Fox of France

Almost at the same time that Napoleon solved the problem of Toulon, the French, who quickly mobilized more troops, also turned to the north to attack. For this attack, the timing of their choice is very suitable. Because when they launched the attack, there happened to be another moth on the side of the Anti-French Alliance.

Just like the fable of the swan, barracuda, and prawns pulling a carriage together, each of the countries in the anti-French alliance has its own little calculations. As a result, they lacked cooperation with each other, and even demolished each other.

The first thing the British wanted to secure was their interests in the Netherlands. Therefore, they strongly proposed to use the main force to attack Dunkirk. They surrounded Dunkirk from both land and sea directions, and asked the Prussians and Austrians to join the offensive against Dunkirk.

But Dunkirk was not a very attractive goal for the Austrians and Prussians, so they, in turn, tried to convince the British that it was necessary to waste time and effort on this "secondary goal" and hurry up. Bring the troops over and join them in a decisive attack on the French on the Belgian border.

The number of the British Army is limited, and they are all thrown into the competition for overseas colonies that are more visible to the UK. Both the Austrians and the Prussians tried to persuade the British to mobilize quickly. But Prime Minister Pitt is unwilling to disrupt the rhythm of British national development. So Pete took a more eclectic approach. That is, Britain paid for guns, and Italy sent people to fight the French.

The British recruited a mercenary army of more than 10,000 people in Italy, and then used the Austrian road to send them to Belgium. When the British borrowed the way from Austria, they had stated that these troops would be used to fight on the border between Belgium and France. However, after the team arrived in Belgium in August, the British said that because of changes in the battlefield situation, they had to use these mercenaries for the battle in Dunkirk.

However, the Austrians and Prussians claimed that they had already included this mercenary in the battle plan. When formulating the battle plan, although they did not use this Italian mercenary as the main force (everyone knows that the combat effectiveness of these Italian mercenaries is not reliable, far inferior to the mountain people or the German mercenaries. The only advantage is that It costs less money.), but they can at least be used for garrison duty, so as to free up more troops. Now, the British suddenly broke their promises and transferred this army away, so their offensive would naturally be impossible.

But the real facts are not the same as what they say. Recently, Her Majesty the Empress of Eastern Rome was so sad that she fell ill because of the loss of her beloved lover, Duke Potemkin. As soon as the queen fell ill, those guys in Poland were ready to move, and even the area controlled by Prussia was a little turbulent.

The Queen's serious illness also made the Prussians and Austrians see some ideas for getting some more benefits from Poland. However, any idea must be supported by military power, otherwise it can only be delusional. Austria and France border, and they are not too afraid to transfer the army back, but this is not the case with Prussia. Prussia now feels that there seems to be no problem with the safety of the Rhine states for the time being, and the benefits of France are limited to them. So the Prussians have long been thinking about moving some of their troops to the east. It's just that Austria used various means to hold them back.

And after knowing that a mercenary army of more than 10,000 people was about to join the Belgian battlefield, the Austrians could no longer hold back the Prussians. Before the Italians arrived, the Prussians first transferred back more than 10,000 troops. The Italians will fill in the gaps he left anyway...but...

On the front of the confrontation between the two sides, if one side suddenly loses more than 10,000 people, there will naturally be more loopholes. But on the other side, on the side of the French, the situation is quite different. While the commissioners from all over the country used guillotines to quickly deal with those guys with "Germany" in their names, they also continued to send large amounts of wealth and conscripted soldiers to Paris. By the end of September 1793, France had assembled an army of as many as one million. Yes, most of these armies are undertrained and poorly equipped (because military production cannot keep up with such a tempo of conscription), but their morale is high. Most of them were not yet ready for battle, but new, trained troops (which were actually quite limited) were being sent north by the revolutionary government. Unlike when Dimouriez rebelled, the morale of the French army has recovered, and it also has a clear advantage in numbers.

Taking advantage of the hesitation of the anti-French alliance troops, Carnot concentrated a large number of troops in Noel. Under the urging of the commissioner (political commissar) of Saint-Just, the French army launched a counterattack in early September. They first defeated the British army commanded by the Duke of York (later George V) at Hondschott, then turned to the direction of Mauberge, where they defeated the army of General Coble of Austria.

The military danger in France seemed to be temporarily resolved, but once the tight military thread was loosened, many problems that had been suppressed by the military crisis immediately resurfaced.

The first thing that pops up is the economic aspect.

After the Jacobins came to power, in order to support the war, they adopted a collection system in kind and various price-limiting systems in the country. Although this tactic similar to wartime communism ensured that the country could concentrate its forces against foreign enemies, it also brought many problems.

According to the decree of September 29, the counties of France are in charge of food price fixing, while the communes are responsible for determining wage limits. Under the constraints of this decree, generally speaking, compared with 1790, the price of food has generally increased by one-third, and people's wages have generally increased by one-half. Everything seems to be fine.

However, there is a great imbalance in the price and wage standards set by various parts of France. Every county is trying to raise the price of local products and lower the price of foreign goods. (Otherwise, it would be difficult to sustain wage growth.) This has led to fragmentation of the national market.

On the other hand, a large number of conscription made the labor force tense, especially in rural areas. There was a good harvest of grain this year, but due to the lack of manpower, the harvesting and threshing of the grain has been procrastinated, coupled with the demand for a large amount of military rations, as a result, many places have food shortages in the harvest year, especially In some areas of southern France, these problems have become more serious due to the impact of the war.

To put it simply, the current problem is that with the National Salvation Committee's control over the country and their understanding of the economy, if we want to abandon the traditional market economy and directly use the plan to allocate the country's resources, this is obviously far beyond their abilities. But once giving up these things that are full of planned economy, politically, it is almost suicidal.

Therefore, the National Salvation Committee must let the revolution continue to deepen, so that it can truly control the country and overcome the immediate crisis.

But it takes pressure. Previously, the Forces of Foreign Intervention provided this pressure. But now, a funny situation has emerged, that is, the previous series of victories have fundamentally shaken the legitimacy of the revolutionary government.

If there is no stress, artificially create it. At least, drag a dead tiger to beat it hard. So Robespierre chose to teach this dead tiger.

Before that, through the Clergy Law, the revolutionary government had already attacked and plundered the Church. Now all that is left in France are priests who are willing to swear allegiance to Parliament. But now, the Republic needs an internal enemy who can unite them all. The remaining priests, and all of Christianity itself (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant in any way) became the declared enemies of the Republic.

On October 24, the National Assembly passed a bill to implement the Republican calendar in France. This move actually sounded the clarion call to declare war on Christianity and expel the Christian faith from France.

Kano returned home very depressed. He didn't like the "Republican Calendar" or something. Although in the eyes of some guys in the later generations of the Republican calendar, the "foggy moon", "frost moon", "snow moon", "bud moon" and "flower moon" are really effervescently beautiful and super high-end. But in Kano's view, this is completely much ado about nothing. Moreover, although he was the number one contributor to a series of victories of the French army during this period of time, just as the authority and legitimacy of the National Salvation Committee were weakened by the victories it led, Kano's status was also due to this series of victories. The victory fell. So his opposition to the Republican calendar, and the non-Christian movement, had little effect.

"These guys are getting more and more crazy! Especially the thugs who took power in the Paris Commune! France will let them go on like this, and it will be over sooner or later!" Kanoyu said to his wife angrily.

His wife turned pale with fright when she heard this. She looked around and said in a low voice, "You are crazy! Can you say such things casually? Are you going to kill yourself?"

"What dare they do?" Kano lowered his voice unconvinced, "Damn it, at this time, Napoleon is in the south, and Joseph locked himself in the laboratory! There is no one to discuss with..."

"Can't you go to the laboratory to find Joseph? Or let him come to the Ministry of War to report to you about the research?"

"Well, this is also a way. Joseph has many ways, maybe he can find a good way." Kano said.

Compared to Kano, whose status had declined due to the victory, Joseph's status had actually risen a bit. The grenade launched by the laboratory he was in charge of was brilliant in the Battle of Toulon and the Battle of the North. Napoleon called it "the cannon in the hands of the infantry" and "Jupiter's thunder" in his battle report, and praised that without the help of grenades, it would be difficult for them to seize the key in such a short period of time with such a small sacrifice. Fort Mulgrave, it is impossible to easily repel the British counterattack thereafter.

In the north, Saint-Just also admired the products of Joseph's laboratory.

"This new type of weapon played a decisive role. Strong soldiers who have been trained can throw this thing fifty or sixty meters away, and they can also ensure a relatively accurate landing point. This distance is the same as the usual range of enemy volleys. The distance was not much different. At Hondschott, the British, as usual, tried to fight us head-on with bayonets. As a result, they were halfway there, and were blown up by grenade bombs. And at Mauberge , grenades also played a decisive role. Especially skirmishers equipped with grenades are the enemy's nightmare... Therefore, I suggest that the production of grenades should be carried out as the most urgent and important task in the military. Everything must be kept as the top secret of the country..."

Because of this credit, Joseph was also promoted to Brigadier General. Of course, his rank is still below Napoleon. When Joseph accepted this honor, he strongly praised Lavoisier's contribution to the development of the grenade. He told the observer Charles sent by the National Salvation Committee that the explosives and fuzes used in the grenade were all due to the research team led by Lavoisier. And suggested that the explosive be named after Lavoisier.

However, the National Salvation Committee believes that Lavoisier is a captured enemy, and all the results of his research are returning what he stole from the people in the first place. So Lavoisier does not deserve such an honor. Therefore, the explosive was named Republic I Dynamite, and the grenade Equality One. It is declared to the outside world that this is the collective achievement of the military technology laboratory. However, the soldiers prefer to call it "Bonaparte's little melon".

It is said that after Joseph told Lavoisier of the National Salvation Committee's decision on naming the grenade, Lavoisier mumbled: "It's nothing, anyway, I have made enough contributions to science, enough to leave a thick mark in the history of science." Besides, if a weapon that defends this group of thugs is named after me, it would be a mockery of me! Well... that's it!"

But after a while, the guy said: "Well, Joseph, if I were an Englishman, how much money would I make just by patenting the invention of nitrostarch? In France, let alone patents , not even the right to name it.”

Joseph could only comfort him and said: "Mr. Lavoisier, as long as you take care of your body, maintain a healthy diet as I suggest, and run and exercise on time every day, you will definitely get patent fees in the future."

"Speaking of running and exercising, it really seemed to make my body a lot better, so that I increased my food intake. By the way, when I run every day, I can see that thug named Charles, hiding in a door Watch me from behind the bars."

"I told him that this is to discipline you." Joseph said, "Of course this is just to fool him."

"I understand that." Lavoisier said, "What I want to say is that I am running in the sun, but he is shrinking behind a dark iron window. I really don't know who is more like a prisoner."