Chapter 161 Number of casualties
In Langton's theater, Purficott had finished playing tonight's repertoire. Amidst the warm applause, she stood up and came to the edge of the stage, facing the enthusiastic audience. The audience made a gesture to signal everyone to quiet down.
All the dignitaries in Langton were very respectful to Purfict, and they all became quiet and looked at Purfict expectantly, as if waiting for her to say something.
However, Purficott did not speak immediately, but just made a gesture to the side.
Soon, a staff member came to Purficott with the newly decoded message. At her signal, he read loudly: "The Behemoth is calling, Fran." The capital of Sri Lanka is in flames! The city is burning under my feet!”
Upon hearing the news, all the senior officials from Victoria's military and political circles in the theater applauded wildly, and some even stood up excitedly.
For Victoria and Frans, who have been feuding for a hundred years, destroying each other's capital is a great victory that Victoria people have dreamed of for hundreds of years!
But this made Anthony, who was sitting in the audience, feel cardiopulmonary arrest.
France’s capital was attacked? The whole city was reduced to a sea of flames?
No, impossible! Victoria doesn't have this ability!
Even if they have airships that can bypass the Three Kingdoms Alliance forces gathered across the strait, and even if the Steam Knights are powerful enough to easily tear apart the defense line of an entire army group, they still can't capture the entire capital in such a short period of time!
This must be an act of bullying by the Victorians! It must be!
However, the behavior of bullying the enemy has a purpose, and there is no such behavior without purpose.
Victorians are obviously not bored, and so many high-ranking military and political officials do not have the leisure to act with them.
What is their purpose? Why do you want to act like this? Are they fooling themselves, or are they fooling the little girl on stage?
Yes, Anthony regarded this as a well-planned operation to deceive the enemy, but no matter how he analyzed it, he could not find a reason for the Victorians to do this.
But he didn't want to believe that all of this was true, or he couldn't believe that it was true.
Because once he believes this to be true, it means that he believes that the Victorians can capture the capital of France in such a short period of time and plunge the entire city into a sea of fire.
And this also means that even if the Three Kingdoms Alliance wins the war initiated by France, France, whose capital is captured, will suffer a complete defeat, and may even lose after the war. Annexed by Rus and St. Romulus.
Although the three countries have formed an alliance this time, everyone knows that in addition to having fought a war with Victoria for hundreds of years, France also has territorial disputes with Ross, and the two sides have also been fighting for many years.
As for Ross, they have been working on splitting Ross into North and South.
So unless the capitals of Rus and Saint Romulus are also destroyed, there will definitely be a fight within the Triple Alliance due to the imbalance of the three parties' forces.
But at this point, the existence of the Three Kingdoms Alliance has lost its meaning, because the Three Kingdoms Alliance, with its capitals destroyed, has no capital to fight against Victoria.
Whether it is a breakthrough from the frontal battlefield, or a so-called airship bypassing the defense line for a surprise attack, being able to destroy the capitals of the three countries means that Victoya has the ability to destroy any city in the three countries at any time!
This also means that even if all the people of the Three Kingdoms Alliance are soldiers, it will be meaningless to gather more troops.
Because Victoya could completely ignore the place where the Three Kingdoms Alliance gathered heavy troops and bypass all the defense lines to specifically attack the cities in the rear.
The Three Kingdoms Alliance cannot attack its homeland despite the danger that all cities in their respective countries are within the strike range of Viktoria, and it is impossible for the army to maintain its combat capabilities after losing the country's logistical supplies.
So even if France launched a war as soon as he learned that Victoria had an airship and a steam knight, was it still too late?
Although Anthony is extremely reluctant to believe this, it is obvious that things will not change according to his will.
Soon after it was announced that the capital of France was attacked, the capitals of Ross and St. Romulus were also announced to be attacked by Victoria, and all the telegrams had the phrase "The sky is burning, The earth lies beneath my feet."
Anthony didn't understand the meaning of this sentence, but he could see that it was a signal to the Victorians, a signal that they had won the war.
He couldn't help but grit his teeth secretly and tried his best to stabilize the expression on his face to avoid others seeing his true inner emotions at this time.
After all, he is still playing the role of a French diplomat who is pro-Victoria. At this time, the less mistakes can be made.
And he was also eager to know how Viktoria was able to attack the capitals of three countries at the same time, and all of them were successful.
"General, how did you manage to attack the capitals of three of our countries at the same time?" Anthony forced a somewhat stiff smile on his face and asked a general next to him. Said: "Although I know that airships can allow you to bypass all defense lines and fortresses, that is a city. It is impossible for the soldiers that an airship can carry to capture our country's capital, even if they are all steam knights. It’s impossible to do it in such a short time, so can you satisfy my curiosity?”
"About this question..." The general immediately wanted to refuse to answer. This was Victoire's secret, so how could he tell it to a French diplomat.
However, at this time, Purficott noticed this. She was still standing on the stage, but smiled sweetly and said: "General Foster, let's tell him. Anyway, the whole world will know tomorrow that the empire is here. The capitals of three countries were destroyed overnight.
Instead of letting them make random guesses, it is better to tell them openly and honestly what weapons we used, so that they will understand better and not be unrealistic. "
Hearing what Perficott said, the general looked around and saw that no one, including the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Anne, expressed any objection, so he did not. What to worry about.
After all, strategic deterrence was indeed what Purficott was involved in when he proposed this combat plan.
"We did not dispatch the army to attack your capital. Although the steam knight can do the same thing, it is still too inefficient." The general explained to Anthony, whose face had begun to turn pale. At the same time, his eyes could not help but reveal He expressed some sympathy: "The airship is carrying a new type of weapon called a thermobaric bomb, which was developed by Lord Brandlis. It only requires one weapon to destroy a fortress or an entire city. Terrorist weapon, Count Brandless also named it strategic weapon, which means that as long as it is used, it can directly win a war at the strategic level.
The sky is burning, the earth is crawling under my feet, this sentence is the code word for tonight's action
In fact, just like what Count Brandlis said, as early as ten hours ago. The airship has already set off from Langton to the capitals of your country and the other two countries of the Three Kingdoms Alliance. This code word is the order for them to start dropping thermobaric bombs."
After speaking, the general seemed to. I really felt some sympathy for the diplomat who no longer existed in the capital of the motherland, so I added a word of concern to him: "If you have family members in the capital, please express your condolences. The power of thermobaric bombs can tell them Impossible to survive.”
After understanding the general's explanation, Anthony felt dizzy at this time, because his home was in the capital of France.
My beloved wife and daughter who just turned nine this year, my father who is strict but always caring about me, my loving mother, my younger brother who adores and admires me, and my favorite lover ...
They are all in Frans, and at this moment they are all buried in the flames.
Thinking of this, Anthony raised his head and looked at Perfectcott. The hatred of country and family welled up in his heart. He desperately raised his arm and fired a sleeve arrow at Perfectcott.
Although his actions were noticed the moment he raised his hand, the general sitting next to him hurriedly tried to stop him, but it was too late.
The general only had time to hold down Antony's arm and throw him to the ground, while the fired sleeve arrow hit Perficott's face.
However, in the face of the shooting arrow, Purficott just raised his arm casually, and then held the arrow.
"If you were using a pistol, I might still hide for a while, but the arrows in your sleeves?" Purficott couldn't help but sneered, and then threw the arrows in his sleeves to the ground: "Times have changed! Just like you Like your country, it is destined to be eliminated by this era.
I only give you seventy-two hours to surrender unconditionally. If you refuse or still want to negotiate terms, then the empire’s airships and Wen will be defeated. The pressure bombs will destroy all your cities at a rate of one city per day until you unconditionally surrender."
After saying that, Purficott turned and left the stage.
The general who held Anthony down did not make things difficult for him. He just said to him: "You heard it, there are only seventy-two hours."
After saying that, he asked the guards to take Anthony out.
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Time flies by, and it is already the afternoon of the third day. Perfectcott is sitting Drinking afternoon tea with Princess Anne in the conservatory of Windsor Castle.
"So what was the result of the first actual combat of thermobaric bombs?" Purficott put the teacup in his hand back on the table and asked Princess Anne beside her.
Although she designed the thermobaric bomb, and she is fully aware of the killing effect of the thermobaric bomb, Purficott is still very concerned about how much damage the weapon she created has caused, and how much it has taken away. human life.
"Little Purficott, it's better for you not to know. You'll have nightmares." Princess Anne couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Purphycott, and didn't want her to know such bloody figures. At such an age, he has to bear the heavy sin of millions of lives.
That is a number that even soldiers like Princess Anne, who have already faced the battlefield, and even went into battle to kill the enemy in person, will feel shuddering just thinking about it.
So much so that even in the conservatory of Windsor Castle, which is spring-like all year round, Princess Anne can still feel the chill emanating from the string of numbers. She does not want Purficott to bear such a heavy burden. She has already carried enough heavy things for the empire.
However, Purficott just waved his hand indifferently and said indifferently to Princess Anne: "You have to face it, even if you don't tell me, Aunt Anne, the newspapers on the street tomorrow will Report this.
After all, the capitals of three countries were wiped off the map by me, as well as the main army and navy of the Three Kingdoms Alliance. The total number of people should be more than three million, right?
Don’t worry about the psychological burden I will have. If this war continues, in three years... no, two years later, they will freeze to death in the cold wave after the doomsday. Now they are just dead. It's just ahead of schedule. "
Perfect, who seemed to be persuading Princess Anne, but who was also persuading himself, specifically added: "Killing them now is to avoid this incident caused by them. War kills more people.
As long as the three countries surrender unconditionally, the empire will be able to obtain enough resources from them to develop and build the northern border. In this way, we can progress faster than expected, build more shelters, and allow More people of the empire received shelter and survived this catastrophe. ”
Perfect did not mention all mankind. She knew that now was not the time to consider all mankind, and there was no environment to consider all mankind.
After all, in the old world of the 18th century, national consciousness and national consciousness were just awakening. It was really difficult to expect them to think about all mankind.
"Okay, but currently we only have preliminary estimates. Among them, the number of people annihilated by the Army of the Three Kingdoms Alliance is the best. There are about 600,000 people in total, all of whom are elites of the Three Kingdoms Alliance." Knowing that even if she didn't talk about Purficott, she could learn about the situation from other channels, Princess Anne could only helplessly introduce to her the results of the thermobaric bombs: "The navy of the Three Kingdoms Alliance has a total of twenty-six old-fashioned ships. The battleship and seven new battleships were sunk. It is difficult to count other combat ships, but the total number should be more than 200. Frans's naval base and the city where it was located were also destroyed. At least more than 200,000 people were killed. Sea of Fire.
As for the capitals of the Three Kingdoms Alliance, the death toll has not yet been calculated, but according to the intelligence received so far, the number of deaths and missing persons in the capital of France has exceeded one million, the capital of Ross and St. The capital of Mulus is not much different.
At least two million people are displaced. They are more or less burned or inhaled toxic gases. They have lost their homes and are waiting for rescue in this cold winter. But now the three countries are obviously unable to do this, and they will all die in the next few days or weeks."
Based on the data of the Seven Years War and the found European population in the 18th century. According to the data, the number of people directly affected should exceed six million. After all, cities like Paris have a population of close to two million at this time
(End of this chapter)