Siege (2)

Strictly speaking, facing fortifications filled with artillery shelters, barbed wire, and trenches, artillery alone couldn't completely solve the problem. Moreover, in the era before synthetic ammonia, both propellants and explosives were derived from saltpeter or nitrate clay, the production of which was quite limited. Even after the Panama Railway was opened, allowing the France to import large quantities of saltpeter from Chile, the consumption of this saltpeter was still significant, primarily not for military purposes, but for agricultural use.

Yes, the main use of these nitrate deposits was as fertilizer to increase agricultural yields. Historically, Napoleon's most steadfast and stable supporters in France were the peasants in the France countryside. Interestingly, in contemporary France, peasants are significantly more active in political participation than urban residents.

During the French Revolution, France residents were significantly more politically active. However, during the Napoleon era, land grants to veterans and the organization of the Veterans Association led to a greater degree of peasant organization. Today, these Veterans Association have become essentially monopolistic syndicates (a type of business alliance where individual companies cannot independently sell goods and procure raw materials; everything is handled centrally by a central office, leading to fierce competition for product sales and raw material allocations. While they maintain independence in production and legal matters, they have lost commercial independence).

Today, the procurement of raw materials and the export of goods in rural France are almost entirely handled through the Veterans Association. This gives the organization enormous economic and political influence. At the association's command, the entire France countryside would rise up to support Napoleon.

Of course, no support is priceless. Every gift bestowed by fate comes with a hidden price. The reason the Veterans Association supported Napoleon was not merely because many of its members were Napoleon former subordinates—this was a factor, but not the decisive one. The most decisive factor was that Napoleon's various policies represented and protected their interests.

Napoleon did not levy agricultural taxes. Theoretically, agricultural taxes still existed, but due to a series of exemptions and reductions, they were practically non-existent in practice. (Of course, it's hard to say whether agricultural taxes would still be levied under a different person.) Moreover, Napoleon's methods of unifying irrigation with electricity and expanding into foreign markets brought them considerable profits. Therefore, the entire countryside was consistently supportive of Napoleon.

The situation is quite different in cities. Cities today have relatively high population mobility, and many urban residents are still considered "honorary France citizens" or "prospective France citizens." As Mencius said, a person needs a reliable business to have a reliable political stance. Therefore, urban support for Napoleon is actually weaker than that in rural areas.

One political secret is to never betray your base. Often, the wavering faction is crucial, so much so that politicians easily develop the illusion, or for the sake of electoral gain, that their base will always be on their side—the so-called "I may mistreat my base a thousand times, but they'll still love me." Then they sacrifice their base to appease the so-called "centrists." This is completely irrational, wishful thinking, and doesn't mean they can live off one government while sleeping with another. Even Trump knew this was wrong.

However, history is full of fools like this. For example, the later-era "King of the Hill" (or "King of the Hill"), even after rolling to the Ghost Island, still kept making the same mistake, always wanting to be the "president of all the people." Then the centrists realized that they absolutely could not become the "King of the Hill's" base, otherwise they would be roasted by them; while the base also realized that they were being used as "steamed buns" by the "King of the Hill." So not only did they fail to retain the centrists, but the base also fled, and in the end, it became the half-dead state it is today.

Napoleon wasn't a fool, nor were Joseph and Lucien. Therefore, Napoleon frequently stated publicly. "No matter how poor we are, we must not neglect agriculture; no matter how hard life is, we must not let the farmers suffer."

Moreover, he not only said it, but he also did it. For example, ship after ship of saltpeter was hauled back from South America, and most of it was made into ammonium nitrate explosives—no, I mean ammonium nitrate fertilizer—which farmers then spread in their wheat fields. As a result, France's wheat yields were high, its costs were low, and it was very popular in the market, causing Ukraine, which has the most fertile black soil in all of Europe, to face famine again. Of course, this is a matter of the free market and also a matter of the Russia government; in short, it is definitely not France's responsibility.

The resurgence of famine in Ukraine is mainly attributed to the excessive short-sightedness of some Russia. Following the escalating tensions between France and Britain, the Britain, naturally following tradition, sent diplomats to attempt an alliance with Russia against France. However, the Russia believed that Russia and Britain alone were insufficient to counter France and its numerous Europe allies. Unless the Britain could bring in Austria, Prussia, and Spain, Russia would not join such an alliance.

The Russia had no intention of allying with the Britain or helping them profit from Britain misfortune, but that didn't mean Russia weren't ambitious. While the France actions against Britain sparked a frenzy of partitioning the Britain, the geographically distant Russia seemed unlikely to get a share. However, if the France and other Europe nations were drawn to Britain, then taking the opportunity to bully Turkey to the south seemed like a very viable option.

However, although the Turkey were not as powerful as before, defeating them would still require a great deal of effort. As the saying goes, even a weakened camel is bigger than a horse. After all, it was a vast empire.

Moreover, over the years, the Turkey have been training new troops and purchasing various weapons, especially many of the retired France equipment, which Turkey have taken back.

Therefore, the Russia also needed to strengthen their military and purchase weapons and supplies. Moreover, they incurred even more expenses; for example, they needed to develop their own industry, so they needed to buy machinery; they needed to maintain their purchased machinery, so they needed to hire France engineers; they needed to train their own engineers, so they spent money to send them to France for study; they needed to establish their own universities, so... In short, all of these things required money, but where did the money come from? Russia industry had made considerable progress in recent years, but compared to France, it was utterly insignificant. In civilian goods, they were completely uncompetitive; even in military supplies, considering the cost of production and the price of secondhand France goods, it was truly better to buy than to manufacture.

Since industry can't make money, the only option left is agriculture, which means exporting grain. But the problem is that the international market is now flooded with France grain.

In recent years, a strange phenomenon has emerged in the international market: whatever the France buy, its price rises; whatever the France sell, its price falls. Now, with France itself preparing for war, the consequence is that war-related goods are all becoming more expensive. To purchase these crucial items, Russia has had to export more grain, and fortunately, this year the weather was good, resulting in a bumper harvest in Ukraine. However, the France also had a bumper harvest this year... and then, to raise enough money, the Ukraine went hungry...

Although the Ukraine were starving, the Russia had finally completed their preparations. So, immediately after France declared war on Britain, the Russia began military exercises along the Russia - Turkey border. After a day of exercises, the Russia approached the Turkey and said, "One of our soldiers has gone missing during the exercises, and we suspect he has been kidnapped by your men. Therefore, we request to search your camp again!"

Such an unreasonable and utterly shameless demand was, of course, rejected without hesitation by the Turkey. Then the Russia shelled the Turkey camp, and then... the war between the Russia Turkey broke out again.

France expressed its hope that both sides would exercise restraint and not disrupt the hard-won stability and unity in Europe. However, the France are currently busy fighting the Britain and don't have time to deal with them for the time being. Of course, while they may not have time to intervene, trade still needs to be done, because weapons and ammunition are currently very expensive.

Thus, although the French Army "Land Battleship" had many cannons, they were equipped with a very limited supply of shells. There was nothing they could do about it; the Ireland were cheaper than cannonballs anyway.

However, a direct assault was still not the France's first choice; they needed to first demoralize the Britain in the city.

Generally speaking, it's not easy to maintain the morale of an enemy army besieged in a city. But if there's a way out, it's a different story.

Therefore, the best way to lower the morale of the garrison in the city is to first threaten their rear.

The 280mm gun, with a 40-caliber barrel and using guncotton propellant, coupled with an exaggerated 45-degree maximum elevation, had an exceptionally long range, allowing it to directly strike the port of Dublin from its designated artillery positions. Therefore, the France plan was to first strike the port berths with a few shells. Although a single cannon was far from sufficient to blockade the port, striking it would significantly demoralize the defenders, and if they happened to sink one or two ships, all the better.

So, at the crack of dawn that morning, the French Army were already bustling with activity.

First, observe the weather, especially the wind direction. The weather was good that day, with clear skies, not a cloud in the sky, and the wind was not strong. There was only a level 1 to 2 wind near the ground. The wind might be stronger at higher altitudes, but it was still good weather for launching observation balloons.

A huge hot air balloon rose from the French Army positions. Then the barrels of the 280mm guns slowly rose, pointing towards the sky.

"First shot, test fire!" Commander Hill gave the order, and a 280mm shell flew out of the long gun barrel. The shell traced a parabola before falling towards the port.

The shells, with a thunderous whistle, swept across the sky above Dublin like a train sounding its whistle, before plunging into the Dublin.

Fearing accidental damage to the city and resulting in Ireland casualties, the shell was fired a little further away. To be honest, the France didn't really care much about Ireland lives. Otherwise, they wouldn't have sold shells to the Russia and Turkey for profit, leaving them short of ammunition.

However, it was one thing for the French not to care how many Ireland people were killed by the Britain, but the France themselves would rather avoid killing Ireland people than not kill Ireland at all.

The shell landed in the sea, about four or five hundred meters off the dock. The people on the balloon used flag signals to transmit the landing point information back to the ground. Meanwhile, the artillerymen on the ground had already lowered their barrels and were preparing to reload the shells.

The 280mm gun was loaded at a fixed angle, so after each shot, the barrel had to be returned to the fixed loading angle. This naturally reduced the loading speed significantly. However, Joseph and his team had created this gun primarily to impress others, so to save money, they even adopted a recoil mechanism. As a result, the gun's rate of fire was shockingly low.

A full ten minutes passed before the cannon fired a second shell into the Dublin harbor area. This time, the shell landed directly in the harbor, between two moored cargo ships.

The shells exploded in the water, and the immense pressure instantly tore large holes in the sides of the two not-so-sturdy merchant ships. Since there were no damage control personnel on board to handle such situations, the two ships sank quickly and predictably. One shell sank two ships; although neither was particularly large, this certainly put immense pressure on the defending forces.

However, the subsequent shelling was less successful. The 280mm gun fired ten more shells, but these shells never achieved such great results again. Only one shell hit the pier, breaking it in two. The other shells mostly missed any important targets.

However, just as the France had expected, the port was shelled. Although the damage wasn't particularly severe, it still had a significant impact on the morale of the British Army soldiers. Many, especially the wealthy who remained in Dublin, were worried about their safety. As a result, many of them left Dublin and returned to England. The Governor of Norfolk knew that once these people left, it would make the soldiers doubt whether the Britain really intended to hold the city. Naturally, their morale would drop considerably.