

Of course, the Dolgorukov family is not a small Russian noble, but their ancestors have never inherited the title of any emperor, and in the eyes of the nobles who maintain the orthodoxy of the European royal family, they can naturally only be called the Shu clan, and they are only worthy of being the mistress of the emperor.

If they were just willing to be mistresses, the German girl groups would not have any plans with the Shu people, but just recently, Alexander II spat out the truth after a drunkenness, and actually said that after the death of Empress Alexandrovna, he would officially marry this Dolgorukova.

Crown Prince Alexandrovich's wife was a Danish princess who hated Germany, and now the tsar said that he was going to marry a woman from an indigenous Russian tribe, which was related to the status of German princesses in the Russian Empire, and the German girl group immediately became vigilant, and a secret war was inevitable.