MTL - Napoleon II Reborn-Chapter 23 Aborted war plan against Britain (Part 1)

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After Napoleon determined that Britain was the chief culprit in organizing the anti-French alliance, he wanted to eliminate this serious problem all the time. He is a very ambitious person who has always wanted to conquer Europe and the whole world, but now he is far away from his goal. If there is no obstruction from the United Kingdom, he would have solved Prussia and Austria long ago. Concentrate on getting rid of that greedy polar bear, and finally start a full-scale war with Britain. At that time, is it possible that we will not be able to defeat the little Britain with the power of the whole of Europe? Get rid of all those hypocritical Anglo-Saxons. However, those countries are not fools. Under the instigation of Britain, they temporarily gave up their conflicts with each other and tried their best to compete with France, which made Napoleon very angry.

In order to defeat the British and trample all those Anglo-Saxons under their feet, Napoleon began to formulate a cross-sea combat plan very early, but Naihe gave up every time for various reasons.

Napoleon's first plan to invade England was probably the best plan: a fleet of 10 warships under the command of Admiral Trevelli set out from Toulon for the Atlantic, joined the Spanish fleet, and then went to Boulogne. assemble. However, due to the death of Admiral Latouche on August 14, 1804 after a long illness, the plan was not carried out. Napoleon said with self-comfort: "Change is always inevitable in any major event." The first battle plan was aborted.

Since then, the plans that followed have gone from bad to worse; perhaps Napoleon had forgotten the law that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, instead looked farther away, and subjectively considered too many possibilities. To make matters worse, on September 29, when he announced his second plan, he appointed Villeneuve to succeed Latouche - which could make any best plan come to naught. Because Villeneuve is definitely an out-and-out idiot, but he is very good at flattering, so he won the favor of Napoleon, and was entrusted with important tasks by Napoleon. It seems that everyone still likes to be flattered by others, even Napoleon is not immune. It doesn't matter that Villeneuve himself is incapable, but instead relies on Napoleon's favor to dictate the plan. So the second battle plan was not immune to embarking on the old path of its predecessors.

On October 12th, according to Napoleon's order, Villeneuve set off from Toulon to Cadiz to collect Spanish warships under his command; then sailed to South America and Suriname, landed 5,600 troops, and then continued to Macedonia. Tineke joined Rear Admiral Mises' flotilla from France. Along the way he also attacked some British islands and landed some troops. At the same time, another small fleet will be dispatched from Toulon to head south directly to the coast of Africa to destroy the British trading port there, with the ultimate goal of capturing a small tropical island called St. Helena in the South Atlantic.

"The English will find themselves surrounded by enemies in Asia, Africa, and America," Napoleon argued eloquently, "and they will feel overwhelmed by frequent attacks on the waterways of their global commerce." Through the Caribbean and African Sea sweeping operations, they "certainly forget the defense here. It will easily panic them ... Brune's army ... can drive straight to Kent".

This is undoubtedly a bold plan. According to the plan, 190,000 troops will be landed on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. This will undoubtedly bring unexpected disasters to the people in those areas. Napoleon remained ignorant of the extent of Villeneuve's unreliability, while the talented Tricourt remained at Brest, blindly hoping for success. But the unexpected happened again: on October 8 Napoleon received reports that the British had intercepted his complete set of plans. As a result, the entire battle plan was declared void.

With the arrival of the new year, in January 1805, the Villeneuve fleet was still in the port of Toulon, hesitating. He disapproved of Napoleon's entire venture, and told de Crise bluntly that he no longer wished to appear in such a dangerous command post. However, since two of the three Spanish merchant ships were intercepted by Cornwallis' British fleet in October 1804, and one of them was sunk, Spain had declared war on Britain on December 12, 1804. During these two months, Napoleon felt heavy pressure. As a result, the Franco-Spanish Defense Agreement was signed in Paris on January 4, 1805, between Talleyrand and Don Federico Gravia, the Spanish envoy to Paris. Spain sent emissaries to Paris to promise France "with all its zeal" to support the new French ally (the Spaniards said and did). Since then, the Spanish fleet followed France and went all out to fight against Britain.

On January 16, Napoleon revised the entire battle plan: Mises's fleet sailed to the Caribbean (in fact he had already arrived there according to the first plan), and Villeneuve's Toulon fleet transported troops to the Caribbean Sea. Martinique landed for reinforcements, and at the same time went to reinforce the fleets of Brest and Rochefort and the fleet from El Ferrol, Spain. Their purpose is to "retaliate" against the British colonies, and then return to Europe or the Canary Islands according to Brun's order.

On January 18, Villeneuve finally led a fleet of 10 transport ships and 7 three-masted clippers, carrying more than 6,000 troops, and set off from the port of Toulon. However, after 3 days, his fleet returned to Toulon: his fleet was hit by a storm at sea, and because he was afraid of the fierce interception of the British, he felt that he had no way out but to return with his life. "If we met Nelson's fleet at that time," he said bluntly to De Chris, "we would never have escaped." However, there was no shadow of a British warship at sea at that time.

In this way, Napoleon abolished the fourth plan on January 16 and replaced it with a new plan on March 2: Although Villeneuve was still the commander of the Toulon fleet, he was downgraded to deputy commander~www.novelbuddy.com ~His old friend Guntom replaced him as Commander-in-Chief. Villeneuve sailed for Martinique, while Gunthol, with the larger Brest fleet, sailed to El Ferrol to join the combined French and Spanish fleet there. The end goal remains the same, but between June 10 and July 10 Guntholme will return to Boulogne, where Napoleon himself will be waiting.

On March 22, just as Villeneuve was preparing to set sail eight days later, the unpredictable Napoleon overturned his fifth plan that he had only made 20 days ago: Villeneuve would not go to Martinique, but Sailing directly to Ireland and back to Buren, while Gunthom went to Martinique and back to **** Brun's convoy. However, this sixth revised plan was modified again on April 13: Napoleon decided that Villeneuve should not only go to Martinique, but also join the fleets of Mises and Guntholme with the fleets of France and Spain Afterwards, Villeneuve served as commander-in-chief and carried out overall command.

Just imagine, in the era when naval communications depended entirely on clipper ships, one can imagine the confusion that such a change would cause: orders were often not delivered in time, and even the best admirals would feel at a loss for orders from Paris. For example, Mises received only the third order, and he was sailing from Martinique to La Rochelle in France on March 28 in accordance with the order. Two days later, Napoleon's fifth order, ordering him to remain in Martinique pending a rendezvous, was delivered to Martinique's deserted harbour. On the same day Villeneuve set off for the West Indies. "I'm leaving, dear general," Villeneuve wrote on the 13th, "my goddess of fate is smiling at me, because I need to leave~www.novelbuddy.com~ The fastest and hottest serial works are all at ~www.novelbuddy.com~