Marquess Wellesley's journey to Morocco

The officers inside the room all showed expressions of delight upon hearing this. ☢🐠 🎉🏆

Most of them did not understand the importance of the General Staff Headquarters matter mentioned earlier, and even regarded it as a means for the Crown Prince to seize military power, so they were not greatly affected.

However, everyone is well aware of the glory and significance of a legion receiving a royal title.

Although they have always privately referred to themselves as the Crown Prince Guard Legion, that was only a title bestowed privately by His Highness. But this is a genuine royal title signed by His Majesty the King!

This signifies Versailles Palace's recognition of the Berthier Legion and the Police Academy students, meaning they will henceforth be at the "top echelon" of the military!

The officers felt incredibly pleased with themselves at the thought that other ordinary troops would treat them with such respect and drool with envy over the Royal Emblem on their Military Uniform!

At the same time, everyone knows that after officially becoming a member of the Royal Legion, their benefits in all aspects will increase accordingly. Of course, these are just minor, incidental matters...

The officers sprang to their feet, heads held high, and shouted, "Long live His Majesty the King!"

Lefebvre spoke first, "Thank you Crown Prince! The Legion's loyalty will forever belong to you!"

The other legions immediately echoed in unison, "Thank you Crown Prince! The legions' loyalty will forever belong to you!"

Yes, they knew very well that without His Crown Prince, they would most likely still be languishing in some military unit, with no hope of advancement, let alone any royal title.

Everything they have now is thanks to His Highness; how could they not be grateful?

Joseph smiled and nodded in response, gesturing for everyone to sit down. He then offered some words of encouragement before announcing the end of the meeting.

After the other officers left, Berthier approached Joseph, looking ashamed, and said, "Your Highness, the recruitment of Nobility officers that you instructed us to do hasn't gone smoothly... There are rumors that the officers have formed a 'coalition' to resist the Royal Guard Legion."

Joseph knew that although most of the hereditary Nobility officers were useless, they couldn't be condemned outright. Even among Napoleon's Marshal, there were quite a few officers from the Old Nobles who were still quite capable.

In addition, the Royal Guard Legion is currently short of mid-level officers.

This problem wasn't so obvious when the legions were small, but now that he's preparing to rapidly expand the size of the new army, the middle-ranking legions are becoming seriously inadequate—junior officers can be trained at the Paris Police Academy, but middle-ranking legions need to be built up with combat experience.

This will take a relatively long time to achieve. The Royal Guard Legion has only been established for a short time, making it difficult to develop a sufficient number of mid-level legions.

Right now, if we can recruit some enlightened Old Nobles officers and train them a little, it will be very helpful in quickly forming combat power.

Furthermore, Joseph was not so arrogant as to believe that France had so many military academies to train enough French Army officers, and that he could do so with just one Paris Police Academy.

Therefore, integrating existing military academies is also very important.

Military academies are still largely dominated by officers from the Old Nobles. Even if some less effective military academies are closed, the support of a large number of hereditary officers is still needed to ensure a sufficient number of teaching staff.

Joseph frowned slightly. From what Berthier had just said, the Old Nobles officers still harbored considerable resistance.

However, he could understand, since his reform of the officer system had shattered their "iron rice bowl." Although they dared not openly oppose him because of their passive response to the last rebellion, they were still capable of resisting him in private, and there was really nothing he could do about it.

Joseph had thought that improving their treatment would win over many of the Old Nobles officers, but he hadn't expected them to be so "united."

Berthier hesitated before speaking, "Your Highness, what do you think? Should we raise the salaries for recruited officers even further...?"

Joseph immediately shook his head. "No."

Raising the salaries of these hereditary officers too high would certainly cause dissatisfaction among commoners and Lesser Nobility officers.

How to integrate these people? Joseph fell into deep thought...

North Africa.

Meknes, the royal city of Morocco.

Marquess Wellesley, the United Kingdom Minister of Foreign Affairs, glanced back at the towering city walls and the burly Blacks Guard standing solemnly on either side of the city gate, then turned to the United Kingdom Consul in Morocco beside him and said, "What a magnificent city, don't you think, Baron Green?"

The short, middle-aged man nodded. "Yes, Your Excellency, at least among the Maghreb kingdoms, this is the largest and most prosperous city."

"Therefore, only it has sufficient power to curb the impulses of those adventurers at the Versailles Palace."

Marquess Wellesley and Baron Green rejoined the Carriage and headed towards the royal palace.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs glanced at the Blacks knights guarding the perimeter, frowned, and muttered, "Their Sultan has some rather peculiar tastes. I mean, they clearly have soldiers who look much better."

Baron Green explained to him, "A hundred years ago, their Sultan Ismail defeated the coastal opponents and established the Alaviyya Dynasty with a ' Holy Warrior Legion ' composed of 20,000 black slave soldiers. Since then, their Imperial Guards has been entirely composed of Blacks."

"Well," the Marquess Wellesley shrugged. "Whether they're slaves or Arabs, they're useful on the battlefield. Oh, I remember our Colonel Parker was once defeated by them."

He was referring to the Seven Years' War, during which United Kingdom naval captain Hyde Parker insulted the Sultan of Morocco without cause, resulting in his capture by the Morocco navy, a branch of the Barbary Pirates. The United Kingdom paid 200,000 Silver Coin to ransom him.

It was from that time onward that the United Kingdom became less willing to provoke this most powerful country on the northwest coast of Africa.

"Do you think Touss will accept your suggestion?" Baron Green finally found an opportunity to interrupt the small talk and get down to business. "I mean, there's a fairly large area of land west of Varsenis."

The Touss he mentioned is Algiers Dey, and their main purpose in coming to Morocco was to "bring together" Algiers and Morocco.

"He has no other choice," Marquess Wellesley said casually. "Their Parliament will allow him to accept it."

Baron Green corrected in a low voice, "That's ' Divan,' which is quite different from Parliament in the usual sense."

As the two were talking, the Carriage stopped.

This time, they were greeted not by the Blacks Guard whom the Marquess Wellesley disliked, but by a light brown-skinned Berbers.

The court official bowed respectfully to the two men. "Honorable guests, the Great Sultan awaits you."

(End of this chapter)