Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1243 - 1148: See Who Can Outlast Whom

Chapter 1243: Chapter 1148: See Who Can Outlast Whom

Therefore, England must do everything possible to prevent France from occupying Egypt.

Historically, upon learning of Napoleon’s landing in Egypt, England immediately dispatched Nelson to lead the fleet to Egypt. In the Battle of Aboukir Bay, they destroyed 11 French Navy battleships and killed Commander Bluais, cutting off Napoleon’s retreat.

Currently, the British fleet has 45 steam battleships—affected by insufficient steam engine supply, this is only 60% of the Navy’s original planned output—although fewer than the French Navy’s 60 ships, it’s enough to shield the main battleships from harassment by French steam warships.

This allows the British Mediterranean Fleet, with its superior number of third-level and above battleships, to regain the power to enter the Mediterranean Sea.

Afterward, as long as the supply lines of the French Army landing in Egypt are cut off, the French people would have no choice but to abandon Egypt.

Britain might even take the opportunity to expand its influence there.

Of course, compared to Egypt, Gibraltar is the empire’s most important strategic core, and completing the resupply here is the first priority.

Pikex somewhat anxiously put away the orders from the Navy Department, as the “Victory” under his feet had begun to slow down.

He came up to the deck and could see the smoke surrounding Gibraltar Fortress without the need for a telescope.

Dozens of small boats carrying members of the British Marine Corps had already landed. Hundreds of people in the fortress were also gathering on the hillside slope, preparing to launch an attack on the artillery positions of the Franco-Spanish Alliance.

Just ten minutes later, the French people’s shells landed on the landing beach.

This was the handiwork of the 32-pound howitzer.

These long-barreled heavy cannons, at a high angle, have a range of up to 2.5 kilometers. French Artillery advanced to the northwest side of Gibraltar Peninsula and could threaten ships docked in the harbor.

As the cannons on Gibraltar Fortress began to retaliate, over a thousand British soldiers braced themselves and charged at the Allied Forces’ artillery positions.

They were greeted with a mass rifled gun volley from the surrounding scattered soldier cluster.

However, due to the threat of fortress cannons, the French Army soldiers spread very wide, so the cannons had to temporarily move back to avoid being sneaked up on by some lucky British Cavalry.

The August 1790 Hunting Rifle caused heavy casualties to the reckless British Army charging ahead.

In less than 20 minutes, the British Army left behind two to three hundred corpses and retreated in panic.

France’s heavy artillery then pressed forward, continuing to fire based on positions reported by balloons.

Colonel Curtis had no choice but to order the second echelon to assault the Allied Forces’ position again.

Then came another volley from the hunting rifles, bodies everywhere, retreat, and then replace them to continue the assault…

Finally, Colonel Curtis heard the long-anticipated trumpet sound from behind, signaling that all transported supplies had been moved to the reverse slope of the fortress.

He did not delay for a second and immediately ordered a retreat.

In this short span of just over an hour, he had lost more than 800 soldiers.

The recent resupply operation had delivered about four months’ worth of food and ammunition to Gibraltar Fortress, finally allowing for a breath of relief.

Once the British soldiers withdrew, the Franco-Spanish Alliance’s artillery also retreated and began bombarding Gibraltar Town from outside the fortress cannon’s range—more than 8,000 British people lived in Gibraltar, including relatives of the fortress soldiers, as well as merchants and fishermen. These were immigrants specially brought by the British Government to solidify their rule over Gibraltar.

Yes, Joseph was well aware that trying to storm Gibraltar Fortress head-on was basically impossible.

Twenty years ago, during the American War of Independence, the Franco-Spanish Alliance seized the opportunity to besiege Gibraltar with tens of thousands of troops and 50 battleships. French designers even made 10 floating batteries armored with 1.8 meters of oak wood, carrying heavy guns to get close to the fortress for bombardment.

Even after more than three years, they were never able to conquer the fortress defended by only 5,000 British troops, and the Allied Forces instead suffered over 5,000 casualties.

Thus, Joseph’s strategy from the beginning was to use Gibraltar to pin down and deplete Britain.

Absolutely no direct assaults by soldiers.

No need for expensive floating batteries at sea either; these things were set on fire by the British using red-hot shells, sinking six out of ten of them, with no substantial results.

Now, bringing out the remaining four floating batteries was merely to attract the attention of the British Navy—you’d need to assign at least four battleships to always watch over these batteries at sea.

As for the real main attack force, it was all placed on land.

In fact, 70 32-pound howitzers weren’t that costly… yes, primarily because the expenses were covered by the Spaniards, so there’s no need to worry.

Guided by hot air balloons, these cannons could accurately fire shells into the fortress. They used fuse-ignited explosive shells [Note 1].

Although the explosive power of black gunpowder was pitifully weak, a dozen or so shots could at least take out one British soldier.

Dare the English all hide inside the fortress to dodge shells?

That would force me to dispatch Spanish death squads for a direct assault.

Calculating at 100,000 rounds a year, in seven or eight months, they could deplete all the defending forces.

Of course, the English would continue sending transport ships to replenish troops.

This gives France the chance to strike the supply convoy—not many, just catching four or five hundred men at a time would be enough.

With the destruction of Gibraltar Town, its residents all had to enter the fortress for food, further increasing Britain’s supply burden.

Anyway, Joseph wasn’t in a rush to take Gibraltar. With the Franco-Spanish Alliance firing from afar, there would be little to no losses—the fortress cannons could indeed reach the Allied Forces’ cannons, but at over two kilometers away, hitting a cannon directly with one was as likely as winning the lottery jackpot.

Just drag it out and see who suffers more.

Bear in mind, the British Army only numbered sixty to seventy thousand soldiers in total. Stationing ten thousand at Gibraltar was akin to reducing their forces by 15% directly.

Pikex received the report that resupply was complete and breathed a long sigh of relief.

He dared not waste time resting and ordered the fleet to set sail to Egypt the next morning, hoping to block France’s landing fleet there and recoup yesterday’s losses.

However, just as the mighty British Mediterranean Fleet sailed near Malta, a British merchant ship from Alexandria reported to Pikex that the French army had withdrawn from Egypt four days earlier, the Mamluks had been defeated, and the Ottoman Sultan had regained control there.

[Note 1] Shells using a circular wooden base and fuse ignition emerged decades earlier.

Yet during this era, only black gunpowder was used, with very limited explosive power—typically only able to kill enemies within a two to three-meter range—and after exploding, the shell could no longer continue to roll, making it less lethal than solid projectiles.

This led to a preference for solid cannonballs until the American Civil War—one bounding round could roll for 60 meters and sometimes crush a dozen people.