Fox of France

The French, to be precise, are the French who put on a Spanish coat and then an American coat, and they do things professionally. As soon as the agreement between the three parties was reached, they immediately took action.

Mining operations are carried out at night, so as to avoid being discovered by the British, and even if they are discovered by the British, it is easy to escape. Even thinking about it, Bray specially chooses when there is no bright moon. In this era, the navy has almost no combat capability under such circumstances.

But there is another problem when working at night like this, that is how to accurately position in the dark night. Otherwise, it is stipulated that mines will be laid in "Area No. 1" tonight, and mines will be laid in "Area No. 2" tomorrow. However, because it was too dark, it was difficult to determine the direction. As a result, the mines that should have been laid in the "No. 1 area" were placed in the "No. 2 area", and then they were successfully positioned the next day and ran to the "No. 2 area". In the end, he was blown away by a mine he had set up, so who should he reason with?

As for the navigation method, it is actually not difficult. The port of Gibraltar is only six kilometers east from the port of Algesias. Use the lighthouse at the port of Algesias, the lighthouse at the fortress of Gibraltar, and another place on the Spanish side. The lights on the position can easily determine the position of the ship.

After the Spaniards declared that they would take back Gibraltar, the British Navy naturally raised its alert level. Even at night, British observation posts remained vigilant.

It was the first quarter moon, the moon came out early, and of course, it set just as early. In the middle of the night, the moon set, but the sun hadn't come out yet. There was only a dark blue sky. Fell asleep.

Private Hamm just came to take over, and the above said that he must be extra vigilant these days, because the situation is very tense, and something might happen. So Hamm was also very vigilant at his sentry position. It's just that it's pitch black now, especially on the sea, and nothing can be seen.

At such times, ears are more important than eyes.

In the darkness, the sea breeze blew over, bringing the rush of the waves. Hamm listened to the sound of the waves boredly, and for some reason, he remembered his hometown in Scotland...

At this moment, Hamm suddenly heard a "boom" from far away on the sea, like a big fish jumping up and falling into the sea again.

"Perhaps a dolphin," thought Hamm. In this bay, groups of dolphins can often be seen jumping happily there. But that was daytime, and now it's night, don't those dolphins sleep?

But this is about the dolphins, not about Hamm, and the sea is so dark that you can't see anything anyway.

"Boom!" Another sound.

"It seems that those dolphins are very lively. They don't sleep well at night, and they don't know what they are doing." Hamm was thinking wildly like this, and soon his thoughts began to wander, and he didn't know where he was thinking. Just like the later Virginia Woolf, when she suddenly saw a spot on the wall one day in January.

At this time, the dark sea also began to change magically. On the dark curtain, jumping dolphins emerged, just like the dolphins that Hamm saw on the cliffs along the coast of Scotland when he was a child. At that time, the sea breeze was also blowing like this, but the sea breeze in Scotland was much cooler than here, unlike here, the wind is always hot and humid...

Thinking in this way, Hamm suddenly heard footsteps, and from the footsteps, he knew that it was Captain Herrington who came to check the post. So he quickly clenched the rifle in his hand, and made an appearance of being loyal to his duty.

Sure enough, he soon saw Captain Herrington coming out of the corner over there holding a lantern.

"Well, private, yes, very energetic!" Captain Herrington was obviously satisfied with Ham's state at this time, he stretched out his hand, and patted Ham on the shoulder, "Is there any movement?"

"Sir, it's nothing, but the dolphins in the bay are very active tonight, always jumping around." Hamm replied.

"I heard that sometimes dolphins may jump out of the water because of panic when there are sharks or killer whales approaching." Captain Herrington replied. Obviously, he didn't take it as a big deal. Anyway, neither sharks nor killer whales could swim ashore to attack them.

This night, the dolphins were very busy and did not calm down until it was almost dawn.

The next morning, a ship carrying food from North Africa suddenly exploded when it entered the port of Gibraltar, and quickly sank to the bottom of the sea. Immediately afterwards, the British patrol ship that went out to rescue people also exploded.

The huge explosion directly blasted the thin patrol ship into two pieces.

"Mines! This must be done by the damned Spaniards. They must have secretly laid mines on our waterway!" General Will, the commander of the fortress, jumped up.

The incident of mines appearing in the waterway of the port of Gibraltar spread throughout Europe at once. The British immediately summoned the Spanish ambassador and demanded an immediate explanation from Spain.

Regarding the British accusation, the Spaniard immediately said: I am not, I have not, don't talk nonsense! The Spaniards publicly stated that Spain had nothing to do with the mine incident in the port of Gibraltar.

Immediately afterwards, the US ambassador to France announced a press conference. At the press conference, the US ambassador announced that it was the warriors of the US Navy who attacked the British in the port of Gibraltar with mines. The US ambassador also stated that this is a counterattack to the crimes against humanity committed by the British navy in the United States. In the future, the warriors of the U.S. Navy will continue to launch such attacks, and the scope of attacks will never be limited to Gibraltar.

"We shall fight in Gibraltar, we shall fight in Ireland, we shall fight in Scotland and Wales, we shall fight in England, in the heart of the enemy—London. The tyranny of other peoples, return to the British!"

In the eyes of most countries, the statements of the Americans are quite credible. Now the news of the British burning Savannah has spread throughout Europe. The newspapers under the direction of the Ministry of Truth are exaggerating to the fullest, and portraying the British as more terrifying than Genghis Khan.

The entire European continent, almost all countries, and all the media immediately followed suit and began to criticize the barbarism of the British. The Americans now claim that it was their navy that traveled across the ocean to seek revenge. Everyone felt that it made sense, and they all felt happy to hear it.

When everyone suspected that the Spaniards were laying mines on the route outside the port of Gibraltar, although considering that Spain is an ally of France, they generally did not accuse him clearly, but everyone also felt that, in the absence of a declaration of war It is really not a gentleman to use such a wretched way of laying mines to force the British.

But now, since the Americans claimed that they did this, everyone believed it and even felt a little sorry for the Spaniards' scapegoat. And it was also agreed that, given the appalling crimes committed by the British in Savannah, it was legal and just for the Americans to respond by whatever means. Now everyone doesn't feel that the Americans used Bray's method to fight back. There is nothing gentlemanly about it. On the contrary, they feel that the Americans' actions are too in line with the law of Moses.

Even the British are somewhat skeptical about what the Americans say. They know that the United States itself does not have the technical capability to produce mines. As for the centering of sea mines, it will cause a lot of trouble for the display of the maritime superiority of the naval power. Neither the British nor the French have any intention of spreading technology outside. So the American mines, without even thinking about it, must have been sold to them by the French.

Of course, the British also know that the French will never admit this. Most of this thing, like the two colonial cruisers that the French later leased to the Americans, was transferred through second-hand traffickers. Anyway, nothing to do with the French.

If it was really done by the Americans, why did the Americans choose Gibraltar instead of the British mainland? But after a little thought, the British had an answer.

The Americans came across the ocean, and they are not familiar with the hydrology on the European side. It is very difficult to initiate such an action. So they definitely need the help and cooperation of other countries to accomplish such a thing. And the Spaniard happened to be thinking about Gibraltar, and the Spaniard must have provided a lot of help to these Yankees. Considering that, just before this incident, an officer's club on the Spaniard's side suddenly had to be renovated, and its renovation was actually carried out at night, so they lit a very bright electric light on the spot.

"General, here is our lighthouse, here is the Spanish lighthouse, and here is the lamp used for decoration at night. Once these three lights are lit, ships at sea at night can easily detect the three Measure the angle of the lamp and calculate your exact position." In the fortress of Gibraltar, Commander General Will was listening to the technical reports made by his subordinates.

"That is to say, if we turn off our own lighthouse at night, can these Yankees be unable to accurately locate?" asked another staff officer present.

"How can it be so simple. Even if we turn off our lighthouse, they will light another light in another place." General Will said, "The only thing we can do now is that they come to lay mines at night. What about us, Went to clear mines during the day.”

In the battle against the Barbary pirates, the French demonstrated their ability to clear mines. The British knew about this matter very quickly, and through questioning eyewitnesses, the British quickly figured out the basic principles of French minesweepers. So the British quickly copied their minesweepers.

So the British drove out the minesweeper, and the British minesweeper A went up. The British minesweeper swept out more than a dozen anchor mines, and then a passage into the port was opened, and then one entered the port. The ship hit a mine and exploded again.

The French improved their anchor mines after knowing that the British had also counterfeited minesweepers. There is an anchor mine, two mines are connected by a not-so-thick rope. The anchor chain of one of the anchor mines was deployed, and it would explode as long as a ship touched it. As for the other one, the anchor chain on its mine body was tightened, so the mine body also sank under the water, and only the first mine exploded or was swept away (these two processes. The rope connecting them will be broken), and then after more than ten minutes or more, the anchor chain of the second mine will be released, and the mine body will float to the bottom of the enemy's ship. depth.

The effect of this is that when the minesweeper has just cleared an area, perhaps more than ten minutes later, the area becomes unsafe again. Just like this time, a passage had just been cleared, and as a result, the ships entering the port along the passage bumped into an anchor mine that had just floated up.

At night, the "Americans" naturally dispatched again to continue laying mines outside the port of Gibraltar. Then, the British came to clear mines during the day, and the "Americans" came to mine mines at night, which was very busy.

Except for Gibraltar, every port city in the UK has raised its vigilance-who knows if the "Americans" will sneak over and drop a string of mines on the shipping lanes of your port? All ports throughout the UK have strengthened their defenses and even organized night patrols.

And these actions have naturally greatly increased the burden on the British government, making the situation of the British government, which is already in a financial crisis, even more difficult. In order to deal with the current situation, the British government has to rely on continuous issuance of national debt to solve the deficit problem. But because people are generally not optimistic about the UK, the sale of British government bonds has become a big problem, so that they have to agree to provide high discounts to the banks that sell them. This is actually equivalent to bearing higher interest rates, which is closer to a The practice of drinking is quenching thirst.

This situation actually led to the fact that in North America, the British could no longer send new reinforcements. Even the order to return to the fleet has been issued. It's just that the fleet hasn't received such an order yet.

And when Britain's attention was focused on the mainland and Gibraltar, a merchant ship had just left Rotterdam and headed for Cape Town. A cobbler named Philip boarded the boat. This is also a common thing. Now that the European economy is not doing well, some craftsmen are having a hard time. Many people choose to go to America, India or Africa. This cobbler named Philip may be one of them.