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Lin Haijiang's words surprised Bismarck and Wilhelm I, because before this Bismarck had been committed to striving for an alliance with Russia and Austria-Hungary, and forever restraining France, but Moltke, the chief of the General Staff, once pointed out that the Russian Slavs would not really cooperate with the Germans, Tsar Alexander II was an ambitious guy, and Russia's biggest strategic attempt was to dominate Europe, which was in conflict with the strategic development of the future German Empire. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Bismarck hesitated for a moment, smiled at Lin Haijiang and said, "No, no, no!" My dear Excellency, Tsarist Russia was a partner and friend of the German Empire in the long-term strategic cooperation of the League of Nations, just as the Chinese Empire was in Asia. ”

Lin Haijiang patiently waited for the translation, then smiled and lit a cigar for himself, and said after some swallowing the clouds: "Prime Minister Bismarck, it is said that it is known that Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia have irreconcilable disputes in the Balkans, so in the end Germany must make a trade-off between Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia, which is inevitable, and Germany's strength will be closely related to the German Empire's overseas colonies, and now 80% of the world's good colonies have been divided by Britain and France, If the distribution is reshuffled, it will inevitably challenge the bottom line of Britain and France, and the British watched the war on the wall in the Franco-Prussian War, not wanting France to become Britain's opponent in Europe, but Britain, like Russia, will definitely not sit idly by and watch Germany become strong, because Germany's strength is a huge threat to their European strategic policy! ”

Lin Haijiang knew very well that Bismarck had always advocated the adoption of a continental policy, inciting Britain and Russia to confront each other, to form an alliance with Austria, to prevent Russian expansion and to isolate France, with the aim of consolidating the hegemony of the German Empire on the European continent! In history, in 1873, Germany, Russia, and Austria formed the Three Emperors Alliance, but this was a very vague and extremely loose military alliance, and there were conflicts of interests between the three countries, so the Three Emperors Alliance was not a stable alliance.

Bismarck thought it would take a long time for France to recover from the Franco-Prussian War, but in 1873 France paid five billion francs in advance, forcing the German army to withdraw from France. Bismarck did not want France to become strong again, and in 1874, under the pretext of France plotting revenge, he gathered troops on the border, causing a war crisis, Bismarck believed that the Three Emperors Alliance had just been established, and Russia would not oppose Germany's actions against France, but Russia did not want Germany to be too strong, and France was a country that could effectively contain Germany, Tsar Alexander II lashed out at Bismarck's actions, saying that Russia would not turn a blind eye, and Bismarck had to give up his actions.

Bismarck's continental policy and the subsequent world policy advocated by Wilhelm II were in fact indispensable strategic guidelines for Germany's rise, and the two policies should complement each other, with the result that the unilateral implementation of the rigid Germans eventually led to a large-scale war, which ended in tragedy.

Lin Haijiang gestured to Li Anmin, Chief of the General Staff, and Li Anmin cleared his throat slightly and said: "Your Majesty William, Your Excellency Prime Minister Bismarck, I am Lieutenant General Li Anmin, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Empire, please allow me to introduce my Chinese Empire's military expansion plan for the next five years and its ability and determination to fulfill the alliance agreement as a state party!" ”

After listening to the translation, Wilhelm I said to Bismarck: "Go and ask Moltke the chief of the general staff at once, and let the banquet outside be dispersed!" Looks like we have a lot to discuss tonight! Dear sir, let's have a cup of coffee first! ”

After a while, Moltke, a Junker-like aristocrat dressed in military uniform, appeared in the lounge, along with several German generals, and after introducing each other, everyone took their seats.

Li Anmin continued the previous topic: "Our Imperial Navy has 49 large surface combat ships, of which the 17 warships on this visit are all Pacific Fleet Fleet Commander is Rear Admiral Zhanyang, and the Imperial Navy has transferred 31 armored protection cruisers to form the Indian Ocean Fleet, looking around the Indochina Peninsula to deter India, and the three shipyards with 30,000-ton docks in Hainan, Guangzhou, and the Imperial Fortress will start construction in May 1863. Six Zhenyuan-class battleships with a standard displacement of 11,000 tons and four honorary-class heavy cruisers will be built, and the tonnage of ships built will increase by 20 to 25 percent each year in the future, so as to maintain the Empire's superiority in the navy, and the Imperial Marine Corps will remain within the size of 20 brigades. ”

Li Anmin paused for a moment and continued: "The empire plans to complete the reunification of the country within two to three years, and then the empire will fully transfer to the war system, and the army will organize twelve corps, two mountain infantry corps, the legions directly under the command and fifteen artillery brigades to provide one million standing troops, in addition, the empire will organize reserve non-commissioned officers and soldiers who have been trained for more than three years into seventy reserve infantry divisions as second-line supplementary troops, and the empire can also mobilize one hundred and twenty divisions of local militia quasi-reserve troops!" Strategically, the empire can mobilize at least one million well-equipped and well-trained troops to attack tsarist Russia from the Far East, and at the same time the empire can mobilize at least four corps to attack India through Burma, and the navy can use six to eight marine brigades to cooperate with landing operations to attract the British Royal Navy Far East Fleet for a decisive battle, once the British Royal Navy is defeated, the main force of the Imperial Navy will arrive in Germany, and no less than seven army corps of land forces will be sent directly to the European theater within a year, But the premise is that the Imperial Navy and the German Navy can inflict heavy damage on the British Royal Navy and control the sea! ”

After Li Anmin's plan was translated into German, Moltke, the chief of the German General Staff, did not speak for a long time, several German generals were desperately flipping through the map, and Wilhelm I and Bismarck on the side sat silently drinking coffee, although this also involved strategic aspects, but after all, it still belonged to the part of the integrated tactical implementation of the strategic campaign, and William I and Bismarck consciously tried not to intervene, for fear of affecting the judgment of Moltke's chief of the general staff.

After a long time, Mao Qiqi woke up from the so-called cooperation plan of the Chinese Empire, and Moltke, who realized his gaffe, sorted out his emotions and said: "According to this unilateral plan, the main plan of our army should be facing the dilemma of fighting on the east and west fronts, and Britain, France, Russia and other countries have formed alliances, if in the early stage of the campaign, the Chinese Empire cannot effectively contain the Russian army, then the empire can only block the Russian main force on the eastern front with a small number of troops, and use a large corps to detour Belgium to defeat the main force of the French army, and then turn back to the main force on the eastern front, Seek the final decisive battle with the Russian army! But judging from the mobility of the main forces of our army, it should be basically the same as that of the French Army, so once our army is caught in a trench battle on the Western Front, then the empire is likely to lose this war, of course, provided that we do not have the Chinese empire as a reliable ally in the east, is I right? ”

Li Anmin's expression was very natural, but Lin Haijiang on the side was extremely surprised, Moltke's inference was almost a copy of the First World War, Lin Haijiang couldn't help but look at this little old man with short hair and mustache, it looked so inconspicuous, but in a very short period of time, from the Chinese emperor's cooperation plan to see the crisis that the German army would face in the future, this kind of military strategic command ability really made Lin Haijiang look hot, compared to his chief of general staff Li Anmin, I am afraid that it is a heaven and an earth!

However, Moltke said a little strangely: "Now with the current situation of France, whether they can pay war reparations is already a very serious problem for them, whether France can rise again is probably still unknown, and the strategic relationship between the empire and Russia is also quite close, so I personally think it is very inappropriate to make this irresponsible inference!" ”

Immediately, a German general next to Moltke also interjected: "The Reich is actively preparing for the implementation of conscription, and all men in the country who are within the military age are required to serve, and during the service they are constantly instilled with national concepts, receive discipline training and ideological unified education, and the advantage of the Reich is that most of the imperial officials are from the aristocratic Junker class, according to 1860 statistics, about 65 percent of the officers are from aristocratic families, which is the advantage of the Reich."

For the first time, Lin Haijiang heard that a large proportion of aristocratic officers were regarded as an advantage, which in China could only lead to the collapse of the army, but in Germany, which was strictly rigid and strict with self-denial, this may be a real advantage.

Lin Haijiang smiled slightly and said to Mao Qi: "I wonder if Your Excellency the General Staff has heard of the impermanence of water and the impermanence of soldiers mentioned in our ancient Chinese art of war?" The famous saying of the British is that there are only eternal interests, no eternal friends! The Chinese Empire has no interests in Europe, and is not interested in colonies in Africa, so it can be said that the Chinese Empire and the German Empire are the two best strategic partners between the East and the West, and the most critical point is that Tsarist Russia and Austria-Hungary and the Chinese Empire have huge conflicts of interest and even involve territorial disputes. ”

Wilhelm I glanced at Bismarck and then said to Lin Haijiang: "We have witnessed the miracle created by the Chinese Empire, the light machine guns and mortars you produced played a huge role in the Franco-Prussian War, relying on the advantage of firepower, the mountain infantry of our army easily captured the Kosha Pass, which the French army had operated for more than 20 years, and reached a breakthrough from the back of the French army in one fell swoop, I believe that the international strategic cooperation between the two countries is not limited to this, and I think it is very necessary to revise all the terms in this secret treaty!" ”

Wilhelm I turned his gaze to Bismarck, who smiled indifferently and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, for the sake of the precious friendship of an honest friend, sometimes we have to make some concessions. ”

(To be continued)