Fox of France

If it was a few months ago, Captain Jarvis went down to arrest people with his hands, he would probably have grabbed them, and even his own people would have disappeared. But the situation has improved a little recently, because the British army has shrunk its troops, and now in Dublin, the number of British troops is not even necessarily smaller than the Irish citizens of Dublin.

In this way, the "law and order" in Dublin seems to be a little bit better than before. At the very least, the most common way to catch someone is to catch the target missing, and not to make the person who went out to catch disappear.

But when Jarvis rushed into a small courtyard with his men, he found that there was no one there. Apparently one of them leaked the news.

Jarvis was very angry about this, and he scolded those men who participated in the arrest operation. Threatening to hand them all over to the British. However, everyone is actually not too scared, because first of all, the British are busy with their own affairs, so there is no time to take care of these trivial matters.

Secondly, since this period of time, the British's crackdown on such things has actually dropped a lot.

It is said that after the British army retreated to Dublin, in order to ensure defense, someone proposed to the governor of Norfolk to kill all the Irish in Dublin, or expel them all.

But both opinions were rejected by the Duke of Norfolk. Carry out a massacre? After the massacre, the Irish landed in England with the French army, and what happened?

The Duke of Norfolk was not worried that the Irish would slaughter British civilians in retaliation. Anyway, it's just civilians, so what's the big deal. But he worries that this approach will greatly increase the cost of compromise. Of course, this is not the most important issue. The most important issue is that by that time, he himself and his family may also become one of the increased costs. This kind of thing that is not good for the country, the family, or oneself will only be done when there is a hole in the head.

As for expelling the Dubliners, the Duke of Norfolk felt that his subordinates were all idiots! Is it because the rebels outside don't know the details of Dublin, or are they worried that they have too few people?

This attitude from above immediately made the people below feel something. After all, not all those in the lower ranks are fools. So they also immediately realized that the situation was wrong, and the guys above were all thinking about the back road. Well, everyone should also consider the matter of "see you in the future". And if the pressure is too great, and there is a collective defection or something, the people below will not be able to bear the responsibility. So even the British are not very concerned about such things now.

It's just that Captain Jarvis is very sad, because a "hard-core love adulterer" like him is not sure that the British will take him back to England when they retreat. So he needs to make more contributions quickly. Or else—just think, if the Englishman is going to stay in Ireland, he will be of some use; if the Englishman is going back to England, what use will he be?

Just as Captain Jarvis was thinking tremblingly, the ranks of the Irish Independence Army began to appear outside Dublin. So the situation became more and more tense.

The Irish Independence Army did not immediately attack Dublin. The Dublin garrison has a large number of fortifications, and in some directions it can be supported by the firepower of the navy's cruisers. Although the Irish Independence Army has high morale and greatly improved field capabilities, its offensive capabilities have always been a big hole. So now they can only isolate and divide the British strongholds first. Then wait for reinforcements from the French army.

Therefore, as soon as these Irish independence forces arrived outside the city, they began to build various fortifications to cut off the connection between Dublin and other strongholds on land. But the British don't care about this, because Dublin is a port, as long as the sea is smooth, this is not a problem.

But the next piece of news made the Duke of Norfolk very worried. That is when they used the balloon to discover that a large number of Irish farmers were laying a railway track.

Much of the railway from Dublin to Gorville was already under Irish control. Athlone, who once made the Irish suffer, has been abandoned by the British. When the British retreated, they also demolished many railways, but look at this posture...

The Duke of Norfolk immediately remembered a legend about the French Urban Cannon.

Napoleon is said to have complained to Joseph that the defenses he had put up were too annoying. It was okay when France was on the defensive in the past, but now France is the strongest in the world, but it always has to face the Joseph defense of foreigners, which is really uncomfortable.

So the military-industrial complex launched a so-called "Urban plan." The plan was named after the Urban Cannons used by the Ottoman Empire to conquer Constantinople. So some people suspect that the French want to make a particularly large siege cannon. Of course, using the name of the cannon that destroyed the shield of Christ as the name of the plan proves once again that France is really a filial son of God. Now seeing the Irish building the railway, the Duke of Norfolk naturally remembered this legend.

"If there is a new type of Urban cannon, it is probably moved by rail," thought the Duke of Norfolk.

Historically, in order to transport the huge "Urban Cannon", the Turks used 400 laborers and 60 cattle, and it took six weeks to transport such a huge cannon into place. An average of only 2.5 miles per day.

Although the urban cannon in history was scary at the time, with the progress of the times, it is estimated that a cannon of this size is no longer worthy of the name "Urban Project". You must know that the 10-inch guns on the British battleships alone weigh more than 20 tons, which is much heavier than the historical Urban cannon (17 tons). And the Russian Tsar Cannon, which has never been fired, weighs 40 tons. If this kind of cannon is to be transported on land, then the railway is obviously the most suitable means.

But even with such speculation, the Duke of Norfolk doesn't have many good solutions. He may launch a few raids to destroy the railway that the Irish are laying, but he also knows that because the Irish have A good deal of fortification had already been built, so such an operation would have resulted in no small number of casualties. This weakens the city's defenses. And the effect obtained, at most, is to delay the arrival of the French "Urban Cannon" by a few days or a week or two. The Duke of Norfolk felt that this was really not worth the candle.

But it's not a thing to just watch and wait. Therefore, after discussing with the army, the Duke of Norfolk began to build underground artillery bunkers on the defense line outside the city.

Of course, if the cannon of the "Urban Project" is really big enough, this kind of temporary underground anti-gun hole will definitely not be able to block the shells of this cannon. But it can still compress the killing range of the cannon a lot. As long as there are not too many people in each hole, at least the pressure brought by this cannon can be greatly reduced.

At this time, in Port Carroll, a giant French ship docked. This is a group of large freighters just launched by French shipbuilding, with a displacement of up to 15,000 tons. At present, this is also the largest freighter in the world.

The freighter used the tower crane that had just been shipped half a month ago and was installed to lift the large components to the dock one by one.

These large components include various artillery pieces and a large number of flat cars for the railway.

As the British guessed, there are indeed some large artillery in the "Urban Project", but the result of the "Urban Project" is not a spectacle-level cannon-although Napoleon is very fond of spectacle, He strongly demanded that a giant cannon of the spectacle level be produced, but in the end, Joseph did not come up with what Napoleon was expecting, a giant cannon with a huge barrel that could allow a grown man to climb in and out. Kind of a 280mm caliber thing.

It is said that Joseph even thought that the 203 mm caliber is basically enough, and it can be much cheaper. But Napoleon said that this was too thin and unsatisfactory, and threatened that if Joseph did not make concessions, he would cut the planning funds:

"Joseph, that's not what you said to me at the beginning. You said that we would have a thick, thick, long and long cannon. After people all over the world saw it, they would tremble with fear. I thought you Show me a cannon as thick as a water tank. Even if it is not as thick as a water tank, it should be as thick as a bucket, right? As a result, you use a 203mm toothpick, which is only as thick as a plate, to fool me! No, This is absolutely not possible!"

"When did I say that the water tank is thick?" Joseph said.

"Don't deny it. When I asked you how thick the biggest gun in the 'Urban Project' was, you said to me: 'How thick do you want? Don't worry, it's definitely thick and long. It's about as thick as it is.' You just pointed to a water tank and said!"

"That's your mistake. I pointed to the water lily leaf in the tank! God can testify!"

"Come on, Joseph, you don't believe in God at all. Your devotion to God is comparable to that of Talleyrand and Foucher. You are like them. Whenever God is mentioned in your mouth, it must be You're telling a lie! Why didn't you say that there were a few fish in that water tank, and you were pointing at the scales of those fish?"

"What nonsense, let me tell you..."

The two brothers quarreled, and finally Napoleon said: "Joseph, I know that the super-large cannon is not very useful. Don't I understand this kind of military thing? Indeed, in most cases, 203 The millimeter caliber cannon is indeed enough. However, when we get this thing out, it can also deter other countries. People in those countries don’t necessarily understand it. If you pass the 203 thing, you won’t be able to scare people at all, but If something as thick as a water tank comes out, it will be a decisive blow to their morale! Do you understand?"

"But technically, the water tank is thick, and we can't do it now. Unless you really only want a mascot like the Tsar Cannon!"

The Tsar Cannon is a copper smooth-bore cannon cast by Russian gunsmiths in 1586. Its caliber is 915 mm, which is thicker than the Dora cannon of later generations. The body of the gun is 5.18 meters long and weighs 40 tons. The whole gun weighs 80 tons; Spherical cast iron bullet. Since the cannon was so heavy, thick logs had to be used to move the cannon. Later, people also made decorative gun mounts for this cannon king.

However, such a huge cannon has never been fired, and it is not even sure whether it can be fired. So this beautifully decorated cannon is actually just a beautiful decoration.

Of course, Napoleon could not accept such a thing, so Napoleon had to lower the standard, and finally established a principle, that is, it should not be smaller than the gun on the British battleship.

So Joseph and the others stepped on the lower limit and came up with such a thing.

This gun weighs fifty tons and uses a barrel as long as 11 meters. This also means it can only use the newer nitrocellulose propellants. So not only the guns are expensive, but also the shells are expensive to use. In addition, considering the cost issue, this gun is not equipped with a tube retraction device. When shooting, it can only rely on putting down the large plow, and then relying on the track on the special flatbed to move backwards, then reset, and then Fire again.

The 280 gun alone occupied a row of flatbed trucks. Using various lifting equipment, the workers spent three days to fix the gun on the specially customized flatbed truck.

Then there are other auxiliary artillery, including two 203 guns and twelve 100mm guns, all of which are installed in fixed positions on special flatbed vehicles. Then, under the traction of two power vehicles and under the cover of two armored trains, the train guns began to leave Port Carroll along the railway, and headed towards Dublin along the railway line.

The Urban plan involved not just a large caliber gun, but a group of guns that could move quickly along the railway. Relying on the railway that can move at high speed, the French can make the artillery that the army can use much larger. This artillery cluster is a battleship walking on land.

Under the protection of the independent army of the brigade and the French Army, it took two days for this line of "land battleships" to reach the front line of Dublin. not enough.

After the "land battleship" of the French army was in place, a regiment of the French army took over the most important nearby fortifications and took on the task of protecting this huge land battleship.

On the second day after the artillery train arrived, the artillery train finally launched its first shelling towards the British positions outside Dublin.