Fox of France

Indeed, the technology of the British steam warship is quite average. In Joseph's words, it is: "This thing is technically scum! Any technology on it is far behind us. I spent A total of 50,000 francs, and finally only one valid message was obtained, that is, the British steamship is scum!"

Indeed, the paddle steamer was a total technical failure. As a battleship, the exposed paddle wheel is the most obvious weakness. Moreover, the existence of the paddle wheel also greatly affected the arrangement of the artillery. In the military, such ships have very limited utility. As a civilian ship, the propulsion efficiency of the paddle wheel itself is not high, but the structural weight is astonishingly large, not only greatly increasing the weight of the ship, but also its attached transmission mechanism will take up quite a lot of precious space . In addition, the paddle wheel is prone to unilateral water discharge under high sea conditions, causing the empty wheel to spin, and it is easy to cause various mechanical failures. In short, compared with the propeller, the paddle wheel has almost no advantages except that it looks a little scary.

It's just that although Joseph said so, this kind of "backward scum" has really brought a lot of trouble to the French.

In just one working cycle, four clipper ships failed to return from Ireland. There are also a few clipper ships that came back that lost all their cargo. According to these terrified captains, they all encountered the kind of black-smoky British warships chasing them at sea.

At the same time, British newspapers also published reports about the "heroic Royal Navy" capturing the French clipper ship, in order to boost the morale of the British people who were tending to be low.

The French, of course, immediately countered with the story of Captain Morel's capture of the British steamship. This story not only appeared in newspapers, but was even put on the stage of drama soon. On the stage, although Captain Morel's heroic performance was extraordinary, the image of the British was more eye-catching, almost comparable to the Germans in the classic French film "Escape from the Tiger's Mouth".

But the rumors did not immediately change the situation at sea. As the British invested more and more steamships. The supplies that the French could transport to Ireland were actually reduced. Later, the French ships could only wait on the far sea far away from Ireland. (Anyway, because of the voyage limitation, the British steamships would not travel so far.) Only when the weather conditions were relatively harsh did they dare to approach Ireland. (Who made the paddle wheel become waste when the sea state is high?)

But even if this method is adopted to ensure that the blood vessel extending to Ireland is not completely cut off, it is an indisputable fact that this blood vessel has suffered a serious embolism.

For the British, it is important to take advantage of this period of time to bloodlet the Irish on the battlefield. Even if the Irish rebels cannot be completely wiped out, they must be severely injured.

So the Duke of Norfolk once again received the order to injure and even eliminate the rebels as soon as possible. Along with this order from the cabinet, there is also an order from the king: "Illegal religious organizations that are not loyal to the king must be dealt with more severely."

The Duke of Norfolk said that these two things are very difficult, and if he must implement them, he must be sent more troops. And the number of the army must not be small, at least one hundred thousand troops.

Speaking of which, British history has never mobilized so many troops. Naturally, such an excessive request cannot be allowed by the government, but the Duke of Norfolk actually had his own considerations for making such a request.

First of all, it is natural to ask for prices and pay back the money on the spot. For example, if you honestly say: "I want 50,000 troops." Then the government will definitely find a way to give you a discount, and it will be good to have 25,000 left in the end. So you must first shout: "I want one hundred thousand!"

Secondly, it is to prepare for the retreat in the future. In case of failure, (in fact, even if the Irish encounter difficulties now, it is not easy to completely eliminate them, and the probability of failure is much greater than one in ten thousand) there can also be a reason to shirk responsibility.

The meaning of the Duke of Norfolk, in fact, everyone understands that the bureaucracy has been operating like this for many years. Only a fool would give the subordinates whatever they wanted, and in the end, everyone would have no excuses, and then they could only take risks, and in the end, they all died.

Therefore, after bargaining with the Duke of Norfolk in accordance with the old rules, the government sent him more than 40,000 troops almost entirely composed of recruits.

In this regard, the Duke of Norfolk was naturally very dissatisfied on the surface, and even uttered rude words about it in his letter to the Prime Minister. But everyone knew in their hearts that the Duke of Norfolk was actually very satisfied, and his complaints were just leaving a way out for himself.

The Duke of Norfolk also understands that the recruits now are recruits who have not fought in battle and are not well trained. But even such recruits are better than the "Irish Security Forces". At least, as far as it is concerned, there has not been an authentic British army stepping on two boats.

In the upcoming sweep, the Duke of Norfolk must leave enough troops to guard his hometown, and there should be no more stories about sending troops to smash other people's bases, and then his own base was stolen later. The main purpose of these more than 40,000 recruits is to hold those key points to ensure the safety of their rear during the sweep.

As for the less reliable "Irish Security Forces", they are still very useful in mopping up. For example, it is used to destroy potatoes in non-security areas. Is this kind of work also let the regular army do it?

So after the gang of recruits were in place, the Duke of Norfolk sent those recruits to various military depots, strengthened the defense capabilities of the depots, and launched a sweep against the Irish again.

It's just that this sweep was not particularly good in terms of time. Originally, according to the Duke's idea, the big sweep must wait until the potatoes are about to be harvested. It's just that the government is eager to get good news, and the Duke himself knows that the French transportation line has not been completely cut off. If it is delayed for two months, before the potatoes are harvested, it will indeed give the Irish rebels more trouble. Big hit. But now, the potatoes have just been planted, and they are attacking now, ruining those potato fields, and the Irish have time to replant a batch. Although this will definitely reduce the final yield, it is better than suffering before the harvest. It's so strong all of a sudden.

However, postponing such a long period of time will also put more pressure on the government. At this time, the government needs good news that can inspire people. Moreover, a few months will give the rebels more time to prepare. When the time comes to launch a sweep, although the results may be greater, the losses will also be greater.

In addition, the British have temporarily gained the upper hand at sea by relying on "the world's number one technology", but who knows if there will be any changes in the future?

The news that the Duke of Norfolk was preparing for a new round of sweeps could not be concealed at all, and the United Irish Federation had already received the information. Because in the "Irish Vigilante", there are too many people who have their feet on two boats.

So before the Duke of Norfolk had time to take action, the United Irish Federation was already holding a meeting to discuss anti-sweeping matters.

"How to do it, of course, is the same as last time. The enemy comes to our house, and we go to the enemy's house. Everyone fights each other to see who can't stand it first."

"Mr. Joyce, this time the old bastard got more than 40,000 people from the UK. He probably wants to keep these 40,000 people at home. I'm afraid those military depots won't be as easy to fight as last time." .” President Russell reminded.

"But President, we have also become a lot stronger. Especially our offensive ability." Joyce replied, "Aiming at the problem of insufficient offensive ability exposed in the last anti-sweeping operation, on the one hand, we ask French comrades The provision of support, on the other hand, has also strengthened the training in a targeted manner. Now our attacking ability is not comparable to last time. That old guy must think that we can't chew his military depots, and we can give them a surprise Well."

"I agree with Commander Joyce's views. But I think we should not only attack the enemy's military depots, but also concentrate our efforts to attack the enemies who have entered my base area." Said Xie Lan, the division commander of the Second Division, "The size of our army is now With not a small expansion, the British know this, but they don't know how much our strength has grown. So if they think they can go up one time, just gather a few hundred British troops plus a few hundred black dogs Then they can run amok, then they think wrong. I think we can let them enter the base area first, then we can strike behind them, knock down a few key military posts, force them to retreat, and then we immediately transfer back to the base area , severely hitting the retreating enemy troops."

"Very good, everyone's morale is also very high." Chairman Russell said happily, "Recently we have encountered some troubles, and our weapon supplies have dropped a lot. Only rely on our French comrades. We have to rely on our own efforts. We have no guns, no cannons. We can let the British build them for us! In addition, the defense of the motherland cannot only rely on the regular army. Every county brigade, district squad, and village team must Let’s mobilize. Don’t look at the small number of people in the village group, it’s impossible to fight a big battle, but killing a few of them today and killing them tomorrow will add up to a lot, so it’s not to be underestimated.”

"At least it's not a problem to beat black dogs and hand over a few guns from them." Someone said, "Do you think it's better for the British to shoot those black dogs or not?" So everyone They all laughed together.