Chapter 500

Since maritime trade was cut off, the Britain were in a very precarious situation. One of the most dangerous issues was food security. Since the Enclosure Movement, Britain's domestic grain production had been decreasing. In addition, the Britain didn't have any "XX acreage limit" for arable land, and considering that Britain's natural conditions were not suitable for developing agriculture, they couldn't compete with France, Ukraine, and other Europe countries, whether it was growing wheat or anything else.

Therefore, for many years, Britain's food problem has been solved through the international market. After all, if you have money, how could you not buy food? No one will impose a blockade on you unless you've done something utterly heinous. So, isn't imported rice and flour more appealing?

Of course, the Britain had their own advantages in doing so. The British Navy had always been extremely powerful, and it was not easy to blockade them from the sea. As long as there was no blockade at sea, the farmland in their overseas colonies was sufficient. Therefore, Britain's national policy at the time was not really wrong.

However, with the rise of France, especially the technological revolution led by the French Navy, the reliability of the British Navy declined significantly. At this point, policy adjustments were necessary. In fact, the France gave the Britain time to adjust their policies.

As early as when the first generation of the Free Trade " appeared, the Britain had already found it increasingly difficult to guarantee the safety of their sea lanes. Even Nelson at that time dared not say that the Britain fleet could guarantee the safety of the sea routes.

If grazing land is converted back to farmland at this point, it is still not too late. Although even if all grazing land is converted back to farmland, the grain production in Britain will still not be enough to support its consumption, but it will still be much better.

However, the wool textile industry is one of Britain's most important industries, and in peacetime, it is also the most profitable export sector. If grazing land were to be converted back to agriculture, what would happen to the wool textile industry? Without the wool textile industry, where would the money for an arms race come from? Therefore, the conversion of grazing land to agriculture will not happen, not ever. The only option is to strive to strengthen the navy to barely maintain food security.

However, it would be incorrect to say that the Britain were unprepared. The Britain built more warehouses and increased the proportion of grain reserves, so that even if the navy encountered temporary difficulties, Britain could theoretically sustain itself for a long time.

Moreover, the Britain's governance efficiency is quite high within the Britain, so there haven't been many incidents of grain warehouses catching fire. At least for now, the lockdown hasn't been in place for long, and food prices haven't risen too high, so such incidents haven't occurred yet. However, it's hard to say what will happen if the lockdown continues and food shortages truly begin.

With the grain in the granaries, it would be timely to immediately convert grazing land back to farmland. However, if pastures are converted into farms and then back into pastures in the future, it will be a significant expense. Many people feel that if the conversion takes only a year and then has to be reversed, it's better not to go through all that trouble.

Therefore, although the Britain government introduced a series of measures to encourage the conversion of pastureland back to farmland, few landowners responded to the call. This was not because they did not love Britain, but because they respected economic principles more. Moreover, they were more willing to place their bets on the revival of the navy, or even on peace negotiations.

A naval revival—well, there's actually a tiny bit of a possibility. When France proposed its new shipbuilding plan, the Britain immediately followed suit. To counter the France Augustus-class battleship, the Britain urgently designed the Lionheart-class battleships, displacing a whopping 15,000 tons, and construction had already begun on the slipway. And they started building three at once!

Of course, no matter how fast they were built, such large warships could not be completed in less than two years. However, theoretically, Britain's food reserves could still barely last until then. As for other resources, Britain had coal, iron, steel, and so on, which could also be guaranteed.

However, those in the know understand that hastily designed ships, rushed construction, and often lacking sufficient training time all mean that the actual combat capability of such warships is highly questionable. In a sense, building such things is partly a gamble on the nation's future, but also perhaps an attempt to increase leverage in future negotiations.

Furthermore, given the current situation, these warships under construction have become almost the source of the courage that sustains Britain's continued fighting spirit.

Because the France used new 280mm guns during the Battle of Dublin, the Britain naturally suspected that these guns were the main guns of the French Army Augustus- class battleships. As a result, the guns of the Lionheart-class battleships had to be redesigned.

In fact, Joseph was quite willing to let the Britain continue to harbor this fantasy. To land in England with an eight-nation coalition (France, Ireland, the Netherlands, the Confederation of the Rhine, Prussia, Austria, Northern Italy, and Spain —exactly eight nations), and then burn Buckingham Palace down—the very thought is captivating, but...

However, landing in England was no easy feat.

The stretch of Britain coastline closest to France was all damned cliffs, with only a few gaps leading to shore. When William, Duke of Normandy, landed in Britain, those gaps were undefended. But now, they were heavily fortified with gun emplacements. Moreover, the Britain had laid a large number of mines in the nearby sea. Even if you dragged the entire France navy up there, they might not be able to gain any advantage against these forts.

Of course, the France could have gone further, around to Scotland, and landed facing the Atlantic Ocean. The terrain there would have been much better. However, landing there would have increased the convoy's sea voyage time several times over, meaning their transport capacity would have been reduced to a fraction of its original capacity. In a landing operation, if they couldn't quickly get their overwhelmingly superior troops and supplies ashore, they would be driven back into the sea even after landing.

Britain has a highly developed railway system, which is very efficient for transporting troops, much faster than the sea route around half of Britain. Therefore, landing at those points in the English Channel was dangerous, but landing from Scotland via a longer route was just as dangerous.

Given this, the best option, in the eyes of the France, was to completely crush the Britain hopes through a naval battle and then force Britain to sign a series of treaties ceding territory and paying reparations.

Of course, the French Navy's current strength was insufficient to deal with three Lionheart-class battleships, but the France were not idle in the arms race. Although the Lionheart was larger than Augustus- class, this did not mean it was stronger. This was because France had a more developed industry and a higher level of shipbuilding. Therefore, the France were able to commission more and more warships than the Britain.

According to intelligence, the Britain Lionheart King-class battleships were essentially enlarged versions of the Queen Elizabeth. In other words, they were iron turtles with thicker armor, larger caliber guns, and similarly slow speed. After all, in the last naval battle, despite being outnumbered, the Queen Elizabeth still managed to take down one enemy battleship, which the Britain saw as a testament to the correctness of Britain design philosophy. Therefore, the Britain iron turtle was superior to the France's fast, thin-skinned battleships. Although the Britain weren't certain of the exact thickness of the France battleships' armor, for morale-boosting purposes, they still portrayed them as fragile eggshells.

However, the progress of the Augustus- class ships compared to the previous Inbrard-class ships was much greater than the progress of the Lionheart King-class ships compared to the Queen Elizabeth.

Joseph Bonaparte, the president of the French Academy of Sciences, personally participated in the design of this warship. This gives the warship a distinctly modern feel.

First, there is the tiered arrangement of turrets along the centerline. Along the centerline of this warship, two twin turrets are arranged in a tiered manner. These turrets will be equipped with brand-new 203mm gun barrels, totaling eight guns, which more than doubles the firepower of this warship compared to the previous "Inbrardo-class".

Of course, mounting so many cannons would consume a lot of weight, leaving little weight for armor. If the armor were arranged in the same way as the Imperado-class, the Augustus- class would at best be comparable in defense. With everyone upgrading their cannons, this armor could truly be described as thin-skinned and heavily armored.

However, Joseph proposed a new defense concept that would be adopted by later generations. "Focused defense."

In later generations, as the power of naval cannons increased, the displacement of warships could not be increased indefinitely. If we continued to try to completely encase warships with sufficiently thick armor, the only result would be that the warship would sink immediately upon being launched due to its excessive weight. Just like the battleship of the Second Master, or the Spain submarine of later generations that had its decimal point misplaced during its design.

Therefore, when designing warships in later generations, the practice of placing armor in all parts of the warship was abandoned. Instead, the approach was to place heavy armor only in the most critical parts that directly affect survivability and combat effectiveness, while leaving other non-essential areas completely unarmored.

In this way, if the enemy's armor-piercing shells hit unprotected areas, they will most likely penetrate the hull and fly out, causing limited damage. If it's a regular high-explosive shell—since those areas aren't particularly dangerous—it will cause damage, but the impact will be limited. Moreover, if the enemy uses this type of shell in a naval battle, it means they are unlikely to pose any real threat to truly important areas. Wouldn't it be better to take advantage of this opportunity and bombard them with genuine armor-piercing shells?

Therefore, although the total weight of the armored Augustus-class battleship was far lower than that of its opponents, in terms of actual defensive effectiveness, the Augustus-class battleship were not necessarily worse than the larger and heavier Lionheart.

Meanwhile, on the France slipways, five Augustus-class battleship and five Hermes- class super cruisers were under construction. If nothing unexpected happened, these France warships would be completed before the Britain.

At that time, after defeating Britain again in a naval battle, all of Britain's hopes were shattered. And...

"And there's even a possibility of a revolution in Britain," Napoleon said with a smile to Lucien. "You need to make proper arrangements for this. But for now, well, you should focus your efforts on dealing with the matter in North America first."

Just days earlier, the United States launched a general offensive against Ottawa. After suffering heavy casualties, the United States practically exhausted the Britain ammunition with lives, and stormed into Ottawa. Then, quite naturally, the United States began a massacre in Ottawa.

United States kill every living person they see, whether they are men or women, old or young.

A squad of United States soldiers, rifles with bloodied bayonets, surrounded a building—a building many Britain had fled into. The United States completely surrounded the building; they even brought in cannons and aimed them at it. Many Britain took refuge inside. However, the United States soldiers did not rush in, because a France flag was flying over the building.

This is the largest Catholicism in Ottawa. Moreover, this church is indeed allowed to fly the France flag, because the Holy See has transferred the apostolic administration in North America to the France.

Furthermore, Father Tom in this church is indeed France, although he speaks France. Today, this church has become a refuge for many Canada. With Father Tom standing at the church entrance and the France flag fluttering atop the church's spire, it serves as a temporary sanctuary.

The United States didn't want to clash with the France, not even a single German-speaking France. If it had just been civilians hiding in the church, the United States probably wouldn't have bothered. But someone had witnessed more than a dozen Britain in military uniforms running into the church, and they couldn't ignore it.

The United States then surrounded the church, demanding that Father Tom hand over the British Army soldiers who had taken refuge there. Father Tom insisted that these men were no longer armed and therefore could not be considered soldiers, and that the church could not expel anyone who sought safety under God's protection.

"You must respect the Temple and its right to refuge!" Father Tom insisted.