Flowers, Swords and France

"We must adopt a more flexible and rapid way of war and keep the initiative in our hands, sir. ♦, especially in this ever-changing era, we must pay more attention to keeping ourselves ahead of the curve in technology and preparation, so that Our army can challenge any enemy from a more advantageous position..."

After a moment of silence under the interested gaze of Louis Bonaparte, Lucien raised his head and looked directly at the president and expressed his judgment.

Naturally, when he said this, he didn't just express his feelings directly, but after Ciel's special mention.

Since he finally helped Lucien get an opportunity to be valued by the president, Charles certainly would not let Lucien come to see the president without any preparation. In order to allow Lucien to stay in front of Louis Bonaparte this time What was even more impressive was that he had already given Lucien a lot of hints before the president came - so of course Lucien knew what he should say.

However, although the words have been carefully considered, these words do contain many concepts that Lucien strongly agrees with.

Perhaps, this can also be said to be the traditional military thinking of the entire French army since the emperor.

Then, both Charles and Lucien looked at Louis Bonaparte calmly, expecting his reaction.

After a moment of silence, Louis Bonaparte raised his eyebrows with interest.

"Oh? This is quite interesting, isn't it? Can you explain it to me a little more carefully? Sir, I hope you can explain it more clearly."

Then he made a sign to the attendant standing nearby and told him to deliver the order. "I have something else to do here, please let them wait for another half hour."

The attendant took the order and left. Charles and Lucien looked at each other.

Very good! Ciel became much more excited.

Now, half of his wish has come true.

Lucien was twice as excited as Charles. Taking into account the future status of Louis Bonaparte. Being able to win his favor at this time is tantamount to giving him a bright future in the military.

After forcibly suppressing the excitement in his heart, he spoke again, "Thank you for your encouragement, Your Excellency. I know that you have many things to do and don't have enough time, so let me put it simply... Based on my experience in serving in Algeria, Combined with the current situation of leading the troops, I have come to the conclusion that the situation of the war will be completely different from before. We will face a completely different situation, and at that time, it will be very difficult for our army. The requirements will be higher than ever before.”

"Even compared to the Empire?" Louis Bonaparte asked in a low voice.

"Even compared with the Imperial Era." Lucien replied seriously, "Sir, with all due respect, I think the country you lead is actually facing a more dangerous situation than the Imperial Era..."

"Huh?!" Louis Bonaparte's tone increased a lot.

"Yes. I'm not joking, sir." Lucien raised his head and looked at the president, "In the imperial era, although we were enemies of all of Europe, we had strong basic strength - we had a huge standing army. And there are highly qualified and brave officers and soldiers, and this kind of strength is difficult to match in neighboring countries - so I We can calmly mobilize forces from home and march across Europe. But now, the situation is completely different. Although I personally think that we still have some advantages, the situation requires us to focus on ourselves. power, and cannot make too many enemies on the continent at the same time.”

"This... makes sense to a certain extent." Louis Bonaparte frowned, then nodded, agreeing with him, "We are indeed no longer able to fight the entire continent."

This is a clear reality.

"At the same time, because of technological innovation, we will be able to use the railway system to assemble a huge army faster than ever before, and use it to quickly deploy it on the predetermined battlefield... This brings us a huge risk - -The larger the scale of the decisive battle, the more resources we need to invest, and the more difficult it is to bear the consequences of failure, because the enemy will also have these things sooner or later. This urgently requires us to find ways to improve the efficiency of military command. And strengthen investment in technology...otherwise we will face extremely dire consequences.”

In order to take care of Louis Bonaparte's emotions, Lucien did not say any more, but of course he could understand what this "extremely terrible consequence" meant. His uncle had already demonstrated it.

"Lucien has participated in military exercises organized by me before. He is very enthusiastic about the innovations brought about by the railway system and wants to improve our military system." Charles added next to Louis Bonaparte at the right time. One sentence.

"What you said makes sense." After a moment of silence, Louis Bonaparte nodded. "As you said, we are indeed facing a more dangerous environment."

"Only people like you can shoulder the important task of getting the country through this difficult time." Ciel seemed to compliment him seriously - although he knew that he had not done this in his previous life. "What the emperor failed to do well, you can do better."

"This is too much to say, how is it possible?" Louis Bonaparte shook his head. "I just wish I could follow in his footsteps!"

Of course, this was something he didn't mean. Only then did Charles know what he was thinking.

On the one hand, Louis Bonaparte relied on his uncle's brand to gain fame and prestige, but as often happens in the world, he was secretly unwilling to accept such a position, and wanted to prove that even if he was not as good as his uncle, he was at least It's not completely blocked by that dazzling light. Yes, he didn't want to be just a "little Napoleon" as people called him.

Driven by this mentality, he often likes to lead the army to go out in person, just like his uncle did to lead the army to fight against foreign enemies - however, from various standards, his performance in commanding the war is actually not good enough. It's convincing, even terrible.

In 1859, he met the equally terrible kid Franz Joseph, so even with his mediocre command, the French army was able to defeat Austria relying on the good quality of the soldiers and the bravery of the officers; but it was different in 1870 , he was extremely unfortunate to meet Moltke, one of the most outstanding military strategists in the 19th century. So he got the most terrible end.

"Not only the railways, the power of artillery fire and firearms will be more intense than in any previous era. Therefore, the difficulties faced by our troops will also increase exponentially, and it will become more and more difficult for us to break through the enemy's front or fortified areas. Getting bigger... It is crucial for our army to use better command in the future, which requires us to use specialized command institutions..."

Lucien first talked about some difficulties, and then suddenly held his head high, "I still believe that offense is the tradition of our army. We have the bravest soldiers and very outstanding, decisive non-commissioned officers who are the best in Europe. We should take advantage of these take advantage of this, quickly assemble through the railway, and then launch an attack mercilessly when conditions permit, quickly and intelligently. We should deploy more powerful artillery fire for the army, but it must be light, only in this way can it keep up with our march... Moreover, From any aspect, it is better for the war to be fought on other countries’ soil than on our own soil.”

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"That's right, absolutely right." Louis Bonaparte nodded again in approval.

Because that's what he thought - Lucien's words were too much for his liking.

Charles had some reservations in his heart, but he didn't intend to say it out loud to ruin the fun of the two of them.

This military idea of ​​"taking infantry as the leading force, using artillery as the main auxiliary weapon, pursuing lightness and speed, and subduing the enemy with fearless attacks" was still the core of the French Army even after the fall of the Second Empire and the rule of the Third Republic. Thought.

In order to reflect this military thinking, France equipped a large number of lightweight 75mm guns before World War I to serve as the accompanying firepower of army divisions. This kind of gun was so loved by French officers and soldiers that it even got the nickname "Seven". Fifth Miss".

However, the experience of World War I proved that heavy artillery was the key to the army's battles at that time. The advantages of the Allies with Germany and Austria as the core in heavy artillery gave them an advantage in a series of battles. Even in the offensive battle, the fierce artillery fire allowed the German army to achieve a large number of results with fewer casualties. In the Battle of Verdun, known as the "Verdun Meat Grinder", it was usually an unfavorable offensive. The German army, which was in a superior position, actually caused the French army to pay many more casualties than itself. Although there were innate factors such as poor deployment and improper organization of the French army, the too fierce artillery fire of the German army was also one of the main reasons.

After the French army learned the lessons of World War I that caused heavy losses to them and reshaped themselves into an army focused on trench warfare and defensive warfare, the new technological revolution suddenly turned into an offensive one. Favorable, the large-scale concentrated use of mechanized equipment and aircraft became the most advanced method of warfare at the time. As a result, France was once again at a loss to deal with this. This time it was directly beaten by Nazi Germany and sued for peace. If the Germans had not invited destruction on themselves, they would have started a war with the United States and the Soviet Union. , France doesn’t know how many years it will take to sink again before it can get back up.

Because of this painful historical lesson, Charles was different from the political leaders of the Third Republic who blindly trusted military generals in World War II. He felt that he could never trust the military judgment of these army generals too much. Compared to these people, he would rather believe in himself, at least he still has the historical line as a guide.

I still have to take care of you.

Looking at Lucien, Charles thought silently. (To be continued...)

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