Dominate the Country

Louis Bonaparte is Napoleon's third brother and an important figure in the entire Napoleon family. His poor life in his early years made him very close to his second brother Napoleon.

Louis Bonaparte is only 28 years old this year. He was born in 1778. When he was seven years old, his father Charles Bonaparte died of illness, and the Bonaparte family's life suddenly became tight. At that time, Napoleon had gone to study in China, and Louis Bonaparte dropped out of school at home. After knowing that his second brother Napoleon returned to France and returned to Corsica, Napoleon took Louis away from his hometown to reduce the burden on his mother at home, and used his salary to support him to go to school.

In 1795, the 17-year-old Louis Napoleon followed Napoleon and suppressed the royalist rebellion in Paris with him; in 1796, he followed Napoleon on an expedition to Italy, and in 1798, he followed Napoleon on an expedition to Egypt, and returned to the country with Napoleon the following year to launch a coup. In 1804, after Napoleon established the First French Empire, he was appointed as the Minister of Police of the Empire at the age of 26.

Louis Bonaparte could not tell when he had drifted further and further away from his beloved second brother.

He was given the crown of the King of the Netherlands by Napoleon, but Louis Bonaparte was not happy at all. Napoleon included the Netherlands in his continental blockade system, but Louis knew that the Netherlands was a commercial nation. If the commercial ties with Britain were completely cut off, the Dutch economy would be completely bankrupt. Moreover, this economic disaster occurred in the Netherlands much earlier and more violently than in other places, because since Britain took away most of the Dutch colonies, the Dutch trade has largely relied on selling goods to Britain and obtaining raw materials from Britain for colonies. The Netherlands cannot do without Britain. Therefore, Louis Bonaparte took a default attitude towards the smuggling trade with the British along the Dutch coast.

When Napoleon learned of this, he was furious. Napoleon recruited his third brother Louis and his eldest brother Joseph to Paris, and he demanded that the Netherlands and Italy must sacrifice their own interests in order to "suffocate" Britain. Joseph obeyed, but Louis disagreed with Napoleon's economic philosophy. He said, "The Netherlands is tired of being treated as a plaything by France." He believed that this approach would make the Dutch completely turn to Britain. Napoleon was furious about this and warned Louis that if the Netherlands did not obey, it would be incorporated into France.

The conflict between the two brothers intensified, and it was less than two months before Napoleon crowned Louis Bonaparte as the King of the Netherlands.

In February 1806, just one month after the conflict between the brothers, Louis' short journey as king came to an end. Napoleon took off the crown on his head and completely incorporated the Netherlands into France.

Napoleon certainly would not imprison his brother. After being deposed, Louis went to live in Florence, Italy with his wife - his wife was Napoleon's stepdaughter, Boarnet, which was simply a mess. Then he was soon invited by Chen Zhan, who was returning to China, to invite Louis to visit China. Napoleon agreed to this journey.

In just three months, they have come from Gibraltar at the western end of the Mediterranean to the Red Sea at the eastern end of the Mediterranean.

They have bypassed most of Africa. If it weren't for the fact that the Suez Canal project was relatively rare, they would not have entered the Red Sea at all. Instead, they went directly to India through the port of Aden.

Before, Chen Zhan did not take the Mediterranean route because he was concerned about the British reaction.

Crossing the entire Mediterranean, landing in Alexandria, entering Cairo, and then coming to the port of Suez, this is the simplest, most convenient and safest route through Africa. But he and Louis were on the same ship, passing through Egypt at this time, passing through the Suez Canal under construction - the Ottomans still had a relatively close relationship with the French, which was too stimulating for the British.

So they came from the west end of the Mediterranean to the east end of the Mediterranean, and they really had the opportunity to see the excavation of the Suez Canal. And Louis never thought that he would see a "miracle" not long after entering the Red Sea!

The Sudanese port in front of him was completely different from the port he had seen before. This was a Chinese-style seaport. Louis had seen it in the scroll before. The Chinese-style seaport area is clean, tidy and beautiful, which is different from Europe.

This place is like a small garden. The whole port and the whole city are a beautiful garden.

There are many tall buildings in the whole city. Two- or three-story buildings can be seen everywhere. Chinese-style classical houses and European-style houses are also everywhere. Green date palm trees stand in front of and behind the houses. There are also patches of grass and strips of flowers full of flowers. It makes people feel clear at first sight.

Flat roads and white street lights, trash cans and stone tables and chairs for pedestrians to rest are the symbols of Chinese cities. But there are so many tall houses in the city, but there is no pointed church monastery with constant bells every day, and of course there is no dome-shaped Tianfang Temple. At the same time, there are no strings of poor laborers doing hard labor by the dock, and beggars on the dock. The entire Sudan Port under the control of the Chinese is a garden town with a fresh and different style and highly unified planning. It is beautiful and rich and healthy.

"Your Highness, I, Luo Fangbai, pay my respects to you."

It was really unexpected that the carriage of King Jieyang would arrive at Port Sudan together with the five immigrant ships. When Luo Fangbai and his companions heard the news of King Jieyang's arrival, they were all stunned and then hurried forward to greet him.

"Dear Mr. Bonaparte, welcome to Port Sudan, China's overseas territory." Luo Fangbai had a completely different attitude towards Louis and Chen Zhan. He was no longer respectful as before, but he said sincerely, "You need a pleasant and sumptuous dinner to eliminate your fatigue along the way."

Louis Bonaparte drew a cross on his chest, thanked Luo Fangbai on one side, and said, "Oh my God. I really can't believe that this city is less than ten years old." Louis Bonaparte couldn't close his mouth when he spoke.

"Well, the charm of money is so incredible. As long as you have money, you have everything!" Luo Fangbai said the truth.

Louis still wanted to admire the beauty and prosperity of Port Sudan, but his eyes saw the two gray-white motor sailboats with exactly the same appearance moored by the port, which reminded him of a certain information-the Chinese built two steamships in Tianfang, one large and one small. The large one is in the Golden Horn Bay of Istanbul, where the Ottoman naval base is; the small one is on the Red Sea Coast of the Tianfang Peninsula, under the control of the Chinese.

Now all the motor sailing ships shuttling across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea are made in China.

With relatively rich experience, Louis was able to determine the tonnage in just a few seconds. Although these two ships were not large ships of thousands of tons, they were around 700 to 800 tons. They were much larger than the motor sailing ships of the Le Havre shipyard in France.

Let's take a look at the turrets at the bow and stern of these two motor sailing ships. Yes, that's what the Chinese call their new design on the bow and stern guns.

It really looks like a tower, like a small fortress.

The round rails around the bottom of the cannons - the grooves of the wheels of the gun mounts are stuck in the rails, which is an invention on Western warships. It can eliminate the recoil after firing, and it is also convenient to move the muzzle, but it occupies a large area and is only suitable for the bow and stern - the composite armor built can also be said to be a protective layer, made of silk and steam-pressed cotton layers, wood and iron plates. The appearance is round and has a certain curvature. Even if a round solid shell hits, it is difficult to cause substantial damage, and a small-caliber hexagonal gun is difficult to penetrate from a long distance.

It was like a small fortress, which had to be hit many times before it could lose its combat effectiveness or be completely destroyed.

Although Louis Napoleon was drifting away from his brother, he was a core member of the Bonaparte family before that. He had also seen the detailed information of the motor sailing destroyer provided to Napoleon by the European Office.

Although the tonnage was only about 500 metric tons, this tonnage could maximize the optimization of steam power and hull structure.

If it was larger, it would be necessary to add a steam engine to ensure the speed of the ship. However, adding a steam engine would require changing the internal structure of the hull, which would have a significant impact on the storage space of the hull - food, water, ammunition and the most important coal, the latter of which was directly related to the cruising range of the ship - and this would also affect the cost of the ship. In terms of performance conversion, the 500-ton motor sailing ship was the most cost-effective.

The French motor sailing ships also had turrets at the bow and stern, but the turrets were semi-enclosed, while the turrets of the two motor sailing ships in front of them were fully enclosed.

There is a "rumor" spreading widely in Europe now - the Chinese will not be satisfied with their current gains, and China is taking advantage of the opportunity of the Europeans' internal strife to steal the fruits of Europe's hard work for more than 300 years since the great voyages of discovery - America.

Louis Bonaparte himself agreed with this "rumor". But obviously, this is of no use at all. The British, Austrians, Prussians, and now the French are unwilling to give up their vested interests in Europe, so war is necessary.

In the military and political circles of Europe, Europeans have generally recognized China's land warfare strength. The huge population and material wealth make China's mainland sacred and inviolable. But the military and political circles of Europe still maintain a high sense of superiority over the Chinese navy.

Although the Chinese navy has been built for thirty or forty years, it is indeed not comparable to Europe in terms of scale or quality. Compared with their huge and unimaginable army, their naval strength is quite pitiful. Especially in recent years, the Chinese have stopped building their own warships.

But as an "outsider", Louis Bonaparte seemed to see the future path of China's naval development from the information about the motor-sailed raiders handed to his second brother Napoleon by the European Office.

Have the Chinese abandoned sailing warships?

Have they invested more of their wisdom and wealth in steamships?

It is true that China has armed forces that the whole of Europe is very afraid of. But because of the navy, this threat is not enough to kill the old European countries. Sailing warships have inevitable defects in their range, which cannot be compensated by the strongest national strength.

But what if sailing warships are replaced by steam warships?

As long as there is coal, they can reach the horizon.

Intuition tells Louis Bonaparte that the future of steamships is extremely bright. Today's motor-sail hybrid ships may be just like canoes thousands of years ago, but with the development of technology, motor-sail ships will become stronger little by little. Just like the difference between a canoe and a first-class sailing battleship!

The only thing that Louis Bonaparte felt fortunate about was that his second brother maintained a good friendship with China, allowing France to keep up with the pace of the new era at the first time. More importantly, he really couldn't see the threat of motor sailing ships to Europe in the short term. Maybe that time would be decades or hundreds of years later.

As for the ownership of America, America doesn't belong to France anyway. So let it be!

Although Louis Bonaparte was drifting away from Napoleon, he would not want Napoleon's interests for the so-called "European interests".

America can be said to belong to Britain, Spain, Portugal, China, and the United States, but not to France.

It was in the past, it is now, and it will be in the future!