Imperial Palace, Berlin, Germany.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff came together to ask for Wilhelm II, "Your Majesty! ”

Wilhelm II pointed to the seat next to him: "Sit down!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty," the two thanked and sat down separately.

Wilhelm II asked, "Two marshals, how are the contacts with the Chinese side going?" What is the attitude of the Chinese side? ”

Hindenburg bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the situation is not optimistic, I wrote a letter to Jiang Fangzhen, chief of the general staff of the Chinese State, and asked someone to send it to him, but the Chinese side refused to negotiate secretly ??????."

Wilhelm II's face fell when he heard this, and his expression was a little downcast, "Is there no other way?" Huaguo is too much of a threat to us! ”

"Yes, now all our domestic forces have been sent to the border to guard against the Chinese army, and we have also been pinned down by 1.2 million people in Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, northwestern Ukraine, etc. If we can draw 500,000 men from Poland to the Western Front, we will have enough troops to launch a counterattack against Britain, France and the United States again! ”

Hindenburg comforted Wilhelm II: "Your Majesty don't worry too much, although we are under a lot of pressure on the eastern and western fronts, but the situation on the side of the Entente is not very good, the Chinese army on the eastern front has indeed caused us a lot of pressure, there is a huge threat, but after all, the Chinese army is an expedition, logistics and transportation is their weakness, their pressure is greater than ours, as long as we defend strictly, it is still very difficult for the Chinese army to break through our army's defense line, and according to the intelligence of the military intelligence department, from all kinds of signs." The Chinese army was not prepared to launch a large-scale attack, and it seems that the Chinese army did not agree to enter into secret negotiations with us. However, it has shown with practical actions that it has no intention of launching an offensive on the Eastern Front at this stage! ”

Ludendorff immediately: "Then can we transfer troops from the east to supplement the western front, and take advantage of the fact that the Chinese army will not attack our army at this stage to quickly concentrate forces to defeat Britain, France, and the United States?" ”

Hindenburg shook his head: "No, no, no. Although the Chinese army has already made a move not to attack us for the time being, we cannot completely trust the Chinese country, let alone transfer the vast majority of the troops on the eastern front to the western front. Therefore, we already have to keep enough troops on the eastern front, and now we have 600,000 troops on the eastern and southeastern borders of our country, and 1.2 million troops in the north. If we want to hold off the Chinese attack in a short time, we need at least 1.2 million troops, and we can draw 600,000 from the north to the western front, and we now have 800,000 people north of the Marne River in France, and 1,000,000 in southeastern France, and if we add 600,000, then we will have 2.4 million in France, and the salient areas in the south and southeast of France are too large, and our forces are too scattered. I propose to withdraw a million south of France to the north of the Seine, so that our line of defense will be reduced and we will not have to worry about a possible attack from Italy. With the number of troops we have in France is not less than the current strength of Britain, France and the United States, and our army is superior to them in terms of combat effectiveness, so we can launch a large-scale counteroffensive! ”

Wilhelm II was somewhat hesitant. Although he did not understand military affairs, he also knew that the threat posed by the Chinese army on the Eastern Front was too great. If there are not enough troops to defend, once the Chinese army enters the territory of Germany. That blow to Germany will be too great, 600,000 people will be transferred from the north, then there will only be 600,000 people left in the north, not only to guard against the two corps of the Chinese army, but also to guard against Soviet Russia, although Soviet Russia has announced its withdrawal from the war, but who knows if the Soviet Russians will not speak?

After thinking for a few minutes, Wilhelm II couldn't help but ask: "There won't be any problems with this, right?" ”

Hindenburg analyzed to Wilhelm II: "Your Majesty don't worry, China needs us to contain Britain and France after the war, they will not kill us all, the Chinese have always been calculating, how can they be willing to let us finish, even if we are defeated, the Chinese will try to let us retain our strength to contain Britain and France!" ”

Wilhelm II, Hindenburg and Ludendorff all only took into account external problems, but not internal factors, as the war prolonged, the economic burden on Germany will become greater and greater, and the economic situation will decline, and even become more and more serious, once there is a big problem in Germany's domestic economy, then the country will not be able to support the front-line operations, which may develop into a situation similar to that of Russia.

After a few minutes, Wilhelm II finally made up his mind: "Okay, just send 600,000 reinforcements from Poland to the Western Front, and it must be done in secret!" ”

Hindenburg and Ludendorff looked at each other as if they were at the same time, and said at the same time: "Yes, thank you for your support!" ”

Hindenburg added: "Your Majesty, I think that in order to confuse Britain, France and the United States, we can build a strong defensive line behind the Marne, and the construction of this strong defensive line requires a lot of manpower and material resources, which can be collected locally in France, and we do not need to spend a penny ourselves, and the bigger the movement, the better, the purpose of this is to confuse Britain, France and the United States on the one hand, so that they think that we will turn to the defense next, and on the other hand, if our army's counteroffensive fails, we can retreat into the built strong defensive line and hold on. Relying on this line of defense to block the British, French, and American armies and prevent them from invading German territory, this line of defense is not for show, but to be really built, and built to be extremely strong, and any protective buildings and facilities must meet the requirements of defensive warfare! ”

After a little thought, Wilhelm II agreed: "Well, you are personally responsible for this matter, and the two of you are responsible for the transfer of troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front to launch a counteroffensive, and you must be well organized and properly commanded, crush the British, French, and American armies, and drive them out of France again!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

So under the auspices of Hindenburg, Germany began to organize manpower and material resources to build a long line of defense north of Marne, behind the current German defense line, after the completion of this line of defense was called the "Hindenburg Line" by the Germans and Western countries, the role of this line of defense in the eyes of later generations, is to prevent British, French and American troops from attacking Germany and built.

At this time, an attendant ran in from outside and reported to Wilhelm II: "Your Majesty, there is news from the navy that the main fleet of our navy and the British fleet, the main force of the combined fleet of the Entente navy, have encountered in the North Sea, and a fierce battle is currently taking place between the two sides!" ”

"What?" Kaiser Wilhelm II stood up in astonishment.

Suddenly hearing this news, Wilhelm II's whole person began to be restless, he walked back and forth in the main hall, walked back and forth a few times, he stopped again, and immediately said: "Quick, give an order to the naval command, immediately order the fleet to withdraw!" ”

The attendant was about to give an order, and Hindenburg stood up and said: "Your Majesty can't, you can't do this, now that you have encountered and fought, you can't withdraw if you want to, the only thing we can do now is to believe in the soldiers in front, Your Majesty will send a telegram to them, encouraging them to fight bravely, only in this way can our army have hope of victory, let them retreat at this time, it is equivalent to sending them to death!" In addition, the sea area where the two sides are engaged is certainly not far from our coastline, and we send air force fighters to bomb the British fleet."

Wilhelm II listened to Hindenburg's reminder and soon realized that he was too anxious and worried, so he said to himself: "Yes, yes, the marshal is right, go and send a telegram to all the admirals in my name, I hope they will fight bravely for Germany!" In addition, an order was given to the Air Force Command to immediately take off land-based fighters to support the naval fleet".

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

At this time, on the surface of the North Sea, the British Royal Navy fleet was engaged in the second large-scale naval battle with the main force of the German naval fleet, to say that the British Navy and the German Navy were really old enemies, the North Sea was so wide, the German Navy did not meet the Chinese naval fleet, nor did it meet the American naval fleet, but it ran into the British Royal Navy fleet, which can only be said to be fate.

Originally, the combined fleet of the Allied Navy was divided into three routes and approached the German mainland on the North Sea, and the German naval fleet was only routinely cruising on the sea, but it did not expect to encounter the British Royal Navy fleet.

The two sides fought extremely fiercely, no one expected to encounter here, the British came prepared, and the Germans did not expect the British to come to the door, but they were not without psychological preparation, the two sides fought in the last Battle of Jutland, each lost more than half, so the hatred is as deep as the sea, this encounter, no one intends to retreat, until the last battleship.

One after another, the battleships were shot, smoking, entering the water, capsizing, and sinking, and plumes of smoke rose from the sea, rising into the sky, and there were many corpses and floating objects floating on the water.

At this time, each side had already asked for help, and a large number of German warplanes had taken off from land and were rushing to the warring waters, and the US fleet and the Chinese fleet had already received the news and were also rushing to the warring waters.

During this time, the British Navy fleet had to face the German Navy fleet and the Luftwaffe aircraft group alone, but at this time, the four seaplane carriers of the Chinese Navy fleet had already taken off 60 warplanes and flew towards the warring waters.

However, when the Chinese carrier-based aircraft group arrived at the warring waters, the German land-based aircraft group was carrying out a large-scale bombardment of the British naval fleet, and the British naval fleet had already lost most of its parts, and only a few of the remaining ships were still intact, and the others were slightly injured to varying degrees.

After the arrival of the Chinese carrier-based aircraft group, it immediately launched an air combat with the German land-based aircraft group, and the number of German fighters was doubled, but at this time there were not many German fighters, most of them were bombers, and only a small part was combat effectiveness, and the number was not much different from the Chinese carrier-based aircraft, and the German fighters had been fighting for a period of time, whether it was the pilot's energy, physical strength or the ammunition of the fighters, which was reflected immediately after the two sides engaged, the German aircraft group quickly retreated, and the Chinese carrier-based aircraft did not pursue, Instead, they strafed the German fleet on the sea, but because of their combat effectiveness, the attack on the ships was not very threatening, and only some of the German fleet's warships were slightly damaged. (To be continued......)