My Italy

Chapter 598 Munich Agreement (Part 2)

On the first day, the talks between the three countries were mainly between governments, and the talks were basically about the division of future interests and cooperation in industry.

Because the enemies faced by the three countries are extremely powerful, and the discussions basically do not involve core interests, but more about the future, this also creates the feeling that the three countries are getting along harmoniously.

However, this feeling disappeared immediately after one night, because what the three countries need to talk about next is more pragmatic.

"Your Excellency Simeone, our country needs your country to carry out a flank attack on Serbia in the Kosovo region in order to disperse the power of the Serbs. At present, our country has assembled 200,000 people and will cross the Sava River from the north to attack the country. It only takes the support of your country’s 80,000 people in Kosovo to defeat the Serbs.”

In the one-day talks, this time the militaries of various countries played the leading role, and the person currently speaking was General Herzendorf, Chief of General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was the needs of the Austro-Hungarian military that he was talking about.

The main content of today's discussions is to coordinate the strategic consistency of the three countries. This naturally involves discussing military plans that require the cooperation of allies, and Austria-Hungary, as the first to start the war, naturally needs to be the first to put forward its demands.

What he first raised was the fact that Austria-Hungary needed Italian assistance when attacking Serbia.

"Your Excellency Herzendorf, your country's request is currently a bit difficult for our country to handle, because our country is currently behind about 60,000 people in the Balkans. Can the additional troops now catch up with your country's offensive?"

Simeone spoke out about the current problem of insufficient Italian troops. This was the time when Italy maintained the largest number of troops in the Balkans after the war with Turkey. On weekdays, the Chinese military only kept 20,000 to 30,000 people stationed here. Even during the Balkan War, Italy only stationed 50,000 people. There are currently more than 60,000 people stationed there, which is already a peak for the Italian military garrison.

Some people may ask why Italy did not station more troops in advance. The garrison of this army is not that simple. Before the mobilization order was issued, the total strength of the Italian Army had just exceeded 600,000. Please remember that this is the total strength of the Army of the Kingdom of Italy. First, you need to deduct the more than 80,000 troops stationed in overseas colonies.

(There are more than 10,000 people in Borneo and more than 70,000 in East Africa. You can’t tell from the garrison who receives more attention. Of course, this is also because East Africa is also responsible for driving nails for Italy in the Indian Ocean, so that Britain and France cannot use the Indian Ocean casually. Surrounding colonies reinforce the mainland)

Secondly, Libya is an important oil and iron base for Italy, and it also needs to send troops to protect it, which eliminates more than 60,000 people. Next, whether it is necessary to station heavy troops on the French border, this will take away another 240,000, and then whether it is necessary to garrison various parts of the kingdom. In addition, important places in Sardinia and Sicily also need troops. After this is divided, another 100,000 are gone.

Then if the military needs to keep some mobile troops and seeds for army expansion, it can be used cleanly. Therefore, as long as this force is used, there will never be enough.

Of course, the troops we are talking about here are the troops formed by the Kingdom of Italy. As for the troops formed by local governments by various colonial governments, they are not included in the calculation.

The reason is simple. The combat effectiveness of the colonial army is worrying. Even the British Empire, which has always liked to use colonial armies, only used a large amount of these cannon fodder to fill trenches after the local army could not bear the high losses.

Admiral Herzendorf, who knew something about the situation in Italy, did not care too much about this and instead asked. "Then how many troops can your country send to support our country in a week?"

Faced with the inquiry from the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Simeone immediately spoke. "After a week, our Italian army can mobilize 60,000 people to cooperate with your country's operations."

Since the Italians were quite cooperative, Admiral Herzendorf would not ask too many questions. Next, he and Admiral Moltke discussed the cooperation between the two countries on the Eastern Front.

After the head of the Austro-Hungarian military finished talking, Moltke stood up and started talking about Germany's combat needs.

"General Simeone, I wonder how many troops your country can mobilize to launch a diversionary attack on France in three days?"

As soon as Moltke said these words, Simeone was shocked. He would start a direct war with France in three days. It seemed that Germany had also planned for a long time.

"We can mobilize 300,000 troops on the French border to launch an offensive against it."

Although he was surprised, Simeone was quite generous when he said this. In the process of army expansion, he was able to bring out 300,000 well-trained elite troops to cooperate with Germany's military operations. How could it not be described as heroic?

Moltke was very satisfied with Simeone's words. After muttering a few words with other German generals, he took out a map and spoke. "Admiral Simeone, can I ask your country to launch a month-long offensive against France on the Alps to contain the French army?"

Little Maoqi's words were a request for help from Italy.

Because over the years, Moltke has been revising and advancing Schlieffen's battle plan, which is regarded as a treasure by the German military. Because this requires the German army to take risks and use risks to lure the French army to attack.

Moltke has always been worried about the thin left wing and wants to strengthen the thickness of the left wing. Therefore, if the Italian army can contain the 200,000 French troops with the help of the Italian army, the success rate of the Schlieffen Plan will be greatly improved.

This is also the reason why Germany did not modify any other conditions for Italy except that the Suez Canal was too involved and had to intervene.

When you ask for help, you must be courteous and virtuous.

Although the Germans don't understand these words, they do understand the meaning.

"No problem. We can launch an offensive against the French army in three days. However, given the complex terrain on the border between our country and France, our country can only contain the French army in the area."

Simeone wants to dispel certain illusions in Germany first. The Alps are not so easy to pass. It's OK to contain them, but if the other party has any more extreme demands, then I'm sorry.

In response to Simone's words, Moltke and other high-level German officials did not offer any rebuttal.

Although many of them have never been to the terrain of the French-Italian border, the German military has also investigated it. The terrain is rolling hills and crisscrossing ravines, which is very suitable for defense. As for attacking, it is very difficult. Even if the German army comes by itself, it will not be much better than the Italian army.

Since both Germany and Austria have requested cooperation, and Italy has also met their requirements. Then when Italy comes to raise conditions, it cannot favor one thing over another.

Moreover, Italy's requirements are different from theirs. Italy has more needs for the navy.

Sorry, I overestimated myself today and could only code two chapters. Can I make up the third chapter tomorrow?

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