With the end of the first phase of the Battle of Taranto, there were also serious consequences for the world war. Especially on the Western Front, with the entry of the Italians, history has gone to another fork in the road.

With the fall of Taranto, the Italian government was now desperate for a victory to counteract the political repercussions of the defeat at Taranto.

On 15 April, the Italian government decided to cooperate with the Germans in their attack on France, and it was Italian Army General Iggie Cadore who was responsible for carrying out this plan.

There was also a serious territorial conflict between France and Italy – the Savoy and Nice regions, which were ceded to the French in 1860 by the Italians in order to gain French support for their independence from Austrian rule.

With the rise of Italy, the emerging nationalism was very unhappy, especially in the Nice region, which was also the birthplace of Italian national liberation.

Between France and Italy, there has always been a natural border Alps, and it is not so easy to attack France.

But now the opportunity has come, because the Germans have pinned down the large number of French forces, and now the French defenders on the Franco-Italian border are less than 50,000, while the Kingdom of Italy has gathered 500,000 troops.

The French must be grateful to Ferdinand, and if it weren't for his sudden Battle of Taranto, France would now be facing more than just half a million Italian troops.

The Italians had limited reserves of strategic materiel, and if they were to attack with all their might, they would only be able to hold out for three months.

Of course, this is not to say that the Italians can only fight for three months, in fact, they are still producing and replenishing in the country, but this speed cannot catch up with the consumption rate on the battlefield!

Therefore, quick victory became the only principle of Iggie Kadorna, and like him, there were Germans.

In 1905, Germany formulated the "Schlieffen Plan", according to which the Germans wanted to use Belgium to quickly invade France, defeat the French in a short time, and then move eastward to fight a decisive battle with the Russians, and strive to end the war within three or four.

As in parallel time and space, the German offensive was dragged down due to the sudden outbreak of Belgium.

Despite the fact that the war broke out later and the Germans were better prepared, they were delayed by Belgium for a week.

In just one week, the fate of the two empires was changed, and in this week France completed the military mobilization of 1.5 million people, and now the total strength of the French has reached 2.98 million.

The Germans, who had invaded France, were dumbfounded, and they suddenly found that their advantage was no longer there! The raid has lost its effect, so the two sides can only compete in strength.

The value of the Italians increased greatly, so Germany and Italy conspired, and half a million Italian troops launched a full-scale attack on the French.

……

For the French, they were in crisis, and although their total strength had now exceeded 3.5 million, the French commander-in-chief, Joseph-Jacques Césaire Chauffel, felt that there were not enough troops.

"Mr. President, what do the British say, when will the reinforcements they promised arrive?" Xia Fei asked eagerly

"Three British divisions will arrive this week, five more next week, and twenty more in June." Raymond Poincaré said with some annoyance

Obviously, John Bull coped with it, the war had broken out for more than a month, and only one army division had arrived on the battlefield with the reinforcements promised by the British, and all the pressure on the Western Front was on the French.

"Oh, the British are willing to send so many reinforcements?" Xia Fei asked in some surprise

"Hmph, they are all colonial troops, their main division, and the British are now reluctant to send them out!" Raymond Poencaré said angrily

If the British were the main force, these forces would have been enough to make the French rejoice, and they would have almost neutralized the Italian threat.

But the colonial troops? Their combat effectiveness has always been scum with a combat power equal to 5, and it is okay to use it as cannon fodder, and if you want to defeat the combined attack of the Germans and Italians, you can only rely on the French themselves.

From the beginning of the war to the present, on average, the French army has to pay tens of thousands of casualties every day, and the Germans have inflicted nearly 500,000 casualties on France in more than a month.

It can be said that France is by far the country with the greatest loss of personnel among all the participating countries, and their pressure can be imagined!

Xia Fei asked again: "What about the Russians?" When will they be able to attack the Germans?

And Bulgaria, can they launch an attack on southern Italy and help us pin down the enemy?

Mr. President, you know how much military pressure we are under now, facing the attack of two great powers, Germany and Italy, at the same time!

Without the support of our allies, we won't be able to survive on our own! ”

Raymond Poincaré said with a wry smile: "I know these questions, the Russians have completed their national mobilization, and they have promised to launch an offensive on the Eastern Front in the shortest possible time to contain the Germans' forces.

As for Bulgaria, their Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that there was nothing they could do, and now they had to face the siege of Austria-Hungary, Romania, the Kingdom of Montenegro, and the Ottoman Empire, and they really had no energy left to open up a new front! ”

Listening to the president's words, Xia Fei's anger became even greater, it was obvious that the Entente had the advantage, but when it came to the Western Front, France was pressed and beaten by the Germans. In his opinion, these allies were undoubtedly watching the French and Germans desperately.

In the eyes of the French, the British had not yet exerted their strength at all, and had taken a bunch of colonial troops to make up the numbers, and the influence of the anti-war faction in the British was automatically ignored by them.

Not to mention the Russians, who let the Germans not fight, and now they are beating the soft persimmon of Austria-Hungary, and they did not achieve their desired goal.

It sounds like Bulgaria has done everything it can, and there is a lot of military pressure on all sides. In fact, they all know that Bulgaria faces many enemies, but the quality is poor!

Combined, these four countries are not as powerful as a third of the Germans, and the Russians have helped contain three of them!

Militarily speaking, Bulgaria can turn four enemies into two at any time if it wants to, and the kingdoms of Romania and Montenegro have no war potential at all!

……

For all this, Ferdinand could only sigh: allies are used for pits!

First, the British, French, and Bulgarians together pitted the Russians, and now 70% of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's troops are used on the woolly bear; Then Britain, Russia, and Bulgaria joined forces to pit the French, and alone took 80% of the Germans' troops, and now added an Italy.

After the Russians were cheated once, they decisively let Germany go, grabbed the soft persimmon of Austria-Hungary and pinched it, and then turned hands to France!

Is it so easy for France to be trapped? Ferdinand didn't know, but he knew that there were only interests between countries, and everything revolved around interests!

So if you are in the position of the French, how can you break the game?

It is impossible for the navy to move, and the French will definitely not dare to abandon the Mediterranean, otherwise the supplies sent to France from overseas will soon be cut by nearly half.

And what about the Army? Did the French dare to let the Germans into the country?

Suddenly, Ferdinand had an idea for something, and it seemed that he had not thought of anything. He knew that the deception that was happening now had also happened in parallel time and space, but he was at a level too low to be accessible.

On the surface, Britain and France worked together to lead the Entente to defeat the Central Powers.

But in the midst of it, Ferdinand can be sure that from the outbreak of the world war to the present, the British have been playing soy sauce, in addition to blocking the German high seas fleet, they have played the role of the Allied logistics chief.

Otherwise, if there were millions of British troops now, together with the French, against the Germans, this war would never have lasted more than four years!

I can't figure out what kind of action the French will take to break the situation, but it does not prevent Bulgaria from continuing its plan to take out the Romanians and the Russians first.

At that time, they will be able to advance and retreat freely, even if the Germans really kill the French, as long as the Russians also kill Austria-Hungary, the strength of the two sides will still be equal.

"Mr. Chief of Staff, are you all ready?" Ferdinand asked with concern

Imia Dimityev said confidently: "Your Majesty, please rest assured! We have gathered 500,000 troops, and the Russians will send 500,000 troops, and it is impossible for Romania to stop our attack!

If nothing else, within two months, you will receive news of the demise of Romania! ”

Well, against one Romania with a million troops, Ferdinand really could not imagine the possibility of defeat.

Don't look at the fact that Austria-Hungary has mobilized more than four million troops, but there are one million in Belgrade against Bulgaria, and nearly three million in the Russians, and the Vienna government has very few mobile forces in its hands.

Although they also knew that the fall of Romania would be very unfavorable to Austria-Hungary and that the Hungarian Plain would be exposed to the iron heel of the two countries, they were still limited in their ability to help Romania.

"That's good as planned, I'm waiting for your good news!" Ferdinand said with a smile

……

"Your Majesty, Britain, France, and Russia have all asked us to purchase aircraft technology, how can we reply to them?" Foreign Minister Metev asked

Ferdinand thought for a while and said: "Promise them that if you sell them the technology of our biplane bomber, you can trade the technology, or you can offset it with materials, but you will not accept cash!" ”

Although he also wants to keep the technology secret, the technical content of the aircraft in this era is really not high, and the Bulgarian aircraft are not ahead of the times, as long as they want to, they can make it, it just takes a while.

Now everyone is still an ally, Bulgaria has also bought technology from Britain and France before, no matter what their considerations, they have finally sold, and now Bulgaria will not be able to refuse their demands!

Rather than refusing to stiffen everyone's relationship, it is better to bring them into the pit openly, anyway, what they want to buy is bomber production technology.

The current active bombers in Bulgaria are all biplanes, and the direction of development of future aircraft is monoplanes!

But it's the war years, and the least valuable thing is money! Whether it is technology or materials, they are things that can be immediately transformed into national strength, but money cannot!