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From the 19th century to the end of World War II, the world's army was stronger than Germany, and the German General Staff, as the highest command body of the German Army, especially the German General Staff before World War I, was a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger, and there were many talents, which still made countless hot-blooded men yearn for it. Among the successive chiefs of staff of the German General Staff, the most accomplished was Moltke the Elder, who assisted Bismarck in winning the Danish War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War, and unifying Germany. Schlieffen served as chief of staff from 1891 to 1906, a total of 15 years.

Back the day before Germany declared war on France, the German staff was already in a tense hustle and bustle. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Crown Prince Wilhelm, Chief of the General Staff Moltke Jr., Minister of the Navy Tirpitz, Prince Heinrich and others, gathered here. Among them, there is a middle-aged Oriental with yellow skin and black hair, which is particularly eye-catching. He is Zhao Bo, a general of the Chinese Army, and this time he came to Germany in his capacity as China's deputy chief of general staff, in order to observe the upcoming German offensive on the Western Front!

Xiong Wu, chief of the Chinese General Staff, is already old, and the main work of the General Staff is actually in charge of War Minister Cai Yunzai. When China enters the war, War Minister Cai Yun will step down and take charge of the work of the General Staff. And General Zhao Bo will take over the post of Minister of War!

"Are the ministries ready?" Kaiser Wilhelm II asked, looking at a huge map of Western Europe. On the map, military deployments between the Central and Allied powers were marked in different colors, while on the German border with France and Belgium, there was a large black color. It was the German Army that was marked.

"Your Majesty, you're ready! The armies are already in place and ready to attack! Moltke Jr., Chief of the General Staff of the German Army, reported. His voice was full of excitement and excitement, and immediately, the mighty German Army, under his command, would go to win victory after victory!

"Very well, tomorrow we will declare war on France! That's when the offensive will start! I await the news of your victory! Kaiser Wilhelm II said. He has always had a firm belief in winning the war!

"Rest assured, we will definitely defeat the French. This year's Christmas. His Majesty the Emperor is expected to spend time in Paris! Moltke said proudly.

Admiral Zhao Bo saw this qiē in his eyes, and a hint of mockery inadvertently appeared at the corner of his mouth. These Germans also wanted to defeat France and France's ally Britain in a short time, which was impossible. It's true that the French are muddy. Is it so easy to bully?

Germany's battle plan for France had been drawn up decades earlier. After additions and revisions by successive chiefs of staff, it finally took shape when Count Schlieffen was chief of the General Staff. It's just that what is unexpected is that after Moltke Jr. took over as chief of the General Staff, he made another revision to Schlieffen's plan. In the end, the German army was defeated!

In 1870, the French government of Emperor Louis Napoleon, self-destructive by declaring war on Prussia. The Prussians destroyed the French army in battles on their common frontier and then drove straight in. Siege and capture of Paris. In an effort to eliminate any future legal threat, the newly united Germany annexed Alsace and parts of Lorraine, including the fortified city of Metz, exposing France to a future invasion.

The forensic engineers then built a series of forts centered around four cities along the 150-mile Franco-German border. The southeast begins in the Alps, Switzerland's impregnable barrier. Fortified concrete fortresses stretch out from Belfort, Erbinar, Toure and Verdun. A wide gap was designed between Erbinar and Tur as a huge trap to prepare the enemy for entry. It was then annihilated with crossfire fired from well-covered concrete box bunkers. About twenty miles north of Verdun are Luxembourg, Belgium and the rugged Ardennes Forest.

Faced with this insurmountable fortress, Count Alfred von Schlieffen, Chief of Staff of the German General of Staff from 1891 to 1906, devised a strategy to invade France through the vast Belgian plains. This small industrialized country offers an effortless access to railways, roads, rivers and canals, and its border with France is undefended. Count Schlieffen was outraged by the Belgian fortified positions facing Germany in Liège and Namur, complaining that its military defense was aimed at "...... prevent Germany from invading its territory, but it does not defend the borders of France". As for the reason why Belgium was worried about Germany and not France, Count Schlieffen pretended not to know.

While assisting Moltke the Elder and Wadsey, Count Schlieffen conducted in-depth research on France and Russia. France, which had survived the Napoleonic Wars, was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War and lost the iron-rich Alsace and Lorraine, but its army was undiminished, leading the way in Europe and being the greatest enemy of the united German Empire on the European continent. Russia, on the other hand, has several million conventional troops, but its equipment is backward, and its strategic thinking is still stuck in the era of cold weapons. When Germany's Krupp cannons and Mauser guns were already famous all over the world, and the German General Staff was focusing on the value of the Maxim machine gun, many Russian soldiers still used wooden sticks tied to sharp knives as their only equipment. At the same time, Russia's vast territory, backward railway network, and aging war mobilization mechanism have greatly reduced the speed of Russia's war response. After carefully studying the balance of power between the two sides, Count Schlieffen came up with a bold idea: to take advantage of Germany's rapid mobilization of forces, first defeat France, and then turn back to concentrate on Russia. Count Schlieffen judged that Russia's backward military mobilization system required at least six to eight weeks for Russia to complete its military build-up against Germany. During this time, with the dense network of railways built under Moltke's time, Germany was well positioned to quickly complete its military build-up and defeat France. This is the basic strategic idea of the "Schlieffen Plan", which can be summed up in three words, that is, "time difference".

In 1891, the first year of his tenure as Chief of Staff of the German Army, Count Schlieffen proposed a "memorandum", known as Memorandum No. 1. In this memorandum, Count Schlieffen adopted the method of "plot rehearsal" rarely seen by military scientists, deduced the basic process of the future European war, and put forward the strategic concept and implementation method of "time difference". Later, in 1892 and 1894, Count Schlieffen put forward the second and third memorandums, which were the basic prototypes of the "Schlieffen Plan". Since then, during his tenure, Count Schlieffen has led numerous exercises, sand table exercises and discussions on future wars, and has repeatedly revised the memorandum. In December 1905, Count Schlieffen completed his last memorandum and handed it over to his successor, Moltke Sr.'s nephew, Moltke Jr. in 1906, thus giving shape to the complete "Schlieffen Plan".

The main goal of the "Schlieffen Plan" was, naturally, France. After the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, in order to resist the German attack, France started from the Swiss Alps, through Berfort, Erbinar, Toure and Verdun to build a strong defensive fortress, leaving only a gap between Erbinar and Touhr to pass through the Franco-German border, and deployed dense crossfire on both flanks of the gap, so the center and focus of the "Schlieffen Plan" was how to bypass the long and strong French defense system.

The basic content of the "Schlieffen Plan" was to divide the entire combat force of Germany into the Eastern Front against Russia and the Western Front against France. Among them, there are 79 divisions of the troops on the Western Front, and only 10 divisions of the troops on the Eastern Front are mixed with some local troops. The ratio of forces on the eastern and western fronts is roughly 1:8. The Western Front was divided into two wings, the right flank was 68 divisions, and the left flank was partly part of the 11 divisions in the central part of Verdun, which was the northwest entrance to Paris, only 135 miles from Paris, and was also the center of gravity of the French defense system against Germany. The rest are deployed along the 240-kilometre-long Franco-German border. The right wing on the Western Front was the main force of the German main forces, and it was also the soul of Germany's victory in the war.

According to the "Schlieffen Plan", once the war began, the German troops on the Eastern Front echoed the Austro-Hungarian army with a small number of troops to contain the Russian army, with the aim of confining Russia to the East Prussian border. At the same time, the right flank assembled on the Western Front rotated southwest with the Verdun area as the axis, passed through Belgium, a neutral country in Europe, entered France from the Belgian border, and surrounded Paris from the north, west, and south after crossing the Belgian plain and sweeping the French coast, and then eastward to outflank the main force of the French army. The task of the left flank of the Western Front was to defend against the attack of the main French army.

It was only the cautious little Moltke who changed the plan to deal with what he thought was a different situation. Instead of strengthening the right flank, he reduced the strength of the right flank by a third and added eight divisions on the left flank - a move that was fortunate for France. Due to other obstacles and delays, Moltke shortened the German invasion line, which was pivoting on Metz, so that his troops drove to the east of Paris without encircling it. A few weeks later, when the Germans attempted to capture Paris with a frontal assault, they were repulsed at the Battle of Marne. It was also the most serious threat posed by the Germans to Paris. If Moltke had not weakened the right flank, perhaps the Germans would have succeeded in taking Paris in this battle. And the French, most likely, will give up resistance because of the loss of Paris. The rest of Britain is nothing to fear!

The revised battle plan might be more appropriately called the 'Schlieffen-Moltke Plan'!