At the beginning of a new day, heavy snow is still flying all over the sky. Generally speaking, in such weather, neither the coalition nor the French will launch an attack.

Captain Hoeger, who was patrolling, dared not take it lightly. If there was no large-scale attack, it would not mean that a small-scale attack would not happen.

The 25th Division where Captain Hoeger was located was attacked seven times by the French army in just half a month, causing hundreds of casualties.

Of course, the coalition forces also organized many retaliatory counterattacks. In general, they were both victorious and defeated each other, and the Austrian army took a little advantage.

In the face of the biting cold wind, Captain Hoeger sneezes, and an unknown premonition arose.

"Everyone cheered me up and be careful of being shot by the French."

The battlefield is the best teacher, and the experience is slowly explored. I don’t know when the warring parties fell in love with the sniper game.

Four or five hundred meters away, three or five soldiers with good marksmanship were ambushed and sneak attacked the enemy's patrol team, without any timidity in the previous platoon.

Due to the accuracy of the gun, if you can hit more than 30% at a distance of 200 meters, you are all elite soldiers.

A distance of four or five hundred meters, except for the sharpshooter, ordinary soldiers rely entirely on luck and cannot effectively kill.

The ambush soldiers will fight if they can win, and if they can't win, they will run away. In recent times, most of the casualties of both sides of the war have been caused by this.

"Don't worry, Captain. The terrain here is flat, and you can't see the situation three or five miles away, and you can't hide anyone at all.

Look, there is a vast white area ahead, and it doesn’t seem like someone passing by, unless the French ambush into the snow in the middle of the night.”

The reply was a middle-aged veteran who was demobilized and returned to the army after the war broke out. From the eyes of everyone, it can be seen that his status in the patrol team is not low.

The army admires the strong, and being respected is naturally because of its ability. Here, it is no exception. The middle-aged veteran is respected because of his rich combat experience and has won military merits.

There are such veterans in almost all Austrian military companies, and the value of their existence is to impart battlefield experience.

Captain Hoeger took out the telescope, glanced at the front, and after confirming that there were no signs of pedestrians, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Ambush overnight does not exist. The temperature in the middle of the night is more than ten degrees below zero. In the snow and ice, there is no heating facilities, so it will be dead.

As for digging holes and setting up bunkers, it only exists in the magic drama. It is impossible in reality. Frost soil is not so easy to dig. How can it be dug out quietly overnight?

Just as he was about to put down his telescope, a figure suddenly appeared in the distance, and Captain Hoeger's expression suddenly became serious.

"Send a signal, the enemy appears."

The distance is too far, and you can only see a rough idea through the telescope. Although it is unreasonable for the French army to launch an attack in such weather, the battlefield is not a reasonable place.

Captain Hoeger went to military academy, and countless classic battle examples told him that classic battles were all based on breaking the rules to win.

It is not feasible in theory, and does not mean that it will not happen in reality. For the French army, launching an attack in ice and snow weather is certainly unfavorable, but it is not completely unfavorable.

In such ghost weather, Austrian airplanes and airships can only rest at home and do not need to worry about threats from heaven.

The patrol team's mission is to discover the enemy and report it in time. When they noticed the abnormal movement, Captain Hoeger naturally had to report it.

"Captain, are you sure it is the French army? It is not good for the French to launch an attack now. You must know that in such ghost weather, the casualties of soldiers will be very large!"

In normal times, soldiers are injured and when they collect the body in the evening, they can also take the wounded back for treatment.

This kind of ice and snow weather is different. The wounded were lying in the snow for several hours, and the wound had been frozen and had problems with the injury, which greatly reduced the possibility of recovery.

Anyone with a little bit of military knowledge knows that the wounded on the battlefield is usually several times that of the dead soldiers, or even more than ten times.

If these wounded people cannot be rescued, the war will be damaged all of a sudden. France is not a country with a large population, and they cannot bear such losses.

Hoeger shook his head: "Lt. Hans, do you think that in such a ghostly weather, in addition to the French, there are still people who will run towards us in groups?

Don’t forget that now is the war period. This is the battlefield where we fight against the French army. I think no normal person will be unable to think about it and run to die!"

There was no eyebrow on the battlefield, and there was no innocent in front of the two armies. They ran over to join in the fun, and they would die in vain if they died.

The residents nearby had already run away, and no one stayed and was bombed. Captain Hoeger directly ruled out the possibility that it was the people.

Hans' middle-aged man shook his head: "No, Captain. Don't forget that the mines in the Rhineland region have been closed, and after losing their livelihood, ordinary people can't hold on for long.

In this icy and snowy weather, it is difficult for the French to ensure their logistics, and it is impossible for them to provide relief.

Based on past experience, every war will produce a large number of refugees. For example, in the last Near East War, we created a large number of refugees for the Ottoman Empire."

It can be seen that Lieutenant Hans is not that he has strong analytical skills, but mainly because he has participated in it personally, and the impression in his mind is too deep.

There are ready-made success stories, and the French have no reason not to follow suit. As for the sequelae, this is what Lieutenant Hans can consider.

After hearing this explanation, Captain Hoeger gave up his plan to withdraw immediately. Anyway, the distance between the two sides is still far, so it doesn't matter if you stay for a while.

"Suspending the signal, the scouts will conduct observations over a kilometer, and first determine whether the team ahead is the French army."

The consequences are very serious if the refugees are mistakenly regarded as enemies and directly called them over with artillery, it would be another tragedy.

Captain Hoeger has a conscience and does not want to direct a tragedy himself.

...

At this moment, the senior leaders of the German and Austrian coalition forces gathered together.

Grand Duke Albrecht said with a cautious look: "Everyone, I just received news from the front line, and a wave of refugees is coming to us.

Unlike the scattered refugees before, the number of refugees this time may reach nearly 10 million, and we are under great pressure.

All signs indicate that this time the French are artificially creating famine and forcing the people to leave.

The French are now poor and have no way to defeat us on the battlefield, so they try to use this despicable means to drag us down."

The Austrian officers were fine, but the officers from Germany were furious, especially Leopold II, who attended the meeting, was even more panicked.

On the surface, a large number of refugees will consume coalition supplies and increase the logistical pressure on the anti-French alliance.

If we analyze it in a deeper way, this is the prelude to France's complete annexation of Belgium and the Rhineland region. No locals are left, so naturally there is no way to prevent the French from occupying these areas.

As long as the French government resettled a group of immigrants on it, it would complete the substantial annexation. Even after the war, European countries intervened together, there would be no way to restore Belgium, after all, all the French above were all over the country.

Similar routines were used during the period when Austria annexed the Ottoman Empire. When European governments reacted and wanted to intervene, the Ottomans had almost left.

This created a certain fact, and European countries had no way to send the Ottomans back from Russia. In the end, they could only watch Austria annex the Ottomans.

After reacting, Leopold II made a quick decision: "Marson, we must alleviate the refugees anyway."

There is no way, the basic foundation of Leopold II's rule over Belgium has now become refugees.

A country exists because of people, and only people have a country. If Leopold II wants to restore the country, he must protect these refugees.

Otherwise, after a famine, Belgium, which is already a small population, will be completely in ruins.

To help refugees, it is better to rely on Austria than to rely on the anti-French alliance.

There are many members of the anti-French alliance, but only Austria, the world's number one exporter of agricultural products, can produce so much food.

Grand Duke Albrecht nodded: "Of course, relieving refugees is what the alliance should do. However, how to remedy is a problem.

The total population of Belgium and the Rhineland region is more than 11 million. Even if the local population declines due to the war, it will not be less than 10 million.

Since the French have taken action, they will definitely not make small fuss. If nothing unexpected happens, we will receive about nine to ten million refugees.

It is not easy to solve the problem of eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and sleeping for so many people. It must be properly placed, otherwise there will be a big mess.

Fortunately, refugees did not come on the same day, and we can also evacuate the refugees."

"Evacuation" is obviously not as simple as it sounds. As the saying goes, evacuation is easy, but gathering is difficult. Once these refugees are scattered and resettled, it is not so easy to collect them back.

No matter what allies are or not, they can become one of the great powers, Austria will naturally not be a vegetarian.

With so much quality labor, it will be difficult for Austria to eat it and then let them vomit it out.

The word "leave and stay free" can block everyone's mouth and force everyone to suffer the loss.

Not to mention leaving everyone behind, it is still possible to leave half of the people behind. Only those who have experienced war know the value of peace.

Being a neighbor with France is too dangerous, and a small country like Belgium is too insecure. If you can get a better life in Austria, why should you leave?

This is based on the situation where Austria is shameless. If the Vienna government is kind-hearted and deliberately sets up some obstacles to prevent refugees from leaving, it will be even more troublesome.

Leopold II hurriedly opposed: "Marson, this is not good! As long as we win this war, refugees will still return home.

Considering everyone's local circumstances and the convenience of returning home in the future, I propose to establish a refugee camp nearby to resettle the refugees."

It is impossible not to jump out. The German Federation is a piece of sand. The Rhineland region does not belong to any state, and the representatives of the state present cannot stand out at all.

It does not involve its own interests. For representatives of various states, as long as Austria certainly contributes money and provides food to resettle these refugees, other issues are easy to discuss.

Grand Duke Albrecht shook his head: "Your Majesty. In principle, I support your proposal, but the problem is that we cannot do it at all.

Just to maintain the joint forces’ combat needs, the logistics pressure is already very great. Now it is impossible to increase nearly ten million refugees.

After all, refugees need to dress and eat. So many people only consume tens of thousands of tons of supplies every day, and we can't meet them at all.

If you don’t want to see a large number of refugees freeze and starve to death, the only way is to send them to the rear for scattered resettlement.

In fact, it is very stressful for us to disperse so many people in a short period of time."

I didn't know, but I was shocked when I calculated. I heard that I had to consume tens of thousands of tons of supplies every day, and everyone present was not calm.

Although not everyone's mathematics is very good and can be calculated immediately, everyone is sure that Grand Duke Albrecht cannot lie on this issue.

Leopold II's face darkened. He wanted to object deep down, but the cruel reality really made him desperate.

No matter how many reasons are, they are not as good as a set of cold numbers. If you cannot solve the material problem, you can only accept Austria's advice.

As for the future, we can only look forward to the person who is the Vienna Palace. Belgium now has lost the qualification to bargain.
Chapter completed!