Irish Crisis

Indeed, the Britain steam warships were technically quite mediocre. In Joseph's words, "These things are utter rubbish! Every aspect of their technology is far behind ours. I spent a full fifty thousand francs and only got one useful piece of information: the Britain steamships are rubbish!"

Indeed, paddlewheel steamships were a complete technical failure. As warships, the exposed paddlewheel was their most obvious weakness. Furthermore, the presence of the paddlewheel significantly hampered the placement of cannons. Militarily, such ships had very limited uses. As civilian vessels, the paddlewheel itself had low propulsion efficiency, yet its structural weight was astonishing, not only greatly increasing the ship's weight but also occupying considerable valuable space for its auxiliary transmission mechanisms. In addition, paddlewheels were prone to one-sided water leakage in high sea states, causing the wheels to spin unnecessarily and easily leading to various mechanical failures. In short, compared to propellers, paddlewheels, aside from their intimidating appearance, had virtually no advantages.

Although Joseph said that, this "backward dregs" did indeed cause the France a lot of trouble.

Within just one work cycle, four clipper ships failed to return from Ireland. Several other clipper ships that did return lost all their cargo. According to the shaken captains, they were chased at sea by Britain warships billowing black smoke.

At the same time, Britain newspapers also published reports about the "heroic Royal Navy" capturing a France clipper ship, in an effort to boost the morale of the increasingly demoralized Britain.

The France, of course, immediately retaliated with the story of Captain Morel's capture of the Britain steamship. This story not only appeared in newspapers but was also quickly adapted for the stage. On stage, Captain Morel was indeed portrayed as exceptionally brave, but the more striking aspect was the portrayal of the Britain, almost comparable to the Germans in the later classic France film "La Grande Vadrouille."

But mere rhetoric couldn't immediately change the situation at sea. As the Britain deployed more and more steamships, the amount of supplies the France could transport to Ireland steadily decreased. Eventually, France ships were forced to remain in the open sea far from Ireland (because Britain steamships wouldn't venture that far due to range limitations) until weather conditions became relatively harsh, at which point they dared to approach Ireland. (After all, in rough seas, paddlewheels became useless.)

Even with this approach, which ensured that the blood vessel leading to Ireland was not completely severed, the fact remains that the vessel suffered severe embolism.

For the Britain, the important thing was to take advantage of this time to bleed the Ireland dry on the battlefield. Even if they couldn't completely eliminate the Ireland rebels, they had to severely damage them.

The Duke of Norfolk was then ordered once again to severely cripple, or even eliminate, the rebels as quickly as possible. Along with this order from the cabinet came a decree from the King: "An even harsher crackdown must be launched against illegal religious organizations disloyal to the King."

The Duke of Norfolk stated that both tasks were very difficult, and if he were to carry them out, he would need to be given additional troops. Moreover, the number of troops could not be small, at least 100,000.

Never before in Britain history had such a large number of troops been mobilized. Such an excessive request was naturally not going to be approved by the government, but the Duke of Norfolk did have his own reasons for making such a request.

First, naturally, you'll ask for the absolute maximum, then try to negotiate on the spot. For example, if you honestly say, "I want 50,000 troops," the government will definitely try to give you a discount, and you'll be lucky to have 25,000 left. So you have to shout first, "I want 100,000!"

Secondly, it's about preparing a way out for the future. In case of failure (in fact, even if the Ireland are facing difficulties now, it's not easy to completely eliminate them; the chance of failure is far greater than one in ten thousand), there will be a reason to shirk responsibility.

The Duke of Norfolk meant something everyone understood: this is how the bureaucracy has operated for years. Only a fool would give his subordinates whatever they want, until everyone runs out of excuses, and then they all have no choice but to take risks, ultimately leading to their downfall.

So, following the usual practice, the government negotiated with the Duke of Norfolk and then sent him an army of over 40,000 men, almost entirely composed of new recruits.

The Duke of Norfolk outwardly expressed great dissatisfaction, even making disparaging remarks in a letter to the Prime Minister. However, everyone knew that the Duke of Norfolk was actually quite content, and his complaints were merely a way to secure his future.

The Duke of Norfolk understood that the new recruits were mostly inexperienced and poorly trained. But even these recruits were better than the Irish Security Force. At least for now, there was no genuine British Army trying to have their cake and eat it too.

In the upcoming sweep, the Duke of Norfolk must leave enough troops to defend his home base, and avoid a repeat of the scenario where troops were sent to attack other people's bases only to have his own base stolen later. The primary purpose of these 40,000-plus greenhorn recruits is to defend key points to ensure the safety of his rear during the sweep.

As for those less reliable "Irish Security Force," they proved quite useful in sweeps. For example, they were used to destroy potatoes in non-security areas—should the regular army be given that kind of job?

So after the group of greenhorns arrived, the Duke of Norfolk sent them to various outposts to strengthen their defenses before launching another large-scale sweep against the Ireland.

However, the timing of this sweep wasn't particularly favorable. The Duke had originally planned to wait until just before the potato harvest. But the government was eager for good news, and the Duke himself knew that the France supply lines weren't completely cut off. Delaying it for two months, until just before the potato harvest, would indeed inflict a greater blow on the Ireland rebels. Now, the potatoes had only just been planted; attacking now and ruining the potato fields would allow the Ireland time to replant, although the final yield would certainly be lower. But it was still better than being caught off guard before the harvest.

However, postponing the operation for such a long period would put more pressure on the government, which would then need encouraging good news. Moreover, several months would give the rebels more time to prepare. While a sweep might yield greater results, the losses would also be greater.

Furthermore, while the Britain currently hold a temporary advantage at sea thanks to their "world-leading technology," who knows what might happen in the future?

The news that the Duke of Norfolk was preparing for another large-scale sweep could not be kept secret; the Society of United Irishmen had already obtained intelligence. This was because there were simply too many people in the "Irish Security Force" who were playing both sides.

So before the Duke of Norfolk could even begin to act, the Society of United Irishmen was already holding a meeting to discuss counter-sweeping measures.

"How to do it? Of course, it's the same as last time. When the enemy comes to our home, we go to the enemy's home. Everyone fights their own battle, and we see who can't take it anymore."

"Commander Joyce, that old bastard has brought back over 40,000 men from Britain this time. He's probably going to keep them at home to defend the country. Those outposts won't be as easy to take as last time," Chairman Russell warned.

"But Chairman, we've become much stronger too. Especially our assault capabilities," Joyce replied. "In response to the shortcomings in our assault capabilities exposed during the last counter-sweep operation, we requested support from our France comrades and also intensified our training accordingly. Now our assault capabilities are far superior to what they were last time. That old bastard probably thought we couldn't take down his outposts, but we can definitely give them a surprise."

"I agree with Commander Joyce's view. But I think we should not only attack the enemy's supply depots, but also concentrate our forces to attack the enemy that has entered our base area," said Xie Lan, commander of the Irish Second Division. "Our army has grown considerably in size, and the Britain know this, but they don't know how much stronger we have become. So if they still think they can run rampant like last time, just by gathering a few hundred British Army and a few hundred 'black dogs,' they are mistaken. I think we can let them into our base area first, then we can attack them from behind, knock out a few key supply depots, force them to retreat, and then we can immediately move back to our base area and strike the retreating enemy forces hard."

"Very good, everyone's morale is high!" Chairman Russell said happily. "We've encountered some trouble recently; our weapons supplies have dropped significantly. But comrades, we can't rely solely on our France comrades for everything. We must also be self-reliant. If we don't have guns or cannons, we can have the Britain make them for us! Besides, defending the motherland can't rely solely on the regular army. Every county brigade, district squad, and village group must be mobilized. Don't underestimate the small number of people in village groups; they may not be able to fight big battles, but if we kill a few today and a few more tomorrow, the cumulative effect shouldn't be underestimated."

"At least we can take down those black dogs and seize a few guns from them," someone said. "Do you think it's better for the Britain to give those black dogs guns or not?" Then everyone laughed.