On April 20, 1910, when the mediation of China, Britain, Germany, and France failed, although the Hungarian Eastern Front did not break out into a large-scale conflict on the same day because the two sides temporarily entered a period of adjustment, the two sides had already begun to fiercely fight for the defense points in the Valdau area west of the Pumilel Fortress, and the Austro-Hungarian reconnaissance planes taking off from the front line had also discovered the movements of the Russian army from the direction of Katowice.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was already very difficult to deal with the battlefield on the Eastern Front, naturally realized the intention of the Russian army to open up a second battlefield for the first time, and Archduke Conrad almost did not hesitate to advance the two armies of the Western Front to the positions on the border from the fortress to the fortress, relying on the fortress and the powerful heavy artillery units of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has now almost become a new tactical idea for the Austro-Hungarian army.

A major war of unprecedented scale immediately plunged the whole of Europe into madness, Russia and Austria-Hungary almost tried their best to fight on the border, which was completely out of the local war expected by various countries, and Nicholas II was obviously not satisfied with the war on the Eastern Front, but was completely unexpectedly pinned down by Austria-Hungary with nearly 800,000 troops, which directly led to the lack of troops in the war on the Eastern Front.

On the 21st, under the repeated urging of St. Petersburg, France finally made a move, and the French Navy sent 6 capital warships and 6 destroyers led by the latest 2 Republic-class battleships to secretly sail out of the port of Marseille, preparing to enter the Adriatic Sea from the Mediterranean Sea to provide reinforcements to the Serbian army that was fighting fiercely with Austria-Hungary in the Montenegrin area.

However, the French did not act meticulously. It was learned by German intelligence on the same day. Although the destination of the French fleet is not clear. However, the Germans did not have much trouble getting an overview of the supplies on board the supply fleet, and by the morning of the 23rd, the German General Staff had submitted a request to Kaiser Wilhelm II to go to war.

The top brass, including the Chief of the General Staff, General Moltke Jr., and the retired Count Schlieffen, agreed that the necessary military assistance must be provided immediately and resolutely to the Allied Austro-Hungarian Empire, otherwise the Austro-Hungarian army would suffer severe losses, even if Austria-Hungary had always had sufficient troops. But it was also impossible to be at war with three countries at the same time, among which there was also a Russian Empire that specialized in providing cheap soldiers.

At 4 p.m. on the same day, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Staff, Helmut? General Moltke and Minister of War Falkingham received authorization from Wilhelm II to carry out the war, and now, the only obstacle to Germany's joining the war group may only be an excuse to enter Belgium! And for any war, excuses are undoubtedly the easiest thing to find!

In the early morning of the 26th, the German Minister to Brussels, Hull ? Feng? Bello-Zalesk received a secret telegram from Berlin, 9 o'clock in the morning. He appeared at the Belgian Foreign Office and presented the German ultimatum to the Belgian government. Germany demanded that Belgium open its domestic transportation network so that German troops could enter in response to the French army's offensive in southern Belgium.

In response to such a request, the Belgian government, which had only six army divisions and lacked training, was clearly aware of the great crisis, and at 1 p.m. on 26 April, King Albert presided over a state council at the Royal Palace, where he said in his opening speech: "Whatever the consequences, our answer must be no." It is our duty to defend our territorial integrity. We must be steadfast in this regard. ”

In the early morning of the 27th, at the border station, the Belgian border guards suddenly found that the German troops outside the national border made of barbed wire were moving frequently, and there were even signs of artillery being placed on the nearby high ground, which made the Belgian Wehrmacht, which was not very strong, extremely nervous, and immediately reported the above situation to Brussels, but the telegram had not yet been sent to the Belgian War Department, and with a violent explosion at the German border post, the Belgians saw that the German fortress suddenly collapsed into ruins.

Before the Belgians could understand what was going on, the German army had already been bombarded by dozens of field guns, quickly tearing apart the border line built by the Belgians! On April 27, 1910, under the pretext of shelling a border post, four German army divisions and two German dragoon regiments quickly broke through the weak Belgian defense line and pounced on the Scorching Sun fortress 20 kilometers from the border.

The world war that swept Europe finally broke out without any suspense...... On the 28th, the Germans issued an ultimatum to the small country of Luxembourg, and the next day they occupied Luxembourg and took control of Luxembourg's rich railway network, and then the Germans swarmed in!

The sudden escalation of the war in Europe, although it shocked the countries, the British side immediately sent a telegram to the German government on the 29th, demanding that Germany immediately withdraw all troops entering Belgium, otherwise, the British government would declare war on Germany in accordance with its commitment to protect Belgium, and this telegram was quickly responded to by the German government, Wilhelm II promised Britain that the German army entered Belgium only for cross-border operations, and promised to restore Belgian rule after the war was over.

And this response apparently did not meet the British demands at all, and on May 1, British Henry? Asquith's cabinet officially declared war on Germany, and at the same time announced that it would send eight army divisions to France to assist France in resisting the German attack, and on this day, the strong German army, including 15 army divisions on the right flank of the Western Front, had surrounded Belgium's last line of defense, the fortress of the scorching sun.

When the news reached Beijing, it was already the morning of 2 May, and Zhou Ruidong's cabinet immediately convened a meeting to respond to the situation, and at noon on the same day, it circulated China's diplomatic statement to the ministers of various countries in China...... Naturally, China will not endorse a major European war, especially in a situation where it is on the verge of a breakout, so the Beijing government has proposed a peace conference to all countries, but has not announced any diplomatic position.

In the afternoon of the same day, the British, German, French, and Russian consulates all sent personnel to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try to understand China's true intentions, but Wu Tingfang, counselor of the Foreign Ministry, personally met with the consuls of various countries and privately expressed to Britain and Germany his commitment to protect the interests of the two countries in the Far East.

The European war is to be fought, but China is now busy with maritime trade, there are still a large number of ships in and out of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic, the navy has sent warships from the South Pacific Fleet and the Mukala base in the Gulf of Aden to escort the escort at the first time, but any smallest losses must obviously be avoided, as for how to deal with the European war, the cabinet has already planned for a long time.

On May 3, the German Army, which encountered stubborn resistance from the Scorching Sun Fortress, welcomed a train that surprised them, and four 305mm, 30 times diameter giant guns were installed on the train platform and transported to the Scorching Sun Fortress to bombard the fortifications of the fortress...... On the 5th, after three days of continuous bombardment of the Scorching Sun Fortress, the left flank defense of the Scorching Sun Fortress collapsed, and the western side of the fortress was conquered late that night.

The Belgian Minister of War, Baron de Brokeville, apparently aware that continuing to resist would only increase casualties, chose to surrender to the Germans before dawn, and this news was immediately reported to the Berlin consulate by a Chinese military adviser who was present at the scene, and on the same day, this news also surprised the German General Staff, and the stubborn resistance of the Scorching Sun Fortress was not originally in any military plan of the General Staff.

There are only 6 army divisions, and the Belgian army, which has no complete training mechanism at all, is simply unable to organize a complete defense system according to the planning of the German General Staff, although the Scorching Sun Fortress has begun to take shape, but according to the battle plan, it is enough to be overtaken by the army and engineer blasting, but in fact, in addition to the 6 cavalry regiments bypassing the fortress and entering the strategic points of the Belgian and French borders, the 17 army divisions participating in the attack on the Scorching Sun Fortress were dragged under the fortress for a full 3 days, and no obvious offensive effect was achieved.

Had it not been for the fact that the young envoy of the Chinese advisory group had repeatedly stressed before the war that the Chinese had obtained confidential information, that the Belgians had already received help from the British, that they had already built up a defense and system sufficient to delay the German movement, and that the railroad mobile artillery, which the Germans regarded as military secrets, must be put into battle, otherwise it would have been difficult to resolve the battle quickly.

Therefore, after fully considering the accuracy of the Chinese side's historical intelligence, Moltke's chief of general staff finally decided to put four 305mm railway howitzers modified by Krupp into battle, and the results were obviously very satisfactory.

On 8 May, the German army, which had fully mastered the railway network between Belgium and Luxembourg, gave full play to the efficient dispatch power of the First Army in Europe, and six forward divisions and 10 dragoon regiments had arrived at Mons on the Belgian border.

The two divisions of the German Army, which had entered the Tournai area, had captured the city of Cottret without any resistance, and a French regiment had been stationed there a day earlier......

When this series of news arrived in Berlin, the officers of the German General Staff were excited, which meant that the German Army's attack tactics of bypassing the French frontal defense line of Macedonia from the right flank had gained an important fulcrum, and the former Colonel Schlieffen and Moltke, the former chiefs of the General Staff who were visiting the General Staff that day, were also very satisfied with the implementation of the plan.

Just as the two chiefs of staff were about to discuss further battle plans, a guard officer entered and reported, "General, the Chinese envoy, Colonel Cai, is waiting outside, and he said to bring important information!" (To be continued......)