Holy Roman Empire

If the enemy launches an attack now, perhaps only a simple charge is needed, and the Ninth Division will collapse.

After a moment of silence, Colonel Fuxi, who had calmed down, sighed, and said helplessly: "The order continues, all the officers don't have to sleep tonight, and all of them will be dispatched to me to appease the soldiers, and beware of camp roars."

No need to think about it, the camp of the Ninth Division is not destined to be peaceful tonight.

If nothing else, this elite French army will not be able to go to the battlefield again for a long time in the future.

……

Time passed by, and soon the casualty report came out.In essence, the statistics are also simple. Colonel Fuxi only asked to count the living people in the camp.

Whether the rest were killed, missing, or captured, they were all counted as dead.

There is no way, there are too many officers and soldiers killed in battle, and many of them have their bodies separated.In a short period of time, it was impossible to piece it together, let alone identify the identity of the deceased.

In order to allow the soldiers who died in battle to receive government pensions, Colonel Fuxi could only bureaucratize once.

Seeing the shocking number of casualties, Fuxi couldn't believe his eyes. Even though he had prepared himself, he was still stunned.

The Ninth Division alone created a record of 4367 injuries and 3816 deaths in daytime attacks.

That's right, this is the highest casualty record for the French army in a single day since the start of the war.

Behind the heavy casualties of one's own side, there are very few victories.Without even touching the enemy's position, the Ninth Division lost more than half of it. Colonel Fuxi no longer knew how to describe the daytime battle.

Just when Colonel Fuxi was having a headache about how to explain to his superiors, the guard's reputation sounded again: "Colonel, an order came from above, asking you to attend the military meeting at night."

Colonel Fuxi replied indifferently: "Understood, I will go there immediately! Pass on the order, and the number of sentries on duty tonight will be doubled to prevent the enemy from attacking."

……

Admiral Udino's headquarters is not far from the Ninth Division's station, just a few kilometers away, and it only takes two to three ten minutes to ride a horse back and forth, which can be said to be quite convenient.

But at this moment, Colonel Foch wished for a longer journey, so that he could face it later.

Colonel Fuxi was not the only one who was also distressed. The same tragedy happened to all the troops that participated in the offensive today.

Small tragedies come together to form a great tragedy.Admiral Oudino, who was still weeping sadly over the end of the airship unit, was stunned by the numbers in front of him.

"Guys, is today April Fool's Day? This joke is not funny at all."

"Tell me, it's not true!"

……

After repeatedly confirming that he got an affirmative answer, Admiral Oudino, who was full of blood, fainted gorgeously.

After a period of chaos, he was finally rescued.But for Udino personally, perhaps never waking up is the best ending.

The reality is too cruel. This fierce battle on the banks of the Rhine is a replica of the original battle of Somme and Space-Time, and the French army played the role of the British army.

From today onwards, Udino will leave a strong mark on human warfare. In the future, military textbooks from all over the world will include him as a villain.

In particular, his order to "attack at all costs" fixed him on the pillar of historical shame.

Butcher, executioner, idiot, idiot... All kinds of dirty words will be pressed on his head by future generations.

After waking up, Oudino said bitterly: "Everyone sit down, today's battle was my personal command error, and it has nothing to do with you, I will take responsibility.

The next battle is up to everyone, the front-line commanders will return to the troops to strengthen their guard, and strictly prevent the enemy from coming to attack tonight.

Felit, you are in charge of sorting out the situation here and reporting to the marshal and the country respectively.Tell them I failed the empire..."

Today's blow to Admiral Udino was too great, and now he was full of "self-blame", and he didn't even bother to shirk responsibility.

Of course, at this point, no matter how much Admiral Udino shirks his responsibility, he cannot escape the blame.

After this battle, the invincibility that the French army had accumulated with great difficulty was wiped out.It has become a dream to break through the defense line of the Rhine in a short period of time.

Chapter 173 Influence

Compared with the wailing in the French camp, the situation of the coalition forces is completely different.

A meteor shower in the sky, a series of chugs 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 many problems.

The officers and soldiers of the coalition who witnessed all this with their own eyes now only have 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 unilateral massacre by the Austrian army against the French army.

The officers and soldiers of the coalition forces who were originally dispirited, unstable in morale, and confused about the prospects of the war, now have a completely new mental outlook.

……

coalition command

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

From a military point of view, this judgment is not wrong, and the heavy casualties have seriously hit the morale of the French army.

In particular, these casualties were caused by high-level misjudgments and command errors, which made grassroots officers and soldiers complain to the upper levels.

"no!"

Grand Duke Albrecht resolutely refused.

"Now is not the time to counterattack. The French army suffered heavy losses in the attacking troops today. At least five divisions in Oudinot's hands did not participate in the battle.

The mobile forces in our hands are too small, and the newly reorganized troops are still resting, so they don't have much combat effectiveness at all.

The troops fighting during the day are already exhausted, and no more than six infantry divisions can now be put into the offensive, including the three infantry divisions that were withdrawn from the Belgian front last week.

The French are not fools. After suffering such a big loss, they will definitely increase 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 is less than [-] kilometers away from the front line, unless we can deal with these enemies in one day. "

It is simply impossible to end the battle in one day.No matter how much advantage it took during the day, it still did not change the fact that the Austrian army was short of troops, even if the troops of Derby and the two countries were added.

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

Take the Belgian army as an example. Just a few days after losing their hometown, they are crying. Unless it is launching a campaign to regain Belgian territory, it will be 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. The officers and soldiers are in a state of running-in. It is okay to let them do odd jobs and do logistics.

Time is on the side of the coalition forces, and reinforcements from the rear are coming in a steady stream, and Grand Duke Albrecht can afford to wait.

The enemy's airship unit has been abolished, and now as long as the Rhine defense line is defended, it is a matter of time before the French fail.

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

In case of a successful sneak attack, the French army suffered heavy losses and retreated directly to the mainland, and the subsequent battles would be difficult to fight.

At war with the French on the territory of Derby, Austria can also hold high the banner of anti-aggression and gain the support of the local people.

If you enter the decisive battle in mainland France, not to mention the pile of fortifications, international intervention alone will be a big trouble.

You must know that the international community now supports the anti-French alliance. It seems to be just chanting slogans without any substantive actions. In fact, the governments of various countries are secretly causing troubles for the French.

With these small tricks alone, France has to increase its expenditure by hundreds of millions of francs every month.The money has been spent, but 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 Vienna government could not ignore the positions of the countries.

If the battle during the day gets out, it will definitely affect the governments of various countries' judgments on the strength of the two warring parties, and may even affect everyone's foreign policy.

However, Grand Duke Albrecht can be sure that it is impossible for the French to report the real situation of the daytime battle, and even try their best to cover up the failure, otherwise they will not be able to explain to the country.

As for the news announced by the coalition forces, even if it is the truth, everyone can't help discounting it. It is impossible to believe that the French army suffered so many casualties.

The reason is naturally the astonishing results announced by the two sides before.According to the number of enemy annihilation announced by the warring parties, the French have killed 346 million coalition forces, and the coalition forces have also killed 247 million French troops.

Based on this figure, since the outbreak of the war, the warring parties have killed an average of 7 people per day, and the number of deaths on the entire battlefield has reached an astonishing 14 per day.

There were so many dead, and the number of casualties was calculated based on the triple increase in the number of casualties, so the total casualties of the French army were 1235 million; and the total casualties of the coalition forces reached an astonishing 1730 million.

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

In fact, at the beginning, the results announced by the two warring parties were not so exaggerated. Even if it was artistic processing, everyone restrained, at least not to the point of adding zeros.

It will not work later. For example, after a battle, the French army was going to announce that they had killed [-] coalition troops. When they saw that the coalition forces announced that they had killed [-] French troops, there was no need to say that they could not show weakness. It became annihilating [-] enemies.

Seeing that the French army announced the annihilation of [-] allied forces, the allied forces could not suffer a loss, and in a blink of an eye they tried to increase the results of annihilating tens of thousands of enemies. Anyway, no one wanted to weaken their momentum.

If it weren't for the fall of the Luxembourg defense line, most of Belgium's land would be occupied, and the cowhide would not be blown away, and the coalition forces would not be at a disadvantage in terms of the number of enemies wiped out.

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

It's nothing surprising, bragging is a common problem of human beings.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 warring parties have only wiped out a few million enemies, and crossing out a zero is very close to the real number, which is completely incomparable with those big guys who wiped out hundreds of millions of enemies.

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

……

Tonight is destined to be a night of insomnia. With the transmission of telegrams, many important people can't sleep.

Fortunately, the coalition side, as the victor, received good news.

Apart from being unbelievable for a while and needing to verify the news with multiple parties, the mental state of the politicians is still good.

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

Of course, Franz was not included here. After receiving the telegram, he replied: Got it.

Then there is no more then.

I was prepared in my heart, and this surprise was not so sudden. Naturally, I went to sleep when I should.

Without any surprises, Franz's calm performance added another touch to his career as emperor, leaving a small story for future generations.

……

Compared to the quiet Palace of Vienna, the Palace of Versailles is already brightly lit, and roars can still be faintly heard from time to time.

There is no doubt that apart from Napoleon IV, there is no other person who dares to stay up late at night and roar in the palace of Versailles.

Since tearing through the Luxembourg line of defense, the French army has been galloping in Central Europe, "punching the old woman of the German Federation and kicking the Belgian children's shoes" all the way.

In Napoleon IV's plan, this state of the French army should continue, fighting all the way to Vienna to defeat Austria.

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

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

First came the bad news of the heavy losses of the airship troops on the front line, announcing the end of the era of airships, and marking that France's investment in airships over the years had all been paid for.

Napoleon IV was an emperor who grew up with a new type of education, and he could barely accept the technical upgrade.

Isn't it just an airplane? With France's strong family background, it will be produced in a few months.

Anyway, the power of airplanes is limited these days. Apart from restraining airships, the role they can play on the battlefield is not as great as that of later generations.

Even though he lost his air supremacy, Napoleon IV still had full confidence in the French Army.

In his view, without the assistance of the airship bombing force, the cost of winning the war is nothing more than higher, and there is still time to postpone it.

It's a pity that the French Army, which he placed high hopes on and has a long history, handed him an answer sheet with only single digits.

With more than [-] dead and [-] casualties, this was not a battle, but a day's battle.

After paying such a heavy price, the results achieved were minimal. A conservative estimate of the casualties of the Austrian army would be three digits at most.

Most of these were caused by artillery, and a small amount was caused by airship bombing.Although the airship troop rushed to the street without dropping a few bombs, they fell like a giant bomb.

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

In this respect they are all equal, and where they fall depends entirely on the will of God.

As for the infantry who launched the attack, despite their heavy casualties, they actually wandered around the battlefield and killed a lot of people.

The situation was even worse than the Somme and Battle in the original time and space. The British just ignored the threat of the machine gun fire network, and the bureaucrats made a mechanical move.

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

The commanders and fighters on the front line will definitely report to the high-level when they find out that there are heavy casualties.As long as the offensive tactics are adjusted in time, the loss will not be that great.

It's a pity that all this doesn't apply to the French army. Let's tell a story.

During the attack on Luxembourg, a French-Italian mixed infantry division was ordered to launch the main attack on the enemy's position.

After the battle started, the heroic French soldiers charged forward one after another. Among them, an Italian soldier formed the infantry regiment as the main body, and they performed exceptionally bravely in the battle.

Nearly two-thirds of the 2146 members of the regiment fell on the way to the charge, and the division commander was so frightened that he immediately stopped and replaced them to rest.

As a result, after the troops were withdrawn in the evening, when the number of people was finally counted, the regiment should have 2146 soldiers, but there were actually 2101 soldiers.

For the missing platoon, the corpse collection brigade only found seven corpses, and there is still no way to determine whether the rest died in battle or slipped away.