The Americans still made a lot of preparations before declaring war on Britain. The first is the US Navy, which has just leased two warships to the French, the USS Free Trade and the USS Common Market. At least until the Hermes-class supercruisers on the slipway of the French were put into service, these two ships were the most powerful supercruisers in the world.

Moreover, when leasing these two ships, the Americans leased not only these two ships, but even the personnel who drove and controlled them. That is to say, these two ships, apart from a new flag, a few sets of new clothes for each French crew, and a few American representatives on each ship, are almost still French ships.

The Americans had not yet gone to war with the British at the time of this move, but at that time the American newspapers were already incessantly accusing the British of helping the Indians to attack the peaceful citizens of the United States, and sabotaging their efforts to obtain the best materials for leather boots by their own labor according to God's will.

At this time, the Americans resorted to this method of "renting" French warships, the purpose of which is not known. The French, naturally, understood what the Americans meant. But after careful consideration, Napoleon nevertheless approved the deal.

"The British are currently our enemies, and it is good to be able to cause trouble for the British. Of course, the Yankees are not a good thing, and if there is any country in the world that compares with Britain in terms of meanness, shamelessness, insidiousness and viciousness, it must be the United States! Nor can we allow it to actually annex Canada. That would be a huge threat to our Louisiana. Just like any sheep that dares to grow horns is a threat and a provocation to a lion. So you see, in the symbols of religion, the lamb that does not grow horns is holy, and everyone should imitate and learn from it, but what about the one that grows horns? You know Lucifer has goat horns......"

"Alright, Napoleon, don't take the initiative to run away." Joseph said, "Although your parable is very interesting, well, this parable, I mean who said the parable of the lamb and the goat?" ”

"Can't it be me?" Napoleon said.

"It's sour, not like your style." Joseph said.

"Ah, well, this parable is said by Talleyrand, after all, he was a bishop, and when it comes to how to talk about the Dark Church, no one is better at it." Napoleon said.

"The Americans will soon declare war on the British, and then they will use these two ships to disrupt the route between Britain and Canada. As for us, we just happened to cooperate and put up some kind of military exercise or something, saying that it was for the sake of maintaining world peace and maintaining free trade. And then drag the navy of the British. The British could not send supplies and reinforcements to North America. Napoleon said again.

"What about Canada?" Lucien asked, "You can't really give Canada to the Americans, can you?" ”

Napoleon laughed without saying a word.

"This kind of question should be asked too?" Joseph said disdainfully, "The British can't send weapons, ammunition, personnel and equipment to Canada, can't we send them too?" Canada and Louisiana border! ”

"Ah, I see!" Lucien suddenly realized, "We sell weapons to Canadians, and when Canada can't support it, we can also let the Canadians go to Louisiana to hire a group of mercenaries, and then burn the U.S. presidential palace to black, and then Canada's army has been exhausted, and the United States is also half-crippled, isn't Canada ours?" Not to mention that there are so many French speakers in Quebec. Napoleon, Joseph, that's what you mean, right? You guys are so bad, hahaha, but bad good, bad good! Hahaha......"

The British were equally well aware of the implications of the French's leasing of these two warships to the Americans. Therefore, the British Foreign Office immediately summoned the French ambassador and lodged a solemn protest with France, accusing France of undermining regional peace. Of course, the British also knew that the French would not heed their protests, but the process still had to be followed.

According to the process, France of course said that this is entirely an internal affair of France and the United States, and the relevant transactions are also fully in line with international practice, and the British cannot be allowed to dictate.

A British official, who did not want to be named, hinted to the newspaper that if there was a war between Britain and the United States, and the two ships were to fight, the British might consider them pirates and hang them from their masts once their crews were captured. Keyuan

There was a report from the French press that brought it to Lucien and asked him how France would react if something like this happened. Without hesitation, Lucien replied, "If they have a kind, they can give it a try." ”

On the same issue, Foreign Minister Talleyrand put it this way: "We want to be friends with Britain and want to be partners with Britain, but if Britain treats France as a 'hostile country', then all the consequences will be borne by Britain." ”

The two battleships had just arrived in the United States, filled with coal and fresh water in Boston Harbor, and within a week the war broke out.

The two U.S.-flagged warships immediately left Boston, joined up with the U.S. fleet, and headed for Halifax, Canada.

Halifax was Canada's largest military port, and the British stationed a British detachment there.

In the age of steam power, the British slightly modified three old sail battleships, equipped them with steam engines, hung iron armor, and sent them to Canada.

Considering the North American side, the main imaginary enemy is the Americans, followed by the French. The Americans suffered heavy losses in previous clashes with the French, and although the French returned captured American ships to the Yankees, the Americans seem to have lost faith in building a strong navy. Since then, their navy has made limited progress, adding steam power to the original supercruisers. Because the linear shape was more suitable for high-speed sailing, the converted ships still ran a little faster than the British modified battleships, and the fact that they were not covered with iron armor also increased their speed.

According to the plan of the Americans, the fleet would first approach Halifax to see if it could catch the British Navy detachment in Canada there. and destroy them, and then you can continue north to blockade the Sea of St. Lawrence. Intercept ships heading from Great Britain to Canada.

Immediately after the United States declared war on Britain, the British detachment also left the port of Halifax. Although this detachment had three "battleships", the battleships of the Sail Age had no combat effectiveness in the face of the armored cruisers of the Steam Age. Therefore, although the British emphasized that they would fight when they saw the enemy, they knew that they could not win the battle, and they still had to avoid it.

The British plan was such that the strength of the North American detachment alone would not be enough to counter the American forces with two French supercruisers. In that case, it is better to avoid the enemy's main forces and attack the ships off the coast of the United States. Compared to the fully steam-powered French warships, the hybrid warships of the North American detachment, for example, because they did not have to burn coal all the time to sail, their self-sustaining power was far greater than that of the new warships.

So the British felt that they could harass the American fleet off the coast of the United States, and at least force the two French warships to go south, and then their supercruiser Indomitable, which they had hidden in the St. Lawrence River, could kill the American warships that remained in the St. Lawrence Bay.

So when the U.S. fleet appeared in Halifax, it saw only one airport. Considering that the port was well defended, neither the Americans, nor the French, dared to attack the port directly. So the U.S. fleet continued north, heading north to Cabot Strait.

Canada's ports on the Atlantic Ocean are very interesting, with the exception of Halifax, most of the Canadian ports leading to the Atlantic Ocean are inland ports along the St. Lawrence River. The St. Lawrence River was so well navigated that these river ports, at least in this era, were in fact essentially indistinguishable from seaports.

And from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, there is the St. Lawrence Bay. It is a wide body of water surrounded by almost land, with only the eastern end of the Gulf of St. Lawrence being connected to the Atlantic Ocean by the Bell Isle Strait and Cabot Strait. Because the bay is formed after subsidence in the geological tectonic movement, the bay shore is tortuous, with many reefs and shoals, which is not conducive to navigation. Therefore, the US Navy did not dare to sail directly into the St. Lawrence Bay and block the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. They can only block the Cabot Strait. Further north, there is another navigable strait, the Belle Isle Strait. However, considering that the whereabouts of the British Navy were unknown, the Americans did not dare to disperse their forces to block the Bell Island Strait. Most ships will go through Cabot Strait anyway. Especially the British ships that were still on their way to North America – unaware of the fact that the United States had declared war on Britain without radio.

So for some time after that, the U.S. Navy had a pretty happy time here, watching whales at sea every day. And then every now and then it would be possible to stop one or two British ships that did not know that war had broken out, but were loaded with war materials. The Americans or the French stopped them, forced them to stop with artillery, and then boarded the ship and announced that they had been captured. Then they sent the ships back to the United States.

It's just that where the North American detachment of the British Navy went is a mystery.