July 30, 1870.
Franco-Prussian front.
"Your Majesty, we should launch an attack on Prussia at once! According to the information sent by our intelligence agents, the Prussian Army's numbers have been increasing rapidly these past few days. Prussian railways are nearly four or five times as efficient as ours, and vast quantities of men and supplies are being transported to the front without end. If we continue waiting, the strength of Prussia's frontline forces will grow stronger by the day. When that happens, they will be able to defeat us through sheer numbers alone." Napoleon III's staff officer, Lebeuf, analyzed.
"Why can't our railways achieve the same results?" Napoleon III demanded angrily.
The era of Napoleon III was also an era of France's rapid industrialization. Quite a few railways had been built, and in terms of sheer quantity, they were no fewer than Prussia's.
Lebeuf explained, "Your Majesty, although France developed its railways earlier and valued their role greatly, those merchants considered only economic benefits when building them. Even before the Prussian-Austrian War, Prussia had already treated railways as a strategic resource. They even established a Ministry of Railways specifically to manage wartime railway dispatching. In essence, it existed to serve the Prussian Army. We only realized this after the Prussian-Austrian War, but because of financial concerns within the government..."
Lebeuf did not finish, but Napoleon III already understood. He sighed. "We were still too shortsighted. I recall that the first use of railways to transport troops was when France fought Austria in Italy, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but the results were not very good that time. Although both France and Austria used railways to transport soldiers to the front, we overlooked the logistical problem. As a result, more than a hundred thousand men at the front ran short of food,