Most of the German states, not only the Kingdom of Saxony, but also Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau and other large and small states, strongly condemned Prussia's aggression and expressed their desire to resist Prussia's invasion together with the Austrian Empire.

These German allies who supported the Austrian Empire, such as Hanover, Hesse-Gassell, etc., immediately began to oppose the war launched by Prussia, and sent troops to help the Austrian Empire attack the Prussian army. Among them, Hanover, which was surrounded by the Kingdom of Prussia, directly announced the mobilization of troops in Hanover, preparing to blossom from all sides of the Prussian hinterland. Because the main force of the Prussian army had already gone to attack Saxony and Bohemia, the Prussian king did not expect Hanover to support Austria so much, and was surprised, and in desperation, the Kingdom of Prussia could only go to meet the Fifth Army led by Prince William, who had just arrived in Berlin.

After receiving the order, Prince William immediately led 40,000 troops of the Fifth Army to make a detour to the city of Hanover, and near Langensalcha, he happened to encounter the Hanoverian army, which also had 40,000 troops.

Prince Wilhelm immediately attacked, and the 40,000 valiant Prussian soldiers, with little formation, rushed directly to the enemy and opened fire on the densely packed Hanoverian army, and the Prussian Fifth Army was basically equipped with Dreiser needle-fired breech rifles, which were far more advanced than the front-loading smoothbore rifles equipped by the Hanoverian army. Moreover, because the Prussian attack was sudden, there was no good formation, but it happened to fit the straggler line formation with rear-loading guns, so that the superiority and inferiority of the firepower of both sides were formed at once.

The soldiers of the Prussian Fifth Army, because of the rear-loading rifles, loaded their bullets from the back of the rifle more conveniently, and the Prussian soldiers could reload in a lying position, kneeling position, or in a sheltered position. For a time, the same 40,000 Hanoverian soldiers, although the formation was dense, but the firepower was sparse, and the Prussian army's rear-loading rifle had a long range, and suddenly, the Hanoverian army suffered heavy losses, and the first few rows of soldiers were shot and fell to the ground.

At the same time, on the orders of Prince William, artillery opened heavy fire on the Hanoverian army. Most of the Prussian army used relatively cheap front-loading smoothbore guns, but the Fifth Army led by Prince William was sponsored by him because of his close relationship with the Chinese Empire, and according to the fire ** paper of the Chinese Empire, more than 40 rear-loading rifled guns were imitated, although they were not regular Krupp cannons, but they were almost the same, and their performance was much better than the range and rate of fire of the front-loading smoothbore guns. The Hannover soldiers in the rear fled to the city of Hanover.

Seeing this, Prince William was overjoyed and immediately ordered a pursuit, and the Prussian Fifth Army pursued all the way, killing and capturing nearly 10,000 Hanoverian troops, and only 30,000 Hanoverian troops fled into Hanover.

That night, the Prussian Fifth Army surrounded the city of Hanover. Prince William did not stop at all, and directly ordered the forty breech-loading rifled guns to bombard the city of Hanover at any cost, and suddenly, the ancient city of Hanover shook the ground, and everyone was in danger.

Prince William looked at Zeng Jize who was accompanying him and said, "Mr. Zeng, I finally know why your country was able to defeat the British army!" The famous Krupp cannon in your country is even more sophisticated than this, and it is really enviable to hear that your country produces thousands of such Krupp cannons every year. With this kind of land warfare weapon, why worry about not winning the war?

However, this Krupp cannon was developed by us Prussians with the help of your country, and there is such a weapon of war in this case, so your country does not need to keep this weapon secret, and it is better to open it to our Prussian kingdom. ”

Zeng Jize smiled: "Your Highness said it was funny!" Krupp cannons, we have always been open to your country, but after all, that kind of cannon is expensive, it is not easy to develop, even if it is our Chinese Empire, the number is not much, it is impossible to have an annual output of thousands of guns. Therefore, we cannot give it to your country for nothing, if your country needs it, you can apply to buy it, as long as the price is right, you can buy it directly! For the sake of the relationship between the two countries and His Highness, I think it should be cheaper. ”

William secretly said that this old fox is this set of rhetoric every time. He asked the Chinese Empire many times to provide some Krupp cannons, but each time he was asked to pay for them, and when he really paid for them, the price was extremely high, and according to Prussia's financial resources, he could not buy many doors at all. In desperation, the Kingdom of Prussia could only buy a few artillery pieces as samples, thinking of transporting them back to China for dismantling and imitation, but the Chinese Empire left a hand, and every time the artillery was shipped, it was not the real most advanced Krupp artillery, but there were always some key technologies and tricks that left a hand, so that every time Prussia imitated it, it was almost as hot as the real Krupp artillery.

Of course, except for Prince Wilhelm, who had been to the Chinese Empire and seen the power of the real Krupp cannon, many generals in the other Prussian armies thought that the imitation breech-loading rifled guns were already of excellent performance. But Prince William knew very well that this was still far from the latest Krupp cannon in the constantly improving and perfecting Chinese Imperial Army. Thinking about the Krupp cannon that originally belonged to his own Prussia, but it became someone else's weapon in a daze, Wilhelm was very depressed!

Could it be that Prussia was too poor to support a master like Krupp to develop a Krupp cannon, and only the wealthy Chinese Empire could do it?

When Prince William thought that it was originally a sharp weapon of war for Prussia, he had to pay a huge amount of money to buy it, and he couldn't even buy it, he felt extremely ironic!

The two chatted for a while, and the sentinel came with the news that King Ogelge of Hanover had announced his surrender, and that they were willing to leave the city to surrender as long as Prince William promised not to harm their royal nobles and commoners.

Prince William was overjoyed. Hanover's willingness to surrender was a serious blow to the German Confederation forces that had helped Austria, directly disintegrating the Austrian allies, and greatly boosting the morale of the Prussian army at the front.

At the same time, the order issued by the Prussian king in Berlin a few days ago to defend Prussia played a role, and more than 100,000 reserve troops directly defeated Baden, Württemberg and several other small states that had defected to the Austrian Empire, or were so frightened that they turned around and fled and surrendered to Prussia, and soon, the Prussian army controlled the entire North German region.

And here, early the next morning, the Prussian Fifth Army, which had taken over the city of Hanover, stepped on the train again, waved its army south, and went straight to the front battlefield.

Because the Kingdom of Saxony had already been conquered, and the sappers of the East Prussian Corps on the front had repaired the railways along the line, Prince Wilhelm's Fifth Corps did not stop and crossed directly across the territory of Saxony to Bohemia, which originally belonged to the border of the Austrian Empire.

The head-to-head showdown between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire has officially begun!