The Crown Prince and Preshan went back after seeing Ludendorff off. There was still a lot of work waiting for them.
Ludendorff finally arrived in Berlin after taking the train for almost two days. Looking out the window at the familiar yet unfamiliar place, Ludendorff also felt melancholy. When he got off the train, a young officer in his twenties walked to
After saluting in front of him, he said, "Colonel Ludendorff, I am Second Lieutenant Mandrill of the General Staff, and I have been ordered to come to greet you."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." After Ludendorff said that, he followed Lieutenant Mandrill out of the station. The lieutenant pointed to the Model T car parked on the roadside and said, "Let's take the car there."
After putting away the luggage, Second Lieutenant Mandrill said to Ludendorff, "Colonel, I will arrange for you to stay first. Tomorrow morning, the Chief of General Staff, His Excellency Moltke, will receive you to learn about the situation of the Romanian army."
The next day at the German General Staff, Ludendorff stood in front of Chief of the General Staff Moltke to report on his work. "Colonel Ludendorff, you are a consultant to the Romanian army. Can you evaluate its military situation?"
"Good Lord, Chief of General Staff, when I first arrived in Romania, its army was bloated, its top officers were severely corrupted, and its officers at the bottom had poor tactical understanding, and many of them had very low educational levels and could not even read military orders.
The morale at the soldier level is pretty good, but the amount of training is insufficient, resulting in the overall combat effectiveness of the army being very poor. One of our divisions can fight against two Romanian divisions before reorganization."
After Ludendorff introduced the current situation of the Romanian army, he paused and continued.
"During the reorganization in Romania, we increased the amount of soldier training. Lower-level officers mainly re-study at the Bucharest Military Academy, and senior officers also underwent re-training. After three years of reorganization, they now have our nine-tier organization in terms of military personnel.
They are no worse than us in terms of equipment. Generally speaking, the troops that have been reorganized now can compete with us one-on-one at the division level. I personally think that they are reorganizing the army on a large scale and have war intentions."
Although Ludendorff and Edel were friends, they would not be swayed by their emotions. They still told the Chief of General Staff what they saw exactly.
General Moltke, who heard Ludendorff's story, was also thinking about Romania's plans. From Germany's perspective, of course, he hopes that Romania can join the war against Russia in the future. However, Romania has not yet been completely pulled into the tank. An elite force
The army was placed on the front line of Bessarabia in Russia, which was also a kind of protection for East Prussia and Austria-Hungary.
Now Little Moltke had guessed Romania's plan. The only ones he could make decisions around Romania were Serbia and Bulgaria. Considering the dispute between Romania and Bulgaria regarding the Dobroga region, Little Moltke had his own answer.
"Thank you very much for your analysis of the Romanian army, Colonel Ludendorff." Moltke said to Ludendorff.
"It is an honor for every German to serve the Reich." Faced with the thanks from the Chief of General Staff, Ludendorff leaned on his legs and answered without any hesitation.
"This time you return to China, I plan to arrange for you to be the director of the Second Division of the General Staff Headquarters. What do you think?"
"I have no problem at all. I feel honored to be able to work under the Chief of General Staff." Faced with Moltke's question, Ludendorff could not refuse. Moreover, the Second Department of the General Staff is in charge of marching work, which is more suitable.
his appetite.
Moltke was very satisfied with Ludendorff. He had read the information before and had a deep understanding of Ludendorff's working ability in Romania.
"You've just come back, take a rest for a week and see if your family comes to work." Little Moltke was still very considerate and gave Ludendorff a day off.
Ludendorff left the General Staff after receiving the leave approved by Moltke, and took a car to Schlieffen's home after his retirement. Under the leadership of the housekeeper, he met Schlieffen who was revising his plan.
General Schlieffen, who was concentrating on studying his plan, stood up at the butler's prompt and walked to Ludendorff and said, "Ludendorff is here. I haven't seen you for a long time. How are you doing in Romania?"
"Thank you, General, for your concern for me. I am living well in Romania. Now the Chief of General Staff, General Moltke, has transferred me to the Second Division as Director. I can help you continue to complete the plan." Ludendorff introduced to General Schlieffen.
own current situation.
"Well, all the emerging things are affecting this plan. I'm old and don't have enough energy. Ludendorff can help me. I'm very grateful to you." Schlieffen expressed his gratitude to his former subordinates.
"You're welcome, General."
Ludendorff told Schlieffen about the changes he had seen in the Romanian army, focusing on Romania's fast mobile divisions. When Schlieffen heard that this division equipped with 800 vehicles could do twice as much as an ordinary division without relying on railways,
"This is a new trend. The advantages brought by being twice as fast as others can give the military more choices, but it will give the government a headache in terms of military expenses."
"Yes, I calculated in Romania that if we want to improve logistics, then each division needs to add at least 300 vehicles to be effective. This is not a small expense and this can only improve logistics. Plus personnel training, daily maintenance of roads
Conditions, etc. Generally speaking, car transportation can only supplement train transportation." Ludendorff said the results of his calculations.
This is also the limitation of technology in this era. Even though Edel produced Dongfeng trucks, the main force of transportation is still trains. Now a train can transport nearly a thousand tons, and trucks can only transport 1.5 tons. It takes more than 600 trucks to transport one train.
Transportation volume is a big issue in terms of cost.
"Trucks are still much better than horse-drawn carriages. They can supplement the distance from trains to troops, but the cost is not a small sum."
Schlieffen saw the problem very clearly, but the stock of horses in Germany is now very large. Not to mention that he is just a retired chief of general staff, even Moltke now dare not replace all short-distance transportation with trucks. This involves a lot of problems.
Heap problem.
"But it can still be done by equipping the vanguard with enough trucks for transportation." Schlieffen muttered silently. In the plan he made, the maneuvering speed of the rotating attack troops has always been the topic he is most concerned about. Now facing
It is a better means of short-distance transportation than horse-drawn carriages. No wonder he keeps thinking about it.
"General, actually we can make a plan first. Whether it can be implemented ultimately depends on the decision of the General Staff." Ludendorff told Schlieffen his plan.
"I really need your help this time, Ludendorff."
Finally, with the joint efforts of Schlieffen and Ludendorff, a more reasonable "Schlieffen Plan" was released. In this plan, there were no changes to the troops, except for the large-scale use of trucks in the roundabout troops on the Western Front. According to the new plan
The roundabout troops here are equipped with different trucks depending on their location. The peak troops can have up to 600 trucks per division, and the following follow-up troops have at least 300 trucks. According to the new plan, the entire 53 divisions of the roundabout troops are equipped with 23,000 trucks.
