Fox of France

The Americans still made a lot of preparations before declaring war on Britain. The first is the US Navy. The US Navy has just leased two warships from the French. These two warships are the "Free Trade" and the "Common Market" superb cruiser. At least until the "Hermes-class" super-Class A cruiser on the French berth was launched into service, these two ships were the most powerful super cruisers in the world.

And when renting the two ships, the Americans rented not only the two ships, but even the people who piloted and controlled the two ships. In other words, in addition to changing a flag, sending a few new suits to each French crew member, and sending a few American representatives on each of the two ships, the ships are almost French. ferry.

When the Americans made this move, they had not yet started a war with the British, but at that time, the American newspapers had been accusing the British of helping the Indians attack peaceful American citizens and undermining them in accordance with God’s will to pass Own labor, get the best materials for leather boots.

At this time, the Americans "leased" French warships in this way, regardless of their purpose. The French naturally understand what the Americans mean. But after careful consideration, Napoleon approved the deal.

"The British are our enemies at the moment. Anything that can cause trouble to the British is good. Of course, the Yankees are not a good thing. In the world, there is another country and the UK that is shameless, sinister and vicious. If there is a comparison, it must be the United States! We cannot allow it to really annex Canada. It will be a huge threat to our Louisiana. Like any sheep, as long as it dares to grow its horns, The threat to the lion is the same as the provocation. So you see, among the religious symbols, the lamb without horns is holy, and everyone should imitate and learn from it. What about the horns? You know Lucifer had goat horns..."

"Okay, Napoleon, don't take the initiative to run crooked." Joseph said, "Although your analogy is very interesting, um, this analogy, I mean, who said the analogy of the lamb and the goat?"

"Can't it be me?" Napoleon said.

"This acrid taste, unlike your style." Joseph said.

"Ah, well, this analogy was made by Talleyrand. After all, he had been a bishop. No one is better than him when it comes to black churches." Napoleon said.

"The Americans will soon declare war on the British, and then they will use these two ships to sabotage the route between Britain and Canada. We, too, will cooperate with us, and we will say yes to some military exercises. In order to maintain world peace and freedom of trade. Then drag the British navy. The British cannot send supplies and reinforcements to North America." Napoleon added.

"What about Canada?" Lucien asked, "Can't you really give Canada to the Americans?"

Napoleon laughed and said nothing.

"Is this kind of question also asked?" Joseph said disdainfully, "If the British weapons, ammunition, and personnel equipment cannot be sent to Canada, can't we also send them? Canada and Louisiana border!"

"Ah, I understand!" Lucien suddenly realized, "We sell weapons to Canadians. When Canada can't support it, we can also let Canadians go to Louisiana to hire a group of mercenaries, and then fire the United States with a torch. The presidential palace burned down, and then the Canadian army was all gone, and the United States was half crippled. Isn’t Canada ours? Not to mention that there are so many French speakers in Quebec. Napoleon, Joseph, do you mean that? You are so bad, hahaha, but the bad is good, the bad is good! Hahaha..."

The British also knew what it meant by the French renting these two warships to the Americans. So the British Foreign Office immediately summoned the French ambassador and lodged a solemn protest to France, accusing France of destroying regional peace. Of course, the British also know that the French will not pay attention to their protests, but this process still has to go through.

According to the process, France certainly stated that this is entirely an internal affair of France and the United States, and the related transactions are also in full compliance with international practices, and the British are not allowed to point fingers.

An unnamed British official suggested to the newspaper that if there is a war between Britain and the United States and the two ships enter the war, once their crews are captured, the British may regard them as pirates and hang them. On the mast.

There was a report from the French media to Lucien and asked him how France would react if such a thing happened. Lucien replied without hesitation: "If they have a seed, they can try it."

On the same issue, Foreign Minister Talleyrand said: "We want to be friends with Britain and become partners with Britain, but if Britain regards France as a'hostile country', then all consequences will be borne by Britain. ."

The two warships had just arrived in the United States and filled the Boston Harbor with coal and fresh water. Within a week, the war broke out.

The two warships with American flags left Boston immediately, and after meeting with the American fleet, they headed to Halifax, Canada together.

Halifax is Canada's largest military port, where the British stationed a squadron of the British.

After entering the steam-powered era, the British slightly modified three old-fashioned sailing battleships, fitted them with steam engines and iron armor, and then sent them to Canada.

If you consider North America, the main imaginary enemy is the Americans, followed by the French. The Americans suffered heavy losses in previous conflicts with the French. Later, although the French returned the captured American ships to the Yankees one after another, the Americans seemed to have lost confidence in building a powerful navy. Since then, their navy has made limited progress, that is, adding steam power to the original super cruisers. Because the linear shape is more suitable for high-speed navigation, the modified ships still run faster than the British modified battleships, and they are not equipped with iron armor, which also increases the speed.

According to the American plan, the fleet will first approach Halifax to see if it can capture the British Navy's Canadian squadron there. And destroy them, and then you can continue north to block the Sea of ​​St. Lawrence. Intercept ships sailing from Britain to Canada.

After the United States declared war on Britain, the British squadron immediately left Halifax Port. Although this squadron has three "battleships", the battleships of the sail age have no combat effectiveness in front of the armored cruisers of the steam age. Therefore, although the British emphasized that they must fight when they see the enemy, they must avoid this kind of battle that they know they cannot win.

The British plan is like this. Relying on the strength of the North American squadron alone is not enough to counter the US military with two French supercruisers. If this is the case, it would be better to avoid the enemy's main force and attack ships along the coast of the United States. Compared with the fully steam-powered French warships, the hybrid warships of the North American Squadron, for example, because they do not have to burn coal at all times to sail, their self-sustaining power is far beyond those of the new warships.

Therefore, the British felt that they could harass the US coast and force the US fleet, at least to force the two French warships to go south, and then their "Indomitable" super cruiser hidden in the St. Lawrence River could be killed and wiped out. American warship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

So when the American fleet appeared in Halifax, only one airport was seen. Considering that the port has perfect defense facilities, neither the Americans nor the French dare to attack the port directly. So the U.S. fleet continued northward to the Cabot Strait.

Canada’s ports on the Atlantic Ocean are very interesting. Except for Halifax, most Canadian ports leading to the Atlantic Ocean are inland ports along the St. Lawrence River. The shipping conditions of the St. Lawrence River are good ~www.readwn.com~ so that these inland ports are basically indistinguishable from sea ports at least in this era.

And going out from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River is the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is a wide water area almost surrounded by land. Only the end of East St. Lawrence Bay is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Bell Island Strait and the Cabot Strait. Because the bay was formed after subsidence occurred during the geological tectonic movement, the bay's shore was tortuous, with many submerged reefs and shallows, which was not conducive to navigation. Therefore, the U.S. Navy dare not sail directly into the St. Lawrence Bay and block the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. They can only block the Cabot Strait. A little further north, there is a navigable strait, Bell Island Strait. However, considering the unknown whereabouts of the British navy, the Americans did not dare to spread their forces to block the Bell Island Strait. Anyway, most ships will take the Cabot Strait. Especially those British ships still sailing on their way to North America without radio, they did not know that the United States had declared war on Britain.

So the U.S. Navy spent a very happy time here for a while, watching whales at sea every day. From time to time, he could stop one or two British ships that did not know the war had broken out, but were filled with war materials. The Americans or French stopped them, used cannons to force them to stop, then boarded the boat and announced that they had been captured. Then they sent people to drive these ships back to the United States.

It's just a mystery where the British Navy's North American Squadron has gone.