Chapter 816: Falling Down the Well

  Chapter 799: Falling down the well

Defeated the French, the insurgent army senior but not a trace of joy, in addition to Lieutenant General Jarrett led by a group of British generals in a good mood, the rest of the people are mostly angry at Mahdi.

A bearded officer pulled out his sidearm and placed it on the table, questioning, “Mahdi, what’s going on here? Why did you blow up the dam without informing us, do you know because ……”

Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, Mahdi hurriedly explained, “Thunderous, it’s not that I didn’t want to notify you guys, it’s mainly because it was too late.

The main force of our army on the front line was defeated in the duel, and the only way for the insurgents to defeat the French is to blow up the Aswan Dam.

The facts proved that our decision was not wrong. The French army was heavily defeated and are fleeing in a hurry at this moment.”

Thunderous sneered and sneered, “I don’t think it’s not that it’s too late in time, but that you weren’t prepared to give notice at all.

Anyway, the losses are all our men, the direct line 6th and 1st divisions under you are intact, so naturally it doesn’t hurt.”

From the expressions on the faces of the crowd, one could tell that perhaps this was the real reason for everyone’s anger.

The battlefield had been lost, and blowing up the dam to turn defeat into victory was not a problem from a military point of view. Doing so for the greater good was barely justifiable.

But the problem was that the losses were all their own troops, while the Mahdi’s full-fledged armed forces, all escaped, which made everyone’s hearts unbalanced.

Seeing the effect of good words of persuasion, Mahdi also angry, immediately tit for tat said: “The first division and the sixth division is what the situation, you do not know?

Saying that I’m conserving my strength, don’t forget that the blocking battles in front of us were all fought by my men who went first. If it wasn’t for the heavy losses, they wouldn’t have withdrawn back to recuperate.”

Seeing that the situation was about to get out of control, Lieutenant General Jarrett spoke up, “Gentlemen, no one wants this to happen.

War requires sacrifice, and when defeat occurs on the front line, the soldiers who participated in the battle will not be able to escape the French. To be able to drag the French along with them to be buried with them, they are also deserving of their deaths.

Instead of pointing fingers at each other here, it is better to think of ways to go about restoring strength. The army has suffered heavy losses, so it is just a matter of re-recruiting.

The French are so wounded that they will not be able to organize a second military siege in Egypt in a short time, so you are completely free to act.

In view of your heavy losses, Britain is willing to provide another 30,000 rifles and a number of ammunition to help you overthrow the French.”

The wind and water turned, the French aided the Americans back then and made the British lose North America, which was the base of the king’s domination, and now it was the turn of the British to step in.

Only compared to Louis XVI’s generosity, and even came down personally, the British were too petty.

Only a mere 30,000 rifles, not even artillery or machine guns, to John Bull’s knuckleheads, this is mostly obsolete goods used by the British army.

Thirty thousand retired rifles in Britain, absolutely less than 30,000 pounds to sell, even 10,000 pounds in the European continent can not find a receiver.

But for the insurgent army, this is already an astronomical figure, far more than the sum of the previous British and Austrian assistance.

Hearing the news of 30,000 rifles aid, the crowd’s expression eased up immediately. The insurgent army was a mixed bag, and there might be people who loved soldiers like sons, but there were definitely not many of them.

For most of the top brass, the army was just a tool for them to gain power and riches, and belonged to the category of expendable goods.

Anyway, there are as many troops as there are guns, and if the soldiers are lost, they will be re-recruited to replenish them.

The British assisted a batch of weapons, and it is expected that the Austrians will also assist a batch of them, together with the leftovers from the battlefield, restoring strength is not a problem at all.

Thunderous hastily fought for it, ”For the sake of His Excellency the Lieutenant General, let’s forget about it this time. But the second division suffered heavy losses, I need ten thousand rifles to replenish.”

Mahdi vetoed, “No way! Everyone’s losses are heavy, the second division is still good, at least one regiment was retained, at most I’ll give you 5,500 rifles to replenish.”

Suppression was a must, Thunderbolt himself was the powerhouse in the insurgency second only to Mahdi, and the two had clashed for power all more than once.

It was hard, using the opportunity on the battlefield to hit the second division hard, how could Mahdi let him recover easily?

Thunderous slammed the table and cursed angrily, ”Mahdi, don’t go too far.

If you’re going to do this, then let’s all break up while we still can, no one wants to be here to take your shit.”

……

Conflicts within the insurgent army was something that Lieutenant General Jarrett was happy to see. If the insurgent army was all ironclad, how would it reflect the importance of him as the British Dispatch Officer?

In this case, for example, everyone knew that the order to blow up the dam was essentially given by Lt. Gen. Jarrett, but everyone was pretending to be confused, and Mahdi had to take the blame.

This is still the result of Huttir and others leaving, otherwise the place would have been even more lively. The loser of the power struggle would most likely jump out with the help of Austrian support and separate himself from the British-backed Mahdi.

Seeing that the people were arguing, and the command headquarters was all in a mess, on the verge of a fight, Lieutenant General Jarrett picked up his baton and pounded it against the table.

Directly reprimanding, he said, “Sit down, all of you, and see what you all look like now?”

“Don’t forget that your current status is that of a country’s leader, not a street punk.

Arguing like this over a small matter, you’re not afraid of being laughed at when you spread the word!”

Seeing the crowd return to their positions, Lieutenant General Jarrett nodded in satisfaction.

He knew clearly that it wasn’t that he was highly respected and everyone was willing to give face, it was that the weapons and equipment were all held in his hands, and no one in the crowd could afford to offend him.

After a slight pause, eased his tone: ”The main force of the French army has collapsed, now is the time to expand the results of the battle, in such a quarrel, it will be a missed opportunity.

We are all soldiers, so let’s use the army’s rules to decide. Whoever has made the most merit in the war will take the bigger share.

Now I’ll make the decision for you. Chase the French rout, whoever gets more heads and captures more prisoners will get the bigger share.

Those who mingle, don’t waste resources. Don’t say I’m doing unfairly. The troops on the front line have suffered big losses, but you’re closest to the French.

Even if you don’t have the ability to continue the pursuit, the French routed soldiers that were sent to your door will not be in the minority.”

There was no doubt that this distribution plan was most favorable to Mahdi. Don’t look at Jarrett’s easy words, but in reality, after being hit by the heavy water, the insurgents at the front line were no better than the French.

Capturing French routed soldiers?

In fact, they were now a bunch of routed soldiers themselves. The only advantage was that they had barely won and could regroup in place after the waters receded.

With no military morale left, these troops would not be able to fight anytime soon. As Lt. Gen. Jarrett said, they could capture the French routed soldiers who had fallen behind, but only those routed soldiers.

……

Outside of Ughsul, Hutil was watching the army attack the city with binoculars. Siege equipment didn’t exist, the insurgents could neither build nor need such contraptions.

For the sake of urban development, Ughsur had long ago had its walls removed by the French. As an inland hinterland city, the French never thought of an external enemy threat.

Bunkers and fortresses were even non-existent, and the battle went into street fighting mode as soon as it started.

Bullying the insurgents without artillery, the French directly to buildings as a support, blocking the insurgents into the city.

Looking at the troops swarming in a chaotic manner, the soldiers who were blown up and bloodied, Hutier frowned.

In the end, it was his own soldiers that he had brought up, so he still had more or less a few feelings. If possible, he still wanted these soldiers to survive.

On the side, Faginhan was much calmer, seemingly unaffected by the atmosphere of the battlefield, commenting with relish, ”The firepower of the defenders is very chaotic, it doesn’t look like a regular army.

Now that basically the main force of the French army is not in the city, if we don’t spare any expense, our success rate of attacking Ughsul is very high.”

Huttil shook his head, “Vienna is not ready to turn the tables on the French, even if we capture Ughsul, we can’t eat it.

Give it to the insurgents and they won’t be able to keep it. Just make a feint to scare the French in the city.

Instead of expending our precious troops here, we’ll be able to cause the French a lot of trouble by wandering around Egypt with our troops.”

At this moment, a joyful-looking Fort Streicherhausen came from the rear and said smilingly, “Lieutenant Colonel, order a halt to the attack, we can have a big fight next.”

Huttil boldly guessed, “Oh, could it be that the main force of the French army suffered a flood attack and was completely wiped out, and now the Egyptian territory is empty, just waiting for us to pick the fruits of victory?”

Streithausenberg nodded and shook his head again, “It’s not all gone, but it’s close.

According to the intelligence gathered by the scouts, the upper echelons of the insurgent army used the main force as a decoy, and suddenly blew up the Aswan Dam during the duel, and the floodwaters directly impacted the troops that were fighting.

Both sides suffered heavy losses, and now Adolf’s counter-insurgency army has become a lost cause and is fleeing in haste.

It may not be long before we meet up with them. One more blow to them, and it is expected that this counter-insurgency army of the French, will be abolished from the establishment.”

Ambushing the defeated French army was far more cost-effective than attacking Ughsul. If by any chance Adolf’s counter-insurgency army had been left behind, a parade in Cairo would not have been out of the question.

Falkingham retorted, “Major, you are too optimistic. If the French run back in disorder, we will indeed be able to keep them.

But if Adolf has any brains at all, he will reorganize his troops halfway and continue his retreat again.

It doesn’t take much, just a regiment assembled will be able to defeat the Eighth Division.

Even if it was a demoralized French army, then doubling the strength, two regiments would be enough.

If Adolf was bold enough, there was no need to retreat at all. With the frontline troops suffering heavy losses and the insurgent headquarters left with two half-crippled infantry divisions, all it takes is five thousand French troops to make a counterattack.”

There is no doubt that the last inference was founded on an ideal. Even if Adolphe had the courage to break his back, it was only possible if the French soldiers were willing to fight with their backs to the wall.

The strong fighting power of the French army is built on the morale of the army, without the desire to fight the French army, the fighting power that can be exerted may not be much stronger than the insurgent army.

Streithausenberg smiled slightly: ”You overestimate the French, most of those who participated in this battle were colonial troops, not the most core elite of the French army.

The routed soldiers who escaped the flooding were at their lowest point in their will to fight, and were able to bring out very limited fighting strength.

Of course, these are not the crux of the matter. The real core factor that will allow us to gain victory is still the fact that the French army has lost nearly all of its logistical supplies and heavy firepower.

The small cities and colonial strongholds along the way could at best provide them with a portion of their food supplies, and the lost weaponry could not be replenished.

The French army was hit by floods in the middle of the battle, which meant that the French soldiers fled for their lives in a hurry without having time to replenish the bullets they had expended in the battle.

As long as we consume the last of the ammunition in the hands of the French, we will have won this battle.”

After hesitating for a few moments of effort, Hutil made a decision, “Pass the order down, all troops stop attacking the city immediately.

Notify officers above regiment level that an emergency military meeting will be held in the afternoon.”

(End of chapter)