Es?. braust?. ein?. Ruf?. wie?. Donnerhall?

A roar of rage, like thunder,

Wie?. Schwertgeklirr?. und?. Wogenprall?

Like the sea roaring, like the sword roaring;

Zum?. Rhein,?zum?. Rhein,?zum?. deutschen?. Rhein?

Who goes to the Rhine, who goes to the Rhine,

Wer?. will?. des?. Stromes?. Hüter?. sein??

Protect her from abuse?

Lieb? Vaterland,?magst?. ruhig?. sein?

Dear Motherland, rest assured,

Fest?. steht?. und?. treu?. die?. Wacht?. am?. Rhein!??

We are steadfast in our watch over the Rhine!

Closing the windows to isolate the children's choir from the outside, the energetic "Watching the Rhine" still shows the style of the barracks, even if it is sung by children, giving people the illusion of being in a scout barracks. If it weren't for the fact that this song had been used as the national anthem of the Nazi State on the moon by a certain black Nazi Black Rice Emperor Black

In addition, someone who wrote the lyrics and music actually didn't understand humor, which added an inexplicable sense of joy to this song.

"The kids sang very well. ”

Brunhill smiled wryly, similar rehearsals were going on here and there these days. Due to the limited space, the large square in front of the council venue was targeted by various groups. "Erica" is played here, "Song of the Panzers" is played here, "The Flag Leads Us Forward" is sung here, and "Watching the Rhine" is played in harmony there...... The whole of Alfheim has almost become a city of music, full of marches and queue training, and even cats and dogs are about to follow the beat.

After all, it is a once-in-a-century celebration, coupled with the economic boom and the continuous improvement of living standards, everyone wants to hold a good celebration. Plus the temptation to take a vacation after that. The atmosphere was unprecedentedly warm.

"Thankfully, the band's conductors are on time and I haven't received any complaints about the nuisance so far. ”

Sitting back at the desk, Li Lin said relaxedly.

"The key to this celebration is the military parade and the ship-watching ceremony. How's the situation with the troops?"

"My Archon. The troops participating in the review have been screened. All the personnel are the elite of various units, all are handsome guys, and their equipment has been strictly checked. Military uniforms, medals, and medals were also distributed. ”

Thor looked excited, for peacetime soldiers, only military parades and confrontation exercises can arouse their interest, let alone the kind that happens once in a century. In addition, this is also the last military parade before the official start of the war, just thinking that he will have to go to the battlefield after that, it has already made the blood of a pure soldier like Thor boil.

"What about the air review detachment and the armored detachment? They are the main thing. ”

"The air formation is in the final run-in exercise, there are generally no problems, the training of the armored forces is basically completed, all the vehicles under review have been checked, the tracks and tires are new, some have been replaced with new parts, and the vehicles are in good condition. But...... Are you sure you don't use those parade components?"

"No, let's save the shiny things for the victory parade, when it will attract the attention of the citizens of Alfheim, but the whole world. ”

"As promised. ”

Freya nodded, still a little unhappy from her expression, and it seemed that she really liked the chariots that were as beautiful as the jewel box.

There has always been a part of the national character of elves that is close to obsessive-compulsive disorder, and there is often an extreme side to the style. It is their nature to say that they like to do everything to the extreme, and to say that it is difficult to say that it is their nature to ponder and make simple things very complicated. The specific expression of this kind of character in terms of technology is to like "strange tricks and tricks", such as a bunch of heavy chariots with a strict structure that is overweight, sophisticated and complex, far beyond the Swiss watch, with endless failures and low productivity. and a combo kit for ceremonial ceremonies.

After receiving the request from the superiors to "meet the chariot paint used for the celebration review", the General Armament Department went to the Academy of Fine Arts without saying a word to pull the teachers and students over and asked them to provide assistance. After shooting out the overly avant-garde ones such as "painting the chariot pink and performing with the singers", the neoclassical scheme was finally finalized - that is, the vulgar style of gold and silver plating, with all sorts of elaborate ornamentation.

When the modified Tiger prototype appeared in front of the officers of the General Staff, the chariot blinded the officers' kryptonite eyes on the spot, and by the way, their jaws were shocked.

As you can imagine, the officers of the General Staff are like children who have been given a bunch of new toys and can't wait to show them off. However, considering that it is still a period of preparation for war, the amount of modification work is not large, but the disassembly, disassembly and assembly will also occupy a lot of workers and man-hours, rather than wasting time and resources on such secondary matters, it is better to concentrate on preparing for war first. Waiting for the military parade after the victory of the war will not only be more calm, but also more effective.

That is to say, the preparation of the work is a qiēshun lì. So—"

Fingers folded together and the topic was switched.

"How's Charlemagne's negotiations with Albion?"

It may seem unrelated, but in fact the two are closely linked.

Charlemagne's relationship with the surrounding countries directly determines the timing of the war in Alfheim, and the faster the geopolitical environment deteriorates, the sooner the war will begin, and the time of the arrival of the god of war will be delayed. But the elves wanted to be able to master that time for themselves. If they start the war too early, their preparations are not yet complete, and if they start the war too late, they will miss the good climate that the blitzkrieg needs to operate, and entering the mobilization state too early will also have an impact on morale.

Therefore, it is necessary to closely observe Charlemagne's interactions with the nations. It is a matter of immediate importance.

However, Charlemagne, as the person concerned, does not seem to have any self-awareness of this.

"I don't know what channel it is, but the secret negotiations between the Prime Minister and Albion were known to the crown prince, and even the hesitation of the people of Albion is clear. He seemed to regard Richelieu's proposal as a condition acceptable to Albion, and at the Imperial Council on the direction of the future negotiations he proposed, in an extraordinary spirit, to take the risk of raising the asking price in order to convince Albion to accept. Then, this extremely stupid idea was supported by the vast majority of ministers. ”

Tyr subconsciously wanted to shrug his shoulders, and the unrealistic situation was as unrealistic as a burlesque, which made him a little unbearable to laugh.

Although it has long been known that Charlemagne is in the upper echelons, except for a very small number of people. Most of them are hot-headed and subordinate. It is only a matter of time before such a proposal arises, and with such people in the majority, it is also an inevitable trend to force the bill. But this moment came a little too quickly.

"No need to be surprised by this, dear Tyr. The crown prince and the army were happy to see their opponents fall into the quagmire of war and slowly drown. The second prince and Titans were reluctant to spit out what they had eaten. and felt that they still had the power to change the tide of the war - neither of them was happy to see peace coming. We don't need to be concerned about the childlike party fight. The focus is on what the new requirements are. ”

In addition to the several demands made by Richelieu, the alliance with Lapland and the loan and aid agreements to the principality, which had not made real progress, were used as a threat to Albion to recognize Charlemagne's right to act freely on the continent and the seas. Immediately persuade Castile to sue for peace, and at the same time lift the de facto trade embargo on Charlemagne and conclude a new trade treaty. ”

"A bunch of idiots. ”

Brunhill commented.

Even if the Mother Goddess apparilates, don't expect the Albions to accede to the above demands that are no different from voluntary surrender, and the Charlemagnes will have nothing to gain but the end of the negotiations and the beginning of the countdown to war.

In this way, what will happen next can be roughly predicted.

Insincere negotiations are doomed to fail to achieve the desired outcome, and the two sides are not ready for war. Continuing negotiations to cover up the imminent outbreak of war and preparing for a preemptive strike became an inevitable choice for both sides. As for what the elven camp has to do, it is to prompt Charlemagne to fire the first shot.

"We have to create a situation where Charlemagne uses the negotiations as a cover to cover up a surprise attack by his troops, and then uses a surprise attack to kick off the war. In this way, Charlemagne would provoke a general moral hatred, and even if we were to launch a blitzkrieg in the future, it would be a legitimate and permissible act of last resort. ”

The Disabled Commander-in-Chief of the Empire of Hope did something similar, refusing to take preemptive measures when he realized that war was about to begin, and instead passively waited for the Japanese to fire the first shot, hoping to put the moral condemnation of provoking war on the Japanese people. Although the secret was sparse, it was not calculated that the Japanese dared to rush thousands of miles to the heart of the Pacific defense and catch the main force of the fleet. However, in the future, after relying on the strong industrial strength to successfully push back, whether it is indiscriminate critique or mushroom planting, the people of the United States, including isolationists or pacifists, are happy to hear it, and this is the reason for this.

The moderates led by Richelieu will inevitably oppose it with all their might, but they are doomed to failure, and in the face of the "rampage" of the whole country, the rational voice of some central people can no longer play a big role, and at most slow down the progress.

The Prime Minister is arguably Charlemagne's greatest and most ruthless politician and statist to date, but due to his environment and level of perception, he has failed to implement the idea of "national supremacy" to the end. When the Prime Minister acquiesced to the fait accompli of the "Seven-Day War", he was indeed forced to do so, but it cannot be denied that he was more or less confident that he would destroy Titans's tail when it was too big to fall, and when it could bring benefits to Charlemagne, he might as well regard it as a convenient tool, and then it would not be too late to abandon and destroy it. Even now, Richelieu may still have this ability, but the cardinal has obviously forgotten that the army is after all the violence of the state, the muscle of the state, and the tool of the state, but when the knife has a mind, will it still act according to the ideas of its master as it did in the past? When he decided to let Titans go, he had already violated his own ideas.

History has proven time and again that when the military has its own ideas and propositions, they are unwilling to continue to accept moderation. And when the government is unable to restrain the army, there will inevitably be militarization of the army and the armyization of the state. Charlemagne's situation today illustrates this very well, the army, navy, and Titans are only nominally subordinate to the state, but in fact they are the private armies of the two princes and the prime minister. Except for the discord caused by different interests and demands, there is no essential difference in the thinking of the soldiers -- to build Charlemagne into a militaristic country with the army as the core, and everything in the country must serve the army. So, it doesn't matter whether the prime minister can get rid of Titans or the army or not, the point is that the army has become more and more integrated with the country. Unless the whole country undergoes a total collapse-style purge. Completely eradicate the soil of militarism, otherwise the situation will always develop on the same trajectory.

Of course, for the elves—the Titans, the Army, the Prime Minister, the Crown, Charlemagne, Albion, the Humans, the Orcs—were all tools for the end. There is always only one fate for tools. When it is no longer in the owner's interest. will be immediately thrown aside.

"But we can't rely too much on the enemy's own problems, let alone put all our eggs in one basket. ”

Seizing the brief silence between the exchanges, Li Lin whispered.

The henchmen in attendance focused their attention on the supreme consul. After a pause or two, Li Lin continued:

"You have all read the "On the Feasibility of the Left-Wing Gradual Reduction Operation" submitted by the General Staff, right?"

Everyone nodded together, and it was impossible for them not to have read the report that almost caused a tearing war in the General Staff, and Brunhill and Tyre still read the original manuscript.

The incident began when Colonel Henin Treskov, a staff officer of Army Group A, submitted to Shangfeng a personal opinion on the defensive operations of the left flank. In this private research report, Treskov has no opinion on the "Yellow Plan" as a whole, arguing that it is a rare masterpiece in the history of warfare, especially the "sickle offensive" launched by the right flank from the Ardennes region, which will create a precedent for mechanized long-distance raid operations and usher in a new era of warfare. Next, the staff officers of Army Group turned their pen and expressed dissatisfaction with the left flank, the Siegfried Line.

"There is no doubt that the Siegfried Line is a genius idea. But it gives me very little security, and I think we can do a better job than throw money into the ground and act on a rigid schedule, and we can organize our defenses more flexibly, leaving more room for the troops to carry out their battle plans...... The most dangerous thing about the Siegfried Line is psychological, it creates a false sense of security, the feeling of hiding in an impregnable steel fortress, and once this feeling is broken, the will to fight will be severely damaged. ”

In their view, a front-line staff officer who did not concentrate on his own frontal battlefield and criticized the deployment and operational plans of other fronts was already an extremely strict act of transgression, and that it was tantamount to rebellion to dare to criticize the strategy for the use of troops formulated by the Supreme Consul. If this "thorn in the head" is not dealt with, an unhealthy trend will be formed in the future, and military discipline will be wiped out, so can the army still be expected to fight? Therefore, the General Staff immediately demanded that a military tribunal be convened to try Treskov on the charge of "contempt for his superiors." And Treskov also had many friends and colleagues, who either agreed with his battle plan, or were blind to the fuss made by the General Staff, and came out to support Colonel Treskov, and for a time there was a storm, almost from a quarrel to a duel. In the end, it was the consuls who came forward in person, and each played fifty boards, and then the matter was suppressed.

Leaving aside the impact of the incident itself, from a purely strategic and tactical point of view, Treskov's opinion is indeed quite innovative.

In the Yellow Plan, the task of the left can be summed up by the phrase "holding on to the flank". According to the General Staff's assumption, relying on a series of fortifications on the Siegfried Line, the defenders could hold out for more than half a year, while the right flank blitzkrieg troops could complete a roundabout outflanking in a few weeks at most. During this period, the main force of Charlemagne's army will be drawn to the Siegfried Line, where the defenders will be able to use artillery power to reduce the number and morale of the enemy, and eventually encircle the enemy with roundabout troops.

Theoretically speaking, there is nothing wrong with this, and making full use of one's own advantages to weaken or even eliminate the opponent is the basis for using troops. But Treskov pointed out sharply: The left flank apparently did not take into account what the defenders of the defensive line should do if the enemy lost a lot of ground under the fortified city and turned around to meet the mobile troops? What should be done in the event of a final decisive battle, when the number of enemy troops in the encirclement is still huge, and they are determined to fight to the death?

In the final analysis, the General Staff does not have enough room for flexibility for the left flank, and in the event of a situation that is not predicted by the plan, it is very likely that a chain reaction will be triggered by the detachment of one link, and the entire operational success will be lost.

In response to this problem, Treskov proposed his solution -- "gradual reduction of invitations, mobile defense."

The so-called tapering attack is the use of highly mobile small units and aviation to launch a non-stop encounter on the way of Charlemagne's army to the Siegfried Line, so that the enemy army, which originally had a numerical advantage, could not concentrate all its forces to attack the Siegfried Line, and had to draw troops to defend against surprise attacks from nowhere, and at the same time could contain the enemy in case of a turn.

As for mobile defense, when the enemy attackes, it takes the initiative to abandon the secondary area, lengthen the enemy's supply line, and launch a counterattack when the opponent's logistics are unsustainable. Make full use of sports warfare to attrition and contain the opponent, so that it cannot attack or retreat lightly.

"Colonel Treskov's idea was very creative, and he took advantage of the huge gap in communication and mobility between us and the enemy, but he ignored the two conditions that were necessary for his strategy. ”

Shaking his index and middle fingers, Li Lin said leisurely:

"Vast strategic space, and almost idealistic developments. ”

In the history of war on the earth, tapering operations are not a new thing, guerrilla warfare, movement warfare have similar characteristics, the Japanese Navy before World War II invented the unprecedented "nine-stage volley", and mobile defense was played by the Soviets in World War II, as for the Kaishen Gong who turned into the wind, it can be regarded as listening to Mr. Jiang Baili's motto of "space for time", plus his old man finally did not learn Wang Jingwei to be a traitor, and the national army during the Anti-Japanese War was also counted in the case of mobile defense.

All of these cases have one thing in common: the defender has a large enough depth of space.

Needless to say, Maozi and the Celestial Empire, even if it is Japan, an island country, when setting the "nine-stage volley", the theater of war is drawn from the west coast of the United States to the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific. The elves' territory was not as big as that, and Charlemagne's army could not afford to play that kind of loser tactic from the assembly area to the Siegfried Line.

On the other hand, although a gradual reduction operation can effectively contain the enemy's forces, the transfer of mobile troops will obviously weaken the combat strength of the right flank, which obviously runs counter to the strategic premise of "strengthening the right flank," so it is not feasible.

That being said, we don't have to dismiss the new proposal entirely. The idea of using small forces to harass and aviation to bombard enemy forces on the march - these ideas are very relevant and feasible, and they are very relevant and feasible, together with the train artillery group of the fortress and the Iserlohn battery as the core of the fortress......"

Li Lin got up and spread out the combat map on his desk, took a pencil to sketch on the map, and his henchmen hurriedly gathered around to listen carefully to Li Lin's tactical ideas.

"Report!"

The sudden report sounded, and everyone raised their heads, only to see the captain of the guard walking in quickly.

"Your Excellency the Consul, Your Excellency Walsingham, Secretary of State for Albion, has sent a request for urgent contact. ”

Nidhogg's face grimaced. (To be continued......)