Chapter 932

On November 1, 1890, Grand Duke Albrecht and Leopold II had a historic meeting in Cologne. The two sides had an in-depth discussion on the issue of anti-French.

Well, these were all official words. The real situation was that after the collapse of the Luxembourg defense line, the situation in Belgium deteriorated. Leopold II could no longer control the situation and had to go into exile.

Defending Brussels, just think about it. With the strength of Belgium, there was no way they could withstand the strong attack of the French.

However, the situation was not hopeless. Although the Luxembourg defense line collapsed, the German Confederation suffered heavy losses, and Belgium was about to fall, it still could not change the fact that the war against France had just begun.

In essence, this war was caused by the Fao and Austria fighting for supremacy on the European continent. As for Belgium and Germany, they were completely in trouble because of their wealth.

The strategic location of Belgium and the resources of the German Confederation in the Rhineland region were the root causes of their involvement.

Belgium suffered heavy losses, but the strength of the Austrian leader was still there. In the Southern Front, the Austrian army still had the advantage; in the African battlefield, Austria even trampled on the French.

However, the Austrian army did not make a substantial breakthrough in the Southern Front, and the African battlefield was not valued. Everyone focused on the battlefield in Central Europe, which was why the French had the upper hand.

Leopold II wasn't a reckless man until he had to risk his life. After receiving Grand Duke Albrecht's assurance, he decisively chose to change his strategy.

At this point in the war, the fate of Leopold II, or rather, the fate of Belgium, had been tied to the fate of Austria.

If they won this war, the losses of Belgium could be recovered from the French, and they might even take a small step forward. If they lost the war, Leopold II would be an official member of the army in exile.

If you opened the history books, you would find that in the history of the European continent, there were already more than a hundred royal families in exile, but only a few were able to recover. Most of the royal families disappeared in the long river of history.

Others did not know what had happened behind the scenes, but Leopold II had heard about it.

As for what he had experienced, it was impossible to describe. Anyway, except for a few royal families who naturally died, most of them were killed.

Of course, behind these tragic characters, there were many ways to die. The content was so brainless that ordinary novels would not dare to describe it.

In the political system of Europe, as long as the king did not die, then he would not die.

Napoleon was an example. He played so hard, but he was only exiled. The Bonaparte Dynasty was not destroyed.

From Leopold II's point of view, to cling to Brussels was to seek death. Guns and cannons had no eyes on the battlefield. They did not care about one's status, and they were the kind that did not need to be held responsible.

This was not the point. The king did not need to go to the battlefield, so the chance of being accidentally injured was very low.

The point was that the French had a motive to kill him. France wanted to annex Belgium, and he was an eyesore as a king.

Regicide was very serious in Europe. If they did it on the battlefield, they would not be, and Belgium.

The Kingdom of Sardinia was a ready-made example. The royal family that had been released due to international pressure had now jumped out to cause trouble for them.

France. Leopold II did not dare. and the French 'France's principles. Moreover, the French might not be the only ones who wanted him dead.

In addition to the domestic opposition, the British and Austrians were also likely to do something.

Although Leopold II and the British royal family were related by marriage to the Austrian royal family, reality had proved that in the face of national interests, any kinship was not reliable.

…

After appeasing Leopold II, Grand Duke Albrecht breathed a sigh of relief. In his opinion, it was more troublesome to think of a king than to fight a war.

No matter how strong Belgium was, they were a member of the anti-French alliance, and if Leopold II were to surrender to the French, Austria would suffer a great loss politically.

According to Emperor Franz, the essence of war was to increase the number of allies and reduce the number of enemies.

In order to achieve this goal, even Montenegro and Greece were forced to join the war chariot by the Government of Vienna.

Of course, they could not be counted on on the battlefield. But it was politically necessary. The more countries participated, the more it proved that the war of aggression launched by the French was unpopular.

As long as there were more countries involved, when the international community decided on the war in the future, Austria would have to be righteous and flawless.

…

"Woo woo woo …"

The air defense alarm suddenly sounded. Grand Duke Albrecht frowned and ordered the guards, "Go out and see what happened."

Grand Duke Albrecht had long heard of the arrogance of France's airships, but it was the first time he experienced it.

Although Austria was the first to use airships in war, in fact, the French were the pioneers of airships. As early as 1784, the French made the first airship.

Many people would not believe it. The first airship in the world, other than the power system not being up to standard and being a little dangerous, was not bad.

It was 15.6 meters long and 9.6 meters in diameter. After filling it with hydrogen, it could produce more than a thousand kilograms of lifting force and could fly for seven hours.

After Austria used airships in war, the European countries realized the importance of airships and began to equip their troops.

But this thing was a high-tech product after all, and it was very expensive. Only a few big countries had the ability to equip it on a large scale.

After the war against France broke out, France's airship troops showed their prowess and easily defeated the airships of Belgium and Germany, seizing control of the battlefield in one fell swoop.

In this day and age, the range of anti-aircraft weapons was limited, and accuracy depended on luck. As long as the airship did not lower its altitude, it was still very safe.

Of course, it was safe to bomb at high altitude, and the hit rate was also very touching. The military success was all thanks to God's blessing.

After a while, the guards returned and reported, "Marshal, the enemy's airship is coming. It seems to be investigating."

"Hmph!"

After a cold snort, Grand Duke Albrecht said expressionlessly, "Got it!

Pass down the order, order the engineering team to work immediately and complete the construction of the airport in the shortest time possible. "

…

Colonel Lane was shocked and said, "What? You want us to repair the airship's site? Major, are you mistaken? We are not engineers. "

The young officer explained helplessly, "I'm sorry, Colonel Lane. We don't have enough engineers, and we can't recruit enough civilian workers in a short period of time. Now you are the only ones without a mission. "

The vanguard of the Austrian army was naturally the main force, and there were only a few engineers. These people were mostly junior engineers trained in batches, and their main purpose was to solve the problems of the airport and road traffic.

Originally, the problem of labor had already been settled, and the German Confederation would provide the civilian workers. However, the Luxembourg defense line suddenly collapsed, and not only did they lose a large number of troops, they also lost a large number of civilian workers.

These civilian workers were mostly young and strong labor force transferred from the local area. If they wanted to continue to recruit civilian workers, they also needed to have enough young and strong people in the area.

In the end, the glorious and great task of repairing the airport fell to the Bremen army that had just finished reorganizing.

As expected, the Bremen army only had one battalion. Colonel Lane, who had the highest military rank and had combat experience, naturally became the battalion commander.

The order had already been given, and regardless of whether he was willing or not, Colonel Lane had to accept the reality of becoming an engineer.

Not only the Bremen Legion, but the troops that were reorganized later on were also turned into engineers one after another, repairing roads and digging trenches.

Combat mission?

Grand Duke Albrecht didn't show that he was crazy. He was very clear about the combat power of this temporarily reorganized miscellaneous troops.

Not only was the morale of the troops completely low, even the training of the soldiers was seriously inadequate. What was more troublesome was that many of the officers were temporarily recruited from the nobility.

It was true that the nobility in the German Region had a tradition of joining the army, but this didn't mean that all the nobility's children were qualified officers.

Not all states had military schools, and not all the nobility's children had attended military schools. Many of the nobility's children only received military education at home, and all kinds of combat experience and concepts were stagnant in the last century.

Sending this kind of troops to the battlefield, other than increasing the enemy's achievements, could not be counted on for anything else.

It was okay to cheat their teammates, but not their own people. Since these guys were willing to accept reorganizing, it meant that they recognized Austria.

These people would be the link for Austria to rule over North Germany in the future. In order to strengthen the relationship with the local area, Grand Duke Albrecht couldn't let these nobility's children die in battle.

…

At this moment, Colonel Lane, who knew nothing, was leading the troops to sweat for the construction of the airport.

Looking at the hardened land, Colonel Lane said regretfully, "Captain Henry, there is no need to harden all of it. This is too extravagant."

Concrete was not cheap these days. Hardening dozens of hectares of land at once would cost a lot of money.

Captain Henry shook his head, "We are in a hurry now. In fact, the construction of this airport is not up to standard at all.

But this is also temporary. We have to make do with it first and rebuild it later. "

This was the truth. The airport couldn't be completed by building a dam. It could make do with a temporary stop.

"Airport? What is that? Isn't it to build a field for the airships? "

Colonel Lane asked in confusion.

It wasn't that he was ignorant, but there weren't many people who knew about airplanes nowadays, and even fewer people knew about airports.

Realizing that he had made a mistake, Captain Henry replied coldly, "Colonel, you should have memorized the army's confidentiality rules. Don't ask what you shouldn't ask."

Captain Henry also didn't know whether the "airport" was a confidentiality rule or not. Anyway, the higher-ups didn't issue a gag order, and they also didn't tell Colonel Lane about it.

Since he didn't know the situation, Captain Henry naturally wouldn't explain. As for the difference in military rank, it wasn't a problem.

Didn't you see that during the construction of the airport, it was always the captain commanding the colonel?

In other places, this kind of thing would never happen. But in the field of technology, this kind of thing was commonplace.

Professional things were done by professionals. This was a major characteristic of the Austrian army. Therefore, the highest person in charge of the airport construction was the experienced Captain Henry.

After being snubbed, Colonel Lane directly turned around and urged the soldiers to work, ignoring the rigid engineer.

…