Make France Great Again

January 13, 1858.

After several days of non-stop information bombardment, the people of Paris gradually learned about the situation around the world. They no longer chose to criticize the government too harshly, and the reputation of the French Empire in Paris continued to rebound.

Some moderate republican newspapers also became pessimistic after seeing that the economic crisis failed to bring down the empire, believing that the imperial government was unable to compete.

They simply gave up the seven-year confrontation and instead published articles praising the imperial government in newspapers.

(Republican disillusionment.jpg)

After reading this eulogy, Jérôme Bonaparte, who was sitting on the sofa, immediately decided that these moderate republicans were candidates for recruitment.

After all, in the eyes of Jérôme Bonaparte, whether he is a republican or a royalist!

As long as they are willing to support his faction, they can all be united.

Taking a step back, the factions that do not oppose his rule are also united people.

Therefore, Jérôme Bonaparte immediately ordered Basilio to invite the republican members behind the newspaper to the Tuileries Palace, and he and the Queen would receive them personally.

"Your Majesty, when should the invitation be written?" Basilio asked Jerome Bonaparte.

"Let me think about it!" After Jerome Bonaparte thought for a while, he spoke again: "Please write the invitation letter on the 17th!

In the past few days, I will also go to various places in Paris to inspect with the Queen! "

"Understood!" Basilio nodded and replied to Jerome Bonaparte.

Immediately afterwards, Basilio left the study to prepare the invitation.

Jérôme Bonaparte also put down the newspaper in his hand and returned to his desk to handle official business.

About two hours later, Jerome Bonaparte processed all the documents sent from the secretary's office and then sorted the documents again.

After Jérôme Bonaparte finished sorting it out again, he frowned and muttered in a low voice, "Strange! Why are there no documents from the General Staff? Logically speaking, there shouldn't be! Did the secretary's office forget to bring them? !”

Just as Jerome Bonaparte was frowning and thinking, Lucien Murat appeared at the door, holding several documents in his hand that needed Jerome Bonaparte to process.

After Jerome Bonaparte saw Lucien Murat, he immediately smiled and said to Lucien Murat: "Lucien, you came just in time!"

"Your Majesty!" Lucien Murat looked at Jérôme Bonaparte with a hint of doubt, then bowed slightly and asked, "What are your orders?"

"Why are there no documents from the General Staff in this pile of documents?" Jérôme Bonaparte opened his hand to hold down the document and asked.

"Your Majesty, the Secretary's Office has not received the documents from the General Staff yet!" Lucien Murat replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.

"You haven't received it yet?" Jérôme Bonaparte said to himself in a slightly lower voice, "Logically speaking, it shouldn't be possible!

It has been almost two days since the war started. Has the General Staff not received any news from the front line? "

The war mentioned by Jérôme Bonaparte was none other than the invasion of the Kingdom of Morocco by the French Empire and the Kingdom of Spain.

The war started on January 11 and has been going on for three days.

As for the Tuileries Palace where Jérôme Bonaparte was located, apart from knowing the time of the war, the rest was unknown.

This made Jerome Bonaparte feel a little confused.

If there was a long distance between Algeria and France and there were no telegraphs, the lack of battle reports would be excusable, but there had already been telegraphs between Algeria and France.

The news from Algeria has not arrived for a long time, which has to be suspicious.

Could it be said that our army was repelled by the Kingdom of Morocco?

An absurd idea emerged from Jérôme Bonaparte's heart, and was immediately extinguished by him.

How can the Kingdom of Morocco, a country that cannot even defeat the Kingdom of Spain, be France’s opponent?

Unless there is a great mage Liu Xiu in the Kingdom of Morocco who can summon meteorites to destroy the French army.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Kingdom of Morocco to defeat the French army deployed in Algeria.

"Your Majesty, it may be because our army is advancing too fast. Governor Montauban wants to completely occupy the Kingdom of Morocco before sending a telegram to Paris!" Lucien Murat made a guess.

"This is indeed the only possibility!" Jerome BMW nodded and responded to Lucien Murat, "Let's do this! I will go to the General Staff Headquarters in person!"

"Your Majesty, these documents..." Lucien Murat pointed to the documents in his hand and said to Jerome Bonaparte.

"Just put it on the table and wait until I come back to deal with it!" Jérôme Bonaparte said, patting the documents that had been processed by his hands, "You can take these and distribute them to various departments!"

"Yes!" Lucien Murat put the documents in his hand on the table, then took away the documents that Jerome Bonaparte had already processed and left.

Shortly after Lucien Murat left, Jérôme Bonaparte also got into a carriage and headed for the General Staff, escorted by Guards soldiers.

At the General Staff Headquarters at the moment, Niel, then Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was standing next to a map of Morocco and thinking. Next to him stood an adjutant with the rank of major.

After a while, Niel raised his head again and asked the adjutant: "Is there no telegram from Algeria yet?"

Upon seeing this, the adjutant hurriedly responded to Niel, "Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, there has been no war report from Algeria yet!"

"What's going on with Governor Couzin Montauban? Has he forgotten the agreement to report every three days? If this continues, how should I explain to His Majesty!" Niel complained softly.

"Chief of Staff, this is not your fault!" the adjutant said to Niel.

"The entire war was personally deployed by the General Staff! If anything goes wrong, I, the Chief of General Staff, will be guilty!" Niel misunderstood the adjutant's meaning. He complained again, and then turned around to ask The adjutant next to him said, "Tell me where our troops have reached now!"

"I think we have captured Oujda and Figir!" the adjutant said to Niel, pointing to the two border cities between Algeria and the Kingdom of Morocco.

"You underestimate our army!" Niel shook his head and responded to the adjutant, "I guess they have occupied Taza at this time and are attacking Fes!"

The adjutant looked at Taza on the map with an expression of disbelief on his face, "Your Excellency Chief of Staff, our army shouldn't be that fast!"

The distance between Oujda and Talli is at least more than 180 kilometers. It is indeed possible to reach Talli in three days, provided that the Moroccan army does not block it.

However, no matter how bad the Moroccan army is, they will still stop them, and it will be difficult to reach the tower in two days.

"Would you like to make a bet?" Niel proposed to the adjutant.

Just as the adjutant was about to agree to Niel's bet, a staff officer holding a telegram broke into the war conference room.

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, the battle report from Algeria is here!" the staff officer said to Niel while handing the telegram in his hand to Niel.

Niel, who received the telegram, showed a shocked expression on his face after reading the contents of the telegram.

"Chief of Staff, what's wrong with you?" The adjutant looked at Niel with a puzzled face, and then glanced at the telegram with his peripheral vision.

Immediately afterwards, the adjutant also showed a look of shock on his face.

"It seems that both of us guessed wrong!" Niel responded to the adjutant with a hint of joy, "Our army is not on the way there, but has already occupied it!"

Niel pointed to Fez, which was nearly three hundred kilometers away from the border, and said to the adjutant.

The adjutant could never imagine how their army flew over in three days. They couldn't just rely on the cavalry to rush in and capture it!

"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff, can you let me take a look at the battle report!" the adjutant said to Niel.

Just now, he only caught a glimpse of the news that the army had occupied Fes with his peripheral vision. He did not see the specific details of how it was occupied.

"Here you go!" Niel cheerfully handed the battle report to the adjutant.

The adjutant who received the battle report continued to read.

It turned out that their army did rely on cavalry to run to Fes, Kingdom of Morocco, to occupy them.

The cavalry troops equipped with Mauser breech-loading guns abandoned the heavy armor and cavalry rifles they wore, and instead practiced "gun fighting".

When the French reconnaissance cavalry discovered the Moroccan cavalry from a distance, they quickly fired at the Moroccan cavalry from a long distance.

The Moroccan cavalry holding sabers had never seen something that could shoot while riding on horseback. In just one encounter, the reconnaissance cavalry of the Kingdom of Morocco were slaughtered by the reconnaissance cavalry of the French Empire.

Immediately afterwards, the French Scout Cavalry told General MacMahon, who commanded the Oujda Road, the news.

McMahon, who commanded the army, reacted quickly. He immediately ordered his troops to bring the latest Xasebo machine guns to the front line first, and the infantry advanced slowly.

Six Chassebo machine guns arrived at the predetermined location at extremely fast speeds, waiting for the Moroccan army to surrender.

After a while, the French army also followed.

(McMahon originally thought that the Moroccan army would reach the predetermined location before the French. In fact, he overestimated the marching speed of the Moroccan army.)

After a while, a Moroccan army of nearly 7,000 people slowly arrived.

When they discovered the French army that was ready, the entire army immediately fell into panic.

McMahon decisively ordered his six Chassel machine guns to fire, and at the same time ordered his 4,000 French troops to outflank the Moroccan army along the left and right sides of the Chassel machine guns.

The poor Moroccan army was completely wiped out by the dense firepower network in less than an hour.