Balance

In 1908, Edward VII even met William II, and their conflicts escalated due to differing national stances and personalities. However, the fact that William II was the first to arrive at Edward VII's funeral shows that William II still had some regard for these family ties.

But conflicts between nations cannot be swayed by family ties, nor can fundamental decisions be influenced by them.

After troops were sent to France, Edward VII was furious!

Over the years, due to the gradual convergence of interests and systems, the British and French relationship had become closer. William II's strong, stubborn, and conquering personality was already disliked by him, and he had even sent numerous letters of advice.

But he never expected William II to pull such a stunt without a word!

How good would it have been if everyone had happily gone to carve up America! They were already quite scared by America's development speed in recent years and were worried about not having an opportunity to curb its growth. Now that an opportunity finally arose, you, kid, jump out and mess things up again.

You truly have no sense of the bigger picture!

Edward VII was furious, but because his power had already been decentralized, he could only express his strong stance and pressure the United Kingdom government, wanting to show William II a thing or two.

Although the United Kingdom royal family has given up royal sovereignty, the reason it has been able to continue to this day is that, under the United Kingdom's constitutional system, all power belongs to the monarch. Whether it is the government or students, whether it is the constitution or diplomacy, everything is loyal to the United Kingdom King.

Every one of them pledges allegiance to the United Kingdom King. Therefore, the United Kingdom monarch can be seen as the United Kingdom itself, which is why people often say the Queen represents the country. This also means that although the United Kingdom royal family reigns but does not rule, its status has never declined.

Although Parliament itself can veto the King's demands, they generally do not, unless it is too excessive.

And this time, the King's demand was not excessive at all. Not only was it not excessive, but it was also made from the perspective of the United Kingdom Parliament and the United Kingdom itself, so this proposal was immediately approved.

They wanted to seize this opportunity to curb America's development and also did not want Germany to gain an advantage. Most importantly, they did not want France to withdraw from this invasion of America, otherwise, the United Kingdom fighting America alone might result in significant losses.

So,

What to do then?

It's simple, start a two-front war!

The current international situation had begun to change dramatically. To prevent any country from developing secretly while remaining outside of this turbulent situation, the British Empire, with the ultimate 'if I can't win, then no one wins' mentality, finally made a decision based on this.

Unite with the Russian Empire to counter Germany and aid France!

All countries fight on two fronts!

You all want to win, right? Then none of you will win!

The British routinely stir the pot, deeply understanding the essence of imperial balance.

In reality, their approach to this day is indeed the best one.

All strong nations are embroiled in war, which prevents certain strong nations from avoiding the baptism of war, thereby developing stealthily and secretly gaining an upper hand over everyone else.

Therefore, with such thoughts in mind, the British Empire finally moved.

April 6, 1901.

Edward VII, the United Kingdom King, received Raymond Poincaré, the French President, at Buckingham Palace.

It is reported that during this brief contact, the two sides finalized a proposal for an offensive and defensive alliance. The reason why only the French President was invited and not Nicholas II was mainly because Nicholas II and France had already established an integrated offensive and defensive political strategy. Furthermore, Edward VII was Nicholas II's uncle, and their relationship was not bad. When Nicholas II was young, he often visited the United Kingdom with his mother for summer holidays, and his uncle played a mentor-like role in his life. He even passed on his hobbies such as beautiful women, cigars, high-end suits, sports cars, and racing boats to Nicholas II!

Therefore, comparatively, although William II himself was more capable, Edward VII preferred his grand-nephew Nicholas II. This also meant that their cooperation didn't even require a meeting; signing an agreement was enough.

Under mutual agreement, France decided to continue its military action against America, firmly supporting the British and Russian Empire alliance to maximize profits!

April 8, 1901.

World War I began.

The main belligerent nations of this war were officially confirmed.

The Alliance consisted of: Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.

The Entente consisted of: the British Empire, the French Republic, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, and Japan. As well as their respective colonial dependencies.

At the same time, both warring parties also had secondary battlefields.

The new government in Eastern America, and Dutch Van Der Linde, the Grand King of Western America.

However, these two secondary battlefields belonged to the Entente, while the Alliance's secondary battlefield was the Russian Empire.

And the new government in Eastern America and Dutch Van Der Linde, the Grand King of Western America, who participated in this war, were also enemies of each other.

Therefore, all participating nations in this war opened up two-front battlefields, which was utterly insane!

Although this was not much different from the scenario Dutch had envisioned, when the reality was truly laid out before him, he was still greatly astonished.

April 9, 1901.

The battle lines of various countries were fully drawn.

France frantically transported troops to the border, and the British Empire followed closely, deploying its invincible fleet to help France gain the initiative in the war. And Nicholas II of the Russian Empire piled up troops even more frantically, starting to transport them en masse to the Eastern front.

However, Germany's 150,000-strong fleet on the ocean almost entirely launched, using submarines to initiate indiscriminate attacks, thereby largely disrupting the United Kingdom's maritime transport.

This forced the British to temporarily focus their main attention on the European conflict.

But even so, the war situation in Europe was desperate.

News of French border areas falling one after another reached the French Parliament.

Damn it, Germany, I don't know what he ate, but he actually pulled out a terrifying steel beast on the battlefield!

This terrifying steel beast completely disregarded machine guns and various defenses set up in positions, often accompanied by the roaring of its engine, it would lead its troops directly into the French positions, completely disrupting the entire front line and destroying the entire defense!

This led to the continuous retreat of the French army, with the number of casualties rising daily!

The Tank was an unsolvable existence in this era.

It could move non-stop, which meant that current setups simply could not keep up with its speed or catch its pace.

This created a very terrifying situation.

Artillery couldn't hit it, and bullets did little damage to it. To counter these steel behemoths, one either used Molotov cocktails to set them on fire, and if lucky, it could burn the fuel tank causing an internal explosion, if unlucky, the flames from the Molotov cocktail were not enough to cause damage.

Or, one could use buried bombs to bombard them, but the explosive damage of bombs in this era was not significant, and it was difficult to cause fatal damage to them.

This led to a situation where there were currently no effective means of killing Tanks on the frontal battlefield, making trench warfare in this era like entering an unmanned territory for these damned Tanks.

Often, Tanks would even take the lead, charging into the French army's positions with their troops and bombarding them! This also led to heavy losses for the French army, with their front lines constantly being broken.

The Tank was incredibly effective for blitzkrieg; it was a mobile bunker that wasn't afraid of immobile bunkers.

France suffered greatly, and the United Kingdom was shaken! Only Tsar Nicholas II didn't care how many of his soldiers died, just kept demanding the front-line troops to continue charging!

It was fitting that his entire family was eventually exterminated.