Fox of France

In the next two hours, Marten became more and more proficient in operations, more efficient in combat, and more courageous. Relying on his advantage in power and control, he kept grabbing the T position, and knocked out three British steamships in one breath—not only the paddle wheels were destroyed, but even the masts were hit by chain bombs fired at close range. Interrupted-the insatiable Maarten abandoned these immobile British frigates, and continued to attack the remaining warships that could move-he wanted to keep all these British ships in one go.

However, the facts have proved that it is not a good habit to accept if you don't know how to see it. Just when Maarten was about to go all out and make a big victory, a large ship appeared in their sight—it was the third-tier battleship that had been lagging behind.

As soon as this big ship appeared, the British who were almost in despair suddenly became energetic. They all entangled with Maarten desperately and tried their best to protect the injured warships. And Maarteng paid attention to the distance between the two sides. He estimated that it would be too late to deal with the British before the battleship approached, so he cursed fiercely: "What I hate the most is the kind that beats up the little ones." , Here comes the old thing.”

After cursing this sentence, Maarten glanced at the approaching British warship again, and added this sentence in his heart: "What's even more hateful is that we really can't beat this old one."

A battleship, even a battleship of the lowest rank of the third rank, has sixty or seventy cannons, and on each side of the ship, there are more than thirty guns, each of which fires heavier shells than Maarten's guns, More powerful, longer range. Taking into account the stability advantages of the battleship itself, the shooting accuracy of each of these cannons is also higher than that of Maarten. Considering that the solid defense of the battleship is simply not something that a 12-pound gun can bite.

Maarten estimated that before the battleship arrived, if he took a risky move, he might still have a chance to sink a British warship. However, that may also damage his ship. If he is unlucky and damages a key part, maybe he will confess here because of his eagerness for success.

That being the case, Maarten immediately felt that he could no longer waste shells on these British warships. Wouldn't it be nice to save the shells for those baits to deal with those clipper ships?

"Retreat, we won't play with them anymore!" Maarten ordered.

So after the Equality passed by the T position of the British frigate for the last time, it didn't look back, but sailed all the way at high speed, and soon disappeared into the vast sea.

In this battle, the British did not lose more warships except for the loss of bait. Of course, half of the steam frigates were severely damaged, and the situation of the remaining three was not particularly good. Almost all of these ships were towed back by the third-tier battleship.

But in this battle, the British did not gain nothing. They spent a lot of shells and gunpowder in Malten. After getting rid of the British warship completely, Major Maarten took an inventory of his cargo hold, and found that in the battle just now, he had consumed almost two-thirds of the chain bombs, one-half of the ordinary shells, and three One-fifth of a grapeshot. Considering the spare weight that must be left when returning home, the ammunition that can still be used for hunting is completely insufficient!

"If these shells were used on those clipper ships, how many clipper ships would be knocked down! This is really..." Maarten couldn't help lamenting.

In the next few days, the British showed very high efficiency. They have realized that their "steam boats" are almost an era behind the French's similar products. Even in a one-to-one battle, they can't gain the upper hand. In the event of adverse weather conditions, catastrophic consequences can even occur.

Moreover, in this battle, the "Equality" was at full speed in the final attack stage, and it had already demonstrated a high speed far exceeding that of the British steamship. That is to say, even in the most difficult situation, the French could at least Time to retreat.

That is to say, the "whaling ship plan" is fundamentally impossible to succeed. On the contrary, the baits released may become free food for others.

So the British quickly recalled those hunting teams and bait, so that the "Equality" only caught a clipper ship that fled without being notified in time.

Since the French steamship cannot be dealt with, it means that the blockade of Ireland has failed completely. So on the one hand, the British ordered the British army in Ireland to enter a state of full alert, while reconsidering making peace with the French.

This time the peace terms proposed by the British are much more pragmatic. The British made another peace offer to the French through the Dutch.

The British proposed that peace should be restored immediately between Britain and France. Britain gave up the blockade of the French coast and recognized France's special interests in the Netherlands, the Rhine and other regions. France should recognize British rule over Ireland and stop supporting Irish rebels. At the same time, France should also recognize the special interests of the British in Hanover.

This requirement is much lower than before, and there is obviously room for negotiation. After discussing with his two brothers, Napoleon also believed that France also needed a period of peace for the time being.

"We need peace now so that more resources can be transferred to productive activities and improve people's living standards." Joseph said, "In addition, obtaining a peace that is more beneficial to France is also conducive to improving your support in the hearts of the people." Degree. Conducive to our 'Rome plan'. However, there are several principles that must be grasped.

First of all, regarding the issue of Ireland, we cannot give up Ireland, which is our most powerful means to contain the British. Moreover, the Irish themselves are very competitive, easy to use, and worthy of support. A peace that may be torn apart at any time, and a little brother who can fight, the difference in value is too great.

Next is Hannover, which must also be under our control. "

"What do you need to say?" Napoleon shook his head disdainfully and said, "We are the victorious country, at least the one with the upper hand. How can there be any reason to make concessions in these places? Talk nonsense!"

Joseph also ignored him and continued: "In addition, we should also insist on demanding such rights. Of course, this can be 'equal' and mutual giving. We should ask the UK and us to 'open the door' ', the markets of Great Britain and its dependencies are to be opened to us, and our markets are 'equally' open to them. This market refers not only to common commodities, but also to literature, art and news."

"Open markets to each other? Well, are you sure we can take advantage?" Napoleon asked.

"Of course," Joseph said without hesitation, "their steam power and water conservancy textiles, how can they compete with our electric textiles? Of course, they don't know this. I guess they have problems with news and art market access. In fact, there may be some resistance. After all, during this period of time, Lucien has done a good job in the Ministry of Truth, smashing those feudal scumbags who oppose us. The British may be a little worried. Let’s first propose mutual opening of the news and art markets. requirements, and then in exchange for mutual opening of the general commodity market.

Well, Lucien, those British newspapers are of good quality. Not only do you have to defend the European continent, but you also have to spread the flames of war to England. Well, you won't be beaten by the British with bags all over your head, and you will flee back in a broken army, right? "

"How is it possible?" Lucien pouted, "As far as the British are concerned, as long as they don't use violent means to deal with our propaganda, any minister of the Ministry of Truth, with the support of the entire European power , but still can’t handle those stupid pig-like newspapers of the British, then he should be stuffed into a large cannon without hesitation, and fired towards the sun at the speed of light!”

As a result, France sent a delegation headed by Foreign Minister Talleyrand to hold talks in the town hall of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

It was a difficult negotiation, and there were two roadblocks in the negotiation. Because of these two problems, everyone made it seem like they were going to split up and continue working several times.

The first stumbling block is the Irish issue. The British strongly accused France of brutally trampling on Britain's internal affairs, and demanded that France immediately stop all ties with Irish rebel organizations.

The French said that the essence of Ireland's problems is the shameless plundering of the Irish people's wealth by the British and their cruel persecution of Irish Catholics. Talleyrand put on an air of a humanitarian and a devout Catholic and said:

"Respect for sovereignty is of course the cornerstone of exchanges between countries. However, based on the foundation of our country and the concept in the "Declaration of Human Rights", we believe that human rights are a higher standard than sovereignty and the foundation of sovereignty. When human rights are unscrupulously violated When trampled on, we don't think that any country with a sense of justice should keep silent because of the limitation of sovereignty. If the British really want to solve the Irish problem, there is only one way, and that is to respect the rights of the Irish people honestly. Natural human rights, respect for the property and religious freedom of the Irish people. In short, France's legislative principles and the foundation of the country make it impossible for her to be indifferent to this humanitarian disaster, especially the humanitarian disaster that happened to Catholics."

The British naturally knew that an empty "peace" would not allow the French to give up their most important bargaining chip. But bargaining, so the British raised the issue of Hannover again, and this issue immediately became a new stumbling block.