The Entente and the Allied Powers combined 6 countries, in the war between the Eight-Nation Alliance and Lin Daxin a few years ago, all lost more or less, relatively speaking, the 3 countries of the Entente lost more, but as the Allied Powers, it is impossible to forget the defeat, and they also have a lot of hatred for Lin Daxin and the Chinese Empire he established, and they will never let go of the Chinese Empire if they have the opportunity.

However, although the Entente and the Allies both longed for Lin Daxin's death, there were also irreconcilable contradictions between the two sides, such as Franco-German contradictions, Russian-Austrian contradictions, Anglo-German contradictions, and Italian and French contradictions, and a lot of them, and with the intensification of the military competition between the two sides in recent years, the relations between the two sides have become more and more tense, and it is basically impossible for the Entente and the Allied countries to join hands to wage war against the Chinese Empire as they did a few years ago.

In this way, the relationship between the Chinese Empire, Britain, France, and Russia of the Entente Powers, and Germany, Italy, and Austria of the Allied Powers became very delicate, forming a situation of mutual restraint and containment.

However, with the development of military strength by the Entente and the Central Powers at any cost in the past few years, the increasingly fierce arms race has made Britain and Germany, the most economically powerful, to the point of unsustainability, and the whole of Europe is like a powder keg.

Regarding Japan's accession to the Entente, the British and French pinned their hopes on increasing the strength of the Entente, but they did not want to be dragged into the water by the Japanese, so they started discussions with the Japanese, and demanded that the Japanese, like the Russians, promise not to provoke a war with the Chinese Empire, otherwise Britain and France have the right not to assume the obligations of allies of the Entente. Declare war on the Chinese Empire.

The purpose of the Japanese in hoping to join the Entente was to find a few allies to back up. After the war with the Chinese Empire, there are three powerful allies of Britain, France and Russia standing by their side. The joint launch of an attack on the Chinese Empire, and now Britain and France could not agree to such a demand, so the matter of Japan's entry into the Entente fell into a temporary stalemate.

After the news of Japan's application to join the Entente spread around the world, the Chinese Empire did not have a big reaction to this matter, and Japan had been aided by loans from Britain and France for many years, and for the Chinese Empire, Japan and the Entente had long been wearing a pair of pants. In the filing cabinet of the Ministry of Defense of the Chinese Empire, there was already a battle plan for facing Britain, France, Russia and Japan at the same time.

However, the Allies knew that Japan was going to apply to join the Entente, but they felt that it was not so good, and the military strength of the three Allied countries was much weaker than that of the three Allied countries, and now the Entente has pulled in a Japan, which ranks sixth in the world in terms of army and navy, and this is not a further comparison of the strength of the Entente and the Allied Powers!

In the Imperial Palace in Berlin, Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II summoned Prime Minister Hohenlohe, Chief of the Army General Staff Schlieffen, and Admiral Tirpitz.

German Emperor Wilhelm II took a piece of paper in his hand, frowned and said: "There is already definite information. What do you think about the fact that Japan has submitted an application to the Entente to join the evil Entente? ”

Prime Minister Hohenlohe, Chief of the Army Staff Schlieffen, and Admiral Tirpitz were already aware of the news, and knew that Wilhelm II would summon them to the palace to discuss the matter. This was not surprising, so as soon as they heard Wilhelm II's questioning, Prime Minister Hohenlohe was the first to say: "Your Majesty. After the Japanese offered to join the Entente, the British and French were afraid of setting themselves on fire. Dragged into the war with the Chinese Empire by the Japanese, Japan is now being asked to promise not to provoke the Chinese Empire. Otherwise, Britain and France would not have agreed to Japan's entry into the Entente, and the minister believed that in this way, Japan's chances of joining the Entente would be much smaller, after all, everyone could see the real purpose of the Japanese to join the Entente. ”

Schlieffen, Chief of the Army General Staff, continued: "If the British and the French do not insist on this, it would be better for Japan to join the Entente, in which case Japan is likely to drag the whole of the Entente into the quagmire of war with the Chinese Empire, which will be a very wonderful thing for us in Germany and for the Allies." ”

Admiral Minister Tirpitz said with a worried look on his face: "If Japan agrees to the demands of Britain and France, and Japan no longer provokes the Chinese Empire, and provokes the emperor of the Chinese Empire, Lin Daxin, then Japan, which has a very strong navy and army, has joined the Entente. ”

German Emperor Wilhelm II nodded and said: "Therefore, regardless of whether Japan finally joins the Entente or not, it is the most important thing to strengthen the strength of our allies themselves, and this is also the main purpose of coming to you today." ”

The Chief of the Army General Staff, Schlieffen, asked thoughtfully: "What Your Majesty said is that we are also looking for other allies to join our allies?" ”

Before Wilhelm II could speak, Prime Minister Hohenlohe next to him smiled and said: "The Ottoman Turkish Empire has made great progress in joining our allies, if nothing else, the three countries of our allies will become four countries in the near future." ”

At its peak, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was influential in Europe, Asia and Africa, with most of southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in the east, Austria and Slovenia in the north, and Sudan and Yemen in the south.

The Ottoman Turks originally lived in the Amu Darya River valley in Central Asia, and belonged to the descendants of the Western Turkic Oghuz people. In the 14th century, the Mongols began to expand westward, forcing them to migrate. Initially, they attached themselves to the Sultanate of Rum, founded by the Seljuk Turks, and were given a fief on the banks of the Sakarya River, adjacent to the Byzantine Empire. In 1299, the Ottoman Turks took advantage of the breakup of the Sultanate of Rum and officially declared their independence, laying the foundation for the Ottoman state and annexing most of the Sultanate of Rum.

In 1331, the Ottoman Turks defeated the Eastern Roman Empire and captured the city of Nicaea. and moved the capital here. This was followed by the capture of the Gallipoli Peninsula, the capture of Edirne, and then the conquest of Western Thrace, Macedonia, Sofia, Thessaloniki, and all of northern Greece, forcing Bulgarian and Serbian rulers to pay tribute.

In 1389, the Ottoman Turks defeated the combined forces of Serbia, Bulgaria, and Hungary at the Battle of Kosovo. This victory shook the rulers of the European countries. European countries in order to save the Byzantine Empire. Reinforcements were sent. However, in the Battle of Nicoburg in 1396, the Ottoman Turkish Empire defeated the coalition forces of Hungary, France, Germany and other countries in one fell swoop. Nearly 10,000 crusaders were captured, and almost all of them were killed, except for 300 noble knights who were ransomed with huge sums of money. From then on, Europeans could only watch as the Ottoman Turkish Empire expanded, and the Byzantine Empire was in danger.

In 1453, the Ottoman Empire's 80,000-strong army attacked Constantinople and fought for 53 days to conquer the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which was subsequently moved there. The Byzantine Empire, that is, the Eastern Roman Empire, fell. After the Ottoman Empire changed the name of Constantinople to Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion, expanding its territory into Europe and North Africa, reaching its peak in the 17th century.

At its peak, the Ottoman Empire was subjugated to everything from the stubborn Balkan mountain peoples to the aggressive Berbers, and the Ottoman Empire intimidated every corner of Europe with its overwhelming presence. But while post-Industrial Revolution European science and technology were advancing on a breaking ground, the Ottoman Turks were content to keep their agriculture, industry, and transportation at the level of their ancestors in the Middle Ages. Even their armies are just running behind the advanced technology of their European enemies. As a result, the inevitable Ottoman Turkish Empire entered a period of decline, losing wars with Russia, Austria, Britain and other European countries, becoming the "sick man of Europe" and losing its vast territory.

However, the Ottoman Turkish Empire still has Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Cyprus in the future. and Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea coast of western Yemen, which remain considerably large.

And emaciated camels are bigger than horses, the Ottoman Turkish Empire a few years ago. The Young Turks, formed by reformists of Turkish origin, rose up to power several years before they took power. Historically, it was only in July of this year that the Young Turks took power. After the party came to power, it changed the monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. At the same time, a series of reforms were carried out in various aspects of the empire, and although they did not touch the foundations of imperial rule, the party's reforms achieved some results.

At present, the standing army of the Ottoman Turkish Empire has reached 950,000 troops, ranking eighth among the world's armies in terms of strength.

Although the army equipment of the Ottoman Turkish Empire is not very advanced, and it is not equipped with a large number of tanks and other new weapons and equipment, but in any case, it is also a modern army, and it is not weaker than the Russian army in light weapons.

The navy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire is not weak, affected by the naval arms race of the world, the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Italy customized 2 Dante-class dreadnought battleships have entered the sequence of the navy, plus the warships purchased from Germany, Britain, France and other countries, the navy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire has been ranked thirteenth in the world navy according to the displacement calculation, in front of it are the Chilean Navy ranked tenth, the Spanish Navy ranked eleventh, The Argentine Navy in twelfth place.

As for the air force of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, it is negligible, with only a dozen fighters imported from foreign countries, almost all of which are obsolete models from various countries, and their performance is far behind the aircraft that the air forces of Britain, France, and Germany are now equipped with.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire was willing to join the Central Powers in large part because of the fact that 10 Russo-Turkish wars had already been waged. From the 17th century to the 19th century, Russia and the Ottoman Turkish Empire fought a series of wars for the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Crimea, the Black Sea, etc., of which there were 10 important ones, and the wars were intermittent for a total of 241 years, with an average of less than 19 years There was a large-scale war, which was the longest war series in European history, and Austria, Britain, France, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and other countries also participated in it.

As a result of the Russo-Turkish War, a large part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire was occupied by Russia, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire can be said to have been thinking about revenge all the time, and started the 11th Russo-Turkish War with Russia, and the hatred between them and Russia was really deep!

However, although Russia made Lin Daxin fat, and the beating was very serious, making Russia lose 15 million square kilometers of land, but Russia's essence of the land part was not lost, and its strength quickly recovered in the past few years, establishing a standing army with a scale of up to 3.9 million, only a fraction of it is about to catch up with the standing army of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, and Russia also has the world's seventh-ranked navy, only relying on the Ottoman Turkish Empire itself, when can it take revenge!

In addition, there is another problem, now that Russia's strength has become inflated again, it may still be insufficient to deal with the Chinese Empire, but if you once again set your eyes on the Ottoman Turkish Empire, it will be very bad for the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

In the 10th Russo-Turkish War, after the Ottoman Turkish Empire suffered a crushing defeat on the battlefield, Britain sent a British Royal Navy detachment according to its own interests, and put on a posture of not hesitating to break with Russia, so as to force Russia to abandon the plan to march to Constantinople, otherwise the Ottoman Turkish Empire may not even be able to keep the capital.

Now Britain and Russia are allies of the Entente, and if another Russo-Turkish war breaks out, there will no longer be a British Royal Navy detachment to relieve the siege.

Now that Russia had joined the Entente, it was only natural that the Ottoman Empire, Russia's sworn enemy, had its sights set on the Allies.

In the face of the military pressure of the Entente, the Ottoman Empire, which has the eighth largest army and the thirteenth largest navy in the world, will welcome the three countries of Germany, Italy and Austria with both hands if they can join the allies.

On July 1, 1908, the news that shocked the world came that the Ottoman Empire had officially joined the Central Powers. (To be continued......)