I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 563 Steam Engine Ship Plan

Although Spain is already in decline, it can still barely rank among the European powers by relying on its huge number of colonies.

And the Spanish fleet is also valued by Joseph.

After all, it is a country that once had the Invincible Armada. Even if it has "fallen into decline", its fleet size is still firmly ranked third in Europe.

If France wants to maintain the minimum trade needs, that is, the safety of the Mediterranean route, it must unite with the Spanish fleet.

Joseph knows very well that the navy is the most expensive of all military branches, without a doubt.

With France's current financial resources, there is no chance of winning the navy competition with Britain through the traditional model.

Historically, during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain's military expenditure was between 1 billion and 1.2 billion francs per year. The naval expenditure alone was as high as 380 million francs, which is not much different from France's total military expenditure of 400 million francs. [Note 1]

So in terms of the number of warships, France always launches one ship while Britain launches more than two ships.

At the same time, Britain, which relies on ocean trade for its livelihood, has trained a large number of elite sailors. Even if France has the same warships as Britain, the probability of winning the naval battle is very small.

The only way out for the French Navy is to use new technologies to overtake others, and new technologies require a lot of capital investment and take a long time.

Before the navy has new warships, France must join forces with the Spanish fleet to buy itself the time it needs.

However, when it comes to new warships, Joseph suddenly thought of the new high-pressure steam engine that Murdoch is developing.

Although the power of this thing is far from enough to be used on heavy battleships, in the Mediterranean, light paddle boats are always a combat force that cannot be ignored - the Mediterranean is calm all year round, causing the speed of heavy sailing boats to drop seriously, while paddle boats can use a lot of manpower to row to make up for the power, thus having very high maneuverability in this sea area.

Although Murdoch's high-pressure steam engine has an output power of only 50 horsepower, this is not comparable to dozens of rowers.

If two are installed, that is, 100 horsepower, the speed that can be achieved will definitely exceed human rowing.

Moreover, the continuous output capacity of the steam engine is even more overwhelming than that of human power.

No matter how good a rower you are, you will definitely be exhausted after rowing for two hours. Even if you bring a large number of reserve rowers, you can only travel at high speed for five or six hours at most. But the steam engine can run for several days without stopping.

In other words, if the steam engine can be successfully put on the paddle boat, and then the "kite flying" tactic can be reasonably used, the French Navy will have the ability to deal with the British in the Mediterranean.

At the same time, this process can also promote the technological iteration of ship-borne steam engines, paving the way for the use of more powerful steam engines to drive heavy battleships above level three in the future.

Joseph originally planned to wait until the French economy was better before starting the research and development of new warships, but now it seems that time is running out.

If the Mediterranean route cannot be maintained, then the vast North African province will not be able to provide support to the French mainland, and may even become a burden.

There is no way to enter Egypt and carry out the Suez Canal strategy. It is very likely that they will go along the North African route where Napoleon failed in the past.

Joseph immediately made a note to have Murdoch take the technicians to Brittany as soon as possible - it was the shipbuilding base of France and one of the main sources of sailors.

Of course, because it involved a new shipbuilding concept, he himself might have to go there.

Joseph pulled his thoughts back from the warship to diplomacy.

Outside of Spain, the most important thing was Russia.

He was not sure that he could form an alliance with Russia, after all, Russia's trade was too deeply tied to Britain. If Britain really wanted to impose tough sanctions, Russia's trade gap could not be made up by France alone.

This is why the continental blockade policy of the Emperor could be implemented everywhere in Europe, except for the gap in Russia.

And the Queen's desperate attack on Russia was not a "full of ambition" to unify Europe. The core was to plug the loopholes in the trade fence.

But if Russia wanted to strictly implement the continental blockade policy, its own finances would have to collapse first. So the war between Russia and France was doomed to be inevitable.

So Joseph's bottom line was to ensure that Russia would not join the British camp.

On the one hand, the trade volume between France and Russia should be increased as soon as possible so that Russia cannot abandon France. On the other hand, the development of Donbass should be strengthened to deepen the interests of the two countries.

Of course, the contradiction between Russia and Austria in the Balkan Peninsula can be used when necessary, but the strategy will be determined based on the specific situation later.

Next is Austria.

At present, the relationship between France and Austria is relatively stable.

And according to Joseph's memory, Leopold II is a principled person with a good overall view, and he should not be willing to get involved in the vortex of the Anglo-French conflict.

However, Joseph also knew that Leopold II was a short-lived emperor and would die early next year.

Franz II, who succeeded him, was a conservative emperor who liked to act on impulse and had mediocre abilities.

No one could guarantee whether he would be bewitched by Britain.

If Austria really stood on the opposite side of France at that time, it would not be a bad thing in a sense.

First of all, France could take Austria's interests in Italy without any worries.

You should know that the rich northern part of Italy is basically Austria's sphere of influence. There is also Tuscany in the south-central part of the peninsula, and the Grand Duke is directly from the Habsburg family.

At present, due to the marriage relationship between France and Austria, it is really difficult for France to attack Italy.

Once the two sides become enemies, the Austrian army alone cannot stop France from going deep into Italy.

In extreme cases, Joseph can even copy the historical process and make a deal with Sardinia, using the condition of helping them unify Italy, abandoning the central and southern parts of Italy, and driving Austria out of the Apennine Peninsula together with Sardinia.

After that, whether France attacks Austria from the Italian direction or supports Sardinia to harass Austria's rear, it is a good choice.

As for Prussia and the Netherlands, they are basically allies designated by Britain, and Joseph does not consider working on them.

Of course, the historical model of Napoleon directly attacking the Netherlands is absolutely undesirable.

You have penetrated into the northwest of Germany, which will inevitably arouse the fear of the German countries, and thus firmly accept Prussia's order to fight against France.

If the Netherlands was really too aggressive, they could use a small number of elite troops to quickly raid Amsterdam and evacuate immediately after the Netherlands surrendered.

And the Dutch warships must be destroyed or taken back to France as trophies.

[Note 1] The total military expenditure of the United Kingdom here includes a large amount of military aid to the allies, but the naval expenditure is all spent by the United Kingdom itself, and in the later period it even reached 500 million francs a year.