Chapter 215: Violating Neutrality
It had been well over a month since the outbreak of war before Bruno received his
reinforcements at Belgrade. Allowing him time to properly organize and prepare for the next step and subduing the Balkans.
In the meantime, the French were sustaining heavy casualties in every field of war they fought in. Whether it was their attempts to break through Elsass-Lothringen or any of the other areas along the border they shared with Germany.
The Germans had prepared a series of fortifications so grand that there was a railway built beneath them, ferrying troops from one section of the border to another, allowing for reinforcements and supplies to rapidly arrive where they were needed at any given moment to repel the French assaults.
These trains were armored, and armed to such a capacity that they did not need to fear French reprisal when they ventured beyond the more fortified sections of the border which concealed them from enemy fire.
This more or less allowed the German Army to send soldiers and resources wherever they were needed, at any given time, and with complete impunity.
And this had gotten on the nerves of the French High Command, who had sent well over 200,000 men to their deaths in the course of a single month of warfare. And with not a single inch of ground to show for it.
If that were not bad enough, French Colonies in Asia had come under attack, specifically those within Indochina. They were aware that the Japanese were a part of the Imperial Powers, but it had been completely unexpected that the Imperial Japanese Army would launch a full scale invasion against Allied colonies in the region.
In 1912, Emperor Meiji had passed away as a result of Uremia. Despite Bruno's hefty investments into the field of medicine, dialysis, which was the only known way to treat such a disease, was still years away from being invented by the time of the legendary Japanese Emperor's death.
Because of this, his son Yoshihito, who after his eventual passing would become known by the name of Emperor Taisho, had come to power. And in doing so, he had brought the full weight of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy to bear on the western allied powers who had colonized much of the Asian continent.