Compared to the wailing of the French camp, the situation of the coalition forces was very different.

A meteor shower in the sky, a series of sudden ...... on the ground The specific results of the battle have not yet been counted, but the corpses of the French army all over the ground are enough to explain a lot.

The officers and soldiers of the coalition who witnessed all this now have only two words in their minds - "massacre".

Whether it was an air battle in the sky or an offensive and defensive battle on the ground, it was a one-sided massacre of the French army by the Austrian army.

The officers and men of the coalition army, who were originally disheartened and unstable, and who were confused about the prospects of the war, have a completely new mental outlook at the moment.

……

Coalition Command

Admiral Adrian was eager to try: "Marshal, the French army has suffered heavy losses in the daytime battle, and it will definitely not be peaceful tonight, and it is a good time for us to counterattack." ”

Militarily speaking, this judgment was not wrong, and the heavy casualties had already dealt a serious blow to the morale of the French army.

In particular, these casualties were caused by miscalculations and command errors at the top level, which made the officers and men at the grassroots level complain about the upper echelons.

"No way!"

Archduke Albrecht decisively refused.

"Now is not the time to counterattack, the French army has only suffered heavy losses in the troops that have been put on the offensive today, and at least five divisions in Oudinot's hands did not participate in the battle.

We have too few mobile troops in our hands, and the newly reorganized units are still resting and recuperating, and they do not have much combat effectiveness at all.

The troops that had fought during the day were already exhausted, and now no more than six infantry divisions were able to commit to the offensive, including three that had been withdrawn from the Belgian front last week.

The French are not fools, and after suffering such a big loss, they will definitely strengthen their vigilance. With our current strength, even if we take the opportunity to launch a counterattack, it will be difficult to achieve the desired results.

Moreover, the French Third Army was less than fifty kilometers from the front line, unless we were able to deal with the enemy in front of us in one day. ”

It is simply impossible to end the battle in one day. No matter how much advantage was taken during the day, it still did not change the fact that the Austrian army was undermanned, even with the addition of the troops of the two countries.

Although the morale of the allied forces has been restored in today's battle, the combat effectiveness of the other armies is still recovering, except for the Austrian troops.

Take the Belgian army as an example, just a few days after losing their hometown, they are in tears of sadness, unless they launch a campaign to recover Belgian territory, otherwise it is difficult for them to exert their peak combat effectiveness.

Not to mention the incorporated German army, it can only be said that the command system has been barely straightened out, and the officers and men are in a state of running-in, so it is okay for them to do miscellaneous work and logistics, and it is completely a head-off to send them out to fight a decisive battle with the French army.

Time was on the side of the coalition forces, reinforcements from the rear were coming, and Archduke Albrecht could afford to wait.

The enemy's airship forces were already in ruins, and now as long as the Rhine line was held, it was a matter of time before the French were defeated.

Of course, there is another reason that cannot be said.

In case of a successful sneak attack, the French army suffered heavy losses and directly retreated back to the mainland, and the subsequent battle would not be easy to fight.

By fighting the French on the territory of Germany and Belgium, Austria could also raise the banner of anti-aggression and gain the support of the local population.

If you enter the decisive battle on the French mainland, not to mention the pile of fortresses, international intervention alone will be a big trouble.

You must know that the international community is now supporting the anti-French alliance, and it seems that it is only shouting slogans and not taking substantive actions, but in fact, the governments of various countries are secretly causing trouble for the French.

With these small means alone, France has to increase its expenses by hundreds of millions of francs every month. The money is spent, and the supplies may not arrive on time.

If the trend of strength and weakness is reversed, it will be the anti-French alliance that will suffer now. At least until the end of the Egyptian campaign, the Viennese government could not ignore the positions of the countries.

If the daytime fighting spreads, it will certainly affect the judgment of governments on the strength of the warring parties, and may even affect everyone's foreign policy.

But Archduke Albrecht was sure that the French would not have been able to tell the truth of the day's fighting, and even tried desperately to cover up the defeat, otherwise they would not be able to account for it at home.

As for the news released by the coalition forces, even if it is the truth, everyone can't help but discount it, and it is impossible to believe that the casualties of the French army are so large.

The reason is naturally the amazing results announced by the two sides before. According to the figures announced by the warring parties, the French have killed 3.46 million allied troops, and the allied forces have also killed 2.47 million French troops.

According to this figure, since the outbreak of the war, the warring sides have killed an average of 70,000 people per day, and the number of casualties on the entire battlefield has reached a staggering 140,000 per day.

There were so many dead alone, and the number of casualties was estimated to triple the number of casualties, so the total number of casualties of the French army would be 12.35 million; The total number of casualties of the coalition forces reached a staggering 17.3 million.

Such an exaggerated result, if it really happened, the war would have ended long ago, and whoever believes it is a fool.

In fact, at the beginning, the results announced by the warring parties were not so exaggerated, and even if they were artistically processed, everyone had somewhat restrained, at least not to the point of adding zero.

For example, after a battle, the French army was going to announce the killing of 8,000 coalition troops, but when I saw that the coalition army announced the killing of 12,000 French troops, I didn't have to say that I couldn't show weakness, and then with a stroke of the pen, it became 50,000 enemies.

Seeing that the French army announced the annihilation of 50,000 coalition troops, the coalition forces could not suffer losses, and in the blink of an eye, they tried to increase the results of destroying tens of thousands of enemies, anyway, no one wanted to weaken their momentum.

If it weren't for the loss of the Luxembourg defense line and the fall of most of Belgium's territory, the cowhide would really not be able to blow, and the coalition forces would not have fallen behind in the number of enemies destroyed.

Even so, the wordplay continues. And the further back you go, the more outrageous the results announced by everyone become, and the truth is getting farther and farther away from the people.

There is nothing surprising that bragging is a common human disease. If you look through the history books, you will know that the ancients played like this thousands of years ago.

So far in the battle, the two warring sides have only destroyed a few million enemies, and crossing out a zero is very close to the real number, and it is completely incomparable with those bigwigs who have destroyed hundreds of millions of enemies.

However, judging from the results announced by the warring parties so far, if the war continues for a few more months, the number of casualties on paper will exceed a small target, which will not be a problem at all.

……

Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night, and with the telegrams coming out, many big people can't sleep.

The coalition side is fine, and the victorious side receives good news.

Except for a moment and a half of disbelief, the need to verify the news from multiple parties, the politicians are in good spirits.

Some active guys have decided to have an all-night hi to celebrate this hard-won victory.

Of course, this does not include Franz, who received the telegram and replied: "Got it."

Then, there is no then.

I was originally prepared, and this surprise was not so sudden, so I naturally went to sleep when I should have gone to bed.

There is no accident, Franz's unfazed performance added to his career as an emperor and left a small story for posterity.

……

Compared with the quiet Vienna Palace, the Palace of Versailles is already lit up at this moment, and the roaring sound can be faintly heard from time to time.

There is no doubt that there is no second person who dares to stay awake in the middle of the night and roar in the palace of Versailles, except for Napoleon IV.

Since tearing through the Luxembourg defenses, the French army has been galloping in Central Europe, "punching the German Confederation and lifting Belgian children's shoes" all the way.

In Napoleon IV's plan, the French army was supposed to continue this state of affairs, all the way to Vienna and defeat Austria.

However, the plan did not change quickly, and he was just about to drink the Horse Rhine when he suffered a blow to the head.

It was difficult for Napoleon IV not to be angry, and if anyone was in his position, there was no guarantee that he would perform better at the moment.

First of all, the bad news of the heavy losses of the airship troops on the front line came to announce the end of the airship era, marking the investment that France has invested in airships over the years.

Napoleon IV was an emperor who had grown up with a new education, and he was barely able to accept technological upgrading.

Isn't it just an airplane, with France's strong family foundation, it will be made in a few months.

Anyway, the power of aircraft is limited in these years, and in addition to restraining airships, the role that can be played on the battlefield is not as great as that of later generations.

Despite the loss of air supremacy, Napoleon IV still had full confidence in the French Army.

In his opinion, without the assistance of the airship bombing force, it would be more expensive to win the war, and there would be time to push it back.

It's a pity that the French Army, which he had high hopes for and has a long history, handed over an answer sheet with a score of only a single digit.

With more than 30,000 dead and 50,000 casualties, this is not a battle, but a one-day battle.

After paying such a heavy price, the results achieved were minimal, and the casualties of the Austrian army were conservatively estimated to be in the triple digits at most.

Most of these were caused by artillery, and a small amount were caused by airship bombing. Although the airship troops did not drop a few bombs and crashed into the streets, they fell into a giant bomb.

Of course, after the airship troops hit the streets, while harming the coalition forces, they did not forget to patronize the French camp.

They are equal in this regard, and it is up to God's will to decide where they fall.

As for the infantry who launched the attack, don't look at their heavy casualties, in fact, they just walked around the battlefield and sent a large wave of heads.

The situation was even worse than the Somme and the battle in the original plane, the British simply ignored the threat of machine-gun fire nets, and the bureaucrats mechaniced.

The French didn't even know what the Maxim machine gun was, so they rushed straight up. If it's just unknowing, it's not a big deal.

When the commanders and fighters on the front line find out that they have suffered heavy casualties, they will definitely report back to the top. As long as the offensive tactics are adjusted in time, the losses will not be so large.

It's a pity that all this does not apply to the French army, so tell a story.

During the assault on Luxembourg, there was a mixed Franco-Italian infantry division, which was ordered to launch the main attack on the enemy's positions.

After the battle, the valiant French soldiers rushed forward and launched a charge, one of which was an infantry regiment formed by an Italian soldier, who showed great bravery in the battle.

Nearly two-thirds of the 2,146 men in the regiment fell in the middle of the charge, and the commander of the division was so frightened that he immediately called a halt and replaced them to rest and recuperate.

As a result, after the collection of troops in the evening, when the number of soldiers was finally counted, the regiment should have arrived with 2,146 soldiers, but it was 2,101 soldiers.

The missing platoon, the corpse collection team only found the corpses of Qiju, and there is no way to determine whether the rest of the people died on the battlefield or ran away.

Due to the large number of people involved, the French command did not deal with the soldiers except for removing the officers involved and sending them to court-martial, but only drove them home.

There is no doubt that such an understatement is undoubtedly a big failure. By the time the French top brass reacted, the situation was out of control.

The power of example is enormous, and there is never a shortage of people in this world who are afraid of death, and almost all French troops follow suit.

The French military high-level who reacted naturally took measures to severely punish these guys, but once Pandora's box is opened, it cannot be solved by closing.

In order to escape punishment, all kinds of bizarre excuses appeared. Of course, more people pretend to be wounded, and many people deliberately make a little minor injury, and then hide in the rear hospital to recuperate.

It wasn't until Marshal Patrice McMahon came out of the mountains, cleaned up military discipline, and changed the original pattern of punishment that the situation improved.

No matter how much it changes, the commander's preconceived impression still can't be changed for a while.

All the factors came together to create this tragedy.

In terms of the overall situation of the war, the casualties of tens of thousands of people were not worth mentioning at all for the French Empire.

The problem was that in order to open the gap as soon as possible, Marshal Patrice McMahon threw the main forces of the French army into the front, so now it happened to be the French elite who suffered heavy losses.

Generally speaking, the units with a small number or at the top are standing armies, which have been formed for many years, and their combat effectiveness is not comparable to that of the newly formed troops.

When Napoleon IV had almost finished venting, Prime Minister Terence Bulkin stepped forward and persuaded: "Your Majesty, the matter has come to this.

Let's find a way to deal with the aftermath, whether it is the enemy's plane, or the new machine guns and mortars that have just appeared, they are all worth having.

Today's battles are not all the responsibility of the front-line generals. The Austrians were taking these new equipment by surprise and did not represent anything.

Having learned the lessons of this defeat, we believe that in the battles that follow, our land forces will give full play to their due combat effectiveness. ”

Many in the top echelons of the French government, including Prime Minister Terence Burkin, are not convinced by today's inexplicably lost war.

In their view, the Austrians were simply relying on more advanced equipment to catch them by surprise, and the situation would change as soon as the French army reacted.

After listening to the Prime Minister's persuasion, Napoleon IV's expression did not improve, and immediately reprimanded the Minister of War: "What does the War Department do, we invest so much military spending every year, why is the equipment so far behind the Austrians?"

Don't tell me it's an accident, whether it's an airplane, or a machine gun, it's been born for decades, why is our army not equipped? ”

After a series of whys, the Secretary of War buried his head even lower. There is no calamity, this is.

Armament technology innovation has never been easy, the original space-time Maxim machine gun was the first to be used by the British against the natives, but they still jumped into the pit in World War I.

Not to mention this time, Austria has hidden all these belongings in its home, and the outside world knows nothing about it.

There was no pre-day perception that the Maxim machine gun was just an ordinary machine gun, and there was no essential difference from Gatling; The airplane is a flashy toy, which is useless except for air shows.

This is a widespread judgment from all walks of life, and the Minister of War is not a traverser, so he naturally cannot jump out of this circle of thinking if he has no hanging.