London, Whitehall.

The MPs were not much opposed to going to war with Austria, but they were concerned that it would be wise to go to war with Austria and France at the same time.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister! We know that you have long deployed a fleet in the Mediterranean, but now our side has not yet achieved a decisive victory in the battle with the French.

Is this time involved in the Italian question a little too hasty for the Austrian war? ”

John Russell shook his head.

"Mr. Councillor, let's look forward. The only countries that can compete with us in the world now are France and Austria.

And I don't know if you use Austrian goods? Sturdy, durable, and inexpensive.

Had it not been for the lack of naval strength and their own narrow-mindedness, they could have surpassed France as our greatest rival.

It is undoubtedly a great shame that there is still not a single company in our country that has made an imitation of an Austrian sewing machine.

But I think it's better to extinguish the fire that threatens us than honor. ”

The audience immediately burst into warm applause, after all, what Britain has done in the past few hundred years is to protect its own trade and crack down on competitors, and the chaebols behind those parliamentarians like to hear this the most.

In fact, John Russell was not the only one who used Austrian goods, most of the parliamentarians did, after all, he was not the only rich man.

In particular, the richer people are, the more they like to consume high-end luxury goods abroad, because in this way, they can be different and reflect their differences.

The bourgeoisie of nineteenth-century England no longer catered to the tastes of kings and nobles like their counterparts on the continent, they wanted their own independent art and aesthetics.

However, John Russell's idea is a bit naïve, and whether luxury goods are good or not is actually secondary, and its main role is a tool for the upper class to compete and distinguish between themselves.

Moreover, the sewing machine was actually a tool of labor, not a luxury, but some nobles and merchants had gone astray by their frantic buying desires.

Franz's factories also made a distinction between sewing machines for industrial production and sewing machines for domestic use.

Then in order to further divert customers, they also came up with a bunch of concepts, such as what steel sewing machine, mahogany sewing machine

Franz estimated that this was the first form of consumerism, and this concept was strongly welcomed by the British

But sewing machines and galoshes became luxuries, which was still somewhat magical in Franz's eyes.

In fact, Austrian sewing machines and rubber shoes were the best-selling smuggled goods in Britain at this time, and the technology of sewing machines and vulcanized rubber was not difficult.

However, they started many years later than Austria, and the lack of some key technologies and processes made their products completely uncompetitive with Austria.

If it weren't for the previous reinstatement of trade barriers, London would now probably be full of Austrian goods.

There was no hard-line opposition in the entire British Parliament, after all, Britain was in the throes of an economic crisis and a domestic rebellion, and they were desperate to start a war.

Although the British did not recognize the Provisional Republic of France, they did not have the idea of restoring Louis Philippe at all, nor did they have any good opinion of the Count of Chambord.

The aim of the British was simple, and that was to keep Europe in turmoil, and it would be nice if Palmerston could really install a pro-British France on the continent, but it didn't matter.

Then the Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Auckland, announced his great battle plan in Parliament, a plan that could be invincible.

At this time, the British Parliament was full of confidence, and they felt that their sudden attack would definitely catch the Austrians by surprise.

However, what they didn't expect was that at this time, Solomon Rothschild had already received the news that Britain was going to declare war on Austria and would send a detachment in the Mediterranean to blockade the Adriatic Sea.

What they didn't expect was that one day after they declared war, the British Mediterranean Fleet ushered in the fate of total annihilation.

Port of Durres, Albania.

Sentinel Jack struggles to hide his body in the watchtower, where the sentinel's death and disappearance rates are frighteningly high.

The savage natives will do everything they can to assassinate them, the invaders, kidnapping, poisoning, and shooting with black guns.

But it's not them who are most terrifying, but some bounty hunters who can shoot sentries from great distances.

According to the above estimates, it is likely that they are skilled old hunters in the mountains, and most of them use the kind of homemade super-long spears.

(The so-called ultra-long gun refers to a rifle with a barrel length of more than 1.2 meters, and most military rifles at the time had a barrel length of about 1 meter.)

However, some hunters and hobbyists usually lengthen the barrel to 1.2 meters, or even longer, which helps to improve the accuracy of the bullet.

In fact, according to the British military history, the Afghans usually used 1.5-meter ultra-long guns to snipe the British at a long distance when they fought against the British army. ）

For these skilled hunters, the Albanian garrison also thought of many ways, sending troops into the mountains to sweep and cavalry to pursue.

But the effect was very poor, the army entered the mountains like a stone sinking into the sea, at most more than 300 people were sent at a time, but no one came back alive.

Later, the British army in Albania called those mountains the mouth of the devil, but in fact, for the British army, which only had a total of 3,000 men, it was a joke to enter the mountains to seek the enemy.

As for the cavalry, they also can't play an advantage in this complex terrain, and their cavalry is limited in size and seriously insufficient in number, so they are still giving people away.

After that, the commander of the Albanian garrison specially recruited the naval marksman, wanting to use this to counteract. However, the effect is still very unsatisfactory, after all, the other party is not in love with war, and the purpose is only to harass and destroy.

There is no reason to prevent thieves in this world, and the British soon found that this method did not work. So they scattered their sharpshooters farther away, and as a result, they killed a large number of them.

The commander of the Mediterranean Navy even had to duel with the officer who made this suggestion, after all, the people who played with guns in these years were nobles and rich people, and ordinary soldiers even used ideological bullets for training.

The so-called idea bullet was to practice imagining with a gun without bullets, so most of the soldiers at that time were terrible at shooting, and usually only those who had been hunting with guns for a long time, or who loved shooting, could become marksmen.

However, there are some people who are very talented, but due to the lack of enough practice, they usually do not reach a high level.

The elite marksmen of the British army did not die in vain, and one of them escaped and brought with him a shocking news.

There was a huge camp in the mountains, with a large number of sentry posts on the periphery, and thousands of troops stationed inside, each of whom was an elite archer, in addition to a large number of siege weapons and even cavalry.

At that time, the elite marksman or sharpshooter was not an energy-producing thing, so the commander of the garrison at that time was confused by this brave soldier and did not pay much attention to it.

And the garrison also didn't believe this kind of news, after all, if there was really such an army in the mountains, then why didn't they call directly?

How did the siege artillery get into the mountains? What are those cavalrymen here for? All this seems too unreasonable.

As a result, there is a legend among the British army in Albania that in fact, the mountains in the north live in the "old man of the mountain".

Those who came to hunt them down were chosen by the Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan, who legend has it that they were highly skilled and fearless Assassins.

In fact, these Englishmen unexpectedly approached the truth of the matter after a moment of speculation, but it was not the old man in the mountains who lived there, but the hunting academy of the Austrian Empire.

It was indeed the elite of the Austrian Empire who had come here to train the British troops stationed in Durrës.

Sentinel Jack suddenly heard the sound of a tree branch being trampled on, and his nerves immediately tensed.

"Who is it? Who's there! ”

"Don't! Other! Other! Don't shout! It's me, my own people. ”

A disheveled soldier ran out of the woods, which made Jack breathe a sigh of relief, after all, the answer was in English, and he was wearing a soldier's uniform.

Although the tone is a little strange, but this is also normal, after all, no one wants to come to this ghost place, and the British government has to find some refugees from Ireland to send them to death, and it is normal for them to have a strange tone.

It's just that this is not the time when the soldiers can go out, and the other party is obviously not an officer, so the sentry should check and report to his superiors.

The other party also seemed to see Jack's intentions, and hurriedly made a silent gesture.

Jack was a little helpless, and the other party took out a bottle of wine from his arms. Wine is a good thing in the barracks, after all, getting drunk can relieve a thousand sorrows, and Albania is in a remote area, so there is not much rationing.

This, coupled with the constant stream of assassinations and kidnappings, has kept the entire barracks in a state of tension, and while restricting the movement of soldiers has ensured safety to some extent, it has made supplies even more scarce.

Some of the officers who had gained the power to go out even made a profit from it, and a glass of inferior rum mixed with water, which cost only five pence in London, cost five shillings here.

One shilling is equal to twelve pence.

Those five shillings were equivalent to a soldier's salary for a week, and this was the highest casualty rate of any British garrison in the world.

Jack saw the sincerity of the other party, and naturally did not plan to make a noise, he took the gun in his hand and was about to pick up the bottle of wine.

But at the moment of contact, the soldier who had gone out without permission lost a smile on his face and dragged him into the woods.

A moment later a group of British soldiers swaggered out, one of whom was still standing in Jack's place as if nothing had happened.

During the night, a fire broke out in the barracks, an explosion occurred in the arsenal, several officers took advantage of the chaos to drive away the flagship, and the rest of the ships were blown up and sunk.

It all happened so suddenly that most of the soldiers didn't know exactly what was happening, only that their camp was in ruins overnight.

However, there was not much time left for them to think, and the British army, which had been tossed all night at dawn, was attacked by local armed forces.

In normal times, they could have kept those Albanians out with the help of high-walled fortresses.

But the interior of the fortress had collapsed, and together with the night's panic, fear, and fatigue, the British repelled the Albanians who took advantage of the fire with great sacrifices.

Night fell again, and this time the entire British garrison of 3,316 officers and men was spared.

A Montenegrin mercenary cut off the ear of a dead British soldier following the example of Albania, and everyone else did the same.

When the Albanian armed forces found that the mountain that had been pressing on them for many years had finally been removed, they piled up the corpses of the British soldiers, lit a fire, and immediately sang and danced.

Two days later, officers of the Albanian garrison, who had escaped, came to Crete, claiming that Durrës had been attacked by Albanians.

Commodore Baron Vesely, the Commodore of Crete, immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, and immediately mobilized most of the island's forces, plus ten battleships, and sailed to the Adriatic Bay.

Because just today Britain officially declared war on Austria, and according to the previous plan they would wait for the detachment of the Mediterranean Fleet together.

However, at this time, the port of Durres was suddenly attacked, and Brigadier General Veseley felt that it was most likely the Austrians who did it, in order to break through the blockade.

However, Brigadier General Vesely arrived at the port of Durres and was confronted only by a group of Albanians who were rebuilding the port, who were naturally no match for the British regular army, and the battle between the two sides was quickly decided.

Brigadier General Veseley learned from the captives that they had been helped by the "old man of the mountain". However, the name is very Arabized when it sounds, so Brigadier General Vesely is also a little confused about the reason for the attack on Durrës.

But he knew very well that his fleet's mission was to blockade the Adriatic Sea, so Commodore Vesley sent someone to inform Crete that the follow-up fleet would join him to complete the mission.

However, his men soon brought back even more incredible news that the Austrian navy had invaded the island of Crete.

He saw a fleet of at least thirty ships on its way to the west

Brigadier General Veseley was a little confused for a moment, how did the Austrians attack Crete? And how did a great fleet of thirty ships slip under his nose?

A whole lot of questions filled the mind of Brigadier General Vesely, and shouldn't the Austrians have come for themselves after conquering the island of Crete?

After all, relying on the strong to bully the weak is the most basic rule of naval warfare, and it is impossible for the Austrians not to even know this, and at this time, Commodore Veseley's fleet is a lone army that is the easiest to annihilate.

At this time, Brigadier General Veseley thought of a most unlikely answer, could it be that the Austrians were crazy? They want to find the main forces of the Mediterranean Fleet for a decisive battle?

Then rush back to Crete at this time? Keeping important offshore nodes first?

Wrong! This was most likely a conspiracy of the Austrians, how could the small ships under their own command be faster than the battleships?

Brigadier General Wesley immediately ordered all the officers and men of the ship that had gone to Crete to deliver the letter to be arrested and interrogated, and he did not believe that all of them had colluded.

Brigadier General Vesley felt that it was time to send another contact with Crete, and then be ready to fight the Austrians to the death in the bay.

To this end, he ordered his soldiers to push their guns onto the battery, and he was to increase his firepower as much as possible.

On 1 April 1848, the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet was wiped out in the Battle of the Mediterranean.

(End of chapter)