Fox of France

Ireland's mopping up and anti-mopping up operations have entered the most critical and difficult period. In order to prop up the Irish Independence Army and leave a bleeding wound for the British, the French government raised the freight rates for transport ships to Ireland by 50%.

As a teacher of later generations said: "As soon as there is an appropriate profit, capital will be bold. If there is a 10% profit, it will be used everywhere; if there is a 20% profit, it will be active; If there is a 50% profit, it will take risks; if there is a 100% profit, it will dare to trample on all human laws; if there is a 300% profit, it will dare to commit any crime and even risk hanging its head.”

Originally traveling to Ireland once, the profit would not be low. Coupled with the increase in shipping costs, although it has not yet reached the point where people "dare to commit any crime, or even risk hanging their heads", it has reached the point where people are willing to "take risks" " to the point. So during this period of time, more people have ordered clipper ships in the shipyard of the military-industrial complex, and the number of clipper ships going to Ireland for adventure is increasing rapidly.

However, the British have already taken precautions. As early as a month ago, the Duke of Norfolk wrote to the British Prime Minister, pointing out possible problems and making suggestions:

"A fleet of clipper ships hovers in the ocean near Ireland, waiting for the storm. Once the wind blows, they will pounce on Ireland like sharks smelling blood. As far as I know, the French's There are more and more flying clippers, and soon, when their number is large enough, they can even directly report the way to saturate our interception capabilities to break through our interception.

On the other hand, there are too few steamships in the hands of the Royal Navy, and another weakness of these ships is now fully revealed, that is, the correct rate of such ships is too low. After a period of heavy use, this problem becomes more pronounced. The commander of the First Irish Coast Guard reported to me: 'Our ships are either under repair or awaiting repair. ’ The entire first detachment of coastal defense has a total of five steam frigates, but now there is only one that can go to sea.

The inconsistency in the manufacture of steam frigates also made maintenance more complicated. The five steam frigates in the first Haiphong detachment used five types of steam engines. Others, including paddle wheels and transmission equipment, hardly a single part was the same. This makes each boat require unique maintenance, and when two boats have problems, we can't combine their usable parts into one boat to ensure that one of the boats can be repaired quickly-I I really don't know how such a stupid thing happened! Why can't the same steam frigates be produced using the same standards?

I suggest that the Royal Navy should procure more steam frigates and adopt a fully uniform construction standard for steam frigates. Even if the performance is reduced appropriately, the maintainability of these warships must be guaranteed. Don't let these battleships become monsters at the dock. "

The British also know that if Ireland is lost, the blow to Britain will be too great. Therefore, while the French accelerated the production of clipper ships, the British also began to accelerate the production of steam frigates in various shipyards.

In terms of shipbuilding capabilities, the British have considerable advantages over France. But this refers to the production of ordinary ships. Because steam ships need to be installed with a series of machines, they are still obviously different from other ships in production. In contrast, the difference between a clipper ship and a traditional ship is even smaller. Therefore, French shipyards produce clipper ships much faster than British steam ships.

Moreover, although the number of British steamships is increasing, the problem of low integrity rate has not been well resolved. It has to be said that the Duke of Norfolk's idea that all parts can be interchanged is very genius, but it is also beyond the times, at least beyond the level that Britain can achieve in this era. You know, in another time and space, at least until the 1980s, the latest fighter jets produced by a big eastern country were not able to have interchangeable parts.

Therefore, although the British sank or captured more and more clipper ships, the supplies received by the Irish increased.

Of course, the British did not lose everything. From a certain captured clipper ship, the British seized two complete sets of flamethrowers, which gave the British another option, that is, to copy the French flamethrower immediately, and then install it on the copycat clipper ship , and finally relying on strong production capacity, use knockoffs to defeat genuine ones.

But all of this will take time, and the Irish, who have regained their supplies, have also begun to intensify their counterattacks. And launched a flanging offensive again, and captured a military station again.

In the base areas, due to logistical difficulties and the ineffectiveness of the "security forces", the losses of the British army also increased significantly, while their efficiency in destroying the base areas decreased significantly due to the passive slowdown of the "security forces". And why do the "security forces" slow down even when they perform such simple tasks as "destroying potato fields"?

According to the British, it is because: "Irish people are lazy, and they must be lazy whenever they have the opportunity; even if there is no opportunity, they must be lazy when they create opportunities."

But if you ask Captain Jarvis the same question, then Captain Jarvis will tell you that there is really a reason for this. The main reason is that the Irish are too bad. They will give priority to beating whoever spoils the crops the most vigorously. But the guys in our security forces are too stupid. Every time we go to the British army for help, we either go too late, or foolishly take the British army to step on the rebel mines.

In this way, in order to protect the British soldiers, it is naturally better not to spoil the crops. Therefore, the "security forces" can't do anything, and even ruin crops, they can't compare with donkeys.

Since the "security forces" can't be counted on, the British army has also tried to do it themselves, ruining the crops. Then, they found themselves in a strange circle. If a large group of people are gathered together to do this, the efficiency will be too low, so low that it is not as good as a donkey; but if they are scattered to do this, they will always be attacked by rebels. In these attacks, the authentic British army also suffered heavy losses.

As a result, even the Duke of Norfolk, who has been yelling "persevere", has to admit that it is not very meaningful to continue to sweep in non-security areas. So he issued a new order, declaring that the crusade against the rebels had achieved a phased success, and now he can lead the victory.

To say that the Duke of Norfolk was right, his actions did indeed cause considerable damage to the base. And it did cause the Independent Army to consume too much supplies. If the British could effectively prevent the Irish from getting enough supplies until the potatoes were ripe for harvest, it would be very difficult for the Irish Independent Army to regain strength within two or three months of the potatoes being ripe. At that time, the British will carry out another major raid, and I am afraid that they will directly create a major famine in the base area of ​​the Irish Independence Army.

Of course, all this mainly depends on two points. The first is whether the British can more effectively cut off France's supply to Ireland, and the other is whether the United Irish Federation can achieve self-help production as soon as possible. After all, weapons and ammunition may be solved through overseas rescue, but it is almost impossible to rely on overseas transportation capacity to solve the food problem. If overseas transportation capacity can really solve the food problem, then either the UK has collapsed, or the base area has shrunk to the point where there is almost nothing left.

In the following days, a new phenomenon appeared at sea, that is, the clipper ship from France was attacked by the British clipper ship again. And this time, "Greek fire" also appeared on the British clipper ship. Because of being caught off guard and the lack of survivors. At first such an attack was not discovered, and everyone just found that the number of ships that could return to the port had decreased a lot.

This situation naturally alerted the crew. Not long after, someone finally brought back the definite news: the British also had a fire in Greece.

The news is that a Danish captain named Oleg, on the way back from Ireland, rescued an Italian sailor holding a plank floating in the sea. The Italian sailor told everyone that his ship was attacked by a British clipper ship disguised as a French ship. The British first set their ship on fire with Greek fire, and then shot and killed the sailors who jumped into the sea to escape. He escaped the British shooting by hiding under a large plank.

Soon after, the situation deteriorated further, and the British had more and more clipper ships, and they even began to intercept ships attacking Ireland in a flotilla. In this series of battles, both sides suffered a lot of losses, but relying on stronger shipbuilding capabilities, and being closer to the base, the ships are lighter and faster, and it is easier to grab the advantage of the upper wind (wind power against The spraying distance of the flamethrower has a great influence, and the party that seizes the upper hand can launch an attack at a longer distance), and gradually gained the upper hand in this series of battles.

Because of the excellent performance of the copycat version of the clipper ship, the British converted those expensive and inconvenient steam ships into general cargo ships, and at the same time continued to increase their orders for the copycat version of the clipper ship.

"In a month's time at most, we will be able to keep the waters near Ireland without a French clipper ship. Once we cut off this supply line, we will be able to quickly quell the Irish rebellion." Prime Minister Addington said in When faced with the questioning of the House of Commons, he swore to say so.

On the day that the Prime Minister made such a promise to the members of the House of Commons, at the Toulon shipyard, a strange warship with a slender hull and painted black as a whole was launched.