Roque and Jan Smozi had a great conversation.

In fact, when he met Jan Smozi, Roque was not in a good mood, as Roque envisioned, Prime Minister Asquith did not give Roque the promise he wanted, and the ownership of Southwest Africa and Tanganyika was still undecided.

This is not surprising, Asquith is now under a lot of pressure, the dilemma that Britain is now facing, there is no omission that Britain is not fully prepared for a world war, and Congress now doubts whether Asquith can lead LinkedIn to victory and keep his position as prime minister, which is Asquith's main problem now.

Roque added fuel to the fire, and just ordered Walvis Bay by telegram to temporarily stop the supply of goods to Europe, and all freighters were temporarily suspended on the grounds that the shipping channel was threatened by German submarines, believing that it would not be long before Roque would get what he wanted.

These British politicians, who just don't shed tears when they don't see the coffin, probably think that southern Africa will not dare to stop the supply of materials to Europe.

Although Jan Smoltz was against Roque everywhere when he was in southern Africa, Jan Smoltz's purpose was not to overthrow southern Africa, but to think that his own way could put southern Africa on the right path and get the best development.

It turned out that Roque's approach was the best way to protect the interests of southern Africa, so after fully realizing this, Jan Smuts decisively accepted London's invitation to leave southern Africa.

To be sure, Jan Smoltz is not a bad person, and at any time, Jan Smoltz wants Southern Africa to develop better.

The real divide came between Rock and Winston.

After the outbreak of the world war, Winston had always dreamed of playing a bigger role, the Minister of the Navy could not fully meet Winston's demands, the Anglo-French army in Belgium was stubbornly resisted by the Germans, the battle was deadlocked, after the New Year, Xia Fei launched a full-scale attack, but again failed, in Shambany, the French lost another 90,000 men, Winston hoped to open a second battlefield in the Dardanelles, and Roque hoped to occupy Damascus.

"Damascus is too far from Europe, the Dardanelles is more important, and we cannot sit idly by and watch the Russian Empire occupy Constantinople, it is not in our interests." Winston was stubborn, the Russian Empire sent the Eighth Army to attack Constantinople last November, but it did not win as expected, and now the opportunity still exists, if the Russian Empire occupies Constantinople, then the Russian Empire will have access to the Black Sea, which is seriously inconsistent with British interests.

Britain wanted to confine the Russian Empire to the mainland, and the Dardanelles was a choke point to control the Black Sea.

"It is very difficult to launch a landing operation in Constantinople, it will take at least 200,000 troops to achieve the objectives of the campaign, maybe 300,000 will be needed, and Damascus is already surrounded by us, if we occupy Damascus, we can launch an attack on the peninsula of Asia Minor-" Roque was also stubborn, Winston's troops were seriously insufficient, and only 30,000 Anzac troops could not complete the task at all, so he hoped to draw southern African troops in Port Elizabeth to participate in the attack on Constantinople.

But the combined forces of Southern Africa and the Sultanate of Najd had already surrounded Damascus, and Field Marshal Colmar von der Golz from Germany, who was a good marshal, was trying to organize the defensive line, and Roque did not dare to give Gorz too much time.

Possessing an unrivalled vision of the big picture, Goltz was once one of Schlieffen's rivals, first as governor general of Belgium after the outbreak of world war, and last year he was invited by the Ottoman Empire to become commander-in-chief of the Ottoman First Army.

Another time and space is that Goerts led the Ottoman army to withstand the frenzied attack of the Russian Empire, and then completely annihilated the Anglo-Indian expeditionary force in Baghdad.

"You've never served in the navy, and there's no navy in southern Africa, you know what a's landing operations—" Winston said to Roque politely.

"I really don't understand, so what do you prisoner know?" Roque was even more unkind, and came up to reveal Winston's scars.

Winston snorted from his chair and looked at Roque with a hand on his waist.

Roque was not afraid, half-lying on the chair and smug Erlang's legs, begging for someone to have an attitude of begging, Winston had approached Kitchener before, hoping to get the new recruits who had just been trained locally, but Kitchener disagreed.

Not only did Kitchener not agree to open a second theater in the Dardanelles Strait, nor did he agree to throw more troops into Belgium, but instead Kitchener wanted to open up the Eastern Front and open up the situation from East Prussia.

Roque had a vague sense that Kitchener was hoping that Germany and France would lose out, and that the landings of homegrown troops on the Eastern Front would be finalized.

It's a bit of a dark idea, but if it succeeds, the world will go completely different from what Roque is familiar with.

"Two divisions, at least two divisions are needed." Winston had no choice but to get four divisions, including the 3rd Cavalry Division.

"Winston, think about it, once the attack on the Dardanelles fails-" Roark is also very helpless, another time and space Winston was forced to resign because of the failure of the Battle of the Dardanelles, although later investigations showed that the failure of the Battle of the Dardanelles was not Winston's reason, but this battle also became a stain that Winston could never get rid of.

The importance of the failure of the Battle of the Dardanelles lies in the fact that it shattered the myth that the British Royal Navy was invincible at sea for nearly 100 years, and since then the British Navy has begun to decline, and this serious consequence always needs a scapegoat.

"It is impossible to fail, our intelligence indicates that the defense of Constantinople is empty, the Ottoman army is being drawn on the side of Damascus and Russia, we are taking advantage of the situation, this is our best chance." Winston didn't even think about defeat at all now, and he was carried away by temptation.

"Nothing is absolute, we know the importance of Constantinople, Berlin and Vienna know it too, so if we occupy Constantinople, then we will be the target of public criticism, if the Russian Empire gets Constantinople, the occupying army will also be besieged, and we should not try to force the Ottoman Empire to surrender by occupying Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire has moved its capital to the Asia Minor Peninsula, and the Asia Minor Peninsula is the right direction for us to attack." Roque will definitely not give up the fat to the mouth, and the capture of Damascus will also relieve the crisis in Egypt at the same time, and Winston will not lose sight of this benefit.

"Give me two divisions, and I will support the annexation of Southern Africa to South-West Africa and Tanganyika, as well as Damascus, as long as you can take it, it will be yours." Winston made a condition, a temptation that Roque could not refuse.

"In two months, you'll get two divisions—" Roque finally relented, and in two months, the battle in Damascus should be over, and Roque could draw troops from Damascus.

"Deal!" Winston was satisfied, a large-scale landing operation, it took a long time to prepare, two months was just right.

Roque spent a week in London, and by the time he returned to France, the Anglo-French forces had been forced to halt their New Year's offensive.

Xia Fei and Frenzi called this offensive a "New Year's offensive", which meant good, but the result was bad, in just one week, the British and French troops suffered 170,000 casualties on all fronts, that is, the Germans themselves had problems, so they failed to counterattack in time, otherwise the British and French forces would have suffered more serious losses.

While the British and French forces were intrigued, there were also many contradictions within Germany.

Falkingham, who succeeded Moltke Jr., needed a major victory to prove that he was the savior of Germany, and at the beginning of the new year, four more German corps of recruits could be sent to the front, and there were major divisions within the German army over the use of these troops.

After the outbreak of the war, the German army was progressing well on the Eastern Front, the commander of the Eastern Front, Hindenburg, and his chief of staff, Ludendorff, hoped that Falkingham would put more troops on the Eastern Front, and the chief of the general staff of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Conrad, also hoped that Germany would send reinforcements to the Austro-Hungarian army to assist the Austro-Khanian army in the fight against the Russian Empire's army.

Falkingham refused all demands, first rejecting Conrad's winter offensive and then sending reinforcements to the Eastern Front.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff had already shown strong personalities by this time, and they transferred three and a half divisions of the Ninth Army to Austria-Hungary to fight with the Austro-Hungarian forces.

Falkingham protested to Wilhelm II against this, demanding the dismissal of Hindenburg and Ludendorff.

Hindenburg and Ludendorff also protested to Wilhelm II with a request to replace the chief of the General Staff of the German army.

Moltke Jr., the former chief of the General Staff who was at home, was also making waves, trying to make a comeback with the support of Prime Minister Bateman Holwig, and Queen Augusta Victoria and Crown Prince William did not like Falkingham.

In the face of many contradictions, Wilhelm II retained the post of Chief of General Staff of Falkingham, but relieved Falkingham of his post as Minister of War.

This seemingly compromised choice was actually even worse, both undermining Falkingham's authority and failing to appease the others, and the German army ushered in the "New Year's Offensive" of Xia Fei and Frenzi at this time, and the Anglo-French offensive forced the German army to temporarily shelve the controversy, a result that even Xia Fei Frenzi did not expect.

Another and more serious consequence of the failure of the "New Year's Offensive" was that the French army had to transfer Foch's Ninth Army to Shambany to strengthen its defenses, which meant that Flanders was left with the British Expeditionary Force to fight alone.

This is not a bad thing for the British Expeditionary Force, although the British Expeditionary Force is also full of problems within the force, but when the British and French forces fought side by side, the command system was very chaotic, often the position of the British Expeditionary Force was next to the position of the French Ninth Army, and then the position of the Ninth Army was next to the position of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, and the troops were not subordinate to each other, communication was not smooth, and the command system was a mess.

In the New Year's offensive, the British Expeditionary Force also suffered heavy losses, and the strength of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, which "underperformed" in the New Year's Offensive, suffered almost no losses, so after the transfer of the Ninth Army to Flanders, the Southern African Expeditionary Force finally became the most powerful force in Flanders.