Fiefs and titles
Ney glanced disdainfully at the iron barrels and "cannons," and said to Moreau with a hint of disdain:
"Your 'little invention' is quite interesting. However, it certainly won't fool the Morocco for long, because they'll find that the enemy has been shelling for so long, yet not a single one of them has been injured."
"You should read David Hume A Treatise of Human Nature *," Moreau said, gesturing to the distant Morocco positions. "They'll just think they were lucky and then laugh at the France gunners' poor skills."
"... Whatever you like."
After the shelling continued for a while, French Army Infantry Line on the horizon.
Ney nervously instructed the soldiers to maintain distance and keep their backs to the woods—this Infantry Line of only one row, with extremely large gaps between the men; only by using the dim woods as a backdrop could they get away with it.
Meanwhile, Moreau led his cavalrymen, pacing back and forth on both sides of the line, making it seem as if they were about to engage in a major battle.
From a distance, Agord looked at the Infantry Line over a kilometer long and the dust-covered cavalry, and his brows furrowed.
With at least 4,000 Infantry, over 1,000 cavalry, and 15 cannons, this was definitely the size of the Sherer Legion.
How did they manage to get here from the lower reaches of the Medjerda River in such a short time?
Before long, another cavalryman came to report that they had found the French Army Camp, just 4 miles to the south, and judging from its size, it should be a force of nearly 10,000 men.
This made Agord even more convinced.
Given the French Army's fighting strength, their five or six thousand men were no match for them. They could only wait for Said Pasha to arrive with the main force of the Guard Corps before they could engage the France in a decisive battle.
No, that's not right. He suddenly paused, realizing that according to His Majesty Sultan Sultan's orders, the Guard Corps should avoid conflict with the French Army force—they were there to plunder Tunisia and then demand payment from the United Kingdom. A direct confrontation with a major power like France would not be in Morocco's interest, regardless of the outcome.
He pondered for a long time, then turned and ordered his attendant:
"Leave the Arcade Corps behind; the rest of you, retreat covertly. And keep the artillery firing to mislead the France."
"Yes, General!"
Moreau originally thought that he would have to repel one or two probing attacks by the Morocco at any cost in order to completely intimidate Morocco, but he did not expect that the other side had no intention of fighting at all.
He was naturally happy to stall for time, so he ordered the iron barrel "cannon" to fire at full power, making it look like a fierce battle was taking place.
So the two armies exchanged fire for a whole day, nearly a kilometer apart, before withdrawing their troops after dark.
The next day, the bombardment continued until the afternoon when Moreau suddenly sensed something was wrong. He then risked leading half of his cavalry to harass the Morocco, only to find that there were no enemy cavalry coming to defend them.
He circled Tamirai several times, finally confirming that less than 2,000 Morocco soldiers were still holding the front line, while the rest of the enemy had long since disappeared.
He never imagined that his performance was so good that it would scare the Morocco away...
After returning, he discussed the matter with Ney, and together with Tamirai's several hundred Tunisia soldiers, they launched a fierce attack on the Morocco army from two directions.
Paris.
The second floor of the Tuileries Palace.
Joseph looked at the map of North Africa on the table, his expression showing some worry.
According to intelligence sent last week, there have been large-scale troop movements in Algiers and Tripoli, indicating that the United Kingdom are eager to take action against Tunisia.
Meanwhile, news from India indicated that Mysore's army was launching a fierce offensive against Tiruchirappalli, the South state of Carnatic. Once Mysore captured it, they would have a direct confrontation with Nagapattinam, United Kingdom's only supply point in the Southeast India.
Joseph was convinced that as long as Nagapattinam was at risk of being lost, the United Kingdom would return to the negotiating table—it was an important port for the United Kingdom caravans returning from East Asia. Without resupplying there, United Kingdom merchant ships would have to travel hundreds of nautical miles to Madras in central India for fresh water and food, or pay the France for supplies in Pondicherry.
Therefore, the United Kingdom will definitely go to great lengths to create chaos in Tunisia before Nagapattinam runs into trouble, using it as leverage to exchange for India's interests.
The General Staff has already dispatched 6,000 troops to reinforce Tunisia, which is the limit of what the France Finance can afford.
To be honest, if the situation in Tunisia deteriorates significantly, Joseph will have no choice but to send the Royal Guard Legion to North Africa to clean up the mess, which will inevitably affect the strategic deployment in the Southern Netherlands.
If it really comes to that, he will have to consider whether to accept the United Kingdom terms and for both sides to back down. That would also mean that his strategy of containing the United Kingdom in India has failed.
Just then, Eman knocked on the door and entered, handing him a confidential report, "Your Highness, it just arrived from Tunisia."
Joseph immediately and quickly opened the wooden tube, pouring out the few pages of paper inside.
When he saw that the report was from General Sherer Taylor Louis - Joseph Scherer, he was somewhat puzzled—usually this should be the work of the Intelligence Bureau.
He hurriedly read the main text carefully. At the beginning, it was mentioned that the Morocco had become involved in the siege of Tunisia, sending more than 14,000 of their most elite Black Guard Corps, and had the Algiers Guard Corps launch a feigned attack on Kaf, luring the main force of the Sherer Legion to the lower reaches of the Medjerda River.
Joseph frowned and continued reading, where Sherer said that two groups of "volunteer" soldiers who had come to report to the legion had stubbornly held Tamirai, repelling a Morocco army of 10,000 with fewer than 2,000 men, capturing more than 700 prisoners, and seizing 11 cannons...
Joseph raised an eyebrow. 2,000 against 10,000, a resounding victory with prisoners and spoils—what's going on?
When he turned to the last page and saw the detailed battle report, his eyes lit up.
Victor Moreau and Michel Ney? It turns out they are two "Marshal" directing the battle!
That would be unsurprising given the 1-5 record.
Joseph sighed inwardly, Napoleon how talented France truly was. Napoleon's invincible Marshal were now just two lowly Lieutenant, each leading soldiers not under their command, yet they had unexpectedly thwarted the Morocco attack.
No wonder this intelligence was reported by Sherer; he had achieved a victory on the front lines and wanted to report the triumph to himself before the Intelligence Bureau could.
When Joseph saw Moreau's Nobility soldiers calling themselves the "God's Guidance" Cavalry Regiment, he couldn't help but shake his head and laugh. They were all adults, yet they still had such childish names.
But since they like it, let's do it their way.
Joseph immediately picked up his pen and wrote an instruction at the end of the report, officially bestowing the title of "God's Guidance Royal Cavalry Regiment" upon the 1,000 Nobility soldiers.
Meanwhile, Moreau was promoted to Major, Ney was promoted to Captain. The former was granted 700 hectares of land in Tripoli, and the latter was granted 500 hectares.