The French winter of 1917 was driven into madness by a barrel of oil.

The winter of the Republic of China in 1917 was in full swing, comparable to war-torn Europe.

The heavy snow did not hide the ambitions of the Overseers, and the "Civil War" intensified.

No, it's more intense than in Europe.

As the British offensive in Flanders stalled, the war in Europe entered a "winter break" again, and the leaders of the Entente gathered in Rapano, Italy, for a meeting, this time with fewer Russians.

The winter of 1917 in Russia was exceptionally cold, the Kerensky government came to an end, and Lenin led the Bolsheviks to form a Soviet government.

The first thing Lenin did when he came to power was to negotiate peace with the Germans, which caused great panic in the Entente.

You know, before the world war, Russia was the most promising and promising country in Europe, but until now, Russia has changed beyond recognition. The Tsar was imprisoned, Kerensky was overthrown, and Lenin finally came to power, more familiar with Lenin and Germany than Britain and France.

It may be recalled that it was thanks to Ludendorff's consent that Lenin was able to return to Russia from his exile in Switzerland.

Ludendorff's hand was brilliant, and as Ludendorff had predicted, Russia was the first to withdraw from the world war because of Lenin.

Russia's actions provoked the resentment of the British and French, which also laid the foundation for future interventions.

The Americans were also represented at the Rapano Conference, and although the Americans had not yet been on the battlefield, they already had four divisions in France, which were four out-of-the-ordinary infantry divisions with a total strength of more than 100,000 men.

The United States lacks officers, so the strength is unusually large.

The Republic of China was absent from this meeting, Qin Zhiyuan is now more like a Frenchman than a Republican, and although Lu Zhengxiang wanted to participate, he was not authorized. The Republic of China, which was a pot of porridge, did not bother to pay attention to the war that happened in Europe, because of Duan Zhiquan's resignation, the Beiyang government was already too busy to take care of itself.

Lu Zhengxiang couldn't participate even if he wanted to, because of the war in the country, the embassy lost its financial support, and the embassy was about to be unable to open the pot, Lu Zhengxiang now regrets very much that he didn't accept Qin Zhiyuan's invitation two months ago.

At the Lapano Conference, the leaders of the Entente agreed on two things.

The first was the establishment of a Supreme War Council within the Allied Forces.

Second, in mid-1918, the Entente would not launch a major offensive.

With regard to the Supreme War Council, this proposal had been in place for a long time, but because of the lack of a consensus on priorities, the British and the French were finally willing to face the reality and kill the Germans before they could fight for power.

It's not that easy to do.

In 1917, Britain and France launched several offensives, except for Qin Zhiyuan's side won a complete victory, Nivelle and Haig were disgraced, and it seemed that the situation was superior, but in fact they had lost the ability to take the initiative to attack.

The French army had not yet returned to normal, Qin Zhiyuan's troops were limited, and the British began to engage in civil strife, Lloyd George was finally dissatisfied with being scolded by Haig as a "son of a" all day long, and sent Robertson, the chief of the British General Staff, to France to disperse the power in Haig's hands.

Through the war of 1917, the British and French finally determined as never before that if they wanted to win the world war, they had to rely on the new forces of the Chinese and Americans.

There are now more than 100,000 Americans, and nearly 10,000 American soldiers arrive in France every month.

The number of Chinese in Qin Zhiyuan's hands is also increasing, although some of them are shunted into the factory, thousands of Chinese still join the army every month, and now Qin Zhiyuan has six divisions in his hands, nearly 100,000 troops, including five infantry divisions and one armored division.

If you add Annan's four divisions, Qin Zhiyuan now has more than 150,000 troops in his hands that can be mobilized.

The judgment of the British and the French on the situation of the war coincided with that of Ludendorff.

In Ludendorff's view, if the war dragged on until the middle of next year, the combined number of Chinese and Americans in France would exceed 500,000.

Although the Americans have never been on the battlefield, the Americans, unlike the British and the French, who have suffered a lot from the war, have almost naïve bravery, they are well fed, warmly clothed, have the best weapons because of the ample logistical support, and after more than a year of training, the Americans do not lack skills.

The Chinese are a huge threat, Qin Zhiyuan has the power to change the situation of the war, and Crown Prince William, known as the "brightest general of the royal family", was defeated in front of Qin Zhiyuan, and ended up with the annihilation of the whole army. Ludendorff's cousin, Oskar von Huttier, was also not well received by Qin Zhiyuan, and he was defeated in the Reims area, and he did not hold his ground until he retreated behind the Aisne.

If Qin Zhiyuan could master a group army in his hands, once Qin Zhiyuan launched an attack, Ludendorff couldn't think of who to send to defend.

According to the customary organization at this time, a group army had about 250,000 people, about 12 to 18 divisions.

According to Ludendorff's calculations, at most by the middle of next year, Qin Zhiyuan will have more than 250,000 troops in his hands, and it is possible that all the troops drawn out of the truce with Russia will be offset at that time.

So the key point is the middle of next year, that is, in June or April 1918.

In Ludendorff's plan, if the war did not end in April 1918, Germany would have better start peace talks with the Allies.

"Forced to negotiate peace", this ending is unacceptable to Ludendorff under any circumstances. Look at Russia, if the Germans were forced to negotiate peace, they would be in a worse position than Russia.

So the German General Staff gave the battle plan for 1918: on the premise that Russia and Italy were no longer a threat, the war must be launched before March next year, preferably in February, and the main target was the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan.

In order to better implement the battle plan, Ludendorff selected a group of young officers from the front line to participate in an eight-day training to learn "Trench Attack Battle", this tactic is Huthier's "storm force" as the core of the combat method, although this tactic failed in Reims, but proved to be successful in Flanders, in the absence of a better option, Ludendorff chose to trust this tactic.

The training was soon extended to four weeks, while Ludendorff brought back the best troops from the Eastern Front, and at the same time drew a group of soldiers under the age of 35 from some of the inferior units to form 42 elite mobile divisions, ready for next year's offensive.

These units were armed with a small number of tanks and self-propelled guns, and were now the ones that Germany had built with all its might.

In Ludendorff's plan, when 1918 came, the Western Front would have 191 divisions and a total strength of 3.5 million men, and the Germans were about to launch a final battle against the Entente.

Just as Ludendorff was sharpening his knife, Qin Zhiyuan finally waited for the Dutch to declare war.

In mid-November, Qin Zhiyuan issued an order for the Umbrella Company to withdraw from Borneo, which of course won the welcome of the Dutch government, but also won the Umbrella Company a month.

During this month, Chinese businessmen who were good friends with Qin Zhiyuan, such as Huang Bohan, Huang Jinsheng, Guo Shenglong and **** Mao, went to the Lion City and Saigon for refuge, while the resources in their hands were transferred to Surabaya.

The local natives and Dutch immigrants in Surabaya also had a bad feeling and moved to Coconut City (Jakarta) and even Palembang.

In fact, when Huang Bohan and they began to mobilize supplies, the Dutch already had a premonition, the Dutch once tried to capture Huang Bohan, but Huang Bohan, who learned of the news, fled to the Lion City (Singapore) one step ahead of time, and then was picked up by Zhang Tianshou to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).

By December, the Umbrella Company had nominally withdrawn all of Borneo, some of them to Saigon and the other to Cam Ranh Bay. But at the same time, the power vacuum in Surabaya fell into chaos, and the local Javanese and Sundanses in Surabaya began to fight each other, and soon, the vendetta spread to the Madura and Malays, as well as other ethnic groups, and Surabaya was in chaos.

In this chaos, the Chinese were not affected because they were protected by the security forces.

Of course, this security force is no longer the security force of the "umbrella" company, but a security force under the "Lanfang Company" composed of local Chinese.

Lanfang Company!

For this name, the Dutch are all too familiar.

The Lanfang Company, also known as the "Duchy of Lanfang", was born in 1777 and was not completely wiped out by the Dutch colonial army until 1888.

To this day, in West Kalimantan, the Lanfang Company still has a large number of supporters, and when the Lanfang Company was established in Surabaya, there were immediately people in Kwandian and Dong Wanlu (Mandor) who responded by establishing the Lanfang Company and establishing security forces to maintain local order.

Maintaining order, which is a symbol of the exercise of power, has always been a forbidden descendant of the Dutch, and no one else will be allowed to interfere.

So the Dutch felt that they could not delay any longer, and began to order the colonial army to go to the Surabaya area to "suppress the rebellion by force", and at the same time devote all their national strength to form an expeditionary force to Borneo and prepare for the suppression by force.

That's right, the Dutch called the "Lanfang Company" established in Surabaya a rebellion, and not only suppressed it by force, but also accused Qin Zhiyuan's "umbrella" company of playing a dishonorable role in the rebellion.

Of course, Qin Zhiyuan would not admit such a thing, and immediately denied it with righteous words, and at the same time, the French Foreign Ministry also condemned the irresponsible remarks of the Dutch.

The Dutch, who had just broken out into the "smuggling scandal", had no friends in the international community at this time, and in the world war in Europe, the Dutch remained neutral because of their lack of desire, and although this attitude did not offend either side, it did not please either side.

At the same time, because the Dutch smuggled copper ore into Germany, the British and French were now extremely dissatisfied with the Dutch, the British requisitioned the Dutch merchant ships, and the French openly provided protection for Huang Bohan in Saigon, which led to the isolation of the Dutch in the international community.

To add insult to injury, the Dutch had just declared war on Lanfang when two of its "Dutch-class" protective cruisers anchored in Coconut City were attacked, one was sunk and the other was severely damaged.

At the same time, after receiving the information that the expeditionary force led by the "Seven Provinces Alliance" had anchored, Qin Zhiyuan returned to Corsica.

At this time, Corsica was in the midst of excitement.

A large part of the Chinese in Corsica came to Europe through Borneo channels, including the immediate family members of Huang Bohan and others, and now that Borneo has started a war with the Dutch, how can these people sit still in Borneo?

(To be continued.) )