Chapter 941

The end of the airship troop was witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people. Of course, the news spread very fast.

In fact, there was no need to spread the news. General Udino's headquarters was not far from the frontline. The battle on the ground couldn't be seen from the headquarters, but the aerial battle in the sky could be witnessed.

After personally witnessing the end of the airship troop, General Udino was completely dispirited.

In order to build this airship troop, the French military had spent a lot of money on it. Nearly one-tenth of the army's annual military expenditure was spent on it.

Now, after performing a meteor shower in front of hundreds of thousands of people, General Udino didn't know how to explain it to the country.

Of course, not all of the French airship troops were lost here, but the result of the aerial battle had proved to the world that the sky no longer belonged to airships.

"General, it's time for dinner."

The guard's voice pulled Oudino back to reality from his daze.

"No need. I'm not hungry now."

"Pass down the order. We'll hold a military meeting tonight. Other than the necessary personnel on duty, all officers above the rank of colonel must attend."

The airship troop was finished, but the war had to continue. From now on, the sky would no longer belong to France. Udino knew very well what this meant.

Not to mention strategic bombing, they couldn't even investigate the enemy's basic information. From now on, the French army could only be bombed.

…

The sky gradually darkened. The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the ground, illuminating the broken limbs on the ground. It was like a ready-made horror movie set.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the French camp was extremely strange. The horn to retreat had been blown, but only a few soldiers returned.

It wasn't as if such a tragic battle had never happened in the past. But according to the usual practice, this should be the climax of the resurrection, but today was an exception. Only a few soldiers got up from the ground.

Colonel Fu Xi, who had just taken over as the commander of the 9th Division, already had a bad feeling. He immediately ordered, "Tell the Austrians that we're sending people to collect the corpses.

Also, send someone to tell those guys who threw a tantrum that they don't have to come back if they don't come back. Supervise the troops, make a record. I'll train these guys well later. "

Fu Xi realized the problem. He couldn't imagine that those guys were all dead. After all, previous records were very important. After seeing how they feigned death, the higher-ups of the French army were no longer sensitive to the number of casualties.

After all, only half of the 9th Division's troops returned to the camp.

During the attack, half of the troops were destroyed in a day. If this really happened, his position as the new commander would come to an end.

Fu Xi thought that it was his subordinate throwing a tantrum. After all, the 9th Division had been having a bad year recently. The division commander had died before the battle even started.

After all, only the French airships were destroyed. The airships and naval cannons of the allied forces could still be used. The difference of of the 9th Division was a huge blow to the enemy.

The airships of the allied forces were destroyed. The airships of the of of of of of the Of the Allied Forces. and the airships of the allied forces of the enemy of of of of of the of of of of of of.

After saying that, the messenger hurriedly ran out.

Collecting corpses on the battlefield was also a tradition in Europe. No matter how fierce the battle was during the day, when it was time to collect the corpses, no one would stop them.

After all, there were a lot of corpses on the battlefield. If they weren't dealt with quickly, it could easily lead to a plague, which was something that neither side wanted to see.

Sometimes, when the corpse collection teams of two warring countries met, they would greet each other and return with the bodies of their fallen soldiers.

Today was a typical offensive and defensive battle. Most of the Austrian troops were in the trenches. When they encountered the net of machine gun fire for the first time, the French troops didn't know how to deal with it. They just charged forward, and the result was a tragedy.

In the end, the French soldiers' corpses were strewn all over the field, and only a few of the Austrians died.

Even if they died in battle, they would have died in their own territory and been dealt with a long time ago. Therefore, only the French corpse collection team was on the move now.

Not long after the corpse collection began, a young officer ran over. "Colonel, something big happened."

Colonel Fu Xi frowned and said unhappily, "What's there to be surprised about? Did the soldiers on the front line mutiny?"

The sound of the artillery had stopped, so it was definitely impossible for the Austrian army to counterattack. The most serious thing was that the soldiers had mutiny.

This was nothing new. It was just that it was rare for a French-dominated unit like the 9th Division.

If it were the Italian division, there was more than a 90% chance that they would rebel if they were asked to take on such heavy casualties.

The emotional instability of the Italian soldiers was also an important factor that restricted the combat power of the French army. If it weren't for them, the Luxembourg defense line would have been torn apart long ago.

The knowledgeable people in the French army had long realized this problem. Unfortunately, there was no other way. France had limited manpower, so they had to recruit Italian soldiers.

"Colonel, go see for yourself! I can guarantee that the situation is a hundred times, a thousand times more serious than this … "

Obviously, the young officer realized that the news he brought was too shocking and hard to believe, so he simply let Colonel Fu Xi see for himself.

"Hmph!"

After expressing his strong dissatisfaction, Colonel Fu Xi still walked out of the command center.

At this time, it was already the time for the corpse collection team and the religious people, so safety was still guaranteed.

Going to the front line, looking at the floating corpses and occasionally hearing the cries of the wounded, Fu Xi was completely dumbfounded.

They were all dead, and even if they weren't dead yet, they were about to die.

With the medical conditions of this day and age, the possibility of being rescued after being injured on the battlefield for a few hours without any treatment was close to zero.

Even the medical staff of the 9th Division couldn't even wrap up the lightly injured soldiers at the front, so who would have the time to take care of these guys at the back?

After glancing at the battlefield, Fu Xi returned to the command center in a daze. The problem was indeed a thousand times more serious than a mutiny, and the entire 9th Division was crippled.

After witnessing such a cruel scene, the soldiers who had survived were completely drained of their spirit.

If the enemy launched an attack now, perhaps a simple charge would be all it would take for the 9th Division to collapse.

After a moment of silence, Colonel Fu Xi, who had calmed down, sighed and said helplessly, "Pass down the order, all officers don't need to sleep tonight. Everyone is to go down to the troops to calm the troops and beware of any commotion."

Needless to say, the 9th Division's camp was destined to not be peaceful tonight.

If there were no accidents, this elite French army unit would not be able to return to the battlefield for a long time.

…

Time ticked by, and soon the casualty report came out. In fact, the statistics were simple. Colonel Fu Xi only asked to count the living people in the camp.

As for the rest, whether they were killed, missing, or captured, they were all counted as dead.

There was no other way, there were too many soldiers who died in the battle, and many of them were decapitated. It was impossible to piece them together in a short period of time, let alone identify the dead.

In order to let the dead soldiers receive the government's pension, Colonel Fu Xi could only do this once.

Looking at the shocking casualty figures, Fu Xi couldn't believe his eyes. Even though he was mentally prepared, he was still stunned.

The 9th Division alone had set a record of 4,367 wounded and 3,816 dead in the daytime attack.

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

Behind the heavy casualties on their side, the results of the battle were few and far between. They didn't even touch the enemy's position, and more than half of the 9th Division was wiped out. Colonel Fu Xi didn't know how to describe the battle during the day.

Just as Colonel Fu Xi was having a headache about how to explain to his superiors, the guard's voice sounded again, "Colonel, there's an order from above. They want you to attend the military meeting tonight."

Colonel Fu Xi replied coldly, "Got it, I'll be there right away! Pass down the order, double the number of sentries on duty tonight, and strictly guard against the enemy's sneak attack. "

…

General Udino's headquarters was not far from the 9th Division's camp. It was only a few kilometers away, and it would only take 20 to 30 minutes to go back and forth on horseback. It was quite convenient.

But at this moment, Colonel Fu Xi wished that the journey could be longer, so that he could face it later.

Colonel Fu Xi wasn't the only one who was distressed. All the troops who participated in the attack today encountered the same tragedy.

When all the small tragedies came together, it became a big tragedy. General Udino, who was still crying over the destruction of the airship unit, was stunned by the numbers in front of him.

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

"Tell me this isn't true!"

…

After repeated confirmation and getting an affirmative answer, General Udino, whose blood was boiling, fainted.

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

Reality was too cruel. This fierce battle by the Rhine was a replica of the Battle of Somme in the original timeline, and the French army played the role of the British army.

From today onwards, Udino would leave a thick ink in the human war. In the future, he would be a villain in the military textbooks of all the countries in the world.

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

Butcher, executioner, fool, idiot … all kinds of filthy words would be pressed on his head by future generations.

Udino, who had woken up, 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.

I will leave the next battle to you. The frontline commanders will return to their troops to strengthen their guard, and strictly guard against the enemy's sneak attack tonight.

Flit, you are responsible for sorting out the situation here and reporting it to the marshal and the country. Tell them that I have let down the Empire … "

Today's blow to General Udino was too great. Now, all that was left was "self-blame", and he didn't even bother to shirk the responsibility.

Of course, at this point, no matter how much General Udino tried to shirk the responsibility, he couldn't escape the blame.

After this battle, the invincible momentum that the French army had accumulated with great difficulty was gone. Wanting to end the battle quickly and tear apart the Rhine defense line in a short period of time had become a dream.