After France officially declared war on July 19, 1870, it was quite slow to act, and by the end of July, the French army had gathered about 220,000 people in eight armies on the border, with Napoleon III personally serving as commander-in-chief, and Marshal Loebouf as chief of the French army's general staff.

After the official declaration of war

The enthusiasm of the French residents is quite high, experienced veterans have responded to the government's mobilization to join the army, the French army has a high proportion of professional soldiers, strong military quality, many of whom have accompanied the colonial army to fight all over the world.

However, due to the lack of preparation for the hasty declaration of war, it was difficult to quickly commit a large number of troops to launch a military attack on the Kingdom of Prussia after the declaration of war.

On the other hand, the Kingdom of Prussia had already prepared everything, quietly gathering on the Prussian side of the Rhine, waiting for the French to step into this trap that had been set so long.

The Prussian army was personally commander-in-chief by Wilhelm I, and General Moltke was chief of the general staff.

According to the battle plan, the superior forces were to concentrate on Alsace and Lorraine, and try to annihilate the main French army on the Franco-Prussian border or drive it to the north of France, and then attack Paris.

The mobilization of the Prussian army was well planned, and the troops were transported quickly by rail, and the measures were effective in all aspects. By the end of July, the Prussian army had gathered about 470,000 men in three regiments and 1,584 artillery pieces on the border.

In terms of military strength alone

The Prussian army gathered more than twice as many troops as the French army, but never took the initiative to attack, but waited for the French to cross the border first to detonate the war, and then give the French a powerful taste.

The advantage of this was that the Kingdom of Prussia could occupy the moral high ground, and France could not stand on any pretext as an invading army.

This move can win the support of the majority of European countries and foreign powers, and they can attack and defend when they advance, and they can completely cope with it.

What the generals of the Prussian army could not have imagined was......

The planned French army moved too slowly, neither did the left nor the right, and only gathered 220,000 troops in ten days, which is also too funny, right?

After the Kingdom of Prussia declared war in France, the whole country immediately mobilized into a state of war, and the plans for the state of war that had been drawn up for a long time were put into practice one by one.

The armed militias from the towns and villages of the Kingdom of Prussia and the states quickly assembled into battalions and companies, gathered into larger divisions and regiments nearby, and received their numbers at the first time, and quickly drove to the established battlefield by train.

Regardless of the fact that the Kingdom of Prussia amassed 470,000 men on the banks of the Rhine, in fact there were no less than 500,000 reserve troops in the major cities.

After receiving the order of the General Staff Headquarters of the Prussian Army, they can take the trains that extend in all directions in the country to reinforce at any time, and all of them will arrive at the established positions within a week.

Thousands of calculations, I didn't count the collapse of France, and I didn't count the slow mobilization of the French army.

King William I of Prussia and others were in a hurry, and at least four or five times a day asked about the assembly of the French army, and a big bubble burst out of their mouths, and they had to get up in the middle of the night to ask once.

No way

The Kingdom of Prussia and the North German Confederation have concentrated a million troops to wait for the rest of the world, everything is ready here, and the French have gathered 220,000 troops over there, and there is no sign of a cross-border attack, can this not be in a hurry?

Why don't you hurry up?

The million-strong army was extremely expensive to eat and chew every day, and two ships of frozen meat were needed every day to ensure adequate nutrition and high pre-war conditions for the soldiers.

If we count the social forces mobilized for this, it will have to be multiplied several times.

It's the farming season

Millions of elite laborers (including war logistical support personnel in addition to the million-strong army) were pumped out to prepare for this war, and the fields were busy with women and children, and even children in their teens had to follow them to do farm work.

These days

All the pressure was concentrated on Wilhelm I, and after the convening of a military meeting of the General Staff, the Chief of Staff, General Moltke, had to adjust the strategic deployment.

The original battle plan of waiting for the French army to fully break through the Rhine and resolutely implement the counterattack was adjusted to;

As long as the French army crossed the border to attack, the Prussian army took the initiative to attack and annihilate the enemy, and burned the flames of war into France, actively seeking to annihilate or severely damage a part of the French field corps, so as to win a favorable war situation.

This is tantamount to overturning the overall operational plan carefully drawn up before the war, and changing "luring the enemy into depth" to "taking the initiative to attack," and the General Staff Headquarters of the Prussian Army has put the greatest pressure on this.

This is a blow

In order to increase the probability of defeating a strong opponent, the Kingdom of Prussia also borrowed several loans from the Tang Empire, totaling 120 million Tang yuan, for the preparation of war materials.

It can be said that the Kingdom of Prussia is very well prepared, more fully prepared than in the original history, and is able to burst out with more combat power.

It's a pity that the French don't cooperate!

According to the current movements of the French, the General Staff Headquarters of the Prussian Army judged the speed of troop mobilization;

If the French army mobilizes enough forces to launch a full-scale offensive, it will take at least a month to about 40 days, probably in mid-to-early September.

If you do that, you really can't sit still.

After waiting for so long, the Kingdom of Prussia could not hold out under huge logistical pressure.

Now the million-strong army of the Prussian army is well fed and well-fed, and the meat is suddenly seen, and the bread is freely made, but there is nothing to do in the barracks, and the family of the Prussian kingdom cannot stand such a hoho.

The huge amount of materials stored is consumed very quickly, and the money cannot be stopped like flowing water.

On 2 August 1870, the French finally moved, crossing the border between the two countries in the Saarbrücken area with three divisions, and first launched a tentative attack on the Prussian army.

However, the French did not carry out resolute combat operations, and only made some small contacts with the Prussian avant-garde units, and then withdrew after the exchange of fire.

The news came

The General Staff Headquarters of the Prussian Army was cheering, and William I's anxious expression for more than ten days finally eased, he held his stomach, touched the big fire bubble on his mouth with his hand because of anxiety, and said with a wave of his other hand;

"My valiant Prussian officers and soldiers;

The war which the evil French had imposed on us had broken out, and just now I received the latest news from the garrison of the Saarbrücken region;

The French brazenly crossed the border between the two countries and launched a war of aggression against the Kingdom of Prussia, and the war had already begun.

In the face of a strong enemy, the great and industrious German nation was plunged into an unprecedented crisis of war, and the enemy coveted our fertile lands and rich cities, and intended to conquer the great German nation by shameless military means.

In the face of this great existential crisis, I hope that the people of all Germany will unite and fight to the end, for the preservation of our traditional life, for the peace of our homeland, and for the continuation of the German race.

I will lead you in a desperate struggle against the French invaders until the last moment of your life.

Let us pick up the sword and fight to the end, long live the German nation, and the German iron-blooded spirit will never be extinguished......"

"Fight the French to the end, the German spirit will never be extinguished......"

"Long live the German nation to fight to the end!"

"War, war, we need war ......"

The angry Prussian army made a sonorous and powerful cry, the boundless barracks instantly boiled, and the invasion of the French army aroused the endless anger of the German nation, and they wanted to make a resolute counterattack.

Just one day apart

On August 4, 1870, the Prussian army crossed the border and stormed the French positions, and a large-scale fierce battle between the two sides began.

On a golden field that has just been harvested

The Prussian army lined up in a neat line of muskets, attacking the French positions under the cover of artillery fire, the "booming" artillery sound was deafening, and the artillery on both sides was doing their best to convey firepower, and the battlefield was filled with gunsmoke.

The French general Douai put down the telescope in his hand with a solemn expression, and said to the herald in a resolute tone;

"Pass my commands;

Immediately report to His Majesty the Emperor the urgent military situation, the enemy in front of me is the main force of the Prussian army, which is a large corps with the third army corps of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia as the core, with a total strength of about 240,000~250,000 people, and is launching a wave of fierce attacks on our army positions.

The enemy's strength was more than 10 times that of our army, and it was equipped with a large number of advanced artillery and rifles, and the attack momentum was very fierce.

More than 25,700 people of our army fought bravely, resisted the enemy's sharp offensive with a fearless spirit of sacrifice, and planned to adopt a combat plan of step-by-step resistance to defend the invincible glory of the French army to the death.

However, there is a huge gap between the forces of the enemy and us, and our army can hardly support it alone.

Here, 100,000 of our troops urgently ask Your Majesty for reinforcements, which can hold out for another 12 hours at most, and without strong support, I am afraid that we will face the danger of total annihilation.

Our troops will drag down the enemy's main force without fear of sacrifice, long live the great French Empire! ”

The herald recorded the order with a solemn expression, then raised his hand and solemnly gave a military salute, and replied; "Your Excellency, General, I will transmit your order back to the General Staff Headquarters as quickly as possible, long live the great French Empire!"

After saying that, the herald hurriedly ran to the side of the war horse, turned over on the horse with a sharp movement, and then raised the whip fiercely and whipped the horse's buttocks, driving the horse to gallop wildly......

The military situation is like fire, and it cannot be delayed for a moment.

The situation on the battlefield was extremely unfavorable for the French army, and General Douai's troops were preparing to attack the Prussian army, so there were no strong defenses at all.

During the tentative offensive two days earlier, General Douai had felt the strength of the Prussian defenses extremely tenacious, and realized that the Prussian army was fully prepared for war and was probably not inferior in strength.

For the sake of prudence, General Douai led his army back to the French side, waiting for the arrival of the French army.

At that time, it will not be too late to consider the success of the Prussian army's defense.

General Du Ai is an experienced professional soldier, who has participated in more than 10 foreign colonial wars for decades, and also participated in the unprecedentedly cruel Crimean War in 1853~1856, and the response measures are very sophisticated.

But he never expected it

A tentative attack led by himself actually stabbed the hornet's nest, attracting the all-out attack of the third corps, the main force of the Prussian army, and hundreds of thousands of troops overwhelmingly pressed up, which caught him off guard, and the whole army was directly forced into a desperate situation of life and death.

What's that...... War seems to have changed its flavor from the beginning.

(End of chapter)