1890 King of Southeast Asia

"What is the essence of positional warfare, or trench warfare?"

In the theater headquarters behind Birezhik, Zheng Lei held a geographical map of the Western Front in Europe and asked Huang Zhengfang a question.

"The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides around the positions, trench warfare specifically refers to trenches, with the tactical goal of occupying the enemy's positions or defending their own positions." Huang Zhengfang scratched his head and gave the definition.

"However, after the Germans broke through the British positions, they pursued for dozens of kilometers. If the British had not run too fast..." Huang Zhengfang quickly noticed something was wrong, but couldn't say it.

"Ludendorff also used the key breakthrough tactics, and he adopted a multi-point breakthrough and a full-line feint attack at the beginning. There was no problem with the tactics."

"You also said that the Germans broke through the British defense line and caused huge losses to the British, occupying thousands of square kilometers of land."

"This is exactly the problem with the Germans."

Zheng Lei lit a cigarette and shook his head with regret.

"Commander, you mean that the Germans got the main target wrong and didn't take the opportunity to make a deep breakthrough and drag the battle into a mobile war, right?" Zheng Shangqing just came back and heard what Zheng Lei said, and he casually replied.

"That's right! The Germans executed the key breakthrough tactics well. At least they successfully broke through the British defense line, disrupted the British deployment, and successfully caused confusion among the British."

"But in the subsequent further offensive, the Germans attacked from all sides and failed to concentrate their main mobile forces into a fist. The key breakthrough tactics ended here, and the war returned to the mode of positional warfare."

"The Germans' subsequent results were nothing more than taking advantage of the chaos when the British retreated, but so what?"

"In the previous battles, the British could withstand hundreds of thousands of casualties, and this time they can do the same. They have blood transfusions from the colonies and almost endless manpower. It just takes time."

"What does Germany have? The 10,000 tons of supplies and hundreds of thousands of tons of food bought from us?"

"If the Germans can maintain this heavy force group, defeat the British and take the opportunity to move south to the rear of the French army or even Paris, the war may end early."

Zheng Lei was a little regretful, not because the Germans failed to choose the right path, but because of the coldness of being at the top.

The Huaxia Empire has been practicing key breakthroughs and pincer attacks for a long time, and used them at the beginning of the war.

This tactic requires relatively strict planning in advance, and once the battle begins, each unit needs to march quickly according to the pre-determined route.

However, the vast Gobi arid area constrained the actions of the Huaxia Empire, and it did not adopt the corresponding tactics in the overall situation, but only in local battles.

On the Western Front in Europe, the Germans had all the conditions to do so, but they gave up a great opportunity in vain.

"Most of the Germans' mobile forces are concentrated on the British front in the north. Their tactics have been exposed. The reorganization of the attack has basically lost its surprise, and the opportunity has disappeared."

"The British and French will soon make corresponding changes based on the Germans' tactical changes."

"Without a suitable armored assault force, the Germans can only use artillery and manpower assaults."

"To deal with such tactics, you only need to prepare enough reserves, stretch the depth to set up 3 or even 45 lines of positions, and it can be easily resolved."

"In general, the Germans made a loss-making deal."

Zheng Shangqing also made a conclusion based on Zheng Lei's words and his own experience.

In the final analysis, the Huaxia Empire has always used key breakthroughs and pincer attacks as its main offensive tactics. Huang Zhengfang's concerns are based on Huang Zhengfang's lack of understanding of the specific situation.

After all, he is only a brigade commander, and he is still performing secret missions on the front line during this period, and the information he can get is limited.

"In this case, the Germans' chances of victory have not only not increased, but have decreased a lot?" Huang Zhengfang said in surprise.

Zheng Lei and Zheng Shangqing were stunned, then nodded in unison.

"After suffering a loss, Britain and France will definitely find a way to strengthen their defense and set up a deep defense system. Unless the Germans achieve a qualitative improvement in combat effectiveness or Britain and France make a huge strategic mistake, the chance of victory will be even smaller than before."

Zheng Lei nodded and put out his cigarette.

The Germans won, but only temporarily. After suffering a loss, Britain and France will definitely be on guard against the Germans doing this again. What should the Germans do then?

And how many times can the Germans carry out the same scale of attack? Britain and France don't know, but Zheng Lei knows that the Germans have begun to import grain on a large scale, which proves that Germany's food reserves are indeed not good enough.

Otherwise, the Germans will only import those rare metals and important industrial raw materials, such as rubber, oil and other industrial necessities.

Although the unit price of grain is cheap, the amount required is large!

A country with a population of more than 65 million consumes 30 million tons of grain a year. With so much grain, there is no need to worry about importing hundreds of thousands of tons. Just move some of it.

After all, this is grain purchased with real money, not paper money or goods as usual.

"Okay, tell the Germans that the quantity is too large and exceeds the limit of railway transportation capacity. We can't provide so many things."

"We are willing to provide some important industrial materials, mainly paid with gold and silver, but we allow antiques or other things to fill some gaps."

"Also, tell them that after this year's trade ends, we may not be able to continue trading next year."

"They have won on the front line and dealt a heavy blow to the British. The British will definitely encourage us and the Russians to launch attacks to relieve their pressure."

"Maybe next year, we will have to go to war again without trading conditions."

Zheng Lei said slowly.

Such a good export channel for earning foreign exchange was lost just like that. Zheng Lei really felt it was a pity.

In just over two months, the Huaxia Empire has earned more than 100 tons of gold. This is golden gold!

…………

In mid-December, the fighting stopped strangely. Whether it was the Western Front, the Eastern Front, or the Southern Front, there were almost no major battles, and the small battles were not fierce.

Why do you say almost no? In fact, there are still some. After entering winter, the Ottoman Empire found that the Russians in the Caucasus theater were seriously short of supplies, and their combat effectiveness declined seriously after long-term combat.

And because the Huaxia Empire's 6th Army "sold arms" to the Germans, the Ottomans got a few months of rest time and military supplies from Germany, and their combat effectiveness improved.

On December 18, Enver Pasha, the supreme military leader of the Ottomans, ordered the 3rd Army and part of the 4th Army to launch an attack on the Russians from Armenia.

For this attack, the Ottomans concentrated 260 cannons, hundreds of mortars, more than 90,000 soldiers, and 23 aircraft - which can only be used for reconnaissance, not for combat, and at most the pilots carry a few bombs for fun.

And what about the Russians? The Caucasus Front has not been replenished, especially in the second half of this year, the Russian army on the eastern front has taken the initiative to launch attacks many times, and is particularly active. Most of the Russian army's energy is invested in this direction.

In the Caucasus direction, since the Chinese Empire launched the attack, the military pressure on the Russian army in the Caucasus has been much smaller - the Ottomans stopped the active attack.

In the previous battles, the Russian army tried to make a breakthrough in the Caucasus many times but failed, so they simply stopped thinking about attacking from here, and only equipped the Russian army in the Caucasus with a Cossack cavalry division - to grab territory.

If the attack of the Huaxia Empire went smoothly, the Ottomans would definitely transfer the Armenian garrison to resist the Huaxia Empire. In this way, the Cossack cavalry could take advantage of the opportunity to seize territory.

The two sides were allies. Even if the Huaxia Empire knew about it later, what could it do? It would still end in vain.

Therefore, when the Ottomans launched the attack, there were only more than 30,000 soldiers in the Caucasus direction of Russia, including several thousand Cossack cavalry. There were more than 100 cannons, but the models were relatively old, and many were old fortress cannons that were inconvenient to move.

As for airplanes? There were no such things.

It was freezing cold, and after the Ottomans carried out a "massive" firepower preparation, they launched an all-out attack on the Russians, and the first thing they did was a general attack.

The two sides fought fiercely for three days and nights. In the end, the Russian army was defeated due to insufficient manpower and retreated more than 40 kilometers. More than 13,000 casualties in the battle, and because of the lack of warm clothes on the retreat road, more than 2,000 people froze to death, and most of them were frostbitten.

(This is not an exaggeration. At the beginning of the war, Russia launched its first attack. The two sides fought for a month. Russia suffered 5,000 casualties, 1,000 of which froze to death, and Austrian casualties 8,000. Austria successfully blocked the Russian army from moving south.)

The Austrian army suffered more than 20,000 casualties. Because of sufficient pre-war preparations and the seizure of Russian cold-weather supplies, they did not freeze to death, and most of the frostbite was not serious.

Counting non-combat casualties such as freezing to death and frostbite, the number of Russian casualties exceeded that of the Ottoman Empire.

This was the only battle worth mentioning during this period. The Russian army gave up several high grounds, and the front line entered Russia and extended to the north of the Caucasus.

This victory of the Ottoman Empire was linked by many people to the Ludendorff Offensive in Germany, calling it a precursor to the victory of the Allies.

Although it cannot deceive people with real clear minds, most people in this world are not clear-headed enough, especially since the average education level of all mankind is still below the third grade of elementary school.

The enthusiasm of the French people further increased, and panic appeared on the streets of London, England, and the stock market crisis.

The most outrageous thing is that the Americans on the other side of the ocean saw a surge in the stock and futures markets!

And those senators or members of the House of Representatives who received the military expansion plan were instructed by the forces behind them to stop doing so...

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