While Polina was playing the priestess in Athens, a brig with the French flag was sailing on the route from Spain to Naples.

The captain Mustafa is a short Spaniard, because he often wanders on the sea, his face is wrinkled by the sea wind, like a shriveled orange. At this moment, he was next to the steering wheel at the stern while observing the sea with a telescope. Recently, the sea has been uneven, and the frequency of attacks by the Barbary pirates has increased.

"Fortunately, on our mast, the flag of France is flying." Mustafa comforted himself.

Before that, Mustafa had been the second mate on a larger ship for many years. Later, in the first anti-French alliance, Mustafa participated in smuggling to France and made some money from it. Later, I met the French who changed into flying shears and sold some old ships in their hands at low prices. Mustafa bought the brig now.

This boat is old and not in very good condition. It may be a little too weak to run the route across the Atlantic Ocean, but it is still possible to run in the large Mediterranean bath. Of course, compared to the new flying shears, this slower ship is more dangerous, that is, being attacked by Barbary pirates.

So Mustafa spent money to hang the name of his own ship under a French shipping company, so he obtained the legal right to use the French flag. For well-known reasons, those pagan pirates usually come. Said that it will not attack ships flying the French flag.

Although after the Spanish fleet shelled Tripoli, the Barbary pirates also reached an agreement with the Spaniards to no longer harass the Spanish coast and no longer intercept Spanish ships. However, this does not mean that the Spanish ships are necessarily safe, at best the chance of being looted has decreased.

In addition, the probability of a Spanish ship being robbed has decreased, but once looted, the consequences may be more serious. Before reaching an agreement with the Spaniards, the pirates would bring the Spanish ship and all the crew back to North Africa, and then demand a ransom from the Spaniards. But now, doing so would be a public violation of the agreement they reached with the Spaniards, which would cause the Spanish fleet to come to the door again. Therefore, after the Barbary pirates attacked Spanish ships, they often only take the ship back (anyway, the ship can’t speak, and it’s another ship if it’s changed.) And all the sailors on the ship will be dealt with locally, not at sea. . (Kill it directly and throw it into the sea) Anyway, even in the Mediterranean, and a ship disappeared at sea, there are still many other possibilities?

However, the Barbary pirates are generally more polite to ships with French flags. After all, we have had a long-term friendship in battle.

So although Mustafa’s ship is almost the most vulnerable ship—the Barbary pirates can’t catch up with those flying shears. Nowadays, there are more flying shear ships at sea. Although these ships are much more expensive than ordinary sea ships, the advantages of transportation efficiency and safety make more ship owners more willing to buy these ships.

Of course, some pirates have also bought flying shears, but flying shears cannot use artillery, and dangerous Greek fires are not available on the market, so everyone is back to the more primitive jump-to-gang battle. Moreover, the pirates driving the flying shears could not attack ordinary merchant ships with artillery. Therefore, pirates using flying shears are still quite rare.

"Captain, captain, things on the starboard side, starboard side!" The observation post on the mast suddenly shouted.

Mustafa immediately came to starboard.

"Where?" he shouted.

"At eight o'clock, it's one person, one person!" shouted the lookout post.

Mustafa looked over, and he spotted the man a few hundred meters away.

The man held a wooden barrel and waved at them non-stop.

"Is it a shipwreck or a pirate attack?" Mustafa thought, and asked the sailors to put down the boat and rescue the man.

The boat was put down, and several sailors quickly picked up the man holding the barrel.

"You are on a boat, what happened?" Mustafa asked.

"I am a sailor on the French cargo ship Tulip. We, we have just been attacked by Barbary pirates...this sea is very dangerous..."

According to the sailor, they were attacked most of the day ago. When they first discovered two Barbary pirate ships, they were not particularly nervous, because Barbary pirates rarely attack ships with French flags. But the two pirate ships approached quickly.

At first the ship just thought that the pirates didn't see the flag on their mast clearly, or that some idiot hung the flag in the wrong direction.

Of course, there wasn't that fool who hung the flag by mistake, but the pirates got closer. The captain gave the order to resist.

"Captain Deron told us that if the Barbary pirates really attacked us, they would never dare to demand a ransom from the French, or even admit that they did such a thing, so they would definitely kill people, and we would only Can resist to the end..." the sailor said.

But French merchant ships have been safe in the Mediterranean for so long in recent years that they even reduced the number of artillery to increase cargo capacity. This makes them very weak when fighting against those pirates. Their ship is also very old and loaded with too much cargo, so although they throw a lot of cargo into the sea, they still cannot get rid of the pirates. In the next battle, the sailor fell off the ship. At that time, in the fierce battle, no one cared about him. He also doesn't know the final result of the battle.

The news from the sailor made Mustafa very nervous, for fear that he would also be attacked by Barbary pirates. However, his luck was better, so his clothes arrived in Naples smoothly. France has a consulate in Naples, so as soon as it reached the shore, Mustafa took the rescued sailor and went straight to the French consulate in Naples. Then through the cable system, the Naples Consulate reported the incident to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Soon Napoleon got the news.

"Did they attack the French ships?" After getting the report, Napoleon slapped the table excitedly, "This is really great! I wanted to fix them a long time ago! Quick, go to General Cano, and Admiral Treville I am here, we are going to prepare for military operations!"

An hour later, Kano and Admiral Latosh Trevel arrived in the government.

The two sat down in Napoleon’s office, and Napoleon asked, “You should already know the situation on the way here. Now, I want to know if we are going to fight the Barbary pirates, we can rush to the beginning of the Olympic Games. End the war before?"

"It's difficult," Admiral Treville said. "If the Barbary pirates dare to confront us head-on, then we won't be able to wipe them out in a single morning. But if they avoid the war, we will take them from It takes a lot of time to find it out in the vast ocean. I think we may not be able to complete such a task before the Olympics."

"What about attacking their port directly?" Napoleon asked. UU reading www.uukanshu. com

"Your Excellency," Kano said, "I want to know, if there is a war, what do we hope to gain through war? Only if this is confirmed, I think we can answer this question effectively."

Napoleon glanced at Kano, nodded and said: "General Kano, we need to gain a foothold in North Africa where we can station troops and obtain a series of economic and political privileges, such as the right to use the port and the right to sell goods. "

Kano lowered his head and thought about it, and then said: "Your Excellency in power, with all due respect, to achieve this goal is not just a military matter, but also a political matter. I think before the Olympics, we It’s impossible to accomplish such a task. But, your ruling, the Olympics will only be two weeks away. I will postpone it a little bit. First, prepare for the war through diplomatic means. I think it’s safer to do it after the Olympics. way of doing."

Napoleon thought for a while, and felt that Kano’s statement was reasonable, and said to Kano and Latosh Trevel: "Two generals, this will be our first war after a few years of peace. , It’s me...Although our opponents are just some Barbary pirates, but in this battle, we must fight beautifully, and we must play the effect of making other European countries wide-eyed. Therefore, we must fight beautifully. !"