In the evening, four or five officers gathered around a bonfire, and no one spoke at half-sound, and the atmosphere was very depressing.

This is exactly what Huthier and others are, judging from the scene, they know that this is a lost battle. Busy running for their lives, otherwise there would be no temporary headquarters.

Poticolek, who was the most active, was the first to break the silence: "You are talking, and you are all crying and mourning, as if someone has died in the family.

Isn't it just a defeat? From the very beginning, we all planned to fight and run, but this time it was a bit of an embarrassment. ”

In the rebel army, there are only a few people who really belong to themselves, and everyone else is cannon fodder, and life or death is not taken to everyone's heart at all.

It's sad and uncomfortable, and it certainly won't be because of the heavy casualties of cannon fodder. To put it bluntly, the rabble of the Eighth Division, as long as everyone wants, can continue to supplement later.

What really frustrated everyone was that they had suffered a defeat, and it was not an ordinary defeat.

In order to achieve greater results, the rebels made full use of the advantage of the first mover and ambushed the vanguard of the French army halfway.

The front went very smoothly, and the French, caught off guard, plunged headlong into the encirclement.

However, Hurtier and others anticipated the beginning, but did not guess the end.

Even if the ambush was successful, the French were caught by surprise, and the rebels still had an absolute superiority in strength, but in the end they still did not avoid defeat.

Defeat is failure, and it is normal to have losses and wins on the battlefield. It is a pity that the French chased the rout until the camp of the rebels, and the Eighth Division, which had been prepared for a long time, was still defeated.

Seeing that the general trend had gone, Hu Tier and others decisively chose to run away. Fortunately, the number of routs was large and the French did not notice them, so they escaped.

After getting out of danger, the rebel army of more than 200,000 troops at its peak is now gone.

The rest were either killed on the battlefield or taken prisoner by the French, and of course more often fled to the countryside after a rout.

Lighting a cigarette and taking a deep breath, Hurtier said slowly: "This is my responsibility, knowing that the French are not easy to mess with, I still have to be greedy enough to run and take advantage."

As a result, the rebels suffered heavy losses, lost their morale, and lost the ability to continue fighting the French. ”

Naturally, Huthier was not the only one who was not greedy, and the smooth progress in the early stage made everyone overestimate their command ability.

Ambushing the vanguard of the French army was a common decision, but in the face of sheer strength, no tactics worth mentioning.

Falkingham: "Lieutenant Colonel, there's no need to blame yourself. The ambush plan was made by us together, and we all have a share in the accountability.

Before we were sent, Governor Friedrich had told us in no uncertain terms that we should learn to save our lives before we caused trouble for the French.

The country has never had confidence in the rebels and has not asked us to save them.

In fact, the situation has developed to this point, and we have completed the task, and there is no such thing as responsibility.

As for this defeat, we had expected it, but we didn't expect it to lose so badly, and the prepared backhand didn't have time to play a role.

But it's normal to think about it, two months ago, the main force of the rebel army ambushed the vanguard of the French army, and the outcome was better than ours.

Considering that this time it was the main force of the French army transferred from the country, and the combat effectiveness was somewhat stronger than that of the colonial troops, in fact, we ......"

Although the reason is good, but everyone, including Falkingham himself, is not easy.

This and the play stock encountered three consecutive price limits, and was about to sell and cash out, but the greed was not enough to stay for a while, and then ushered in a sharp fall, before reluctantly making a move.

The income in hand has shrunk, no matter how much you comfort yourself: you have earned it anyway, and you will still feel uncomfortable.

It didn't last long before the elder Huthir recovered: "Well, it's over, it's useless to talk about it."

This time it was only the French forward troops, their limited strength, they seemed to have won the victory, and they had no way to stop the rebel soldiers from wandering around.

How destructive the rout is, everyone must be clear. There are always some of the hundreds of thousands of defeated soldiers who have a blood feud with the French, and if they can't defeat the French head-on, can't they wreak havoc behind their backs?

Originally, we were still thinking about leaving some soldiers here to fight guerrillas, but everyone's fighting spirit was not enough to be distributed, and now the French have completed the plan for us.

Next ......"

This is not pure self-consolation, since failure is unavoidable, then you can only look for the good side of yourself from failure.

……

In the makeshift palace in Paris, the gloom on Napoleon IV's face was swept away by the news of the great victory in Egypt.

He's been under too much pressure lately. A bunch of grain exporting countries in the world are looking for trouble for him every day; The people in the country are also not worried, and they come to demonstrate every now and then.

Although the news of Egypt's victory on the battlefield could not solve the international troubles, it was enough to appease the domestic people.

Foreign Secretary Terence Bulkin: "Your Majesty, Anglo-Russian relations have deteriorated sharply under the influence of the British's food self-sufficiency program.

Not long ago, the tsarist government threatened to withdraw from the free trade system in an attempt to force the British government to make concessions, and the opportunity we have been waiting for has come. ”

It's not going to be easy, and as the only country on the European continent that is outside the free trade system, France has taken on too many strange looks.

Although on the surface, the Paris government made a disdainful appearance, but the sadness and pain in it are only clear to them.

Tariff barriers also come at a cost, and while restricting the entry of other people's goods, it is inevitable that they will be restricted by others.

As a result, France's total import and export trade plummeted by almost three-quarters.

A return to the free trade system is impossible, at least not until French industry gains an advantage.

Then the only way is to bring down the system, pull everyone back to the era of tariff barriers, and then get a relatively fair chance to compete.

Napoleon IV wondered: "The British are still in parliament and have not made a decision, can the Russians be in such a hurry?" ”

Foreign Secretary Terrence Bulkin explained: "Your Majesty, the Russian Empire is the world's number one exporter of raw grain.

Our farm plan has already cost them a lot. If the British market were to be lost again, Russian agriculture would have suffered a heavy blow.

Moreover, after losing the financial resources of grain exports, Russia's finances will soon fall into the embarrassment of making ends meet, and it is normal for the tsarist government to sit still. ”

After pondering for a moment, Napoleon IV said slowly: "You mean to take the opportunity to win over the Russians and dismantle the free trade system?" ”

Terrance Bulkin shook his head: "Not only the free trade system, but also the Russian-Austrian alliance.

As soon as the British plan became a reality, the Austrian-led grain export alliance would soon collapse and the major grain exporters would be locked in brutal competition.

No matter how good the relations between Russia and Austria are, Austria itself is a grain exporter, and in the context of the shrinking international market, they have no way to consume the huge production capacity of the Russians.

At this time, we extended an olive branch, and the tsarist government simply had no way to refuse.

Anyway, our big farm plan can't be completed in a day, and it's a big deal to reduce the later projects.

We can come to an agreement with the Russians to import a part of the grain from the Russian Empire every year in exchange for domestic industrial and commercial goods entering the Russian market.

If there is a problem in the chain of common interests, no matter how good the Russian-Austrian alliance is, problems will arise after a long time.

As long as the Russian-Austrian relations are separated, the strategic crisis we are facing will no longer exist. ”

The Paris government's large-scale farm plan, in fact, sounds good, but if it is to be implemented, it will require a lot of manpower and financial resources.

With the financial resources of the Paris government, it is simply not able to start this grand plan in the short term, which dooms the big farm plan to shrink.

It is undoubtedly a big profit to use the plan that would have been shrinking to drive a wedge between Russia and Austria, or even to break up this alliance and get rid of the strategic crisis of France's isolation on the European continent.

Napoleon IV nodded, he really couldn't find a reason to refuse such a thing.

"But how do you convince the British? The premise of all this is that the British government is willing to cooperate and create sufficient pressure on the Russians. ”

The crux of the matter is that turning one's back on the Russian-Austrian alliance also requires a heavy price, and the Russians would certainly not have done so unless they encountered a last resort.

Foreign Secretary Terence Bulkin replied unhurriedly: "Your Majesty, the Russo-Austrian alliance is not only a threat to us, but also to the British.

Don't you think Russia and Austria are a little too close to India?

In the eyes of the British: India is the best colony, and any country will be tempted.

In order to break up the Russian-Austrian alliance, the British government has done a lot. Now that the opportunity has come to the door, I don't believe the British government will turn it down. ”

The Russian-Austrian alliance is a common threat to both countries, even if it is not yet a common enemy of Britain and France, and everyone's interests are the same on this issue.