Dominate the Country

In the conference room of the European Office in London, Dong Gao and Chen Han, the ambassador to the UK, Lu Zhiqiang, two busy men, are sitting there motionless.

This is a rare thing.

In London now, Dong Gao and Lu Zhiqiang are definitely guests of honor in the homes of countless British dignitaries. The war in Egypt has touched the hearts of countless British people, and the people who have the most thorough understanding of the situation in Egypt must be these Chinese in London. But now these two hot figures are staying in the same conference room, with the same solemn faces.

Lu Zhiqiang is 57 years old this year. He is Yue Wenhai's master. But when Yue Wenhai returned to his hometown, Lu Zhiqiang left. The value of a master lies in the boss of the official. When Yue Wenhai retired from the officialdom, he became worthless. It was not until Yue Wenhai's position was completely exposed, and Chen Han's trend had already formed, that Lu Zhiqiang reconnected with Yue Wenhai.

After more than 20 years in the officialdom of Chen Han, he changed many positions and finally established a firm foothold in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now he is sixty years old and has taken the position of ambassador to the UK, which is higher than the fourth-rank official. Lu Zhiqiang's life is over.

The intelligence and letters on the desk at hand have piled up a lot, but neither of them has the heart to read them. In this conference room with completely Chinese-style furnishings, they waited silently. The headquarters of the British Office in Europe is a completely oriental Chinese building complex, covering an area of ​​30 acres, with more than a hundred people including guards.

The water in the tea bowl was added again and again, and the leaves were soaked white, but neither of them minded.

Every time footsteps sounded in front of the window, the two would always look up at the same time, but they were all delivering important or unimportant news and intelligence from all over the world, and there was still no news about the news they wanted to know.

Another round of "thump, thump, thump" footsteps sounded, and the tea bowl in Lu Zhiqiang's hand trembled. He looked at Dong Gao and his face showed eagerness again.

The staff of the European Office who came all the way here were not as cunning as them. Before they arrived, they had already shouted loudly: "Egypt won, Ilam won." In the Pyramid War in Egypt, Ilam used the casualties of 5,000 Mamluk cavalry and 3,000 Ilam Corps soldiers to not only successfully curb Napoleon's march to Cairo, but also made the French lose at least one division.

The only regret is that the commander of the first division of the Ilam Corps, Murad Bey, Ilam's right-hand man, was killed in the battle of the pyramids only 30 miles away from Cairo. Ilam lost his beloved general, which made the victory of this battle not so perfect.

Napoleon's plan to attack Cairo was shattered, although in terms of the results of the battle, the French army was still the undisputed winner. Napoleon had only 20,000 troops when he marched into Cairo, and each of his five divisions had only 4,000 men. Napoleon alone destroyed 5,000 Mamluk cavalry.

Unfortunately, the battle of the pyramids cannot be judged by appearance alone, but also by the complex relationship between the Egyptian Pasha and the Mamluk cavalry. After the rise of Iram, he successively conquered Murad Bey and Ibrahim Bey. The entire Ottoman army in Egypt was brought under the control of Iram, and part of the Mamluk cavalry was controlled, but most of the Mamluk cavalry still maintained their semi-independent status. After all these years of hard work, the Mamluks he could control were only a small part of this group.

Most of the 5,000 Mamluk cavalry lost now were forces that were not under Iram's control. In this battle, Iram destroyed not only a French division, but also 4,000 to 5,000 uncontrolled Mamluk cavalry, and the exact casualties he paid were only 3,000. This was an absolute victory for Iram.

Dong Gao walked to the door in two steps, snatched the letter from the person, and read it quickly. The message came from Egypt, and its reliability was absolutely guaranteed. Seeing the end, Dong Gao couldn't help laughing: "Good, good! The big thing is settled."

No matter how powerful Napoleon was, his small military force was a shortcoming that he could not change. After the Battle of the Pyramids, the Egyptians' attention to Napoleon suddenly rose to more than one level. You must know that when Iram summoned the Mamluk cavalry, the Mamluks in Cairo immediately decorated their houses with lights and lanterns, and the Bey and their generals cheered. They regarded the French army as a "watermelon to be cut" and promised Iram that each Mamluk would bring back hundreds of heads.

The previous battle in Alexandria could not make them lose their underestimation of the enemy, because that battle was just a show. Although the French showed great tactical skills in the battle, their large column attack, the mixed use of Minié rifles and musket soldiers, and the rapid movement and rapid firing of their artillery caught the Ilam Corps off guard. The Mamluk cavalry's surprise attack was completely unsuccessful for the French soldiers who were always on edge. Unless the Mamluk cavalry commander could ignore the high proportion of casualties among his cavalry and insist on letting the Mamluks charge at the risk of heavy casualties.

Even if it was a simple cavalry confrontation, the French cavalry won cleanly. But the latter was only a small-scale battle, and the largest group of Mamluk cavalry that appeared on the battlefield was only about one or two thousand. The tens of thousands of Mamluk cavalry did not fight the French to the death.

Therefore, the lessons the Egyptians learned in that battle were all "superficial".

But in the next battle at the Pyramids, the French failed to achieve their wish, which was considered a setback, but what about Egypt? The casualties that were twice that of the French army, especially the casualties of 5,000 Mamluks, made the Mamluks, a feudal knight group that had existed in Egypt for hundreds of years, shed tears.

In this battle, the Egyptians' performance was not unheroic. The Mamluks used all their elites, an elite cavalry legion composed of twelve thousand knights who were proficient in sword skills. They can be said to be the most powerful classical cavalry in the world in terms of individual combat capability.

Each knight was dressed in white robes, with feathers on their heads, and the swords and spears in their hands were gleaming.

Murad Bey, who was born in the Mamluks, personally led the Mamluk cavalry charge. The letter newspaper also dedicated a paragraph to describe the highest Ottoman officer who died in the Battle of the Pyramids: Murad Bey had a contemptuous sneer on his face. He pulled out his sword, drew an arc in the air, and shouted loudly: "Warriors, God will bless us to destroy these abominable pagans. Charge!" In an instant, the sand was flying, the sound of horse hooves was loud, and under the cover of artillery, , the Mamluk soldiers let out wild shouts and rushed towards the French attacking column with an overwhelming force...

…

Lu Zhiqiang also came behind Dong Gao at this time. After reading the contents of the letter, his face, which was originally full of sorrow, now looked as if the clouds had cleared and the sun was shining through.

Napoleon suffered a strategic setback, but he still won tactically.

This is the best outcome that the Office in Europe can expect. Such a war could not dim Napoleon's star. But Napoleon's strategy was hampered. If he didn't change everything as soon as possible, he would suffer a tragic defeat sooner or later.

The Ottoman army has been mobilized to Egypt, but it is impossible for France to continue to reinforce troops to Egypt. Barras would have been pleased to see Napoleon and his thirty thousand trusted men dying in helplessness, and Nelson's fleet finally appearing off Alexandria.

After landing with Napoleon in Egypt, the French admiral Brueys wanted to go to Corfu or return to Toulon, but was opposed by most of the generals in the fleet, so he decided to anchor at Aboukir.

Aboukir is a bay 35 miles southeast of Alexandria. It is rectangular and 50 miles long. One end is not far from Rosetta and is connected to one of the two mouths of the Nile. Due to the mud washed down from the Nile mouth all year round, The entire bay is filled with shoals, reefs, and tortuous waterways. For ships unfamiliar with offshore water conditions, Aboukir is a trap.

Brues prepared to deploy a gun group on a small island at the entrance of Aboukir Bay, erecting 4 cannons and 1 giant short gun unloaded from a warship to strengthen the sea defense. Then all the French warships can line up in a single column and anchor along the north-to-west and south-to-east lines in the bay. The center and rear guard are the stronger warships, and the weaker vanguard group can be covered by shore artillery. The French fleet tried its best to get as close to the shallow water area as possible, and all the ships lowered their top yards without having to hang sails. Although this caused the fleet to lose its maneuverability, it was also beneficial. With the sail yards lowered, there was no need to worry about the falling sail yards hurting people in the event of a battle.

There was only one major flaw in Brues's arrangement, that is, he believed that any enemy who tried to approach would face strong winds blowing from the land. In fact, the wind direction in the Mediterranean was unpredictable, and Brues wanted to The fleet became a floating fortress with their backs against the beach. Thinking that this would be foolproof.

Brueys also planned that after the entire fleet's "turnaround" is completed, in addition to the necessary guard soldiers, other sailor officers can have a good rest and enjoy the fun of the beach. Have a nice relaxing time!

As a result, when the French fleet approached Aboukir, they met the British fleet led by Nelson on a narrow road.

At this point, the Battle of Aboukir, which was supposed to be one of the most glorious victories in Nelson's life, was completely changed and changed beyond recognition, making it unrecognizable to the original time and space history.

Although the British still won this battle, the French ship "Spartan" was not familiar with the geographical and water conditions of Aboukir, so it mistakenly entered shallow water during its retreat and ran aground directly, causing it to be stranded by the British. captured, and two other third-tier sailing battleships sunk.

In this battle, the French lost three third-level sailing battleships, as well as the cruiser Fraternity, and the flagship Orient was also seriously damaged. It can be said that the losses were considerable. Their total number of battleships is only thirteen. But the British also paid a heavy price. Although no battleships were lost, two were seriously damaged.

One of these ships was Nelson's flagship, the Pioneer. The captain of the Pioneer, Sir Edward Berry, was a simple yet hot-tempered man. He was very brave and only obeyed Nelson's orders, while Nelson was fighting. he was a lunatic; another The ship was the "Alexander". The captain, Alexander Ball, was always a scholar and liked to talk. However, he tried to intercept the flagship of the French fleet during the battle. In the end, the "Alexander" severely damaged the French flagship "Orient". , but he himself failed to do well.

The British won this battle, but when the news was sent to Nanjing thousands of miles away, only Chen Ming in the world knew how much glory Nelson missed.

The Battle of Aboukir in the original time and space, also known as the Battle of the Nile Estuary, and Nelson's final battle, the Battle of Trafalgar, can be said to be two important battles in history that established Britain's century-old dominance in Europe.

In the first half of the Battle of Naples, Nelson defeated the French and Spanish navies with a small force! This fundamentally guaranteed the safety of the British mainland.

In the Battle of Aboukir, the French fleet was almost wiped out in one battle because of the wrong command of Commander Brueys. A total of 11 battleships of the French fleet were destroyed or sunk. In addition to the small fleet that remained in Alexandria, only the rearguard fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Joseph Villeneuve, who was known for his unusual laziness, survived. During the entire battle, the major general remained indifferent and did not take any action. Before Brueys died, he ordered Villeneuve to cut the anchor chain and come to support immediately. Villeneuve did so, but that was not to participate in the battle, but to escape. At midnight, he saw that the situation was hopeless, and without caring about rescuing his comrades, he led the cruisers Guillaume Tell, Valiant, Diana and Eustis out of the port in thick smoke to escape. It was too late for the British to attack him. The French Navy suffered more than 5,000 casualties in that battle, including 1,700 deaths, while the British fleet had no ships sunk and suffered more than 1,000 casualties, including only 200 deaths.

At that time, Napoleon had come to Damietta from Cairo and was conquering Lower Egypt. The initial rumors said that the French army had won and many British warships had been burned. Napoleon was very proud. Later, when his adjutant told him the real news that the whole army was annihilated, Napoleon seemed to have been struck by a bolt from the blue and was stunned.

Several years later, Napoleon, who was living in seclusion on the island of St. Helena, still had complaints about Brueys's command. He was very dissatisfied with the latter's deployment and believed that if the fleet was anchored in Alexandria according to his suggestion, then no matter how the battle developed, Brueys could get strong support from the shore artillery and would not have to fight alone like now. Napoleon only admitted that Brueys "showed the greatest courage" in the battle, and other French generals were also like this, but that was all.

Now Brueys followed Napoleon's opinion. After the defeat in the Battle of Aboukir, he withdrew to Alexandria with the remaining fleet.

The news of the Battle of Aboukir reached Britain first, and the whole of London regarded Nelson as a hero. The royal family also named Nelson the Baron of the Nile.

Now, following the Battle of Aboukir, the news of the Battle of the Pyramids has come again, which I believe will make the British even happier.

Yes, Napoleon still won the battle. The French exchanged "one" for "two", and there were so many Mamluk cavalry. But Napoleon's steps to Cairo were forced to stop. This was the greatest victory of the Egyptians!

Dong Gao's expression was a little complicated. He saw Napoleon go from an unknown person to the position that shines on the entire European continent today, but he seemed to have contributed to the fall of this general.

As it stands now, Napoleon's expedition to Egypt is really impossible to win.

Unless the French mainland can bypass the interception of the British fleet and send more soldiers to reinforce him.

In the Battle of the Pyramids, the French seemed to have won the victory and occupied an absolute advantage, but Napoleon chose to retreat instead of advancing, which is enough to explain the problem.

Tactical victory cannot reverse strategic failure.

With the strength of a division, Napoleon was already seriously injured after losing one division, and he absolutely could not lose the second one. As for Ilam, he lost the first 8,000 people, and he still had the capital to lose the second and third 8,000 people.

Egypt's population is not large, but it still has one million people; the Ottoman army urgently dispatched is not large, but it still has 10,000 or 20,000 people. Iram can completely hurt others with his own strength.

This is the worst for Napoleon.

But Dong Gao can't sit back and watch Napoleon capsize, not only because he has the emperor's order in his hand, the emperor's words are very clear, Napoleon's stage is Europe, Napoleon will have great achievements and great influence; but also because Dong Gao's fate has been tied to the big ship of Napoleon.

If Napoleon capsizes, Dong Gao's time to leave the political stage will not be far away. He doesn't want to do this!