Having the upper hand on the battlefield, Admiral Morks was not in a hurry at all.

Except for the symbolic launch of the offensive and the constant pressure on the French army, the Austrians made almost no major moves, allowing the French to deploy troops.

Seeing that the fighters were losing day by day, but the Austrian army was doing nothing, Vittorio Emanuele III "saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart".

As a high-achieving student who graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, although he has never led a soldier, Vittorio Emanuele III is not lacking in basic military literacy.

How can he, the king, have no right to speak in essence except for his noble status on the surface.

After several unsuccessful attempts to lobby Admiral Morks to launch a full-scale offensive, Vittorio Emanuele III even protested to the Viennese government with a change of commander.

There is no doubt that such a request will not be supported. The Austrians seemed to have the upper hand on the southern front, but it would not necessarily be possible if they really fought out.

The French are not so easy to bully as the Kingdom of Sardinia, and they can be pressed all the way. The complex terrain and poor traffic in Italy were all problems that the Austrian army had to face.

As long as the front is advanced by several hundred kilometers, the firepower advantage of the Austrian army will no longer exist, not because the Austrian army is short of weapons and ammunition, but because the transportation cannot keep up.

Without the advantage of firepower, the French army occupying favorable terrain was bound to pay a heavy price.

This has been proven in the original plane. After the outbreak of World War I, Austria-Hungary easily defeated Italy with only a small number of troops, but as the front moved forward, it quickly lost to terrain and logistics, staging a tragedy of victory and then defeat.

The conservative offensive line on the southern front was naturally tossed out by Franz. In his opinion, it was more valuable to keep the French Italian legions than to take them out.

Countless cases have proven that more troops are not always better, and more troops also means more consumption. France, though strong, is dwarfed by its ability to sustain an army of millions.

The French increased their presence in Italy, which was exactly what Franz wanted to see.

The Central European theater needs a lot of troops, the Egyptian theater needs a lot of troops, the southern front needs a lot of troops, and Africa needs ......

Where is the French government going to get so many troops? With their population of more than 30 million, it is simply impossible to raise such an army.

To solve the problem of insufficient troops, the French government either armed the natives of the colonies or recruited Italians in large numbers.

In either case, it will lead to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of the French army, and the more troops are expanded, the more combat effectiveness will fall.

In contrast, the anti-French alliance has a much greater advantage in this regard. Although the expansion of the army will also reduce the combat effectiveness of the troops, the quality of the soldiers is high!

It can be said that with each expansion of the army, the balance of victory is tilted in favor of the anti-French alliance.

France and Austria are not the only two great powers on the European continent, and if the situation of war suddenly becomes clear, it will immediately usher in the intervention of various countries.

Countries would not have watched Austria break up France, otherwise France would have been torn apart as early as 1815, and there would have been no need to wait until now.

A quick victory seems to be beautiful, but it can't really cripple France, leaving behind endless troubles.

Apart from a nominal victory, Austria had little to gain at all. Even the unification of the German regions could not necessarily be achieved.

As a last resort, no one wants to have an extra boss on their heads.

Franz wanted an empire that everyone was crying and shouting to join, not an empire that was forcibly unified by force, full of internal contradictions, and could split again at any time.

As for the expulsion of the French and the liberation of Italy, that was only a political slogan shouted to the Italians, and it was never the aim of the Viennese government.

It was originally to attract the strength of the French army, and Vittorio Emanuele III's thoughts were naturally in vain.

……

Suez Canal

If you open the map, you will know that whoever controls this golden waterway will get the initiative in this war.

From the outbreak of the war, Austria sent troops from the Austrian Sultan, Libya, the Sinai Peninsula and other regions to besiege French Egypt.

The roaring artillery fire continued, and the Suez Canal, which used to be a thousand sails, has now fallen silent.

Without the passage of ships, the port naturally went into a depression. Coupled with the war, a large number of people fled to escape the war, and the largest number of French soldiers in the port of Suez at the moment.

Unlike the others, John, who had a nimble mind, did not run away, but expanded his own tavern.

Soldiers are also human beings, and they also need to relax, especially during the war years, and they need a channel to vent, and alcohol is indispensable.

Far from being depressed by the war, the tavern's business became more and more prosperous, much to John's delight.

I really hope that this war can continue, and it is better to fight all the time, like the Hundred Years War......

The only fly in the ointment is that many French soldiers do not have alcohol, and they lose themselves after a few glasses of wine, and there are often fights and brawls.

Accidental injuries are inevitable, and people may be able to avoid them, and the tableware, tables, chairs, and benches in the tavern suffer.

Just now, John also dealt with a brawl. said that it was to deal with it, but in essence, all he did was to notify the officer to come and collect the person.

Unfortunately, this time the person concerned was a poor ghost again, and he searched all over his body, but he still didn't even have a franc.

No money is no money, and there is actually nothing John can do other than consider himself unlucky and be forced to agree to a deferment of compensation.

This is the front line, and one day these unlucky people will receive a boxed lunch. The dead do not need to pay their debts.

If it was just these losses, John could have left it alone. The wool comes out of the sheep, and because of the war, the prices in the port of Suez have long been in the sky.

What really worried John was the situation on the battlefield. He doesn't need to go out to find out the news, just listening to the conversations of the drinkers, he can analyze three or five points.

So-and-so's troops suffered heavy casualties, so-and-so survived the catastrophe, and so-and-so was unlucky......

Regardless of whether it needs to be kept secret or not, a few glasses of wine shake out of my stomach.

The speaker has no intention, but the listener has the intention.

The battle for the Suez Canal continued, and John could not judge the final victory, but it was an indisputable fact that the French army suffered heavy casualties.

The port of Suez was also the front line, and once the Austrians used it as a breakthrough, the tavern business could not continue.

Although John loved money, he was even more desperate for his life. The guns have no eyes on the battlefield, and if you are not careful, you will see God.

The government of Paris had already ordered a national mobilization, and in times of crisis, the Governor of Egypt had the right to conscript all French nationals in the territory.

As early as a week ago, the governor of Egypt issued a call-up order. According to the regulations, John should have entered the barracks to report a long time ago.

But there are exceptions to everything, and privileges are everywhere. With the help of Franc, John managed to avoid military service on the grounds that he was infirm.

It's a pity that if you hide in the first year of junior high school, you may not be able to avoid fifteen. With years of life experience, John was certain that the colonial government's conscription would increase further if the situation on the battlefield deteriorated.

Maybe at that time, even the step of physical examination will be saved, as long as it is not missing arms and legs, you will have to go to the front.

This is also the reason why the rich left the port of Suez. Everyone is a person with status, how can they go to the battlefield and work hard?

Despite the confidence in France, it was because of high hopes for the homeland, not for the Egyptian colonial government.

Before John could make up his mind, the fighting spread to the port of Suez. The Suez Canal is still too narrow, and at a distance of only a few hundred meters, it is impossible to get out of the range of artillery.

As the rumbling sound continued to sound, cannonballs falling from the sky began to wreak havoc in this new city, like a meteor shower.

Without any hesitation, John joined the fleeing army. Starting tonight, the city is officially transformed into a military port.

……

"Fick, you idiot. I'll tell you to prepare the boat, just a few pieces of, put it in the water and maybe sink on its own, what's the use? ”

A middle-aged officer snarled at his men, and it was obvious that he was really angry. Originally, it was planned to attack the port of Suez, but when I arrived at the place, I found that there were no ships at all.

Fick's young officer hurriedly explained, "Colonel, I can't be blamed for this. The Suez Canal was too narrow for the enemy's artillery to cover in full.

At a distance of only a few hundred meters, any gunner can hit it. The big boats couldn't hide at all, so we had to make some rafts to make do.

But you can rest assured that the big ship of the French on the opposite side has also been destroyed by us, so you don't need to worry about them launching a sneak attack. ”

After listening to this explanation, the middle-aged officer's face became more and more ugly. There are not enough boats, and the difficulty of crossing the river is just a bunch of rafts.

Unlike other regions, the Sinai Peninsula is not a good place. Had it not been for the early implementation of land fallow by the Vienna government, which relocated the population and curbed the expansion of desertification, it is estimated that even the troops would not have been able to provide drinking water locally.

With the exception of garrisons in a few strongholds, the Sinai Peninsula is no man's land. There are no people, and it is simply impossible to find a way to solve the ship problem locally.

As for the fact that it would be easy to get the native ships to come over, the problem was that before the ships could enter the canal, they would be destroyed by enemy fire.

At a distance of two or three hundred meters, it is simply not too simple to hit a ship. From this point of view, even with a boat, the crossing of the river will not be smooth.