War is just politics by other means. This fight couldn’t go on forever. Eventually, it all comes back to the negotiating table.
Before this, the Germans had hardly any cards to play. They were basically getting carved up however the Entente wanted.
But now? After this victory that crushed the Entente’s morale, they finally had a tiny bit of leverage at the table.
Still, things looked bleak for Germany. One small win wasn’t gonna change the fact that they were losing the war.
"Your Highness, things back home are getting uglier by the day. Our enemies aren’t just the millions of Entente troops on the front lines — we’ve also got mutineers and revolutionaries rising up inside the country."
"As they say, you gotta clean house before you deal with outsiders. If we can’t fix our internal problems, no matter how brave our soldiers are, there’s no way we can hold off the Entente’s advance."
"So I recommend we end the fighting on the Western Front as fast as possible. Before our ammo and supplies run dry, before our boys’ morale completely collapses, we take the army home and crush the rebellion."
Hindenburg’s advice was the voice of hard-won wisdom. It sounded like surrender to the Entente, but you couldn’t deny he was telling the truth.
Right now, the German army — or rather, the royalists — were in a tight spot. They had powerful enemies outside and a growing threat inside.
Wilhelm had heard that the Bolsheviks were stirring up workers everywhere — strikes, protests, even armed revolts.
Every day, more and more workers were getting absorbed into their ranks.
These workers had education, ideas, and strong organizational skills. Some unions had even seized control of the Empire’s munitions factories and military warehouses. Now they had weapons too.
If they let this slide, pretty soon they’d be looking at an army hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions — strong.
The longer this dragged on, the stronger the revolutionaries got. And the harder it’d be for the German army to wipe them out.
Sure, the German troops had better gear and more combat experience. Under normal circumstances, they’d win.
But with the Second Reich’s government already collapsed, the soldiers on the front were like floating weeds — no roots. They’d basically stopped getting supplies like ammo, weapons, food, and medicine from home.
Throw in the Entente armies still attacking them, and the longer this went on, the weaker the German army got.
So the Germans couldn’t afford to wait. They didn’t have a choice. They had to cut a deal with the Entente — try to get the least terrible armistice possible.
Wilhelm sighed. The situation was pretty damn hopeless. No wonder Hindenburg and the others ended up signing the Treaty of Versailles — a treaty that harsh on Germany.
"Alright. I get it. I won’t start any more offensives. But if the Entente keeps pushing, me and my corps are gonna dig in right here and hit ’em back hard. I’ll buy you a few more chips for the table."
Hearing Crown Prince Wilhelm say that, Hindenburg finally let out a breath of relief.
"Good. Then I’ll head back and get the next round of negotiations rolling. Your Highness, please take care of yourself. Don’t do anything reckless like leading from the front lines again!"
The change in the Crown Prince warmed Hindenburg’s heart. It felt like he’d found his backbone again — a reason to keep pushing forward. The confusion and ambition that had crept in after the defeats started fading away.
If the Crown Prince stayed this sharp and capable, why not be his Bismarck?
Back in the day, Bismarck helped Kaiser Wilhelm I conquer new lands, unite all the German states, and build the mighty Second Reich.
Hindenburg could do the same for Crown Prince Wilhelm — starting from the rubble, build a Third Reich for all Germans.
Sure, he was already 70 years old. But so what?
70 was the prime of life. His ambition wasn’t fading with age.
Hindenburg came and went in a hurry. He spent less than half a day with Army Group B.
After Hindenburg left, Wilhelm didn’t waste any time.
On one hand, he rushed to fortify the defenses and strengthen the positions.
On the other, he rotated the frontline troops in an orderly fashion, letting the soldiers who’d just fought get some rest.
Before the enemy launched their counterattack, he had to get the defensive lines ready.
Otherwise, once the enemy came knocking, it’d be too late to sharpen the sword.
But first, he opened his system panel to check his haul.
[Merit Points: 43,221 ↑ (Redeemable for supplies and equipment)]
Overnight, the panel showed over forty thousand merit points. Not a bad little windfall.
If he converted based on the price of night vision goggles he’d bought before, these points were worth about 430 million RMB.
For an ordinary person, that’s an astronomical amount.
But for a country? Peanuts.
Take the ammo the German army desperately needed, for example. The system shop sold it directly.
But a single large-caliber howitzer shell cost 5,000 points. With what he had, he could only buy 80,000 shells — not even enough for one battle-level expenditure.
Word was, the countries fighting in WWI burned through over 200 billion dollars in military spending. On average, 200 million dollars a day.
If you factored in the economic damage, that number doubled.
And this was back when the dollar was still backed by gold.
War. What a goddamn money pit.
But Wilhelm wasn’t planning to waste his precious merit points on consumables like ammo. The value just wasn’t there.
Those kinds of things could be produced locally. No need to buy them from the system.
Instead, if he used the points to buy advanced machine tools, tech blueprints, and design plans from the future — that was where the real value was.
Too bad he didn’t have enough points. Felt like he was always short.
Thinking about it, Wilhelm felt the urge to launch another night raid.
Too bad that kind of win couldn’t be repeated. Once the enemy was on guard, pulling the same trick would backfire. He might even walk right into a trap and lose the few elites he had left.
The Stormtroopers weren’t regular soldiers. They were the cream of the crop — handpicked veterans.
Every single one of them had at least three years of combat experience. Their physical fitness, mental toughness, and marksmanship were all way above the average soldier.
Army Group B had 740,000 men. From that, they picked only 8,000 Stormtroopers.
A hundred-to-one selection rate. That was practically Special Forces level by modern standards.
Elites like that had to be used where they mattered most. Not gambled away on a whim.
The American counterattack came way slower than Wilhelm expected.
France’s transportation network had limited capacity. It took the Americans several days just to swap the Second Army to the front and relieve the First Army.
But honestly, you couldn’t really blame the French. The area near the front lines had been blown to hell by years of fighting. Whatever infrastructure was there was gone.
Plus, the Americans were just too loaded. They brought way too much stuff, and their military organization was way too big.
At this point, the average division size for the British, French, and Germans was between 16,000 and 18,000 men. But an American division? A whopping 28,000 men — nearly double the size.
Later in the war, other countries streamlined their divisions for easier command. They ditched the brigade level and switched to a standard three-regiment setup.
But the Americans, who’d just joined the fight, were still using the old square division structure — two brigades per division, two regiments per brigade. Made their units bloated and clumsy.
Their earlier defeat had a lot to do with this outdated organization.
But Pershing’s staff argued that the 28,000-man division was great because it reduced the need for well-trained officers.
The U.S. hadn’t fought a real war in a long time. Experienced commanders were scarce. And the army had always been small. The millions of troops they had now were thrown together in a hurry.
Expanding to over a hundred divisions overnight meant officers could only be pulled from military academies and an army that had fewer than 100,000 men with zero combat experience. The talent gap was huge.
If they wanted to reform their military structure like the British, French, and Germans, they’d need to fill tens of thousands of mid-level officer slots. America just didn’t have that many officers. So they made do with what they had.
Once they’d fought enough battles and trained up their people, they could figure out what needed fixing.