Chapter 540: The War Begins
At the same time that North America, the Confederacy, and the West America were sorting out their internal affairs, the division of the assets of the former Federation was also rapidly unfolding, and the first priority was the division of the naval and land forces, and the British were already impatient, and if they wanted to work with France and Russia at sea, they must rush before the Baltic Sea coastal ports were frozen, otherwise the six German battleships would be freed up, and the advantage of the 27 capital ships of Britain and France alone would not be big enough.
Now that 200,000 British troops had withdrawn to the mainland in batches, and Emperor Yang's Helgoland Bay mine map had been transported from Peking to Kuwait by airship, where it was then sent to Britain by a Chinese cruiser, the retreat of the British troops in Italy was still going on, and in order to prevent accidents, it was necessary to fill the vacancy.
At the urging of the British boss, the division of the former US naval and land forces was carried out as quickly as possible, because China and the surrounding countries had made security commitments, so the three countries at the same time recalled their own soldiers who served in the former federal armies, and sealed all weapons in their stations. However, the recalled soldiers did not go home, but gathered at their designated places, the Confederacy and West America were naturally not in a hurry, but North America reorganized the recalled army soldiers in the shortest possible time, and before the arms were counted and divided, they directly pulled guns from the arsenal to arm them, and then announced that they would join the Entente and declare war on the Central Powers, and then load these soldiers onto merchant ships and be escorted directly to Italy by British warships.
When the first American troops landed in Naples, it was already the end of October, and the arrival of these reinforcements finally relieved the British, although there were only 50,000 men, and after a long sea voyage, they had to go through a period of recovery, and it was impossible to go into battle immediately, but it was enough to frighten the half-hearted Italians.
In fact, after the partition, there were only 300,000 troops in North America, but the capitalists had already begun to mobilize on a large scale. And promised the British that at least a million land forces could be thrown into Europe.
Of course, the British did not count on them, as far as the domestic situation in North America is now in chaos, by the time they mobilized a million people to the European side, the war would have long been over, and the mine map of the Helgoland Bay had been sent to London, and this top-secret layout map stunned all the British naval commanders, and they really couldn't imagine how the Chinese could get such top-secret information about the life and death of Germany.
But this does not need their attention, there is such a information, the Helgoland Bay has actually opened its doors to the British Navy, and the next thing is to solve the high seas fleet. They would be able to sail into the mouth of the Elbe like the mouth of the Thames, the port of Hamburg like in London, and then hundreds of thousands of British troops would plunge like sharp knives into the heart of Germany.
The entire Entente was inspired by this mine map, and France, including France and Russia, immediately went to full cooperation with the British landing, and the four capital ships of the French Navy gave up their escort work in the Mediterranean Sea and went north from the Strait of Gibraltar to the English Channel. In any case, the supplies could be disembarked in the western ports of France and transported by rail to Italy, even if the two Greek battleships cut off the sea transportation in the western Mediterranean, and as for the safety of the southern coast of France, it was impossible for those two battleships to force their way into the port of Marseille. However, the departure of the four Lone Class was still chosen at night, after all, it was not good to let the Germans know that it was not good to be alert.
At the same time, the Russian Baltic Fleet, four Swedish Gangut-class high-speed battleships, and two self-built Queen Maria-class battleships, which could be said to have not fired a single shot during the entire four-year war, all sailed out of the Kronstadt military port. This was then known to the German side. The First Detachment of the High Seas Fleet immediately became nervous, of course, they were not worried that these six battleships would pose a threat to the German mainland, all Baltic coastal ports were blocked by mines, and the battleships were suicidal. But the problem is that the Russians can intercept at sea merchant ships sailing from Sweden to Germany, which is the main lifeline of Germany at the moment, the real lifeline.
Until now for Germany. The most important war materials were no longer industrial products such as munitions, steel, and crude oil, but grain, and the merchant ships that sailed from the Confederacy and Mexico were all shipped to Sweden under the banner of exporting to Sweden, and then resold by German and Swedish merchant ships to Germany. This is the main reason why William has to maintain a strong enough fleet in the Baltic Sea that once the Russian Baltic Fleet cuts off this transport line, his soldiers and people will starve.
The First Squadron, led by Vice Admiral Holzendorf, set sail at once, and in order to quickly deal with the two battlefields of the East and the West, the main force of his fleet had been replaced by five fast battleships and one battle cruiser, and these six battleships left the port of Kiel with a group of escorted cruisers and destroyers, and headed east to meet the Russian fleet in the calm Baltic Sea.
At this time, neither William nor his Chief of the Army General Staff Schlieffen and Chief of the Navy General Staff Tirpitz had the slightest idea that in the major ports of Great Britain, hundreds of British battleships, landing ships and troop transports, including twenty-three capital ships, were being activated. For this landing, the British used a sea force at their disposal, and thirty-two landing ships were to carry two carefully selected elite infantry divisions to raid and occupy Cuxport after grabbing the beach on the German coast, and then the troop carriers of all sizes loaded with two armies began to land at this port.
At the same time, the British troops who landed first went straight to Hamburg along the railway in trucks transported by ro-ro ships, and the British army continued to attack Hamburg and Bremen in the other part after the landing. In such a near-surprise situation, the Germans simply did not have time to react, and the only defensive forces they could use were a corps deployed in the Netherlands and an army group of the Dutch, which could not have arrived in a short time. If nothing else, the British army can definitely occupy these two important ports almost bloodlessly, as long as Hamburg and Bremen are in hand, basically there is no need for Germany to continue this war, and when the news of China's entry into the war reaches Europe, they will only have the only way to choose to surrender.
Of course, before this, the British home fleet and the French fleet must first solve the thirteen German capital ships in Wilhelmshamn, but this problem is very simple, twenty-seven against thirteen, no matter how such a naval battle is fought, it will be won.
"The war can finally be over!" In the Prime Minister's Office in London, British Prime Minister Sir Bannerman looked at the night sky outside the window and said with a relieved face, as if there were countless scenes of British people cheering for victory in the bright sunshine in front of his eyes, and after four years, this exhausting war was finally over.
"The war has finally begun." In the General Staff of the Chinese Army in Beijing, Emperor Yang, who was sitting on a chair with a scepter and tea, looked at the generals in front of him who were busy deploying troops and sending generals, and said with the same satisfaction on his face.
Whenever Britain occupied Hamburg, China entered the war.
Only in this way can he ensure that after China joins the Central Powers, the Entente still has hope of fighting, otherwise as soon as war is declared on his side, what if Britain, France and Russia immediately sue for peace? Germany and Austria will definitely not be able to ask for it, even if China wants to fight them at that time, they will not wait, maybe they can see their ambitions if they are in a hurry, in case they force the Entente and the Central Powers together to resist their own Huang Huoo, it will be troublesome.
That's why he was planning to let the British take Hamburg, the city is only more than 200 kilometers away from Berlin, and now Germany is empty, the British will never be able to resist the temptation to seize Berlin, even if China enters the war, they still have a chance to turn the tables if they capture Berlin. Because the occupation of Berlin can force Germany to surrender before the Chinese army reinforcements arrive in Europe, and when the time comes, it will be nothing more than to give William more favorable conditions, and it will reach that point, William will not mind selling China half-push and half-sell. If Germany surrenders to other Austria-Hungary and other countries, it will be impossible to fight anymore, and these guys are not fools, so that the Entente can free up their hands to resist China with all their might.
At that time, the Entente bloc added up to more than 10 million troops, not to mention fighting, even if it scared China back, at least in Yang Feng's mind, if he was in the position of the Entente at that time, he would definitely do so.
"It's up to the Germans to keep their capital." Li Yuncong looked at the map with a look of wisdom unique to a person like him and said, His Excellency the Chief of the General Staff of the Army naturally understands the full set of strategies of His Majesty the Emperor.
"What's the matter if he can't keep it? It's nothing more than us taking on the Entente alone, don't you think you can't do it alone? 10 million army is not enough, then 20 million, we have 500 million people, 50 million reserves, the world's largest military industrial system, not to mention a small Europe, even the world is enough. Emperor Yang said lightly.
He really doesn't care about this, it's naturally good that William can hold Berlin, and then the Ottoman Empire joins the war, and China sends him another 500,000 reinforcements, so that the war in Europe can continue, until China occupies the whole of Asia, and then crushes Europe with a huge army, if he can't hold Berlin, it's a big deal for this emperor to find a wartime companion to continue to resist, just like the bald guy in the original history, even if he just can't hold on to surrender, or let his uncle catch and spank, It is nothing more than China itself pushing Europe.
Just like the emperor himself said, it's not that he can't push it. (To be continued......)