Fox of France

After this speech, Victor felt quite optimistic about his prospects in wrestling the Holy See for control of these Christians. After all, compared with Bishop Torres, he has too many resources available in his hands. It's like when France is facing the Holy See.

Of course, the most important thing right now is the distribution of land. Bishop Torres hopes to distribute the land as soon as possible, but Victor is not in a hurry, because the distribution of land is a very important power, and using it well can quickly establish his own team among these Christians. So he delayed the matter on the grounds that he still needed to understand these Christians in order to distribute the land in a relatively organized manner.

"Bishop, I know that believers are eager to get land. But they have been waiting for this day for generations, so what's the big deal if they wait a few more days? Land distribution is something that will affect them all their lives. It will even affect their sons, grandchildren and even more descendants. If we don’t think carefully now, it will be how many generations will be damaged. Therefore, the more this is the time, the less we can be impatient.” Victor said to Bishop Torres who came to discuss with himself how to distribute the land.

As he spoke, he took out a map. This is a map drawn with a new projection method. Compared with previous maps, this map is more accurate and easier to use.

"Bishop, look. This is the land allocated to us, mainly in these places." Victor pointed these lands on the map to Bishop Torres.

"Why aren't they connected together?" Bishop Torres asked, frowning. He noticed that the lands of these Christians were all east and west.

"Because those pagans insist on using lottery to determine the ownership of the land." Victor explained, "Drawing lots, naturally, it came out like this."

On this point, Victor lied. In fact, it was not the Turks, but the French, who insisted on a lottery to determine the ownership of the land, and thus dispersed the land belonging to the Christians in this way.

In Victor's view, the current situation will definitely lead to a situation where Christians live together in small groups and in large groups. Living together in large numbers means that they will have a lot of dealings with pagans, which is prone to conflicts. The village structure of small settlements also makes it impossible for them to be completely defenseless in the event of accidents. Of course, they would not last long without the support of the French. This is the situation that best meets the needs of France's interests.

On the contrary, if Christians live together in one place, they can dig a trench around their own land, and then come to a completely voluntary religious isolation. In this way, they will have less chance to conflict with the heretics, and the French will have less places to use, and at the same time, they will be less dependent on France. It is naturally difficult for the French to drive them.

"Bishop, you have also seen it," Victor continued, "this distribution will greatly increase the chances of contact between pagans and our believers. It is good for preaching to pagans. Of course, this also increases the chances of contact with pagans." Opportunities for friction. However, we cannot stop spreading the truth to those heathens because of this, right? Some heathens are actually good in virtue, but they just failed to hear the gospel of the Lord because of their misfortune.”

"Of course," said Bishop Torres. Although according to the agreement between France and Turkey, the Holy See personnel can only provide services to existing Christians and cannot freely preach, but if it is not for missions, what is the Holy See doing here? Therefore, preaching must be preached.

"But once there is a conflict. Look at each village, the number of people that can accommodate it is quite small. If the village is not well organized, it is easy to be bullied by those heretics. Therefore, we must ensure that each village has capable, capable people. Those who are responsible are those who can unite the whole village. Only in this way can their interests be guaranteed. So, Bishop, you see, this matter of land distribution really can’t be rushed, right?”

So Bishop Torres had to admit that the distribution of land must be careful and meticulous.

"So, Consul Treville, how do you plan to distribute it?" Bishop Torres asked.

"I plan to classify all religious families first. This level does not involve other things, only their appeal and combat effectiveness. The family with the most appeal and combat effectiveness is preset as the village head, and priority is given to them in their place. The village allocates land, and then configures different families and individuals according to the defense conditions of the village." Victor replied.

There is absolutely no problem with the principle in this answer, but the selection of candidates and the allocation of land involved can be used to win over a group of people. This intention is so obvious, so Bishop Torres can naturally see it. But it is one thing to see it, but another to have a solution. As far as the power in hand is concerned, there are not many places where Bishop Torres can intervene.

Just when Victor led a group of liberated Christians to divide the fields, in Tunisia, after a long siege, the French and Turkish forces finally broke through the interception of the Barbary pirates and captured the city. For this, both armies paid a high price.

The French army consumed almost all the remaining high-explosive bombs, and the Turks paid another five or six thousand casualties. As for the Barbary pirates, Ahdi Pasha died in battle. Before he died, he had his wife and concubine killed, and entrusted his son to his captain of the guard to lead him to break through. However, his captain of the guards failed to break out of the encirclement, so Ahdi Pasha's son will be sent to Istanbul. This handsome little guy may become a handsome little eunuch in the future.

The French fleet has been at sea for a long time, so it needs to go to Toulon to replenish supplies. As for the Turks, after such a hard battle, the loss was not small, and they also needed to take a good rest. So the battlefield temporarily calmed down. The French naval fleet returned to Toulon. As for the Turks, most of them went ashore and repaired on the shore.

But just two days after the French fleet left, the Turkish fleet was attacked suddenly. It was a moonless day, so the night was very dark and almost nothing could be seen on the sea. But some Moroccan pirates approached the Turks' fleet quietly.

The leader was Hassan Pasha of Morocco—ah, no, it should be Hassan Sultan's nephew Osama. After Turkey declared Hassan Pasha a traitor and declared war on him, he decisively declared Morocco independent and proclaimed himself Sultan.

Osama brought five boats this time. But these ships are not pirate ships, but some small sailing ships, or even more accurately, they should be called sailing boats. They all have only a low mast, a vertical sail painted gray and black, and eight oarsmen.

This kind of ship can't be a pirate ship, at least not in this era. Maybe back in the era of Xerxes and Themistocles, it can do some pirate business. But even if they go back to that era, they are not qualified to participate in the battle of Salami, and they have to avoid the navy of that era. But now, Osama wants to bring a fleet of such ships to challenge a fleet that is far behind by the standards of this era, but has an overwhelming advantage in the era of the Salami War.

Osama did this not because he was crazy, but because he had a magic weapon that was not available in that era-dynamite.

There are a dozen bombs on each ship, and each bomb has a charge of tens of kilograms. Once it explodes, it is enough to blow up even a sailing battleship like the "Victory" to pieces, and even the "Victory" An iron-clad warship like the "Inberado" may not be able to retreat unscathed in such an explosion. It's just that it is not easy for this kind of ship to get close to the "Imberado".

In order to complete the attack, Osama deliberately chose such a moonless night. This reduces visibility and makes it harder for enemy observation posts to see themselves. On the other hand, his ships were relatively low and the Turks' warships were taller. So when the people on the Turkish warship looked towards him, the background was the dark sea. Trying to see an equally dark boat in a dark sea is like trying to find a black cat in a coal pile. Maybe his boat is under the nose of others, and they may not be able to see it.

But looking from his ship to the Turks' warship, it was different. The Turkish warships are much taller, so they are looking up at the Turkish warships, and the background of the Turkish warships becomes a relatively brighter sky, so that they can see the Turks from a further distance.

In fact, this small fleet has been here for two or three days. During these two or three days, they have been hiding in a bay, and Osama has also been paying attention to the Turks' fleet. He found that the Turks were too relaxed, the warships parked in the designated berths, never moved, and there were not many guards around them.

Osama is very familiar with the terrain in this area, so even if he could only see a little blurry shadow with the help of starlight, he was able to quietly approach the port with the fleet. And just as he expected, the Turkish fleet, which was not on guard, did not expect their arrival at all.

Usama stopped the oarsmen so that the sound of the oars would not be heard, and he even lowered the sails, for he knew the currents in this part of the world, and these currents would bring them by themselves to the Turkish ships.

The boat floated past quietly, and the Turk was still unaware. Osama's boat quietly approached a Turkish warship and leaned against it. Osama drilled a hole in the boat with a small hand drill. Then a big nail was stuffed in, and then a bomb was hung on the big iron nail.

It was a ticking time bomb, offered to them by an honest and reliable British businessman. With the help of a small French-made flashlight, he carefully timed the explosion, then turned off the flashlight, and approached another boat...

However, perhaps because the true god has not yet considered clearly who to bless, Osama's luck, which was smooth at the beginning, seems to have suddenly turned bad. When the other boat was drilling, it made a little movement, which attracted the attention of the sentry. But at this critical moment, the true god suddenly stood on the pirate's side again. The sentinel looked around, but he didn't find the boat right under his nose.

In this way, in one night, Osama and his men loaded fifty Turkish warships with time bombs, and then retreated quietly.

At about four o'clock in the morning, these bombs exploded one after another. Every bomb blew a warship to pieces. In just one night, the Turks lost fifty warships and hundreds of soldiers in the ports they had controlled.

This sudden blow made Tayip Pasha furious. He felt that after he went back, there might not be any good results. Just like when Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Basha was defeated in the Battle of Vienna, he was ordered to beheaded by the furious sultan.

On the other hand, he also understands that after being hit like this, he may only be able to suggest, like the French, to make a further request for "borrowing troops to help suppress". So he immediately sent an envoy to Toulon by fast ship to ask for help from his French allies. At the same time, with the help of the French communication system, the latest situation was reported to His Majesty the great Turkish Sultan Selim III.

Another week later, the French fleet returned to Tunisia again, but this time the size of the French fleet was enlarged, and some smaller steamships were added.

After another half a month, the official reinforcements of the French arrived. They were six steamboats with strange shapes, they had a square bow and a flat bottom structure. This structure makes the draft of this kind of boat very shallow. As for why they chose a square bow with greater resistance, Taip Pasha is not clear. He only knew that this kind of ship was called a landing ship by the French.

Two days later, Tayyip Pasha was also treated by Sultan Selim III, as relayed by the French. The benevolent sultan just reprimanded him and did not convict him, but he also asked him to take his crimes and make meritorious deeds to end the war as soon as possible.

After the French reinforcements arrived, the Turks left more garrisons (there were a lot fewer ships anyway, and these people had no place to install them) and set off again with the French fleet to the next target - Monaco , this is also the most powerful country among the Barbary countries.

A few days later, the United Fleet arrived near the largest and most important port of Monaco - the port of Casablanca. The most important battle of this war is about to begin.