Chapter 107 Czech Rebellion 2

Listening to the persuasion from the people below, Yannick showed an enigmatic smile on his face.

Indeed, if he had not traveled through time and was familiar with the future historical process, he might not have dared to provoke Czechoslovakia easily.

Yannick disagreed, "Many times what is just or unjust depends on strength." This means that in his opinion, many times one's own strength does not mean everything and cannot solve problems.

Why is World War I said to be "the war to end all wars"? That's because the last war was too brutal. During the entire First World War, the total number of military and civilian casualties in various countries exceeded 41 million, of which nearly 18 million were killed—including 9 to 11 million soldiers and more than 6 million civilians.

In addition to casualties, the war also consumed huge social wealth, with direct economic losses of approximately more than 300 billion U.S. dollars. The material damage caused by World War I was equivalent to 10 times the total war expenditures in the world in the 100 years since the Napoleonic Wars.

Such painful war lessons led many people to believe that the First World War from 1914 to 1918 would definitely become the "war to end all wars."

Some people may think that the most miserable thing after this war was the disintegrated Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany suppressed by the "Treaty of Versailles". However, they do not know that Russia and Hungary were even worse than them.

After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks led Mao Zi to withdraw from the bourgeois war to carve up the world, resulting in the post-war Soviet Russia being inconclusive. Judging from the course of World War I, although Maozi withdrew before Germany was defeated, the decisive force that led to Germany's defeat was still Maoxiong. Before Russia withdrew from World War I, Germany was already in decline, but it happened that the furry bear chose to withdraw at this time, allowing the thief eagle to take over. The result was that Maozi paid the highest price for the Allied Powers, received nothing after the war, and allowed Finland to become independent; while Bald Eagle, like the later World War II, got the biggest cake at the lowest cost.

Hungary, as for Hungary, lost the rest of Transylvania as north-western Romania under the Treaty of Trianon; Carpathian Ruthenia as eastern Czechoslovakia after the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919 Terms match. Most of Burgenland belonged to Austria and also cooperated with the Treaty of Saint-Germain; the Sopron area belonged to Hungary according to the results of the referendum in December 1921; this was the only referendum on Hungarian territorial issues.

According to the treaty, Hungary lost a total of 72% of its territory, and its population was significantly reduced from 20.8 million. There are more Hungarians in overseas territories than native Hungarians o(╯□╰)o.

At the same time, the biggest beneficiaries were not Britain and France, but Poland and Czechoslovakia. Poland was so aggressive that it used its remaining power to defeat its neighboring countries. It dared to seize the territory of the Soviet Union, and also seized part of the Czech territory.

During World War I, Poland was just a battlefield where Tsarist Russia, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire fought against each other. After Poland became independent after World War I, the Polish government was not satisfied with the eastern border stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles and wanted to restore the territory of 1772. In April 1919, the Polish government began to implement the "Greater Poland" plan. The Polish army invaded Lithuania and occupied its capital Vilnius. In May, the Polish army invaded Ukraine and started a war with the Ukrainian National Independence Government headed by Petliura. In August, the Polish army captured Minsk, an important military town in western Russia. In the spring of 1920, Poland and the Ukrainian national independence factions ceased war and made peace. On April 22, a peace treaty was signed in Warsaw: Poland recognized the independence of Ukraine and supported Ukraine in its confrontation with Soviet Russia.

In the face of the aggressive Poles, in view of the fact that the domestic war was not yet over, Soviet Russia submitted a request to the Polish government on December 22, 1919, in order to avoid being overwhelmed by the two wars at home and abroad, and to buy time for "it must first settle the internal affairs in order to resist foreign aggression." An invitation for peace negotiations was issued, and both parties sat down at the negotiating table. However, the gap between the conditions of the two sides was too great, and months of talks yielded no results. Delaying time was obviously not good for Poland, so on April 25, Piłsudski resumed his offensive in Zhitomir in the southwest, moved eastward, and captured Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, in one fell swoop on May 7, and the negotiations completely broke down. However, by this time, the Polish army's offensive had reached its end. The battle line extended from Vilnius and Minsk in the north to Kiev in the south. The troops were far away from the base, and the logistics supply was intermittent. The Pripyat Swamp area again blocked the Polish army. The army was divided into two isolated battlefields that were not connected to each other. At this time, the Red Army had just defeated Kolchak in the Volga River area and drove Denikin into the Crimean Peninsula, just in time to mobilize its troops to deal with Poland.

On May 15, the Soviet Red Army launched a counterattack from the north and south. Although the attack from the north failed, it shocked Piłsudski (head of the Polish government). The next day, the famous 1st Cavalry Corps of Budyonny launched a retreat attack on Kiev from the south, attacked Zhimitov from the west, and cut off the retreat of the 3rd Army of the Polish Army. On June 13, the Polish army broke through and retreated to Lviv. The Polish army retreated all the way and the troops began to panic. On July 4, the Red Army General Tukhachevsky commanded four corps to press forward along the Smolensk-Bristlitovsk railway line, and successively recovered important cities such as Kiev, Bristlitovsk, Minsk, Vilnius, and Grodno. Throughout July, the Red Army advanced 300 miles westward, driving the Polish army to the Vistula River and approaching the city of Warsaw. After that, the Polish army organized a counterattack, and the two sides launched a tug-of-war, with both sides winning and losing. On October 10, 1920, Poland and Russia signed a truce agreement, basically maintaining the Polish-Russian border stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles.

Yannick raised his hand, motioning everyone to stay calm, and asked. "Do you think France and Britain want to have a desperate war or continue to avoid war?"

Before the outbreak of World War I, Britain was the world's financial center, and its annual overseas investment was as high as 4 billion pounds, accounting for 43% of the world's total investment at the time. After World War I, Britain not only lost a large amount of gold reserves, but also became a net debtor from the world's largest creditor country, and its world hegemony was gradually replaced by the United States.

As for France, its economy was hit hard in the war, and its industry and infrastructure were severely damaged. France's most important northeastern industrial base was severely damaged in the war, which directly led to a serious decline in French industry.

Before the war, France was the most famous usury empire in the world, and it could be said to be rich. The annual interest could make the French live a very comfortable life. But in World War I, France not only consumed a huge amount of foreign exchange, sold off all its overseas assets such as stocks and securities, but also owed the United States a lot of debt.

There were also population losses in the war, 50,000 soldiers died, more than 2.8 million were disabled, wartime production and front-line service caused the loss of 50,000 working population, and the total number of casualties exceeded 5 million. At that time, the population of France was only about 40 million. It can be said that France lost a whole generation, and they were all young and middle-aged. The huge population casualties caused France to suffer long-term and difficult to heal trauma.

Such a price is enough to make Britain and France afraid of a new war.

Everyone looked at each other in surprise, and only heard Yannick continue. "If they go to war, then in the Rhineland, Austria, and Spain, wars should have been launched long ago. So I think that this time Britain and France will continue to appease and indulge us to occupy the Sudetenland. Does anyone question my judgment?"

"..." Just kidding! Who dares to question His Highness's judgment? From the moment His Highness took power, everything has not escaped his calculations. It's really like God is pointing the way forward behind him. (As the saying goes, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. At that time, Yannick's nonsense about the Jewish elders was somehow spread.)

That evening, Foreign Minister Ribbentrop held a press conference and read out a warning to Czechoslovakia.

The British and French sides who received the news were also quite nervous. The top leaders of the two countries held a meeting almost immediately to seek countermeasures.

There will be another chapter later