Throughout the spring exercises, Weiss followed the news of the hostile elements nervously. In order to cope with all possible situations, the emergency response team has also canceled the leave and is on standby. From the point of view of ensuring the efficiency of the operation, this detachment was stationed in three places: Wallens, Somsonas, and Mason. Wallens is an industrial center in the north of Lorraine, supplying electricity to most of Lorraine and producing a large number of industrial products, which is considered the industrial sub-center of Lorraine. Mason, the capital of Lorraine, is its political, economic, and industrial center, where the supply of equipment and supplies for military exercises and the official exchange of information are brought together, making it an important target that could easily be targeted by the enemy. Situated between Wallens-Mason, Somsonas's strategic position is no longer what it once was, but it is also easy to attract hostile opposition, thanks to the concentration of high-tech factories in the Free Lorraine Canal Industrial Zone, as well as the new military-industrial production line of the Clumberg-Haisen plant. In addition, Somsonas is stationed with an agricultural and forestry aviation team, which is the most mobile force of the unofficial organization, which is conducive to the effect of civil-military cooperation and military-civilian joint defense.

However, until the curtain came down on the exercise, the hostile personnel never emerged from the darkness. Of course, there are two situations in this, one is that the enemy is afraid of the strict security of the Lorraine army and civilians, and does not dare to make a big move, and the other is that they are acting secretly and are not detected. Either way, we have finally made it through this very difficult period. The troops began to return to their respective stations. As one of the hosts, Weiss kept a close eye on the arrangements for the return of the troops, lest an accident occur at the last stage of the negligent stage, but fortunately the fears did not materialize. Just when the troops had largely withdrawn from Lorraine and life was about to return to its original state, he met again with the talented staff officer who had a wonderful confrontation in the wargame not long ago.

In the Mason liaison office of the 17th Defense Division, Colonel Ben-Timney, General Fries, and Weiss sat at a very ordinary tea table, drinking very ordinary tea and chatting about some very ordinary topics. Halfway through the tea, Ben Timney shifted from small talk to the point: he had invited the two of them together before he left to discuss some military topics, General Fries's rich experience in command and management of front-line troops, and Chief Clumber-Heisen's rich military experience, as well as the rare experience of guerrilla command, and a rising star in the political world, he felt that he could play a good role in discussing topics with the two.

Foreshadowing and compliments add up to more than half an hour, which is the daily style of a staff officer? Weiss muttered inwardly. Of course, he is still full of reverence in his heart for this genius staff officer who can beat him in the war game, but this reverence has a subtle contradiction with his overly ordinary appearance and temperament, which makes him always feel a little uncomfortable.

"What I'm going to talk about today is about the tactical theory I mentioned earlier." When Colonel Ben Timney said this, his eyes were fixed on Weiss. Thanks to the fact that he had read a lot of military books and magazines about World War II in his spare time, Weiss was able to speak more deeply about the blitzkrieg than the people around him, and in accordance with the laws of battlefield practice, the previous two conversations with Colonel Ben-Timney had already caught his attention through this communication.

Presumably, this spring conference has gained something and found new problems. Weiss said in his heart.

Ben Timney really said: "To tell you the truth, we encountered some problems that we could not get around during the big exercise that just ended, and I felt that there were many insurmountable obstacles in practice in the theory that was perfect on paper. ”

Having not personally participated in the spring convention exercises, Weiss had to assume a posture of listening to Colonel Ben Timney. Freese was an eyewitness to the exercise, but he was limited by his role and was clearly not as tall as the General Staff.

Because so many aspects of the Grand Exercise were classified, Colonel Ben Timney was only able to give a general overview of the process, focusing on personal views. The purpose of the spring exercise was to test the assault capability of mechanized troops and to study how to conduct an active defense, the shoulder strap said. In the steppes of the southwestern part of the Federal State of Nachâtar, the attacking troops showed strong attack power in ground operations, interspersed with various tactics such as encirclement and division to defeat the exercise troops acting as the defenders, while in the mountains and forests northwest of Lorraine, the attacking side imitated the tactical routines of the Norman army in the last major battle, adopted the tactics of ground advance and air jumping, and launched an attack in a more three-dimensional mechanized way, which also beat the defenders to a great extent. This seems to confirm Colonel Ben-Timney's blitzkrieg theory, but due to the institutional constraints of the Federation, it is unlikely that they will actively play the role of the attacking side in the war. In the event of a war with the Norman Empire, the first task of the Union army is to withstand the enemy's three-plank axe, wait for the situation to settle down, and then launch a defensive counterattack before entering the enemy's hinterland. At that stage, there was a chance to show the theory of this blitzkrieg. So, the current focus of the Federal Staff is on how to defend against blitzkrieg, and this is the real core of Colonel Ben-Timney's military research project.

"The most direct and effective way to deal with a blitzkrieg is to use the depth of the battlefield to gradually weaken the attacker's offensive, but according to the calculations of this exercise, the enemy, with sufficient preparations, may cross the entire Federation from the north, penetrate all our defensive lines to Liberty City, and even our eastern coast. Neither the defensive lines built on rivers, lakes or mountains, nor the strong fortifications built on the plains could stop the powerful assault of mechanized troops...... Once the Norman Empire's military and political power was truly secured, they were likely to unleash this terrible offensive frenzy. ”

When Colonel Ben Timney had said this, Weiss felt that the man in front of him seemed to be a fake Colonel Ben Timney, for from his extremely calm and wise performance in wargames, no problem could stop him. As long as he is given two chances, no matter how many wargames he plays, it will be difficult to take victory from him. is such a super boring character, how can he be discouraged by the spring drill directed by himself? With such doubts, Weiss thought carefully.

During this time, General Fries talked about his views on Blitzkrieg, and he believed that some inferences exaggerated the attacker's ability to surprise and fight, especially the ability to sustain operations, because the territory of the Federation was so vast that once the layout line in the Federation exceeded 1,000 miles, the supply efficiency of the invaders would be greatly reduced.

"As we are currently carrying out in the reform of the military mobilization system, as long as the enemy dares to invade the Federation, wherever they are, they will be surrounded by many times as many resisters as them, and they will no longer be the unarmed protesters, but real armed resistance, organized and prepared guerrillas. In such a situation, having such a brilliant guerrilla commander as Chief Clumberg-Hasen would certainly make the enemy suffer terribly. General Fries analyzed it with confidence.

"Guerrilla warfare does not mean that it cannot be the main battlefield of war, but it also means a near-complete defeat on the frontal battlefield, and it means that the inhabitants of enemy-occupied areas will endure untold suffering, and it is better not to have such a situation unless absolutely necessary." Weiss pondered and came up with the conclusion that he had already reached in the last war: the cost of guerrilla warfare was far greater than that of the frontal battlefield.

Immediately afterwards, he put his gaze on Colonel Ben-Timney's face and met him: "Judging purely from the chessboard of the battle situation, the tactics of a rapid counterattack with concentrated mechanized forces seem to be impeccable...... As long as the strength is strong enough and the command is correct, there is no doubt about victory. In this case, the strategy to break the game should be to jump out of this game of chess. To put it simply, there are two response strategies, one is mobile warfare versus mobile warfare. When the enemy's high-speed attack is interspersed, our mechanized troops will find the enemy's weak underbelly accordingly and attack, or collide with it head-on to determine the victory. This requires us to also have sufficiently powerful mechanized troops and correct tactical strategies. The second channel is that we continue to hold on, but at the same time try to destroy the enemy's lines of communication and the industrial resources in the rear, which requires us to build up extremely powerful air forces, seize air supremacy at the beginning of the war, disintegrate the enemy's ground attack with sustained and fierce attacks, and attack the enemy's heavy industrial areas with long-range strength with long distances. In other words, to deal with blitzkrieg, you must have an elite combat force that is more determined and decisive than the attacking side, or to gain an overwhelming advantage on the ground or in the air, otherwise once you enter the rhythm that the opponent is good at, you must pay huge sacrifices if you want to turn the tide of battle. ”

After saying this, Weiss paused for a moment: "Strictly speaking, there is a third way, that is, to cede most of the territory to the other side, use guerrilla warfare to consume and delay the enemy's troops, gather our own elite in the farthest place from the enemy's territory, and wait for the enemy to continue to wear down in the vast occupied area, seize the opportunity, and launch a counterattack." This is somewhat similar to our strategy in the middle and late stages of the last war, it is strategically feasible, but the biggest drawback is that it will cause huge casualties among innocent civilians. ”

Colonel Ben-Timney, apparently listened to Weiss's analysis and suggestion, nodded his head repeatedly, and then said: "Of the three paths you have listed, I agree with you, and the third should not be adopted unless it is possible, because it would be too heavy a burden on the whole country and the people." The second is what the Air Force School of Education, and I don't object to it, but that's not what I'm good at. What I'm really interested in is what you call the first path, which is the duel between the mech and the machine. In the exercise that has just ended, I equipped the defender with roughly half the mechanized force of the attacker. I've always thought that a defender with home advantage can stand up to the attacker with a good strategy, but the only two confrontations ended in defeat for the defender due to the attacker's concentrated use of mechanized forces. This reminds me of the fierce battles between cavalry in the Cold Weapon era, which were the decisive force on the battlefield at certain times - a victory for cavalry was a victory for the battle, and a defeat for the cavalry was a defeat for the battle. Even if the defending side holds the city against the enemy's attack, the superior cavalry unit will always be able to cut off the defender's supply, turn their city into a lonely place, a dead place, and eventually fall, and in modern battles, mechanized troops can also do what the cavalry troops did back then. ”

After a pause, the genius staff officer said with a serious expression: "I am an army school, and I have to think about how to control the battle with ground operations when the flying unit cannot have an advantage, and even how to turn the tide when the flying unit is at a disadvantage...... These are all things I need to consider. ”

This consideration certainly has a point-of-the-art connotation, but it is also a situation that needs to be dealt with in war, because no one can guarantee that the battle in the air will go as expected. Simply counting on the flight units to be able to master the situation is neither reliable nor responsible. Weiss bowed slightly: "I understand your concerns, this does need to be considered." Maybe at the tactical level we can't find the key to breaking the game, and at the technical level, there is a key that is shining in the dark. ”

Hearing this analogy, Colonel Ben-Timney hesitated for a moment, and then his eyes lit up: "Yes, you are a genius in the field of military industry, and your judgment and grasp of the development trend of technology are incomparable to those of us staff officers. ”

Weiss smiled slightly and said, "Assuming that the dispatch of the flying troops is hindered in the season when there is a lot of rain and fog, the war will still continue. Our chariot units launch a surprise attack on the enemy, encountering both sides on the plains or in the hills - a situation that was relatively common in the last war. Excluding the air factor, what determines the victory or defeat of the ground forces? In the past, it was determined by the skill of the commander, the skill of the soldiers, the teamwork, and the unpredictable factor of luck, but in the age of mechanization, the performance of weapons, like the power of cavalry at that particular period, as you just mentioned, gradually became the decisive force on the battlefield. This meant that we needed to design and build mechanized weapons that were better than the enemy, and at the heart of that was the armored and cannon-clad chariots that were the cavalry of this era. ”

Seeing that Colonel Ben-Timney was lost in thought, Weiss slowed down slightly: "We must at least ensure that our vehicles are on par with the enemy's performance, and if possible, we should maintain the advantage as much as possible." I believe that the miraculous reversal of the last war was due to our leading position in the performance of combat aircraft, thanks to those brave pioneers. Nowadays, in addition to the continuous development of aircraft technology, combat vehicle technology is also an area that the military needs to pay attention to. We must not only have combat vehicles that are not inferior to our opponents, but also have soldiers who can control them, technical and tactical conditions that can form teamwork, and make good use of radio tools to make them an auxiliary enhancement of tactical power. ”

The genius staff officer pondered for a while, and suddenly looked up at Weiss: "You really don't think about returning to the Delefig Senior Staff Academy?" I think you can graduate early and then we work on tactical theory together, and I believe that there will always be something to achieve...... At least it can be remembered in the history of the Academy! ”

After saying this, he suddenly remembered something, smiled and shook his head: "Compared with boring theoretical research, the governor is a more challenging job!" ”