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Chapter 437 The World War ended like this

Under the heavy fire of German aircraft, tanks and artillery, the American and French forces defending Verdun were defeated and forced to abandon the surrounding defensive line, but still held Verdun. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Germans then drew 300,000 general reserves from the entire Verdun front, continued to expand the results from the gap in the positions of the American and French forces, and tried to break through the American and French defense lines in one fell swoop, but were met with fierce counterattacks from American and French artillery fire and desperate resistance from the American and French forces.

The American and French forces on the frontal defense line used their flesh and blood to block the German army's steel torrent, and were immediately severely damaged, with heavy casualties. For this reason, the US-French coalition forces had to frequently rotate combat units, but they were still unable to reduce the losses of the main forces, and one by one the formed divisions and regiments were crippled or even eliminated.

In just one week, the US-French forces lost 32 divisions, two-thirds of which were disabled, and suffered more than 500,000 casualties. Such huge casualties and losses were just an attempt to hold back the fierce German offensive. Through continuous counterattacks, the United States and France repeatedly fought with the German army, delaying the German attack, and finally forcing the German army to fail to achieve the goal of the campaign within the scheduled time.

At the beginning of February, the German army launched another large-scale offensive, and after seven days of fierce fighting, under the assault of two tank divisions, successfully cut off the connection between Vauburg and other positions of the American and French forces, and forced the 60,000 American and French defenders of Vauburg to surrender on the 7th.

In mid-February, although during the Battle of Verdun, the German army had always taken advantage of the Entente with small losses, but the German high command was still very annoyed with the battle situation on the front line, and demanded that the Entente ** team be defeated in a short time, because Germany was also affected by the Russian Revolution, and the revolutionary tide of calling for the cessation of the war continued to emerge, so that the German high command had to consider defeating the Entente as soon as possible to end the war.

For this reason, the German side used more powerful phosgene asphyxiation gas bombs and tear gas canisters for the first time to storm Fort Soviet, firing 110,000 rounds of poison gas bombs on a 6-kilometer-wide front, causing more than 100,000 heavy casualties to the US and French forces, and forcing them to retreat and abandon the sixth line of defense. The Germans then attacked with great fire and captured the fortress of Douaumont.

On 25 February, the French commander-in-chief, Chauffeur, reappointed General Henri as commander-in-chief of the Verdun area, and the 20th Army Group and the 33rd Army Group commanded by Henry were transferred from the Somme and Marne to the Verdun front, increasing the total strength of the Allies on the Verdun line to 2.7 million men, ready to fight to the death with the Germans.

At the same time, the Germans also made a desperate bet to transfer the last batch of about 500,000 young soldiers with an average age of only 15 to Verdun.

At this point in the war, both the Entente and the Central Powers had reached the final moment. The economies of various countries have completely collapsed, the consumption of the most important personnel in the war resources has reached the warning line, and the countries have reached a state of large-scale recruitment of minors to the front line, so all governments understand that this is to quench their thirst, and if these minors are also consumed, the whole country will completely collapse.

Therefore, at this time, both sides involuntarily chose to fight to the death.

Beginning on the last day of February and continuing until late April, one of the largest Armageddons in human history broke out on the battlefield of Verdun. The Allies successively deployed 6,500 combat aircraft, 4,300 combat vehicles, 43,290 artillery pieces, and 90,000 light and heavy machine guns, with a total strength of more than 3.4 million troops participating in the decisive battle. The Entente countries successively invested 8,340 combat aircraft, 7,700 tanks, 73,000 artillery pieces, 50,000 light and heavy machine guns, and a total of 4.3 million troops to participate in the decisive battle.

The two sides laid down nearly 10 million troops and logistical personnel on a front of less than 170 kilometers, resulting in an excessively dense force of troops per unit area, and as a result, under the mutual attack of dense aircraft, tanks, artillery and poison gas on both sides, the casualties were huge, and at the most tragic time, when the two sides were fighting for the decisive commanding heights of Verdun, the 832 heights, nearly 300,000 troops on both sides repeatedly engaged in a tragic tug-of-war on this high ground, and the commanders of both sides wanted to control the place at all costs in order to seize this decisive commanding height. Beginning at two o'clock in the afternoon on March 17, melee battles broke out between the two armies on the high ground, and in the four-hour repeated white-knuckle fighting, the German casualties were as high as 70,000, and the Treaty** casualties were more than 110,000. The result of such huge casualties was mainly that when the Germans gained the upper hand, the Entente** began to prepare for indiscriminate shelling, preferring to sacrifice their own men rather than let the Germans succeed. Conversely, when the Entente** gained the upper hand, the Germans did the same, carrying out indiscriminate shelling, so that the Germans on the high ground would be wiped out along with the Entente**.

For the sake of the decisive commanding heights of the Verdun front, both the Entente and the Central Powers gave up the last shred of humanity, preferring to die together rather than let the other side succeed. In this way, both sides would rather be broken than destroyed, and the most tragic battle was fought on the 832 heights, and the corpses on the entire highlands were piled up like mountains and rivers of blood. The earth was scorched, the streams turned to steam, and the whole highland became hell on earth.

Tragedies similar to the battle for the 832 heights could be seen everywhere on the Verdun front, and the Allies understood that if Verdun could not hold on and was broken through by the Germans, the Allies would be defeated and lose the war. Therefore, the Entente resisted to the end at all costs, not giving up an inch of territory. Similarly, for the Allies, the Germans could only win the war if they won the battle, otherwise they would not have the strength to continue the war. If this battle is won, it will be able to stabilize the surging revolutionary tide in the country, and if it is a draw or a loss, it will be equivalent to losing the war. Therefore, the Germans were also desperate to attack at any cost, and every inch of land advanced was sprinkled with German blood.

Both sides fought desperately, and the Germans had the advantage in equipment, but it was difficult to support them in numbers. Although the Entente side was weakly equipped, the casualties and losses in each battle far exceeded that of the German army, but the Entente had a large number of people, and as the US Army arrived in Europe, reinforcements from the French coast were low inland, quickly filling the situation of the lack of Entente troops.

In this way, although the Entente side suffered heavy casualties on the Verdun front, it finally paid a heavy price of 2.49 million casualties by virtue of the crowd tactics, stopped the German offensive and stabilized the Verdun line.

The Second Battle of Verdun ended on 8 April, and the Germans, after paying the price of 1.33 million casualties, finally stopped the offensive due to the instability of troops, ordnance, and rear, and the Second Battle of Verdun.

During the Second Battle of Verdun, the Allies lost 5,500 combat aircraft, 3,600 combat vehicles, 35,000 artillery pieces, and 50,000 light and heavy machine guns on the entire Western Front, with more than 1.82 million casualties. The Entente lost 9,240 combat aircraft, 9,100 tanks, 62,000 artillery pieces, 43,000 light and heavy machine guns, and 3.02 million men on the entire Western Front.

If purely in terms of results, the Allies won tactically, almost 1:2, and the Entente suffered heavy losses. However, from the strategic point of view of the entire European theater, the Entente still blocked the major counteroffensive of the Central Powers after losing the support of Russia, and successfully prevented the strategic plan of the Allies from breaking through the entire Western Front and forcing the Allies to stop the war.

After the end of the Second Battle of Verdun, the Central Powers could no longer afford to launch an offensive and turned to a defensive position. The Entente suffered huge losses, exhausted the last trace of strength, and barely held the Western Front, but it was also unable to counterattack.

The Western Front was once again in a state of stalemate, which lasted until the end of the world war, when neither side launched any more large-scale battles, only skirmishes at the regimental and battalion levels.

This is mainly because, at the end of the Second Battle of Verdun, the Chinese Empire attacked the Pearl Harbor naval base in the United States on April 1 and declared war on the United States, thus causing the world war to spread to the American continent, and the world war finally expanded into a veritable world war.

It was precisely because of the sudden declaration of war by the Chinese Empire on the United States that the material support received by the Allies was reduced, and it was unable to continue the war. On the Entente side, because of the outbreak of the Sino-US war, the United States stopped providing material support to the Entente countries, and even the U.S. troops put on the European battlefield were also transferred back to China for defense, resulting in the Entente side was unable to continue fighting.

On the other hand, the November Revolution in Russia had a huge influence on the Entente and the Central Powers. Large-scale workers' strikes, merchants' strikes, teachers' and students' strikes, and military boycotts broke out in all countries, and spies and agents of each country instigated popular revolutions in hostile countries.

In particular, the establishment of Soviet power in Russia by the November Revolution brought hope to the revolutionary parties in various countries, and they followed the example of the Russian Revolution and set off anti-war and revolutionary actions in various countries.

It is similar to the background of the November Revolution in Russia. The high-intensity world war, which lasted for more than four years, depleted the enormous wealth of Germany as the world's third economy. In order to cope with the huge expenses of the war, Germany had to intensify the brutal exploitation of its own people, and to adopt the method of military rule, forcing the people to die for their plundering wars. The war led to the collapse of the German economy and the intensification of social contradictions, which were intensified by the active activities of anti-war activists led by Albert Einstein in the past four years.

In order to prevent the outbreak of revolution, on November 30, 1916, the German emperor proclaimed a parliamentary system of government, promising to reform the three-tier electoral system in Prussia. On January 4, 1917, a parliamentary democratic government was established, and the liberal Prince Max of Baden was appointed Imperial Prime Minister and the Social Democratic Party's Scheudman was invited to join the government.

Germany might have been able to recover the war if it had ceased more than three months of mediation by the Chinese Empire, but Kaiser Wilhelm II chose to continue the war, which led to the acceleration of the outbreak of the German Revolution. The German army at the front was able to win the Second Battle of Verdun, and as a result, the German revolution inevitably broke out.

On April 9, 1917, Germany's huge casualties on the Western Front were hyped up in Berlin by Allied spies and agents, and the false news of the defeat of the German army and the loss of millions of troops was ignited, which immediately ignited the fire of revolution in Germany. Under the influence of the November Revolution in Russia, the class contradictions in Germany were unprecedentedly acute.

In April 1917, the German High Command saw that the Chinese Empire and the United States were at war, so they took the opportunity to order the navy to go out, preparing to take advantage of the transfer of the main force of the US Navy to the Pacific Ocean, destroy the remnants of the British and French fleets in the Atlantic, launch a large-scale war, and completely force the Allies to surrender.

On 5 April, the German naval command ordered the fleet in Kiel to go to sea, but the sailors refused, and many sailors were arrested. On the 7th, the sailors of the port of Kiel opposed the battle against the Allied fleet, staged an uprising, and established the first Soviet of Engineer and Soldier Deputies in Germany, which opened the prelude to the April Revolution in Germany.

The German working class, which had been suffering during the war, was under the influence of the November Revolution in Russia and the class contradictions at home were more acute than ever. The German working class, seduced and instigated by Allied agents and spies, began to combine the struggle for an end to the war with the preparation of an armed uprising. In opposition to the order to fight with the Allied fleet, and to demand the release of the captured sailors, the sailors of the Kiel fleet held a demonstration with the dock workers, which soon developed into an armed uprising.

On 14 April, the sailors and workers of the Kiel revolution formed the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies and seized all power in Kiel

The prelude to the April Revolution was unveiled. Hamburg, Bremen, Lepzig, Munich and other places also rose up in response to the uprising, forming the Soviets of Engineers and Soldiers, and seizing power in various places.

On April 19, an armed uprising broke out among the workers and soldiers of Berlin, the capital of Germany, who seized government offices, post offices and railway stations, overthrew the rule of the Hohenzollerns, forcing Kaiser Wilhelm II to flee to the Netherlands in a hurry, armed workers and soldiers took control of the capital, and the Spartacist leader K. Liebknecht proclaimed a socialist republic at a mass meeting.

On May 2, the First All-German Congress of Soviets was held in Berlin, and due to the lack of an independent revolutionary party leadership of the proletariat and the betrayal of the right Social Democrats, power fell back into the hands of the bourgeoisie and the Junker landlords, the right-wing leadership of the German Social Democratic Party, whose leaders F. Ebert and P. Scheidmann formed the government, the People's Plenipotentiary Soviets. It did not touch the old state apparatus and the army, and left a large number of officials and generals of the former empire in an effort to quell the mass movement, so that the April Revolution did not achieve the gains of the November Revolution in Russia.

On May 16, the All-German Congress of Soviets was held in Berlin. At the congress, the right-wing Social Democrats demanded the restoration of peace and order and advocated the convening of a constitutional national assembly and the formation of a formal government. Representatives of the Spartak League raised the slogan of the return of all power to the Soviets and the establishment of a socialist republic. The General Assembly adopted a resolution convening the National Assembly in January of the following year, declaring that until then the Albert Government would exercise all legislative and executive powers of the State.

At the same time, all the political parties unanimously agreed that Germany would withdraw unconditionally from the world war and that it would do so, in accordance with the agreements reached with the countries in the Chinese Empire last year, in which Germany agreed to restore the pre-war status quo ante in order to bring the war to a speedy end.

On May 29, the Spartacist League held a congress and decided to immediately break away from the Independent Social Democratic Party and form its own organization, the Communist Party of Germany. On the 30th, the founding congress of the KPD was held in Berlin, and R. Luxemburg made a report on the question of the party program. The congress decided to use the article "What the Spartacist League Demands", which she drafted, as the basis for the party program.

On 5 June, workers in the capital staged a grand demonstration to protest the dismissal of the Left Independent Social Democrat from the post of police chief in Berlin by the Albert government. The next day, the demonstrations turned into a general strike and an armed uprising, with 500,000 people participating. Germany ** firmly led the battle. On the 11th, government troops, led by the right-wing Social Democrat G. Noske, marched into Berlin and carried out a bloody massacre of the workers. On the 15th, the leaders of the KPD, Liebknecht and Rosa? Luxembourg was brutally killed.

In July, the government convened a national assembly in Weimar, and Albert was elected the first president of the German Republic.

On August 13, the working masses in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, under the leadership of **, staged an uprising to seize power and proclaimed the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, which was soon brutally suppressed by government forces. On 2 September, the army occupied Munich. The vigorous April Revolution in Germany came to an end.

Although Germany failed to embark on the socialist path that Russia did, the April Revolution overthrew the German feudal system and brought about the end of the European part of the First World War.

The Entente knew that the United States was no longer capable of supporting the European theater in order to block the fierce offensive of the Chinese Empire, so the Entente had to accept Germany's armistice conditions, and the two sides negotiated in Madrid, Spain, and agreed to return to the pre-war state.

Similarly, the revolution that broke out in Germany broke out in the countries of Europe. In March 1917, the war was again in a stalemate, and the domestic contradictions in Austria-Hungary were far more intense than in Germany. Although the leaders of the minorities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire had so far remained loyal to the Habsburgs, at this point they had to consider their own interests. When they found out that after the April Revolution in Germany, Germany had the intention of withdrawing from the world war, it was also a time for them to break away from the old empire, and to accept the nationalism preached by the Entente was the way to go.

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was no longer able to unite these many peoples. The descendants of the royal family are extinct, and there is no one who can contact all nationalities like the Austrian Emperor. The collapse of the economy, the cancellation of many of the open-door policies introduced in the Austrian part before the war, made the socialists very angry. Under these conditions, ultranationalists gained many supporters.

In June 1917, a number of regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared independence. On 3 July, Austria-Hungary joined the negotiations in Madrid, reaching an armistice with the Allies.

Germany and Austria-Hungary negotiated an armistice with the Entente, so that the Ottoman Empire, which was exhausted by the Arab uprising, had to join Bulgaria and go to Madrid to negotiate with the Entente.

In the end, the Allies agreed to an unconditional armistice with the Entente, and on the Allied side, the Lyon Revolution broke out in France, and because France had learned the lessons of the Red regimes in Russia and Germany, the frenzied repression prevented the revolution from expanding. At the same time, France was the biggest victim of the First World War, and the light and heavy industries of 16 provinces were razed to the ground in the Great War, and if the war was not stopped, even if the stalemate continued, it would not be able to hold it, so after consulting with Britain, France believed that the biggest enemy at present was not the Central Powers, but the Soviet Russian regime from Russia, and if the war was not stopped, the red regime would definitely sweep the countries of the European continent, which would be disastrous. As a result, Britain and France formally agreed to the terms of the Central Powers, and both sides unconditionally ended the war and returned to the pre-war level.

The negotiations between the two sides were very fast, and a full ceasefire agreement was reached in July. At the beginning of August, the Allies withdrew from the French and Italian battlefields on the Western Front, and the Entente regained all lost ground. On the Eastern Front, the Allies did not return the territory of Soviet Russia, and the Entente also demanded that the Allies not return the territory of Soviet Russia, and the Allies and the Entente jointly sent troops to continue to suppress the Russian revolution.

In terms of the stance on the Sino-US war, since neither the Entente nor the Central Powers have the power to meddle with the affairs of China and the United States, they are also happy to see the war between the two emerging powers, China and the United States, and hope that the two countries will also be weakened by the war.

On August 15, 1917, the Allies and the Allies quickly signed the Treaty of Madrid in Madrid, ending World War I, and all countries unconditionally accepted the armistice and returned to the pre-war status. Since the Red Soviets were the common enemy of the countries of Europe, the countries were able to reach a rapprochement in a short time because of their common enemy. However, each country has its own local war problems that need to be solved urgently. For example, Britain wanted to suppress the Irish Revolution, the Indian Revolution. France suppresses the Vietnamese Revolution. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was embroiled in a war of secession, and civil war broke out between Austria and Hungary. Germany suppressed the remnants of the November Revolution, the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the war of suppression of the Arab uprising, and the total collapse of more than 40 countries declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire.

In the end, the Chinese Empire suddenly declared war on the United States, forcing the United States to be unable to reinforce the Allied countries, resulting in a war outcome that was very different from the outcome of the First World War in history. At the same time, because the Chinese Empire secretly dominated this world war, its scale and destruction far exceeded history. Due to the early appearance of epoch-making weapons such as aircraft and chariots in world wars, the military consumption of various countries has intensified, casualties have been heavy, and the economy has been destroyed by collapse.

The entire world war lasted for 4 years and 8 months, and in this war, more than 30 countries participated in this war, with a population of about 1.5 billion, accounting for 67% of the total world population at that time. The direct economic losses of the participating countries amounted to $280.5 billion, and the indirect economic losses also amounted to $351.6 billion. More than 15 million soldiers have been killed, 30 million civilians have been killed, and about 150 million people have been left homeless. The economy as a whole has regressed by 15 years, to only 1898 levels. More than 15,000 tons of gold and 540,000 tons of silver left Europe and ended up in the treasury of the Chinese Empire. As a result, the world's financial center was transferred from Britain to the Chinese Empire, and the economy of the Chinese Empire in the East dominated the world from the beginning, and the pattern between the East and the West was reversed.

At the same time, the First World War ended in this way, and the core contradictions of the Allies and the Entente were not resolved at all. Although all countries have reached a wartime reconciliation due to the inability to fight again and the threat of the Red Ghost, the fundamental contradictions have not been resolved, and only the hidden danger of more intense war in the future has been left.

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