Chapter 13 3. A strong man will never return

In order to win over France, Edward VII was planning to visit Paris. Before leaving, the prime minister told the king that you must be prepared to be unfriendly to the French people.As soon as the king landed in France, the French sang the "Marseillaise" to overthrow the tyrant.As soon as the king's carriage passed by, eggs and tomatoes greeted him, and he could cook a pot of dishes when he returned to the hotel.But as soon as the king of England heard the "La Marseillaise", he would jump off the carriage and stand at attention. He saluted the military when he was in military uniform, and put his hands on his chest when he was in civilian clothes, paying tribute to the "La Marseillaise". When he left Paris 10 days later, the French people went to the street to see him off spontaneously, shouting "Long live the friendship between Britain and France" and "Long live His Majesty the King".The newspapers in Paris exclaimed that this was the first time since the "July Dynasty" was overthrown in 1848, "Long live His Majesty the King" was shouted on the streets of Paris.Britain and France signed the treaty.France told the King of England, you see Nicholas II is also your nephew, why should you have trouble with your nephew?As a result, Britain and Russia also signed an agreement.In this way, the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were formed, and the First World War broke out. From July 1914 to November 1918, a total of four years and three months.

The fuse of the First World War was the Sarajevo Incident, in which Archduke Ferdinand and Grand Duchess Sofia of Austria-Hungary were assassinated in Sarajevo.Have you seen the movie "Sissi"?Sissi's husband, Emperor Franz, was 84 years old at that time, and Princess Sissi was Queen Elizabeth. Today, in countries such as Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, there are portraits of the two of them all over the streets.But the portraits of the emperor are all of the emperor's old age, with white beard and cheeks, and the portraits of Queen Elizabeth are all of her youth, so if you say that this is a couple, you don't believe it, it always feels like a grandparent and grandson.Queen Elizabeth was assassinated by an anarchist in Switzerland in 1898.The anarchist didn't necessarily want to kill her, but just killed any royal family. The queen happened to travel lightly without any entourage.

Their only son, Crown Prince Rudolph, committed suicide because of a broken relationship.This foreign crown prince is really interesting. When you become the emperor, who do you want to fall in love with? Do you have to commit suicide?As soon as Crown Prince Rudolph died, Archduke Ferdinand had his chance.He was the nephew of Emperor Franz, and he was not very popular with the old emperor, but the Habsburg dynasty had no other male heirs, so he had to be made the crown prince.This buddy is fighting against the old emperor again, insisting on marrying a court lady, which is absolutely not allowed in the European royal family.European royal families did not marry commoners until the 1980s. The British always said that Diana was a commoner princess. In fact, her family ancestors were earls and nobles. How could she be a commoner?Your ancestor was a conductor, try it, it's absolutely impossible!The emperor disagreed, but the grand duke insisted on doing this. In the end, the emperor had no choice but to compromise.You can marry her, but she doesn't get any courtesy in Vienna. For example, no one stands up when she comes in, and no one calls her Your Highness.But the Grand Duke and his wife have a very good relationship. They have been married for so many years and their children are quite big. He feels very sorry for his wife. Since he does not receive courtesy in the Vienna court, then I will take her to other places to show off.That show, they both died there—assassinated by Serbian radical nationalists.As soon as the Grand Duke was assassinated, the old emperor became anxious. He had seen too many abnormal deaths of relatives in his life. His wife was assassinated, his son committed suicide, and his nephew was assassinated again.The emperor was 84 years old that year, and he was already confused, so Germany took the opportunity to instigate him to declare war, and the old emperor declared war on Serbia as soon as he was dizzy!

Austria-Hungary has declared war on Serbia, and Russia quit. Serbia and Russia are both Slavic peoples, both "Nov" and "Sky". If you declare war on him, you declare war on me. I, Russia declare war on Austria-Hungary.Germany said that I am of the same family as Austria-Hungary, and if you hit me with the Germanic brothers, you hit me, so Germany declared war on Russia.France said that Russia and I are allies, and if you hit him, you hit me. France declared war on Germany and Austria-at this time, the four major powers had joined the war.Britain wanted to wait and see again, but it did not expect Germany to attack the neutral country of Belgium. The king of Belgium was the uncle of the king of England and the emperor of Germany at that time.So the British said that you are shameless, if you dare to beat our uncle, I will beat you.Three gunshots were fired on the streets of Sarajevo, and the five major powers of Britain, Russia, Germany, Austria, and France fought.This is still one "meaning". Emperor William II sent a telegram to King Emanuel of Italy. It is time for you to fulfill your alliance obligations and declare war.The king replied with a telegram, we really want to fulfill our alliance obligations, but our country is poor, nicknamed pauper imperialism, as you know, we need some supplies, you can lend us.When the emperor saw the telegram, he threw it on the ground.You want 3 million rifles, 10,000 cannons, and 5,000 locomotives. I will give you these things. We Germans have to fight with sticks.If you don't come and bring it down, you are not wanted anymore. As a result, Italy waited and watched for two years.

Two years later, the Allied Powers greeted Italy, and my buddies will do it with me, because all the territories Italy wants belong to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so how can you do it with the Allied Powers, you have to do it with us, and we will give you territory.Sure enough, Italy happily joined the war. Once Italy joined the war, the Allied Powers regretted it so much that their intestines were green.The front line was already very tight, and troops had to be deployed to reinforce Italy. Even Russia and Portugal sent a division each.How low is the combat effectiveness of the Italian army?When a company of German and Austrian soldiers charged forward with bayonets upright, 9,000 Italian prisoners of war were captured.Italy's defeat was called an avalanche, and hundreds of thousands of troops went to the front line, and it was over in a day or two.Perhaps the enthusiasm of the Italians is in football, opera, and ice cream, and war is the kind of activity they are least comfortable with.So after the war, the Versailles Conference divided up the spoils and it was nothing to do with Italy. It was based on the contribution. If your contribution is negative, if you want to share the spoils, you should be occupied.

The nature of World War I was an unjust war among imperialists.Among them, only Serbia and Belgium can be called justice.Belgium has provoked whom, is it easy to be an uncle, nephews beat uncles, 90% of the territory was occupied by Germany, but they persisted until the end of the war. The main battlefield of World War I was in Europe, and fighting also broke out in West Asia.The European battlefield is divided into three fronts, the western front is Britain and France against Germany, the eastern front is Russia against Germany and Austria-Hungary, and the southern front is Italy and Serbia against Germany and Austria.

The war was divided into three stages, and 1914 was the first stage.The Germans are the nation that is best at planning in the world. They plan very well and think very carefully.As early as 1900, 14 years before the outbreak of the Great War, the chief of the general staff, Marshal Earl Schlieffen, formulated a German combat plan, known as the Schlieffen Plan.The earl imagined that once the war broke out, Germany would not be able to avoid the attack from both sides of France and Russia, so it was necessary to concentrate its superior forces and annihilate the enemy one by one.So who will be annihilated first?The Marshal believes that Russia's industry is backward, the railways are scarce, and there are few things except a large number of people. Therefore, it takes 3 to 6 months from the declaration of war to the participation in the war.Therefore, the German army concentrated its main force on the western front, trying to eliminate France within 3 to 6 months, and then used Germany's developed railway network to transfer troops to the eastern front, defeating Russia before Russia completed its war preparations, and ended the war.

The German army has a total of 8 armies and 81 divisions. It is envisaged that 1 army group and 9 divisions will be deployed on the eastern front to contain Russia, and 7 army groups and 72 divisions will be deployed on the western front to attack France.Here comes another problem. If the troops are deployed on the French-German border, the 70 divisions of the 6 French armies are also here. You have 72 divisions and other 70 divisions. The border defenses are very strong, and it will become a stalemate. Quick fix.Therefore, 1 group army and 9 divisions were placed on the border to take a defensive position to contain the French army, and 6 group armies and 63 divisions were used to attack the small neutral country of Belgium.There are only 4 divisions in Belgium, and the Belgian-French border is undefended. The Germans imagine that he will surrender as soon as I declare war. Once he surrenders, I can attack France along the undefended Belgian-French border.The troops detoured, attacked France, blocked the English Channel, prevented the British expeditionary force from crossing the sea for reinforcements, and occupied Paris before the French army retreated from the French-German border, thus ending the war.The marshal retired in 1906 and died in 1913. Before his death, he repeatedly warned his successor, General Maoqi, that he must strengthen the right wing.But once the war broke out, the plan couldn't keep up with the changes.

First of all, because the Russians took the money from France, France urged it to send troops as soon as the war broke out. If you took my money, you should send troops quickly.Russia went to war without completing its war preparations. It was so shocking. The army commander led the army to the front line first, and then mobilized a division, and then went to a division.Germany has only 9 divisions on the Eastern Front, and it is gradually unable to resist.Moreover, the border between Germany and Russia is East Prussia, the birthplace of the Hohenzollern Dynasty. The Prussian kings of all generations were crowned in Königsberg, which is the place where Hohenzollern flourished.The manors of the Prussian Junkers were all there. If they were lost, they would be ashamed to see their ancestors, so they put pressure on the emperor, and the emperor told General Maoqi to strengthen the Eastern Front.So the Eastern Front increased to 16 divisions, and the Western Front became 65 divisions.The problem is that after the outbreak of the war, General Moltke discovered that the French army was attacking the French-German border like crazy. The 9 divisions of the German army could not stop it. If we finally occupied Paris and they occupied Berlin, the two sides would switch places. .Therefore, the Franco-German border has increased to 27 divisions, while only 38 divisions are left on the right wing, which is half the force envisioned by Marshal Schlieffen.What was even more unexpected was that Belgium, a small neutral country, resisted fiercely. As soon as the war broke out, the 12-year-old princes all put on military uniforms and went to the front line to show off.With the same hatred, the whole country mobilized urgently, and immediately changed from 4 divisions to 12 divisions, and a small Liege fortress blocked the Germans for 18 days.The Germans thought that you would surrender as soon as I declared war, and that they could attack France on the same day. As a result, it was already the end of August when he entered France. At this time, the French army had begun to withdraw from the French-German border, and the first battle broke out between the two sides. - Battle of the Marne.

The Marne River is located 120 kilometers northeast of Paris. During the war, the most spectacular scene in human history took place.When the fight was at its most intense, France urgently needed to transfer a division from Paris to close the gap in the battle.The infantry at that time was a veritable infantry, relying on two legs, 120 kilometers, if they ran, half of the soldiers of this division would be exhausted to the front line.what to do?The situation was urgent, and the loudspeaker in Paris began to broadcast. All the taxi drivers put down the passengers, gathered at the gate of the city hall, and pulled the soldiers to the front line.The driver in Paris stopped immediately, sir, please get out of the car, I am going to participate in the war, Bel is proud.The gentleman who takes the bus will give you double the fare, good luck. 2,000 taxis sent a division of soldiers to the front line, which is a miracle in the history of war.The Battle of the Marne lasted for 3 months, and the casualties on both sides were 1.5 million. The Napoleonic War did not kill so many people in more than ten years.Europeans have finally learned what warfare in the industrial age is like. Cannons, rapid-fire rifles, Maxim machine guns, more than 600 rounds of bullets a minute, like mowing grass, the soldiers all lie down in a while, and the attacking methods of the soldiers are not the same as those in the Napoleon era. the difference.With a single head and guns in both hands, he rushed upwards, facing the death trap composed of machine guns, cannons, barbed wire, and landmines, attacking was tantamount to suicide.

When both sides saw it, it was impossible to fight like this, let's dig trenches.The Germans dug first, starting from the Swiss border, trying to encircle France.The French are not stupid either. I don’t know what you want to do. You dig and I dig. Both sides run towards the sea, and the 700-kilometer-long trench was dug out.In this way, after the Battle of the Marne, the two sides switched to trench warfare, which is positional warfare.This transition to positional warfare is very unfavorable to Germany, and in fact it is a stalemate between the two sides.The human and material resources of the Allies are incomparable to those of the Allied Powers. They lack overseas colonies, but Africa is a bit indigenous, and Oceania is a bit of a cannibalism.Besides, how do you bring them to Europe?So Germany can only kill its own people, so General Moltke told the Kaiser, Your Majesty, we lost the war.His Majesty was angry and withdrew him and replaced him with General Falkenhain. General Falkenhain wanted to break the deadlock as soon as he came up, and the second phase of the war began, from 1915 to 1916.Three major battles broke out during this period: the Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme, and the Battle of Jutland.According to General Falkenhein's vision, the Battle of Verdun was to attack a place where the enemy would never give up, to attract the main force of the enemy to fight us, thus turning positional warfare into mobile warfare. annihilate the enemy.Falkenhain named this battle "Operation Execution Site", and the French were to be executed here. His slogan was: Let them bleed dry.After fighting for half a year, the blood of the French was dry, and so was the Germans, so this battle was also called the Verdun Meat Grinder.In the fight for such a small city, the casualties of both sides exceeded 700,000 people, and the entire Verdun was bombed to be no different from the moon.In order to support their allies, the British launched the Battle of the Somme. Before the war, they poured 11 million shells on the German positions. The entire German positions were plowed by artillery fire, and the groundwater was blown out.After the shelling stopped, as soon as the British infantry attacked, 57,000 people fell under the Maxim machine gun within a day, 22,000 were killed, and 35,000 were injured. After a few days of fighting, there would be no men in Britain.So, the British put in a tank, a big box with a strange shape, overhead tracks, and two large steering wheels at the back. If the wheel was damaged, the tank could only drive straight and could not turn.A total of 48 tanks were produced, 30 of which were damaged when they were shipped to France, 12 of which were broken before the war started, and 6 were actually put into battle, and all of them were broken before the end of the war.It was not beaten by the Germans, it was caused by mechanical failure, but it scared the Germans enough. This thing is not afraid of bayonets, hand grenades, and machine guns. It can also breathe fire, which is quite scary.At this time, the initiative of the war has been transferred to the Allies. In 1917, the United States and China participated in the First World War. The United States really sent troops to the war, and China sent laborers, because all the people in the factories of the Allied countries went to the war, and the Chinese went to work in their factories to indirectly support the war.That same year, Russia withdrew from the war.But the Allies were powerless. In 1918, Germany and Austria surrendered, and the war ended with the victory of the Allies.World War I killed 8 million people and disabled 10 million people for life. The elite class in Europe was almost completely wiped out, because the traditional military officers at that time were nobles.The political democratization of Europe was completed after World War I. The impact of the First World War has several points. First, it objectively promoted the development of science and technology, and the war developed from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional.The original war was only two-dimensional, on the ground and at sea, but now in the sky, on the ground, at sea, and at the bottom of the sea.When the war first broke out, the pilots of the two sides shook their fists when they met. Boy, wait and see, that's all there is to it. The planes don't have weapons.Some buddies are smart, bring fishing nets and iron chains up, and get entangled with the propeller of the enemy plane. Then you have to throw it accurately.Later, some people brought pistols up, and in 1915, machine guns began to be installed, and in 1918, the scene of annihilating large-scale air battles appeared.All the tactical actions of the Air Force today were basically finalized during the "First World War". Two-aircraft formations and four-aircraft formations existed at that time. At the end of World War I, Baron Richthofen (Red Baron) of Germany, the world's number one ace pilot, shot down 80 enemy planes by himself.The definition of an ace pilot was set during the "World War I". If you shoot down 5 enemy planes, you are called an ace pilot, 10 are double aces, and Baron Richthofen has 16 aces. Second, the social structure of Europe was changed, and the feminist movement emerged.It turns out that European women do not work. They stay at home and take care of their husbands and children. Once the war broke out, the old men went to the front line. After a few days, they were sent back in boxes. 8 million people died. The vacant jobs can only be women do it.First teachers, doctors, then postmen, and later firefighters had to be women.A cannonball as tall as a person, and the woman climbed a ladder to twist the fuze.Why were British casualties so high at the Battle of the Somme?More than 10 million shells were fired, half of which did not explode. The women gave birth, and forgot to install the fuze, and sent a piece of iron to someone.When the war is over, you send them back to the kitchen, and they won't go there.Furthermore, 8 million people died, 10 million people were disabled for life, how many jobs have been vacated, who will work if you send them back?Therefore, after World War I, women in European countries generally gained the right to vote and be elected, including American women, and the feminist movement rose. Third, the capitalist government began to adjust government functions and implement state intervention.The state intervention policy monopoly emerged after it was formed. During the "World War I", large-scale state intervention began to be implemented. Factories used to be privately owned, but now at least you have to send representatives of the factory army, and the state interferes with your production. Fourth, the pervasive trend of pacifism led to the emergence of the appeasement policy in the 1930s.To put it bluntly, the policy of appeasement means that big countries such as Britain and France are afraid of war, and they have lost too much, and they are terrified.Queen Victoria’s 60-year savings were all spent in 4 years, and the British stockpiled shells were only enough for the expeditionary force to fight for 10 days. The war in the industrial age was too cruel.The Europeans were afraid of war, so they would not fight if they could not fight, and let us give in to Hitler, but in the end you told him not to give in, he was not afraid of war, and he had already risked it.