In the calm evening, Natsuki sat alone on a bench at the Kiel military docks, reading a letter from his eldest brother, Crown Prince William. More than a week has passed since www.biquge.info Second Battle of Flanders, and in that splendid and bizarre naval battle, the German High Seas Fleet once again inflicted heavy losses on the British Navy at a relatively small cost, sinking nearly 100 British ships, including the super-dreadnought "Ajax", the dreadnought "St. Vincent", and the battle cruisers "Indomitable" and "Indomitable". The high-speed torpedo boat unit, which has been sharpened for ten years, shines. During this war, the German Navy not only boldly threatened the mouth of the Thames, but also made a move that surprised the world: sending "Blucher" and "Gloudenz" through the English Channel. At the military level, this combat operation was even more thrilling than the voyage of von der Tann and Breslau to Ottoman Turkey, and in terms of political significance, they successfully challenged the oldest and most stable authority of the British Navy, drained the British military and civilians of what little confidence they had, and showed the world the weakness of the British Empire and the domineering of the German Empire.

On the third day of their breakthrough into the Atlantic, the "Blucher" and "Glaudenz", baring their sharp fangs, attacked a British convoy from Canada in the northwest of Ireland, and sank one British protective cruiser and two armed cargo ships in just over forty minutes of fighting. The British Navy quickly sent two armored cruisers and five destroyers, but did not even see a shadow of these two German battleships. At the same time, the number of German submarines in the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean increased to 25, and the record of these sea wolves continued to climb. On 8 September alone, the German submarine forces sank two British auxiliary cruisers and eight cargo ships, sinking the number of ships in a single day for the first time in double digits, and sank seven more British ships the next day.

If blood clots are a chronic threat, then the east coast of Britain, facing the North Sea, is a suffocating oppression. German mine-laying ships made night and night sorties, laying mines in British ports and shipping lanes along the North Sea coast, and German light cruisers carrying seaplanes constantly carried out daytime reconnaissance of British naval bases and military ports such as Scapavlo in the north and Forth Bay on the east coast of Scotland. In sharp contrast to the frequent activities of the German Navy, the British Navy changed from a total blockade and active suppression at the beginning of the war to an all-round contraction and focused defense, and except for submarine forces and mine-laying ships, few British warships approached the waters of Jutland. In response to the German Navy's attack, the British fleet most of the time only passively parried, rather than taking counter-action to treat both the symptoms and the root causes, and the submarine force, which was not very valued before the war, became the most active combat force of the British Navy in the North Sea. At the end of the Second Battle of Flanders, there was a sharp increase in the number of reports of German airships and seaplanes spotting enemy submarines, and the use of aerial bombs and machine guns sank one and damaged five. In order to guard against attacks by British submarines, German Navy patrol ships continued to maintain a tight guard on Helgoland Bay and Kiel Bay, and also strengthened their guard settings in Lübeck, Danzig, and other places.

In three decisive sorties, the German navy succeeded in reversing the balance of strength and weakness at sea, while on the European continent, the German army was slow to achieve a truly decisive victory. On the Eastern Front, the victory at Tannenberg directed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff temporarily eliminated the threat of the Russian army to German East Prussia, but the two main forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were defeated by the Russian army all the way, losing more than 500,000 soldiers, discarding countless equipment, and the rich Silesia was in danger of being occupied by the Russian army.

On the Western Front, the French army resisted with more tenacity than the Germans could have imagined. Even Crown Prince Wilhelm, who thinks highly of himself, wrote in his letter: The unyielding spirit of the French soldiers is a glorious tradition of which they are proud, but since the setback of the border, they have been retreating, sleeping and exhausted, and such an army should have been crushed at the first blow, but these unkempt and embarrassed soldiers took up arms without hesitation as soon as they heard the sound of the trumpet, and charged like tigers and wolves, even in the face of our cannons and machine guns, which we did not estimate. It is also possible that in our military science it has never been studied.

Since bidding farewell to the Western Front, Natsuki has been able to receive a letter from Crown Prince William every two days, long or short, or pouring out worries, or announcing good news, and after the end of the Second Battle of Flanders, he has expressed his willingness to invite Natsuki to go to the staff several times, but based on various considerations, Natsuki has not agreed, but has devoted himself to the operational affairs of the fleet. After all, the British were working day and night to repair their damaged ships, several capital warships that were nearing completion were also being built, and recent intelligence showed that Britain was not only actively encouraging Italy and the United States to join the Entente, but also reached an important military cooperation with Japan, which had already declared war on the Central Powers, that is, the Japanese Navy sent its main fleet to fight in the Mediterranean and Europe. The British navy suffered a series of defeats and serious setbacks in strength, which was no longer enough to maintain the unique maritime supremacy of the British Empire, and it was a good time for Japan, the United States, and Italy to expand their maritime power. In Natsuki's view, only a quick victory could avoid these potential troubles, and Britain and France had signed a mutually binding treaty stipulating that they would not make peace with Germany alone in the course of the war, so a complete defeat of Britain should be considered on the same footing as the defeat of France.

Putting down the letter with the crown prince's personal seal, Natsuki quietly looked at the sunset on the sea, those repaired battleships were quietly docked at their berths, the guard ships guarding the harbor were cruising back and forth, the tragic and bloody battle scene had become a memory, before the new battle came, he enjoyed this moment of tranquility very much, but the words on the letter paper reminded him of the brutal scene he had witnessed on the Western Front: thousands of soldiers charging without shelter, And then it fell in bales like harvested wheat stalks, life was so cheap, and the generals of the warring sides thought only about victory and did not care about sacrifice, it was simply a barbaric war of civilized society!

In this letter, Crown Prince William is full of optimism. Although the long delay at Verdun had caused him to miss the perfect opportunity to cut off the retreat of the French 4th and 5th armies around Compiègne, the crown prince was clearly not overly upset. As early as 7 September, Bavarian Crown Prince Ruprecht arrived at Verdun with his main force, and the two princes joined forces to conquer this vital French fortress. After the Battle of Verdun, William gave only a few of his main corps two days to recuperate, and then led his army to the Marne. Now his advance force had reached the Marne-on-Marne, and his corps headquarters was less than a hundred kilometers from Paris.

Geographically, the Somme, in the north of France, the Aisne and the Marne in the east, guard the passage from Germany and Belgium to Paris. The Somme was about 50 miles from Paris, and after the war began, the British and French troops deployed defensive lines along the river, and the German army reached the east bank of the Somme at the end of August, but there was no offensive action after that, because the Luke's corps on the right flank of the German army did not always advance along the French coast, but after crossing the French border, it turned around the Somme, strengthened the Aisne, and advanced towards the Marne.

The Aisne River, between the Somme and the Marne, flows east-west as a whole, and it joins the Oise, a tributary of the Seine, more than 30 miles northeast of Paris. The two French armies withdrawn from the Franco-Belgian border stopped Luque, Bülo, and Hausen forces here. After several days of fierce fighting, the French army was repulsed, and part of the troops retreated to Paris, and part to the Marne.

The Marne River originates in the Langlet plateau in northeastern France and joins the Seine southeast of Paris. Geographically alone, the German army did not need to cross the Marne, but could go downstream along the river to reach the southeastern suburbs of Paris, where they would set up artillery to bombard the French capital. However, at the military level, the main forces of the French army retreating from Alsace and Lorraine were assembled on the south bank of the Marne, and if the German army advanced into Paris before defeating it, once the French army launched a counterattack and cut off the rear route of the German attacking force, the entire operation against France would be in danger of failure, and the Schlieffen plan also required the German army to encircle and annihilate the main French army on the south bank of the Marne River before advancing to Paris. Now, the Luke Army and Bilow Army on the right flank of the German army, the Hausen Army and the Albrecht Army on the center, the Crown Prince Wilhelm's Army and the Crown Prince Ruprecht Army on the left flank, the six main German army corps, and millions of elite troops, have all gathered in the Marne River Valley, and victory seems to be within reach, but the Schlieffen plan has been revised several times, and there have been a series of adjustments and changes in the implementation process, and the victory it points to has become a pit - the weak right wing has not been able to crush the French resistance along the way. Luke and Billo's troops would not have enough troops to defend their flanks if they were to go on the offensive, and they would not be able to go on the offensive if they wanted to protect their flanks.

Despite this huge hidden danger, the situation of the German army on the Western Front was not as bad as it was in history, because the capture of Verdun put the German left flank troops in a higher position, and the positions of the center and right flank troops were correspondingly closer, and the French army originally planned to launch a counterattack as soon as the British expeditionary force arrived, but the German naval attack made the British army not reach France until September 8, so that the French counterattack originally scheduled for September 5 was repeatedly postponed. It was precisely in these crucial days that the Luke Corps on the right flank of the German army forcibly crossed the Marne River with two corps, the three corps temporarily left on the north bank of the Marne River built field fortifications on the spot, and the five artillery divisions to support the river-crossing attack were also relatively concentrated in convenient locations.

(End of chapter)