General Schlieffen was keenly aware of the necessity of a swift solution to the future Franco-Russian war, both from an economic point of view, from the point of view of the culture of the people and the uncontrolled expenditure of funds required to maintain a large army.

Schlieffen pointed out that France must be seen as a large fortress, especially the fortress of Verdun on the German-French border, which was almost impossible to attack.

The weak link in France's defense lies on the border between northwestern France and Belgium, and this is where it stabs straight into the heart of France.

This plan through Belgium was proposed by General Schlieffen.

According to the famous Schlieffen plan, General Schlieffen focused Germany's Franco-Russian war on the Western Front, and expected to deploy 78 divisions to attack France in an all-out way.

On the Western Front, in accordance with the principle of giving priority to the left and heavy to the right, eight divisions were deployed on the left flank to launch an attack first to contain the main force of the French army.

The right flank was the focus of the offensive, and it was necessary to hoard at least 70 divisions and insert them directly into the heart of France through the territory of neutral countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium.

To the west of Paris, around the southwest of Paris, a large-scale encirclement campaign was carried out, forcing the French army to the east, and then the German army on the east and west fronts encircled and annihilated the French army.

The entire war on the Western Front was expected to end in 6 to 8 weeks, and as long as the war against France could be won, the remaining Russia would naturally have no power to resist.

On the Eastern Front, General Schlieffen proposed to deploy only nine divisions to contain the Russian army.

Because the Russian army's combat effectiveness was weak, and the German army had the cooperation of the Austro-Hungarian army, it was enough to hold out until the Western Front achieved complete victory and then turned around and marched eastward.

Although this Schlieffen plan correctly chose the direction of the main assault, it made full use of the strategic initiative and suddenness, and strived to take active and resolute action to achieve a quick victory.

However, this plan was somewhat too underestimated for the combat effectiveness of the French army, and General Schlieffen overestimated the combat effectiveness of the German army and underestimated the combat effectiveness of the French army, and this plan was also extremely risky.

As Schlieffen's successor, the current German Chief of Staff Moltke (Moltke Jr.), the nephew of Marshal Moltke Sr.

Moltke Jr. was personally chosen by Wilhelm II, and if you have to ask the reason, the surname Moltke is the main reason why Wilhelm II chose Moltke Jr.

After Moltke Jr. became Chief of Staff of Germany, he inherited Schlieffen's strategic thinking and made some modifications according to the specific situation.

But on the whole, the Germans were very confident in their military strength, which was also caused by the nationalism of the Germanic peoples.

From 7 August after the start of the war, all rail transport in Germany was managed by the army.

Germany's extremely developed railway network can support the passage of 660 military trains and the transportation of 20 divisions in 24 hours.

If the Germans wished, it would take only ten days or so for all the troops of the Western Front to be sent to the designated positions.

Because of Germany's offensive plan, Germany declared war on France and Belgium at the same time, and the army reached the border of the two countries at the same time as the declaration of war.

In order to capture the Belgian fortress of Liege, after several days of mobilization of German troops, four large Belsa mortars were successfully transported several kilometers away from the fortress of Liège and the fortified fortress was bombarded.

The Great Belsa Mortar was designed at the request of the German General Staff for such strong fortresses as Verdun and Liège.

With a caliber of up to 420 mm and a range of more than 10 kilometers, this giant cannon has become a secret weapon in Germany, and it is also the key to Germany's confidence that it can solve the fortress of Liège.

The whole weight of the large Belsa mortar is as high as 120 tons, and a total of nearly 300 people are required to use this cannon.

Naturally, the shells of such a big guy will not be small, and the shell of a large Belsa mortar gun weighs 820 kg, and each launch requires at least 200 kg of gunpowder.

This is not the end, every time you launch, there must be no one within 300 meters around, otherwise it is easy to cause accidental injury.

After all, the power of the explosion of 200 kilograms of gunpowder is not small, and the shock wave launched by the explosion is enough to injure or even kill people nearby.

Unlike other artillery, almost all German guns fired at a rate measured in minutes.

There are dozens of rounds a minute, and there are several rounds or even more than ten rounds a minute.

But the big Belsa mortar is different, the firing speed of such a big guy is calculated in hours.

If all goes well, it will be able to fire at a rate of about eight shells per hour, with an average of one shell every 7.5 minutes.

As for the power of such a big guy, after Wilhelm II visited its test firing, he praised all the experts who developed this cannon with great satisfaction.

However, Kaiser Wilhelm II also ordered the continuation of the refinement of the cannon, not to mention the weight of 120 tons, which made transporting the cannon a very difficult problem.

It took some time to assemble the Great Belsa mortar, but when all four cannons were assembled, it was a great ordeal for the Belgian troops inside the fortress of Liège.

The damage of the big Belsha mortar cannon to the fortress was very huge, and the four cannons fired for more than two hours, pouring out at least 50 shells in total, not only destroying most of the batteries of the Liege fortress, but also destroying the very important material warehouses in the fortress.

There is also an ammunition depot in it, which should contain a considerable amount of ammunition and shells.

The shell exploded, followed by several explosions that were noticeably smaller, and it is not known whether they had accidentally injured their own people.

In addition to bombardment with artillery, the Germans also carried out the tactic of attacking the heart, which was to persuade the defenders of the fortress of Liège to surrender.

The German army claimed that the war between Germany and Belgium was unnecessary. The main and only aim of Germany was France, if the Belgian army was willing to surrender, if it could guarantee Belgium from the war.

But the commander of the defenders of the fortress of Liège was also a ruthless man, and he rejected the German persuasion to surrender, and replied directly: "I would rather live and die with the fortress." ”

However, even if the Belgians held the fortress of Liège for more than ten days, they were finally successfully breached by the German army on August 19.

No way, a heavy weapon like the Great Belsa Mortar is too buggy and can wreak havoc on the exceptionally strong fortress of Liege.

After several days of continuous bombardment by four cannons, even the steel-solid fortress of Liège had to bow its head to the German artillery.

But for France, it's good news. The Belgians, with their own casualties, bought France more than ten days.

The Germans had planned to settle France in 6 to 8 weeks, but in Belgium more than 10 days were wasted, and a quarter of the planned time had already been wasted.

It was also during these ten days that the French army quickly assembled and deployed all to the eastern border.

Moreover, the French were not idle for more than ten days, planning a counteroffensive plan against Germany.

The German army was dragged to the fortress of Liège, and the idea was born within the French army, which was to attack directly into the German hinterland from Alsace and Lorraine.

This brings us to the importance of Alsace and Lorraine. This area once belonged to France and was now ceded in the Franco-Prussian War.

The German Empire was also established after the Franco-Prussian War, and was crowned Emperor of the German Empire at Versailles, which was very important to the French.

For the French, this is a deep hatred that is impossible to forget.

Therefore, as soon as the German troops were dragged in Belgium, the French General Staff developed a plan for the rapid recovery of Alsace and Lorraine.

After much deliberation and deliberation, a plan called the reconquest of the lost land was officially released.

According to the plan of the French General Staff, the French army took advantage of the fact that the German army was being dragged in Belgium to mobilize a part of the army to attack Alsace and Lorraine directly, and then detour to Cologne to encircle the German army directly from the rear.

In this way, the French army and the Belgian army formed a direct encirclement of the German army.

The German army was like a turtle in a turtle, waiting to be captured.

The French Reconquista was the 17th plan proposed by the French General Staff during this period, so it was also called Plan 17.

At the time of the German attack on the fortress of Liège, the French chief of staff and the wartime French commander-in-chief, Chauffy, also initiated the implementation of Plan 17.

The main focus of Project 17 was to recover Alsace and Lorraine, which had been lost to Germany, to boost the morale of the French army and to increase civilian support for the war.

But in addition to this core plan, Plan 17 also had a flank offensive direction, that is, the left flank, the Third Army under the command of General Lüf and the Fifth Army under the command of General Langrezak, with a total of 887,000 men, at Verdun north to Namur, attacking the German forces in Metz and Ardennes respectively.

The Fourth Army, commanded by General Cary, numbered 190,000 men, served as a reserve for Plan 17 and was ready to respond to attacking forces.

However, although the French army mobilized in Plan 17 was as high as 1.7 million, only a few hundred thousand were actually able to attack on the border.

A large number of troops were still located in the rear of the border, destined not to participate in the war all at the same time, either for topographical reasons or for a variety of other reasons.

Under the propaganda of the French army, the French soldiers set foot on the native land of Alsace, and their patriotic feelings spontaneously appeared, and they could not help but raise their guns in salute, and pulled out the boundary pillars drawn by the Germans and threw them aside.

Under the shadow of this patriotism, the French army showed a fierce spirit of death and launched a fierce attack on the German troops in Alsace and Lorraine.

If you are on the battlefield, you can see that under the call of the commander, the French soldiers are moving forward bravely, even if there are constantly comrades falling around, although it cannot stop the French soldiers from advancing.

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)