The government of the Tang Empire adheres to the 5 no's policy for its own citizens who go to Europe to participate in the war, namely; Not encouraging, not intervening, not responsible, not blocking and not being held accountable, basically laissez-faire.

As a multi-ethnic immigrant country, in the course of more than 70 years of development, the Tang Empire has established a mainstream social group dominated by ethnic Chinese, forming a stable population structure dominated by ethnic Chinese, supplemented by whites and various ethnic groups in Central and South America.

In North, Central and South America, Chinese is the number one spoken language, followed by English, German and Spanish, which are second, third and fourth, respectively.

In 1916, the total national economic output of the Tang Empire accounted for 26.1% of the world's total, and together with the countries of Central and South America, the economic output of the entire American region accounted for 1/3 of the world, only slightly lower than the European market.

The continuous prosperity of the North American economy has created a larger and larger middle-class social group in the Tang Empire, which has gradually become the mainstream of today's prosperous society.

As a result, a stable distribution of "jujube core" social classes has been formed, with the middle class being the largest, and the upper class and the poor class at both ends of the jujube core type are less numerous, so that the social structure is more stable and wealthier.

An ordinary full-time worker in the Tang Empire can afford the daily needs of a family of 5~6, eat well, dress warmly, and will not be bothered by hunger.

In addition to large and medium-sized cities with high housing prices, in the small cities and remote towns of the Tang Empire, housing prices are low, food varieties are abundant, and life pressure is low, as long as you are willing to work, you can get a stable salary.

Compared to the war-torn continent of Europe, this is a dream paradise.

After 10 years of unremitting rule of law construction, the Tang Empire has formed a relatively complete legal and social environment, with checks and balances between the imperial power, the government, the parliament and the courts, and a perfect supervision mechanism for officials and the government.

Coupled with the Tang Empire's universal suffrage system, official accountability system and clean government system, it can ensure the stable development of a long-term and stable society.

The Tang Empire's constitutional monarchy differed from that of the United Kingdom, which played an important role in national decision-making.

This is because the imperial family of the Tang Empire has a powerful imperial guard armed force in its hands, which is not only a constraint on the military strength, but also a strong guarantee of imperial power.

Today

The size of the Imperial Guard was stable between 260,000 and 270,000 men, and it was widely deployed in South America, Central America, the Southwest Pacific, and Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio, Massachusetts, and the imperial capital of Philadelphia, playing a decisive role in the political situation of the Tang Empire.

In order to cope with the influence of the world war, the number of the imperial army of the Tang Empire gradually increased, from 366,000 in 1914 to 485,500 in June 1916, especially the military deployment of the Atlantic coast and the Arabian Peninsula.

The size of the Royal Navy has also increased from 412,000 to more than 507,000, with the addition of four Marine Divisions, bringing the total number of Marine Divisions under the command of the Royal Navy to seven, which can be deployed worldwide.

Overall

Compared with other world powers, the military expenditure of the Tang Empire has always remained at a small proportion, accounting for only 0.6% of the national economic output, about 250 million Tang Yuan per year (note, excluding the Imperial Janissaries).

Compared with the military expenditures of the European powers, which currently account for 4, 5, or even 6% of the national economic output, this expenditure is simply not worth mentioning.

Even with such strength, Richard still had the mind of "nothing to do with himself, hang it high", and was unwilling to participate in the first world war.

The Five No's policy adopted by the Tang Empire is a clear portrayal of the attitude of the current world war, and it is unwilling to be kidnapped by ethnic groups and join any side of the war.

In the recent past

The imperial family and government of the Tang Empire took measures to suppress and purge some German nobles in order to reduce the enthusiasm of these domestic forces to advocate participation in the war and eliminate the discontent of the Allied military blocs.

Anyway

The political, economic, and military power of the Tang Empire was firmly in the hands of the mainstream Chinese social groups, and it would not be kidnapped by the interests of a small number of white ethnic groups, which would affect the "neutrality policy" set by the Holy Emperor Taizu.

Anyone who violates this principle will be ruthlessly purged and repressed.

Richard was generally satisfied with the performance of Tang Yezong, the third emperor of the Tang Empire, whose governance was rigorous and moderate, and Cao Guixiao did not rush forward, reflecting a calmness far beyond his age.

It is especially rare that he did not rejoice as much as Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II did.

Three whole days

The British tank detachment that was congested in the town of Babom was able to eliminate the problem and staggered away, attracting a burst of eyes from the townspeople.

After the initial shock had passed, the British tanks had brought endless noise and fumes to the townspeople, and the "jingle bells" of repairs from morning to night were nothing short of foreign.

For more than a month after that

Richard personally flew into the air to carry out five reconnaissance missions, often withdrawing from the battlefield as soon as the German fighters arrived, without engaging in an air battle with the enemy.

He has long passed the age of being brave and ruthless, and he doesn't need any shooting down records to add glory to himself, and he is extremely Buddhist.

June 24th

Thousands of Allied guns roared at the same time, firing scorching shells at German positions, opening the prelude to the most brutal Hell War on the Somme of World War I.

The all-out shelling lasted seven days, pouring millions of shells, and the heavy artillery fire almost destroyed the first-line defensive positions of the German Second Army.

View from the air

On the 58-kilometer-long German front, the violently exploding shells formed a burst of fire, and the barbed wire fences and trenches on the German defensive positions on the first line were bombed into potholes and tatters.

Seeing that the time was ripe, from 7:30 a.m. on July 1, the British and French troops launched an all-out offensive with the support of intensive artillery fire, firing the first shot of the Battle of the Somme.

Due to the repeated ravages of the German front-line positions under artillery fire, the main offensive directions of the French and British troops were progressing smoothly, and the Germans successfully broke through and occupied the first-line defensive positions of the German army.

However, the British troops attacking on the left flank had a big problem, and after the artillery fire stopped, the British officers and soldiers attacked in a dense formation.

At this time

Under the command of German officers, German soldiers hiding in the depths of the trenches in the anti-artillery holes swarmed out, quickly setting up crane guns and preparing for battle with hatred.

It was not until the British soldiers attacked within 100 meters that the German commander gave the order to open fire, and hundreds of MG08 Maxim heavy machine guns opened fire together, forming a dense storm of bullets.

The attacking British troops were severely wounded by the German heavy machine gun fire, and fell in pieces like wheat cuts, with extremely heavy casualties.

The British soldiers who were exposed to their positions were unsheltered and torn to shreds by the terrible death howls of heavy machine guns, and the dense queue soon thinned out.

General Haig, who had witnessed the tragedy in the rear, could not believe his eyes, he shouted "This is impossible", and after the British army had fled, he ordered another all-out shelling.

When the shelling began, the German soldiers quickly withdrew to the barrages and deep in the trenches to escape the frenzied artillery fire.

When the British attacked again after the artillery fire stopped, the German soldiers quickly returned to their ground positions with heavy machine guns and dealt a devastating blow to the attacking British soldiers.

And so on and so forth, over and over again.

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme attack alone, the main British forces attacking on the left flank paid a heavy price of more than 60,000 casualties, covering the offensive area with corpses.

Such heavy casualties did not arouse the great attention of both sides of the war.

Because every day of the Battle of the Somme for the next four and a half months, the casualties of the two warring sides were as high as more than 40,000 per day, which profoundly interpreted how bloody the hellish Battle of the Somme was?

Richard flew his fighter plane over the Somme River, and he saw more than 100,000 British soldiers rushing to the German positions.

Then, under the intensive heavy machine-gun fire of the Germans, large swaths of corpses were left behind......

Time and time again, the battle between us and the enemy on the muddy battlefield of the Somme was almost endless.

The artillery fire is continuous, and the corpses are mountains and blood.

One day at the end of July, the International Volunteer Aviation Team represented by Richard presented five Albatross II planes to the British and French forces, and all the personnel were withdrawn to Britain to rest and prepare to return to China at the right time.

Richard took Sevillea to Bordeaux in the south of France, away from the front line, away from blood and fire, away from that bloody hellish battlefield.

Faced with the tragic scene of the Battle of the Somme, even the hard-hearted Richard could not stand it.

On the battlefield of the Somme

Countless corpses were difficult to clean, and the foul smell of corpses emanated from the land of more than 100,000 square kilometers, carrion mixed with muddy soil, and the rain and corpse blood made the battlefield even more muddy.

When the weather improved, the sunlit battlefield was even more choking.

In a grove called Delville, an area of only 1.5 square kilometers, the British attacked 90 times, and then the Germans counterattacked more than 70 times to reoccupy the area.

At the end of the campaign

Not a single tree was left here, and in this wood, more than 20,000 officers and soldiers on both sides were killed, and the soil turned blood red.

Many British officers and soldiers collapsed in extreme fear, and the number of suicides and self-mutilation was extremely high.

At the height of the battle, a fully formed British division was pulled up for less than a week, and the casualties were as high as more than 80%, and it was not surprising that it was disabled.

A staggering number of British aristocrats and German Junker military aristocrats died in this large-scale battle, and they rose to the rank and middle of their respective armies to fight on the front line.

This situation is like the nobles of the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the Junker military aristocracy in Germany, which suffered unprecedented serious injuries.