While the soldiers of the Ming army were fighting bloody battles, Li Xiao suddenly received a message.

Between Kursk and Kiev, troops are setting up defenses.

Could it be that... the French mobilized their reserves?

If this is the case, the plan to attack Kiev will undoubtedly be aborted.

The French are different from the Austro-Hungarian army. These people are well-trained and well-equipped, and even have certain anti-tank capabilities.

I believe that the success of the anti-tank in Svetoyar will allow them to put more anti-aircraft guns on the battlefield.

Until now, there has been no way to effectively deal with the 88mm anti-aircraft gun.

Even the latest Type IV tank has front armor that is not enough to withstand the bombardment of the 88-gun.

"The French don't seem to have that many reserves. They have to deal with the defense of southern France and the Tsaritsyn battlefield.

Where did they get so many reserves? Could they be the Prussian army?"

Stewie was a little confused. Logically speaking, the French should not have so many troops.

"When I got back to the chief of staff, it was the Israeli army."

"Israeli Army?"

After hearing the news, Li Xiao and Shi Dewei ate at the same time.

Although I had long guessed that the Israelis would not watch this war, I did not expect that they would join the war at this time.

Li Xiao felt that the Israelis would only join the war to get a share of the war after the French captured Tsaritsyn with heavy casualties and the war situation became clear.

But I didn't expect that they would join the war so early.

"Damn the Israelis, we should have completely destroyed them from the beginning."

"At that time, did we have as many soldiers as we do now?" Stewie said coldly.

Li Xiao looked a little embarrassed because he was the one who advocated letting the Israelis go.

The Ming Dynasty suffered a loss because it was too late to mobilize for the war. If a large-scale recruitment of soldiers had begun a year ago, the total number of Ming troops would have been expanded to more than three million.

There would be no situation like today, where troops are stretched thin and people are lacking everywhere.

For the troops in the rear, once a group of troops are trained and reach the front line, they will suffer a group of casualties.

In fact, it has become a fueling tactic.

Since the Ming Dynasty began to participate in the war last year, the cumulative casualties of the Ming Dynasty army have reached more than 200,000.

The Ming army had never fought such a brutal battle in previous battles.

From the Middle East to Russia, the Ming Dynasty poured in millions of troops, but there was still a shortage of men everywhere.

There is no way, the area to be controlled is too big.

The Middle East, which can gradually mobilize its troops, can only mobilize 300,000 people.

It is really not easy for the remaining 200,000 people to control the vast land from Egypt to Basra and ensure the security of the Suez Canal Zone.

These 300,000 people are still Marine Corps, and the landing operations can be successful. However, they lack heavy weapons and are destined to be unable to conduct large-scale battles like the Army.

Moreover, these 300,000 people cannot be withdrawn at once, otherwise a power vacuum will be formed in the Middle East.

This is also the reason why Li Xiu did not carry out the Corsica landing operation after he captured Sicily.

So now the question arises, will the Marines drawn from the Middle East land in Israel or continue to invest in France?

"Commander, the intelligence came from the Third Division of the General Staff." The intelligence officer ran over panting and handed Li Xiao an encrypted intelligence.

"Oh!" Li Xiao took the folder, opened it, took a look, and immediately frowned.

"What's wrong?" Shi Dewei rarely saw Li Xiao's expression. He felt a little strange, what could make the commander like this.

“The British developed the technology of coalified oil, and the first batch has produced 100 tons.

Now Prussia and France are building factories, and... Israel has already built a factory.

Last month, 70 tons of gasoline were produced.

As the technology matures, output will increase.

In other words, the ships in Sevastopol Port have oil again and can start sailing again.

The coalition airships also have fuel again.

The more airships can operate at full capacity, the more efficient their transportation will be.

With oil, their internal combustion engine locomotives can also run. Trains can pull more wagons!

Transportation efficiency is greatly improved!

The battle is hard to fight!"

Li Xiao sighed.

I originally thought that as long as we cut off the channels through which European countries obtain oil, we would be able to choke them.

Let their diesel engines, gasoline engines, and all kinds of machinery return to the steam engine era.

But I didn't expect that the Europeans would find another way to create coal-fired oil.

Li Xiao had heard of this technology, which uses coal with a high caloric content to refine it to obtain gasoline and diesel.

Industrially, this kind of refining is very uneconomical.

Although the refined gasoline and diesel are very close to gasoline and diesel from petroleum products, the cost is much higher.

But when things have reached this point, no one will consider the cost issue anymore.

As long as there is oil, the airships in the sky can fly again and the diesel locomotives on the ground can start running again.

The monarchs of European countries are willing to bear the cost of allowing the warships in the port to move again.

They were even willing to use gold to buy Ming Dynasty's smuggled oil.

Although the cost of coal-fired oil is high, it is still cheaper than exchanging gold for oil.

"Then we have to attack Sevastopol and kill the Israeli industrial base.

Make it impossible for them to continue the war!"

"Things are not that simple. Today's Sevastopol is not something you can fight if you want to.

The second brother's fleet is far away in Sicily and is planning to capture Napoleon's hometown of Corsica.

Then, use Corsica as a base to attack Marseille, or Toulouse or Monaco in southern France.

A part of the French army was restrained from going far to the Russian battlefield.

If the second fleet is transferred back now, Sicily may not be able to be saved. The French army will be able to free up its hands and continue to increase its troops on the eastern battlefield.

Our pressure will be even greater!”

"Then...!" Shi Dewei had already heard what Li Xiao meant.

Li Xiao did not plan to transfer Li Xiu over to attack Sevastopol.

This is easy to understand, as the Israeli fleet is still strong.

Nothing was done before because the fleet could not leave the port due to lack of fuel.

Now there is coal-fired oil, and Israel probably obtained coal-fired oil technology from the British beforehand.

While Europe was still building factories, they could already produce refined oil.

With oil, the battlefield becomes completely different.

In addition to its armor advantage, the Ming Dynasty also had the advantage of aircraft, but its other advantages were slowly diminishing.

"Don't be discouraged, we just won the battle.

The hundreds of thousands of coalition troops in the Kursk encirclement are being gradually eliminated. Now we have captured more than 300,000 prisoners alone!

The British even surrendered without firing a shot.

At this time, we don’t need to be discouraged.”

After glancing at the people in the headquarters, Li Xiao said again: "

The population of Europe as a whole is now a little over 500 million, and almost all of them are participating in the war.

In other words, our Ming Dynasty has to fight Europe with a population of 500 million.

There are only 23 million Russians standing on our side.

But behind us, there are also 400 million people of the Ming Dynasty. There are also vassal states with a population of 200 million!

Our Ming army now has less than two million soldiers in total.

In other words, two hundred people in the Ming Dynasty supported one soldier.

But look at Europeans, there are small countries everywhere.

Denmark and Norway in the north are small countries with a population of only a few million people.

They actually sent 200,000 troops to join the battle!

How many people do they have to support one soldier?

Thirty to one, forty to one.

Think about it carefully, can we stand it or can they?"

Li Xiao's words caused whispers among the staff.

The commander-in-chief is right, although judging from the strength of the frontline troops, the coalition forces have the advantage.

But this advantage was gained at the expense of rear production. If this situation continues, the final result will definitely be economic collapse.

In the Ming Dynasty, because one soldier was supported by two hundred people, even if the war continued, the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's national power would not be shaken.
Chapter completed!