The Second Battle of the Marne was more tragic than everyone imagined, and the German army used the Marne River as a natural defensive line, and deployed 100,000 troops at several key points in the area south of the Marne to block the advance of the British, French and American forces.

Britain, France and the United States did not advance an inch for several days, but lost tens of thousands of horses, which made the British, French and American high-level extremely annoyed, during this period of time, although the coalition forces suffered great losses, but they were repeatedly victorious, where did they allow this kind of thing to happen, immediately issued an order, the coalition troops immediately launched a strong attack, the air force bombarded several important strategic positions of the German army in the south of the Marne, and after several days of continuous bombardment, launched an infantry attack again, which destroyed the German army's will to resist in one fell swoop, The remnants of the German army of more than 60,000 men immediately retreated to the north bank of the Marne.

In order to support the ground forces, the German army again transferred 1,500 fighters from China to participate in the operation, and for a time the air forces of the two sides reached a balance, and Germany's domestic air forces were also withdrawn.

After the German front retreated to the area north of the Marne, the Anglo-French-American forces advanced to the south bank of the Marne and began to build fortifications on the south bank, with both sides building fortifications on both sides of the Marne.

While both sides were working hard to build fortifications, they were constantly using various means of transportation to transport large quantities of weapons, ammunition and other war materials to the banks of the Marne.

On 8 November, the Second Battle of the Marne officially began, with both sides dispatching a large number of warplanes in an attempt to launch a large-scale bombardment of each other's positions in order to destroy the enemy's fortifications and eliminate the enemy's living forces, but the aircraft groups of both sides encountered each other over the Marne. A large-scale air battle ensued.

Beginning on the 8th, dozens of warplanes were shot down over the Marne every day. The lucky pilot landed behind his own position after parachuting, while the unfortunate pilot was abused after being caught behind the opposing side. They may also be shot and killed after being asked for information.

After the air battle, the Luftwaffe and the Allied Air Force would drop a large number of bombs on each other's defense lines from time to time every day, and many of the fortifications on both sides were destroyed, which forced both sides to organize troops to repair the fortifications overnight, and perhaps the fortifications that had just been repaired would be destroyed again after dawn.

The strength of the coalition was more than twice that of the German army, and the coalition forces used 63 divisions, 500 tanks, 2,643 vehicles, 7,672 artillery pieces, and 2,700 aircraft. The German army had 48 divisions, 6,353 artillery pieces, about 2,400 aircraft, . 400 tanks!

On 13 November, the coalition forces concentrated their superior forces and launched a river-crossing attack on the Tripoli section of the Marne. The British, French, and American allied forces that participated in the river-crossing operation were bombarded overwhelmingly, and for a time all the ferries on the Marne River were bombarded, a large number of boats crossing the river were overturned, and countless allied soldiers and officers of the allied forces were overturned and fell into the water, and it was already November, the weather became colder, and the soldiers who fell into the water quickly lost their heat and their limbs stiffened and sank to the bottom. Washed away by the river.

Even the artillery group in the rear of the Allied forces, which was preparing for artillery fire, was heavily bombed by the German air force, and at this time, the Allied air force group also rushed over, and the two sides engaged in a large-scale air battle over the Marne.

German soldiers fired numerous bullets from German positions on the other side of the river, and the Allied attack was stubbornly resisted. After a day's offensive, the coalition forces had to stop their offensive and declared the crossing of the river a failure. All the boats used for the river crossing operation were destroyed by the Germans and wanted to cross the river. There is no other way but to build a bridge over the river with boats. However, the Germans would not obediently allow the Allied forces to easily cross the river and build bridges.

In the following half a month, the British, French, and American coalition forces launched several river crossing operations in a row, but each time they were thwarted by the German army, and after several months of continuous campaigning, not only the German army was extremely tired, but even the British, French, and American forces that had won a series of victories were also exhausted.

The Anglo-French-American counteroffensive that began in August lasted four months, and the total number of troops was sharply reduced from 4.3 million to 2.2 million.

The severe fear and weariness of the army and the inability of the logistical follow-up forced the British, French, and American top brass to order a halt to the offensive and confront the Germans across the river along the Marne.

The capital of Huaguo, the presidential palace.

Jiang Bailimai hurriedly walked into Xiao Zhenlei's office and reported: "President, the war on the Western Front has stopped, and until now, both sides have not been able to fight, the British, French and American coalition forces have lost their previous powerful attack force because of excessive losses, and the war-weariness and fear of war among the soldiers of the army have exploded in large numbers, coupled with the lack of logistics, and the German army has overestimated itself before, and their weakness in weapons and troops has made them lose their previous powerful attacking force. In this battle of the Marne, both sides still suffered heavy losses, the German army was on the defensive, losing 187,000 troops, while the British, French and American forces were the attacking side, although the air force and artillery were superior, but still lost 328,000 people! ”

Xiao Zhenlei took a puff of his cigarette and asked, "Baili, what do you think of Emperor Wilhelm II?" What do you think of him? ”

Jiang Baili didn't understand how Xiao Zhenlei's thinking jumped so far, just now he was talking about the war on the Western Front, but Xiao Zhenlei jumped to ask him about William II's personal evaluation, he couldn't help but answer, after thinking for a while, he said: "In my opinion, William II should be regarded as a war maniac, there is no doubt that he is full of fantasy and is so happy." His ideas are often vacillating by circumstances and current circumstances, and his ideas are radical?????? Germany is at this point, and Wilhelm II should be primarily responsible."

Xiao Zhenlei shook his head and said: "I agree with him that he is full of fantasy, happy achievements, and often vacillating and radical in his ideas, but I don't think these characters are bad." Who hasn't had fantasies? Which emperor doesn't rejoice? I also hope to do more things that are meritorious to the country and the people in my lifetime, and I also care about whether everything I did when I was in office has contributed to the country and the nation, this is human nature, and the emperor is also a human being, and of course he cannot abandon human nature. He is easily agitated, and many thoughts are often swayed by various influences, and this kind of character really shouldn't appear in an emperor. As for blaming Wilhelm II for the current situation in Germany, I think it is unfair, because the outbreak of this world war, his historical role is actually not very important, or even has no influence at all, if the Kaiser is not Wilhelm II, but another person, do you think that this war will not break out? Germany's geographical position determined that if it wanted to expand outward, it would inevitably infringe on the interests of Britain and France, and war would break out sooner or later, even with him and Wilhelm II."

Jiang Baili thought for a while and nodded: "That's right!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette and muttered for a while and said: "Since Britain, France, the United States and Germany can't fight, then it's our turn to appear, send an order to Cai Guodong, our army began to attack on the Eastern Front, we can't let the Germans stop, we can't give the German army a chance to breathe, the German army has plundered a lot of property and strategic materials all over Europe in the past few years, and when they recover their strength, it will become much more difficult to clean them up!" ”

Jiang Baili promised: "Okay, I'll go and send a telegram to Cai Guodong."

At this time, Germany had begun to lose control, in fact, Wilhelm II had gradually lost the power to directly intervene in military and political affairs since two years ago, and Germany had become a military dictatorship, controlled by Hindenburg and Ludendorff. During the war, influenced by frustration and illusions of victory, William's strategy wavered. Despite this, the German emperor remained an important symbol of the country. He was still able to oversee military production, award medals and give speeches to encourage soldiers.

As the supreme ruler and final decision-maker of Germany, Wilhelm II was burdened too much, he did want to make Germany strong, but he never wanted to achieve his goal through such a large-scale war, in fact, before the start of this world war, he wanted to persuade Austria-Hungary to settle the matter peacefully. However, before the Austrian government could hear the Kaiser's opinion, the ministers and generals in the government had already persuaded the eighty-four-year-old Austrian Emperor Franz? Joseph I declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Wilhelm II also expressed his willingness to the British side before the war, hoping that the dispute could be resolved peacefully, but the British side could no longer bear the huge negative impact of a large-scale arms race, and could only solve the problem through war. As a representative of German imperialism, Wilhelm II could influence the situation of the war in some ways, but could not decide whether it would happen or not.

When the Sarajevo assassination unfolded, during Germany's declaration of war on Russia, the Kaiser understood that a great war was about to break out and fought for peace. William communicated with Tsar Nicholas II on July 29, 1914, in an attempt to avoid war. He optimistically interpreted the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia, believing that the Austrian army would only limit the war to that place. However, William's efforts were too late. At the persuasion of his subordinates, he had to order a general mobilization and begin the Schriffen plan. When he signed the general mobilization order, he also told his subordinates, "You will regret it." However, after the declaration of war, he began to firmly support his subordinates, which is what an emperor should do. (To be continued......)