I want to be emperor

The Seine River is the most important river in France. Because it flows through Paris and the surrounding important agricultural areas, the drop is not high, the water flow is gentle, and the water depth is good. It can still maintain a main flow of about three meters all the way to Paris. The depth of the channel makes this river the most important shipping river in France.

It is precisely because of the existence of this river that Paris, a seemingly inland city, has become an important port city.

But the existence of the Seine also made it possible for the enemy to move all the way up the Seine to Paris.

Therefore, the French have always attached great importance to the defense of the Seine River. After facing the threat from the Chu State, they directly strengthened the coastal defense construction of the port of Le Havre, the outlet of the Seine River, built three large and small forts, and deployed a total of more than 100 more than 20 sail warships and [-] soldiers were stationed for garrison, and land fortresses were built.

However, these still failed to stop the Chu army!
The European Expeditionary Force of the Great Chu Empire captured this port city at the mouth of the Seine River in just one day.

Then on the next day, river gunboats and soldiers from the Fourth Division of the Indian Army of a mixed regiment size were dispatched to march inland along the Seine River. This was only the forward force of the expeditionary force’s landing force, the real main force. In fact, they are still logging in...

In preparation for the French campaign, the European Expeditionary Force mobilized a large number of troops.

In terms of combat ships, one battleship, two cruisers, seven frigates, six offshore patrol ships, and eight river gunboats were deployed, for a total of 24 combat ships;
Among the auxiliary warships, five coal supply ships, six naval comprehensive supply ships (food, fresh water, naval ammunition), a maritime hospital ship, and two special Heian-class landing ships were deployed.

The Ping An-class landing ship is the first type specially developed by the Dachu Empire Navy, and it is also the only professional landing ship currently in service. It seems that the full load displacement of 350 tons is not much, but when landing on the beach, it is the first time to go to the Ping An-class landing ship. The transport of armed personnel and heavy equipment on the beach plays a great strategic role.

During the previous series of landings in Africa and the subsequent landing in Cadiz, Spain, the Chu army used Ping An-class landing ships and played a huge role.

The existence of the Ping An-class landing ship makes landing operations simpler and more convenient.

In the case of traditional beach landing, it is difficult to land troops directly, let alone heavy equipment. The Chu army's landings in the early years were all large transport ships arriving offshore, and then the personnel were replaced by small boats, and the soldiers rowed the small boats. Landing... is very inefficient and difficult to carry heavy equipment.

It is very troublesome to dock heavy equipment. For example, artillery can weigh hundreds or even thousands of kilograms, and a large amount of baggage is also very heavy.

Depending on the situation, the navy usually sacrifices some small-tonnage transport ships in the early stage and directly allows the transport ships to land on the beach. With the assistance of the engineering troops who landed in the early stage, the navy uses hoisting equipment to hoist the small and medium-sized artillery on the ship ashore; in the middle and later stages, temporary installations are often erected. pontoon dock…but this is very time consuming and expensive.

But the Dachu Empire had a lot of overseas landing operations... one landing every three days. Some of the landing operations were actually not too large in scale. It was too extravagant to build a temporary dock just for a small-scale landing!

Various reasons led the Imperial Navy to consider building a specialized landing ship, and thus the Heian-class landing ship was created.

This thing is actually technically very simple. The main thing is that the draft is shallower, the boat has a flat bottom instead of a pointed bottom, and the bottom of the boat needs to be stronger to facilitate beaching, and the front of the bow opens the door.

As for the others, there is nothing special. The weapons are only equipped with a small number of 55mm single-barreled naval guns and 35mm naval guns for self-defense and cover of the troops.

What you transport depends on the situation. You can transport soldiers directly, you can transport artillery, you can also transport horse-drawn carriages... Of course, when artillery and horse-drawn carriages land on the beach, in order to avoid falling into the soft sand, engineers often need to assist on the beach. Temporary boardwalks will be laid on the road.

But even so, the landing capability of the Da Chu Empire has improved by leaps and bounds.

The Ping An-class landing ship has been greatly welcomed by the army and navy as soon as it was launched. It is also the only ship type of the army that supports the navy's large-scale equipment. This is rare for the military in the Chu Empire, which has serious conflicts between the military and the military. of……

This is mainly because the users who actually use landing ships to land include, in addition to the Navy's own Marine Corps, a large number of the Army's overseas garrison troops.

How can I put it, the Army also wants to use this thing, and this thing is really easy to use, so even if there are conflicts in the army, we have to hold our noses and support it.

However, the number of cutting-edge special auxiliary warships such as Ping An-class landing ships is actually not large. At the same time, they are only used for early beach landings and cannot be used as regular sea-crossing landing transport ships.

Transport ships used to transport ground combat troops and supplies across the sea are generally relatively large ocean-going ships. The smaller ones are over a thousand tons, and generally three to four thousand tons.

The same is true for this landing in France. A total of 32 medium and large transport ships were gathered. Some of these 32 transport ships are professional transport ships of the Navy, including multiple professional troop carriers and multiple bulk carriers. There are also more than a dozen An armed merchant ship owned by the Western Trading Company.

As the European trade freedom plan unfolds, the Western Trading Company is also deeply involved in it, mainly providing armed merchant ships to assist in transportation and landing. At the same time, thousands of the company's armed employees are dispersed to occupied ports in various places to perform garrison security and purge operations. Task.

This time the landing in France, Europe, was no exception. The Western Trading Company also dispatched more than a dozen armed merchant ships to carry out transportation and landing tasks.

This time, there were more than 70 ships of various types landing in France, and this did not include some with smaller tonnage, such as a group of inland river patrol boats, transport boats, tugboats, etc., which were only seven to eight tons or ten tons.

Because of the existence of the Seine River, the Chu army specially mobilized a large number of inland river ships to participate in combat operations, many of which were temporarily mobilized from Africa.

So the French along the Seine were able to see scenes they had never seen in their lives, or even imagined.

From the lower reaches of the Seine River, a group of boats without sails came upstream with billowing smoke!

This horrifying scene made them, who had never seen a steam ship, even think they had seen the devil...

This inland river fleet is actually no different from the devil to the French... They are not here for a picnic, but to fight. Therefore, in addition to constantly measuring the hydrological conditions of the waterway, they are constantly measuring the hydrological conditions of the waterway along the river. In addition to laying the groundwork for more large ships to enter the Seine, French ships on the river would also be impounded or even sunk.

At the same time, some French river defense military targets and recalcitrant cities on both sides of the river were shelled to a certain extent.

Although the largest naval gun equipped by these inland river gunboats is only a 55mm naval gun, and there are only three guns in total, so the ability to destroy solid fortifications can only be said to be average, but the ability to attack active forces is very good.

Although small-caliber naval guns are useless against solid fortifications, the explosive shells falling on the French position are still very lethal.

The French felt very deeply about this. Many towns along both sides of the Seine River were bombarded by the river gunboat fleet of the Chu State Expeditionary Force, causing heavy losses.

This also effectively supported the operations of the ground troops, the No. 11 Regiment of the Fourth Division of the Indian Army.

The [-]th Indian Regiment Division, a combat force that arrived in Europe only three months ago to increase the Army's combat strength in the European region.

After all, the previous ground combat troops were still a little short. The main force was only the third division of the Indian Army, and the assisting force was only the third division of the Indian Army. However, the area that needed to be controlled was very huge... not only in Europe, but also in the northern region of Africa. In their defense area, Portugal needs to garrison a certain amount of troops, North Africa and Morocco also need a certain amount of troops, and Spain also needs a large number of troops to maintain it.

These garrison tasks consume a lot of troops, leaving the No. 20 Seventh Army with much fewer troops. As for dispatching the main regular army, it is impossible... The regular army is too expensive, and sending a nominally B-level army to Europe A first-class division, in fact, the three divisions prepared and rationed according to the standards of a first-class division are enough.

After all, what the Chu army lacked was a large number of secondary troops stationed in places and performing low-intensity combat missions, not the main force like the Third Division.

In the end, the Army decided to transfer the Fourth Division from Africa to strengthen the secondary troops in Europe, and the shortage in Africa was to continue to be transferred from India to supplement the shortage.

After years of use, the Indian Legion now plays a relatively large role in the Chu Army, and its number is also very large. After all, this kind of cannon fodder servant army is really easy to use.

In addition, because there is no need to consider the reserve system and retire a group of soldiers every year as the backbone of the reserve and improve the mobilization system, the service life of the servant army is very long. The initial service life is ten years. After the ten-year contract expires, as long as the body is healthy If you are not disabled, and you are willing to continue serving, you can continue to serve... a five-year signature.

Anyway, the earliest batch of soldiers of the Indian Army are still serving... This has also resulted in the soldiers of the Servant Army having very rich combat experience and very good combat effectiveness.

Of course, the most important thing is that the cost is low enough... Even though the cost of a servant army like the Indian Legion is already very high in the eyes of many indigenous countries, it is still not worth mentioning compared with Chu's own regular army.

First of all, the salary of the personnel is very cheap. As for the indigenous soldiers, they will be happy if they are given any salary, and there is no such thing as pension.

At the same time, as cannon fodder troops, even if the casualties are extremely high, no one will hold the military responsible, and few Chu people even care... In this way, the military has no worries when using these servant troops. If they are all dead, they will be recruited again. Just one batch.

The equipment is also cheap, and they use retired weapons, or front-loading smoothbore weapons.

For example, the rifles use front-loading smoothbore flash cap percussion guns that have been gradually retired from the regular army, that is, the 21/23 style rifles. The production equipment of this thing is very large, with a total of more than 200 million pieces.Nowadays, more than 200 million flash cap muskets are gradually being withdrawn from the regular army. How to deal with them is also a troublesome matter. Export is impossible. This thing is too advanced and there is no need to export it for the time being... You must know the current state of Chu The main export of firearms is matchlock guns, and the number of flintlock guns exported is actually not that many!

The export of arms by the Chu people does not mean exporting whatever they have, nor does it mean that the natives can buy whatever they want, but exports based on the actual local conditions.

For example, in Africa, the local indigenous people are generally still in the cold weapon era, and they don't even have many cold weapons. Therefore, the local weapons exports are mainly cold weapons, and matchlock guns are rarely sold.

In the Indian region, the armament level of the local indigenous people is in the transitional period between cold weapons and matchlocks. They can also produce a certain number of matchlocks by themselves. Therefore, the export of individual weapons in the Indian region, including the Persian region, is mainly matchlock guns and cold weapons. , also sell some flintlock guns to Persia.

But in West Asia, that is, the Ottoman Empire, this country is quite powerful. It has also been equipped with a large number of matchlocks before, and it can also produce and use flintlocks. Its armament level is actually similar to that in Europe, and it is already in use. The line of flintlock muskets has gone through the ages, so the weapons exports in this region are mainly flintlock muskets.

The arms exports in Europe are also dominated by flintlock guns.

In short, the weapons exports of the Da Chu Empire were a one-stop shop, maintaining a certain regional balance and making more profits at the same time, let alone letting the export of weapons threaten itself.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible to export the flash cap firing gun. After all, this thing is still used by some of the Chu Army's second- and third-line troops.Although the breech-loading rifled rifles of the Dachu Empire have been in use for several years, they have still not been completely replaced.

Therefore, it is impossible to export the flash cap firing gun in a short period of time, or even within ten years.

But what to do with these decommissioned weapons?Seal it for later use?This has entered the era of breech-loading rifled rifles, and there is little point in sealing these front-loading rifled rifles... So in the end, these retired weapons can basically only be used by servant armies, mainly the Indian Army.

In fact, in addition to the Indian Army, there are several other servant armies of the empire, such as a Persian Army formed by recruiting Persians, a North African Army formed by recruiting locals in Northeast Africa, and a Fuso formed by recruiting Fuso people. Legions, but the latter three are very small in number, only a few thousand people, and the largest North African legion has only more than 1 people... These servant legions are generally stationed on duty in India.

However, the size of the Indian Army has exceeded 10 people. It is organized into eight divisions and eight mixed brigades/regiments of the Indian Army. In addition to serving locally in India, it has also been widely stationed in West Asia, Africa, America and now the United States. European mission.

However, it is worth noting that the soldiers of these Indian legions are all untouchables, and there are no high-caste soldiers or officers.

These people are not friendly groups to Indians of other castes in India, and are even hostile... Based on the unique caste cultural tradition in India, the untouchable soldiers of the Indian Legion, when performing combat missions in India, They have always been known for their brutal treatment of Indians of other castes...sometimes they kill just for the sake of killing, not to perform tasks.

This is why the Chu people only recruit untouchables in India... You don't have to worry about the Indian legions composed of these untouchables mixing with local high-caste groups and even ordinary caste groups in India to oppose the Chu people.

In fact, these untouchable soldiers were more concerned about the empire's colonial rule in India than the Chu people themselves.

One of the most successful colonial policies of the Chu Empire in India was to successfully arm the untouchable class, the lowest class in India, the most oppressed and not many in number, who had not had any resistance for thousands of years, and then These armed Indian regiments were used to perform military tasks in the colonies.

And the Indian Legion also proved to the Chu people in countless combat missions that they and other Indians not only had no one mind, but also wanted to kill all other Indians... Well, sending them to other places overseas to fight The tradition of extreme cruelty continues.

In this way, there was finally an Indian Army with a size of more than [-]!

The Indian [-]th Division is one of them. It was dispatched to South Africa three years ago to perform combat missions. A few months ago, it received orders to assemble and go to Europe, and then arrived in Cadiz on a transport ship.

After briefly adapting to the European environment around Cadiz, he was transferred to France to perform combat missions.

The tasks undertaken by the [-]th Indian Division are similar to those undertaken by the [-]rd Indian Division in Spain and Portugal. On weekdays, they garrisoned areas and carried out clearing operations. During large-scale battles, they cooperated with the regular army. For example, they were responsible for urban street fighting. Before When attacking Madrid, the Chu army's regular army only used artillery units, and the infantry only participated in peripheral battles. The subsequent street battles into the city were all undertaken by the Indian Third Division.

This will free up the regular army to perform various regular field missions and allow the regular army to avoid large casualties.

The same is true for this French battle. It is natural for the Indian Fourth Division to act as a forward, clear out the scattered enemy forces in the surrounding areas, and conduct armed reconnaissance at the same time.

This confused many French people... Didn't it mean that Chu people all have yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes?Why are a group of shady people here?

Didn’t it mean that the Chu people were invincible with guns and guns, and they used breech-loading rifled guns that were beyond the times?Why is this still using smoothbore guns similar to mine?
But after the actual fight, the French discovered that this Chu army, which did not look like the Chu army, could actually beat themselves...

In actual combat, whether it is now or in the past many years, in fact, the Indian Army, which is positioned as a low-cost cannon fodder force within the Chu Army, only uses front-loading smoothbore guns. But basically it can still defeat the armies of indigenous people everywhere.

Because compared to the indigenous armies of various countries, their equipment is more sophisticated, including muskets, but percussion guns and flintlock guns are two different concepts, and the firing rate is very different.They are both smoothbore cannons, but there is a huge difference between a smoothbore cannon that can fire more than 1000 meters and fire grenades with a metal disc fuse on a wooden base, and a smoothbore cannon that can only fire a few hundred meters and fire solid shells.

Not to mention that although the cost of the servant army is low, it is relative. In fact, the food supply of the servant army is quite good. Don't expect big fish and meat, but you still have basic meals. This food is good. , the training intensity naturally increased.

So the training is not bad compared to indigenous soldiers.

At the same time, the servant army has served for a very long time, and many soldiers and Indian servant officers have very rich combat experience...

The combination of all these factors means that servant armies like the Indian Legion can still defeat the indigenous armies of various countries...

France is no exception!
After landing in France and heading north, the [-]th Division of the Indian Army inflicted heavy losses on many French armies in succession!

However, the Indian Fourth Division only has [-] men. Although its combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the indigenous army, the French have now entered the line era, and at the same time they are continuing to recruit and gather more troops to prepare to intercept the Chu army's invasion.

Therefore, as France gathers more and more troops, and the French also have many bastions and other fortresses to rely on, it will be difficult for the Indian Fourth Division to penetrate all the way to Paris...

But it doesn't matter, because the main force of the French campaign, part of the main force of the Third Division and some of the heavy artillery of the 27th Army, that is, 150mm light howitzers, a total of about [-] troops have completed all landings and started to set off from Le Havre towards the Fight towards Paris.

When the main force of this regular army enters the battlefield, the French will know that all their early resistance is actually meaningless!
In fact, this is indeed the case. About half a month after the Chu army officially landed, the troops of the Third Division, under the cover of a fleet of inland gunboats, arrived less than [-] kilometers away from Paris and fought with the Indian Fourth Division. Made peace.

Right in front of them, the French had urgently assembled to defend Paris and resist the Chu invasion. There were more than 8 French troops!

The French forces that could be used to fight against the Chu army, including the king's forces and some large-scale private soldiers, could actually mobilize about 20.

After all, after the French threatened the Chu army with war and sent their fleet north, the French began to recruit troops, and there would be no shortage of troops to use.

But it is impossible for them to put all their troops near Paris. A considerable part of them are actually sent to the border between France and Spain...

The French initially believed that the Chu people were in northern Spain, and it was more likely that they would come directly by land to kill them!
As for a large-scale cross-sea landing, in their opinion, it was too difficult and not very likely. However, even so, [-] main troops were left in Paris as a strategic reserve.

However, the Chu army actually launched a cross-sea landing, landed directly to capture Le Havre, and then approached Paris along the Seine River.

This forced the French to hurriedly mobilize troops to reinforce Paris. This allowed them to mobilize 8 regular field troops to reinforce Paris in just half a month. Together with the original [-] troops, a total of [-] troops were gathered to defend Paris. This was already the French This is the limit of what can be done at this stage.

This mobilization and troop concentration ability is much better than that of Spain... When the Chu army attacked Spain before, the Spaniards did not assemble more than 5 troops from beginning to end, so they resorted to fuel tactics, and were used by the Chu army. Defeated, and finally Madrid fell.

But can 8 people stop the Chu army?

If those indigenous countries could stop the Chu army just by relying on the sheer number of troops, it would be impossible for the Chu Empire to dominate the world.

In the face of absolute superiority in weapons and equipment and advanced tactics, pure troop numbers are of little significance.

The Battle of Paris will not be an exception!