Fox of France

The situation of the "Queen Elizabeth" in Halifax Harbor was about the same as the French expected. Although Halifax is the most important British naval base in North America, its port facilities cannot be compared with the local ports. At most, cruiser-level warships are maintained here. It is difficult for warships like the "Queen Elizabeth" to be well maintained here.

"A large part of the strength of the navy comes from the ports that support it. If there is no suitable port, if the port does not have the ability to maintain warships, then the combat effectiveness of the navy will be greatly reduced. Once the naval ships are damaged in battle, The combat power cannot be effectively restored. So the seemingly powerful fleet has become some kind of one-off fleet. In fact, except for us and the French, the naval fleets of other countries in the world today are basically It can be regarded as a one-time fleet. This is because once they participate in the battle, they will inevitably suffer damage, but their damage cannot be recovered, so the fleet can only have full combat effectiveness during the first battle. After a major battle, the entire fleet is rendered useless. In fact, if far from Europe, in North America, our British fleet has also become, to a large extent, a 'disposable fleet'... I heard that the French People's port facilities in New Orleans are quite luxurious, with facilities that can be used to maintain the 'Inberado-class' battleships. The French are ahead of us in this respect. If our army and the French fleet are in North America If we engage in war, our disadvantages will be even more obvious. In addition, nowadays, the general backwardness of coastal defense systems is also a big problem, especially the forts in military ports. Because of their backward equipment, they often do not have the ability to fight against enemy warships. ..." Nelson wrote down some words like this in his notebook, then sighed and put down his pen.

A few days ago, he received an order sent by a domestic clipper. The domestic command fleet led the fleet back to the mainland as soon as possible after sending the army to Canada. Although the letter did not clearly state the local situation. But Nelson could think with his heels that these must be the Frenchmen, making trouble for the United Kingdom again.

Today, the "Queen Elizabeth" is not fully repaired. In fact, in Halifax Harbor, the "Queen Elizabeth" will never be repaired. The British have not yet figured out what happened to the explosion. However, because the "Queen Elizabeth" was built with a compartment design. So even though a hole was blasted under the boat. But because the compartment was closed in time, the amount of water ingress was not too much. The ship is only slightly on the sidelines.

After arriving in Halifax, the British first blocked the big hole made by the bomb from the outside, and then used the water pump to pump out the water in the cabin. So, just looking at the roll has disappeared.

However, due to the lack of equipment in Halifax, the temporary patch is not tight, and the water leakage is quite serious, and the water pump needs to be kept running. Moreover, this patch is not strong enough. If you encounter high sea conditions, the probability of problems with the patch is very high.

But this is the limit of what Halifax's maintenance forces can do. Therefore, the "Queen Elizabeth" can only return home sick.

Because of fear that the speed of the ship would be too high, the patch would be damaged, so the speed of the "Queen Elizabeth" was limited to less than six knots, so the speed of the entire fleet was slowed down by this spinster. Their speed suddenly dropped to the age of sail.

When the British fleet arrived in Halifax, the "Free Trade" and "Common Market", which were leased to the US Navy, had already received radio intelligence from the French cruisers following the British fleet. So they left Cabot Sound and returned to New Orleans for overhaul.

The two ships even approached Halifax under the American flag. When they passed by Halifax last time, they already knew that Halifax's fort still used old-fashioned artillery, so Halifax's fort was not to be feared at all. However, steam-powered ships have an obvious weakness, that is, it takes a long time for the boiler to start-boiling water cannot be boiled in an instant, especially for steam engine boilers. If the British army lacks preparation and the warship boilers are not pressurized, it means that they may have no power for nearly an hour. Under such circumstances, although the British fleet is far stronger than the two French supercruisers in terms of strength, the French can also use their fragile time to beat them severely as the US Navy.

Because both the "Free Trade" and the "Common Market" are steam-powered warships, there will be black smoke when sailing. The enemy can find them at a considerable distance by relying on these black smoke, so as to prepare in advance, so the French chose to approach the port at dawn. However, when they approached the port, they were discovered by the patrol ship arranged by the British-Nelson had long been alert to such situations.

While firing alarm fireworks into the sky, the British patrol ship rushed towards the two super cruisers, trying to use their fearless attacks to win more time for the fleet in the port.

The outcome of the British patrol ship was no different from that of the American patrol ship that attacked the British fleet outside Savannah Harbor. French guns easily reduced the English ship to a flaming torch.

However, the sacrifice of the British patrol ship did buy time for their fleet. By the time the two "American warships" approached Halifax, some British warships had already left the port and began to line up outside the port. There were still more plumes of smoke rising inside the harbor—clearly, the plan to beat the British while they were burning their boilers had failed.

So the two American warships turned lightly out of the range of the British army, and then headed south.

As for the British fleet, they did not try to pursue them-none of their ships could catch up with these two "American warships".

A few days later, Nelson bid farewell to General Wellesley and took the fleet on the long journey back to England.

As the British fleet departed, a rumor was spreading like wildfire in America. The rumor claims that the US federal government has sent a special envoy to Europe. But the mission of this special envoy is not to win the support of European countries for the United States, but to make peace with the British government.

This rumor said that after a series of defeats in a row, the U.S. federal government has completely lost confidence in victory. They are preparing to cede territory, pay compensation, and open the market to the United Kingdom unconditionally, praying to the King of England for their daring to offend the United Kingdom. forgiveness of behavior.

In fact, anyone with a little brain who knows the situation of the British today would not believe such rumors. With the current state of the UK, the Americans are willing to seek peace and end the conflict. The British may be so happy that they pinch their own thighs. Where will the Americans need to cede land and pay compensation or something.

But there is a prerequisite for making such a judgment, and this prerequisite is that the person making the judgment must have a brain. However, among Americans, at least in that era, there are not many people with brains. Especially in the southern states.

This is actually normal. Plantation owners, because of their old-fashioned production and lifestyle, make them generally relatively local turtles and know little about changes in the outside world. A direct consequence of a closed life is that the brain becomes dull.

The second is that the South was severely damaged in this war. Yes, originally the war seemed to be a matter for the North. But what I never expected was that the British navy actually came from the south. They killed people and set fire to Sanguang along the coastline along the way, causing heavy losses to the south.

Because the mines that the federal government urgently purchased later played a very important role, so that the British army was never able to complete the victory like Savannah. However, when the mines were delivered, there were already many states in the south. Ravaged badly by the British.

Those guys in the south don't think that the reason why the north has been attacked less is because the mines they bought are in place. They think that the reason why the northern coastal cities have been attacked less is because there are more northern troops. And there are more troops in the north because the federal government has transferred all the troops from the southern states to the north. As a result, the southern states have no troops at all. Of course, they can only let the British wreak havoc.

Now that the South has made such a big sacrifice, is the federal government actually going to betray the country? ! This is something my uncle can bear, but my aunt can't bear it!

As a result, a large number of media reporters surrounded Jefferson, asking him if he wanted to make peace with the British, and even did not hesitate to cede territory to the British for compensation.

Of course Jefferson knew that at this time, as long as he showed any intention of compromising with the British, a political storm would immediately usher in it. Among other things, if he really wanted to make peace with the British, Georgia might Immediately, secession from the Federation will be declared.

So of course President Jefferson immediately denied it. He told reporters that although the British had temporarily gained the upper hand by attacking civilians despicably. But the American people, blessed by God, will win the final victory. As for the special envoy he sent, he had absolutely no contact with the British. His actions in Europe are all aimed at gaining more support.

However, President Jefferson's statement did not reassure the American people, because various rumors continued to emerge. This continued until Speer, the presidential special envoy, returned from Europe with his various open and secret treaties with France, Spain, and the Irish.

Those secret treaties, of course, cannot be made public, like the Americans who are fighting in Spain today; but the only treaties that can be made public, such as the alliance with the Irish, also clearly show that the special envoy sent by the President is indeed in the country. Work to win wars, not kneel and surrender.

This of course allowed President Jefferson to get rid of the suspicion of being a "beautiful traitor". But in order to get rid of this suspicion, President Jefferson had to slightly exaggerate the support he received in the diplomatic field. For example, the Irish will launch a large-scale counterattack to completely win independence. And this kind of exaggeration also made the American people firmly believe that they will definitely win. As a result, the possibility of peace talks is even smaller.

Of course, it is not all an exaggeration that the Irish will launch a large-scale counterattack. After experiencing previous failures, the Irish have recently received a lot of assistance, and they do need to conduct an offensive operation to improve their offensive operations. strength and boost morale.

However, this offensive is not a "large-scale" and "decisive battle" level of action as advertised by the Americans. Neither President Russell nor their French friends believe that the time is ripe for such action. This can be known from the fact that this operation is named "Learning Plan".

In short, the target of this attack plan is actually quite limited, that is, to continuously attack the railway across Ireland, and in the end, the side of this railway cannot be maintained.

"This railroad of the British is a noose around our necks. But the line is so long that they cannot maintain a sufficient force at any point. Our attack now with more weapons The capabilities have been significantly enhanced. Although we still do not have the ability to quickly take down the strongest core positions, we can quickly destroy several small strongholds, destroy a section of railway, and take advantage of the opportunity to carry out small-scale operations before they react. We still have the ability to fight aid.” President Russell said, “We launch such an attack on the railway line every day, killing a few, a dozen, dozens or even more British soldiers, If this continues, how long can this railway last?"

The reason why Russell has such confidence is largely due to another new weapon they got from the French-light infantry guns.

This is a cannon that can shoot flat, and it adopts a series of measures to reduce weight in the design. For example, it has two kinds of barrels, a relatively short 60mm barrel (which makes its shells have a limited initial velocity and a relatively curved trajectory. ), and a longer barrel of 40mm. Moreover, each component is required to be quickly disassembled and carried on the back of the soldier.

Although the relatively short barrel makes the muzzle velocity of this gun not high enough, it is an authentic flat-fire gun after all. It is used to attack bunkers and the like. It has a longer range than a recoilless gun, and its accuracy and rate of fire are also higher. . Even, if necessary, replace it with a long 40mm barrel, this thing can be used to ambush the British armored train at a relatively safe distance.