Chapter 1020: Close the door and beat the dog
Hundreds of corpses of French soldiers were strewn across the narrow road. Most of them were killed by bullets and rockets before they had time to put up any decent resistance.
Because of this, even after breaking through Lamosilière three times in a row, he still didn't know how many enemy troops were blocking the road.
A tentative attack like this would normally not demoralize, but it was a major blow to the defenders who were forced to stay.
Looking at their comrades who left and returned, the eyes of the soldiers who were forced to stay behind were full of contempt.
They didn't believe that the enemy behind them could be more ferocious than the German allied forces in front of them. Look at the ruins and the mountains of corpses and seas of blood. They were really a group of guys who didn't know their blessings despite being blessed.
General Gein's soldiers looked at the so-called main force with contempt and jealousy.
"Why are we the ones in the rear?"
Finally, a veteran spoke out what everyone felt, and this sentence was like a branding iron, branded into the hearts of the soldiers behind the scenes.
"We fought for our country and passed through countless battlefields. Our boots were stained with the soil of different countries. Every time, we charged forward as generals and achieved glorious victories for France again and again.
but why? When the retreat horn sounds, are we, the most loyal and brave soldiers, the last to leave the battlefield? Why?
While we were still fighting bloody battles for our country, those young people were still playing in the mud in the fields!
We used rifles with smooth rifling, ate biscuits that had been stored for decades, our clothes were in tatters, and our shoes were worn out.
And those recruits were armed with brand-new weapons, wearing bright uniforms and carefully polished leather shoes, and they had vegetables and cans every time!
When we were feeling melancholy because we were in arrears with our military pay for several months, they laughed at us for not being noble enough! But I don’t think it’s funny because without money our family would starve to death!
This is not fair! We don't deserve this! No one asked us if we wanted to, and that’s not democratic! We are required to obey orders and there is no freedom here!
Bros! We were lied to! "
(The recruits that veterans refer to are actually those military academy students and officers who used money to get into positions.
At this time, it is not unusual for countries to pay for military positions, especially for countries with poor financial conditions such as the Second French Republic. "Selling officials" can very well alleviate the financial crisis and the problem of insufficient officers. )
The veteran's words immediately resonated with the soldiers at the rear, and many people began to become angry. However, the French army's supervising team was not a vegetarian.
"No nonsense!"
The whipping made these veterans cry like ghosts, but General Gein, who stayed behind, felt the crisis.
We must know that military morale and morale are the most difficult things to grasp, and they are also the factors that are most likely to affect the combat effectiveness of the army.
An army with a strong will and high morale can often achieve amazing results despite strong enemies, while an army with a weak will and low morale can often create some more outrageous results or become the background of some legends.
For example, Fu Jian, who threw a whip to cut off the flow of water, led a million-strong army to conquer personally (according to another estimate, it was 1.12 million). However, he was so frightened by the words "The Qin army was defeated" that he laid down millions of corpses and blocked the Fei River.
(Fu Jian was the third monarch of the former Qin Dynasty during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.)
A similar example is the Yin-Jin battle between the Wei soldiers and the Qin army. The Qin army mobilized all the troops to face the first batch of Wei soldiers after Wu Qi's reform. There was a tenfold difference in strength, but the Qin army was still beaten violently.
Of course, General Guyon would not cite these classic Eastern battle examples. Lamosilière understood the former's concerns, but he really couldn't treat them equally. After all, he was a general and a bureaucrat.
Lamosilière knew that the most important thing he should do at this time was to lead the army to break out quickly. After all, General Guyon and the supervisory team were still there.
However, this was destined to be a war that would make him unhappy. The breakout troops were driven back again for the same reason as before: the enemy's powerful firepower.
In addition, they also brought back even worse news. The enemy troops were cutting down trees and carrying stones to set up roadblocks.
There is no doubt that the German Allied Forces want to trap the French army in Salburg, but Lamosierier still does not think that the Allied Forces have this ability.
After all, the number of blocking troops behind Salburg could not be too large, and the temporary positions made of wood and stones could not be called very strong. As long as he turned the artillery in the direction, all problems would be solved.
It's just that doing so will further anger the troops who stayed behind, but he can't control that much now.
The breakout troops supported by artillery immediately made progress, but frightened by the power of the opponent's rockets, they chose to establish strongholds on the periphery first and then break through the blockade bit by bit.
Lamosilière was furious when he learned of the situation.
"Damn it! You bunch of trash with no sense of honor! The Germans are coming. They will turn you into eunuchs and send you to the colonies, and let the niggas beat you one by one."
The huge shadow above the frontal battlefield shrouded the hearts of every French soldier, and the soldiers who were fighting on the ground suddenly stopped what they were doing.
A large number of UFOs suddenly appeared in the sky. They were neither birds, beasts nor clouds, but a group of huge monsters made of wood, ropes and cloth.
There are people in the belly of the giant monster, and those people look down at the tiny humans below like gods. The unyielding French soldiers aimed their guns at the behemoth in the sky, but all their efforts seemed so weak and ridiculous.
However, such disrespectful behavior seemed to offend the gods and monsters in the sky. Things with white smoke fell from the sky one after another, followed by violent explosions and miserable howls.
With the appearance of the airboat force, the morale of the French army finally collapsed completely. Ordinary soldiers have no idea what is flying in the sky. Is it a god? Or some kind of mythical monster?
They don't know, they just want to escape from here.
The officers were also shocked, but they were sure that what was in the sky was not some kind of monster, but some kind of man-made aircraft, the principle of which should be similar to that of a hot air balloon.
But those officers, like ordinary soldiers, were helpless in the face of these monsters. The soldiers had already done everything they could think of, and it proved to be in vain.
Panic immediately spread among the army. As the first soldier gave up his position and turned around to escape, soon the second, third, and more soldiers began to flee.
The officers had not yet recovered from the huge shock. After all, after being unable to think of a countermeasure, their first choice was to surrender, rather than continue to resist or continue to think.
Generally speaking, countries like Austria are relatively principled. Most of the time, officers and nobles can receive preferential treatment as long as they surrender, and at least they don't have to worry about their lives.
But those ordinary soldiers didn't think so. After all, in the long-term propaganda of the French government, the Austrians captured slaves and sent them to the territory of St. Stephen's Crown to work as serfs, or directly sold prisoners of war to Arabs, and even black chiefs. Something.