One day in August, the Limerick River Harbor pier was crowded and very lively. People wore neat and simple clothes, waved handkerchiefs and small flags in their hands to bid farewell to the Royal Irish archer regiment. This was the first Irish Army unit to be officially crowned the title of "Royal". Its predecessor was the 1st Division of the Munster Irish Volunteer Army, which was simplified and reduced. After it was the regular infantry regiment with 3,200 members. The officers and soldiers boarded the ship at the dock were given a brand new 1915 Irish Army field uniform, with the style of "continental" similar to the German and French troops.

Model: The fabric is hard, the style is straight, the top is simple in lines, and there are few pockets. The lower body is breeches that are suitable for tightness and are paired with all-brown short boots. The new field uniform uses gray-green and green color, so it is nicknamed by Irish soldiers as "elves archers who are good at forest operations". Its appearance has completely escaped the Irish army from the British garrison and local security forces. Of course, since the new military uniform is produced by local Ireland factories, the degree of mechanization is not high and the production speed is slow, so changing the Irish troops can only be carried out in steps.

Whether it is military uniforms or weapons, the Irish Expeditionary Force, which is about to set foot on the European continent, received the highest priority attack.

Because there was no need to go directly to the battlefield, the Irish soldiers carrying rifles were installed in tarp covers. They wore light and beautiful leaf-shaped cloth hats, and hung the equipped ear-cutting steel helmets and iron lunch boxes behind the light infantry backpack. Most of these native Irish people left their country for the first time, but the sadness of separation from their families was not strong on them. Many of them talked to their companions with relaxed and pleasant expressions. They didn't know what was waiting for themselves in front, maybe it was a prominent military honor or a disaster of war killing. At this moment, they were only proud of their ability to embark on an expedition.

On the viewing platform built by the dock, Xia Shu was dressed in military uniform. Accompanied by the Minister of Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Pierce, and Grientz, the commander of the German Expeditionary Force in Ireland, he inspected the first Irish Expeditionary Force sent to the European continent, and made an enthusiastic mobilization in the increasingly fluent Celtic language.

"...Our enemies are not scary. They are reckless, barbaric, and lack tactical skills. We do not need to compete with them for brute force. The primary purpose is to gain experience in modern warfare on the battlefield, bring this experience back, and pass it on to all Irish soldiers to defend our country. Never forget that Ireland's independence was exchanged for many Irish soldiers with their blood and lives..."

The enemy that Xia Shu mentioned was the Tsarist Russian army in far eastern Europe. After France and Britain withdrew from the war one after another, the Russians who were fighting for French allies fell into a state of fighting alone. Although it extended an olive branch to the allies before Britain extended an olive branch to the allies, its vast territory, abundant resources, and strong external resources, and its state of strong external forces at the outside and strong at the middle level undoubtedly made the allies greedy. The German Empire's military strength was in its prime, and it was ambitious to seize Ukraine with a "granary of Eastern Europe". Ottoman Turkey has always coveted the rich land north of the Caucasus and Azerbaijan, which is rich in oil. The military power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was "comminuted fracture" in its confrontation with the Russian army. The prestige of the Habsburg Dynasty has therefore dropped to the lowest point in history. The binary monarchy hopes to eliminate the negative impact of combat failures by expanding its territory.

Unlike the three strong German, Austrian and Turkish leaders, the Allied camps, Bulgaria and Italy, although they had fulfilled their obligation to declare war on Russia, were of little interest to attack Russia. Bulgaria had stolen a large area of ​​eastern Serbia and had already met the territorial territorial status. This small Balkan country had a complex historical origin with Russia, and was obviously unwilling to offend the giant bear too much for the small profits in front of them. For similar reasons, the Italians were unwilling to risk being held by the Russians to seize one or two enclaves far away from their homeland. They were busy occupying the colonies cedeed by France and Britain under the armistice treaty and the international trade markets given up by the decline of Britain and France, and were only responsible for the war on the Eastern Front.

In order to train combat troops, enhance allied friendship and expand national influence, Ireland declared war on Russia as a member of the alliance camp and announced that it would send combat troops to the eastern front. However, this did not cause an uproar worldwide. Only German newspapers welcomed the Irish army led by the "Hohenzollern genius" with enthusiastic rhetoric. Even so, both the German people and the generals regarded the arrival of the Irish army as a political decision with most symbolic significance.

The equipment level of the Royal Irish archers is second to that of the Irish army, and is not inferior to the British army. However, on the European continent, its level is only enough to be classified as the "light infantry". Since the battlefield on the Eastern Front has calmed down, Russian soldiers have consolidated their fortifications day after day under the command of officers, which is like moving the trench warfare model from the Western Front to the Eastern Front. Judging from the experience of the Western Front, if you want to break through the defense line of trenches, heavy artillery and chariots are essential, and these two sharp weapons are exactly what the Irish army lacks the most.

Although not favored by the outside world, Xia Shu still had high expectations for these Irish soldiers who landed on the European continent for the first time. After that, the Royal Irish Shooter Regiment will have two infantry regiments and a field artillery battalion to the eastern line. In addition to a few German liaison officers, these troops are Irish, from commanders, staff members to company and platoon officers, which is essentially different from the situation during the Irish War of Independence. In Xia Shu's own words, "Ireland will eventually be defended by Irish soldiers."

After Ireland declared war on Russia, the two powerful warships belonging to the Irish Navy were renamed the Celtic and the Long Live Freedom armored cruisers of the former German navy, Sharnhorst and Gneisenau, together with the Germans' large torpedo boats sold to Ireland, have set off for the Faroe Islands. They will cruise the northern channel with German ships to intercept any ships heading to northern Russia. In fact, since Irish sailors do not have the ability to control large and medium-sized ships, the two Schanehorst-class patrols are still controlled by German naval officers and soldiers. The Irish officers and sailors who boarded the ship accounted for about one-third of the crew. They need to learn every month to gradually take over these sophisticated and complex war machines.

According to information, Britain was still secretly aiding Russia after signing the armistice treaty, which means that warships flying the Irish naval flag may confront British ships in the northern waters. In fact, with their unique diplomatic experience, the British accurately grasped the weaknesses of the alliance countries during the armistice negotiations, diverted the attention of negotiators and the ruling top leaders with a series of conditions that cater to their appetites, and maximized the British military strength with the strategy of abandoning cars to protect the general. The ships paid to the alliance countries were either old battle lines.

Ships and cruisers, either the structurally damaged and difficult to completely repair, can truly bring Britain back to the top of the naval powerhouses, and most of the new warships lying on the ship platform and even have completed designs and not yet started construction, can be retained. In order to confuse the Germans, the British even demolished all five Revenge-class battleships known as the Queen Elizabeth-class follow-up ship. These dreadnoughts that have been built for a year are simplified versions of the Queen Elizabeth-class, and there is a certain gap between them and the Queens in terms of performance.

In August, Europe ushered in a bumper harvest season. Whether in the European continent or island countries, golden wheat fields can be seen everywhere in the fields. Although it has been under the siege of war for most of the year, thanks to the good climate and the hard work of women, Ireland's crops have achieved a relatively ideal harvest. In the following year, the food can be basically self-sufficient, which means that foreign exchange income from selling livestock products does not need to be extra expenses in importing food and vegetables. In contrast, France, across the sea, is not so lucky. During the wheat sowing season, German and French troops are fighting fiercely in the Loire Basin, the richest Loire River Basin in central France. Cannons roar and planes roar.

The army swept through fields and villages like locusts, and French civilians had to avoid the war. The planting area of ​​farmland was only two-thirds of that of previous years. Two million German officers and soldiers poured into France forcibly recruited and consumed a large amount of food reserved by the French. Even if the French government did not use food to compensate for some of the war's indemnities, the French people had to tighten their belts and spend the winter of 1915. In addition to the shortage of food, the French had also lost fewer and fewer meat and dairy products on the table. Their livestock industry was also hit hard by the war. Before the truce, the Germans had plundered millions of cattle and sheep from France, including a large number of dairy cows, to alleviate and improve the extreme scarcity of supplies in Germany during the war.

In order to gain a relaxed and friendly strategic environment for the new Ireland Kingdom so that it can gain widespread support in the future confrontation with Britain, Xia Shu decided to lead a delegation to launch a goodwill journey to France after discussing with his ministers. In the southern region actually controlled by the French government, Xia Shu, on behalf of the Irish government, donated butter, cheese, and flour to the French people in Toulouse, Castel, Nabada and other places, and provided a large amount of medical supplies to the French military hospitals for free.
Chapter completed!