At the same time, although Laurence Bonaparte, who was stationed in Sardinia, could also guess that his own initiative would cause dissatisfaction in Paris and Versailles, he did not have much energy to take care of the old man during this period.
The king's thoughts.
For Lawrence, there are only two immediate priorities:
One is to use the time during which the troops are stationed in Sardinia to restore administrative order on the island as soon as possible.
The second was even more crucial during the war - to equip the troops under his command with new rifled rifles produced by the Trefali Arsenal in Marseille as soon as possible.
After Lawrence took full control of Sardinia, Major Trifalli in Marseille also received an order to personally escort a batch of arms to Sardinia to assist the soldiers of the National Defense Forces in training this new musket of epoch-making significance.
At the training ground on the plains north of Cagliari, Lawrence and his officers would visit the site almost every day to supervise the training. After all, this army equipped with new muskets was Lawrence's biggest trump card during the Italian War, and there was absolutely no room for it.
Mistakes.
In the shooting area of the training ground, Chief of Staff Berthier also personally held a brand-new musket, holding his breath and aiming at a human-shaped haystack a hundred yards away.
The musket in his hand has a longer barrel and a slightly heavier weight than the muskets currently in use. There is also a small iron sight above the barrel. Other than that, there is no other visible sight from the appearance.
What's special is that there is a line of small words engraved on the bottom of the gun handle:
"Tréfaly 1771 rifle, produced at the Trefaly Arsenal in Marseille"
Aiming the crosshair in the sight at the haystack in his field of vision, which was only as thick as his little finger, Berthier pulled the trigger hard.
As a wisp of green smoke suddenly ignited, debris instantly flew from the haystack a hundred yards away, indicating that the bullet accurately hit the target.
“It’s really amazing!”
Berthier simply cleaned the gunpowder hole, and then looked at the rifle in his hand fondly. He had no idea that such a deadly weapon could be produced on the remote island of Corsica:
"It can achieve accurate shooting at enemies within a hundred yards. The key is that the shooting frequency is no less than that of today's smoothbore flintlock muskets. I really can't imagine how many soldiers will die under this musket."
What shocked Berthier, a top student at the Paris Military Academy, was not the shooting accuracy of this musket. After all, the rifled gun had been invented hundreds of years ago.
However, the firing frequency of rifled guns in the past was extremely low. Soldiers needed to carry a mallet with them to pound bullets into the rifling of the barrel to fire them normally. Even skilled veterans took a minute or two to complete a loading and firing.
The firearm in Berthier's hand, combined with the use of Mini bullets, could achieve precise shooting while retaining the shooting frequency of two to three rounds per minute of a musket. This really surprised him.
Major Serurier on the side stared at the musket in his hand with a solemn expression. He had previously heard that the Corsican Army was researching a new type of musket, but this was also the first time he had seen its power with his own eyes:
"It's really amazing. It completely defeated the enemy before they got close... This gun may be able to change the situation of all wars. If it can continue to increase the shooting accuracy and shooting frequency... maybe it can be connected to the line."
Tactics will be consigned to the dustbin of war history."
Hearing the unstinting praise from the two French officers, Major Trifali couldn't help but feel a hint of joy on his face. After all, as the designer of this musket, his name is enough to be engraved in history.
"Having said that, there are still many areas for improvement on this rifle. Its reliability, weight, complexity, etc. can continue to be improved..." Major Trifali responded humbly.
Berthier asked curiously:
"What is the possibility of large-scale installation?"
The surrounding officers also immediately came over. If this deadly weapon could be deployed on a large scale in the army of a major European country, it would undoubtedly have an advantage on the battlefield.
But Major Cui Farali scratched his head, shrugged helplessly and said with a smile:
"It is very difficult at the moment. The most critical issue is cost. The precision of this rifle is far superior to that of a smoothbore rifle, so the production cost is naturally much higher. Including the Mini bullets it uses, it currently requires manual labor.
The production and output are far inferior to those of lead projectiles..."
The production of ordinary spherical lead bullets only requires pouring a pot of melted lead water from a perforated disk at a height. The lead water droplets will solidify in the air and naturally form a perfect spherical shape under the action of gravity.
The Mini bullet currently used in this musket is a cone-shaped projectile. The projectile itself requires a pouring process to manufacture, and the cork filled at the tail needs to be manually installed. Therefore, compared with mass-produced lead bullets, it has
The cost has increased more than several times.
The more critical issue is that due to material problems caused by the metallurgical technology at the end of the 18th century, the service life of the rifled gun is far shorter than that of the smoothbore gun, because during the firing process, the rifling in the barrel of the rifled gun will continue to be
Grinding, resulting in a continuous decline in accuracy.
Historically, after about two hundred firings of a seventeenth-century rifled gun, its internal rifling had been almost worn out. Even in the nineteenth century, after the advancement of metallurgical technology, the service life of a rifled gun was only about
Three hundred shots.
The Trifali Arsenal in Marseille has expanded to include thousands of craftsmen and apprentices. With the strong support of Mayor Lawrence and Josip, so many craftsmen are working hard to produce regardless of cost, and their production capacity is barely enough to supply science and technology.
Thousands of soldiers from the Sika Army are fully equipped.
All the officers were a little disappointed after listening to Major Trifali's explanation. From this point of view, it is unrealistic to promote this rifle to the French Army in a short period of time.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The finances of the Kingdom of France are already extremely tight. The Duke of Choiseul has continued to expand his army and prepare for war in the past ten years. Louis XV will never invest in the army no matter how hard he thinks.
There is more investment. After all, the daily cost of the Trifali Arsenal in Marseille alone is an extremely terrifying figure.
Lawrence was naturally not surprised by this conclusion. He had been paying close attention to the production situation of Cuifali Arsenal, and he also knew how terrifying the daily labor and material costs of this arsenal were.
If it were not for the funds of the National Silver Company of Corsica and the secret support of Mayor Josip, the Kingdom of Corsica’s own financial level would probably not be able to maintain the arsenal even after the implementation of the agricultural tax reform bill.
daily operations.
"As expected, productivity is everything."
Lawrence couldn't help but lamented that the essence of war is ultimately a competition of national strength.
Even if you have knowledge and technology in your mind that are far beyond this era, you still need a powerful state machine to realize it.
Now that the internal obstacles to Corsica's development have been completely removed, Lawrence is also thinking in his mind that Corsica's rapid industrialization process should also be advanced.
As for the other major condition required to complete industrialization - the accumulation of original capital, Lawrence naturally would not think of completing it by exploiting the interests of his own people.
During the time he was stationed in Sardinia, Lawrence was also constantly thinking about what was the best option to provide Corsica with original capital.
...
At the end of September 1771, it had been nearly two months since Lawrence officially took over Sardinia.
With the assistance of the local Sardinian nobles and bureaucrats headed by Governor Bertrand, the turmoil on the entire island did not last long. Order was restored within a few weeks, and the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Corsica also
It began to be gradually implemented in Sardinia.
Officials from various ministries in the Kingdom have also ushered in their busiest months of work, especially the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Finance. They not only have to lead the implementation of agricultural tax reform and land reform bills in Sardinia, but also have to deal with the Savior
The assets of the Yi nobles will be liquidated and collected in a unified manner.
According to the agreement between Lawrence and Governor Bertrand, the assets of the Savoy nobles, such as farmland, manors and other small and medium-sized assets, are all handled by local municipalities as collective property, while large assets such as mines and castles are
Unified and nationalized, and handed over to the central government of Ajaccio for direct disposal.
The Savoy lords on the island were undoubtedly extremely frightened and angry about the sudden levy and confiscation, but with the defeat of Lieutenant General Ethel, these colonist-like nobles could no longer make any waves.
, they can only be forced to accept this reality.
Most of the Savoy lords were only allowed to keep their necessary luggage, and were then sent back to Savoy in batches by Lawrence.
Among the confiscated assets, the ones that concerned Lawrence the most were the several giant silver mines headed by the Argentiera Silver Mine.
You must know that the scale of the Argentiera silver mine is much larger than the Ajaccio silver mine invented by Lawrence. If it is announced that these silver mines will also be under the management of the Corsican National Silver Company,
I am afraid that a new investment frenzy is about to usher in the Paris Stock Exchange.
However, since he is now overseas, Lawrence has decided to temporarily put these large silver mines under the management of the central government of Ajaccio, like other mineral veins.
For this kind of news that can stimulate the whole of Paris and even the French financial community, Lawrence still plans to return to Paris in person and then find the right time to spread the news in order to make the most of this news.
In addition, Governor Bertrand also revealed a piece of news to Lawrence midway:
Just before Colonel Bartland led his army to attack Ajaccio, a diplomatic mission from the Republic of Genoa came to Sardinia to discuss the sale of Corsica's legal claims with Governor Bertrand and Lieutenant General Ethel.
The Kingdom of Sardinia seemed to be sure that they could successfully annex Corsica in the Italian War, so they proposed a deal to the Republic of Genoa to purchase the legal claims of Corsica, in order to make their territorial merger more reasonable.
according to.
After all, although Lawrence led Corsica to surrender to Louis XV, the war between Corsica and Genoa entered a de facto truce, but the Republic of Genoa never recognized the independence of Corsica.
Nor did anyone send anyone to discuss with Lawrence a formal truce between the two countries.
On the map hanging in the Palace of the Governor of Genoa, Corsica is still a legal territory belonging to the Republic.
Of course, the Governor of Genoa also knew that it was impossible for them to quell the Corsican independence rebellion initiated by Pasquale Paoli and Lawrence Bonaparte. Therefore, for this group of profit-seeking businessmen, it was
This mythical legal theory asserts that it is in the best economic interests to seek a buyer.
Historically, their buyers were the French, but this time, the Genoese apparently reached a deal with the Kingdom of Sardinia.
This also explains a doubt in Lawrence's mind - why Lieutenant General Ethel was able to recruit a Genoese mercenary group of thousands of people in such a short period of time. From this point of view, it seems that the Genoese diplomatic mission is indispensable.
of assistance.
After listening to Governor Bertrand's report, Lawrence just smiled contemptuously.
Today, he is no longer the passenger of the White Rose who struggled to survive under the pursuit of the Genoese warship, nor is he the major of the National Defense Force who narrowly escaped death in order to lure the enemy deeper into the country.
The current Republic of Genoa is no longer even qualified to be regarded as a worthy opponent by the Corsican people.
However, since this small country had repeatedly blocked his way, Lawrence felt that it was necessary to visit the Palace of the Governor of Genoa in person.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading!......
By the end of September, the situation in Sardinia had basically stabilized.
Although the Kingdom of Sardinia continued to send envoys to condemn Lawrence Bonaparte's unreasonable behavior of annexing other countries' territories before the end of the war, neither Lawrence nor the Sardinian people took the enemy's complaints to heart.
Barking in the eyes.
The Corsican Army's training on new muskets has been roughly completed. The steps to use these rifles are not much different from ordinary muskets. The focus of the training is also on teaching soldiers how to shoot accurately and improve their performance on the battlefield.
hit rate.
Seeing that the time was roughly ripe, Lawrence summoned his close officers and staff in the political hall of the Royal Palace of Cagliari at the end of September to discuss the next action plan.
Originally, there were two schools of thought within the Corsican Army regarding the next action plan.
The radicals, mainly the energetic young men of the Privy Knights headed by Berthier, believed that they should take advantage of the great opportunity when Colonel Bartland led an army of 10,000 to defeat Ajaccio, and when the Kingdom of Sardinia was weak in military strength.
He went north to attack Turin and forced Carlo Emanuele III to completely abandon Sardinia.
The conservatives, represented by the calm and experienced Serurier, believe that the Kingdom of Corsica has made its due contribution in the Italian War, and next they should focus on defending Sardinia and Corsica. After all, Sardinia
It is estimated that the standing army of the Kingdom of Din still has about 15,000 people, which is more than twice the number of the Corsican army.
However, after seeing the power of the new rifles brought by Major Trefarley, the original conservatives also changed their minds and supported Lawrence's approach of leading the army north to Savoy.
So the content of the meeting quickly changed from "whether to fight" to "how to fight".
Chief of Staff Berthier had obviously already secretly drawn up a plan to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia. He skillfully explained to the officers and Lawrence on the map:
"Currently, we have only one route to march into Turin, which is to invade from the sea, quickly occupy the Kingdom of Sardinia's outlet in Liguria - Vado Lidore, and then go north across the hills and mountains of Liguria.
Attack on Turin via the Po plain."
Lawrence analyzed it for a moment, nodded in agreement:
"Well... the Kingdom of Sardinia should not expect that we would dare to take the initiative. Besides, Valdolidore is only a small seaport, and the Sardinian army will not station too many troops there."
"The Navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia was deterred by the French Mediterranean Fleet last time. It is estimated that it will not dare to hinder our landing operations during this period." Berthier pointed to the map and added.
Serurier on the side frowned and stared at the map on the table, calmly analyzing:
"But the only problem is that after the landing at Valdolidore, our march route in Liguria is basically fixed. The enemy can easily predict our march route and deploy defenses in advance to occupy favorable terrain, even if we have
With more advanced weapons, I'm afraid a bloody battle will inevitably happen."
Liguria, a long and narrow coastal area, has rugged terrain and numerous hills. The Republic of Genoa relies on this unique geographical advantage of being surrounded by the sea on one side and mountains on three sides to survive to this day.
In this complex terrain, the army can almost only march along fixed and gentle roads, unless its commander is willing to risk huge losses and morale pressure to cross mountains and hills.
And this also means that after the Sardinian Army learned that the Corsican Army had landed at Valdolidore, it could quickly respond and set up defenses and ambush in advance along the route that the Corsican Army must pass.
The officers and staff present also looked solemn. Even though the Corsican army had a huge equipment advantage, no one dared to say that they were sure of victory against the main force of the Sardinian army.
And if this battle fails, it means that the Corsican army will be completely annihilated in northern Italy, and the Sardinian army will take advantage of the opportunity to take back the two islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and the entire kingdom will also be affected by this battle.
failure and destruction.
Berthier's expression was also very solemn. He turned back a few pages of the plan and said in a deep voice:
"It is indeed unwise to fight the Sardinian Army directly in Liguria, but someone from the Army Staff proposed a plan. We can divide our forces after landing at Valdolidore, and let a small group of troops go north to launch a feint attack to attract the main force of the Sardinian Army.
And involve it in Liguria, while the main force of our army will pass through Genoa to the east, and then head north to attack Turin."
Everyone quickly looked at the map on the table. If this plan could be implemented smoothly, the Corsican army would indeed be able to successfully bypass the main force of the Sardinian army and directly launch a rapid attack on the enemy's capital Turin through the flat Po River plain.
"Who came up with this plan?" Lawrence asked with narrowed eyes.
"Andre Davout, a captain of the Army Staff and a member of the Order of the Privy Council."
"Davout...what is this person's ability?"
Berthier was responsible for the internal organization and personnel of the Privy Knights. He took out an information sheet from the briefcase at hand and handed it to Lawrence, while explaining skillfully:
"Born from a military family in Annox, my grandfather, father and brother are all officers of the Royal Cavalry. I am now 21 years old. I have received military education from my family since I was a child and have been studying at the Paris Military Academy since I was 15, fencing and riding.
, his grades in courses such as tactical command are close to perfect, he is taciturn, but calm and decisive, loyal to the royal family, and worships the Sun King Louis XIV... He was supposed to graduate from the military academy this year and join the Royal Cavalry, but due to family changes, he finally
Choose to join us in the Italian War."
Hearing this resume, even a professional soldier like Selurie couldn't help but nod his head. It's no wonder that such a young man with excellent background, ability and potential would be selected by an elite regiment like the Royal Cavalry.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Lawrence is also very satisfied with this candidate and plan, especially with the surname Davout and the noble background of Annox, I am afraid that this Ander
Lieutenant Davout also has some blood relations with Marshal Davout in history.
"Of course, there is still a problem that needs to be solved urgently with this plan." Berthier added in due course:
"We need to detour eastward and pass through Genoa, but based on the relationship between Corsica and Genoa... there is a high probability that the Republic of Genoa will not allow our troops to pass through their city with arrogance."
One staff member suggested:
“What about the feasibility of diplomatic means to obtain military access?”
This idea was immediately rejected by the officers and staff present:
"It's not realistic. For a small country like the Republic of Genoa, their commercial city is everything to the entire country. They will not allow foreign troops to pass freely, let alone the Kingdom of Corsica, which has a blood feud with them, let alone conduct diplomatic communication.
It is very likely that the news will leak out, causing the Kingdom of Sardinia to focus on the movements in the direction of Genoa."
Seeing this, Berthier had no choice but to compromise:
"In the worst case scenario, we can circle around Genoa City, but going around the hilly terrain will slow down the march, and our plan is more likely to be seen through by the Sardinian army..."
There was a brief silence in the political hall, and everyone looked at Lawrence in the chair.
If Genoa cannot be used, then dividing the troops at Valdolidore to contain the main force of the Sardinian army will naturally be meaningless.
"No, we don't go around Genoa."
Lawrence gestured at the map for a moment, and finally said:
"The main force of our army marched directly east to Genoa City, and then headed north to attack Turin."
"But the Genoese will not allow our army to enter their city." Berthier reminded with a frown.
"If they have any objections, I will ask the Governor of Genoa to recall that the war between Corsica and Genoa has not yet been declared over."
