I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 272 The situation is serious

Ottoman.

Kostantinye.

Sultan Hamid I watched the British envoy leave from his bed.

The servant lowered his head and closed the door. Then he weakly turned to look at the Grand Vizier:

"What do you think is the best way to handle this matter?"

Grand Vizier Yusuf pondered for a few seconds before replying:

"Great Sudan, although the plan of 'joint attack on Tunisia' proposed by the British was unrealistic, they did provide help and helped our people control Tripoli.

"The empire has just experienced a defeat in Bessarabia and needs some victories to boost morale. I think we should send troops to Tripoli to garrison it and make it a real province of the empire.

"In addition, this can form a pincer attack on Egypt, threatening those Mamluks to have to come to Topkapi Palace and re-dedicate their loyalty to you."

At present, although Egypt claims to be Ottoman territory, it is actually controlled by the Mamluk group. The Ottomans have always been reluctant to give up the fertile land of Egypt, but they have been unable to take advantage of the Mamluk cavalry in sending troops, so they have never been able to truly control Egypt.

Hamid I nodded silently:

"I hope I can wait until that moment. You go pick some troops and let the navy transport them to Tripoli. I'm going to sleep for a while..."

"As you command, great Sultan."

Yusuf bowed and retreated.

Because of France's influence in Tunisia, there are differences between today's Ottomans and history - they did not spend all their main forces in the Russo-Turkish War, so they still have some troops that can be deployed.

A few days later, more than 10,000 Ottoman Janissaries and Sipahi cavalry boarded transport ships bound for Tunisia.

…

French North African Territory, Department of Susa.

Tunisian city.

Qiao An and Isaac took several officials to greet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and his entourage in front of a villa in the north of the city.

Although Qiao An is only the administrative commissioner of Susa now, because the governor of Susa Province has not yet taken office, he is in charge of the administration here.

At the same time, because Ishaq was the leader of the Tunisian rebel army, he also had great influence in the Tunisian Army, which was adapted from the rebel army.

It can be said that they are the military and political leaders of Susa Province.

Joseph specifically asked not to disclose his whereabouts, otherwise he would be surrounded by a large group of Tunisian dignitaries all day long, and he would definitely not be able to do anything serious.

Qiao An and Isaac respectfully welcomed the crown prince into the villa hall, and had local high-quality coffee brought to him.

Joseph motioned for everyone to sit down and asked directly: "Do you know the situation in Tripoli?"

Ishaq hurriedly said: "Yes, Your Highness, Benjiur's people have completely controlled the area from Tripoli to Benghazi, and are now attacking Zuwara's Pasha army."

Immediately, he detailed the current battle situation in Zuvala.

Zuwara is a city on the border between Tripoli and Tunisia. Currently, less than 600 soldiers remain loyal to the original Pasha Ali I of Tripoli. They are holding back here and resisting.

However, under the superior firepower of the British-equipped rebels, there was only one breath left, especially as Ali I subsequently fled Tripoli, making their morale even more low.

Joseph asked again: "Will they pose a threat to Tunisia?"

"Your Highness, although this is possible, Benjiour only has an army of 2,000 people. If he dares to set foot in Tunisia, he can rely on the Tunisian Army stationed in Sfax to deal with it."

As they were talking, an Arab Intelligence Agency agent anxiously motioned to Ishaq outside the door. The latter frowned and walked out quickly. After listening to the agent's report, he immediately returned to the hall and said to Joseph:

"Your Highness, I just received the news. The Sultan of Morocco sent 12,000 janissaries to Algiers. In addition, the Algiers Guards seem to have obtained a batch of flintlocks, although most of them were produced in Germany or Spain. , but it was most likely provided by the British.”

In the wars over the years, Britain has obtained a lot of Austrian and Spanish weapons from various channels, and it is entirely possible to hand them over to Algiers.

"The British again?" Joseph frowned, "The Mulan Army will arrive in Tunisia in a few days. Let them go to the Algiers border to station first to prevent accidents."

He looked at Ishak again: "Approximately how many people are there in the Tunisian Army who have relatively strong combat effectiveness now?"

Although there were nearly 20,000 Tunisian rebels at that time, most of them were old and weak who followed the spoils of the melee. In addition, there were many tribesmen who returned to their tribes after the war.

Therefore, only more than 10,000 people were eventually organized into the Tunisian Army, and even fewer elites could be truly trained.

Ishaq hesitated and said: "Your Highness, the stronger ones are Major Zhemele's two regiments, and Ghazi's battalion can fight."

In other words, there are only two and a half regiments with real combat effectiveness, less than 4,000 people. The other soldiers can basically only fire guns in the fortifications, and a frontal fight is likely to collapse at the first touch.

Joseph roughly calculated the troops on the Algiers side, and couldn't help frowning and shaking his head. Unexpectedly, the situation in Tunisia suddenly became so serious.

After all, the last time the Algiers Guards launched an attack on Tunisia at the instigation of the British, this time the British were still involved, so they had to guard against it.

After the last disastrous defeat of the Algiers Guards, there were only six to seven thousand men left. Together with the Moroccan troops, the number was close to 20,000 men. The Mulan Army and the Tunisian indigenous soldiers alone were very unsafe.

"It seems that we need to mobilize more troops from the mainland."

Joseph immediately wrote a letter to Berthier, and then discussed the situation on the east and west sides of Tunisia with Ishaq and others. The sunshine outside the window had begun to dim.

Joey took advantage of the Crown Prince's pause and hurriedly suggested:

"Your Highness, I have prepared a dinner for you. Do you want to eat first?"

Joseph felt hungry even after saying this, so he got up and followed him to the restaurant.

On the way, Joseph saw through the arched window that hundreds of people were busy wielding hoes and shovels in the distance, so he casually asked Joey:

"It's so late, what are those people doing?"

Joey also glanced over there, turned back and said:

"Your Highness, those are the Algiers captured in the last war, and the Albanian mercenaries. Now they are all working as slaves, building roads all over Tunisia. They will not stop until it is completely dark."

Joseph suddenly showed a clear look. No wonder the previous report sent back from Tunisia showed that the new road was built very quickly. It turned out that the work was done by strong prisoners.

Thanks to: Mr. Ren Zai Wu Tong Xia for the generous reward for this book! The young author is very grateful, hmm!

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