It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 216 | Hitting a Wall

In exchange, Veronica promised to later hand over some of the Republic of Marianna's colonies in North Africa to the Francois, such as the relatively wealthy Morocco.

In addition, Veronica assured the Franks that she would provide industrial construction assistance—primarily handled by the Varland puppet government.

Since modern times, the Portuguese have never regained their glory during the Age of Exploration. Their level of industrialization is negligible, and they suffered further devastation from the civil war a few years ago. Now, everything is in ruins and their annual steel production is only 700,000 to 800,000 tons. This data alone shows how weak the Portuguese were.

They offered construction assistance and were willing to cede colonies, all they had to do was put up a show of deploying hundreds of thousands of troops on the border.
Veronica's drawing of the pie on the upper level of the brethren was quite beautiful, but whether she would actually get to eat it in the end was another matter.

During this time, the United Kingdom also sensed something amiss and realized that Ivan Ross was secretly colluding with the Portuguese. They immediately and solemnly warned the Portuguese leadership not to listen to Ivan Ross's temptations.

Caught in the middle, the Franco regime was caught in the middle and suffered from both sides. Fortunately, the dictator Franco was relatively rational and had some diplomatic wisdom.

After careful consideration, Franco chose to accept the terms offered by Veronica.

More than a dozen infantry divisions and brigades were subsequently deployed to the Pyrenees Mountains. The Frankish army was also ordered to create friction, and in late March, under the pretext of "condoning smuggling," they intercepted a patrol of Marianne's troops, which then escalated into a firefight...

Throughout the entire war, facing a complex and ever-changing situation, Franco maneuvered between the Allied and Axis powers, maintaining neutrality from beginning to end.

Unlike in the original timeline, Ivanros is now at the height of his power, with a relatively clear power structure. Franco makes the judgment that Ivanros is too big for his size and has a very high chance of defeating Marianne.

The Republic of Marianna had a population of just over 40 million and an army of just over 3 million. Its internal affairs were in chaos, its fighting spirit was low, and it lacked the will to fight to the end.

Moreover, the country has limited strategic depth, with one-third of its industry concentrated around Fontainebleau (Paris). It must defend itself against enemies outside its borders, as any invasion would be fatal. Objectively, it lacks the conditions to resist to the end.

Franco may not have been a brilliant politician, but he was at least competent; he made decisions based on his own judgment that directly affected the fate of the Frankish Kingdom.

On March 25, despite warnings from the United Kingdom, Ivanros's 4th and 6th Fronts poured into Belgium and the Netherlands.

The Tsarist Russian forces on the western front amassed a massive force, consisting of as many as 135 regular divisions and 48 Volksslava brigades, with a total of 340 million personnel in front-line troops and service units.

至于技术装备，帝俄部队总计部署了大约3300架飞机和2677辆坦克，其中最好的是832辆T-34中型坦克和大约450辆缴获的III号G2型坦克（50毫米42倍径坦克炮），其余一千多辆则都是T-26、BT-7、T-35之流。

Having been tempered by war, the Imperial Russian forces became increasingly adept at combined arms tactics and techniques, and their tank units were hailed as the "Iron Fist of the Motherland," with high morale.

Marianne's army strictly adhered to the guiding principle of keeping the enemy outside the country's borders and entered Belgium in advance to set up defenses.

Realizing that war was inevitable, Belgium's illusion of remaining neutral was completely shattered, and it publicly announced that it would fight alongside Marianne and resolutely resist the invading enemy.

The Maginot Line was strategically significant, allowing Marianne's army to defend a border stretching over 400 kilometers with only about thirty divisions stationed there. This saved considerable manpower, allowing them to deploy nearly a hundred divisions in the north and Belgium. Locally, the forces blocking Ivan Ross's army consisted of 99 Marianne division-level units and 20 Belgian division-level units, totaling approximately 2.6 million men.

With five to six million troops from both sides converging on the three lowland kingdoms, such troop density was unprecedented.

Ivanrod's series of battles that defeated Varland were actually quite opportunistic, taking full advantage of favorable timing and location.

But now it's completely different.

Smaller operational areas can concentrate more troops, with alarmingly high troop and firepower densities—this is a difference at the operational level.

In terms of weaponry, artillery remains the most important, especially anti-tank guns for countering armored forces.

除了剑走偏锋的25毫米轻型反坦克炮，玛丽安娜军队还装备有Mle37型47毫米反坦克炮，这是一种53倍径的长身管炮，可在500米距离上击穿77毫米厚度的垂直钢板。

Although the 47mm anti-tank gun still cannot pose a direct threat to the T-34, it can at least easily penetrate its side armor.

This brings extraordinary tactical value, considering that the 37mm anti-tank guns of the Varland Army could not even penetrate the side armor of the T-34.

As a result, the living conditions of the Imperial Russian tank forces were much more difficult than before.

The battle that broke out at the end of March north of the Liège fortress is a prime example—

A detachment led by Mariana ambushed the arrogant Imperial Russian tank force, using Panhard armored vehicles to draw their attention. Then, three anti-tank guns, hidden in the woods on the flanks, opened fire simultaneously, destroying eight or nine tanks within five minutes.

Furthermore, regarding the deployment of divisional defensive positions, Mariana's army learned from the painful lessons of its neighbors. Not only did they deploy anti-tank guns on the flanks, but they also added more complex oblique positions between the first and second lines of defense, deploying anti-tank guns and hastily formed anti-tank infantry squads. Once enemy tank units penetrated deep into their territory, they could maximally disrupt the combined infantry and tank formations, defeating them piecemeal.

Ground combat was as difficult as air combat.

Over the past few months, the Imperial Air Force of Ivanros has been fighting tooth and nail to suppress the Valland Air Force, with staggering losses of aircraft and pilots.

The production of single-engine fighters was more than sufficient for Ivan Ross, but the influx of a large number of rookie pilots significantly reduced the number of fighters in the air force, making it incomparable to the Mariana Air Force.

Under dire circumstances, Ivanros's army's large-scale offensive yielded little success, with progress stalled on several main fronts.

Within just one week of the start of the full-scale offensive, the casualties of the Imperial Russian forces had already surged to an unbelievable level, with combat losses exceeding 60,000, two-thirds of which were caused by Marianne's artillery units.

Due to the precision and intensity of the enemy's artillery fire, and the ineffectiveness of countermeasures, the assembly and offensive preparations of the Imperial Russian forces became extremely difficult. The terrible artillery fire demoralized the troops, and some even claimed that the enemy's artillery was firing 24 hours a day from morning to night!
(End of this chapter)