Trade War and Proxy War

Shipbuilding is a slow process, but the announcement of this plan immediately caused a huge reaction in the market. Building these warships required vast amounts of steel, numerous factories, a large workforce, and a great many engineers... or, to use a later expression, it would be:

"The Soviet Union, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Planning Commission, the Military-Industrial Commission and nine defense industry ministries, 600 related specialties, 8,000 supporting manufacturers—in short, it required a great nation to complete it."

In France today, the Republic has replaced the "Soviet Union," the Consulate has replaced the "Central Committee of the Military-Industrial Consortium has replaced the "Military-Industrial Committee and nine defense ministries." Although France's military industry has not yet developed to the point of having "600 related specialties and 8,000 supporting manufacturers," warships of this era are simpler, and France's existing industrial capacity is sufficient. As for "a great nation," isn't Napoleon's current slogan "Let France remain great"?

With the launch of this plan, the previously stagnant industrial machinery began to run again. Steel mills and various machinery factories started recruiting again, and various supporting factories started operating. As a result, factory workers began to receive wages, and the market began to show a clear recovery.

"Investing in the military might stimulate the economy in the short term, but in the long run, unless we strike gold, such military investment essentially means inevitable war. Because without war, there are no war dividends, and economically speaking, this approach will only lead to ever-increasing debt and ultimately greater economic pressure. You could say it's like drinking poison to quench thirst," Joseph couldn't help but warn Napoleon, seeing his apparent satisfaction with the recovering economy.

"Of course I know that," Napoleon said.

The massive shipbuilding program also brought a great sense of relief to other countries on the Europe continent. The reason was simple: if the France were committed to building a large fleet, then their target would certainly not be themselves. As for why the France were expanding their army, it was obviously for the purpose of landing on Britain.

However, the use of these expanded engineering troops once again refreshed the understanding of other countries—it turns out there are such ways to use them. The France then announced a second plan to expand domestic demand, namely the "Five Major Rivers System Improvement Plan of France". According to this plan, France will connect five major river systems within France through canals in the coming years, making inland waterway transportation in France more convenient.

In addition, France will carry out Qing Dynasty of river channels to allow larger ocean-going vessels to enter the France interior directly. Of course, this is a huge project, and the newly formed engineering corps has been put to use in this way.

The third part of expanding domestic demand is to combat the dumping of foreign goods in France.

This was also aimed at Britain. Napoleon accused Britain of not adhering to the universally recognized principles of free trade when trading with France and even the European continent, and demanded that Britain immediately stop its discriminatory tariffs on France steel products, otherwise France would take reciprocal sanctions.

In fact, France had consistently maintained a trade surplus with Britain for many years, even after the Britain imposed tariffs and other restrictions on France industrial goods. (Of course, this France trade surplus came at a cost; Britain had a trade deficit with France alone, but a trade surplus with the rest of Europe.) Given this surplus, the France Britain n't previously been too concerned about Britain's actions. However, things were different now. In Napoleon's plan, the Jews were to be blamed for the economic crisis, while the Britain were to bear the consequences.

The most important way to solve the economic crisis is to reduce overcapacity. However, reducing one's own overcapacity is not a good thing; it's better to reduce the overcapacity of others. In all of Europe, apart from France, only Britain's overcapacity is worth considering. Moreover, the Britain control so many colonies, which are the best markets for dumping industrial goods. Who in Europe wouldn't be envious?

So when Napoleon delivered his State of the Union address and budget, the countries of continental Europe began to protest. The Netherlands was the first to follow suit, claiming that Britain's dumping practices violated the principles of free trade. Therefore, in retaliation, the Netherlands planned to double or triple the tariffs on more than fifty kinds of goods imported from Britain.

Following suit, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Northern Italian Republic, and even Austria joined in. They all stated that because the Britain were not following the rules and refused to open their colonial markets to other Europe countries, they would also raise tariffs on Britain goods in a targeted manner.

Then the France took the stage themselves. France Foreign Minister Talleyrand summoned the Britain ambassador to France and demanded that Britain immediately adopt the same "Open Door Policy" as Spain, allowing other Europe countries to conduct any legal business activities on an equal footing in Britain colonies.

This was of course impossible, because if such a demand were agreed to, whose colony would it be? This was something the Britain could never agree to, at least not until the boots of the France army had set foot on the grounds of the Buckingham Palace.

Therefore, the Britain rejected the absurd demands of the France without hesitation, and stated that if France imposed trade sanctions on Britain would also impose trade sanctions on France.

Upon receiving this response, the France immediately announced punitive tariffs on more than thirty types of Britain exports. The Britain, in turn, first advised the France against engaging in actions that harmed both sides, then sternly warned France not to underestimate the Britain determination to protect their interests. After delaying for another month, seeing that almost all of Europe had followed the France lead and begun closing their markets to Britain, the Britain finally officially announced punitive tariffs on the same thirty-odd France exports to Britain. Thus, a trade war officially broke out.

In Ireland, the truce between the Ireland and the Britain had been in place for several years. During this time, neither side had been idle. The Britain had been constantly building outposts in their controlled territories, trying to consolidate their control and prepare for future raids.

The Ireland, of course, weren't idle either. In the past few years, they had strengthened the regularization of the Ireland Independence Army. Although limited by the agreement with the Britain, the Independence Army still only had two divisions, each division with three regiments, each regiment with three battalions, and so on... the number of companies under the battalions was uncertain, ranging from A to Z at most. The number of platoons under the companies was also uncertain, ranging from A to Z in many cases. The number of squads under the platoons and groups under the squads was also inconsistent. In short, an Irish Independence Army regiment was comparable in size to Li Yunlong's regiment, and an Irish Independence Army division had grown from a division of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army to the size of a PLA army group in later generations. The two divisions combined had 100,000 men.

Besides the increase in numbers, the Irish Independence Army) has also made significant progress in training and equipment with the support of its France allies. The France have never given up on arming the Ireland. They have provided weapons to the Ireland in various ways, under the guise of civilian infrastructure projects. Today, the Irish Independence Army's weaponry, except for heavy artillery, is even slightly more advanced than that of the Britain.

Furthermore, mutual infiltration between the two sides never ceased. The Britain were constantly trying to infiltrate the Ireland ranks, while the Ireland were continuously trying to recruit those on the Britain side. But overall, the Ireland naturally held the upper hand in this matter. It wasn't easy for the Britain to infiltrate the Ireland; however, the Britain Ireland plenty of Ireland people who were playing both sides.

In addition, although the two sides maintained a generally peaceful situation over the past few years, small-scale conflicts have been almost constant. Most of these conflicts occurred between the Irish Independence Army's "Traitor-Hunting Corps" and the special operations teams of the Britain Military Intelligence Service. The Ireland "Traitor-Hunting Corps" have been secretly operating in cities including Dublin, assassinating those "traitors" who refused to cooperate with the Society of United Irishmen, in order to force more Ireland serving the Britain to join the ranks of those "playing both sides."

Frankly, with very few exceptions, most people who become "traitors" do so for one of two reasons: money and fear of death. Such people aren't particularly loyal to Britain, unless the Britain are cracking down hard; they aren't actually averse to "playing both sides." Now, in addition to the fact that if they don't "give them a little favor" or "go too far," they might be killed by a bullet or even a Grenade from who-knows-where. Therefore, the Ireland in Britain- controlled areas generally have a somewhat passive, uncooperative attitude. To catch the Ireland Federation's "anti-traitor squad," it's basically only possible with the help of legitimate Britain.

To curb the operations of the "Traitor-Hunting Corps," the Britain Military Intelligence Service formed a special operations team. They would often first set up a bait (have a "traitor" do something unusual to attract the "Traitor-Hunting Corps's" attention), and then carry out a targeted ambush.

Initially, the Military Intelligence Bureau's special operations team used this method to their advantage, killing many of the "Traitor-Hunting Corps" members. However, soon after, the "Traitor-Hunting Corps" also took countermeasures, launching direct attacks against the Military Intelligence Bureau's special operations team.

Moreover, their attack methods and techniques were constantly evolving. They even managed to smuggle France- made grenade launchers into the city and then shell the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Bureau's special operations team, causing considerable casualties to the team.

Furthermore, the Britain discovered that the Ireland Traitor-Hunting Corps were employing increasingly sophisticated methods. Besides violent grenade launchers and rifles with scopes, they were even using small crossbows that fired poison needles. These crossbows were only the size of a palm, resembling children's toys. However, they were extremely deadly, capable of silently launching a poison needle twenty meters away, with considerable accuracy at a distance of about ten meters. This was because the needles used a special nerve agent derived from a creature found in the rainforest. This agent was a highly effective anesthetic that blocked nerve conduction, so many people were completely unaware of being hit.

Once struck by this poisonous needle, the toxin enters the body, causing the muscles throughout the victim's body, including the diaphragm and heart muscle, to relax within minutes. Once the diaphragm and heart muscle relax, the person immediately stops breathing and has no heartbeat. Within minutes, they will die from cerebral hypoxia.

Because this toxin was so effective and so difficult to detect, the Ireland sometimes even smeared it on the tips of umbrellas for assassinations. In short, in this covert war, the Britain discovered that they were technologically outmatched by the Ireland...

Britain and France have now practically turned against each other. To be honest, the Ireland have been waiting for this day for a long time. The entire Society of United Irishmen knows that the time for independence is just around the corner.

In July 1805, the Ireland harvested their potatoes and then declared that Britain troops had violated the armistice by attacking a village near the military demarcation line, causing great losses to the Ireland people. The Britain had thus breached the armistice, and from that moment on, the armistice was null and void.

Of course, in order to project an image of peace-loving Ireland people, the Society of United Irishmen and the Irish Independence Army gave the Britain a chance to make peace. They issued an ultimatum to the Britain, demanding that they hand over Britain criminals who attacked Ireland villages to the Ireland within twelve hours, and they named these Britain directly. They also demanded that the Britain withdraw all their troops from Ireland within forty-eight hours.

Such conditions were certainly not peaceful conditions; they were conditions for the Britain to surrender. In fact, the sole purpose of proposing such conditions was to ensure that the Britain would reject them.

The Britain, of course, refused without hesitation. They also ordered their British Army in Ireland to immediately enter a state of high alert, ready to use force to quell the rebellion and maintain national unity. The Society of United Irishmen then issued the "Declaration of the Liberation of All Ireland," and after several years of truce, war reignited in Ireland.