I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 404: Fiefdom and Title (Additional chapter for Time Daytime Helmsman)

Ney glanced at the iron barrel "cannons" and said to Moreau with disdain:

"Your 'little invention' is really interesting. But it will certainly not fool the Moroccans for too long, because they will find that the other side has been shelling for a long time, but no one of them has been injured."

"You should read David Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature." Moreau pointed to the Moroccan positions in the distance, "They will only think they are lucky and then laugh at the poor skills of the French gunners."

"... It's up to you."

After the "shelling" continued for a while, the French infantry line appeared on the horizon.

Ney nervously told the soldiers to keep their distance and back to the woods - this infantry line only had one row, and the distance between people was very large. Only by using the dim woods as the background could they get away with it.

And Moreau led the cavalry to run back and forth on both sides of the line, showing a look of going to a big battle.

Agold, who was in the distance, frowned as he looked at the infantry line that was more than one kilometer long and the dusty cavalry team.

There were at least 4,000 infantry, more than 1,000 cavalry, and 15 cannons. This scale was definitely the Scherer Corps.

But how did they get here from the lower reaches of the Mejerda River in such a short time?

Not long after, another cavalry came to report that they had found the French camp, which was just 4 miles to the south. Judging from the scale, there should be nearly 10,000 troops stationed there.

Now Agold was even more convinced.

According to the combat effectiveness of the French army, his five or six thousand people were no match at all. He could only wait for Sayyid Pasha to lead the main force of the Guards to arrive before he could have a decisive battle with the French.

No, that's not right. He was suddenly startled. According to the instructions of His Majesty the Sultan, the Guards should avoid conflict with the main force of the French army - they came to Tunisia to plunder and then ask the British for compensation. It is not in Morocco's interest to fight a big country like France, whether winning or losing.

He pondered for a long time, turned around and ordered his attendants:

"Leave the Akkadian Legion, and the others retreat in secret. Oh, let the cannons keep firing to confuse the French."

"Yes, General!"

Moreau originally thought that he had to repel one or two Moroccan exploratory attacks at all costs to completely scare the Moroccans, but he didn't expect that the other side had no intention of fighting at all.

Of course, he was happy to delay time, so he let the iron barrel "cannon" fire with all his strength, pretending that the battle was fierce.

So the two armies "boomed" and shot at each other for a whole day at a distance of nearly one kilometer, and each withdrew their troops after dark.

The next day, they continued to shoot at each other until the afternoon, when Moreau suddenly felt something was wrong, so he took the risk of leading half of the cavalry to harass the Moroccans, but found that there was no enemy cavalry to defend at all.

He simply circled around Tamirai several times, and finally confirmed that there were less than 2,000 Moroccan troops still on the front line, and the other enemies had long disappeared.

He never thought that he acted so well that he actually scared the Moroccans away...

After he went back, he discussed with Ney and gathered all the troops, together with the hundreds of Tunisian troops of Tamirai, and launched a fierce attack on the Moroccan army from two directions at the same time.

...

Paris.

The second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph looked at the map of North Africa on the table with a worried expression.

According to the intelligence sent last week, there were large-scale troop movements in Algiers and Tripoli. Obviously, the British could not help but take action against Tunisia.

The news from India was that the Mysore army was attacking Tiruchirappalli, which was the southernmost state of Carnatic. Once Mysore occupied it, it would face Nagpattinam, the only supply point of Britain in southeastern India.

Joseph was sure that as long as Nagpattinam was at risk of being lost, the British would definitely return to the negotiation table - this was an important port for British caravans returning from East Asia. If they don't resupply here, British merchant ships will have to go hundreds of nautical miles to Madras in central India to get fresh water and food, or pay France in Pondicherry to buy supplies.

Therefore, the British will definitely spend a lot of money to create chaos in Tunisia before problems arise in Nagpatinam, and use it as a bargaining chip to exchange for India's interests.

The General Staff has already dispatched 6,000 troops to reinforce Tunisia, which is the limit of what France can afford financially.

To be honest, if there is a big problem in the situation in Tunisia, then Joseph can only withdraw the Guards Corps to North Africa to clean up the mess, which will inevitably affect the strategic deployment of the Southern Netherlands.

If it really comes to that, he will have to consider whether to accept the British conditions, and both sides will stop. That also means that his strategy to restrict the British in India has failed.

At this moment, Eman knocked on the door and handed him a secret report: "Your Highness, Tunisia just sent it."

Joseph immediately opened the wooden cylinder as quickly as possible and poured out the few pages inside.

When he saw that the report was sent by General Barthélemy Louis Joseph Scheerer, he couldn't help but wonder - normally, this should be the work of the Intelligence Bureau.

He hurriedly read the text carefully. At the beginning, it mentioned that the Moroccans had intervened in the siege of Tunisia, sent more than 14,000 of the most elite Black Guards, and sent the Algiers Guards to feint at Kaf to lure the main force of Scheerer's Corps to the lower reaches of the Majerda River.

Joseph couldn't help but frown, and continued to look down, and saw Scherer said that two "volunteer" teams who came to report to the legion stubbornly held Tamirai, and with a team of less than 2,000 people, they repelled the 10,000 Moroccan troops, captured more than 700 people, and seized 11 cannons...

Joseph raised his eyebrows, 2,000 against 10,000, a great victory, and captured prisoners and seized cannons, what's the situation?

He turned to the last page and saw the specific battle report, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

Victor Moreau, Michel Ney? It turned out that the two "marshals" were commanding the battle!

It's not surprising to achieve a record of 1 to 5.

Joseph secretly sighed that France is really full of talents. The invincible marshals under the emperor are now just two small lieutenants, each with soldiers who are not under their command, and unexpectedly disintegrated the Moroccan sneak attack.

No wonder this intelligence was reported by Scherer. He had won the victory on the front line and wanted to report it to me before the intelligence agency.

When Joseph saw that the noble soldiers of Moreau called themselves the "God's Guidance" Cavalry Regiment, he couldn't help shaking his head and laughing. They were all adults, but they still gave themselves such a childish name.

But since they like it, let's do it as they wish.

Joseph immediately picked up his pen and wrote a note at the end of the report, officially granting the title of "God's Guidance Royal Cavalry Regiment" to the 1,000 noble soldiers.

At the same time, Moreau was promoted to major and Ney was promoted to captain. The former was granted 700 hectares of land in Tripoli, and the latter was granted 500 hectares.