At the German-Austrian border, more than 900,000 Entente troops had now gathered, and that number was still rising. As commander-in-chief of the allied forces in this great war, General Dante-Christophe was in high spirits as he surveyed the battlefield.
This battle might well be the last of his life. Though its scale might not be particularly vast, its stature was certainly lofty!
Even Conrad, Marshal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had no choice but to serve as his assistant. It truly carried something of the feeling of "thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river"!
"Commander-in-Chief, sir, this is the intelligence on the Germans across the line." An adjutant approached, speaking as he handed over a document.
Dante-Christophe casually took the document, tore open the seal, pulled out the papers, and began reading them carefully.
The Germans were somewhat stronger than he had expected. The Hindenburg Government had carried out an extreme nationwide mobilization. Every male between fifteen and sixty-five had been ordered to enlist, expanding the German Army by another two million men. But how much fighting strength they possessed would only be known after battle.
Simply put, apart from those working in specialized positions, there were no longer any healthy young men to be found among Germany's civilian population. With a population of more than sixty million, they had mobilized over ten million people for war in succession. That was unprecedented and would likely never be seen again!
There was no helping it. It was only 1917, and World War I had been going on for just over two years. Naturally, the Germans were stronger than they had been in history. Most importantly, their supplies could still hold out for a while. On top of that, they had ruthlessly looted the Russians last year. No