The clock ticked and the birds cried lightly. At some point, a huge map of Western Europe was hung on the wall of the German Emperor's study. Schlieffen stood in a dress under the map with a baton in his hand, and used his hoarse and thick voice to carefully explain his strategic concepts and implementation methods to the two. As time went by, a very precise blueprint plan slowly appeared before the two of them under Schlieffen's description.

Based on the international background of the German-Austrian alliance and the French-Russian agreement, Germany will inevitably be hit by France and Russia in the future European war. Although Germany's industrial power far exceeds the total of France and Russia, it is quite inferior to the war consumables such as population and resources. Once a direct battle with France and Russia at the same time, it will be difficult to guarantee the victory of the war. In order to break this unfavorable situation, it is necessary to adopt strategies of each defeat: that is, if there is a choice, temporarily give up an enemy that does not pose much threat to them, take a defensive stance against them, concentrate troops to completely defeat the other side. After looking at the Gaul chicken and the polar bear for a while, Schliffen selected the priority resolution target in France.

This is not a temporary intention of Nicholas II slapping his thigh, but a real and profound reason.

In 1870, the Prussian Kingdom under Hohenzollern won a great victory in the French-Prussian War. The sharp sword tempered by war instantly stabbed the Gaul rooster and captured the French Emperor Napoleon III alive, opening a new era of reunification after a thousand years of division. This war brought not only the establishment of a Central European Empire, but also gave 60 million Germans strong confidence to defeat France. As Germany's economy and industry grew rapidly with the rapid force of thunder and lightning. German strategists even more

It has a sense of superiority towards France; they believe that once the war breaks out again, Germany will definitely sweep France as easily as it was back then. It is absolutely incredible to the glory of the European hegemony. Think about it, Prussia was just a country and could still overthrow the Second French Empire in its heyday. Now, after unification, Germany has undergone a leap and change of world reform than it was back then, and its comprehensive national strength has shown an absolute crushing trend for France. This time, facing this old opponent again, isn't that easy to win?

In addition, the difficulty of defeating Russia, the other side of the French-Russian alliance, is also an important reason. Russia has endless room for maneuver, and they just need to retreat continuously. This will allow the German army to fall into an endless battle and eventually face failure like Napoleon back then. What's more, Russia's vast territory and large population have become popular. The demise of Napoleon's eastern expedition is still vivid in my mind, and Schlieffen cannot be uncautiously considered. "In the war on both sides, the entire Germany must be on one enemy, the most powerful, and most dangerous enemy. This enemy can only be France." Like Germany, France can complete the mobilization in just 2 weeks and launch a large offensive on the 15th day, which is no different from Russia with poor railways.

Under the guidance of this idea, Schliffen set his sights on France, intending to completely resolve the threat from the Western Front through a victory in the French-Prussian War in 1870. In order to achieve this goal, in the future war, the defensive posture against Russia should be adopted on the Eastern Front, and on the Western Front, it should attack France with all its strength. The proportion of the army invested by Germany on the East and West Lines was roughly 1 to 8. When Germany was heading west with all its might, the German army and the main forces of Austro-Hungary would first resist the Russians for a while, and wait until Germany had finished packing up France. Then quickly turn the troops through the railway to face the stubborn enemy in the East and the East that was slowly mobilizing and assembled.

Schliffen's calculations were extremely fine: although Russia had abundant resources and a huge army that was trembling for Europe. However, their mobilization speed was extremely slow: a conscripted Russian soldier had a transport mileage of 700 miles to the front, four times that of Germany, and at that time Russia's railway density in Europe was only one-tenth of that of Germany. With this speed, Russia's military actions on the Eastern Front would be extremely slow, with the entire force of Germany and the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire as a barrier.

It is enough to support the Eastern Front for more than two months. By then, the battle ended on the Western Front long ago. The German army was transferring to the Eastern Front at a tsunami speed through dense railway lines with all connections. Russia would have no advantage. Germany and Russia themselves do not have much hatred, and the royal families of both sides have hundreds of years of marriage blood. As long as France falls and the main force of Germany has quickly returned to defense, Russia will no longer stubbornly become enemies with Germany, and thus resolve the battle situation on the Eastern Front with peaceful means.

However, the French would not wait foolishly for the Germans to destroy them. After the end of the French-Prussian War, in order to avoid the danger of national destruction, the French, who were seriously injured, built an extremely strong line of forging defense on the German-France border near Artsace and Lorraine, extending from Switzerland at the southern end to Luxembourg in the north. This "Magino Line" in the early stage of World War I resisted the German attack on France and became the biggest obstacle to the destruction of France. Therefore, Schlie, inspired by Hannibal's flank attack in the Battle of Canny, annihilated the Roman Legion with a flank attack in the Battle of Canny.

Finn, decided to divide the forces on the Western Front into the left and right wings at a ratio of 1 to 7. Among the 72 divisions planned to launch an offensive against the French, 9 divisions were deployed in Lorraine to confront the French fortress, 10 divisions were placed on the front of Verdun as the "hub between the two wings", and the remaining 53 divisions would all be deployed on the right wing detour along the English Channel. Once the button of the war was pressed, this daunting huge cluster would pass through the Netherlands and Belgium, like a sharp blood sickle that splits mountains and breaks the ground and sweeps across northern France, with its troops to Paris.

Schlieffen believed that cedes Alsace and Lorraine were a great humiliation for France, so France would gather a large number of troops at the time of war, launching a fierce offensive against these two provinces that merged into Germany in the French-Prussian War, and recovered the lost territories in one fell swoop in order to slaughter the shame of the year. In this way, the French army, which was already weaker than Germany, would have even less power on the northern border, and would have no power to fight back against the powerful right-wing forces of the German army. After annihilated these French troops, one of them marched into Paris, and the other main forces would return to the south, and together with the 19 divisions left behind in Lorraine and Verdun, the French army on the southern front, another 1870-style siege encirclement. If everything goes well, then the German army can capture Paris and annihilate the main force of the French army within 40 days to win the victory of the war against France.

This will be done!

"As of last year, the total population of our German empire has exceeded 60 million, nearly one-fifth of which are young and strong of the right age; if effective training and mobilization can be carried out in peacetime, then we will have an army of more than 1.7 million people at the beginning of the war, with an unprecedentedly powerful military capacity. On the other hand, France, the combined population of old and weak in the country is only 38 million, and the number of troops can be mobilized is far lower than that of our German. As long as we can gather the absolute main force on the Western Front, then France will not be able to withstand our attack, let alone France will not be able to withstand our attack, let alone France will not be able to withstand our attacks, let alone France will not be able to withstand our attacks.

Often they will put their main force on the southern line to recover the lost ground of Artsas and Lorraine, and the power in the north wing is seriously empty!" Schliffen put the baton in his hand on the map, and his words are full of strong confidence in his mastery. "This time, we will give the French rooster a complete bloodletting, so that they can fall from the position of a quasi-first-class power to a third-rate situation, and will never pose a threat to my German. Your Majesty, have you always had the wish to go to Paris? The loyal and brave Prussian soldiers will take it down in one fell swoop and present it in front of you in full!"

Looking at the thick black arrows on the map representing the direction of the German attack, William's gray eyes flashed, and an excited expression gradually appeared on his face. After a while, he suddenly punched the wall with his right fist and shouted: "What a strategy! The right-wing battle cluster composed of 1.1 million troops rushed over the English Channel, and the wind blew the clouds, which was enough to defeat the frontal enemy in one fell swoop. Even if the French exerted all their troops, they might not be able to resist! My Earl, the General Staff, has already formulated a detailed strategy?"

Schlieffen smiled slightly and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured. This plan has devoted my entire 13 years of hard work and will never cause it to miscarriage due to omissions in details. Although this is just a general idea now and there is no detailed implementation strategy, the main body has obtained it, so why bother with the details? With the planning and strategies of the German staff officers, it will definitely be able to make it a perfect work of art. There will be no problems with its implementation. For all possible accidents, the General Staff will also carefully prepare and formulate measures to ensure that it can deal with any sudden unexpected accidents. Clausewitz's preface to the military plan must leave room, and the General Staff will not forget it."
Chapter completed!