Fox of France

After the fall of Dublin, the British in the remaining coastal strongholds in Ireland also quickly retreated. All of Ireland is now liberated. After roughly arranging the affairs in Ireland, President Russell will prepare to formally establish the Irish government.

As to what form the Irish government should take, most members of the Federation agreed to copy the French work directly. That is to say, follow the gourd's plan to create a governing government, and then set up five parliaments. Anyway, France is so advanced, so developed, and people's lives are so good, it means that the French system is good.

But Russell objected a bit instead. He felt that in the French system, the power of the first ruler was still too great, and even far surpassed the previous king in fact. It makes sense for the French to do this because it is very efficient. And revolutionary France is almost a thorn in the side of the reactionary forces in Europe. In order to defeat the great alliance of reactionary forces in Europe, the most efficient system must be adopted.

But the situation in Ireland today is not like this. Ireland is not the center of the world, and it does not face the same danger as France. Now there is no need to adopt a French-style system for efficiency.

However, the federation is democratic, but everyone opposed his opinion, so President Russell naturally respected the organization's decision after retaining his own opinion.

Then there are the arrangements for various details, as well as some diplomatic matters. The first is to inform the friendly countries of the plan to build a country. Well, there are quite a few friendly countries in Ireland nowadays. Basically, the countries that declared war on Britain along with France are all de facto allies of Ireland. Even those countries that still maintain neutrality can be regarded as friendly countries.

The Federation sent special envoys to these friendly countries to discuss matters concerning the establishment of diplomatic relations.

In France, the Napoleon family has already discussed how to deal with matters related to Ireland.

"Generally speaking, there are four types of allies," Joseph said.

Generally speaking, Joseph only gives principled guidance and specific operations on political matters. He is really not very good at this matter. In fact, apart from scientific matters, especially mathematical matters, Joseph really didn't care about the details.

"Otherwise, how could he have the name 'Joseph who never made a mistake'?" It is said that Napoleon once complained about his eldest brother. But complaining is all about complaining, but Napoleon actually likes Joseph's style. On the contrary, if Joseph meddles in everything, including every trivial matter and every specific operation, it will be really unbearable.

"Which four?" asked Napoleon.

"Let's use the analogy of four animals," said Joseph.

"The first kind of animal is a pig. People who live in this kind of animal usually raise it and protect it. For what purpose? Of course, it is to kill and eat meat during the festival. There is a type of 'allies', except for having money and resources. , is useless. This kind of allies are pigs. The meaning for us is to kill and eat meat when necessary."

"Well, I know you're talking about Turkey, Northern Italy, Austria and Prussia and Spain." Napoleon smiled brightly. These few big fat pigs have made France quite full over the years. The free labor, resources, and markets of Austria and Prussia have benefited France a lot. Still French. These once big European countries are not doing well now.

But the days are not good, but the positions of the kings or emperors of these countries are still quite stable. But the hat could not be returned to him, so he became the emperor of Austria.) Because although they betrayed the country and exploited, they were almost compradors with crowns, but fortunately, France absorbed a large number of labor forces, plus the American place It is large and can accommodate many immigrants. Therefore, although the lives of ordinary people are not good, but because there are few young people in the country, it is not easy to cause too much trouble.

"The second animal is cattle." Joseph went on to say, "For us, these countries are our core allies, we protect them, and they work hard to support our cause. They are our industrial chain Beneficial, essential part, very important to our economy. Their economy is completely integrated with ours, almost part of the empire."

"I know, you're talking about the Rhineland, the Netherlands and Northern Italy," said Napoleon.

"This type of country is now both prosperous and prosperous with us, and we are all harmed. We must love them and protect their interests, which is to protect our interests, because..."

"Because in fact, the big capitals of these countries are our periphery." Lucien interjected.

"Cows are different from pigs. It's better to raise and work than to kill and eat meat. Of course, when it's really a last resort, it's like a famine. You can't survive tomorrow without food, let alone next year. Then I don’t care so much. I hope we will never encounter such a time in our life.” Joseph continued.

"You mean, our juniors may encounter such a time in the future?" Lucien asked.

"Ah, there is no permanent empire in the world." Napoleon replied, "Just like the stock market, no stock can go up forever. It will always crash, maybe several times in a week. .”

"The third type of allies are dogs. This type of country can only help us economically, and there is not much meat to kill them. But they have a great advantage, that is, they can bite people. As long as we support us behind, they will It can replace our blood and hold back the enemy’s strength, just like the hounds when hunting, it plays a key role in destroying the prey for us. But the question now is, if the prey is dead, how should we treat the hounds?”

"I know who you're talking about, the Irish. But the prey isn't dead yet. As for after the prey dies—England doesn't die that easily, it's always a threat, and Ireland can be used to keep England down at all times Besides, in Ireland, what else can you do besides grow potatoes? There is no meat at all, and even if you eat meat, you won’t be able to eat his head.”

"The last type of allies are wolves. They are only on our way temporarily, and more importantly, they have their own ambitions, and they may compete with us for interests in the future. For example..."

"For example, the United States." Napoleon said, "But now, the Americans have no room for development. The west is our Louisiana, and the north will soon be our Quebec. But it is best to find a chance to dismember it. , so as to protect our interests.”

"And Russia?" asked Lucien.

"Russia, Russia is different from all these countries." Joseph said, "Russia is not our ally, and it is not our enemy at present, um... they are barbarians now. In the long run, Russia is a vast country. Rich in resources and a large population, they are naturally a strong country. However, they have a large number of ethnic groups, which is a weakness that can be exploited."

After doing such a strategic research, the next research direction is how to deal with the issue of Irish statehood. Irish envoys had arrived in Paris and visited Napoleon and Joseph on the matter of statehood.

Joseph and Napoleon naturally supported the founding of Ireland. The question now is what kind of etiquette France should use to attend the founding ceremony of Ireland. According to the idea of ​​Ireland, they very much hope to invite Joseph to attend their founding ceremony and give a speech on behalf of the advanced European countries at the founding ceremony of Ireland.

Joseph declined: "You said that I, a retired general and a scientist, went to a political occasion to give a speech?"

And Joseph was not a member of the federation, so the special envoy could not tell him "this is an organizational decision", so the special envoy found his student Carol. Carol is a member of the organization, even a nominal member of the Central Committee.

The special envoy found Carol and said, "Carol, the organization has a glorious and arduous task to entrust to you."

Carol laughed as soon as he heard it: "Jimney, you want me to persuade my teacher to attend the founding ceremony, right? Well, this matter is not easy to handle. You don't understand my teacher's character. He is very rude. He likes to show his face in public. Well, it’s strange, isn’t it? After all, the teacher was a general, and he gave speeches to soldiers more than once. He also gave lectures to many people in various classes. He has never seen People blush, can't speak, etc. However, he really doesn't like to stand in front of the public. Just like his defensive position, he can't see people under normal circumstances. However, I can try my best try."

Adding Carol's persuasion, Napoleon also said that since Ireland is still a very useful dog, it's okay for you to go to Joseph. So Joseph had no choice but to say that although I don't like doing these things, as long as it is beneficial to the country, it is also appropriate for individuals to make some sacrifices. How can you not go because you are afraid of seasickness? But don't take the opportunity to mess around in the Academy of Sciences while I'm away!

In this regard, Napoleon was very unhappy and said: "You are the tyrant in the Academy of Sciences. The academicians have suffered from Joseph for a long time. But those academicians are cowards. Even if you are gone, few guys dare to follow me. Nonsense."

Considering that the British Navy still maintains a presence at sea, it often takes action. So Napoleon sent the battleship "Caesar", as well as the supercruisers "Free Trade" and "Common Market" from North America, and two armored cruisers named to participate in the review ceremony of the founding ceremony of Ireland. More importantly, Responsible for ensuring Joseph's safety along the way.

Speaking of which, the British Navy is indeed full of fearless spirit. Even in today's unfavorable situation, they are already working hard. At this time, the British Navy could no longer guarantee its own sea dominance, so their combat goal became to destroy other people's sea dominance.

For this reason, the British made bold improvements to their cruisers. They realized that for a long time to come, their success or failure would depend entirely on the high speed of their ships. So they removed all the armor of the armored cruiser, and only kept part of the armor in the boiler and ammunition depot. In other words, the British adopted a streaking method to increase their speed and attack various sea targets in European countries except modern warships.

After the armor was removed, the ship was much lighter, which made the British cruisers faster than their French counterparts for the first time in the age of sail. And their practice of not running naked with armor unexpectedly also achieved another unexpected effect.

One evening just a few days ago, when a British cruiser was attacking a Dutch merchant ship, it encountered an old-fashioned armored cruiser from the Rhine Alliance. At that time, the British were controlling the captured merchant ship, but there was heavy fog on the sea. Then the two warships suddenly encountered at a very close distance of only about 300 meters. Then everyone had a short and intense exchange of fire. In the end, the armored cruiser of the Rhine Alliance was seriously injured. If it weren't for the cover of sea fog, it might have been sunk by a British warship.

As for the British cruiser, he also suffered more than a dozen shells. But these shells have a serious problem-over-penetration. Because there is basically no armor on the British cruiser, after the shells aimed at the armor hit the British cruiser, they basically penetrated directly from the port side to the starboard side, hitting the cruiser three times and six times. But none of them exploded successfully.

And because of the heavy sea fog, the naval soldiers of the Rhineland Alliance couldn't see clearly that their shells passed through. As a result, their statements all became: they were at such a short distance, no matter what, they could It should have hit the opponent's many guns, but all of these shells were blocked by the armor of the British cruiser.

The news blinded even the French. For a while, the French really thought that the British had made some breakthrough in technology, so that their warships not only surpassed the French in speed, but even had better defense than French warships. For this reason, Admiral Treville also issued a special order requiring French warships to avoid fighting British warships without a numerical advantage.

As for the British, they naturally know that their warships are running naked. As long as people notice and exchange ammunition, they can beat their own cruisers to rage and look for teeth. Therefore, they also issued the same order. As a result, until now, the French thought that the British had new armor technology.