Holy Roman Empire

On November 1, 1890, Grand Duke Albrecht and Leopold II had a historic meeting in Cologne, and the two sides had in-depth exchanges on anti-French issues.

Well, these are official rhetoric.The real situation is that after the defensive line of Luxembourg collapsed, the situation in Belgium was eroded. Leopold II could no longer hold the ground and had to go into exile.

Just think about it to stay in Brussels.With the strength of Belgium, there is no ability to persist under the strong attack of the French.

However, the situation has not reached a desperate time. Although the Luxembourg line of defense has collapsed, the German Federation has suffered heavy losses, and Belgium is about to fall, it still cannot change the fact that the anti-French war has just begun.

In essence, this war was initiated by France and Austria to fight for European hegemony. As for Belgium, the two countries were guilty of crimes.

The strategic location of Belgium and the resources of the German Federal Rhineland region are the root causes of their involvement.

Pete suffered heavy losses, but the strength of Austria's leading brother is still there.On the southern front, the Austrian army still occupies an advantage; on the African battlefield, Austria even crushed the French by pressing the French on the ground.

It's just that the Austrian Army on the Southern Front has not made a substantial breakthrough, and the African battlefield has not been taken seriously by everyone. Everyone focused on the Central European battlefield, and they felt that the French had the upper hand.

Before he had to work hard, Leopold II was not a reckless man. After receiving the assurance of Albrecht, he decisively chose a strategic shift.

The fate of Leopold II, or the fate of Belgium, has been tied to Austria.

After winning this war, Belgium’s losses can be recovered from the French, and it is even possible to take a small step forward; if it loses the war, Leopold II will be a full member of the exiled army.

When you open the history book, you will find that in the history of the European continent, the exiled royal families have long been over a hundred, but few can be restored, and most of the royal families have disappeared in the long river of history.

What happened behind this is not clear to others, but Leopold II has heard of it.

It may not be clear what has been experienced.Anyway, except for a few royal families who are naturally extinct, most are extinct.

Of course, behind these tragic characters, there are indispensable tricks to die.The content is so ignorant that ordinary novels dare not describe the plot like that.

In a political system like Europe, the king will not die as long as he does not die.

Napoleon is an example. He played so happily and was just exile, and the Bonapartist dynasty was not destroyed.

From the standpoint of Leopold II, to stay in Brussels is to die.There is no eye on the battlefield, but there is no distinction between high and low status, and it is still the kind that is not responsible.

This is not the most critical thing. The king does not need to go to the battlefield, and the chance of being accidentally injured is still very low.

The key is that the French have the motive to kill him. If France wants to annex Belgium, he is an eyesore as a king.

The killing of the king is very serious in Europe. If you don't solve him on the battlefield, the French can't do anything afterwards.

The Kingdom of Sardinia is a ready-made example. The royal family, which was let go under international pressure, has now jumped out to add obstacles to them.

Politics is bloody, and Leopold II dare not bet on French morality.Moreover, it is not necessarily the French who wants him to die.

In addition to domestic opponents, the British and Austrians are also likely to be involved.

Although Leopold II and the British royal family are their own families, and are related to the Austrian royal family, reality has proved that in the face of national interests, any relatives are unreliable.

...

After pacifying Leopold II, Grand Duke Albrecht breathed a sigh of relief.In his opinion, the ideological work of a king is more troublesome than fighting.

Regardless of the strength of Belgium, they are all members of the anti-French alliance. If Leopold II could not think of surrendering to the French, Austria's political loss would be too great.

According to Franz the Great, the essence of war is to make more allies and fewer enemies.

In order to achieve this goal, even Montenegro and Greece, which can only make soy sauce, were forcibly pulled into the chariot by the Vienna government.

Of course, they can't be counted on on the battlefield.But it is politically necessary. The more countries that participate in, the more proof that the war of aggression initiated by the French is unpopular.

As long as there are more countries participating, when the international community characterizes this war in the future, Austria must be just and not tolerate any flaws.

...

"Woohoo..."

The air defense alarm suddenly sounded, and Grand Duke Albrecht frowned and ordered the guards: "Go out and see, what happened?"

The airships in France are rampant, and Grand Duke Albrecht has long heard of it, but this is the first time that he has personally experienced it.

Regardless of Austria's first use of airships in war, in fact French talents are the originators of airships.As early as 1784, the French built the first airship.

Many people would not believe it, the world's first airship, except that the power system is not enough and the danger is high, everything else is fine.

It is 15.6 meters long and has a maximum diameter of 9.6 meters. After being filled with hydrogen, it can generate more than 1,000 kilograms of ascent force and last for seven hours in flight.

After Austria used airships in warfare, all European countries realized the importance of airships and began to deploy troops.

But this thing, after all, is a high-tech product, and the cost is very expensive. Only a few big countries have the real strength and large-scale equipment.

After the outbreak of the Anti-French War, the French airship forces showed great power and easily defeated the airships of the two countries and seized air supremacy on the battlefield in one fell swoop.

Anti-aircraft weapons have a limited range these days, and the aim is to rely on luck. As long as the airship does not lower the flying height, it is still very safe.

Of course, the safety of high-altitude bombing is safe, and the hit rate is also very touching. The record depends on God blessing.

After a short while, the guard returned to the report: "Marshal, the enemy's airship is here, and it seems to be investigating intelligence."

"Humph!"

After a cold drink, Grand Duke Albrecht said blankly: "Got it!

The order was passed down and the engineering corps was ordered to rush to work immediately to complete the airport construction in the shortest time."

...

Colonel Lane was shocked and said: "What, let us repair the airship? Major, you are not mistaken, we are not engineers."

The young officer explained helplessly: "Sorry, Colonel Lane. Our engineers are not enough, and we can't recruit enough civilians in a short time. Now you are the only ones who have no tasks."

Austria’s vanguard forces are naturally the main force, and engineers are only a very small number. Most of these people are junior engineers trained in batches, mainly to solve standpoint and road traffic problems.

Originally, the labor issue had been coordinated, and the German Federation provided civilians.However, the Luxembourg defense line suddenly collapsed, and not only a large number of troops were lost, but also a large number of civilians.

Most of these civil servants are young and strong laborers drawn from the local area. If you want to continue to recruit civil servants, you must have enough young and strong locals.

The glorious and great task of finally repairing the airport fell on the Bremen Legion that had just completed its reorganization.

There is no accident. The Bremen Army has only one battalion. Colonel Lane, who has the highest rank and has combat experience, became the battalion commander.

The order has been given, and Colonel Lane must accept the reality of becoming an engineer, whether he wants it or not.

Not only the Bremen Army, but also the troops that were reorganized afterwards, were successively transferred to engineers, building roads and digging trenches.

Combat mission?

Grand Duke Albrecht said that he was not crazy yet. He knew very well how bad the combat effectiveness of this miscellaneous army was temporarily reorganized.

Not only the morale of the army is completely depleted, but even the soldiers are seriously under-trained.What's more troublesome is that many officers are the children of nobles who were temporarily recruited.

The nobles in Germany have a tradition of joining the army, but this does not mean that all the children of nobles are qualified officers.

Not all states have military academies, and not all children of nobles have gone to military academies. Many children of nobles have only received family military education, and all kinds of combat experience and concepts remain in the last century.

Sending such a troop to the battlefield can only be expected to increase the enemy's record.

You can pit your teammates, but you can't pit your own people.Since these guys are willing to accept the reorganization, it means that they have approved Austria.

These people are the bonds of the future Austrian rule of the North German region.In order to strengthen ties with the locality, Grand Duke Albrecht could not let these noble children die in large numbers.

...

At this moment, Colonel Lane, who knows nothing, is leading his troops and sweating for the airport construction.

Looking at the hardened land, Colonel Lane said with great regret: "Captain Henry, you don't have to harden all of it. This is really extravagant."

Concrete is not cheap this year. It hardens tens of hectares of land at one time, and the cost is not a small amount.

Captain Henry shook his head: "Now it is in a hurry. In fact, the construction of this airport is simply not qualified.

However, this is also temporary. It will be used first, and there will be reconstruction later."

This is a fact, the airport is not finished by building a dam.Stopping temporarily, it's OK.

"Airport, what is that? Didn't it mean to repair the airship?"

Colonel Lane asked suspiciously.

It's not that he is ignorant. Few people know about airplanes these days, and even fewer people know about airports.

Realizing the failure, Captain Henry replied coldly: "Colonel, you should have memorized the army's confidentiality regulations. Don't ask if you shouldn't."

"Airport" does not belong to the category of secrecy, and Captain Henry is also confused about this issue.Anyway, no password was issued above, nor did Colonel Lane inform the news.

In the case of confusion, Captain Henry would naturally not explain.As for the gap in the ranks of the two sides, that is not a problem.

Didn't you see that the captain was commanding the colonel during the airport construction?

In other places, this kind of thing is absolutely impossible, but in the technical field, this kind of thing is commonplace.

Professional work is done by professionals. This is a major feature of the Austrian army. Therefore, the highest person in charge of airport construction is Captain Henry, who is experienced in construction.

After a boring discussion, Colonel Ryan turned his head directly and urged the soldiers to work instead of paying attention to the rigid engineer.

...