At this point in the war, France had put all its chips on the line. If they won, they would dominate Europe. If they lost, they would become a second-rate country.
With France's overbearing style in the past, they had offended a lot of people. When France was strong, no one dared to provoke them. Once they declined, it was a completely different story.
When the nest is overturned, there will be no eggs left intact.
Whether it was Napoleon Iv or the top officials of the Government of France, they were all tied to the fate of this country.
At this point, taking a step back was no longer a boundless sea and sky, but a bottomless abyss.
Whether it was for themselves or for the country, they had to find a way to win this war.
In the face of life and death, face was so cheap that it was worthless, so it was better to plagiarize!
Since the Austrians' equipment was more advanced, they could just copy it. Could it be that the great France Empire couldn't make it?
With a single word from the Emperor, his subordinates would break their legs. Starting from the cabinet government, they would work their way down level by level.
Although Napoleon Iii had the reputation of a socialist emperor, France was still a bourgeois country, and the arms industry was in the hands of the capitalists.
In the past, when there was an order, everyone would rush to snatch it. The door of the Ministry of the Army had been trampled to the ground. Now, the news had been sent out for a long time, but no one was interested.
It was not that the capitalists did not want to make money, the key was that everyone did not have the ability to make this kind of money. It couldn't be helped. The timing wasn't right.
In the past, everyone could accept orders first and then slowly think of a solution. They could research and develop it themselves or buy the technology from the outside world.
But now was not the time. There was not enough time for independent research and development. At present, these technologies still belonged to Austria, and the Fao was at war. No matter how much money they spent, they could not buy the technology.
All the capitalists with connections had received the news in advance and knew the seriousness of the problem. They all knew that at this juncture, if they accepted the order and couldn't deliver the goods, they would get into big trouble.
The military order, which was originally in high demand, had now become a hot potato, directly rotting in the hands of the Ministry of the Army.
Of course, it wasn't that no one was interested. It was just that everyone's strength was limited, and they couldn't complete the mission in a short period of time.
Currently, many military factories had expressed that as long as the Ministry of the Army produced the blueprints, they would be able to start work immediately.
"How is it? How long do you need to replicate it?"
Minister of War Luskinia asked anxiously.
Although the military factories were owned by the capitalists, it did not mean that the Government of France had handed over the issue of armaments to the capitalists.
The Ministry of the Army also kept a group of military experts and even had a military factory directly under them. However, due to bureaucratic management, the production costs were too high, and there was no way to expand.
Now that the capitalists did not dare to accept the order, the hard work fell into the hands of the Ministry of War. In any case, this was a decision made by the emperor and the government, so the Ministry of War had to find a way to accomplish it.
An elderly military expert replied: "Your Excellency, we have too little information in our hands.
We don't know anything about the weapon's template, design principles, and performance parameters. We don't even know its external appearance. If there's nothing, how are we supposed to imitate it? "
Imitation also needed a reference. If there was nothing, then it wouldn't be an imitation, but an independent research and development. Since it was an independent research and development, time naturally couldn't be fast.
Of course, there was another way of research and development, which was to design weapons according to requirements. However, this also required time.
The Minister of War, Luskinia, said impatiently, "Don't we already have machine guns? We just need to modify them according to our machine guns.
Airplanes are a little more troublesome, but I remember that it was published in the newspaper, and there were people who performed air shows in Paris.
Even a few amateur hobbyists could come up with something like this, can't you guys do it too?
If it really doesn't work, we can just buy their technology or take them in. There won't be so much trouble! "
It wasn't that Duke Luskinia was ignorant. He didn't know the principle of the Maxim machine gun and thought that the Austrians were using an improved version of the Gatling gun.
It was the same for airplanes. Other than being able to deal with airships, the Austrian airplanes didn't show any amazing combat power.
Nowadays, everyone's understanding of airplanes stopped at flying shows, and they didn't realize that there was a huge gap between airplanes' technology.
Just from dealing with airships alone, most airplanes could do it. In any case, airplanes had the advantage of agility. As long as they could last long enough, a load of two to three hundred kilograms would be enough.
The old man explained helplessly, "Your Excellency, there are many steps in the process of designing a weapon and putting it into use. It takes a lot of time, and it can't be done without three to five years of work.
Even if the situation on the battlefield is urgent, we can directly save the time for weapon testing, but the time for design and industrial production can't be reduced.
Even in the most ideal situation, it will take us three months to produce the new machine gun. As for airplanes, it would be God's blessing if we can come up with it in half a year. "
Three months, half a year, this speed was indeed very fast. If they could really come up with it in such a short time, it would definitely be a miracle.
After all, it was only 1890. Even if Franz's butterfly effect accelerated the pace of technological development, it was mainly targeted at Austria, and France could only follow suit and develop passively.
Compared to the same period in history, even if France's scientific and technological development accelerated, it couldn't exceed ten years, and there wouldn't be a qualitative gap.
…
The world wouldn't revolve around one country. No matter how the French's development of new weapons was, the war had to continue.
Because of political needs, the Government of France covered up the fiasco of the previous attack. Since they didn't lose the war, they naturally wouldn't pursue the responsibility, and General Udino was lucky to escape the fate of being court-martialed.
Even if the court-martialed wasn't used, it didn't mean that they wouldn't pursue the responsibility. Udino was still the commander in front of the enemy, but it was only because of the transitional period for the adjustment of the command system.
With such a big thing happening, the French army would definitely pursue the responsibility. As the person directly responsible for the incident, it was only a matter of time before General Udino went home to take care of his grandson.
Marshal Patrice McMahon rushed to the front line as soon as he received the news of the failure of the attack in the French army command center.
Looking at the half-dead officers, Patrice McMahon fiercely slapped the table and sternly shouted, "All of you, look at yourselves in the mirror. Look at your current performance. Do you still look like a soldier or not?
Do you know that France's face is going to be completely lost because of you? Especially you, Udino. Have you forgotten the promise you gave me before?
Didn't you just suffer a loss once? You just need to find a chance to get it back from the enemy. Do you think you can live unscrupulously now that you're about to retire?
Let me tell you, if you don't want to live with infamy for the rest of your life, you better buck up. Remember, the shame of failure can only be washed away with blood and victory. "
In fact, the French army's morale was low not just because of the heavy casualties.
It wasn't like they had never seen tens of thousands of casualties before, so it wasn't enough to make them despair. What really made them despair was that the future of the war wasn't optimistic.
Apart from the heavy losses on the first day of the attack, there were no more full-scale battles in the next few days, but small-scale battles were happening every day.
They wouldn't know until they fought, but once they fought, they suddenly realized that the Austrian army wasn't as rotten and incompetent as the government had made them out to be. Instead, they were a ferocious tiger that came down from the mountains.
In Linlin's fragmented battle, both sides had a score of 1.3: 1. The French army had a score of 1.3: 1, which was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue for the French officers who claimed to be the world's best army.
This wasn't a battle of offense and defense, but a direct collision in the wild. Everyone helplessly found that the French army was no match for the Austrian army when they had the same number of troops.
Of course, this had something to do with the French army's low morale recently, but the main reason was the aftereffects of the crazy expansion of the army.
Even for the so-called elite troops, at least one-fifth of them were new recruits, and their combat abilities inevitably declined.
It was inconvenient to transmit information these days, and the Government of France couldn't help Austria advertise. As a result, the middle and high-ranking military officers didn't understand the special nature of Austria's military service system.
Through their imaginations, everyone assumed that everyone was part of an expanded army, and that there would be a bunch of new recruits dragging them down.
They saw that under the same conditions, the French army was being suppressed by the Austrian army, and it wasn't just one of them. It was the same for hundreds of miles of battlefront.
The French commander who witnessed all this with his own eyes naturally lost confidence in the war. Of course, there was no difference between this kind of misjudgment and knowing the truth.
Anyway, it had already been proven that under the same number of troops, the expanded French army couldn't win against the Austrian army.
Perhaps some people would argue about equipment, but the problem was that equipment was also a part of strength. This wasn't the era of knights anymore. As long as they could win the war, who cared if it was fair or not?
In a sense, Austria's biggest ally was the Italians. They were the first to spread pessimistic thoughts. After the first attack failed and the heavy casualties, it quickly spread among the French army and began to affect them from the bottom up.
Marshal Patrice McMahon rushed over to restore the morale of the troops, but the scene in front of him told him that the situation was worse than he imagined.
"Woo woo woo …" The air defense alarm broke the tense atmosphere in the command center.
They went from bombing others to being bombed every day. It had only been a few days, and not many people could bear this kind of psychological change.
Marshal Patrice McMahon saw this scene with his own eyes and understood why everyone's morale was low.
As the supreme commander of the French army, Patrice McMahon knew more than anyone else about the situation.
Sometimes, knowing too much wasn't a good thing. It wasn't easy to bear when everyone was drunk and only he was sober.
Unlike the radical people in his country who fantasized about breaking Vienna, Patrice McMahon's battle plan was only to take over the territory west of the Rhine River.
It wasn't that Patrice McMahon didn't have ambition, but because he knew that the French army wasn't as strong as the government claimed, and the enemy wasn't as weak as they claimed.
If they took over the territory west of the Rhine River, France could take advantage of the danger and defend themselves. Even if Austria broke out, he was confident that he could stop them.
As for breaking Vienna, he just needed to shout slogans. Patrice McMahon was old and had long passed the age of radicalization.
General Udino said bitterly, "I'm very sorry, Marshal. I've let you down! If it weren't for my previous command errors, our originally good situation wouldn't have collapsed. "
The situation collapsed?
The situation clearly wasn't that serious. The French army still had the initiative on the battlefield in Central Europe.
As for the counterattack launched by the Austrians, it was child's play. It was certain that the Austrians wouldn't be able to fight the French army until they gathered enough troops.
Patrice McMahon said, "Cut the crap. I only have one request now, and that is to tear open the Rhine River defense line as soon as possible.
This is your last chance. I don't care what method you use, you must complete this order before the enemy's reinforcements arrive. "
There was something else he didn't say in his heart, which was: This was also France's last chance.
If they missed this opportunity, it would be difficult for France to win the war.
Even if the French army broke out and won the war by luck, it would only be a victory on the surface. In reality, both sides would suffer losses.
"Marshal, the biggest problem right now is the enemy's trenches. According to the intelligence we've gathered, the enemy has deployed at least 10,000 machine guns, thousands of heavy cannons, and more than 5,000 ordinary cannons on the Rhine River line.
The enemy relied on the trenches to build a dense network of fire. Our troops can't charge in at all.
In order to reduce casualties, our soldiers can only charge by crawling. Even if they are lucky enough to charge in front of the enemy's position, they will still face the obstruction of the iron net.
If we want to tear open the Rhine River defense line, the best way is to choose a main attack, concentrate our cannons to launch a sneak attack, and immediately suppress the enemy's firepower in that area … "
Although there was no such thing as crawling forward, crawling forward was essentially the same as crawling forward.
Concentrating firepower to bombard the area and gain the advantage of firepower was also the most suitable method for the French army. From this point of view, General Udino was qualified.
Patrice McMahon nodded and said, "Very good, I approve this battle plan of yours. Udino, I'll give you one last chance. I don't want to hear any more bad news. "
Frankly speaking, Patrice McMahon didn't want Udino to continue commanding the troops. But there was no other way. There were only a handful of officers in the French army who could command hundreds of thousands of troops.
Among these people, Udino's ability was also among the top. If it weren't for the previous mistakes, another name would have risen.
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