13 January 1915, Berlin, Headquarters of the German Army.

In the thick baroque meeting room, Lieutenant General Su Sanling, the military attache of the Chinese Empire in Germany and the plenipotentiary representative of the General Staff of the German Army in Germany, was waiting for an audience from General Fa Kingham, Chief of Staff of the German Army.

The head of the wartime armed forces of the German army is nominally Kaiser Wilhelm II, but the direct command of the theater has always been to appoint a special person - the commander-in-chief or the theater commander is responsible, and the commander-in-chief and the theater commander are set up under the base camp or theater command, which are divided into various special departments according to the types of combat activities and support, and specifically lead the combat activities of the army and its support. The supreme power within the theater of operations is vested in the commander-in-chief, the commander of the theater, and the rest of the country is exercised by the usual organs of power, while the War Department continues its work, with the aim of fully satisfying the needs of the front.

The organizational system of the strategic command of the German army was that all group armies and theaters were directly subordinate to the Supreme Command.

Before the war, the General Staff Headquarters was responsible for the question of the German army's armed strength and preparation for war, especially how to formulate plans for mobilization, concentration, and deployment, as well as the first batch of campaign tasks, and the General Staff Headquarters in wartime automatically became one of the foundations of the Supreme High Command, and its commander, the Chief of Staff, played a leading role in the General Command.

Su Sanling made a special trip to meet with Chief of Staff Fa Jinhan precisely because he considered that the other side held a pivotal position in the Supreme Command and that the future and fate of the Allied bloc in this war were at stake.

These days, after hearing the successes in the country, Su Sanling couldn't sit still, and he had no choice but to bring a steel division to whip the Ula Mountain, drink the Mavoga River, and carry out the unfinished business of the Asian-Russian War to the end - this hero of the Sino-Japanese War, who was born in the 10th "Golden Lion" Regiment of the Praetorian Guard and won the Order of the White Tiger of the First Class symbolizing the highest spirit of bravery, served as the chief of staff of the reserve army and the chief of staff of the Fourth Army during the Asian-Russian War. The space for oneself to play is too limited, and the war that is too unfinished has always been lingering.

After the outbreak of the European war, the Central European power bloc was completely blocked, and the normal communication between the Central and European alliances was completely interrupted, and the day of returning home was really far away.

The door opened, and in came a general wearing small glasses, his beard raised high to both sides, and his spirit was none other than the chief of staff Fa Jinhan that Su Sanling had seen in the newspaper.

"The military is busy, so you have to wait for a long time." Fa Jinhan politely stretched out his hand to Su Sanling.

Falkingham had a hundred reasons to show full respect for the military representatives of the Chinese Empire, and the entry of the Chinese-led East Asian Alliance into the war gave Germany hope of a final victory.

An alliance with China would mean that Germany would become an enemy of the United States, which would almost certainly strike at the United States in order to relieve the worries of fighting in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

However, the German upper echelons, including Falkingham, agreed that it would take a long time for the American army to deploy a large enough force in Europe, and before that, China and Germany would be able to achieve a decisive victory - defeating Russia and opening the Eurasian land bridge.

The recent series of shocking victories of the East Asian Alliance at Pearl Harbor, Lingayen Bay, and Almaty have strengthened the confidence of the German High Command, or rather, increased their fear.

For example, strange words such as "It seems that the Yellow Peril is completely correct", "We are going to fight side by side with the real devil", "We made a deal with the vicious and cunning wolf", and so on, also spread throughout the command for a while.

However, at present, only China can save Germany from the sea of suffering.

By the end of 1914, the overall comparison of the strength of the two sides in Europe was favorable to the Entente. The Entente had two hundred and thirty-one divisions (twenty-two for England, eighty-three for France, one hundred and eight for Russia, twelve for Serbia, and six for Belgium); The Central European powerhouse bloc was 210 divisions (118 for Germany, 54 for Austria-Hungary and 38 for Turkey).

In fact, in the 1914 war, the German combat units had lost most of their key soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers, and by the beginning of the war in 1915, the German Army, known as the most elite in Europe, was no longer the skeleton it had before the war, and the grassroots combat units were full of new recruits, and many young people who had never touched a gun at all were pushed onto the battlefield after only one or two months of intensive training - it is said that the situation of the Allied armies on the other side was even worse, especially Russia, which had the lowest human and industrial quality among the Entente countries, Often, two or three illiterate soldiers shared a rifle......

However, there is no doubt that the Entente bloc, with its vast territory and colonies, is far superior in human and material resources to the Central European power bloc, and a protracted war will not benefit the latter in any way.

Therefore, for a long time, the German and Austrian High Command never gave up hope for a quick decisive battle and tried its best to find a way to win a decisive victory.

Dressingham, who succeeded Moltke the Younger as Chief of Staff of the German Army after the Battle of the Marne, had also stubbornly believed that a decisive solution to the war should be sought in Western Europe, on the advantage that Britain had not yet fully deployed its forces and that France had been severely weakened by successive engagements in 1914.

The opposition came first from Hindenburg and Ludendorff in the command of Army Group Group Eastern of the German Army, who became famous for the victory at Tannenberg in the encirclement and annihilation of the Russian 2nd Army, and received the full support of German Chancellor Batemann-Holweg and the Austro-Hungarian High Command headed by Konrad. They demanded the destruction of Russia first and an end to the war on the Eastern Front, which would inevitably force Britain and France to make concessions and make them agree to conclude a peace treaty in favor of Germany and Austria.

Their reasoning was that the Russian army, weakened by the huge losses of 1914 and lacking weapons and ammunition, could not be defeated as the British and French armies who had completed the fortification line on the Western Front, and that there was still the possibility of a war of movement on the Eastern Front, where combat operations did not need to begin with the breakthrough of strong positional defenses. In addition, a powerful surprise attack on Russia would prevent a possible Russian invasion of East Prussia, strengthen the position of the Habsburgs, and play a powerful role in the fight for the wavering Balkan states to become Germany's much-needed new allies. At the last stage, the occupation of Russia's relatively rich western regions, such as Poland, Terracotta, and Ukraine, was of irreplaceable significance for expanding Germany's material resources, satisfying the rapidly growing demand for raw materials for German industry, and the food needs of the population.

Falkingham, while agreeing that it was necessary to force one of France and Russia to withdraw from the war in 1915, was skeptical that it would be possible to end the war on the Eastern Front and to obtain concessions from France and Britain even if Russia were to be forced to withdraw from the war. He cited the sad lesson of Napoleon's attack on Russia in 1812, arguing that it was impossible to defeat Russia completely, and that even in its vast territory it would lose the forces necessary to deal with Britain and France.

The determination of the East Asian Alliance to join the war on the side of the Central Powers made Falkingham's attitude suddenly turn a 180-degree turn - Germany was saved!

The East Asian Alliance Standing Army alone had 58 infantry divisions (including 46 Chinese divisions) and 20 cavalry brigades (equivalent to the German cavalry divisions), totaling 1.7 million men, well-trained and well-equipped. After full mobilization, the combat force can reach 130 infantry divisions (including 106 Chinese divisions) and 32 cavalry brigades, with a total strength of more than 3.6 million troops.

The East Asian Alliance also has a naval fleet with a total tonnage and number of dreadnoughts surpassing that of Germany (the total tonnage and number of dreadnoughts of the Chinese Navy is slightly inferior to that of Germany, ranking third in the world), and both the quality of warships and the quality of officers and men are of the world's first-class level.

The industrial production of the East Asian Union is already close to that of Germany in terms of scale and level, and the huge market of the Union countries is even more coveted by Germany, and its vast territory contains rich resources and a huge population of up to 5 or 600 million people that are in no way inferior to the colonial empires of Britain and France.

Although the average quality of the population is low, the adoption of a focused training method is enough to select a considerable number of elites to maintain the structure of a modern state, and since the Asian-Russian War, there is no doubt about the qualifications to compete with the great powers.

From a geopolitical point of view, the East Asian alliance is the most suitable and meaningful ally of the Central European power bloc, with China's participation in the war, Britain and France's Asian colonies will inevitably be attacked or cut off, Britain and France will not be able to draw strength from these colonies and invest them in the European theater, but will strengthen the local defense forces, virtually reducing the pressure on the German army on the Western Front. If Russia were to be attacked by both the East Asian Alliance and the Central European power bloc, its defeat would be certain – the key question would be when it would surrender.

"Military affairs are urgent, and I will make a long story short, on the orders of my country's General Staff, I hope to know the plan of the war situation between your country and Austria in 1915." Su Sanling put down the steaming coffee cup and got straight to the point.

Fa Jinhan hesitated for a moment, the blue eyes behind the small glasses turned left and right, his hands were crossed in front of his slightly bulging belly, and he nodded: "The 15-year battle plan between our army and the Austrian army command has indeed been completed, I don't know if the 15-year war situation plan between your army and the armies of other countries in the East Asian Alliance is confirmed?" ”

Su Sanling scolded in his heart: "This old man still wants to test us first, and when he talks about ghosts, he is really different from the iron pimple head of ordinary Germans." ”

However, he had to respond politely: "The plan for the war situation of our East Asian Alliance was finalized as early as the end of last year, and some of the contents were also reported to your country, so Your Excellency should know something." ”

"I just want to confirm it as soon as possible, hoping to hear from you in person to tell me the full content." Falkingham smiled kindly.

This damn old man......