Chapter 203： Blood lesson (1/2)
Snow flakes are coming again every winter. Wrapped in a layer of silver, Vienna has become particularly pleasant this winter.
Schönbrunn Palace
Metternich reported: ”Your Majesty, the Ministers of Britain and France transmitted the Ottoman truce negotiations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it appears that the Sudanese government is preparing for the aftermath.”
This does not surprise Franz. The war has hit now. The Ottomans suffered the most losses, followed by the Russians. The British and French losses were drizzle and not worth mentioning.
Without strength, everything is futile. It is inevitable that the Ottomans will shrink their sphere of influence in the future. With the support of Britain and France now, they will end the war with Austria in advance, and it will be more in their interest to shrink the troop to return to the Greeks.
Franz thought for a while and said, ”Go on with our original plan, talk slowly with the Ottomans, and find out their bottom line before talking.”
”Yes, Your Majesty!” Metternich replied.
Now that the second Bulgarian battle has been fought, both sides are exhausted. The high-intensity battles in the past few days, the soldiers' war exhaustion has increased day by day, and the morale of the warring parties has inevitably declined.
Except for the Greeks who had just joined the battle and the Montenegro who had been dazzled by victory, the rest were supporting.
On the bright side, the Russians had the upper hand. Franz was very clear that this was just an appearance. This was a battle that was doomed to lose.
Just look at the casualties of the Russians. After more than four months of fighting, the casualties of the Russian army have exceeded 170,000.
Among them, only less than 60,000 people died directly. The remaining 100,000 wounded, because they did not receive treatment in time, and lacked medical treatment and medicine, ultimately survived less than eight floors.
There is no first-aid on the battlefield. The medical paramedics in the Russian army are rare. They can only protect the lives of officers. As for the soldiers, they ca n’t live with them!
Gray animals are worthless. They can only be bandaged briefly if wounded, and then rely on the soldiers to slowly boil.
The Russian army has not conducted first-aid training on the battlefield, so it is more suitable to bind wounds rather than bandaging. No professional medical gauze, no disinfection, just find a cloth and wrap it up.
The severely wounded did not say that it was impossible to survive, and they were directly counted among the dead.
Many lightly wounded people obviously only hit non-critical parts such as arms and thighs by bullets. They could have survived as long as proper wound treatment was performed, and they also died because of unfavorable treatment.
In the Principality of Wallachia, the battlefield emergency hospital opened by Franz is now very busy. Every day, the wounded soldiers of the Russians retreat, and then they rushed over to seek medical treatment.
”Medical treatment” is a golden statement. It is nothing more than cleaning the wound, disinfecting it, and then re-bandaging, prescribing some medicine with unknown efficacy.
The real life-saving is cleaning the wound and disinfecting to avoid inflammation and infection. The drugs behind it are mainly used for the heart, and by the way make good money.
From the front to the rear, it has not been dead for several days, it is not a severely wounded person, as long as the wound is not infected, it can basically survive.
These Russian soldiers did not know. They only saw that after the first aid, the mortality rate dropped rapidly, and they thought that all the doctors in the hospital were doctors.
In fact, most of these medical staff are soldiers who have only received first-aid training on the battlefield. Franz used Russian wounded as mice to exercise their professional skills.
Drugs will depend on the situation. For a penny and a dollar, sky-high medicine will definitely be effective. Franz still has it.
Cheap medicines do not need to be expected, either a variety of experimental medicines, or flour + vegetables.
The most effective of the cheap medicines is decoction, in simple terms, a pot of clearing heat and detoxifying or traditional Chinese medicine. Unfortunately, this thing is considered by many to be witchcraft, and most Russian soldiers are reluctant to drink it.
Moreover, this medicine is not intended to treat wounds. It has no immediate effect and has not attracted everyone's attention.
Nicholas I was a good Tsar. At least he also paid for the medical expenses of the soldiers. Of course, don't expect him to spend much. The packing price is ten rubles per wounded person. If he survives, he will give money. (Silver ruble is about two and a half silver)
With this money, it is naturally impossible to expect any good service. With the exception of the few who have the ability to pay for themselves, most people enjoy the simplest treatment.
For example, to perform surgery and remove the shrapnel from the wound, you don't have to think about it without a hundred rubles. Too few people have the ability to perform this operation, and the price is naturally high.
Originally, Franz was also preparing to outsource the first aid on the battlefield, but considering that the risk on the battlefield was too great, and the Tsar government refused to spend a lot of money, naturally it could not be reached.
Such a terrible casualty rate, even if the rear is constantly replenishing, the combat effectiveness of the army will inevitably be affected.
After theoretically treating these wounded and rearming to the battlefield, veterans will have stronger combat effectiveness.
It is a pity that the Russian bureaucracy has a serious work style and does not do the ideological work of the soldiers. Most of the wounded soldiers are unwilling to return to the battlefield, and some people even buy medical staff to delay the recovery time.
This is the case for the Russians, and the coalition forces opposite are even worse. The Ottoman Empire was not capable of providing medical care, even for local operations.
The casualties of the British army were not significant, and did not attract domestic attention. The angel who pioneered the first aid in the battlefield has not yet reached the front line.
Without battlefield first aid, you can only rely on God's fate, and rely on God or blessings.
This is why the British and French commanders forced the Ottomans to become cannon fodder. In order to reduce the casualty rate, they can only die.
Franz does not forget the lessons of the past, and the lessons of the Near East War, Franz naturally learned.
With these messy things, Franz had already summed up the General Staff, and the cases on the battlefield were distributed to the hands of every commander.
Logistical experience and lessons are also provided by all government departments, and relevant professional knowledge training is organized. In short, the same thing cannot happen in Austria.
In order to better implement these issues, the Austrian government has implemented a dual responsibility system of leadership and direct responsibility in the logistics department. If any problem occurs, the relevant responsible persons will go to the military court together.
Franz said cautiously, ”Honest Marshal, the General Staff will finalize the final westward battle plan as soon as possible. This time we are racing against time.
The army must take down Munich within a week, control the entire Bavaria within a month, and sweep the South German region within two months.
If time is available, we will also extend our tentacles to the central region of Germany to occupy favorable terrain and lay the foundation for the future. ”
The terrain of the German region is very complicated: North Germany is a plain with an average altitude of less than 100 meters; Central Germany is a mountainous region, which runs from east to west; in the southwestern Rhine Valley, there are mountains on both sides, and the valley walls are steep; The regions are the Bavarian Plateau and the Alps.