Fox of France

These days in the south, Napoleon was busy retraining his army and writing a new operational outline, because "Bonaparte's little melon" had brought too many changes to the combat method. First of all, any horizontal and column teams now become obsolete immediately after the appearance of the "little melon", because the stragglers equipped with the "little melon" are too great a threat to them.

In the past, a skirmisher fired at the formation, and with one shot, he could knock down at most one person, and the formation could also knock him down by counterattacking. Most of the time, skirmishers are more valuable than private soldiers (skirmishers must have a certain degree of autonomous combat power), so, in calculation, the threat is still limited.

But it's different now. Throwing a "little melon" brings more damage than a single bullet. According to the figures of the "Military Technology Research Institute", each "little melon" has an average of more than 30 cast iron fragments after the explosion, and each fragment is equivalent to a bullet within 20 to 35 meters. lethality. (Because the performance of the loaded Republican No. 1 explosive is unstable, the killing radius of the small melon also varies greatly)

In this way, a "little melon" thrown by a straggler may cause the casualties of several or even a dozen people. What's more, throwing a "little melon" is much faster than firing a bullet. In the time it takes to load a bullet, skirmishers can throw dozens of "little melons". If an army still rigidly uses a dense formation, then once they encounter a small group of skirmishers equipped with "little melons", they will be defeated.

Therefore, almost all French generals who have seen the performance of the "little melon" on the battlefield, whether it is Napoleon in the south or Joubert in the north, have realized that since the "little melon" was born, the stragglers will inevitably die. Become the main way soldiers fight on the battlefield. But how to effectively use the skirmishers equipped with "little melons" is still unknown to everyone. Therefore, Napoleon, who was originally in charge of the construction of the "Red Army", was ordered to study an efficient way to use skirmishers to fight. Prepare a set of operational outlines to guide the future operations of the entire French army.

In addition to this incident, another important thing for Napoleon was to make a statement with the whole family and unify the caliber together, so as not to let Joseph know about certain things that happened outside the port of Toulon. To be honest, the higher ups did not transfer his legion back, but asked them to suppress places in the south and study new tactics on the other hand, which really made Napoleon breathe a sigh of relief.

Napoleon and Joseph also had some correspondence during this period. Of course, because of Joseph's current special situation, his communications with anyone must be inspected by the "National Salvation Committee". And it can only be issued when the signatures of the three members of the "National Salvation Committee" are obtained. In addition, every letter he sends will be archived in the National Salvation Committee as an important confidential document for future reference. And the safe containing his letters is said to be the handicraft of His Majesty the King.

Of course, the same is true of the letter to Joseph. Under such circumstances, it is of course impossible for Joseph to discuss political matters with his unreliable brothers in letters, even if he actually wanted to warn Napoleon very much that at this time, he must be a little more cowardly, and more cowardly. A little, always a little cowardly, the Bonaparte family will be saved, but he dare not say a word, even dare not use argot-Robespierre is a good lawyer, and lawyers are best at What is more literal.

Therefore, the letters that Joseph wrote to Napoleon can generally only be a few ordinary greetings, and then the main content is some discussions on tactical details.

Although before crossing, Joseph did not study military affairs. But after time-traveling, especially in the past few years, he has been in charge of military affairs. Today's Joseph, even without the intellectual benefits brought by time-traveling, he is already a genuine expert. And Joseph still has the insights of later generations as a reference, so his opinions are naturally more valuable. Even St. Just saw it and was amazed.

Joseph hid in the "Army Technical Research Institute" to a large extent to avoid the current chaotic situation, especially during this period of time. After the external enemy was defeated, various contradictions within the Jacobin faction also emerged. Come out, the situation is a mess.

Kano ordered Joseph to come to the Ministry of War to report to him. To a large extent, he also wanted to know what Joseph thought of the current situation.

It is said that the two discussed for a long time in the office of the Ministry of War. As for what they discussed, both of them kept tight-lipped on the grounds that it involved important secrets. But after that, Kano seldom expressed any opinions on issues involving politics.

Kano no longer spoke on matters related to politics, but this brought another result, that is, his status in the entire "National Salvation Committee" seemed to have risen again. Even all members of the entire committee, including Robespierre, were a little afraid of him. Because although Kano no longer speaks on political issues, when he speaks, there must be only one topic——asking for money!

"I want to remind everyone that the 'equality grenade' is of course very good, but if the current situation continues, we will soon have no more grenades! You must come up with a plan for me as soon as possible!" Kano blows his beard Staring at Robespierre, he turned on the hair dryer.

"What's the matter, General Carnot?" Robespierre leaned back slightly to keep himself away from Carnot's mouth.

"What's wrong? What the hell!" Kano slammed a document on the table, "Look, look, how low is our saltpeter and caustic inventory now! Last one I raised this issue with you last month, and you said you would figure it out; I reminded you again last month, and you still haven’t solved it. Hell, if this continues, our army will soon have to use Cold weapons are at war! Let me tell you, this issue cannot be delayed any longer, any delay is treason!"

Both saltpeter and caustic (sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide) are important raw materials for the production of explosives, which are not produced much in France. But these things are indispensable for France. Among them, the saltpeter mainly comes from the traditional ally of the French - Turkey. Within its control area, there are quite a few saltpeter mines.

As for caustic, the sodium hydroxide used by the French mainly came from Spain, while the potassium hydroxide they used mainly came from the Baltic region. Now there are problems with the input of these materials.

Because half of the French fleet was lost in Toulon, France lost its sea dominance in the Mediterranean Sea. The British, Spanish, and even Italian navies cut off France's communication with its traditional ally Turkey, and the saltpeter could not be shipped in. The only way for the revolutionary government to deal with it was to rely on smuggling. However, the amount of smuggling is limited, and it cannot support the huge consumption in the war.

As for caustic soda, it can only rely on smuggling. Not to mention the limited quantity of smuggling these things, the price is ridiculously high. Moreover, those smugglers did not accept coupons at all, but only wanted real money. This intensified the economic pressure.

"Carnot, don't worry, we have already taken some measures." Robespierre said, "We ordered the whole of France to carry out heap nitration, but you also know that the production is limited by this, and it will take some time to get it Produce it. But that's the only thing I can do right now."

"Well, in this case, tell me, how many nitrate plants have you built now? How much is the expected output?" Kano said, "This is related to our next step in the construction of the army. If the output can be guaranteed , we can produce more 'little melons'. Otherwise, we can only compress, or even suspend the manufacture of these things."

"We can only try as hard as we can. But Kano, you know, we can't make something out of nothing," Robespierre replied.

Kano stopped talking, he knew that Robespierre and the others had really tried their best on this matter. They even sent a special team to each village to collect the nitrate from the farmers' walls and barns, as well as the ashes from the kitchen (this can be used to purify potash). And allow farmers to use these things to offset part of the tax.

"Fundamentally, we still have to rebuild the navy," Kano concluded.

"Yes, we need to rebuild the navy, but it's not easy. We lack more things needed to rebuild the navy."

"I suggest that we should set up a 'Material Management Committee' to coordinate the management of these important materials. And restart trade with neutral countries." Barrell said, "We should suspend the navigation law and use hard currency and foreign exchange and other Materials are traded with those neutral countries."

"Hard currency? Where do we have so much hard currency?" Robespierre said.

"The property of those traitors was confiscated. In addition to money, there are also various luxury goods, artworks, and various other things they need, such as wine or other things. Anyway, their cargo ships cannot go back empty, We can barter," Barrell replied.

"The Commune might not be happy," said Compon.

This is natural, because doing so means that a lot of materials will be used for barter foreign trade, and there are not many things that France can use for foreign trade at this time. Although Barrell mentioned wine as an example, everyone knows that relying on wine alone is simply a drop in the bucket, and what is really meaningful can only be the "other things" that he did not mention later.

As for the other things that have not been mentioned, everyone actually knows that there is only one other thing that can be traded in large quantities, and that is food.

There has been a bumper harvest of grain this year. The sans-culottes represented by the Paris Commune all thought that the price of grain would come down. But if these grains are exported in large quantities, it is almost artificially creating a famine. The supporters of the Paris Commune were among the poorest, and they were certainly the ones who suffered the most from this policy. So it can be predicted that the Paris Commune is very dissatisfied with this.

"Yes, they won't be happy. If we do this, people will starve. Maybe some people will starve to death. Paris may be fine, after all, we will take care of Paris better, but in the provinces In rural areas, there may indeed be tragedies of people who grow food and starve to death in good harvest years. But if we don't do this, we will completely collapse economically. Economic collapse will also become military and political By then, more people will die, and the cost of flying out will be even greater," Barrell said.

"I think this matter must be done, even at the risk." Robespierre said, "As for the reaction of the Paris Commune, I think I will talk to Ebert. They should be able to understand the difficulties of the Republic."

Although Robespierre said so, everyone didn't think he could really convince Ebel and them. Especially Kano, he even immediately remembered what Joseph said when he "reported to work" to him.

"The lack of materials, especially the lack of strategic materials, will be the most difficult problem to solve. If this problem is not resolved, the previous victories of the Republic will be meaningless. But to solve these problems, we can only rely on and neutral countries trade. The Republic lacks hard currency, so to a large extent, it can only rely on barter transactions. The only goods that the Republic can provide in large quantities are food. In this way, it will definitely damage the peasants and the bottom of the city. The interests of the trousers. Surely they would not agree.

The Committee of National Salvation was bound to come into conflict with the Paris Commune. Ebert is a man with great ambitions, and he probably feels that he has not obtained the status he deserves.

Hehe, the establishment of the republic relied on the revolution of the Paris Commune; the beheading of the king relied on the power of the Paris Commune; and finally the Montagne defeated the Marais thanks to the support of the Paris Commune.

After the victory, however, the Paris Commune gained nothing. The National Salvation Committee is the most powerful institution in the entire country and the core of state power. However, none of the representatives of the Paris Commune could enter this institution. Do you think Ebel will be willing?

He will definitely not be reconciled, he will definitely try to take advantage of this opportunity, take advantage of the dissatisfaction of the sans-culottes, launch a revolution, send all those in the National Salvation Committee to the guillotine, and then establish the direct rule of the Paris Commune over France. But Lazar, I think the situation is different now than it was when those Brissot factions still controlled the National Assembly. At that time, the National Assembly was not united, and no effective measures could be taken. But the current National Salvation Committee is not so easy to deal with. Just wait and see, there will be a good show..."