Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 75: The Empire’s Dilemma

In response to Ryan's explanation, neither Schubert, who had been prepared, nor Hellingen, who was encountering the concept of this force for the first time, spoke immediately.

The two generals of the Seventh Army were silent for a long time, seemingly thinking about the feasibility and scalability of the arguments put forward by Ryan.

But just like the current situation of the empire, apart from thinking, they rarely have the opportunity to speak up.

This is not to say that Ryan's plans are difficult to implement.

On the contrary, it was precisely because the plans proposed by Lane were too simple that both Heringen and Schubert had to think in a complicated direction.

They are generals, not front-line officers. Every change to the troops needs to be carefully considered and pondered thousands of times, because if they make even the slightest mistake, it is very likely that the entire army will fall into an unprecedented crisis.

But the problem is.

The price offered by Ryan was too tempting.

Not to mention Schubert, who had long accepted the idea of ​​using trucks to tow artillery for movement, but the term "breakthrough the trenches" that Hellingen heard from Ryan was enough to make this battle-hardened army commander understand how tempting what Ryan said was.

On the front line in Lorraine, the Imperial Army is currently engaged in a tug-of-war with the Far Eastern Army stationed on the Verdun defense line, with the battle being fought in centimeters.

The Farlan infantry was unable to break through the front line due to the suppression of the Imperial Army's machine gun fire points, and the Empire was forced to be in a passive defensive state due to insufficient manpower and the hasty battle.

As time went by, the form of warfare immediately changed from the previous line infantry tactics to the direction of digging trenches widely and squatting in the field.

What's even more terrible is that because Farlan's goal is to attack forward with their backs to the friendly defense line, they need to ensure that they can advance a certain distance every day.

The Empire had no strategic locations to defend, so after receiving orders, the troops could only quickly dig trenches on the front line to create an artificial environment for themselves to hold the front line.

With the superposition of the two, what appeared on the front battlefield were two trenches developed along the border between Farland and the Empire, stretching hundreds of kilometers from south to north, but with a distance of no more than a hundred meters between them.

Every day, the Farlans would try to gather troops to break through the Empire's fire blockade, and every day the Empire had to nervously deal with the Farlans' fearless and fierce attacks.

just now.

Ryan, a young man who had just been promoted to captain and received the Blue Star Max Medal a few days ago, casually proposed an excellent plan to deal with trench warfare.

Hellingen almost subconsciously wanted to deny Ryan's opinion, but after inspecting the front line for a week, he knew very well that the mechanized troops proposed by Ryan were exactly the weapons that the Empire and the Farlans most wanted to master.

In the office building, which was exceptionally cool because it was hidden in the shadow of the church, Hellingen pondered for a long time and finally looked at Schubert.

"What do you think?" asked Hellingen.

Schubert didn't expect Hellingen to come to him, so he didn't think much about it and just said what he really thought: "It's feasible."

"Using a tracked tractor to transport artillery may present some problems, but it clearly doesn't require the artillery to have long-range firing capabilities... At most, a five-kilometer range would be required. This would reduce the artillery's tonnage to one-tenth of its current capacity, while still delivering the same destructive power."

Schubert was completely immersed in the idea of ​​self-propelled artillery that Ryan had just proposed. His eyes were fixed on the truck model with a pen on the table. A few bloodshot eyes dyed a touch of red.

"But as for the troop carrier aspect, I don't quite understand."

Schubert was an artillery general, and he really didn't understand infantry matters. Hellingen and Ryan were both very clear about this. This made Hellingen subconsciously look at Ryan.

This young man, whom he had only met a few times, had already achieved achievements that would be remembered by him for the rest of his life.

"Captain."

Hellingen looked at Ryan, his beard trembling slightly, and a little cigar smoke rose from underneath and eventually dissipated in the air.

"Why do you have such an idea?" Hellingen's tone was very confused. The expression he gave Ryan was just like his tone: "This shouldn't be a theory you came up with on a whim, right?"

His question made Ryan stunned.

Ryan looked at him and thought, I can't tell you that my family has played the same game you guys played twice before, and tens of millions of people died.

But the question still needs to be answered.

After a brief thought, Ryan decided to attribute this idea to his own judgment of the battlefield situation.

"This is definitely not something I came up with on a whim."

His voice was calm and unhurried, and it sounded like he was telling a story.

"This war was launched very suddenly. Both the Empire and Farlan were caught in a dilemma because of the hasty battle."

"Considering the fighting that has taken place on the front lines during this period, I personally believe that if this battle cannot be concluded within 40 days as Marshal Schlieffen envisioned, the Central Army in the north will be completely mired in the quagmire of war."

"The trenches currently being used by the Empire and Farlan will likely be the main battlefields for years to come."

Helingen held a cigar in one hand, his eyes fixed on the paper in front of him. His expression was hidden in his shadow, making it difficult to see clearly: "Tell me more."

"Yes."

Ryan raised his head and made his voice louder.

"Although Field Marshal Schlieffen's battle plan stated that Farland needed to be destroyed within 40 days, many officers overlooked the most important point: why was it days?"

"According to Marshal Schlieffen, the reason the time was forty days was entirely due to the existence of the Russian Empire on the eastern side of the empire."

"As one of the empire's greatest imaginary enemies, the Russian Empire, despite its low industrial level and slow mobilization speed, still retains slavery and can still assemble a large-scale army in a short period of time. The estimated mobilization time for this army is 40 days."

"Therefore, if the Empire loses the opportunity to quickly resolve the war with Farlan, the Russian Empire will inevitably choose to declare war on the Empire."

"The Empire would then be caught in the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, relying solely on the forces at hand, and completely unable to defeat the invading forces on either the eastern or western sides."

"Based on this, the Empire will inevitably be forced into a defensive battle, no, a stalemate, on two long and narrow fronts due to its lack of combat power."

(End of this chapter)