Holy Roman Empire

As the war progressed to the present point, France had already had all the bargaining chips. Victory would dominate Europe, and defeat would become second-rate.

With France's domineering style in the past, many people have been offended.No one dared to provoke France when it was strong, and once it declined, it was completely different.

Under the covering of the nest, there are finished eggs.

Both Napoleon IV and the top French government are tied to the fate of this country.

At this time, taking a step back is no longer the vast ocean and the sky, but the abyss.

Whether it is for themselves or for the country, they must find ways to win this war.

In the face of life and death, face is so cheap that it is worthless, so let's plagiarize!

Since the Austrian military equipment is more advanced, then follow the imitation.Couldn't the great French empire be created?

With a word, the emperor broke his leg.Starting from the cabinet government, the pressure goes down from level to level.

Although Napoleon III has the reputation of the socialist emperor, France is still a bourgeois country, with ordnance enterprises in the hands of capitalists.

In the past, there were orders, and everyone was rushing to grab them. The threshold of the War Department was broken. Now the news has been sent out for a long time, and no one cares about it.

It's not that capitalists don't want to make money, but the point is that everyone is unable to make this money.There is no way, the timing is wrong.

In the old days, everyone could still take orders first, and then slowly figure out a solution, either by independent research and development, or by purchasing technology from outsiders.

But it is not possible now, the time for independent research and development is too late; at present these technologies are still unique to Austria, and Fao is at war, even if they spend more money it is impossible to buy the technology.

All capitalists who have a relationship have received the news in advance and knew the seriousness of the problem.All know that at this point, if you receive an order and fail to deliver the goods, you will get into big trouble.

The armament order that was once sought-after by everyone has now become a hot potato, directly rotten in the hands of the War Department and no one cares about it.

Of course, it's not that no one is really interested, but everyone's strength is limited and they can't complete the task in a short time.

At present, many military factories have stated that they can start construction immediately as long as the Department of War has produced the design drawings.

"Well, how long will it take you to fake it?"

Army Secretary Luskinia asked anxiously.

Although the armament factories are owned by capitalists, this does not mean that the French government has left the arms issues to the capitalists.

The War Department also maintains a group of military industry experts and even directly affiliated military factories, but because of bureaucratic management, the production costs are too touching and there is no way to expand.

Now that capitalists dare not take orders, this drudgery falls into the hands of the War Department itself.In any case, this was decided by the emperor and the government together, and the War Department had to find a way to complete it.

An elderly military industry expert replied: "Your Excellency, we have too little information in our hands.

We don’t know the weapon templates, design principles, and performance parameters at all, and we don’t even know the appearance.Nothing, how can we copy it?"

Imitating also needs to have reference objects. If there is nothing, it is not imitation, but independent research and development.Since it is an independent research and development, the time is naturally not fast.

Of course, there is another way of research and development, which is to design weapons according to requirements, but this also takes time.

Army Secretary Luskinia said impatiently: "Isn't the machine gun already available? Just improve the performance of our machine gun.

The plane is a bit more troublesome, but I remember it was published in the newspapers, and there were people performing flight shows in Paris.

A few folk enthusiasts can produce something, can't you also produce it?

If it really doesn't work, just pay to buy their technology or incorporate them. How can there be so much trouble!"

It is not that the Duke of Luskinia is ignorant. Without knowing the principle of the Maxim machine gun, he believes that the Austrian army is using an improved version of Gatling, which cannot be wrong.

This is especially true for aircraft. In addition to dealing with airships, the Austrian military aircraft did not show amazing combat effectiveness.

In recent years, everyone’s cognition of aircraft has remained on the flight demonstrations, and they have not realized that there is a huge technological gap between aircraft and aircraft.

From the perspective of dealing with airships alone, most aircraft can do it.Anyway, the airplane has the advantage of flexibility. As long as the endurance is long-lasting, the load capacity is two to three hundred kilograms.

The old man reluctantly explained: "Your Excellency, there are many links between the design of a weapon and its putting into use. It takes a lot of time. It can't be done without three or five years of effort.

Even if the situation on the battlefield is urgent, we directly save the time for weapon testing, but the time for design and industrial production cannot be compressed.

Even in the most ideal state, we will produce a new machine gun three months later; as for the plane, it is God bless that it can be produced within half a year."

Three months, six months, this speed is indeed very fast.It would be a miracle if it could be done in so many short periods of time.

After all, it is only 1890. Even though Franz's butterfly effect has accelerated the pace of technological development, this is mainly aimed at Austria, and France is just following passive development.

Compared to the same period in history, the level of science and technology in France, even if the development accelerates, cannot exceed ten years, and there will be no qualitative gap.

...

The world will not revolve around one country. No matter how the French are developing new equipment, the war will continue.

Because of political needs, the French government concealed the fiasco of the previous offensive.Since he was not defeated, he would naturally not be held accountable. Fortunately, Admiral Udino escaped the fate of going to a military court.

The fact that military courts are no longer required does not mean that they will not be held accountable.Now Udino is still in front of the enemy command, just because of the transitional period of the adjustment of the command system.

For such a big incident, the French army must be held accountable.As the person directly responsible for the incident, it was only a matter of time before General Udino went home to take his grandson.

The French army command headquarters, since receiving the news of the offensive failure, Marshal Patrice McMahon rushed to the front line to preside over the overall situation.

Looking at a group of dying officers, Patrice McMahon slapped the table fiercely and sternly reprimanded: "Everyone is looking in the mirror to see how you are doing now. Does it look like a soldier?

Do you know that France's face will be lost by you.Especially your Udino, did you forget the guarantee you gave me before?

Isn't it just a loss, just find a chance to get it back from the enemy.Could it be that he thought he was about to retire, and he could mess around unscrupulously.

I tell you, I don't want to live with infamy for the rest of my life, so I will cheer me up.I remember it all, the shame of failure can only be washed away with blood and victory."

In fact, the low morale of the French officers and soldiers is not just because of the heavy casualties.

The casualties of tens of thousands of people have not been encountered before, and they are not desperate; what really makes everyone feel desperate is that they are not optimistic about the prospect of war.

Except for the heavy offensive losses on the first day, no full-scale war broke out in the next few days, but small-scale battles took place every day.

I don't know if I don't fight, everyone suddenly discovered that the Austrian army is not as corrupt and incompetent as the government propaganda, but a tiger down the mountain.

In Linlin's shattered battle, the two sides played a 1.3:1 record.The French army is 1.3, which is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for French officers who claim to be the world's first army.

This is not an offensive and defensive war, but a direct collision in the wild.Everyone found helplessly that under the same strength, the French army was no longer an opponent of the Austrian army.

Of course, this is also related to the recent low morale of the French army, but the main reason is the sequelae of the crazy army expansion.

Even the so-called elite troops have at least one-fifth of the recruits, and their combat effectiveness will inevitably decline.

This year, the information was inconvenient, and the French government could not do propaganda for Austria, so that the middle and high-level military officials did not understand the particularity of the Austrian military service system.

Everyone used their brains to make judgments and assumed that they were all troops after the expansion, and a bunch of recruits were dragging their feet.

Seeing that under the same conditions, the French army was crushed and beaten by the Austrian army, and this is not an isolated case. This is the case on the front that has spread for hundreds of miles.

The French commander who had witnessed all of this naturally had no confidence in this war.Of course, there is no essential difference between this misjudgment and knowing the truth.

Anyway, the facts have proved that with the same strength, the French army after the expansion can not win the Austrian army.

Some people may talk about equipment, but the problem is that weapons and equipment are also part of strength.It is no longer the age of knights. As long as the war can be won, who cares about fairness.

In a sense, Austria’s biggest ally is the Italians.The pessimistic thoughts were the first to spread. After the previous offensive failed and heavy casualties, it quickly spread in the French army and began to exert influence from the bottom up.

Marshal Patrice McMahon hurried over to restore the morale of the troops, but the scene before him told him that the situation was worse than he thought.

The air defense sirens of "Uuuuu..." broke the tense atmosphere of the command headquarters.

From bombing others to getting bombed every day.It was only a few days before and after, and few people could bear this kind of mental gap.

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

As the top commander of the French army, Patrice McMahon knows more about the situation than anyone.

Sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing.Everyone is drunk and I am alone, but it is not so easy to bear.

Unlike the domestic gang of radical guys who dream of breaking Vienna, Patrice McMahon’s battle plan was only to take the territory west of the Rhine from beginning to end.

It's not that Patrice McMahon has no ambitions, just because he knows that the French army is not as strong as the government propaganda, and the enemy is not as weak as the propaganda.

Taking the territory west of the Rhine River, France can defend against danger, even if Austria erupts, he is confident to block it.

As for breaking Vienna, just shout slogans.Patrice McMahon is already old, long past his radical years.

Admiral Udino said bitterly: "I'm very sorry, Marshal. I let you down! If it weren't for a command error in front of me, it wouldn't break our original good situation."

The situation collapsed?

Obviously, the battle situation is not as serious as this, and the French army still holds the initiative on the battlefield in Central Europe.

As for the counterattacks launched by the Austrian army, they were all pediatrics.To be sure, the Austrian army will not be able to fight the French army until they gather enough troops.

Patrice McMahon: "Don't talk nonsense, now I only have one request, and that is to tear the Rhine line of defense as soon as possible.

This is your last chance. No matter what method you use, you must rush to complete this order before the enemy's reinforcements arrive."

There is one thing he didn't say in his heart, that is: This is also France's last chance.

If this opportunity is missed, it will be difficult for France to win this war.

Even if the French army broke out in the later period and luckily won the war, it was only a victory on the face of it, but the real situation was that both sides suffered.

"Marshal, the biggest problem now is the enemy's trenches. According to the information we have collected, it can be determined that the enemy has deployed at least 10,000 machine guns and thousands of heavy artillery along the Rhine River, and more than 5,000 ordinary artillery pieces.

The enemy relied on the trenches to build a dense firepower network, and our troops simply couldn't make it up.

In order to reduce the casualties of officers and soldiers, our soldiers can only crawl and charge.Even if they were lucky enough to rush to the enemy's position, they would still face the obstacle of the iron net.

The best way to tear through the Rhine defense line is to choose a landlord attack, concentrate our artillery to launch a sneak attack, and suppress the enemy's firepower in the area for the first time..."

The method is come from people wanting, although there is no saying that creeping forward, but crawling charge is essentially the same as creeping forward.

Concentrated firepower and focused bombing to obtain regional firepower advantage is also the most suitable for the French army at the moment. From this perspective, Admiral Udino is still qualified.

Patrice McMahon nodded: "Very well, I approved your plan. Udino, I will give you one last chance. I don't want to hear any bad news again."

Frankly speaking, Patrice McMahon did not want Udino to continue to command the troops.But there is no way. There are only a handful of French officers capable of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops.

Among these people, Udino's ability is also ranked high.If it were not for the previous mistake, another name would have risen.