Chapter 409, Sneak Attack

After this speech, Victor was quite optimistic about his prospects for fighting the Holy See for control of these Christians. After all, compared to Bishop Torres, he has too many resources at his disposal. It's as if France was facing the Holy See.

Of course, the most important thing at the moment is the distribution of land. Bishop Torres wanted the land to be distributed as soon as possible, but Victor was not in a hurry, because the distribution of land was a very important power, and if it was used well, he could quickly establish himself among these Christians. He put off the matter on the grounds that he needed to know a certain amount of about the Christians in order to distribute the land in a relatively organized manner.

"Bishop, I know that believers are in a hurry to get the land. But they have been waiting for this day for generations, and what is the big deal if they wait a little longer? And land distribution is a matter that will affect them for the rest of their lives, and even their sons, grandchildren, and even more descendants. Now, if we don't think it through, how many generations will be damaged. So, the more this happens, the less we can afford to be impatient. Victor said to Bishop Torres, who had come to consult with him on how to distribute the land.

He said, pulling out a map. This is a map drawn in a new projection way, which is more accurate and easier to use than the previous map.

"Look, Bishop. This is the land that has been allocated to us, mainly in these few places. Victor pointed out the land to Bishop Torres on a map with his hand.

"Why aren't they connected?" Bishop Torres asked, frowning. He noticed that the land of these Christians was one east and one west.

"Because the pagans insisted on drawing lots to decide where the land would be." Victor explained, "Well, the lottery is naturally like this. ”

At this point, Victor lied. In fact, it was not the Turks, but the French, who insisted on drawing lots to determine the ownership of the land, and thus dispersed the land belonging to the Christians.

In Victor's view, the current situation will definitely lead to a situation in which Christians live in small clusters and live in large groups. The large mixed life means that they will have a lot of dealings with the infidels, and they are prone to conflicts. The structure of the small settlements made it so that they would not be completely defenseless in the event of an accident. Of course, without the support of the French, they would not have lasted long. This is the situation that best meets the needs of France's interests.

If, on the other hand, Christians live together, they can dig a trench around their land and then enter into a completely voluntary segregation of faith. In this way, they had fewer opportunities to come into conflict with the infidels, less places for the French to exploit, and less dependence on France. It was naturally difficult for the French to drive them.

"You have seen it, Bishop," continued Victor, "that such a distribution would greatly increase the chances of contact between the infidels and our faithful. It is good for proselytizing to pagans. Of course, this also increases the chances of friction with the infidels. But we can't stop us from preaching the truth to the infidels, right? Some pagans are actually virtuous, but they are just unfortunate enough to not hear the gospel of the Lord. ”

"Of course." Bishop Torres said. Although according to the agreement between France and Turkey, the Holy See personnel can only provide services to existing Christians and cannot preach freely, but if it is not for missionary purposes, what is the Holy See Baba doing here? Therefore, preaching must be preached.

"But once there is a conflict. You see, each village can accommodate a fairly small number of people, and if the village is not well organized, it is easy to be bullied by those infidels. Therefore, we must ensure that every village has people who are capable, responsible, and able to unite the whole village. In this way, their interests can be guaranteed. So, Bishop, you see, this matter of allocating land really can't be rushed, right? ”

The Bishop of Torres had to admit that the distribution of the land had to be careful and meticulous.

"So, Consul Tréville, how are you going to make the distribution?" Bishop Torres asked.

"I'm going to give all the Christian families a hierarchy first. This level does not involve anything else, only their appeal and combat effectiveness. Preset the most appealing and combative families as the village chief, and give priority to allocating land to them in their villages, and then allocate different families and individuals according to the defense conditions of the village. Victor replied.

There is absolutely no problem with the principles in this answer, but the candidates involved and the distribution of land can be used to win over a group of people. The intention was so obvious that Bishop Torres could see it too. But it is one thing to see it, it is another thing to have a way, and in terms of the power in his hands, there are really not many places where Bishop Torres can intervene.

Just as Victor was busy leading a group of liberated Christians, in Tunis, after a long siege, the combined French and Turkish forces finally broke through the barbary pirates and seized the city. For this, both armies paid a considerable price.

The French consumed almost all of the remaining high-explosive shells, while the Turks paid another five or six thousand casualties. As for the Barbary pirates, Ahdi Pasha was killed in battle, and before he died, he had his wife and concubine killed, and entrusted his son to the captain of his guard to lead him through the siege. However, the captain of his guard also failed to break through, so the son of Ahdi Pasha will be sent to Istanbul, and this very good-looking little guy may become a very good-looking little eunuch in the future.

The French fleet was already at sea for a long time, so it needed to be replenished by Toulon. As for the Turks, after such a hard battle, the losses are not small, and they also need to take a good rest. So there was a temporary calm on the battlefield. The French naval fleet returned to Toulon. As for the Turks, most of them went ashore and trimmed on the shore.

But on the evening of two days after the departure of the French fleet, the Turkish fleet came under a surprise attack. It was a moonless day, so it was very dark at night, and there was almost nothing to see from the sea. But some Moroccan pirates quietly approached the Turkish fleet.

Leading the way was Hasan Pasha of Morocco - ah, no, it should be Usama, the nephew of Sultan Hassan. After the Turks declared Hassan Pasha a rebel and declared war on him, he decisively declared the independence of Morocco and proclaimed himself sultan.

Usama brought five boats with him this time. But these ships were not pirate ships, but small sailing ships, or more accurately, galleys. They all had only a tall mast, a grey-black painted syllabier, and eight oarsmen.

This kind of ship can't be a pirate ship, at least not in this era, maybe back to the time of Xerxes and Themistocles, it can do some pirate business. But even back to that era, they were not qualified to participate in the battle of Salami, and they had to hide from the navy of that era. But now, Usama is going to take a fleet of such ships to challenge a fleet that is far behind by the standards of this era, but has an overwhelming advantage in the era of the Great Salami War.

Osama did this not because he was crazy, but because he had a magic weapon that was not available in that era - explosives.

Each ship carried a dozen bombs, each with a charge of several tens of kilograms, and once it exploded, it was enough to blow even a sail battleship like the "Victory" to pieces, and even an ironclad battleship like the "Imperator" might not be able to retreat in such an explosion. It's just that it is not easy for such a ship to get close to the "Imperador".

In order to complete this attack, Usama deliberately chose such a moonless night. This makes it less visible and more difficult for enemy observation posts to see themselves. On the other hand, his ships were lower, while the Turks' warships were taller. So when the people on the Turkish warship looked at him, the background was the dark sea. To see the same dark boat in the dark sea is as difficult as finding a black cat in a coal heap. Maybe his boat is under someone's nose, and they don't necessarily see it.

But looking from his ship to the warships of the Turks, it was different. The Turks' warships were much taller, so they were looking up at the Turkish warships, and the background of the Turkish warships became a much brighter sky, so that they could see the Turks from a greater distance.

In fact, the small fleet had been here for two or three days, and for two or three days they had been hiding in a bay while Usama kept an eye on the Turkish fleet. He found that the Turks were too relaxed, the warships were parked at the prescribed berths, never moved, and there were not many guards placed next to them.

Usama was very familiar with the terrain of the area, so he was able to sneak closer to the harbor with the fleet, even if he could only see a faint shadow with the help of the starlight. And just as he had predicted, the unwary Turkish fleet did not anticipate their arrival at all.

Osama told the oarsmen to stop paddling so that the sound of paddles would not be heard, and he even lowered the sails, he was familiar with the currents in the area, which would take them to the Turkish ships themselves.

The boat drifted quietly, and the Turks remained unaware. Osama's ship quietly approached a Turkish warship and approached it. Osama drilled a hole in the boat with a small hand-cranked drill bit. Then he shoved a large nail into it, and then hung a bomb on the big iron nail.

It was a ticking time bomb, supplied to them by an honest and reliable British businessman. With the help of a small French-made flashlight, he carefully timed the explosion, then turned off the flashlight and approached another boat......

However, perhaps because the true god has not yet thought out who to bless, it seems that the luck of Usama, who was smooth sailing at first, suddenly turned sour. While the other boat was drilling, it made a little noise, which attracted the attention of the sentry. But at this critical moment, the true god suddenly sided with the pirates again, and the sentry looked around, but did not notice the boat right under his nose.

In this way, over the course of one night, Usama and his men loaded fifty Turkish warships with time bombs, and then quietly retreated.

By about four o'clock in the morning, the bombs exploded one after another. Each bomb blew a warship to pieces. In just one night, the Turks lost fifty warships and hundreds of soldiers in the ports they had already controlled.

This sudden blow made Tayip Pasha furious, and he felt that after he returned, he might not have any good results. Just like when Grand Vizierkala Mustafa Basha was beheaded by order of the furious Sultan after his defeat in the Battle of Vienna.

On the other hand, he also understood that after such a blow, he would probably have to suggest that the French make further requests for "borrowing troops to help suppress". So he immediately sent an emissary to Toulon on a clipper ship to ask for help from the French allies. At the same time, with the help of the French communication system, the latest situation was reported to His Majesty the great Turkish Sultan Selim III.

After another week, the French fleet returned to Tunisia again, but this time the French fleet was a little larger, with a few smaller steamboats.

Half a month later, the French arrived with formal reinforcements, six oddly shaped steamboats with square bows and flat-bottomed structures. This structure makes the draft of such a ship very shallow, and as for why they chose a square bow with more resistance, Tayip Pasha is not clear. All he knew was that such a ship was called by the French - a landing ship.

Two days later, Tayyip Pasha was also dealt with by Sultan Selim III, as relayed by the French. The benevolent Sultan only rebuked him, did not condemn him, but asked him to take the blame for his crimes and end the war as soon as possible.

After the French reinforcements arrived, the Turks, having left behind more garrisons, (there were many fewer ships anyway, and there was nowhere to load them) set off again with the French fleet for the next target, Monaco, which was the most powerful of the Barbary nations.

A few days later, the combined fleet arrived near the largest and most important port in Monaco, the port of Casablanca. The most important battle of this war is about to begin.

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