Chapter 702: Mao Qi’s Big Plan
Chapter 686 – Mao Qi’s Big Plan
After the beginning of spring, the smoke of the Eastern European battlefield once again filled the air. After a winter of preparation, the situation was very different.
The Berlin government organized the people to build a large number of castles and fortresses in the border area, and the movement of the Cossack cavalry was restricted. If they wanted to loot goods, they had to attack the castles and fortresses.
The fighting power of the Cossack cavalry was based on profit. The populace was prepared, the difficulty of looting kept increasing, and very often the casualties paid were not proportional to the gains, and the Cossack cavalry’s motivation was undermined.
Active and passive, the outbreak of combat power is very different.
Although the Cossack cavalry was still on the move, the results were getting smaller and smaller. A lot of the time it was just destroying farmland and infrastructure, and the soldiers were not willing to gnaw on the hard core.
It wasn’t the Middle Ages anymore, and there were plenty of places where one could buy food as long as they had money in their pockets. Just the damage to farmland in the border areas was something the Berlin government could afford.
In a way, Wilhelm I had the Tsarist government to thank for this; it was this ruthlessness of the Russians that made the Poles dependent on them.
The decline in the destructive power of the Cossack cavalry did not amount to a failure of the Czarist government’s scorched earth strategy.
Humans are vulnerable in the face of war. In order to escape the war, many people in the border areas dragged their families inland, and many areas became no-man’s land.
It wasn’t that the Berlin government didn’t stop it, the problem was that it simply couldn’t be done. The hordes of fleeing people running inland still put a heavy economic burden on the Berlin government.
The coastal areas suffered the heaviest losses, with most of the harbor cities of the Pupo Federation reduced to rubble under fire, and the very few surviving cities shivering.
These are only minor problems, since the Danes blockaded the Strait, the PBF’s sea lines of communication have been almost cut off, and the strategic value of the port cities has been greatly reduced.
Worst of all, the Russians had replenished their troop losses on the southern front, Mauch’s plan to take Kiev was bankrupt, and now the Tsarist government was using the most conservative strategy to fight the Pupo Confederacy in a battle of attrition.
Steady and purely hard-fought, the PUP could not play to its tactical strengths. Even with a famous general like Mauch, they could not reverse the battlefield in a direction unfavorable to the Pupo Federation.
The bad situation on the battlefield had already affected the domestic atmosphere of the Pupo Federation, from time to time, there were still anti-war voices popping up, even the most optimistic people were worried about the war.
Berlin Palace
Wilhelm I growled, “The war has gone on so far, we have lost 300,000 troops and achieved very few results.
You gave me prior assurances that you would win the war in three months, and now three months and three months have passed, and soon the third three months will be over, and there is no sign of victory whatsoever.
Who can tell me how much more it will take to win this war?”
It wasn’t that William I wasn’t cultured enough, it was just that the pressure had been too much lately. The performance of the Prussian army on the battlefield was far from reaching expectations.
The so-called “three months to win the war”, in fact, only Mauch’s southern front plan. Theoretically, as long as the trade line between Austria and Russia is cut off, the war will be half won.
Unfortunately, the fighting strength of the Russian army was much stronger than they expected. Perhaps not as good as the Prussian army in the field, but defense was still no problem.
Mouche’s painstakingly designed strategic plan itself is not a problem, just used the wrong object. If another country were to take out more than 100,000 troops at once, it would definitely hurt.
Regrettably encountering Mao Xiong, the speed of annihilation was just a little bit faster than the tsarist government’s replenishment. With a winter’s buffer, the Tsarist government not only replenished the lost troops to full strength, but the total strength also went up.
Mouche replied stiffly, ”Your Majesty, the Russians are completely hurting the enemy with their capital, the casualties of the Russian army are even greater than ours, at this rate even if the Russians are able to win the war it will only be a disastrous victory.
Now that the Russians have the upper hand on the battlefield, there is absolutely no need for the Czarist government to choose a lose-lose fight.
As long as we reveal a breakthrough at the right time, the Russians will certainly not give up the opportunity. Once the Russians adjust their tactics, our chance will come.
In order to win this battle, I suggest that we can give up parts of the area if necessary and lure the Russians out of their fortifications first.”
With a front involving millions of men and stretching hundreds of kilometers, it is also very difficult to make tactical adjustments, and the cooperation between the various units alone can be “moving.”
Organizational ability has always been the hardest problem of the Tsarist government, and even after the reforms of Alexander II, the Russians were still slightly less organized.
The battlefield was a contest of who made the most mistakes and who made the most fatal ones.
Now the Russian army was on the defensive in all areas except for the attack on the center line. Hiding in the middle of the fortress and not coming out may not be able to seize the opportunity of the battle, and the same will not Fan fatal mistakes.
Mauch did not want to die in the center line and the Russian army main force, that can not play the mobility of the Prussian army, just purely dead fight comprehensive strength.
William I was uncertain: “You want to give up Smolensk?”
Smolensk has always been known as the gateway to Moscow, control here, the Prussian army has the initiative to attack Moscow.
After the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, the Russian army has been dead set against this place, just to ensure the safety of Moscow, to avoid being split in two by the Prussian army.
Mauch nodded, ”Your Majesty, we have tried many scenarios, the Russians are just harboring inside the defense line and won’t come out.
The losses from a forced attack are too great, and it’s completely outweighed by the losses. Other than giving up Smolensk and letting the Russians in, it will be difficult for us to break the current stalemate on the battlefield in the short term.”
There was no way, the difference in strength between the two sides was too great, and with the central offensive launched by the Russians and holding back a large number of Prussian troops, Mauch had limited maneuvering power in his hands.
Originally good at concentrating superior forces and the enemy duel Mauch, helplessly found that it simply can not be done. Especially after the Russian army adopted the scorched earth plan, he was even more afraid to take risks.
Drawing troops in any direction could result in the displacement of hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people.
If the war could be won, it would be acceptable to pay a certain sacrifice. The problem was that such a war could not be decided by one or two battles.
It was difficult to say whether wiping out tens of thousands of Russian troops and generating hundreds of thousands of refugees was a loss, or a gain.
There were going to be sacrifices anyway, so we might as well do a big job. If we can lure the enemy deeper into the country and use the advantage of local combat to wipe out the main force of the Russian army in one fell swoop, then even greater losses can be accepted.
“How certain is it?”
William I hesitated, this one bet on the fate of the country. Winning would certainly turn the tide of the war; if he lost, the Pupo Confederation would be at the end of its life, and whether or not he would be able to keep the shrunken version of the Kingdom of Prussia would be a question mark.
Mauch calmly replied, “Shedding most of Belarus and part of Poland, placing the battlefield in the Warsaw area, and calling on the Polish people to rise up against the Russian invasion, our chances of victory are at least sixty percent.”
War was originally a gamble, and the Prussian-Polish Federation was already on the weaker side, so to have a sixty percent chance of winning was already considered a high percentage.
“Snap” sound, William I slammed the table.
“Bet!”
“Marshal, follow your plan, the government will cooperate with your plan.”
It was not that William I was decisive, it was more that there was no way. The war has come to this point, no one has no way to backward leg, Prussia and Russia must be divided on the battlefield to win or lose out.
Even if William I was not willing to gamble, Junker nobles will help him make a decision. As in the original time and space of the First World War, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, William II wanted to end the war halfway through, the Junker nobility directly hollowed out the emperor to continue the war.
Now the situation is similar, with the outbreak of the war, the military has more and more power, the government is reduced to the army’s logistics department, the balance of power has long been broken.
As King William I, he had to compromise with the military many times.
……
(End of chapter)