Holy Roman Empire

Compared to the wailing in the French camp, the situation of the coalition forces is completely different.

There was a meteor shower in the sky, a series of chucks on the ground... The specific results have not been counted, but the corpses of the French soldiers on the ground are enough to explain many problems.

All coalition officers and soldiers who have witnessed all this now have only two words in their minds-"slaughter".

Whether it is an air battle in the sky or an offensive and defensive battle on the ground, it is a unilateral massacre by the Austrian army against the French army.

The coalition officers and soldiers who had been distracted and morale at a loss, and confused about the prospects of the war, now have a completely new mental outlook.

...

Coalition command

Admiral Adrian eagerly said: "Marshal, the French army suffered heavy losses in the daytime battle. It will certainly not be peaceful tonight. It is a good time for us to fight back."

From a military point of view, this judgment is not wrong. The heavy casualties have severely affected the morale of the French army.

In particular, these casualties were caused by high-level misjudgments and command errors, and it caused grass-roots officers and soldiers to complain against the upper-level officers.

"No!"

Grand Duke Albrecht resolutely refused.

"It is not the time to counterattack. The French army only suffered heavy losses in the offensive troops today. At least five divisions in Udino's hands did not participate in the battle.

We have too few mobile troops in our hands, and the newly reorganized troops are still under reorganization and have little combat effectiveness at all.

The troops that fought during the day were exhausted, and now there are no more than six infantry divisions capable of attacking, including the three infantry divisions that were withdrawn from the Belgian front last week.

The French are not fools. After suffering such a big loss, they will definitely strengthen their guard.With our existing forces, even if we take the opportunity to launch a counterattack, it will be difficult to obtain the desired result.

Moreover, the French Third Army is less than 50 kilometers away from the front line, unless we can resolve these enemies in one day."

It is impossible to end the battle in one day.No matter how much advantage it takes during the day, the fact that the Austrian army is insufficient has not changed, even if the troops of the two countries are added.

Although today's battle has restored the morale of the coalition forces, the combat effectiveness of other armies is still recovering except for the Austrian troops.

Take the Belgian army as an example. Just a few days after losing their hometown, they are in tears. Unless it is a campaign to recover Belgian territory, it will be difficult for them to exert their peak combat effectiveness.

Not to mention the incorporated German army, it can only be said that the command system has been reluctantly straightened out. The officers and soldiers are in a state of running-in. It is okay for them to do miscellaneous tasks and engage in logistics. Sending out to fight the French army is a complete loss.

Time is on the side of the coalition forces, and reinforcements from the rear are coming in a steady stream, and Grand Duke Albrecht can afford it.

The enemy's airship force has been abandoned, and now as long as the defense line of the Rhine is held, the French defeat is a matter of time.

Of course, there is another reason that cannot be said.

In the event of a successful sneak attack, the French army suffered heavy losses and withdrew directly to the homeland, and the subsequent battles would be difficult to fight.

Fighting the French on the territories of Derby, Austria can also hold high the banner of anti-aggression and gain the support of the local people.

If you enter the French mainland for a decisive battle, not to mention the piles of fortifications, international intervention alone is a big problem.

We must know that the international community now supports the anti-French alliance. It seems that they are just shouting slogans, and there is no substantive action. In fact, governments of various countries are secretly causing trouble to the French.

With these little tricks alone, France has to increase its expenses by hundreds of millions of francs every month.After the money is spent, the materials may not arrive on time.

If the strength and weakness are reversed, the anti-French alliance will suffer now.At least until the end of the Egyptian campaign, the Vienna government could not ignore the positions of various countries.

If the daytime battle is spread out, it will definitely affect governments' judgments on the strength of the warring parties and may even affect everyone's foreign policy.

But Grand Duke Albrecht can be sure that the French cannot tell the truth about the daytime battles, and even desperately conceal their failures, or else they can't explain to the country.

As for the news announced by the coalition forces, even if it is the truth, everyone can't help but discount it, and it is impossible to believe that the French army has suffered such great casualties.

The reason is naturally the amazing results announced by both sides.According to the numbers announced by the warring parties, the French had killed 3.46 million coalition forces, and the coalition forces had also killed 2.47 million French forces.

According to this figure, since the outbreak of the war, the warring parties have killed an average of 70,000 people every day, and the number of deaths on the entire battlefield has reached an astonishing 140,000 per day.

There are so many deaths alone, and the casualties are calculated based on a three-fold increase in the number of casualties, so the total casualties of the French army is 12.35 million; and the total casualties of the coalition forces reached an astonishing 17.3 million.

If such an exaggerated result were to happen, the war would have ended long ago. Whoever believes that is a fool.

In fact, at the beginning, the results announced by both sides of the war were not so exaggerated. Even if it was artistic processing, everyone was somewhat restrained, at least not to the point of adding zero.

It won’t work afterwards. For example, after a battle, the French army was planning to announce the killing of 8,000 coalition forces. Seeing that the coalition forces announced that they had killed 12 thousand French troops, I had no choice but to show weakness. It became 50,000 enemies.

Seeing that the French army announced the annihilation of 50,000 coalition forces, the coalition forces could not suffer, and in a blink of an eye they figured out a way to increase the results of annihilating the enemy by tens of thousands. Anyway, no one wants to weaken their momentum.

If it were not for the loss of the Luxembourg defense line, most of the Belgian territory would fall, the cowhide would not be able to blow, and the coalition forces would not have fallen in the way of annihilating the enemy.

Even so, the word game is still in progress.And the farther you go, the more outrageous the results announced by everyone, and the truth is getting further and further away from the people.

No wonder, bragging is a common problem in humans.Looking through the history books, you will know that the ancients played this way thousands of years ago.

Until now, the warring parties have only wiped out a few million of the enemy. Crossing out a zero is very close to the real number, which is completely incomparable with those big men who wiped out hundreds of millions of enemies.

However, according to the current situation of the two warring parties announced the results of the war, if the war continues for a few more months and the number of dead on paper breaks through a small target, it is not a problem at all.

...

Tonight is destined to be an insomnia night. With the spread of telegrams, many big people can't sleep.

Fortunately, the coalition side, as the victor, received good news.

Except for the unbelievable moments and the need to verify the news from multiple parties, the politicians are in a good state of mind.

Some active guys have already decided to come and have fun all night to celebrate this hard-won victory.

Of course, Franz is not included here. After receiving the telegram, he replied: I see.

Then, there is no more.

I had prepared it in my heart, and the surprise was not so sudden. Naturally, I went to bed when I should.

Without any accident, Franz's unpredictable performance added to his emperor's career and left a short story for future generations.

...

Compared to the quiet Vienna Palace, the Palace of Versailles is already brightly lit at the moment, and you can still hear the roaring from time to time.

There is no doubt that anyone who dared not to sleep in the middle of the night and roared in the Palace of Versailles, apart from Napoleon IV, could not find a second person.

Since the Luxembourg defense line was torn, the French army has been galloping in Central Europe, "punching the German Federation, and carrying Belgian children's shoes" all the way to rivals.

In Napoleon IV's plan, this state of the French army should continue, all the way to Vienna and defeat Austria.

However, the plan did not change quickly, and it was just as soon as I was about to drink the Rhine, and I was hit by a blow.

It is hard for Napoleon IV not to be angry. If anyone is in his position, there is no guarantee that he will perform better at this moment.

First came the terrible news of the heavy losses of the airship forces on the front line, announcing the end of the airship era, and marking that France's investment in airships over the years has all won water tickets.

Napoleon IV was an emperor who grew up with a new type of education, and he could barely accept the technological upgrading.

Isn't it just an airplane? With France's strong family background, it was built in a few months.

Anyway, the power of airplanes this year is limited. In addition to restraining airships, the role that can be played on the battlefield is not as great as that of later generations.

Even though he lost air supremacy, Napoleon IV still had confidence in the French army.

In his opinion, without the aid of the airship bombing force, it is nothing more than the cost of winning the war, and there is still time to push back.

It's a pity that this French army, which he had high hopes for and has a long history, handed him an answer sheet with a single-digit score.

There were more than 30,000 casualties and 50,000 casualties. This is not a battle, but a day's battle.

After paying such a heavy price, the results were minimal. A conservative estimate of the casualties of the Austrian army was at most three digits.

Most of these were caused by artillery, and a small amount were caused by airship bombing.Although the airship troop did not drop a few bombs, they fluttered on the street gorgeously, but they fell into a huge bomb.

Of course, after the airship troops rushed to the street, they did not forget to visit the French camp while harming the coalition forces.

In this regard, they are treated equally, and where they fall depends entirely on the will of God.

As for the infantry who launched the offensive, regardless of their heavy casualties, they actually strolled around the battlefield and sent a large wave of heads.

The situation is worse than the Somme and the battle in the original time and space. The British simply ignored the threat of the machine gun firepower net, and the bureaucrats were mechanical.

The French army didn't even know what the Maxim machine gun was, so they rushed straight up.If you just don’t know, it’s not a big deal.

The commanders on the front line will surely report back to the top when they discover the heavy casualties.As long as the offensive tactics are adjusted in time, the losses will not be so great.

It's a pity that all this doesn't apply to the French army. Tell a story.

During the attack on Luxembourg, a French-Italian mixed infantry division was ordered to launch a main attack on the enemy's position.

After the battle started, the brave French soldiers stepped forward and launched an assault. One of the Italian soldiers formed an infantry regiment as the main body, and was extremely brave in the battle.

Nearly two-thirds of the entire group of 2,146 people fell on the way to the charge, and the commander of the division was so scared that they immediately stopped and replaced them for rest.

As a result, when the troops were recruited in the evening, when the number of soldiers was finally counted, the regiment had 2146 soldiers who should have arrived, and 2101 soldiers were actually there.

In the missing platoon, the corpse collection team only found Qiju corpses. Whether the remaining people died on the battlefield or ran away, there is still no way to determine.

Due to the large number of people involved, the French Army Command did not deal with the soldiers, except for the removal of the officers involved and sent them to a military court. They just drove them home.

There is no doubt that such an understatement is undoubtedly a big failure.By the time the top French army responded, the situation was out of control.

The power of role models is enormous. There is no shortage of people who are afraid of death in this world. Almost all French troops follow suit.

The high-level French army who reacted naturally also took measures to severely punish these guys, but once the Pandora's Box is opened, it cannot be solved by closing it.

In order to avoid punishment, all kinds of strange excuses appeared.Of course, more people are pretending to be wounded. Many people deliberately inflict minor injuries and hide in the rear hospital to recuperate.

It wasn't until Marshal Patrice McMahon came out to clean up the military discipline and change the original punishment mode that the situation improved.

No matter how much it changes, the commander's preconceived impression can't be changed for a while.

All the factors came together to cause this tragedy.

From the overall battle situation, the casualties of tens of thousands of people are not worth mentioning to the French Empire.

The problem is that in order to open the gap as soon as possible, Marshal Patrice McMahon put the main force of the French army into the front line, so now it happens to be the French elite who have suffered heavy losses.

You can see from the specific number of the troops. Generally speaking, the troops with smaller numbers or higher ones are standing troops. They have been formed for many years, and their combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of the newly formed troops.

When Napoleon IV had almost vented, Prime Minister Terence Burkin stepped forward and persuaded: "Your Majesty, this is the end of the matter.

Let's find a way to deal with the aftermath. Whether it is the enemy's aircraft, or the new machine guns and mortars that have just emerged, they are all worthy of our possession.

Today's battle is not entirely the responsibility of front-line generals.The Austrians used these new equipment to catch us by surprise, and it didn't mean anything.

Having learned the lessons of this failure, I believe that in the following battles, our army will exert its due combat effectiveness."

Many people at the top of the French government, including Prime Minister Terence Burkin, are unconvinced with today's inexplicably lost war.

In their view, the Austrians were nothing more than relying on more advanced equipment to catch them by surprise. As long as the French army reacted, the situation would be changed.

After listening to the Prime Minister’s persuasion, Napoleon IV’s expression did not improve, and he immediately rebuked the Secretary of the Army: “What does the Ministry of War eat? We invest so much military expenditure every year. Why is the equipment so much behind the Austrians?

Don't tell me this is an accident. Whether it is an airplane or a machine gun, it has been born for decades. Why is our army not equipped?"

After a series of why, the Secretary of the Army buried his head lower.There is no disaster, this is it.

The technological innovation of armaments has never been easy. The original space-time Maxim machine gun was the first to use it to deal with the indigenous people. As a result, they still jumped into the hole in World War I.

Not to mention this time, Austria hides these belongings at home, and the outside world knows nothing.

Not before today, everyone's consciousness: The Maxim machine gun is just an ordinary machine gun, and there is no essential difference from Gatling; the airplane is a flashy toy, except for the flight show, nothing else.

This is a wide-ranging judgment from all walks of life. The Secretary of the Army is not a traverser, and he can open without hanging, so he can't jump out of this circle of thinking.