I want to be emperor

In the winter of October of the 38th year of Chengshun, although the weather was already relatively cold, the European Expeditionary Force of the Dachu Empire launched a military campaign against France.

The reason why they continue to launch military operations in winter is that the European Expeditionary Force has many tasks and tight time. It is impossible for them to wait and see in Europe and spend more than ten to twenty years to complete the market development operations in the entire European region.

There are a large number of domestic companies waiting for them to open up the market.

The fleet of the European Expeditionary Force is followed by a large number of merchant ships loaded with goods. Many goods have already been piled up in the port warehouses of Cadiz and Tangier. After these goods and ships arrive in Europe, they cannot wait like this forever. To continue, we need to sell the goods as soon as possible and purchase local agricultural products or other industrial raw materials, etc., and then transport them back to the country.

There is a cost in the process of stockpiling supplies and waiting for the fleet, and it is not low.

The empire needs the European Expeditionary Force to open more European markets as soon as possible!
On the other hand, the military strength of Europe is not that good. At the same time, France's geographical location is not too far north. Although the winter is also cold, it is not as snowy and cold as the northern European regions. The ground is frozen.

For military reasons, if the French army's weapons, equipment and combat effectiveness are good, and the geographical environment is further north, it is impossible for the Chu army to take action in the winter... just like the Chu army never fights in the winter Siberia is the same as going to war with the Russians... It's not that they can't win, but it's too troublesome to carry out large-scale military mobilization in winter, and the logistics requirements are higher, so you can't do it!

However, France obviously does not have the best geographical conditions to prevent foreign invasion like Russia, so the Chu army launched a landing invasion unscrupulously even in early winter.

Normandy, France, a region that was world-famous in the original time and space for the large-scale Allied landings launched in World War II, also ushered in a landing in this era.

It's just different from the original time and space when the Allied forces landed in Normandy, encountered accumulated resistance, and countless Allied soldiers spilled blood on the beach.

The landing of the European Expeditionary Force of the Dachu Empire in Normandy did not encounter much practical resistance... It's not that the French were not prepared, let alone that they had no resistance!

In fact, they were well prepared and resisted bravely!

But all the preparations and resistance of the French were in vain!
The expedition fleet of the Great Chu Empire captured Le Havre in the Normandy region in just one day... This place is the outlet of the Seine, an important river in France, and one of the most important coastal ports in France facing the English Channel.

And throughout the whole process, there was no actual obstruction by the French maritime power!

The French fleet is actually quite good among the local countries in Europe... After all, France is considered one of the big countries in Europe.

But their fleets were scattered on both sides of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean. More importantly, their naval warships were still wooden warships with pure sails.

It is almost impossible for wooden sail warships to pose any practical threat to the Chu Empire Navy or even ordinary civilian merchant ships...

Because it is still quite dangerous in many overseas areas these days, private merchant ships may encounter danger when they go to overseas areas, especially in indigenous-controlled areas for business.

Therefore, some merchant ships in the Da Chu Empire traveling in dangerous sea areas will apply to the navy for temporary self-defense weapons.

It is usually equipped with one or two 55mm single-barrel breech-loading rifled cannons. Although this thing has a small caliber, it also fires grenades... It can hit wooden warships accurately, even if it cannot blow up wooden warships, it can still destroy them. Their sails made these pure sailboats completely lose their power and turn them into dead fish floating on the sea!

Therefore, these days, the merchant ships of the Chu Empire in threatening waters, such as the current European waters, are all armed merchant ships to a certain extent. It is no problem to hoist those sailboats with one or two 55mm single-barreled naval guns.

However, merchant ships traveling in the Pacific and Indian Oceans are basically useless, because the Da Chu Empire Navy has very strong control over these two sea areas. It has a large number of military bases, controls all sea areas, and the sea routes are very safe.

So today's dangerous sea areas are only the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Baltic Sea.

But looking to the future, it is estimated that these sea areas will soon become safe sea areas.

Under the absolute strength of the Chu Empire's navy, the French navy's sail warships actually had no chance to even leave the port...

In this way, the French could not even talk about blocking the Chu army's expedition fleet on the sea.

When the warships were killed one by one by the Chu Imperial Navy warships before they could even leave the port, the remaining French were naturally horrified, and then hid in the fortress, trying to rely on the coastal defense forts and fortresses to continue to resist... Lian Chu When the army dispatched troop transport ships to land on one side, no infantry went out to intercept the beachhead.

I am not stupid, I know very well that the Chu people have powerful naval gunfire... It is impossible to stay on the beach to resist the Chu army... because that is not called stubborn resistance, but death.

In the past half year, the French have also learned about some of the battles of the Chu people against Spain and the Portuguese. If these are still hearsay, then when the Chu people violently bombarded the port and blew the French warships into pieces, then I just saw it with my own eyes and was deeply shocked.

That is simply not something humans can resist!
Now they can only rely on the fortresses and coastal defense batteries that were urgently built and reinforced before the war to withstand the Chu people's bombardment.

When the Chu people came to negotiate with the French before, they were not polite at all and directly issued war threats several times. This made the French feel deeply threatened. At the same time, the tragic situation in Spain and Portugal in the south also deeply stimulated the French.

Therefore, after facing the threat of war with the Chu State, the French had also carried out a large number of war preparation operations before.

These include strengthening the defense of coastal ports, building forts and forts, and garrisoning more soldiers...especially Le Havre.

After all, this is the outlet of Paris, and its location is very important. If the Chu army wants to launch a landing attack from the sea and then march into Paris, these are the best springboards.

Its strategic role is similar to that of Dagukou in Tianjin in the late Qing Dynasty!

Therefore, this place was heavily defended. More than 100 coastal defense guns were deployed, more than 20 warships were deployed for coordinated defense, and more than 8000 troops were stationed on the ground.

But the result?

The Chu expedition fleet swept all the way up. After arriving at Le Havre, they found that instead of escaping, the French adopted a stubborn attitude of resistance.

The generals of the Chu army who led the team deeply admired these French colleagues... knowing that the strength of the two sides was very different, they were still able to defend here... Anyway, this courage is worthy of praise.

In order to respect their courage, the generals of the expeditionary force decided to give them enough dignity after some discussions: they pulled out more than ten battleships to carry out a devastating bombardment of Le Havre, respecting the enemy while deterring the French in Paris. High-rise.

Let them know that if they want to resist the Chu Empire's army militarily, they will have to pay a heavy price!

Under such circumstances, countless 170 mm, 150 mm, 120 mm, 75 mm and even [-] mm rifled gun shells fell on Le Havre!
Under the fierce bombardment, more than 20 French warships were blown to pieces before they could even leave the port, and then the entire port city was blown into ruins...

The coastal defense batteries that the French valued so much before were of no use at all, because their front-mounted smoothbore cannons did not have enough range to hit the Chu warships that were shelling a few kilometers away... and were then defeated one by one by the Chu army's big guns. caliber naval cannons, and the Chu army's warships also used semi-armor-piercing shells for bombardment... Under such a fierce bombardment, not to mention the effective forces of the artillery, even the fort itself was destroyed.

Then the bombardment of the entire port city caused another fire. The subsequent fire burned for three days and three nights without being extinguished... This is why the Chu army did not directly carry out a large-scale landing and settle in the city of Le Havre. Because the attack was too severe, the entire port was blown to pieces and the city was on fire.

Today's Le Havre is actually in ruins, much worse than the Spanish port of Cadiz.

When the Chu people landed in Cadiz, because they considered seizing this port city for their own use, they were actually very careful during the artillery bombardment. They only destroyed military targets and did not conduct indiscriminate bombardment of the entire city. .But more importantly, the Spaniards at that time also knew that they could not defeat them, so they took the initiative to retreat early.

Only in this way can the Port of Cadiz be kept relatively intact and used by the Chu army, becoming the current base camp of the Chu Empire in Europe.

But in Le Havre, although the Chu army also wants to preserve some of the infrastructure in these cities for its own use, the prerequisite is that the enemy gives up voluntarily... Otherwise, it is impossible for the Chu army to leave a large number of naval guns unused, and it must be stupid. Use soldiers' lives to engage in siege warfare.

Even if the cannon fodder soldiers of the Fourth Division of the Indian Army are responsible for the siege, there is a cost to the cannon fodder soldiers. It cost the Chu army a lot of money to bring them all the way from India, even if they have to be sacrificed as cannon fodder. , the sacrifice also needs to be valuable, otherwise it will be a big loss.

The French army was naive and stubborn, or decided to resist at first. Later, when they saw that the Chu army's artillery fire was too fierce and they wanted to retreat, it was already too late...

At the same time, the Chu army was unwilling to waste too many cannon fodder soldiers, and wanted to deter Paris... and even more so, to deter the entire Europe!
The Chu Empire discovered that the previous battle in Cadiz was too smooth, and the other ground wars were nothing special, at least not intuitive enough... Although the European countries were greatly shocked, they were still not scared. It was so courageous that the Chu army surrendered as soon as they came to the door... This time, the expeditionary force decided to set an example: Let European countries know that resisting the Chu Empire's army militarily is the stupidest of stupidities. Don't do it in the future. What a stupid thing... You are not afraid of death, our Chu army doesn't want to waste ammunition.

Ammunition for rifled guns and guns is very valuable these days. Even if this time the European Trade Free Plan has paid for domestic companies, the donation amount has already been determined, and the money has already been put into the pockets of the military... In other words, this The money now belongs to the military, so naturally it can be saved as much as possible.

Nowadays, every additional artillery shell fired by the military in Europe is a waste of the military's own money.

Therefore, if possible, the military still hopes to save ammunition as much as possible!

Just fight hard and let them see, so as to avoid countless subsequent battles!

Many circumstances resulted in the Chu Empire's European Expeditionary Force's bombardment of Le Havre being violent and cruel.

Not only did the coastal defense forts be destroyed, but the entire city was blown to pieces... As for the 3000 garrison, except for the [-] or [-] who sensed something was wrong in time and escaped early, the rest basically died in the shelling and In the ensuing fire.

A landing battle was turned into a firepower demonstration battle by the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire. The news spread to other places along with the defeated troops, causing great panic.

After Louis XIV in Paris heard the news, he immediately ran away with his family and other court nobles... After all, Paris is only more than 120 kilometers away from Le Havre.

At this distance, the Chu army would be able to kill them in just a few days.

Moreover, it would be easier for the Chu army to attack Paris than to attack Madrid, Spain from Cadiz... because Paris has a river that flows westward into the English Channel, and this is the Seine!
Le Havre is the mouth of the Seine River... This is why the European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire chose to land here.

Because of logistics and transportation issues, the Chu army always likes to conduct mobile operations along rivers when operating overseas.

This time entering Paris is no exception. Since there is a river that can directly reach Paris, and this Seine River has plenty of water, and because the drop is not large and the current is very gentle, it is very suitable for navigation.

This is a river naturally suited to serve as a logistics route for the expeditionary force.

For this reason, the expeditionary force brought a group of shallow-draft ships for combat and transportation on the Seine River before setting off.

To this end, they also requisitioned many Spanish and Portuguese ships.

Of course, the more important thing is the small-tonnage inland river gunboat and inland river tugboat that the expeditionary force brought before. These inland river gunboats or tugboats are not large, the big ones only weigh dozens of tons, and the small ones even weigh only a few tons.

These small-tonnage inland river gunboats or tugboats used overseas are generally built domestically and then disassembled and shipped to overseas colonies for assembly on site...With the assistance of large hoisting equipment, transportation is not difficult.

This time the European Expeditionary Fleet went to Europe and brought a group of these inland river gunboats and tugboats, which were mainly used to support ground operations and protect river supply lines.

The Dachu Empire has many types of warships. In addition to the traditional ocean-going ships, such as the three major types of battleships, cruisers, and frigates... With the development of the times, the smallest frigate has now reached a tonnage of more than 1000. tons, with a deep draft and a relatively slender hull. It is a typical ocean-going warship and is no longer suitable for offshore and inland river operations.

There are also offshore battleships and offshore patrol ships used for offshore and large river operations.

Among them, the offshore battleships are exclusive to the Guards Fleet and the Second Fleet of the Navy. They are a very special type of ship used for internal confrontation. They are mainly used in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Their tonnage is several thousand tons. They have no practical significance in overseas expansion. , because it is simply impossible to send them overseas.

As for offshore patrol ships, they are mainly used for offshore patrols. The tonnage is generally between a few hundred tons to more than a thousand tons. They are mainly responsible for coastline patrol. Because the draft is generally relatively shallow, they can also be used for patrols and operations in large rivers... But essentially this thing is still a sea-going ship... This thing is a typical high-freeboard ship, and its draft is shallow just because of its small tonnage.

Then there are inland rivers and inland river gunboats and gunboats dedicated to lakes. Although there are gunboats and gunboats, they are actually only different in tonnage. The Chu army generally calls those with less than [-] tons as gunboats, and those with more than [-] tons as gunboats. Among them, large-tonnage gunboats can actually perform combat missions in offshore waters.

The large-tonnage gunboats and offshore patrol ships inside seem to have a tonnage of several hundred tons, and the combat areas also span offshore and deep-water rivers. They seem to overlap, but in fact they are not the same thing.

Because patrol ships pay more attention to seaworthiness, long-term maritime patrols, weapons and protection are relatively poor, and they are typical high-freeboard sea-going ships.

However, large-tonnage gunboats focus on inland river operations and provide firepower. After all, their design idea is to provide firepower support for ground combat troops, so they are generally equipped with heavy firepower. At the same time, the draft is shallower, and the freeboard is low.

This time the European Expeditionary Fleet went to France, and the river warships it brought did not include large-tonnage shallow-water gunboats. Mainly, the large-tonnage shallow-water gunboats could not be disassembled and shipped for transportation. They could only rely on their own power to sail along the coastline. This required Time is too slow. The six large-tonnage shallow-water gunboats that the Imperial Navy planned to dispatch to Europe are still crawling slowly along the east coast of Africa.

They brought French inland warships, mainly small-tonnage gunboats of less than [-] tons that could be disassembled and transported directly.

The main force is five Type 27 gunboats with a standard displacement of fifty tons, also known as the 20 gunboats. There is nothing special about the name of this class. They are the No. [-] seven inland river gunboats in the Dachu Empire Navy.

From the beginning of the Unification War, the Great Chu Empire attached great importance to inland warfare because of the existence of the Yangtze River. After the Unification War, because of the Siberian War, it was necessary to maintain inland river gunboats in the many river networks in Siberia, and later expanded to Southeast Asia, India, and the Americas. After waiting for the region, there is a great demand for inland warships.

Therefore, the Da Chu Empire has never stopped its research and development and production of river warships. It has put into service dozens of large-tonnage gunboats and small-tonnage gunboats.

The Erqi gunboat is a new type of gunboat that has been put into service by the Navy in recent years. It has a standard displacement of fifty tons, a standard low freeboard design, and a very shallow draft. It can widely enter many rivers to perform combat missions... let alone big rivers. Even if there is a river two meters deep, it can flow unobstructed...

Because the draft of this thing is only [-] meters... It is conservative and safe to say that the water depth of two meters is navigable. In fact, under the condition of light load, it can run into a small river with a water depth of more than one meter.

The 50-ton inland river gunboat is widely used by the navy and army of the Da Chu Empire, especially the inland river gunboat widely used by the army. It is widely active in rivers and lakes around the world.

The Erqi gunboat is powered by a pure steam engine. Although its speed is only eight knots, it does not need to be very fast to sail on the inland river. The firepower it carries is very fierce. It is equipped with one at the front and one at the front. There are a total of two 35mm single-barrel breech-mounted rifled rapid-fire guns. Naval guns are almost invincible in all over the world and inland rivers!

This time the European Expeditionary Force came to France, they brought five small boats like this that are not big in size but actually have very fierce firepower!

In addition to these five 55 gunboats, there are also three 35 gunboats. These are larger, [-]-ton inland river gunboats. They are also specially developed for overseas areas and are equipped with a [-]mm single-barreled naval gun. And two [-]mm naval guns, the firepower is super fierce!
After landing, the Chu army marched all the way along the Seine River towards Paris under the cover and support of these eight river gunboats!