Chapter 937: France Needs Allies

  Chapter 918: France Needs Allies

The diplomatic protest made by Jacob is actually a word of exasperation. To ask for help from the international community, France can not afford to lose this person.

Not being able to win on the battlefield and counting on the international community to intervene is the behavior of the weak, and is not in line with France’s status as a great power.

Of course, the main thing is that it is useless to protest. Four referees on the European continent, two and two beat each other up, can not expect a group of small countries as cheerleaders to intervene, right?

Since it is a war, there are bound to be casualties. France’s civilian casualties are large, the civilian casualties on the side of the anti-French alliance is also not small.

Especially in Belgium and the Rhineland, which have already fallen, although there are no specific statistics, it can still be determined that civilian casualties in more than five figures.

This was the peak of the colonial empire, but it was also the peak of racial discrimination, and not all peoples had human rights.

If this lid is not lifted, it is fine, but if it is lifted, the end result will be “a thousand losses for oneself and three hundred kills for the enemy”.

If the operation is not good, so that the European countries mistakenly believe that France is no longer good, one by one run to embrace Austria’s thighs, then it will be a big trouble.

Now the anti-French alliance, already difficult enough to deal with, if the Austrians to fool a few allies, the back of the war will not have to fight.

In fact, the Austrian air force to the French army to bring the biggest threat, is not the battlefield direct killing.

Whether airships bombing, or aircraft strafing, what kind of results can be achieved depends on luck.

When the luck is good, a wave of air raids can cause thousands of kills; when the luck is not good, the results of the war is not enough money for fuel.

Compared with the Austrian air force in the battlefield directly achieved results, Governor Jacob is more worried about the military morale on the impact.

After a series of blows, the pride of the French army was gradually worn out, and more and more people lost confidence in the next war.

Fortunes come in twos and threes, just when Governor Jacob was worried about the Austrian Air Force.

A stout young officer ran in from outside, panting, “Governor…Your Excellency, something big…bad!”

Governor Jacob’s heart tightened, just by looking at the young officer’s nervous expression, he knew something big was about to happen.

In the end, having seen great storms, Jacob quickly adjusted and said as if nothing had happened, “Oren, slow down. The sky hasn’t fallen yet, and where did the enemy bombard?”

Compared to the other bad news on the battlefield, Governor Jacob was still more hopeful that the next bad news would be the enemy’s air force bombing.

Airships have been in the military field for so many years, and Austria was the first to put airships into the military field, the French are arrogant but not stupid, it is impossible to face such an enemy without defense.

When establishing the material warehouse, Governor Jacob considered the threat from the sky early on. This is also the reason that after losing air control, the French army only suffered high casualties.

Oren’s young officer shook his head hastily, “It’s not an air attack! The enemy has once again torn through our eastern defenses, the Aswan region is in danger.”

Hearing the word “again”, Governor Jacob only felt a toothache. There was no other way, from the outbreak of the war until now, the defense line deployed by the French army in the Sudanese region had been broken through three times.

Fortunately, the colony was large enough for the French army to have the opportunity to rearrange their defenses. Unfortunately, the colonial army was always too big to be used, and each line of defense could not last more than a few days.

In Jacob’s opinion, rather than the French troops on the front line fending off the Austrian invasion, it was the harsh geography and poor transportation that was slowing down the enemy’s advance.

“Order Lieutenant General Parker to gather up the routed troops on the front line and construct a new line of defense in the Aswan area.

Order the Seventeenth and Twenty-fourth Divisions to proceed immediately to reinforce them.

Order the defenders in Kaumwombu, Idfu and other areas to prepare for battle ……”

A series of orders were given, and it was evident that Governor Jacob was not hopeful about the French troops on the front line. The active defense was just to buy time, not expecting them to hold back the enemy.

Otherwise, they are concentrating on creating a defense line to block the enemy’s front, rather than preparing for sectional resistance in separate areas, exchanging space for time.

There is no best tactic in this world, only the most suitable one.

According to the Paris government’s plan, the task of the African colonial government was to hold on, stall for time, and just wait for the French army to win the victory on the continent.

There is no doubt that Governor Jacob was carrying out this plan to the letter. In addition to the outbreak of war in the early days, ambitious initiative to organize a few attacks, later entered a state of total defense.

However, the plan did not change quickly, the continental war into a stalemate, the French army is unable to break through the Rhine River defense line, the situation in Egypt has become bad.

……

Aswan area, at this moment has been reduced to a battlefield. The sound of artillery fire and shouts of murder were intertwined and resounded.

Putting down the binoculars in his hand, Major General Herzendorf revealed a satisfied smile. After the smile, there was thick sorrow.

There was no doubt that the increased role of the air force on the battlefield was also a shock to the army.

Although the army’s dominance could not be shaken yet, the air force was developing rapidly, and if nothing else, the country would definitely increase its investment in the air force after the war.

If only the air force is growing, Major General Herzendorf is still worried, after all, the air force is just starting, no matter how much development in a short period of time and the army can not be on a par.

The problem is that Austria also has a big navy, now the international situation has been very obvious, after the war the Vienna government will certainly increase investment in the navy, and the British to compete for maritime hegemony.

In contrast, the army was going to suffer much more. Everyone knows that Austria can not keep five or six million troops for a long time, once the war is over disarmament is inevitable.

The navy is unlikely to be cut, the air force is limited in size, even if it is disarmed, in accordance with established practice, the airship unit will also be transferred directly to the logistics and transportation, the only real cut is the army.

Under one increase and one decrease, the advantage of the army is canceled out, the future Austrian military pattern is the land, sea and air forces check and balance each other, never again the army’s dominant situation.

This is what the Vienna government would like to see, the last ten years the navy’s booming development, the airship unit can be separated from the army to become an independent army, the government has made great efforts.

Of course, the Emperor’s tacit approval is also behind this. The core of the political game is the checks and balances of power, the emperor does not want his men to be ironclad.

As an army general, he naturally did not want to see this happen. Even if the Austrian family is large, the funds invested in the military are limited, the rise of the navy and air force will inevitably dilute the resources of the army.

It’s useless to know, this is originally a Yang conspiracy. From the day the Austrian Air Force was established, the new pattern was already doomed.

Logically, with the rank of Major General Herzendorf was not supposed to know.

After all, it hadn’t happened yet, and the government had only intentionally pushed for it; no one had brought it up in any venue, much less implemented it. To the very end, no news had trickled out.

However, there was never a shortage of smart people in this world, and Major General Herzendorf was one of them, drawing conclusions from just a few clues.

Sometimes knowing too much can be an annoyance. This was the case for Major General Herzendorf right now, originally he still didn’t believe that the air force could grow, but after witnessing the air force in action himself, he had to accept the reality.

Now the performance of the airplane is still limited, bombing still rely on airships, but these days the technology is updated quickly ah!

Soon Hetzendorf eliminated the chaotic ideas in his mind, the sky is falling is also a tall man first top, the Army has so many big men in the top, it is not his turn to worry about this major general.

In any case, Austria’s geographical location determines the need to develop land power, no matter what belongs to the army’s share can not be less.

After all, the cake is getting bigger and bigger, even if it’s divided among more people, each person still gets more than the original.

Looking at his watch, Major General Herzendorf instructed the officer near him, “Pass the order down, in half an hour the 2nd 25th Division will attack from the front, the 2nd 36th Division from the right flank, and the 2nd 41st Division from …….”

A major general commanding two dozen infantry divisions in combat was impossible under normal circumstances. According to the establishment of the Austrian army, all officers at the division level were basically major generals.

Those who were qualified to command more than three hundred thousand troops in combat were at least generals to start with.

However, these so-called conventions were all broken after the great expansion of the army.

Including the colonial troops, the Austrian army swelled from more than half a million before the war to more than six million.

Since the completion of the military reform, the Austrian ranks were precious, especially the number of generals was controlled extraordinarily strictly.

Before the outbreak of the war, the army had less than seven hundred men up and down, including retired generals combined. The strength of the army swelled more than ten times at once, and Franz naturally could not get that many generals.

Without war service, the threshold of generals was difficult to cross, but there were plenty of colonels in reserve. When there weren’t enough generals, they took colonels to make up the numbers, and even the division commanders of certain units were undermanned to lieutenant colonels.

This is a war time, if we don’t control it, there will still be generals flying all over the place after the war.

In order to avoid the emergence of generals than soldiers more difficult situation, Franz decisively adopted a low title high allocation measures. In any case, after a few battles, they will catch up if they have the honor of fighting.

In this context, the emergence of Herzendorf such as major general group commander, it is not surprising.

……

With the defense of Aswan, a letter of request for help was constantly flying from Cairo to Paris, and at the most Napoleon IV was able to receive three telegrams a day from the governor of Egypt asking for help.

Not only Egypt, but also other parts of Africa, the telegrams for help are also endless. Even though the government of Paris had decided to give up a large part of its colonies, it was still unable to reverse the unfavorable situation on the battlefield.

The retreat of the colonial government was not a simple task, not only the government offices had to be relocated, but also a large number of people had to follow.

While other people could be abandoned, the families of the soldiers could not be thrown away as well, could they?

If the soldiers’ families were to be abandoned to Austria, there would be no need to fight the war.

In order to cover the government institutions and soldiers’ families retreat, the front line of the French army still have to continue to top. So the promised reinforcements to the Governor of Egypt, also exists only in theory.

Whether or not they would finally be in place still depended on how many troops had been withdrawn from the front. After making sure that the security of the Algerian region can be guaranteed, there is a surplus of troops before Egypt’s turn.

Do not look at the African battlefield does not seem to be very important, can not affect the final victory or defeat of the European war, the French government did not pay much attention.

The fact is just the opposite, the African colonies for France to provide one-third of the industrial raw materials, as well as one-fifteenth of the agricultural products, for France’s strategic significance.

From the very beginning, the French government attached great importance to the African continent. However, their strength in Africa was limited, and the mainland was facing a two-front war, so they simply could not afford to invest a large number of troops in the African colonies in a short time.

Forced to do nothing, the Paris government deliberately make a look of indifference, so that the outside world think that they do not attach importance to Africa, rather than France in Africa can not win Austria.

There was no way around it, this was politics. The complex international situation determines that France must be strong all the time, but any hint of fatigue is likely to trigger a chain reaction.

Faced with the deteriorating situation in Africa, Napoleon IV finally could not sit still. The Rhine River defense line has not yet broken through, if Africa fell first, then the fun will be great.

Not to mention the fall of French Africa, to bring the loss of France. Just from the strategic point of view, once the fall of French Africa, Austria is almost united the entire African continent.

At that point, even if the French army broke through Vienna, the war would continue. There was no way around it, the capital was so strong that it was impossible to find a reason to admit defeat.

Even if the battlefield has been defeated, Austria are able to rely on resources to consume, will be France to drag alive.

With the Prussian-Russian War in the previous lesson, Napoleon IV had to consider the horrible consequences of the fall of French Africa.

“The situation in Africa has completely collapsed, what is the War Ministry going to do?”

Minister of War Luskinia blushed and replied with slight embarrassment, “Your Majesty, our disadvantage on the African continent is so obvious that even if reinforcements were sent from home, it would be difficult to turn the situation around.

Right now, we can only engage in a strategic contraction, concentrating our forces to preserve the most important Egypt and Algeria, while other areas can only be temporarily abandoned.”

Reinforcements were impossible, the continental war had consumed nearly all of France’s strength, and there was simply no ability to carry out laborious conquests.

Even if the Ministry of War bites the bullet and puts together hundreds of thousands of troops, what about logistics?

It is important to know that the cost of the expedition is far greater than the expenses of the war on the mainland, and French Africa is not as deep as Austrian Africa.

After the outbreak of the war, the Vienna government in the African theater of war investment is only weapons and equipment and medicine, other strategic materials are local governments to deal with their own.

In the case of French Africa, the colonial government simply could not afford to spend that much. The ability of the natives to create wealth was simply not comparable to that of the Austrians.

Napoleon IV’s face sank, obviously this statement did not satisfy him.

If you can hold the most important Egypt and Algeria, then the front can also be accepted, the problem is that the Egyptian region is looking at the end of the world.

Open the map to know, France in the African continent’s territory, is shrinking day by day. According to the present speed, in a year and a half, the African continent will have nothing to do with France.

“Is that all?”

Facing the Emperor’s soul torture, Luskinia’s forehead was in a cold sweat. There was no way, this question was too difficult for people.

“Your Majesty, although the deterioration of the situation on the African continent cannot be reversed, it will not collapse immediately.

No matter what, we still have nearly a million troops on the African continent, delaying time is still manageable.

As long as we win the continental war, what the Austrians are eating now will still have to be returned with interest.”

“Millions of troops”, if it fell into the ears of the uninformed, it was probably still able to scare a lot of people.

Unfortunately, those present were all in the know and knew very well what kind of goods those troops were. But where the colonial troops had half the fighting strength of the main force, the situation wouldn’t have collapsed so badly.

Napoleon IV waved his hand: ”Enough, I don’t want to listen to these clichéd arguments.

Everyone knows that the continental war is the key to victory, provided we can win the war on the European continent.

With a stalemate like the one we have now, once French Africa falls, what am I going to fight Austria on? Count on the British?”

It’s not that Napoleon IV is sullen, it’s really that the situation on the battlefield is too bad. The African battlefield was a failure, and the European battlefield was not going well.

As time went by, Austria put more and more troops into the Rhine defense line, and the French army’s hope of breaking through the defense line was getting lower and lower.

For the sake of this war, France had pressed too many chips, and now they simply could not afford to lose.

After hesitating for a few moments, Luskinia slowly said: “Your Majesty, we need allies. Need real allies, not the British kind that stabs in the back at any time!”

This is the lesson of blood, open the history books to know that the vast majority of the time France is fighting alone.

Many times, it was clear that it had the strength of the number one power on the European continent, but it was surrounded by enemies in a miserable manner.

It’s not that no one has noticed this problem, it’s mainly because by the time they react, the countries on the European continent have already been offended.

Now is no exception, Napoleon IV also eager to obtain allies, how can not find ah!

If he hadn’t been forced to do so, he wouldn’t have sought the skin of the tiger with his arch-enemy, the British.

……

(End of chapter)