In February 1919, when the weather began to warm up and the war on the Western Front broke out again and escalated, Germany used the strong Hindenburg defense line behind the Marne River as a cover to confuse Britain, France and the United States, so as to obtain the support of 500,000 troops drawn from Poland, and use superior forces to launch a fierce attack from the east of France to the south.

Britain, France and the United States were confused by this move of the Germans, and they were also caught off guard, and the Germans were obviously making every effort to build the Hindenburg defense line, why did they suddenly attack south from eastern France? Britain, France and the United States only have 800,000 troops in southeastern France, and it is already quite difficult to cope with the original 1 million German troops, the German army was demoralized in the first few months, coupled with the lack of ammunition supply, in order to shrink the strength and shorten the defensive line, so they retreated to the north, and now the German army has been supplied with ammunition, and there are 500,000 troops to support, in terms of troops, the German drama has an absolute advantage, plus the combat effectiveness itself is higher than the British, French and American armies, at this time do not attack when?

The British, French, and American armies were caught off guard, losing ground one after another, the morale of the army plummeted, and the troops were plunged for thousands of miles, and the good situation that was originally beneficial to Britain, France, and the United States was suddenly attacked by the Germans this time, and it was all lost, and the defense line of the coalition army in southeastern France collapsed on all fronts, and the 800,000 allied troops finally escaped less than 400,000, losing half.

The Coalition forces soon lost the east and southeast of France, and with the absolute disadvantage of their forces, the Allies also understood that it was unwise to confront the Germans at this time, and the Coalition forces could only retreat all the way until they abandoned most of the southeastern and southern parts of France, and retreated to the area west of the Loire before reconstructing their defensive lines.

The Coalition did this not only to preserve strength, but also to lengthen the German supply lines. Expanding the defensive line that the Germans needed to defend would make it very difficult for the Germans to resupply. It also dispersed the German forces, which needed to be garrisoned if they wanted to reoccupy these places. As a result, a lot of troops could not be used to fight the coalition forces, and the troops were wasted.

Britain, France, the United States, Britain and France played this calculation very well, but it suffered the French people again, and the Germans were not fools, the Germans quickly understood the purpose of the coalition forces, this time the Germans no longer sent troops to garrison in the occupied areas, they concentrated their forces to occupy a city and a place, and plundered all the resources of the occupied areas. and wantonly captured and killed guerrillas all over France, and the guerrillas in the northern, eastern and southern parts of France were dealt a heavy blow for a time, and the destruction of the German army is no longer worth mentioning.

In order to block a possible German offensive in the southwest, the Allied forces had to draw some troops from the Marne battlefield in northern France to the south to reinforce the Allied forces in the southwest.

On the battlefield of the Western Front, in terms of strength alone, the strength of the German army was slightly superior to that of the coalition forces, but this advantage was not enough for the German army to drive out the coalition forces. In a foreign land, without the support of the locals, the Germans were very worried about the supply lines and back routes being cut off, so the German army always had to send heavy troops to protect the supply lines and retreat routes. This left the Germans without enough forces to launch an all-out attack on the allied forces, and the momentum of the German attack slowed down.

Britain, France, and the United States had to send people to contact the Chinese side again after another crushing defeat on the Western Front. Let the Chinese army attack the German army on the Eastern Front, in order to relieve the pressure on the Allied forces on the Western Front.

On this day, Jiang Fangzhen came to Xiao Zhenlei's office again and reported to him: "President." Britain, France, and the United States once again sent a joint telegram, in view of the current unfavorable situation in the war on the Western Front. They wanted us to launch an offensive against the Germans in the shortest possible time in order to relieve them of the pressure on the Western Front".

Xiao Zhenlei listened to Jiang Fangzhen's report, smoked a cigarette and said with a smile: "They are still not convinced when it comes to their army waste, now look at it, they have reached this situation, they can still be beaten by the Germans and fully retreat, and lose half of France again, I really don't accept it!" Didn't they want us to go on the offensive on the Eastern Front? Okay, go and tell Cai Guodong to let Wang Shizhen's Balkan Legion take the lead, fight for three or four months first, and when the Balkan Legion is tired, our expeditionary force is making a move, so that the Balkan Legion with extremely poor combat effectiveness will not pose much threat to the German defense line, and at the same time block the mouth of Britain, France and the United States, wouldn't it be good? ”

Jiang Fangzhen didn't say anything, just promised to do it immediately, he is a pure soldier, in fact, he doesn't have much affection for this kind of politics, but he also knows that this is a game between major powers, there is no justice and evil, right and wrong, right and wrong, so he has no disgust.

Cai Guodong, who was far away in Budapest, soon received an order from China, which he conveyed to Wang Shizhen, who immediately commanded the Balkan Corps to advance northwest and launch an offensive on the Russian-Austrian border.

On February 16, the Balkan Corps arrived at the German border and began to attack the German line on the 18th, the German defense line was extremely long, and the Balkan Army was three times more numerous than the German army in terms of strength, but the German army fought very tenaciously and bravely, and the Balkan Army could not break through the German defense line in many offensive locations.

After half a month of fierce fighting, the Balkan Army not only made no progress, but also lost 300,000 people, while the German army only lost 50,000 people, and the Balkan Army only had 900,000 left, which made the morale of the Balkan Army very low, and Wang Shizhen had to order to stop the offensive and wait for the morale to recover before fighting.

On March 2, the British Minister Zhu Erdian came to the door, and Xiao Zhenlei asked with a smile: "Is there anything that Mr. Minister is looking for me?" ”

Zhu Erdian said: "President, I am entrusted by my government to ask your country to immediately send troops to attack the German Eastern Front!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei was "surprised" and said: "Minister Zhu Erdian, you have confused me, aren't we launching an offensive on the Eastern Front now?" ”

"I'm talking about letting your expeditionary force attack, not the Balkan corps that do not have the slightest combat effectiveness, they will only waste ammunition and food, and will not have any effect on the attack of the Germans at all, but will also consume a lot of ammunition!"

Xiao Zhenlei looked at Zhu Erdian with a cigarette, and didn't speak until two minutes later: "Mr. Zhu Erdian, I want you to remember that my country and your country are not subordinate, but the relationship of entent, and it is an alliance!" We are obliged to unite with your country against Germany, and we can also launch an attack on the German army at the request of your country, as for how to fight, who to send to lead the troops, and which army to fight, this is our own business, and you have no right to interfere, and your country has no right to interfere. We are already attacking the Germans as best we can, what else do you want? Everything needs to be done within our means, we have done our best, you just said that let us send out the expeditionary force, we are not cherishing the lives of our own soldiers, this winter is too cold, many of our soldiers are frostbitten, they have not recovered, do you understand? Forget it, I don't need to explain to you at all, you can go! ”

Zhu Erdian was fooled again, he even felt that he was a little vexatious, he really did not have the right to ask Xiao Zhenlei to order the expeditionary force to attack the German defense line, he was really angry when he received the telegram from the British side, so he went to find Xiao Zhenlei aggressively.

After Zhu Erdian left, Xiao Zhenlei was very angry, the British have always regarded themselves as the boss, but they don't know that now is not the time for the British to be kings, Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette, thinking in his heart that he should give the British a little color to see, he rang the electric bell.

Secretary Xiao Gao knocked on the door and walked in and said, "President, what do you command?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei knocked on the table and instructed: "You go and tell Lu Zhengxiang that their diplomatic department will send a note to the British government, this Zhu Erdian is really arrogant, I don't like him very much, if Britain wants to continue to maintain diplomatic relations with our country, let me let Zhu Erdian go back, if the British insist on their own practices and do not withdraw Zhu Erdian, let Lu Zhengxiang explain to the diplomatic department that no one from the British Embassy in China will be accepted in the future, and if it exceeds three months, let the British withdraw the embassy!" ”

Xiao Gao carefully agreed: "Yes, big president!" ”

British Prime Minister Lloyd's? George saw the diplomatic note from the Foreign Secretary about China, and was furious: "What does he want to do? Who does he think he is? Jurdian is a diplomat appointed by our British Empire, so why should he ask us to withdraw him and replace him with someone else? It's so hateful! ”

Marshal Haig, who was standing next to him, said, "Prime Minister, don't you still understand what Xiao Zhenlei means? He is asking Zhu Erdian to go to him and let him order the Chinese army to launch an offensive counterattack, you are too lenient! I have already said that whether the Chinese army will attack and when it will attack is their own business, we have no right to ask, we can only negotiate with them, if they are willing to give us face, we have to be grateful, if they ignore it, we have no way, this is a matter of course, you are a British nobleman, but I have not understood the Chinese, please don't always think of yourself as a British nobleman when dealing with the Chinese, this will have an adverse impact on the interests of Britain! ”

Lloyd's? George immediately became angry: "What? Are you teaching me a lesson? Do I need a lesson from you? Are you British or Chinese, and who are you helping? You get me out, get out! ”

"Humph!" Haig snorted coldly and walked out, muttering in a low voice as he walked: "Stubborn old thing, it's really unfortunate that the British Empire has a prime minister like you!" ”

Despite Lloyd's? George was very dissatisfied with Xiao Zhenlei, but in order to draw China to deal with Germany, he could only swallow his anger and ask the foreign minister to give Zhu Erdian an order to return to China to report on his work, and rearrange a new minister to China to go to China to take over the presiding work of the embassy in China.

After receiving the telegram, Zhu Erdian could only pack his luggage and board the ship back to London. (To be continued......)