Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Ney glanced at those iron bucket "cannons" with disdain and said to Moro:

"Your ’little invention’ is quite interesting. However, it certainly won’t fool Moroccans for long, for they will realize that after being bombarded for so long, not a single one of them is injured."

"You really should read David Hume’s ’A Treatise of Human Nature’," Moro pointed at the distant Moroccan positions, "They will just think they are lucky and then laugh at the poor skills of the French gunners."

"...Suit yourself."

After the "bombardment" continued for a while, the French infantry line appeared on the horizon.

Ney nervously reminded his soldiers to keep their spacing, backing against the forest—the infantry line was only one row deep, and the men were spaced extremely far apart, which could only pass muster against the dim backdrop of the woods.

Meanwhile, Moro led the cavalry back and forth alongside the line formation, indicating an intent to fight a major battle.

Agold, watching from afar, saw the infantry line that stretched over a kilometer long, and the clouds of dust raised by the cavalry troops; his brows immediately furrowed.

At least 4,000 infantry and more than 1,000 cavalry, along with 15 cannons—there was no doubt this was Sherelle’s Legion.

But how did they manage to come all the way from the lower reaches of the Oued Medjerda in such a short time?

Before long, another cavalry came to report that they had found the French camp, four miles to the south. By judging its scale, it was likely a force of nearly ten thousand camping there.

Now Agold was even more convinced.

Given the French Army’s combat power, his five to six thousand men were no match at all—they could only wait for Said Pasha to arrive with the main force of the Guard before they could fight a decisive battle with the French.

No, something was wrong, he suddenly paused, recalling the Sultan’s orders: the Guard should avoid direct conflict with the French main force—they were there to raid Tunisia and then demand rewards from the British. Going head-to-head with a great power like France, win or lose, was not in the interest of Morocco. Find adventures on NovelBin.Côm

He pondered for a long time before turning to instruct his attendant:

"Leave the Aghd Corps behind, everyone else retreat covertly. And yes, keep the cannons firing to confuse the French."

"Yes, General!"

Moro had initially thought he would have to repel one or two feigned attacks from the Moroccans at great cost before they could be thoroughly bluffed, but unexpectedly, there was no sign that the enemy wanted to fight at all.

Of course, he was happy to drag out the time, so he ordered the iron bucket "cannons" to fire with all their might, pretending the battle was fierce.

Thus, the two armies, almost a mile apart, "boomed and thundered" against each other all day long, and each withdrew their troops when it became dark. @@novelbin@@

The next day the bombardment continued until the afternoon, when Moro suddenly felt that something was not quite right, so he took the risk of leading half of the cavalry to raid the Moroccans, only to find that there weren’t any enemy cavalry coming to defend.

He boldly circled Tamire several times and finally confirmed that there were fewer than 2,000 Moroccan soldiers still holding the front line, while the rest of the enemy had long since disappeared.

He had never imagined that his act was so convincing that it had directly scared the Moroccans away...

After returning, he consulted with Ney, gathered all the troops, including the few hundred from the Tunisian Army in Tamire, and launched a fierce attack on the Moroccan force from two directions at the same time.

...

Paris.

The second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph looked at the map of North Africa on the table, his expression showing some worry.

According to intelligence reports received last week, there had been large-scale troop movements in Algiers and Tripoli, signaling that the British could no longer restrain themselves from taking action against Tunisia.

Meanwhile, news from India was that the Mysore Army was fiercely attacking Tiruchirappalli, the southernmost state of the Carnatic. Should Mysore seize it, they would be able to directly confront the British’s only supply point in southeastern India, Nagapattinam.

Joseph was convinced that if there was any risk of Nagapattinam being lost, the British would surely return to the negotiation table—this port being critical for the British mercantile fleet returning from East Asia. Without resupplying there, British merchant ships would have to detour by hundreds of nautical miles to Madras in central India for fresh water and food, or pay the French in Puducherry for supplies.

Therefore, the British would definitely invest heavily to create chaos in Tunisia before issues arise in Nagapattinam, using it as a bargaining chip in exchange for interests in India.

The staff headquarters had already dispatched 6,000 troops to reinforce Tunisia, which was the limit of what the French finances could bear.

To be frank, if the situation in Tunisia deteriorated significantly, then Joseph would have no choice but to redeploy the Guard Corps to North Africa to clean up the mess, which would inevitably affect strategic deployments in the Southern Netherlands.

Should it come to that, he would have to consider accepting the British terms and for both sides to cease hostilities. That also meant the failure of his strategy to limit the British in India.

Just then, Eman knocked and entered, handing over a confidential report, "Your Highness, this has just arrived from Tunisia."

Joseph immediately opened the wooden tube at the greatest speed, spilling out the several pages within.

When he saw the report was from General Barthélemy Louis Joseph Sherelle, he couldn’t help but be puzzled—usually, this should be the job of the intelligence agency.

He quickly read the main content, which mentioned that the Moroccans had joined the siege on Tunisia, deploying over 14,000 of their most elite Black Guards, and having the Algiers Guard feign an attack on Kaf to lure the main force of Sherelle’s Legion to the lower reaches of the Oued Medjerda.

Joseph frowned and continued reading, to see Sherelle reporting that two "volunteer" detachments that had come to join his legion fiercely defended Tamire with fewer than 2,000 troops, repelling a Moroccan force of 10,000, capturing over 700 and seizing 11 cannons...

Hmm? Joseph raised an eyebrow, 2,000 against 10,000 and still emerged completely victorious, taking captives and seizing equipment—what was happening?

On the last page, when he saw the detailed battle report, his eyes suddenly brightened.

Victor Moro, Michel Ney? So it was the two ’marshal-level’ big shots who were commanding the battle!

Then achieving a victory ratio of one against five was not surprising at all.

Joseph silently marveled: France truly abounded with talent; Napoleon’s invincible marshals, who were now merely lieutenants each leading soldiers not under their own command, had unexpectedly thwarted the Moroccan’s sneak attack.

No wonder this intelligence came from Sherelle—it was a victory on the front lines, and he aimed to report the triumph before the intelligence bureau did.

When Joseph saw that Moro’s detachment of noble soldiers called themselves "God’s Guidance" Cavalry Regiment, he couldn’t help but shake his head and chuckle. Everyone was an adult, yet they chose such an adolescent name.

However, if that’s what they liked, then so be it.

Joseph immediately picked up his pen and endorsed the report, formally granting the title "God’s Guidance Royal Cavalry Regiment" to those 1,000 noble soldiers.

At the same time, Moro was promoted extraordinarily to Major, and Ney to Lieutenant. The former was granted 700 hectares of land in Tripoli, and the latter, 500 hectares.