Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1250 - 1155: Vineyard Commander

Chapter 1250: Chapter 1155: Vineyard Commander

Additionally, under the joint push of Grenville and George III, the election reform in England was completed in just three weeks.

Although the “rotten boroughs” were not drastically abolished, emerging cities like Manchester and Liverpool gained quite a few seats. The MPs from these constituencies cast their votes for William Pitt Junior as per prior agreements.

Thus, William Pitt regained the position of Prime Minister of England after nearly three years.

William Pitt Junior disliked Grenville’s methods of “collaboration” and “leveraging,” and upon entering Ten Downing Street, he immediately replaced all Cabinet Ministers except Duke of Portland, filling the positions with Tory Party members.

Well, Duke of Portland had displayed extreme toughness and decisiveness during the previous suppression of civic uprisings, earning William Pitt Junior’s admiration.

On the morning after his inaugural speech, William Pitt Junior swiftly convened his first full Cabinet meeting in the afternoon.

He was well aware of the enormous challenges facing the Empire; the increasingly powerful opponent across the Channel would not leave him any room for complacency.

The strategic planning had been conceived by him long ago.

The newly appointed Foreign Minister, Lord Hawksburg, was dispatched to Austria to promote a new Anglo-Austrian alliance.

The second Foreign Minister, Viscount Castlereagh, headed to Russia to continue Fox’s unfinished task—to persuade the Tsar to focus his power on Europe.

Speaker Henry Addington was sent to America to sign secret agreements with the United States and Portugal and the United Kingdom.

The newly appointed Sea War Minister, Lord Melville, received nearly a million British Pounds in funding to oversee the mass construction of new battleships.

However, William Pitt Junior did not completely abandon steam battleships but allocated 80,000 British Pounds to have Chat Han Shipyard completely repair the previously built steam battleships.

Chat Han Shipyard was of interest to Lord Middleton and other Navy Officers, while Boulton-Watt Company received protection from MP Egerton, so concessions had to be made.

William Pitt Junior himself, along with the second Finance Minister, Earl Temple, engaged in negotiations with the Bank of England and four private consortia like Rothschild.

With his excellent eloquence, he convinced them to purchase a total of 7 million British Pounds in special national bonds, with an interest rate of only 15%.

Well, most MPs, while passing this agreement, did not notice a clause hidden among thousands of words—authorizing the Bank of England to issue 7 million British Pounds to stabilize finances should the British Government face debt default.

William Pitt Junior’s intention was very clear: if he could not quickly defeat France, he would rely on the vast revenues from England’s overseas colonies to unite the German states and wear France down.

…

Elba Island.

“Step left on my count of one! Left foot, you fool!” Napoleon pulled one man from the lineup of vineyard farmers and shouted, “Two months now and you still haven’t learned this simple task?!”

He tugged at his old military uniform and pointed to the grapevine: “Group one, take the buckets and move! Group two, check the gloves; today you must tackle the pests on these 20 acres…”

A farmer immediately banged on a bucket, and the eight members of group one marched into the field in sync with his beats.

“Group three, your results from last time’s pruning of the diseased branches…”

While Napoleon was lecturing, he heard the vineyard owner’s voice from behind: “Mr. Bonaparte, someone wants to see you.”

Napoleon quickly turned and saw a tall man in a uniform approaching from the plantation gate accompanied by two guards.

In the brief moment he was startled, a figure in a pale gray dress darted out from behind the three.

He immediately widened his eyes and exclaimed, “Desiree!”

The girl lifted her dress and rushed over, her voice choked: “Dear, are you alright?”

“It’s really you!” Napoleon embraced her and greedily absorbed her warmth, “God, how did you come here? Did you encounter a storm on the way?”

“No, no…”

Napoleon then looked at the officer, releasing his fiancée, and raised his hat to greet, “Were you the one who brought Miss Clary here? Thank you very much indeed.”

Desiree hurriedly introduced him: “This is Major Garell, who brought me here all the way.”

“Oh, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Major Garell.”

Garell nodded toward Napoleon: “You have three days. I won’t disturb you.”

He and the guards turned and left, Napoleon eagerly tugged his fiancée toward his small hut—a space the vineyard owner offered in thanks for training his farmers. Though, in reality, besides fewer smiles, the farmers’ efficiency hadn’t improved much.

“How did you manage to obtain the permit?” Napoleon asked while moving a wooden stool, turning to rummage through a box in the corner, “You must try out some of this wine later, I brewed it myself.”

Desiree sat down at the table, softly replied: “I spent some money.”

Napoleon brought the wine, poured it into a small wooden cup, and handed it to her: “It’s great to see you. By the way, tell me about the recent news outside. I remember the last time I saw the newspaper it said that Talavera went to attack Lisbon?”

Although he could see some newspapers on the island, they were mostly from several months or even half a year ago.

Desiree didn’t expect him to bring this up, hesitated for a moment, then replied: “He occupied Lisbon. The Portuguese Royal Family had to escape to Rio de Janeiro.”

“That’s not bad. Then surely he started a fierce assault on Gibraltar?”

The girl shook her head: “No, he went to attack Morocco; apparently a tribe plundered Melilla.”

“That fool!”

“The Spaniards were defeated in Morocco. But later, for some unknown reason, the Moroccans surrendered and gave up two pieces of coastal land. A place called Ceuta was even ceded to France.”

She naturally didn’t know about Surt’s daring raid on Marrakesh.

“Most likely the Crown Prince reinforced the Spaniards.” Napoleon appeared a bit dejected, “Such an interesting battle, if I hadn’t been trapped on this small island, perhaps I could have…”

Desiree continued sharing news: “But later I heard that we and the Spaniards were still besieging Gibraltar and even clashed with the British fleet.”

Napoleon urgently asked: “What was the result? How did it go?”

“It seems we won, the newspaper mentioned two British ships were hauled back to Toulon,” the girl pondered, “Apparently General Massena also landed in Egypt but quickly retreated without fighting the Ottoman People.”

“Egypt?” Napoleon excitedly raised his hands, “I’ve always said it’s crucial, the Crown Prince made the most correct decision! Hmm, was the Mamluks defeated?”

“Yes, it seems that name fits.”