(Chapter 1 arrives, there will be chapter 1 later)

After Xiao Jie's personnel appointment was announced, it had a great impact on the French Empire, but he suppressed it all by using his powerful prestige. The whole society was very calm, and there was no turmoil as expected before. After this personnel adjustment, the work efficiency of the government has been greatly improved, and the restoration and construction of France has also been fully launched. With the huge financial support of Iberia, the comprehensive construction of infrastructure has been carried out in various parts of France. Under the leadership of Xiao Jie's Andresi Group and the Jewish business group, a large number of Iberian businessmen went to France to investigate and build factories. A large part of them left France for Iberia when the French political situation was turbulent. , everyone is very happy to be able to return to their hometown now. With their strong support, Xiao Jie believes that within two to three years at most, the French economy can return to the pre-war level, and then the national power of the French Empire can fully support any of his military actions.

In the next few months, except for the naval battles that have been going on intermittently, other places are relatively calm. The navy has also achieved very good results, and has completely established itself in the La Manche Strait. As long as the strength is sufficient, it is absolutely possible to launch a large-scale counterattack against the British navy. As a maritime power, Britain's shipbuilding capabilities are quite terrifying. If they lose one warship, they can make up for two. This is why the British navy has failed again and again, but it can maintain an overwhelming advantage over the French navy. With the development of British shipbuilding technology, the gap between the "British" class warships developed by them and the "Iberia" class is getting smaller and smaller. It can be said that, except for the range and power of the naval guns, they are inferior to the "Iberia" class. ' level, other performance is very close. And it is reported that in order to defeat the French Navy, the British Navy has placed orders with major shipyards, requiring them to design a warship that completely surpasses the performance of the "Iberia" class warship, as a substitute for the "Bonaparte" warship. The main battleship of class confrontation. Although the British warships will not be the opponents of the French warships in any case if the artillery problem is not resolved, they have a huge numerical advantage. In order to reverse this disadvantage, Xiao Jie made great efforts to build a new shipyard. The main source of funds was his "private money" and the investment from the Andresi Group. After all, the shipyard was under the Andresi Group. Among them, the Lisbon shipyard started construction as early as July 1813 and is expected to be completed in the middle of this year. After completion, the shipbuilding capacity will not be weaker than that of the Valencia shipyard. In addition, the Barcelona shipyard and the Malaga shipyard are also planned to start construction in early and mid-1814, and their scale is slightly smaller than that of the Valencia shipyard. Similarly, Xiao Jie also intends to build one or two new shipyards in France, and it has been preliminarily confirmed that the Marseille shipyard will start construction at the end of the year. Once these four shipyards are completed, the French Navy's shipbuilding capacity will be increased by more than three times. By that time, the French Navy will no longer have to fear the consumption of the British Navy.

There are two more news during this period, one good news and one bad news. The good news is that after nearly a year of research and development work, the new class of steel giant ship requested by Xiao Jie has been designed, and after detailed demonstrations, construction can begin. The new battleship was named the 'Fearless' class. As for why this name was chosen, no one knew why, only that it was the meaning of His Majesty the Emperor. The "Pre-Dreadnought" class battleship will be twice the size of the "Bonaparte" class battleship. The battleship is 112 meters long, 10.4 meters wide, and the displacement is expected to reach about 11,000 tons. When completed, it will undoubtedly be the most powerful warship in the world. As for the equipped firepower, it will be handed over to the arsenal for special research and development. In order to distinguish the development and manufacture of weapons for the army and the navy, Xiao Jie deliberately separated a department from the Talavera arsenal and established a new naval arsenal located in Barcelona. rona.

The bad news is that on April 15 this year, Fulton, the inventor of the airship, passed away due to illness. Xiao Jie felt extremely depressed about the death of this outstanding ship inventor. It can be said that without Fulton, it would be difficult for the French Navy to develop to the state it is today. On April 19, Xiao Jie personally felt Barcelona, ​​attended his funeral, and commended his life's deeds. At the same time, it was also announced that Fulton's title would be raised from marquis to duke, and his son would be allowed to inherit his title. Fortunately, during the several years when Fulton worked in the Valencia shipyard, he had brought out many outstanding engineers, which prevented the development of the French Navy from being greatly affected.

While France is trying its best to restore its national strength, other countries are not idle, and they are also hurrying to restore their domestic economies. In particular, Russia has successfully repelled the attacks of the Turkish Empire and the Persian Empire, and achieved a counterattack victory, winning a lot of benefits for Russia. Similarly, because they got along very well with Britain in the last war, the domestic economic recovery has also received great assistance from Britain. Despite this, it will take a lot of time for Russia to return to its pre-war state, and now is Russia's weakest moment. Of course, his neighboring countries will not let go of this difficult opportunity. For example, Austria, which suffered the least damage in the last war, can't wait to start his expansion plan.

Russia was hit hard during the war, and its military and economic strength dropped to a freezing point. In order to defeat the attacks of the Turkish Empire and the Persian Empire, Russia even shrunk its strength in other places, causing a serious shortage of forces in other places. The Balkan Peninsula, located in southeastern Europe, has a very important strategic location and has always been a battleground for military strategists. It is also the weakest area in the area ruled by the Turkish Empire, and uprisings against the tyranny of the Sudan have continued one after another. And here, at the same time, is where Austria and Russia wrestle. For a long time, Austria and Russia have been fighting fiercely for the ownership of this fast area. If it were not for the threat of France, I am afraid they would not unite anyway. Now that the crisis in France has been temporarily lifted, and Russia's national strength has been greatly damaged, Emperor Francis I of Austria has set his sights here. On March 2, in the name of helping Russia attack Turkey, Austria sent two legions with a total of more than 80,000 troops to attack the Balkan Peninsula. The more than 100,000 Turkish troops stationed here are not the opponents of the Austrian army at all. By the end of April, the entire Balkan Peninsula was occupied by Austria. At the same time, all Russian influence in this area was also expelled. Tsar Alexander was very angry about this, but there was nothing he could do. Because the banner of Austria is to help its allies.

The victory in the Balkans greatly stimulated Francis I, so he set a new goal on Italy. Italy is now under the rule of Napoleon's stepson, Eugene, while southern Italy is the Kingdom of Naples of Murat. After Napoleon failed in the decisive battle with the Anti-French Alliance in Leipzig, Eugene fled back to Italy, and refused to send troops to help Napoleon, expelled Napoleon's officials stationed in Italy, and included Italy among his own comrades . After the fall of the French Empire, he declared that Italy would be separated from the rule of the French Empire, and continued to rule Italy as the Italian Governor. After Napoleon's death, Eugene's mother Josephine, sister Hortense and his nephew Louis Jr. were all taken to Milan, Italy by him. For this reason, Hortans' husband Louis expressed strong dissatisfaction and asked to send his son Louis Jr. to Vienna, but Eugene simply ignored it.

"Your Excellency, according to the information we have received, the Austrian army has begun to move frequently, and three of the legions have moved to the border between us and Austria. I am afraid that Austria will regard us as the second Balkan." Eugene's confidant, Alexis, the head of the 2nd Legion, who is also one of the three legions under him, said.

"Three legions? So many? Do you know their main attack direction?" Ou Ren said, frowning. You must know that he has only 3 legions in total, and one of them is a recruit. If he goes to war with the 3 Austrian legions~lightnovelpub.net~, the result will definitely be very obvious.

"They may attack in three directions, because the three Austrian armies are deployed in Innsbruck, Lienz and Ljubljana, so they are likely to attack from the north, northeast and east at the same time." Alexis said anxiously.

"Immediately bring back the 1st Army Corps on the Western Front. The 3 Legions are going to divide into 3 routes to attack Austria." Eugene ordered.

"However, if the 1st Legion is transferred back, then our western door will be completely opened. If the French Empire takes the opportunity to send troops to attack us, we will have no resistance." Alexis persuaded. The 1st Army is currently the most elite army in Italy, and it was deployed in the west to prevent Xiao Jie from attacking Italy. But now it has been several months since the restoration of the French Empire, but there is still no movement, so Eugene believes that the crisis can be resolved.

"There is no way around it. Emergency conscription starts immediately. I need more soldiers to fight for me. Declare a state of emergency. In addition, immediately send an envoy to Naples. Murat is a sensible person, and I believe he will also understand It makes sense." Ou Ren said with a helpless smile on the corner of his mouth. (To be continued, if you want to know the future, please log in to .QDAN., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)