Chapter 340: Bismarck Resigns

The first huge change brought about by this war has arrived.

German Emperor Wilhelm II defied public opinion and let Germany join this war, but the quarrel between him and Prime Minister Bismarck before the war became a topic that received even more attention than the war.

This new Emperor is not his grandfather; because of congenital disability, Wilhelm II has extreme self-esteem and naturally would not allow a Prime Minister like Bismarck, who publicly refuted and even scolded himself at cabinet meetings, to exist.

And for Bismarck, he gave everything for this country. The creation of the German Empire cannot be separated from the credit of the Iron Chancellor Bismarck, and it was precisely under Bismarck's leadership that the former Kingdom of Prussia successively defeated Denmark, Austria, and France, and built the powerful German Empire.

"When the birds are gone, the bow is put away; when the cunning rabbits are dead, the hunting dogs are cooked." Prime Minister Bismarck, who had held great power in Germany for more than 20 years, was astonished to find that the empire he had worked so hard to build no longer had a place for him.

Disappointed with the status quo, Prime Minister Bismarck submitted his resignation to German Emperor Wilhelm II, which could also be considered the last warning to Wilhelm II.

Wilhelm II did not respond to Prime Minister Bismarck's resignation; silence at such a moment often also represents acquiescence.

In endless disappointment and grief, German Prime Minister Bismarck formally submitted his resignation to the cabinet and submitted a resignation letter as long as six pages to Wilhelm II.

After doing all this, Prime Minister Bismarck did not stay any longer; he left Berlin indignantly and went to his manor to live in seclusion.

After Prime Minister Bismarck left the German cabinet, the German cabinet was formally controlled by the new Emperor Wilhelm II. The person who succeeded Bismarck as German Prime Minister was Leo von Caprivi, a high-level military figure with some seniority.

In fact, from this point, one can also see the reason why Wilhelm II forced Prime Minister Bismarck away; it was mainly because Prime Minister Bismarck possessed great prestige in the German government and military, and this kind of prestige and status had already affected Wilhelm II's power.

Such a situation was similar to the environment in Spain when Gao Da first arrived in Spain. However, at that time, Gao Da did not have much power and could only develop stealthily.

Coupled with the fact that Prime Minister Primo at that time was not as strong as Prime Minister Bismarck, Prime Minister Primo was still willing to give Gao Da, this new King, a certain right to speak in many aspects, which also made Prime Minister Primo's ending much better than Prime Minister Bismarck's.

Prime Minister Bismarck's sad departure became Germany's biggest news, and for a short time, it even became the hottest news in all of Europe.

As a figure of the wind and clouds in Europe in the late 19th century, Prime Minister Bismarck had always been the person European countries valued most. His resignation immediately aroused the attention of various European countries; countries like France, which had a poor relationship with Germany, instead cheered for it.

Everyone understood that Prime Minister Bismarck's resignation was a weakening for Germany. As one of the greatest contributors to the establishment of the German Empire, Prime Minister Bismarck played a crucial role in Germany.

He controlled Germany's politics, diplomacy, military, and economy, and single-handedly facilitated the European situation of isolating France, making the newly established German Empire one of the four major European powers, and vaguely having the trend of being the European hegemon.

Just from this point, no matter how one praises Bismarck's political achievements, it is not too much. Before Bismarck became the Prime Minister of Prussia, Prussia was just an ordinary second-rate country on the European continent and could not even compete with Austria in the German region.

And after he served as Prime Minister of Prussia, through various reforms, Prussia soon became a European power.

It was precisely because of Bismarck that Prussia was able to exclude Austria from Germany and establish the German Empire itself.

Why say that Austrians are also Germans? The most fundamental reason is that Austria also belongs to the German region. The German region was ruled by the Holy Roman Empire hundreds of years ago, and the Habsburg family that ruled Austria was also the royal family of the Holy Roman Empire hundreds of years ago.

If it weren't for Bismarck, the royal family of the Holy Roman Empire region would still be Habsburg, and the German Empire would have nothing to do with Prussia.

Compared to Bismarck, his successor, Prime Minister Leo von Caprivi, did not have such high prestige and power.

The main reason why Wilhelm II appointed him as German Prime Minister was that Leo von Caprivi, under the premise of having certain ability, also did not have any party identity, which could be considered a candidate who was relatively easy to control.

After changing the Prime Minister, Wilhelm II issued an order to the new cabinet, requiring the cabinet to make perfect preparations for war and strive to defeat Russia in this war.

As soon as Prime Minister Leo von Caprivi took office, he accelerated Germany's investment in the war.

Previously, during Prime Minister Bismarck's reign, Bismarck had always opposed Germany joining this war, which also led to Germany's insufficient preparation for this war.

Although they had already declared war on Russia, currently the army Germany could mobilize was only about 200,000 on the eastern border, which was clearly unable to win this war.

It only took a few days for Prime Minister Leo von Caprivi to produce a perfect expansion plan, which was quickly nodded and agreed to by Wilhelm II.

According to this brand-new expansion plan, Germany will use at least 500,000 active-duty troops in this war and mobilize at least 500,000 reserve troops.

This also means that in this war, the total number of German troops will soon exceed one million. Germany's goal is not just to defeat Russia, but Germany also wants to occupy the Poland region occupied by Russia.

From the map, one can also see that the Poland region occupied by Russia is a protrusion, located exactly between the territories of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Germany's war plan is also very simple, which is to divide troops into two routes with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, directly surround the Poland region, annihilate the Russian garrison in the Poland region, and directly occupy the whole of Poland.

If they could occupy the whole of Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Galicia and Lodomeria regions would also be guaranteed, and it would not be so easy for the Russian army to attack Germany or the Austro-Hungarian Empire from this salient area.

This German war plan also destined that the Poland region would be the main place for Germany and Russia to attack and defend, and it would also be the most important battlefield of this war.

As for the war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia, although the war between these two countries was the source that provoked this great war, the scale of this war was destined not to be large; after all, the Russians could not support Serbia.

For Serbia, besides being able to obtain Russia's weapons and equipment, they were almost in a state of isolation and helplessness.

Precisely because of the successive statements of the British and the Spanish, various European countries gave up the idea of interfering in this war.

Romania is located between Serbia and Russia, and they also announced neutrality and non-interference in this war. This led to the Russian army being unable to borrow a path from Romania, and the Russian army was unable to support Serbia, which was cut off.

About half a month after the outbreak of the war, Spain's military observation group formally arrived at the Austro-Hungarian Empire and planned to go to the Galicia and Lodomeria regions to observe the war situation of the three countries, Germany, Austria, and Russia, in detail.

Compared to the small-scale war between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia, Spain's military observation group was clearly more concerned about the battle between the three major powers.

And the battle between these three major powers did not disappoint Spain's military observation group. On the day the military guidance group arrived in the Galicia and Lodomeria regions, the three countries of Germany, Austria, and Russia broke out in a large-scale battle here. Because Russia's mobilization speed was relatively slow, Russia was in a defensive posture on the border, and the attacking side was the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany.

Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire prepared more than 300,000 troops in southern Poland; the mission of this army was precisely to march north from southern Poland and cut off the retreat of the Russian garrison in Poland.

Another army of less than 200,000 troops would march south from northern Poland and join the southern army to surround the Poland region.

The offensive and defensive battle in the Poland region relatively clearly displayed the different characteristics of the armies of the three countries.

In terms of military combat effectiveness, the German army's combat effectiveness was the strongest, and the equipment was also the most sophisticated. The actual damage ratio could also show that the German soldiers had a higher degree of training and did not have too many panicked performances in the war.

Compared to the German army, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army and the Russian army were on the same level. Although the Russian army's overall combat effectiveness was relatively poor, the border defense army was still worthy of affirmation.

Especially the army on the German-Russian border, these troops were the main force of the Russian army, and their performance in the battle was still worthy of affirmation.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire's army that was relatively elite was the part composed of Austrians; the combat effectiveness of the army composed of Hungarians, Czechs, or other ethnic soldiers was hard to describe, and the level could be said to be uneven.

Such an army could still play a certain role in defensive battles, but in offensive battles, its role could simply be said to be non-existent.

If it weren't for the German army's performance being too brave, I am afraid the German-Austrian coalition could not have advanced the front line very far.

Because they were on the front line, the military observation group was still quite clear about the situation of the war.

In the entire Poland region, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized more than 500,000 troops, while the Russian side had less than 400,000 troops.

Although Russia had a large number of troops rushing to the front line, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were also continuously carrying out mobilization.

From this aspect, one can also see the outcome of the Poland battle; the scale of victory was gradually tilting toward Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This is also Russia's biggest shortcoming, which is that the war mobilization speed is indeed too slow. Not only is the war mobilization speed slow, but Russia's traffic environment is also the worst among European powers.

Coupled with the relatively vast land, the time spent for troops mobilized from various places to rush to the front line is several times that of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This also destined that Russia would be at a disadvantage in the early stages of any war, unless Russia had made sufficient preparations before the war and the mobilization was almost done, perhaps it could change the disadvantage in the early stages of the war.

Clearly, this war broke out suddenly for Russia. This also led to Russia's preparation before the war being fundamentally insufficient; not only was the army mobilization speed slow, but various strategic materials also needed a long time to be transported to the front line.

For this war, Gao Da was still quite attentive.

The military observation group dispatched by Spain was composed of two parts of officers, one part was relatively young school-level generals, and the other part was young officers who had just graduated from military school for a few years or were still studying in military school.

These people are the future of the Spanish army, and among them, many future army generals might be born. Gao Da also placed high hopes on them, hoping that they could learn more knowledge and absorb more experience from this war.

It is worth mentioning that even though Gao Da blocked information related to machine guns, various European countries still had their own explorations about machine guns.

The German army was equipped with some automatic firearms similar to machine guns, and these firearms also played a certain role in the war.

The world's first fully automatic machine gun in the true sense was designed by Maxim, but before Maxim, the American Gatling had already designed a hand-cranked semi-automatic machine gun.

Various European countries clearly also paid attention to this kind of hand-cranked semi-automatic machine gun and were exploring the design of fully automatic machine guns according to the principle of this machine gun.

As Germany's ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army also had the appearance of this machine gun. However, it could clearly be seen that there was still a certain difference between the German machine gun and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's machine gun, which also means that both countries had their own progress in the research and development of machine guns.

Unlike Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian army did not see any trace of machine guns at all.

The Russian army was equipped with the same old two things, namely standard rifles and cannons. Because the Poland region is adjacent to both Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two countries were fighting at their own doorsteps, and the logistical supply was also relatively easy.

But for Russia, although Russian-occupied Poland is Russia's own territory, this land is too far away from Russia's core.

The Poland region and Russia's capital, Saint Petersburg, are separated by a distance of nearly a thousand kilometers, and the distance to other cities is even further.

This also led to the fact that although they were fighting on their own territory, Russia's logistical pressure was actually greater than Germany's and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's.

As the saying goes, "when the cannon sounds, gold is ten thousand taels." Besides the worry of logistical supply, the Russian military also had no small worry in terms of military spending.

Although Russia has more people, the economic environment is still much worse compared to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The longer the war drags on, the greater Russia's logistical pressure and economic pressure will be. To a certain extent, this is also a war that Russia cannot drag on.

In the week that Spain's military observation group arrived at the front line, the three countries of Germany, Austria, and Russia launched fierce attacks in the Poland region.

In just one week, the total casualties of the three countries had already exceeded 100,000. This can also fully reflect the cruelty of war; any war is a quite large loss for the people of various countries.

The Russian side bore the most casualties; just the number of Russian soldiers who died reached tens of thousands.

Under the continuous attacks of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia's defense line in the Poland region was also constantly retreating. As one report of victory after another was transmitted back to Berlin and Vienna, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire became more and more optimistic about this war.

Italy, which is also in the tripartite alliance, only had regret for this war. If Italy had joined this war a little earlier, they would also be in the role of a winner now.

And by being able to ask for more benefits by joining the war, Italy could also set foot on the Balkan Peninsula, instead of continuing to shrink on the Apennine Peninsula like it is now.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 341 =====