"Your Excellency Moltke, are you really sure that the First Army will be able to guarantee its safety by exposing its flanks to the defenders of Paris?" Qingying stared at Moltke's bloodshot tired eyes, and asked in an extremely rare solemn tone.

Moltke opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something upbeat for himself; However, when the words came to his mouth, the strong worry that always lingered in his heart made his tongue feel like a knot. After being silent for a long time, Moltke finally said slowly: "I'm not sure." However, this is the only option we can make at the moment. If the French army was not encircled, the war on the Western Front would never end. ”

"But your Excellency Moltke, you also know in your heart that the French are not in a hurry to retreat, as the rest of the army thinks!" Qing Ying's voice suddenly rose an octave, and it was as clear as the bell bell ringing in the empty room, "From the beginning of the war to today, the total number of French prisoners captured by our army on the entire Western Front is not as large as the Russian prisoners captured by General Hindenburg in the battle of Tannenberg, can it be said that we have achieved a decisive victory?" The front-line generals after the frontier battles have always focused only on the situation in front of them, they only know how many kilometers their army has advanced, how far they are from Paris, and no one has ever had any consideration for danger in times of peace like Your Excellency Moltke. The fact that General Crook dared to make such a sudden turn must have been made on the assumption that 'the fleeing French had no longer posed any threat,' and this was completely different from your initial judgment! ”

Little Moltke looked at the young man in front of him in a daze, and it was hard to hide the look of disbelief in his eyes. He originally thought that the crown prince in front of him was leading the army alone because of his age and status. It should be the most fanatical and greedy master; But who would have thought. He was able to do it after a great victory in the Battle of the Border. Still keep a very clear head!

"A day earlier, there had been an additional French unit of the army and a half in front of me, and there was a constant stream of trains to Paris, which was clearly the case with the troops. It follows from this that the resistance of the French is far from being extinguished, and that what we have achieved is a success rather than a complete victory. ”

Qingying stared into Moltke's eyes and continued to tell all his inner thoughts: "In addition, I am also quite worried about the combat effectiveness of the soldiers in the current right-wing cluster. From May 13th. The three armies on the right flank were always in a state of rapid marching, and the outermost Crook Army was the farthest march. After 17 days of continuous marching, the soldiers are in a worrying state in terms of physical strength and logistical provisions, which has been fully demonstrated in previous exercises. In the recently concluded Battle of Tannenberg, General Hindenburg was able to achieve such a brilliant victory, in large part precisely because the rapid advance of the Russian Second Army was beyond the reach of the logistical supply lines, and its soldiers were exhausted by the continuous march. ”

"Then what are you going to do, Your Highness, to let the Crook Army continue to attack Paris as originally planned?" Little Moltke's brows furrowed slightly, and he said, "But this plan can't effectively annihilate the vitality of the French army. It is also difficult to help the current war situation. Pinning the hope that the French would surrender after the fall of Paris was in itself an unwise choice to leave the fortunes of the country entirely to someone else; If the French choose to continue the struggle. Paris, like Longvi, Compinan, Le Cato, etc., has become synonymous with an ordinary city, which has no meaning to us. ”

Qingying smiled slightly and said, "Your Excellency Moltke, General Crook chose to turn to the southeast, and its core purpose is to encircle and annihilate the main force of the French army. Why, then, should we use the First Army, which had become a tired division, to carry out this task at the risk of being attacked on the flanks by the defenders of Paris? ”

Little Moltke's gray-brown eyes bloomed, his pupils contracted suddenly, and he blurted out: "Your Highness, do you mean to abandon the right-wing outflanking strategy in Schlieffen's plan and instead break through the encirclement from the middle lane?" ”

"His Excellency Moltke is indeed wise and wise, and he has an insight into the essence of it in an instant!" Qingying smiled slightly, then walked to the huge theater map hanging on the wall and said to Moltke Jr., "In the battle of the Ardennes foothills, the French Third Army lost two-thirds of its strength; Although they were supported by another army and a half, it was still a full half of the previous lineup. A day earlier, our troops had conquered the fortified positions of Verdun and had established several bridgeheads on the west bank of the Maas, so to speak, the door to the heart of France had been completely opened to our troops. If we can concentrate our forces on breaking through here, and if we have another Schlieffen flank sweep, then whether it is to encircle the Marne to the west, or to cut off the enemy's return in front of Alsace to the east, it will be an effective means of encircling and outflanking the French. ”

Moltke Jr. stared at the battle map on the wall, the light in his eyes gradually brightened, and muttered, "Not bad." Compared with the 1st and 2nd Group Armies in the outer circle of the right flank, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Group Armies marched far less than the periphery, maintained the most intact combat effectiveness, and made breakthroughs with more strength than the troops in the outer ring. And as long as the rest of the army groups can guarantee the pressure on the enemy in front of them, this large army that breaks through from the middle does not have to worry about the threat of being attacked on the flanks, and the risk of implementing this strategy is much smaller than the huge risk of letting Crook pass through the east of Paris! Moltke muttered to and fro a few times, as if he were talking to himself in a plan; However, his hands were clenched into fists, and the light in his eyes was unprecedentedly blazing!

Looking at the little Moltke beside him, Qingying couldn't help but quietly breathe a sigh of relief in her heart, and at the same time felt sincerely happy for the little Moltke's timely precipice rein. Unlike the attitude of many military fans in later generations, Qingying has never had any contempt for little Moltke.

Admittedly, the general, who had become chief of the General Staff on the basis of his ancestral fame and close ties with the Kaiser, had many shortcomings: he was too melancholy and not strong-willed, both of which had accompanied him throughout his decades-long military career, so much so that he was always suffering from gains and losses in the formulation of battle plans, and lacked the necessary self-confidence in himself. However, as the nephew of Marshal Moltke, Moltke Jr., who was close to the water, also received the most complete military education, and was extremely deeply tempered and tempered during his thirty years of working life in the General Staff. In terms of professionalism, he is fully qualified for the post of chief of the General Staff.

In addition, Moltke's unique personality also made him more suitable to take charge of the German Army than Falkenhein, who succeeded him in history. Since the second decade of the 20th century, Germany's land war machine has become strong enough that the extremely inflated Prussian army can even face the two land powers, France and Russia, without falling behind; Under these circumstances, the German Army's way of winning had shifted from a gamble of hard work to a steady victory to maintain an advantage, and this was precisely Moltke's specialty. Worried about his fate, Moltke was never blindfolded by confidence like Xia Fei; He sees things as substance rather than illusion, and he bears a striking resemblance to the ousted commander of the French Fifth Army, Lonle Zack. In the current carnival of victory of the German army, in addition to Qingying, who is a traverser, there is almost only Moltke who can understand the crisis contained in the current situation!

In fact, on the eve of the Battle of the Marne on another plane, Moltke Jr. had already sensed the hints of an imminent French counteroffensive. He immediately ordered the 1st and 2nd armies on the right flank to go on the defensive, focusing on an attack on his flank from the direction of Paris. However, this correct and wise order, which could save the situation, was considered "insane" by Falkenhein, who was about to succeed Moltke as chief of the General Staff; In his opinion, stopping the advance at a time when victory was within easy reach was a decision that would have been unimaginable in any case. "Only one thing is clear," Falkenhain wrote in his diary for that day, "and that is that our General Staff is completely dazed, and that Moltsch is exhausted." And Crook, who was far away on the front line, also held the same opinion, and insisted on disobeying the order; By the time he realized that the French were playing for real, it was all night.

The stars are shining, and the moon is in the middle of the sky. Moltke summoned Stein back, and the three gathered around the map to discuss it in detail. After much weighing, Moltke Jr. soon gave a new order.

On the right flank, Moltke the Younger retained the order he had just given to allow Crook to turn southeast, but added an additional directive: the vanguard of the First Army must not cross the Petit Moran, south of the Marne, and to defend the right flank against possible attacks from the defenders of Paris. The reason why Moltke did this was completely due to Qingying's analysis. Thanks to Gallieni's unremitting efforts, the current Paris has been turned into a large barracks: if Crook kept his original route and collided with it head-on, it would not only be difficult to capture it, but in the process of attacking, it would have to pay a terrible price in front of the French fortifications. Therefore, instead of attrition with a high battle loss ratio with the French under the fortified city of Paris, it is better to take the initiative to expose the flanks in front of the defenders of Paris and lure them to attack. As a result, the offensive and defensive postures of the two sides changed abruptly, which was undoubtedly a very good situation for the First Army, which had long been exhausted and unable to attack.

In the center, the Fourth Army, commanded by the Duke of Württemberg, broke away from the Third Army and joined up with the Fifth Army to break through in full force from the center. After that, the two German armies split into two routes: the Qing Ying army rushed to the southeast, and together with the Sixth and Seventh armies in front of Alsace, they formed an encirclement of the French First and Second Armies; The headquarters of the Duke of Württemberg turned southwest and surrounded the French army on the right flank.

A war that is completely different from history has begun. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of the book friend howardhui, Tianxia Langqing, Shaojiang, and February 30 Jie Shu, as well as the reward of February 30 Jie Shu and zhouyu1976~~~