Chapter 487 Growth in Blood and Fire

Changes in British foreign policy soon caused a chain reaction. After all, the French failed to resist the temptation to accept the British to join the alliance, and the pressure turned to Austria.

Vienna is extraordinarily cold this winter, and before Christmas, Schönbrunn Palace has already put on a layer of silver.

Stepping on the snow, the creaking sound is still so pleasing to the eye.

Franz, who is in a good mood, is no longer troubled by diplomatic changes. Since the French dared to let the British join the alliance, he didn't care about one more scumbag ally.

Originally, France and Austria were not stable, but now there is a British with a scheming idea, and Franz has seen the future of the collapse of this alliance.

Of course, a short period of time is still good for everyone. The alliance of Britain, France and Austria can bring everyone's prestige to the peak, and all countries in the world will tremble under this alliance.

Entering the conference room, Foreign Minister Wesenberg had already appeared in the room, and there was a cup of hot coffee on the table. Obviously, he had been here for a while.

The purpose is self-evident, naturally it is to communicate with Franz in advance, whether or not to form an alliance with the British.

Thanks to the good reputation of the British, the Vienna government has not been very enthusiastic about forming an alliance with them. Even the Anglophiles in the government do not consider the British to be a good ally.

After the courtesy greeting, Franz asked directly, "What do you think?"

Foreign Minister Weisenberg paused for a moment, as if to organize the language, and replied after a while: "Your Majesty, the French have compromised, and there is no need for us to continue the stalemate.

The British joined the alliance, which was destined to not last long. However, the Fao Alliance is a combination of interests, and it will only expire after a few years.

We also have no plan to maintain the alliance for a long time. Since the British are here to disrupt the situation, it may not be a bad thing to tear up the alliance earlier. "

Franz nodded, the purpose of the alliance is to win time for peaceful development. Now that the French have been brought into the pit, they are simply unable to do things on the European continent in a short period of time. The original purpose has been achieved.

At this time, the importance of the alliance to Austria has become dispensable. That being the case, there is no need to hold on tight. It is also a good choice for the last waste utilization to increase Austria's prestige in the world.

"The Foreign Office continues to negotiate with the British, and try to delay the alliance until the second half of next year without affecting the outcome of the negotiations.

The South African war has reached the present, and it is difficult to end it in a short period of time. The people below have invested so much, it is necessary for us to create an opportunity for them. "

As a good leader, Franz's contribution to the African nobles is still clear. For this war, many nobles did their best.

Although the Vienna government is paying for the military, the war will also kill people, and the loss of the cronies and private armies cannot be made up for in a day or two.

Not to mention some unlucky nobles who fell directly on the battlefield. In any case, they all sacrificed for the national interest, and now the Vienna government needs to give them an account.

If they were incompetent and could not conquer Cape Town, then they could not dig a hole and bury it by themselves, and no one would have an opinion.

If the Vienna government forced the war to be stopped for diplomatic reasons, wouldn't their efforts be in vain?

If there is no military merit, there will be no reward. If they can't go further, they can't even recover the cost based on the military salaries issued by the government.

Chilling things, Franz never does. It is very worthwhile to drag on for a few months to increase the loyalty of African nobles.

Anyway, these expenses, even South Africa's mineral resources can be recovered. The more beautifully you play on the battlefield, the more confident you will be in post-war negotiations.

As for the decline of the local population due to the war, there is nothing that can be done, and everything has to pay a price.

Wesenberg replied: "Yes, Your Majesty. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will try its best to buy time for the front line, and blood will not be lost."

The war has come to the present, and the losses on the battlefield in South Africa are also astronomical. The Boer Republic lost a total of 341,500 troops. Well, the fraction behind is the real casualties of Austria.

Otherwise, everyone in the Boer Republic would have to die twice to barely make up enough people.

The British army was not much better, with hundreds of thousands of casualties, also mainly cannon fodder troops. The white soldiers lost more than 20,000 people, including a large number of prisoners, and only 7,000 or 8,000 died in battle.

The main factor that caused the disparity in casualties, in addition to the defeat of the British army at the beginning, was more of the Cape Town offensive and defensive battle.

On average, it takes more than a dozen cannon fodder to kill a single British soldier, and the casualties on both sides are naturally separated.

This situation is expected to continue until the Indian colonial army arrives, and then the two colonial empires come to a cannon fodder pk.

Viscount Fickney is also aware of the decisions made by the high-level officials of the two countries, and the rising number of casualties has shocked him, the colonial chief.

At this moment, he admired the Russians a little, and they were able to rely on human lives to pile up, so that the French couldn't bear the casualties and were forced to give up Constantinople.

You must know that the South African battlefield is filled with indigenous people, and the Russians use their own people as cannon fodder. This is not a concept at all.

With Christmas approaching, Cape Town still remains motionless. After so many days of war, the Boer Republic Army has only knocked down the peripheral fortifications of the British.

This is all filled with more than 100,000 cannon fodder troops. If we continue to fight like this, the young men in South Africa will definitely not be enough.

Viscount Fickney said wearily: "Everyone knows the situation on the battlefield. I have contacted the Governor of Congo. They promised to send 100,000 cannon fodder over in the near future, and the East African Governor's Region also agreed to send 50,000 people here.

In the farther West Africa, you don't need to count on it. There are not many indigenous people there, the distance is too far, and it takes too long.

Not to mention South Africa, except for the indigenous tribes in the deep mountains and forests, the rest have been recruited once, and there are not many young people.

Continuing to consume like this is not the way. Even if we use up the hundreds of thousands of cannon fodder in our hands, and then finish off the cannon fodder troops assisted by various places, we may not be able to conquer Cape Town.

The plan to capture Cape Town before Christmas has now gone bankrupt, and reinforcements from the British will soon arrive.

At this time, we need new tactics, at least to reduce the casualties of the attacking troops, otherwise it will be difficult to consume the British. "

The loss of the main force's frontal attack was too great, and Viscount Fickney could not afford this loss, so he chose the tactic of using the cannon fodder to fight the war of attrition.

No matter how disparate the exchange ratio may be, the besieged Britons will suffer. Once the loss exceeds the tolerance limit, the British will also throw in the towel.

Of course, this is the ideal state, given the importance of the Cape of Good Hope, the British cannot easily give up. The war is all about money and food, and if it lasts too long, Austria can't afford it either.

Chief of Staff Jacob thought for a while and said: "It's not that there is no way. It's just that if you use it now, it will be difficult to play a role in the future. It is impossible to end the war before Christmas."

Blindly attacking is the stupidest way. If you do this at the beginning, the logistics has not kept up. There is not much food in the army, so you can't support so many cannon fodder, so you can only send it to consume.

Over time, the logistical problems have been gradually resolved, and the number of cannon fodder troops has plummeted, so there is no need to continue to die.

After all, there are still many places where cannon fodder is needed. Even if the British defense line is torn apart, a large number of human lives are still needed to fill up.

Viscount Fickney shook his head and said, "Don't worry about that much, we will use it first if we can. After the arrival of the British reinforcements, we will use the second plan.

The British had supplementary sea transportation channels. The losses in this tough battle were too great, and the chances of conquering Cape Town were not high.

In the last few days, even if the main force is pulled up, it is impossible to end the war before Christmas. "

It's not that Viscount Fickney is reluctant to suffer casualties, the main reason is that the number of main troops is limited, and they really can't afford to lose. In case of heavy losses, even if the defense line is torn, it may be pushed back by the British.

Otherwise, it has the advantage of firepower and suppresses the firepower of the British. It is estimated that the cannon fodder alone cannot touch the hair of the British.

Jacob nodded and said, "Then dig trenches, shorten the distance as much as possible, and then dig tunnels to blow up the enemy's fortifications.

The British never thought that there would be enemies in the inland areas. Most of these fortifications were temporarily built. As long as the foundation was loosened, ordinary artillery could be solved. "

In fact, it can be broken directly with artillery, but it requires heavy artillery. The number of heavy artillery in the army of the Boer Republic is limited, and it is impossible to take care of it while suppressing the enemy's firepower.

This is an underestimation in advance. It is taken for granted that the cement in the Cape Town area is limited, and a large number of reinforced concrete fortresses cannot be built in a short time, and the number of heavy artillery prepared is not enough.

The fact that Viscount Fickney wanted to end the war before Christmas was based on the premise that the British did not build a modern fortress, and did not expect that the old fox of Delphi would be prepared in advance.

Just as they rushed to the gate of Cape Town, they were greeted by rows of temporarily built bunker fortresses. Although not perfect, this also shattered Viscount Fickney's dream of a quick solution.

Now the objectives of the battle have also changed. Viscount Fickney no longer fantasizes about ending the war before Christmas, but instead consumes as many British troops as possible before they arrive.

In order to implement the second set of plans, lure the enemy to go deeper, and change the battlefield to fight a decisive battle.

The biggest problem with the second set of plans is that the British have to dare to come out, otherwise, no amount of deployment will be in vain.

This requires enough reinforcements from the British to bring enough confidence to the Governor of Delphi, and this frightened bird can come out.

Now it is the constant pressure to make the British in the city ask for reinforcements from the London government. The more reinforcements there are, the more likely it is that the British will be tricked.

As for whether there are too many enemies, whether they will choke to death, it is not within the scope of Viscount Fickney's consideration at all.

The British can increase their troops, and the Austrians can also increase their troops. On the African continent, the British had little chance of winning.

Viscount Fickney made a decision without hesitation: "Then try it first and see the effect."

...

Maybe God doesn't like war, this summer in South Africa is extraordinarily hot. The sun is like a fireball, scorching the earth, the air is sultry, and the ground is so hot that people feel their feet burning when they walk on the ground.

The hot summer days brought great trouble to the siege army. If it weren't for the coolness brought by the wind blowing from time to time, I don't know how many people would have suffered heatstroke under the scorching sun.

Major Hanks, who was in command of the troops, reached out and wiped the sweat from his forehead, cursing helplessly: "This damn ghost weather".

The roar of artillery sounded again, this is the signal of attack, no

Any hesitation, Major Hanks immediately urged: "Get up quickly, you guys should get out of here."

While talking and kicking, not only Major Hanks, but also some black officers were acting at the same time.

About a quarter of an hour passed before the mob team assembled. It took another quarter of an hour, with the help of the black officers, before Major Hanks managed to get the unit into the field.

Major Hanks was desperate for this cannon fodder force. But anyone who is a little bit self-motivated is an officer. The role of an officer is to assist in the management of this cannon fodder force, and he does not need to charge himself.

War is the best teacher. After the baptism of blood and fire, Major Hanks has completed his transformation.

At the beginning, he also planned to train this cannon fodder unit to serve as the main auxiliary corps.

After all, the untrained cannon fodder troop is too weak to undertake real combat missions. The Boer Republic army also needs an auxiliary corps with certain combat effectiveness, which may be called advanced cannon fodder.

Facts have proved that Hanks is not a military god, and he did not turn corruption into magical power. After two months of trying, he was forced to give up his original fantasy.

Since there is no training value, it can only be sent to be a junior cannon fodder. Routinely launch an attack every day, and if he dies, he will die, and he will continue to repeat this unskilled work alive.

As long as you kill a British, you can be promoted to an officer, provided that you can come back alive and bring back evidence of military exploits.

Such lucky people are only a few. Most of them fell on the road of charging, and some of them fell on the battlefield while killing the British.

After a delay of more than half an hour, this army with no future, under the deterrence of the supervising team, launched an attack on the enemy.

The scene of blood and flesh can no longer move Major Hanks, and now he only cares about one thing, and that is to estimate the results.

As soon as he succeeded, his bones were dead, and in the blood and fire, I don't know how many young Austrian officers were baptized and grew up.