Chapter 405: Counterattack (1 million words already, please vote for me!)
As for other officers and soldiers who performed meritoriously in the battle, Joseph also gave them corresponding awards without hesitation.
After handing over the documents to the officials responsible for delivering confidential letters, Joseph asked Eman to call Denico, the general manager of "Paris Business News".
In addition to stabilizing the situation in northwest Tunisia and allowing him to gain two highly capable officers, this great victory in Tamirai also had very important propaganda significance.
Only two months had passed since Joseph last called on the nobles to "go to the battlefield like warriors to fight for His Majesty the King and France" at the Palace of Versailles. Moreau led a thousand young nobles to achieve outstanding results and won the Generous rewards. This matter must be publicized to attract more nobles to join the military.
As for Ney, as a commoner from a family of coopers, he can be granted a territory, and after possessing the territory, he will also have a corresponding title, which will also be a huge encouragement to the commoners.
It is foreseeable that France's ability to mobilize troops will far exceed that of other major European countries in the future, and its morale will be directly raised to a very high level.
Of course, with France's current financial situation, it can only support about 150,000 troops at most, and there are still many old-style troops among them.
However, as the war situation in India develops in a direction favorable to Mysore, Tunisia should be able to break through soon.
In addition, the coal and iron industries in Southern Netherlands and Luxembourg will gradually begin production.
At that time, the dividends from Tunisia and the lowland areas that he has laid out for a long time will truly be reflected, bringing a large amount of benefits to the French finance.
At the same time, troops stationed in North Africa and the Southern Netherlands can also return to the country, and there is no need to invest huge military expenditures.
With the increase in revenue and expenditure reduction, financial difficulties will be significantly improved. It won't take many years for France to develop into a state of "rich military virtue" where it can recruit troops and fight wars!
More than an hour later, the slightly fat Denico entered the office of the Tuileries Palace under the leadership of Eman. As soon as he saw Joseph, he quickly bowed and saluted:
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, I have not been summoned by you for a long time. I am so excited! May God bless you."
Joseph returned the favor with a smile, motioned him to sit down, and then told him about Tamirai's great victory, and finally said:
"I need you to take it upon yourself to spread the word about this across the country."
"Of course that's no problem, Your Highness." Denico hurriedly bowed to signal, and then said very skillfully, "I think we can send a few reporters to North Africa to interview Chief Moreau, and..."
"Ney, Michelle Ney."
"Yes, yes, interviews with Chief Ney. Oh, and their soldiers. It's on the front page of the newspapers for a week.
"We can also create a 'My North African Heroes' essay collection, allowing citizens to submit articles praising the warriors who have made great achievements in the battle. We can also give some bonuses to those who write better."
"Then we will find a few well-known writers and ask them to write the battle that took place in Tamirai into a serial novel. By the way, Your Highness, do you know if the two commanders have wives or sweethearts? You know, people like to read Things that come and go.”
Joseph looked at the newspaper manager with some surprise. He had learned so well the way he used to do publicity, and he had nothing to add at all.
"They don't seem to be married yet..."
When he said this, he suddenly remembered the "cheat" that Moreau married in history - Milly Oluo. This woman was extremely ambitious and had a strong desire for power. After marrying Moreau, she used his reputation to keep flirting with foreign powers and participated in the royalist coup.
After the coup failed, she went to join the Russian Czar—Russia had already joined the anti-French alliance at the time—and colluded with the famous French spy Bernadotte to trick Moreau into going to Russia and becoming the Tsar. of enemies.
Moreau was implicated by this woman and was never able to gain the emperor's full trust. He eventually had to go into exile in the United States and missed many opportunities to make contributions on the battlefield.
Joseph recalled Moreau's life. He seemed to have gotten married in his 30s. In other words, he had enough time to change his fate of getting together with that cheating woman. For example, introduce him to a good marriage in advance...
After arranging the promotion of the war hero and sending Denico away, Joseph was ready to go to the Palace of Versailles to rehearse the drama - he still had to fulfill his promise to his mother...
Just as he was about to go out, he saw Berthier rushing over, saluted him, and then took out the document commending Moreau, Ney and others:
"Your Highness, regarding your commendation to the North African Legion, there is no problem with promotion, honors, etc. It's just that this fiefdom... you seem to have written the place name wrong?"
"Wrong writing?" Joseph picked up the document he signed and looked at it, "That's right."
Berthier said with some embarrassment: "Your Highness, Tripoli is not French territory..."
Joseph opened the page where Scherer reported on the situation in Tunisia and pushed it in front of him:
“Tripoli has repeatedly invaded Tunisia’s southeastern provinces, plundering six tribes and more than 20 villages and towns.
"At the end of last month, Benjiour's 2,000 troops occupied the town of Remada in the south of Tataouine, resulting in more than 300 casualties there! According to the intelligence agency, he is also mobilizing more troops to prepare for a larger-scale launch attack.
"In addition, Tripoli pirates also began to rob our merchant ships, and our joint fleet had to rush to the Gulf of Gabes to escort them."
He looked at Berthier and said in a cold tone: "With such provocation, we will declare war on Tripoli. As for Moreau and his fiefdom, they only need to conquer it themselves."
After the failure of the sneak attack by the Moroccan Guards, the strongest force in North Africa, the situation in Tunisia has basically become clear.
Scherer's main force would be responsible for the defense of northwest Tunisia.
Although this army is an old-style army, if it is well prepared, leaving 15,000 troops plus 5,000 local Tunisian troops will be enough to defend against the Moroccan and Algiers coalition forces of less than 30,000 people. Especially when the latter had just suffered a defeat and their morale was low.
The 5,000 soldiers separated from Scherer's Corps followed the new force of Moreau and Ney to the southeast to deal with Tripoli.
Now just waiting for the British to cut off their support for Algiers and other countries, France can immediately launch a counterattack against Tripoli.
After this, Joseph was even ready to teach Algiers a lesson.
In order to ease the situation in India this time, the British could only watch helplessly as their "little brother" in North Africa was beaten.
(End of chapter)