Chapter 498: Growing in Blood and Fire

  Chapter 487 – Growing in Blood and Fire

The British foreign policy change soon caused a chain reaction. The French did not resist the temptation to accept the British into the alliance after all, and the pressure shifted to Austria.

This winter Vienna is extraordinarily cold, Christmas has not yet passed, the Meizumi Palace has already put on a layer of silver.

Stepping on the snow, the creaking sound is still so pleasing to the eye.

Franz, who was in a good mood, was not in a headache over the diplomatic turn of events. Since the French dared the British to join the alliance, he didn’t care about one more shit-stirring ally.

Originally, France and Austria were unstable, and now that there was an additional Englishman with a heart of gold, Franz had already seen the future of this alliance collapsing.

Of course, of a short period of time it would still be good for everyone. An alliance between Britain, France and Austria could pull everyone’s prestige to the top, and all the countries of the world would tremble under this alliance.

Stepping into the conference room, Foreign Minister Weissenberg had already appeared in the chamber, and there was a cup of coffee on the table emitting the slightest bit of heat, so it was clear that he had already been here for a while.

The purpose was self-evident, naturally, to communicate with Franz in advance, whether to ally with the British or not.

Thanks to the good reputation of the British, the Vienna government had never been very enthusiastic about allying with them, and even the pro-British faction in the government did not consider the British a good ally.

After the polite greetings were over, Franz asked directly, “What do you have in mind?”

Foreign Minister Weissenberg paused for a moment, seemingly organizing his words, and after a moment’s effort replied, “Your Majesty, the French have compromised, and there is no need for us to continue the stalemate.

The British have joined the alliance, which is not destined to last long. However, the Franco-Austrian alliance was originally a combination of interests, and it will only expire in a few years or so.

We also have no plans to maintain the alliance for a long time, and since we have allowed the British to come in and stir things up, tearing up the alliance sooner may not be a bad thing.”

Franz nodded, the whole point of the alliance was to gain time for peace to develop. Now that the French had been brought into the pit, they were simply incapable of stirring things up on the continent in a short period of time, and the initial purpose had been achieved.

The importance of the alliance to Austria at this time had become dispensable. That being the case, there was no point in holding on to it. It was also a good choice to carry out a final wasteful use to increase Austria’s prestige in the world.

“The Foreign Office continues to negotiate with the British and try to delay the alliance until the second half of next year without jeopardizing the outcome of the negotiations.

The war in South Africa has been fought to this point, and it’s going to be hard to end it in a short period of time. The people at the bottom have invested so much, it is necessary for us to create an opportunity for them.”

As a good leader, Franz still knew exactly what the African nobles had put in. For the sake of this war, many nobles were doing their best.

Even though the Vienna government was bearing the military costs, wars also killed people, and the losses of the crony private army could not be made up in a day or two.

Not to mention certain unlucky nobles who fell directly on the battlefield. No matter what, they were sacrificed for the benefit of the country, and now the Vienna government needed to give them an explanation.

If it is their own incompetence, did not manage to capture Cape Town, then there is no way to dig their own hole to bury themselves, no one will have a problem.

If it was because of diplomacy that the Vienna government forced a halt to the war, then wouldn’t their efforts be wasted?

There is no reward without military service, and if they are not able to go further, they will not even be able to recover their costs with the government’s pay alone.

Things that chilled people’s hearts, Franz consistently did not do. Dragging it out for a few months to be able to increase the loyalty of the African nobles was still very much very much worth it.

Anyway, these expenses can be recovered with South Africa’s mineral resources. The more beautiful the battlefield fight, the more the bottom of the post-war negotiations.

As for the decline in the local population due to the war, it can’t be helped, everything comes at a price.

Weissenberg replied, ”Yes, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will try to buy as much time as possible for the front line, and no blood will be spilled in vain.”

The war had progressed to this point, and the losses on the South African battlefield were astronomical. The Boer Republic side had lost a total of 341,500 troops, well the zeros behind that were the real Austrian casualties.

Otherwise, everyone in the Boer Republic would have had to die twice to barely make up the numbers.

The British army wasn’t much better, with over 100,000 casualties, again dominated by cannon fodder troops. The white soldiers lost more than 20,000 men, with a large proportion of them prisoners, and only so many as 7,000 or 8,000 were killed in action.

The main factor causing the disparity in casualties, in addition to the British army at the beginning of the defeat, more or Cape Town offensive and defense of the reasons.

On average, it now takes a dozen cannon fodder to spell out a British soldier, and the number of casualties on both sides naturally pulled apart.

This situation, it is estimated that it will continue until the arrival of the Indian colonial corps, and then the two colonial empires to a cannon fodder PK.

The decision-making of the two countries’ top management, Viscount Fikeni is still informed, the rising number of casualties, so that he, the colonial head is also alarmed.

At this moment he admired the Russians, actually able to rely on human life to pile up, hard to make the French can not stand casualties, forced to give up Constantinople.

To realize that the South African battlefield filled with natives, while the Russians are using their own people as cannon fodder, this is not a concept at all.

As Christmas approached, Cape Town remained as immovable as ever. After so many days of war, the Boer Republican Army had only knocked out the British perimeter fortifications.

Just this have filled up 100,000 to 100,000 cannon fodder troops, continue to fight like this, the South African region’s young men are certainly not enough to fill up.

Viscount Fikeni said with some fatigue, “The situation on the battlefield is clear to everyone, I have already contacted the Governor of the Congo, and they have promised to send 100,000 artillery fodder over in the near future, and the Governor of East Africa’s district has also agreed to send 50,000 men over.

There’s no need to count on the more distant West African region, there weren’t many natives there in the first place, and the distance is so far that it will take too long.

The South African region, not to mention, in addition to the indigenous tribes in the deep mountains and forests, the rest have all been drafted once again, and there are not many young and strong.

It’s not a solution to continue to spend like this, even if we exhaust the more than 100,000 cannon fodder in our hands, and then finish off the cannon fodder troops that have been aided from all over the world, we won’t necessarily be able to capture Cape Town.

The plan to capture Cape Town before Christmas is now bankrupt, and it won’t be long before reinforcements from the British arrive.

We need new tactics at this time of year, or at least lower the casualties of the attacking forces, otherwise it will be hard to wear out the British.”

Letting the main force attack frontal and strong was too much of a loss, Viscount Fikeni couldn’t afford such a loss, which was why he chose the tactic of using cannon fodder troops to fight a war of attrition.

No matter how disparate the exchange ratio was, the besieged British were at a disadvantage. Once the losses exceeded the tolerance limit, the British would also admit defeat.

Of course, this was the most ideal state, with the importance of the Cape of Good Hope, the British could not easily give up. War is about money and food, if it lasts too long, Austria can’t afford it either.

Chief of Staff Jacob thought for a moment and said, “It’s not that there aren’t ways to do it, but if you use them now, it will be hard to make them work later. Want to end this war before Christmas, I’m afraid it’s impossible.”

Blindly force attack is the most stupid way, at the beginning of doing so, that is the logistics did not keep up, the army does not have much food, can not afford to feed so much cannon fodder, can only be sent up to consume it.

With the passage of time, the logistical problems had been gradually solved, and the number of cannon fodder troops was plummeting, there was no need to continue sending them to their deaths.

After all, there are still more places that need cannon fodder in the back, and even if they tore through the British defense, they still need a lot of human lives to fill them up.

Viscount Fikeni shook his head and said: ”Sensei, if there is a way, use it first, the big deal is that after the British reinforcements arrive, we activate the second set of plans.

The British have a sea transportation channel to replenish, this kind of offensive battle has too much loss, the chances of conquering Cape Town is not big in the first place.

Just the last few days of work, even if the main force is pulled up, it is unlikely that the war will be over by Christmas.”

It wasn’t that Viscount Fikeni couldn’t spare casualties, it was mainly because the main force was limited in number and really couldn’t afford to lose. In case of heavy losses, even if they tore through the defense line, they might be pushed back by the British.

Otherwise, with the advantage of firepower and suppression of the British firepower, it was estimated that the cannon fodder troops alone couldn’t even touch the British hair.

Jacob nodded and said, ”Then dig trenches, close the distance as much as possible, and then dig tunnels to blow up the enemy fortifications.

The British never thought that there would be enemies in the interior, most of these fortifications were built temporarily, and as long as the foundations were loosened, ordinary artillery would be able to take care of them.”

In fact it could have been breached by direct artillery, except that it would have required heavy artillery to do so. And the limited number of heavy artillery in the Boer Republican army could not be taken care of while suppressing enemy fire.

This was a case of underestimation beforehand, taking for granted that the Cape Town area had limited cement and could not construct a large number of reinforced concrete fortresses in a short time, and that the number of heavy artillery guns prepared was insufficient.

Viscount Fikeni wanted to end the war before Christmas is based on the premise that the British did not construct modern fortresses, did not think that Delphi that old fox in advance to let people prepare.

Just breaking through to the gates of Cape Town, they were greeted by rows of improvised bunker fortresses. Although not very perfect, this also let Viscount Fikeni’s dream of a quick battle is shattered.

Now the goal of the battle has also changed, Viscount Fikeni no longer fantasize about ending the war before Christmas, but rather before the arrival of British reinforcements to consume as much as possible of their strength.

In order to implement the second set of plans, luring the enemy deeper and deeper into the enemy, and then change the battlefield for a decisive battle.

The biggest problem with the second set of plans was that the British had to dare to come out in order to do so, otherwise, even more deployments would be in vain.

This would require enough reinforcements from the British to bring enough confidence to the Governor of Delphi for this frightened bird to come out.

Now was the time to keep applying pressure so that the British in the city would ask the London government for reinforcements. The more reinforcements there were, the greater the likelihood that the British would be caught in the trap.

As for the question of whether or not the enemy would choke to death if they were too numerous, it was not even in Viscount Fikeni’s consideration.

The British could increase their troops, and Austria could likewise do the same. On the African continent, the British had little chance of winning.

Viscount Fikeni made a decision without hesitation, “Then let’s try it first and see the effect.”

……

Perhaps God doesn’t like war, this summer South Africa is extraordinarily hot. The sun seemed like a ball of fire, scorching the earth, the air was stifling, the ground was hot and rolling, and people felt hot feet walking on the ground.

The hot summer days brought very big trouble to the attacking army. If it wasn’t for the wind that blew from time to time bringing a slight coolness, I don’t know how many people would have suffered from heatstroke under the scorching sun.

Major Hanks, who was commanding the troops, reached out and wiped the sweat from his forehead, cursing helplessly, “This damn damn weather.”

The booming artillery sound rang out again, this was the signal to attack, without any hesitation, Major Hanks immediately urged, “Get the hell up, it’s time for you bunch of fuckers to gather.”

While saying this, he also kicked with his feet, and it was not only Major Hanks who acted at the same time, but also a part of the black officers.

About a quarter of an hour elapsed before the rabble was assembled. It took about another quarter of an hour’s work, and with the help of the negro officers, Major Hanks barely managed to get this force to the field.

Major Hanks had despaired of this force of cannon fodder. But anyone with a little bit of motivation was an officer now, and the role of an officer was to assist in the management of this cannon fodder troop, without personally charging into battle.

War is the best teacher, after the baptism of blood and fire, Major Hanks has completed the metamorphosis.

Initially, he was prepared to train this cannon fodder unit to act as an auxiliary regiment to the main force.

After all, the untrained cannon fodder unit’s combat power is too poor to take up real combat tasks, the Boer Republican Army still needs an auxiliary regiment with a certain combat power, or perhaps to say that it is senior cannon fodder.

As it turned out, Hanks was not a military god and did not have the power to turn corruption into magic. After two months of trying, he was forced to give up his initial fantasy.

Since it had no cultivation value, it could only be sent up as junior cannon fodder. Launching attacks every day as a matter of routine, if he died, he would be done for, and live to continue repeating this unskilled work.

As long as one Englishman was killed, he could be promoted to officer, provided that he could come back alive and had brought back evidence as war merit.

Such lucky ones were only in the minority, most of them fell in the path of the charge, and some of them fell on the battlefield themselves while taking out the British.

After a delay of about half an hour, the force, which had no future, charged the enemy under the intimidation of the inspectors.

The scenes of blood and flesh no longer moved Major Hanks, who now cared only for one thing, and that was to estimate the results of the battle.

A general’s success is not a matter of time, in the midst of blood and fire, I do not know how many young Austrian officers have been baptized and grown up.

(End of chapter)