1890 King of Southeast Asia

The first month of 1915 was very fulfilling, with more major events that could be recorded in history than the last month of 1914.

Starting from December 26, 1914, the German army concentrated 100,000 people and 200 cannons to attack the Liege Fortress.

But until New Year's Day in 1915, the German army suffered more than 3,000 casualties and made no progress in seven days.

On December 28, 1914, seeing that the Battle of Liege Fortress had affected the entire war layout, Moltke the Younger urgently mobilized armed airships and heavy siege mortars to support the Battle of Liege Fortress.

As for the military technology provided by Nanhua, light weapons such as light machine guns and mortars were useless in front of the fortress group with hundreds of artillery pieces.

On New Year's Day in 1915, these equipment happened to arrive at the front line, and the Germans launched the New Year's Day Offensive, also known as the 1915 Offensive.

Four large Berthas and eight slender Emma attacked the Liege Fortress continuously for four days.

The Big Bertha is very famous, with a caliber of 420 mm, a single shell weighing one ton, a range of 12.5 kilometers, and a rate of fire of eight rounds per hour.

The slender Emma, ​​that is, the Skoda M1911 305 mm howitzer, is known as the hammer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is the world's first heavy artillery designed for land transportation.

The caliber is 305 mm, the barrel is 3660 mm long, about twelve times the diameter, the range is 11.3 kilometers, and the rate of fire is 12 rounds per hour.

There are two types of shells. The light shell weighs 287 kg and can blow a deep pit with a diameter of several meters on the ground. The heavy shell weighs 384 kg and is said to be able to penetrate a 2-meter reinforced concrete layer.

The most important thing is that this huge cannon weighs only 27 tons and can be transported in three parts, which is much more flexible than the Big Bertha.

By the afternoon of January 4, the twelve main fortress groups of the Liege Fortress were all destroyed by heavy artillery. The remaining defenders of the Liege Fortress surrendered and the battle ended.

With the capture of the Liege Fortress, Belgium, a small country with few people and no defense, could only declare surrender on the morning of the 8th. The northern line of France was opened, and the Schlieffen-Moltke Offensive was successfully implemented.

But at this time, eleven days had passed since the outbreak of the war, and the French had plenty of time to mobilize their forces.

Fortunately, the French were implementing the "Plan No. 17", concentrating four armies to attack Alsace and Lorraine.

Not surprisingly, the French paid a heavy price but did not achieve much results.

Even the "Plan No. 17" has not failed, because the task of the German army responsible for defense in Alsace and Lorraine is to contain and guide the French attack, so they did not launch a counterattack.

The French were too arrogant. They arrogantly believed that since the French reserve could not be directly put into battle, the German one was the same.

The Germans directly added the reserve to the Sixth and Seventh Army and put it on the battlefield.

As a result, when the French attacked Lorraine, the French army on the front of the German Sixth and Seventh Army did not have enough numerical advantage, and even had fewer German troops.

However, there were some changes. The casualties of the French during the offensive were much higher than those in the same period in history, so that the offensive on the front had to be stopped on January 6.

On January 8, Belgium surrendered, and Joffre was surprised to find that a huge gap appeared in the north of France, and countless German troops were rushing into France from the gap.

So Joffre quickly ordered a group army as a reserve to move north, trying to stop the Germans before they arrived.

On January 9, Joffre painfully ordered the French army to stop the offensive and retreat in an orderly manner. In addition to maintaining two groups of armies in the border area, the rest of the French army rushed to Paris as soon as possible.

This order was opposed by many people in the French government and military circles.

"Retreat is a coward's choice. The warriors of France should attack desperately. As long as they attack Germany, everything will be fine!"

This is the idea of ​​many French politicians. This idea is actually not wrong. Encircling Wei to save Zhao, and the two French army groups in the north (one of which was originally used to defend the north) are enough to stop the German army.

After all, the main force of the German army is concentrated in Alsace and Lorraine. How many people can there be on the northern line? (What the French think)

The reason why the French think that the main force of the German army is concentrated in Alsace and Lorraine is completely their own opinion, because France has not been able to conquer it even with the four army groups.

At this point, the French still believe that the German army has 800,000 troops. Even if the reserve is included, Germany still has to consolidate the eastern front of Russia. When the war starts, only about 600,000 troops can be mobilized to the French border.

The French directly mobilized about 800,000 people, so France is very confident. After all, the four army groups in the south have already attacked Alsace and Lorraine, right? The Germans defended very tenaciously.

This mentality made Joffre hesitate a little, until January 11, the three divisions defending the northern front of the French lost contact one after another.

Losing contact is generally a bad omen, but their sacrifice is not without value. The intelligence finally sent back proved that there were at least 400,000 Germans in the north.

In fact, there were about 700,000 German troops in the north, 400,000 in the middle, and 320,000 in the south, that is, the left wing.

This was just the German Western Front, with 1.4 million soldiers and more than 200,000 soldiers on the Eastern Front. In a very short period of time, Germany doubled its military forces with the help of its efficient general staff.

And what about France? At this time, there were about 1.2 million people, but 400,000 of them were newly expanded reserves. In addition to some filling in the active troops, more than half were placed in the rear.

Even more disastrous was that of the French army of less than one million, only 280,000 were deployed in the north, of which 200,000 were reserves that had just been sent to the north.

The wrong estimation of the situation led to the French prediction, which further led to Joffre's wrong judgment.

When Joffre found that the situation was not right, the Germans had advanced 120 kilometers, and the Germans had the opportunity to surround the main force of the French army.

The main force of the French army concentrated about 400,000 people on the southern line to attack Alsace and Lorraine, and there was an army group of about 180,000 people on the central line responsible for defending the attack of the Germans on the central line.

The French army's reserve had been sent to the northern line to block the Germans. At this time, if the German troops in Alsace and Lorraine continued to contain the French army, the northern line would immediately turn south, thus cutting off the retreat of the main force of the French army.

Does anyone find this tactic familiar? That's right, there are many terms to describe this tactic, such as flank breakthrough, outflanking, revolving door, etc.

In the German proposal, there is another more resounding name, the Schlieffen Plan!

Its core idea is to break through the flanks, outflanking, annihilate the main force of the French army, or occupy Paris, so that the French lose their combat capability.

At this time, it is a good opportunity.

If it is played like this, the German army will be waiting for another victory like the Battle of Sedan.

Unfortunately, the Germans may be sick. This disease is called "Paris Madness". The Germans only have Paris in their eyes. As the chief of the general staff, Moltke the Younger, as the supreme commander, only has a sense of crisis of the troops being out of touch.

Therefore, at the strong request of the Bavarian Crown Prince who was responsible for defending Alsace, Moltke the Younger agreed to the proposal of the Bavarian Crown Prince to lead the Sixth and Seventh Armies of about 320,000 people to counterattack.

On January 11, the Sixth and Seventh Armies of the German Army launched a fierce attack on the French army in front. In one day, the German army ate about 100,000 French troops at the cost of losing 16,000 people.

When the telegram reached Paris, Joffre realized that the Germans were much stronger than he had imagined, and immediately ordered the main force to retreat in an orderly manner.

Supported by hatred, the four damaged French armies miraculously maintained order and withdrew.

On January 12, the Germans continued their attack, and only 200 kilometers away from Paris, the French were defeated all the way and directly lost an army.

Seeing that the Germans were about to attack Paris, even though he knew that it was impossible, Joffre still ordered the remaining Eighth Army on the northern line to stop the Germans.

The original words of the order were: "Brave soldiers of the Eighth Army, France needs you to stop the Germans."

The Eighth Army was Joffre's reserve. It had just been transferred to the north for defense, and its butts were not warm yet. The fortifications were even more bullshit. Except for the rifles and Miss 1.75 in their hands, they had nothing.

But it was this very short sentence that won France two crucial days.

On January 12, Joffre ordered the French army to retreat across the board, and more than 400,000 French troops retreated in an orderly manner from the border to Paris.

The Bavarian Crown Prince did not believe that the French would withdraw so easily, so he sent people to investigate for half a day before confirming that it was this half a day that made him lose the opportunity to pursue.

It also made the Germans lose the chance to win.

On January 13, the French Eighth Army fought fiercely with the Germans on the vast plain.

In just one day, the French army suffered more than 80,000 casualties, about half of whom died, and the Eighth Army was directly disabled.

The Germans launched a charge, and the French soldiers counterattacked the Germans, and the blood dyed the land red. Until ten years later, the crops here grew abnormally well.

On the same day, 700,000 German troops on the southern and central lines of the German army crossed the empty French defense line and rushed into France.

On January 14, the Germans on the northern line launched a fierce offensive, marching towards Paris in three directions. The Eighth Army had to disperse its forces to attack the Germans and delay the enemy's attack.

Until the evening of the 14th, the 700,000 German troops had only advanced five kilometers in two days.

The price was that the Eighth Army, which originally had 200,000 soldiers, suffered 150,000 casualties, and more than 60,000 people died directly in two days.

Up to now, the Germans have been invincible, and almost everyone believes that Germany will win the war.

On January 15, the first day of the fourth week of the war, 180,000 British soldiers landed at the northern port of France.

On the same day, three armed airships painted with the sun, moon and stars slowly flew to the suburbs of Paris...