Fox of France

Chapter 103, Toulon 1

As soon as news of the fall of Toulon came, Joseph found himself in trouble. Because once Toulon is lost, France's control over Corsica will almost return to zero.

"Damn it, Mom and the others are still in Corsica!"

Corsica is in a sense much safer than France. At least, His Majesty's improved relics of the Revolution had not yet been sent to Corsica. But now the light on Napoleon's body has begun to emerge. Although it is not as dazzling as later, but at least... at least it is also a firefly, right?

"Once Toulon falls, it will only take a blink of an eye, and Corsica will fall into the hands of the British. Well, Pauli has close contacts with the British. It is even more impossible for him to let go of this opportunity. But Napoleon did not fight with the British. Pauly is tearing his face, Pauly is a little smarter, and it won't be... But, in short, they must be removed from Corsica... But the trouble is that France seems to be more dangerous than Corsica now, and Corsica's side There is still a bit of a bottom line, but the French side..."

Thinking this way, a singing voice suddenly came from outside the window: "Everything will be fine, everything will be fine, profiteers are all hung on the lampposts..."

Joseph couldn't help frowning, he turned his head and looked outside, and saw a group of sans-culottes holding spears, singing and walking through the street not far away. On the tip of the spear in the hands of the man in the front, there is still a head stuck.

"I don't know which unlucky ghost it is. It's probably a flour shop owner." Joseph thought this way, and felt that it was definitely not a good idea to bring his mother and the others to Paris:

"Where have they seen this before, among other things, seeing this every day, they are going to be insane. But it's not a problem to keep them in Corsica. It's a headache! Maybe, maybe I We have to discuss it with Napoleon."

But now although Napoleon has returned to Paris, he is not in Paris. After all, it is impossible for his legion to be stationed in downtown Paris. Napoleon's Fifth Army is now stationed near Montmartre in the north of the city. This place later became one of the most attractive areas in Paris, such as the famous Moulin Rouge here. But that was many years later, and now, this place is just an ordinary highland.

When Joseph was eating at noon, he told Cannot that he had something to go to Montmartre to find Napoleon, so he had to entrust his two younger brothers to him for a while. Already got used to it.

"You are looking for Napoleon at this time, what's the matter?" Kano asked.

"Lazar, you know, our family, mother, and several younger sisters are all in Corsica. Now that there is a problem in Toulon, there may be troubles in Corsica, so I am very worried... "

"That's it... This is indeed a problem." Kano said, "You really should ask for leave to discuss with Napoleon. Corsica will definitely fall into the hands of the British for the time being. Well, find a way to bring them to France. , but neither you nor Napoleon can fetch them."

"I know the severity, Lazar," Joseph said. "If we pick them up, it will only bring them extra danger."

"Well, you can go with my carriage. I'll send you a few more guards. The road is not safe now."

...

Napoleon was also in favor of taking the whole family out of Corsica, but he also believed that the gang of women in the family could not be brought to Paris. They had to find a safer place for them.

"Let Lucien pick them up," Napoleon said, "Lucien is already this big, so he should do something. After we pick them up, we will buy a manor in another province incognito, and let them live in it first." There, let Lucien take care of them there."

"Lucien?" Joseph still felt uneasy, "This guy is not reliable."

"Come on, Joseph." Napoleon shook his head and said, "Who do you think is reliable? Lucien is not reliable, but I am? To put it bluntly, you have always felt that no one is reliable except you But I want to tell you, don't lose sight of your brother's strengths, Lucien is very clever. He is usually like that, just because he thinks someone is going to cover him up anyway, you really left the matter to him, he knows how to measure of."

Joseph thought for a while, this kind of thing really can only involve Lucien. But you have to find a helper for Lucien, don't you? So he asked again: "Do you have any particularly clever guys under your command? There are a few guys who are very clever, but they are now battalion commanders, even regimental commanders and division commanders. Let them do it for our private affairs... "

"It doesn't matter." Joseph said, "Isn't it just using power for personal gain? Whoever you think is good, I will first find a way to give him a transfer order, let him go to the south for business, and then help us along the way."

"Then I think Battalion Commander Chrysler is good. He is cautious and can just make up for Lucien's shortcomings. What do you think?"

"This is your subordinate. You know him better than I do. Well, after you think about it, give me the list, and leave the rest to me." Joseph finally said.

Near Toulon, the French army only had some newly formed troops. Because of the chaos a while ago, these troops didn't even have time to prepare their weapons and equipment. Therefore, it was difficult for the French army to organize a decent counterattack for a while.

If at this time, the British can quickly mobilize a large army, land in Toulon, and then march northward, considering that the royalist party is quite influential in the south, such a move will definitely bring greater threats to France.

However, Prime Minister Pitt recently cut the army by a quarter in order to save money. Now it is not easy to get a large army out at once. Besides, the British don't actually have much idea of ​​the territory of France. Because they knew that those continental Europeans would no longer allow them to create a Normandy territory on the continent. The greater purpose of Britain joining the anti-French alliance is actually to stare at the French colonies.

Although in the Far East, the French lost to Britain in the Seven Years War and almost lost all their colonies in India, France still has many colonies in North Africa and North America. Now that the British occupy Toulon, they have in fact cut off the connection between France and North Africa. At this time, they will throw their limited army on the French mainland to fight with hundreds of thousands or more French people. How many things can't be divided? Or is it better to throw these armies into North Africa and the Mediterranean, and take over the colonies that were originally French?

When faced with this multiple-choice question, any British person can draw a conclusion almost without thinking. The same is true for Prime Minister Peter. Therefore, after he took Toulon, he did not send many troops to Toulon.

Of course, under the urging of Austria and Prussia, the British still made some efforts. They tried hard to persuade the Spaniards and the Kingdom of Sardinia to send troops to Toulon.

First of all, the Spaniards, they originally planned to send 10,000 troops, but when their troops disembarked in Toulon, they found that the British army was disembarking and embarking at Toulon. Those who boarded the ship were all combat troops, and those who disembarked knew that they were all temporarily recruited engineers—since the Spaniards came, wouldn't it just be possible to transfer the troops in Toulon to North Africa to grab territory? As for why a large number of engineers were brought in, of course it was to strengthen the defense of Toulon Port. As long as Toulon can be controlled all the time, it will be of great help to North Africa. Although the British did not plan to go north to help the Austrians and Prussians get chestnuts out of the fire, they still wanted to hold Toulon.

Seeing these actions of the British, the Spaniards quickly realized that this was wrong! Although the British are unlikely to cut a piece of land in mainland France, is it possible for the Spaniards to do so? Since there is no such thing, why do you want to fight the French in mainland France? The British can go to North Africa, but can't the Spaniards go there?

So the Spaniards stopped adding troops to Toulon, so as to grab the meat of North Africa with the British.

Originally, the Kingdom of Sardinia also agreed to send 5,000 troops, but at this time they saw that these two big bosses who had either once been or are still playing such tricks, naturally they could think of it: the restoration of the royal family Well, the little Kingdom of Sardinia, can it still allow France to cede land and pay compensation? And their army didn't even have time to be shipped over, so the Kingdom of Sardinia simply didn't send troops. Just send these soldiers to the Mediterranean Sea to grab the islands.

As a result, during the most critical period of time, not only did the number of foreign troops in Toulon not increase significantly, but the number of troops with the most combat effectiveness inexplicably decreased a lot.

Of course, in order to explain to the allies, the three countries played together and made a fortune. They informed Austria and Prussia of the numbers of the troops that landed in Toulon, but they did not tell them: Although these numbers were all in Toulon, most of the teams under these numbers were on the Mediterranean side.

This inexplicable time difference gave the French more time to react. Carnot first sent an army under the command of the nearest General Pope to attack Toulon, and then ordered Napoleon's Fifth Army to go south at any time to support the Toulon battlefield.

Taking this opportunity, Joseph asked Napoleon to propose that he need to send an "advance team" to Toulon to study the battle situation first.

This request was quickly approved by Kano, although he knew that both Joseph and Napoleon planned to use this opportunity to help bring their family members who were still in Corsica out.

The advance team was sent out, and Lucien became their "guide". Napoleon also began to prepare to lead his troops south, and at this time, Joseph made another suggestion to Carnot.

The afternoon update will be a little later.

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