The outbreak of world war has tensed the nerves of all countries.

The East China Autonomous Government held a high-level meeting, at which Xia Jun formulated a plan for neutrality.

On August 5, Xia Jun publicly announced: East China's autonomous political axe is neutral.

At the same time, Xia Jun warned all newspapers that they must strictly abide by the principle of neutrality and not take sides.

The First World War broke out not for political reasons, but for commercial and industrial reasons.

The first is the rise of the United States; the emergence of the Second Empire in Central Europe; the rise of the Far East's empire; The expansion of the three overseas empires of Britain, France and Germany (from 1870 to the end of the century, Britain acquired 4,754,000 square miles of land, France 3,583,580 square miles, Germany 1,026,220 square miles, Belgium 447,000 square miles, and the United States devoured the remnants of the old Spanish Empire) and the massive outpouring of gold from South Africa (from 1850 to 1853, the annual world gold production was from 1,819,600 ounces), It increased to 6,350,008 ounces, and then stabilized until 12 years, and then rapidly increased to 21,529,300 ounces in 1908), so that the world entered an era of war. The alliance between Germany, France, Britain and Russia has made the conflict of world surnames imminent.

In the Boer War, Germany expressed hostility towards Britain, coupled with the expansion of its navy and the Kaiser's "blowing the conch", which also set off a strong anti-German propaganda in Britain, and the German side was certainly not to be outdone.

This propaganda obscured the real cause of the dispute between the two countries: Germany had no intention of challenging Britain, let alone invading Britain—but this was the idea of ordinary Britons—but the enormous expansion of German trade abroad and the expansion of its commercial fleet threatened British commerce.

From 14 to 1904, the total volume of German trade increased from £365 million to £610 million; The tonnage of merchant ships also increased by 234 percent. This trade struggle had reached a very acute level by 1907, when the U.S. ambassador to Italy, Henry Brown, was in full swing. White was assigned by the U.S. State Department to London to inquire about the British political axe's opinion on the First Hague Conference. The following is a transcript of his conversation with British Foreign Minister Bafort:

"We are fools, because we could not find a reason to declare war on Germany after they had built many ships and robbed us of our commerce. ”

White: "In your private life you are a very noble person. Why would you think of such a politically immoral thing to challenge a completely harmless country? Doesn't Germany have the same reason as Britain to develop its navy? If you want to compete with Germany in trade, you should work harder. ”

Bafort: "That means lowering our standard of living. Perhaps for us, it is easier to start a war. ”

White: "I'm amazed that you have such thoughts!" ”

Bafuor: "Is it a question of 'right and wrong'?" Maybe it's just a matter of how to maintain our advantage. ”

Xia Jun did not favor Germany, whether it was his exchanges with Germany or the stockpiling of materials to Germany, they were all in the consideration of interests.

But Xia Jun doesn't like the British even more, so he prefers Germany in this war, at least Germany will not pose any threat to China. But think sensibly, it doesn't matter if you favor anyone, as long as you can make money.

…… When the First World War broke out, there was no gap in the international market.

Because Germany had not yet carried out submarine stations, British merchant ships could still conduct normal trade, but some funds were withdrawn, but this did not hinder their commerce.

The East China Autonomous Government is waiting for an opportunity, Xia Jun is closely watching the European battlefield, whether the First World War can last depends on whether the Anglo-French forces can contain the German offensive in the Battle of the Marne.

On July 28, 1914, World War I officially broke out, marked by Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia. On August 1, Germany declared war on Russia on the grounds that Russia was mobilizing for war. On 3 August, Germany declared war on France on the pretext that France did not accept its conditions of "neutrality."

Germany's war plan was formulated by former Chief of the General Staff Schlieffen in 1905, and its core was to concentrate strong forces on the Western Front, encircle the French army from the flanks through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which were empty in defense, and defeat France in a quick and decisive battle. Then move eastward and then deal with Russia. After the outbreak of the war, the German Chief of the General Staff Moltke Jr. followed the plan of his predecessor and used only 9 divisions to monitor Russia, while on the Western Front 7 army groups, a total of 78 divisions, were divided into left and right flanks with Metz as the axis. 2 armies on the left flank, with a total of 23 divisions, guarding the positions in the Alsace and Lorraine regions on the Franco-German border south of Metz; Five armies on the right flank, with a total of 55 divisions, broke through the northern border of France through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War, in order to avenge the defeat, the French army began to formulate one war plan after another against Germany from 1872, and there were as many as 17 before the start of the war. The latest plan was drawn up by the Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, General Chauffeur, the "Plan No. 17". At the heart of the plan was the idea that the Germans would be massed along the fortified Franco-German border, so that the French would launch an aggressive offensive here and regain the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which had been lost in the Franco-Prussian War.

On August 4, 1914, the right-wing German army invaded Belgium, met with stubborn resistance from the Belgian army, and was blocked at the fortress for three days, and occupied Brussels on the 20th.

The fortress was built so well that the Germans eventually used a large mortar called the "Big Berta". The "Big Belta" cannon is tens of meters long, weighs several hundred tons, has a caliber of 420 millimeters, and each shell alone weighs 1 ton, and can penetrate hard reinforced concrete buildings, and its power is extremely huge.

The road surface trembled as the "Big Belta" was driven, and the ground trembled violently as if it had been an earthquake, and all the surrounding glass was shattered.

The Belgian fortress was unable to withstand such a giant monster, and all 12 turrets were destroyed.

The Battle of Marne was soon fought!

This is a war of movement, and if France cannot hold on, then Germany will win the whole war and dominate the European continent. If France can hold on, then the whole war will evolve from a war of movement to a hard, brutal and long trench war.

At this time, several main French armies were launching an offensive on the left flank of the German army in accordance with the "Plan No. 17". However, the initial battles showed that "Plan No. 17" was bad. At Greene, the French 1st and 2nd Armies were overwhelmed by the attack on the German defenses at Saarburg and Molange.

After the occupation of Belgium by the right-wing German army, nearly a million men and horses of its 5 armies, like a wielded sickle, penetrated diagonally from Belgium into France. Walking on the far right was the 1st Army under the command of Kluk, about 300,000 men, which was seen as the main force of the right flank and the main attacking force of the march to Paris. On 24 August, the army group entered France from Belgium.

On August 25, the Germans captured Namur. In order to hinder the advance of this German right-flank force, Xia Fei mobilized troops from the Grimm battlefield to form the French 6th Army, which was commanded by Mao Laoli.

On the evening of 3 September, Crook reached the Marne, and the French 5th Army and the British Expeditionary Force outside of him had crossed the Marne earlier in the day.

These two troops, who had retreated hastily and were exhausted and confused, had repeatedly received telegrams to blow up the bridge, but neither had done so. Having captured these bridgeheads, Kluk prepared to cross the river at once in the early morning of the following morning, despite the order of the Berlin High Command to keep him in step with Bíró's 2nd Army, and to continue his pursuit of the French 5th Army.

The Germans cheered at the succession of victories, and they were soon only thirty miles from Paris, France.

However, in the process of victory, Germany did not destroy the living forces of France, and even if it was captured, it was only one or two hundred thousand prisoners, and there were not many cannons.

At the same time, because of the rapid advance of Germany, the logistics could not keep up, and there were not many horses left in the army that could walk normally, and in general, the supply lines were too long.

Sure enough, on September 6, the French launched a counteroffensive. Fierce firefighting with Germany along the Marne.

The rapid development of machine guns and artillery made it almost impossible for soldiers to hide in mobile warfare, and casualties on both sides skyrocketed.

At the same time in the war, bombers appeared.

France put 50 Hammer I bombers bought from China into battle, while Germany sent 200 Hammer I and 50 Hammer 2 bombers bought from China to the battlefield.

The two sides come and go, and the bombs fall from the sky.

The soldiers were at a loss, they simply did not know how to deal with the planes in the sky, they lacked effective means and there was no way to bring them down.

The French suffered from the bombing, the Germans had too many bombers, and there were more advanced Hammer 2 bombers, and the total bomb load of the Germans was seven times that of the French bombers in terms of bomb load.

However, although Germany had the upper hand, it was unable to keep up with the supply, resulting in a lack of rear strength.

The battle lasted three days, during which both sides suffered heavy casualties and the Germans had to retreat.

Artillery, machine guns, and bombers took turns to slaughter the soldiers like ants, and by September 9, the total number of British and French casualties had reached 360,000, while the total number of German casualties had reached 250,000.

The total number of casualties on both sides reached a staggering 700,000.

For more than a month after the outbreak of the war, the German army followed the basic policy set by Schlieffen and quickly advanced through Belgian territory to the French mainland. At that time, all of Germany, and indeed almost the whole world, was convinced that the German army would soon be victorious and that Paris was about to be occupied. However, when the victory of the Germans seemed to be within reach and the disaster of the French was imminent, the Entente[***] turned defeat into victory on the Marne, and thus became known as the "miracle of the Marne".

Europe is fighting vigorously, and in China, the British and the British have also launched an attack on Qingdao!

The entire East China Army understood that war was not far from China.

(To be continued)