"Ah...look, my Willy, my Johenchen, what a great imperial hero, the pride of the Hohenzollern family, well... the pride of Germany!"

Holding a glass of golden champagne, William II looked at his two most beloved princes with a proud and kind look.

Without loud noises, they stood together as the most eye-catching focus of the banquet.

Crown Prince William congratulated: "Germany is moving forward, and you, Your Majesty, are the banner that guides it to victory, and every German is paying tribute to you!"

Xia Shu said: "May you be healthy forever, His Majesty the Great German Emperor."

William II looked happy: "Willie, your performance on the battlefield is worthy of everyone's expectations. I believe that you will become another great monarch in the history of the German Empire in the future. And you, Joheng, our Hohenzollern genius, your actions always bring us unexpected surprises. Tsk tsk, it's hard to imagine that our warships can actually roam the North Sea, but the British navy will shiver in the harbor and shivering! Haha!"

The German emperor's praise for the two was obviously biased. A trace of jealousy flashed across Prince William's face, but he immediately regained his modest and polite attitude and said as the emperor said: "Your Majesty, our Johen is not only a genius of naval battles, but he also had many wonderful ideas in army operations. If it weren't for Johen's help, my troops would not have broken through the direction of the French River Mass and reached the Fortress of Verdun, and in a very short time he had won three of the five fortress groups. According to the previous estimates of the staff, it would take at least three weeks for us to complete this task, and in the eyes of the French, we would never have broken through these strong fortresses equipped with powerful firepower without siege heavy artillery."

William II smiled and said, "Oh, so that's it. Before this, I always felt very curious that our chief of staff of the fleet came to the Western Front for vacation and stayed for more than half a month. What attracted him."

"The positions used by Joheng's naval chariots to deal with the enemy are like cans opened. If we had a thousand vehicles now, it would take only one month to sweep France and another month to fight to St. Petersburg." The crown prince praised without hesitation, "In addition, your majesty, I am honored to report to you that our Joheng has also invented a new straggler tactic, which has been tested very effectively on the battlefield."

"What an amazing war inventor!" William II said with praise.

The father and son seemed to have a good line, singing and reconciling each other, and responding in a flawless way. Xia Shu couldn't interrupt, and he always kept a humble smile. Finally, he said self-deprecatingly: "Invention, I am far from being a real genius like Leonardo da Vinci; in military affairs, I am not qualified to be compared with the old Marshal Mocha; as for state affairs, I am afraid I don't even have one percent of the ability of Count Bismarck. I think I am just a weird guy with a head full of whimsical thoughts, who likes to study novel machinery, and do something within my ability for this war."

In the eyes of everyone, William II did not laugh loudly, but his eyes were already narrowed into a slit with the smile on his face. After the three of them clinked the cups, the German emperor said: "I have discussed with Marshal Tirpitz and are ready to lend all the naval chariots that have been built to the army for use. You should not object to this, Johen, right?"

Xia Shu looked at Crown William. Because the transportation of heavy siege artillery was extremely slow and the supply of ammunition would take up a lot of transportation capacity, Crown Prince placed his hope of conquering Verdun fortress again on the naval chariot troops. Recently, the Ruprecht army launched a preliminary offensive west of the Aine Valley, and the pressure on the valley defense line was greatly reduced. Crown William transferred the naval chariots that supported the 7th Prussian Light Infantry Division to the war, and submitted a petition to the German Emperor to put more naval chariots on the western front. Therefore, all naval chariots that had been assembled and could be activated were temporarily borrowed by the German Army, and these troops formed three

A chariot company, including 13 Hubert-14 "heavy tanks" with 45mm frontal armor. Although these big guys move slowly, they can withstand the frontal shooting of machine guns or even small-caliber rapid-fire cannons without additional hangs, ignoring various shrapnel killings. They are equipped with a 37mm rapid-fire cannon and two mg08 water-cooled heavy machine guns. The number of ammunition on the vehicle is three times that of Hubert-13. The actual combat effectiveness on the battlefield is as good as a movable small fortress. However, they need to be transported to the German-French border through railway lines, and then travel 200 kilometers with their own power to reach the frontline.

"Of course not, my Majesty." Natsuki replied, "The German army is a glorious whole, and every soldier is a soldier of His Majesty the Emperor, without a distinction between the army and the navy. As long as it is beneficial to the situation of the war, let us remove the cannons on the warships and never complain."

William II immediately praised: "Joheng, you did not disappoint me."

Then, the emperor glanced a few times and lowered his voice slightly: "The Marshal of the Navy told me that the current normal production of naval combat vehicles is 5 vehicles per month, and the production line should be started with all its efforts. This number can be increased to 20 vehicles."

The numbers Tirpitz mastered were obviously provided by Natsuki, and Natsuki could guess the idea of ​​the German emperor. He replied calmly: "It is true, my Majesty."

"On the Eastern Front, we encountered some trouble, so we had to draw two corpses from the Western Front to East Prussia. The Chief of Staff told me that judging from the current situation, even without these two corps, it would be a foregone conclusion for us to defeat France, and there was nothing to worry about." When he said this, William II's speech was slow, and there was a long pause in other words, which seemed to be less confident.

Natsuki exchanged glances with Crown Prince William, and the latter said to the German emperor: "If we can take down the Verdun Fortress as soon as possible, break through the new defense line set up by the French army on the Marne River, and rush straight to Paris to win the Western Front, and win the victory on the Western Front."

William II must have been tired of hearing similar statements, so he seemed cold to react. He frowned and said in a muffled voice: "We must win, and failure is unacceptable no matter what."

William II was very abnormal. Xia Shu thought that something special must have happened to make the German emperor, who was very proud of his achievements, made such a change.

Is it because the Eastern Front is not good?

In the era when Old Moltke was in charge of the German staff, Germany's war strategy was to attack and defend the west, use the border defense line to resist the French attack on the western front, and coordinate with the Austro-Hungarian Empire to attack Russia on the eastern front. After Schliffen took office, given the great development of France's military power, the war strategy became to attack and defend the west, that is, after the war broke out, the main force of the German army was concentrated and quickly defeated France. At the same time, a small number of troops were used to resist the initial attack of the Russian army on the eastern front. When the war on the western front ended, Germany's developed railway network was used to transfer the main force to the eastern front.

At the beginning of the new strategy, the German General Staff estimated that it would take three months for Russia to complete military mobilization and transport its main force to the Eastern European front. However, after France and Russia concluded the alliance, the French invested in helping Russia build a railway network in the southwest, which greatly shortened the time for the Russian team to transport from the rear to the front. After the outbreak of the war, due to repeated urging and incentives from France, the Russian army launched an offensive without being fully prepared. The 1st and 2nd Army declared war and crossed the German-Russian border to attack East Prussia in just half a month, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the German General Staff.

Speaking of the Battle of East Prussia in 1914, we have to mention two famous figures, Hindenburg and Rudendolf. At the beginning of the war, one of them retired and the other was the deputy chief of staff of the Bilos Army. Lieutenant General Von Pritwitz Gaffron, who was in charge of military power on the Eastern Front, was handsome but arrogant, ruthless and indulgent. He had no brains or interest in military affairs, and he won the favor of the German emperor with the funny jokes and pornographic jokes on the dining table.

The Eighth Legion stationed in East Prussia had a total of four and a half corps, a cavalry division, Konisburg's garrison and some local troops, with a number of equivalent to any of the two Russian armies. The order given to the Eighth Legion was to defend East and West Prussia, and not to let himself be subdued by superior forces or be driven into the Konisburg fortress area. If you find that you are threatened by very powerful troops, you will retreat to the west of the Vistula River and give East Prussia to the enemy.

On August 15, Japan announced its participation in the Allies, allowing a large number of Russian troops to escape; therefore, the Germans became more anxious about the safety of East Prussia.

On August 17, on the Western Front, Luke and Bilo's army were sweeping across Belgium to advance towards France. The Ruprecht army used cannons and machine guns to slaughter the French attacking troops in Alsace. On the Eastern Front, with the Russian 1st Army taking the lead in invading the border, the Battle of East Prussia began.

At the beginning of the battle, the General Staff of the 8th German Army decided to take advantage of the delay in the Russian 2nd Army's trip, concentrate their efforts to deal with the Russian 1st Army, annihilated it, and then concentrate their efforts to deal with the Russian 2nd Army. This correct decision was lost due to Pritwitz's slow and incompetence in military affairs. Although Pritwitz was favored in front of the German Emperor, he was unable to control several commanders of the corps under his command. The corps command lacked effective coordination capabilities, and several corps failed to be in concert from the beginning. The brave General François led his own troops.

The regiment had a fire with the Russian army, and his friendly troops hurried forward. The Markensen Corps quickly took over the enemy, but they retreated under heavy artillery bombardment of the Russian army. The flank reserve corps fell into a fierce battle with the Russian army and could not support the Markensen Corps. They had to fight and retreat and retreated. The cowardly Pritwitz panickedly thinking that he had lost the entire battle. Not only could East Prussia not be saved, but even the Vistula River could not be defended without reinforcements. Once the Russian army crossed the Vistula River, they would not only threaten Berlin, but also the safety of Austria's flanks and even Vienna.

After receiving the report of the war on the Eastern Front, Moltke was shocked. For many years, he had always felt that Pritwitz, a fat white man, was not competent for the position of commander of the 8th Legion, so he tried every means to remove him, but Pritwitz's connections made Moltke's efforts wasted in vain.

The failure of the Eastern Front also means the failure of the war. Moltke had no choice but to draw troops from the Western Front to reinforce the Eastern Front, and withdrew Pritwitz on the grounds of poor command, and was taken over by the nearly 70-year-old veteran Paul von Benekendorf Hindenburg's line of fire.
Chapter completed!