Super Chief

Major General Julian Luc is the supreme commander of the Royal French Navy's fleet in Guadeloupe. He commands a second-class battleship with two ninety guns and five third-class sails with seventy-four guns. The battleship and eight fifty-gun four-tier ships are also cruisers.

　　 Guadeloupe is undoubtedly very important to France, so whether it is Louis XV or Louis XVI, who just came to power a few years ago, they paid great attention to the safety of Guadeloupe. He even did not hesitate to deploy seven main sailing battleships here.

We must know that after the end of the Seven Years' War, even if France has been desperately building capital ships, the number of sailing battleships of the third rank and above owned by the Royal French Navy is only more than forty-eight, and the Guadeloupe fleet The number of battleships owned accounted for more than one-seventh of the entire Royal Navy!

　　 When Julian Luc was named the supreme commander of the Guadeloupe Fleet by Louis XVI who had just come to power, he felt the supreme honor and vowed to swear allegiance to the great Louis XVI.

　　 Especially after coming to Guadeloupe, this Major General Luc was very successful.

　　 But in the past two years, Luc felt that he was extremely depressed. He was even reprimanded by the letter from Emperor Louis XVI.

　　There was no him, the root cause was that the squadron he sent north to harass the British suddenly disappeared the previous summer.

Brigadier General Henry Antoine is Major General Luc’s most powerful subordinate. According to the order issued by the Royal Naval Command last year, the Guadeloupe Fleet sent some warships disguised as pirates to attack the British and give some help to the Continental Army . So Luc gave the task to Brigadier General Henry Antoine.

　　Luc knows very well that he became the commander of the Guadeloupe Fleet not because of how proficient in naval warfare he is, but because he has a good family background. But Antoine is different, his brigadier general rank is really fought out with one sea battle.

　　On naval battles, Luc admits that he is far inferior to Antoine.

　　 So the task of harassing will be handed over to Antoine to perform in the future, Luc thinks it is still very sure.

　　Unexpectedly, Antoine disappeared. Although it takes several months for the navy to go out to sea, it can't be a long time without seeing people for half a year.

If you set off from Brest, the largest port in mainland France, and cross the Atlantic Ocean to Guadeloupe, then at a speed of less than ten knots for a sailing battleship, this 7,000-kilometer voyage would take more than two months or even three. Months.

　　New France was ceded to the British after the Seven Years' War. France lost its landing point in the North American New World. Otherwise, it would take only one and a half months to take the shorter North Atlantic route to reach the North American New World.

　　 But these are long-distance voyages, and it takes a few months to be normal. But Brigadier General Antoine led the three capital ships northward to harass the British. This voyage was not far away. Even if it was a round trip from New France to Guadeloupe, it would not take three months.

　　 But if you don't see people or corpses for half a year, there must be a big problem.

　　 But in this era, it is almost impossible to contact a fleet fighting on the open sea. So even if Major General Luc has been in fear for more than half a year, he is helpless.

　　 Until Luc saw a letter from the Continental Army, he knew the whereabouts of the squadron.

　　 The squadron composed of Royal Dauphin, Versailles Glory, and King Knight was sunk by a group of **** natives.

　　 Luc didn't believe it when he saw the news. Could it be that God is joking? That is a fleet composed of a second-class ship and two third-class ships. With the combat power of this fleet, it is wrong that the British dispatched a fleet of more than ten capital ships, otherwise it would be difficult to stay safe. Tovan's.

　　 This is not Luc's random guessing, but in this era, French naval ships of the same level are really better than British naval ships!

　　 In fact, it is an indisputable fact that the British shipbuilding industry stood still in the first half of the eighteenth century. From the ascension of George I in 1714 to the outbreak of the Austrian Succession War in 1744, the customization of British Royal Navy warships remained unchanged for thirty years. In particular, the "1719 Customization" formulated by the British Admiralty had only minor changes in more than two decades. As a result, British warships were quickly overtaken by French and Spanish new warships.

　　The fundamental reason for this situation is not technological backwardness, but the conservative and short-sightedness of British parliamentary politics. Neither the Naval Council nor the Ordnance Council is interested in technological innovation, because the British parliament, which is relatively competitive, has never been willing to spend money on it. British politicians are only satisfied with paper superiority. As long as the Royal Navy has a sufficient number of battleships with more than 70 guns, everything will be fine. No one cares about the size and performance of battleships and the caliber of naval guns.

　　 While the British navy was complacent, the French were working hard to develop their own navy, and the ships they built were stronger than the others.

Especially in the first naval battle of the Cape Finistere battle that broke out in May 1747, a French three-tier sailing battleship "Invincible" with a new type of seventy-four guns singled out six British ships in order to cover the retreat of the main fleet. For battleships, most of the officers and soldiers on the ship surrendered until they were killed or injured.

　　 The commander of the Royal Navy, Admiral George Anson, admired the Invincible’s powerful combat power. He not only boarded the ship and was surrendered, he also instructed the Naval Council to send experts to inspect the warship. As a result, the Admiralty executives were stunned~www.readwn.com~ in disbelief.

Although 　　 Invincible is only a three-tier ship, this ship is 52 meters long, 15 meters wide, has a draft of 6.5 meters, and has a displacement of nearly 1,800 tons! It is equipped with twenty-eight 36-pounders, thirty 18-pounders, and sixteen 8-pounders.

　　 Invincible is a second-class sailing battleship with more than 90 British guns in tonnage and firepower!

　　 What worries the British most is that the Invincible represents the customization of the French navy battleship. The indicators of the British seventy-gun three-tier battleship of the same grade are beyond the reach.

　　 This is a very terrifying thing, so the British Admiralty immediately set off a political campaign to catch up with France, mobilizing public opinion and pressure to force the parliament to allocate funds for the construction of new warships.

　　Especially when Admiral George Anson became the chief naval minister, he immediately changed the personnel of the Naval Council, promoted Slade as the chief architect, and began to imitate the new French battleships on a large scale.

　　 What happened in Britain, the French as a mortal enemy still knows very well. Major General Luc also knew these things, but the time for the British to build new ships was only more than ten years, and there were not many new warships. That's why Major General Luc was so sure that it would be difficult for the British fleet to keep Antoine behind.

　　 But he really did not expect that Antoine's fleet was indeed not left by the British, but it was sunk by a group of Native Americans!

　　 This is incredible...

　　PS: Ask for a recommendation ticket, thank you...

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