Chapter 27 The End of World War I

  One team a year, this is Chen Shao's starting route. Under the stimulation of huge profits in daily chemicals, new-style clothing, and advanced medicines, the industrial development of Qinghe Village was very rapid. And if there wasn't an absolutely armed force to protect it, everything would only be making clothes for others.

  From the very beginning, Chen Shao had made up his mind: military development must keep pace with economic development. The army does not have to be particularly large, but it must have strong firepower, rigorous training, fierce combat, and sophisticated equipment.

  After more than a year of development, he finally saved up enough for this family business, a powerful military force with nearly 10,000 people in the reserve. It has to be said that the huge profits of Longteng Group over the past year, at least more than 50% were spent on military construction and military technology research and development.

  Chen Shao got off the car and returned a salute, Chen Shao was wearing an ordinary combat uniform today, without any shoulder badges. He turned around to look at the thousands of people on the large square in front of the military school gate, walked in with satisfaction, and had more expectations for the first batch of students in his heart, wondering how many big fish he would recruit.

  According to the regulations of the Chinese Military Academy, students who sign up will be provided with simple accommodation, and then start the preliminary selection on the second day. Students who pass the preliminary selection will face two days of cultural and martial arts assessment.

  Looking at the dozen or so registration points where people were crowded but in order, Chen Shao couldn't help but think that the development of the army still relies on military schools to constantly replenish its blood. Just having advanced weapons and equipment is not enough, it's just creating paper tigers.

  Just as he was about to turn and leave, a voice full of indignation rang out loud and clear.

  "Why can't I sign up?"

  The conflict started at the No. 1 registration point, and although the students did not dare to surround them, they were all watching this side, and the soldiers maintaining order also came over quickly, Chen Shao wearing a ordinary combat uniform also walked up.

  "According to regulations, applicants must have proof of residence, which we have already stated in the newspaper and at recruitment locations."

  "Officer, isn't my name and hometown written here? Look, the name is Chen Gengpeng. That student had a temperament different from the other students beside him, although he didn't have an ID card, but he was neither arrogant nor humble, and even more so, not retreating. 'I, Chen Gengpeng, do not change my name or surname, and my background is clear and clean, it's just that my family offended someone, so I couldn't get the ID card.'"

  "It won't do, without written proof, we can't take your word for it." The warrior in charge of registration refused to budge, the military school's rules were like a mountain, how could they be casually disobeyed?

  "I swear on my dignity! I really am Chen Gengpeng, with a clean background, and all I ask for is to be admitted to the Chinese Military Academy to study." Chen Gengpeng's predicament had already been pointed out by many idle students, but he still stood up straight and replied.

  "What's your worth? A few hundred bucks? You're nothing, haha..." A nearby spoiled rich kid sneered.

  "Shut up, you can leave now." Chen Shao suddenly walked in front of the young dandy who had been mocking Chen Gangpeng, "The military academy doesn't need someone like you who hurts others with your words and arbitrarily insults other people's character."

  That young master's face turned sideways, ready to throw a punch, but then he saw two guards approaching, holding guns and pointing them at him, telling him to leave. Suddenly, he was speechless and his legs went soft, unable to do anything but let the guards escort him away with his arms held back.

  "Why must you join the military school?" Chen Shao turned around and asked that student named Chen Gengpeng, who was somewhat surprised but still managed to remain calm.

  "In this world, there are many people who can't make a living and have many choices. Some choose to be bandits, harming their hometowns, while I chose the military academy. There are some things that need to be done by educated soldiers." Chen Gangpeng said with a bitter smile, knowing that his opponent was an extraordinary person, but also guessing that he wouldn't have much luck this time, since he didn't have any ID. The military academy isn't a theater troupe where anyone's words can work, it relies on military discipline and school rules, which he understood.

  Chen Shao: "First, let him register. If what he says is true and his background is clean, then he passes. If what he says is false, even if he passes the exam, his admission qualification will be cancelled."

  "Yes, Principal!"

  "Thank you, Principal!" Chen Gengpeng beamed with joy and also gave a somewhat unstandard military salute.

  "Well, I hope you won't let me down!"

  Chen Shao finished speaking, his mind surged with thoughts, and he walked away alone.

  In the barracks, Chen Shao watched a group of soldiers undergoing a 10km obstacle course, touching the pocket where he had put his own effort from last night, and thought for a moment before saying to Wang Xiaoshan beside him: "Xiaoshan, are you following me or going down to lead the troops?"

  Upon hearing Chen Shao's words, Wang Xiaoshan was taken aback for a moment, then thought for a while and said: "I hope to stay in the troops, but there can't be no one protecting the superior officer."

  "Haha, Wang Xiaoshan, I don't need your protection now, you know my skills." Chen Shao said with great confidence.

  "But..."

  Wang Xiaoshan was interrupted by Chen Shao before he could finish speaking.

  "There's no need to hesitate, I've made the decision for you. Starting tomorrow, pick out the most skilled tacticians in the entire army and gather them together. I'll make arrangements with Kong Wenhong and the others to cooperate with you, forming an elite special forces unit. You will be the commander of this unit, and all the best equipment will be allocated to you first. How does that sound? Do you have confidence in doing a good job?"

  "Yes, guarantee completion of task."

  "Ah, this is the special forces training method, you can make some modifications according to your actual needs. I look forward to your performance, after you are formally established, I will personally appoint your number." Chen Shao said while taking out a small booklet from his pocket. Wang Xiaoshan took the booklet and nodded vigorously.

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  In 1916, the German Empire decided to shift its offensive focus back to the Western Front, aiming to defeat France. The German military command chose the French fortress of Verdun as its target, which was a prominent part of the Allied defensive line and posed a significant threat to the German army's advance into France and Belgium. It was also a stronghold on the road to Paris and a hub of the French army's lines. The Battle of Verdun was a typical trench warfare and attrition warfare, with nearly 1 million casualties on both sides. Meanwhile, in July of that year, the Anglo-French coalition launched the Somme River campaign against the German army, which resulted in even more severe losses. Although both the German and British armies used tanks for the first time in this war, neither side achieved a major breakthrough after suffering approximately 300,000 casualties each, and the battle continued until November of that year. The Western Front once again became a stalemate, but the Allies began to gain the initiative in the war.

  In the spring of 1916, Russia assembled three fronts with a total of two million men to launch a counterattack against the German and Austro-Hungarian armies. After a fierce battle, both sides suffered losses of one million troops each, but the Russian army had more manpower, forcing the German and Austro-Hungarian armies to retreat and advancing into eastern Galicia. Romania also declared war on the Allied Powers in August that year. The German and Austro-Hungarian armies then decided to attack Romania to seize its oil and grain supplies. As a result, the Romanian capital of Bucharest soon fell, and the German and Austro-Hungarian troops occupied most of Romania's territory.

  On February 24, 1917, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Page received the Zimmermann Telegram, which stated that if Mexico were to declare war on the United States, Germany would assist in returning the American Southwest to Mexico. The United States used this as a pretext for declaring war on Germany on April 6 of that year. One major reason why the U.S. declared war only on Germany and not on other Allied nations was because of Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, which posed a threat to American ships, and after receiving submarines from Chen Shao, Germany became even more reckless, and after ordering 20 submarines from Chen Shao, they urgently ordered another 30, forcing Chen Shao to build another shipyard and expand production capacity.

  In April 1917, the French army launched a spring offensive on the Western Front, engaging in a battle with the German army between Reims and Soissons that lasted for a month. However, despite suffering 100,000 casualties, the French army made no progress, leading to widespread discontent among French soldiers. The war again became bogged down, and due to internal divisions, the French army was unable to defend itself, forcing the British army to take over defense of the Western Front. In the second half of that year, equipment provided by the United States arrived in Europe, and the British army launched another fierce attack on the Western Front, but after losing more than a million men, they were still unable to change the stalemate situation.

  Russia itself was an economic system of serfdom that could not withstand the continuous warfare on the Eastern Front, resulting in a domestic economic collapse, factory closures, a sharp increase in unemployment, and extreme difficulties in supplying military supplies. The soldiers were extremely war-weary. In the winter of 1916, various contradictions within Russia intensified, with over a million people striking in Moscow, leading to the outbreak of the February Revolution in March 1917 (February in the Russian calendar), which led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. However, the newly formed Kerensky provisional government continued to wage war but was again defeated by the German and Austro-Hungarian armies. As a result, Russian workers and peasants could no longer bear it, and in November 1917 (October in the Russian calendar), led by Bolshevik leader Lenin, an armed uprising overthrew the bourgeois government of the provisional government, establishing a Soviet government and the world's first socialist state, known as the "October Revolution". Lenin later signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and declared Russia's withdrawal from World War I. It has great historical significance because it was the first victorious socialist revolution in human history, marking the birth of the world's first socialist country. Its victory dealt a heavy blow to imperialist rule, promoted the development of the international socialist movement, inspired the liberation struggle of colonial and semi-colonial peoples, and marked the beginning of modern world history.

  Although Russia withdrew from the war, Germany's allies - the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the Bulgarian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire - continued to fight, causing economic collapse, domestic ethnic uprisings, and ultimately unable to continue fighting, successively seeking peace with the Allied Powers.

  Japan entered World War I on the side of the Allies, declaring war on Germany in order to gain control of German interests in Shandong, China, and capturing Qingdao.

  The Beiyang government was divided on the issue of declaring war on Germany in World War I, with intense infighting. To achieve his goal of going to war, Duan Qirui summoned more than a dozen military governors under his command to Beijing and formed the "Duan's Military Governors' Corps" to pressure Li Yuanhong, but was unsuccessful; later, Duan Qirui had someone write a declaration of war against Germany for the president to sign, and Li Yuanhong reluctantly signed it to calm the storm. Even so, Duan Qirui was still not satisfied, and during the National Assembly's discussion on the issue, he again interfered heavily, finally provoking public outrage. Just then, Duan Qirui's private loan from Japan was exposed. On May 21, 1917, Li Yuanhong took advantage of the opportunity to order the dismissal of his premiership, and Duan Qirui angrily left Beijing for Tianjin, refusing to recognize Li's dismissal order on the grounds that the president had no right to dismiss the premier under the provisional constitution. The struggle between the two sides was called the "Power Struggle between the Presidential Palace and the State Council". Later, Li Yuanhong invited Zhang Xun, the leader of the Military Governors' Corps, to enter Beijing on June 14 to mediate. After entering Beijing, Zhang Xun restored the Qing dynasty. The event was suppressed by Duan Qirui, and Li Yuanhong resigned as president after the incident, with Feng Guozhang succeeding him as president. The power struggle between the Presidential Palace and the State Council came to an end. Under Duan Qirui's rule, the Beiyang government joined the Allied Powers with British and French support and declared war on the Central Powers.

  In August-September 1918, the German army lost another 1.5 million men, over 2,000 guns and more than 13,000 machine guns. The continuous news of military defeats intensified the contradictions within Germany. In September, Hindenburg suggested to the German parliament that they should "end the war". However, the highest command of the German army still refused to give up, intending to use the remaining naval vessels for a final decisive battle with the British Navy. As a result, German sailors refused to go to their deaths and mutinied in Kiel harbor, which quickly spread throughout the entire navy and country. On November 9, the capital of Berlin also experienced the November Revolution, and Emperor William II was forced to abdicate and flee to Holland. The Social Democratic Party formed a provisional government, declaring the establishment of the Weimar Republic. On November 11, the Armistice of Compiègne was signed, and Germany surrendered. The First World War, which lasted for four years and three months, ended with the victory of the Allied Powers.

  After the war, various countries held peace talks in Paris, known as the "Paris Peace Conference" (also known as the Paris Peace Conference). The major decisions of the conference were presided over by US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. Although US President Woodrow Wilson advocated for leniency towards Germany, France insisted on severe punishment due to its desire for revenge. As a result, the Treaty of Versailles signed between the countries and Germany included extremely harsh terms at the request of France, imposing huge territorial losses, reparations and military restrictions on Germany. However, at the same time, no corresponding punishment was meted out to war criminals such as Kaiser Wilhelm II, Field Marshal Hindenburg and General Ludendorff. This ultimately laid the groundwork for Germany to provoke an even larger Second World War 20 years later.

  World War I lasted for 4 years and 3 months, with more than 30 countries participating in the war, involving a population of about 1.5 billion people, accounting for 67% of the world's total population at that time. In terms of US dollars at the time, the direct economic losses of the belligerents were as high as $180.5 billion, and indirect economic losses also reached $151.6 billion. The war mainly took place in Europe, with some estimates suggesting that Europe's industrial production level fell back by at least 8 years.

  But in World War I, the Russian Empire (1547-1917), which rose in Eastern and Central Europe, the German Empire (1871-1918) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) were destroyed. The Ottoman Empire (1299-1922), which rose in Western Asia and expanded to Southeastern Europe and Northern Africa, also collapsed. The nation-states of the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East emerged one after another, such as Yugoslavia, Hungary and Iraq.

  The UK, originally the world financial center and world hegemon, although its territory increased after the war, its control over the territory was greatly reduced due to the huge casualties and material losses of the war, and its economy was also severely affected by the war, showing a serious decline, thus giving up its position as the world financial center to the United States.

  This great war weakened Britain, France and Italy; the United States became the world's number one economic power, and the global financial center shifted from London to New York; Japan also transformed from a debtor nation to a creditor nation, and occupied China's Jiaozhou Bay and Shandong Peninsula, which were originally under German control. From 1914 to 1919, the actual paid-in capital of Japanese enterprises increased from 2.218 billion yen to 6.123 billion yen, with industrial production capacity increasing by more than four times. Its actual industrial output increased by 1.8 times, and new and expanded enterprises centered on export-oriented industries emerged. The shipbuilding industry built 79 ships in 1914, totaling 82,000 tons, and surged to 443 ships in 1918, totaling 540,500 tons, rising from sixth place in the world before the war to third place, thus greatly boosting Japanese ambitions, with their sights set on neighboring China.