Life of Being a Crown Prince in France - Chapter 1270: 1175: Preparations for War
Chapter 1270: Chapter 1175: Preparations for War
Three days later.
All senior and vice ministers of the French cabinet, military high command officers, and even the heads of police, publishing, and transportation systems gathered in the grand conference hall of the Palace of Versailles. Even the corners of the room were filled with people.
The officials of this level had already heard some rumors, and at this moment the hall was shrouded in a solemn atmosphere. Everyone guessed that this expanded cabinet meeting was likely for a total mobilization before the war.
Soon, the Crown Prince, the King, and the Queen entered the conference hall together, and everyone immediately rose to pay homage.
Almost no one remembered the last time His Majesty the King attended a cabinet meeting, which showed the importance of this meeting.
Joseph waited for his parents to take their seats at the head of the conference table, bowed slightly to them, then turned to everyone and went straight to the point:
“I believe you’ve all heard, the armies of England, Prussia, and Austria have begun to gather, with a total force likely exceeding 600,000.”
Almost everyone’s eyes bore a grave expression. This was an unprecedented scale of war.
Joseph glanced at Bertier: “According to the judgment of the General Staff, the war will break out within four to six months. This will be a war that decides the future of France.”
“I don’t need to elaborate further, because everyone knows, we have only one option, to win the war.”
“Now we begin planning for the period of the war. Baron Breti.”
The Minister of Justice immediately rose, bowed slightly to the King, and then began to read loudly: “His Majesty the King signed a decree, and from this day onwards the ‘War Special Bill’ is executed.”
“The main content includes: domestic grain, horse, vehicle, and ship resource control and requisition rules;
“Registration of all medical and engineering technical personnel;
“All citizens must participate in disaster relief, transportation, and anti-spy activities according to mobilization needs;
“News publishing wartime control system;
“Local government temporary authorization rules…”
The officials in the conference hall nodded discreetly as they listened. Although these decrees were relatively extreme, they could quickly focus the national resources and power on the battlefield, while better handling situations where the enemy causes chaos and destruction domestically.
Indeed, the earliest wartime mobilization decree in history was issued by Napoleon in the early 19th century, immediately displaying immense power.
It should be known that currently, no country in Europe has the concept of a wartime emergency state. In front, armies fight fiercely, while behind, unscrupulous merchants take the opportunity to sell strategic materials, and even treasonous collaborations with foreign countries are frequent occurrences.
The ‘War Bill’ is precisely to prevent these situations. Moreover, once the country enters an emergency state, it can instill a sense of urgency about the war in the populace, making it easier to adapt to social issues that may arise during wartime.
Joseph, after defeating the Anti-French Alliance last time, had the Minister of Justice start drafting the ‘War Bill’, so it could be immediately used now.
Baron Breti briefly explained the clauses and then sat back in his chair.
Joseph then looked at Mirabeau and said: “The Ministry of Industry has two most important matters during this period.
“First, replace all the wooden tracks from Paris to Verdun with iron tracks, built to the highest standards. Also, quickly plan the iron track from Verdun to Lorraine and then to Strasbourg.”
France had nearly a decade of experience in building railway transportation, not only possessing large numbers of construction teams but also having established engineering standards, and even laying nearly a hundred kilometers of track in Luxembourg.
It could be said to be well-practiced.
However, Mirabeau was somewhat surprised and said: “Your Highness, investing so much money to build iron tracks now, is it not necessary…”
Joseph interrupted him with a smile: “You will soon understand their purpose, please proceed with my instructions.”
According to Joseph’s judgment, Trevisick should be able to design a prototype train in about a year. After all, he had previously constructed a steam locomotive, even though its performance was quite poor, not even able to run 200 meters, but it initially marked the step from 0 to 1.
With improvements on this basis, the speed would naturally be much faster than developing from scratch.
Moreover, the train’s performance need not be too good, as long as it can pull 10 carriages and travel at a “turtle speed” of 25 kilometers per hour, it would already be a “big killer” of this era.
Verdun was the gateway to northern France, while Strasbourg connected to Baden, and taking a further step forward would lead to the easily traversable Southern Germany plateau.
Furthermore, from Strasbourg one could take a ship upstream on the Rhine River to the south and enter Switzerland within less than a day.
That is to say, once the railway connected Paris-Verdun-Strasbourg, the capacity for French military and logistical dispatch would increase by several dozen times!
The entire Rhine River frontline would be almost indistinguishable from the rear of France.
And all of this could be achieved with just three or four of the most rudimentary trains.
Joseph continued: “Secondly, quickly increase the nationwide capacity of the munitions factories by about double. Also, you need to report Cano’s progress to me regularly.”
Originally, France’s military production capacity was sufficient to meet the needs of the army, but once the new iron cannon casting technology was established, the entire army would need iron cannons to replace bronze ones.
At the current production capacity, this process would take at least ten months. Especially the navy, with seventy to eighty cannons on a single ship, if production capacity isn’t increased, the pressure to change equipment will be immense.
Additionally, once breech-loading cannons are developed, expanded munitions factories would allow the army to be equipped with these new weapons in the shortest time possible.
“Yes, Your Highness.” Mr. Mirabeau nodded, but was somewhat troubled, “Your Highness, the funds required for these two tasks are bound to be astonishing…”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Joseph gestured for him to sit down, then addressed the Minister of Agriculture: “Mr. Venio, how is the progress of the canning factories?”
The latter quickly stood up and said: “Your Highness, last month we completed trials using glass jars, with 97% of the cans able to last over 40 days — as they have been stored for this duration so far.
“Currently, we can fill and cook 1,200 cans every day. I mean, using glass jars.
“As for tin can processing… we can only use tin soldering techniques, and no one has been able to manufacture the rolling machines you require.
“The factory in the Saint Antoine District plans to start producing 1,000 tin cans daily by the month after next.”
Joseph also felt somewhat helpless, as he had truly never seen a rolling machine, and could only wait for someone to invent it by a stroke of brilliance.
He then instructed: “In the meantime, prioritize glass jars, and increase production to more than 3,000 cans daily.
“Also, double the prize for the bidding of the rolling machine.”
Although glass jar canning was rather awkward, it was better than nothing, while allowing the workers at the canning factory to practice. Once the tin can rolling technique matures, production can be dramatically increased.
