Fox of France

On February 20, 1813, the American and French allied forces surrounded the British army in Ottawa. General Arthur Wellesley organized a few counterattacks at first, and they were successful, even capturing some valuable munitions from the unsuspecting German-speaking French.

Generally speaking, although the exchange ratio obtained by these counterattacks is good, it still consumes a lot of materials, especially ammunition. So General Arthur Wellesley is no longer trying to fight back. Now he can only persist in Ottawa as much as possible, hoping that the situation of the war will change.

But in fact, everyone, including General Arthur Wellesley, knew that even if the situation of the war really changed, it would be difficult for the British army in Ottawa to support it.

First of all, even if the British army has achieved any victories in Europe, it is impossible to send much force to North America under the current circumstances. Even if they send forces, because of Quebec's betrayal, they can't easily send supplies over, and even if they can do that, well, the British army in Ottawa will starve to death before they send the precious supplies. .

So at this time, it was really impossible to continue fighting. The British army headed by General Arthur Wellesley began to consider the issue of surrender. Anyway, it was not the first time that the British army surrendered to the American and French allied forces.

Originally, at this time, everyone had a discussion, and then according to the old rules, the British handed over the command knife, and the matter was over. But this time, two problems that had not been encountered before suddenly appeared.

The first problem is of course how to divide the spoils. At the time of the North American War of Independence, there was no question of how to divide the territory. It is certainly impossible for the French to say that one or two of the thirteen independent North American states will belong to France. But it's different now, Canada is such a big piece.

The Americans felt that the French had already obtained a large piece of Quebec, and the best port in Canada, the coastal part, had been occupied by the French, and the rest should naturally belong to the United States. Moreover, the Quebecers took advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the US military to attack the British, shouting neutral and neutral, but ran over quietly and occupied a lot of land that did not belong to them. The French have really made a profit.

But the French said that this is not what they said. First of all, Quebec is only independent, not included in France. So Quebec is Quebec, France is France, these are two different things and should not be confused. As for whether Quebec will join France in the future? Let’s talk about the future, anyway, Quebec is now an independent country, and it has been recognized by the United States as an independent country. It cannot be counted in the scope of dividing up Canada!

Well, even if Quebec is removed, there are still a lot of places left in Canada that can be divided up. The large piece of land near the Great Lakes is very good land, and it is still good for everyone to share a share here.

But the French moved fast, because in the previous wars, the British and Canadians did a lot of bad things in the United States, so they were very worried about whether the same would happen if they were occupied by the Americans. what a bad thing. Anyway, Canada and the Americans are already very familiar with each other, and they both know what the other is. So even if the Americans won't pursue them, they can't believe it. What's more, the Americans really dare not say that they are magnanimous to pardon them. They really dare to say that. Believe it or not, the gang in the south rebelled in minutes in the state that was wiped out.

At this time, Canadians also knew that this war must have been lost, and now they have only one way to surrender. And who to surrender to has become a matter of fate.

In later generations, when the gangsters were defeated by Mao Xiong, they also encountered similar problems. Although the head of state has always hoped that the troops under his command can desperately block the east and west lines. However, San Dezi's army still made a very wise choice to block it desperately in the east and surrender to the west as much as possible.

Canadians are no more stupid than San Dezi, they can understand such a simple truth, so they adopted a similar approach. Except for Ottawa, other cities and strongholds basically opened their doors and surrendered as soon as they saw the French coming, and resisted vigorously if they were Americans.

In this way, one of the consequences is naturally that the French quickly occupied a large number of important strongholds, such as "Mud York", (later Toronto. After the British lost New York in North America, it was here again. A York was built. It's just that the development here is far inferior to New York, so the Americans nicknamed it "Mud York") and surrendered to the French without firing a shot.

One problem with this is that the French occupied far more places than the Americans. If it is directly assigned to whoever occupies the place, then the Americans are really fighting this battle for nothing. And the main cost of this battle was borne by the Americans.

Therefore, although the British are still resisting in Ottawa, the Americans are already arguing with the French.

The Americans felt that the French should give up some of the land they occupied to the United States. But the French said without hesitation that this was taken by Lao Tzu with his own ability, why should he let it go?

The Americans also feel that since we are now allies and we are fighting the evil British together, can the money we borrowed for the war before be reduced or exempted? I think back then, when His Majesty Louis XVI fought side by side with us, he was very generous.

Today's France is naturally much richer than that of Louis XVI. If the United States were Ireland, then Napoleon's France would definitely wave a pen and say that these debts should be reduced or something. But this is America.

According to Joseph's classification, America and Ireland are not the same animal. Ireland is the dog, America is the wolf. Ireland itself is close to the United Kingdom. In terms of resources, it has no coal and iron, and it is basically impossible to become a powerful country with independent power from France. Therefore, the French do not need to guard against Ireland.

But America is different. The United States is full of troublemakers, each of them is aggressive and aggressive, and they are also famous for their love of expansion. Before the French came back to America, they bullied the Spaniards—of course, after the French came back to America, the French bullied the Spaniards even more.

So Louis Bonaparte had long ago received instructions from his brother Napoleon: "One of the objects of the war is, of course, to weaken England, to seize their colonies, and to expand our territory. But there is another, if not more important, at least An equally important goal is to weaken the United States. It is best to divide the United States if possible."

With such a goal, the performance of the French can be imagined. The strongholds that have already been occupied will definitely not be handed over in vain. Some of these are certainly not non-negotiable, but cost extra.

There are also some strongholds to ensure that France and the Republic of Quebec can have a land border. Well, adding money will not work, unless the square of the money is added, ah, no, it should be the cube of the money.

As for the debt issue, well, we are allies, we don't talk about money, does it hurt feelings? Well, in the name of the country, we will lend you money from the United States, and we will not ask for interest. What? You said that you mainly borrow money from the Louisiana Development Bank. Oh, this matter is not easy to handle, it is really difficult to handle.

You see, the Louisiana Development Bank, he is a private bank, private property, understand? It's not money you borrow from France, it's money you borrow from French citizens. Private property is sacred and inviolable, that is our First Earth, ah, it should be the most sacred law of the First Republic. Even the French government has no right to reduce the money you owe them.

Therefore, there is nothing to discuss about debts. As for the land, there is not much to discuss. In this war, the Americans shed the most blood and suffered the greatest losses, but when it came time to reap, they found that they had gained almost nothing.

In fact, it's not all for nothing. Some states in the north still got some land more or less. But the South really got nothing, except for the burned cities and the massacred people.

This has brought about two consequences. First, the reconstruction of the South requires a lot of money. The South expected the northern states to support them, just as they sent troops to support the North in war. But the problem is that the North has no money, and they can only count on two things: first, they will take down Ottawa, grab it, and see how much money they can get in the warehouse in Ottawa. Second, after defeating the United Kingdom, let the British government pay reparations.

According to the estimates of the Americans, there should not be much money in the warehouse in Ottawa. So that's just a drop in the bucket, not worth it at all. As for the British indemnity, it is that the far water cannot save the near fire.

Another consequence was how to deal with the British troops in Ottawa. General Arthur Wellesley had sent men to test the terms of surrender. Based on the principles of the joint statement between France and the Holy See, the French believed that as long as the British troops surrendered, their personal safety and private property should be protected. The Americans, especially the southerners, believed that these people were criminals and should pay for their atrocities in the war. According to those guys in Georgia, after surrendering, these people should be sent to Georgia to be tried by the court and given fair punishment according to their crimes.

Of course the British would not accept such terms of surrender. Even the French felt that this meant that they did not intend to accept surrender at all. What "just punishment", who are you kidding with this thing? How did you give "just punishment" to Indians when we didn't see it? Even if we haven't seen how Indians are tried in your courts, don't we know how the "Revolutionary Courts" work? Speaking of which, your courts are more efficient in hanging Indians than our "revolutionary courts"? The British are not stupid and will accept such conditions.

But the Americans can't make concessions on this issue, because whoever makes concessions on this issue will immediately be regarded as a "traitor" by the entire South. According to the habits of those barbarians in the south, it is very normal behavior to shout "Heavenly Punish the Country Thieves" and then shoot out the two revolvers.

Since we can't reach an agreement, we can only fight.

However, the French are not interested in continuing to attack, and their reasons are very good. When the overall situation is settled, the soldiers should not be allowed to continue to sacrifice. They even advised the Americans not to be in a hurry, to surround them slowly, and to surround them for a longer period of time. When they are too hungry, they can just attack.

At first, the Americans felt that the French's suggestion was good. The defense of the British army is still quite strong. If they attack hard, they don't know how many people will die. It's better to wait slowly until they starve to death.

However, Americans soon discovered that this idea may not be reliable. Because the British launched a round of counterattacks against the French, and then...then they seized a lot of things from the French and withdrew them.

The Americans, of course, were unhappy to complain about what the French were up to. As for the French, the French said that that place was garrisoned by the Indians who surrendered to France, and you can't demand too much from the Indians.

"What? You actually use Indians to garrison your position? How can the Indians hold it?"

"But it's cheap to hire them. And it's going to be spring plowing soon, and the soldiers are eager to go home and farm. If we delay farming, we'll have to spend more money to subsidize them. Hell, that's not a little money .Anyway, the British did not break out. What are you afraid of?"

Then, in the French army, there were more and more Indians, and the French army also decreased. The reason, of course, is that spring plowing is about to begin. The French army in Louisiana is mainly a militia. The main body of the militia is farmers, and the Louisiana government has limited finances, so...

Therefore, the position can only be handed over to the friendly Indians. Of course, if the Americans are willing to take over, the French will not object. Of course, to take over this position, the Americans need to continue to increase the army. Doesn’t it cost money to increase the army? Where does the US government have money?

The Americans protested the irresponsible behavior of the French. But the French retorted: "If you hadn't insisted on trying the British, the British would have surrendered long ago, and we could have gone back long ago."

As a result, the US-French coalition forces besieging the city gradually turned into the US-Indian (Indian) coalition forces, and then gradually turned into pure US troops.

Solving the problem by besieging the city for a long time can of course greatly reduce casualties, but the Americans need a lot of money to maintain a long-term siege, and now, the Americans have no money. Or the Americans could have given the British their surrender by promising not to hold them accountable for their war atrocities, but that would be very politically incorrect in America. So now the Americans have only one way to go, and that is to storm Ottawa.