Dominate the Country

The twenty-second year of Chengtian, 1796 in the Western calendar.

On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, the sky was gloomy.

The turbulent Atlantic Ocean had been left behind, and the "Chinese Fleet Visiting Austria" led by Admiral Zhu Fu himself slowly left the British port of Gibraltar - this was an opportunity that China had exchanged for another promise of "not infringing on the existing interests of the Kingdom of Great Britain in India" - an opportunity for the fleet to dock.

As for why it is another such opportunity? That is because such a promise was made when the official forces of Chen Han officially entered the Indian region.

However, the promises between countries depend on the strength of both parties. It is not that an agreement can last for thousands of years.

The British still had a certain "power" at the beginning, but now their "power" has weakened a lot.

The British were dragged down by a lot of energy on French affairs, so they were naturally worse in India.

China and Britain were gaining and losing, and the disadvantaged British had to seek another promise from China.

After using Gibraltar, a military stronghold occupied by the British for 83 years, the fleet of more than 30 ships continued to move towards the other end of the Mediterranean.

The side of the flagship Osman I had just undergone emergency repairs in the British dock in Gibraltar, and some of the planks damaged by shells were also replaced.

This powerful first-class sailing battleship was intercepted by the Spanish Atlantic Fleet when the fleet entered the Strait of Gibraltar. At that time, the Chinese fleet was preparing to sneak through the Spanish police line at night and advance to the British base in the Strait of Gibraltar, but the fleet of more than 30 ships made too much noise, and the alerted Spanish warships discovered the movement.

Then a sudden encounter at sea began.

The Western Gibraltar Squadron led by Vice Admiral Cordova of the Spanish Navy had a total of 16 warships, which was inferior to the number of warships of the Chinese fleet, but a considerable number of Chinese warships were small warships, and the strength of the two sides was roughly the same.

Zhu Fu certainly knew that the Spaniards might change, but although the Sino-Western contradictions in America were acute, they had not yet developed to the point where the dagger was exposed.

The Spanish today were so resolute and decisive that he was very surprised.

You know, if this war started, no matter who won or lost, the news would be passed back to Nanjing, and the Sino-Western war would break out again.

In Europe, the First Anti-French Alliance had been broken, and the Spaniards were now beaten to a pulp by the French army who were settling accounts after the autumn. At this time, they still dared to attack the Chinese fleet. Zhu Fu really didn't know what to say to those people in Madrid.

Is ignorance fearless?

The flagship of the West Gibraltar Squadron is the only four-deck sailing warship in the world today-the battleship Saint Trinidad.

This is the most famous sailing warship in Spain. It was built in Havana, Cuba. The design began in 1765 and was completed in 1769. It was originally designed as a first-class battleship with 112 guns. The initial design dimensions were: length 59.53 meters, keel 50.82 meters, width 16.09 meters, and draft 8.06 meters. It was larger than the British Victory and French warships of the same period. But last year, in 1795, the Spanish rebuilt a new gun deck between her bow and stern decks, making it the only four-deck sailing warship at the time, and the guns reached 140 guns, becoming the largest sailing battleship in the world at the time.

Osman I was also big. But he only had 112 guns, 16 35-jin short-barreled guns, 48 ​​20-jin guns, 30 15-jin guns, and 18 10-jin guns. Compared with the British first-class sailing battleship, the firepower is stronger, but compared with the nickname of the battleship St. Trinidad, the Spanish Mare, it is still inferior.

The only good thing is that the Chinese gunners are better than the Spanish.

Although the Spanish Navy has been engaged in constant warfare, and the Chinese gunners have very limited combat experience, this cannot stop the Chinese Navy from conducting large-scale exercises and rigorous training year after year.

On the contrary, although the Spanish naval soldiers are brave in combat, the Spanish Navy lacks training the most. Less than 10% of its sailors have received real training.

The distance between the two sides of the battle was relatively wide, and it was at night - to prevent rocket attacks. Therefore, the battle between the two sides did not reach a real life-and-death duel - with the emergence of rockets in the Western military, the duration of naval battles has changed from three or four hours per battle to one or two days, or even longer.

Because both sides dare not get too close to each other - they can only use less accurate cannons to shoot at each other, and the result is that the battle time is greatly prolonged.

Chen Ming asked the military industry system to manufacture hexagonal guns a few years ago to deal with this problem.

The metal processing technology of this era has yet to be developed, and it is not realistic to manufacture rifled cannons. Chen Ming then thought of the hexagonal cannon in the history of the original time and space, that is, the Westworth muzzle-loading cannon. This cannon is a transitional cannon between the early smoothbore cannon and the later rifled cannon. It belongs to the British Armstrong cannon series. It was invented and produced by Westworth engineers at the Uriage Arsenal in 1840, and was named after the inventor, Westworth engineers. The reason why it is called a hexagonal cannon is that the inner diameter of the barrel of this type of cannon is hexagonal, commonly known as a hexagonal cannon. The original intention of the design is similar to the later rifling, which is to allow the shells to run along a certain track to attack, maintain a relatively stable trajectory, and improve the accuracy of the impact point. However, the rifling processing technology at that time was not up to the task. Inspired by the hexagonal nut, Westworth engineers processed the inner bore of the barrel into a hexagon. The projectile head and powder bag were also changed to a hexagonal shape.

Of course, Chen Han's military system has already produced a finished product of this kind of cannon, but what is puzzling is that although the accuracy and range of this kind of artillery have been greatly enhanced, its defects and problems have also been exposed, and it is difficult to solve.

The first is weight. The hexagonal cannon is heavier than the smoothbore cannon because its inner diameter is hexagonal, resulting in different barrel thickness (the larger the caliber, the more obvious), and the burst rate is higher than that of the smoothbore cannon under the premise of the same barrel thickness! And its volume and weight problem also makes the prototype of the hexagonal cannon for land use, and the caliber of the cannon is generally small!

At the same time, another important defect of this kind of artillery is jamming! Its shells and the inner bore have extremely high requirements for fit, which increases the difficulty of shell manufacturing, and it is difficult to reduce the jam rate in actual combat!

Anyway, these defects made Chen Ming dare not easily move this new weapon onto the warship and the battlefield. It is just a technical reserve!

The shipborne guns on the warships are still the original process, and the improvement of quality and performance is also improved on the original basis. There were still the unsolvable problems of the muzzle-loading smoothbore guns. The range, accuracy and rate of fire made it difficult for the two fleets fighting in the dark to cause serious damage to each other.

The transport ships in the Chinese fleet quickly slipped to Gibraltar when the escort fleet and the Spanish fleet fought. The Spanish discovered this move, but they were not able to intercept it again.

The commanders on both sides were very conservative, but they turned on the searchlights brightly. No one dared to be careless.

The Spanish were afraid of losing face, and the Sino-Austrian joint fleet was more worried about capsizing in the gutter. After working hard for tens of thousands of miles, it would be too bad to fail at home.

As for the new thing called searchlight, it was invented and equipped by the navies of the East and the West a long time ago.

It is a device with a powerful light source and a concave mirror that can focus light in a specific direction. It is used for long-distance lighting and search. No one in the East and the West lacks this knowledge.

China has Huang Luzhuang, and Europeans are not bad at all in their research on optics.

Anyway, the two sides fought back and forth, but the results were not great. The slight damage on the warships was nothing. There was no need for professional craftsmen to repair them. The carpenters on the ship could do the job themselves.

As for whether the Ottomans would be dissatisfied with the new damage to their new ships, there was no need to worry.

After sailing for tens of thousands of miles and fighting at the gate of the Mediterranean, the Ottomans should be more pleased to see that their Osman I was not just a showpiece, but could withstand the test of actual combat.

After leaving the Strait of Gibraltar, the whereabouts of the Chinese fleet were still elusive, because the Spanish not only had an Atlantic fleet, but also a Mediterranean fleet of the same level.

As the commander of this fleet, Zhu Fu was not willing to have a decisive battle with the main force of the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet.

Most of the warships in this fleet belonged to the Ottomans, and most of the goods transported on the merchant ships were arms and military supplies sold to the Ottomans by Nanjing. If they were beaten to pieces by the Spanish, it would be too bad.

But even so, Zhu Fu had to lead the fleet to Nice in the southeast of France. It is in the southeast corner of France, very close to Marseille and Toulon, and only separated from northern Italy - the top of the shoes and boots - by a mountain - the coastal Alps!

Even if it is the coastal mountains of the Alps, it is a natural barrier.

As for why Zhu Fu took the great risk to enter Nice, it needs to start with the latest notice he received from the European Office.

One of the main support targets of the European Office in the past two years - Napoleon Bonaparte, the incoming commander of the French Italian Corps, urgently needs support in money and a large amount of strategic materials.

Yes, Napoleon, who was impoverished at the time, has now become prosperous again.

After contacting the European Office, Napoleon, who received the secret support of the Chinese, calmed down and waited for opportunities in Paris.

In the second half of 1794, he did not find a suitable opportunity. Napoleon only used Pistor, who was supported by China, to contact some of Toulon's old subordinates and some officers suppressed by the Directory. For example, Captain Marmont, a young artillery officer who performed well in the Battle of Toulon, and Lieutenant Colonel Joachim Murat, the super-large vase cavalry captain.

The former was someone Napoleon knew, and the latter was someone Napoleon had recently discovered. This person had an extremely beautiful and well-proportioned figure, was strong and powerful, had elegant manners, and had a good appearance. He often made people forget his humble origins. Because he liked to wear strange clothes-attracting people's attention, especially the uniforms of the Hussars, he was very eye-catching.

But this super vase is indeed a very practical vase. As far as Napoleon knows, Murat is a very good cavalry commander, very brave, and has a keen sense of smell on the battlefield. But anywhere else, his behavior shows that he is a fool who does not understand politics at all. This reminds Napoleon of Lu Bu in Chinese history, and perhaps this is a bit of a compliment to Murat. But he is really a very brave and brainless person!

Murat was a member of the Jacobins and was almost purged in the previous coup, but like the lucky Napoleon, Murat survived. He could make a new friend who is generous, and Napoleon's career was also sluggish because of the involvement of the Jacobins. The two people sympathize with each other, which is indeed conducive to the establishment of their friendship.

Murat was a member of the Paris garrison. After escaping the initial purge, he resumed his military rank and position. Although the actual power in his hands has shrunk a lot, he still has some power compared to Napoleon.

In fact, Napoleon's early wooing of Murat played a big role in another turning point in his life later on - the battle to suppress the Paris royalist riot.

Time entered 1795. The rule of the Directory became increasingly unpopular. In the foreign war, although the French army destroyed the Orange Dynasty of the Netherlands and marched into Amsterdam, the British naval blockade made food in Paris more precious. The Directory also announced the abolition of the maximum price law and lifted restrictions on speculators. For a time, prices throughout Paris soared, and the price of bread rose all the way, eventually triggering a popular riot.

This was the Germinal Uprising in Paris. Less than two months after the Germinal Uprising was suppressed, the Prairial Coup broke out again. For a time, the rule of the Directory became shaky.

The royalists believed that the opportunity for the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty had come. They launched rebellions in Marseille, Lyon and other regions. At the same time, the royalists gathered in London, Koblenz, Hamburg, Rome and other places, and supported the Count of Provence, the younger brother of the former King of France, Louis XVI, as the new king, known as Louis XVIII. At this time, Louis XVII, who was only seven or eight years old, had died.

The royalists organized a team and landed on the Quiberon Peninsula at the northwest end of Brittany. But the Directory immediately sent troops to defeat the rebel team and executed all 750 captured rebels. However, the royalist rebellion is still going on, and unrest has occurred again in central France. In Paris, the royalists organized a central committee in the central district of Le Barretier, where they had an advantage. Under their instigation, the rebellion spread rapidly in various districts of Paris like a plague. General Menou, who was in charge of the Paris Guard, was dissatisfied with the new electoral law and actually stood on the side of the royalists. Menou negotiated with the leaders of the rebel districts and agreed to let the troops withdraw to the barracks. As a result, most areas fell into the hands of the rioters. The rioters gradually gathered in Paris, reaching 40,000 people, while the troops loyal to the National Convention were only about 5,000. The main force of the Revolutionary Guard was far away from Paris at that time, and the perverse actions of the Directory made the National Convention lose the support of the masses. For a time, the rule of the Directory was in jeopardy.

The Directory dismissed Menou and arrested him at a critical moment. Barras, one of the giants of the Directory, replaced Menou as the highest military commander in Paris.

But Barras didn't know how to fight at all. He only knew how to play tricks, was good at rhetoric, and was good at keeping himself safe in factional struggles and changing his course according to the situation, but he was not a soldier at all. He must have a wise and decisive general as his assistant. Barras thought of Napoleon, a thin young man in a gray-green coat who had asked him for help several times. He knew Napoleon very well. He knew that although Napoleon was a retired general, he showed extraordinary military talent in Toulon.