A Pretext for War

The Britain on the armored train had noticed the damaged tracks ahead, so the train began to slow down, and the infantry on board began preparing to disembark and fight.

The train wheels creaked and groaned as they rubbed against the rails, and the train shuddered and slowed down sharply. The soldiers on board grabbed whatever was around them to maintain their balance.

The armored train had good braking performance and slowly came to a stop very close to the damaged section of the railway. The soldiers grabbed their weapons and prepared to disembark and fight. Just then, a series of artillery shots rang out.

The Independence Army's two 40mm long-barreled guns fired first. Their target was the engine of the Britain armored train. Unlike ordinary trains, the engine of an armored train is usually positioned in the middle to avoid damage to the most critical engine if it runs over a landmine.

However, this arrangement was useless against artillery. Two 40mm armor-piercing rounds easily penetrated the thin layer of armor hanging outside the engine cylinders, which was meant to stop rifle bullets. Against the 40mm armor-piercing rounds, it was as fragile as paper.

After the cylinder was pierced by the shell, it exploded, and high-pressure steam gushed out, enveloping the train's cab and other areas in white steam. Later, while cleaning up the battlefield, the soldiers of the Independence Army discovered that the driver and boiler operator in the cab had been steamed alive.

After the 40mm cannon fired, the other cannons also opened fire on the armored train. When using the 60mm short-barreled cannon, the penetration power of the 60mm shell is far less than that of the 40mm shell due to its lower muzzle velocity. However, the 60mm armor-piercing fragmentation shell is still sufficient to penetrate the armored train's passenger compartment, and can only withstand rifle bullets.

The French Army had begun equipping itself with high-explosive shells, but these shells were still very expensive, so the Ireland avoided using them whenever possible. Armor-piercing fragmentation shells, on the other hand, relied primarily on the fragments that shattered after penetrating armor to cause damage, without the need for fuses or explosives, making them much cheaper.

The Britain armored train had a total of six carriages. The two middle carriages were the power car and the water car. At both ends of them were crew cars, and at each end of the crew cars was a gun car equipped with two cannons.

According to the plan, one of the key tasks of the Independence Army's artillery was to strike the crew compartments before the British Army soldiers disembarked. Based on the results of France experiments, if they could fire one or two rounds of armor-piercing shells at the crew compartments before the Britain soldiers disembarked, they could almost immediately render the entire army inside, who had not yet disembarked, combat ineffective.

Just as the France had predicted, several cannons fired a few salvos at the crew vehicle, and then several blood-soaked, distraught Britain soldiers ran down from it.

These Britain didn't even take their guns; they just ran around aimlessly, completely forgetting that there were minefields all around. Many of Britain stepped on landmines themselves.

At this point, the Britain artillery cars reacted and began firing at the Independence Army's artillery, but due to the hasty firing, several shells missed their mark. Meanwhile, the Independence Army infantry, brandishing their rifles, charged towards the immobilized Britain armored train.

The few cannons on the gun carriages alone could not stop the infantry charge, because they could not provide continuous firepower. The combat effectiveness of the armored train largely depended on the infantry carried in the carriages. But now it was clear that those infantrymen were unreliable, so the Independence Army soldiers quickly rushed to the front and entered the blind spots of the guns on the gun carriages.

The soldiers were about to throw Grenade at the stubbornly resisting enemy when they suddenly noticed the enemy artillery fire had stopped. A white shirt was being pulled out with a bayonet and waved at them, and they heard a voice shouting, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! We surrender!"

The Britain surrendered so readily, which surprised the soldiers. Generally speaking, the fighting ability and fighting spirit of the genuine British Army far exceeded those of the Security Army. They rarely surrendered so readily.

However, once the soldiers entered the crew compartment and saw the damage caused by the armor-piercing shells, they all understood why the Britain surrendered so readily.

"That (crew compartment) was a complete disaster. The shells pierced the outer armor and shattered as they entered, like shotgun shells. Oh, no, these things are far more powerful than shotgun shells. Each shotgun shell is roughly equivalent to a revolver bullet. But these are artillery shells. After penetrating the armor, even the smaller fragments can still kill a person and then injure another. The larger fragments can kill several people, and even after killing three or four, they can bounce off another armor plate and still injure someone."

The train carriages were so densely packed that when shelling began, there was nowhere for anyone to take cover. The continuous bombardment didn't even give them time to disembark. In one carriage, with the exception of a few, most of the Britain were killed or seriously wounded. It can be said that in those few volleys of shelling, at least three-quarters of the more than three hundred Britain soldiers in the two carriages were rendered incapacitated. This single, rapid-fire salvo essentially decided the outcome of the battle.

The Independence Army soldiers left the dead or wounded Britain behind, then used explosives to completely destroy the armored train before leaving the railway line with prisoners and spoils.

Over the next month, the Independence Army deployed more than 100 battalions to launch sabotage operations along multiple railway lines throughout Ireland. They successfully destroyed over 100 British Army strongholds, killed or wounded more than 6,000 British Army, destroyed 13 armored trains, and captured a large quantity of weapons.

In this battle, a situation rarely seen before arose: the British Army suffered significantly more casualties and prisoners than the Security Army. Many Security Army units avoided combat, citing excuses such as "their telephones are broken and they can't hear anything" (it is said that some Security Army units cut their own telephone lines, which were then destroyed by the Independence Army, preventing them from receiving orders). Therefore, aside from losing a considerable amount of weapons, they did not actually suffer significant losses.

However, the Britain battle reports still described their losses as staggering. Captain Jarvis and his men reported being attacked by the Independence Army, suffering heavy casualties, with nearly half their men dead, some even down to a third. After all, if so many of their own Britain lords were killed or wounded, how could the security forces be expected to escape Britain? Wouldn't that be blatant collusion with the Independence Army? Therefore, they had to exaggerate their losses to prove that they had indeed rushed to the aid of the Britain troops when they were besieged by rebels.

Of course, the dead Ireland Security Army were basically ghosts. Or rather, they existed only on the payroll and didn't actually exist. They all shared one name. "Ghost employees."

The Britain suffered another setback and retreated to the major cities. Athlone, which had recently inflicted heavy losses on the Independence Army, began to be isolated. Although they were not besieged again, the continuous sabotage of the railway lines made the supply of materials to the area increasingly difficult.

"Damn it, where is our fleet? If we can't stop the France from supporting the rebels, we'll bleed dry in the Ireland swamps!" Faced with this predicament, the Duke of Norfolk switched to blame-shifting mode, desperately trying to pin the blame on the British Navy.

There was no other way; the situation was already close to getting out of control. If they didn't shift the blame now, how could they maintain their position in the future? It's like Trump in later years; whenever his poll numbers started to fall behind, he would vehemently criticize China. The further behind China was, the more blame he could shift onto the "white rabbit," and the more imaginative he had to be.

However, the Duke of Norfolk was unaware that Nelson's fleet was facing immense danger at that moment.

In order to obtain intelligence from North America in a timely manner, the French Navy dispatched several cruisers equipped with radio equipment to Upstream the Atlantic Ocean, serving as temporary radio signal relay stations.

Using this system, the France quickly learned about the Britain fleet, especially the Queen Elizabeth.

"Joseph, look at the new intelligence: the Queen Elizabeth is severely damaged and unable to travel at high speeds. This squadron is currently on its way back. What do you think, should we...?"

"You mean we should take advantage of their misfortune?" Joseph, who was telling his daughter a story, stopped and asked when he heard Napoleon's words.

"Daddy, what happened to Snow White later?" little Alice asked.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? The prince and princess lived happily ever after," Joseph said.

"And then what happened?" The daughter, unwilling to let it end there, asked again.

"And then? Well, he died, of course," Joseph said.

"How did she die? Did a witch give her a poisoned apple again?"

"There are no witches, but people always grow old and die. If Snow White doesn't die, then she must become an old witch too!" Joseph smiled and patted Alice's head, then said, "Alright, Alice, the story is over. Hmm, go play by yourself for a while. I have some things to discuss with your Uncle Napoleon."

Alice then ran out the door, thoughtfully closing it behind her.

"I want to send our main fleet out to intercept and destroy them. As long as we can find and destroy them at sea, we will gain a decisive advantage over the British Navy and force them to make further concessions to us."

"Who is the Britain fleet commander?" Joseph asked.

"General Nelson. He has performed exceptionally well in the previous series of military operations," Napoleon replied.

Upon hearing the name, Joseph hesitated again. Although, according to Napoleon's thinking, the France fleet was far superior to Nelson's fleet in both tonnage and equipment level, the mere mention of Nelson's name was enough to make Joseph hesitate.

However, after thinking for a long time, Joseph finally made up his mind:

"Compared to Nelson's fleet, we are larger, better equipped, and in better condition. It's like a flying dragon... Ugh, ugh, ugh, you can't say such unsportsmanlike things." Joseph thought to himself, then said, "We can try, but don't suffer any losses."

The two talked for a long time and agreed on the general principles. The next thing to do was to deal with Admiral Treville.

Seeing that his plan had received his elder brother's blessing, Napoleon became even more confident about the operation.

"As everyone knows, Joseph is a coward; he won't speak carelessly about things he's not sure about," Napoleon thought.

Of course, France and Britain are currently at peace. Even though everyone can see that taking action against the Britain would be opportunistic, a reason or pretext is still needed. If Britain and France shared a border, the France could simply find a group of death row inmates, dress them in Britain army uniforms...

However, this problem also didn't require Napoleon's attention; Lucien and Talleyrand could discuss it.

After consulting with Talleyrand, Lucien returned to Napoleon and said, "We'll send a warship, preferably a relatively important one, to Britain for a visit—a show of force, of course. Then, the Britain will certainly protest against us. Next, we'll have the ship explode and sink in a Britain port. Then we'll accuse the Britain of blowing up our warship, followed by a whole host of demands they can't possibly agree to, and issue them an ultimatum. Then we can legitimately wage war against the Britain."

"What class of warships do you think would be suitable?" Napoleon asked.

"A super cruiser would be best," Lucien replied.

"Nonsense! You have no sense of decency whatsoever! Do you know how expensive a super cruiser is?" Napoleon said, quite displeased. "Besides, super cruisers are an important force in combat; we can't waste them like this. Hmm, just send an armored cruiser. Really, it's just an excuse anyway. Who doesn't know it's an excuse? Furthermore, as long as the Britain attack our ships, even if it's just a patrol boat that sinks, that's enough of an excuse."