Chapter 944:
Chapter 925 – Refugee Wave
A new day began, and the snow was still filling the sky. Normally, in this kind of weather, neither the allied army, nor the French army would launch an attack.
Captain Hoeger, who was on patrol, however, didn’t dare to take it lightly; just because a large-scale attack wasn’t there, didn’t mean that a small-scale attack wouldn’t happen as well.
The 25th Division, in which Captain Hoeger is a member, has been attacked by the French seven times in just half a month, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
Of course, the allied forces also organized a number of retaliatory counterattacks, in general, it is considered to be mutual victory and defeat, the Austrian army also slightly advantageous.
Against the biting wind, Captain Hoeger sneezed, and a sense of foreboding came over him.
“All brace yourselves, and watch out for the French blackballing you.”
The battlefield is the best teacher, and experience comes slowly. I don’t know when it started, but the two warring sides fell in love with the sniping game.
Four or five hundred meters away, ambush three or five soldiers with good shooting skills, make a sneak attack on the enemy’s patrol, and don’t even wimp out against a platoon.
Restricted by the accuracy of firearms, able to hit more than thirty percent at a distance of two hundred meters, that are elite soldiers.
At a distance of four or five hundred meters, apart from sharpshooters, ordinary soldiers rely on luck, and cannot be effectively killed at all.
The soldiers in the ambush would fight if they could win, and run if they couldn’t. In recent times, this was how most of the casualties on both sides of the battle came about.
“Don’t worry, Captain. The terrain here is flat, and you can see everything from three to five miles away, so there’s no way to hide anyone.
Look, it’s all white ahead, it doesn’t even look like anyone’s passing through, unless the French ambushed them in the snow in the middle of the night.”
The one who replied back was a middle-aged veteran, demobilized back to the army after the outbreak of the war. From the looks in the eyes of the crowd, it was clear that he was not in a low position in the patrol.
The army was one that worshipped the strong, and being able to be respected was naturally due to ability. Here was no exception, the middle-aged veteran was respected, naturally because he possessed a wealth of combat experience and had once received a military medal.
In almost all Austrian army companies, there would be such veterans present, and the value of their existence was to impart battlefield experience.
Captain Hoeger took out his binoculars and scanned ahead, sighing in relief after determining that there were no traces of pedestrians.
A nighttime ambush was nonexistent, the temperature in the middle of the night was more than ten degrees below zero, and in freezing weather without any heating facilities, it would be deadly.
As for digging holes and setting up bunkers, that only existed in divine dramas. In reality it is simply impossible, frozen soil is not so good to dig, how can it be dug out silently overnight?
Just about to put down the binoculars, a looming silhouette suddenly appeared in the distance, and Captain Hoegh’s complexion immediately became grave.
“Signal, the enemy has appeared.”
The distance was simply too far, and one could only get a general view through the binoculars. Even though it was not reasonable for the French to launch an attack in this kind of weather, the battlefield was not a place for reasoning in the first place.
Captain Hoeger had gone to military school, and countless classic battle examples had taught him that classic battles were won by breaking the rules.
Just because it doesn’t work in theory doesn’t mean it won’t happen in reality. For the French, launching an attack in icy weather was certainly disadvantageous, but it wasn’t entirely without its benefits.
In this kind of hellish weather, the Austrian army’s airplanes and airships would have to rest at home and not worry about threats in the sky.
The task of the patrols was to spot enemy sightings and report them in time. Sensing a movement, Captain Hoeger naturally had to report it.
“Captain, are you sure it’s the French? Launching an attack now won’t do the French any good. You should know that fighting in this kind of hellish weather, the casualties of the soldiers will be very high!”
In normal times when soldiers were injured, when they collected the bodies in the evening, they could still bring the wounded back for medical treatment.
This kind of icy weather is different, the wounded lying in the snow for a few hours, the wounds have long been frozen out, the possibility of recovery is greatly reduced.
People with a little bit of military common sense know that the wounded on the battlefield are usually several times the number of soldiers killed in action, and may even be a dozen times.
If these wounded can’t be saved, then the battle losses go up all at once. France is not a populous country, they can not stand such losses.
Hoeger shook his head, ”Lieutenant Hans, do you think that in this kind of hellish weather, other than the French, there will be people who will run to our side in droves?
Don’t forget, this is a time of war. This is also the battlefield where we are fighting the French, I don’t think any sane person would think twice about running here to die!”
Guns and cannons on the battlefield have no eyes, there is no innocence in front of the two armies, running over to join in the fun, dying would be in vain.
The residents of the neighborhood had long ago run away, no one stayed to be bombed. Captain Hoeger directly ruled out the possibility that it was the populace.
Hans’ middle-aged man shook his head, “No, Captain. Don’t forget that the mines and factories in the Rhineland are shut down, and the general population won’t be able to hold out much longer after losing their livelihoods.
The French are having trouble securing their own logistics in this freezing, hellish weather, and there’s no way they’ll be able to provide relief.
Past experience has shown that every war produces a large number of refugees. For example, in the last Near East War, we created a large number of refugees for the Ottoman Empire.”
It was obvious that it wasn’t that Lieutenant Hans was a good analyzer, it was mainly because he had personally participated in it, and the impression in his mind was just too deep.
With a ready-made success story in place, it made no sense for the French not to follow suit. As for the aftermath, that was all Lieutenant Hans could think about.
Hearing this explanation, Captain Hoeger gave up his intention of withdrawing back immediately; anyway, the distance between the two sides was still far, so it didn’t matter if they stayed a little longer.
“Hold off on signaling, the scouts will go up a kilometer to make observations, and first determine whether the group ahead is French or not.”
The consequences of making a mess on the battlefield were very serious. In case they mistook the refugees for the enemy and directly greeted them with a barrage of artillery, it would be another tragedy.
Captain Hoeger had a conscience and did not want to personally direct a tragedy himself.
……
Allied forces command headquarters, at this moment than Germany and Austria three countries allied forces senior gathered together.
Archduke Albrecht said with a cautious face, ”Gentlemen, we have just received news from the front line that a wave of refugees is coming towards us.
Unlike the previous scattered refugees, the number of refugees this time could be as high as nearly ten million, our pressure is very high.
All indications are that this time it is the French who are artificially creating a famine and forcing the people to leave.
The French are now running out of tricks, and without the means to defeat us on the battlefield, they are attempting to drag us down with such despicable means.”
The Austrian officers were fine, but the officers of the Belgian and German countries directly exploded, especially Leopold II, who attended the meeting, was alarmed.
On the surface, a large number of refugees would deplete the supplies of the Allied Forces and increase the logistical pressure on the Antifa Alliance.
If analyzed at a deeper level, this was a prelude to France’s complete annexation of Belgium and the Rhineland. With the locals gone, there was naturally no way to stop the French from occupying these regions.
As long as the French government settles a group of immigrants on it, it will have completed the substantial annexation. Even after the war, the European countries together to intervene, there is no way to let Belgium restored, after all, above all the French.
A similar routine was already used during the Austrian annexation of the Ottoman Empire. By the time the European governments reacted and wanted to intervene, the Ottomans were pretty much gone.
Creating an established fact, European countries also have no way to send the Ottomans back from Russia, and in the end can only watch as Austria annexed the Ottomans.
After reacting, Leopold II made an immediate decision, “Marshal, no matter what we must relief the refugees.”
There is no way, Leopold II ruled the basic plate of Belgium, now all become refugees.
Nations exist because of people, and there are people who make nations. If Leopold II wanted to restore his country, he had to keep these refugees.
Otherwise, after a famine, the already small population of Belgium, that will be completely cool.
To provide relief for the refugees, it was better to look to Austria than to the Antifa League.
There are many members of the Antifa Alliance, but only Austria has the ability to provide relief to the refugees, and only the world’s number one exporter of agricultural products is able to provide so much food.
Archduke Albrecht nodded: ”Of course, relief of refugees is what the alliance should do. But how to provide relief is a problem.
Belgium plus the Rhineland region has a total population of more than 11 million. Even if the local population declined due to the war, it would not be less than 10 million.
Since the French have made their move, they will certainly not make a small effort. If there are no surprises, the number of refugees we have to take in will probably be between nine and ten million.
Eating, drinking and sleeping for so many people is not so easy to solve. They must be properly resettled, or else there will be a big mess.
The good thing is, the refugees aren’t coming on the same day, and we can still evacuate them.”
“Evacuation”, obviously wasn’t as simple as saying it. As the saying goes, it is easy to evacuate, but difficult to gather. Once these refugees were dispersed and resettled, it would not be so easy to gather them back together again.
No matter what allies or not, to be able to become a member of the Great Powers, Austria is naturally not a vegetarian.
Once Austria had eaten so many quality laborers, it would be difficult to make them spit them out again.
The phrase “freedom to stay or go” can block everyone’s mouth, so that everyone has to eat this dumb loss.
Not to say that all of them will stay, but it is still possible to leave half of them behind. Only those who have experienced war know the value of peace.
It was too dangerous to be neighbors with France, and a small country like Belgium was too insecure. Why leave if you can get a better life in Austria?
This is still based on the case that Austria wants to face, in case the Vienna government has a good face and a black heart, and intentionally set up some obstacles to prevent the refugees from leaving that would be even more troublesome.
Leopold II hurriedly opposed: “Marshal, this is not good! As long as we win this war, the refugees will still return home.
Considering everyone’s local flavor, as well as the convenience of returning home in the future, I propose to set up a refugee camp nearby to resettle the refugees.”
It would not do not to jump out, the German Confederation was a scattering of sands, the Rhineland region did not belong to any of the states, and the representatives of the states present simply could not come forward.
Not involving their own interests, for the representatives of the states, as long as Austria is sure to pay for the money and food to resettle these refugees, all other issues are negotiable.
Archduke Albrecht shook his head, “Your Majesty. In terms of principle, I am in favor of your proposal, but the problem is that we simply can’t do it.
The pressure on logistics is already very high just to sustain the operational needs of the allied forces. Now to add nearly ten million more refugees, it’s simply impossible to do.
After all, refugees need to be clothed and fed, and with so many people consuming tens of thousands of tons of supplies every day, we simply can’t meet them.
If we don’t want to see a large number of refugees freeze to death and starve to death, the only way is to send them to the rear for decentralized resettlement.
As a matter of fact, to decentralize and resettle so many people in a short period of time is also very stressful for us.”
It’s a shock when you don’t count. Hearing that tens of thousands of tons of supplies would be consumed every day, the people present were nonplussed.
Although not everyone was good at math and could immediately calculate it, everyone could be sure that Archduke Albrecht couldn’t possibly lie about this.
Leopold II’s face sank, deep down he wanted to object, but the harsh reality of the situation really made him despair.
No matter how many reasons, they can’t stand up to a set of cold numbers. Unable to solve the problem of supplies, you can only accept the Austrian proposal.
As for the future, then we can only look forward to the Palace of Vienna that eat. Now Belgium, has lost the bargaining qualifications.
(End of chapter)