Chapter 965 Routine

In the afternoon sun, a general was standing at the door of the command tent. He was as lifeless as the dead tree beside him. Even the sun could not warm his body.

The general's uniform was obviously carefully tailored, and it was spotless even on the battlefield.

However, the stubble on the general's face seemed a bit out of place. The long-term attack had made Bono de Coulon unable to take care of the most basic personal appearance.

The few remaining staff officers in the tent quarreled endlessly, but they could not come up with a solution.

The soldiers in the camp on the side ate a simple dinner without any spirit, and the most talked about thing was whether they could survive tomorrow.

There is no doubt that the cruelty of street fighting has caused great pressure on the soldiers' spirits.

Bono de Coulon was also under great pressure, so he didn't want to hear this kind of sound.

Just as he wanted to solve the source of the sound, a scout stumbled over.

"General! General! Our reconnaissance balloon was destroyed!"

"What? How is this possible? Didn't the cable fixed to the ground break?"

The scout's words obviously did not conform to the common sense of this era, and the experienced Bono de Coulon immediately thought that there might be something wrong with the cable.

After all, if the cable is too heavy, the hot air balloon may not be able to fly at all, and in order to reduce the weight, its durability must be weakened.

Cable breakage is a common accident in this era. Bono de Coulon naturally thought that the scout was shirking responsibility.

However, the scout immediately denied it.

"No, General, our reconnaissance balloon fell in front of me. What destroyed it!"

"Did you conduct low-altitude reconnaissance?"

The shooting down of a hot air balloon is something that has never happened in history, but Bono de Coulon is worthy of being an academic leader. He immediately put forward a conjecture.

Could it be that the hot air balloon took the initiative to lower its altitude and then entered the attack range of the rifle?

In fact, this conjecture is also unreliable, because a hot air balloon will not leak and fall straight down after being hit by a few bullets, and the probability of being directly ignited by bullets and exploding is even smaller.

The flight altitude of a reconnaissance hot air balloon is usually 300 to 500 meters, and this altitude is almost not threatened by the ground in this era.

Just when Bonno de Couron was confused, the Austrian reconnaissance balloon had already flown directly above the French army.

It was Franz who killed the French reconnaissance balloon. Although he had not personally commanded a large army, it was definitely right to remove the opponent's vision first.

The weapon that killed the French reconnaissance balloon was naturally not a conventional weapon of this era, but ten specially made long-barreled rifled cannons.

Both the overly long barrel and the rifled cannon were contrary to common sense for the soldiers of this era.

However, the Austrian army was relatively receptive to this weapon, because the rifled cannon had already appeared during the last Alsace-Lorraine crisis and achieved good results.

To prove the value of a weapon, nothing is more convincing than a big victory.

So the rifled artillery of the Austrian Empire developed very quickly, but this oversized rifled artillery was still somewhat eye-catching.

Franz was not worried about the leakage of secrets at all, because at this time no other country in the world had the ability to make special steel.

Using ordinary steel would not only pose a threat if the quality did not meet the standards, but the cost was also unacceptable to them.

As for why the French reconnaissance balloons had to be destroyed, it was because Franz did not want to follow in the footsteps of Sun Shiwan, and he did not want any possibility of losing.

At this time, the French army led by Bonnot de Coulon was said to have 150,000, but in fact there were only more than 60,000, among which there were a large number of wounded soldiers, and most of the troops that could fight were in a state of fatigue.

On the other hand, Franz led the absolute main force of Austria, with three fully staffed corps of 150,000 people, and a large number of state troops and Orleans Dynasty troops to assist, with a total force of 220,000.

However, according to convention, Franz still sent a messenger to deliver a letter of persuasion.

"Dear General Bonnot de Couron.

In the name of peace and respect, I sincerely pay my highest respects to you. The sight of war in a summer that should be full of vitality is depressing.

As soldiers, we all understand the cruelty of war and the pain and disaster it brings.

As a leader, I fully understand your unyielding courage and firm determination. However, I must explain to you that war will only create more victims and countless families will be broken.

Therefore, I think we should consider a more peaceful solution to prevent the terrible war from destroying everything we cherish.

You and your soldiers have proved your courage and beliefs on the battlefield, but the real courage is not how to die, but how to live bravely.

I will now offer you a chance, a chance to end this bloody massacre.

Please believe me, peace requires greater courage and wisdom than war. Your soldiers have made great sacrifices and they should have the right to live.

I promise you that as long as you and your army lay down your arms and surrender, we (the Austrian Empire) will do our best to guarantee the dignity and life safety of you and your soldiers, and you can even leave with your flag.

Your courageous act will be recorded in history forever, and history will eventually recognize you as a hero who made a difficult decision to save the people!

Please think deeply and await your reply.

Commander-in-Chief of the German Allied Forces.

Franz Joseph Habsburg of Austria.

June 28, 1848. "

The Austrian messenger read out Franz's generous and kind peace proposal aloud.

However, Bonno de Couron had no interest in this vulgar letter of surrender, and he just politely rejected Franz's proposal.

However, what Bonno de Couron did not expect was that the German Allied Forces, which came from afar, actually asked to start the war immediately.

Generally speaking, sending a messenger is a deliberate delay, and generally speaking, no one would choose to start the war in the afternoon, because once the war is stalemate, the arrival of night will bring many uncertainties to the battlefield.

However This might be a good thing for Bono de Couron at this time, because he could finally fight a battle that was not so frustrating.

This was his strong point. Bono de Couron dared to say that no soldier in the past and present could defeat him on the sand table.

However, at this time, he found that his map was actually dark. He had no idea how many enemy troops there were, or even where the enemy troops came from.

But more terrifying than these was that his army's organization was completely disrupted at this time.

Bono de Couron suddenly wanted to shout "truce!", but the torrent had already rushed to Celesta.