In the end, the Emperor's offensive was like the historical Schlieffen strategy, and it failed to defeat France. However, unlike history, the Germans occupied a greater advantage on the field, of course, this advantage was not a battle that could be fought, but because of the bleeding of Britain and France on the German West Wall defense line in the previous two years, and it is an indisputable fact that French human resources are seriously lacking compared to Germany. Two years in a row have stretched the French Army. In this German offensive, the French lost a large number of armored units. In fact, from the perspective of hard industrial indicators such as steel output, the gap between France and Germany is even greater, and Britain and France are almost equal to Germany. At this point in the battle, the French army can be said to be in danger of being depleted in terms of manpower and equipment. As for the British? Britain has never been an army power, maybe the United Kingdom can be considered elite with the same number of army units, but the number gap is too big!

Therefore, although the Kaiser's offensive was not successful, Germany did not like Moltke Jr. said: "Your Majesty, we have lost the war." In the same way, Moltke Jr. will not be dismissed from office by Wilhelm II. The German Army took control of large swathes of northeastern France, taking over the lines of communication and some of the supplies that could not be transported, while capturing large quantities of equipment. Although the British and American training troops could retreat, a lot of heavy equipment was still left. However, the battle was equally unbearable for Germany, with at least six panzer divisions crippled. Other units had to be withdrawn and reorganized, and after more than a month of offensive, neither side was able to deliver a fatal blow to the opponent. And had to re-enter the trench confrontation stage, and began to recuperate under the protection of the trench and continue to fight.

If only from the perspective of Britain, France and Germany, Germany has won this battle. The French Army's potential was almost at the bottom, and the British had suffered heavy losses, and although Germany had paid a price of nearly 600,000 elite in this engagement, it was not an unacceptable price for the German army that only had to face the Western Front. The German General Staff believed that if there was no external intervention, then even if the German army was attrition, the French would be able to be knocked down! But the question is, is it possible that no external force will intervene?

"The Americans have sent a large number of troops to the war in Europe, and there is no point in maintaining restraint against the United States! We must end the war in Europe before the United States is fully exerted. To do this, we must use any means to contain the US reinforcements to the Entente! "Wilhelm II finally decided to go to war with the United States after learning of the entry of American troops into the war, and by this time the United States had already forced Germany to declare war, if only to provide supplies to the Entente. Germany could have tolerated, but now, from the moment American GIs set foot on the continent, there was no room for maneuver on either side. Strike first. Aftermath suffers!

On March 20, 1917, Germany ordered all submarine forces cruising the ocean to engage in unrestricted submarine warfare, citing the violation of the terms of neutrality by the United States. On March 21, the USS Liberty, a U.S. transport ship laden with soldiers and supplies, was sunk, sinking more than 3,000 soldiers and thousands of tons of supplies to the bottom of the sea. On March 23, the U.S. government officially declared war on Germany, and then, after nearly three years of war in Europe, the Americans finally entered the war! But alas. The U.S. military, which had just entered a state of war, was not very powerful, and the elite who had spent months training was broken on the battlefield. It will take some time to regain combat effectiveness.

On the face of it. It is difficult to say who had the advantage at this time, the Americans joined the Entente camp, but they were not in the state, and although the Germans did not achieve their goal, they beat each other violently. More importantly, the armies of Austria-Hungary and even Italy and Turkey also entered the Western Front, although they could not be compared with the Germans in terms of quality, but they greatly alleviated the shortage of German human resources. At the same time, their arrival also brought a large amount of technical equipment. Let the German Army regain the ability to attack again on paper! Of course, if you want to really fight, it will take a while to integrate.

At present, the Allies still have great confidence in the operation on the Western Front, and their idea is to concentrate the forces of the armies of Germany, Austria and Italy to push away France in one go after a rest, and at that time, even if the United States goes all out to participate in the war, it will not be able to change the situation of the war. In addition to reflecting the confidence of the Allies in the strength of their own army, another important aspect is that they have been fighting for nearly three years, and no one is willing to continue to fight endlessly, and it turns out that with the support of Huaxia, the rationing of various materials can be guaranteed, but now, with the bad relations between Germany and China, other Allied members have also been affected, and the foreign ministries of various countries have also urgently communicated with Huaxia to discuss batches of materials with Huaxia. Even Vittorio Kuniberti used his personal relationship with Xu Jie to persuade Huaxia to provide more supplies, at least to treat them differently! And defeating France was the easiest and fastest way in the eyes of the Allies, so the countries agreed to continue to concentrate their forces to push France!

In fact, there are also very strong opinions in Germany about Wilhelm II's insistence on the Russian issue, especially the soldiers who participated in the war, who pay more attention to how to effectively reduce their own casualties by winning the war in front of them, rather than thinking about what will happen after the end of this war. Germany is a resource-poor country, and although Germany tried its best to reserve all kinds of materials before the war, the rate of war consumption still greatly exceeded the German government's estimates, and it is unrealistic to win a national war by relying on simple reserves. As strategists, they want the war to end as soon as possible, but at the same time they have to think about what they need to do if they can't end it sooner!

From this campaign, the Germans captured a large amount of equipment, including a lot of abandoned M1 and M2 wheeled armored vehicles, after testing by the German army department, the Germans found that although this combat vehicle had various problems in head-on combat, it was still competent as a mobile force for defense. It can also be used for short assaults when necessary. More importantly, the biggest point of this thing is that it is cheap and the production cycle is short, in the case of Germany's hematopoietic ability is greatly reduced due to raw materials and other problems, the Entente will bring great trouble to the German army by equipping a large number of weapons that are easy to produce, the war is to fight for national strength in the final analysis, and when the United States joins, the Entente will have a great advantage in national strength, which will eventually lead to the change of initiative on the battlefield.

Although the Emperor's offensive achieved certain successes, while pushing the battlefield to the territory of France, some German front-line officers also realized the possibility of a long-term war. In order to cope with the stalemate phase of the war, the German army top brass proposed a compromise with China, at least partially in exchange for material aid from the other side. And on this issue, Wilhelm II did not buy it, or the arrogant Kaiser looked down on other countries from the bottom of his bones! At the same time, he also believed that he had the ability to balance Britain and France, after all, Russia, which had made Napoleon sink into the sand, had already succumbed, and when could France, which was only a small land, jump?

"In the future, we will have only two enemies, one is the United States on the other side of the ocean, and the other is China, which projects its influence on half of Asia! Britain and France could only exist as second-rate countries in the future. In order to effectively curb the expansion process of these two countries, we must take precautions, obviously we defeated Russia, but the biggest beneficiary is indeed China, which is absolutely unacceptable to me! Russia must leave the strength to protect itself, North Asia can be divided, but it must not be completely taken over by China! Otherwise, Russia will be shaken, and they will consider taking refuge in the stronger of the two countries, Germany and China, and if the Russians choose the latter, then our decades of preparation will be in vain, and we will still face the dilemma of fighting on two fronts! The United States to the west and China to the east will seriously restrict the development and expansion of the German Empire! ”

When Moltke Jr. handed the documents written by the General Staff to the Kaiser, and tried to test the latter's tone in a roundabout way, Wilhelm II did not hesitate to reject Moltke's request to improve relations with China. "This is a critical moment and we must not back down! We must let that leader of Huaxia know that there are still people in this world who dare to say no to him! He's been going well since his debut, which has caused his ambition to swell so much, and this time, we have to put an end to his expansion! Otherwise we will face more and more demands and threats from the other side! People's desires cannot be satisfied, and the more they give, the more they want! The Kaiser said with some excitement. At this time, Wilhelm II was already a little arrogant, but the reason why he dared to insist on his own claim was because he had another card to play!

Shortly after Moltke left, another important German military official entered Sanssouci Palace. "I was disappointed in the Army's performance, I gave them the best support, and they only gave Germany a tactical victory, and the hope of a quick end to the war on land was dashed, and now I hope that the Navy will make some effort. In order to get our country out of the state of war as soon as possible," said Wilhelm II, looking at Tirpitz. "I only want to know one thing now, that is, can the High Seas Fleet defeat the British Grand Fleet after more than one year of preparation?"

Unable to end the war quickly by defeating France, Kaiser Wilhelm II once again set his sights on the navy, "If we can inflict a heavy blow on the Grand Fleet with a single naval action, and then force the other side to withdraw from the war, we can still achieve the last victory." "After 3 years of engagement, the German Navy can be described as having more victories and fewer defeats, plus the commissioning of 4 Bismarck-class battleships and the acquisition of two Izmail-class battleships from Russia, Wilhelm II hoped that the Navy could help Germany win this war!

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 and the book friend hukaikaka for the tip~~~. (To be continued......)