War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

At this time, the Austrian Empire did not owe military pay as it did in history, so most of its troops were at full strength.

The weapons and food stocks in the fortress are enough to last for more than a year. In addition, because the rubber trees in the Chenla area have finally matured, the Austrian army has begun to fully install rubber shoes.

Of course, this still aroused opposition from some officers. As for the reasons, they are a bit strange.

"too ugly!"

An aristocratic officer roared and threw the new M1845 military rubber shoes to the ground. This khaki "junk" was completely inferior to his noble black leather shoes.

Another officer: "It really doesn't look good, but this thing is quite durable. And it only stipulates that soldiers must wear it. There is no uniform requirement for officers. There is only one bottom line, and that is decency."

After hearing what the latter said, the former breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "What if those soldiers also think they are too ugly?"

In reality, this was all a fool's errand, as shoes of this era were expensive and generally neither durable nor comfortable.

Of course, there are some shoes that are durable and comfortable, but the price is not affordable for ordinary soldiers.

Generally speaking, these new canvas rubber shoes are durable and more comfortable than most shoes of this era. The most important thing is that they are free of charge.

Then let’s talk about the appearance. Franz has seen and worn old-fashioned yellow rubber shoes, 99 type, 07 type, and 21 type. In terms of performance, the newer the better.

However, considering the actual situation at the time, Type 07 and Type 21 could not be manufactured at all. The old-fashioned yellow rubber shoes were too low, so the Type 99 was finally selected. However, since camouflage canvas could not be produced in this era, yellow cloth could only be used in the end. Instead, this can be regarded as a kind of inheritance of yellow rubber shoes.

However, ordinary soldiers did not feel ugly. On the contrary, the uniform style and color of the shoes made them feel cool.

In fact, there were no so-called standard military shoes in this era. Countries with better conditions would at most hire a few military shoemakers to help make shoes, but most of them were handmade products with varying levels of quality and a variety of materials.

The earliest standard military shoes in history appeared in Prussia in 1866. At that time, Bismarck, the iron-blooded prime minister, in order to boost morale on the eve of the Austro-Prussian War, equipped more than 50,000 soldiers with brown leather boots.

Therefore, the Austrian soldiers at this time still strongly supported this standard equipment, and the logistics troops also praised rubber tires.

At this time, the hollow rubber tires equipped by the Austrian army did not have many advantages over the old wooden wheels. Whether it was shock absorption, pressure resistance, wear resistance, or friction with the ground, the former completely overwhelmed the latter. .

Therefore, Austria's troops are not only powerful where there are railway lines, but their field supply capabilities are also the first in Europe at this time.

The emergence of hollow tires led to a revolution in the wheel industry in the Austrian Empire. The wheel standards that had not been unified for thousands of years also changed at this time.

All wheels must be produced according to tire standards, otherwise even the best wheels will be difficult to sell.

Because even if the wheels are wrapped with rubber, it is still far from the effect of hollow tires.

Closer to home, according to Marshal Radetzky, with the training level and firepower intensity of the Kingdom of Sardinia, it is simply impossible to conquer Northern Italy with only 100,000 people.

The old man even thought that he could keep the enemy out of the country, but Franz still denied this crazy idea. After all, by then Marshal Radetzky might not be able to dispatch troops as easily as he does now.

Franz then asked another pointed question.

"Marshal, if a war breaks out between us and the Italian nationalists, how many Italians will rebel?"

Radetzki was a little surprised, but thought about it seriously.

"According to past experience, it should be 5%-8%. Generally speaking, their number is less than half of the deserters."

The old marshal joked.

Desertion has always been a big problem in the 19th century. Taking Russia as an example, the desertion rate was as high as more than 5% even during non-wartime.

During the same period in the U.S.-Mexican War, the desertion rate on both sides was over 20%, and the desertion rate among some Mexican troops was as high as 35%.

Cruel wars, infectious diseases, poor treatment, and the withholding of military pay may all cause deserters. The Austrian Empire is a country with mountains, swamps, and complex terrain.

Often several soldiers would get together, steal weapons from the army, and flee into the mountains and swamps.

Generally speaking, the chief officer will not report deserters, nor will he send troops to encircle and suppress soldiers, but will only report the natural loss of firearms. This is also an important reason why soldiers are only given a small number of bullets.

These deserters usually have to survive. They are unwilling to work hard and do not have land, tools and other means of production, so most of these people choose to become bandits.

Rampant banditry in turn affects economic development and food production. The country has no food and money to appease the army, let alone money to suppress bandits. The result is a vicious circle.

However, the Austrian Empire's economy had made great progress at this time, so military pay and food were guaranteed. Although the treatment was slightly lower than workers' wages, it was still much better than the same period in history.

In addition, Austria has been victorious in almost all the wars it has participated in over the years, so the morale of the army is relatively high, and there has been no large-scale desertion.

However, the phenomenon of desertion has not been eliminated, especially when fighting jointly with the German armies, the number of deserters increased significantly.

Although Marshal Radetzky said it in a joke, Franz knew that the desertion problem would seriously plague the country in the future.

In fact, Franz has not considered solving this problem, but all he can do is solve the worries of these soldiers.

At the same time, victory and heroes are used to numb their nerves. It is not yet known how much other ideas, such as loyalty to the emperor, patriotism and religion, can play a role.

As for the military reform to improve organization, Count Latour was very talkative in this regard. After receiving the approval of Archduke Karl, the former was determined to comprehensively promote the staff system.

Franz actually planned to directly extend this staff system to the company level and use it as political commissars for future generations. However, the actual situation was that Austria simply could not produce so many qualified officers, and most of them failed to pass the political review.

In the end, we could only take a few steps back to the regiment level, but since there was no field radio, it was still difficult to achieve unified command.

During this period, Archbishop Rauscher also asked Franz whether he could use military chaplains to replace the role of staff. After all, the church was absolutely loyal to the empire.

This was immediately rejected by Franz. Although there are many chaplains in the army, these people generally do not understand military affairs and are prone to extremes. If a wave of hot-blooded soldiers were sent or surrendered, wouldn't it be a big loss? Already?

Mainly because this approach reminded Franz of the political commissar system of Su and Su in later generations. In order not to "repeat the same mistakes", he must be cautious.