Fox of France

The Americans made a lot of preparations before declaring war on Britain. The first is the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy has just leased two warships from the French before. These two warships are the super B-class cruisers "Free Trade" and "Common Market". These two ships were the most powerful super cruisers in the world, at least until the "Hermes-class" super cruiser on the French berth was launched into service.

Moreover, when renting these two ships, the Americans rented not only the two ships, but even the personnel who drove and controlled the two ships. That is to say, these two ships, apart from changing their flags, sending each French crew a few new sets of clothes, and sending several American representatives on each ship, this ship is almost still French. Boat.

When the Americans made this move, they had not yet waged war with the British, but at that time, American newspapers were already accusing the British of helping the Indians attack peaceful American citizens, destroying them according to the will of God, through Own labor, effort to obtain the finest materials for making boots.

At this time, the purpose of the Americans "renting" French warships in this way is self-evident. The French naturally understand what the Americans mean. But after serious consideration, Napoleon approved the deal.

"The British are our enemies at present. It is good to be able to make trouble for the British. Of course, Yankees are not a good thing. In the world, if there is any country that is as shameless, sinister and vicious as the UK If there is any comparison, it must be the United States! We cannot allow it to annex Canada. That will be a huge threat to our Louisiana. Just like any sheep, as long as it dares to grow horns, It is the same threat and provocation to the lion. So you see, in religious symbols, the lamb without horns is holy, and everyone should imitate and learn, but what about the horns? You know Lucifer has goat horns..."

"Okay, Napoleon, don't take the initiative to go astray." Joseph said, "Although your analogy is very interesting, um, this analogy, I mean who said the lamb and the goat?"

"Can't it be me?" said Napoleon.

"It's not your style," Joseph said.

"Ah, well, Talleyrand said this metaphor. After all, he was a bishop. No one is better at blackmailing the church." Napoleon said.

"The Americans will soon declare war on the British, and then they will use these two ships to disrupt the route between the United Kingdom and Canada. We, as well, just cooperate and have some military exercises or something, just say yes In order to maintain world peace and maintain freedom of trade. Then drag the British navy. The British cannot send supplies and reinforcements to North America." Napoleon said again.

"Then what about Canada?" Lucien asked, "Can't really give Canada to the Americans?"

Napoleon smiled without saying a word.

"You have to ask this kind of question?" Joseph said disdainfully, "The British can't send their weapons, ammunition, personnel and equipment to Canada. Could it be that we can't send them too? Canada borders Louisiana!"

"Ah, I see!" Lucien suddenly realized, "We sell weapons to Canadians, and when Canada can't support it, we can let Canadians go to Louisiana to hire a group of mercenaries, and then torch the U.S. The presidential palace was burned to the ground, and then the Canadian army has been wiped out, and the United States is half disabled. Isn’t Canada ours? Not to mention that there are so many French-speaking people in Quebec. Napoleon, Joseph, what do you mean? ? You guys are so bad, hahaha, but bad is good, bad is good! Hahaha..."

The British also knew what it meant for the French to lease these two warships to the Americans. Therefore, the British Foreign Office immediately summoned the French ambassador and lodged a solemn protest to France, accusing France of undermining regional peace. Of course, the British also know that the French will ignore their protests, but this process still has to go through.

According to the process, France of course stated that this is entirely the internal affairs of France and the United States, and the relevant transactions are also in full compliance with international practice, and the British cannot be allowed to point fingers.

An unnamed British official suggested to the newspaper that if the two ships went to war between Britain and the United States, if their crews were captured, the British might regard them as pirates and hang them in the on the mast.

A report was brought up by the French media to Lucien and asked him how France would react if something like this happened. Lucien replied without hesitation: "If they have the guts, they can give it a try."

Regarding the same question, Foreign Minister Talleyrand said this: "We want to be friends with Britain, and we want to be partners with Britain, but if Britain regards France as a 'hostile country', then all consequences will be borne by Britain. .”

The two warships had just arrived in America, filled with coal and fresh water in Boston Harbor, and within a week war broke out.

The two warships flying the American flag left Boston immediately, joined the American fleet, and headed to Halifax, Canada together.

Halifax is the largest naval port in Canada, where the British stationed a British squadron.

After entering the era of steam power, the British slightly refitted three old-fashioned sailing battleships, installed steam engines, put on iron armor, and then sent them to Canada.

In terms of North America, the main imaginary enemy is the Americans, followed by the French. The Americans suffered heavy losses in previous conflicts with the French. Although the French successively returned the captured American ships to the Yankees, the Americans seemed to have lost confidence in building a powerful navy. Since then, their navy has made limited progress, that is, adding steam power to the original super cruisers. Because the line shape is more suitable for high-speed sailing, these modified ships still run faster than the British modified battleships. In addition, they do not wear iron armor, which also increases the speed.

According to the American plan, the fleet will first approach Halifax to see if it can catch the British Navy's squadron in Canada there. And eliminate them, and then continue north to block the St. Lawrence Sea. Interdiction of ships sailing from Great Britain to Canada.

After the United States declared war on Britain, the British squadron also left the port of Halifax immediately. Although this squadron has three "battleships", the battleships of the sail age have no combat effectiveness in front of the armored cruisers of the steam age. Therefore, although the British emphasized that they must fight when they see the enemy, they still have to avoid such battles that they know they cannot win.

The British plan is that relying solely on the strength of the North American squadron is not enough to fight against the US military with two French super cruisers. That being the case, it would be better to avoid the main force of the enemy and attack the ships off the coast of the United States. Compared with the fully steam-powered French warships, the hybrid warships of the North American Squadron, for example, because they do not need to burn coal to sail at all times, their self-sustainability is far beyond those of the new warships.

So the British felt that they could harass the coast of the United States, forcing the American fleet, at least the two French warships, to go south, and then they hid the "Indomitable" supercruiser in the St. Lawrence River (the French sold it to the British. The first-generation "Free Trade" of the human race) can be killed and wiped out the American warships left in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Therefore, when the US fleet appeared in Halifax, it only saw an airport. Considering that the port has complete defense facilities, neither the Americans nor the French dare to directly attack the port. So the U.S. fleet continued northward to Cabot Strait.

Canada's ports on the Atlantic Ocean are very interesting. Except for Halifax, most Canadian ports leading to the Atlantic Ocean are inland ports along the St. Lawrence River. The shipping conditions on the St. Lawrence River were so good that these inland ports, at least in this era, were in fact basically indistinguishable from seaports.

From the mouth of the St. Lawrence River is the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is a wide body of water almost surrounded by land, and only the eastern end of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by Belle Isle Strait and Cabot Strait. Because the bay was formed after subsidence during the geological tectonic movement, the coast of the bay is tortuous, with many hidden reefs and shoals, which is not conducive to navigation. Therefore, the U.S. Navy dare not sail directly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to block the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. They can only block Cabot Strait. Further north, there is another navigable strait—Bell Isle Strait. However, considering the unknown whereabouts of the British navy, the Americans did not dare to disperse their forces to block the Belle Isle Strait. Most ships will go through Cabot Strait anyway. Especially those British ships that are still sailing on their way to North America-without radio, they don't know that the United States has declared war on Britain.

So for a period of time since then, the US Navy has had a very happy time here, watching whales at sea every day. Then from time to time, one or two British ships that did not know that the war had broken out, but were full of war materials, could be stopped. The Americans or the French stopped them, forced them to stop with cannon, and boarded the ships to announce that they were captured. Then they sent people to drive these ships back to the United States.

It's just that where the British Navy's North American Squadron has gone is a mystery.