I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 548: Unbalanced Continent

"Well, according to the intelligence collected by Lord Grenville, the cost of France's textile industry is only about 15% higher than ours, and the steel industry is almost on par with us. The French have discovered huge coal and iron mines in northern Crimea, Russia, which has given them a large amount of high-quality pig iron.

"As for the wine industry, the French have reduced their costs by 40% compared to two years ago, and the quality has even improved."

He was referring to the three most important industrial sectors between Britain and France - either those with fierce competition or huge trade volume.

Little Pete paused, his expression becoming serious: “In short, France is growing stronger at a very fast speed, like a giant beast.

"We were all blinded by arrogance and carelessness before, but now we must first admit the most crucial point, that is, we will face an opponent that is more difficult than ever before.

"This is far from the France of the Seven Years' War. It has begun to upset the balance of power on the European continent."

Marquis Wellesley did not show any shock when he heard this. Instead, he seemed to be relieved. "My old friend, your strategic sense is still as sharp as ever. To be honest, I have been worried all the way that you failed to notice this."

Little Pete shook his head and said, "This is not my credit, but it was stated in a report submitted by the Duke of Leeds a few months ago."

As he spoke, he took out a stack of documents from the briefcase beside his seat and handed them to Wellesley. "I wanted to give it to you in two days. After all, you just came back from the Far East and need a good rest. But I suddenly felt that I need you to help me as soon as possible."

"Oh, of course I firmly support you..."

Wellesley took the document and immediately saw the words "Cabinet Top Secret" on the cover. He hesitated and said, "I don't hold a government position now. I'm afraid this is not appropriate, right?"

"Nothing," Little Pete waved his hand nonchalantly, "Your opinion is what this report needs most."

He said, leaning on the armrest: "Besides, I want you to be the Minister of War. If you don't refuse, you will be a member of the Cabinet."

"Minister of War?" Wellesley was startled. "What kind of position is that?"

Yes, because the British Army had played a trick on the King during the Glorious Revolution, and Britain had little need for the Army, so until then Britain only had the Secretary of the Navy, and the Army was managed by several senior generals. Historically, it was Napoleon's huge pressure that made the British set up the Secretary of War three years later, but now, it appeared ahead of schedule.

Little Pitt said seriously: "As I said just now, we must deal with the French seriously. This is an important military move.

"Although you are young, you have accumulated prestige in the battles in the Far East, and the soldiers admire you very much. It is most appropriate for you to integrate the army."

"Okay, I'll do it." Wellesley nodded without any pretense in front of his old friend. "We can't just leave this to those old-fashioned old guys. In fact, I do have some ideas about military reform."

The associate minister of war now confidently flipped open the Duke of Leeds' report, quickly skimmed through it, and continued, "According to the information I have obtained about the French army, they have made great progress in the past two years. Even more than their achievements in industry.

"The Prussians got hold of some French rifles, and I asked for a few. They were revolutionary weapons, and the French called them percussion cap rifles. They were much better in range, power, and reload speed than our most advanced Brown Bess 1769.

"It can be said that when our soldiers face this kind of weapon, unless they have a 30% advantage in manpower or the enemy has malaria, they will definitely be defeated." Little Pitt was not familiar with the military field and frowned. "I have also heard of this kind of gun, but Sir Henry Conway thinks it is not a threat."

Sir Conway is currently the most senior general in the British Army.

"That's why I don't like those old-fashioned people." Wellesley curled his lips, "They have to get beaten before they admit that their way of doing things is outdated.

"Oh, and the horse artillery. Prince Edward and I proposed several years ago to develop this weapon invented by Frederick, but our old generals only agreed to build two battalions.

"Do you know how amazingly effective the French cavalry artillery was in the Southern Netherlands and Silesia last year?"

Little Pitt nodded. "That's why I made you the Secretary of State for War. You can do all these things now. I will not let Parliament make it difficult for you in terms of funding."

"Only you have such courage." Wellesley gave him a grateful look. "There is still a lot we can learn from the French army, but I can assure you that I will give you a strong army that can defeat them..."

He suddenly stopped talking in the middle of his speech. The Duke of Leeds' report made him frown. He looked up at Little Peter and said, "Are you sure what is said here is not exaggerated?"

The latter nodded: "The cabinet has held several meetings on this matter, and everyone agrees with the contents of the report."

"This……"

Wellesley quickly flipped forward a few pages, where it was mentioned that France had stabilized the situation in its North African colonies such as Tunisia and Tripoli, initially established a ruling system, and the number of immigrants continued to rise.

Last year alone, more than 7 French immigrants went to North Africa, especially in the last month, the number reached 1. This led to a 1% increase in the price of boat tickets from Marseille to Bizerte.

You know, whether it is Britain or colonial powers such as Spain and Portugal, if they want to stabilize and control their overseas colonies, they have to go through a considerable amount of time, go through a series of wars, gradually erode the local population's will to resist, and invest a lot of money.

This usually takes 5 to 10 years. But the French did it in just 1 and a half years!

Although North Africa is very close to France, which gives them a considerable advantage, the speed is really too astonishing.

In fact, if the British had not interfered before, this time would have been much shorter. Joseph's "Roman identity" and "miracle" operations were extremely effective, far beyond the reach of a colonial empire that relied solely on guns and cannons to "persuade".

At the same time, the report also said that although the areas of Luxembourg and Wallonia in the Southern Netherlands acquired by France were small, a large number of coal and iron industries were rapidly developed in these two places.

In addition, the residents of the two places were already more in agreement with France, so the ruling order was established more quickly. The Duke of Leeds estimated that France could recover all its investments in these places in two years at most, or even one year.

France's overseas colonies lost in the Seven Years' War have been largely compensated by these places.

(End of this chapter)