At the beginning of a new day, the snow is still flying all over the sky. Generally speaking, in such weather, neither the Allied nor the French will attack.

Captain Hoegg, who was on patrol, did not dare to take it lightly, and the fact that there was no large-scale attack did not mean that a small-scale attack would not take place.

The 25th Division, to which Captain Hoegger belonged, was attacked seven times by the French in just half a month, causing hundreds of casualties.

Of course, the coalition forces also organized a number of retaliatory counterattacks, and on the whole they won and lost each other, and the Austrians took a slight advantage.

Against the biting cold wind, Captain Hoeg sneezed, and an ominous premonition arose.

"Cheer me up, be careful of being shot by the French."

The battlefield is the best teacher, and the experience is slowly explored. I don't know since when the warring sides fell in love with sniper games.

At a distance of four or five hundred meters, three or five soldiers with good marksmanship were ambushed to carry out a sneak attack on the enemy's patrol, and they did not intimidate the previous platoon.

Restricted by the accuracy of firearms, they can hit more than 30 percent at a distance of 200 meters, and they are all elite soldiers.

At a distance of four or five hundred meters, except for sharpshooters, ordinary soldiers rely entirely on luck, and they cannot constitute effective killing at all.

The soldiers in ambush will fight if they can win, and run away if they can't. In recent times, most of the casualties on both sides of the war have come from this way.

"Don't worry, Captain. The terrain here is flat, and the situation from three to five miles away can be seen, and there is no way to hide people.

You see, there is a white expanse ahead, and it doesn't look like anyone is passing by, unless the French are ambushed in the snow in the middle of the night. ”

The reply was a middle-aged veteran who had been demobilized and returned to the army after the outbreak of war. It can be seen from the eyes of everyone that his status in the patrol team is not low.

The military worships the strong, and it is natural that people can be respected because of their ability. Here is no exception, the middle-aged veteran is respected, naturally he has a wealth of combat experience, and once received a military merit medal.

In almost all Austrian army companies, there will be such veterans, and the value of their existence is to impart battlefield experience.

Captain Hoeg pulled out his binoculars, glanced ahead, and breathed a sigh of relief when he made sure there were no signs of pedestrians.

There is no overnight ambush, the temperature in the middle of the night is more than ten degrees below zero, in the ice and snow, there is no heating facilities, it will kill people.

As for digging holes and setting up bunkers, that only exists in dramas. In reality, it is simply impossible, frozen soil is not so easy to dig, how can it be dug out quietly overnight?

Just as he was about to put down the binoculars, a looming figure suddenly appeared in the distance, and Captain Hoegg's expression suddenly became solemn.

"Signal, the enemy appeared."

The distance is so far that you can only get an approximate look through the telescope. Although it was unreasonable for the French to launch an offensive in such weather, the battlefield was not a place to make sense.

Captain Hoegger went to a military academy, and countless classic examples tell him that classic battles are won by breaking conventions.

Just because it's not theoretically feasible doesn't mean it won't happen in reality. For the French army, launching an offensive in the snow and ice was not entirely disadvantageous, but it was not entirely without its benefits.

In such a ghost weather, the Austrian planes and airships can only rest at home, and there is no need to worry about the threat from the sky.

The task of the patrol is to detect the enemy's traces and report them in a timely manner. Sensing the change, Captain Hoeg naturally had to report it.

"Captain, are you sure it's the French? It would not be good for the French to attack now. You must know that fighting in this kind of ghost weather, the casualties of the soldiers will be very large! ”

In normal times, soldiers are injured, and when the corpses are collected in the evening, they can also take the wounded back for treatment.

This kind of ice and snow weather is different, the wounded lie in the snow for several hours, the wound has long been frozen, and the possibility of recovery is greatly reduced.

Anyone with a modicum of military knowledge knows that the wounded on the battlefield are usually several times as many as the number of soldiers killed, and may even be more than a dozen times greater.

If these wounded can't be saved, the battle damage will go up all at once. France is not a country with a large population, and they cannot afford such a loss.

Hoegg shook his head: "Lieutenant Hans, do you think that in such a ghost weather, in addition to the French, there are still people running towards us in groups?"

Don't forget, this is a time of war. This is the battlefield where we are fighting the French army again, and I don't think any normal person would think of running to his death! ”

There are no eyes for guns and cannons on the battlefield, and there is no innocence in front of the two armies.

The residents of the neighborhood had long since run away, and no one stayed behind to be bombed. Captain Hoegg directly ruled out the possibility that it was the people.

Hans's middle-aged man shook his head: "No, Captain. Let's not forget that the mines and factories in the Rhineland are closed, and ordinary people will not be able to hold on for long after losing their livelihoods.

In this icy and snowy weather, it was difficult for the French to ensure their own logistics, and it was impossible to provide relief.

Based on past experience, every war produces a large number of refugees. For example, in the last war in the Near East, we created a large number of refugees for the Ottoman Empire. ”

It can be seen that it is not that Lieutenant Hans has strong analytical skills, but mainly that he has personally participated in it, and the impression in his mind is too deep.

There are ready-made success stories, and there is no reason why the French should not follow suit. As for the sequelae, this is what Lieutenant Hans was able to take into account.

Hearing this explanation, Captain Hoeaig gave up his intention to withdraw immediately, anyway, the distance between the two sides was still far away, and it didn't matter if he stayed a little longer.

"Suspend the signal, scouts go up a kilometer to observe, first determine whether the team in front is French."

The consequences of making trouble on the battlefield are very serious. If you mistake the refugees for the enemy and directly greet them with artillery, it will be another tragedy.

Captain Hoegg had a conscience and did not want to direct a tragedy himself.

……

The command of the coalition forces, at this moment, the high-level leaders of the three countries of Bideao gathered together.

Archduke Albrecht said with a cautious face: "Ladies and gentlemen, I have just received news from the front that a wave of refugees is coming towards us.

Unlike the previous scattered refugees, the number of refugees this time may be as high as nearly 10 million, and we are under great pressure.

There are all kinds of indications that this time it was the French who created an artificial famine and forced the people to leave.

The French are now exhausted in their skills, and they have no way to defeat us on the battlefield, so they try to drag us down by such despicable means. ”

The Austrian officers were fine, but the officers of the two countries directly fried the pot, especially Leopold II, who attended the meeting, and was even more panicked.

On the surface, a large number of refugees will consume the supplies of the coalition forces and increase the logistical pressure on the anti-French alliance.

If you analyze it more deeply, this is the prelude to France's complete annexation of Belgium and the Rhineland. The locals were gone, and naturally there was no way to stop the French from occupying these areas.

As long as the French government placed a group of immigrants on it, the de facto annexation was completed. Even after the war, when European countries intervened together, there was no way to restore Belgium, after all, it was all French.

A similar scheme had already been used during the annexation of Austria to the Ottoman Empire. By the time the European governments reacted and wanted to intervene, the Ottomans were almost gone.

As a result, the European countries had no way to send the Ottomans back from Russia, and in the end they could only watch Austria annex the Ottomans.

After reacting, Leopold II immediately decided: "Marshal, we must help the refugees no matter what. ”

There is no way, the basic territory of Leopold II's rule over Belgium has now become a refugee.

Nations exist because of people, and only people have countries when there are people. If Leopold II wanted to recover, he had to keep these refugees.

Otherwise, after a famine, Belgium, which has a small population, will be completely cool.

For the relief of the refugees, Austria was not so much to be counted on as in the anti-French coalition.

There are many members of the anti-French alliance, but only Austria, and only the world's largest exporter of agricultural products, can still provide relief to the refugees.

Archduke Albrecht nodded: "Of course, relieving refugees is what the Union should do. However, how to remedy it is a problem.

Belgium, together with the Rhineland, has a total population of more than 11 million people. Even if the local population declines because of the war, it will not be less than 10 million.

Now that the French have made a move, they will definitely not make a small fuss. If nothing else, we're going to have between nine million and 10 million refugees.

It is not so easy to solve the problem of eating, drinking, lazing and sleeping for so many people. It must be properly settled, otherwise there will be a big mess.

Fortunately, the refugees did not come on the same day, and we were able to evacuate the refugees. ”

"Evacuation", apparently, is not so simple as it sounds. As the saying goes, it is easy to evacuate, but it is difficult to gather. Once these refugees have been dispersed, it is not so easy to bring them back.

Regardless of what allies are not allies, if they can become one of the great powers, Austria will naturally not be vegetarian.

With so much high-quality labor, once Austria is allowed to eat it, it will be difficult to make them spit it out.

A sentence of "go and stay free" can block everyone's mouths and make everyone have to suffer this dumb loss.

Not to mention leaving everyone, it is still possible to leave half of the people. Those who have experienced war know the value of peace.

It's too dangerous to be neighbors with France, and it's too insecure for a small country like Belgium. Why leave if you can get a better life in Austria?

This is still based on the Austrian face, and it will be even more troublesome if the Vienna government is kind and deliberately sets up some obstacles to prevent the refugees from leaving.

Leopold II hurriedly objected: "Marshal, this is not good! As long as we win this war, the refugees will still have to return home.

Taking into account the local situation of everyone and the convenience of returning to their hometowns in the future, I propose to establish a refugee camp nearby to resettle the refugees. ”

If you don't jump out, you can't do it, the German Confederation is a plate of sand, the Rhineland region does not belong to any state, and the representatives of the states present will not be able to come out at all.

It is not in their own interests, and as far as the representatives of the states are concerned, as long as Austria is sure to provide money and food for the resettlement of these refugees, all other issues are open to discussion.

Grand Duke Albrecht shook his head: "Your Majesty. As a matter of principle, I support your proposal, but the problem is that we simply can't do it.

Just to maintain the operational needs of the coalition forces, the logistical pressure is already very great. It is simply impossible to add nearly 10 million refugees now.

After all, refugees need to be clothed and fed, and we can't satisfy so many people with tens of thousands of tons of supplies every day in terms of living materials.

If you don't want to see a large number of refugees freeze to death and starve to death, the only way is to send them to the rear to disperse and resettle.

In fact, it was very stressful for us to disperse so many people in such a short period of time. ”

It's not that I don't know, but I'm shocked. Hearing that tens of thousands of tons of materials are consumed every day, everyone present is not calm.

Although not everyone is good at mathematics and can calculate it right away, it is certain that Archduke Albrecht could not have lied on this subject.

Leopold II's face sank, and deep down he wanted to oppose it, but the cruel reality really made him desperate.

No amount of reason is worth a set of cold numbers. If the material problem cannot be solved, Austria's proposal can only be accepted.

As for the future, we can only look forward to the appearance of the one at the Vienna Palace. Now Belgium has lost the bargaining qualifications.