From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

At the same time, although Laurence Bonaparte, who was stationed in Sardinia, could also guess that his own initiative would cause dissatisfaction in Paris and Versailles, he did not have much energy to take care of the old man during this period. The king's idea.

For Lawrence, there are only two immediate priorities:

One is to use the time during which the troops are stationed in Sardinia to restore administrative order on the island as soon as possible.

The second was even more crucial during the war - to replace the troops with new rifled rifles produced by the Trefali Arsenal in Marseille as soon as possible.

After Lawrence took over Sardinia, Major Trifalli in Marseille also received an order to personally escort a batch of arms to Sardinia to assist the soldiers of the National Defense Forces in training this new musket of epoch-making significance.

At the training ground on the plains north of Cagliari, Lawrence and his officers would come to the site almost every day to supervise the training. After all, this army equipped with new muskets was Lawrence's biggest trump card during the Italian War, and there was absolutely no room for it. Mistakes.

In the shooting area of ​​the training ground, Chief of Staff Berthier also personally held a brand-new musket, holding his breath and aiming at a human-shaped haystack a hundred yards away.

The musket in his hand has a longer barrel and a slightly heavier weight than the muskets currently in use. There is also a small iron sight above the barrel. Other than that, there is no other visible sight from the appearance. What's special is that there is a line of small words engraved on the bottom of the gun handle:

"Trefaly 1771 rifle, produced at the Trefaly Arsenal in Marseille"

Aiming the crosshair in the sight at the haystack in his field of vision, which was only as thick as his little finger, Berthier pulled the trigger hard.

As a wisp of green smoke suddenly ignited, debris instantly flew from the haystack a hundred yards away, indicating that the bullet accurately hit the target.

"It's really amazing!"

Berthier simply cleaned the gunpowder hole, and then looked at the rifle in his hand fondly. He had no idea that such a deadly weapon could be produced on the remote island of Corsica:

"It can shoot accurately at enemies within a hundred yards. The key is that the shooting frequency is no less than that of today's smoothbore flintlock guns. I really can't imagine how many soldiers will die under this musket."

What most shocked Berthier, a top student at the Paris Military Academy, was not the shooting accuracy of this musket. After all, the rifled gun had been invented hundreds of years ago.

However, the firing frequency of rifled guns in the past was extremely low. Soldiers needed to carry a mallet with them to pound bullets into the rifling of the barrel to fire them normally. Even skilled veterans took a minute or two to complete a loading and firing.

The firearm in Berthier's hand, combined with the use of Mini bullets, could achieve precise shooting while retaining the shooting frequency of two to three rounds per minute of a smoothbore gun. This really surprised him.

Major Serurier on the side stared at the musket in his hand with a solemn expression. He had previously heard that the Corsican Army was researching a new type of musket, but this was also the first time he had seen its power with his own eyes:

"It's really amazing. It completely defeated the enemy before they got close. This gun may be able to change the situation of all wars. If the shooting accuracy and shooting frequency can be continued to increase, the line tactics may be swept away. Into the dustbin of war history.”

Hearing the unstinting praise from the two French officers, Major Trifali could not help but feel a hint of joy on his face. After all, as the designer of this musket, his name was enough to be engraved in history.

"Having said that, there are still many areas for improvement on this rifle. Its reliability, weight, complexity, etc. can continue to be improved." Major Trifali responded humbly.

Berthier asked curiously:

"What is the possibility of large-scale installation?"

A group of surrounding officers also immediately came together. If this deadly weapon could be deployed on a large scale in the army of a major European country, it would undoubtedly have an advantage on the battlefield.

But Major Cui Farali scratched his head, shrugged helplessly and said with a smile:

"It is very difficult at the moment. The most critical issue is cost. The precision of this rifle is far superior to that of a smoothbore rifle, and the production cost is naturally much higher. Including the Mini bullets it uses, it currently requires manual labor. The production and output are far inferior to those of lead projectiles."

The production of ordinary spherical lead bullets only requires pouring a pot of melted lead water from a perforated disk at a height. The lead water droplets will solidify in the air and naturally form a perfect spherical shape under the action of gravity.

The Mini bullet currently used in this musket is a cone-shaped projectile. The projectile itself requires a pouring process to manufacture, and the cork filled at the tail needs to be manually installed. Therefore, compared with mass-produced lead bullets, it has The cost has increased more than several times.

The more critical issue is that due to the material problems caused by the metallurgical technology at the end of the 18th century, the service life of the rifled gun is far lower than that of the smoothbore gun, because during the firing process, the rifling in the barrel of the rifled gun will be continuously damaged. Smoothed out, resulting in ever-increasing loss of accuracy.

Historically, after about two hundred firings of a seventeenth-century rifled gun, its internal rifling was almost worn out. Even in the nineteenth century, after the advancement of metallurgical technology, the service life of a rifled gun was only about Three hundred shots.

The Trifarry Arsenal in Marseille has expanded to include thousands of craftsmen and apprentices. With the full support of Lawrence and Mayor Josip, so many craftsmen are working hard to produce regardless of cost, and their production capacity is barely enough to supply thousands of soldiers of the Corsican army.

After listening to Major Trifarry's explanation, the officers were a little disappointed. It seems that it is not realistic to promote this rifle to the French Army in a short time.

The finances of the Kingdom of France are already extremely tight. The Duke of Choiseul has been continuously expanding the army for more than ten years. Louis XV can't invest more in the army. After all, the daily expenses of the Trifarry Arsenal in Marseille alone are a terrifying figure.

And Lawrence is naturally not surprised by this conclusion. He has been paying close attention to the production of the Trifarry Arsenal and knows how terrifying the daily manpower and material costs of this arsenal are.

If it weren't for the funds of the Corsica National Silver Company and the secret support of Mayor Josip, the Kingdom of Corsica's own financial level would probably have been difficult to maintain the daily operation of the arsenal even after the implementation of the agricultural tax reform bill.

"Productivity is everything."

Lawrence couldn't help but sigh. The essence of war is ultimately a competition of national strength.

Even if there is knowledge and technology far beyond this era in his mind, a powerful state machine is needed to realize it.

Now that the internal obstacles to Corsica's development have been completely removed, Lawrence is also thinking in his heart that the process of rapid industrialization in Corsica should also be advanced.

As for the other major condition required for the completion of industrialization - primitive capital accumulation, Lawrence naturally would not think of achieving it by exploiting the interests of his own people.

During the period of garrisoning in Sardinia, Lawrence was also constantly thinking about what the best choice was to provide Corsica with primitive capital.

At the end of September 1771, Lawrence had officially taken over Sardinia for nearly two months.

With the assistance of Sardinian nobles and bureaucrats led by Governor Bertrand, the unrest on the entire island did not last long. Order was restored within a few weeks, and the laws and regulations of the Kingdom of Corsica began to be gradually implemented on Sardinia.

The officials of various departments of the kingdom also ushered in their busiest working months, especially the bureaucrats of the Ministry of Finance. They not only had to lead the implementation of agricultural tax reform and land reform bills in Sardinia, but also had to uniformly liquidate and confiscate the assets of the Savoy nobles.

According to the agreement between Lawrence and Governor Bertrand, among the assets of the Savoy nobles, small and medium-sized assets such as farmland and manors were all collectively owned by the local city halls, while large assets such as mines and castles were uniformly nationalized and handed over to the Ajaccio central government for direct disposal.

The Savoy lords on the island were undoubtedly extremely frightened and angry about the sudden collection and confiscation, but with the defeat of Lieutenant General Ethel, these colonial nobles could no longer stir up any waves, and they could only be forced to accept this reality.

Most of the Savoy lords were only allowed to keep their necessary carry-on luggage, and were then sent back to Savoy in batches by Lawrence.

Among the assets collected, the one that Lawrence cared about most was the giant silver mines headed by the Argentiella Silver Mine.

You know, the scale of the Argentiella Silver Mine is even larger than the Ajaccio Silver Mine fabricated by Lawrence. If it is announced that these silver mines will also be managed by the Corsica National Silver Company, I am afraid that the Paris Stock Exchange will usher in a new investment frenzy.

However, since he is now overseas, Lawrence still decided to temporarily put these large silver mines under the management of the Ajaccio central government like other veins.

For this kind of news that can stimulate the whole of Paris and even the French financial world, Lawrence still plans to find the right time to spread the news after returning to Paris in person, so as to make the most of this news.

In addition, Governor Bertrand also revealed a piece of news to Lawrence on the way:

Just before Colonel Bartland led his army to attack Ajaccio, a diplomatic mission from the Republic of Genoa came to Sardinia to discuss the sale of Corsica's legal claims with Governor Bertrand and Lieutenant General Ethel.

The Kingdom of Sardinia seemed to be sure that they could successfully annex Corsica in this Italian war, so they proposed a deal to the Republic of Genoa to buy Corsica's legal claims, so as to make their territorial merger more reasonable.

After all, although the war between Corsica and Genoa entered a de facto truce after Lawrence led Corsica to surrender to Louis XV, the Republic of Genoa never recognized the independence of Corsica, nor did it send anyone to discuss the formal truce between the two countries with Lawrence.

On the map hanging in the Governor's Palace in Genoa, Corsica is still a de jure territory of the Republic.

Of course, the Governor of Genoa also knew that it was impossible for them to quell the Corsican independence rebellion launched by Pasquale Paoli and Lawrence Bonaparte, so for this group of profit-seeking businessmen, it was in the best economic interest to find a buyer for this illusory de jure claim.

Historically, their buyers were the French, and this time, the Genoese apparently reached a deal with the Kingdom of Sardinia.

This also explains a doubt in Lawrence's mind - why Lieutenant General Ethel was able to recruit a Genoese mercenary group of thousands of people in such a short period of time. From this point of view, it seems that the Genoese diplomatic mission is indispensable. of assistance.

After listening to Governor Bertrand's report, Lawrence just smiled contemptuously.

Today, he is no longer the passenger of the White Rose who struggled to survive under the pursuit of the Genoese warship, nor is he the major of the National Defense Force who narrowly escaped death in order to lure the enemy deeper.

The current Republic of Genoa is no longer even qualified to be regarded as a worthy opponent by the Corsican people.

However, since this small country had repeatedly blocked his way, Lawrence felt that it was necessary to visit the Palace of the Governor of Genoa in person.

By the end of September, the situation in Sardinia had basically stabilized.

Although the Kingdom of Sardinia continued to send envoys to condemn Lawrence Bonaparte's unreasonable behavior of annexing other countries' territories before the end of the war, neither Lawrence nor the Sardinians took the enemy's complaints to heart. Barking in the eyes.

The Corsican Army's training on new muskets has been roughly completed. The steps to use these rifles are not much different from ordinary muskets. The focus of the training is also on teaching soldiers how to shoot accurately and improve their skills on the battlefield. hit rate.

Seeing that the time was roughly ripe, Lawrence summoned his close officers and staff in the political hall of the Royal Palace of Cagliari at the end of September to discuss the next action plan.

Originally, there were two schools of thought within the Corsican Army regarding the next action plan.

The radicals, mainly the young and vigorous young men of the Privy Knights headed by Berthier, believed that they should take advantage of the great opportunity when Colonel Bartland led an army of 10,000 to defeat Ajaccio, and when the Kingdom of Sardinia was weak in military strength. He went north to attack Turin and forced Carlo Emanuele III to completely abandon Sardinia.

The conservatives, represented by the calm and experienced Serurier, believe that the Kingdom of Corsica has made its due contribution in the Italian War, and next they should focus on defending Sardinia and Corsica. After all, Sardinia It is estimated that the standing army of the Ding Kingdom still has about 15,000 people, which is more than twice the number of the Corsican army.

However, after seeing the power of the new rifles brought by Major Trifali, the original conservatives also changed their minds and supported Lawrence's approach of leading the army north to Savoy.

So the content of the meeting quickly changed from "whether to fight" to "how to fight."

Chief of Staff Berthier had obviously already secretly drawn up a plan to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia. He skillfully explained to the officers and Lawrence using the map:

"Currently, we have only one route to march into Turin, which is to invade from the sea, quickly occupy the Kingdom of Sardinia's outlet in Liguria - Vado Lidore, and then go north across the hills and mountains of Liguria. Attack on Turin via the Po plain."

Lawrence analyzed for a moment, nodded in agreement and said:

"Well, the Kingdom of Sardinia should not expect that we would dare to take the initiative. Besides, Valdolidore is only a small seaport, and the Sardinian army will not station too many troops there."

"The Navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia was deterred by the French Mediterranean Fleet last time, and it is estimated that it will not dare to hinder our landing operations during this period." Berthier pointed to the map and added.

Selurie on the side frowned and stared at the map on the table, calmly analyzing:

"But the only problem is that after the landing at Valdolidore, our march route in Liguria is basically fixed. The enemy can easily predict our march route and deploy defenses in advance to occupy favorable terrain, even if we have Even more advanced weapons may inevitably lead to a bloody battle. "

Liguria, a long and narrow coastal area, is already rugged and hilly. The Republic of Genoa relies on this unique geographical advantage of being surrounded by the sea on one side and mountains on three sides to survive to this day.

In this complex terrain, the army can almost only march along fixed and gentle roads, unless its commander is willing to risk huge losses and morale pressure to cross mountains and hills.

And this also means that after the Sardinian Army learned that the Corsican Army had landed from Valdolidore, it could quickly respond and set up defenses and ambushes in advance along the Corsican Army's only route.

The officers and staff present also looked solemn. Even though the Corsican army had a huge equipment advantage, no one dared to say that they were sure of victory against the main force of the Sardinian army.

And if this battle fails, it means that the Corsican army will be completely annihilated in northern Italy, and the Sardinian army will take advantage of the opportunity to take back the two islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and the entire kingdom will also be defeated because of this battle. destroyed by failure.

Berthier's expression was also very solemn. He turned back a few pages of the plan and said in a deep voice:

"It is indeed unwise to fight the Sardinian Army directly in Liguria, but someone from the Army Staff proposed a plan. We can divide our forces after landing at Valdolidore, and let a small group of troops go north to launch a feint attack to attract the main force of the Sardinian Army. And it will be involved in Liguria, while the main force of our army will pass through Genoa to the east, and then directly attack Turin to the north. "

Everyone quickly looked at the map on the table. If this plan could be executed smoothly, the Corsican army could indeed successfully bypass the main force of the Sardinian army and directly launch a rapid attack on the enemy's capital Turin through the flat Po River plain.

"Who came up with this plan?" Lawrence asked with narrowed eyes.

"A captain of the Army Staff and a member of the Privy Knights, Andre Davout."

"Davout. How capable is this person?"

Berthier was originally responsible for the organization and personnel of the Privy Knights. He took out a data sheet from his briefcase and handed it to Lawrence, while explaining skillfully:

"Born in a military family of Annox, his grandfather, father and brother were all officers of the Royal Cavalry. He is now 21 years old. He has received family military education since he was a child and went to the Paris Military Academy for further studies at the age of 15. His grades in fencing, riding, tactical command and other courses are almost perfect. He is taciturn, but calm and decisive. He is loyal to the royal family and worships the Sun King Louis XIV. He was going to graduate from the military academy this year and join the Royal Cavalry, but due to family changes, he finally chose to join the Italian War with us."

Hearing this resume, even a professional soldier like Sérurier couldn't help but nod his head repeatedly. It is no wonder that such a seedling with excellent background, ability and potential would be selected by an elite corps like the Royal Cavalry.

Lawrence was also very satisfied with this candidate and the plan, especially the surname Davout and the noble origin of Annox. Perhaps Andre Davout was also related to the historical Marshal Davout.

"Of course, there is another problem that needs to be solved in this plan." Berthier added at the right time:

"We need to go east and pass through Genoa, but based on the relationship between Corsica and Genoa, the Republic of Genoa will most likely not allow our troops to pass through their city in a swagger."

A staff officer suggested:

"What about the feasibility of obtaining military passage through diplomatic means?"

This idea was immediately rejected by the officers and staff present:

"It's not very realistic. For a small country like the Republic of Genoa, their commercial city is the entire country. Everything will not allow foreign troops to pass freely, not to mention the Kingdom of Corsica, which has a blood feud with them. Moreover, diplomatic communication is likely to leak the news, which will make the Kingdom of Sardinia focus on the movements in the direction of Genoa. "

Berthier had to compromise when he saw this:

"In the worst case, we can go around Genoa, but going around the hilly terrain will slow down the march, and our plan is more likely to be discovered by the Sardinian army."

The government hall fell into a brief silence, and everyone looked at Lawrence on the main seat.

If they can't pass through Genoa, then there is no point in dividing the troops in Vadolidore to contain the main force of the Sardinian army.

"No, we won't go around Genoa."

Lawrence gestured at the map for a moment, and then made the final decision:

"The main force of our army will go directly east to Genoa City, and then go north to Turin."

"But the Genoese will not agree to our army entering their city." Berthier frowned and reminded.

"If they have any objections, I will remind the Governor of Genoa that the war between Corsica and Genoa has not yet been declared over."