The southern suburbs of Paris, the joint German-French military airfield. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In the drizzle, a large transport plane with four engines taxied along the smooth runway to the tarmac, where several black shark skinned Mercedes-Benz sedans were already waiting, and well-dressed German officers held umbrellas and stood in a benchmark-like straight posture to welcome His Holiness.

When the plane came to a standstill, the ground crew wearing a rain poncho quickly moved the gangway to the cabin door, and waited until all four high-horsepower engines stopped roaring, and the speed of the three-bladed propeller was reduced to the naked eye before the aircraft door opened. An extraordinarily burly young officer poked out, bowed his head, bent over, took out his umbrella, and stretched it out, and then a middle-aged man with a thin face, tall, and a cloak half-covered with a golden collar badge stepped steadily across the hatch and walked down the gangway.

The officers who were waiting under the gangway gave a military salute.

The middle-aged man did not stop walking, raised his right hand lightly to greet the officers, walked along the red carpet that had not yet been completely soaked by the rain, walked to the high-end custom car, and sat in the car without pause.

One by one, the officers who accompanied them stepped off the plane, shook hands with their colleagues who came to greet them, and then all sat in the car, the whole process was quiet and smooth, as if they had been rehearsed beforehand. From the landing of the plane to the departure of the convoy, it lasts no more than five minutes.

The car in which the middle-aged man with the gold collar badge was riding had a spacious space and comfortable seats, except for the driver in the front seat and the guard adjutant, only one general wearing a red background and gold collar badge, his sideburns were white, but his face and skin were still rarely old. The car drove a short distance, and the general said in a tone that was neither humble nor arrogant: "Your Highness, how is the meeting with the British **** going this time?" ”

The middle-aged man snorted coldly: "As expected, the British have long made up their minds to fight this battle with us and regain the honor that belongs to them with sword and fire. ”

The general answered unhurriedly: "What they want to regain is not only honor, but also the interests that used to spread all over the world, but it is a pity that they overestimated the war capability of the United States, thinking that with the participation of the United States, they can change the weakness of their poor land warfare, and time will let them know how outrageous their assumptions are today." ”

The thin-faced, pointy-cheeked, middle-aged man with a fragrant face showed his full confidence in his words: "They are betting on the battlefield to turn around their economic and diplomatic woes, and this is exactly in line with our plan." From 1916 to the present, the empire's economic development has achieved proud results, but various problems have also arisen due to rapid development, and a war is needed to break through the bottleneck and truly surpass the United States as a unique world power. ”

The veteran nodded, and said with deep emotion: "It is precisely because Your Highness has found the crux of the problem that plagues the development of the empire that Your Majesty will be so relieved to hand over the direct command of this war to you, and at my age, I can still catch up with the second great war that will determine the fate of the country, I feel both honored and feel a great responsibility, I hope that the goddess of victory can bless us to defeat the enemy at the smallest cost." ”

Hearing this, a smile appeared on the corner of the middle-aged man's mouth: "Dear General von Carson, our primary capital to win the victory is not the favor of the goddess of victory, but because we have the strength to win, because we are fully materially and spiritually prepared. You know? It is naïve for the British to think that their Channel line will be able to withstand our landing in Britain, it seems that they have ignored our long-term military preparations in Ireland and France, and as long as our heavy tank units can gain a foothold on a beachhead somewhere in Britain, the British army will not be able to stop us from tearing through their lines. We are always compared to Napoleon's French Empire, and in terms of the map of the empire, we have surpassed the heights that the ancient Roman Empire had reached, so we will sweep through Britain like the ancient Roman army. ”

"More precisely," corrected the general, "we will cross the English Channel like the ancient Roman army, and then accomplish what the ancient Romans did not accomplish - the conquest of all Britain." ”

The middle-aged man chuckled: "In 1915, our army did not penetrate France and reached the northern shore of the Mediterranean, but the French were still conquered by us. Conquest is not necessarily about occupying every inch of territory. Conquest can be achieved by breaking the will of the enemy and destroying the confidence of the enemy. ”

Seeing that his master, who had served for many years, showed a Caesar-like domineering, the general smiled with great satisfaction, and then said:

"Your Highness, judging from the information fed back from the Russian side, the Soviets do not intend to be cannon fodder for the United States and Britain, they will at least remain neutral in the early stage of the war, and it is enough for us to maintain the existing strength on the Moltke Line, and there is no need to send additional troops to the eastern border, I believe that the Japanese government will also fulfill the secret agreement with us, in this case, there will be only one opponent after the army starts the war, and that is Britain."

This middle-aged man with an extraordinary temperament, Wilhelm the Prince, the prince of the Second German Empire, said eloquently: "Even if you have the strength to stand out from the crowd, it is best to fight only one enemy at a time, and then deal with it completely, this is the reminder that Count Bismarck left to Germany before his death, we failed to follow the last war, but fortunately we still won." This time, we will definitely win even more without suspense! ”

The admiral never showed such self-confidence as the crown prince, and he analyzed more cautiously: "It is our navy that is under the greatest pressure now, and we are at war with Britain, and the probability of the United States entering the war is more than ninety percent, and at that time, our navy will have to deal with the British home fleet, and will have to deal with the joint attack of the United States and the British navy in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and the Persian Gulf region, and will also escort the army combat troops to land in Britain. ”

"Both Schell and Hipper believed that the German Navy would be able to win a total victory with the help of their allies." "As long as my brother with his scheming mind is aware of his responsibilities and mission as a member of the Hohenzollern royal family," said Prince William, "The Irish army will be a wonder force for us to defeat the enemy." Just last night, I talked to him alone for two hours, and I think he's going to make the right choice. ”

The general pondered for a moment: "With the strength of Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire, our chances of victory are indeed greater than those of our opponents, but anything can happen on the battlefield......"

"No matter how careful the plan is, you need to be prepared!" The crown prince said the second half of Moltke's famous quote in unison, and then the two looked at each other and smiled. After a while, the crown prince said: "There's nothing to worry about, just do it!" ”

"Yes, Your Highness, we are already on the road, and we must move forward bravely, and we must not cowardly retreat." The general said with a pun.

In a short time, the convoy arrived at a beautiful aristocratic manor house, where a magnificent Baroque castle was built, through the heavy cast-iron gates, you could see a large well-groomed lawn, not far from a tributary of the Seine, and at the end of the line of sight was an endless number of buildings, that was the world's most romantic capital, Grand Paris, which was supposed to return to freedom after the French government paid off the war reparations, but the German army was slow to withdraw, and after the outbreak of the Red Revolution in France, the Allies had even more reason to continue to entrench here. Thus maintaining a posture of encirclement against the British.

Now, Germany's wartime headquarters is located in Berlin, and a group of veterans who participated in the last war are studying the war situation facing Germany in a conference room with a clear window, and the German General Staff, the helm of the German military system, has been secretly moved here two weeks ago.

Such an elegant place may have been an ideal choice for romance, literary creation, and conspiracy in the past, but now many talented military thinkers are strategizing here, and it can be regarded as making the best use of things, but the fly in the ointment is that inside and outside the manor, there are three steps and one post, five steps and one sentry, and there are interconnected trenches and groups of anti-aircraft artillery bunkers dug everywhere, and there are even many bunkers where chariots are parked, although these fortifications are disguised by camouflage nets, and they look nothing unusual from a distance, Being in the middle of it can feel the destruction of the atmosphere, but from a military point of view, these defensive measures are very necessary.

In recent years, the most outstanding branch of the German army is the newly established paratrooper unit, rescuing the German ground troops surrounded by the French revolutionary forces, supporting the Portuguese military mutiny, attacking the Persian armed headquarters, etc., the German paratroopers appeared in various popular areas, playing the role of hidden arrows and flying knives with unprecedented mobility ability. Seeing that the German airborne troops were so sharp, almost all the great powers and regional military powers have successively established their own paratrooper units and actively studied the airborne tactics of the German army, and Britain was no exception. At present, Britain and Germany are on the verge of war, and the top staff of the German army has moved forward to the suburbs of Paris, which is only more than 100 kilometers away from the English Channel and has very developed transportation and communication conditions. Since the armistice between Germany and France in 1915, the underground resistance of the French has never stopped, and after the outbreak of the Red Revolution, the French people were roughly divided into two factions, but neither they were hostile to the revolution nor sympathetic to the revolution, they did not want to see the German occupation forces continue to be stationed in France, and they hated the Allied troops for destroying their cities and ravaging their homes on the grounds of suppressing the revolution. If France wants to get out of this situation, it will have to hope that the alliance of the United States and Britain will defeat the Central Powers, so that Paris will never be a place of peace in times of war.

Arriving at the new headquarters with high security, Crown Prince Wilhelm was not in a hurry to get to work, but took a comfortable hot bath, during which his most trusted staff adjutant gave an oral report on the latest situation in the German departments: the highly decorated 1st Army Corps and the two Panzer Divisions directly under the General Staff were deployed in northern France, more than 1,000 transport ships and landing ships were assembled in Cherbourg, Le Havre and Calais, and nearly 100 minelayers were assembled in Dunkirk and Brest respectively. One-third of the Air Force's fighters and nearly half of its bombers were deployed to northern France, posing as a force crossing the English Channel and attacking the British coastal defense frontally, but the real breakthrough chose the Welsh coast, where the British army did not have a major defense.

(End of chapter)