Napoleon II Reborn Chapter 92

In the vast North Sea, a huge fleet is slowly sailing eastward. On both sides of the fleet are dozens of three-masted clipper ships, and further inside are ten huge gunboats. In the middle are more than 300 transport ships.

They are the Expeditionary Corps of the British Empire. This is the first time that the United Kingdom has dispatched an army to intervene in the European continent on a large scale. Before, they sent small troops or provided funds and weapons to support other countries, while they themselves were independent from the war. But this time they changed their previous position, probably because France under the leadership of Napoleon has seriously threatened the security of Britain.

The commander of this expedition was the Duke of Wellington who had just returned to England from India. He was born in 1769 and graduated from the Military School in Angers, France. He joined the British Army in 1787. And participated in the war against the French Republic from 1794 to 1795. In 1796, he was ordered to lead the army to launch a war against the Indian maharaja's army. After ten years of hard work, he finally completely defeated the Indian maharaja's army, making India the biggest diamond on the head of the British king.

In August 1806, Wellington returned to England to report on his duties. After Britain, Prussia, and Russia reached an anti-French alliance, the prime minister, Lord Grenville, rejected all opinions and insisted that Wellington be the commander of the expeditionary corps. He is very optimistic about Wellington and firmly believes that he will definitely defeat the proud emperor across the strait. But in fact, his vision is also very correct. In history, although Wellington was defeated by Napoleon in the previous wars, he commanded the Anglo-Dutch coalition forces to fight against France in 1815. In the battle, they resisted the attack of the French army's superior force. Finally, with the cooperation of the Prussian army, they defeated Napoleon & #8226; Bonaparte I, marched into Paris, and led the allied occupation forces stationed in France. After the war, he participated in many meetings of the anti-French alliance countries to re-carve up the sphere of influence. However, since Xiao Jie came to this time and space, will all these still happen?

Standing on the deck of the gunboat Sovereign, Wellington was full of ambition. He was promoted to admiral and appointed as the commander of the expeditionary corps after returning home this time. His colleagues cast envious glances at him.

"General Bill, how long will it take for us to reach our destination?" Wellington was a little impatient and wanted to land on the European continent as soon as possible, so that they would know that Britain not only has the world's top Royal Navy, but also his army. It is also the best in the world.

"General, I just asked General Bork, and he told me that we will probably be able to reach the scheduled destination at noon tomorrow." Lieutenant General Bill, the chief of staff of the expeditionary corps, replied.

"General Bork? That proud admiral?" Wellington, like other army officers, looked down on those admirals, thinking that they would only brag and talk big, and they were not worthy of the word royal at all. But it cannot be denied that the navy is indeed better than their army. They have been across the ocean for hundreds of years without failure. And what about the Army? Although they have just achieved victory in India, this cannot conceal their major defeat in North America.

"Yes, General," Bill replied. He also disliked Admiral Bock just as much.

"The weather is fine today? It's a good day for sailing. Are you right? General Wellington, General Bill." If Cao Cao arrives, Cao Cao will arrive. As soon as the conversation between Wellington and Bill was over, Bock came out from the side of the boat. It made Wellington wonder if he had been there before. If they were there, wouldn't they have heard all their conversation just now? Thinking of this, Wellington couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. After all, talking about others behind their backs is not in line with noble etiquette.

"Is the weather nice today? By the way, General Bork, why haven't we seen a single French warship after we've been out at sea for so long?" Wellington began to change the subject.

Bock smiled contemptuously, and then said: "French warships? I guess they are lying in the sun in the home port like turtles. The sea belongs to our Royal Navy, and warships from other countries have to stand aside."

Although Wellington and Bill were a little bit uncomfortable with Bock's arrogance and arrogance, but at this time they believed in Bock's words. After all, the honor of the navy is also the honor of the British Empire, and it is also the honor of their subjects of the British Empire.

At this time, a young officer walked up to them, saluted, and said: "Your Excellency, this is the latest information on the Prussian battlefield." After speaking, he handed a piece of information to Wellington.

Wellington sighed after reading it, then handed the information to Bill, and said, "It seems that the situation is not very good? Our allies were defeated by the French."

Bock asked: "What? Our allies have been defeated? How could it be so fast? The war has only started for more than half a month? Has Prussia surrendered?"

Facing a lot of questions from Bock, Bill patiently answered after reading the information: "In the Battle of Jena and Auerstadt on October 14, Prussia lost almost all of its main force, while the French army The losses are relatively minor. At present, the remaining Prussians are gathering towards Königsberg, and our ally Friedrich Wilhelm III is also preparing to continue fighting the French in the north of Germany."

"Is the situation really bad? Is it appropriate for us to intervene in the war at this time?" After hearing Bill's explanation, Bock asked.

"It's not too bad." Wellington replied, "It indicates that Prussia has not surrendered yet, and the French have to deploy a large number of troops to deal with the remaining Prussian troops. Besides, our Russian allies are about to start attacking, so Even if we land in the Netherlands, the French will not be able to spare many troops to deal with us. Moreover, the soldiers of this expedition are all selected from the British Empire Army, and the predecessors are equipped with the latest Mitchell rifles (Ever since getting information about the new rifles equipped in France, Britain has managed to obtain a lot of data on the 1802-style rifles, and after improvements, they designed Britain's first breech-loading rifle, named Mitchell rifle). The combat effectiveness is different from the past. France People can at most deploy one or two legions into the Netherlands, and the 20,000 garrison in the Netherlands itself is not strong, so we still have a great chance of winning. In addition, we can send more troops to land in the country, so we still Very confident in defeating the enemy."

Seeing that Wellington was so confident, Bock didn't say anything. In his opinion, if the situation of the war was not too good, they could still rely on the strong maritime transportation capabilities of the UK to withdraw all the troops. It can't burn the United Kingdom, so why are there so many other countries on the European continent?

At noon on October 18, the British expeditionary fleet appeared on the sea near the Dutch seaside town of Nordwijk. The reason why this small town was chosen as the landing site is because it is between Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, and The Hague, the seat of the government, and it is relatively close to both places. To capture it, you can choose to go south or north. In addition, there are not many troops stationed in such a small town, which is also conducive to the success of the landing. But there is also a big disadvantage of landing here. The port of North Wake is very small. It will take a lot of time to disembark all the 50,000 soldiers and all the supplies. However, considering that there are not many French troops stationed in the Netherlands, they could not pose any threat to the landing British troops at all, so they finally chose to land here.

At 12:30 noon, the landing battle officially started. First, five of the ten gunboats of the British Expeditionary Corps left the fleet and approached the coast to conduct a devastating bombardment of the coastal defense batteries of North Wyck, pulling out the nail that might affect their landing.

There are only ten old-fashioned coastal defense guns in North Wake's coastal defense battery, and there are only two companies in the garrison, less than 500 people. During the British shelling, their coastal defense guns were all destroyed after only a few shots, and many artillerymen were also killed. Next, the British gunboats began to bombard the French coastal positions, almost destroying the weak French positions.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the landing began. Nearly a hundred small boats carried thousands of British vanguard troops to the coast ~www.mtlnovel.com~ and the French soldiers guarding the coast were basically killed by the bombardment of the British gunboats. After seeing the black ships on the sea full of British ships, they all left their positions and ran for their lives. The landing British army occupied North Wake without any hindrance.

After landing, Wellington proposed to attack The Hague south, then attack Rotterdam, and finally go south to endanger the French mainland. But Bill had a different opinion at this time. He proposed that Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, should be conquered northward, which would bring great political benefits to the expeditionary army. 8226; William III's resistance, and the support of the Russian army that was about to enter the war, formed a situation of flanking the French army from east to west, and finally defeated the French army. Moreover, the French army had just won the victory on the Prussian battlefield, and they still had a large number of troops in their country. If the army goes south, it will be hit by the enemy's superior force, so he advocates attacking north.

Neither of them could convince the other, so they finally had to decide to lead an army to Amsterdam and The Hague respectively. After conquering these two places, we will look at the development of the battle situation and France's response to make the next plan.

First, on the afternoon of the 19th, Wellington led an attack on The Hague with 15,000 soldiers who disembarked first. At this time, the garrison in The Hague only gathered two regiments of 5,000 people. Because King Louis of the Netherlands fled the battle, the morale of the French army stationed in The Hague was extremely low. Under the fierce attack of the British army, they finally abandoned the city and fled to General Sarn in the evening resident in Rotterdam.

Wellington ushered in his first victory in this war, and also the first victory of the British army~www.mtlnovel.com~Welcome all book friends to visit and read, the latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all here at ~www.mtlnovel.com~

Chapter end