Chapter 933: A Counterattack in the Making

  Chapter 914 – Counterattack in the Making

The war has come to this point, France has pressed all the chips, victory will dominate the continent, defeat will be reduced to second-rate.

With the domineering style of France in the past, can offend a lot of people. When France is strong, no one dares to mess with, once the decline, it is completely different.

Under the nest, there is no egg.

Whether it’s Napoleon IV, or the top of the French government, are tied to the fate of this country.

At this point in time, a step back is no longer a wide open sea, but an abyss.

Whether for their own sake or for the sake of the country, they have to find a way to win this war.

In the face of life and death, face has been cheapened to the point of worthlessness, so it is better to copy it!

Since the Austrian army was better equipped, it was better to follow suit and copy. Couldn’t the great French Empire, still build it?

One word from the Emperor, and the following run the gauntlet. Starting from the cabinet government, one level down.

Although Napoleon III had the reputation of being a socialist emperor, France was still a bourgeois country, with military and industrial enterprises in the hands of capitalists.

In the past, when there were orders, everyone grabbed them in droves, and the threshold of the Ministry of War was trodden down, but now that the news has been sent out for many hours, there is still no one to ask for them.

It’s not that capitalists don’t want to make money, the key is that people are not capable of making this kind of money. There is no way, the timing is not right.

In the past, we can still take orders, and then slowly think of ways, or independent research and development, or from the outside world to buy technology can be.

But now can not, independent research and development time is too late; these technologies are still exclusive to Austria, France and Austria are at war, even if they spend more money can not buy the technology.

All the capitalists with connections have received the news in advance and know the seriousness of the problem. It is clear that at this juncture, if you take the order and can’t deliver the goods, you will get into big trouble.

Originally everyone’s armament orders, at this moment has become a hot potato, directly rotten in the hands of the Ministry of War no one asked.

Of course, not really no one is interested, just everyone’s strength is limited, short-term can not complete the task.

At present, there are already a number of military factories said, as long as the Ministry of War came up with the design drawings, they can immediately start work.

“How about it, how long will it take for you guys to be able to imitate it?”

Army Minister Luskinia asked anxiously.

Although the arsenal was owned by capitalists, it did not mean that the French government had left the armament issue, in its entirety, in the hands of the capitalists.

The Ministry of War also maintains a group of military experts, and even has directly under the armament factories, only because of the bureaucratic management, resulting in the production cost is too touching, there is no way to expand the scale.

Now that the capitalists were afraid to take orders, this chore fell into the hands of the War Ministry itself. In any case, this was what the Emperor and the government had decided together, and the War Ministry would have to find a way to accomplish it.

An older military engineering expert replied, ”Your Excellency the Duke, the information in our hands is too little.

We don’t know anything about the weapon templates, design principles, performance parameters, and we don’t even know the exterior construction. Without anything, how does this allow us to imitate it?”

Imitation also requires a reference, having nothing is not imitation, it is in independent research and development. Since it is independent research and development, naturally the time is not fast.

Of course, there was another way of research and development, which was to design weapons based on demand, but this also required time.

Army Minister Luskinia impatiently said: “machine gun is not already there, according to our machine gun to improve the performance will be.

Airplanes are a little trickier, but I remember it was published in the newspapers that there were people who performed air shows in Paris.

If a few folk can make something, can’t you also make it?

If you really can’t, just offer money to buy their technology or incorporate them, where’s the trouble!”

It wasn’t that Duke Luskinia was ignorant, without knowing the principle of the Maxim machine gun, it couldn’t be considered wrong to think that the Austrian army was using an improved version of the Gatling.

Airplanes are even more so, in addition to dealing with airships smoothly, the Austrian planes did not show amazing combat power.

These days everyone’s perception of airplanes is stuck on air shows, and they simply don’t realize that between airplanes and planes, the technology gap is also huge.

Purely from the point of view of dealing with airships, the vast majority of airplanes were capable of doing so. Anyway, airplanes have the advantage of flexibility, as long as the range is long-lasting enough, the load capacity of two or three hundred pounds is enough.

The old man helplessly explained, ”Your Excellency the Duke, from the design of a weapon to putting it into use, there are a lot of links in the middle that require a lot of time, without three to five years of effort it simply can’t be done.

Even if the situation on the battlefield is urgent and we directly omit the time for weapon testing, the time for design and industrial production is impossible to compress.

Even in the most ideal state, it will be three months before we produce a new machine gun; as for airplanes, being able to get them out within half a year is considered God’s blessing.”

Three months, six months, that’s very fast indeed. It would be an absolute miracle if it could really be gotten out in such a short period of time.

After all, it is only 1890, even if Franz’s butterfly effect accelerated the pace of development of science and technology, but this is mainly aimed at Austria, France is only followed by passive development.

Relative to the same period in history, the level of science and technology in France, even if the development of accelerated, it is not likely to exceed ten years, not yet a qualitative gap.

……

The world will not revolve around a country, regardless of the French new equipment development progress, the war is to continue.

Because of political necessity, the French government covered up the fiasco of the previous attack. Since there was no defeat, naturally there would be no accountability, and Admiral Udineau was lucky to escape the fate of being court-martialed.

The fact that he was not court-martialed does not mean that he was not held accountable. Now Udineau on or enemy command, just because the chain of command adjustment of the transition period needs.

After such a big thing, the French army is sure to be held accountable internally. As the person directly responsible for the incident, it is only a matter of time before Admiral Udineau goes home to his grandchildren.

French command, since receiving the news of the loss of the attack, Marshal Patrice McMahon was the first to arrive at the front to preside over the situation.

Looking at a group of officers who want to die, Patrice McMahon slammed the table, sternly reprimanded: “One by one, take a good look in the mirror, look at your current performance, but also like a soldier.

Do you know that the face of France is going to be disgraced by you all. Especially you Udino, have you forgotten the promise you gave me before?

It’s just one loss, just find a chance to get it back from the enemy later. Don’t you think that you are going to retire soon, so you can be unscrupulous.

I’m telling you, if you don’t want to live the rest of your life with a bad reputation, get your heads together. All of you remember, the shame of defeat can only be washed away with blood and victory.”

As a matter of fact, the low military morale of the French officers and soldiers was not just because of the heavy casualties.

Tens of thousands of casualties, it’s not like everyone hasn’t encountered them before, it’s not enough to cause despair; what really makes the crowd feel despair is still not optimistic about the prospects of the war.

In addition to the heavy losses on the first day of the attack, there were no more full-scale battles in the following days, but skirmishes were occurring every day.

Not to know without fighting, a fight everyone suddenly realized: the original Austrian army is not so corrupt and incompetent as the government propaganda, but is a fierce tiger.

In Lynn’s broken engagement, the two sides fought a 1.3:1 record. The French army was of 1.3, which was a bolt from the blue for the French officers who boasted of being the world’s number one army.

This was not a battle of offense and defense, but a direct collision that took place in the field. It was hopelessly realized that the French army was no longer a match for the Austrians at equal strength.

Of course, this is the French army’s recent low morale also has a certain relationship, but the main reason is still the aftermath of the crazy expansion of the army.

Even the so-called elite troops, among which there were at least one-fifth of new recruits, the combat power inevitably slipped.

In these days, news transmission is inconvenient, and the French government is not likely to do propaganda for Austria, so that this group of military middle and high level, also did not figure out the peculiarities of the Austrian military service system.

Everyone judged through brainstorming, taking for granted that everyone was an expanded force, and all had a bunch of new recruits dragging their feet.

Seeing that under equal conditions, the French army was suppressed by the Austrian army, and it was not an isolated case, but spread over hundreds of miles of front.

The French commanders who witnessed this with their own eyes, naturally had no confidence in this war. Of course, there is no essential difference between this misjudgment and knowing the truth.

In any case, the facts have proved that in equal strength, the expanded French army can not win the Austrian army.

Maybe some people will take the equipment, the problem is that weaponry is also a part of strength. It’s not the age of chivalry anymore, who cares if it’s fair as long as it wins the war.

In a sense, Austria’s greatest allies were the Italians. Pessimistic thinking was the first thing to come out of them, and after the loss of the front attack and the heavy casualties, it spread quickly through the French army, and also started to exert influence from the bottom up.

Marshal Patrice McMahon had rushed in to salvage the morale of his troops, only for the scene before him to tell him that the situation was even worse than he had imagined.

“Wooooooooooooo…… air defense sirens broke the tense atmosphere of the command.

From bombing others, to being bombed every day himself. Before and after is only a few days, this kind of heart drop not many people can bear.

Witnessing this scene with his own eyes, Marshal Patrice McMahon somewhat understood why everyone was demoralized.

As the supreme commander of the French army, Patrice McMahon knew more about the situation than anyone else.

Sometimes knowing too much was not a good thing. It’s not something that’s easy to bear when everyone is drunk.

Unlike the radical guys at home who fantasized about breaking Vienna, Patrice MacMahon’s battle plan, to the end, was only to take the territory west of the Rhine.

It was not that Patrice MacMahon had no ambition, but only because he was aware that the French army was not as strong as the government propaganda, and that the enemy was not as weak as the propaganda.

Taking the territory west of the Rhine, France could hold on to the danger, and even if Austria broke out, he was confident of holding it off.

As for breaking Vienna, shouting slogans would be enough. Patrice McMahon was old, long past his radical years.

Admiral Udino said bitterly, “I’m very sorry, Marshal. It was I who let you down! If I hadn’t made a mistake in commanding in front of me, it wouldn’t have caused our originally great situation to collapse.”

Situation collapse?

The situation is obviously not that serious, the French still have the initiative on the battlefield in Central Europe.

As for the Austrian counterattack, it was a child’s play. It is certain that the Austrians will not be able to fight the French until they have gathered enough troops.

Patrice McMahon: “Let’s cut the crap, right now I only have one request, and that is to tear open the Rhine River defense as soon as possible.

This is your last chance, I don’t care what methods you use, you must fulfill this order before enemy reinforcements arrive.”

There was one thing left unsaid in his mind, and that was this, too, was the last chance for France.

If this opportunity was missed, it would be difficult for France to win this war again.

Even if the French army broke out late and won the war by chance, it was only an apparent victory, but the real situation was a lose-lose situation.

“Marshal, the biggest problem now is the enemy’s trenches. According to the intelligence we have gathered, we can determine that the enemy has deployed at least 10,000 machine guns, thousands of heavy artillery, and more than 5,000 ordinary artillery of all types along the Rhine River.

Relying on the trenches, the enemy has constructed a dense network of firepower, and our troops, at all, cannot rush up.

In order to reduce casualties among officers and men, our soldiers could only crawl and charge. Even if they were lucky enough to reach the enemy’s position, they had to face the obstruction of the iron net.

Want to tear through the Rhine River defense line, the best way is to choose a key place for the main attack, focus our artillery to launch a sneak attack, the first time to suppress the enemy’s firepower in the area ……”

The way are people want to pass on, although there is no creeping forward, but crawling to charge is essentially the same as creeping forward.

Concentrated firepower focused bombardment, to obtain the firepower advantage of the area, this is also the most suitable for the French army at the moment, from this aspect, Admiral Udineau is still qualified.

Patrice McMahon nodded, “Very well, I approve this battle plan of yours. Udino, I’ll give you one last chance, I don’t want to hear any more bad news.”

Frankly speaking, Patrice McMahon did not want Udino to continue commanding the troops. But there was no way around it, there were only a handful of officers in the French army who were capable of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops in battle.

Among these men, Udineau’s ability also ranked high. If it wasn’t for the blunders in front of him, another famous general would have risen to the top.

Push the book: “back to the Ming Dynasty when the hegemony” a pistol a sniper, kill corrupt officials, destroy the landlord, slaughter Jiannu, in this group of heroes and rise of the times, war cloud vowed to do a never compromised end of the Ming Dynasty hegemony, hot blooded, easy to the cool text.

(End of chapter)