"Ah...... Behold, my Willy, my Jochen, what a great imperial hero, the pride of the Hohenzollerns, well...... The pride of Germany! ”

Holding a glass of golden champagne, Wilhelm II looked at his two most beloved princes with proud and kind eyes. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

There is no need to make a loud noise, they are already the most eye-catching focus of the banquet scene.

Crown Prince Wilhelm congratulated: "Germany is advancing, and you, Your Majesty, are the banner that guides it to victory, and every German salutes you!" ”

Natsuki said, "May you always be healthy, Your Majesty the Great German Emperor." ”

Wilhelm II's face was full of joy: "Willy, your performance on the battlefield has lived up to expectations, and you are a worthy prince in the eyes of the people, and I believe that you will become another great monarch in the history of the German Empire in the future." And you, Jochen, our Hohenzollern genius, always surprise us with what you do. Tsk, it's hard to imagine that our warships could run rampant in the North Sea, while the British Navy was shrunk in the harbor and shivering! Ha ha! ”

The Kaiser's praise for the two was obviously biased, and a hint of jealousy flashed on Crown Prince Wilhelm's face, but he immediately resumed his courteous posture and followed the Emperor's words and said: "Your Majesty, our Jochen is not only a genius in naval warfare, but he also has many wonderful ideas in army warfare. Had it not been for Jochen's help, my troops would not have been able to break through the French in the direction of the Maas River so quickly, as far as the fortress of Verdun, and in a very short time had they taken three of the five fortresses. According to the staff's previous estimates, it would take us at least three weeks to complete this task, and in the eyes of the French, we would never be able to break through these fortified fortresses without siege artillery. ”

Wilhelm II smiled and said, "Oh, I see. Before this, I had always wondered what attracted the chief of staff of our fleet to the Western Front for a vacation and stayed for more than half a month. ”

"Jochen's naval chariots are used against enemy positions like a can opener, and if we had a thousand of them now, it would only take a month to sweep through France, and another month to reach St. Petersburg." The Crown Prince did not hesitate to compliment, "Also, Your Majesty, I have the honour to report to you that our Jochen has also invented a new skirmish tactic, which has been tested in the battlefield to be very effective. ”

"What an amazing inventor of war!" Wilhelm II said approvingly.

The father and son seemed to have a good line, singing and harmonizing, flawless, Natsuki was difficult to interject, and he always maintained a humble smile. At the end, he said to himself: "In terms of invention, I am far from a true genius like Leonardo da Vinci; In military affairs, I am not qualified enough to be compared with Marshal Moltke the Elder; As for state affairs, I am afraid that I do not have even one percent of the competence of Count Bismarck. I think I'm just a weirdo with a lot of whimsy that likes to work on new kinds of machinery and do what I can for this war. ”

In everyone's sight, Wilhelm II did not laugh heartily, but his eyes had narrowed into a slit with the smile on his face. After the three men had clinked glasses, the German Emperor said: "I have consulted with the Admiral Tirpitz to lend to the army all the naval vehicles that have been built at present." On that note, Jochen, you shouldn't object to it, right? ”

Natsuki looked at Crown Prince William, who had repinned his hopes for the capture of the fortress of Verdun on the naval chariot unit due to the extremely slow transportation of heavy siege guns and the large amount of ammunition supply taking up a lot of capacity. In recent days, the Ruprecht corps has launched an initial offensive west of the Aisne Valley, and the pressure on the valley defense line has been greatly reduced. Crown Prince Wilhelm repatriated the naval tanks that supported the 7th Prussian Light Infantry Division, and petitioned the Kaiser to put more naval tanks on the Western Front. As a result, all the assembled and operational naval tanks were temporarily loaned to the German Army, and these units formed three tank companies, including 13 Hubert-14 "heavy tanks" with 45 mm frontal armor. Although these big guys move slowly, they can withstand frontal fire from machine guns and even small-caliber rapid-fire guns without additional cloaking, ignoring all kinds of shrapnel, and are equipped with a 37mm rapid-fire gun and two MG08 water-cooled heavy machine guns, and carry three times the amount of ammunition on board the Hubert-13, which is as effective on the battlefield as a small movable fortress. However, they need to be transported by rail to the German-French border, and then travel 200 kilometers under their own power to reach the front line.

"Of course not, my majesty." Natsuki replied, "The German army is a glorious whole, and every soldier is a soldier of His Majesty the Kaiser, and there is no distinction between army and navy." As long as it is beneficial to the situation of the war, let us remove the cannons from the battleship without any complaints. ”

Wilhelm II immediately praised: "Jochen, you have not disappointed me. ”

Then, the emperor glanced to the side a few times and lowered his voice slightly: "The marshal told me that the current normal production of naval combat vehicles is 5 vehicles per month, and if the production line is running at full strength, this number can be increased to 20 vehicles. ”

The figures that Tirpitz had were apparently provided by Natsuki, and Natsuki could guess the Kaiser's thoughts, and he replied very calmly: "Indeed, my majesty. ”

"On the Eastern Front, we had some troubles, so we had to draw two corps from the Western Front and send them to East Prussia, and the Chief of the General Staff told me that, judging by the current situation, even without these two corps, our defeat of France was a foregone conclusion, and there was nothing to worry about." When he said this, Wilhelm II spoke slowly, with a long pause in the interval between sentences, and he appeared less confident.

Natsuki exchanged glances with Crown Prince Wilhelm, who said to the German Emperor: "If we can take the fortress of Verdun as soon as possible, break through the new defense line laid by the French army on the Marne, and wave our troops to take Paris directly, and win the victory on the Western Front, there is no suspense." ”

Wilhelm II must have been tired of hearing similar assertions, and reacted coldly. He frowned, and said in a loud voice: "We must win, defeat is unacceptable in any way." ”

This kind of Wilhelm II is very abnormal, Natsuki thought to himself, there must be something special that will make such a change occur in the German emperor, who is so happy and self-assured.

Is it because of a bad start on the Eastern Front?

In the era when Moltke the Elder was in charge of the German General Staff, Germany's war strategy was to attack in the east and defend in the west, using the border defense line to defend against the French attack on the western front, and cooperating with Austria-Hungary to flank Russia on the eastern front. After Schlieffen took office, in view of the rapid development of France's military strength, the war strategy became to attack in the east and defend in the west, that is, after the outbreak of the war, concentrate the main forces of the German army to quickly defeat France, and at the same time resist the initial attack of the Russian army on the eastern front with a small number of troops, and wait until the war on the western front is over, and then use Germany's developed railway network to transfer the main force to the eastern front.

At the beginning of the new strategy, the German General Staff estimated that it would take three months for Russia to complete its military mobilization and transport the main forces to the front in Eastern Europe, but after the conclusion of the Franco-Russian alliance, the French helped Russia build a railway network in the southwest, which greatly reduced the time for Russian troops to be transported from the rear to the front. After the outbreak of the war, due to the repeated urging and encouragement of the French side, the Russian army launched an offensive without being fully prepared, and its 1st and 2nd armies crossed the German-Russian border to attack East Prussia in only half a month after declaring war, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the German General Staff.

Speaking of the East Prussian campaign of 1914, it is impossible to mention two famous figures, Hindenburg and Ludendorff. At the beginning of the war, one of them retired from military service, the other was the deputy chief of staff of the Bilo Army, and Lieutenant General von Prittwitz-Gavron, who was in charge of the military power on the Eastern Front, was dignified but arrogant, ruthless and indulgent, he had no brains or interest in military affairs, and won the favor of the Kaiser with funny jokes and yellow jokes at the dinner table.

The Eighth Army Corps in East Prussia consisted of four and a half corps, a cavalry division, the Königsberg garrison, and a number of local troops, which were equivalent to either of the two armies of the Russian army. Moltke Jr.'s order to the Eighth Army was to defend East and West Prussia without allowing itself to be overpowered by superior forces or driven into the Königsberg Fortress area. If they found themselves threatened by very strong forces, they withdrew to the west of the Vistula and abandoned East Prussia to the enemy.

On 15 August, Japan announced its participation in the Entente, allowing a large number of Russian troops to escape; As a result, the Germans were even more anxious about the safety of East Prussia.

On August 17, on the Western Front, Luke and Bülow were sweeping through Belgium towards the French border, the Ruprecht Army slaughtered the French attacking troops with artillery and machine guns in Alsace, and on the Eastern Front, the Battle of East Prussia began as the Russian 1st Army took the lead in attacking the territory.

At the beginning of the campaign, the staff of the German 8th Army decided to take advantage of the lag of the Russian 2nd Army to concentrate on the Russian 1st Army first, and then concentrate on the Russian 2nd Army after annihilating it. Although Prittwitz was favored in front of the Kaiser, he was unable to control several corps commanders under his command. The corps command lacked effective coordination, and several corps failed to align themselves from the start. The brave General François and his men engaged the Russians before his allies hurried forward. The Mackensen corps engaged the enemy in a hurry, and as a result, it retreated under the heavy artillery bombardment of the Russian army, and the reserve corps on the flank fell into a fierce battle with the Russian army, unable to support the Mackensen corps, so they had to fight and retreat - the cowardly Prittwitz panicked and thought that he had lost the entire battle, not only East Prussia could not be saved, but without reinforcements, even the Vistula River could not be held, and once the Russian army crossed the Vistula River, they would not only threaten Berlin, but also the Austrian flank, and even the safety of Vienna.

After receiving the report of the urgency of the war on the Eastern Front, Moltke Jr. was stunned. For many years, he had felt that this fat white man was not qualified for the post of commander of the 8th Army Corps, so he tried to remove him, but Prittwitz's connections made Moltke's efforts in vain.

The defeat on the Eastern Front meant the defeat of the war, and Moltke Jr. had no choice but to reinforce the Eastern Front with troops from the Western Front, and removed Prittwitz on the grounds of poor command and replaced him with the seventy-year-old but healthy veteran Paul von Benekendorf-Hindenburg in the firing line.

Before the new commander of the 8th Army was chosen, Moltke the Younger and his deputy, General von Stein, unanimously selected General Ludendorff, who had played an important role in the Battle of Liège, to the post of Chief of Staff of the Army.

(End of chapter)