Schlieffen seemed to see what William was thinking, and then explained: "Your Majesty, if it is only to formulate a battle plan, then the General Staff can come up with a set of plans for the destruction of France within a month; However, it is not only the development of tactics that is important, but also the other things that are carried out for the purpose of the war. At present, the empire is not prepared for a war, either psychologically or materially: among other things, it would be extremely onerous and time-consuming to train 1.2 million reservists on the basis of existing ones who can compete with the regular army. An army that obeys orders and has superb tactics cannot be trained in a few months, a year or two, and it requires continuous and repeated running-in. To achieve this step, it is conservatively estimated that it will take more than 3 years. ”

"While training the army, we also have to do some other things, including stockpiling all kinds of military supplies, producing ammunition and weapons for war for the mobilized and expanded army, and so on. After all, the total number of our standing army in Germany is only 540,000, and the total number of troops after the outbreak of war will be more than three times that number, and we must ensure that the reserves in the warehouses are enough to allow the reservists to be fully armed in an instant. In addition, we also need to improve the domestic railways so that more military trains can reach the designated front lines in times of war. Schlieffen did not say much, but only hastily mentioned a few important key points, "Therefore, although it is the best time for us to start a war, Germany is not sure of the victory of France." We still need to wait until we have completed our operational plans, subjective consciousness, and objective material preparations before we go to war against France. ”

After a moment of silence, William slowly woke up from the blueprint planned by Schlieffen and said in a deep voice, "My earl. The implementation of this plan required the borrowing of 'Maastrich' cecum throughout Belgium and the Netherlands at the same time. And it was difficult for these two countries to agree to the passage of German troops through their borders. Especially Belgium. His neutrality was guaranteed in 1839 by the five great powers of Europe; If the German army were to lend to Belgium, it would be tantamount to a direct violation of his neutrality. You see, my hateful Uncle Edward, who was immortal in his stupid head like a fat pig, had a visceral fear of the power I possessed; Germany's violation of Belgian neutrality made it easy for this hateful old Albion to react violently, and even to incite the whole of England to be drawn into our war against France. And if Belgium persists in resistance, and Britain is drawn into the war, the situation is quite bad for us. ”

Hearing that William could say this, Qingying's eyes showed a look of surprise. It was immediately clear. Historically, William actually knew that the actions of the Moral Army through Belgium would trigger the British declaration of war on Germany, but he was always self-deceptive and unwilling to believe; And in this plane, after Qingying's direct clarification of the situation before, his consciousness has also quietly changed.

Qing Yingzheng was pleased with William's change, but saw Schlieffen gently push the unilateral glasses on the bridge of his nose, and said hesitantly: "In this plan, I will use 34 divisions to pass through Belgium, and how many troops does Belgium have in total?" It's only 6 divisions at most! If they dare to resist, we don't mind destroying them with us. Not to mention that King Leopold II of Belgium was notoriously greedy and cowardly. He could not have given the order to throw his army and country into a battle destined for destruction. As for the possibility of Britain entering the war, I have already considered it. But that's not something we can't accept anymore. By the time the British were ready to land their land across the English Channel, we had defeated the French completely; At that time, what reason and ability will the British have to continue fighting with us? The navy of the British could not go ashore, and the army, which had been beaten by the Boers and bruised and swollen, was the laughing stock of the world, and they did us no more trouble than the dreams of the Belgian sheep. As long as we can defeat France quickly, then both Russia and the potential enemy Britain will lose the opportunity to defeat us and will have to sit down at the negotiating table with us. And then there's what the diplomats are going to do. ”

William let out a sigh of relief, and without further words, he acquiesced in Schlieffen's argument. Qing Ying saw it in her eyes, and a solemn look appeared on her face.

As for Schlieffen's idea of invading Belgium, Qingying actually had no objections. Although the reason why Britain declared war on Germany in World War I was not based on the Triple Entente formed in 1907, but because the German right-wing forces invaded Belgian borders and undermined Belgium's eternal neutrality status that had been repeatedly reaffirmed by the five major European powers, this was only the most direct excuse for Britain to show its weapons to Germany. Britain has long regarded Germany, an emerging force capable of subverting Britain's hegemony in the world, and is doing so, as a thorn in the side, and wants to get rid of it as soon as possible. Therefore, even if Germany had maintained Belgian neutrality and did not act decisively, there could have been no doubt that Britain would have waged war against Germany under other pretexts.

In addition, from the point of view of military necessity, the decision to build a strong fortified line of defense on the German-French border line by flanking through Belgium and bypassing the French was also a perfectly correct decision. Once the European war began, Belgium's permanent neutrality became a dead letter, and no one could guarantee that this small Central European country would not fall to the opposite side of Germany under the lure of Britain and France. For the wavering power of a small country at a critical chokepoint, it is necessary to take the first strike to eliminate the hidden danger, and it is for this reason that both Britain and Germany took decisive military action against Norway in World War II. Schlieffen's plan was perfect: using Alsace and Lorraine as bait to lure the main French army to gather to the south; Then concentrate the main force to sweep through Belgium in northern France, gather and annihilate the main force of the French army, and lay the victory in one fell swoop. However, there is one biggest problem with this plan, that is, the right-wing cluster, which is a breakthrough force, does not have the external ability to complete this strategic maneuver at all!

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Turning the page of the most glorious page of the history of the Kingdom of Prussia since its founding, the Franco-Prussian War that broke out in 1870, when seeing the blood-boiling episode of the Prussian army under the command of Marshal Moltke defeating France and capturing the French Emperor Napoleon III alive, German strategists often ignore one of the most crucial issues. The core reason why the Prussian army was able to advance thousands of miles and surround the French legions under the city of Sedan was that the scale of the war at that time was not large, and a small number of troops could quickly advance and transfer. During the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian army's actual combat strength on the front line was only 250,000 people, and most of the battles in the early stage were within the territory of their own country, and they were able to handle both logistics and mobility with ease. And this time, Germany will line up a full 1.5 million troops on the Western Front, which is six times the number of that year; Among them, the most formidable right-wing army of 1.1 million troops will be crowded into the small area of the Flemish plain, and rapid mobility and logistics will become a big problem.

It was not 1870, and the experience of that small victory could not be matched in World War I, which had increased in scale several times. It is not 1940 at present, and it is undoubtedly a prerequisite for the implementation of a fast and mobile blitzkrieg to have a large number of aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles, automobiles, and motorcycles with stable and excellent performance based on the technical background of mankind's full-scale entry into the era of internal combustion engines.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, although the technology and application of petroleum and internal combustion engines have been greatly developed, the main energy source in the world today is still coal. Motorcycle production is scarce, cars are rare, and tanks are a super sick ghost who comes to my aunt 10 times a day, and the practicality can only be described as scum; The era technique of the aircraft, the soul core of the blitzkrieg, is even more miserable, with slow speed, low payload, short air time, and extremely low range. The reason why the German army in World War II was able to realize the blitzkrieg planned by Schlieffen (Manstein's plan is a variant of Schlieffen's plan, although the content of the two is very different, but its core essence is the same way), there are two reasons: first, it is a mechanized cluster composed of tanks, armored vehicles, and motorized troops, which can carry out rapid and deep assaults on the enemy's depths; Second, the air force composed of thousands of combat aircraft controlled the entire sky and could provide support to the advancing troops whose attacks were blocked and lacked heavy artillery. None of these things were available during the First World War.

However, in Schlieffen's plan, the German right flank moved quite quickly, to occupy Paris within 40 days, and gallop south from the northern border of Belgium from the "end of the right flank sleeve through the strait" to gather and annihilate the main force of the French army assembled in southern France, which was not much slower than the German army's advance speed during World War II when the Yellow Plan was implemented! After the retirement of Schlieffen Zhishi, Moltke Jr., who succeeded as chief of the General Staff, every year to file the right wing that the old marshal had repeatedly asked to strengthen before leaving office, was that in addition to his conservative personality, he was worried that Lorraine would be broken through by France, and that East Prussia's Longxing Land would be swallowed up by Russia, and that the logistical pressure on the huge right-wing cluster would be reduced was also a factor that could not be ignored. With the support conditions at that time, it was really difficult to deploy more troops in that small area. From the point of view of tactical design, this plan formulated by Schlieffen can be called a masterpiece of exhaustion, but the technical limitations of the times can hardly meet the conditions of war maneuver of the super-large corps he requires! (To be continued......)