After the Germans were unable to capture Verdun in 1914 and shifted the direction of their attack, the French considered the fortress of Verdun to be obsolete, and Xia Fei stopped strengthening the fortress in 1915. At this time, the movement of the German army towards Cimbène made Xia Fei extremely vigilant, and he believed that the German army would attack Chambéni and march to Paris from here. The Germans were continuing to quietly gather forces in the direction of Verdun. As the signs of the assembly became apparent and exposed, the Anglo-French forces finally figured out the true intentions of the German army. Xia Fei panicked and quickly ordered more troops to Verdun. But by February 21, only two divisions had reached Verdun. And on this day, the Germans began to attack Verdun. The German artillery regiment bombarded the fortress of Verdun with heavy artillery fire, and then launched a charge. The prelude to the Battle of Verdun began. The 1,000 cannons of the German army bombarded like thunder, and the charges rose higher and higher. The commander of the fortress of Verdun, Pétain, commanded the defenders and the troops that came in to put up a desperate resistance. However, since only two divisions of reinforcements arrived, plus his own two divisions, there were only four divisions in total, and the Germans advanced 6 kilometers on the first day. But he finally stabilized his position.

The battle was hard for the French. The Germans had 27 divisions and 1,000 artillery pieces, while the French had only 110,000 men and 270 artillery pieces. But it managed to withstand the German attack. When French reinforcements arrived, a tug-of-war began. The Germans did not take Verdun in one fell swoop the day before, they had already lost their fighters, and both sides were increasing their troops to Verdun and set up a decisive battle formation. By April, the French were on par with the Germans. The Germans were in a hurry, enlisted by the crown prince himself, and used gas bombs and tanks. However, the French still stopped the German offensive in front of the fortress again and again. In July, the Germans launched their last offensive climax, but they were still held back by the French, and by the autumn the French army began a counteroffensive.

In the Battle of Verdun, Germany and France invested nearly 2 million troops, and the total number of casualties reached more than 1 million. The Germans were exhausted in this campaign. After the start of the French counteroffensive. Large tracts of land east of Verdun were regained one after another, and the Germans were defeated one after another. This battle was a typical positional war and a war of attrition. Both sides participated in the battle with a large number of troops and heavy casualties. The French army lost 543,000 men, and the German army lost 433,000 men, so this battle was called the "meat grinder".

In the spring of 1916, at the request of the French side, the Russian army mobilized 2 million troops from three fronts to launch an attack on Germany and Austria. In a fierce battle, with each side losing 1 million troops each, the Russian army took advantage of the victory to occupy the eastern part of Galicia and again reached the Carpathian foothills. The Russian victory on the Southwestern Front spurred Romania into the war, and Romania declared war on the Allies in August. The German-Austrian army gradually decided to attack Romania in order to obtain oil and food resources. Under the joint offensive of the German-Austrian troops. The Romanian capital of Bucharest fell, and most of the country was occupied by German and Austrian troops.

Rewind to the beginning of 1916, the Battle of Verdun had just begun. Ren Chao convened an emergency imperial meeting in the Qianqing Palace.

"The Germans have lost the opportunity to capture the fortress of Verdun in one fell swoop. The Anglo-French forces were soon able to draw troops from other theaters to support Verdun, so that the Battle of Verdun changed from a sneak attack to a positional war and a war of attrition. In my opinion, the Germans may not be able to capture the fortress of Verdun. Ren Chao said with a frown. After all, France is such a big place, and with the convenient transportation conditions in Europe, it will not take much time to draw troops from other battlefields to support Verdun. Not to mention that Ren Chao knew the outcome of the Battle of Verdun in later generations. Even if you don't know, you can basically judge that the Germans will definitely not be able to reap the benefits of this battle.

"Then in the sense of His Majesty, the Germans are already bound to lose this battle?" Yang Jichang asked cautiously.

"It's not just this battle, it's this war. If this continued, the Germans had no chance of winning. Originally, the German-Austrian alliance was at a certain disadvantage. And now, as a result of the war, the economies of Britain, France, Germany, Austria and other countries have been greatly affected, and simply because of the large number of workers who have been conscripted into the army, the industry of the European powers has been hit no less. Britain and France were better, they could get through the vast colonies. For a constant supply of all kinds of supplies, but what about the Germans and Austria-Hungary? Not to mention that they didn't have many colonies in the first place, and now the Entente side had a firm grasp of the sea dominance. The support that the Allies received from overseas was really limited. If this continues to be consumed, do you think the Germans still have a chance to win? Ren Chao asked with a stern face.

"What His Majesty said is very true, if Germany is defeated, there will be no benefit to my Chinese Empire, and Weichen thinks that our Chinese Empire can already participate in the war!" Yang Jichang said respectfully.

"At the beginning of the outbreak of the European War, someone once asked me which side my Chinese Empire should participate in. At that time, I once said that which side we participate in is not based on which side is stronger, but on which side we join, and we can obtain greater benefits. Obviously, if we join the side of the Entente, the benefits that our Chinese Empire can obtain are very limited. The other is true for the side that joins the Central Powers, once defeated, we will gain huge benefits, at least the colonies of Britain and France in the South Seas and even South Asia and Africa will be included in the sphere of influence of our Chinese Empire, and at the same time, we can completely subvert the hegemony of Britain. Based on the current form, I think it's time for our Huaxia Empire to show our attitude. The rise and fall of China is in this battle, and I hope that Zhuqing and hundreds of millions of people can work together with me to defeat strong enemies and rebuild the prosperity of our Celestial Empire! Ren Chao stood up and said with a stern face.

"Ministers obey the order, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" The ministers responded in unison.

On March 1, 1916, under the pretext that two Chinese were killed in Jakarta, the Chinese Empire sent warships to blockade the port of Jakarta. He demanded that the Dutch colonial authorities hand over the perpetrators, compensate for the damages, and claim the right to garrison troops in Jakarta and other places under the pretext of protecting overseas Chinese. Under pressure from the Dutch colonial authorities, the Chinese Empire was forced to promise to punish the murderers and compensate for the damages, but refused to allow the Chinese Empire to send garrisons to Jakarta and other places.

The Chinese Empire then used this as an excuse to declare war on the Netherlands, and the Second Squadron of the South China Sea Fleet of the Chinese Empire immediately launched an attack on the Dutch fleet in Indonesia. In less than two hours, the Dutch fleet was successfully annihilated.

On 3 March, the army of the Republic of Lanfang, with the assistance of the Chinese Imperial Army, launched a fierce attack on the Dutch garrison on Kalimantan, capturing all the Dutch territory on Kalimantan in less than a month. So far, except for the northern part of Kalimantan, which belongs to the United Kingdom, the entire Kalimantan Island has fallen into the hands of China.

On 5 March, the 1st Marine Division of the South China Sea Fleet successfully landed in Jakarta, followed by two infantry divisions that also landed on Java Island, and quickly occupied the entire island of Java and launched an attack on Sumatra. At the same time, the Philippines, as a vassal state of China, declared war on the Netherlands, and at the same time sent troops to attack Dutch Indonesia, and quickly occupied Sulawesi and other places. (To be continued......)