Chapter 483: Plan 17 (Seeking Monthly Votes!)

The news that Germany had launched an unprovoked attack on Luxembourg and Belgium could not be kept secret, and such behavior caused panic among a large number of European countries.

If even neutral countries could be invaded by a superpower like Germany, would that not mean that all small and medium-sized countries in Europe today, one and all, faced the risk of national annihilation?

Originally, many countries believed that the Declaration of Neutrality signed after the funeral of Edward VII would be the life-saving trump card for many small and medium-sized European nations. However, what was chilling was that after the British government learned that Belgium had been invaded by the German government, apart from shouting a few verbal condemnations, there was no further reaction.

The British government did express a willingness to accept the Belgian royal family and the government-in-exile, but the problem was, their country was already gone; what was the point of accepting a government-in-exile now?

The only thing that brought some peace of mind was perhaps the reaction of the Spanish government, another initiator of the Declaration of Neutrality, to Germany's brazen invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Like Britain, the Spanish government also strongly condemned the German government's act of launching an unprovoked attack and invading a neutral country.

In addition to condemnation, the Spanish government also ordered a ban on the export of military supplies to the German government, including weapons and equipment such as rifles, machine guns, and artillery, as well as medicine.

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

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

After all, the British government had not taken any practical action so far; did this not mean that the British government was secretly supporting the German government's invasion of Belgium?

Regardless of what other European countries thought, for the Belgian royal family, whose country had just been destroyed, they were truly unwilling to seek refuge in London.

The reason was simple: before Germany launched its invasion of Belgium, the British government had persuaded the Belgian government to agree to the passage of German troops.

This was actually equivalent to the British government making its attitude clear: regarding the matter of German troops passing through Belgian territory, the British government supported Germany.

The subsequent reaction of the British government also revealed their attitude; compared to Anglo-German relations, Belgium was clearly the party that had been abandoned.

Based on this alone, it was impossible for the Belgian royal family and the government-in-exile to head to London.

For the current Belgian royal family, they also had a better choice, which was to head to Spain.

The current King of Belgium, Albert I, was none other than the son-in-law of Gao Da; he had married Gao Da's eldest daughter, Princess Sophia, and the two royal families maintained relatively close ties.

If it were not for the fact that it was too close to Britain, Belgium would have long ago chosen to lean toward Spain. After all, sandwiched between Germany and France, it was destined that Belgium could not rely on Germany or France, and it needed to find a powerful ally outside of Germany and France to help maintain its independence.

The British might have been an option before, but the fact that Britain supported Germany and abandoned Belgium allowed Albert I to see the true face 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 seek refuge.

Albert I saw things very clearly. Compared to Britain, a superpower right on their doorstep, Spain was actually the better choice.

On one hand, Spain's comprehensive strength was no less than Britain's, and it 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; with France in between, Spain would not exert too much influence on Belgium, and Belgium could possess more autonomy.

The reason Gao Da invited the Belgian royal family to Spain was also simple. On one hand, he was concerned for the safety of his eldest daughter, Sophia; on the other hand, he truly wanted to use the act of sheltering the Belgian royal family and the government-in-exile to express his stance and gain the favor of those small and medium-sized European countries.

As it currently stands, Spain's approach has been quite effective. Although no country has stated it explicitly, they have all secretly strengthened their ties with the Spanish diplomatic department, which counts as finding a retreat for themselves.

Because the reasons for the outbreak of this World War were completely different from history, Gao Da was quite focused on the ongoing war.

Do not be fooled by the fact that four countries were participating in the current super-war; 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 a total mobilization internally and transported a large number of troops to the western border.

After declaring war on the French army, the German army had assembled over 1. million men in just a few days; this scale already far exceeded the number of Russia's standing army.

It took Germany 16 days to conquer Belgium. After Belgium announced the fall of its nation on August 4, the total number of German troops on the Western Front had already approached 2 million, which was more than double the size of Germany's standing army before the war broke out.

One must know that Germany also had nearly 800, 00 troops on the Eastern Front. Such an exaggerated speed of military mobilization also made Germany the country with the largest number of ground troops in Europe at present.

France's mobilization speed was not much slower.

Although the event where Belgium warned France had not yet had time to occur, the French government was not without any preparation for the war.

Germany's occupation of Belgium did indeed make things difficult for France, but the good news was that France had also mobilized nearly 2 million troops during these 16 days.

Compared to the 25 days the German government estimated France would need for mobilization, the results achieved by the French government were indeed much more excellent.

The number of troops currently confronting each other on the German-French border reached as high as 4. million, which also caused this super-war to completely break through history.

Counting the Eastern Front and the subsequent mobilization of troops by various countries, it was easy for the total number of troops invested by all countries in this super-war to reach tens of millions.

For human history, this could be considered a milestone worth remembering. After all, a hundred years ago, there were not many countries in the whole world with a population of over 10 million.

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

Regarding the request of the Spanish government, 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, it had almost become a convention for neutral European countries to send military observer missions to record the performance of belligerent nations in the war and some of the brilliant tactics they used.

The weapons and equipment of the army were constantly being updated, and various tactical ideas 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 observer missions to observe the performance of various countries in the war on the spot was a rare opportunity to discover the shortcomings in their own tactical and strategic decisions.

It was not just Spain; Britain also sent a military observer mission in the capacity of a neutral country, which included two major generals of the army. From this, one could also see the importance Britain placed on this war.

The war on the Western Front had been fought for nearly half a month, while the war on the Eastern Front had just begun.

Facing the aggressive Germans, the French government was somewhat panicked; they demanded that their ally, Russia, launch an attack on Germany's ancestral land, namely the East Prussia region, to force 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, which was declared secularized by Albert, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights who belonged to the same House of Hohenzollern, establishing the Duchy of Prussia, and was connected with Brandenburg of the Holy Roman Empire, eventually being 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 was raising a million troops to attack East Prussia, even though they knew the Western Front was very important, Chief of the General Staff Moltke the Younger had to withdraw a portion of the army to reinforce the Eastern Front to ensure the safety of the East Prussia region.

After Germany withdrew its troops, France on the Western Front did indeed breathe a sigh of relief. Originally, the German army had 500, 00 more troops than the French army, and because Germany had occupied Belgium, they could raise troops along five routes to attack France together, leaving the French army exhausted and suffering heavy losses for a time.

However, with the withdrawal of the German army, Germany no longer had any troop advantage on the Western Front. The French army was not only able to hold off the German army's offensive, but even fought back and forth with the German army, and won several times in offensive battles.

If there was only one party suffering, it might be Russia, which was facing over a million German troops.

Russia was definitely a great power in terms of its army, but it was definitely not a strong army power.

Russia raising a million troops to attack East Prussia was entirely to attract firepower for France, but they did not expect that such a move was somewhat akin to setting oneself on fire.

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

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

After all, nearly half of the German troops were just withdrawn from the Western Front, having crossed the entire length of Germany in a short period of time; these soldiers must have been quite exhausted.

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

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

But the problem was that the constantly victorious Russian army completely relaxed its vigilance; they never expected that the German army's defeat was merely intentional.

When Alexander Samsonov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Second Army, who was greedy for merit and advanced rashly, discovered his own 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 the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Alexander Samsonov, knowing that it was his own blind advance that caused this crushing defeat, committed suicide after the defeat.

Although his suicide seemed to have a bit of courage, for Russia, they had completely lost the ability to launch an attack on Germany after this defeat, and could only be forced to turn to strategic defense, praying to be able to drag it out for a longer time.

Although Gao Da had long expected the incompetence of the Russian government, he did not expect that even with Spain providing a large amount of weapons and equipment, the Russian army could still, as in history, gift the German army a great victory.

From then on, Russia had no ability to attack Germany, which also meant that Germany could finally concentrate its forces to attack France.

The good news was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire, seeing Russia's crushing 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 launched an unprovoked attack on Serbia, and hundreds of thousands of Austro-Hungarian troops marched majestically 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 Entente, and after being declared war upon by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia also chose to declare war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, formally joining the war.

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

Although this World War broke out too early, for Gao Da, the war so far had not changed much from 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 hold Germany back for several years.

Several years of time would be enough to completely drain the potential of the belligerent nations like Germany and France; by then, if Spain participated in the war and quickly defeated Germany, it could become the sole 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 the reason why Spain had not reduced its military spending so far.

In fact, not only did he not reduce military spending, but after this war broke out, Gao Da specifically convened a cabinet meeting and announced that starting from this year, military spending would increase by 30% annually, with no upper limit.

Like Spain, in addition to building a large number of battleships domestically, 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 was good news, as it could greatly weaken 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 be weakened in any way, and the Spanish Navy still posed a significant threat to Britain.

Another reason why Britain closely monitored the situation on the European battlefield was to choose the stronger side to join, so that Britain could also become 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 help the weaker side turn defeat into victory; as long as Spain dared to join the weaker side, Britain, in alliance with the stronger side, had many ways to defeat Spain.

As long as Spain could be defeated, the threat of the Spanish Navy that Britain worried about would be solved. After all, a defeated country was not qualified to possess such a large military scale; as long as Spain was defeated, the downsizing of the army and navy would be 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 no longer care about 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 precisely regulate the deployment of troops.

Except for 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 at this time that France's Plan 17 could achieve victory.

According to France's Plan 17, to occupy the Alsace and Lorraine regions, France needed to mobilize nearly 1. million combat troops.

Although a considerable portion of these troops needed to remain within France as reserve troops, in order to ensure the stability of the offensive plan, Joffre still deployed as many as 1. million troops along the Alsace-Lorraine line.

The disadvantage of doing so was also obvious, which was that on the northern border and the border with Belgium, the number of remaining French troops was less than 400, 00.

At this time, Belgium had already been occupied by the German army, and the 400, 00 French troops had to face over a million German troops.

Was French Chief of the General Staff Joffre not aware of the pressure faced by the 400, 00 troops on the northern border?

Of course he was aware.

But there was no other way; for the smooth execution of Plan 17, he could only wrong these 400, 00 troops by having them 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.

In order to urge the French army along the Alsace-Lorraine line to execute Plan 17 in an orderly manner, French Chief of the General Staff Joffre often traveled by car from the French General Headquarters in Le François to inspect the front-line combat troops.

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

Because Spain had invented the automobile a long time ago, the automobile was no longer a stranger to the various European countries today.

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

It was precisely because of these automobile competitions that there was a more detailed classification of automobiles. The originally relatively simple automobiles were also divided into four types: ordinary family passenger cars, sports cars, racing cars, and trucks. Basically, those participating in automobile competitions were the two types of cars that pursued performance and speed more: sports cars and racing cars.