Chapter 197 The meeting of the Davout brothers during the exercise

Chapter 198 The meeting of the Davout brothers during the exercise

In Joseph's North Africa strategy, there was never any intention to use the French army to push forward all the way.

Not only would this consume a lot of troops and cost a lot of money, but it would also easily lead to fierce resistance from local forces in North Africa.

Countless cases in later generations have shown that in many cases it is not difficult to defeat the enemy's main force, but it is the clearing up of scattered local armed forces that is the most troublesome. For example, the later world overlord defeated Atta in just more than ten days, but spent more than 2 trillion US dollars to deal with the guerrillas in the following ten years, and ended up losing the battle.

Therefore, the best way is to mobilize the local forces in North Africa for your own use. A small number of elite French troops can be used as weights to influence the balance and determine the final victory or defeat.

French diplomats and police intelligence services have been operating in Algiers for this purpose for quite some time.

…

Joseph's carriage was still half a mile away from the training ground of the Paris Police Academy when he heard the melodious sound of the horn.

A group of police academy students in uniforms came running in two columns, and the person at the end of the line would stop every two meters. Soon, two straight walls of people formed from the entrance to the training ground to Joseph's car.

As the officers shouted orders, the two teams of police cadets turned around and put down the rifles on their shoulders. The butts of the rifles almost fell to the ground, making a majestic "snap" sound.

The carriage passed between the two rows, and Joseph nodded with satisfaction to the police academy students on both sides. Just from the welcoming queue just now, you can see the training quality of these students. A team that is hundreds of meters long can maintain a straight line and move in a uniform manner. This is definitely considered an elite soldier in today's Europe.

Several neat square formations have already been lined up on the training ground.

The nearly a thousand people lined up by battalion at the front were veteran students of the first phase, and behind them were more new students of the second phase, but the queue was obviously not so neat. Joseph had already read Friant's report before. The second phase of the police academy had a total enrollment of 3,000 students.

This is due to the fact that the police academy manages food, food, and housing, and is completely open to civilians. Good grades can even lead to scholarships. Many civilians who live far away from Paris will even travel half a month to register after learning about the various favorable conditions of the police academy.

Of course, the most important thing is that Joseph now has some money in his hand and can afford to support so many students-their complete set of brand-new military uniforms alone costs more than 120 livres. You know, the French finance has not allocated a single denny to the Paris Police Academy.

Behind the second batch of new students, there were more than a thousand soldiers whose uniforms looked older and whose average age was older. They were the Berthier Legion who came to watch the ceremony.

Joseph got off the carriage, and surrounded by Friant, Berthier and other military and police leaders, he came to the middle of the auditorium and raised his hand to signal to the students and soldiers on the field.

Thousands of people on the training ground immediately stood upright, raised their hats and saluted, and at the same time burst into loud shouts: "Long live His Majesty the King! Long live His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

Joseph smiled and raised his hat in return, and then gave a routine speech as the principal. Such a lecture will be held here at least once a year.

Afterwards, all the phalanxes of students and soldiers walked past the auditorium one by one and were inspected by the Crown Prince.

Behind Joseph, Mirabeau, the newly appointed Minister of Industry and Industry who was invited to observe, looked at the majestic and well-trained phalanx in front of him, and was extremely shocked.

In recent days, he had been wondering why the Crown Prince wanted him to attend the entrance ceremony for the new students of the police academy. Only then did he finally understand that the Crown Prince was showing him his power - these were not police academy cadets, this was the Crown Prince's army!

He originally only thought that the young crown prince was well versed in the path of industrial development and could bring prosperity and hope to the French industrial industry.

At this moment, he finally realized that the crown prince was definitely a genius king - while promoting industrial development, he was also wary of possible famine. He had just consolidated a large number of banks a while ago, and a powerful army was created here.

The most important thing is that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did all this unknowingly!

Mirabeau secretly sighed, maybe in a few years, France will usher in a king as great as the Sun King. No, it will even be more dazzling than the Sun King!

Mirabeau's thoughts were interrupted by loud slogans from the phalanx. He looked towards the training ground, but suddenly noticed that the rifles carried by the soldiers were very strange, and definitely not any model produced by Charleville - he was keen on hunting and had done a lot of research on common firearms.

So he turned his head and asked the police chief beside him in a low voice: "Viscount Besançon, do you know what kind of gun they used? I don't think I have ever seen it before."

The latter immediately said: "It's the August 1788 percussion cap gun. The latest one produced by the Royal Ordnance Factory established by His Majesty the King himself."

Now the Royal Ordnance Factory next to the Palace of Versailles and the Ordnance Factory in Saint-Etienne are on the right track, and the standardized production model has begun to bear fruit. If the production capacity is fully activated, the two factories can produce more than 2,000 flash cap guns per month.

This was still the case when Joseph asked Saint-Etienne to devote most of their energy to researching cannon casting, otherwise the output could be even higher.

The Royal Gunpowder Bureau, under the auspices of Lavoisier, had already made breakthroughs in the preparation technology of mercury fulminate and could easily produce 30,000 copper flash caps every month.

With the support of the production capacity of these two parties, all members of the Paris Police Academy and the Berthier Corps have been equipped with new flash cap guns, and daily shooting training is also based on flash cap guns.

After all the ceremonies were over, Joseph announced that the first batch of trainees of the police academy would immediately begin practical training.

The first-term students were obviously not notified in advance, and they all looked very surprised when they heard this.

However, the instructors' passwords immediately made them understand, and the practical drill had begun.

This was also specially arranged by Joseph to test the mobilization ability and response speed of the troops.

The urging voices of the instructors sounded everywhere: "Quick! Move faster!"

"This is a war, everyone, run away!"

"The company that finally completed the assembly ran 5 penalty laps!"

The students did not get into chaos, but dispersed in an orderly manner under the command of their respective company commanders and quickly ran back to their barracks.

The cavalry and artillerymen rushed to the stables.

What Mirabeau did not expect was that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would invite him to lunch in the military camp.

He sat among hundreds of police officers and looked at the simple tableware in front of him. He always felt a little uncomfortable. But when he turned around, he found that the crown prince, the police chief and others had already started to eat.

He had no choice but to eat together, and then he noticed that although the food looked rough, it tasted pretty good, and it had all the meat, vegetables and bread. It was almost the same as the officer's food when he served in the cavalry regiment. Up and down.

When lunch was over, all the students stood up at the same time and watched the Crown Prince leave the dining room. When Mirabeau saw the extremely hot reverence and trust in their eyes, he immediately understood the importance of this meal.

After returning to the training ground with the crown prince and his entourage, Mirabeau was surprised to find that most of the infantry had completed preparations to set off, and there were artillerymen not far away driving horses to pull several cannons towards this side.

He looked at his watch. Only more than half an hour had passed since the officers ordered the assembly!

Suddenly there were only two words left in his mind - elite.

Another half an hour later, thousands of heavily armed police academy cadets lined up in neat columns and left the training ground in a mighty manner.

Of course, this is a speed that can be achieved without considering logistical preparations. It will take at least several days to assemble the logistical supplies.

The first-phase trainee army marched southward at high speed, and finally arrived at Tusi Town at noon on the sixth day.

After resting here for another day, they finally met their training opponent for this internship - the Third Infantry Regiment of the Mulan Corps, led by Andre, who had just arrived from Mulan.

After the two armies merged, Andre first met with the commander of the police academy students to discuss the next training matters, and then had dinner together.

After all the official business was over, Andre couldn't wait to go to the police academy student camp. Under the leadership of a police academy instructor, he finally met the young second lieutenant who was not yet twenty years old.

The young man and Andre first raised their hats and saluted each other, and then embraced each other warmly.

Andre pulled the second lieutenant away a little, looked him up and down with a smile and said: "Dear Nicholas, you have finally become a real officer!"

The young man named Nikolai said energetically: "Maybe it won't be long before I can become an amazing legion commander like you, my dear brother."

"Haha, there will be such a day. But now you have just graduated. Accumulate more experience and don't think about other things." Andre patted his younger brother on the shoulder and said, "Actually, I think the most accomplished person in our Dawu family will definitely be in the future. It will be you.

"You have been smarter than me since you were a child, and you have served under the Crown Prince. You will definitely rise much faster than me."

The two brothers had not seen each other for more than two years, and they immediately walked towards the edge of the camp talking and laughing.

"Hey, your military uniforms are really beautiful. Look at this cool edge design!"

Nicholas nodded: "It is said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked a famous designer in Paris to design it. Oh, you haven't seen the winter clothes yet, they are so majestic. They are all made of wool. It is said that one piece costs 70 livres."

Andre looked down at his old military uniform, almost tears of envy flowed from the corner of his mouth, and quickly changed the topic: "By the way, when did you set off? How come you arrived one day earlier than us?"

"I left Paris last Wednesday, brother. It was a high-speed march all the way, which made me very tired. You know, there has never been such a rush in the military academy."

Andre's eyes suddenly widened: "You mean, you only walked for 6 days in total? It's nearly 40 miles from Paris to Tutsi!"

40 miles is 160 kilometers, which means that the police academy students march more than 26 kilometers every day. This was absolutely amazing speed in the 18th century.

You know, the Mulan Corps also set off last Wednesday, with a journey of less than 30 miles, and one day longer than the police academy students.

This is the effect of hard physical training at the Paris Police Academy. In fact, if we have to keep marching in formation, with the physical fitness of the police academy students, it is not a problem to walk more than ten kilometers a day.

Nicholas nodded: "These cadets in the police academy have very good physical strength. I heard that they often have to run a mile with a bag on their backs. I tried it once a few days ago, and I could only barely keep up with them. It was slow. Those few people.”

Nicholas went to the Paris Military Academy. Although he worked very hard during school and had very good physical strength, without systematic cross-country running training, he could barely keep up with those police academy students.

Andre frowned when he heard this: "If what you said is true, then my legion will probably be very strenuous during this exercise."

But he immediately smiled again: "Fortunately, I brought the best regiment from Mulan. Even if I can't beat you in marching, I can definitely win back the victory through formation, shooting and so on."

"That's impossible to tell." Nicholas looked at his brother with a strange expression, "Do you know how shooting is practiced in the police academy?"

"How to practice?"

"When I used a flintlock rifle, I fired 10 shots every three days. Later, after I switched to a flash cap gun, the dean said I need to speed up getting familiar with the new gun, so I fired 5 shots a day."

"Five shots a day?!" Andre suddenly took a breath of cold air. His regiment only fired this number every half month.

He suddenly noticed the word his brother mentioned just now: "What is the 'flash cap gun' you are talking about?"

Nicholas pointed to the musket carried by the police academy student who was patrolling not far away: "Look, that's it. I also have one, but I put it over there. It is said to be a new gun designed by His Majesty the King, and some people say it is a new gun designed by the Crown Prince. Designed by His Highness. When firing, you don’t need to pour in igniting powder, you just need to insert a copper cap. Oh, this is it..."

As he spoke, he took out a flash cap from the leather bag on his waist and handed it to his brother: "The reloading speed of this gun is three to four seconds faster than Charleville, and the range is also slightly longer."

Andre's face turned a little dark, and he was already thinking about how he would explain this to his wife, the Duchess of Villars, after returning home if his veterans lost to the police academy students who had only trained for less than a year. thing.

Early the next morning, with the sound of a cannon, the joint exercise between the Moulins Corps and the first batch of Paris Police Academy students officially began.

According to regulations, whoever arrives at the Paris Mars campus first will be able to "occupy" the high ground there and become a more advantageous defender. Those who arrive later can only fight hard.

Only two hours later, Andre received a report from the scouts that the "enemy army" had entered a marching state.

He looked with his binoculars in surprise and found that the police academy students had already set off in formation.

"How is this possible?" He turned to look at his staff, "Have they made preparations in advance?"

The latter hurriedly raised his telescope and said, "This is impossible, Captain. I sent people to supervise them, there is no way...wait, they didn't bring a grain cart?"

"Huh?" Andre observed carefully and found that it was exactly what his staff officer said.

He suddenly smiled: "These inexperienced young people will soon have to stop and wait for the baggage convoy."