The Rise of the Empire

Sometimes people's greed is the greatest enemy, it will make people lose their judgment on the situation, and unknowingly go to madness and perish.

"I only have one request, and that is to ensure the fruits of victory on the Eastern Front. Everything else can be restored to the state before the war began. Whether it is maintaining the borders or colonies on the Western Front, these can be discussed and given up!" the prince said. Said.

"Then our fight on the Western Front is not in vain?" Xiao Maoqi stood up suddenly and said excitedly. "Our millions of troops on the Western Front, hundreds of thousands of casualties, and tens of thousands of tons of material consumption are all in exchange for a pre-war start? Then what is the purpose of our war?"

"Then what else do you want? Negotiations are not what you want. What if Britain and France disagree? Bringing back the troops from the Eastern Front can solve Britain and France? What if it can't be resolved? After paying a huge price After that, everyone will sit at the negotiating table and sign a treaty that should have been signed a year ago?" The prince smiled wryly, and what he was worried about finally came.

"If you have to talk about the value of the Western Front, there is only one, and that is to buy time for us to defeat Russia! It is impossible to crush the opponent purely by military means! Really, absolutely impossible, even if you can come up with The unimaginable firepower is still out of reach!" the prince said decisively.

As a traverser, Prince Ruprecht also had a hard time, because he didn't know how to explain to the future German chief of staff what happened in the historical Battle of Verdun. The most tragic battle, then there is only one! That was the Battle of Verdun. This battle was unprecedented in terms of artillery scale, level and duration! The two belligerent countries, Germany and France, seem to regard this battle as a manifestation of the national strength and national glory of both sides! They put their troops and resources into it regardless of the cost, and then watched them disappear in bursts of flashes and explosions! This may be the largest war that ravages human life so far that people have ever seen!

The battle planned by Falkenhain, the then chief of the German general staff, was so cold-blooded and cruel. In the original plan, Verdun was just a magnet for the French army's continuous reinforcements. The German army attacked Verdun. Then attract a steady stream of reinforcements from the French, and then the Germans will use their superior large-caliber artillery to destroy them. When the situation between the two sides develops to a certain level, the German army and the French army are engaged in a decisive battle to determine the outcome!

In order for this plan to be implemented smoothly, the entire German army concentrated on the Western Front, and even the unique and powerful artillery assault force during the entire war! This force is so powerful, purely from the perspective of projection volume, such a lineup is terrifying even in the second game!

On the front of the position less than 13 kilometers away, Falkenhain concentrated 1,220 various large-caliber artillery pieces, including 542 heavy artillery pieces, 306 howitzers, and 152 heavy-duty mine launchers! And this is only the artillery on the front, there are other artillery on the two wings!

Don't think that these howitzers are 105MM or even 75MM gadgets. These so-called 306 howitzers are all German 210MM heavy howitzers! These artillery were originally assigned to the first-level units of the army! Those small cannons belonging to the division can only play the leading role at all! These more than 300 210MM heavy artillery were deployed to the front, and there was a 210MM heavy howitzer battery 150 meters apart! So many heavy artillery shooting at close range is probably unprecedented, right?

The housekeeper artillery of the Germans and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also participated in this feast of blood and steel! These heavy artillery include 13 420MM Bertha artillery! This heavy artillery that destroyed the Belgian Fortress of Liege with only 3 artillery pieces is the most powerful artillery in the German Army! The combat weight is 42.6 tons.

It can shoot 810KG heavy artillery shells 9 kilometers away. When it first appeared, only 3 guns smashed the Liege Fortress. This time, a total of 13 artillery pieces were deployed to the front line!

In addition, there are 2 380MM heavy artillery transferred from the naval fort and 17 305MM heavy howitzers from the Austro-Hungarian Empire as long-range support artillery groups.

In order to provide sufficient ammunition for these artillery, the German Army Engineering Department paid a huge price. 26 military engineering companies and 20 railway companies with a total of about 20,000 road construction troops were invested. They built railways for each division. , but also a large number of narrow-gauge railway auxiliary transportation.

Before the war, 213 trains loaded with ammunition sent a large amount of materials. According to the specifications of 3,000 shells for each field cannon company, 2,100 shells for each field howitzer company, and 1,200 shells for each heavy howitzer company. There are enough shells for 6 days, and after the war, according to the plan, 34 trains of ammunition will be delivered every day for consumption!

And the French did a great job in the transportation of ammunition supplies! It can even make the German counterparts ashamed. Although the French were unprepared at first, and there was no special railway to transport ammunition, their performance on the road was simply crushing the Germans! At the end of February, the French had organized a huge transport unit consisting of 300 officers and 8,500 soldiers. They formed 1,075 transport companies, driving 3,900 vehicles, 4 vehicles per minute, and 6,000 vehicles day and night. The speed of the car transported ammunition to the front line. During the period from February 27th to March 6th, the French delivered 23,000 tons of ammunition, 2,500 tons of other materials and 190,000 reinforcements to the front line! This is equivalent to the shipment volume of 15 pairs of railway trains every day and night.

And what was the outcome of this battle? In the battle that took nearly 10 months, the Germans destroyed 22 million shells, and the French were not to be outdone. As of June 15, the French had also destroyed 15 million shells, of which 2 million Send it as a heavy shell! In the end, nearly a million soldiers were buried here. The French lost about 542,000 people, while the Germans lost about 433,000 people! Hundreds of thousands of tons of materials were turned into ashes in this way, and neither side achieved their goals. The result of the war only led to the change of hands of several square kilometers of positions. What's the point of such a fight?

This kind of severe consumption is undoubtedly a disaster for Germany, but even after the Battle of Verdun, the Germans still didn't think about how to end the war decently, but continued to increase their stakes like gamblers! And eventually caused Germany to exhaust the last trace of war potential, and the fuel was exhausted!

Thanks to book friend Wang Yao for the young guard rabbit, book friend 1603122, the first guard tank brigade, good books are hard to find, and the fat cow king for the reward~~~! ! And Shuyou Xingkong? Monthly ticket support from Yi, Fengyanghualuo, ivsa, Caizisong, Black Puppet Master and other book friends~~~! The author of this chapter has checked at least 3 materials, please support me a lot. Subscription has not been good recently, wait for the next month, the author will do more, and I hope all book friends will also do more. Um.