The attack on the West Coast of the United States by the Speeze fleet undoubtedly quickly ignited the determination of the United States to quickly increase its determination to join the European War. Lieutenant General Abel de facto Alexander, telegram after telegram from Washington, demanding a swift solution to this hidden danger that made the whole of America anxious.

Before Christmas, on December 20, 1910, the U.S. government announced that it had appointed Lieutenant General Pershing to take full command of the 15 U.S. Army divisions that had just arrived in Britain to participate in the ground war against Germany.

This Christmas is no joy for the entire Entente countries, the entire French battlefield is really facing a complete collapse, the German Second and Third Armies are besieging Bordeaux, the last important town of France in the south, the defense capability of this wine country, is under unprecedented pressure, less than 80 square kilometers of defensive positions, nearly 600,000 German troops are besieging this French army, which is almost half of the new recruits.

Given the degree of military collapse on the battlefield of France as a whole, the British side was extremely pessimistic about the war, and the London side turned a direct opinion to the besieged French Louis? The telegram sent by Baldou's cabinet also fully expressed the concerns of the British side, and Prime Minister Asquith made his concerns clear...... A European ground war was not the outcome that the British Empire wanted.

On the Bordeaux front, which was already in the middle of a desperate battle, the armies of Germany, France, and Britain were engaged in a shocking repeated ground assault, and the tunnel fortifications of both sides had come closer to each other to less than 50 meters. And benefit from the dominant position of the coast of Bordeaux. As well as help from the UK. France also gathered behind the battle line heavy artillery units of the French army, which had long been gone.

However, with the scale of the French improvised regular army, even the most optimistic and silent Marshal Xia Fei could not continue to be optimistic, and the only reason why the French army, which had been defeated again and again, was still under his command was not the results of the French army, but the extraordinary luck of the old man Xia Fei, and the French generals suffered heavy losses. And he fought from one front to another, but he was unusually unscathed every time.

It's just that the battle situation in front of him this time is still a hopeless situation, the military strength is less than half of the opponent's, and the quality of the army is far lower than that of the Germans, the only thing that can comfort Marshal Xia Fei is that the German army has been almost exhausted in the war that has lasted for a year, and Bordeaux can stubbornly hold on to the opponent's offensive for nearly 4 months. A lot depends on that.

However, the French after a series of defeats. On 22 December, British Admiral Winston Churchill sent another note to the French government, asking France to accede to the British side's request to transfer the command of the French Navy to the Royal Navy no later than Christmas.

The news was unexpectedly leaked on the same day, causing a huge shock in France, and the defeat combined with the strong attitude of the British put Baldou's cabinet under unprecedented pressure...... Although strategically, the British proposal is indeed very forward-looking.

If the French mainland is unable to defend itself against an attack from Germany, whether the French fleet will be the last French resistance will be a matter of direct concern to the English Channel, although the French navy ...... To call it powerful today is a lift, but in the narrow strait, if you add the battleship groups of the German Navy, there is no doubt that it is extremely threatening.

But this is only a topic of high-level discussion, and it is impossible to announce it to the people who are now demoralized, so the next day, December 23, Louis? Prime Minister Baldou resolutely rejected the British proposal, but in order to relieve the British fears, the French government firmly emphasized that the French navy would fight Germany to the end!

This news naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the British side, but in the face of the chaos, it was obvious that Prime Minister Asquith and Churchill did not want to see the alliance between the two sides break down, and the British side made a direct move by sailing a formation of three Orion-class dreadnoughts and two St. Vincent-class battleships into the Toulon military port where the French Navy is currently berthed.

Although the Royal Navy's move to station in the name of the Bordeaux battle situation and the security of the Dime caused dissatisfaction on the French side, the two countries finally reached a partial agreement on January 7, 1915, considering the role of the navy in the whole French war situation, and the Baldou government strongly rejected the proposal that the Royal Patriotic Navy should command the French fleet, but finally agreed to establish a joint command with senior British officers involved.

An important reason for the change in the attitude of the French government came from the fact that Britain finally dragged the Yankees, who were important in the alliance, into the quagmire of war...... Prime Minister Asquith's plan to France to increase the number of U.S. troops in Europe is the most important diplomatic achievement led by the British side, and President Taft agreed to increase the number of domestic conscriptions, and plans to increase the number of troops invested in Europe within one year, reaching at least 400,000.

This was undoubtedly extremely exciting news for the Allies, who lacked army strength, and it was precisely because of this confirmation that the situation in Bordeaux changed subtly, and in January 1915, more than 20 British and American armies landed in the theater of operations under the escort of the fleet, which alleviated the precarious war situation.

On January 20, a group of photographs from Europe sparked a huge response within the Ministry of Military Affairs in Beijing, showing the Bordeaux theater of operations, where more than 1 million troops from both warring countries gathered.

What surprised the young soldiers of the Ministry of Military Affairs even more was the dense barbed wire obstacles that were scattered between the trenches on both sides. Chinese military observers from former enemies also sent back extremely general reports. The actual situation and the incredible hardship of the soldiers fighting between the trenches on both sides are described in detail......

The difficulty of launching an attack is desperate. In the current state, if the German army is willing to pay a huge price, the German army can still rely on the advantage of military attack to seize part of the frontal line of the French army's defense by means of surprise means, but the cost of such results is becoming more and more huge...... Army picks and barbed wire are beating machine guns and artillery!

January 22nd. At the regular dinner party in Qin Kai's mansion, in order to solve the problem of the increased pressure on overseas shipping caused by the European war, a group of bigwigs of the Ministry of Industry came up with a new wartime freighter construction plan that surprised the military.

At present, domestic state-owned shipping companies use almost all medium-sized container cargo ships, with a displacement of 8,000 to 14,000 tons, of course, compared with warships of the same tonnage, the cost of these civilian ships is much lower, but after fully considering the service life of civilian ships. The process that makes the construction of these ships not simple.

And with the advent of all-steel shell technology, as well as arc welding technology, compared to battleships. Thin iron civil ships are the first to use these imperfect technology, at least, the shipyard out of the riveting steel plate, can be used to speed up the construction of a technology, and it is based on the old riveting process and the emergence of the end of the new welding, this time, the four major heavy industries jointly developed the "four sea wheels", the use of welding technology on a larger scale.

Of course, considering the technical bottleneck of the welding process, the main reason is that the firmness is far less than the riveting process, so the degree of appropriate reduction of the riveting process has been optimized, in addition, the new cargo ship adopts the most streamlined design scheme and the introduction of the most stringent standardized marine steel plate design of this era, theoretically, with the strength of the four major heavy industries, once it enters the standardized mass production, this displacement of 8500 tons, with a strong keel and 1-2 inch steel deck of the new steamer, the construction period can be compressed to 90 days.

Compared with the construction period of at least 200 days for 10,000-ton ships in this era, the new "Four Seas Ship" obviously has extraordinary advantages, and corresponding to the extremely fast construction speed, the crew living quarters, bridges, and engines are very densely concentrated in the middle of the hull, and this seemingly dull-looking freighter provides a huge cargo capacity of 5,500 tons.

Qin Kaile listened to Xu Jianyin's feelings of the Ministry of Industry, the European war created an unprecedented disaster for Europe, but there is no doubt that it provides an important opportunity for China's economy, domestic and overseas trade increased by 130% during the year, especially military trade increased by more than 300%, there is no doubt that a large number of domestic factories will get a huge opportunity to improve.

The current situation of the European War, although Germany has achieved great success far beyond history, but Qin Kai knows that Germany's biggest problem is not its military organization ability, but in Kaiser Wilhelm II, this strategy is not eloquent, this is the fatal problem, the first war in history, improper use of personnel and excessive domestic consumption in the later period, and finally dragged down the battlefield advantage of the Allies.

Of course, although the British now control the Suez Canal, but the Panama Canal is in their own hands, this is the biggest advantage of China's involvement in the European war, a steady stream of Chinese products are being transported to Europe by sea, even if there is an American on the way there to grab business, however, the United States prematurely intervened in the European war, although the boosted military trade, has begun to drag down the United States' overseas trade.

When Zhou Ruidong and others brought new changes to the situation in Bordeaux, Qin Kai still realized that the situation in the European war began to change fundamentally - the most powerful thing in the First World War was not guns, but iron pickaxes and barbed wire, and the French finally began to find new weapons after constantly losing the war zone! Later, Zhang Kui, who came in a hurry, brought another new European news that affected the entire war situation...... (To be continued......)

PS: I've been in trouble lately, so I can't update it, sorry! The update will be resumed in the near future, thank you for your support~