Dominate the Country

In the middle of France's northwest coastline, at the lower reaches of the Seine River, is the famous outer port of Paris - the port of Le Havre.

Le Havre is a coastal city in northern France. It is located on the north side of the estuary of the Seine River, one of the five major water systems in France. It is on the edge of the English Channel. It is the second largest port in France and the largest port on the Atlantic coast. It is also the closest port to the French capital Paris. The latest major port attraction is that its importance as the "outer port of Paris" has a special status in the French shipping system and a unique position in the French economy.

Juan Carlos Gasol stood at a pier near the shipyard from a distance, looking out of the corner of his eye at a new slipway under construction in the distance from time to time.

He has been observing here for several months. The port of Le Havre is one of the largest ports in France. It is connected to inland Paris through the Seine River. It is one of the largest and most prosperous ports in France and is also the largest shipbuilding center in France. center.

It's just that the shipyard that Gasol observed was not only because this shipyard was manufacturing warships, but also because there were many oriental faces in this shipyard. They are obviously Chinese!

Britain had long noticed this group of Chinese who came to Tianfang from mainland China, and then entered France from the Mediterranean through the Ottomans.

They are technicians from Chinese shipyards!

Because before these people came to France, they had built a new steam shipyard in the Ottoman Golden Horn.

Today, the Ottomans are driving a sail-hybrid paddle steamer in the Mediterranean Sea, just like the battlecruisers a hundred years later. Those who can catch up with it can't beat it; those who can beat it can't catch up with it.

As long as it doesn't encounter a sailing battleship of level three or above, a sail-powered paddle steamer will dare to provoke even a level four sailing battleship.

Of course, in the long run there will definitely be unlucky paddle steamers whose steam power was damaged or self-destructed, leaving only one sail, and were captured by the British. But right now, isn’t it?

Although this sail-hybrid paddle steamer has been around for several years, it is still mysterious. To outsiders, it holds countless secrets.

The Ottoman Golden Horn shipyard was personally controlled by the reformists. Some information was almost transparent to the British, such as how many sail-powered paddle steamers the Ottomans had and how many artillery pieces each ship had. What is its speed and how far can it travel? None of this is a secret to the British. Even the departure times and transportation routes of some paddle steamers trading with France can be known to the British. All I can say is that Osman is terrible from top to bottom.

As the maritime overlord of Europe, the British have a certain degree of courage in applying new technologies. It is not that steamships have not appeared in the UK, but they have not yet reached mass production. The speed is not as fast as China's sail hybrid ships, and it also has poor wind and wave resistance, weak hull structure, poor safety, poor durability, etc. Of course, the British hope to get the Chinese motor and sailboats and learn from them.

If China could sell them ships, they would pay three times the price.

But Chen Han just wouldn't sell such ships to Britain. The excuse was that the sailboats could only be sailed offshore due to poor wind and wave resistance. However, the seas thousands of miles from China to Europe were full of dangers, and motorized sailboats could not reach the UK. And this country is in urgent need of such ships!

Although the British told him countless times that he didn't mind, Chen Han just refused to give it. Instead, they advertised in newspapers the motor-driven sailboats built by the British themselves, boasting that they were as capable as China's paddle steamers, which deceived many of their own people.

This kind of motor and sailboat is wallowing in the big bathtub of China's offshore waters and the Southeast Asia. It doesn't go to North America, nor does it go beyond the Strait of Malacca, and it doesn't even go to the Jinghai Sea. [Jinghai is the Andaman Islands] The British have no choice but to resort to extravagant tactics.

Gasol is not an Anglo-Saxon, he is from Barcelona, ​​Spain, but now he works for the British. On the surface, he is a Spanish employee of a French business house. But almost every day he would go to the dock next to the shipyard several times, and from time to time he would eat at the restaurant next to the dock, or pass through the door of the shipyard. Then, every time he would gain a lot, he would secretly record it in his diary when he returned home at night.

His diary now fills an entire volume. Although most of the information is superficial observations of the shipyard, the well-educated Juan Carlos Gasol also observed the shipbuilding in many details. There are many important links in the factory.

Gasol handed over a lot of this information, but there were some that he didn't hand over.

In his line of work, you need to be careful about everything you do. And he recorded them one by one, hoping to sell them a second time in the future.

Gasol didn't know if the information he handed over was of any use. Several pieces of information in his report were about the identity of the shipyard's technicians. Of course, they weren't their names and addresses, but just relatively realistic portraits, ages, and body shapes. Physical description, and whether the British can find people on French soil depends on their own ability. He wondered if the British had already taken action. He doesn't care about this!

"Mr. Abifal..." Gasol greeted the Frenchman skillfully. His external identity is that of an employee of a French merchant house. This wharf is just one of many wharves in Le Havre. The wharf is not big, but there are still foremen and merchants.

Abifal is one of the biggest foremen here. There are not only dozens of people under his command, but also a warehouse with a cement structure. He is one of the partners of Gasol's trading company, and he has a good relationship with Abi Fal.

Since time entered the summer of 1806 in the Western calendar, the atmosphere across Europe has become tense again. Francis II officially gave up the throne of the Holy Roman Empire and became Emperor Franz I of Austria. The Holy Roman Empire, which had a history of nearly 850 years, came to an end. The small legally controlled states in southwestern Germany established the Rhine Confederation under the protection of France, with Bavaria, Württemberg, Mainz, Baden and eight small principalities participating.

This seriously threatened Prussian interests.

The Kingdom of Prussia, which had previously stayed out of the matter, had been forced to the opposite side by Napoleon. Napoleon also put his brother Joseph Bonaparte on the throne of Naples and sent his third brother Louis Bonaparte to be the king of the Netherlands. These actions made European countries intolerable, and Napoleon also violated the "Treaty of Fontainebleau" signed with Spain, and took advantage of the Spanish coup to collude with Manuel Godoy to control the entire Spain.

The whole of Europe is fearful. Napoleon's ambition has been exposed. He wants to build a Napoleonic empire. This is something that countless European countries cannot tolerate. The balance of power on land and sea in Europe has once again been broken.

Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, three of the four first-class powers alongside France, stood on the opposite side of France, except for Austria, which was severely damaged in the last war. In addition, there is a second-rate country called Sweden! Although it cannot be said that this lineup is necessarily stronger than the Third Anti-French Alliance. But it is definitely comparable to the Third Anti-French Alliance!

The Fourth Anti-French Alliance has not yet been formally established, but the clouds of war have enveloped the sky across Europe.

The most important point is that after winning the War of the Three Emperors, Napoleon came up with an incredible economic policy - the Continental Blockade Order - in order to fight against the British.

The purpose of this was to put the British Isles on lockdown. Napoleon attempted to use violence to force Britain, which was far more economically powerful than France, to surrender in an economic war. This caused the entire European continent to bear huge sacrifices, violated the laws of capitalist economic development, and harmed the interests of countless people. Big, this gave Napoleon countless enemies.

To put it in one sentence, this year was a turning point in Napoleon's fate. It was the year when he started his own way of committing suicide. Everything he did paved the way for his final defeat.

If you don't seek death, you won't die. Napoleon is seeking death in various ways!

The foreshadowing of the Spanish War, the continental blockade order, the conflict with Russia...

The British naval blockade of France and the French continental blockade of the United Kingdom. The competing blockades have made many ports in Europe seem quite idle today, including Le Havre, the famous 'Paris Outer Port'. It cannot be compared to the time of the Bourbon dynasty. Therefore, the relationship between Abifal and Gasol's trading company is very close.

Business partners in an 'economic crisis' must be close.

But today is destined to be a day that Gasol will remember vividly. While he and Abifal were chatting about merchant ships and business, one of Abifal's men came to the dock with two French policemen holding batons and pointed at a man who was dressed cleanly but also very ordinary. The middle-aged painter said: "Mr. Police, that's him! I've found him walking around here for several days!"

"He is not interested in making money from portraits, but he is very interested in the shipyards over there and the ships on trial. I have seen him painting ships several times. The paintings are very realistic!"

Just when Juan Carlos Gasol was going to continue talking about business with Abifal, and then turned the conversation to the shipyard next to him, this scene suddenly happened next to him. Suddenly a bucket of ice water was poured over his head, and Gasol's body was tingling with chills.

Abifal looked at the stunned Gasol and smiled nonchalantly. He patted Gasol on the shoulder: "Friend, don't be afraid. It's just a small episode in daily life."

"As a Frenchman who loves his country, I want to contribute to my country."

Abifal spoke lightly, but in fact he was quite proud. His face was full of glory. It was obvious that he was in high spirits now.

The painter denied it, speaking fluently in Parisian. Gasol had learned Parisian, but he had stayed in Le Havre for a long time, and his accent became more and more Le Havre.

He looked at the protagonist and supporting characters in front of him. He recognized the worker who reported to the police. He remembered that his name was Henry, a very ordinary French name, and he was also a very ordinary dock worker. He didn't expect that he might send one of his 'comrades' to prison today.

Gasol has the feeling of 'a dog that bites but never barks', which is so exciting.

Batum, who was once a homeless man in Le Havre and is now the police chief of Le Havre, narrowed his eyes and stared at the painter in front of him, with a cruel smile on his lips.

"Sir, don't panic. The Empire's police will not frame a good person. But we will not let a bad person go either." This sentence came from the East, and it started with 'Police of the Republic'. "Now please show your identification." The ID card is also a new thing from China. It has been implemented in France for several years after Napoleon came to power.

Another policeman walked over and blocked the painter's way back, one hand touching the baton at his waist. The painter was stunned and looked around at a loss, but Gasol knew that the painter had to go to the police station this time.

If he was not a spy, it would be fine; but if he was his colleague, Gasol felt that the painter would not be able to get out of the police station.

Batum pointed to the badge on his chest with a smile, "Police, responsible for public security, understand, sir? Your behavior has caused anxiety among the workers nearby, I think you need to go to the nearby police station."

A painter who spoke Parisian did not have any deterrent power in Batum's eyes. On the contrary, it was quite okay. He now suspected that the painter in front of him was a member of the royal party.

Although the painter's clothes were not decent and his face was a little shabby, his whole body was unusually clean and straight. After Batum suspected that the person in front of him was a member of the royal party, the more he looked at the painter, the more he felt that he was a bit decadent and aristocratic.

The painter was taken away directly.

Because he was not only reported and suspected by Batum, but the ID card he took out was also found to be fake by Batum. Because the ID card was issued in 1801, but it was too new.

"Mr. Painter from Paris, I suspect your ID card is fake. You need to go to the police station with me, where we will verify the authenticity of this ID card." Batum touched the other side of his waist, where it was not a baton, but a pistol.

"Oh my God, this is totally unreasonable!" The painter's shouting was weak and timid. Gasol was almost certain that this painter was his colleague.

This unlucky guy!

Gasol drew a cross on his chest. It seemed to be praying, but in fact it was surprised.

The painter was active at the dock. Would such a person know his news? Even if he didn't know Gasol's specific information, as long as he knew that there were their accomplices at the dock, it would be a huge threat to Gasol.

At this moment, Gasol thought of leaving. Fear was like an invisible hand, tightly gripping Gasol's heart. He had a strong sense of crisis.

He wanted to leave here!