Chapter 914 Counterattack in the Making

The war has progressed to this point, and France has already pressed all the chips. If it wins, it dominates the European continent, and if it loses, it becomes second-rate.

With the domineering style of France in the past, it has offended many people. When France was strong, no one dared to provoke it. Once it declined, it was completely different.

Under the nest, An has finished eggs.

Whether it is Napoleon IV or the top French government, they are all tied to the fate of this country.

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

Whether it's for themselves or their country, they have to find a way to win this war.

In the face of life and death, face has become so cheap that it is worthless, so it is better to plagiarize!

Since the Austrian military equipment is more advanced, then follow the imitation. Could it be that the great French Empire could not be built?

With one word from the emperor, he broke his leg when he ran down. Beginning with the cabinet government, it is pushed down level by level.

Although Napoleon III has the reputation of the socialist emperor, France is still a bourgeois country, and the military and industrial enterprises are in the hands of the capitalists.

In the past, there was an order, and everyone was rushing to grab it. The threshold of the Ministry of War was broken. Now the news has been sent out for a long time, but no one cares.

It's not that the capitalists don't want to make money, the key is that everyone is unable to make this kind of money. There is no way, the timing is not right.

In the past, everyone could take orders first, and then slowly think of a way, either self-developed or purchased technology from the outside world.

But not now, the time for independent research and development is too late; these technologies are currently 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 connections have received the news in advance and know the seriousness of the problem. We all know that at this juncture, if you take an order and fail to deliver the goods, you will get into big trouble.

The armament order that was in high demand by everyone has now become a hot potato, and it has been directly rotten in the hands of the Ministry of War and no one cares about it.

Of course, it's not that no one is really interested, it's just that everyone's strength is limited and the task cannot be completed in the short term.

At present, a number of military factories have indicated that they can start construction immediately as long as the Ministry of War has the design drawings.

"How about it, how long will it take you to imitate it?"

Army Minister Luskinia asked anxiously.

Although the arms factory is owned by the capitalists, this does not mean that the French government has handed over all the armament issues to the capitalists.

The Ministry of the Army also maintains a group of military experts, and even has a military factory directly under it, but because of bureaucratic management, the production cost is too impressive, and there is no way to expand the scale.

Now the capitalists are afraid to take orders, and the 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 Ministry of War had to find a way to complete it.

An older military expert replied: "Your Excellency, we have too little information.

We don't know anything about weapon templates, design principles, and performance parameters, and we don't even know the exterior structure. There's nothing, so how do we fake it? "

Counterfeiting also needs a reference. If there is nothing, it is not counterfeiting, but independent research and development. Since it is independent research and development, the time will naturally not be fast.

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

Minister of the Army Luskinia said impatiently: "Isn't the machine gun already there, just improve the performance according to our machine gun.

Airplanes are a bit of a hassle, but I remember it was in the newspapers and there were people doing air shows in Paris.

A few folk enthusiasts can come up with something, can't you also come up with something?

It really doesn't work, just pay for their technology, or incorporate them, how can there be so much trouble! "

It's not that the Duke of Luskinia is ignorant. Without knowing the principle of the Maxim machine gun, it is not wrong to think that the Austrian army used an improved version of Gatling.

This is even more the case with the aircraft. In addition to dealing with airships, the Austrian aircraft did not show amazing combat effectiveness.

In these years, everyone's knowledge of aircraft has been stuck in flight performances, and they have not realized that there is a huge technical gap between aircraft and aircraft.

Simply from the point of view of dealing with airships, most aircraft can do it. Anyway, the aircraft has the advantage of flexibility. As long as the endurance is long enough, the carrying capacity of two or three hundred pounds is enough.

The old man explained helplessly: "Your Excellency Duke, there are many links in the process of designing a weapon to putting it into use, which requires a lot of time, and it can't be done without three or five years of hard work.

Even if the situation on the battlefield is urgent, we directly save the time for weapon testing, but it is impossible to compress the time for design and industrial production.

Even in the most ideal state, it will take three months for us to produce a new machine gun; as for the aircraft, it is God's blessing to be able to produce it within half a year. "

Three months, six months, this speed is really very fast. It would be a miracle if it could be done in such a short period of time.

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

Compared with the same period in history, the level of science and technology in France, even if the development is accelerated, cannot exceed ten years, and there will not be a qualitative gap.

…

…

The world does not revolve around one country, and no matter how the French develop new equipment, the war will continue.

Because of political necessity, the French government covered up the fiasco of the previous offensive. Since he was not defeated, he would not be held accountable. Admiral Oudino luckily escaped the fate of going to a military court.

The absence of military courts does not mean that there will be no accountability. Now Oudino is still commanding in front of the enemy, just because of the transitional period of the adjustment of the command system.

If such a big thing happened, the French army must be held accountable. As the person directly responsible for the incident, it was only a matter of time before Admiral Oudino went home and brought his grandson.

The French army command, since receiving the news of the failure of the attack, Marshal Patrice McMahon rushed to the front to preside over the overall situation as soon as possible.

Looking at a group of officers who were about to die, Patrice McMahon slammed the table and scolded: "Everyone, look in the mirror and see how you are doing now, do you still look like a soldier.

Do you know that France's face will be humiliated by you. Especially your Oudino, have you forgotten the promise you gave me earlier?

Isn't it just a loss, just find an opportunity to get it back from the enemy later. Could it be that he thinks that he is about to retire, so he can live unscrupulously.

Let me tell you, if you don't want to live with infamy for the rest of your life, cheer me up. Remember it all, the shame of failure can only be washed away with blood and victory. "

In fact, the morale of the French soldiers was low, not just because of the heavy casualties.

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

In addition to the heavy losses on the first day, there was no full-scale war in the next few days, but small-scale battles occurred every day.

I don't know if I don't fight, but when I fight, everyone suddenly finds out that the Austrian army is not as rotten and incompetent as the government's propaganda, but a tiger going down the mountain.

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

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

Of course, this has something to do with 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 inevitably declines.

It is inconvenient to transmit information these days, and it is impossible for the French government to do propaganda for Austria, so that the middle and senior members of the military did not understand the particularity of the Austrian military service system.

Judging by brain supplementation, everyone took it for granted that they were all troops after the expansion of the army, and there were a group of recruits who were holding back.

Seeing that under the same conditions, the French army was pressed and beaten by the Austrian army, and it was not an exception, it was the same on the fronts that spread hundreds of miles.

The French commander who witnessed all this with his own eyes naturally lost 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 force, the French army after the expansion will not be able to win the Austrian army.

Some people may talk about equipment, but the problem is that weapons and equipment are also part of strength. Now is not the age of knights, as long as the war can be won, who cares whether it is fair or not.

In a sense, Austria's greatest allies are the Italians. Their pessimism was the first to spread out. After the front attack failed and suffered heavy casualties, it quickly spread among the French army, and it also began to exert influence from the bottom up.

Marshal Patrice McMahon came in a hurry, just to restore the morale of the troops, but the scene in front of him told him that the situation was worse than he thought.

The air defense siren of "woo woo woo..." broke the tense atmosphere of the command.

From bombing others to being bombed every day. It only took a few days before and after, and few people could bear such a gap in their hearts.

Having witnessed this scene with his own eyes, Marshal Patrice McMahon somewhat understands why everyone's morale is low.

As the supreme commander of the French army, Patrice McMahon knew more than anyone else.

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

Unlike the radical guys in the country, who fantasized about 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, it's just that he knows that the French army is not as strong as the government's propaganda, and the enemy is not as weak as the propaganda.

By taking the territory west of the Rhine, France can defend against danger, and even if Austria breaks out, he is confident to block it.

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

Admiral Oudino said bitterly: "I'm very sorry, Marshal. I let you down! If it wasn't for my mistake in command, it wouldn't have caused our good situation to collapse."

The situation collapsed?

The battle situation is obviously not serious enough, and the French army still occupies the initiative in the Central European battlefield.

As for the counterattack launched by the Austrian army, it was all pediatrics. To be sure, in the

The Austrians could not fight the French until they had gathered enough troops.

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

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

There was still a word in his heart that he did not say, that is: this is also the last chance for France.

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 surface, but the real situation was a loser.

"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, thousands of heavy artillery pieces, and more than 5,000 pieces of ordinary artillery pieces along the Rhine River.

The enemy built a dense firepower network relying on the trenches, and our troops could not rush up at all.

In order to reduce the casualties of officers and soldiers, our soldiers can only crawl and charge. Even if you are lucky enough to rush to the enemy's position, you will still face the obstruction of iron nets.

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

The methods are all people want to come, although there is no such thing as crawling forward, but crawling and charging are essentially the same as crawling forward.

Concentrating firepower on bombing and gaining regional firepower advantage is also the most suitable for the French army at the moment. From this point of view, Admiral Oudinot is still qualified.

Patrice McMahon nodded: "Very good, I approved your battle plan. Oudino, give you one last chance, I don't want to hear any bad news."

Frankly, Patrice McMahon did not want Oudinot to continue commanding the troops. But there is no way, there are only a handful of officers in the French army who are capable of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops.

Among these people, Oudino's ability is also ranked high. If it weren't for the previous mistakes, another name would have risen.