Chapter 828: The French Attack

  Chapter 811 The French Attack

In the evening, four or five officers surrounded a pile of bonfire, no one spoke for half a minute, the atmosphere was very depressing.

This is exactly Hutil and others, from the scene, it is known that this is a defeated battle. They were busy fleeing for their lives, or else they wouldn’t have a temporary command headquarters.

The most active Potiorek was the first to break the silence: ”You fellows speak ah, one by one, all crying and mourning, making it seem like which whoever died at home.

It’s just a defeat, isn’t it? From the beginning we all planned to fight and run, it’s just that this time we’re in a bit of a mess.”

The uprising army really belongs to their own people, only a few sitting here, the others are cannon fodder, dead or alive is not at all on everyone’s mind.

It was hard to grieve, and it certainly wasn’t because of the heavy casualties of cannon fodder. To put it bluntly, a ragtag force like the Eighth Division can continue to be replenished later on as long as everyone is willing.

What really frustrated everyone was still the fact that they had suffered a defeat, and not just any defeat.

In order to achieve greater results, the insurgents made full use of their first-mover advantage and ambushed the French advance guard halfway through the battle.

All went very well up front, and the French were caught off guard and plunged headlong into the encirclement.

However, Hutier and the others had anticipated the beginning, but had not guessed the end.

Even though the ambush was successful and caught the French by surprise, and the insurgents had an absolute advantage in strength, they still did not avoid the fate of defeat in the end.

Failure is failure. It is normal to lose and win on the battlefield. Regrettably, the French chased the routed soldiers and killed them all the way to the camp of the insurgents, and the eighth division, which had been prepared for this, was still routed.

Seeing that the momentum has gone, Hutier and others decisively chose to run away. Fortunately, the number of routed soldiers is large, the French did not notice them, which escaped.

When they were out of danger, the insurgent army, which had more than 200,000 troops at its peak, was now one out of ten.

The rest either died in battle, or became prisoners of the French, but of course more were still routed and fled to the countryside.

Lighted a cigarette, took a deep breath, Huttil slowly said: “This is my responsibility, knowing that the French are not easy to mess with, but also greedy to run to take advantage.

Resulting in heavy losses and disorganization of the insurgent army, losing the ability to continue fighting the French.”

Naturally, Huttil was not the only one who was greedy, and the smooth progress in the early stages made everyone overestimate their own command ability.

Ambushing the French vanguard was a common decision made by all, however, in front of absolute strength, any strategic tactics were not worth mentioning.

Faginhan: “Lieutenant Colonel, there is no need to blame yourself. We made the ambush plan together, and if we want to be held accountable, all of us present have a part to play.

Before sending us over, Governor Frederich clearly told us to learn to save our lives before causing trouble for the French.

There was never any confidence in the insurgents at home, and we were not asked to save them.

As a matter of fact, the situation has developed to such a point that we have accomplished our mission and there is no such thing as responsibility.

As for this loss, it was expected, only that we did not expect to lose so badly, and the backhandedness we had prepared did not even come into play.

However, it is normal to think about it, two months ago, the main force of the insurgent army ambushed the French vanguard, the end is only a little better than us.

Considering that this time it is the main force of the French army transferred from the country, the fighting strength is a bit stronger than the colonial forces, in fact, we ……”

The reasoning was good, but it wasn’t easy for anyone, including Falkingham himself.

This and playing stocks encountered three consecutive stops, was about to sell to cash, the result of greed stayed a little longer, and then ushered in a plunge, only to endure the pain.

The hands of the earnings shrink, and then how to self-assurance: anyway, are earned, the heart will still be uncomfortable.

Did not last long, the older Hutier recovered: “Well, things have come to this, it is useless to talk more.

What we encountered this time was only the French vanguard forces, the limited strength of their troops, seemingly winning the victory, they had no way to stop the insurgent soldiers from roaming around.

I think we all know how destructive the routed soldiers are. There is always a part of more than 100,000 routed soldiers who have a blood feud with the French. If they can’t beat the French in the front, can’t they do damage behind their backs?

Originally we are still considering, leaving part of the soldiers here to fight guerrilla, only everyone’s fighting spirit is not good enough to assign, and now the French for us to complete the plan.

Next ……”

This is not purely self-congratulatory, since the failure has been unavoidable, then we can only look for the side that is favorable to ourselves from the failure.

……

In the temporary palace in Paris, since receiving the news of the great victory in Egypt, Napoleon IV face of the gloom was swept away.

He had been under too much pressure in the recent period. Internationally a group of food exporting countries, every day to him to find trouble; Domestic people are also not worry, every now and then run to the demonstration.

The news of the victory in Egypt, although it can not solve the international trouble, but used to appease the domestic population is still enough.

Foreign Minister Terence Burgin: “Your Majesty, under the influence of the British food self-sufficiency program, Anglo-Russian relations have deteriorated sharply.

Not long ago the Tsarist government held the withdrawal from the free trade system hostage in an attempt to force the British government to give in, and here comes the opportunity we’ve been waiting for.”

The alternative has had a hard time, and as the only country on the European continent to stray from the free trade system, France has borne the brunt of too many strange looks.

Although on the surface, the Paris government made a look of disdain, however, the heartache and suffering, only they themselves know.

Tariff barriers also need to pay a price, while restricting other people’s goods into the mirror, naturally also inevitably be restricted by others.

As a result, the total import and export trade of France has plummeted by almost three-quarters.

A return to the free trade system was impossible, at least until French industry gained an advantage, the Paris government would not consider this issue.

The only way then was to collapse the system, drag everyone back to the era of tariff barriers, and then get a relatively fair chance to compete.

Napoleon IV wondered, “The British are still in parliamentary discussions and have not even made a resolution, why are the Russians in such a hurry?”

Foreign Minister Terence Burgin explained, “Your Majesty, the Russian Empire is the world’s number one exporter of raw grain.

Our farm program has already caused them to lose a lot of money. If they lose the British market again, Russian agriculture is going to be hit hard.

Moreover, after losing the financial source of grain export, the Russian finances will soon fall into the dilemma of not being able to make ends meet, and it is normal for the Tsarist government to be unable to sit still.”

After a few moments of contemplation, Napoleon IV slowly said: “You mean to take advantage of the opportunity to draw the Russians, disintegrate the free trade system?”

Terence Burgin shook his head, “Not only the free trade system, but also the Russian-Austrian alliance.

As long as the British plan becomes a reality, the Austrian-led grain export alliance will immediately fall apart, and the major grain exporting countries will fall into brutal competition.

The relationship between Russia and Austria is no longer good, Austria itself is a grain exporter, in the context of the shrinking international market, they do not have the means to consume the huge production capacity of the Russians.

At this time we extend the olive branch, the tsarist government simply has no way to refuse.

Anyway, our big farm program, not a day can be completed, the big deal is that the late project to reduce a part.

We can reach an agreement with the Russians to import a portion of grain from the Russian Empire each year in exchange for domestic industrial and commercial products to enter the Russian market.

Problems in the chain of common interests will cause problems in the long run, even if the Russian-Austrian alliance is good.

As long as the Russo-Austrian relationship is dissociated, the strategic jeopardy we face will no longer exist.”

The Paris government’s big farm program, in fact, is also said to sound good, want to be implemented, but also need to invest a lot of human and financial resources.

To the Paris government’s financial resources, in the short term is simply unable to start this big plan, which is destined to big farm program to shrink.

With the original plan will shrink, disassociate the relationship between Russia and Austria, and even break up the alliance, get rid of France in the European continent is isolated from the strategic crisis, is undoubtedly a big profit.

Napoleon IV nodded, this kind of one-two punch, he really can’t find a reason to refuse.

“However, how to convince the British? The prerequisite for all of this is that the British government is willing to cooperate and create enough pressure on the Russians to do so.”

The crux of the matter came, turning their backs on the Russo-Austrian alliance also came at a heavy price, and the Russians would certainly not have done so if they had not encountered a situation of last resort.

Foreign Minister Terence Burgin replied unhurriedly, “Your Majesty, the Russo-Austrian alliance is not only a threat to us, but the British are not in a good position either.

Don’t you think that both Russia and Austria are a little too close to India?

In the eyes of the British: India is the best colony, any country is going to be moved.

The British government has done a lot to break up the Russian-Austrian alliance. Now that the opportunity has been presented to us, I don’t believe the British government will refuse it.”

The Russo-Austrian alliance, even if it was not yet a common enemy of Britain and France, was a common threat to both countries, and everyone’s interests were the same on this issue.

(End of chapter)