Next, Xiao Jie took Fulton to visit the several projects that he entrusted the French Academy of Sciences to study. After the visit, Fulton was truly convinced. If he had any doubts before, then everything is relieved now. This also made him understand that Xiao Jie really wanted to develop ships. At the same time, there was a trace of worry in his heart, worried about the prospects of his motherland. The strength of the French navy, which is equipped with new warships, is bound to increase greatly, and then the United Kingdom, which is the world's number one navy, will also be replaced by France. What about after defeating the United Kingdom?

During the conversation with Xiao Jie, Fulton also discovered that Xiao Jie was a very ambitious person, otherwise he would not have developed the navy behind Napoleon's back. At that time, France will inevitably have a collision of interests with the nascent American Republic. Although the United States defeated the United Kingdom and gained independence, it would be hard to say who would win the battle against France, which has always been famous for its army.

Even though he thought so, it would take a long time to actually apply a new technology to the military, so although Fulton was worried, he decided to help Xiao Jie develop the warship.

"His Royal Highness, who else is in your design team?" Fulton asked. After understanding a series of devices such as power, he needs to understand Xiao Jie's other warship designers, and then he can work together on the design of the new warship.

Xiao Jie rubbed his nose, and said a little embarrassedly: "To be exact, you are the only one now." Xiao Jie didn't expect to meet Fulton at first, and all his battleship designs were in his hands. In his head, but he only knows some common sense of future generations, and he doesn't know much about these. It's okay to ask him to give some general guidance, but it's a bit difficult to actually operate. He originally planned that after the occupation of Spain, the improved steam engine should be almost completed, and then he would go to the Ministry of the Navy to find a group of people, and it would be fine to guide him. So his battleship design team is currently in a state of consciousness.

"Am I alone?" Fulton was a little dumbfounded.

"If you need me, I can go to the Ministry of the Navy and send a group of experts right away." Xiao Jie said with a blushing face.

Fulton felt like he was on a thief ship at this time, but the contract had already been signed, and it was useless to regret it now. Besides, Xiao Jie was well prepared in other aspects, so he had no choice but to be appointed. "I still have a group of partners in the United States, and I can call them to help." Fulton said after thinking about it.

"That's really great, don't worry, as long as they are willing to come, I will definitely not treat you badly in terms of salary. In addition, I will send a few experts from the Ministry of the Navy, so basically the shelf will be set up." Xiao Jay said happily. Xiao Jie dispatched experts from the Ministry of the Navy, or went to a large shipyard to recruit some engineers. Xiao Jie did this to hold the technology in his own hands. As the saying goes: People who are not of my race must have different hearts. If the design of the battleship is designed, but they take the success away, wouldn't they be at a big loss? Good things can only be enjoyed by oneself.

"Then, Your Royal Highness, if we design a battleship, when can we launch it into the water?" Fulton asked after thinking about it. He knew that Napoleon is not optimistic about the navy now. It came out, but it was shelved in the end. Isn't that a waste of work?

Xiao Jie glanced at Fulton and knew what he was worried about. To be honest, Napoleon was born in the army in the future, and he was really not very enthusiastic about the navy. Since the French navy was completely defeated by the British Royal Navy, he has given up on the navy. Military expenditures and resources have been heavily tilted towards the army, and he has devoted himself to the development of the army. After a few years, the French navy has not developed at all, and there are still two or three big fish and small fish. Many naval generals have been idled, and a large number of naval officers and soldiers have changed jobs and become sailors. "Don't worry, Mr. Fulton. I assure you, I will build a new type of shipyard in a year at most. As long as the design of the battleship is out and it is proved that we can achieve our goal, we can start building it immediately." Xiao Jie said firmly.

The reason why Xiao Jie said one year is also after consideration. It is now October 1807. Not much time had passed since the French invasion of Iberia. If history has not changed, at the end of this year, General Juno will lead his army to conquer Portugal, then there will be a farce between the king of Spain and his son, and then it will be the opportunity for France to take control of Spain. The long-term turmoil began under the plan of the King of Spain, and the title of King of Spain would eventually fall into Joseph's hands. At that time, he will also take the initiative to apply to lead the army to quell the chaos in Western Spain. When the time comes, the emperor will be far away, and he can do whatever he wants.

In Xiao Jie's plan, Spain will serve as a stable rear for him, and all his careers will gradually be concentrated in Spain. At that time, the king of Rome is really born, so what? At that time, he will be full-fledged, not to mention fighting for world hegemony, at least he can rely on the Pyrenees to protect himself, and then look for opportunities to other places in Europe. develop.

After dealing with Fulton's matter, Xiao Jie was not at ease either, because the expansion of the 88th Army started again. According to Xiao Jie's calculation, to deal with the coming war in Spain, his current level alone is far from enough. Similarly, he also regarded Spain as a forbidden land, so naturally he could not allow other legions to station. Fortunately, Napoleon turned a blind eye to this matter and didn't pay much attention to it, so a month ago, the 88th Army began to recruit troops.

This time Napoleon neither agreed nor objected, so he couldn't go directly to the army's reserve force to choose as he did last time. Fortunately, all the expenses of the 88th Legion were borne by himself, and it was no big deal to recruit troops by himself, but it took a little more time.

According to Xiao Jie's plan, the 88th Army will be doubled again, and all troops will be divided into two divisions. Among them, each division has 8 infantry regiments, 1 cavalry regiment, 1 artillery regiment, and 1 transportation regiment, plus the guard battalion, heavy artillery battalion, cavalry battalion, communication battalion, reconnaissance battalion, engineer battalion, and division directly under the division. In departments such as field hospitals, the entire division will reach more than 34,000 people, which is basically an understaffed army. Plus the guard regiment, cavalry regiment, heavy artillery regiment and other troops directly under the legion. The expanded 88th Army will have 80,000 troops. The number of the entire two legions.

But the number has increased, and the combat effectiveness must not be reduced, so Xiao Jie asked that after the expansion of the army, the training will continue as usual, especially to strengthen the training of recruits. Fortunately, due to the relatively tight economy now, a large number of people are unemployed, which also brings great convenience to Xiao Jie's recruitment work.

The treatment of the 88th Legion is very good, and it has established a great reputation on the battlefield. Therefore, as soon as the news of the 88th Legion’s recruitment was announced, it was immediately overcrowded. This also allowed the 88th Army to select a group of elites. The officers sent by the Ministry of the Army to help sighed, if only the scene when they were recruited by the Ministry of the Army could be as hot as it is now. Because the salary of the Ministry of War is not high, and the casualties are relatively large, the pension is also small, and there is the possibility of corruption, so when they enlist, there are often very few people who apply for it, and generally only those who cannot survive will Take the initiative to serve as a soldier. These situations did not exist in the 88th Army.

In order to meet the equipment needs after the expansion, Xiao Jie even privately withheld the equipment issued to other legions, and equipped his own troops first. Anyway, the arsenal is his own. Is it okay to sell it? For this matter, several legion commanders went to Napoleon to make a fuss, and Napoleon just put on a show, reprimanded Xiao Jie a few words to settle the matter.

The equipment of the expanded troops has basically remained unchanged. The soldiers still use an 1806-style rifle with other equipment. Only the artillery directly under the regiment has replaced the 75mm field gun with an 80mm heavy mortar, which has greatly improved the troops. maneuvering speed. At the same time, the Artillery Regiment is still equipped with 100 75mm field guns. Since the transportation conditions have not been resolved, the heavy artillery battalion is only equipped with 8 105mm howitzers. The heavy artillery regiment directly under the legion is only equipped with 24 cannons of this caliber. In the training of the troops, better training methods have also been adopted through exploration. Sniper rifles have also been widely used at the grassroots level. Basically, every squad has one or two snipers. All the reconnaissance units were also trained as the special forces of later generations~lightnovelpub.net~Similarly, those brothers of Xiao Jie were also promoted, among them Carl and Kurt were officially appointed as colonel infantry The head of the regiment, Thomas became the head of the heavy artillery regiment directly under the legion, Roddy became the deputy director of the logistics department of the legion, and Dioka also became the deputy director of the equipment department of the legion as he wished, and was sent to Andrei for a long time. The West Armory is responsible for contacting the legion and the arsenal, so that the needs of the troops can be reflected in the arsenal in a timely manner.

While Xiao Jie was busy dealing with the expansion of the legion, there was a major turmoil in the French cabinet. Talleyrand was dismissed by Napoleon because he opposed Napoleon's plan to invade Iberia. The former Interior Minister Compeney was appointed as the new Foreign Secretary. Compenny was replaced by Crete, the president of the Bank of France, which was completely beyond everyone's expectations. Berthier, the Grand Duke of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, was removed from the post of Minister of War. The later Duke Feltre, known as "General Desk" and "Marshal Ink" Clark, replaced Berthier as Secretary of War. This greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the French army.

After Xiao Jie got the news, he couldn't help sighing: France has inevitably begun to decline. This also made him more determined to seize Spain and "stand on his own".

(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)