Chapter 751: Full diplomatic preparations
Chapter 752: Fully Prepared for Diplomacy
"Stupid! You didn't make any pre-war preparations, and you just let the soldiers charge in randomly?" Count Radesky glared at Lieutenant Colonel Busek, "And then you were defeated by a group of police?"
Busek lowered his head and defended in a low voice: "General, the military quality of those policemen is quite high, especially their shooting speed..."
"Shut up!" Count Radesky yelled angrily, "You are simply embarrassing the imperial soldiers!"
No wonder he lost his temper, it was really Busek who underestimated the enemy.
If Busek organized most of the soldiers into a line formation and left only two to three hundred skirmishers in front to harass them, they might still be able to draw a tie when the Walloon police lacked the confidence to fight the regular army.
But he let all the soldiers rush forward in skirmish formation, and under the intensive firepower of the opposite infantry line, they were defeated without any suspense.
Count Radeski glanced at his pocket watch. The hour hand already pointed at 4 p.m. It was definitely impossible to reach Wavre today.
Moreover, it would take time to recover the defeated troops of the Busek Army.
He took a deep breath, calmed down, and said to the herald: "Gather the troops. The Croix Legion will be responsible for dealing with those policemen early tomorrow morning.
"In addition, report the situation here to His Royal Highness the Prince of Coburg."
"Yes, General!"
The next day.
Encouraged by yesterday's victory, the Walloon police once again stubbornly repelled Croix's first attack - this time the latter did not underestimate the enemy, but invested three regiments of troops to form a line array, and The police engaged in a head-on confrontation and at the same time sent three cavalry squadrons to harass the flanks.
Fortunately, two six-pound guns from the Walloon Police also arrived on the battlefield last night, surprising the Austrians again.
Yes, the Walloon police have artillery police establishment!
However, they also suffered nearly 300 casualties in previous battles.
When the Austrian army was preparing to launch the second wave of attacks, the Chief Superintendent of the Walloon District ordered all police officers to withdraw to Wavre in accordance with the "Command Science" they had learned before.
No matter how high their training level is, they are still only police officers responsible for public security and lack qualified commanders.
What they faced was the Austrian regular army with tens of thousands of troops, coordinated by cavalry and artillery.
But their previous excellent performance and the appearance of cannons made Count Radeski wary.
He spent another whole day cautiously, ordering the hussars to conduct repeated reconnaissance of Wavre, and only after confirming that there were only more than 3,000 policemen in the city, he decided to launch an attack.
Southwest of Wallonia.
The city of Mons.
Chevenement, the president of the Walloon Chamber of Commerce, looked around at the chamber members sitting there, raised the newspaper in his hand, and said angrily: "Everyone must have seen that the Flemish people, together with the Austrian government, want to use the army to control the Walloon region!
"Our police fought them off twice north of Wavre heroically, but there were so many Austrian troops that it was impossible for the police to hold Wavre."
All the committee members looked at the president solemnly.
Chevennement slapped the newspaper on the table hard:
"Recently, the riots in Wallonia were also planned by them. Fortunately, I got a warning from the French government and transferred the police to Wavre. Otherwise, even Mons might have been controlled by the Austrian army at this time!"
Yes, the French intelligence agency noticed a month and a half ago that there were Dutch-speaking people in the Walloon region plotting to "do something big."
Joseph immediately realized that this was probably Austria preparing to attack Wallonia.
However, he did not rashly interfere with the situation in Wallonia. Instead, he proposed at the General Staff meeting that the Walloon Chamber of Commerce ignore the rioters and use all police forces to prepare for Austria to send troops.
After weighing the situation, Chevennement also accepted the advice of the French Intelligence Agency, and this was the scene where the Walloon police sniped at the Austrian army.
Seeing the angry expressions on the faces of the members of the Chamber of Commerce, Chevenement continued to speak loudly:
"Now we have only one option left, and that is to ask France for help and ask them to send troops to drive away the Austrians!"
The members of the Chamber of Commerce in the hall immediately looked at each other and started whispering at the same time.
An old man stood up and said: "Mr. Chevenemant, this will destroy the status of Wallonia's 'demilitarized zone'."
Someone echoed: "Yes, this can easily lead to a situation of military control of Wallonia by the French army."
“The independence of the chamber may also cease to exist.”
The Walloon Chamber of Commerce has great authority here, and it is like a small independent government. It certainly does not want anyone to control them.
Chevenement said solemnly: "The moment the Austrian army entered the Wallonia region, the so-called 'demilitarized zone' no longer existed!"
He then looked meaningfully at the members who raised objections:
"Those Dutch-speaking and German-speaking guys, their goal must be the coal mines and factories in Wallonia.
"Please don't forget, we all speak French."
The hall that was noisy just now suddenly became quiet.
The members of these chambers of commerce are all major shareholders of coal mines and iron smelting plants in Wallonia.
As the largest shareholder of Wallonia, the French government will definitely safeguard their rights and interests.
But the Austrians who came as spoilers have a high probability of taking away their assets!
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Compared with the little "independent administrative power" of Wallonia, their family wealth is the most important.
In other words, if there is no money, administrative power will soon be lost.
After more than ten seconds of silence, a member of the Chamber of Commerce raised his hand: "I agree to ask the French army to enter Wallonia."
Immediately, someone followed suit: "I agree too."
"Let the French come. When the Austrians ruled Wallonia before, the situation was much worse than it is now."
"That's right, the Flemish will not let us have an easy time. Only the French army can change this situation."
There were originally a quarter of French people in the Chamber of Commerce, and they responded one after another. For a time, the voices of opposition were completely suppressed.
Chevnement motioned everyone to be quiet and waved his hand: "Then, let's start the vote now. Those who agree to ask the French government for help, please raise your hands."
Of all the 78 members in the hall, 75 raised their hands.
...
At noon that day, Joseph received the news from the Wallonia Chamber of Commerce requesting France to send troops to Wallonia through the Chap signal machine.
Of course, the official document was still on the way at this time, but this did not affect his mobilization of troops at all.
Just 40 minutes later, the French Southern Netherlands Front stationed in Lille set off and headed towards Wavre.
At the same time, the Royal Fourth Infantry Division of Artois entered a state of rapid march, heading north along the wooden track line.
The total force reached 23,000 people.
…
Upper Hesse.
Marburg.
Count Ségur, assistant to the French Foreign Minister, was denouncing Austria in front of hundreds of nobles for tearing up the agreement, sending troops to the Walloon demilitarized zone, and causing serious damage there.
Suddenly, his assistant walked quietly behind him and whispered a few words to him.
Ségur nodded, turned around, waved vigorously to the Hessian nobles, and said passionately:
"The Walloon Chamber of Commerce formally requested the French army to enter Walloon three days ago to protect their demilitarized zone status!"
