After all, among all the forces present, only the troops of His Highness the Third Prince viewed this war with a more "detached" mentality. Because of their detachment, they could look at this young man from the perspective of a bystander. Your Majesty, why on earth would you do this?
"First of all, I ask everyone to think about it. If we really stick to Belfort, can we withstand the attack of the Burgundians?" Bai Zhou smiled and looked at the other generals. In fact, this question is not only for others, but also for others. Even Bai Zhou himself already had the answer, "It definitely won't work. First, because this land originally belonged to the Burgundians, and they know the terrain far better than we do. The second reason is also the most important. We The overall strength of the coalition forces is much weaker than theirs, so weak that it is simply not enough to support us in a serious defensive war."
"So, the Duke means to give up Balfort?" It was Finn who spoke. "It seems that we have discussed this matter a few days ago. Giving up Belfort means we gave up an area that is most conducive to defense. Does the Duke think that we can withstand Burgundy¡¯s 70,000-strong army in Basel?¡±
Ilya didn¡¯t speak because Bai Zhou didn¡¯t answer his question directly. He wanted to see what Bai Zhou wanted to express after taking such a long detour.
"The same can't be done, so I have no intention of sticking to Basel!"
After Bai Zhou said these words, the whole place was shocked, and everyone murmured to each other. Although it is a good habit to think about defeat before fighting, because this way you can recognize the worst situation your side is facing and take remedial measures. But the reality is that if the Western Qin people do not intend to defend the Belfort Mountains, nor do they intend to defend Basel, the northern gate of Switzerland, then what exactly are the Western Qin people planning to do? Are they giving up this war? It should be noted that although Switzerland itself is also surrounded by mountains, once the Burgundians capture Basel, it seems that the allied forces will only have Bern, the capital of Switzerland, as the last fortress.
Although everyone whispered to each other, no one took the initiative to ask Bai Zhou again, because they knew that the people of Western Qin must have something to say. After all, the land that is still burning with war belongs to the people of Western Qin. There is no reason for the Qin people to give up so easily.
?????????? Actually, Bai Zhou was initially a little interested in the idea of ??sticking to the Belfort-Basel line, because essentially, everyone wants to keep the enemy outside the country, rather than letting them in before attacking. After all, if the enemy is let in, it will cause very serious damage to the local area. For the Western Qin people who have just established a foothold in Switzerland, the damage will only be greater.
But the prerequisite for keeping the enemy outside the country is that France can send troops to threaten the Burgundian hinterland from behind. In this way, as long as the coalition forces can persist for a while, they can naturally wait until the Burgundian army loses all its energy and is attacked from both sides. But after these few days, there has been no movement on the French side. When Gilles found Bai Zhou, his meaning was very clear, that is, they were willing to use this method in exchange for Xi Qin's rescue of Joan of Arc, and even if he could not represent the opinions of the French royal family, he could represent those who had good relations with Joan of Arc. , but a noble who holds real power.
Originally, Bai Zhou didn¡¯t have much hope for Charles VII, so he thought it would be enough as long as the powerful nobles could send troops. Even if the troops were insufficient, at least they would be able to contain a large number of Burgundian armed forces.
But what is happening now is that the French side is "quietly". It has been five or six days. If someone in France is paying special attention to Joan of Arc's situation, then it is impossible not to know who has Joan of Arc now. In Bai Zhou's mind, even if Gilles finally fell into the hands of the Burgundians, it would be impossible for other French nobles to remain silent until now. They didn't even bother to contact the people from Western Qin. From a good-faith point of view, it is speculated that these nobles have not received the news due to various reasons, or the messenger has received the news and is still on their way to Basel; from a malicious point of view, it can be endless Daydream.
However, no matter what angle you look at, these French people cannot be relied on to keep their promises. Naturally, the so-called defense of enemies outside the country can only become a useless strategy.
"I don't know if you have ever had a fight." Bai Zhou said, while clenching his fists and raising them to others as if to demonstrate.
Most of the people present were military generals. Strictly speaking, they were not rookies. Many of them had crawled out of the dead. When it came to how to fight, they must be very familiar with it. Of course, when it came to how to kill, they didn't know how to kill. strangeness.
"If you want to use your fist to exert force, the first thing you have to do is to retract it. The harder you retract, the harder the punch can be." Bai Zhou gestured, pulled his fist to his chest, and then struck hard. This punch was thrown. Although Bai Zhou's strength was not very strong, it still clearly caused a gust of wind.
Wolfgang thoughtfully?Looking at Bai Zhou, he seemed to start to understand something.
Bai Zhou continued: "What we have to do now is to make a pair of fists. The active retreat now is just for future counterattacks. Besides, Switzerland's territory is not small. After the Burgundians come in, if they dare to divide their forces and occupy it, We will defeat them one by one, and if they dare not, we will strangle their logistics line."
This sounds simple, and it sounds very effective, but in fact, anyone who really understands military affairs understands that it is not easy to do so. After all, doing so means changing one's side from the defensive to the offensive, and positional warfare has become Mobile warfare, of course, in this day and age, does anyone know what mobile warfare is? Moreover, in essence, this is just a strategy, just like guarding Belfort and Basel, they are just strategies. As for whether this strategy can be successful, it depends on whether countless specific tactics can be successful. Although mobile warfare sounds much more powerful than positional defense warfare, in fact, it also requires more specific tactics. To be honest, Bai Zhou expressed great doubts about whether other coalition forces could act in strict accordance with the strategies and tactics he formulated. After all, the more complex the strategy, the higher the tactical literacy required of the troops.
"Of course, we are human beings, not just 'fists', so when we retreat, we will try our best to give the Burgundians some 'small gifts'. Anyway, it is impossible for them to comfortably accept what we left behind. The territory we came down from." Halfway through his words, Bai Zhou looked at Ilya, "I'm really sorry. This time, no matter the top strategy or tactical steps, we didn't discuss it with everyone in advance, because the Burgundian army is far away from us. It is very close, and it can be said that time is the most precious to us, so I, Bai Zhou, Duke of Switzerland, the supreme commander of the coalition this time, made this decision privately."
Bai Zhou¡¯s tone became more and more formal, and the smile at the beginning was no longer visible on his face. Fiora looked at Bai Zhou dreamingly, feeling that at this moment, he seemed to be like a duke, instead of the silly 'child'.
"Of course, I know better than anyone else that with this action, I violated the previous agreement between us, so we, Xi Qin, will naturally make some compensation." Bai Zhou paused, seeming to be weighing something. : "After this war is over, regardless of victory or defeat, our Western Qin will compensate you Germans for the land and population of five cities; Your Highness the Third Prince, two cities, of course, you can also exchange these for the chips you want. .¡±
Actually, there is something wrong with what Bai Zhou said, but I don¡¯t know if other people, especially the Swiss Germans who were knocked unconscious by Bai Zhou¡¯s generosity, have noticed it. After all, these are five cities, not five villages. You must know that Xi Qin actually does not have a few cities in total now, and what he promised is naturally a population and land roughly equal to the city. A population of at least 50,000. It was normal to be knocked unconscious, because they had never seen such a generous owner. This Xi Qin just made a mistake that was not a mistake, and had to compensate for so many things. As for the problem, at least they haven't heard it yet.
Can we investigate it in detail, regardless of victory or defeat? According to Bai Zhou's theory, the coalition forces, at least for the time being, will have to retreat significantly and give up most of the land. So speaking of it, it is easy to say anything if they win, but if they lose, what qualifications does Western Qin have to hand it over? The so-called compensation of the Germanic people in Switzerland? Moreover, it now seems that the probability of the coalition's failure is much greater than the probability of victory. In other words, no matter whether they win or lose, it sounds good, but in fact, there will only be compensation if they win.
¡°Furthermore, Bai Zhou also did not specify which five cities he would be compensated for. According to Bai Zhou's thinking, these cities are naturally not the areas currently controlled by the Western Qin Dynasty, but belong to the Burgundians. In other words, Bai Zhou is now using the capital of the Burgundians to "pretend to be generous" . However, Baizhou can indeed do this. After all, if the Western Qin people are defeated, the cities compensated to the Germans will be a debt for the Western Qin people, because the entire western Switzerland has been lost. , how can we be afraid of losing more people and land? But if we win, with Bai Zhou's character, he will naturally not be so cheap to the Burgundians - Switzerland is not a public toilet, you can come and leave when you want - but will counterattack the Burgundians. territory.
But with the current strength of Western Qin, I am afraid that it is not idle, so it simply roped in the Swiss Germans to do it together. When the time comes, tell them that those who want to eat meat can become bandits with Xi Qin.
Cake, naturally the bigger the gesture, the better. The bigger your gesture, the more uninformed people will work for you.
Now, everyone else present was silent and began to digest Bai Zhou's words. Of course, at this time, I no longer paid attention to Ilya's questions at the beginning. Because compared to what Bai Zhou said now, that was already insignificant.
This is actually because Bai Zhou doesn¡¯t want to be in such a noisy environment.?Ilya Ming said, after all, this involves specific tactical issues, and it is not good to be heard by too many irrelevant people. If Ilya came to ask alone, it would not be wrong for Bai Zhou to tell him.