Chapter 483: Plan XVII (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

The news that Germany declared war on Luxembourg and Belgium without warning could not be hidden at all, and such behavior also caused panic among a large number of European countries.

If even neutral countries would be invaded by a super power like Germany, wouldn't that mean that all small and medium-sized countries in Europe now, one by one, would face the risk of national extinction?

Originally, many countries thought that the Neutral Nations Declaration signed after Edward VII's funeral would be the life-saving trump card for many small and medium-sized European countries. But what made people feel cold was that after the British government learned that Belgium had been invaded by the German government, besides shouting a few condemnations verbally, there was no other reaction.

The British government did state that it was willing to accept the Belgian Royal Family and the government-in-exile, but the problem was, their country was gone; what was the use of accepting the government-in-exile now?

The only thing that made people feel somewhat at ease was perhaps the reaction of the Spanish government, another initiator of the Neutral Nations Declaration, to Germany's brazen invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Like Britain, the Spanish government also strongly condemned the German government's behavior of declaring war without warning and invading neutral countries.

Besides condemnation, the Spanish government also ordered a ban on the export of military materials to the German government, including weapons, equipment, and medicines, including rifles, machine guns, and artillery.

Because Germany was the side that initiated the war, this also led to France becoming the invaded party. Precisely because of this, Spain's ban on the export of military materials was only aimed at Germany, not at France, Russia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which were involved in the war for other reasons.

Spain's embargo on military materials was of no consequence to Germany, but for other small and medium-sized European countries, it could be considered the only comfort.

After all, the British government had not taken any practical action so far; wouldn't this mean that the British government was also supporting the German government's invasion of Belgium behind the scenes?

Regardless of what other European countries thought, for the Belgian Royal Family that had just lost its country, they were really unwilling to take refuge in London.

The reason was also very simple: before Germany launched the invasion of Belgium, the British government had once persuaded the Belgian government to agree to the German army's passage.

This was actually equivalent to the British government's clear attitude: on the matter of the German army passing through Belgian territory, the British government supported Germany.

The subsequent reaction of the British government could also show their attitude; compared to the Anglo-German relationship, Belgium was clearly the side that was abandoned.

Based on this point alone, the Belgian Royal Family and the government-in-exile could not go to London.

For the current Belgian Royal Family, they also possessed a better choice, which was to take refuge in Spain.

The current Belgian King, Albert I, was Gao Da's son-in-law; he married Gao Da's eldest daughter, Princess Suofeiya, and the exchanges between the two royal families were relatively close.

If it weren't for the fact that the distance to Britain was too close, Belgium would have long since chosen to lean toward Spain. After all, Belgium was sandwiched between Germany and France, destined to be unable to rely on Germany and France, and needed to find a powerful ally outside of Germany and France to help and maintain its independence.

The British might have been a choice before, but from the fact that Britain supported Germany in abandoning Belgium, Albert I also completely saw through the faces of the British.

Facing the invitation from the Spanish Royal Family, Albert I had almost no hesitation and took the Royal Family and the Belgian government-in-exile to Spain to take refuge.

Albert I still saw things very clearly. Compared to Britain, a super power right at their doorstep, Spain was instead a better choice.

On one hand, Spain's comprehensive strength was not inferior to Britain's, which could ensure that Belgium could survive in the cracks between Germany and France.

On the other hand, the distance between Spain and Belgium was relatively far; separated by a France, Spain would not have too much influence on Belgium, and Belgium could possess more autonomy.

The reason Gao Da invited the Belgian Royal Family to come to Spain was also very simple. On one hand, he was concerned about the safety of his eldest daughter, Suofeiya; on the other hand, he indeed wanted to express his attitude by taking in the Belgian Royal Family and the government-in-exile, obtaining the goodwill of those small and medium-sized European countries.

Currently, it seemed that Spain's approach was still very effective. Although no country had explicitly stated it, they had all strengthened their contact with Spain's diplomatic department in secret, which could be considered finding a retreat for themselves.

Because the reason for the outbreak of this World War was completely different from history, Gao Da was quite concerned about the ongoing war.

Do not be fooled by the fact that the current super war had four countries participating; in reality, the main front of the entire war was focused on the German-French battlefield. On the eastern front, whether it was Germany-Russia or Russia-Austria, no large-scale battles had broken out.

One of the main reasons for this was the exaggerated mobilization speed of Germany and France.

Before Germany declared war on France on July 17, the German government had already carried out total mobilization internally, transporting a large number of troops to the western border.

After declaring war on the French army, the German army gathered over 1.5 million people in just a few days; this scale had already far exceeded the number of Russia's standing army.

Germany took 16 days to conquer Belgium. After Belgium announced the loss of its country on August 4, the total number of German troops on the western front had already approached 2 million, which was more than twice the German standing army before the war broke out.

One must know that Germany also had nearly 800,000 troops on the eastern front. Such an exaggerated speed of military mobilization also made Germany the country with the largest number of troops in Europe at present.

France's mobilization speed was not much slower.

Although the event of Belgium reminding France had not yet had time to happen, the French government was not without any preparation for the war.

Germany's occupation of Belgium indeed made France somewhat uncomfortable, but the good news was that France had also mobilized nearly 2 million troops in these 16 days.

Compared to the 25 days the German government estimated France needed for mobilization, the achievement created by the French government was indeed much more excellent.

Currently, the number of troops confronting each other on the German-French border reached as high as 4.5 million, which also made this super war completely break through history.

Counting the eastern front battlefield and the troops mobilized by various countries later, it was easy for this super war to cumulatively invest over ten million troops.

This could also be considered a milestone worth remembering for human history. After all, a hundred years ago, there were not many countries in the world with a population exceeding ten million.

After this war broke out, the Spanish government immediately contacted the German and French governments, hoping to send a military observation group in the capacity of a neutral country to learn and record the tactics used by Germany and France in the war.

Regarding the Spanish government's request, the German government did not refuse, and it was even more impossible for the French government to refuse.

The German government also knew that even if they refused, the French side would agree to Spain's request.

More importantly, neutral European countries sending military observation groups to record the performance of participating countries in the war and some brilliant tactics used had almost become a convention for European countries.

The weapons and equipment of the army were constantly being updated, and various tactical thoughts and strategic decisions also needed to be deduced and improved according to different eras.

For those countries that had not experienced war for a long time, sending military observation groups to observe the performance of various countries in the war on the spot was already a rare opportunity to discover the deficiencies in their own tactics and strategic decisions.

It was not just Spain; Britain also sent a military observation group in the capacity of a neutral country, among which there were two army major generals; from this aspect, one could also see Britain's importance to this war.

The war on the western front had been fought for nearly half a month, and the war on the eastern front had just begun.

Facing the aggressive Germans, the French government was somewhat panicked; they demanded their ally, Russia, to launch an offensive on Germany's ancestral land, which was the East Prussia region, forcing Germany to withdraw a portion of its troops to the eastern front to defend its ancestral land.

The importance of East Prussia to Germany was no joke. This was once the territory of the Teutonic Knights, declared secularized by Albert, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights who belonged to the same Hohenzollern family, establishing the Duchy of Prussia, and connected with Brandenburg of the Holy Roman Empire, finally upgraded to the Kingdom of Prussia.

The core of the German Empire was the Kingdom of Prussia, and East Prussia belonged to a relatively core part of Prussia, so it was naturally very important to Germany.

When the German army learned that Russia had mobilized a million troops to attack East Prussia, even though they knew the western front battlefield was very important, Chief of the General Staff Moltke the Younger had to withdraw a portion of the troops to reinforce the eastern front to ensure the safety of the East Prussia region.

After Germany withdrew its troops, France on the western front indeed breathed a sigh of relief. Originally, the German army had 500,000 more people than the French army, and because Germany occupied Belgium, they could mobilize troops in five directions to attack France together, making the French army exhausted, and for a time, the losses were heavy.

But with the withdrawal of the German army, Germany had no troop advantage on the western front. The French army could not only hold off the German army's offensive but even fought back and forth with the German army, winning many times in offensive battles.

The only one suffering was perhaps Russia, facing a million German troops.

Russia was definitely a major land power, but definitely not a strong land power.

Russia mobilizing a million troops to attack East Prussia was entirely to attract firepower for France, but they did not expect such a move to be somewhat like burning oneself with fire.

The German army and the Russian army soon broke out in the Battle of Tannenberg in the East Prussia region, and it was precisely this battle that completely revealed Russia's decline to European countries.

Theoretically speaking, the number of German troops and Russian troops in the East Prussia region was not much different. Even if the overall combat effectiveness of the German army was higher, the Russian army should not have faced a disastrous defeat.

After all, nearly half of the German troops were just withdrawn from the western front, crossing the entire Germany in a short time; these soldiers would certainly be quite exhausted.

But what was unexpected was that the performance of the Russian army in this battle could only be described as terrible.

Before the German support troops arrived, the Russian army occupied a numerical advantage. The Russian army also invaded East Prussia during this period, and the situation looked excellent.

But the problem was, the constantly victorious Russian army completely relaxed its vigilance; they did not expect at all that the German army's defeat was just intentional.

When Alexander Samsonov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Second Army, who was greedy for merit and advanced rashly, discovered his situation, the Second Army had already completely entered the encirclement set by the German army.

The German army that arrived later easily harvested the Second Army, and Commander-in-Chief Alexander Samsonov knew that his blind advance caused this disastrous defeat, so he committed suicide after the defeat.

Although his suicide looked to have some courage, for Russia, they had completely lost the ability to launch an offensive against Germany after this defeat, so they had to be forced to turn to strategic defense, praying to be able to delay for a longer time.

Although Gao Da had long anticipated the incompetence of the Russian government, he did not expect that under the condition that Spain supported a large amount of weapons and equipment, the Russian army could still give the German army a great victory as in history.

Russia from then on had no ability to attack Germany, which also meant Germany could finally concentrate its troops to attack France.

The good news was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire, seeing Russia's disastrous defeat, did not send troops to help Germany attack France, but chose to go south to attack Serbia to expand its territory.

On August 11, 1912, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia without warning, and hundreds of thousands of Austro-Hungarian troops marched grandly from the north, west, and southwest directions to attack Serbia, with the posture of directly annexing Serbia.

Serbia had long been a member of the Allied powers, and after being declared war upon by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia also chose to declare war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, officially joining the war.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire promised to share Serbia with Bulgaria, so after Serbia declared war, Bulgaria also declared war on Serbia, and the Balkan Peninsula officially became a mess.

Although this World War broke out too early, for Gao Da, the war so far had no major changes compared to history.

This could also be considered good news. As long as the time of Russia's collapse was slowed down, relying on the Franco-Russian Alliance could also drag Germany for several years.

Several years of time were enough to completely squeeze out the potential of these participating countries like Germany and France. When Spain participated in the war to quickly defeat Germany, it could become the only winner of the war.

Britain was the only country Spain needed to be wary of so far. To deal with Britain, Spain still needed to build more capital ships, which was also the reason why Spain had not reduced its military expenditure so far.

Even not only did it not reduce military expenditure, after this war broke out, Gao Da also specifically convened a cabinet meeting, announcing that starting from this year, military expenditure would increase by 30% annually, with no upper limit.

Britain and Spain were the same; besides building a large number of battleships locally, the British government was also quite concerned about the situation of the war between Germany and France.

For Britain, the outbreak of war between Germany and France could be considered good news, which could greatly weaken the two countries that posed a great threat to Britain.

The only bad news was that Spain did not join this war, which also meant that Spain's comprehensive national strength would not have any weakening, and the Spanish Navy still posed a relatively large threat to Britain.

Another reason Britain closely monitored the situation of the European battlefield was to choose the stronger side to join, making Britain also a winner of the war.

In this way, if Spain wanted to interfere in the war again, it could only choose to join the weaker side.

It was not so easy for Spain to want to help the weaker side turn defeat into victory. As long as Spain dared to join the weaker side, Britain, uniting with the dominant side, had plenty of ways to defeat Spain.

As long as Spain could be defeated, the threat of the Spanish Navy that Britain worried about would be resolved. After all, a defeated country was not qualified to possess such a large military scale; as long as Spain was defeated, cutting the army and navy was inevitable.

Regarding the little schemes in the hearts of Britain and Spain, the German and French governments were naturally clear.

It was just that they could not manage so much at this time; the situation of the war on the front line was the most important. Whether it was French Chief of the General Staff Joffre or German Chief of the General Staff Moltke the Younger, they both wished they could live on the front line at this time to accurately regulate troop deployment.

Besides the accident of the Russian army attacking East Prussia, the war between Germany and France was still proceeding according to their respective offensive plans.

For French Chief of the General Staff Joffre, he still firmly believed that France's Plan XVII could achieve victory.

According to France's Plan XVII, to occupy the Alsace and Lorraine regions, France needed to use nearly 1.6 million combat troops.

Although a considerable portion of these troops needed to remain within French territory as reserve troops, to ensure the soundness of the offensive plan, Joffre still deployed 1.6 million troops on the Alsace-Lorraine line.

The disadvantage of doing so was also very obvious, which was that on the northern border and the border with Belgium, the number of remaining French troops was less than 400,000.

At this time, Belgium had already been occupied by the German army, and the 400,000 French troops had to face over a million German troops.

Did French Chief of the General Staff Joffre not know the pressure faced by the 400,000 troops on the northern border?

He certainly knew.

But there was no way; for the smooth execution of Plan XVII, he could only wrong these 400,000 troops to build a defense line to defend against over a million German troops.

For Joffre, it was acceptable to lose a portion of territory on the northern front. Anyway, as long as Alsace and Lorraine were occupied on the eastern front, it could threaten Germany's Ruhr region, which was fatal to Germany.

To urge the French army on the Alsace-Lorraine line to execute Plan XVII in an orderly manner, French Chief of the General Staff Joffre often took a car from the French General Headquarters at Le François to inspect the front-line combat troops.

To be able to travel quickly between various combat troops and the General Headquarters, Joffre also specifically hired a driver who had won the French Automobile Grand Prix many times to serve as his personal driver.

Because Spain had invented the automobile a long time ago, automobiles were not unfamiliar to European countries today.

Major European powers also had various automobile competitions; on one hand, it was to show the driving skills of automobile drivers through competitions, and on the other hand, it was also for automobile manufacturers to show the performance of their automobiles through competitions.

Precisely because of these automobile competitions, there was more and more detailed classification of automobiles. The originally relatively single automobile was also divided into four types: ordinary household passenger cars, sports cars, racing cars, and trucks; basically, those participating in automobile competitions were the two types of car models that pursued performance and speed more. ===== CHAPTER 484 =====