manynovel Page 94
Page 94
The answer from China United Airlines was: Immediately.
Just eight hours later, the first batch of combat drones from the Chinese company entered the French region.
De Gaulle is an ordinary European Union colonel. If nothing unexpected happens, he will be promoted to brigadier general next year. After all, he has a chief of staff father. Of course, his personal efforts have nothing to do with his father (I'm sure of it).
But no matter how much they planned, they never expected the enemy to land in Normandy, succeed, and penetrate deep into Western Europe.
If the enemy were to break through France, the next target would inevitably be the German region, which is also the location of the European Union capital. Geographically, this would mean penetrating Central Europe. Given the size and production capacity of Eastern Europe, it would have no choice but to accept a humiliating peace and submit to the empire.
This was unacceptable to the liberty-loving French. When royal families across Europe were expelled and slaughtered, France was the most thoroughly targeted, to the point that even the British royal family had no French royal blood.
Therefore, in terms of their shared belief in freedom, France and the British Isles in World Six are actually the two regions most likely to understand each other, and their relationship is very harmonious, resembling that of revolutionary comrades. They are also on the front lines against imperial aggression.
Now, regardless of what the locals think, war has already befallen them, and they cannot survive without fighting.
Since that's the case, let's get started!
De Gaulle was a commander who was not particularly outstanding, but very decisive. He led a regiment to defend the outskirts of Paris and successfully repelled nine enemy attacks. However, De Gaulle understood that this was because his defensive zone was not the enemy's main direction of attack.
Besides that, what annoyed de Gaulle the most was the enemy's airships. Even if those massive weapon platforms weren't directly deployed to the battlefield, just by providing support from the rear, they were enough to make the European Union troops on the front lines extremely uncomfortable.
With artillery, bombs, aircraft, and high-altitude visibility, the European Union soldiers below were like French fries waiting to be scooped up, utterly powerless to fight back. After all, the vulnerability of the airships to heavy weapons was evident. The regiment commanded by de Gaulle was only a light armored regiment, with its largest anti-aircraft weapon being a twin-mounted 30mm anti-aircraft gun. While some heavy anti-aircraft weapons were deployed within the city of Paris, and ammunition was plentiful, they could not be deployed here.
The enemy launched another attack, this time choosing the area where de Gaulle was stationed as their breakthrough point.
They probably thought the defense here was relatively weak because of their previous attacks.
"Damn it, I might become a martyr."
Despite his constant cursing, de Gaulle did his best to command his troops, boost morale, and personally visit the front lines to offer his support. He even suffered a shrapnel wound to his arm. Considering the average quality of European Union commanders, he had done a great job. However, the objective disparity in weaponry meant that his efforts were not as effective as he had imagined.
"Hold your ground! Paris is behind us, we have nowhere to retreat!"
De Gaulle roared and drew his sidearm, firing at the enemy in the distance. Regardless of its effectiveness, this action at least gave the soldiers more courage to face the enemy's hail of bullets.
But in reality, anyone with a modicum of sense knows that their position is about to fall.
Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from the sky. Above the Imperial army's defenses, a huge fireball was falling from the sky. De Gaulle picked up his binoculars and looked. It was a floating warship that was exploding and burning.
An accident? Or something else!
Soon, de Gaulle found out what was going on.
Chapter 200: The Empire's Sunset Glow, the Central Alliance's Chess Pieces Falling
"Enemy detected! Begin attack!"
"The loitering munitions will go first, followed by the drones."
"Pay attention to the information on the satellite map. Our main target is the enemy's air units."
"Floating warship detected. Begin attack!"
If you had to describe Zoomlion's drone swarm in one sentence, it would be "overwhelming".
They swarmed densely, like locusts passing through, except they didn't devour crops, but instead consumed their enemies. With each takeoff and landing, they used a palm technique descending from the sky to subdue their enemies to their factory settings.
It refers to the condition of the parts, except that these parts won't be as standard.
Given that it was a violent disassembly, some minor flaws are understandable.
At this moment, the British side instantly discovered the biggest weakness of their airships.
Insufficient air defense weapons!
It's not that we don't have them, but that we don't have enough, we don't have enough, especially when the enemy attacks with overwhelming numbers of drones. In a literal sense, there are more drones than bullets.
However, Britain's shield technology is not yet able to cover the entire warship 100%.
Since that's the case, don't blame loitering munitions and drones for shooting holes in you. Although the airship's defense is much higher than that of a regular airship, it's nothing compared to a warship. The main armor belt's defense is only equivalent to one or two hundred millimeters of homogeneous steel armor. Of course, it has an energy shield, and of course, this shield is mainly for ground-based anti-aircraft fire.
The problem of interference between multiple energy shields has not yet been solved by the British Academy of Sciences. Therefore, their airships can only defend one side at present. The defense on this side can make anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of less than 200 mm jump, but it is not enough in other aspects. It can only be regarded as a symbolic layer of defense at the level of an armored vehicle.
The main anti-aircraft weapon on the airship is a twin 20mm cannon, four on top and four on the bottom, forming a physical defensive firepower, which is theoretically more than enough to deal with the air power of the European Union.
That's true, but it's no match for Zoomlion's swarm of drones.
With an extreme number of drones and a powerful enough explosion, only a hundred or so drones are needed to bury an airship. The average cost of mass-produced battlefield drones is 17 yuan, so a thousand drones would cost only 17800 yuan, but an airship costs more than 8 million yuan.
This exchange ratio isn't just a huge profit, it's a windfall.
"Avoid! Avoid! Drones, drones everywhere!"
"Fly higher! These drones have limited altitude; we can attack from above!"
"What's the point? The enemy outnumbers us more ammunition!"
"I've been shot! I've been shot!"
Explosions, explosions, and more explosions. The Imperial Army's air superiority was rapidly disintegrating. One after another, the once majestic airships were reduced to the pitiful state of elephants being devoured by rats.
But for the European Union soldiers below, there was only cheering.
"Long live the China-EU Friendship! Long live the China-EU Friendship!"
"Another one, another one! You damned Britons, ugh, you've finally met your match!"
"I survived! I survived! I'm going back to marry Lisa!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than the man who had gone home to get married was struck in the forehead by shrapnel that flew from somewhere, leaving this warm world with a smile on his face, which can be considered a happy departure.
However, those around them only mourned briefly; overall, they remained quite excited. They knew they wouldn't die, and that the European League would definitely win this war!
Well, this is a classic case of ignorance is bliss. The Central Union didn't participate in the war; the European Union simply purchased the Central Union's drone services. Even so, it greatly boosted the morale of the Paris side.
The attack lasted just over an hour, but in that short time, the Empire's air power suffered heavy losses, with nine out of ten of its airships destroyed and the rest damaged. The Empire's air force was crippled.
But the most critical issue was that during the bombing, all the factories and facilities occupied by the Empire were targeted by the drone swarm. The British had originally planned to use Western Europe's production capacity to sustain the war effort, as the industrial system in France was already well-developed and could be easily utilized to meet the needs of the front lines.
Now, everything has turned into a sea of fire. The Chinese drone swarm even had the leisure to attack warehouses, destroying most of the storage points in the British-controlled area, and even harassing the port.
The European Union paid the price of 1,000 tons of gold and 100,000 tons of silver. It is estimated that some minerals will need to be exported to the Central Union as offsetting costs. But the key point is that they won. They crippled the Empire's offensive spearhead in no time. Without the air force, the British army can hardly threaten Central Europe. Most of the European Union is still safe. Moreover, this attack has bought the European Union valuable time to regroup its troops and launch a counter-offensive against Western Europe.
In the blink of an eye, the balance of power in the war between the two sides has been irreversibly tilted. Is this the strength of the Central Alliance at this moment? It is truly terrifying. Fortunately, they are our allies.
The imperial army, which had been riding high on its momentum, crashed headlong into the Great Wall, nearly splattering its skull. Its offensive came to an abrupt halt, forcing it to quickly shift to a defensive posture and seek new opportunities for a breakthrough.
On the other side, Schneizel sighed upon learning of this, but still rallied his spirits and said, "The current situation is still favorable to us. As long as we hold our current position, we have the European Union by the throat. We must force the European Union to wear us down here. Remember, the longer we keep them tied up here, the safer the Empire will be. Fighting on enemy territory gives us the advantage!"
While this may seem like empty rhetoric, the Holy British Empire has indeed invaded the European Union's homeland, and has given a decent account of the situation to its domestic propaganda. It is believed that the unrest in various regions of the empire will be somewhat calmed down, giving the empire more breathing room until the European Union is willing to sign a ceasefire agreement.
However, there was also a chilling aspect: the drone force deployed by the Chinese Union halted the European Union's offensive momentum within just a few hours. It was later estimated that there were at least a million drones on the battlefield at that time.
Millions of drones and loitering munitions, all capable of precise attacks, represent a despairing reality.
Therefore, the British soldiers had secretly developed a fear of the Central Alliance. Not a single Central Alliance soldier could be seen on the battlefield, but they were losing men every minute. Their expensive flesh and blood could never fill the gaping maw of metal.
After the meeting, Schneizel inquired about the development of drones in China.
"Your Highness, the drone technology of the Zhonglian is nothing special; the key is their anti-jamming technology. Even though we have obtained the actual drones and thoroughly studied every structure inside, we still cannot determine how they did it."
"I understand. The Empire thanks those researchers for their work and asks them to continue their efforts."
"Thank you for your affirmation and support, Your Highness."
But simply trying can't solve anything. The British Empire is now facing the same problem as the European Union before: a depletion of manpower, especially the depletion of native manpower.
Indeed, the British Empire has a large population within its territory, but the only good men willing to support the Empire and fight for it can come from the core of North America. Those from other regions are merely numbered soldiers, honorary Britons. Among them, there are certainly some fanatical converts, but overall, their loyalty to the Empire is not high.
After all, the empire had been ruthlessly exploiting and oppressing them for the sake of its own prosperity. When the empire was at its peak, these people certainly wouldn't dare to do anything, but when the empire began to decline, resistance forces immediately sprang up. They might lack the ability to confront the enemy head-on, but they still had the courage to beat a dog when it was down.
Only a little over 200 million people have benefited from the Empire's dividends. So, when the Central Alliance propaganda previously mocked Britain for having only 200 million people, with the rest being royal family members and seriously two-legged animals, it wasn't really an insult. The Empire is such a country, a legacy of an ancient colonial empire from the very beginning. It's just that this legacy has encountered many problems and is unable to repair itself.
Schneizel suddenly realized that no matter what choice he made next, the outcome would not be good. The most obvious fact was that as the empire's ruling power began to decline, independence movements would rise in various regions. They had long wanted to break away from the British Empire's colonial system and seek other paths.
"Nothing could be more tragic than this, with everyone turning against you and your friends leaving you."
At this time, Schneizel was unaware that something even worse was already happening in the Empire's Pacific colonies, not in any other place but in Australia, which was a royal fiefdom.
Qin Shan had been watching this area for a long time. Whichever major power controls Australia will effectively control the entire South Pacific, and further, the entire Pacific. The line connecting Australia to Coral Island, then Midway Atoll, and finally the Hawaiian Islands forms the control line of the Pacific. Controlling this area would directly compress Britain's maritime control to within the North American continent. Although he had been busy with internal affairs of the Central Alliance, it didn't mean Qin Shan had lost sight of these regions. In fact, the Central Alliance had already infiltrated these areas, and what the region lacked least was opposition to Britain.
Fun fact: The British Crown territories were among the most exploited regions.
Australia has excellent iron ore mines, but the revenue from these mines doesn't leave much for the locals. It's all given to the royal family as tribute, leaving the locals with only a polluted environment and tens of thousands of pneumoconiosis patients.
Australian miners’ revolt against Britain began long ago, only to be suppressed time and again. But the revolt was not without effect; the treatment of local workers did improve somewhat, but only to a certain extent. The extent of the improvement depended on whether the officials who came to power were conscientious.
Judging from the current attitude of the locals towards Britain, these creatures are clearly somewhat lacking in conscience.
Since that's the case, don't blame the worker grandpa for having to teach you physics!
Section 201: Uncover Your Weaknesses, Strip Away the Disguise
Fun fact: When Qi Jiguang was recruiting soldiers, he especially liked to recruit miners.
The miners are highly organized and very disciplined. The reason is very simple: if you don't follow the rules when you go down the mine, are you planning to sleep there forever?
Ancient mines were far less protected than they are today. Mine disasters are devastating events today, let alone back then.
Of course, with the advent of modern times, the organization of miners has also improved along with the development of technology. Although the iron ore in Australia is all shallow surface deposits that can be mined by open-pit mining, open-pit mining still requires technical support. Digging by hand is not as good as digging by machine, so the technical content of miners here is also very high, especially the miners who operate large machinery, who are all special equipment talents.
But buying equipment costs money, while a dead person saves a lot of money.
The cold-blooded ruthlessness of old-line imperialist countries is vividly displayed in the royal mines operated by Britain.
The British royal family only cares about money; nothing else matters. Therefore, for the leaders managing the mines, as long as they paid the royal dues, the rest was theirs—the more they worked, the more they earned. Since their goal in coming to power was to maximize their profits, they naturally wouldn't put much effort into technological innovation. Everything that could be done manually was outsourced to manual labor; only what couldn't be done manually was handed over to machines, and even then, they tried every means to convert it back to manual labor. After all, workers' wages could be deducted under various pretexts, but if you don't provide electricity or maintenance to the machines, they simply won't work.
This is why Australia's open-pit mines have absorbed a huge amount of local human resources, with more than 300,000 young adults working there and more than 500,000 people serving them. This has eventually led to the formation of mining cities with a population of over one million. The distribution of the mineral veins has become the development and expansion zone of these cities, forming a unique Australian mining city belt.
According to incomplete statistics, at least four million people live here, while the total population of Australia in World Six is less than six million. The remaining less than two million people are mainly concentrated in Sydney, a port city in Australia. As for Canberra in this world, it is still an unknown little village.
Everyone who comes here will understand what it truly means to have a vast and sparsely populated area.
Leaving the city, all you see are scattered villages and vast stretches of natural scenery, so natural that the locals haven't been affected much; it's almost become a living fossil of Australia.
That's how it is in countries with small populations; many places aren't undeveloped because they don't want to, but because they lack the resources.
Originally, the Holy British Empire had planned to send immigrants to Australia, but due to the war with the European Union, these projects were postponed. The immigrant ships were used to transport soldiers, and the locals, thanks to Britain's "benevolent rule," were basically living a life of complacency. Occasionally, they would suddenly rebel, proving to be difficult to manage.
Over time, Australia in World Six took on a somewhat no-man's-land feel.
Here, almost everyone carries a gun, and the local colonial government's control is only so-so. Of course, not everyone can afford a good gun; many weapons are homemade, but they are still firearms that can threaten other people's lives.
The local hunting rifles are much more powerful than ordinary hunting rifles, and there are even armor-piercing lead bullets specifically designed to target bulletproof vests. As for why they exist, just ask the local British garrison; it's part of the local people's history of struggle.
However, this also proves that the British garrison in the area was not completely indifferent. At least in terms of weapons, they had effectively restricted their use. Standard military weapons did not fall into civilian hands on a large scale. Otherwise, given the close, life-or-death relationship between the locals and the British garrison, a scene reminiscent of the movie "War on the Western Front" might have unfolded the very next day.
But when some mysterious Eastern power began to flow in, the course of the flow changed.
"Old Li, the stuff from upstairs has arrived. Call a few people to come and move it."
"Alright, the higher-ups are moving really fast this time. Are they preparing to take action here?"
"Who knows? We don't have the final say on what happens above, but when it's time for us to start an uprising, we can't afford to falter."
"Don't worry about that, Lao Zhao. I, Lao Li, may not have any other skills, but I have a lot of brothers."
"I'm relieved to hear that. But the security check was surprisingly lenient when we came in this time, Lao Li, how did you manage to deal with those guys?"
"Hey, all the lackeys of imperialism are the same; as long as they're fed, they're fine."
"Keep an eye on things lately, make sure there are no other mistakes."
"Don't worry, I'm keeping an eye on it."
Old Li and Old Zhao are just a part of the Zhonglian (China United Network) personnel. Before Qin Shan took over Zhonglian, many Zhonglian employees came to Australia to work, using intermediary services for international employment. At that time, the situation in China was not good, so it was normal to come out to find a way to make a living. However, after Zhonglian rapidly rose to prominence, most of these people returned to work in China. The rest either got married locally and could not leave temporarily, or were employees of Zhonglian's security department.
Their role was very simple: to corrupt the local British garrison. They had plenty of money, found the enemy's weak points to attack, and paralyzed the enemy's grassroots with a financial offensive.
We don't expect to make the enemy collapse on their own with money, but it's quite easy to render the enemy's grassroots deaf and blind.
There are many grassroots staff, but the salaries of grassroots staff in Britain are generally quite meager, only slightly better than those who barely make ends meet. Now, if we give them some extra benefits, these people are very willing to earn some extra money. And the initial temptations are often very safe, such as treating someone to a meal, getting a massage, or going to do some small business together.
Once the bait is taken, the leverage is in one's own hands. The living conditions of grassroots civil servants are generally not of concern to the big shots above. At this point, it is very simple to kill them or find another way to trap them. All it takes is a few ropes to tie them to one's own chariot and use them as human armor.
The grassroots level is the nerve ending of a country, and it should be the most sensitive place. The necrosis of the nerve ending can reduce the enemy's reaction speed to an appalling degree. This is why the strength of grassroots management directly affects a country's policy implementation capabilities.
Even more remarkably, some people who oppose Britain have miraculously entered the British civil service system through various channels. These people have no goodwill towards Britain, but they certainly won't show it on a daily basis. However, if they have the opportunity to cause trouble for Britain, they will be very willing to help. Their involvement will also greatly reduce the difficulty of the work of the Chinese side.
Sure enough, Lao Li and others began secretly gathering personnel, but the British garrison above did not respond.
"Each person gets a gun, and you can collect the bullets from the back."
"Commandos, come and get your grenades and grenade launchers. Don't forget to put on your body armor."