Just when the prince was a little surprised and excited because of the breakthrough of the aviation industry, he was about to go home and be happy with his wife, the arrival of his uncle Prince Leopold made Rupresette busy again. As the saying goes, blessings are not equal, disasters do not happen, and good things are rarely squeezed together. Therefore, according to this principle, Prince Leopold's arrival brings bad news.

"Our attack speed is still too slow. The attack speed of less than 50 kilometers a day cannot allow us to encircle the opponent's army-level units. Come and take a look at this picture." Prince Leopold brought the prince to a map. On this simple map, the blue lines represent the Russian defense line, which is about 80 kilometers in scale. The two red lines on both sides represent the Bavarian fast legion responsible for detour encirclement.

"A speed of less than 50 kilometers a day is the speed of our journey on the road. We will definitely not be able to achieve it in actual combat. Although a discount can guarantee a speed of more than 25 kilometers, this speed is obviously not enough for the encirclement, because the opponent may have a reserve team to intercept it, and the Russian army who are aware of the danger of flanking may shrink its defense line or retreat. They are in the inner circle and we are in the outer circle, and the speed advantage is not enough to prevent the opponent from moving, so this speed does not make much sense."

"Our assault troops will not be large. One attack direction may require 1 to 2 divisions, and we will choose at most 2 to 3 breakthroughs on the long line of defense, because these alone will use up the forces of our 4 to 6 divisions. The troops we attacked cannot quickly encircle, nor can we immediately attack the Russian logistics center hundreds of kilometers away. This is not possible." Prince Leopold explained.

"And, I must make it clear that in combat situations, if soldiers fight continuously and march for a long distance, the physical energy consumption is very huge, which must be paid attention to. These issues are OK if they simply face enemies, but if they want to implement your plan to go north and encircle and annihilate Russian troops that may attack East Prussia, it is absolutely impossible. Maybe the chariots can support them at that time, but the accompanying infantry will definitely not support them."

"The biggest problem is the speed of infantry movement, right?" the prince said after thinking.

"That's right, it's the speed of movement of infantry. Although I admit that the use of a large number of vehicles has greatly reduced the burden on the troops and the scale of the cavalry has increased the movement speed of the army, this improvement is still not enough, because it has never solved a shortcoming that very restricts movement speed - the movement ability of the infantry!" The prince nodded in agreement.

In fact, if you think about it, you can understand that a unit can transport artillery, shells and a large amount of supplies by car or carriage, but the soldiers' clothing themselves must carry themselves. A semi-automatic rifle, bayonet and 120 rounds of bullets must carry themselves? Plus 5 grenades and some accessories, the weight is no longer light. If it is a long-distance battle, not to mention anything else, three-day rations and a kettle must be carried by themselves? These weapons and the equipment they carry together are already quite a lot.

If you count a little further, the machine guns and 60mm mortars in the company sometimes have to hold them themselves. In addition to their own weapons, the machine gun squad may also have to bring a 250-round canvas belt. This makes the infantry's load very heavy and the movement speed will not be fast. It is almost impossible to maintain a speed of more than 40 kilometers per day in an infantry unit that has a built-in heavy weapon but has not achieved full mechanization.

Maybe some people say how fast the Red Army's operations during the Long March were flying to capture Luding Bridge and other operations. How do you say this? The so-called established system refers to the division level, with a large amount of artillery and supplies. Not to mention when the Red Army could have firepower comparable to the German regular division in one battle. Judging from the soldiers' own weight, no rifleman can get 120 bullets, right?

"If we want to surround several army-level units, then our fast troops must ensure a speed of 60 kilometers per day without interference. Infantry is simply impossible. Therefore, I think it is not appropriate to assign a large number of infantry and artillery to the assault troops. Although it has improved its offensive ability, the speed that is crucial to victory in the battle has not been essentially improved. If we can break through the opponent's defense line, even if we encounter obstacles later, it will be just field firefighting, and the intensity will not be very large. A large number of infantry and heavy artillery is a bit wasteful." The prince said.

"If you want to increase the attack speed, there are only two methods in theory, but in fact there is probably only one method." The prince said.

"The first method is to let every soldier get on the car, so the speed will naturally be fast, but this is only theoretically useful, but the economic cost is too high. Another method, and the only feasible method is to replace infantry with cavalry and reduce the number of artillery largely. Build a normal German division into a special division with very fast speed but limited attack capabilities."

The fastest attack speed in this era is always the cavalry. During the Russian-Polish war, the third cavalry army rushed to 810 kilometers in 21 days. This attack was not simply a road. During this process, the cavalry army crossed 3 rivers, and captured 4 provincial capitals and 35 towns with the cooperation of infantry, and severely damaged the Polish First Army. It annihilated more than 20,000 enemies (including prisoners). Although the average attack speed per day was 40 kilometers, if you consider the continuous battle, the result was quite considerable!

Of course, pure-blooded cavalry will definitely suffer head-on battles against a large number of well-equipped infantry divisions, but in the environment of the Eastern Front, the ordinary Russian infantry divisions are obviously not well-equipped. Take military-level troops as an example. The total number of Russian troops is 48,700, the total number of French troops is 44,200, and the total number of German troops is 45,600.

A French army has 30 artillery companies, each with 4 artillery pieces, which means a French army has 120 artillery pieces! A German army has 28 artillery companies. Although the number is smaller, 24 artillery companies each have 6 artillery pieces, and the remaining 4 companies have 4 artillery pieces, and the number of artillery pieces reaches an astonishing 160 artillery pieces! In addition, the advantage of artillery caliber is more than one step higher than the French!

Then look at the number of artillery in a Russian army, which is only 14 artillery companies! Although 12 of them have 8 artillery companies and 2 have 4 artillery companies, the total number of artillery companies is only 104. The Russians have nearly 10% more troops than the French, and the number of artillery companies is nearly 15%. Well that's it.
Chapter completed!