At the beginning of the year, everything was renewed, and the empire was filled with a prosperous atmosphere.

Since the beginning of February

It is the traditional Chinese New Year, and the city dwellers in the streets and alleys are decorated with lights to welcome the arrival of the new year, and for all the subjects of the Ocean Empire, the past year has been a year of harvest, prosperity, prosperity and development, and a year of great wealth.

All kinds of rumors of sudden wealth have appeared in the newspapers from time to time, which has made people's hearts itch and unbearable, and many people are gearing up to do a big job this year to realize their dreams of wealth.

The Second East Indies War, which lasted only 22 days, was only an innocuous battle for an empire with a population of more than 96 million, and it was not yet felt that the beginning was over.

After the end of the war, there was a wave of immigrants to Sumatra within the empire to start businesses. People who are full of enthusiasm follow in the footsteps of their entrepreneurial ancestors, and immigrate to Sumatra with their families, and begin to buy a large number of land and property here.

Today's inhabitants of the empire are very rich, even if they don't have any money, as long as they sell the house they live in, sell the shop, and go to Sumatra to buy a large farm or plantation of hundreds of acres.

This also led to a short-term increase in the price of land in Sumatra, from 3.3 gold per acre to 8.25 gold oceans, and the first group of crab eaters became rich and their wealth increased several times.

This myth of getting rich attracted more imperial capital to Sumatra, leading to a broader wave of immigration and making it a new entrepreneurial destination.

Daming Palace

After the New Year, the Zhengdan Dynasty Meeting, guests from all over the world, envoys from various countries have pilgrimaged to congratulate the saint, the ritual music is played in unison, the emperor Li Fushou and the ministers celebrate the New Year, and then lead the people to sacrifice heaven and earth, after a complicated ceremony, the ceremony is completed.

After the end of the annual Zhengdan Dynasty Meeting of the Ocean Empire, Emperor Li Fushou announced that a New Year's banquet would be held, and all the ministers and foreign envoys present gathered together to celebrate the beautiful scenery of the prosperous world, filled with a sea of joy.

At this time, in distant Europe, the unprecedented and tragic Battle of Verdun officially began.

The Battle of Verdun was the most devastating and longest battle of the First World War, lasting from February 21 to December 19, 1916, spanning a whole year.

After a whole year of preparations, at the beginning of the 16th, the German Imperial High Command decided to shift its strategic focus westward, and the head of the German General Staff, Erich von Falkingham, targeted the attack on Verdun, a famous fortress in France.

Verdun was the salient of the Anglo-French front, and it was like a sharp tooth sticking out, posing a serious threat to the German flank deep into northern France, where Germany and France fought many times, but the Germans were never able to capture the fortress.

The fortress of Verdun was an important support part of the Anglo-French front, and if the German army could capture Verdun in one fell swoop, it would definitely deal a heavy blow to the morale of the French army and open up the victory channel for the German army to Paris, which was of great strategic significance.

The capture of Paris meant that the French were left to fend for themselves, which meant that the Germans had won the final victory on the Western Front.

Having come to this point, it is not far from defeating the Entente.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Germany's elaborate "Schlieffen Plan" suffered a serious defeat after the Battle of the Marne, and failed to achieve a quick victory.

The war entered its second year, and for a whole year, the German army and the British and French forces were exhausted in trench warfare and did not achieve a decent victory.

Blocked by trenches, several German attacks on the Western Front were ineffective. The German general von Falkingham believed that intensifying the blow against France would force the French army to commit all its forces, and that France would die "to the last drop of blood".

He chose the fortress of Verdun, a small city in northeastern France, which was the main transportation artery from Germany to Paris, and was known as the "key to Paris" as the main point of attack.

The unit under the command of the German Crown Prince Wilhelm was the 5th Army (under the jurisdiction of 7 armies, a total of 17 divisions, 2,204 artillery pieces, including 1,283 heavy artillery pieces, 368 aircraft, and later increased to 50 divisions, about 920,000 people, accounting for half of the total strength of the German army on the Western Front).

Verdun was a strategic stronghold on the northeastern border of France, the eastern gateway to Paris, and the support point of the entire front of the French army, and the French high command also attached great importance to the defense of this strategic point.

The Verdun fortification area was 112 kilometers wide on the front and was defended by the French Third Army (commanded by General El with 11 divisions and 632 artillery pieces).

The fortified area consists of four defensive positions, with a total depth of 15-18 kilometers. Three of them were field defensive positions. The fourth line of defense consisted of the permanent fortifications of the Verdun fortress and two fortresses.

From January of the new year, the Germans quietly gathered forces and prepared to attack Verdun.

At the same time, Germany brazenly increased its forces in Chambeni, made a strategic feint, and made a gesture to launch an offensive in Chambeny.

The commander-in-chief of the French army, Xia Fei, was really fooled.

After the Battle of the Marne, the German First Army was unable to capture Verdun and shifted its offensive, and the French considered Verdun to be obsolete, and in 1915 Xia Fei stopped strengthening the fortress and turned its attention to the southern defensive line.

The movement of the Germans towards Cimbéni made Xia Fei extremely vigilant, and he believed that the Germans would attack Chambéni and from there make a detour to Paris.

The beginning of the new year

On February 21, the German army used 1,200 artillery pieces to carry out an eight-and-a-half-hour concentrated bombardment of a 40-kilometer front, firing more than one million shells.

At 4 p.m., the Fifth Army under the command of the German Crown Prince Wilhelm launched a fierce attack with the forces of three corps (the Third, Seventh, and Eighteenth Armies), with a large number of armored units rushing to the front, and the vanguard clearing the trenches with flamethrowers, killing and wounding a large number of French soldiers.

By the 23rd, the German army had advanced almost 5 kilometers, and the French troops were forced to retreat.

The Western Front was in danger, France was in danger, and the massive offensive launched by the Germans shocked the world.

London's West End, a lavish 17th-century court-style manor

This is the newly purchased luxury mansion of Major General Li Jianyang, Earl of Bertford, which is a Byzantine-style palace building covering an area of 3.7 acres, only 760 meters away from Mannheim Park, and is one of the top properties in London's West End, where every inch of land is at a premium.

A total of £676,000 was spent on the purchase of this top-of-the-line property, which was enough to build a 5,500-ton heavy cruiser with nine 280-caliber naval guns.

Since the withdrawal from Gallipoli in August last year, the Second Royal Marine Division led by Major General Li Jianyang is still resting and replenishing, and is in the early stage of recruit training.

And these trivial matters do not need to be personally watched by the distinguished division commander, but naturally there are middle- and lower-ranking officers at the division headquarters and regiment headquarters to do the work for them, and he only needs to go to inspect them once every two weeks.

Rear Admiral Li Jianyang, Earl of Bettford, was busy and bought this mansion in London, which was renovated and renovated not long after moving in, and the Admiral Churchill and his family came to the door as guests.

On the grassy lawn, Major General Li Jianyang and Churchill were leisurely drinking afternoon tea, enjoying the long-lost sunshine in late winter.

In the Battle of Gallipoli, the British-led coalition suffered heavy losses, and Churchill, the Admiralty who had been the advocate of the Gallipoli War, was in a bad situation, so his face was often clouded with gloom and his brow was sullen.

The casualties of hundreds of thousands of coalition soldiers put a lot of pressure on him.

"Winster, how's it going?" Li Jianyang asked with concern.

Churchill shook his head gloomily, ate two delicate little cookies, took a sip of tea, and replied in a low tone;

"Everything was terrible.

Beginning in September last year, the cold winter of Gallipoli began early, with rain and snow making the trenches even more muddy and muddy, and at night it became bone-chilling, with more than 20,000 coalition soldiers suffering severe frostbite and hundreds freezing to death.

If it weren't for the Ocean Kingdom's emergency allocation of 600,000 sheepskin coats and a large number of cold materials, the situation on the frontline battlefield would have become even worse, the battle was too hard, and the losses have been increasing.

Soon after the withdrawal of the 2nd Marine Division, the British Admiral Hamilton, who was in charge of the command, was recalled from London and relieved of command, and was replaced by General Charles Munro, but in the face of desperate resistance from the Ottoman Fifth Army led by the German von Zanders, it was also to no avail.

The battle situation is very scorching, and it has not been able to effectively open the situation.

I was tired of the stupidity and sluggishness of the generals of the British Imperial Army, who only knew how to attack in a systematic manner, leaving the soldiers in dense straggler formations, and then swept down by machine-gun fire.

Oh my God!

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith has lost faith in Lord Kitchener, Minister of War, and his good reputation has been tarnished and he no longer has the unjustifiable full confidence of the Cabinet.

The import of ordnance from the War Department was in his hands to General Lloyd, and the battle of Gallipoli had no hope of victory, and it was time to get out of this quagmire, and it was terrible that I would be implicated if I didn't get involved. ”

"It's terrible, but it's not your fault?" Major General Li Jianyang said comfortingly.

This comfort pales in comparison, given that Admiralty Churchill made a strategic mistake, and both Admiralty and War Ministries had seriously underestimated the difficulty of a large-scale landing on a mountainous coastal area, and its proximity to Istanbul, the core capital of the Ottoman Empire, could quickly draw in reinforcements from the main army forces to desperately repel the invasion of the multinational coalition.

If Churchill's plan really succeeded, the Ottoman Empire would not be far from extinction, so it really used all the strength to eat milk.

In a word,.

7017k