Chapter 446: Poverty and low aspirations, Britain bows its head

Chapter 446: Poverty and low aspirations, Britain bows its head

Chapter 446: Poverty and low aspirations, Britain bows its head

"First, artillery is the most important. On the fiercest day of the Battle of the Somme, 60,000 British soldiers were killed, of which 40,000 were killed by artillery fire."

"The German losses were greater than the British losses, mainly due to the British artillery carpet bombardment."

"In just one week of fighting on the Somme, the British and French forces fired 210 million rounds of artillery shells."

"The Huai Army Reserve needs to train more qualified gunners. In possible large-scale battles in the future, more artillery will be needed."

"We need more heavy artillery. Heavy artillery is the god of war."

"Second, we don't have enough staff officers. We suggest expanding the number of students admitted to the Baoding Military Academy. We need to reserve a sufficient number of staff officers. A one million-man army requires at least several thousand staff officers."

"An army without qualified staff to dispatch and command it is a disaster for the soldiers, and will cause a large number of unnecessary casualties among excellent soldiers."

“Third, machine guns are the second leading cause of battlefield casualties, but it is not enough to simply place machine guns and rapid-fire guns in the firing line.”

"The German front-line machine gun fire points were all destroyed by the British army's crazy artillery bombardment in the first place. But the British rear-line troops were hit by long-range shooting from Maxim machine guns, which accounted for one-third of the total casualties."

"According to analysis, the Germans used projectile fire, which caused much greater casualties than direct fire within line of sight and exceeded long-range artillery fire."

"It is recommended to consult the German General Staff for details. This is an advanced tactic that our army has not mastered before."

"Fourth, the coordinated deployment of mechanized transport capacity and logistics is extremely important. Otherwise, the needs of the front line cannot be met at all, which will greatly reduce combat effectiveness."

"In addition to logistics geniuses like Shao Yuan, we also need more logistics advisors with professional knowledge and understanding of the front lines."

"Fifth, the barrage tactics during the attack are very effective, but without timely communication and observation balloons, it will cause huge casualties to our side."

"We need to advance the research and development of instant communication technology on the battlefield, or safe high-altitude observation technology, such as airships staying at high altitudes. This may require a higher-power telescope. The flag communication between airships and the ground is also too cumbersome. Please consider this in the rear."

"Sixth, tanks are not suitable for large-scale trench warfare. The German tanks have been transferred to the Eastern Front."

"If our future operations are planned to be carried out in areas with dense railway networks, we may not need many tank divisions. Artillery is more important than tanks."

……

This is the military observation report sent back by Shao Quanyi from the Somme River front line.

In the second bamboo house in Qiao Garden, Shao Quanzhong, Grant and Emery carefully studied the first-hand information from the battlefield. Shao Quanzhong was very moved.

Quan Yi has grown up, and even has his own unique views on the art of war. Military gods are all made on the battlefield, and of course, the genes of the old Shao family are not bad.

In a previous life, I had been misled by rumors and believed that the casualties on the Somme were mainly caused by machine guns.

Machine guns are indeed important, but it turns out that cannons are more important.

"Isabel, call Maria to act as an interpreter and connect me to Moltke's call."

Moltke, who was in Berlin, was surprised to receive intelligence about the Somme front from Shao Quanzhong. He himself didn't even know the German army's new use of Maxim.

An hour later, Moltke called back.

"Shao, you are really very capable. An ordinary machine gunner on our front line had a sudden idea and raised the muzzle of the Maxim gun by one foot and fired, achieving unexpected results. Schlieffen's report to me hasn't come yet, but you already knew it."

"Shao, we need more artillery shells. Don't stop supplying them from the Bulgarian railway. Double the quantity. Long live the friendship between China and Germany!"

"Mr. Earl, we need new, higher-power telescopes. When the airship returns, please send a few senior optical technicians over."

"No problem. I will immediately transfer the technical staff and senior technicians of Leica to Hailing."

Don't get too close to the Germans? Joke.

Big brother Britain, when did you become as honest to China as the Germans? You were always reluctant when asked for spring steel technology, but Moltke gave us whatever he asked for.

Now, the British big brother may be too busy to take care of Daxia. I, Shao Quanzhong, may still be polite to you, but I don't have to bend so low like before.

"Report: Britain and Germany had a large-scale naval battle near the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark in the North Sea. Both sides claimed victory, but the end result was that Britain blockaded Germany's North Sea ports."

Let's take a look at the detailed report. Well, since the Saxony-class ironclad ships of the Zhanjiang Shipyard were all distributed to Germany by Shao Quanzhong, and Germany's own efforts at the Vulcan Shipyard, Germany's number of medium and large ironclad ships of about 7,000 tons exceeded that of Britain.

In the naval battle, the German Navy gained a local advantage, sank 113,000 tons of British battleships, and lost 63,000 tons of its own, seemingly winning.

However, Britain's navy was huge and powerful, and after the war it still had the power to blockade the North Sea. The Germans lost 60,000 tons of warships, ahem, all the large ironclad ships were used up.

It’s not that the German Navy is incapable of fighting, it’s just that its financial resources are not as good as theirs.

This was good news for Shao Quanzhong, as the American transport ships could no longer go to German ports. Ren Jun reported that Germany had doubled its arms purchases from the Haoguozi Company.

Wang Yongxian followed up, and the orders for German civilian supplies tripled. A large number of orders for handicrafts and simple arms were also placed in the north, such as leather goods, military uniforms, bayonets, bullets, steel...

…………In Buckingham Palace, Queen Victoria is summoning Prime Minister Disraeli and Hurd who has just returned home.

"My dear ministers, I heard from the military that Daxia has been sending arms and food to Germany through Bulgaria. I want to impose sanctions on Daxia..."

"No, absolutely not!"

Disraeli hurriedly stopped the British emperor's idea.

Disraeli's hairline receded, leaving only a tuft of hair on his forehead, basically styling like Red Boy in Journey to the West, which looked very funny.

This is a symbol of wisdom. The Prime Minister was originally a novelist. He stayed up late to write for a long time, so it is difficult to maintain the amount of hair.

Disraeli went bankrupt when he ran a mine in his early years, and had to write to pay off his debts. He was extremely depressed because his novel "Vivian Gray" involved politics and was blocked by the government.

In a fit of rage, he entered politics and worked his way up to become the leader of the Conservative Party, prime minister, and then a government official himself, finally getting rid of his anger.

"Your Majesty, our factories have now switched to producing military products. All civilian products need to be imported from Daxia and Meiyi. Once sanctions are imposed on Daxia and we lose their cheap daily necessities, prices in London will skyrocket."

"Can't we import all our daily necessities from the Americans?"

"No, the goods of the United States are much more expensive than those of Daxia, and Daxia has 400 million cheap laborers."

"Our funds are tight now, and we have to consider saving money."

"Because of the money-eating beast of war, we have spent 40 billion pounds on military expenditure in the past two years."

"At the same time, in order to allow France, which had just paid off its reparations to Germany, to hold on and to allow Italy and Russia to join the war, we lent 15 billion pounds to the three countries, of which Russia borrowed 7.57 million."

"We have spent all our surpluses from previous years and issued 19 billion pounds of bonds, which will take 90 years to pay off. At the same time, we have borrowed 12 billion pounds of foreign debt from American bankers..."

Well, originally the Americans owed Britain more than 400 million pounds, but now Britain owes the Americans 800 million. Queen Victoria has become the world's largest debtor.

"Besides, Your Majesty, please see——"

"This is a report from the military industry department. Our technicians have successfully replicated Daxia's airship, but the M18 submachine gun cannot be mass-produced."

"Its processing precision requirements are too high, and we don't have that many senior technicians."

"Why can Daxia do it?"

"They have 400 million people. In addition, we suspect that they have developed more advanced cutting tools for machine tools. Thanks to the aid from Germany, the United States, France, and Austria, they have surpassed us in the field of military high technology."

"besides--"

Disraeli took out the latest Somme battle report, "In the past week, our generals have used up all their shells, and our domestic production can no longer supply them."

"Twenty cannons on the front line exploded due to the unstable performance of picric acid explosives, and an arsenal exploded, causing huge losses."

"The French have also reported the same problem. We urgently need the safe high explosives technology that Daxia obtained from the Germans."

"At the same time, the generals suggested importing arms from Daxia to make up for the lack of local production."

When people are poor, they have low aspirations. Queen Victoria suddenly became kind and said, "Shao is our relative. Why don't we talk to him about getting the technology?"

"Well - there's a saying in China that brothers should settle accounts clearly, so we have to give corresponding feedback..."

The Queen looked at Hurd and said, "My Lord, do you know what China wants now? By the way, money doesn't count."

Well, Your Majesty does not want to be burdened with debts that cannot be repaid in your lifetime.

"Your Majesty, there are——"

…………

On December 1875, 12, Bactria and Britain signed a new business agreement, under which Bactria transferred TNT technology to Britain for free and exported large quantities of artillery shells in the tens of millions and bullets in the hundreds of millions to Britain at low prices.

At the same time, Haoguozi Company accepted a large number of orders for submachine guns from the UK. Because these were high-tech products, the prices were doubled and there was no price reduction.

For this reason, Britain had no choice but to borrow more money from the Americans and take on more debts...

Once a war begins, it cannot be ended just because someone wants it to. Britain cannot bow to Germany. It has to grit its teeth and continue the war even if it has to sell everything it has.

Britain announced that it would return 23,000 cultural relics from the Old Summer Palace kept in the British Museum and expressed apologies for the war that took place fifteen years ago.

At the same time, all British concessions in Shanghai and the Huaxia vassal state were abolished, and all British troops stationed in the Huaxia vassal state were withdrawn.

(End of this chapter)