Dominate the Country

No one knows whether Nelson can reach Alexandria tomorrow. But what is certain is that the news of the Battle of Alexandria will spread to every corner of Europe at the fastest speed.

You know, the Ottoman Empire, which has not yet completely declined, has dressed itself up well through the victory of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War. It is an absolute world power recognized by the entire monotheistic world.

Although the key to the end of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War was that China won an absolute victory over Russia on the Eastern Front, the fact that the Ottoman Empire fought against Russia and Austria alone for two or three years is undeniable.

China's official public opinion puts the Ottoman Empire on par with the five major European powers, and no European in China has loudly refuted it.

This is the current status of the Ottoman Empire.

The French just defeated Austria, and instead of confronting their mortal enemy John Bull, they feinted and turned around to stab the Ottomans. What kind of suicidal spirit is this? The Ottomans are not only big in size, but also close allies of China. France's provocation of the Ottoman Empire not only provoked the Arabian world, but also the Eastern world.

In addition, the little brother of the Gallic rooster, the big duck, is also fighting hard with the Chinese in America. I believe that after the news of the Battle of Alexandria reached Europe, many countries will firmly believe that the friendship between China and France has broken down.

It is impossible for these two countries to continue to maintain an unofficial private friendship. They have really stood on the opposite side of each other.

When they first learned that the Chinese fleet visiting Austria was transporting materials to France, how surprised the European countries were in their hearts, and how comfortable the ruling classes of various countries were in their hearts at this moment.

The biggest turning point in Napoleon's life was the Battle of Northern Italy. How did this young man hook up with Barras and how did he quickly stabilize the morale and fighting spirit of the Italian Legion? The Chinese were Napoleon's biggest investors before he succeeded. Now these hateful Chinese will have to reap what they have sown.

It must be unpleasant for the object of their own strong support to come to fight against themselves with thousands of troops?

But one fact cannot be ignored.

Throughout the Battle of Alexandria, the French skirmishers' attacks became more frequent, and a rifled gun with fast loading did appear in the French army.

The two new weapons revealed by the Chinese in America, the musket and the hexagonal cannon, which can shoot far and accurately and reload quickly, have been seen by the whole of Europe.

Napoleon had less than 30,000 people [minus the 4,000 soldiers in Malta], and he couldn't compete with Ilam. Ilam gathered his troops, and there were at least 30,000 or 40,000 troops, if not 50,000. These were all regular Ottoman troops, the elite Ilam Corps, and their combat effectiveness had been tested by the Russians and Austrians. And this did not count the local Mamluk feudal cavalry in Egypt. Together with the troops sent by Istanbul, Egypt's land forces were more than twice that of Napoleon.

So, all the treasures in Napoleon's hands were used.

There was no reservation in tactics, the attack column of the hunters + skirmishers, interspersed, divided, and outflanked. It seems like a very ordinary command, but it is really not easy for soldiers in the current era, because the soldiers of this era are familiar with muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles.

Skirmishers + muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles, too funny.

So many officers know that gathering soldiers together on a large scale is a way to die, but when shooting, they still like to find opportunities to call the surrounding soldiers to line up in two or three rows, squat, stand on their own, and then shoot in volleys.

All because the performance of the musket is too low!

In history, the French revolutionary soldiers [in the early days] were a bit blind to shoot in volleys on the front battlefield because of their quality. When fighting, they played column charge, which formed a tradition. Later, after the military literacy improved, the battlefield would often adopt a deep battle formation, that is, a formation combining the scattered formation of shooters and the column of infantry. And Napoleon was the one who carried forward this tactic in history. Now he has the epoch-making Minié rifle in his hands, and the battlefield is limited by rockets, which have a long range and high accuracy, not only posing a great threat to soldiers, but also causing great damage to rocket groups, making Napoleon plunge deeper into the ocean of "columns".

For example, the battle of Alexandria.

When Chinese and British warships were silent in Alexandria, when the turbulent waves and fierce winds on the sea were ignored by Napoleon, and when the French Mediterranean Navy Commander Brueys advocated landing in a few days for safety reasons, he asserted that Nelson would not turn back within a few days, but was also sternly rejected by Napoleon, God and the true God could not stop the French army led by Napoleon from landing.

Napoleon said: "Time is tight, fate only gives me 3 or 5 days, if I don't make full use of it, we will fail." Brueys had to send a signal for all landings.

It took only two days from sending a small number of soldiers to land, bit by bit taking down the Eelam Corps' fortifications at the mouth of the Nile, to the French army completely sweeping away the "enemy" at the mouth of the Nile.

Zhu Fu never waited for Nelson's arrival. His warships were destroyed, but Nelson was still nowhere to be found.

Later, when the story of this battle was sent to Chen Ming, Emperor Chen's respect for Nelson was greatly reduced.

The main force of Napoleon's Seventh Army began to land, but the process was very difficult. Did the Ottomans prepare for it?

In front of Alexandria, the beach was really full of corpses.

Napoleon used all his means, and he personally led 9,000 troops to land at the eastern end of Alexandria - because the defenders had no warships and the Nile River was open, even if they had tens of thousands of Mamluk cavalry, it was useless. Napoleon led two divisions and three cavalry regiments to land under the cover of naval guns, and then outflanked the rear of the Ilam Corps on land. During this period, they were attacked several times by the Mamluk cavalry. The excellent horseback combat skills of the Mamluk cavalry amazed Napoleon, but Napoleon still won.

And left the most realistic evaluation of the Mamluk cavalry: two Mamluk cavalry can easily deal with three French cavalry, because they are better equipped, better horses, and better trained. They have two pairs of pistols, a large-caliber pistol, a carbine, a helmet with a sunshade and chain mail. Each of them had several horses and attendants to take care of the horses.

However, a hundred French cuirassiers would not be afraid of a hundred Mamluks. Three hundred could defeat the same number. A thousand French cavalry could easily defeat fifteen hundred Mamluks. Tactics, discipline and formations played such a big role.

When Napoleon's two cavalry generals, La Salle and Leclerc, faced the Mamluks, they arranged their troops in multiple battle lines. When the Mamluk cavalry was about to overwhelm the first line, the second line assisted from the left and right. The Mamluks then stopped and began to turn to deal with the new front line on the flank. This opportunity was always seized by the French cavalry, who charged them in time, and then the Mamluk cavalry was defeated without exception.

But the French army did not have many people in several encounters with the Mamluk cavalry. As Napoleon said in his own comments, a thousand people!

Napoleon's command and the French army's combat skills and tactical habits made the Ilam Corps very uncomfortable.

Concentrating infantry and cavalry to attack the enemy with the support of artillery is the basic method of Napoleon's combat operations. At the same time, Napoleon also widely implemented heavy maneuvers - interpenetration, division and outflanking in a small area. Napoleon was facing only Alexandria. Under Napoleon's command and dispatch, the French soldiers created a favorable situation for the battle and ensured the advantage over the enemy in the main direction.

At the same time, Napoleon also liked to hold a reserve composed of heavy troops in his hands to make the final decision at the critical moment.

The French army's columns are often deployed in depth to enhance the assault power of the infantry in battle, and the army can implement more extensive maneuvers on the battlefield.

Tactical inadaptability and response failure, as well as the difference in fighting spirit of the soldiers on both sides, and Iram's own calculations, made the Iram Corps, which was not weak in combat effectiveness, actually only blocked Napoleon for two days, and Iram withdrew from the Nile estuary position with the assembled Mamluk cavalry.

"Just two days?"

Chen Zhan's eyes were about to fall out of shock. The Iram Corps is not so weak, right? Moreover, Dong Gao had sent someone to tell him that the Iram Legion had gathered 20,000 troops in Alexandria. Of the 20,000 Iram Legion and 10,000 Mamluk cavalry, at least 20% of them obeyed Iram's orders.

"What does this Jiaomu Jiao want to do?"

The King of Jieyang, whose IQ was not low, thought of another possibility immediately. Does Iram want to consume the Mamluk cavalry? Or does he want to attack some forces in Alexandria? He is not really defeated, but he wants to give up Alexandria and lure the French to march to Cairo.

"Alexandria does not have a strong Mamluk force, but many dignitaries in Istanbul are involved there. It is one of the most famous commercial ports in the Mediterranean and is the world of merchants. Iram himself also has huge interests there." It can even be said that it is where Iram has focused on operating in recent years.

"It's just that it's summer now, the hottest season of the year in Egypt, and the weather is extremely hot." After reading another letter in his hand, Dong Gao's serious expression eased a lot.

"Iram's decisive battle site is Cairo. This is his plan, and it's reasonable."

It's more than a hundred miles from Alexandria to Cairo, and the vast desert is scorched by the direct sun, making water the most precious thing in the world.

Iram decided to first fortify the walls and clear the fields, and evacuate all the residents along the way to Cairo. Before leaving, he had to poison the wells or cover up the springs. The French army did not prepare tropical clothing, and even did not bring water bottles. The troops would be thirsty, but along the way, Iram would only leave them some disgusting salt ponds, so that they could not find anything to quench their thirst.

There are many poisonous insects in the desert, and the burning light of the yellow sand will weaken the vision of most people. Those who can see it will even go blind. There are no traces of people, animals, or plants on the road. Only the Mamluk cavalry appeared and disappeared, attacking the French army from time to time.

Iram was unwilling to fight the French to the death because he did not want to over-consume his military strength. He had already evacuated all his personnel in Alexandria to Cairo, and also informed other people that it was their own choice whether to evacuate or stay where they were. Whatever losses Alexandria suffered in the future would also be the losses of those guys in Istanbul who had a share of the Sino-Austrian trade. Iram was going to open the door and let the French march in.

Then they used the scorching heat, the vast desert, and water more precious than olive oil to torture their bodies, consume their fighting spirit, and finally defeated them in Cairo.

Iram knew Napoleon's reputation. Through the Chinese, he knew the great achievements Napoleon had made in the past year or so. This is a star shining throughout Europe. The British, Spanish, Italians and Austrians have all suffered greatly under him. If Iram can defeat him in Cairo, it would be like stepping on Napoleon's shoulders to rise to power, and Iram will gain great fame.

In the military, to become famous in one fell swoop, isn't it just that the new "famous general" beats the old "famous general"?

However, in the Battle of the Nile Estuary, Iram's Corps only supported it for two days before it couldn't hold on. This is not necessarily all because Iram himself wanted to preserve his strength and lure the enemy deep into the depths, right?

Napoleon is still very good at fighting. Iram must not force a woman to do it and get fucked instead...