Indeed, the steam warships of the British were quite average in terms of technology, and in the words of Joseph, "this thing is technically scum!" Any of the above technologies are far behind us. I spent a whole fifty thousand francs, and in the end I got only one valid message, that is, the steamships of the English are scum! ”

Indeed, the paddle steamer was technically a complete failure. As a battleship, the exposed paddle wheel is the most obvious weakness. Moreover, the existence of paddle wheels also greatly affected the arrangement of artillery. Militarily, such ships are of very limited use. As a civilian vessel, the paddle wheel itself is not highly propulsive, but the structural weight is amazingly large, not only greatly increasing the weight of the ship, but also its attached transmission mechanism will also occupy a lot of valuable space. In addition, the paddle wheel is prone to unilateral water discharge in high sea conditions, resulting in the flying of the empty wheel, which is easy to cause various mechanical failures. In short, compared with the propeller, the paddle wheel has almost no advantages at all, except for its scary appearance.

It's just that although Joseph said so, this "backward scum" really brought a lot of trouble to the French.

In just one work cycle, four clippers failed to return from Ireland. In addition, several flying clippers that came back lost all their cargo. According to these frightened captains, they were all chased by the kind of British ships that emitted black smoke at sea.

At the same time, British newspapers published reports of the capture of French clippers by the "valiant Royal Navy" in order to boost the morale of the depressed British.

The French, of course, immediately countered with the story of Captain Morrell's capture of the British steamship. The story not only appeared in newspapers, but was soon put on the theatrical stage. On stage, Captain Morel is certainly heroic, but what is even more striking is the image of the British, almost on a par with the German in the classic French film "The Tiger's Mouth".

But the cannon didn't immediately change the situation at sea. As the British put in more and more steamships. The amount of supplies that the French were able to bring to Ireland was really reduced. Later, the French ships could only wait for the far sea away from Ireland (the British steamships would not have traveled so far anyway because of the range restrictions) and did not dare to approach Ireland until the weather conditions were relatively harsh. (Who made the sea state high, and the paddlewheel became waste)

However, even if this approach is adopted to ensure that the blood vessel extending to Ireland is not completely cut off, it is an indisputable fact that this blood vessel has a serious embolism.

For the British, it was important to take advantage of this time to quickly bleed the Irish on the battlefield, if not to completely eliminate the Irish rebels, then they must be severely damaged.

So the Duke of Norfolk was once again ordered to inflict heavy damage on the rebels as soon as possible, and even eliminate them. Along with this order from the Cabinet, there was an order from the King that "more severe blows must be taken against illegal religious organizations that are not loyal to the King." ”

The Duke of Norfolk said that both of these things were very difficult, and if he had to carry them out, he had to be given more troops. And the number of troops cannot be less, at least 100,000 troops.

Speaking of which, Britain has never moved so many troops in its history. Naturally, such an excessive request could not be allowed by the government, but the Duke of Norfolk actually had his own considerations for making such a request.

First of all, it is natural to ask for a sky-high price and pay back the money on the spot. For example, if you honestly say, "I want 50,000 troops." "Then the government will definitely find a way to give you a discount, and it would be nice to have 25,000 left in the end. So you have to shout "I want 100,000!" first. ”

The second is to prepare for the future. In case of failure, (in fact, even if the Irish are in trouble now, it is not easy to completely eliminate them, and the chance of failure is much greater than 1 in 10,000) there can be a reason to shirk responsibility.

What the Duke of Norfolk meant, in fact, everyone understands, for many years, the bureaucracy has been running like this. Only fools will give whatever the people below want, and in the end everyone has no excuses, and then they can only take risks, and in the end they are all finished.

Therefore, the government also bargained with the Duke of Norfolk according to the old rules, and sent him more than 40,000 troops composed of almost new soldiers.

In this regard, the Duke of Norfolk was naturally very dissatisfied with this, and in his letter to the Prime Minister, he even made insulting remarks about it. But everyone knew in their hearts that the Duke of Norfolk was actually very satisfied, and his complaints were just leaving a way out for himself.

The Duke of Norfolk also understood that the recruits who had not fought and were not very well trained were now recruited. But it's such a recruit, and it's better than the "Irish Security Force". At least, for now, there has not been a real British army stepping on two boats.

In the upcoming sweep, the Duke of Norfolk must leave enough troops to defend his hometown, and there can be no more stories of troops being sent to smash people's bases in the front, and his own base being stolen later. The main purpose of these more than 40,000 recruits is to hold those key points to ensure the safety of their rear during the sweep.

As for the less reliable "Irish security forces", they are still very useful in sweeps. For example, if it is used to destroy potatoes in non-security areas or something, is this kind of work also done by the regular army?

So after the gang of recruits were in place, the Duke of Norfolk sent those recruits to various military stations, strengthened the defense of the military stations, and then launched a sweep of the Irish again.

It's just that this sweep is actually not particularly good in terms of timing. Originally, according to the Duke's idea, the purge had to wait until the potatoes were about to be harvested. It's just that the government is anxious to get good news, and the Duke himself knows that the French transport lines have not been cut off, and if it is delayed for two months, before the potato harvest, it can indeed deal a greater blow to the Irish rebels. And now, the potatoes have just been planted, and now they will strike and destroy all the potato fields, and the Irish will still have time to replant a batch, although the final yield will certainly be reduced, but it is better than being caught so suddenly before the harvest.

But putting so much pressure on the government to push it back for so long will also put the government under more positive news. Moreover, a few months will also give the rebels more time to prepare. When the time comes, a sweep will be launched, and although the results may be greater, the losses will also be greater.

In addition, now the British have temporarily gained the upper hand at sea with the help of "the world's first technology", but who knows if anything will change in the future?

The Duke of Norfolk was preparing for a new round of purges, and he couldn't hide it at all, and the United Irish Federation had already gotten the information. Because in the "Irish Security Forces", there are simply too many people stepping on two boats.

So before the Duke of Norfolk could start acting, the United Irish Federation was already meeting to discuss the anti-sweep.

"How to do it, of course, is the same as last time, the enemy comes to our house, we go to the enemy's house. Let's fight each other, see who can't stand it first. ”

"Master Joyce, this time that old bastard has got more than 40,000 people from England, and he probably wants to keep these 40,000 people at home and guard his home. I'm afraid those military stations won't be as easy to fight as last time. President Russell reminded.

"But President, we've also gotten a lot stronger. Especially our ability to tackle tough problems. Joyce replied, "In response to the problem of insufficient offensive capability exposed in the last anti-sweeping operation, on the one hand, we asked the French comrades to provide support, and on the other hand, we also strengthened training in a targeted manner. Now our ability to attack tough problems is not comparable to last time. That old thing must have thought we couldn't nibble on his stations, and we could surprise them. ”

"I agree with Commander Joyce. However, I believe that we should not only strike at the enemy's military stations, but also concentrate our forces on attacking the enemy who has entered our base areas. "Now our army has grown considerably, and the British know that, but they don't know how much we have grown." So if they still think that they can go up one time, as long as they gather a few hundred British troops and a few hundred black dogs, they can run amok, then they are wrong. I think we can let them into the base area first, and then we can fight behind them, knock out a few key military stations, force them to retreat, and then we can immediately move back to the base area and hit the retreating enemy forces hard. ”

"Very good, everyone's morale is also very high." President Russell was pleased, saying, "We've been in some trouble lately, and we've had a lot of drop in our weapon supplies. But comrades, we also can't rely on our French comrades for everything. We also have to be self-reliant, no guns, no cannons, we can let the British make them for us! In addition, the defense of the motherland cannot rely only on the regular army, and every county brigade, district brigade, and village group must be mobilized. Don't look at the small number of people in the village group, you can't fight a big battle, but if you kill a few of them today and a few more of them tomorrow, you can't underestimate it. ”

"At least it is not a problem to beat the black dogs and take a few guns from them." Someone said, "Do you think it's better for the British to shoot those black-skinned dogs, or not to shoot them at all?" And everyone laughed.

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