Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 536 Three-pronged Encirclement of Germany
When the Russian Civil War broke out, the entire country was thrown into chaos. Whether in major Russian cities or on the front lines, everyone was now forced to choose their allegiance.

Both the Provisional Government and the Soviet Russian Government expressed their positions, stating that any army or city that did not publicly recognize their side would be considered a traitor.

Once labeled as traitors, not only will the troops receive no supplies from the rear, but the cities will also face being besieged by other cities.

Under pressure from the two major governments, major Russian cities and the military began to take sides, accelerating the formation of a civil war.

While the choices of cities varied, the selection of troops for the Russian front remained largely consistent. This was largely due to the fact that Moscow, the capital of Soviet Russia, was too far from the front lines, and the fact that the Russian military leadership was largely comprised of nobles, which allowed the provisional government to quickly gain control of the troops at the front.

However, the Soviet regime of the workers' union was not to be trifled with. After realizing that the frontline troops could not be won over, Soviet Russia immediately announced the establishment of a military committee and formed a Soviet military force led by the workers' union, named the Workers' Police Armed Forces.

Thanks to the extremely high loyalty of the working class, after the establishment of the Workers' Police Armed Force, this brand-new military force quickly exceeded 100,000 people and is still increasing.

Other workers who did not join this armed force were also assigned to various military factories to produce enough weapons for the Soviet government to equip its army.

In reality, from the surface of the civil war, the Russian Provisional Government, which had the support of the Tsar and the aristocracy, still held a significant advantage.

Most of the troops on the Russian front remained loyal to the Provisional Government, while the Soviet Russia of the workers' union could only temporarily assemble an army, whose weapons were all produced by themselves and whose quality could only be described as average.

Given such a huge disparity in military strength, the provisional government should be able to quickly crush the Soviet government formed by the workers' union and restore the unity of the whole of Russia.

But is this really the case?

Despite having millions of troops on the Russian front, these troops were actually unmobilizable. While Germany did not offer assistance to the workers' union, this did not mean Germany was uninterested in the lands controlled by the Russian provisional government.

Once the Russian provisional government mobilizes a large number of troops at the front, the German army will inevitably take advantage of the victory and occupy large swathes of Russian territory.

The only troops that could be mobilized were those originally deployed on the Austro-Hungarian border. However, this area was closer to Kiev, and the Russian Soviet regime had already extended its reach to Kiev. They would certainly be interested in these border troops as well.

Despite commanding millions of troops, the inability to mobilize them put the Provisional Government in an even more awkward position than the Soviet government. Fortunately, the major Allied powers were still willing to support the Russian Provisional Government, which was nominally loyal to Tsar Nicholas II, out of consideration for past relations.

However, such assistance did not come without a price. Unable to mobilize millions of troops at the front, Russia had to provide these troops with substantial logistical support to help them resist the German offensive.

This also meant that, for the Russian Provisional Government, the world war was not over. While it received benefits from the Allied Powers, it also had to help them resist Germany.

Of course, if the war is ultimately won, the Russian provisional government, as the victorious nation, will also be able to represent Russia in the distribution of postwar benefits.

However, the years leading up to the victory in the war were the most difficult. The Russian Provisional Government had to divide its forces to fight against the Soviet Russian government, and the pressure it faced was naturally greater than that of the original Tsarist government.

Like the Russian provisional government, Germany is currently under immense pressure.

Although Russia was embroiled in a civil war, it still maintained millions of troops on the front lines. However, the focus of the war had shifted back to the Western Front, and if Germany were to massively redeploy troops from the Eastern Front, no one could guarantee that the Russian Provisional Government, mired in civil war, would not launch a counterattack to regain the people's trust through war.

However, if troops are not redeployed from the Eastern Front, Germany will not have enough troops to defend the increasingly important Western Front.

With Austria-Hungary withdrawing from the war, the Central Powers were reduced to only two superpowers: Great Britain and Germany.

Although Britain repeatedly claimed it would help Germany hold the Western Front, the current situation was that Britain had only sent a million troops to the battlefield, while the German army was the main force on both the Eastern and Western fronts.

If even Austria-Hungary, a ally Germany trusted so much, could betray Germany during the war, then what about Britain, which joined the war only halfway through?

Compared to Germany, which was already unable to extricate itself, Britain still had a chance to mitigate its losses in time. After all, the British mainland had not yet been attacked by the Allied Powers, and apart from the troublesome situation in Ireland, Britain's core territory was still largely unaffected.

Unless the Allied Powers wanted to completely defeat Britain in this war, they would still have to give Britain some face in the face of a superpower's offer of peace.

But Germany was different. Germany had already given everything in this war, and it was unwilling to surrender until the final outcome was determined.

For Germany at that time, surrender meant losing everything. Not only would its territory be divided among the Allied powers, but the German government would also be burdened with enormous debt.

Such a price is unbearable for the German government and the German people. Even if the German government were to compromise, the angry German people would do everything in their power to overthrow the incompetent government.

For the current German government, the most important thing is to turn the tide on the battlefield and give Britain hope of winning the world war, so as to preserve its only remaining ally.

Fortunately, the Allied Powers are currently at a significant disadvantage, and there is still a sliver of hope that they can defeat the Entente Powers.

With Austria-Hungary withdrawing from the war, the main battlefield of the world war has now returned to the Western Front.

If Germany could achieve some success on the Western Front and repel a large-scale offensive launched by the Allies, then this world war would still be possible.

If Germany cannot withstand the Allied offensive, then the end of the war may not be far off.

In preparation for a possible Allied attack, Germany made careful preparations, equipping the front lines with a large number of artillery pieces and machine guns, and even dozens of domestically produced tanks.

Ever since the last time Spain used tanks in the Battle of the Somme, Germany has been obsessed with this extremely powerful weapon on the battlefield.

Fortunately, the basic principle of a tank is relatively simple: cover a car or tractor with a layer of armor and add a cannon, and you have a simple tank.

Although it cannot perform the same function as the tanks that Spain brought out, such a large machine covered with a layer of steel armor is still quite intimidating to ordinary soldiers on the battlefield.

Germany originally had more than 350 million troops deployed on the Eastern Front. After Russia fell into civil war, 150 million of these troops chose to move south to the Austro-Hungarian border to defend against the possibility of Allied forces invading Germany from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The remaining 200 million troops remained on the Eastern Front, partly to guard against a potential Russian attack and partly as a reserve force to support the Austro-Hungarian border. In contrast to the relatively well-stocked Eastern Front, Germany's forces on the Western Front were significantly weaker. After several large-scale battles, Germany had only about 120 million troops on the Western Front, nearly 40 of whom were new recruits.

Fortunately, Britain also deployed more than 110 million troops on the Western Front, and the Allies combined to have about 230 million troops, plus a large number of artillery and machine guns, which was enough to barely defend against the Allied offensive.

Compared to the Central Powers, which were clearly outnumbered, the Allied Powers had a much larger force on the Western Front.

The French army remained the main force, with over 300 million troops deployed across all fronts. The Spanish army also maintained a strength of over 100 million for a long period, and Italy had nearly 60 combat troops.

The Allied forces outnumbered the Central Powers by two to one on the Western Front, which frustrated Britain and Germany, forcing them to adopt a defensive posture and hope that problems would arise during the Allied offensive.

In addition to having superior troop strength on the western front, the Allied Powers also had nearly 210 million troops in the Balkans.

After signing a peace treaty with Austria-Hungary and with Austria-Hungary's permission, these 210 million troops have entered Austria-Hungary territory in succession, preparing to launch an attack on the German mainland from southern Germany.

In this regard, the Allied Powers had already made contact with the Russian Provisional Government. If the Allied Powers launched a large-scale offensive against Germany, the Russian Provisional Government would also mobilize at least two million troops to launch a counter-offensive against Germany at an opportune moment.

In return for the Russian Provisional Government, it would fully inherit Tsarist Russia's contributions in the war and receive war reparations, land, and other war compensation commensurate with Russia's status and position.

All the Allied powers would refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Soviet Russia and, if necessary, could even send interventionist troops to help the Russian Provisional Government confront the Soviet Russian government.

These two points were quite attractive to the Russian Provisional Government. What the Russian Provisional Government needed most at the moment was money and military support, and these two points were precisely what it could provide.

Especially given that the Russian Provisional Government had essentially inherited the Tsarist government, it certainly wanted to reciprocate the enormous contributions the Tsarist government had made in the war.

This would not only clear the Tsar's name of his wartime record, but also allow more Russians to accept the current provisional government.

If Russia wins the world war, then its poor performance in the war can naturally be covered up.

If the Tsarist government's foolish actions during the war are covered up, the public's anger towards the Tsarist government will naturally lessen, and their support for the Soviet Russian government will naturally weaken.

As for the Allied Powers' promise to send troops to forcibly intervene in the Russian Civil War, that was the last resort of the Russian Provisional Government.

If the Soviet Russian government could not be defeated in the civil war, the only way to ensure that the Russian Provisional Government would not be eliminated by the Soviet Russian government was through the forceful intervention of the Allied Powers.

As for having the Allied Powers send troops to directly eliminate the Soviet Russian government, not only did the Allied Powers not consider doing so, but the Russian Provisional Government also did not consider it.

There is no gain without pain. If the Allied Powers wanted to send enough troops to destroy the Soviet Russian government, the Russian Provisional Government had to offer corresponding concessions.

The cost of doing so would be enormous. Even if the Russian Provisional Government were to eliminate the Soviet Russian government, the future of Russia would likely not be entirely up to its own control.

With Austria-Hungary having withdrawn from the war, France placed high hopes on its preparations for the next attack on Germany.

Although France did not intend to defeat Germany with this attack, it did have the idea of ​​securing a decisive victory in this battle.

This also means that on the Western Front, the Allied forces must establish a significant advantage, eliminate a sufficient number of Allied troops, and occupy enough territory.

To plan this offensive, the high-ranking military officials of Spain, France, and Italy met for a long time to discuss the matter and finally decided to launch a major counter-offensive on the western front, codenamed the Summer Offensive.

Nearly four million Allied troops would be divided into three routes. The western route, with 150 million troops based in Paris, the capital of France, would advance northward into Belgium.

Resistance to German rule in Belgium was quite fierce. Local guerrillas had repeatedly disrupted the German army's supply lines, causing great trouble for the Germans. This was the reason why the Germans launched a large-scale campaign of encirclement and massacre against the local guerrillas.

If the Belgian region could be recaptured, not only would the battlefield be shifted to German territory, but a considerable number of allied troops would also be available to resolutely resist the German army.

Although both the Allied and Central Powers had committed numerous atrocities on the battlefield, the Belgians believed that they had committed no crimes against Germany, yet the German army carried out massacres within Belgian territory.

Such cruel acts provoked repeated resistance from the Belgians and fueled deep hatred between Belgium and Germany.

Fueled by this hatred, the Belgian army's fighting capacity was even comparable to that of the German army.

The central army, based at Verdun, launched an attack on Luxembourg and the Rhine. Because it faced the Rhine directly, the central army was destined to encounter the fiercest resistance.

For this reason, the central army consisted of only about one million men. This army served more as a feint to draw the attention of the German army.

The Eastern Route Army also numbered approximately 150 million men, and its mission was to launch an offensive into southern Germany in an attempt to join forces with Allied forces in Austria.

Even if the western army fails to make progress, as long as it can threaten southern Germany, it will still be a gain for the overall campaign.

The remaining approximately 60 troops on the western front were kept as reserves, ready to support the three armies at any time.

At the same time, two million Allied troops located within the Austro-Hungarian Empire would also launch an attack.

Under the siege of so many troops, even the powerful German army had to consider abandoning one of the battlefields.

If any of the three armies on the Western Front or the army on the Austro-Hungarian front achieves victory, the Allied Powers will have fulfilled the tasks and objectives set forth in their operational plans.
Because once the army enters German territory, the impact on the German homeland will be enormous. Germany would then be like Austria-Hungary, forced to consider the severe consequences of war even if it wanted to resist.

(End of this chapter)