From December 28 to the end of December 1914 in Germany, there was a scene of slaughter, and the Sanssouci Palace at the foot of the Grape Mountain outside Brandenburg was also shrouded in frost, and not far away stood a windmill, which was Frederick the Great's favorite view.

On one side of Sanssouci Palace, there is a pavilion that is not grand but is splendid, and the building is called the "Chinese Building". The China House is a round pavilion surrounded by statues of various Asian figures, all of which are indeed gilded, including the entire outer wall of the pavilion decorated with pure gold. At the top of the Chinese building is a statue of the Monkey King, which was imagined and made according to Chinese legends.

Frederick the Great was fond of various cultures, and was also full of curiosity and yearning for the ancient oriental country of China, so he built this building. He did his best to collect a variety of objects from the Orient, such as silk and porcelain, to decorate his Chinese House, and to furnish it in a luxurious way to match the opulent and gorgeous Oriental world in his mind.

However, throughout his life, Frederick the Great Yanjing had no real contact with China, and it was not until Wilhelm I became Emperor of Germany more than a hundred years later that the Germans were truly entangled with China.

However, this kind of interaction was not as beautiful as Frederick the Great imagined, when the wise and martial Emperor Wilhelm I and the wise and demonic iron-blooded prime minister Bismarck were in power, the Qing Dynasty and Germany had a honeymoon period, Li Hongzhang purchased a large number of weapons from Germany, and China's silver became the warships of Volkeng's shipyard, Krupp's cannons, and Mauser's rifles. But when Wilhelm II became emperor, the situation took a sharp turn. With the strong family background left by Wilhelm I and Bismarck, Wilhelm II was ambitious to wrestle with the British Empire, and he arrogantly shouted that "others divide the continent and the sea, and the Germans can only look up to the stars and never return".

Wilhelm II set his sights on distant China, and took advantage of the opportunity of the "Juye Teaching Plan" to go straight to the coast of China with its cannons at the mouth of Dagu, forcing the Qing court to lease Jiaozhou Bay and establishing a fort and military port in Qingdao. When the Gengzi Kingdom changed, the arrogant German minister Klinder ignored the persuasion of the ministers of other countries, and had to go to the Yamen of the prime minister of the Qing Dynasty alone to ask for an explanation, but was slaughtered by Enhai, an officer of the "Tiger God Battalion" under the command of Duanjun Wang Zaiyi. Germany took this opportunity to send Marshal Wadsey to lead an army of 7,000 to Yanjing, and by the way, he also turned the phoenix with Sai Jinhua on the royal couch of the Yiluan Palace, and humiliated the Empress Dowager Cixi.

Since then, good relations between China and Germany have collapsed, and the attempts of Wilhelm I and Bismarck to unite China against Russia have been completely bankrupt.

Sitting on the chair of the imitation of the Chinese style of the "China Building", Emperor Wilhelm II's face was pale, and the war was far more tragic than he imagined. As the Germans departed, Wilhelm II waved his hand and gave a speech: "Children, six weeks at most, the war is over, and you can go home and have a good Christmas." ”

Christmas has arrived, but countless German families are waiting for only ashes, the war has only been going on for four months, the German army has suffered more than a million casualties, and more than 600,000 people have died in the war!

At such a heavy price, Wilhelm II did not win, and did not even see any hope of victory. On the contrary, Germany's enemies gradually gained the upper hand.

Germany originally intended to quickly defeat the Russian army on the Eastern Front, and then take advantage of Germany's well-developed railway network to transfer troops back to the Western Front to defeat the Anglo-French forces. But what I didn't expect was that the Russians, whose war readiness was infinitely close to zero, received a large number of weapons and equipment and baggage from China. The Russians only need to drive the peasants out of the villages, and then the Chinese will prepare everything they need and transport it by train to the battlefields on the Eastern Front.

What is infuriating is that the weapons provided by the Chinese are almost exclusively Russian, and the Russian [***] team, armed with well-made Mosinagan rifles, double-wheeled Makqin, and mortars, not only was not quickly defeated, but they also defeated the Austro-Hungarian army, and it seems that they may even approach Vienna. The German Chief of Staff cried to Wilhelm II, "We are in an alliance with zombies, Your Majesty, we have failed!" ”

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was far weaker than Wilhelm II could have imagined, and their tactics were still stuck in the Napoleonic era. The tactical backwardness was not enough, and the weakness of the fighting will of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers was even more outrageous, and among all European countries, I am afraid that only the Italians could barely match them.

Before the war, Wilhelm II could never have dreamed that the army in Vienna would not be able to defeat Serbia, let alone fight against the Russians, who were called "gray cattle". As long as the Russian [***] team has rifles and vodka, they can endure no matter how difficult the environment is, and those Austrian officers who have to carry pianos to the battlefield are terrified by these stinking "gray animals".

The Germans, who were already overstretched, had to send ten divisions to support Austria-Hungary. The German generals lamented that one German division could defeat two Russian divisions, but if Austria-Hungary sent ten divisions to help, Germany would need to send twenty divisions to ensure that the allies would not surrender.

As the saying goes, God is not blind to death, and at this critical period, the British Admiralty Churchill made an extremely mentally weak mistake, he went so far as to order the Admiralty to confiscate two warships booked by Turkey. In order to buy these two new warships, Turkey launched a nationwide fundraiser, and even elementary school students donated breakfast money!

Turkey, which had been moving between the Entente and the Central Powers, was completely enraged. The dignified Ottoman Turkish Empire, although it has declined a lot now and is known as the "sick man of the Middle East", is also a vast empire, with more than a million soldiers at the artillery level, so it is not worth even two warships, right?

That's too much of a bully!

At the same time, two German [***] ships were pursued by the British Navy and passed through the Dardanelles, and the German Kaiser Wilhelm agreed that Turkey would receive the two new battle cruisers and join the Turkish Navy. The Germans bribed the Ottoman Turks with a huge sum of 100 million marks, hoping that they would send troops to attack the British and French colonies in Africa and West Asia, and attack Tsarist Russia in the north, so as to relieve the pressure on Germany from the east and west battlefields.

At this time, it was not the Turkish Sultan who held the supreme power in the Ottoman Empire, but the unscrupulous scholar Evan Anderson. Pasha. After receiving warships and money from Germany, he sent an army of 80,000 to fight the Russians for the Caucasus. The 32-year-old Pasha, the "regretor" who had seized power by killing his predecessor, elected the sultan's younger brother as the new sultan, and the thirty-two-year-old Pasha married the niece of the puppet sultan, but this act of killing the monarch clearly made him weak, and he needed more victories to boost his morale. The Ottoman Turks' Ninth Army took advantage of the fact that the Russians were defenseless, and actually made some small advances in the early stages of the war.

In the Caucasus, the Ottoman Turkish army, brandishing sabers and chanting "jihad", committed a crime that shocked the whole world, and nearly a million Orthodox Christians living in the Armenian region for generations were systematically slaughtered by them, which is no longer a simple war crime, but a deliberate genocide!

The Caucasus was bloody, and Armenians all over the world were stunned by this horrific massacre, and they entered Russia from all corners and joined the Russian [***] team, vowing revenge for their compatriots! The massacre of Christians by the Ottoman Turks ignited the wrath of the Western world, and even the German Emperor Wilhelm II could not cry or laugh. The small victories of the Ottoman Turks in the Caucasus were nothing more than inspiring hatred throughout the world.

In Evan. According to the Pasha, the massacre of infidels was a necessary means of rallying the Turks and the most direct education for the people of the newly occupied areas??? Either accept Islam and become a Muslim, or die!

Evan Pasha made the simplest of multiple-choice questions, and the result was the tragic death of millions of innocent Christians, and Ottoman Turkey became the public enemy of the entire Western world! The countries of the Orthodox region, in particular, are eager to immediately enter Istanbul and bring Evan. Pasha and the Turkish Sultan were torn to pieces!

Encouraged by the small victory of the Ottoman Turks in the Caucasus, Pasha ordered an attack on Egypt and Libya to teach the British and French soldiers from Black Africa a lesson and restore the prestige of the Ottoman Empire.

It has to be said that the British and French indigenous soldiers stationed in Egypt and Libya are not much different from the tofu dregs, and they were beaten by Turkish soldiers on camels, and Turkey once again won a small victory. Evan. Pasha was overwhelmed by the succession of victories, and he began to plan an invasion of India, and he fantasized about restoring the former glory of the Ottoman Turkish Empire to the military parade in Delhi, and he would abolish the puppet sultan and personally sit on the throne of the sultan, becoming the holy lord of the Ottoman Turkey!

Emperor Wilhelm II was now disillusioned with Turkey, and such indiscriminate killing of innocents could not win a real victory, but only united the enemy. Even if Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is no longer popular, at least he will not massacre as he pleases. The various peoples who have lived in the Caucasus for generations were originally dissatisfied with the rule of Russia, but the butcher's knife of the Ottoman Turks pushed them into the arms of the tsar, and the entire Caucasus region was united in helping the Russian army and swore revenge!

Wilhelm II wanted to cry whenever he thought of his two allies, Austria-Hungary was defeated, Turkey was constantly creating scandals, pushing more and more neutral forces to the Entente, and the enemy's power was constantly strengthening. Is this war coming to an end? The invincible German [***] team, built up from the time of the Prussian dynasty, was to accept a humiliating defeat? Is he really going to surrender his saber to the Russians in Berlin?

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!" Outside the door came the shouts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Wilhelm II's heart sank, could something bad have happened? It can't be that the Turks are doing something that lacks heart, right?

"Your Majesty, the Turks promised to attack the Suez Canal, and they sent an army of nineteen thousand people!" The Foreign Minister said excitedly.

Wilhelm II looked depressed: "Is this good news?" Around the Suez Canal, there are 100,000 British and French troops guarding them, and 13,000 of them are the elite mobilized by Britain and France from the mainland, do you think the Turks have any hope of victory? ”

The foreign minister shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, the envoy to China has sent a secret telegram that the Chinese have promised to sell us a seaplane aircraft carrier, including all the weapons on it, and at the same time are willing to sell all light and heavy weapons to arm our 40,000 troops in Qingdao!" Your Majesty, with their cooperation, can't we still take the Suez Canal? ”

Wilhelm II jumped up from his chair: "Is the news reliable?" ”

"Absolutely reliable!"

Wilhelm II said excitedly: "So, the Chinese are going to join our side?" Why not? China is not poor in oil, tell the Chinese that as long as the war is won, the entire oil-producing countries in Southeast Asia will become colonies of the Chinese! ”

The foreign minister smiled bitterly: "No, my majesty, the Chinese have no intention of joining any side, they just do business with us, and the price offered is unacceptable." ”

"Oh, how much do they cost?"

"100 million marks!"

Wilhelm II almost bit his tongue and said, "What? A few broken ships, a dozen planes, 40,000 rifles and a few artillery pieces, and 100 million marks? Are the Chinese crazy? ”

The foreign minister said with a bitter face: "Your Majesty, they are not selling weapons, but the Suez Canal!" Without this seaplane carrier as an escort, it would be impossible for us to bring back the 40,000 troops in Qingdao! Without these 40,000 men, the Turks alone would not have been able to seize the Suez Canal! If we could not control the Suez Canal and cut off Britain and France from Africa and India, we would not have been able to defeat them???? The Chinese saw through our ideas, that's why they dared to open their mouths! ”

Wilhelm II had to admit that the Foreign Minister was very reasonable, that it was absolutely impossible for the Ottoman Empire to wrest control of the Suez Canal from Britain and France with the power of the Ottoman Empire alone, and that it was impossible to weaken the maritime power of the British Empire without cutting off this golden waterway between Europe and Asia.

Although Germany has a strong industry, it is completely dependent on foreign imports of tungsten, nickel, antimony, aluminum, tin, chromium and manganese. The textile industry was also almost entirely dependent on foreign countries, as was most of the raw materials for the chemical industry, and Germany was unable to obtain the necessary raw material replenishment from neutral countries in the face of a tight naval blockade imposed by Britain.

The only way to break through this blockade was to threaten the British Empire's overseas colonies and their sea lines, forcing the British to disperse their forces and move a large number of warships around the world. And the attack on the Suez Canal is one of the most effective means.

In the Battle of Qingdao, the German military attaché held the Chinese air force and tank forces in high esteem, and Wilhelm II also had high hopes for the Chinese to join the Central Powers, but the Chinese seemed to be more interested in doing business. A large amount of Chinese weapons flowed into Russia, multiplying the combat effectiveness of Russian soldiers. Fortunately, China did not only trade with the Entente countries, but also did not close the channels for cooperation with Germany. Through a secret agreement, the two sides decided to open a factory in neutral Spain to produce new aircraft, tanks, trucks, and diesel engines.

Attacking and capturing the Suez Canal would not necessarily defeat the British, but it would at least halt their aggressive momentum and give Germany a valuable respite. Even if the Suez Canal cannot be defended in the future, at least the facilities on the canal can be blown up, so that Britain and France cannot easily obtain troops and material supplies from Africa and Asia.

Wilhelm II and the German generals, based on reports from Qingdao, China, were convinced that once new aircraft and tanks from China were obtained, the Germans equipped with new weapons would be invincible, the trenches constructed by the British and French forces on the Western Front would become vulnerable, and the well-trained German troops would easily break through the Allied defenses and occupy Paris.

Wilhelm II sighed: "Well, according to the requirements of the Chinese, with 100 million marks in exchange for half a year, this deal is still very cost-effective!" ”

??? Dividing line ???

Fortunately, there is a military attache system in this era, and the officers of neutral countries can observe the war on the spot, and a large number of Chinese military attachés can appear on the European battlefield, which allows Chai Dongliang to obtain the most direct information.

Chai Dongliang drew the conclusion that Germany was about to be defeated from the war report in front of him, which also made him understand why the British were so forceful in opposing the revision of the tariff treaty.

In the eyes of the British, the war was coming to an end, and there was no need to lose the huge commercial benefits obtained by monopoly tariffs for the sake of the feelings of the Chinese.

In Chai Dongliang's view, Britain's diplomacy, which has always been known for its old spiciness, has recently been full of mistakes, and it is not enough that it is unwilling to revise the tariff agreement, because Britain's economic interests along the Yangtze River in China are too huge. Churchill's detention of the two Turkish warships was a pediatric mistake, and the direct consequence was that the British and French colonies in Africa and Asia were greatly threatened.

The Germans seized the opportunity to form an alliance with the Ottoman Turks, and at the same time sent a secret tour of Afghanistan made by diplomats and spies dressed as a circus, trying to say that the emir of Afghanistan had sent troops to India to threaten the backyard of the British Empire from behind. The Germans promised to give Afghanistan weapons and money in return, and the emir of Afghanistan was somewhat moved by what the Germans said.

The British intelligence services in Kabul learned of this shocking secret and immediately telegraphed to Downing Street in London, a move that frightened the British Empire. Once Afghanistan sends troops to India, they will unite with the local Muslims in India, and the consequences will be too severe for the British Empire to bear!

The British also hurriedly sent people to contact the Emir of Afghanistan in an attempt to prevent the Germans from forming an alliance with Afghanistan.

Just when the British were scared out of a cold sweat, the German intelligence officers made a fatal mistake in Afghanistan, and they actually made wine in Kabul, which made the Afghans very angry. The British took the opportunity to bribe the Afghan emir and promised him an annual "annuity" of 1.5 million pounds, which made the Afghan emir cancel his plan to send troops to India. The British Prime Minister of Downing Street also breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time felt extremely annoyed, the dignified British Empire actually wanted to bribe a small Afghan emir, which really lost the face of the "Empire that does not fall"!

From the analysis of intelligence, it is already obvious that the Entente side wants to limit the war to the European continent in every possible way, while the German side is trying to expand the war to other continents in order to break the British naval blockade of Germany.

If Germany wants to break the British naval blockade, attacking India and Egypt is the most effective means! Once these two objectives were achieved, even one would have forced the British Empire to move a large number of warships to its overseas colonies, thereby easing the blockade of the Atlantic coast.

Chai Dongliang pushed open the window, looked at the morning star in the east, and said secretly in his heart: "Germans, Lao Tzu has sold all the seaplane aircraft carriers to you, you must fight for it!" Don't surrender so soon! I am waiting for the good news that you blow up the Suez Canal???? If you want to surrender, you must wait another three years, and I will personally surrender to Berlin! ”

(To be continued)