At the point where the war had progressed, France had already pressed all its chips, dominating the continent if it won and became second-rate if it lost.

With the domineering style of France in the past, it has offended many people. When France is strong, no one dares to mess with it, but once it declines, it is completely different.

Under the nest, there are eggs.

Both Napoleon IV and the top of the French government were tied to the fate of the country.

At this time, taking a step back is no longer the sea and the sky, but the abyss.

Whether it's for themselves, or for the sake of their country, they have to find a way to win this war.

In the face of life and death, face is already so cheap that it is worthless, so let's plagiarize!

Since the Austrian army is more advanced in equipment, it is better to follow the imitation. Can't the great French Empire be built?

The emperor said a word, and ran and broke his leg below. Starting with the Cabinet government, it will be pressed down one level at a time.

Although Napoleon III had the reputation of being a socialist emperor, France was still a bourgeois state, and the munitions industrial complex was in the hands of the capitalists.

In the past, there were orders, everyone was rushing to grab them, and the threshold of the War Department was broken, and now the news has been sent out for a long time, and no one cares.

It's not that the capitalists don't want to make money, it's that everyone can't afford to make this money. There is no way, the timing is not right.

In the past, you could still take orders first, and then slowly find a way, either independently developed or purchased technology from the outside world.

But not now, it's too late for independent research and development; At present, these technologies are unique to Austria, and France and Austria are at war, and no matter how much money they spend, they will not be able to buy them.

All the capitalists who have connections have received the news in advance and know the seriousness of the problem. It is clear that at this juncture, if you can't hand over the goods after receiving an order, you will get into big trouble.

The armaments order, which was originally sought-after by everyone, has now become a hot potato, and it is directly rotten in the hands of the War Department and no one cares about it.

Of course, it's not that no one is interested, it's just that everyone's strength is limited and they can't complete the task in the short term.

At present, a number of military factories have said that as soon as the War Department comes up with design drawings, they can start work immediately.

"Well, how long will it take you to make it?"

War Minister Luskinia asked anxiously.

Although the military factories are capitalists, this does not mean that the French government has handed over all the arms problems to the capitalists.

The War Department also maintains a group of military industry experts, and even directly under the military factory, but because of bureaucratic management, the production cost is too touching, and there is no way to expand the scale.

Now the capitalists do not dare to take orders, and this drudgery falls into the hands of the War Department itself. In any case, this was decided by the emperor and the government together, and the War Ministry had to find a way to complete it.

An elderly military expert replied: "Your Excellency, we have too little information in our hands.

We don't know anything about weapon templates, design principles, performance parameters, or even the appearance and construction. Nothing, how does this make us imitate? ”

Imitation also has to have a reference, and if there is nothing, it is not imitation, but independent research and development. Since it is independent research and development, it is naturally not fast in time.

Of course, there is also a way to develop weapons based on needs, but this also takes time.

The Minister of War Luskinia said impatiently: "Isn't there already a machine gun, just improve the performance of our machine gun."

Airplanes were a bit more cumbersome, but I remember it in the newspapers and there were people who did air shows in Paris.

A few folk enthusiasts, what can be done, can't you also come up with it?

If you really can't do it, you can pay for their technology, or you can co-opt them, how can there be so much trouble! ”

It is not that the Duke of Luskinia was ignorant, and without knowing the principle of the Maxim machine gun, he could not be mistaken in thinking that the Austrians were using an improved version of the Gatling.

This is even more true of the aircraft, which, in addition to dealing with the airship Shun, did not show amazing combat effectiveness.

In recent years, everyone's perception of airplanes has stayed on the air show, and they don't realize that the technical gap between airplanes and airplanes is also huge.

Purely from the point of view of dealing with airships, the vast majority of aircraft are able to do it. Anyway, the aircraft has the advantage of flexibility, as long as the endurance is long-lasting, and the carrying capacity is two or three hundred catties.

The old man explained helplessly: "Your Excellency, from the design to the use of a weapon, there are many links in between, and it takes a lot of time, and it can't be done without three or five years of hard work.

Even if the situation on the battlefield is urgent, we can directly save the time for weapons testing, but the time for design and industrial production cannot be compressed.

Even in the best of times, it would be three months before we produced a new machine gun; As for the plane, it can be considered God blessing to be able to make it in half a year. ”

Three months, half a year, this is really fast. It would be a miracle to be able to do it in such a short period of time.

After all, it was only 1890, and even though Franz's butterfly effect accelerated the pace of technological development, it was mainly aimed at Austria, and France only followed passively.

Compared with the same period in history, even if the development of France's science and technology is accelerated, it is unlikely to exceed ten years, and there will not be a qualitative gap.

……

The world does not revolve around one country, and no matter how the French progress in the development of new equipment, the war will continue.

Because of political necessity, the French government covered up the fiasco of the previous offensive. Since there was no defeat, he naturally would not be held responsible, and Admiral Oudino was lucky to escape the fate of going to court-martial.

Just because a military tribunal is not needed does not mean that there will be no accountability. At present, Oudino is still in command in front of the enemy, only because of the need for a transitional period of adjustment of the command system.

If something so big happens, the French army will definitely be held accountable. As the person directly responsible for the incident, it was only a matter of time before Admiral Oudino returned home to take his grandson.

The French command, since receiving the news of the failure of the offensive, Marshal Patrice McMahon rushed to the front as soon as possible to preside over the overall situation.

Looking at a group of officers who were about to die, Patrice McMahon slammed the table and scolded: "All of them take a good look in the mirror and see how you are behaving now, you don't look like a soldier."

Do you know that France's face will be disgraced by you? Especially you, Oudino, have you forgotten the promise you gave me before?

Isn't it just a loss, and then just find an opportunity to get it back from the enemy. Don't you think that you are about to retire and can live unscrupulously.

I tell you, I don't want to live with infamy for the rest of my life, so cheer me up. All remembered for me that the shame of defeat can only be washed away with blood and victory. ”

In fact, the morale of the French officers and soldiers was low, not just because of the heavy casualties.

The casualties of tens of thousands of people have not been encountered before, and they are not despairing; What really makes everyone despair is the lack of optimism about the prospects for the war.

Except for the heavy losses on the first day of the attack, there were no more full-front battles in the following days, but small-scale battles continued on a daily basis.

I didn't know if I didn't fight, but after I did, everyone suddenly found out: it turned out that the Austrian army was not so corrupt and incompetent as the government propaganda at all, but a tiger descending from the mountain.

In Linlin's fragmented battle, the two sides played a 1.3:1 record. The French army is 1.3, which is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for the French officers who claim to be the first army in the world.

This is not an offensive and defensive battle, but a direct collision that takes place in the field. Everyone helplessly found that with the same strength, the French army was no longer the opponent of the Austrian army.

Of course, this is also related to the recent sluggish morale of the French army, but the main reason is the sequelae of the crazy expansion of the army.

Even in the so-called elite troops, there are at least one-fifth of the recruits, and the combat effectiveness will inevitably decline.

In those years, it was inconvenient to transmit information, and it was impossible for the French government to do propaganda for Austria, so that the middle and senior ranks of the military did not understand the peculiarities of the Austrian military service system.

Everyone judged through brain supplementation, and took it for granted that everyone was a unit after the expansion of the army, and there were a bunch of recruits who were holding back.

Seeing that under the same conditions, the French army was pressed and beaten by the Austrian army, and it was not an exception, and it was the same on the front that spread for hundreds of miles.

The French commanders, who witnessed all this, naturally had no confidence in this war. Of course, there is no essential difference between this misjudgment and knowing the truth.

Anyway, it has been proved that with the same strength, the expanded French army cannot win against the Austrian army.

Some people may talk about equipment, but the problem is that weapons and equipment are also part of strength. It's not the age of knights anymore, and as long as you can win the war, who cares if it's fair.

In a sense, Austria's greatest ally was the Italians. Pessimism was the first to come out, and after the failure of the front attack and heavy casualties, it quickly spread among the French army, and also began to exert influence from the bottom up.

Marshal Patrice McMahon hurried to save the morale of his troops, but the scene before him told him that the situation was worse than he had imagined.

The sound of the air defense sirens of "woo-woo-woo-woo......" broke the tense atmosphere of the command.

From bombing others to being bombed every day. It's only a few days before and after, and few people can bear this kind of mental gap.

Having witnessed this scene with his own eyes, Marshal Patrice McMahon somewhat understood why everyone's morale was so low.

As the supreme commander of the French army, Patrice McMahon knew more than anyone.

Sometimes it's not a good thing to know too much. Everyone is drunk and I wake up alone, but it's not so easy to bear.

Unlike the radical people at home, who fantasized about breaking Vienna, Patrice McMahon's battle plan was only to take the territory west of the Rhine.

It's not that Patrice McMahon doesn't have ambitions, it's just that he knows that the French army is not as strong as the government advertises, and the enemy is not as weak as the government advertises.

By taking the territory west of the Rhine, France could defend it at risk, and even if Austria broke out, he was confident that he would block it.

As for the breaking of Vienna, it is enough to shout slogans. Patrice McMahon is old, long past the age of radicalization.

Admiral Oudino said bitterly: "I'm very sorry, Marshal. It's me who let you down! If it weren't for the mistake of my command in front, it would not have collapsed our already good situation. ”

The situation collapsed?

The situation was obviously not serious enough to reach this point, and the French army still held the initiative in the Central European theater.

As for the counterattack launched by the Austrians, it was all pediatric. It is certain that the Austrians will not be able to fight the French until they have gathered enough troops.

Patrice McMahon: "Don't talk nonsense, now I have only one request, and that is to tear the Rhine line as soon as possible."

This is your last chance, and I must do whatever you can to complete this order before enemy reinforcements arrive. ”

There was one thing left unspoken in his heart, and that was: this is also France's last chance.

If this opportunity is missed, it will be difficult for France to win the war.

Even if the French army broke out in the later period and won the war by chance, it was only a victory on the surface, but the real situation was that both sides were defeated.

"Marshal, the biggest problem now is the enemy's trenches. According to the information we have gathered, it can be determined that the enemy has deployed at least 10,000 machine guns and 1,000 heavy artillery pieces along the Rhine River, and more than 5,000 ordinary artillery pieces of various types.

Relying on the trenches, the enemy has built a dense network of firepower, and our troops will not be able to rush to it at all.

In order to reduce the casualties of officers and soldiers, our soldiers could only crawl and charge. Even if you are lucky enough to rush in front of the enemy's position, you will still face the barrage of iron nets.

If you want to tear through the Rhine defense, the best way is to choose one of the main attacks, concentrate our artillery to launch a sneak attack, and suppress the enemy's fire in this area at the first time......"

The methods are all what people want to come, although there is no such thing as crawling forward, but crawling and charging are essentially the same as crawling forward.

Concentrate firepower and focus on bombing to gain regional firepower superiority, which is also the most suitable for the French army at the moment, and from this point of view, Admiral Oudino is still qualified.

Patrice McMahon nodded: "Very good, I approved this battle plan of yours." Oudino, give you one last chance, I don't want to hear any more bad news. ”

Frankly, Patrice McMahon didn't want Oudino to continue commanding the troops. But there was no way, and there were only a handful of officers in the French army who were capable of commanding hundreds of thousands of troops in battle.

Among these people, Oudino is also ranked high in terms of ability. If it weren't for the previous mistake, another famous general would have risen.

vertex