Chapter 970

Humans were fragile in the face of nature. The Battle of the Rhine River continued, but the intensity of the battle was limited by the heavy snow.

It wasn't that the attacking French army didn't work hard, but the snow and ice were too annoying. Not only did it affect the front line, but it also increased the difficulty of logistics.

Even if two million soldiers didn't do anything, they would still consume an astronomical amount of resources every day, not to mention they were still fighting.

Reality once again proved that it wasn't easy to fight in enemy territory.

That's right, Belgium and the Rhine River were both areas with convenient transportation and a complete railway network. The problem was that the coalition destroyed the roads when they retreated!

Destruction was always easier than construction. After occupying these areas, the first thing the French army did was to repair the roads.

After more than a month of hard work, the roads were basically restored, and the railway was almost repaired. They were about to be completed, but unfortunately, they encountered the heavy snow.

The bad weather affected logistics and became the biggest challenge for the French army. It was even more troublesome than the Austrian machine gun trenches.

After all, no matter how powerful the machine gun trenches were, they could only defend on the spot. With the current technology, it was impossible to charge with machine guns.

They could block the French army's path, but they couldn't threaten the French army's lifeline. The logistics were different. If there was a problem, the two million French army would be in danger.

Marshal Patrice McMahon looked out the window and sighed. The outbreak of the war was too hasty, and France wasn't prepared at all.

The enormous France Empire didn't even have enough winter uniforms. Who could have imagined this? In the end, they had to mobilize the citizens to donate winter clothes to barely solve the problem of keeping the soldiers warm.

It wasn't that France's industry wasn't strong. As the second largest textile country in the world, as long as they had enough raw materials, a few million sets of winter clothes could be produced in a month.

The problem was the raw materials. Seventy percent of the raw materials for the French textile industry came from Egypt. As soon as the war broke out, the cotton production in Egypt was finished.

Such a large gap wasn't easy to solve. Even if they wanted to buy from the international market, they couldn't find enough supplies.

One had to know that cotton was a hard currency like grain these days. Most producers had fixed partners, and if they wanted to snatch it away, they would have to pay a high price.

Capitalists didn't have such a strong sense of the big picture. Without knowing if the war would continue, investing a large amount of money to steal cotton was not proportional to the risk.

The French people were very optimistic about the war. The mainstream opinion was that the French army would win in two to three months.

With such a short period of time, they could rely on their inventory to survive. There was no need of investing a large amount of money.

In theory, if no one hoarded, France wouldn't be short of supplies now under a reasonable distribution.

There was nothing in the world that was more important than the benefits. After the war broke out, the prices of goods kept rising. Every day that the war dragged on, the price would rise to a new level.

No one would say no to money. In this context, the efficiency of the Paris government's bureaucracy was naturally low.

The French army had been too slow in gathering supplies in the early stages of the war, resulting in them not being able to send enough supplies to the frontlines before winter came. The heavy snow greatly reduced the efficiency of transportation, and the problem arose.

"Marshal, because of the heavy snow, the convoy that was supposed to arrive today has just arrived in Trier. It's estimated that it will arrive a week later.

This is already the third time this month that our supplies have been delayed. Since the start of the snowfall, our supplies have never arrived on time. "

Major General Johann, who was in charge of logistics, reported with a bitter face.

Compared to being in charge of logistics distribution, being in charge of logistics and transportation was much more difficult. Not only did they have to repair the roads themselves, but they also had to face the attacks of the guerrillas. Now they had to fight against the bad weather.

If that was all, it would be fine. At worst, they would suffer a little. Anyway, there was a lot of money to be transported. It was enough to make up for everyone's hurt heart.

The problem was that the laborers in charge of transportation were not very obedient. If the task was too heavy, they would go on strike. After all, no matter how much money there was, it wouldn't fall on them.

There was no other way. It was too risky to recruit laborers or use prisoners of war. They might be in cahoots with the guerrillas at any time. Even if they didn't hook up with the guerrillas, the French army couldn't take it if they slacked off.

For the safety of the logistics, the laborers in charge of transportation were all on the same side. If these people caused trouble, the officers could only appease them.

After receiving the bad news, Patrice McMahon furrowed his brows and began to calculate.

The French army had just pushed the front line to the Rhine River and suffered heavy losses from the enemy's air attacks. Their supplies were very limited.

Ever since the beginning of the snowfall, the French army's supplies were in a state where they couldn't make ends meet. Even though the intensity of the fire at the front line had decreased and the consumption of supplies decreased, they still couldn't last long.

It couldn't be helped. The consumption of ammunition had decreased, but the consumption of heating supplies had increased. The Rhine region did produce coal, but the Germans blew up the mines before they left. It would take time to restore production.

Most importantly, the locals weren't willing to cooperate. Under the influence of hatred, the locals didn't listen to the French army at all.

The war had just begun, and it was far from being decided. Even the capitalists, who were used to changing sides, weren't in a hurry to pick a side. There were only a few who ran to the French army so early.

After a while, Patrice McMahon slowly said, "Send electricity to the country, explain the difficulties we are facing, and have the Ministry of War increase the number of transportation teams.

Order the logistics department to prioritize the delivery of ammunition and medicine. Everyone, think of a way to gather as much as possible from the local areas to reduce the pressure on our logistics. "

Gathering supplies on the spot was definitely not a good idea. The relationship between the French army and the local areas was already tense. With another wave, it would be hard for the guerrillas not to develop.

"Marshal, the enemy destroyed the place greatly when they retreated. Not only did they blow up the infrastructure, but they also burned down the supply warehouses.

The industries in Belgium and the Rhineland are indeed good, but without industrial raw materials, there's no way to produce supplies.

Especially since the local areas don't produce much food, they mainly rely on imports from Austria. Because of the war, the food trade has been interrupted for almost a month.

The local food prices have skyrocketed, and social order has deteriorated rapidly. If we go to collect food at this time, I'm afraid … "

Seeing that Patrice McMahon's face was getting uglier, Lieutenant General Albert decisively chose to shut up.

Everyone knew the problem, but the French army was also running out of food. No matter how serious the consequences were, Patrice McMahon had no other choice now.

They looked at each other, and General Udino, who was waiting to make a contribution, knew that it was time for him to take the blame.

Too many debts wouldn't burden him. The previous great defeat had already caused his reputation to fall to the ground, so he didn't care about another infamy.

If he took the blame, he could gain more favors. Someone would speak up for him after the war, and he wouldn't have to go to the military court.

"Lieutenant General, you can't look at the problem like that. After the war broke out, the local residents weren't completely unprepared.

As far as I know, when the enemy retreated, they didn't burn all the supplies, and a large portion of the food was distributed to the local people. It's not a big problem for us to borrow some of the food for emergencies.

Apart from food, many of the supplies we need can be gathered from the local areas, such as coal.

As long as everyone is willing to work hard, I believe it won't be difficult to restore the coal mines. If we don't have enough labor, we can still use prisoners of war.

Give them a task, and if they can't complete it, they will starve. I believe they will compromise.

As for the other supplies, try to gather as much as you can. If it's not enough, think of a way to transport it from the country.

If you're worried about the situation getting out of control, then drive the local people to the other side, and it'll consume the enemy's supplies. "

Udino was just saying what everyone wanted to do, but didn't dare to do. Driving the local people away wasn't a big problem from a purely military point of view, but the political consequences were very serious.

This was the European continent, not a remote and remote colony. Once the French army drove out millions of local people, it would definitely cause public anger.

This was especially true for many small European countries. If the French could do this to Belgium and the Rhineland today, the same thing could happen to them tomorrow.

Whether it was out of sympathy or for their own safety, these small countries would definitely stand against France.

Patrice McMahon fell silent. From the start of the plan to eat the enemy, the end result would be the same whether they drove out the local people or not.

People were made of iron, and they would starve if they didn't eat. Without food, it would be impossible for the local people to stay even if they wanted to.

It was only a matter of time before they fled, and it was just a matter of direction. They definitely couldn't go to France. The refugees would either flee to Switzerland, the Netherlands, or go to the German Confederation.

The French army's action of driving out the local people was just to make all the refugees that could have gone to Switzerland and the Netherlands go to the German Confederation, increasing the pressure on the anti-French alliance.

They were all on the same side, and the French army could choose not to help the refugees, but the Allied Forces couldn't just sit by and do nothing.

No matter how big the anti-French alliance was, it would be more than they could handle with millions of mouths to feed.