A week later, the general election was over, the Conservatives won a resounding victory, and Conservative leader Disraeli came to power to form a government.

If Gladstone was the best British politician of his time, then this Disraeli was the only one who could stand up to Gladstone politically.

Disraeli was a Tory, and later the Tories changed their name to the Conservative Party and began to break away from the aristocracy in the hope of gaining the support of the common voters. Disraeli carried out a large number of reforms in the Conservative Party, imposing a liberal programme within the Conservative Party.

So in terms of political attitudes, Disrae is similar to Gladstone, both advocate free trade. Unlike Gladstone, Disraeli advocated external expansion.

This is a typical imperialist policy, compromise at home and expansion abroad! Improving the well-being of the people internally and colonizing and plundering externally.

But the basis of expansion is to guarantee his own security, and Disrae is willing to expand in Africa, in the Americas, in India, but let him expand in China, at least in this era, is unrealistic.

Therefore, the expansionists who seized Egypt's Suez Canal stocks and launched the Afghan War and the Boer War were also very hesitant to face the risk of getting involved in a world war.

But there was no need to be so polite to Germany, which lodged a strong protest against Germany's aggression against neutral Belgium and announced economic sanctions against Germany and the freezing of all German assets in the UK, both official and unofficial. The closure of the English Channel was announced on the grounds of British security, citing the danger of an unprovoked Belgian invasion. It was stipulated that any merchant ship passing through the English Channel was subject to inspection by the British Navy, and it was strictly forbidden for any military goods to pass through the channel.

This is actually a blockade of Germany, because in addition to the Baltic trade, most of Germany's overseas routes have to pass through the English Channel, which is equivalent to cutting off Germany's ability to obtain resources from other countries, and most importantly, saltpeter, which is vital for the manufacture of gunpowder, Germany's largest source of saltpeter is imported from Chile in South America.

At the same time, this is also the protection of France, after several years of arms race, Germany relies on strong industrial manufacturing capacity and economic scale, the scale of the German navy has basically been comparable to the old naval power France, in terms of capital ships, due to the German warship update, the design is more advanced, and even the French capital ship is in an absolute advantage. Moreover, because France has two coastlines facing the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, the French Navy has always been scattered in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, while the German Navy faces the North Sea and has absolute superiority over the French Atlantic Fleet.

But now Britain has announced the closure of the English Channel, which prevents the German navy from directly attacking the Atlantic side of France, which is a huge protection for France's maritime security, and also makes it impossible for Germany to support the army invading the northern coast of France through the sea route.

Britain's attitude, of course, caused protests from Germany, but in the course of the war with France, Germany did not want to go to war with Britain at the same time, even if it had the endorsement of China behind it, but it provoked Britain, and Germany suffered greater losses. Therefore, Germany's protest was limited to words.

On the one hand, Germany was suppressed, and on the other hand, Britain stepped up its aid to France. German merchant ships were forbidden to transport strategic goods through the English Channel, but British merchant ships used it as a shortcut to the French delivery of strategic goods. A large number of weapons and equipment, military supplies, and raw materials were continuously transported into France.

Calais, Le Havre, Brest, Nantes and Bordeaux, the ports of Paris that were connected by rail, were busy, and British-made munitions poured into Paris as gratuitous aid.

The French did not consider the economic cost at all, and mobilized the French manpower to the maximum, and all French men over the age of eighteen and under the age of fifty were required to serve in the army, except for military production, government employees, and railway employees, all adult men who had nothing to do with military production had to serve, which allowed France to expand the army to five million people.

Without such extreme mobilization, Paris cannot be defended and France cannot be defended. Because at this time the main French force was dragged to the German-French border in the south, while the Germans approached Paris from the north of France with two million Polish troops, through Belgium. The strikers had already captured Amiens and were advancing rapidly along the railway. However, the French could not draw enough troops to resist the Poles, and the main force of the French army of nearly 3 million men was dragged on the Lorraine plateau, distributed in the line from Belfort to Verdun on the Meuse in the Vosges Mountains, and opposite the main force of 3 million German troops. The redeployment of troops from the front line may lead to a sudden collapse of the frontal battlefield.

Therefore, France could only mobilize a large number of reserve troops, and these reserve troops were sent to the front line to block the Poles, and it was too late, so they could only assemble them in Paris, using the natural rivers such as the Marne and the Seine around Paris to form defensive positions, while the limited army left around Paris was sent to the front line, using their sacrifices to delay the advance of the Polish army and buy time for the formation of new recruits in the rear.

British weapons and weapons and equipment of French own production, constantly arming new recruits, after the formation of new recruits continued to pour into Paris, the strength of Paris continued to strengthen, in just one month, under the pressure of the soldiers in the city, the French, who were procrastinating, showed rare efficiency, they sent a million recruits to Paris. And the defense was really built outside Paris, just waiting for the attack of the Polish army, and the Poles had advanced to Compiègne by this time.

The advance of the Poles was not unpleasant, and in just one month they had advanced from Belgium to the vicinity of Paris, and it could be said that they were marching without even having complete control of the rear, while the Belgian resistance was still fiercely resisting. But Moltke still felt that it was too slow, and all he needed now was speed, and most importantly, time.

He really felt the nervousness of the commander of the Chinese army when he detoured to Kazakhstan, and if it was really a day late, or even an hour late, it might cause the plan to fail.

But Bismarck still underestimated the difficulty of marching, and in an era when marches relied on legs and supplies depended on livestock, blitzkrieg really could not be played. If you push back a hundred years, you can also use the way of cavalry advance, if you push forward a hundred years, you can use the way of vehicle transportation to advance, but in this era before mechanization, the fastest means of transportation is the era of trains, in the case of the French wantonly destroying the railway and transferring all the locomotives, the speed of the Poles' advance is limited.

When the Poles advanced to the Compiègne Forest on the banks of the Oise, they found that the French had already established fortifications on the other side of the river, and Moltke immediately realized that the tactics of the Great Northern Detour had failed.

In Moltke's original vision, he planned to make the Polish army advance quickly and directly capture the empty Paris. But on the one hand, he overestimated the speed of advance of the Polish army, and on the other hand, he underestimated the ability of the French to mobilize under pressure.

By the time the Polish army reached the vicinity of Paris, the French had already successfully established a defensive line, and Moltke knew that it would not be easy to break through the fortified positions of the French army in this era of strong defense and weak attack.

Moltke made the decision to get the Polish army to abandon the plan of a roundabout attack north of Paris, and instead force a crossings of the Oise River to the east, and then advance in the direction of the Marne.

When the French also placed the center of defense in Paris, the well-trained Polish army forced a breakthrough of the hastily established line of defense on the Oise, crossing the river from the Compiègne area, and Paris was in a panic. But soon they found out that the Polish army was advancing not on Paris, but on a rapid advance in the direction of the Marne. The Polish follow-up army was advancing along the railway from Cambrai to Reims, and the Polish army crossing the river from Compiègne was advancing along the Aisne River, when the French were surprised to find that the Polish army had turned and their aim was Reims.

The French drew some reserves from Verdun and Sedan, but before they could come to the aid of Reims, the Polish army occupied the area. Reims is a transport hub, from where the railway connects Paris with the Verdun region.

The French immediately reacted, the strategic direction of the German army changed, they gave up directly capturing Paris, but wanted to cut off Paris from the main force on the German-French border and encircle the main French army. The French wanted to stop the German plot, but the main German army launched a fierce attack on the frontal battlefield, and the front line was constantly in a hurry. The Polish army continued from Reims to the nearby Marne, targeting the important town of Chalons on the Marne.

Once the Germans cut off the Marne, Paris would lose contact with the main French army on the Lorraine plateau, and although the French railway network had been formed, after the Marne River was cut off, the situation would be extremely unfavorable, and the Germans would certainly continue to attack.

The defense of Chalons became so important that the French government began to send heavy troops to the area, drawing 300,000 men from Paris and bringing them in by train. The newly formed army in the south did not ask to go to Paris, but went directly to Sharon. At the same time, the Chalons defenders were ordered to hold their positions to the death.

The two sides fought fiercely along the Marne line between Paris and Chalon, and the largest battle since the beginning of the war began.

So far, the Poles have not faced a tough battle, and they have been dealing with the French reserves, young and old.

The training and equipment level of the Polish army are above the hastily armed French army, and the tactical literacy is not much higher, and the command is also better than the French army, so the road is like a bamboo, but at this time it encountered hard stubble, and the French army did not retreat.

Within a month, between Chalons and Paris, the French army built fortifications along the river and along the railway, the railway was blown up, but the river was still there, and the Polish army repeatedly broke through to the other side of the river, and was repeatedly repulsed by the French.

The French suffered more losses than the Poles, but they won because they managed to hold the line. However, the price paid was very high, with 80 troops dispatched successively, and the losses were as high as 250,000 people.

At this time, after the initial confusion, the Verdun line of defense was also solid, and began to draw troops from the front line to reinforce Chalon, at this time the Polish army retreated, and if they did not retreat, they would face Verdun and Chalon's defenders on both sides.

But this retreat made Moltke understand that the war began to turn into a protracted war and a war of attrition, and such a war was not what Moltke wanted, because there would be no victor in such a war.

Moltke sent his opinion back home, hoping that the emperor and his cabinet would consider this factor, and Moltke said that it was no longer possible to destroy France by pure means of war, and that if greater losses were to be avoided, peace negotiations should be considered to settle the dispute. Moltke said that he could put pressure on Paris during the negotiations, but that's all, the plan to capture the French capital has failed, and the plan to encircle and annihilate the main French army has also failed, and continuing to fight will only needlessly consume the blood of both Germany and France, and there will be no strategic benefit.

Even Moltke said so, and with his prestige it was almost a foregone conclusion, and the German Cabinet had no doubt that the means of war could no longer solve the problem.

Either choose to enter a war of attrition, or you can only negotiate peace. Germany's passage of Britain, which had not yet severed diplomatic relations, but was on the verge of a rupture, conveyed that Germany was open to negotiations.

Germany believed that they still had the advantage, so they could put forward some demands that were in line with their own interests, and Germany did not think that this was too much at all, because they only demanded that the Spanish Carlos regime be established independently, without seeking to occupy an inch of French land, and also promised Britain that they would guarantee the independence of Belgium and withdraw from Belgium as soon as possible.

But the French refused, because they had just won a general battle, and the German (Polish) advance and retreat, and optimistic French public opinion even believed that the time had come for the French counteroffensive, and the next step was not only to fully repel the German army, but also to recover the lost ground. In this optimism, the French government did not dare to accede to any conditions that would humiliate the French people.

Moreover, the purpose of France in this war was to prevent France from falling under the attack of German forces on both sides, so France could not accept the emergence of a new country on the western border of France that was hostile to France and had territorial disputes with France.

France made it clear that it rejected German conditions, and even with the front line stable and the establishment of reserves largely completed, the French army once again crossed the Pyrenees and entered the Carlist sphere of influence. Because the French hoped that they could unite with the Spanish government army as soon as possible to break the stalemate in the Spanish Civil War and eliminate the Carlos regime, Germany would have no reason to continue the war, and at that time, whether it was to continue the war or to negotiate, France would take the initiative.

France not only rejected Germany's terms of negotiation, but also sent troops to invade Carlos territory again, which was seen as a provocation by the Germans, and Germany was completely outraged.

At this time, nothing could be cared about, whether it was a quick battle or a protracted war of attrition, they had to fight with all their might, and Germany began a second mobilization, this time Germany, like France, announced that all male citizens under the age of 50 and over the age of 18 would serve in the army.

Germany's population is larger than that of France, and because of its rapid growth in recent years and its relatively young population, they can mobilize a larger proportion of the population, 42 million Germans, enough to mobilize 700 troops, plus Poland's two million troops, and Poland has two million mobilization potential, Germany can arm tens of millions of troops.

But the problem was that with such a large number of troops, even with the industrial capacity of Germany, it was impossible to fully equip the troops with weapons in a short time.

So the carnival of international arms dealers broke out completely, before they supplied weapons to the Spanish Civil War, which was just an appetizer, and now they are supplying weapons to the two most powerful army powers in Europe, which is the real feast.