Master Yuan, start!

Schlieffen's voice suddenly rose, as if to awaken everyone to the true nature of the situation: "If we only count the regular troops, even if we include the Boer hunters, the total strength of the Boers will not exceed 5!

But the fact is that they did block the British attack.

Although we knew they would eventually fail, for now at least they had succeeded in slowing the British advance."

At this point, Schlieffen paused, took a deep breath, and then slapped the documents on the table vigorously and continued: "Trenches! It was the rifle trenches that played a huge role!"

He looked around and saw that both of them were concentrating, so he elaborated further: "Just imagine, there is a large no-man's land in front of the trench. Under the double obstruction of barbed wire and machine guns, how much will it cost to break through such a defense line?

Soldiers had to cross long, uncovered areas, exposed to machine gun and rapid-fire artillery fire.

I don't need to say much about this level of lethality, right?

A single Maxim machine gun was enough to stop a 50-man squad charging."

Schlieffen's words were so powerful that the atmosphere in the room grew solemn. He paused and added, "In other words, Your Majesty, we only need to deploy fewer than 10 troops at key points on the Eastern Front to withstand an attack by at least one million Russian troops."

After all, we have not only our own troops on the Eastern Front, but also the support of Austria-Hungary. As long as we take a defensive stance, we can definitely hold off the Russians."

"What about the Western Front? What should we do if the French use the same method against us?" William II asked with a hint of uneasiness in his tone.

Schlieffen waved his arms, his eyes gleaming, and responded without flinching: "That's why we have to send more troops to the Western Front!

If necessary, they could even draw troops from the Eastern Front to participate in the battles on the Western Front, and before the French could react, they could launch the most ferocious offensive into the suburbs of Paris, just like during the Franco-Prussian War.

The French are building forts on the border, but they won't build forts near Paris as well, right?

His tone became increasingly passionate, as if he had already seen the dawn of victory: "Your Majesty, if we can reduce our forces on the Eastern Front and concentrate our superior forces on the Western Front, then even if the French use trench tactics, they will not be able to stop our offensive."

Schlieffen was very confident.

Historically, trench warfare tactics evolved and improved gradually, rather than suddenly appearing on the battlefields of World War I.

Not to mention the distant past, in the 1900 years since 50, the first battlefield that met the definition of trench warfare was the Crimean War of 1853 between Britain and France and Tsarist Russia.

During the Siege of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, the Russian army dug a large number of trenches to resist the British and French forces. Although they failed to stop the British and French forces' advance due to insufficient firepower, they did achieve initial success.

During the American Civil War in the 19s, the Union Army and the Confederate Army dug trenches against each other in the Siege of Petersburg and confronted each other for nine months, which was an initial manifestation of the stalemate of trench warfare.

In the original time and space, what really brought trench warfare into the sight of European military strategists were the Boer War around 1899 and the Russo-Japanese War around 1904.

Especially the latter, the Russian army on the Port Arthur Peninsula, with fewer troops, resisted the attack of the Japanese army that was more than ten times its size through trenches, barbed wire, and machine guns, which became a rehearsal for the trench warfare of World War I.

Originally, Schlieffen would not have been able to see this trend change, because historically he stepped down in 1906 and died in 1913.

But in this time and space, Yuan Xiangcheng specially summarized the collected information on the South African war into a report, and sent someone to deliver it to Schlieffen's home before arriving in Germany.

The intention was to persuade them to pay attention to the power of trenches as soon as possible and to find a solution as soon as possible. If tanks could be developed in advance, that would naturally be even better, allowing Germany to launch a blitzkrieg and quickly penetrate France in World War I.

However, what Yuan Xiangcheng did not expect was that this intelligence actually intensified Schlieffen's idea of ​​implementing a "revolving door offensive."

As the saying goes, if there is no effect, increase the dosage.

Schlieffen did not think of inventing any special machine to break through the trenches. Instead, he wanted to add more German troops to the Western Front in order to break through the French defense line as quickly as possible.

“Your Majesty, I know that if Germany’s eastern front continues to reduce its forces, the threat from the Russian army will greatly increase.

However, if the Chinese could stir up some disputes in Central Asia and Siberia and at the same time provoke the Ottomans to take revenge in the Caucasus, the Tsar would certainly reduce his deployment of troops to Europe.

After all, Russia will face crises from three directions in Asia at that time, and it will definitely not be able to withdraw its main forces to attack Europe for a while.

It will take at least a year or two for them to come to their senses. By then, I believe the Imperial Army will have already trampled Paris under its feet."

William II listened quietly, his eyes gradually becoming sharper.

He looked at the portraits of successive German emperors behind Schlieffen, as if seeking some spiritual support.

After a moment, he slowly spoke: "So, my Chief of General Staff, do you have any other suggestions for the Far Eastern President whom I will be meeting later?"

Schlieffen pondered for a moment, a meaningful smile playing on his face. "I heard he secured quite a bit of funding in England." He paused, then continued, "We Germans may not be as good as the British in finance, but in industry, we are by no means behind."

After hearing this, William II slowly stood up and nodded, his tone revealing a sense of determination: "Then I understand."

Chapter 525 The Kaiser's Decision

This meeting was somewhat different from what Yuan Xiangcheng had imagined.

William II did not create an exaggerated scene to welcome Yuan Shikai, which was different from his previous action of ordering people to welcome Yuan Shikai at Berlin Station.

Today is a private meeting.

When Yuan Shikai entered the palace gate under the guidance of his attendants, William II was stroking his upturned beard and looking at the world map on the wall.

He noticed that this oriental guest was not wearing a Western-style suit. He was wearing a dark-colored, stand-up collar embroidered with dark gold cloud patterns, and the red and yellow badge on his chest glowed coldly under the chandelier.

William II had many bad tempers, such as his strong sense of insecurity and strong desire for power, which made him extremely impulsive and emotional.

When he first came to power, he was dissatisfied with Bismarck's interference in state affairs and dismissed the German First Chancellor despite pressure from parliament; later, he caused an international uproar because he often bypassed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to express his views on the international situation in newspapers.

The Yellow Peril Theory is a ready-made example.

Feilu Group

In order to crown himself the patron saint of Europe, William II commissioned an oil painting depicting the Germanic people leading Europe in its fight against the Eastern dragon, and named it the Yellow Peril.

Does he really hate China? Not necessarily.

They just want to use this incident as an excuse to shape Germany's special position in the religious system.

However, it was also this personality trait that led him to abandon some classical traditions and created his fanatical and obsessive pursuit of modernization.

For example, William II funded the construction of airships, strongly supported the development of internal combustion engines and electrified equipment, and even drove cars himself to carry passengers.

In the original time and space, he also flew a plane himself and even almost crashed at one point.

When facing such a person, you cannot deal with him in a businesslike manner. Instead, you have to find another way to arouse his interest.

Therefore, Yuan Xiangcheng came here and prepared some special "little gifts"

"Your Majesty, you should have seen this." After a brief exchange of greetings, Yuan Xiangcheng took out a sandalwood box from his body, revealing a broken Cossack saber inside.

"Three years ago, our cavalry defeated the Russian Amur Army on the banks of the Amur River in the Far East and captured this weapon."

Due to family reasons, William II could speak fluent English, so the two communicated in English.

The Kaiser's blue eyes suddenly lit up. He took the monocle handed to him by his attendant and carefully examined the remaining double-headed eagle emblem on the hilt. "This sword... seems to be only owned by high-ranking Russian military officials?"

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"Yes, it is said that it was given by the Tsar." Yuan Xiangcheng nodded and said, "I heard that Your Majesty is related to the current Tsar. I hope you can help pass it on to him."

"Hahahaha, the relationship between Nicholas and I is not good at all." William II clapped his hands and laughed when he heard this.

But after laughing, he subconsciously muttered to himself in German, "Even after sending out the Cossack cavalry, they still couldn't win. It seems that the Russians' defeat in the Far East War was even more complete than the outside world thought."

Without waiting for Yuan Xiangcheng to reply, William II continued in English: "I heard that after the war with Russia, Your Excellency built nearly 300 kilometers of branch railway in the northeast of your country.

Including the previous 900 kilometers of trunk railways, the total mileage has reached more than 1200 kilometers."

"It's not as good as Germany," Yuan Xiangcheng said modestly. "It's said that the railway mileage in Germany as a whole exceeded 10 kilometers 4 years ago, and it must have reached 5 kilometers by now. We are still far behind."

William II seemed to enjoy Yuan Xiangcheng's flattery very much and nodded with satisfaction.

But then he changed the subject and asked, "In addition to the railway, you have also deployed 10 divisions of military forces around the railway?"

Yuan Xiangcheng was slightly surprised. He didn't expect that William II was so clear about the domestic military deployment. He wondered where he learned it from.

But even so, Yuan Xiangcheng did not intend to admit it honestly.

"To be precise, there are 10 railway maintenance teams." Yuan Xiangcheng deliberately emphasized the word "maintenance".

Yuan Xiangcheng approached the map on the wall and gestured with his arms to Europe and the Northeast: "Your Majesty, you know that unlike the warm Western Europe, the Northeast of our country is extremely cold. The south is not so bad, and the north is only slightly better than Siberia.

In such an environment, if there is no maintenance force on call 24 hours a day, the operation of the railway will be very problematic."

"Railway Maintenance Corps." William II suddenly burst into laughter, shaking the crystal chandelier slightly. "Yuan, you remind me of that old man. You are somewhat similar to him. You never want to offend others when you speak."

"You mean Chancellor Bismarck?"

"Yes, a stubborn and patriotic old man." William II said this with a bit of loneliness, and said with emotion: "But he died two years ago, which is really unexpected."

Although Prime Minister Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II were nominally monarch and subject, they interacted more like master and apprentice.

It’s just that this apprentice was not very obedient and eventually made his master angry and leave.

However, even so, the apprentice still cared about his master. When Bismarck left office, William II rewarded him utmost. Not only did he promote him to Field Marshal, he also gave him the title of Admiral and made Bismarck the Duke of Lauenburg.

But Bismarck did not appreciate it. Even after his death, he asked others to engrave on his tombstone: Marquis von Bismarck, loyal German servant of Emperor William I.

The entire text did not use the duke title given to him by William II, nor did it mention William II at all.

"I heard you reached a huge economic cooperation agreement with the British." William II quickly shook off his nostalgic mood and asked, "So, what do you hope to gain from your visit to Germany this time?"

"Getting help from Germany, just like the cooperation between your two countries in Indochina, I hope our country can reach more agreements with Germany, such as exchanging technology with Krupp, sending students to the Berlin Higher Technical School, and introducing advanced German railway technology." Yuan Xiangcheng stated the ultimate purpose of his visit.

"So, what is the price?" William II was not affected by Yuan Xiangcheng's previous flattery and went straight to the point.

"Germany can choose a piece of land in China and get close to the market of hundreds of millions of people behind this land!"

"Are you talking about the bonded area?" William II raised his eyebrows and seemed to be familiar with some new things in the Far East.

"That's right, it's the bonded area!" Yuan Xiangcheng's eyes flashed with surprise, and he continued, "There's a coastal city in Shandong Province in northern my country. There's a small port called Qingdao with excellent water conditions. I'd like to invite German citizens to invest, produce, and even...live there."

"Life?" William II asked in reply, "Aren't you afraid of your people's opposition?"

"It's a bonded area, not a concession, and sovereignty remains with us," Yuan Xiangcheng explained. "However, I can assure you that, apart from legal rights, the administrative rights over this area rest entirely with the German side, and China will not interfere."

"No intervention?" William II didn't know what he was thinking, and did not answer, falling into deep thought.

Just when Yuan Xiangcheng thought that William II felt that the chips were not enough and wanted to add more, he suddenly said:

"Okay, I agree with this proposal. You can talk to the Minister of Industry about the specific plan and have him accompany you to communicate with the Imperial Industrial Community!"

...

William actually agreed decisively to his proposal.

Even when he walked out of the Potsdam palace complex, Yuan Xiangcheng still couldn't believe it.

Yue Feiqun 16101

He originally just wanted to give William II a try and seek cooperation, but he didn't expect it to be so smooth.

Does Qingdao really have some magic power for Germany?

The Havel River shimmered in the twilight. Prime Minister von Bülow, watching Yuan Shikai's back, walked out of the reception room compartment and said with some concern, "Your Majesty, getting involved in China can certainly distract Russia's attention, but if Britain objects..."

British opposition?