I Treat You Like a Brother

Soon, the War Department came up with a relevant plan. According to this plan, before the Olympic Games, the Navy would first dispatch two squadrons consisting of twelve warships, including the all-steam-powered super cruisers "Free Trade" and "Unified Market," the steam-powered cruisers "Le Havre," "Toulon," and "Fos," to the North Africa coast to provide escort for merchant ships from various countries.

At the same time, the France government has authorized these warships to inspect any vessels they deem suspicious, and to use force as appropriate if they encounter resistance.

In addition, as part of the military operation, the France consuls in the Barbary States should immediately negotiate with them, demanding that they return the missing France crew members, ships, and cargo within a specified period, and provide reasonable compensation to the France.

These demands seem very reasonable, but for the Barbary States, they are difficult, even impossible, to fulfill. Firstly, they don't know who actually did it. The pirates who committed the act certainly wouldn't tell their superiors that they attacked a France ship; they would undoubtedly have re-flyed the stolen vessel with the flag of Spain or another small Italy nation.

Of course, this isn't a big problem; if they really wanted to investigate, they could find out. But even if they did, no pirate nation would dare admit it. If they didn't admit it, they could shift the blame to their neighbors; if they did admit it, they would have to bear all the consequences themselves.

Of course, that wasn't the most critical problem. The most critical problem was that the France demanded the return of the missing crew members. The question was, where had these missing crew members gone? The Pashas knew the answer even with their own eyes. A gang of pirates had robbed a ship belonging to a country that didn't allow robbery. Since they couldn't ask for ransom anyway, the simplest solution for secrecy was to immediately send all the crew members to chat with Poseidon. So there was no need to ask; the crew members had certainly been killed.

But you can't go to the France and say, "Oh, France brothers, we stole your ship, and we killed all your men. What are you going to do about it?" If you did that, the France fleet would definitely tear your house apart.

So now, admitting it is out of the question, and even investigating it is out of the question—if we investigate, wouldn't it imply that you might be the one who did it? The only barely feasible solution now is to pin the blame on the neighboring pirate nation.

Of course, other pirate nations would certainly not hesitate to shift the blame as well. In short, no one would willingly let all the blame fall on them. Besides, there is an advantage to this mutual blame-shifting: it binds the Barbary States together. That way, if the France really do turn against them, everyone can share the burden, which is at least better than bearing it alone.

This is like fish in the ocean; when faced with potential danger, they always gather together, forming a dense school to fight off predators. And this strategy is generally very effective against ordinary predators. However, if what comes isn't an ordinary predator, but a trawler, then the entire school of fish...

France, having already achieved initial industrialization, was like a trawler. But more critically, the Muslim world was gradually falling behind the times. This falling behind wasn't just about technological backwardness; more importantly, their scientific backwardness led to a backward perspective. The most typical manifestation of this backwardness was their inability to understand their own capabilities and the gap between themselves and advanced levels. Sometimes, even if you demonstrated extraordinary abilities, they still couldn't comprehend it. Without comprehension, there is naturally no fear. Without fear, intimidation tactics are completely ineffective.

This is similar to how, even after witnessing the omnipresent and omniscient Sophon in "The Three-Body Problem," the Earthlings still believed that their 2,400 star-class warships were enough to withstand the "care" from their Trisolaran father. Their backwardness in basic science prevented them from even imagining how strong their opponent was, only assuming that they were roughly equal to themselves.

The Barbary States were in a similar situation. They believed that if they banded together, although they couldn't defeat the France, as long as they dared to fight, they should be able to inflict considerable losses on the France, and then they should be able to achieve a more respectable outcome.

Therefore, faced with the France demands, the pirate nations basically switched to blame-shifting tactics, telling the France that they were not responsible, that they did not have a habit of attacking France ships, and that it must have been pirates from other places who did it.

While insisting that they had nothing to do with it, several pirate nations also issued warnings to their pirate ships that were preparing to set sail, ordering them not to attack France vessels again.

As for those pirate ships that are already at sea and haven't had time to return, we can only hope they don't cause any more trouble.

By this time, Pauline had completed the historic task of lighting the Olympic torch. She then wandered around Greece for a while, visiting places associated with heroic tales, and buying some ancient Greece artifacts of dubious authenticity. Finally, she boarded a ship again and left Greece.

The "Imperator" made a brief stop in Naples, partly to allow Pauline to go ashore for a while to relax, and partly to replenish some supplies.

Pauline, accompanied by a group of bodyguards, took a stroll around Naples, buying some Rome artifacts of dubious authenticity, as well as some local newspapers, intending to pass the time on the road.

However, Pauline glanced casually at the newspaper and immediately saw a news item. "Barbary Pirates on a rampage, and the French Navy has begun escorting merchant ships."

Pauline's eyes lit up immediately. She turned to Berdon, who was standing to the side, and smiled radiantly, saying, "Berdon, if you can convince the captain to take a detour and fight the Barbary Pirates, I'll give you a small reward, how about it?"

"What exactly is the reward?" Berdon asked quickly.

"I haven't decided yet," Pauline laughed. She leaned over, put her arm around Berdon's shoulder, and whispered in Berdon ear, "But I'm telling you, we're such good friends, I definitely won't let you do all this for nothing, right?"

Berdon's ears were tickled by the breath Pauline was blowing from her mouth, and then a soft part of Pauline seemed to have unintentionally brushed against his arm, making him feel a little distracted.

"Miss Bonaparte," Berdon said, forcing a smile, "I consider you a brother, you can't..."