The cold wind is howling, the frost and snow are dancing, and the magnificent and solemn Charlottenburg Palace is covered in silver, and the white is piled up, adding a little ethereal meaning to the calm and solemn. In the golden corridor flower hall, the green pine trees are decorated with various ribbons and lanterns, and the candles are jumping, showing the joy and peace of approaching Christmas.

In the spacious and bright office study, the new 1914 desk calendar, which is exquisitely made, has been placed on the Kaiser's purple wood long table. In a week's time, the giant ship of history will sail into a new era. Looking back at the bloody war of more than half a year, Wilhelm II has every reason to gaze with gratitude at his generals and people: it is precisely because of their consistent loyalty, tenacity, tenacity and courageous dedication that this empire can stand proudly in Europe, the center of the world, with its lofty and arrogant posture today.

On the Eastern Front, although the cold winter brought great inconvenience to the crowd moving on this land, under the heavy blow of the German army after a long time, the western city of the Russian Empire was still smashed open like a hollow withered firewood. More than 70 divisions of German officers and men, wrapped in heavy cotton uniforms, marched proudly through the knee-high snow-covered silver world, extending the front nearly 200 kilometers eastward in a month, annexing large swathes of Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The Germans were in the driver's seat, and the Russian troops, hastily assembled by the peasants, were overwhelmed and fled to the rear without putting up any resistance; Even Odessa, a port fortress with impregnable fortifications and a well-equipped supply of food and medicine, collapsed after three weeks of siege, and the 50,000 Russian troops became another group of prisoners of the victors. Major General Danilov, assistant to the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army. In his own private diary, he sadly confessed:

"The defense line of our army on the entire Western Front has completely collapsed. The vacancies for officers and enlisted men in the troops are alarmingly high. The scarcity of ammunition and weapons has reached catastrophic proportions; Even more deadly. The entire army had lost the courage and the idea to fight, and when they saw Nohara Ash and the round steel helmet, the only thought left in their fear-dominated brains was the thought of fleeing immediately. Our army, exhausted in the battle of Romania, had no means to hinder even the most energetic and determined enemy; The only thing we can do now is to hope that Mother Russia's harsh winter will once again save her children, so that these German troops will stop this terrible advance because of their own problems and accidents. ”

However, Danilov's hopes were destined to become unattainable dreams. In order not to repeat the mistakes of Napoleon a hundred years ago. The Germans, who persisted in the attack in the bitter cold weather, greatly increased the ratio of auxiliaries to soldiers: although this resulted in a significant reduction in the number of troops on the front line compared to normal conditions, it ensured that the troops had an absolutely solid supply base. Millions of German troops were like a steamroller that weighed over the mountains, and although it was a little slow, it was a little windy along the way, and nothing could stand in the way of its steel wheels. It is expected that in March next year, the vast territory of Ukraine and Belarus will be completely occupied by the German army, and a European empire with an unprecedentedly vast territory will be established in the hands of William!

On the Western Front, the tide of battle was also playing out in favor of the German army. The Anglo-French offensive in the Seine region continued intermittently for a month and managed to advance nearly 10 kilometers; But behind this seeming victory. But it is a terrifying loss figure that contains more than 200,000 dead and wounded! At the same time, the total losses of the German army on the entire Western Front were just over 15,000 men. Such exaggerated battle losses did not appear even in the border battles at the beginning of the war. Although Britain and France did everything possible to cover up the war report, the details of the battle revealed by those pervasive American war correspondents still surprised the world to the neutral countries that were slightly more optimistic about Britain and France. If Britain and France could not even win an effective victory for the German army on the Western Front, which was in its weakest period, then there would still be even the slightest suspense in this war?

As for the Mediterranean, the situation in the Entente was similarly devastation. With the formation of the combat effectiveness of the two Italian battleships of the Count Cavour class and the Austro-Hun Gerhof, the Allies once again gained an advantage over the French with a lineup of seven dreadnoughts. After the crushing defeat in the decisive battle in the Mediterranean a few months earlier, the French navy had lost its spirit; In the face of the oppression of the superior enemy forces, they almost all chose to stay in the port of Toulon and did not go out, giving up the control of the Mediterranean Sea to the Allied ships. The Allies' shipping in the Mediterranean was almost completely disrupted, and supplies and soldiers from the North African colonies had to be transported into Britain and France through the Atlantic shipping lanes around West Africa; This not only made the efficiency greatly reduced, but also threatened by the German submarine attack. In the Middle East, the numerically superior Ottoman forces were also firmly in control of the battlefield, and they were consolidating their rear transport lines from Asia Minor to the Canai Peninsula and would launch a larger attack after resolving the supply problem.

The only defeat of the Central Powers in the war came from the Italian Army's presence in the foothills of the Alps. Under the fierce attack of the French army's total of 20 divisions, the Italian army fled and retreated like an avalanche: in just half a month, they were captured by the French army, 260,000 people were captured, countless baggage ammunition were discarded, and even the rugged Alpine defense line was crumbling. Under the urgent request for help from Rome, the German army was forced to urgently send five divisions south for reinforcements, and this sudden dispatch undoubtedly completely disrupted the German army's planned plan, and its direct consequence was that the German offensive on the Crimean peninsula on the eastern front was forced to suspend due to the transfer of troops. At this point, the German General Staff had no hope for the role of the Italian Army; How to get Italy to transfer its industrial products to Germany has become a hot issue for the German government's top leaders.

Qingying understood the situation on the Italian front after a brief period of consternation. Fundamentally speaking, this is a by-product of the strategy he pursued of defending the west and attacking the east. When the German army was advancing westward with all its might, the Anglo-French army was still overstretched on the frontal battlefield, and could only grit its teeth against Italy's knife in the southeast in the back; Once the main force of the German army was transferred to the east, the frontal pressure of the British and French forces was also sharply reduced, and Italy, a powerful opportunist, naturally became the best target for them to solve first. Where is the Italian army, which ranks at the bottom of the European countries, the enemy of the main force of the French army?

Italy, however, cannot be ignored by Germany. No matter how clumsy its army is, it is definitely better to bring the country to the aid than to give it away. As a result, Qing Ying could only write another cheque for the loss of his eastward expansion into Russia, sending troops to assist the Italians in the defense of the Western Alps in order to appease the fragile hearts of these gourmets on the Apennine Peninsula. Thankfully, with the treacherous terrain of the Alps, the backbone support force sent by the German army did not need too many personnel.

During this period, the plan to use Russian prisoners of war, led by Qing Ying, was also in full swing in Germany. Heavily fortified factories and farms were erected, surrounded by barbed wire; On the towering lookouts, heavily armed German soldiers stand guard day and night like eagles, and there are even daunting Maxim heavy machine guns on important locations. A large number of Russian prisoners of war were transported there in rows of freight wagons, and then they were sent to this place of work, where there was no personal freedom.

In order to prevent these prisoners of war from escaping, and at the same time ensure the ideal production order, Qingying, as the person in charge of this affairs, also took great pains. Although he has no specific experience in this area, what Japan has done in another time and space can be used as a lot of reference. Russian prisoners of war were divided into work units of 30 people, and individuals attempting to escape were executed in a sit-down manner; On the other hand, whistleblowers are rewarded handsomely when the information is proven to be true, and the amount of money is so large that it can be exciting. The German administration would also buy a group of natural Russian traitors among these prisoners of war as an important auxiliary member of the secret surveillance of the prisoners of war.

In addition to this, a large number of simple but effective strategic regulations have been developed by the German management. One of them is typical, the German side produced tens of thousands of coarse cloth shirts at any cost to wear as work clothes for these prisoners of war. Every morning, the prisoners of war had to take off all their clothes, including their underwear, and travel hundreds of meters naked to the place of work to put on their work clothes. After getting off work at night, they return to the dormitory in the same way, and then put on the same clothes that they took off during the day. In this way, the entrainment of those with ulterior motives is almost completely eliminated, so that they cannot get any tools to help them escape from this place. In order to ensure that these factories and farms can have the expected output, the German management also took the trouble to refine various tasks and delegate them to the hands of each work unit, and imposed severe penalties on the work groups that failed to complete the tasks.

Because of the sheer number of Russian prisoners, it was difficult for them to be consumed by government-organized mass production alone, and a considerable number of them were dispersed into private factories and managed by the capitalists. As Qingying had predicted, these unpaid coolies were soon robbed by the companies, and the German government was able to earn a large amount of capitation fees from the capitalists. Looking at the huge profits that can support the start of construction of 2 new battleships in the first batch, Qingying can't help but sigh that the profits brought by human trafficking are crazy in any era. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of zhouyu1976~~~ The recent subscription volume is very tragic, and the author's heart is cold and cold