When the time came to 1916, all the belligerent countries were on the verge of collapse.

A revolution was brewing in St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, and this winter there was a serious fuel crisis in St. Petersburg, many factories were forced to shut down due to lack of fuel, there was still flour in the bakery, but the lack of fuel could not make flour into bread, the women who worked all day waited in line for hours without getting food, and the whole city was in an uneasy commotion.

The situation in Germany was equally dangerous, the bombers of the British Expeditionary Force were bombing military targets in Belgium, but the Germans lacked the ability to counteract for various reasons, and in order to increase the number of workers in the factories, the Germans forcibly recruited Belgians to fill the factories, but to no avail.

There was a serious logistical problem in Germany, which needed aircraft to compete with the air force of the British Expeditionary Force, direct-fire guns against the increasing number of tanks of the British Expeditionary Force, and conventional weapons to meet the attrition of the front-line troops.

Machine guns and rifles were given priority by the importance of supplies, and at the beginning of 1916, the German arsenals could produce 3,000 machine guns and 125,000 rifles per month, but they were still unable to meet the needs of the front.

Just as Falkingham feared, after Hindenburg and Ludendorff came to power, their ambitions for power inexorably spread to other areas, and after New Year's Day, Hindenburg and Ludendorff decided to start unlimited submarine warfare in order to weaken Britain's war ability, and at the same time decided to establish the Kingdom of Poland in order to gain the loyalty of the Poles.

Both decisions were bad ideas, and unrestricted submarine warfare began to attack not only military targets, but also civilian targets, and British merchant ship losses skyrocketed, reaching an unprecedented 650,000 tons in January.

However, this did not bring Britain to its knees, but instead united the whole of Britain and made the cabinet more united, and if there was a possibility of peace in the past, now it is possible for the war to end unless one side is completely eliminated.

The creation of the Kingdom of Poland was also a failure, and both Hindenburg and Ludendorff were military men, and they should have focused more on how to defeat the Entente than on what they were not good at.

When the decision was made to establish the Kingdom of Poland, Ludendorff hoped to recruit 1 million Polish soldiers, which would greatly alleviate the problem of insufficient German troops.

In the end, only a few thousand Poles joined the army, which was almost negligible.

Throughout January, Robert Niveller was trying to unite the British Expeditionary Force to launch a new offensive against the Germans.

Roque rejected Robert Niveller's plan, and the British Expeditionary Force, at its own pace, was continuing to wear down German troops in Belgium.

Compared with the French army, the efficiency of the British Expeditionary Force was also obvious to all, which gave Roque enough confidence to refuse Robert Niveller.

After the New Year, the bombers of the expeditionary force began to bomb strategic targets in Belgium, the Germans lacked fighters to protect their airspace, in the absence of interference, the efficiency of the bombers was very high, and now the number of bombers involved in the bombing reached 400, a total of ten wings were divided, and the valuable military targets in Belgium have been almost all destroyed, and since February, the bombers of the expeditionary force have begun to penetrate deep into the territory of Germany.

At the same time, the precision shooters of the expeditionary force also resumed "clocking in", at most more than 600 precision shooters participated in the "hunting operation" on the front line, and thousands of German casualties were killed and wounded every day, scattered to every day, although this number was not much, but the cumulative price paid by the German army for more than a month was equivalent to the losses caused by a medium-sized battle.

In mid-January, the Allied high-level meeting in Rome, France finally realized the power of the new weapons equipped by the British army, aircraft and tanks are new forces that can change the shape of the battlefield, France has obtained the "Strong Wind" fighter plane, and "light cavalry" tanks production authorization, but it will take time to form a scale, so the French troops cannot do without the assistance of the British troops.

In Belgium, the French units were even already in a subsidiary position, and the British expeditionary force was the main force in the Belgian direction.

French Prime Minister Briand proposed at the Rome Conference whether it was possible to set up a joint command to command the Allied forces more effectively and fight the Allies.

It is certainly possible to set up a joint command, but command is a big problem, and Briand hopes that the current commander-in-chief of the French army, Robert Nivelle, will be the commander-in-chief.

Winston also has something to say on this issue, judging from the historical record, Roque's record is far better than Robert Niveller, who performed well in the late stage of the Battle of Verdun, with the continuous increase of the British Expeditionary Force, Britain's strength on the Western Front is no less than that of France, so Roque should be the commander-in-chief in order to better confront the German-Austrian forces.

Briand relented and agreed to Roque as deputy commander-in-chief.

The commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Italy, Kana Dorjee, who attended the meeting, and the new chief of the General Staff of the Russian Empire, General Alekseev, also said that they did not want to compete for commander-in-chief, but there should always be one deputy commander-in-chief.

The Russian Empire was forgotten, and Kanadogee was the one who provoked the verbal violence of many Allied leaders.

Regarding the performance of the Kingdom of Italy in the Battle of the Isonzo River, the deputy commander-in-chief?

Funny right!

Without waiting for the results of the discussion on this issue, on January 28, St. Petersburg was completely detonated, and the Russian Empire was in danger of withdrawing from the war.

All offensive plans were temporarily shelved, and once the Russian Empire withdrew from the war, then the German army's million troops on the Eastern Front could be completely released, and the pressure on the Western Front suddenly multiplied.

Roque was not surprised when he learned the news, the Russian Empire of another time and space only decided to withdraw from the war at the end of the year, and the direction of the war in this time and space was already completely different from that of another time and space, and Roque did not know when the Russian Empire would thunder, so it was correct to defend it first.

Of course, on the side of the British Expeditionary Force, even the defense was full of aggression, the tank troops were dispersed by Roque to the second line of defense to strengthen the defense, the bomber troops attacked more frequently, the railway lines of communication were the top priority of the bombing, the expeditionary force air force blew up the railroad during the day, and the German army organized engineers, Belgians, and Russian imperial prisoners to repair overnight, which seems to be an endless loop, just like the economist Keynes said: the country will not stop the war because of the fear of defeat, The war will cease only when the country's human resources are exhausted, the war resources are exhausted, and the will to fight is lost.

Throughout February and March, both the British and French armies and the German armies were digging trenches on the Western Front, and the British and French armies were defending their own battles, and the new German defense line was a little further back than the current one, called the "Hindenburg Line".

On 18 February, the 2nd Cavalry Division, stationed in Antwerp, clashed with the local population.

The reason for the clash is ironic, a dog trainer of the 2nd Cavalry Division did not keep the dog cage in place, and a military dog sneaked out of the camp to go out on a wave, only to be caught and eaten by a group of Antwerp people.

If it is an ordinary dog, it will be eaten and eaten, and no one will go on the line, but the military dog that is eaten is a military member, and the consequences are very serious, and the 2nd Cavalry Division went out overnight to arrest 42 citizens of Antwerp, and decided to put them on trial in the military court of Song Hang.

"It's just a dog, it's eaten and eaten, and as for the use of military courts?" Albert I came to Roque to intercede, and 42 Belgians were arrested for just one dog, which Albert I could not accept in any case.

"Reilly is no ordinary dog, it has its own name, it has its own badge, it's a soldier of the Expeditionary Force, and it shouldn't be treated like that." Roque was very angry, even if Reilly was an ordinary dog, it was the property of the British Expeditionary Force, and it was not something that anyone could eat as soon as he wanted.

"Sir, I am willing to compensate in my own name, and I ask you to spare those Belgians who have been forced to despair." Albert I was clearly stealing concepts.

"Don't say it so innocently, there is nothing to be forced to helpless, these Belgians can go to the expeditionary force to find a job if they don't have food, the expeditionary force is building fortifications, and a lot of workers are needed, although the salary offered by the expeditionary force is not high, but there is no problem to support their families, so why don't these Belgians go?" Roque doesn't want to say too ugly, to put it bluntly, he is just a person who likes to be idle and lazy, and such a person is really not as good as a dog.

"Not everyone wants to work for the expeditionary force—" Albert I sighed, for relations between Belgium and southern Africa were not good before the World War, and even now there are still some Belgians who hate southern Africans.

"Do you know what Reilly's job is?" Roque doesn't talk about human nature.

"I don't know, what can a dog do? Hunt? Or pull a cart? "Albert I really didn't know that Belgian dogs could only pull carts except for hunting.

"Reilly is a working dog, its mission is to find the mines planted by the German army, after coming to Europe, Reilly has completed more than 40 missions, found 162 mines, do you still think it is just an ordinary dog?" Roque's tone gradually became harsh, and if Albert I did not understand, then Roque would have to send off the guests.

Albert I was silent, the truth was understood, but he could not accept it.

"It takes at least three years for the expeditionary force to train a working dog, and they enjoy the same treatment in the expeditionary force as ordinary soldiers, and even the same benefits, I have already told you, Reilly is also a soldier of the expeditionary force, my subordinate, and my comrade-in-arms." Roque didn't want to say too ruthlessly, in Roque's heart, the value of an idle guy is really not as good as a dog.

"Lord, for what charges will they be judged?" Albert I had one last glimmer of hope.

"Murder!" Roque completely crushed hope.

(I think of the news that a police dog was poisoned, and I hope that those poisonous dogs who steal dogs will be entrusted as dogs in the next life-)

The whole book