In 1909, at the age of 22, Manstein served as a junior officer in the 3rd Infantry Regiment of the German Guards with the rank of second lieutenant; At the age of 21, Guderian served in the German 10th Hanover Light Infantry Battalion with the rank of second lieutenant; Rommel was 18 years old, a secondary school student in Aalen, Württemberg...... In this year, Natsuki first came into contact with the affairs of the German Army as Prince Joachim, and the famous generals of the Third Reich were still obscure calves, and early exploration of their potential could be rich in rewards, or it could play a negative role in pulling out seedlings. In Natsuki www.biquge.info's view, instead of pinning his hopes on these "future stars", it is better to look for those who can be of great use in the existing resources - historical opportunities have created talents, and some talents will inevitably be buried.

Since Crown Prince William promised to help him in Charlotte's affairs, there was no reason why Natsuki should not give advice on his troubles. However, the situation is not as simple as imagined, because William does not want outsiders to know that he has asked Natsuki for help, Natsuki cannot show his face in the army general staff, nor can he coordinate and communicate with the staff officers involved in the exercise plan, so he can only solve the problem in a strange way that "laymen" work behind closed doors.

In terms of arrogance and conceit, William had a fight with his father, but he was not so dull that he was empty-eyed. In order to allow Natsuki to formulate an ingenious and realistic drill plan, in addition to the above two restrictions, he tried to create conditions, including providing Natsuki with a large amount of absolutely confidential military information, and sending his personal military adviser to Natsuki as an assistant - this is particularly risky for a prince, after all, Natsuki is ranked sixth in the succession to the throne, and theoretically still has a chance to sit on the supreme throne, so it is taboo to let potential competitors know their hole cards.

Whether it's a little more hungry for victory, or a feeling that he can control his relationship with Natsuki, William did give him full trust this time. Through the mouths of several military advisers, Natsuki quickly understood the whole incident: after participating in a number of military drills and exercises, the confident Crown Prince Wilhelm wanted to serve as the commander of the autumn exercises, which was the largest military exercise of the German Army every year, and it was also an important operation to fully grasp the "Schlieffen Plan", concentrating the most elite units of the German Army. The biggest difference between the drill and the exercise is that it basically implements an action plan step by step, and the participants do not have much room for free play, while the German army studies the "Schlieffen Plan" year after year, and the staff and command personnel at all levels have memorized the route and timetable, and even if an ordinary officer is the commander of the exercise, there will not be much difference, but the generals of the Army General Staff have rejected Crown Prince William several times on the grounds of his lack of experience, which provoked the bloody and rigid Crown Prince to speak ill of him at a staff meeting. As a result, the generals gave him such an exam question, and if he could pass it successfully, he would be the commander-in-chief of the autumn exercise.

At first glance, the old men of the General Staff of the Army are simply a bunch of hard bumps that do not open their minds, in this monarchy where the imperial power is supreme, the prince is the future ruler, how can it end well to fight with him? On the flip side, Natsuki felt that this was the same as Wilhelm II's "Lead-Cast Battleship", Tirpitz did not want the emperor to meddle in the specific affairs of the navy, and the senior army generals also wanted to maintain their traditional power in their respective fields.

The proposition of the regimental exercise, which was handed over to Crown Prince William, was to break through a 20-kilometer-wide defensive line of the Russian army with the strength of one corps, which seemed simple, but the actual situation was very complicated. The "Schlieffen Plan," which was highly praised by the German staff officers, made extremely detailed arrangements for how the German army could use the rotation tactics to encircle and annihilate the main force of the French army in one fell swoop, and the annual drill was only appropriately adjusted according to the changes in personnel and equipment, and although this plan was based on the premise that the German army was fighting against France and Russia at the same time, the arrangements for the eastern front were much simpler -- the initial stage was to use a small number of troops to carry out a containment defense, and when the main German army defeated France, it could use the developed railway network to move eastward, and as for the next step of the eastward advance, Although Schlieffen had considered this plan when formulating it, it was clear that it could not keep up with the changing situation.

After the Franco-Russian alliance, in order to strengthen Russia's strategic deterrence against Germany, the French government provided Russia with a huge loan to help it improve the railway system from Moscow to Warsaw, and at the same time, Tsarist Russia was also strengthening the fortress system in western Russian Poland. After Schlieffen stepped down, Marshal Moltke Sr.'s nephew Moltke Jr. became chief of staff of the German Army General Staff, and he was a staunch follower of Schlieffen's plan, spending a great deal of energy every year on repairing the operational part of the Western Front, while the contents of the Eastern Front were set aside.

As far as the strength of the German and Russian forces is concerned, it is not very difficult for the staff officers of this corps offensive to do business, the key is that Wilhelm has not been in the General Staff for a long time, before this he was only a regimental commander, and he suddenly rose to the corps command level, and there is no ready-made plan to learn from, no wonder he has to worry that his plan will be picked out by experienced generals in the process of the exercise.

After a few days of exchanges, Xia Shu had a new question in his heart: William's personal military advisers are all retired senior officers, and their decades of military career have made them more familiar with the operation of the German army than many active officers, and the chief adviser, Colonel Muras, was also Schlieffen's right-hand man.

The situation seems full of contradictions, and at first Natsuki even worries about whether there is a trap buried here, and it is not until Musla comes up with his conformist and unimaginative plan that Natsuki gradually understands the meaning behind this contradiction...... In Moltke's time, whether it was the Prussian Army or the German Imperial Army, the staff structure always emphasized adequate preparation before the war and improvisation during the war. The advantages of "adequate preparation" have been retained, but "improvisation" has gradually been put aside. Schlieffen's famous work is the "Schlieffen Plan" formulated for France, which is regarded as a classic by many because of its ingenious design, but during his tenure as chief of the General Staff, Schlieffen has always instilled in his colleagues the concept of precise execution, and every military drill must be carried out strictly according to the plan, and over time, the staff departments at all levels have become too dependent on the plan, and every military plan they have formulated is staggeringly detailed, but they forget that the situation on the battlefield changes rapidly, and a small change can occur" the consequences of missing a fraction of a millimeter, a thousand miles wrong". Not only that, but the war of annihilation advocated by Schlieffen has evolved into a dogma of thinking, and the criterion for judging the success of a military plan is no longer to win the maximum victory at the minimum cost, but whether it can encircle and destroy the opponent. Under the influence of such a ridiculous dogma, how creative could Colonel Muras's proposal be? Under such a rigid and rigid operational thinking decision, how could the German army not fall into the predicament of trench warfare?

Natsuki felt choked by the shortcomings of the army command system, and on the other hand, he had to rejoice in the decision of Crown Prince William, now that the situation in Europe is still stable, there should be some time before the inevitable war, and he still has a chance to wake up the army generals who have fallen into Schlieffen's magic barrier, even if it is in a different indirect way......

A few weeks later, the German Army held a large-scale military exercise in Silesia. The 1st Army Corps, with 200,000 troops, was divided into two, with 120,000 men acting as the attackers and 80,000 relying on the fortifications of the Austrian period for defense. According to the drill plan formulated by the German General Staff, the attacking side used a small number of troops to contain the two flanks, concentrated artillery and main forces to carry out a fierce attack in the middle of the defender's defensive line, tore the breakthrough with local absolute superiority, and then consolidated and expanded the breakthrough with half of the troops, and used cavalry and fast troops marching in vehicles to advance to the defender's military fortifications in depth, and forcibly conquered and firmly occupied these tactical fulcrums in a relatively short period of time, thus cutting off the defenders' supply lines and forcing the defenders to fully withdraw from the fortified area and retreat. According to the Military Observer Group, it took the attacking side 5 days to capture the defensive line, and about 1 casualty was suffered. 50,000 people, about 2 of the defenders were killed or wounded. 50,000 people, 10,000 prisoners, and a large amount of baggage and materials were seized.

According to the traditional mode of operation, only 1. From this point of view, the "battle plan" of the German General Staff achieved great success, but some senior generals of the General Staff questioned and criticized the results of the exercise, believing that the attacking side failed to take effective measures to cut off the defenders' retreat after breaking through the defensive line, so that they missed the opportunity to completely annihilate the opponent, so that the remnants of the defenders had the opportunity to retreat to the rear to rest and replenish. In addition, the attackers used dozens of aircraft and a large number of civilian vehicles that were not part of the 1st Army Corps' combat sequence, which allowed them to win quickly. Therefore, the exercise plan was not successful, and it can even be said that it failed.

In the face of the denial of the senior generals, Crown Prince William, who was in charge of the staff operations of the exercise plan, refuted them one by one with surprising calmness: after breaking through the enemy's fortifications, the defenders not only lost the advantage of defense, but also suffered a heavy blow to the morale of the army, and it was much easier to find opportunities for annihilation in the following combat operations, and the attacking troops did not need to forcibly launch a pursuit battle after a hard attack; The rules of the exercise did not restrict the army from temporarily requisitioning civilian supplies during the war, but this proved the role of aircraft in reconnaissance and calibration on the battlefield, and the feasibility of infantry on the rapid march of vehicles.

Crown Prince Wilhelm's reasoned and well-founded arguments left the generals of the General Staff who raised objections speechless, and the appreciative remarks of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who were watching the drill, ended the debate. The German crown prince not only received the precious opportunity to preside over the autumn parade of the whole army, but was also regarded by his supporters as the "Hohenzollern God of War" worthy of Frederick the Great in the future......

(End of chapter)