Expedition to Europe

In 1917, France went crazy because of a barrel of oil.

In 1917, the winter of the Republic of China was in full swing, comparable to the war-torn Europe.

The heavy snow in the Republic of China did not cover up the ambitions of the warlords at all, and the "Civil War" intensified.

No, it was more intense than Europe.

As the British offensive in Flanders stagnated, the war in Europe entered the "winter break" again. The leaders of the Allied Powers gathered in Rapano, Italy for a meeting, but this time there were no Russians.

The winter of 1917 in Russia was particularly cold. The Kerensky government came to an end, and Lenin led the Bolsheviks to form the Soviet government.

The first thing Lenin did after taking office was to negotiate peace with the Germans, which caused great panic in the Allied Powers.

You know, before the world war, Russia was the most promising and brightest country in Europe, but now that the war has been going on, Russia has changed beyond recognition. The Tsar was imprisoned, Kerensky was overthrown, and Lenin finally came to the fore. Compared with Britain and France, Lenin and Germany are more familiar.

Perhaps some people still remember that it was with Ludendorff's consent that Lenin was able to return to Russia from his exile in Switzerland.

Ludendorff's move was very brilliant. As Ludendorff expected, Russia withdrew from the world war first because of Lenin's upheaval.

Russia's behavior caused dissatisfaction among the British and French, which also laid the seeds for future intervention.

The Americans also sent representatives to the Rapano Conference. Although the Americans had not yet been on the battlefield, they already had four divisions in France, which were four unconventional infantry divisions with a total strength of more than 100,000.

The United States lacked officers, so the organization was unconventionally large.

The Republic of China missed this meeting. Qin Zhiyuan now looked more like a Frenchman than a Republic of China person. Although Lu Zhengxiang wanted to participate, he was not authorized. The Republic of China, which was in a mess, had no intention of paying attention to the war in Europe. Because of Duan Zhiquan's resignation, the Beiyang government was already busy.

Even if Lu Zhengxiang wanted to participate, he couldn't, because the domestic war had caused the embassy to lose financial support and was almost unable to make ends meet. Lu Zhengxiang now regretted not accepting Qin Zhiyuan's invitation two months ago.

At the Rapano Conference, the leaders of the Allied Powers reached two consensuses.

First, to establish a Supreme War Council within the Allied Forces.

Second, the Allies would not launch a major offensive in mid-1918.

Regarding the Supreme War Council, this proposal had appeared a long time ago, but because of the distinction between the primary and the secondary, no consensus had been reached. Now the British and French are finally willing to face reality and get rid of the Germans before fighting for power.

It's not that easy to do.

In 1917, Britain and France launched several offensives. Except for Qin Zhiyuan's great victory, Nivelle and Haig were both defeated. They seemed to have an advantage, but in fact they had lost the ability to take the initiative to attack.

The French army had not yet returned to normal, Qin Zhiyuan had limited troops, and the British began to engage in civil unrest. Lloyd George was finally dissatisfied with being scolded as a "son of a bitch" by Haig all day long, and sent Robertson, the chief of the British general staff, to France to disperse Haig's power.

Through the war in 1917, the British and French finally determined unprecedentedly that if they wanted to win the world war, they had to rely on the new forces of Chinese and Americans.

There are now more than 100,000 Americans, and nearly 10,000 American soldiers arrive in France every month.

The number of Chinese in Qin Zhiyuan's hands is also increasing. Although some of them have been diverted to factories, thousands of Chinese still join the army every month. Now Qin Zhiyuan has six divisions with nearly 100,000 troops, including five infantry divisions and one armored division.

If the four divisions of Annan are added, Qin Zhiyuan now has more than 150,000 troops available for mobilization.

The British and French judgments on the war situation coincide with Ludendorff's.

In Ludendorff's view, if the war is delayed until the middle of next year, the number of Chinese and Americans in France will exceed 500,000.

Although the Americans have never been on the battlefield, they are different from the British and French who have suffered from the war. Americans have almost naive courage. They have enough food, warm clothes, and the best weapons because of sufficient logistical support. After more than a year of training, Americans are not lacking in skills.

The Chinese are even more of a huge threat. Qin Zhiyuan has the power to change the situation. Crown Prince William, who is known as the "brightest star of the royal family", was defeated by Qin Zhiyuan and ended up with a complete annihilation. Ludendorff's cousin Oscar von Hutier also failed in front of Qin Zhiyuan. He was defeated in the Reims area and retreated to the back of the Aisne River before he stabilized his position.

If Qin Zhiyuan could control an army group, once Qin Zhiyuan launched an attack, Ludendorff could not think of who to send to defend.

According to the customary organization at that time, an army group had about 250,000 people, about 12 to 18 divisions.

According to Ludendorff's calculations, Qin Zhiyuan would have more than 250,000 troops by the middle of next year at most, and at that time it might be possible to offset all the troops withdrawn due to the armistice with Russia.

So a key node is the middle of next year, that is, June 1918, or April.

In Ludendorff's plan, if the war could not end in April 1918, then Germany had better start peace talks with the Allies.

"Forced to negotiate peace", this outcome is something Ludendorff could not accept in any case. Look at Russia, if the Germans were forced to negotiate peace, their situation would be worse than Russia.

So the German General Staff gave the 1918 combat plan: on the premise that Russia and Italy are no longer a threat, the war must be launched before March of next year, preferably in February, and the main target of attack is the Foreign Legion led by Qin Zhiyuan.

In order to better implement the combat plan, Ludendorff selected a group of young officers from the front line to participate in an eight-day training to learn "Trench Attack Warfare". This tactic is Hutier's combat method with "Storm Troops" as the core. Although this tactic failed in Reims, it proved to be successful in Flanders. In the absence of a better choice, Ludendorff chose to trust this tactic.

This training was soon extended to four weeks. At the same time, Ludendorff pulled back the best troops from the Eastern Front, and at the same time, he selected a group of soldiers under the age of 35 from some of the poorer troops to form 42 elite mobile divisions for next year's offensive.

These troops were equipped with a few tanks and self-propelled artillery, and were the troops that Germany was now building with all its strength.

In Ludendorff's plan, when 1918 came, the Western Front would have 191 divisions and a total force of 3.5 million people, and the Germans were about to launch the final battle against the Allies.

Just as Ludendorff was sharpening his sword, Qin Zhiyuan finally waited for the Dutch to declare war.

The original text is in Liu # 9 @Shu/Bar!

In mid-November, Qin Zhiyuan issued an order for the Umbrella Company to withdraw from Borneo, which of course won the welcome of the Dutch government and also won a month for the Umbrella Company.

During this month, Chinese businessmen who were on good terms with Qin Zhiyuan, such as Huang Bohan, Huang Jinsheng, Guo Shenglong and **** Mao, went to Lion City and Saigon for refuge, and at the same time, their resources were transferred to Surabaya.

The local natives and Dutch immigrants in Surabaya also had a bad feeling, and they moved to Coconut City (Jakarta) and even Palembang.

In fact, when Huang Bohan and his team began to mobilize supplies, the Dutch had already sensed something was wrong. The Dutch tried to arrest Huang Bohan, but Huang Bohan, who had learned the news, fled to Lion City (Singapore) in advance, and was then taken to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) by Zhang Tianshou.

In December, the Umbrella Company had nominally withdrawn from Borneo, with part of it withdrawing to Saigon and the other part withdrawing to Cam Ranh Bay. But at the same time, Surabaya, which was in a power vacuum, fell into chaos. The local Javanese and Sundanese in Surabaya began to kill each other. Soon, the killing spread to the Madurese, Malay and other ethnic groups, and Surabaya was in chaos.

In this chaos, the Chinese were not affected because they were protected by the security forces.

Of course, this security force was no longer the security force of the "Umbrella" company, but a security force under the "Lan Fang Company" composed of local Chinese.

Lan Fang Company!

The Dutch were too familiar with this name.

The Lan Fang Company, also known as the "Principality of Lan Fang", was founded in 1777 and was not completely destroyed until 1888 by the Dutch colonial army.

To this day, the Lan Fang Company still has a large number of supporters in West Kalimantan. When the Lan Fang Company was established in Surabaya, people in Kuandian and Dongwanlu (Mandor) immediately responded and also established Lan Fang Companies and established security forces to maintain local order.

Maintaining order is a symbol of exercising power, which has always been a taboo for the Dutch and absolutely does not allow others to interfere.

So the Dutch felt that they could not delay any longer and began to order the colonial army to go to the Surabaya area to "suppress the rebellion by force", and at the same time, they used all their national strength to form an expeditionary force to go to Borneo to prepare for military suppression.

That's right, the Dutch called the "Lan Fang Company" established in Surabaya a rebellion, not only suppressing it by force, but also accusing Qin Zhiyuan's "umbrella" company of playing an ignominious role in the rebellion.

Qin Zhiyuan certainly would not admit such a thing, and immediately denied it righteously. At the same time, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs also condemned the Dutch for such irresponsible remarks.

The Dutch, who had just broken out of the "smuggling scandal", had no friends in the international community at this time. In the world war in Europe, the Dutch remained neutral because they had no desires. Although this attitude did not offend any party, it did not please any party.

At the same time, because the Dutch smuggled copper ore to Germany, the British and French were extremely dissatisfied with the Dutch. The British requisitioned Dutch merchant ships, and the French openly provided protection for Huang Bohan in Saigon, which led to the Dutch being isolated and helpless in the international community.

To make matters worse, the Dutch had just declared war on the Lan Fang Company, and its two "Dutch-class" protected cruisers anchored in Coconut City were attacked, one was sunk, and the other was severely damaged.

At the same time, Qin Zhiyuan returned to Corsica after receiving the information that the expeditionary force headed by the "Seven Provinces Alliance" had already set sail.

At this time, Corsica was in a state of excitement.

A large number of Chinese on Corsica came to Europe through channels in Borneo. Among them are even direct relatives of Huang Bohan and others. Now that Borneo has gone to war with the Dutch, how can these people stay in Borneo?