Chapter 456 Darkness

Since Russia joined the counteroffensive, almost everyone has reached a consensus that the only outcome for the Germans is failure. new

In fact, all countries except Germany feel this way, and even many German civilians feel that their country is not far from defeat.

But the only one who did not agree with this was the German government, or rather the Hindenburg and Junker aristocrats who controlled the German government.

Under Hindenburg's planning, a huge death-defying counterattack was about to begin, which would determine whether Germany would win or lose, at least that's what Hindenburg felt.

In order to win this war, the Germans did everything they could. Almost all civilian factories made concessions to military factories. The government called on all people to go to military factories to produce the materials needed by the frontline troops.

As a result, the production speed of German military factories has expanded several times, from tens of millions of bullets per month to nearly 200 million bullets per month.

Although this does basically meet the consumption of the frontline troops, there is also a problem for Germany, that is, the domestic economy has been destroyed by the war, and Germany's development has been disrupted because of this war.

Even if there is an unconditional peace, it will take at least ten years for Germany to restore its pre-war situation and economy.

This situation also made the German military government even more crazy. They firmly established the fact that Germany could not fail, and instead pinned their hopes on a decisive battle to save Germany with a miraculous victory.

The biggest bad news for Germany is that the Allies maintain an absolute numerical advantage over Germany on both the Eastern and Western fronts.

The German army has fully understood the power of the human sea tactic, even if Germany's battle loss ratio is as high as 1:3, and even in some areas, the battle loss ratio is as high as 1:1.

After all, Germany is currently consuming the colonial population of Britain and France, as well as Russia, which has no shortage of population at all.

But the Germans consume their own native population, and the death of every German is a weakening for Germany.

In the first month of the all-out counteroffensive, the battle between Country 1 and Germany set a new record, that is, the number of casualties in a single month exceeded 2 million, and the average number of people injured or killed every day as a result of this war exceeded 8 Thousands of people (August 25th).

Although only more than 500,000 of these 2 million people were German casualties, there is no doubt that the German government has begun to fear such a huge consumption. new

In just one month, Germany lost one-tenth of its troops. How long can the remaining more than four million troops last?

There is also bad news for the German government. The troops supporting and exchanging with the Austro-Hungarian Empire total more than 30 divisions, which is more than 500,000 combat troops.

Before the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it had no contact with Germany, which also put the German army in a very dangerous situation after the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not directly join the Allies, otherwise it would be a question whether these more than 500,000 troops could be preserved.

You must know that the former German army was within the control of Italy, and further north was the Austrian territory controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It is not a simple problem to get this German army back to Germany through the territories of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Allies were obviously aware of the existence of this German army. The Italian army frequently harassed this German army, and with the assistance of a small number of Balkan troops and American troops, this German army was dragged into Italy with no way to return. Domestic aid.

If the German government cannot provide any reinforcements to support this army, then there is a high possibility that this German army will be surrounded and annihilated.

But there is no way. Currently, almost all German troops are deployed on the east and west fronts. Hindenburg and the German General Staff have less than 300,000 reserve troops.

It is a bit fanciful to think about 300,000 troops going to rescue 500,000 troops.

If 300,000 troops could save this German army from its current situation, this German army would have returned to Germany long ago.

Not only was the dilemma on land, the German navy was huddled in the port and did not dare to go out, because outside the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, a large number of Allied fleets were jointly patrolling.

The submarine tactics that Germany often used before are basically no longer used. Because of the participation of the United States, the Allied Powers have enough warships to protect merchant ships.

Although occasionally one or two merchant ships are attacked by German submarines, such attacks are already an itch for the current Allied Powers. On the contrary, they will intensify the Allied Powers' hatred of Germany and in disguise increase the funds that Germany will need to pay compensation after defeat in the future.

In addition, many Allied bombers bombed German cities from time to time, or dropped some leaflets persuading them to surrender.

German troops on the front line, cities and factories in the rear, were among the targets of these bombers and aircraft.

Random bombings not only disrupted the order of these cities, but the large number of leaflets distributed by planes also disrupted the minds of these Germans.

Even the Germans who had supported the war before the war could not help but question their hearts at this time, and even began to question the government and military's decision-making in this war. new

Because Hindenburg was the chief of general staff at this time, Hindenburg was under considerable pressure.

Fortunately, there were two former chiefs of staff, Mao Qi and Falkenhayn, who also shouldered a considerable part of the pressure.

It's just that Hindenburg is still active in German politics, so he is under the most pressure.

Because of the harassment of these Allied aircraft, coupled with the frequent defeats in frontline battles, the prestige of the military government headed by Hindenburg dropped a lot.

Many military leaders who are not Junker nobles have even begun to take issue, saying that it is precisely because of the blind command of the General Staff that has led to the current difficulties that Germany is facing.

These people demanded that Hindenburg return power to Kaiser Wilhelm II and not let Germany go further down the wrong path.

In fact, compared to the more extreme Junker aristocracy and military government, during the reign of William II, the German government was more rational.

More importantly, William II was not a firm fighter. The interest groups represented by William II were more like the Balancers. Although they hope to win the war, they can also accept defeat.

After all, for William II, his throne is the most important thing. Only someone like Hindenburg who directly ostracized Wilhelm II and the government could

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It is the biggest threat to the German imperial power and government.

Although there have been some voices from the military and civilians, Hindenburg will never pay attention to these people's questions.

What a joke, Hindenburg finally emptied out the rights of William II and obtained the actual rule of the military government.

It is simply impossible for him to hand over his rights to William II just because of the remarks of some people in the country.

After all, William II also had complaints about being ignored, and as the culprit that caused all this, Hindenburg was definitely one of the people William II held a grudge against.

If you dare to return the rights to Wilhelm II, Hindenburg will wait to be liquidated by Wilhelm II!

Although it seems that the Germans are in grave danger, the Allied powers' consumption is also huge.

Only half a month after launching the war, the Russians once again asked for help from Australasia, requesting to purchase more weapons and equipment.

If it were in the past, Arthur would still find ways to delay the Russians and create greater benefits for himself.

But now, Arthur directly agreed to the Russians' request without even thinking about it. There is no way, even if Australasia does not sell weapons to Russia, there is still the United States behind it drooling and staring at the arms trade of various countries.

If Australasia rejects this order, the Americans will definitely step in and take over the order.

Rather than letting the Americans make money, Australasia should work hard and make the money themselves.

What's more, a more powerful Russia is also a good thing for Arthur. At least the Russian monarchy should be able to maintain it for a while.

Arthur knew clearly that the greatest threat to the Russian monarchy was the workers' alliance that controlled Moscow.

What the Russian Provisional Government actually wanted was a constitutional monarchy, which Arthur could accept.

After all, a constitutional monarchy is also a monarchy, and a prestigious monarch can still control a certain amount of power, such as the previous Queen Victoria.

There is even hope that a constitutional monarchy can be transformed into an autocratic monarchy. A monarch who is prestigious and deeply loved by the people can do this.

But if it transforms into the republic desired by the workers' alliance and wants to restore the monarchy, it is basically impossible.

After all, not everyone wants to have a king above them for no reason. This king will also take away part of the government's money, and even order himself arrogantly.

1 Hindenburg's carefully planned counterattack finally came.

Millions of German troops on the southern front broke through the Allied defenses, mainly the Italian army's defenses, and even came close to the Marne River.

You know, Paris is just downstream of the Marne River, only more than 100 kilometers away from the German front line.

This German counterattack panicked the Allied Powers. If Paris fell, it would be no joke. The blow to the Allied Powers would be unparalleled.

After all, a considerable part of the 10 million Allied troops on the Western Front were contributed by the French.

If the Germans really succeed in their sneak attack and force the French to surrender, then there is a question whether the remaining Allied forces can withstand the German attack.

In order to support the French and at the same time satisfy the sentiments of the French government and people, the British urgently announced that they would support an additional 500,000 troops on the Western Front.

Italy, also under pressure from the Allied Powers, sent an additional 200,000 troops to block the German attack.

At this time, the nearly 2 million reserve troops previously reserved will come into use.

Following an order from the Allied General Headquarters, the reserve troops stationed along the Marne River and behind Verdun began to mobilize frequently with the intention of driving the Germans back to the original front line.

The final result was good. On the banks of the Marne River, 70 kilometers away from Paris, millions of Allied troops successfully blocked the German army's attack and pushed the German army back more than 20 kilometers.

The outbreak of another Paris offensive and defensive war was avoided, which also made the entire Allied Powers, especially France, breathe a sigh of relief.

At the same time, it also made all the Allied Powers understand that it was unreliable for the Italian army to become the main offensive point, and it would even affect other fronts.

The Allied General Headquarters made an immediate decision and mobilized 300,000 Australasian troops from the northern front and 300,000 Italian troops from the southern front.

Thanks to the well-developed transportation networks in Belgium and France, the trip can be completed in almost two weeks.

In order to stabilize the front line during the change of defense, the Allied General Headquarters decided to increase the offensive on other fronts during the change of defense, and at the same time dispatched a large number of reconnaissance aircraft to determine the movements of the Germans.

Of course, during the change of defense, there are up to 500,000 reserve troops ready to go to the front line to fill any vacancies caused by the change of defense.

At the same time, the Allied General Headquarters also requested the Russians to increase their offensive on the Eastern Front. The Germans had no intention of launching a surprise attack like before.

Under the counterattack of millions of reserve troops, it took more than half a month to successfully drive the attacking German army back to the front line.

The Australasian army also completed the defense change with the Italian army in more than half a month, and the Australasian army became the main offensive point on the southern front.

This is a difficult task for the Australasian army. After all, it can follow the British on the northern front and play the role of an auxiliary.

However, the southern front is a mixture of French troops, Italian troops, Balkan coalition forces and American troops, plus the Australasian troops that have just completed the defense change. There is no problem in saying that this is the camp of all nations.

As the main offensive point on the southern front, the Australasian army faced the greatest counterattack by the German army.

This also means that the Australasian army cannot avoid casualties, and the casualties cannot be as few as before.

However, as long as the current Germany can be defeated, all sacrifices will be worth it.

Currently, almost all participating countries are longing for peace, and Arthur is also looking forward to the distribution of post-war benefits in Australasia.

Why not sacrifice one Germany to make all the countries of the Entente happy and strengthen Australasia?

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